Following the death of Kim Jong-Il on December 17th, 2011, Kim Jong-Un, Jong-Il’s son, would be declared as the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, more commonly known as North Korea. Kim Jong-Un, at the age of 27, would be in power in of over 25 million individuals in North Korean land. Kim Jon-Un is the third Supreme Leader of North Korea’s autocratic form of government. This form of government does have symptoms on those who reside in North Korea
One of the most consequential symptoms of the continued autocratic regime In North Korea is media repression. All television channels in North Korea are government controlled. This means that television viewers in North Korea get information that the North Korean government wants the viewers to be given and limits their accessibility to news from across the world. Consequently, this often means that North Korean news tends to be biased in favor of Kim Jong-Un’s government and has misinformation & propaganda about other nations such as the United States. North Korea has even limited the number of channels to only four across the regime. Those channels are named Korean Central Television, Mansudae Television, Ryongnamsan Television, and Athletic Television. The media repression extends to newspapers in North Korea. North Korean newspapers are filled with articles that are heavily biased towards the North Korean government and their “agenda”.
North Korea’s government has also limited the possibility for its citizens to travel across the regime and internationally. North Koreans are not, at all, allowed to travel to international destinations without government authorization. Attempts of North Korean’s leaving the country often leads to severe consequences towards not only those individuals, but to their family. International travel for North Koreans tends to be for working abroad/ business or studying abroad for students and not for any leisure travel or vacations. Domestic travel, such as through train, is more lenient and the government is said to allow leisure travel for North Korean citizens, but the government still has the authority to deny or approve travel domestically for any reason.
The third symptom of North Korea’s autocratic regime is that several fundamental human rights are stripped away or ignored by the North Korean government, and harsh punishments are given if any individual or groups show any dissent. The North Korean regime interferes with freedom of expression, assembly, association, and religion in the country. Although their constitution, officially named the ‘Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’, guarantees “freedom of religious beliefs”, there have been multiple reports of punishments, including execution, torture, and arrest for those who exercise or engage in any religious practices. Religion is even reported to be very small, relatively nonexistent in the regime, mainly due to the government’s actions. In 2002, the North Korean Government reported religious demographics of around 12,000 protestants, 15,000 practitioners of Chondoism, and 10,000 Buddhists out of a population of 25.5 million.
Famine has been an issue faced particularly in the 1990s and is also an issue till this day. Famine is an issue in North Korea for several reasons such as the government’s ideology in ‘Juche’, which is self-reliance and isolation from other countries. The problem is that the North Korean farmland is not ideal for growing and producing food independently without the support of the USSR. Once the USSR dissolved in 1991, North Korea was negatively hit by it since they relied on the USSR for imported food and aid.
When foreign entities gave food aid, the government distributed the aid between government officials and the military instead of most suffering citizens in the country. While there has not been an official death count of famine in North Korea during the 1990s due to the lack of information from the regime, a model shows an estimated death count of 500,000-600,000 from 1993-2000 due to famine in the regime. A model by Daniel Goodkind and Loraine West show an estimated death count between 600,000 and 1,000,000 from 1995-2000. To this day, 70% of North Koreans rely on countries like the United States and organizations like the United Nations for food aid to be able to try and sustain themselves while the government focuses heavily on military and nuclear sending instead of spending on its population.
Marco, this is a very interesting and important topic to cover because North Korea remains one of the most authoritarian states in the world and they have a high likelihood to attack other countries compared to other dictatorships across the world. This is because the regime in control does not care about its citizens and does not have fear about going to war making it one of the most volatile regions in the world. I believe that the central point to your article bringing all this to light convincing. More specifically, I found your point about complete media control interesting because the people there are not allowed to see what goes on in the outside world; they are completely isolated. Many people do not understand the repression people in North Korea face. The human rights violations here ought to be talked about more because it is unacceptable that an autocratic society like this still exists in 2021. Do you think that there is any hope for North Korea to democratize? Another question I have is what you think the best way to deal with this country in the near future.
Hi Marco, great post! When learning about democratic erosion, it is essential to understand the possible consequences of falling into an authoritarian regime. North Korea is an excellent example of an authoritarian regime. One thing about your post that stood out to me was the lack of religion in the country. When you look at some of the indicators for freedom house, one variable is “Are individuals free to practice and express their religious faith or nonbelief in public and private?”. It would have been safe to assume that North Korea lacked freedom of religion. I never looked closely at the small percentage of the population that practices religion. I am personally not religious; however, I can not imagine not having the option to practice the religion of my choice. If an increasing number of citizens participated in religion, would citizens become less tolerant and attempt to overthrow the authoritarian elites? I also found your point of restrictions on travel quite interesting. It is an attempt to keep civilians isolated. It also censors what the outside world knows about North Korea. While we have heard and studied many terrible things surrounding the North Korean government, the stories we hear are limited to those able to escape. Most media attention surrounding North Korea has to do with their military and conflicts with western countries such as the United States. Yet, we focus so little on those under the government’s control. Could peace happen between North Korea and the United States while still under the authoritarian regime? If North Korea democratized, would conflict with the United States become resolved?