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| North Korea: Link and Info |
| Tuesday, October 10, 2006 |
A few days ago, I visited a couple links out of curiosity about energy and fuel production. I guess I was motivated to think about this after watching a CNN coverage regarding circumstances in North Korea, CNN Presents: Undercover in the Secret State (transcript). The world is bigger than my imagination and I do genuinely feel empathy for those living under the regime of Kim Jong Il. It is hard to believe that a nation with the ability to work with such sophistacated technologies would provide such a seemingly abysmal existence for its citizenry. And it seems to be a trend in much of the world, however, North Korea presents itself to me as somewhat of an oddity considering its proximity to trade and its proven ability to manufacture technologies.
I thought to myself: "China, South Korea, and Japan are all neighbors to North Korea, yet the Kim Jong Il has seen it to be more expedient to pursue a political course that limits North Korea ability to join the ranks of the worlds premier producers?" And, after this thought I realized that other than limited information provided by netwrok media, I know little to nothing about North Korea, its people, its economy, and its relationships with foriegn nations in its global region or abroad. Thus, the empathy, that I felt is indeed a shallow form of empathy and the opinions that I hold are nearly baseless.
So, I decided to see what the Internet could provide me in terms of background on this matter at little or no cost. In past years, I would have pedaled ot the library, but today I can click type and click my way to some more information. This post will contains some links to sites you can use to learn a little more about the country.
I started with a Google search.(I am one of Google's late adopters, long languising on AOL and, then, MSN, and, then, Yahoo! I have found that the results that I recieve from Google are far more relevant in most cases.)
Type-Type-Type-Type-Type = North Korea {enter}
A few of the links google provided me are as follows:
- CIA - The World Fact Book - Korea, North. This seems like a pretty good source and I will post some of what is noted there as of the last CIA update to this page.
- North Korea - Wikipedia. Although I can in no way testify to the reliability of the information contained, the source is probably sound enough for some preliminary research.
- Korea, North - Infoplease.com. This is a source that I never visited before. It provided information similar to that in the Wikipedia and is easy to read to get some background information.
Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK). This is the official government web-site of North Korea. You can select the English option (unless you read Korean). It is sparse to say the least, however, there is a gift shop where you can by souvenier books and music through secure paypal transactions. For the meantime, I'll hold off on any purchases as a I have a security bias again the state based on the claims of governement-backed conterfeiting and trade in false ID materials and such. The site is sparse but it does provide two other links that readers might find interesting. There are biographies that can be downloaded of Kim Il-Sung (*.PDF file) and Kim Jong-Il (*.PDF file) that can be downloaded at no cost. These biographies may provide some insight as to how these leaders market themselves to their subjects. This si a very interesting source that will allow you to get a look inside Noreth Korea's propaganda machine.
Subsequent to the Russo-Japanese War, Korea was occupied by Japan in 1905 and later annexed into the Japanese Empire. Korea divided into to the North/South after WWII with Soviet Union exerting influence on the North and the United States exerting influence on the South. North Korea was established as a nation May 1, 1948 and is officially known as the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK). The capital in the north was and is Pyonyang and the capital in the south is Seoul. The founding leader, Kim Il-Sung, died in 1994 and was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Il (photo) the named successor. These are the nations only two leaders, ever. Ideology is a set of ideas and beliefs by which a group understands and makes sense of the world. The North Korean ideology is Juche. It is defined in the biography of Kim Jong-Il (see Foreword) as: The revolutionary cause of Juche - a revlolutionary cause to bring complete independence to the popular masses pioneered and carried on by Comrade Kim Il Sung. This is the revolutionary cause that Kim Jong-Il cites as the cause he purports to represent and the system of beliefs (religion) he claims to practice. Juche is the only government-authorized ideology in North Korea, which restricts the observance of all other religions or the formation of religious congregations. "Juche" translates from Korean to English as "self-reliance" (some refer to "Juche" as "Kimilsungism"). Juche began in the 1950s in North Korea and is an integral part of the educational. Its promoters describe Juche as simply a secular, ethical philosophy as opposed to a religion, where man practices mastery over all things. Here are some Juche links: - Juche - WikipediaA stepping stone to learning more. I encourage everyone to verify "facts" aquired from wiki's.
- Globalsecurity.org - This is a great resource for a number of subjects and the quality of writing is generally quite good. Although the writing often seems to be biased, GlobalSecurity.org does provide facts and links that are a good starting points for further examination and the site is less biased than some others.
- International Institute of the Juche Idea
- Urbandictionary.com
- Provides a brief and adequate definition of the term. - tkdtutor.com - Aplication of Juche in Tae Kwon Do
- Democratic capitalism and juche: common values and challenges - This is the most ineresting article I have read about the subject.
Kim Jong Il's biography of 160 pages reads like the the tale of a demi-god. Undoubtedly any leader would find the references exceptionally flattering. In many ways the book is reminescent of an ancient Assyrian tablet describing the origins and contributions of the kings. As to what is fact or fiction, I am in no way in any position to declare, but it does make for some very interesting background reading. Considering, that although outsiders may accept little or none of this to be true thosewho have been raised in this society and firmly inculcated with this doctrine may have little reason to doubt or challenge its athenticity. It does not require all of the people to support or believe in the concepts, principles, or action of the authority and it does not require a concensus majority to support or believe in the concepts, principles, or action of the authority - it only require a political and economic majority to agree or be complicit for such a tale to persist as factual. Quick conclusions, the US as a modern nation is significantly senior and - despite the countries name, North Korea is far from democratic in terms of its leadership selection - sources agree that North Korea is a dictatorship.
North Korea's 2005 estimated population of nearly 23 million people in a land area of approx. 46,540 sq mi (120,538 sq km). To offer a comparison to the US that would be like having a population the size of California in about one-third of the space. So one could imagine that North Korea is pretty crowded. (Incidentally, Alaska is more than four times larger than California.) From this one may conclude, that North Korea is a comparitively small, densely popluated nation.
This country was the site of a significant amount of military conflict in the 20th century:
- Russo-Japanese War
- Korean Conflict (Korean War)
The history of the nation and region reminds me a great deal of the circumstances and recent history of the Middle East. Particularly, the nations Iran and Iraq. The Russo-Japanese war is similar and subsequent occupation by Japan bears some similarity to the effect of Britain's occupation and control of Middle Easter lands after the Ottoman empire was supplanted. And the Korean War bear some similarity to the conflict beteen Iran and Iraq - particularly when one considers the parties backing the efforts of these nations to destroy one another. And, I wonder if it is reasonble to suggest that this type of outside interference in the development of nations foster the development of ideoligical extremism and xenophobia.
I will be posting a great deal more on this subject after further research and attempt to identify resources that readers can us to keep abreast of the situation and to identify opportunities that may arise as a consequence of existing and developing circumstances. If you have any opinions or can recommend any resources regarding this country please leave a comment containing your general thoughts and link list. |
posted by Domesticated Dog @ 10:27 AM   |
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