Trouble in Worker’s Paradise?
Captain's Quarters links to a couple of news stories (here and here) reporting a possible protest demonstration in North Korea against the Kim regime. Simply put, if this is true, it's big. North Korea is extremely repressive and shows no mercy to political opposition. Merely saying something like, "Kim Jong Il's head looks like a fat mushroom," could earn you a trip to the NK version of the gulag. So for people to hold an actual demonstration denouncing Kim Jong Il… well… that takes some cajones, my friend. I wish them well and I hope that this kind of unrest will spread. Nothing does in a communist regime like itself.
One thing about this that I am led to wonder is to what extent, if any, American actions may play in the reported growing problems inside NK. Honestly, I don't think it hurts that we have refused to negotiate bilaterally with Kim Jong Il. We haven't allowed him to extort us or the world and we haven't allowed him to set the rules of the game. Bush also openly referred to the country as being a member of the axis of evil. NK is already ostracized in any number of ways, but the Bush administration has ardently refused to give it any sort of validation or legitimization or to treat it as anything other than a pariah rogue nation. This is good. Merely doing this makes dictators nervous and can enhearten the morale of a burgeoning resistance. Many are those in Eastern Europe who will tell what it meant to have Ronald Reagan refer to the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire and to refuse it any moral legitimacy. For the dispirited politically oppressed of the world, it's got to be a good thing to know the global hegemon is in your corner.
North Korea A Powderkeg; Kim Jong Il Poster Defaced
North Korea seems to be in the throws of turmoil as a 35 minute videotape was posted to a South Korean opposition website. It shows the defaced poster of Kim Jong Il. I also reported in November, 2004 here…
Trackback by Diggers Realm — 1/18/2005 @ 9:55 am