North Korea: Difference between revisions

From Leftypedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Undo revision 10018 by Tovarka (talk))
Tag: Undo
(Replaced content with "{{Infobox country | englishname = Democratic People's Republic of Korea | nativename = 조선민주주의인민공화국 | shortname = DPRK | mapfile = 300px|frameless|Map of DPRK | flagfile = 125x63px|frameless|Flag of the DPRK | emblemfile = 85x88px|frameless|Emblem of the DPRK }} The '''Democratic People’s Republic of Korea''' ('''DPRK'''), unofficially known as '''No...")
Tags: Replaced Reverted Visual edit
Line 7: Line 7:
| emblemfile = [[File:Emblem_of_the_DPRK.svg.png|85x88px|frameless|Emblem of the DPRK]]
| emblemfile = [[File:Emblem_of_the_DPRK.svg.png|85x88px|frameless|Emblem of the DPRK]]
}}
}}
The '''Democratic People’s Republic of Korea''' ('''DPRK'''), unofficially known as '''North Korea''', is a country in East Asia established on 9 September 1948. It rests on the northern part of the Korean peninsula, bordered by [[South Korea]] to its south and the [[People's Republic of China]] to its north. On the border between the two Koreas is the heavily-fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone. North Korea, like South Korea, claims to be the sole legitimate government of the peninsula and adjacent islands. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang.
The '''Democratic People’s Republic of Korea''' ('''DPRK'''), unofficially known as '''North Korea''', is a revisionist country is East Asia. It is currently a proxy of Chinese social-imperialism and Russian imperialism.
 
Getting reliable information out of North Korea is rather difficult, given how secretive the nation is. This facilitates the foreign propaganda efforts against North Korea, however they can still be demonstrated to be false by various means, including by comparing contradicting claims or piecing together various bits of evidence. Sometimes falsehoods are outright admitted to have been false and based on uncredible sources, as is frequent in stories of the state executing people.


The official ideology of the DPRK and [[Korean Workers' Party]], ''[[Juche]]'', is highly [[Revisionism|revisionary]] to [[Marxist]] theory, with its "theory" advocating concepts similar to those found in [[Fascism|Japanese Fascism]] (such as [[Racism|racial supremacy]] and [[ultranationalism]]) along with class collaboratism, idealism, militarism, and other reactionary ideas.<ref>[https://sixheadstudy.wordpress.com/2020/09/24/a-critique-of-juche/ A Critique of Juche](24 September, 2020) ''Six Head Study Circle''</ref><ref>[http://revolutionaryspiritapl.blogspot.com/2011/11/on-juche-workers-party-of-korea-and.html On Juche: The Workers’ Party of Korea and Revisionism] by Bill Bland (30 November, 2011) ''Revolutionary Spirit''</ref> By 2010. the DPRK government has removed any metion of either [[Marxism]] or Communism in its constitution.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSEO253213 North Korea drops communism, boosts "Dear Leader"] by Herskovitz, Christine Kim (28 September, 2009) ''Reuters''</ref>
The official ideology of the DPRK and [[Korean Workers' Party]], ''[[Juche]]'', is highly [[Revisionism|revisionary]] to [[Marxist]] theory, with its "theory" advocating concepts similar to those found in [[Fascism|Japanese Fascism]] (such as [[Racism|racial supremacy]] and [[ultranationalism]]) along with class collaboratism, idealism, militarism, and other reactionary ideas.<ref>[https://sixheadstudy.wordpress.com/2020/09/24/a-critique-of-juche/ A Critique of Juche](24 September, 2020) ''Six Head Study Circle''</ref><ref>[http://revolutionaryspiritapl.blogspot.com/2011/11/on-juche-workers-party-of-korea-and.html On Juche: The Workers’ Party of Korea and Revisionism] by Bill Bland (30 November, 2011) ''Revolutionary Spirit''</ref> By 2010. the DPRK government has removed any metion of either [[Marxism]] or Communism in its constitution.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSEO253213 North Korea drops communism, boosts "Dear Leader"] by Herskovitz, Christine Kim (28 September, 2009) ''Reuters''</ref>


==History==
*
Having settled the sovereignty of Japanese rule over the Korean peninsula with the Russian Empire and the United States in 1905, the [[Japanese Empire]] forced a treaty upon Korea, stating that all foreign relations of Korea were to be directly managed by Japan, effectively rendering Korea a Japanese colonial protectorate. After gradually dissolving the Korean army, police, and other previously independent Korean institutions, yet another treaty was signed in 1910, officially annexing Korea.
 
From 1910 to 1945, Korea was a direct colony of the Japanese Empire. The Japanese anticommunists coerced the Korean workers into harvesting resources like minerals and food for the Empire. Korean workers themselves subsisted on meager meals. During this period, Korea was still largely preindustrial, and the industry that existed was generally quite simple.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=2|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|page=58|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> The average Korean man had to work ten hours a day, whereas women and youths had to work about eleven hours.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=2|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|page=59|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> In school they forced Koreans to recite a pledge of allegiance to the Empire, and the anticommunists slowly attempted eradication of their native language.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=2|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|page=62|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> When the workers protested their conditions or specifically protested the colonisation itself, the anticommunist occupants acted quite brutally towards them.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=3|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|page=69|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> Consequently, the DPRK would purge its government of Axis collaborators<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Cumings|first=Bruce|title=The Origins of the Korean War: Liberation and the emergence of separate regimes, 1945–1947|publisher=Yuksabipyungsa|year=2002|page=161|ISBN=8976966120}}</ref> and the Allies would repatriate hundreds of thousands of Japanese after the Imperialists surrendered in August 1945, although the repatriation of Japanese engineers in particular went slowly at first due to the urgent need for technical expertise at that time.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Park|first=Jung Jin|editors=Barak Kushner & Sherzod Muminov|title=North Korean Nation Building and Japanese Imperialism: People’s Nation, People’s Diplomacy, and Japanese Technicians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TMlDwAAQBAJ|publisher=Taylor & Francis|date=2016-12-08|pages=199–220|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=3TMlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA199|ISBN=9781317284802}}</ref>
 
In 1945 the Red Army came to liberate Korea from Imperial occupation and were greeted as liberators,<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=3|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|page=73|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> but the Western ruling class wanted all of Korea for itself,<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=3|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|page=74|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> which is partially why the peninsula is divided today. The other reason is that the Rhee administration, one of the few Koreans sympathetic to Western interests, sabotaged a vote for unification by violently suppressing thousands of voters.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=3|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|page=84|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> The Western bourgeoisie established a paramilitary régime; the East did not. There was nothing like that in the DPRK. The Rhee administration was declining in popularity due to their violent antisocialism, but they salvaged the situation by waging war against the DPRK.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=3|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|page=88|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> Beginning in 1948, South Korean antisocialists initiated most of the border clashes in Korea;<ref name=trumanlibrary>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Matray|first=James|title=Revisiting Korea: Exposing Myths of the Forgotten War|url=http://trumanlibrary.org/korea/matray1.htm|year=2001|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707061838/http://trumanlibrary.org/korea/matray1.htm|archivedate=2010-07-07}}</ref> with the support of the American bourgeoisie, antisocialist guerrillas from South Korea invaded Northern villages as early as 1949.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last1=Gittings|first1=John|last2=Kettle|first2=Martin|title=US and S Korea accused of war atrocities|url=https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2000/jan/18/johngittings.martinkettle|date=2000-01-18|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170612052302/https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2000/jan/18/johngittings.martinkettle|archivedate=2017-06-12}}</ref> The DRPK suggests that by 1949 the South Korean army had already committed 2,617 armed incursions. There is no evidence confirming that the DPRK started the conflict directly;<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=3|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|pages=88–94|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> they were just quick to respond.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=3|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|pages=97–8|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> Nor is there evidence that the [[Soviet Union]] ordered the DPRK to assault South Korea.<ref name=trumanlibrary/> <ref>{{safesubst:Cite book|last=Blum|first=William|authorlink=|chapter=5|editor=|title=Killing Hope|url=|edition=|location=Monroe, Maine|publisher=Common Courage Press|year=1995|isbn=|oclc=|page=46|pageurl=|text=}}</ref> The Republic of Korea’s army fared poorly to the point where desertion was common,<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=3|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|page=98|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> but then the Korean bourgeoisie requested assistance from the U.S. Army, who started its assault before anybody passed a [[U.N.]] resolution supporting the Empire’s intervention, and its military forces added to the mayhem in the conflict by introducing the use of napalm;<ref name=trumanlibrary/> the anticommunists promptly proceeded to illegally bomb everything that they could bomb.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Empire Files: War With North Korea - Propaganda vs. Reality|url=https://invidio.us/embed/QDJlNQlRbIA|accessdate=2020-03-12}}</ref>
 
The Korean War was ultimately started by the American imperialists and their allies, who overthrew the People's Republic of Korea which had many communist and left-wing nationalist leaders. After the suppression of the peoples committees in the southern zone, they either left to the north or stayed in the south to oppose the US puppet regime.<ref>[https://www.bannedthought.net/Korea-DPRK/KoreanWar/TheUS-ImperialistsStartedTheKoreanWar-1993.pdf The US Imperialists Started the Korean War]</ref> ''The Korean War: An Unanswered Question'' is a book written by a former South Korean ambassador that covers this topic. According to him, Syngman Rhee wanted a violent unification and provoked the war with US backing.<ref>[http://www.bannedthought.net/Korea-DPRK/KoreanWar/TheKoreanWar-AnUnansweredQuestion-1993.pdf ''The Korean War: An Unanswered Question'']</ref>
 
After the war, the DPRK would proceed to mature just like any other planned economy: literacy, healthcare, food output, electrification, gender equality, cooperatives, population, and related advantages grew.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Socialism and Democracy in the DPRK|url=https://wp.me/p8zBok-CY|date=2017-03-28|accessdate=2020-01-12}}</ref> In 1947 grain output was one hundred and seventy thousand tons larger than yesteryear and agricultural production continued to increase until, at the time of the Korean War’s outbreak, basic self-sufficiency in food became a possibility.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=4|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|page=139|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> But 1,800,000–4,500,000 Asians died as a result of the fighting of 1950–1953.<ref>https://docs.google.com/document/d/1we5OEdteZFfAh11v0s_RVh3LWAkVICGrFnvksVynGxw#heading=h.2mt5q77thopy</ref><ref name=Lucas>{{safesubst:cite web |last=A. Lucas |first=James |title=US Has Killed More Than 20 Million People in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II |archiveurl=https://wp.me/p2vCQD-n2Jt |archivedate=27-November-2015 |date=27-November-2015 |url=https://popularresistance.org/?p=78226}}</ref> After the warfare ended, the other [[planned economies]] proceeded to provide the DPRK with reconstruction and other assistance, including a famine prevention.<ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last=Armstrong|first=Charles|title=The Destruction and Reconstruction of North Korea, 1950 - 1960　　北朝鮮の破壊と再建’、1950-1960年|url=https://apjjf.org/-Charles-K.-Armstrong/3460/article.html|journal=Asia-Pacific Journal|volume=7|issue=0|date=2009-03-16}}</ref> Beginning with the process of the postbellum reconstruction in 1953, only 1.2% of peasant households were organized as cooperatives, which encompassed a mere .6% of total acreage. By August of 1958, 100% of peasant households were converted into cooperatives, encompassing 100% of total acreage.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Cumings|first=Bruce|title=North Korea: Another Country|location=New York|publisher=The New Press|year=2004}}</ref> Despite having only 20% accessible arable land, they announced food sufficiency in 1960.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=6|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|pages=225–7|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> By the 1970s they achieved full electrification: practically all households, even in remote hamlets, had access to the benefits of electricity, and by night the lights were visible everywhere in populated areas—not the millions of bright bulbs or neon lights of Western cities, but sufficient to serve its purpose. They intentionally avoided wasting power, and ranked among the most advanced countries as far as economical utilization of electricity is concerned.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Brun|first1=Ellen|last2=Hersh|first2=Jacques|chapter=6|title=Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development|location=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|year=1976|page=221|isbn=0-85345-386-1}}</ref> Even many sources which are anti-DPRK say that the North Korean economy and living conditions were originally superior to the South's for the first few decades.<ref>http://countrystudies.us/north-korea/16.htm</ref><ref>http://countrystudies.us/north-korea/46.htm</ref>
 
The DPRK has rarely deployed military forces beyond the Korean peninsula, with the exception of 87 Air Force personnel in [[Vietnam]] during 1967–1969,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=North Korea fought in Vietnam War|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/696970.stm|date=2000-03-31|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203032749/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/696970.stm|archivedate=2012-12-03}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Pribbenow|first=Merle|title=North Korean Pilots in the Skies over Vietnam|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/node/20948}}</ref> a score of pilots to Egypt in 1973,<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Shazly|first=Lieutenant General Saad el|edition=revised|title=The Crossing of the Suez|year=2003|publisher=American Mideast Research|pages=83–84|ISBN=0-9604562-2-8}}</ref> and possibly 1,500 combat troops or pilots to Angola in 1986.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=James III|first=W. Martin|title=A Political History of the Civil War in Angola: 1974–1990|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LlDhDwAAQBAJ|location=New Brunswick|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2011|page=212|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=LlDhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA212|ISBN=978-1-4128-1506-2|LCCN=2010051379}}</ref> Otherwise, military aid has been limited to materiels and military advisors.
 
After the [[short twentieth century]], the DPRK was left to fend for itself, with almost no other planned economies that it could turn to in case of emergency, and American sanctions restricting trade with any other economies.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Whitty|first1=Michael|last2=Kim|first2=Suk|last3=Trevor|first3=Crick|editors=Semoon Chang & Suk Hi Kim|chapter=4|title=The Effectiveness of Economic Sanctions Against North Korea|series=Economic Sanctions Against a Nuclear North Korea: An Analysis of United States and United Nations Actions Since 1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dRmayDng2RwC|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|publishers=McFarland & Company, Inc.|year=2007|page=86|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=dRmayDng2RwC&pg=PA86|ISBN=978-0-7864-3231-8}}</ref> Thus when natural disasters devastated their agriculture,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Democratic People's Republic of Korea|url=https://www1.wfp.org/node/114|accessdate=2020-03-12}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Kim|first=Suk|editors=Semoon Chang & Suk Hi Kim|chapter=1|title=North Korea: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow|series=Economic Sanctions Against a Nuclear North Korea: An Analysis of United States and United Nations Actions Since 1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dRmayDng2RwC|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|publishers=McFarland & Company, Inc.|year=2007|page=18|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=dRmayDng2RwC&pg=PA18|ISBN=978-0-7864-3231-8}}</ref> and the American upper classes would not even let them join the IMF or World Bank,<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last1=Abramowitz|first1=Morton|last2=Laney|first2=James|title=Testing North Korea: The Next Stage in U.S. and ROK Policy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6cHqjurgrYEC|publisher=Council on Foreign Relations®, Inc.|year=2001|page=43|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=6cHqjurgrYEC&pg=PA43|ISBN=0-87609-281-4}}</ref> allegedly on grounds of the DPRK’s ‘unwillingness to met the minimum necessary transparency standards, its placement on the U.S. list of states supporting terrorism, and Japanese opposition stemming from unresolved political issues.’<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Kim|first=Samuel|editors=Samuel S. Kim & Tai Hwan Lee|title=North Korea and Northeast Asia in World Politics|series=North Korea and Northeast Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w0Xyv6PvFSoC|location=Lanham, Maryland|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.|year=2002|page=45|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=w0Xyv6PvFSoC&pg=PA45|ISBN=0-7425-1710-1}}</ref> Consequently, possibly one to three million Koreans starved,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last1=Uriarte|first1=Damian|last2=O’Conner|first2=Julie|editor=Les Adler|title=U.S. Media Ignores Humanitarian Aspects of Famine in Korea|url=https://projectcensored.org/?p=416|year=1999|accessdate=2020-03-12}}</ref> although the actual number is probably lower.{{efn|The one who proposed the minimum of one million was Andrew Natsios, [https://redd.it/e2uw1b an anticommunist who simply based his statistic on the guesswork of some monks in one Korean village], hence the actual minimum is probably far lower than one million.}} The upper classes were betting that the DPRK would unfiguratively collapse by the twenty-first century.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Exploring the Implications of Alternative North Korean Endgames: Results for a Discussion Panel on Continuing Coexistence Between North and South Korea|url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB205/index.htm#doc14|date=1998-01-21}}</ref>
 
==Politics==
Western writer Daniel Pinkston reported that the DPRK elected 443 new members (including 107 active military members) in the 1990s.<ref>{{safesubst:Cite journal| publisher = Freedom House | last = Pinkston | first = Daniel| title = North Korea’s 11th Supreme People’s Assembly Elections |url=https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/1998/north-korea|journal = Nuclear Threat Initiative| accessdate = 2019-10-09| date = 2003-07-01|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302164721/https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/1998/north-korea|archivedate=2017-03-02}}</ref> The Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments determined that the DPRK’s voters cast ballots personally to a deputy in candidacy and in a place where a secret ballot is thoroughly maintained.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Constitutional and Pariamentary Information|url=http://www.asgp.info/Resources/Data/Documents/CJOZSZTEPVVOCWJVUPPZVWPAPUOFGF.pdf|publisher=Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments|year=1992|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016023953/http://www.asgp.info/Resources/Data/Documents/CJOZSZTEPVVOCWJVUPPZVWPAPUOFGF.pdf|archivedate=2013-10-16}}</ref>
 
There is a theory that North Korean society is divided into a caste system called "Songbun", however this is not true. [https://rhizzone.net/articles/songbullshit/ There is a good debunking of it on this site].
 
==Economy==
Since 1974, citizens in the DPRK have officially not had to pay any taxes,<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|chapter=II|chapterurl=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Socialist_Constitution_of_the_Democratic_People's_Republic_of_Korea_(2016)#CHAPTER_II._THE_ECONOMY|title=Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Socialist_Constitution_of_the_Democratic_People's_Republic_of_Korea_(2016)|date=1972-12-27|date_published=2016-06-30}}</ref> with April 1st being commemorated as "Tax Abolition Day".<ref>[https://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk02900&num=6203 Tax? What Tax? The North Korean Taxation Farce]</ref> Foreign investors still have to pay them, however, and foreigners residing in the DPRK for more than a year are obligated to pay personal income taxes.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|last=Ko|first=Haksoo|editors=Young Back Choi, Yesook Merrill, Yung Y. Yang & Semoon Chang|chapter=9|title=Foreign Investment Regulation in North Korea: An Assessment|series=Perspectives on Korean Unification and Economic Integration|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EHHtHjTCZ8sC|location=United Kingdom|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|page=118|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=EHHtHjTCZ8sC&pg=PA118|ISBN=1-84064-418-4}}</ref> Though citizens don't have to pay any direct taxes, they still have to pay things like user fees and turnover taxes, which around 2018 made up 11.4% of the country's GDP.<ref>[A Quick Look At North Korea From History To Taxes https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2018/06/12/a-quick-look-at-north-korea-from-history-to-taxes/]</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite book|title=Communist North Korea: A Bibliographic Survey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5v_EAAAAMAAJ|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|year=1971|page=38|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=5v_EAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA38}}</ref>
 
Comprehensive official statistics have not been made public since the 1960s, likely in part because being open about their economic data would only intensify the effectiveness of the sanctions against them; the Republic of Korea for example could specifically target sensitive sectors of the economy.<ref>{{safesubst:cite journal|last=Feron|first=Henri|title=Doom and Gloom or Economic Boom? The Myth of the 'North Korean Collapse' 破綻か好況か　「北朝鮮崩壊」という神話|url=https://apjjf.org/2014/12/18/Henri-Feron/4113/article.html|journal=Asia-Pacific Journal|volume=12|issue=18|number=3|date=2014-05-02}}</ref> Nevertheless, academics and international organizations have provided data that are probably reliable.
 
After the famine, the DPRK recontinued its reduction of dystrophy quite consistently this century.<ref name=Smith>{{safesubst:cite journal|last=Smith|first=Hazel|title=Crimes Against Humanity? Unpacking the North Korean Human Rights Debate|journal=Critical Asian Studies|volume=46|issue=1|date=2014-02-19|pages=127–143|doi=10.1080/14672715.2014.863581}}</ref> The official figures in 2015, in conjunction with the additional observations based on FAO satellite analysis and educated analyses regarding production (accumulated from past experience inside the DPRK), have indicated that the food situation was probably improving overall, although the report did lack information from past on-the-ground food security assessment missions.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: Outlook for Food Supply and Demand in 2014/15 (November/October)|publisher=Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations|date=2015-02-03|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602212015/http://www.fao.org/giews/english/shortnews/20150203DPRK.pdf|archivedate=2016-06-22}}</ref> Data from the World Health Organization as of 2017 indicate that the DPRK probably has a malnutrition rate of less than 2.00,<ref>{{safesubst:Cite web| title = MALNUTRITION DEATH RATE BY COUNTRY| work = World Life Expectancy| accessdate = 2019-10-09| url = https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/malnutrition/by-country/}}</ref> as in 2016.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Causes of Death - Our World in Data|url=https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#malnutrition|date=2018-02-14|accessdate=2020-04-25}}</ref> In 2018<ref>{{safesubst:Cite web| title = 2018 Global Hunger Index Results - Global, Regional, and National Trends - Global Hunger Index - peer-reviewed annual publication designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels| work = Global Hunger Index - A Peer-Reviewed Publication| accessdate = 2019-10-09| url = https://www.globalhungerindex.org/results/}}</ref> however, the Global Hunger Index confusingly scored it as ‘serious’, for complicated reasons.<ref name=Smith/> Regardless, food production has grown considerably during this century.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Silberstein|first=Benjamin|title=Between Sanctions, Drought and Tensions: How Bad is North Korea’s Food Situation?|url=https://www.38north.org/?p=14023|date=2017-11-14|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114225018/http://www.38north.org/2017/11/bksilberstein111417|archivedate=2017-11-14}}</ref> For example, the DPRK successfully constructed a livestock farming base in the Sepho area during 2017.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sepho Area Livestock Farming Base Completed in DPRK|url=https://exploredprk.com/?p=19095|date=2017-10-28|accessdate=2020-01-13}}</ref>
 
Electrification is unfortunately less common, but library computers are still usable, and sometimes citizens watch television (or have hemp) before or after having foods like apples, corn, grains, potatoes, and soybeans to eat.<ref>{{safesubst:cite book|title=Major Statistics Indicators of North Korea|url=https://kosis.kr/upsHtml/upload/Magazine/NEW/IF/bukhanY17.pdf|year=2017|pages=79–102}}</ref> Over 73% of the DPRK’s electricity comes from clean sources.<ref>{{safesubst:Cite web| title = Korea, North - International - Analysis - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)| accessdate = 2019-10-09| url = https://www.eia.gov/beta/international/analysis.php?iso=PRK}}</ref> The antisocialist ''Reuters'' did a report on solar panels in the DPRK.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Pearson|first=James|title=In North Korea, solar panel boom gives power to the people|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/northkorea-solar/in-north-korea-solar-panel-boom-gives-power-to-the-people-idUSL4N0XC2O620150421|date=2015-04-21|accessdate=2020-01-22}}</ref>
 
Antisocialist sources, such as the Republic of Korea’s central bank, have confirmed that in the 2010s the DPRK has enjoyed economic growth at a seventeen-year high despite sanctions and droughts.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last1=Kim|first1=Christine|last2=Chung|first2=Jane|title=North Korea 2016 economic growth at 17-year high despite sanctions - South Korea|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-northkorea-economy-gdp/north-korea-2016-economic-growth-at-17-year-high-despite-sanctions-south-korea-idUKKBN1A6083|date=2017-07-21|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903230926/http://www.reuters.com/article/uk-northkorea-economy-gdp/north-korea-2016-economic-growth-at-17-year-high-despite-sanctions-south-korea-idUKKBN1A6083|archivedate=2017-09-03}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|last=Kopf|first=Dan|title=The state of the North Korean economy might surprise you|url=https://qz.com/1300685|date=2018-06-11|accessdate=2020-03-12}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:Cite web| title = North Korean economic growth surpasses South Korea’s for first time in eight years| accessdate = 2019-10-09| url = http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_northkorea/825246.html}}</ref>
 
North Korea is self-sufficient in most things besides oil and fuel, which it cannot obtain within it own borders, and so has to rely on allies for these resources. Nonetheless, North Korea has a coal liquefaction program, though it is limited. This self-reliance does not mean isolationism, but rather being prepared for contingencies wherein other countries may not be relied upon, as had happened previously at the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
 
==Infrastructure==
While there are restrictions on outsiders bringing along their telecommunications, many citizens of the DPRK use mobile telephones regularly, and it isn’t hard to make international calls from the major hotels.<ref name=eyewitness>{{safesubst:cite web|title=An Eyewitness Account of North Korea and Its People: Bravely Building a Friendly, Socialistic Society While in the Cross Hairs of Imperialism|url=https://www.TrotskyistPlatform.com/?p=402|date=2015-03-06|accessdate=2020-03-12}}</ref>
 
===Health===
The DPRK has immunized themselves from diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis,<ref>{{safesubst:Cite book|last = Smith| first = Hazel| title = North Korea: Markets and Military Rule|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4eBwBwAAQBAJ|publisher=Cambridge University Press| date = 2015-04-09|pageurl=https://books.google.com/books?id=4eBwBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA271|page=271|isbn=978-0-521-89778-5}}</ref> and it provides wheelchairs for its disabled citizens of all ages.<ref>{{safesubst:Cite web|author=counterpropaganda re Korea| title = You can see Pyongyang's wheelchair-using citizens for yourself.pic.twitter.com/AvluAtDY1k| work = @korcounterprop| format = Tweet| accessdate = 2019-10-09| date = 2018-09-21| url = https://nitter.net/i/status/1043310274852220928}}</ref> Abortions are freely permitted as well.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Abortion law North Korea|url=https://www.womenonwaves.org/en/id/4888|accessdate=2020-03-12}}</ref>
 
==Myths==
The North Korean government does not teach its people that Kim Jong-il or any other leaders never defecate or urinate.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/save/https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/43886/did-the-north-korean-government-ever-say-that-kim-jong-il-never-defecated Did the North Korean government ever say that Kim Jong-il never defecated?]</ref> Furthermore, North Koreans aren't being told that the government found a unicorn lair, as what had actually happened was that there was a cave found that served for the inspiration for folklore, with the "unicorn" actually being a kirin — a chimeric creature that has been described as "a four-legged beast with a dragon's head" as well as an animal with "the body of a deer, the tail of a cow, hooves and a mane", with horn jutting out from the top of its head. This discovery was probably made to connect the current North Korean state to the ancient Korean kingdom of Koguryo, as well as to its wise leaders to whom the kirin was alleged to appear to.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/05/north-korea Unicorn lair 'discovery' blamed partly on mistranslation]</ref>
 
==Defectors==
Though it is true that the DPRK has been suffering from hardship, particularly from the Arduous March (and still does, though its troubles are gradually alleviating), there are several defectors from the country who are notable in spreading misinformation about the it, either exaggerated or outright false. North Korean defectors often have contradictory narratives as well because evidently, there is little collaboration between the various agencies that manage the media presence of such individuals; agencies such as Atlas Network and the National Endowment for Democracy, which incentivize defectors to exaggerate their stories or lie in order to maximize the money they will get for such. Some "defectors" are actually just North Korea's foreign workers who were tricked into defecting with the promise of finding a job, but who then have their passports taken, get locked up in isolation for several months, and then indoctrinated.<ref>{{cite web|title=Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul (서울의 평양 시민들)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktE_3PrJZO0}}</ref>
 
One of the most prominent defectors is Yeon-mi Park. She has, for example, asserted that when she was growing up in North Korea (she was born in 1993), there were no art galleries or natural history museums,<ref>Park, Yeon-mi. (February 5, 2019) [https://nitter.net/i/status/1092923769893634049 "I was awed by human imagination. This was an astonishing experience. When I was growing up in North Korea, there was no such things like art museums or natural history museums. I mean we… https://instagram.com/p/BthJOt3nlFO"] ''Twitter.com''</ref> which is blatantly false. She makes other such lies about the DPRK in exchange for lucrative payments, with the irony being that the ultimate goal of these false stories is the attempted justification of sanctions which will hurt the very people she says need help. There are times when her narratives are exposed, either by referencing the information to the stories of other defectors or to other existing information, to which she will resort to saying that her English isn't very good (which given her demonstrated ability, isn't very believable), or that she has a poor memory. However, the "poor memory" argument also points to her account being unreliable, if it is assumed to be true. On other occasions, Park has claimed that there is only one television channel in North Korea and that she has seen someone get executed for watching a western film, though North Korea is known to broadcast dubbed western films on national TV. In a 2018 interview, she also gives the impression that she was never taught about the existence of things like Africa or Australia,<ref>Chalupa, Andrea. (June 11, 2018) [https://nitter.net/i/status/1006368736323006464 "Thinking of Yeonmi Park tonight. After escaping North Korea, she had to learn a world of facts, like Australia and Africa exist. Here she is with a rare copy of Animal Farm. She told me reading Animal Farm helped her heal by showing that evil systems are made and are not natural."] ''Twitter.com''</ref> despite the DPRK having no reason to hide the existence of those continents, and it does in fact have world maps and geography textbooks in school.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=DPRK Geography 1 Textbook|url=https://archive.org/stream/DPRKTexts/Education/Secondary/1/geography}}</ref> Reports like these are just attempts to make the DPRK seem as outlandish as possible.
 
Blaine Harden's book ''Escape from Camp 14'' features a person called Shin Dong-hyuk, who is said to be the only person who was born in a North Korean labor camp who managed to defect. Though Shin's account here and in other media is largely accepted to be true, it is actually far less reliable. Blaine Harden has this to say about him:
<blockquote>In writing this book, I have sometimes struggled to trust him. He misled me in our first interview about his role in the death of his mother, and he continued to do so in more than a dozen interviews. When he changed his story, I became worried about what else he might have made up.<br><br>
Fact-checking is not possible in North Korea. Outsiders have not visited its political prison camps. Accounts of what goes on inside them cannot be independently verified. Defectors remain the primary sources of information, and their motives and credibility are not spotless. In South Korea and elsewhere, they are often desperate to make a living, willing to confirm the preconceptions of human rights activists, anticommunist missionaries, and right-wing ideologues. Some camp survivors refuse to talk unless they are paid cash upfront. Others repeated juicy anecdotes they had heard but not personally witnessed.<ref>Page 10</ref></blockquote>
 
Nara Kang is another defector, telling a number of things which are either very unbelievable or unsupported by other evidence. For instance, she said "Putting on red lipstick is unimaginable in North Korea … the color red represents capitalism and that may be why North Korean society does not let you wear it."<ref>[https://www.cnn.com/style/article/north-korea-womens-beauty-freedom/index.html 'Beauty is freedom': The North Korean millennials wearing makeup to rebel against the state]</ref> The DPRK uses a variety of red coloration to symbolize its socialist identity however, and throughout the history of socialism, red has solidly been the one single color associated with it — not with capitalism, which on the other hand is associated with yellow if anything.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Color Design Workbook: A Real World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design|last1=Adams|first1=Sean|last2=Morioka|first2=Noreen|last3=Stone|first3=Terry Lee|date=2006|publisher=Rockport Publishers|isbn=159253192X|location=Gloucester, Mass.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/colordesignworkb0000ston/page/86 86]|oclc=60393965|url=https://archive.org/details/colordesignworkb0000ston/page/86}}</ref> She further tells that most people in her hometown were only allowed to wear "a light tint on their lips, sometimes pink but never red -- and long hair had to be tied up neatly or braided" — yet the same report also shows a photograph of a board displaying "approved" women's hairstyles contradicting these claims — besides the wealth of other photos and imagery out there with North Korean women having hair of a different style than what she described.
 
==Fake executions==
On occasion a story gets reported in Western media that some important person got executed, sometimes brutally, by the North Korean leadership, and often for trivial reasons. There is however an immense amount of falsehood among these kinds of stories, with pretty much all of these people reappearing alive later on, ending up at worst demoted. Some examples include:
*Hyon Song-wol, a singer who was rumored to be Kim Jong-un's girlfriend, was said to have been executed in August 2013 with her immediate family being forced to watch, then sent to prison camps as "victims of the regime's assumption of guilt by association".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130831221629/https://world.time.com/2013/08/29/kim-jong-uns-former-lover-executed-by-firing-squad-after-making-sex-tape Report: Kim Jong Un’s Former Lover Executed by Firing Squad After Making Sex Tape]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130829105827/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10272953/Kim-Jong-uns-ex-lover-executed-by-firing-squad.html Kim Jong-un's ex-lover 'executed by firing squad']</ref> It turns out that she was alive, and appeared to have gotten a senior role in the party’s propaganda department, producing and performing music.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140518152202/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2631112/Kim-Jong-Uns-ex-Hyon-Song-Wol-appears-TV-despite-death-rumours.html Back from the dead? Kim Jong-un’s ex-girlfriend appears on television nine months after reports she'd been EXECUTED for making a sex tape]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200709142111/https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1307063/North-Korea-news-Kim-Jong-un-alive-Kim-il-sung-grandad-ceremony-world-war-3 Kim Jong-un shock - North Korean leader BACK FROM THE DEAD]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190609070818/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/executed-singer-trots-back-from-the-dead-fp8clfnl8 ‘Executed’ singer Hyon Song-wol is Kim Jong-un’s new right-hand woman]</ref>
*Kim Hyong-hui, Kim Jong-un's aunt, was reported by a defector to have been poisoned in the mid-2010s because "she complained when her husband was executed".<ref>[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3078006/North-Korean-dictator-Kim-Jong-ordered-poisoning-aunt-complained-husband-executed.html Kim Jong-un 'ordered his aunt be poisoned because she complained when her husband was executed']</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150512070657/https://www.cnn.com/2015/05/11/asia/north-korea-kim-aunt-poisoned/index.html North Korean leader ordered aunt to be poisoned, defector says]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150512160218/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/11600225/North-Koreas-leader-Kim-Jong-un-poisoned-his-aunt.html North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un 'poisoned his aunt']</ref> She reappeared alongside Kim Jong-un in 2020, at a Lunar New Year concert.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200126192128/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51257178 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's aunt reappears after six years]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200127035302/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/27/kim-jong-uns-aunt-reappears-six-years-after-purge-rumours Kim Jong-un's aunt reappears, six years after purge rumours]</ref>
*Hyon Yong-chol, who was said to have been executed with an anti-aircraft gun in front of hundreds of people for minor offenses, such as falling asleep in Kim Jong-un’s presence.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=North Korea defence chief reportedly executed with anti-aircraft gun|url=|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150513094043/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/13/north-korean-defence-minister-executed-by-anti-aircaft-gun-report|archivedate=2015-05-13}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=North Korea publicly executes defense chief, South Korean spy agency says|url=|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150514225256/http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/13/asia/north-korea-executes-defense-chief/index.html|archivedate=2015-05-14}}</ref> Two days later he was seen alive and well, with South Korea's National Intelligence Service, which had first reported on the matter, getting its credibility put under scrutiny and questioned upon news of this.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=NIS under scrutiny for claiming Hyon Yong-chol’s execution|url=|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150517114736/http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_northkorea/691425.html|archivedate=2015-05-17}}</ref> Hyon Yong-chol was reported to have been executed '''again''' on March 31, 2019, after a failed summit with the US<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190531000833/https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/31/kim-jong-un-reportedly-executes-officials-after-hanoi-summit-collapse.html North Korea’s Kim Jong Un reportedly executes officials after failed Hanoi summit with US]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190531182350/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-purge/north-korea-executes-envoy-to-failed-u-s-summit-media-white-house-monitoring-idUSKCN1T02PD North Korea executes envoy to failed U.S. summit -media; White House monitoring]</ref> — once more, he was all right.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190604015430/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48493702 Kim Yong-chol: 'Purged' N Korean diplomat appears with Kim]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190607175306/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/06/03/north-korea-official-kim-yong-chol-reappears-days-after-purge-report/1326430001 Top North Korean official Kim Yong Chol reappears days after purge report]</ref>
*Ri Yong-gil, who was army chief of staff, was reported to be executed in February 2016.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=North Korea 'executes' army chief of staff Ri Yong-gil|url=|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160210210723/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35543364|archivedate=2016-02-10}}</ref><ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Kim's 'Reign of Terror' continues as N. Korean Army General Ri Yong-gil is executed|url=https://invidio.us/watch?v=QFNNDv2-RWI}}</ref> As it turns out, he was indeed alive and actually appointed to two senior-level positions in the government.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=North Korean general thought to be executed is actually alive|url=|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602104650/https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/10/ri-yong-gil-north-korean-general-thought-be-execut|archivedate=2016-06-02}}</ref> Two years later, he appears again, promoted to one of the top three military chiefs.<ref>{{safesubst:cite web|title=Previously ‘Executed’ North Korean Official Promoted to Military Chief|url=|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608052749/https://sputniknews.com/asia/201806041065095830-Executed-Korean-Promoted-Chief|archivedate=2020-06-08}}</ref> At the KPA foundation parade of February 2018, as well as the 2018 Day of the Sun parade on April 15th, he appears as well standing next to Kim Jong-un.
*Kim Hyok-chol, diplomat to South Korea who according to South Korea's largest newspaper, was said to have been executed by firing squad. It turned out this was false, as he appeared alive four days later.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20200601070431/https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/03/asia/north-korea-diplomats-intl/index.html 'Executed' North Korean diplomat is alive, sources say]</ref>
*Ri Yong-gil, a senior military leader who was "executed" in early 2016 for "factionalism, misuse of authority and corruption" was seen alive later in May.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20191220224459/https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/10/asia/north-korea-army-chief-ri-yong-gil-alive/index.html North Korean general, reported executed, turns up at party congress]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20171229071116/https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korean-general-reported-executed-appears-to-be-alive-1462851351 North Korean General, Reported Executed, Appears to Be Alive]</ref><ref name "NYT Ri">[https://web.archive.org/web/20200604090544/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/world/asia/north-korea-execution.html North Korean General, Thought to Be Executed, Resurfaces]</ref>
*Ma Won-chun, a senior general and architect, was again seen alive after nearly a year from his supposed execution as reported by South Korean officials. He was in fact just demoted.<ref name "NYT Ri"/><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200116031209/https://www.nknews.org/2015/10/ma-won-chun-reappears-after-11-month-absence-purge-rumor/ Ma Won Chun reappears after 11-month absence, purge rumor]</ref>
*Hwang Pyong-so, former director of the North Korean Army’s General Political Bureau and North Korea's "second most powerful man" was expelled from the Workers' Party of Korea for taking bribes, which a South Korean newspaper described as the "end of his political career, and possibly his life".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20180307012802/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/hwang-pyong-so-north-korea-disappear-second-powerful-man-leader-kim-jong-un-a8111891.html Hwang Pyong-so: Mystery over disappearance of North Korea's 'second most powerful man']</ref> He was in fact purged but only demoted, not executed.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200916220502/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2018/02/18/politics/Hwang-Pyongso-comes-back-from-being-purged/3044664.html Hwang Pyong-so comes back from being purged]</ref>
 
Jang Song-thaek, one of the foremost leading figures in the government and uncle-in-law of Kim Jong-un, was indeed executed and this was reported by state media. He was however executed by firing squad,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20201127132507/https://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-executes-kim-jong-un-39-uncle-214524268.html NKorea executes Kim Jong Un' uncle]</ref> not by being stripped naked and put in a cage where he was fed to 120 starving dogs, which is a claim that has its origins in a minor Hong Kong tabloid called Wen Wei Po that has a particularly poor reputation, which didn't cite any sources itself (later the source was found to be a satirical post on a Chinese social media network). This claim later got picked by a Singaporean newspaper, then being spread across the United States, however Chinese and South Korean media, which typically have higher-quality information about matters in North Korea, have not bothered picking it up themselves.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20201217220651if_/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/01/03/no-kim-jong-un-probably-didnt-feed-his-uncle-to-120-hungry-dogs/ No, Kim Jong Un probably didn’t feed his uncle to 120 hungry dogs]</ref> Jang was described as "an anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional element" and "despicable human scum" by North Korea's official news agency when announcing his execution,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20201227174424/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/06/story-kim-jong-un-uncle-fed-dogs-made-up Story about Kim Jong-un's uncle being fed to dogs originated with satirist]</ref> with a power struggle with Kim Jong-un following the death of his father seeming to be the main reason for Jang's execution. Given Jang's high position in the government, he accumulated a faction loyal to him in the military, seeking to consolidate power for himself before Kim Jong-un could, with the last straw being a dispute over fishing grounds where Jang attempted to forcefully seize control of them after they were ordered to be returned to military control; whereas previously Kim Jong-un let Jang, among other members of his cabinet, control them in a move to revive the economy.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20201203064035/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/24/world/asia/north-korea-purge.html Korea Execution Is Tied to Clash Over Businesses]</ref>
 
==Otto Warmbier==
Otto Warmbier was an American college student who visited the DPRK in 2017 and gained worldwide fame after he was arrested and jailed there - before falling into a coma and dying a few days after his return to the USA. Warmbier visited the DPRK as part of a trip advertised as "The trip your parents wouldn't want you to take", and on one of the last days of his stay is said to have stolen a poster that had Kim Jong-il's name on it from his hotel. While at the Pyongyang Airport, officials approached Warmbier, requesting him to "step out of line". Warmbier reportedly shrugged and complied, being led away. Warmbier was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor, although sentences like these are symbolic and foreigners like him usually leave within a year, alive and well.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20200626122626/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foreign_nationals_detained_in_North_Korea</ref> However some time into his sentence he fell ill with an unidentified neurological disease and collapsed into a coma. He was kept in a hospital in Pyongyang for four months before being returned to the USA in January 2018.
 
What is known is that he came back from North Korea in a coma, released after 17 months in captivity,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/amid-trumps-diplomatic-thaw-otto-warmbiers-parents-sue-north-korea-for-having-brutally-tortured-and-murdered-their-son/2018/04/26/625e4fb8-495e-11e8-8b5a-3b1697adcc2a_story.html|title=Amid Trump's diplomatic thaw, Otto Warmbier's parents sue North Korea for having 'brutally tortured and murdered' their son |last=Nakamura|first=David|date=April 26, 2018|work=The Washington Post|language=en-US |issn=0190-8286 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510115540/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/amid-trumps-diplomatic-thaw-otto-warmbiers-parents-sue-north-korea-for-having-brutally-tortured-and-murdered-their-son/2018/04/26/625e4fb8-495e-11e8-8b5a-3b1697adcc2a_story.html |archive-date=May 10, 2018 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref> and that he died after his parents requested his feeding tube to be removed.<ref>{{cite news|last=Clark |first=Doug Bock|title=The Untold Story of Otto Warmbier, American Hostage|url=https://www.gq.com/story/otto-warmbier-north-korea-american-hostage-true-story|date=July 23, 2018|archivedate=August 1, 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801104201/https://www.gq.com/story/otto-warmbier-north-korea-american-hostage-true-story}}</ref> It's virtually impossible to find out what exactly happened in his case, since his parents also refused to have his body autopsied. He has suffered a neurological injury during his stay in North Korea, to which there are several theories. One is that the North Korean government had him deprived of air so that he wouldn't become another "survivor" of the country who would end up pushing for sanctions against it, while another is that he attempted suicide in panic. However, the German emergency physician who accompanied a US negotiator to retrieve Warmbier has said that there are no signs of torture, not even any bruises.<ref>[https://www.tagesschau.de/investigativ/ndr/nordkorea-warmbier-105.html Zweifel an "Todesfolter" im Fall Warmbier]</ref> The North Korean government has released a video that allegedly shows him stealing a poster in a restricted area, though because of its low resolution it has a possibility of being falsified.
 
==External links==
* [http://bannedthought.net/Korea-DPRK/index.htm bannedthought.net page on the DPRK]: Contains information on the DPRK mostly sourced from within
* [https://sizeofcat.ru/post/fun-with-redstar-os/ Fun with Red Star OS]: Shows Red Star OS and in particular its network functions, also dispelling the myth it spies on the user
* [https://rhizzone.net/articles/british-regime-cant-feed-its-own-people/ Totalitarian British Regime Can't Feed Its Own People]: If the United Kingdom was reported on like North Korea
 
===Videos===
* [https://archive.org/details/@echo_of_truth_archive Archive of the "Echo of Truth" YouTube channel and its successors, which were/are run directly from Pyongyang]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBqeC8ihsO8 ''My Brothers and Sisters in the North'']: Documentary on daily life in North Korea by a South Korean filmmaker
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVGnLiXHxB4 РУССКИЕ ФАНАТЫ СЕВЕРНОЙ КОРЕИ]: Russian-language documentary on Russian fans of the DPRK
* [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOzQqWFt3BWJ0ToEyPgmZqg 푸옹 Phuong DPRK Daily]: YouTube channel providing Information on the DPRK


==Notes==
==Notes==

Revision as of 11:45, 3 March 2023

Democratic People's Republic of Korea
조선민주주의인민공화국
[[File:Map of DPRK|300px|center|frameless]]
Map of DPRK
[[File:Flag of the DPRK|125x63px|frameless]] [[File:Emblem of the DPRK|85x88px|frameless]]
Flag State Emblem

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), unofficially known as North Korea, is a revisionist country is East Asia. It is currently a proxy of Chinese social-imperialism and Russian imperialism.

The official ideology of the DPRK and Korean Workers' Party, Juche, is highly revisionary to Marxist theory, with its "theory" advocating concepts similar to those found in Japanese Fascism (such as racial supremacy and ultranationalism) along with class collaboratism, idealism, militarism, and other reactionary ideas.[1][2] By 2010. the DPRK government has removed any metion of either Marxism or Communism in its constitution.[3]

Notes

References

  1. ↑ A Critique of Juche(24 September, 2020) Six Head Study Circle
  2. ↑ On Juche: The Workers’ Party of Korea and Revisionism by Bill Bland (30 November, 2011) Revolutionary Spirit
  3. ↑ North Korea drops communism, boosts "Dear Leader" by Herskovitz, Christine Kim (28 September, 2009) Reuters
Retrieved from "https://wiki.leftypol.org/index.php?title=North_Korea&oldid=10031"