Isolationism In North Korea

Even though The Korean peninsula has been occupied for as long as time can tell we will begin to look at the historical context of North Korea in the 1900’s. By 1910, Japan’s colonial rule over Korea was a “brutal experience. [Tensions were high as] resistance groups formed in Korea and China, mostly adopting leftist politics in reaction to the right-wing Japanese administration” (libertyinnorthkorea.org). Before WWII, Korea began to modernize, and Pyongyang developed into a city influenced heavily by Western culture and Christianity. After WWII, the United States and the Soviet Union divided the Korean peninsula, which was acquired through the defeat of Japan, into a two parts divided by the 38th parallel. This started the many conflicts that

would come as two nations, identical in geography, were so different in ideology.
The Soviet Union installed a communist government to occupy North Korea under Kim Il-sung in the capital of Pyongyang. The Korean War devastated all of Korea, but especially the north with “bombing campaigns [reducing] Pyongyang to rubble…and the population was reduced by 10%” (libertyinnorthkorea.org). The demilitarized zone (DMZ) was created at the end of the war to serve as the border between the North and South. The DMZ is not perfectly on the 38th parallel as most of it lies above at a skewed left angle, which as a result, separated millions of Koreans from their families and friends as they found each other on different sides of the border. Kim Il-sung developed a society influenced by the theology and ruling of the USSR’s Joseph Stalin. After the Korean War and into the 1970’s the North Korean government began taking all possessions of the citizens, rebuilding the capital of Pyongyang as a socialist center, gaining control of all media outlets, installing propaganda shaming the United States, and most importantly closing its boarders. The United States being a capitalist society and a true democracy posed as a threat, in the opinion of the Kim family, to North Korea, and our influence in South Korea and Japan made us an enemy. The western culture and knowledge was something that could educate the people of North Korea to an extent that they could realize how oppressed they are and this was a true threat to Pyongyang.
Songbun was a policy implemented by Kim-Il sung in the 1950’s that structured society by social classification. The system divided people into five different classes from special, nucleus, basic, complex and hostile. While “special” status is rare “nucleus, also known as core, is the standard…In contrast, basic (also known as wavering) can lead to slight discrimination, while people deemed complex and especially hostile face substantial prejudice” (Tertitskiy). The problem with Songbun and basically all other caste systems is that there is no mobility in the structure. People of lower Songbun are cast out into the outer provinces of Pyongyang while people of higher standing, who have better jobs, live in the capital. Anyone who opposes this system or any other government policy is subject to imprisonment or even death (The Guardian). The American dream is commonly referenced as the make-up of our nation, as people strive for social mobility and work hard and be something they were not yesterday.
In 1994 Kim Il-sung died leaving North Korea in a state of extreme economic issues. His son Kim Jong-Il came to power and instituted a very militaristic policy. This change did not help the economic issues the country was already facing and as a result even created new problems as North Korea faced famine losing about a million of its citizens dying before the end of the decade. A society that has been brainwashed for half a century started to gain more knowledge as black markets were created, crime increased, people stated to sell anything for food (even themselves), and some people fled to China which began the process of developing an understanding of what life was like outside North Korea, which flowed back into the Hermit Kingdom. Overall, the same issues of poverty, lack of food, and living under a government that is more concerned about power than its people, continually haunt the North Korean people to this day. (libertyinnorthkorea.org)
In the past decade, two key events happened that were detrimental to the hope and prosperity of North Korea. First, in 2009 the government issued a currency reform in which the goal was to even out the wealth of all citizens. The result was extreme inflation which decreased all personal wealth and halted government projects such as building of infrastructure. The second key event to happen in the last decade was the death of Kim Jong-Il, and the beginning of the Kim Jong-Un regime. He is viewed to be more similar to his grandfather in terms of his ideology but shares the same common characteristics of the previous two leaders, paranoid, power hungry, and resentful to western culture and most certainly the United States. (libertyinnorthkorea.org)
WMD
The first concern and issue with North Korea is its Weapons of Mass Destruction program and the threat it poses to the U.S. national security. On January 29, 2002, former President George W. Bush identified North Korea as an axis of evil “regime [armed] with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens” (SSA.gov). Post 9/11 our foreign policy shifted towards focusing on countries that are seen as a threat to the United States, and North Korea’s ideologies and practices prove them to be of high priority. In 2003, North Korea withdrew from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). On top of them not being in the NPT, North Korea is not a part of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Nuclear Weapons are an obvious possession of North Korea but the chemical and biological weapons are more of a mystery. Speculation dating back to the 1950’s and 1980’s show strong pursuit of chemical weapons as well as the objection to the CWC makes a strong argument that a chemical weapons program to some extent exists in North Korea. Ironically, North Korea is a member of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) of 1987 and Geneva Protocol, but is considered to have biological weapons. Intelligence from both “the United States and South Korea generally agree that the country began to acquire a biological weapons capability in the early 1960s under the orders of Kim Il Sung...[and] The US Secretary of Defense annual report indicates that the DPRK possesses a potentially robust biological warfare capability” (nti.org). Lack of cooperation and the violation of treaties and agreements highlights the lack of trust that can be put in the regime that rests in Pyongyang.
Since its inception, the North Korean government has expressed an extreme interest in the development of Nuclear Weapons. Overall, three tests have occurred in 2006, 2009, and 2013. In 2014, the New York Times reported that a “top American military commander in South Korea said on Friday that he believed North Korea had most likely completed its years long quest to shrink a nuclear weapon to a size that could fit atop a ballistic missile. His assessment, if correct, could change American calculations about the vulnerability of the United States and its allies, and the North’s ability to sell nuclear weapons to others” (Sanger). Trust is the key component to the tension between the United States and North Korea, and basically Kim Jung-un or his predecessors give us no reason to trust them. For the Kim family to be opposed to the NPT and other organizations created to regulate and stop the creation of any WMD programs in countries that should not have these weapons is a clear threat to the US and our allies. Developing the capability to make the nuclear warhead a size to fit on a ballistic missile or creating it small enough that it would be easy to transport and sell is a direct threat to our national security.
The United States has continued to have a strong no tolerance to North Korea’s nuclear program, throughout the decades. Recently, President Obama spoke on the issue after a meeting with South Korean officials, “For now, North Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon will continue to deepen its isolation…He condemned the country’s recent “reckless actions” and said the U.S. and South Korea would continue to stand together” (Nelson). The pursuit of Nuclear Weapons is an example of globalization as a small country like North Korea wants the respect and fear to come with their name as a country with nuclear weapons. From the United States’ perspective, this objective is unreasonable, and since they are a threat to our national security and our ally’s, it is important to be preemptive before North Korea could sell any warheads to any other “axis of evil” counties or terrorist organizations. This essentially defines the strong tensions as sanctions are imposed upon North Korea and their animosity grows towards Western culture and the United States as we support these sanctions.
Isolation and Human Rights Infringements
Next we will look at North Korea as an isolationist state, and how this directly affects its citizens.

Isolationism was a common practice in the Asian region but unlike China, Japan, and South Korea, the North Korean leaders decided to remain closed off from influences from the outside world giving them the nickname the Hermit Kingdom. Control is the main aspect of Isolationism. The government in a closed off society is in complete control of all things from the media to the working environments. Knowledge is controlled as the government censors the information flow to the best of their ability, as well as creating propaganda to control the people’s thinking. It is estimated that around 3,000 people a year escape and go to South Korea, but only to find a world they don’t know. They leave one of the most isolated country in the world to enter a very highly technological society that is South Korea and have to “spend months in special government schools to learn how to cope with the 21st Century” (Roberts). The isolationism also represents a sense of fear of globalization as outside influences could inform the people that they are trying to control, telling them that the government is corrupt and inhumane to the people. As of now most people in North Korea feel loyalty and treat the leader, Kim Jung-Un as if he were a

god.
Being closed off from western culture and the controlling of the government in all aspects of life directly leads to human rights infringements and oppression of the people.

Oppression is not something new for North Korea, and in 2014 the “UN Commission of Inquiry found that abuses in North Korea were without parallel in the contemporary world. They include extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions, and other sexual violence. North Korea operates a series of secretive prison camps where perceived opponents of the government are sent to face torture and abuse, starvation rations, and forced labor. Fear of collective punishment is used to silence dissent. There is no independent media, functioning civil society, or religious freedom” (hrw.org). Looking at how the government treats its people raises more issues from the United States. The tensions remain very high as the United States strongly opposes countries who do not promote freedom for its

citizens.