The two lost loved ones, they never saw their loved ones again, and they left friends behind. They suffered unspeakably under the totalitarian dictatorship of North Korea, the most isolated country in the world, whose government revels in threatening neighboring nations with nuclear weapons tests, and with suffocating social control, a non-existent economy and hunger that always returns. .
The two women are part of the thousands of people from that hermetic nation who managed to barely filter out of the country, at the risk of being discovered, locked up and tortured in prisons with a terrible reputation. The final destination of both was South Korea, where they left hell behind and rebuilt their lives.
But what happens inside that black hole that is North Korea, about which not much is known other than the official accounts and the threatening statements of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un towards his neighbors? The few tourists who visit the country (a few Westerners, many more Chinese and Russians) must travel in closed groups under the strict supervision of local guides, so they do not collect real first-hand information.
The regimented control of the local population and information also makes it impossible to show reality to the outside. Only refugees, also called “deserters” in South Korea, can offer a window into what happens within the borders of the communist regime, and especially its repressive aspects, which in a totalitarian state stand out absolutely on the lives of the people. citizens.
single party
Lee left North Korea at age 17, in 1999, when the country was going through the harshest stages of a decade-long famine that decimated entire families. The collapse of the Soviet Union had deprived the country of a key livelihood, as happened in Cuba with its “special period.” In North Korea the situation was more catastrophic, of deprivation and decay, of pain and death.
“With the hunger that existed, people died in the streets. If it was on a public road, they took the bodies out, but there were places, for example, train stations or alleys far from the market, where they stayed longer. There were also many starving babies, and many people had to sell the little they had to support themselves and were ruined,” says Lee, who runs an organization in Seoul for human rights in North Korea.
The situation was so serious that his family went weeks without food.. The lack of public hygiene caused her to become infected with a parasite from drinking tap water that left her with a 42 degree fever. If she did not also end up starving on the street, it was due to the bravery of her mother, who managed to get her across to China, bribing the border guards.
“It is unfortunate that the issue of famine in North Korea is happening again. And that is because the current government is not interested in the well-being of the citizens, but rather gives much more importance to the development of nuclear weapons,” he says about the regime’s priorities.
Indeed, Kim Jong-un supervised more than 30 missile tests last year, including three intercontinental missiles, when hunger alarms were raised again.
Lee recalls that a vicious circle was created that involved large sectors of society. Along with the misery, the hierarchs and other powerful individuals squeezed the rest of the North Koreans, who scraped for it as best they could. Crime grew, penalties worsened, and rights were further trampled and abandoned… just like the corpses in the stations and alleys.
“The famine did not only affect the lower class, but also those of higher economic levels. The party members also suffered from this entire economic crisis, and since they had power, what they did was take away the little that others had and they became increasingly more corrupt,” says Lee.
Orphan of the regime
Although the law supposedly recognizes and guarantees that there can be citizen protests, if you do so, you pay the consequences. And not just that person, but his family. That’s why no one can raise their voice.
Before the escape, Chae worked as a nurse, with a salary that was enough to buy the equivalent of about 200 or 250 grams of rice. The other trades and professions did not offer much more, and purchasing power has not improved in recent years. The rest of a family’s income, that is, almost all of its income, is obtained by dedicating itself to buying and selling on the black market.
Chae says that it was part of a generational conflict about society’s view of the government. The older ones remained faithful to the communist regime, or at least believed its tales of greatness. The younger ones, on the other hand, disdained the glories of official propaganda, omnipresent in the country.
“We young people were more open to receiving news and culture from abroad and absorbed it more quickly, and the government party wanted to repress us. There were differences, for example, with my grandmother, who had respect for the government and said that what was happening in North Korea was not the fault of the government, but of external pressures,” says Chae.
Neither she nor her friends had the slightest respect for the hierarchs. They felt rather contempt. And while it is folly to openly criticize Supreme Leader Kim and his minions, on a small scale young people can at least prevent propaganda from contaminating their relationships.
“When you met with your friends, if someone spoke well of the government, then they were left out of the group. Nobody wanted to see that person,” she notes. The media, oriented towards obedience, are already there to air Kim’s proclamations. And social networks are gagged. Just in case, new censorship rules were established that control the dissemination of foreign content.
“There is also a reason why the people cannot openly oppose or disobey the government. When the government gives a job, it doesn’t give it to an individual person, but to a group, or when it takes away a good, it doesn’t take it away from an individual person,” says Chae. “When you take it away from one, you take it away from the entire group. Therefore, in order not to harm your neighbor or your friends, it is very difficult for one to rebel against the government.”
What’s next? The dynasty is preparing its fourth generation, the dictator’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who, although she is only ten years old, has already been named general so that she can get used to power. “They are imposing it on the people, they are introducing it with collective brainwashing,” says Lee. And she assures that, as her hand comes, she will be the next leader.
La Nación (Argentina) – GDA
PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY PRINT EDITION OF EL TIEMPO.
CONTENT REPRODUCED UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE.
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