North Korea and the Kim Family

I don’t want to sound like I’m trying to lecture — no one likes a lecture — but some of the comments I’ve seen on various feeds betray a misunderstanding of how life is in North Korea for the average person, and misunderstand the nature of the North Korean regime. I had to speak up — I genuinely, firmly think that we Americans must try to understand the situation there, lest we fall into another stupid Cold War, and repeating falsehoods and misinformation is not a great idea if it can be helped.

I’m not gonna pretend I’m not a bit worried about the unpredictability of Kim Jong Un; nor am I going to pretend to be somehow infallible. But there are things I do know.

• North Korea still has technical roadblocks to get rid of before they can actually put their threats into practice, at least against the U.S. mainland. It’s not like Kim and his regime don’t have a very long history of bluster and bombast on exactly this type of matter — South Koreans are frankly bored by the sabre-rattling at this point.
• There is no independent confirmation that any actual planning is going on regarding nuclear strikes, on Guam or elsewhere. Just Kim flapping his gums — and it’s not like North Korean state news is trustworthy. Often one will see “leaks” to Xinhua or some other Chinese news provider with a slightly better reputation, but to the best of my knowledge, every article being propagated has originated with the release from the North Korean state news agency. An agency devoted to misdirection and propaganda.
• North Korea has a very, very vested interest in not irritating the Chinese. China buys something like 70 percent of North Korean exports. Without Chinese money, the economy is dead, and even Kim Jong Un would have a hard time sourcing luxuries. Starting a war and bringing the U.S. to China’s doorstep would definitely irritate Xi Jinping enough for him to take retaliatory measures (likely economic).
• The Chinese also have a vested interest in keeping the North Korean regime under control, besides the obvious fact of not wanting a nuclear war on its doorstep. If NK were to collapse/start a war and be destroyed, China would have one of three things to contend with: (1) A weak or dead NK at the mercy of the U.S. and South Korea; (2) a unified Korean peninsula under the control of Moon Jae-in, who is frankly hostile to Chinese interests; or (3) essentially a failed state on its border, with hundreds of thousands of refugees streaming over into China, which they emphatically do not want. They already repatriate fleeing North Koreans, despite being a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and agreeing to abide by international law — returning refugees/asylum seekers to a country where they will be in danger is called non-refoulement, and it is completely in contravention of multiple principles of international law.
• One really important thing that frankly is being ignored by the international community and it bugs me a lot: the South Koreans are not panicking. They’ve been dealing with this lunatic and his family for decades — I absolutely put stock in their reactions to this, and until they panic, frankly, I don’t see a point in doing so myself. South Koreans are honestly more afraid of Trump than they are of Kim! We may have military bases there, but we are the cultural strangers. We need to take the lead from them, not try to push out in front. South Koreans are looking at improving their missile defense system to be on the safe side, but that’s all. No panic, no mass exodus. I trust Seoulites’ judgment.
• These people are also not brainwashed cultists endlessly chanting for war, either. The North Korean populace is like any other — but all they have known is Kim family propaganda since the 50s. If you had no other media, no other narrative besides what state news tells you, you’d believe it, too. Most North Korean people who are not intimately connected to the regime (so, a huge majority of the country) are hungry, sometimes homeless, and often see the military as something to do to ensure one is fed and sheltered. Famine and being brainwashed for six decades has made them understandably wary of outsiders — stories abound of North Koreans being terrified to death of Japanese people especially, which makes sense when you know they’re told that Japanese eat Korean babies and perpetrated horrific atrocities during the Korean War. This conflict must be solved with patience and education, not blood.

The flag of North Korea.

If you want more in-depth reading, there are three books I would heartily recommend in terms of trying to understand the slightest thing about North Korea. All of them are old enough to be found at most libraries or used book stores, and they are all really, really worth the read. They’re all also available on Kindle and probably on Nook/other e-book readers as well.

Escaping North Korea by Mike Kim (sometimes the author is listed as Michael Kim) — while this book is a little clunky — the author’s a missionary and never quite lets you forget his faith — it’s still worth reading for an understanding of what goes on at the border between China and Korea. I haven’t seen any other books that detail life in the little towns on the Tyumen River, and it’s important to understand.

Nothing To Envy by Barbara Demick — This book follows six North Koreans over a period of about 15 years, through the death of Kim Il-sung and the famines the country experienced. It’s harrowing reading — but it is absolutely vital to read stuff like this in order to humanize these people. All the media we imbibe is filtered through a Western lens — the average American does not grasp that death and suffering is seen differently in East Asia, and even more differently within North Korea itself. We must read about the people to understand even a fraction of how they think and how Kim thinks, and this is a really individualized, intimate book of stories.

Under The Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader by Bradley K. Martin — This is a little outdated; it came out before the death of Kim Jong-il, but there’s still a lot of good history here. This one’s pretty dense, so if you want to skip it, that’s okay, but we cannot understand the present state of a country without understanding its past, and I know a grand total of three Americans who are at all familiar with the history of Korea as a whole, never mind the northern half.

I’m sorry if this comes off as rude or arrogant; I’m open to being corrected by someone who knows better, though I’ve told the truth to the best of my ability. But there don’t seem to be too many Americans who know better, and if there are some, they’re not talking. The old saw that knowledge is power is still true, no matter what the sentient pile of radioactive waste in the White House might say to the contrary.