A Nation of Racist Dwarfs

[Lemur]

You know, when it comes to vintage 2002 Axis of Evil, I'm not very worried about Iraq (which will be some decades pulling itself back together) or Iran (which has its hands full attempting to ward of freedom of expression in its own backyard, and which will someday be a very good ally and partner for the U.S.A., if it can avoid falling into the bottomless well of religious fundamentalism—but if you think about it, they ushered in the modern age of Islamic craziness, and they just might lead the way out).

No, the one that freaks me out is North Korea. And here's a good look at why:

All of us who scrutinize North Korean affairs are preoccupied with one question. Do these slaves really love their chains? The conundrum has several obscene corollaries. [...] But race arrogance and nationalist hysteria are powerful cements for the most odious systems, as Europeans and Americans have good reason to remember. Even in South Korea there are those who feel the Kim Jong-il regime, under which they themselves could not live for a single day, to be somehow more "authentically" Korean.

Here are the two most shattering facts about North Korea. First, when viewed by satellite photography at night, it is an area of unrelieved darkness. Barely a scintilla of light is visible even in the capital city. (See this famous photograph.) Second, 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.

But this is what proves Myers right. 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.

[Megas Methuselah]

You know what? Nvm.

[Subotan]

North Koreans today are on average smaller than Koreans at any other point in time in the 20th Century, including the pre-colonial period. The pre-colonial period was a time when Korea was an economically primitive, literally feudal, backwater, a plaything of Japan and Russia, and totally incapable of feeding all of its people. That is the extent to which North Korea has failed its people.

North Korea is a unique place. A Stalinist cult of personality has been pushed to the very extreme, so that certain aspects of Juche border on the religious (E.g. The Juche Calendar starts at the time of the Great Leader's conception, Kim Il Sung is the eternal President, Kim Jong Il can allegedly stop time etc.). There is no doubt that for at least some North Koreans, particularly the less well educated, the devotion felt towards Kim Jong Il is very real. Combined with extreme militarisation, obscene ultra-nationalism (The struggle for independence from Japan has not ended in North Korea), and a externally solid political establishment, this leads to the prospects of internal chaos bringing about the downfall of the regime in the short term being negligible.

That said, North Korea has weaknesses. Despite the ultra-nationalism, North Korea is dependant on Chinese support, and China has strong trade links with South Korea. It remains to be seen which Korea they value more highly. Militarily, it is a nation that possesses Soviet technology from the Eighties and earlier, meaning that South Korea's albeit smaller army could probably hold off the North Koreans pretty easily. It's nuclear weapons could produce a blast as powerful as Little Boy; a weapon that was at the forefront of nuclear thinking sixty five years ago. Although a detonation in Seoul would be a disaster, its nowhere near as dangerous as the Soviet Union's missile stocks. And succession to Kim Jong Il is a big unknown. KJL was groomed for decades to be the successor, but his son has only been groomed for about six months, and it seems likely that KJL will die in the near future.

Attempts at economic reform verge on farce. When tentative steps were made in the Nineties, the concept of profit was literally unknown in North Korea. Periodic attempts to revalue the currency to punish black market capitalists are almost funny. If anyone wants to know more about the economy of North Korea, pm me, as I've just done an essay on development in North Korea.

But I don't think North Korea is the threat everyone imagines it to be. Despite the labels of "crazy" and "Axis of Evil", North Korea has acted amazingly intelligently to preserve it's economic system and the ruling clique surrounding it (Although obviously, not so good at protecting North Koreans). By developing nuclear weapons, it can always threaten to use them, and thus demand resources such as grain and fertiliser from the rest of the world. If it actually used them (it?), it would be wiped off the face of the Earth faster than you could say "hot dog".

[rory_20_uk]

If nothing else was going on, a short sharp invasion would be the best long term option. It would need to be able to destroy all the North Korean artillery aimed, especially at Seoul. The army might be fanatical, but it would quickly seize up as the logistics failed. Most likely it would quickly go underground, literally, and await the invasion. Then the trouble would truely start as there would be a high liklihood of no surrender. It might be better to let the North implode, and slowly roll north as there ceases to be a country in any meaningful sense.

[Louis VI the Fat]

No, the one that freaks me out is North Korea.

A horrific place. If one didn't know better, one would think it was thought up by a 1985 idealistic sixteen year old, writing for a school essay contest to warn of the dangers of totalitarianism, nationalist hysteria, militarism, deceit and siege mentality.
The country is almost a parody.

Besides, state totalitarianism is sooo 20th century. Failed states is where it's at nowadays, for brutal infringements of human rights.

I saw a documentary some time ago, based on testimonies of the few who ever managed to escape the camps, including camp guards. It was harrowing. Very disturbing, things I did not want to know existed, and of which I shall not speak.

At the very least, it showed that North Koreans are not mindless slaves yet, but quite capable of independent thought in their abuse, torture, humiliation, and a 'creative sadism' that was most reminiscent of the Japanese in WWII.

[Centurion1]

If nothing else was going on, a short sharp invasion would be the best long term option. It would need to be able to destroy all the North Korean artillery aimed, especially at Seoul. The army might be fanatical, but it would quickly seize up as the logistics failed. Most likely it would quickly go underground, literally, and await the invasion. Then the trouble would truely start as there would be a high liklihood of no surrender. It might be better to let the North implode, and slowly roll north as there ceases to be a country in any meaningful sense.

hello mercenaries one for xbox.

Ah the north koreans are a difficult to understand conundrum, a problem with no easy situation. we cant starve them to death (well all of them) thanks to the chinese. Well maybe the chinese will become sick of them one day.

[CountArach]

I somehow doubt an invasion would work - the people love their leader so much that they would be willing to die for him in droves. At the end of it there would only be a handful of Koreans left to enjoy the new, free North Korea.

[Fragony]

That map is creepy indeed.

[Boohugh]

That map is creepy indeed.

Bet they get some great views of the stars at night though!

With North Korea it's only a matter of time and what China does when Kim Jong Il finally kicks the oxygen habit. If China isn't willing to support his successor, then the North will implode and we'll probably get a united Korea sooner rather than later. If they do support his successor then things will likely drag on much as they are with very little change to the status quo.

[rory_20_uk]

I somehow doubt an invasion would work - the people love their leader so much that they would be willing to die for him in droves. At the end of it there would only be a handful of Koreans left to enjoy the new, free North Korea.

But as opposed to starvaton year on year, those that came afterwards would have a massively improved quality of life.

The transition is mostlikely going to be painful however it occurs.

[Furunculus]

south korea collectively shudders every time it thinks of the cost of re-integrating that nation of racist dwarves to its north.

[Subotan]

I don't know if it's even that. Guy Delisle mentions this to his "guide" in his book Pyongyang, and is given the reply that "There are none... We're a very homogenous nation. All North Koreans are born strong, intelligent and healthy."