Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
In 2008, the United States agreed to give food assis-
tance via the World Food Program and NGOs but re-
jected shipments in 2009. The economy is believed to
have grown that year due to more favorable climate con-
ditions and energy assistance from other countries.
In the DPRK, you can be arrested for the most minor
infraction. For example, if you don't keep your pictures
of Great and Dear Leader perfectly dusted and shined,
you can be put into one of 5 to 7 prisons in the gulag.
T Typically, , your entire extended family will be arrested as
well under the country' s “guilt-by-association system.”
Y ou are also expected to spy on your friends and neigh-
bors. Listening to foreign radio broadcasts is punishable
by death. Public executions are held to remind people to
obey their Leader at all times.
There are an estimated 200,000 political prisoners—
men, women, children, and elderly . Prisoners are pro-
vided starvation-level rations and forced to work long
days in brutal conditions. Many face torture or execution
for minor offences. More than 400,000 have died in the
DPRK gulag over the last 30 years.
North Korean society is stratified according to Com-
munist Party loyalty; level of commitment determines job
prospects and access to housing, education, and health care.
Subjugation to a tightly structured administration is a famil-
iar mode of rule in Korea, and this reinforces the absolute
authoritarianism that North Koreans now experience.
United States regarding normalization of relations and
food aid, North Korea proposed that Washington pay
US$500 million to stop missile sales. This didn't happen,
and the DPRK continues to sell arms to anti-American
governments around the globe.
North Korea conducted a nuclear missile test in
2006. DPRK' s actions have provoked concerns in the re-
gion and have revived support for “Star Wars” type mis-
sile defense systems in Japan and Taiwan. China is not
pleased with this turn of events. Clearly , North Korea' s
actions are detrimental to any consideration of reunifica-
tion of North and South.
BEIJING'S HEADACHE
In order to get its way with China, Pyongyang can
threaten to destabilize Northeast Asia. It can play the
“collapse card” by appearing to be on its last legs, or it
can play the “cataclysm card” by preparing to lash out at
its perceived “enemies.”
It is in China' is interest to maintain a stable North
Korea. It does not want millions of North Koreans pour-
ing across its 816 mile (1,360 km) border in the north-
east to where an estimated 30,000 to 300,000 have
already escaped. In fact, China has constructed a fence
along the border. China routinely sends refugees back
across the border where they are arrested, taken to labor
camps, and often executed.
The plight of Korean refugees in China is indeed a sad
one. Men are exploited and are lucky if they get a living
wage. Women are raped and shipped off to other parts of
China as “wives” or prostitutes. In recent years, the Chi-
nese authorities have been conducting house-to-house
searches to root out refugees that China calls “defectors.”
This gives them criminal status. The only way to get across
the border and stay in China is to pay expensive bribes.
China continues to ship low-cost food and fuel to
North Korea. It also encourages Chinese entrepreneurs
to invest there. However, in private talks, China has
forewarned the DPRK that it should not count on China
to rescue it out of serious trouble. Should China sup-
port the DPRK' s invasion of South Korea, it would dam-
age its economically beneficial relationships with the
rest of Asia and the world. Further, China cannot bring
down another communist country without losing face.
China is concerned about North Korea' is nuclear pro-
gram and has stated publically that it is committed to a
non-nuclear DPRK. However, its position most likely
represents a long-term ideal as opposed to an immediate
policy priority .
NUCLEAR CRISIS
In 1994, the DPRK suggested that it could build a nu-
clear bomb by extracting plutonium from one of its test
reactors. In response, the United States, South Korea, and
other countries agreed to provide the North with oil un-
til the South Koreans completed two nuclear power reac-
tors in the North. The North Koreans were to dismantle
their bomb-making program.
In 2002, North Korea admitted that it had not dis-
mantled its bomb-making program. Interested parties,
including South Korea, Japan, Russia, and the United
States have made several attempts to reason with the
North Koreans, but to no avail. U.S. President George W .
Bush cut off shipments of oil and other supplies to the
DPRK, which responded by evicting the United Nations
inspectors who had been monitoring the nuclear pro-
gram. The situation remains unresolved.
The DPRK also has an arsenal of missiles capable of
striking Japan and beyond. It sells these to Middle East-
ern countries such as Iran for badly needed foreign
exchange. In 1998, while engaged in talks with the
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