From The Chicago Sun-Times…
Racist N. Korea won’t make peace
Visiting North Korea some years ago, I was lucky to have a fairly genial “minder” whom I’ll call Mr. Chae. He guided me patiently around the ruined and starving country, explaining things away by means of a sort of denial mechanism.
One evening, he mentioned yet another reason why the day should not long be postponed when the whole peninsula was united under the beaming rule of the Dear Leader. The people of South Korea, he pointed out, were becoming mongrelized. They wedded foreigners—even black American soldiers, or so he’d heard to his evident disgust—and were losing their purity and distinction.
I was struck at the time by how matter-of-factly he said this, as if he took it for granted that I would find it uncontroversial. And I did briefly wonder whether this form of totalitarianism (because nothing is more “total” than racist nationalism) was part of the pitch made to its subjects by the North Korean state. But I was preoccupied, as are most of the country’s few visitors, by the more exotic forms of totalitarianism on offer: by the giant mausoleums and parades that seemed to fuse classical Stalinism with a contorted form of the deferential, patriarchal Confucian ethos.
I have recently donned the bifocals provided by B.R. Myers in his electrifying new book The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters, and I understand now that I got the picture either upside-down or inside-out. The whole idea of communism is dead in North Korea, and its most recent “Constitution” has dropped all mention of it. The analogies to Confucianism are glib. Myers makes a persuasive case that we should instead regard the Kim Jong-il system as a phenomenon of the very extreme and pathological right. It is based on totalitarian “military first” mobilization, is maintained by slave labor, and instills an ideology of racism and xenophobia.
These conclusions of his, in a brilliantly written book, carry the worrisome implication that the propaganda of the regime may actually mean exactly what it says, which in turn would mean that peace and disarmament negotiations with it are a waste of time—and perhaps a dangerous waste at that.
Consider: Even in the days of communism, there were reports from Eastern Bloc and Cuban diplomats about the paranoid character of the North Korean system and also about its intense hatred of foreigners. A black Cuban diplomat was almost lynched when he tried to show his family the sights of Pyongyang. North Korean women who return pregnant from China—the regime’s main ally and protector—are forced to submit to abortions.
Myers also points out that many of the slogans displayed by the North Korean state are borrowed directly from the kamikaze ideology of Japanese imperialism. Every child is told every day of the wonderful possibility of death by immolation in the service of the motherland and taught not to fear the idea of war, not even a nuclear one.
The regime cannot rule by terror alone, and now all it has left is its race-based military ideology. Small wonder that each “negotiation” with it is more humiliating than the previous one. As Myers points out, we cannot expect it to bargain away its very raison d’etre.
All of us who scrutinize North Korean affairs are preoccupied with one question. Do these slaves really love their chains? But race arrogance and nationalist hysteria are powerful cements for the most odious systems.
A North Korean is on average six inches shorter than a South Korean. You may care to imagine how much surplus value has been wrung out of such a slave, and for how long, in order to feed and sustain the militarized crime family that completely owns both the country and its people.
Unlike previous racist dictatorships, the North Korean one has actually succeeded in producing a sort of new species. Starving and stunted dwarves, living in the dark, kept in perpetual ignorance and fear, brainwashed into the hatred of others, regimented and coerced and inculcated with a death cult: This horror show is in our future, and is so ghastly that our own darling leaders dare not face it and can only peep through their fingers at what is coming.
8 comments:
Part 1
Dear Jive-san, Thank you and Ms. Miller and others for your very generous comments regarding my feeble attempt to shed some light on the issue of race and racism for my erstwhile 'co-chromaticists'in the usa ('co-phenotypists' sounds like an occupation, but the color of one's skin should have nothing to do with occupation, so it's been dropped; so I thought of a neologism, as a neutral sort of term to identify a particular category of people according to their skin color, and it might be very wrong in linguistic terms, but it has no historical referent nor does it carry any subtext that could be deconstructed by some clever post-modern literary theorists, besides it sounds much better than 'co-racialists' because just the sound of that word makes me feel dirty, like I could be in the same group as David Duke or the late Lester Maddox, which makes me want to take a shower right now). But I'll finish this first before cleaning myself and then going to visit my girlfriend.
I did see the interesting ad about a zen-master and some kind of product, but haven't had a chance to read and think about it yet. When I do, I'll send you a take on it from one foreigner in the land where the branch of Zen Buddhism developed and then fragmented into various sects. But for now, the North Korean piece is particularly noteworthy.
A significant number of my students are ethnic Korean-Chinese. They live in China and have done so for many generations. yet they retain their Korean identity. It is neither a North Korean, nor a South Korean identity, but a Chinese-Korean identity, I suppose, which maybe something like a Korean-Japanese identity, like that which characterizes the identity of my employer and Chairman of the Board at our edcational institutions.
PART 2
Many go back and forth across the Yalu river and deal with North Koreans in trade or even in family matters, since not so long ago the province of Jilin, China, directly above the DPRK was historically Korean territory. Those students are very special and many are fluent in four languages, Chinese, Korean, English, and Japanese. They are not too anxious to be re-united with North Korea, which would never happen anyway since China would never allow 'splittists' in that strategic location to secede from the PRC. On a different note, the students from ROK believe that it is inevitable that the two countries will re-unify someday, but they are in no hurry for that to happen since they know their own standard of living will drop precipitously if a re-unification a la Germany were to occur on the Korean peninsula. North Korea is light years behind the South, not only in terms of their economic development, but as you rightly note, the extreme version of nationalism and cult of personality there, which have no precedent in the South. The father of a family is still revered and the traditional patriarchal model seems to be more firmly in place than in Japan, but of course, there are wide variations within each society given the size of their populations and the fact that they have both 'hosted' a foreign military on their lands for the last 60 years or so.
end part 2
Part 3
However, young (mid to late 20s) Koreans from the South who I have taught and gotten to know are remarkably sanguine about the future. They have very open minds and many have done their 2 years of national military service which gives them a very different perspective about engaging in armed conflict compared to those with a twisted romantic martyr view of combat. Those who have done their service are nearly invariably doves, as a matter of principle but I have no doubt they would be a formidable opponent for those in the North. And as you mentioned conversely, the South Koreans tend to be a few inches taller than the North Koreans, and those from the South are not just relatively tall, they are big too, as in body-building big. I don't know if it's part of their training, but when walking down the hall at school if a young Korean man is talking to a friend and not watching in front of himself, I get out of the way. I'm not small, but I'm not young either. These guys look genuinely tough. No doubt the people in the North are aware of their cousins across the DMZ and the limitless amount of animal protein they ingest. So, if there are hostilities between those people divided by an obsolete symbol, which I believe is the least likely scenario anyway. The soldiers from the North would probably consider just which side they really wanted to win. I have no reason to believe that they would feel any different than the East Germans did when they took the opportunity to openly defy Erich Hoenigger and Stasi and start smashing in the Wall. about tend to several inches shorter than South Korean men around their age now, ab6have incredibly open minds and are very interested in learning about others, since they have been historically isolated even more than has Japan. And many of the young Koreans expecially the women,tend to appreciate certain aspects of japan a ave no analog in the South. Those from the South consider it for what it is: a tool by which their fellow Koreans are being subjugated by a rather unusual man and the armed forces at his disposal. However, I would like to add that the North Koreans do know what is going outside of their country, since they get radios smuggled in from China that can pick up international and channels from the South. They do not show displeasure because there are rather harsh penalties for acknowedging the truth in that country. So, you would never get a North Korean to tell you what he or she really felt about the state of the nation and how it impinges upon her own quality of life. But I feel pretty confident that the North will not be attacking a country any time soon with its ground forces. Besides the fact that they couldn't afford it, the leaders are proabably aware that a significant number of their soldiers would defect during hostilities, regardless of the country they happened to be in, just so it was neither North Korea for the obvious reasons, nor China, given their habit of repatriating North Koreans to their homelands, much to the distress of those being returned to face the consequences of abandoning the 'workers' paradise.'
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Part 4
Given these circumstances, the development of nuclear weapons is really the only line of defense that the North has against those nations that regularly engage in 'heavily armed fishing expeditions' much to the consternation of those whose homes would be at risk, not to mention the lives of their occupants if an univited air-to-surface missile happens to make an unannounced visit to the living room where half of the extended family happen to be asleep at the time. If it were me, I would hope to be one of those in the living room when a present from Martin Marietta and the USAF arrives. Because if I were a surviving relative, I do not believe I could contain my rage. It makes me angry when I see the statistics of how many families have been destroyed by the USAF attacks, and recently the CIA's toy of the year, the drone aircraft, that is reported to be fail safe and invariably strikes its target killing only senior ranking member of a terrorist organization and his co-conspriators while sparing their family members. Their family members are spared because their family members no longer live with those men who are allegedly the officers of al Qaeda, or the Taliban II, or the Lakhsmar-e-Jaimish or any other organzination with an unpronounceable name and the men wear turbans.
So, how what relevance does this have relevance for the incipient 'high alert' from North Korea? Each of these acts of defiance against the global hegemon seeks to re-destribute the balance of power in the world today. As you know, 20% of the world's inhabitants control 80% of its wealth. This is an unprecedented development in the history of the world unless one were to include the first Dynasty of Egypt, or perhaps Mohejo Daro, or the cities states of Mesopotamia many thousands of years ago since there were no other civilizatons that developed 6 or 7 thousand years ago that left ruins and or a written record of their existence. However, with the rise of the great civilizatons of China and India, and corresponding growths in populaton, their inhabitants consisted of about 60% of the world's population and as such, they also manufactured and crafter about 60% of the goods at the time that were available for trade as source of wealth in precious metals or throught bartering for products that couldn't be found in their geographies. And this pattern seemed to have lasted relatively stably until the European colonial conquests over the known world and soon following the Industrial Revolution, Adam Smith's ex post facto theorizing about what was happeining politically and economically across the world touched by the industrial giant of the day, Britain, Right where is this going?
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part 5
OK, the topic, North Korea and nuclear weapons. What would you do as the leader of a very poor, but very independent country with few natural resources other than it's intelligent, docile, and well-disciplined people? It's too bad that Dear Leader doesn't seem to understand the concept of humanistic values, nor does he seem to show appreciation for the sacrifices they make for his megalomania. Very sad. However, in regard to his determination in building an arsenal to protect his fiefdom, I can't say that I blame, or Iran, or Syria, or any of the countries that are on the , yet occupy a rather strategic location in East Asia, sharing boreders with 2 nuclear powers and significant presence of a third and hostile nuclear when faced with the double standards, deception, and domination explcitly The Big Lie of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), in which the 5 extant nuclear powers at the time agreed to dismantle and destroy their nuclear arsenals.
"NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to . . . further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament"
"(T)he (NPT is the) only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States
On 11 May 1995, in accordance with article X, paragraph 2, the Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons decided that the Treaty should continue in force indefinitely (see Decision 3).
And Article VI
Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.
Well, compared to age of Methuselah, I suppose this is still an early date in the good faith negotiations that the signatories agreed to in 1968 with nearly all states ratifying the agreement within 10years after its proposal. I haven't even included the rules from earlier articles in which it plainly states that all states have a right to engage in peaceful nuclear research and to have access to those materials which allow such research to be undertaken. This hasn't changed. It's still the only law in the world that clearly stipulates the nuclear powers are not to be nuclear powers forever. But 42 years is forever for some people, such as males in Sierra Leone whose average lifespan is only41 years. Likewise, men in Mozambique and Angola have average lifespans of 41 years of age. It's sad to think that some people lived there entire life wondering if some psycho outside of the tropics decides to finish this little experiment in humanity once and for all. And all they needed to do was go to the beach, enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells, and say, 'yeah, this is really too beautiful to screw up just because we are pig-headed buffoons doing the bidding for other pig-headed buffoons. Let's go see what's happening down at that cove." "Sounds like a great idea to me. Relaxation, now where have I heard that word before . . ."
OK it's fantasy, but having arsenals that can blow up the world 50 times over is not? In this case the fantasy doesn't sound nearly as crazy as the reality. Do you thinnk they'll get the idea? No. Not a chance. We are a failed experiment, and we'll do away with ourselves, sooner or later. And then intelligent life might be able to inhabit what once the pearl of the solar system.
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Part 6
The development of nuclear armaments seems a much better strategy than that of the 'bluff'as practiced by the late novelist, raconteur, aficionado of Cuban cigars and president of Iraq, Mr. Saddam Hussein. Bluffs have an achilles heel as a strategy, whether it's military, academic, athletic, or consensual activity between two adults, and that is there should be at least some substantial force or power to back up that bluff should the opponent call the bluff and demand a showdown.
So, what can the Dear Leader possibly do? He can't depend on his regular coscripts to starve as they get ready to blown to bits by superior firepower. So, They can't rely on the commitment of their soldiers to defend Dear Leader, his family and those who occupy hte elites postitions in that totatalitarian state. You only need one person to push a button. However, the Chinese and the Japanese are in no hurry to get rid of the current regime since Mr. Kim fulfills a purpose for the ruling parties in both of those countries. For China, Mr. Kim is the 'wild card' or the 'joker' if you will, who can be counted to keep the usa and japan off balance due to his regime's strong preference for guns over butter, as far as the citizens who are civilians. The military members get plenty of both. For Japan, Mr. Kim plays the role of a sinister shadow who may or may not choose to test one of his nuclear devices on a small Japanese city, or maybe just one of the many large unused airports that dot the landscape in Northern part of Honshu, above Tokyo but on the same island. So, as long as Mr. Kim is in power, the Japanese right have a convenient tool to try and stir up their own version of nationalism among a population with an average age around 44 years old and fastest growing age group being those who are over 85. So, I don't think that much will come of Mr. Kim's saber-rattling unless he really does feel he has no other option except to respond to some untenable situation with a show of arms. And it won't be against China, that's for sure, because then he really would be wiped out. They do not take kindly to foreigners intervening in their domestic affairs whether it's written, spoken, launched from a missile pad, or dropped from a plane.
Oh, before I go, their rather peculiar ideology is not even considered in the South, except perhaps by some die-hard ultra-nationalists, but they are dying off and interestingly the younger genreation do not provide members to fill the ranks of the Nationalist ideologues, as they have in Japan, although they are relatively few hereas well these days. More imortatntly, they aren't taken seriously in either place. It would be something the people of the usa could learn from a couple of civilizations that predate Anglo-america by a nearly 2000 years. The know its nationalists, but I haven't met any. While the Korean students I have from the South would be fairly conservative by any standard, they do not adhere to the North's ideiolgy, Ju Che (translated as, 'self-reliance'). Ju Che is somewhat analogous in regard to national 'consciousness' as the various 'War(s) on [Slogans (my choice)]' are in the usa, which seem to have no end, nor do they run out of funding, and they provide another means by which the federal government can slowly but surely chip away at the rights granted to the people in the Bill of Rights. They both operate on the same principle: fear of the (un)known, which on a corporeal level are kind of similar to some religions and their doctrines regarding an afterlife.
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part 7
But the similarity between the DPRK's Ju Che doctrine and the usa's War on _____ ends there. My impression of the usa's countless 'Wars on . . ' is they are exercises in negative sanctions directed at some sort of behavior or habit common to a number of individuals and whose behavior the federal government wishes to modify. You don't see a 'Challenge for Physical Fitness' but a 'War on Obesity,' or whatever happens to be the current domestic 'War' (I'll not start on the so-called War on Terror because there is neither the interest to deconstruct that lexical abomination, nor the time to deal with its implications for race, region, religion, and the process of demonization of the Other, with apologies to Dr. Said, may he rest in peace).
And yes, since political heterodoxy is unknown in the North, and even ideas that don't conform to the official doctrine can get a person sent away for a while, leaving family members to starve or enter the forced labor sector of the economy. And there are no public protests. Contrast, that with the South during the annual wage negotiations and the riot police enter the streets, much blood is spilled and everyone goes home and back to work the next day, if they aren't in jail, in the hospital, or too hungover to show up. If this isn't one of the best cases to show the power of ideology and its impact on individuals and the ways they organize socially to accomplish goals, then I would be hard-pressed to find a better example. The North has taken the Great Leader's original idea of Ju Che (self-reliance) and twisted in such a way that it means everyone else is giving problems to North Koreans because the North Koreans are too fearsome for any one country to try and control, so it takes the World against North Korea to maintain balance, at the expense of the North Koreans, of course. I've read that the food donations have been explained to the people as tribute and obeisance to the Dear Leader. I have no verification of this piece of information and cannot remember where I read it, but it makes sense given what you've written about your experience in the North, what we read outside of the North about it, and the historical precedents for such a racist ideology to take root. Nx sence North Koreans Or something like that. Whatever the actual method that's used, it seems pretty effective. It keeps the masses in line, provides a means by which they which can appreciate their deprivation in solidarity due to the jealousies of inferior races and they are the only nation in the world that can train over a hundred thousand people to move in unison at the same time. Quite a feat, indeed. Now, if they would just be able to get some food for dinner and oil to light their stoves so they don't freeze to death, the future is their's for the taking.
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Part 8
So, they seem to be in much better position in the long-term than what I see shaping up in the usa. 21st century infringements on rights never seems to run out of objects that must be defeated by any means necessary, but never seem to be, since that would put all those fighting whichever war it happens to be out of job (acountability, MBO, what's the cost/benefit ratio?). Legalize drugs, oops, no more DEA, have a truly open market, well, there goes a few thousand Customs jobs. Do away with speed limits on unpopulated sections of interstate highway, oh no, how state troopers positions will be cut, and of course, if people realized that only about 50,000 Muslims at the most out of a world population of 1 billion are even remotely likely to consider any kind of aggressive act. Having become friends with many of my Muslim students, I'm very confident in saying that anyone in the usa is more likely to get killed by a drunk driver or an errant bullet from a police officer's Glock, struck by lightning, or even accidentallyt shot by a militant anti-abortionist, than be victimized by the tiny fringe groups of radical Islam. The stories the usa media run about Islam and those who practice that faith is about as accurate as what 'the person on the street' in Pyongyang' has to say about the political economy in the DPRK. In other words, there tends to be a bit of exaggeration or using unreprentative samples, talking with those who have a speicific agenda they want to promote, regardless of the feasility or even desirability as the 'voice of a people.' Ahmed Chalabi. Need I say more? Fair and balanced coverage indeed.
South Korea has gone from one of the poorest nations on earth 55 years ago to a relatively wealthy and stable state in a matter of decades. And they love their country. I can understand why, the people are some of the most generous, sincere, humorous, and enjoyable that I've had the pleasure to know, an excellent cuisine, and a respect for human space that you simply don't find in Tokyo. Those Korean people in the North do not want their fate as it is being played out, but no one wants another war on the peninsula, that is one thing that the PEOPLE of the two Koreas both agree on. Let's hope their leaders are hip to the same sentiment. kindly yours, doug eaves. P.S. I wrote some ideas about the Asian guy who floats and smiles at the same time. I don't know if my writing about the Asian issue is so relevant, at least as it pertains to Japanese anyway. but since the guy in the ad is Korean, maybe i can give it a shot. What could it hurt? actually, many things. I must contemplate a while, with the aid of gravity of course. thank you very much. doug eaves
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