The mother of all dictatorships

Kim Jong I had no option but to adopt a tough ‘military-first policy’ around which the whole country gravitated.

One can understand Tazeen Javed’s vexation (“Making fun of North Korea”, December 23), at the way the western TV channels have been making fun of the North Koreans, who, as I pointed out in an earlier article in this newspaper, are always shown to be either clapping or marching. As an alternative, I would suggest she switches over to Press TV of Iran, which is arguably the most objective news channel on either side of the Suez. No other news channel gives ‘the other side of the picture’ as well as it does. However, while the government of the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea; a single-party state under a united front led by the Korean Workers Party, has never been accused of burying women alive, under the Juche, ideology of self-reliance developed by Kim-il Sung the nation suffered considerable hardship. And when the Soviet Union collapsed and a number of natural disasters struck the land, resulting in a famine that wiped out around a million and a half people, Kim Jong I had no option but to drop ‘Juche’ and adopt a tough ‘military-first policy’ known as ‘Songon’, around which the whole country gravitated. With a stockpile of nuclear weapons, a small population and a little under ten million active, reserve and paramilitary personnel, North Korea’s is a formidable military force that nobody wants to touch with a barge pole or muck around it.

The odd western traveller who managed to penetrate the forbidden fortress and was successful in entering more than one private home, found the inmates of the household remarkably hospitable, though somewhat startled by the intrusion. Apparently each home had a loudspeaker screwed into the wall of the living room, through which Dear Leader or one of his gofers spewed propaganda for eight hours a day. Is it any wonder that the visitor arrived at the inescapable conclusion that North Korea was a supreme example of a highly regimented, totalitarian dictatorship where the personality cult was honed to perfection? However, there is one aspect in which Kim Il-sung differed from Stalin and Mao who killed millions of their countrymen. The latter were low-tech despots whereas the North Korean leader used modern technology with complex systems of repression to keep his flock in check.

As a country that bans foreign news broadcasts and where whole families are whisked off to labour camps if found in possession of foreign literature or cassettes, North Korea has earned the wrath of the world. But there is evidence to suggest that the majority of the North Korean people are not only satisfied with things as they stand, but are also solidly behind their leaders. The profound collective grief expressed at the death of father and son, which the western news channels delighted in displaying, were probably genuine, even though there appeared to be some sort of uninhibited competition among the mourners to outdo one another in gratuitous novelty. Can one imagine mourners in Washington or Islamabad wailing at the wall or beating their chests with grief if Barack Obama or Asif Ali Zardari suddenly pegged down from natural causes? As long as the United States and Western Europe continue to impose sanctions and isolate the Democratic Peoples’ Republic (DPR) of Korea they will perpetuate the reign of the Kim family.

In spite of its political isolation, the DPR of Korea is interested in joint business ventures with other countries and has certain qualities to commended — extremely low labour costs, the lowest taxation scheme in Asia, incorruptible officials and a high degree of motivation. Education, housing and health services are free and workers display the kind of fierce loyalty to their place of employment as Japanese workers once did a couple of decades ago when an employee retired in the company in which he started his career. Above all, a businessman would be dealing with the government directly and not middlemen who often take the largest bite at the cherry.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2011.