North Korea: Bombs, Missiles, and Nothing Else...

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea" (the official name of North Korea), which ranks among the poorest countries in the world based on international indicators, instills fear in wealthy Japan and challenges the United States, the most powerful economic and military power in the world. This astonishing contradiction is born from nuclear and ballistic weapons, which create a relatively strong security perimeter even for a country with a weak economy and impoverished people, giving its ruling regime a sense of 'life insurance.' The communist royal dynasty of 'Kim,' which has held power in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula for about seven decades, has acquired these weapons, although doubts remain about its ability to use them effectively. However, it seems clear that Pyongyang is very close to becoming a power with effective deterrent force, and at this stage, it seems highly unlikely that economic sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council or additional sanctions from the US and its allies can deter this country from reaching its ultimate goal. After World War II and the military defeat of the Japanese Empire, which had occupied the Korean Peninsula since 1910, the region was divided into southern and northern parts along the thirty-eighth parallel. In September 1948, the northern part of the thirty-eighth parallel became the 'Democratic People's Republic of Korea' (North Korea) under the support of the former Soviet Union, while the southern part, occupied by the US, became the 'Republic of Korea' (South Korea). Between 1950 and 1953, the Pyongyang regime, backed by hundreds of thousands of Chinese 'volunteers,' invaded the south to unify the two Koreas under communism but faced fierce resistance from the US and its allies, ultimately leading to a horrific war and a ceasefire that established the two parts of the Korean Peninsula along the thirty-eighth parallel without any territorial changes in 1953. The ceasefire between the two Koreas has never turned into a permanent peace treaty, and the North and South remain armed against each other. Since the late 1950s, South Korean military leaders have concluded that the US security umbrella is not sufficient for their survival and that the only way to avoid falling into the communist camp is to inspire a national will for economic development. South Korea embarked on this path and achieved one of the great economic miracles in contemporary world history. In contrast, North Korea chose a different path, and its political system adopted another model for its survival. Kim Il-sung, who came to power with Stalin's Soviet assistance and after bloody purges within the Korean communist movement, turned his country into one of the most isolated in the world. He is the originator of a doctrine called 'Juche,' which can be translated as self-reliance, independence, and even self-sufficiency. His son Kim Jong-il and grandson Kim Jong-un, who succeeded him on the hereditary communist throne, remained loyal to the same doctrine. These three communist monarchs in North Korea's ruling system have become deities referred to as 'the brightest suns of Asia and even the world,' and their cult of worship has been imposed on the people. What these three hereditary leaders have brought upon their compatriots is terrifying and perhaps unbelievable for a large part of world public opinion. The official slogans of this country demand that the people think, speak, and act like Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un. Nowhere in the world are the eyes of the 'Big Brother' watching the people as closely as in North Korea. Under the watchful eyes of this ever-vigilant gaze, many North Koreans are unaware of the world and deprived of modern information tools. Despite this, even under the worst type of totalitarianism, there are ultimately consciences that disobey and voices that stray from the official sound. They face a grim fate, and not only they but also their family members (sometimes up to three generations) are punished by the 'people's justice.' What has happened and continues to happen in the prisons and camps of the 'Democratic People's Republic of Korea' is among the darkest political crimes in contemporary world history. Interestingly, during the early reign of the first Kim monarch (Kim Il-sung), many Western intellectuals praised him and his regime, leading a significant part of world public opinion to support the atrocities. However, behind the prisons and terrifying camps, it is the entire economy of North Korea that has turned life for twenty-five million people in this country into a nightmare. The propaganda films of the Pyongyang communist regime show clean and beautiful streets of the capital and towering buildings and ultra-modern subways to the world public opinion. However, a few foreign observers who have managed to enter this country describe a backward world cut off from the globe. The best way to understand the economic reality of North Korea is to compare it with South Korea. This is a very meaningful comparison that effectively serves as a laboratory for economic science: divide a country with people belonging to the same history, race, and culture into two parts, and implement fundamentally different economic systems in each part. After three to four decades, compare the two parts of the country and their achievements. The Korean Peninsula has undergone this experience in its contemporary history. The northern part is now among the poorest countries in the world, while the southern part has astonished the world with its exports and technology, standing among the rising powers. The per capita GDP of South Korea today is about $27,000 per year, while the same indicator for North Korea, according to various assessments, fluctuates between $600 and $1,000 per year. Even if we consider the higher figure, each citizen in the south is on average twenty-seven times wealthier than each citizen in the north. It can be said that North Korea is currently at the living standards level of 1970s South Korea. The 'Democratic People's Republic of Korea,' one of the last bastions of pure Marxism-Leninism, has endured periods of severe famine amid global indifference, including in the 1990s and 2000s. According to assessments by international observers, about two million people in this country have died due to these famines. In North Korea, as in Mao's China or Pol Pot's Cambodia, in some cases, starving people have resorted to cannibalism and even killing and eating their children. Without receiving massive food aid from other countries, especially from South Korea, hunger in North Korea could have taken on much more terrifying dimensions. In the early 2000s, North Korea received the largest volume of food aid in the world (some of this aid did not reach the hungry and was sent directly to military centers). The privileged classes of the ruling mafia in North Korea have naturally remained unaffected by all this misery and have not been touched by it. They have their special shops with the finest products from 'imperialist' countries. And it is they who turn to bombs and missiles to maintain their dominance. These weapons certainly prolong the rule of the red mafia, but there is much doubt as to whether they can serve as an eternal 'life insurance.' The Soviet system, despite all its bombs and missiles, ultimately collapsed under the weight of lies and inefficiency.