North Korean Injustice

A dictatorship is defined as: a ruler with total power over a country, typically
one who has obtained power by force. Kim Il-Sung was the first Supreme Leader
of North Korea. He ruled North Korea for 46 years as a dictator causing great
starvation and deprivation. He had no motivation other than his own ideology of:
to have independence in politics, self-sustenance in the economy, and self-defence
in national defense.
Kim Il-Sung had many purges such as public executions and enforced
disappearances of perceived disloyal dissenters and their entire extended families
to a secret system of political prisoner camps. He Created a vast gulag of brutal
and abusive penal and forced labor institutions, which included long-term penal
labor camps (kwanliso or kyohwaso) and shorter-term detention facilities.
(Jipkyulso). Kwanliso was fenced and heavily guarded and those who were taken
there were forced to do manual labour tasks such as: logging, mining, and
agriculture. Most were held there for life and faced systematic abuses and deadly
conditions. Conditions such as: Starvation, virtually no medical care, lack of
housing and clothes, regular mistreatment and torture by guards, and executions.
Kyohwaso (re-education centers) were where people accused of political, criminal,
or economic crimes and were sentenced to fixed terms. These centers were also
known for forced labor, food and medicine shortages, and regular mistreatment by
guards. And finally, Jipkyulso, collective centers for shorter-term sentences for
minor offenses are forced labor brigades. In addition to this, another legacy of Kim
Il-Sung is his disapproval of freedom of expression and opinion. Because of this,
he prohibited independent media, free trade unions, and independent organizations.
As a dictator, he demanded loyalty of all North Koreans control of the population.
He manipulated North Koreans into thinking he was a great leader and the
brain and that all North Koreans were the body that must follow him. He was
such a master of manipulation that all visitors allowed in were so tightly controlled
and managed, that they were not even aware of all the starvation, executions, and
labour camps. In fact, that information hardly even left the country. Much of this is
seen with the movie The Interview. One example of this from the movie the
interview is when the interviewers are entering the country and the drive by a
grocery store which they later find out only has fake food in the window to hide

that their people are starving. (North Korea: Grim Birthday Legacy." North Korea:
Grim Birthday Legacy. Human Rights Watch, 13 Apr. 2015. Web. 16 May 2015.)
From Kim Il-Sungs time as a leader of North Korea, Perhaps from 710,000
to slightly over 3,500,000 people have been murdered, with a mid-estimate of
almost 1,600,000. But these figures are little more than educated guesses. An
estimated 71,000 to 707,000 people killed or that otherwise died in the North
Korean camps. These statistics are estimated but for one mans term in office these
numbers are enormous. Not to mention that these deaths have been ongoing after
Kim Il-Sung passed in 1994. With each new generation in office the damage is
getting worse. By now these numbers have probably been tripled. (Rummel, R. J.
"Chapter 10." STATISTICS OF NORTH KOREAN GENOCIDE AND MASS
MURDER. N.p., 25 Nov. 2002. Web. 16 May 2015.)
Although Kim Il-Sung passed in 1994, his legacy still lived on through his
son, Kim Jong-Il. It has been said that Kim Jong-Il was even worse than his father
and when Kim Jong-Il passed on December 17th 2011, his son Kim Jong-un the
current leader of North Korea took over. At only 28 at the time, people questioned
whether he was ready to run the country and assumed he would not begin leading
the country right away and people were quite shocked when he did. Kim Jong-un
continues to follow the same ways of leading as both his grandfather, and father
which also included a nuclear attack threat to the United States on March 7th 2013.
In conclusion, all three generations of the Supreme Leaders of North Korea
have committed Human Rights violations such as Crimes against Humanity. Kim
Il-Sung was the original dictator of North Korea and his legacy has lived on
through his son Kim Jong-Il, and grandson Kim Jong-un. Citizens of North Korea
have been manipulated in to thinking these leaders are God-like figures and should
be worshiped. Because of this manipulation, they are unable to see that they are
facing starvation, deprivation, public executions, and concentration camps. This
issue is still on-going today in North Korea with the current leader Kim Jong-un
because no one has been able to stand up to him as he has powerful nuclear
weapons which he threatens to attack the United States with. Sometimes it is
important to go along with what a government violating humans rights says as
they can be very dangerous. It is important that you do what you can to stay alive.
However, if you find an opportunity to sacrifice for the greater good, you should
take it as it could be a large step in the right direction to put an end to the injustice
and save the lives of many more.

Diary of a Bystander in South Korea

Friday July 8th, 1994
Today marks the day that the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung
passed. Finally Korea can have a new beginning without dictatorships and
North and South Korea can be happy together as the Republic of Korea. Kim
Il-Sung was awful to all his people. Everyone in North Korea is starving and
if theyre not dying from starvation or one of his concentration camps, then
its because he has executed them for no good reason. Today Kim Jong-Il
takes over. Hopefully he doesnt have the same opinions as his father.
Sunday November 27th, 2011
So it turns out that Kim Jong-Il has been much much worse than Kim Il-Sung.
Not much has changed and things have only gotten worse as more and more
North Koreans die. The worst part of this whole thing is that the North
Koreans dont even care that they are being mistreated! They think of all their
leaders as Gods! They will believe anything that they say no matter how
obvious it is that theyre lying. If only the North Koreans had access to the
outside world. Maybe then they would realize how awful their leaders truly
are.
Saturday December 17th, 2011
Today Kim Jong-Il passed. Although this is good news to most of the world,
the North Koreas are all in sorrow because theyre God has died. There have
been rumours that Kim Jong-Ils youngest son Kim Jong-un will be taking his
place in running the country which is absolutely ridiculous. Hes only in his
late 20s! I cant believe the North Koreans are putting all then responsibilities
of running a country into the hands of a 28 year old! Its no wonder theyre
having all the problems theyve had.

Personal Reflection
To prevent any future injustices, one of the most important things that all
people need to learn is to respect others and treat everyone and everything thing
equally. Inequality is at the base of all conflict. If everyone does not respect each
other then surely another holocaust or World War will break out. The holocaust
began because the human rights of the people were not respected and because one
man did not treat everyone equally. I know this may seem farfetched and I am not
saying we need world peace, all we need is for everyones human rights to be
respected and treated equally. Not only do people need to be respected, but so does
the land and all living things. In some peoples cultures it is very important to
respect the land and even if it is not in yours, you still need to respect their culture.
Otherwise, if you prevent them from practicing their culture there may be protest
which can lead to something greater. Another way to prevent future injustices is for
people to promote democracy to ensure there will be no more dictatorships. All
candidates running for presidency or prime ministers need to be very thoroughly
researched to make sure they have the right motives so the power does not fall into
the wrong hands. And finally, education is a key aspect when it comes to
preventing any future conflict. Everyone has the right to good education and if
people are uneducated, they are unable to make ethical decisions and know and
understand their rights. People need to look towards the future. They need to
understand what could happen if they make an ill-advised decision. If all of these
are made priorities of our people and our governments, than I think that future
injustices can be avoided.

Works Cited

North Korea: Grim Birthday Legacy." North Korea: Grim Birthday Legacy.
Human Rights Watch, 13 Apr. 2015. Web. 16 May 2015.
Rummel, R. J. "Chapter 10." STATISTICS OF NORTH KOREAN
GENOCIDE AND MASS MURDER. N.p., 25 Nov. 2002. Web. 16
May 2015.

Green, Robert. Introduction. Dictators. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 2000. N.

pag. Print.

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