I recently watched a 3 part documentary on North Korea by the folks at vbs.tv. Very interesting and shows you how much things are choreographed for visitors outside of North Korea, and how closely the actions of the Korean people are watched. This book provides an excellent view of what the North Koreans are truly going through.

while north korea is in terrible condition and the cause is its repressive dictator, shouldn’t USA share some of the blames?

I deeply believe that a good and functional democracy can be established only when people really understand democracy and desire for it.

USA has been doing everyting to suffocate countries like north korea and cuba and block their interaction with the rest of the world for half a century, that policy achieved nothing but keeping those countries poor and resulting miliions of death due to lack of food and medicine. As a consequence people in those countries hate USA, know nothing about democracy, and their regimes are able to keep their control.

If USA had opened the trade with those countries, I bet they would have had a better life, learned more about western culture and democracy, and the dictators would not be able to maintain such a tight grip on their people.

My mother-in-law grew up in NK, but escaped to SK when the Communist Party was coming to power. She lost a brother in the Korean War. Do you think military records exist somewhere going back to that time?

Great topic. Here is an excellent short program PBS did on North Korea a few years ago. It’s called “Suspicious Minds.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj9uNKT07xs

Isn’t developing an opinion of North Korean society based solely on the testimony of those who have “fled” analogous to a book on Cuban society written from the perspective of the Cuban exiles in Miami?

I reject the idea that North Korean society is a “black Hole full of famine and goose stepping soldiers”. I have no idea what goes on in their borders, but I do know how our enemies have been depicted in the past. Seldom are the images flattering or accurate.

I’ll bet that within their borders;
1. People smile and even laugh.
2. Children play games and have fun.
3. People fall in love and reproduce.
4. Music is played and people dance.

I simply refuse to accept these images that are fed to us. I’ll admit I don’t know what happens there, but if it was as bad as we’re told I doubt it would have lasted. People will only tolerate so much before you’ll see some sort of uprising. Don’t believe the hype.

Besides her book, where can one find that satelite photo that was described at the beginning of the program?

Interesting account. Thankfully, these days some of the more popular videos being smuggled into NKorea via China are those of SKorean soap operas, which are pretty popular in many parts of central and E Asia; thanks to the black market, N Koreans aren’t as fully deprived culturally as they were even a decade or so ago. And, the government is beginning to turn somewhat of a blind eye to small private enterprise as China did a couple decades ago.

A lot of this ongoing sadism by Kim Jung-Il — and that is exactly what it is — can continue to exist because China simply doesn’t want US troops on its border, so N Korea is suffering the fate of a buffer state. It’s been said that if China issues a command to Kim J-I it will be a fait accompli before the conversation was ended by the telephone being placed back onto the hook or turned off.

NKorea, incidentally, is the apotheosis of Confucianism.

Kim has to ingratiate the younger one into the military culture first, for several years, before he can take over the dynastic reign.

NKorea and Myanmar are the most reclusive countries on the planet. They are both sadistic, failed military dictatorships.

In a downloadable format instead of the streaming audio above, that is.

I think this is one of On Point’s better shows. I really like the shows that inform me about places, activities, or events that I am unfamiliar with more than the political discussions which are often not very enlightening.

I caught the rebroadcast last night from 10-11 pm. I am an exhausted mother of two small children and was listening on the road. We arrived home halfway through the interview, and I could not turn off the radio. I sat in my driveway with two sleeping children in the backseat, captivated. Thank you for an incredible interview! I can’t wait to read the book.