North Korea: The World's Mad Dog

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The Korean Peninsula has had a long history of division and hardships  in the 20th century.  Conquered by Japan during early wars of Imperial expansion against China and Russia, Koreans were forced into the bottom of society and treated like slaves by their Japanese colonizers.  After World War Two, Korea was occupied by the United States in the south and the Soviet Union in the north.  Originally, plans were made for a peaceful reunification between the Soviet and American territories.  However, support for a communist Korea had already taken root in the north and in 1948, the Democratic Republic of Korea was declared by Kim Il-Sung.  Within a few short years war broke out between the north and south threatening a third world war.  An armistice was signed in 1953 but no declaration of peace has yet existed in 61 years.  Western powers have tried a number of economic sanctions to try and curtail the north’s erratic behavior and threats of nuclear war.  Despite the crippling effects these sanctions have had on the economy, the Kim dynasty shows no sign of giving into the west’s demands.

The bombastic behavior of North Korea can seem frightening at one moment and comedic at the next.  However, the threat of nuclear annihilation is something that the worlds governments do not take lightly.  Once the threats of imminent destruction have passed,  people realize that conventional warfare won’t succeed against a nation of brainwashed soldiers.  Economic warfare is then seen as a clean alternative to a messy situation.   Most of the western world has employed the use of sanctions to try and enforce regime change amongst the Kim government.  The combined effort of these sanctions proved how damaged the North Korean economy was when in the early 1990’s as a famine led to the north temporarily halting its nuclear program to receive western aid.  The United Nations Security Council, despite widespread support for sanctions, was unable to pass any regulation of North Korean trade because of staunch supporters like Russia and China.  Most interesting though is that in recent years, China has started to withdraw much of its support for the Kim government and agree with western sanctions as a peaceful deterrent to any potential east asian war.  The future consequences of a North Korea no longer dependent on Chinese support are yet to be seen.  

In most cases a country that has seen starvation, economic depression, and the worst human rights record would have overthrown the government.  In the minds of rational people, no nuclear bomb could be worth the price that has been paid through so much death and suffering.  But the North Korean people are not rational.  They have been so thoroughly brainwashed into believing every word of the Kim dynasty that they would not think twice about dying for their “dear leader”.  For them, these economic sanctions are only inconveniences that they will repay ten fold upon the rest of the world once they gain a nuclear arsenal capable of striking at the continental United States.  Because of these reasons, no level of economic sanctions will ever convince the citizens of North Korea that only by revolting against the Kim family will they encounter true prosperity.  In the ever changing geo-political arena, it is impossible to predict the future of the Hermit Kingdom.