North Korea Viewed By an American

    I read an interesting book titled "Small Group Discussion Topics for Korean Students". The author Jack Martire was an ESL teacher in Korea between 1980 and 1998. He taught at Korean universities in Busan and Seoul. From the wide area and long years he experienced in Korea, we can infer he is quite acquainted with this country.   

 

   Actually, I admit he knows a lot about Korea and mostly I agree to his opinions. So far I've looked over more than half of his book. I focused on some sensitive themes first, which I thought to be controversial. Those attractive writings such as "Korea's car culture(p.7)", "the love hotels(p.34)", "preference for boys(p.43)" and "Korea's military heritage(p.52)" show on modern Korea's embarrassing points in detail. Even though those descriptions are a little sarcastic, I can't help but endorse his criticisms because they are all true. Nevertheless, one of his viewpoints I can't accept. It's about North Korea.

 

 

I'd like to make my position clear in advance. I'm not such a naive activist that regarding myself to be socially progressive, just follow or conform to  DPRK's policy blindly. To be honest, philosophically I'm a (open) Marxist and for that very reason I'm reluctant to view North Korea as a good nation because it is far from Human Liberation. Unlike ordinary people's consideration, DPRK has nothing to do with socialism. It is no more than a feudal despotic monarchical society.

But in considering North Korea, there are some important points that we should ponder over. Above all, we should take into consideration its extraordinary historical background. Aside from the Korean War, no one can speak of North Korea. The Korean war was not South Korea versus North Korea, but USA versus North Korea and the latter made it through formidable assault by the world's most powerful troops. North Korea was the first nation that made the US Army give up a war in progress. Some scholars draw an analogy between the war and David vs Goliath fight.

The intensity that the US army imposed its offensive weapons upon North Korea is beyond imagination. During Korean war, the US Army's strategy was operations to burn the enemy's territory to the ground. the US navy carpet-bombed North Korea's main cities. The amount of bombs they dropped over North Korea was 3.5 times as much as what they did against Japan during the 2nd World War. At that time in Pyeong-yang the capital city of North Korea, there was no buildings left that had more than 2 stories owing to the destruction of the US army's carpet-bombing. It is a famous story that one US pilot reported to his superior authority that he couldn't find any more target to  bomb on the enemy's area.

 

<Massacre in Korea: Picasso, 1951> 

 

For all this harsh catastrophe, North Korea eventually defended itself. Moreover, they overcame the horrific destruction and reconstructed the country successfully. Few people in South Korea know that North Korea's economic conditions were much better than those of South Korea until the 1970's. Actually it was a miracle which was made by virtue of Kim Il Sung's outstanding leadership. So to some degree it is quite natural for North Korean people to show so much respect toward the Kim's family. Of course those results can't justify worshipping the Kim Dynasty.

With the Korean war, Kim was able to consolidate his own monarchical system and followed a sweeping purge by which he could get rid of his political rivals. The execution was carried from 1952(the ending year of Korean War) to 1958, which made the Kim's hereditary kingdom start. That's the reason why I have a feeling of repulsion against Kim and North Korea's politics.

 

But no matter how bad, he is much better than any of South Korea's dictators. Lee Sung-Man the first president of South Korea, though he is known as a member of the national independence army in the Japanese colonization era, did nothing particular for the national liberation, whereas Kim rendered a brilliant contribution in fighting against the Japanese army. All the things Lee showed us were corruption and incompetence. A British journalist who stayed in South Korea during the Lee regime period said that expecting democracy to flourish in South Korea would amount to expecting a rose to bloom in a trash can. Of course, he proved to be wrong. Present Korea owed to Korean people's indomitable will to cherish democracy and constant struggles to overcome the evil dictatorships. In the meantime, really innumerable innocent folks and sublime democratic activists were killed in Jeju Island(1948), in Geo-chang, in Tong-yong, in Mount Jiri, in Mun-gyong, in Ga-chang near Daegu...... and finally in Gwang-ju(May 18th, in 1980). Truly, South Korea's democratic history is an unprecedented case in modern world history. It is the outcome of the bloody modern history and in the process USA was the worst disrupter as well as the brutal dictators.

By the way, Lee's successor Park was once a pro-Japanese collaborator. He had been serving in the Japanese army during the colonial era. His duty was to suppress the Korean national independence army, but he transformed his Japanese office uniform into Korean national liberation one when the fall of Japanese Empire came up. And later he carried out a military coup and succeeded in seizing presidential power. Until he was assassinated by his henchman, for 18 years his ruling was studded with torturing and slaughtering so many democratic activists along with political corruption. He was also a sex-maniac. Even at the moment he died`, he was drinking wine at a high class Korean style restaurant (named 'yo-jeong') which is kind of licensed quarters, and a pretty female college student and a famous female Korean pop singer were sitting by his side.

 

 

Nevertheless, up to now ex-president Park has been respected as a national hero by many Koreans just because his policies made a considerable economical progress. Few Korean people recognize Park's disgusting past. What is more ridiculous is a kind of syndrome that Park's eldest daughter Park Gun-hye has been emerging as one of the most influential politician in Korea. It  goes without saying that she is capitalizing on her father's stature. That she is the most leading candidate of the next presidential election seems to be in agreement. What a comedy!

Another comedy is that Korean ideological media based upon blind anti-communism has been portraying the North Korea's leaders(two Kims) as immoral debaucheries. As a matter of fact, the "Prodigal Sons" were South Korean presidents from Park to Jun Du-whan. Why do they look at the speck in their brother's eyes, and pay no attention to the log in their own eyes? Which country is more ridiculous, ROK or DPRK?

Jack Martire also notes: while the North Koreans are groaning in miserable living conditions, Kim Jong-Il leads a life filled with luxurious restaurants(p.97). But it is not true. If things were like that in North Korea, the Kim Dynasty system should have been already turned over. Even though the system is a monarchy, the Kim Dynasty is different from Louis the 16th in feudal France. What has enabled North Korea to maintain its system so far is not a reign of terror but the people's voluntary respect toward their leaders. A German novelist Luise Rinser's famous travel report of North Korea describes that fact vividly. Of course, that's a story based upon the situation in former leader Kim Il-Sung's era. His son Kim Jong-Il's North Korea might be much different. However, I'm sure he is not such a tyrant that pursues only his own desire despite the people's extreme poverty.

There is another important thing that western people need not to forget. The most powerful reason why North Korea has suffered from such severe  destitution is harsh economic blockades by the US government. Moreover, with long term natural calamities, the kingdom is in serious trouble. Nothing is more ridiculous to insist that a nation in such a urgent crisis longs for a war. A nuclear weapon? Unless Kim Jong-Il is insane, there's no possibility for that to happen. For them, it is just for protection or a hook to aim  for a profitable negotiation with USA, Japan and South Korea. The possibilities of a war in the Korean peninsular has been always in the USA's hands. Modern history proves that the US government is not a peacemaker but a death-maker. Not many books are necessary to realize such a fact. Just one book titled 'What Uncle Sam Really Wants' written by Noam Chomsky is enough!

 

 

 In my opinion, common Koreans and Americans are not capable of thinking about North Korea objectively. It's not easy for them to get over such a long and deeply embedded anti-communist prejudice and see things the way they are. And Mr. Martire, I think, belongs to them. He would have been better not to utter about North Korea.