Reality Intrudes On North Korea

The NY Times takes us to the border of North Korea and China and finds some deeply disillusioned North Koreans:

Glimpse of World Shatters North Koreans' Illusions

...The refugees pose challenges for China and for North Korea. Chinese officials fear that a flood of North Koreans across their borders would not only pose a huge economic strain on the region, but could eventually stoke a territorial dispute because of historic Korean claims in the region. For North Korea, the refugees' flight to China offers a pressure valve, allowing the poor to earn desperately needed money. But it also allows them a glimpse of the richness of the outside world, and that could be destabilizing.

...One woman who plans to keep shuttling between countries is a 42-year-old military nurse. "I am in China now, and it is just like I had heard - very developed, full of people, with everything you could ever want to buy," she said. "But I have no ID card, no residence permit. I am in a free country, but I am not free."

...most recent arrivals here, including many who live close to the border, said they had a vague idea of China's striking new wealth.

In interview after interview, they spoke of the huge shift in perspective they experienced upon entering China. "When I lived in Korea, I never thought my leaders were bad," said one woman in her 50's, a farmer who had brought her grown daughter to Yanji recently from her home not far from the other side of the border for treatment of an intestinal ailment. "When I got here, I learned that Chinese can travel wherever they want in the world as long as they have the money. I learned that South Korea is far richer, even than China."

"If we are so poor," she continued, "it must be because of Kim Jong Il's mistakes," she said referring to North Korea's leader. The woman said her daughter had decided to stay in China, but that she would soon return home, after illegally earning money doing piecework for a factory here.

North Korea's oppressive control of its citizens through policing and propaganda could be felt through the words of another woman. "Until the end of the 1980's, we were convinced we were the greatest country on earth, and in fact, many people still believe this," the woman said. "We've always been taught that other countries are poorer than we are. They say that South Korea is full of beggars and that people can't afford even to send their children to school."

This woman, a rural dweller in her early 40's, said she had never heard anyone blame Mr. Kim for her country's problems. On the contrary, he was "sincerely adored," she insisted, because of an all-pervasive personality cult. "If I had ever had a chance to meet him face to face, I would have been moved to tears," she said. "We really believed that wherever he went, flowers bloomed. And if he or some other high official arrived in our area and said he needed my daughter, well, we would have been honored."

Asked how they felt now, after having seen some of the outside world, each person interviewed said his or her illusions about North Korea had been shattered. "There is no way I can believe my government again," said one person who had been in China only a few weeks. "They spend all their time celebrating the leaders. There is one thing I have understood in China, and that is, as long as there is no freedom, we will never get richer."

We had more last week: "North Korea - Losing The Culture War?"

Comments

[AT]

I never thought I'd hear China called "free" and "rich" by anyone but the CCP.

[Synova]

Wow. Ah... ditto AT.

I always knew that people had it really bad in North Korea but I honestly have to say that I didn't *know*. Can you imagine if one of those poor farm women made it to *Japan*?

[Warmongering Lunatic]

If only there were a way to solve the problem that wouldn't result in Seoul being levelled by artillery.

[russ]

Well folks considering this article is from the New York Times, how do you know that this whole story isn't just another Jayson Blair Project?

[gt]

Parts of China are very rich. And its slowly getting freer. But it's got a long way to go.

[TM]

Re the wealth of China - I sometimes stand in the supermarket in disbelief, wondering what sort of a clown show they could be running that would leave them out of stock of whatever vital ingredient I am pursuing at that moment.

Normally, I start muttering something about shopping in 'effing East Berlin. Then I start muttering about what a jerk I am, and how much I take for granted.

Well, we lack the band-width for a full cataloguing of my inanities.

[Foobarista]

A few years ago I was living in Beijing studying Chinese at a university. There were some North Korean students there, and some South Korean students in my dorm. The NKs had their own classes, their own dorm, and their own guards and police minders to prevent them from talking with the South Koreans or from unauthorized wandering about (Beijing has a significant Koreatown made up of NK refugees). It did seem that China was a paradise of freedom and wealth compared to North Korea, to a level that the NK government felt it needed to tightly police its own students in China.