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ROKU AppThe Death of Kim Jong Il: What Does It Portend?
Written by Ralph Levy
Little is known about his 27-year-old successor, Kim Jong Eun. North Korea’s neighbors are nervous about the transition in this impoverished, nuclear-armed nation. Is there any hope for a better future for the Korean Peninsula?
“Kim Jong Il will be remembered as the leader of a totalitarian regime who violated the basic rights of the North Korean people for nearly two decades.” So declared Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday, after learning of the death of the North Korean dictator on Saturday.
Mr. Harper went on to state, “The regime’s reckless decisions have resulted in North Korea being an impoverished nation and a country isolated from the international community because of its dangerous nuclear proliferation and ballistic missile programs.”
The party line
Yet the view from Ottawa and the official declarations from Pyongyang could hardly have been more strikingly different. The official news from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea lauded the memory of its now-deceased “Dear Leader.”
“He [Kim Jong Il] passed away to our regret before seeing the victory of the cause of building a thriving nation, the national reunification and the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche so ardently desired by him, but laid a strong political and military base for ensuring the steady advance of the Korean revolution through generations and provided a solid foundation for the eternal prosperity of the country and the nation.”
What will history say?
What will history have to say of this man who ruled his people for 17 years, since the death of his father, Kim Il Sung, the “Great Leader”? Brutal? Repressive? Murderous? The words begin to lose meaning as one searches for superlatives to describe his leadership of this sad, leftover Stalinist state.
Some things are certain: North Korea is one of the least free nations on the face of the earth. Its citizens lack basic human rights of free speech, the right to organize politically and the right to worship freely. Political dissent is brutally suppressed. Those who dare to express it are often dispatched to slave labor camps, reported to exist in various parts of the country.
According to Wikipedia, “North Korea is known to operate six concentration camps, currently accommodating around 200,000 prisoners.” Recent press reports suggest North Korea also maintains slave labor camps in Siberia. Dissidents risk being treated with barbarity and cruelty in those internment camps and even risk cruel and vindictive recriminations against their families. “Prisoners reportedly work 14 hour days at hard labor and ideological re-education. Starvation, torture and disease are commonplace.”
Censored
North Korea lacks the tools of electronic communication, now so common in the West, that have been instrumental in the recent uprisings in the Arab world. Ordinary North Koreans have access to the Internet only via Internet cafes that utilize a heavily censored Intranet service. For a population numbering some 23.5 million, there are estimated to be only 1.18 million telephone landlines, reportedly reserved for senior government officials, as well as some 800,000 users of its sole 3G network, Koryolink.
Knowledge of internal dissent, as well as external revolutions, is unavailable to most North Koreans, since television and radio are both heavily controlled. Radio and TV sets are sold pre-tuned to government-controlled stations, with heavy penalties for receiving outside media on modified sets. According to the BBC, radios were designated as “new enemies of the regime” on June 13, 2004.
Cruel irony
The cruel irony of North Korean political juche, its national philosophy of self-reliance, is that the nation is anything but self-reliant. In the 1990s, its failed and unproductive agricultural system was unable to feed its people, resulting in the deaths of somewhere between 900,000 and 2 million of its citizens.
Since then, foreign food aid (much of it donated by the Western nations targeted in North Korea’s shrillest propaganda attacks) has assisted the nation in averting renewed mass starvation. Even so, malnutrition persists, as demonstrated by a significant difference in average height between South Koreans and their northern brethren, estimated at anywhere up to three or four inches.
The “Great Successor” and his neighbors
Now ascending to the role of the new deity is 27-year-old Kim Jong Eun, the “Great Successor.” Little is known about him, and he has had precious little time to prepare for leadership, having been designated the heir-apparent only recently. The “Great Leader” was reported to have had a stroke in 2008, and the younger Kim was designated the successor only last year, as Kim Jong Il’s health began to fail.
Neighboring nations hold their breath. South Korea’s leader Lee Myung-bak placed his country’s military on alert, in case of unpredictable belligerence from the North, but urged his countrymen to go about their daily lives without fear. With over 1 million North Korean military personnel just north of the demilitarized zone, and just under 1 million South Koreans on the opposite side, tensions often run high.
China sent a note of condolence to the Workers’ Party of North Korea and expressed its hope for stability. China has perhaps most to lose in the event of a collapse, which would create a failed state that would likely unleash a stream of refugees across the North Korea-China border.
Japan also tensed up. Historical conflicts and the kidnappings of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents in recent decades have made for strained relationships.
And the United States watched carefully. North Korea’s nuclear missiles reportedly now have the ability to reach Alaska and perhaps even parts of the mainland U.S.
A future regime change
Whatever the immediate future for the Korean Peninsula, there will eventually be a radical and welcome shift in governance there and throughout all the world. Repressive regimes will come to an end; false political indoctrination will cease. And a Ruler—one whose rule will extend as far as East Asia—will take control.
“Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice. … The foolish person will no longer be called generous, nor the miser said to be bountiful. … Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever” (Isaiah 32:1, 5, 16-17).
For the long-suffering people of North Korea—and for the peoples of the world—may that day come soon! Read more about it in The Mystery of the Kingdom.
Ralph Levy is a minister of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, who grew up in England and now lives in the United States. Dr. Levy enjoys reading, travel and foreign languages. He has a Ph.D. in biblical studies and has worked in foreign language and religious education for much of his life.
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