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COPYRIGHT 2002 Canadian Institute of International Affairs
A LAND OF CONTRADICTIONS
North Korea, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as they like to call themselves, is a country of dramatic contradictions. If you visit the capital, Pyongyang, you will find yourself in the midst of monumental splendour, wide avenues, high-rise apartment buildings, showcase institutions, and endless monuments to the glories of 'Great Leader' Kim Il Sung, 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong Il, and North Korea's home-grown 'Juche' ideology of self-reliance.
If, on the other hand, you visit outlying regions of the country, you will travel on unpaved, narrow roads. You will see decaying infrastructure, poorly constructed buildings black with coal dust, poverty-stricken and crumbling villages. Of course, even here you will see an abundance of statues, monuments, and slogans to the glories of the revolution, its leaders, and its ideology.
And in both city and rural areas, brightly lit public buildings and monuments contrast with the inadequate supply of electricity and heating, not just for the common people but for the elite as well.
The proud policy of the 'Juche idea' (usually translated as 'self-reliance,' although it has a much broader meaning) is considered by North Korean ideologues as a significant improvement on communism. It was so successful in its beginnings that North Korea outgrew South Korea economically until the mid-1970s.
Self-reliance, still proclaimed in propaganda, is now in tatters, replaced by an increasing dependence on external aid and assistance.
North Korea is a mountainous country of breathtaking scenic beauty, rich in natural resources. But economic decline and energy shortages have led to deforestation and environmental degradation. Only a few areas are still protected. The Mount Kumgang (Diamond Mountain) region, for instance, has been opened for South Korean tourists for the past three years.
Self-sufficiency in agriculture--the stated goal of the government--is elusive. Only 20 per cent of the country's surface is arable. The over-used, depleted soils have become dependent upon massive inputs of fertilizer and pesticides. But chemical factories lack the oil needed to produce these in sufficient quantities.
There was a time when the state could claim to take care of people's social needs--the provision of free health services, day-care and kindergartens, free education, food and shelter for all. The institutions created to deliver those services are still in place, but today they administer deficiencies in all sectors. Hospitals lack medical instruments and even the most essential medicines. Rural schools lack paper and pencils. Professionals have fallen behind international standards and research. Most institutions cannot provide the most rudimentary equipment and materials; computers and other technology taken for granted elsewhere are available only to select institutions in Pyongyang.
Although the state promotes the artistic, academic, and physical talents and skills of children and youth, it does so through strict indoctrination that leaves little room for independent or creative thought.
The constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and indeed there are three functioning Christian churches in Pyongyang, as well as Buddhist temples and Chondoist places of worship. But the prescribed cult of adoration for the leaders has become a kind of ersatz religion for all generations since the Korean War.
DPR Koreans still have an uncanny ability to mobilize manpower for construction, for the military, for endless gargantuan galas and parades such as last year's marathon Arirang festival, which featured a musical, artistic, gymnastic, and military cast numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
At the same time, the majority of the country's 23 million inhabitants are engaged in a laborious daily struggle for survival. Estimates of famine deaths since 1995 range from 500,000 to three-and-a-half million. Since the summer of 2002, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has had to remove some three million beneficiaries from food distribution because of insufficient donations. Reports of people dying from the effects of malnutrition are on the rise again even though the crop assessment for last year, undertaken by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), recorded relative gains over previous years.
People in both North and South Korea have a deeply emotional and enduring desire for reunification, which is also the stated political goal of both governments. However, there is little consensus on how to bring it about. Efforts at rapprochement are regularly sabotaged by events like the West Sea inter-Korean naval clash in the summer of 2002, which cost dozens of lives and sank a South Korean patrol boat.
The DPRK has a keen desire to be accepted as a trading partner by the Western world. Since the late 1990s it has normalized relations with dozens of countries, including the European Union and Canada. Yet it continues to protect its hermetically closed society with an economic system out of phase with the rest of the world and seems bent on alienating even those willing to engage with it diplomatically. Recent actions to evict inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and withdraw from the Nuclear non-Proliferation treaty have put numerous profitable relationships with promising interlocutors on hold.
IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOUR OR LACK OF UNDERSTANDING?
These contradictions--and many others--are often cited as proof that the DPRK is ruled by an irrational, unpredictable regime. But my experience tells me otherwise. The unpredictability has less to do with the regime itself than with the fact that there is so little information available on how the regime operates on the inside.
North Korea has been isolated from the rest of the world for so long, even South Koreans--who speak the same language--fail to understand them. We struggle to find meaning in their words and their behaviour, but our assumptions are founded on perceptions that may or may not be accurate. Much of our intelligence is based less on factual knowledge than on unsubstantiated beliefs and impressions. No wonder they often...
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