Human Rights Watch on the death of North Korea’s tyrannical sociopath, Kim Jong-Il.
Kim Jong-Il exercised total control for 17 years over one of the world’s most closed and repressive governments. He was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions, of North Koreans through widespread preventable starvation, horrendous prisons and forced labor camps, and public executions. Kim family rule, starting with his father, Kim Il-Sung in 1948, is projected to continue with Kim Jong-Il’s son, Kim Jong-Un.
“Kim Jong-Il will be remembered as the brutal overseer of massive and systematic oppression that included a willingness to let his people starve,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “When he assumes leadership, Kim Jong-Un should break with the past and put the human rights of North Koreans first, not last.”
Kim Jong-Il’s legacy includes the fate of the tens of thousands who have died in the kwanliso camps for alleged enemies of the state, where today an estimated 200,000 North Koreans continue to work and die in conditions of near starvation and brutal abuse. In this system, the sins of one member of the family condemn an entire generation to imprisonment. A steady stream of former prisoners who escaped North Korea have testified to Human Rights Watch and other organizations how even children born inside such camps grow up to inherit their parents’ prisoner status.
Leaving the country without official permission is considered an act of treason, punishable by torture and imprisonment, yet tens of thousands have fled in the last two decades, and thousands more continue to risk their lives every year to escape.
“North Korea under Kim Jong-Il has been a human rights hell on earth,” said Roth.
Any hope that an Arab Spring-like uprising might take root in North Korea is dimmed by the fact that North Koreans are not connected to the world to the same degree as people in the Middle East. There is no broadband network available in North Korea and access to satellite Internet is limited thereby making social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter unavailable to North Koreans. Furthermore, the government will certainly make more restrictive whatever limited channels of communication do presently exist in the country.
Sadly, the baton of oppressiveness will likely pass from monster to son without a whimper from the citizenry of North Korea
___
Follow MarioPiperniDotCom on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
.
Those who are closest to the bottom are usually the last to participate in a rebellion. Look at the European rebellions, the Russian peasants were probably the worse treated but among the last to rebel.
I have a feeling that Kim Jong Un is going to be as bad as, or possibly worse than, his father. If he allows the people of North Korea to see the light at the end of the tunnel his reign could be short lived. Let’s hope he doesn’t do something absurd to show his strength to any others who might have ideas of seizing control themselves.
Even if we could somehow remove the Kim dynasty overnight and replace it with a benevolent rule, the North Korean people have been so broken that it will take generations to restore the spirit of a once-proud people.
There is a great potential for a reignition of open hostilities between the North and South, which, of course, would be an unmitigated disaster, what with the North’s nuclear capability and the damage that the destruction of the South would do in terms of human life and (to channel my inner Republican – a very, very tiny voice) the world economy.
On the other hand, that’s the way it goes – one day, you’re Kim Jong-Il, the next you’re Kim Jong-Dead.
Some repressive and repressing stuff! Rachael Maddow had a story about this “hell-on-earth” regime last night with a satellite picture of that part of the hemisphere. They had to outline the borders of North Korea, because there were absolutely no lights on the ground! The surrounding area, including South Korea was all lit up with bright lights. This was a very visual testament to the state of that ridiculous nation! I don’t know how such conditions can continue to exist in today’s world!
I’m afraid that Kim Jong Un is raised to behave just like his father.