North Korea?
Out of context: Reply #39
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- jfletcher3
Been a long time since I commented on anything, but here it goes...
reanimate has it pretty correct, but I can expand a bit (I've read a ton about N. Korea, how it started, how it exists now, relations w/ S. Korea, etc)
When N. Korea first started it did quite well (50's through late 60's), outpacing S. Korea for growth. People left Japan to move there and people in China migrated there during Mao's time from famine. However as the country made pour economic and agricultural decisions, things declines and growth stopped. The fact is at once point, N. Korea was actually appearing [and was] more prosperous than it's neighbors. This is still appealing for history reasons for brainwashing.
Kim Il-Sung was installed by the Soviets when N. Korea first started, and was very controlling over the media there - as a communist country. During the Korean war, and after, it was presented as a victory - the Korean war was also presented as the South firing the first shot, which is incorrect, but Kim could present it that way given the control of the media. This type of control has existed ever since.
Higher ranking officials are treated much better than normal citizens, but still don't lead normal lives. That being said, Kim (Jong-un) controls the military, and can control the country from that. There is also an entire culture of paranoia. They encourage people to speak up if they hear someone talking bad about N. Korea - you turn someone in, maybe you get some special treatment - or at least you won't get caught for socializing with traitors. Therefore you can never be sure of who you can trust and who you can't. They also even control the money supply. I believe a few years ago they changed currency and no longer accepted old currency. Therefore people who were saving in their mattresses were screwed. All of these little details add up to really well done control.
As far as controlling the media, read Dear Leader - it talks about how N. Korea would put people in a position to read S. Korea news and then write news for N. Korea in the style of S. Korea in order to fool N. Koreans into thinking the South was writing about how prosperous they are. The entire thing is really complex and quite interesting to read - probably the best book I read last year.
Back to why someone doesn't invade and stop the humanitarian issues - yes, you would have a heavy amount of casualties in S. Korea and if even one nuke worked, that's all you need. Additionally the economic issues would be insane for China and S. Korea - look at Germany when the reunification happened. It was very difficult on the economy and culture - and this is a larger delta in both of those factors.
Lastly, China still backs N. Korea and would probably defend them unless there was a need to invade. If someone just walked in, I believe China would step in and defend. China still gets raw materials from N. Korea, and in case they have nukes, they don't want to be on the wrong end of some shit-fest.
There is a lot more to write, but I'm sure everyone is bored of reading... hope that helps give some context as to why countries like this exist and how they survive - but certainly not thrive.