current events, history

State of Human Rights in North Korea is “Grave”


This is according to a CNN report today.

How ironic that a peninsula has two conflicting countries divided by a demarcation line running between the established demilitarized zone. More ironic is the contrast with the two countries’ respective lifestyle.

Seoul is a global financial center and is the third most expensive city in the world as of 2007 (Mercer Consulting). Little is known about Pyongyang, or even about North Korea, as information is controlled by the government. The signs of prosperity built (condominiums) in North Korea were later discovered as mere pretensions just so the South Koreans could see that the North Koreans are gaining progress. These infrastructures could be viewed from the Unification Observatory Tower in Paju City.


where one can view the North


There is repression of human rights in the North to conceal the real state of its food shortage. The CNN report states that the government is using public execution to initmidate its people. Aside from trying to conceal the gravity of its food shortage, the North Korean government also imposes strict sanctions on dissidents.Public execution. Isn’t that so archaic? But then again, North Korea is the remaining reminder of the Cold War.

It’s such a pity. The division of Korea was a result of the agreement between the US and Great Britain on one side and the USSR on the other side to attack the Japanese forces so as to bring the war with Japan to an end. The USSR accepted the surrender of the Japanese forces in the North and the US accepted the surrender of the Japanese forces in the South. If the agreement was followed, Korea would have reestablished itself after the occupation forces left the country. But history tells us otherwise. Cold War came in, the leading nations reconciled, Germany was reunited… but the North and South Korea retained the tension.

The result: Present-day great disparity between lifestyles of the two nations. While South Korea’s leading news would be the suicides of its top stars, North Korea’s deaths would be from the public executions of its people. South Korea’s very advanced technology allows its people to watch television shows in their handphones, while the North Korean people had to “watch clandestinely video and TV programs from the south”.

No wonder, the young South Koreans have little desire for a unified Korea.

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3 thoughts on “State of Human Rights in North Korea is “Grave”

  1. This is so sad. I feel so sorry for the people of North Korea. I feel sad for the people of South Korea too that remember the way it was before they were seperated. I watched the special that Lisa Ling did on Oprah when she went to North Korea. It is a reminder to hold dear the democratic society we live in.

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