Minders In North Korea

787 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Totalitarianism in north Korea

The foreign team visited North Korea in an attempt to complete 1,000 surgeries for people with cataracts, which causes mild to extreme blindness. They had “minders” with them for the extent of their mission. A minder is a North Korean government official whose role is to monitor and make sure the team is doing everything as planned. They make sure everything is going the way they want it to. The minders are so serious about their job, that one of them threatened to kick the photographer out of the country for laying down to get a full shot of the giant statue of Kim Il-Sung. He explained that no one can lay down in front of the founder of North Korea, as, it is very disrespectful. Minders also act as a guide, translator and guard for the team. …show more content…

Malnutrition is a massive problem in North Korea and on average, North Korean boys, age seven, are twenty pounds less in weight and eight inches shorter than their neighbors in South Korea. The lack of hospital quality and training for doctors causes an increased rate of illness and medical problems for North Koreans. This is why the team went to North Korea in the first place; to perform surgeries and train doctors. In addition to medical problems, nearly half of North Korea’s population of 25 million live in extreme poverty and are living very difficult …show more content…

Those who seek to defect from North Korea face a multitude of difficulties when trying to exit the country. Obviously, the borders, especially between North and South Korea, are heavily guarded with troops, mine fields and electric fences that can fry any person who touches them. Even if one is lucky enough to cross the border, when in another country, it is very hard to stay there because as a newcomer in that country, one would be questioned about their origin and have background checks. If one is discovered to be a North Korean, it is very possible that they are sent back. Also, by leaving or at least trying to leave North Korea, one would be putting their entire living families lives at risk. If the North Korean government found out who defected, the person family would surely be forced into concentration camps until they

Show More
Related

  • Heartbreaking Tale in Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Hardyn and Imprisoned, Shin Dong-hyuk

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    Blaine Harden, former national correspondent and writer for the New York Times, delivers an agonizing and heartbreaking story of one man’s extremely conflicted life in a labor camp and an endeavor of escaping this place he grew up in. This man’s name is Shin Dong-hyuk. Together, Blaine Harden and Shin Dong-hyuk tell us the story of this man’s imprisonment and escape into South Korea and eventually, the United States, from North Korea. This biography that takes place from 1982-2011, reports to its readers on what is really going on in “one of the world’s darkest nations” (back cover of the book), that is run under a communist state and totalitarian dictatorship that was lead by Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and currently lead by Kim-Jong un. In Escape from Camp 14, Shin shows us the adaptation of his life and how one man can truly evolve from an animal, into a real human being.

    Read More

  • Rights and Responsibilities of North Korean Citizens

    1176 Words  | 3 Pages

    Salter, Christopher L., and Charles F. Gritzner. "Introducing North Korea,." North Korea. 2nd ed. New York: Chelsea House, 2007. . Print.

    Read More

  • Canada Charter Of Mobility Rights Essay

    1397 Words  | 3 Pages

    (migrationinformation, 2008). Citizens of North Korea do not attain the freedom to leave and experience other states. North Korea’s lack of freedom not only affects their citizens but also individuals from other countries in a negative sense, cutting off social bonds as a result. Not having mobility rights is an infringement on their negative liberty on account of the option of immigrating or emigrating not being available to them due to the laws placed by the government. In actuality, citizens “caught emigrating or helping others cross the border illegally are detained” (migrationinformation, 2008).

    Read More

  • North Korean Human Rights Violation Essay

    1940 Words  | 4 Pages

    The limited information known about North Korea is from under cover sources and people. If captured these people will be sent to horrific labor camps already filled with hundreds of thousands of North Koreans. The atrocities of human torture and what people living there endure really made me want to research North Korea. Has anyone infiltrated the country to help these issues? How does a country get like this in the first place? What is their culture like? How has North Korea been exposed? What was in this report issued by the UN?

    Read More

  • Essay On The North Korean Nuclear Program

    2147 Words  | 5 Pages

    Numerous international organizations that advocate for basic human rights have accused the North Korea government for some of the most horrible human rights violations on record for any developed nation in recent years. The reports by Amnesty International state that due to the very strict limitations on the freedom to associate, express, and move, that North Koreans are subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, and other mistreatme...

    Read More

  • The Tragedy of North Korea

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rogue states under dictatorial rule threaten the fragile peace, which exists in our modern world. Constantly as a society Americans have always fought against these said foes. However all too often we pass a blind eye to the humanity of the enemies’ civilian populations. For more often than not, those who live within these systems are chronically oppressed. The nation of North Korea is no exception, with “Bing-brother always watching.” The government in North Korea pervades all aspects of life.

    Read More

  • Child Soldiers

    2240 Words  | 5 Pages

    “Compelled to become instruments of war, to kill and be killed, child soldiers are forced to give violent expression to the hatreds of adults” (“Child Soldiers” 1). This quotation by Olara Otunnu explains that children are forced into becoming weapons of war. Children under 18 years old are being recruited into the army because of poverty issues, multiple economic problems, and the qualities of children, however, many organizations are trying to implement ways to stop the human rights violation.

    Read More

  • Korean War

    1114 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout history the United States has fought in many wars. Whether the fighting took place in Europe such as WWI or in our own land like the civil war. The one war many people seem to forget is the Korean War. The Korean War also known as the “forgotten war” was a war between North Korea, South Korea and the US together with the South Koreans to help. The Korean War was fought on sea, land, and in the air over and near the Korean peninsula (Brown, p.2). On June 25, 1950, the North Koreans rumbled across the thirty-eighth parallel. The invasion was successful because the south was not expecting or even prepare for a war. The invasion was so successful that they pushed the south to a tiny defensive area around Pusan. That’s when President Truman steps in real quick to halt the invasion of the North Koreans. Truman ordered American armed forces under General Douglas MacArthur to support South Korea. The Korean War was a clash between Communist forces and Free World (Brown, p.2).

    Read More

  • Tyranny In 1984 Research Paper

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    While North Koreans do have access to cell phones, to ensure they do not receive any foreign information that Kim Jong Un severely shields them from, their cell phones cannot make international calls, meaning a call to anywhere outside of North Korea. Anyone found to be carrying an illegal cell phone in North Korea that can make

    Read More

  • 5 Themes Of Geography Of North Korea

    1114 Words  | 3 Pages

    But now she couldn’t deny what was plainly staring her in the face: dogs in China ate better than doctors in North Korea” (Demick 220). The passage shows that although Dr. Kim was a doctor, and firmly believed in her country, that their standard of living was surpassed by the dogs of the Chinese. It is important because it illustrates the failures of the

    Read More

  • North and South Korea

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the global media North Korea’s isolation and Harsh rule has become increasingly secretive, although some facts have been detected (“North Korea Profile”, 1). According to data collected from The Guardian, eighty-one out of one-hundred people in South Korea have access to the internet, yet in North Korea around .1 out of one-hundred people have access to the internet . Not only is the greater population of North Korea disconnected from outside sources, yet leaders in North Korea are also isolated from outside sources; putting themselves at a disadvantage. North Korea may launch a war, but they are unaware as to what they are up against because of its secrecy . Around one million are serving in the North Korean Army, but when South Korea’s army; combined with the U.S’s army (their ally), the ratio of the North Korean Army is signi...

    Read More

  • The Miracle on Han River: South Korea

    1100 Words  | 3 Pages

    South Korea, once a broken country filled with broken families, has transformed itself into a fine example of perseverance in a tough situation. South Korea and its neighbor to the north have developed past where they were before the Korean War, but in different ways. The two countries, while certainly dependent on each other, are vastly different. Their conflicting styles of government and their differing cultures speak for themselves in this case. South Korea has, over the years, changed dramatically from the crippled country of the Korean War into a blossoming beacon of Asian cultural and economic changes. The combination of its recent economic importance, its heavy cultural influence, and its constant danger of participating in a war makes South Korea one of the most influential countries in the world.

    Read More

  • How Is North Korea Democratic

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    In reality, elections in North Korea are non-competitive and feature single candidate races only as only one candidate appears on the ballot but if a voter wishes to he/she can cross off the candidate's name to vote against him/her, but must do so by crossing out the name in a special booth without secrecy an act which, according to many North Korean defectors, is far too risky to even contemplate. What this means is that North Korea claims to be a democracy but clearly violates some crucial

    Read More

  • What Are The Problems In My Escape From North Korea Essay

    776 Words  | 2 Pages

    They learned little of the world outside North Korea besides the point that America, Japan, and South Korea were enemies. They thought that their country was the best. Meanwhile, hunger raged on in North Korea. Millions of North Koreans died from the gripping, painful hunger. Hyseono Lee, a North Korean refugee states that “many [North Koreans] only survived by eating grass, bugs and tree bark.” Lastly, there was lots of public violence. At very young ages, citizens of North Korea saw their first public executions. Many problems in North Korea made living conditions severe, and surviving to plan your escape more

    Read More

  • Nuclear Weapons are a Threat To World Peace

    2373 Words  | 5 Pages

    To understand this situation more fully, one must be given some background, starting in the early 1950s. Due to the harsh differences between the peoples of Korea, and especially due to the onset of Communism, the Korean War erupted and the nation split in half, with the Communist-supported Democratic People’s Republic in the north and those who favored democracy in the Korean Republic of the south (Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000). The two separate countries of North Korea and South Korea went their opposite ways, and each has experienced different fortunes in the past half-century. The South Koreans managed to recover from the turmoil of the 1950s and 1960s to become an economic power and a democracy supporter. On the other hand, North Korea can be viewed as a retro country, based first on a Communist ideology, laid down by leader Kim Il Sung and inherited by his son, the current dictator Kim Jong Il, then evolving into a totalitarian state (Pacific Rim: East Asia at the Dawn of a New Century). Today North Korea holds the distinction of being one of the very few remaining countries to be truly cut off from the rest of the world. Author Helie Lee describes this in her novel In the Absence of Sun: “An eerie fear crawled through my flesh as I stood on the Chinese side of the Yalu River, gazing across the murky water into one of the most closed-off and isolated countries in the world.” (1)

    Read More

More about Minders In North Korea

Open Document