In this eye-opening article you will find out about what life in North Korea is really like. It is quick, easy to read, and informative
Written by: Karol Flasiński, 1st grade
The country North Korea, alternatively known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea may not quite be as utopian as its name suggests. The DPRK holds an international reputation for being one of the last communist nations on Earth. The country’s government describes it in an impressive manner: “The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a genuine workers' state in which all the people are completely liberated from exploitation and oppression. The workers, peasants, soldiers and intellectuals are the true masters of their destiny and are in a unique position to defend their interests.” Yet this description is unfortunately far from reality - North Korea is a different world. It is ruled by one outright dictator - Kim Jong Un.
Kim Jong Un is presented as a tall, elegant man who has god status amongst the people of North Korea. He is referred to as “the Supreme Leader” or “the Great Successor”. According to sources, North Korean society is also forced to obey the cult of personality surrounding Kim Jong Un. Supposedly, people cannot say anything bad about him, or even have a negative opinion about “the Supreme Leader”, or else they will be sent to so called “re-education camps” (forced labor camps) or simply executed. Without a doubt, this cruel yet unfortunately effective method strikes great fear within its citizens, leading to great limitations on freedom of speech.
North Korea is well known for its re-education and prison camps. Prisoners are said to be sent to these camps for reasons which vary from voicing a negative opinion about Kim Jong Un to a friend , to simply having a family member who has said something offensive about the Supreme Leader. Such treatment of citizens brings to mind slave-like systems in which some individuals hold fewer rights than animals. In view of testimony quoted in some sources, prisoners are frequently subject to extremely cruel torture methods such as the “pigeon position”, in which a person is hanged by their feet from the ceiling, with their hands tied behind their back for (...) two to three days at a time. There have been reports of rape, forced abortions, executions, physical deformities as a consequence of physical violence and sexual exploits. These camps are described by some as worse than Soviet gulags. The worst thing is that there is a significant number of people living in such camps (hundreds of thousands of them) and we can do next to nothing to help them.
North Korea is infamous for its human rights violations. Although the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s government of course denies all claims regarding these violations. The first (and in my opinion the most important) right that is being violated is freedom of speech - it appears it is extremely limited in North Korea. Media outlets are owned and operated by the government with most articles and news headlines revolving around Kim Jong Un “the Supreme Leader”. North Korean media is used as propaganda by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s government to make the people of North Korea think that their “Supreme Leader” is a flawless god that rules the country in a fair and wise manner and that all other countries are enemies of the North Korean state – as seen in the North Korean news sites cited below. In my thorough research of genuine DPRK government news websites (available in many languages, surprisingly) I noticed that none seem to criticize Kim Jong Un and the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in any way. This paradox points at a simple yet misleading conclusion that citizens are forced to believe their media outlets which tell them that they live in a perfect state and that there is no other way of being or functioning. We can all obviously see that this use of propaganda does not in fact work, because there are hundreds of escapees from North Korea, who tell stories about how people are fully aware of how bad the ruling party is, but aren’t able to do anything about it due to fear of being sent to prison camps, or worse still - re-education camps. A good example of such an escapee is Geum Hyok Kim, who lived to tell his story and spreads truth about life in North Korea.
The DPRK also treats its people as slaves: forcing them to do unpaid labor sometimes starting from as young as 10 years old; former North Korean students explained that their schools forced them to work for free on farms twice a year, for one month at a time. Some sources reported that their schools forced students aged between 10 and 16 to work every day to generate funds to pay teachers and school administrators, maintain school facilities, and carry out government campaigns. This type of violation should not exist in our modern world.
It is also worth mentioning the violations of women’s rights that occur. Women in the DPRK are treated either as sex slaves, housewives, or used for forced labor in camps. There have been many accounts of women who have been forced to perform sexual acts with prison guards in camps. These females couldn’t defend themselves as they were dependent on the guards to give them more lenient reports in their official crime files.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y0yhV6IT7o
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_cult_of_personality
https://www.dw.com/en/rights-groups-petition-un-over-north-korean-gulags/a-15857032
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_North_Korea
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/north-korea
https://theowp.org/womens-rights-in-north-korea
http://www.vok.rep.kp
https://www.korea-dpr.com