Why North Korea has not collapsed
A South Korean boy is held up by his mother to get a peek into North Korea at the Dora Observatory on the South Korean side of the DMZ. (Image: iStock/Joel Carillet)
Don’t you find it puzzling that North Korea, which always seems like it could collapse at any time, is still standing strong?
Our media constantly pours out dire reports about the place. “The economic reality in North Korea, the human rights situation, the flood damage…” and so on.
Yet, it is still there, solidly maintaining its form.
So we’re left wondering. Why?
The Arduous March famine of the ‘90s was certainly enough to shake the lives of the people. But not enough to finish them off. In the struggle to survive, many died. We can get a sense of how grueling it was from the sayings that emerged: “The sheep all died, and only the jackals survived.”
Yes, those who survived truly had, to some extent, the fierce nature of jackals. The gentle people who believed in the words of the state and felt that somehow it would take care of them were all wiped out.
Ironically, those who didn’t trust the state were the ones who survived. And not only did they survive, but they grew stronger through hardship.
Isn’t there a saying that the pain that does not kill me just makes me stronger? Those who endured sprouted life even on barren land, and made flowers bloom even on stone.
Then international sanctions hit as a second ordeal for the people. But they had already learned from the first ordeal how to avoid death. In other words, they had become antifragile.
What would have happened if the Arduous March and the sanctions had struck them all at once? They would have undoubtedly met immediate death. But these trials came in sequence, over time, and having grown stronger from the previous round, they were able to resolutely face the next one.
It’s like how slowly introducing a toxin builds immunity.
Some might think, Is living such a life truly living? Why don’t North Koreans rise up and overthrow their hellish regime? But their experience is what they think life is. From their grandparents’ generation, they’ve only ever experienced hardship. So how can they dream of freedom or abundance? How can a frog in a well, who’s only seen a small patch of sky, dream of the open heavens?
What’s more, the government cuts off even the smallest sprouts of independent thought from a young age through education. It turns people into mental invalids incapable of independent thinking. Everyone possesses the thoughts and preferences desired by the regime. They are like brothers who share the same psychological DNA. Though born different, they are shaped into the same mold as they grow up.
Of course, there are rare cases where this molding fails. No matter how hard the government tries to erase individuality through early education, it doesn’t always work as intended. Some people see the faults of the government and raise their voices.
But as far as I know, none who raised their voice is still alive. The dictatorship ruthlessly punishes even the slightest dissent.
Did you know that in North Korea, there’s a crime called “speech reactionary”? It refers to people who merely complain about the regime. In that system, even moving your mouth the wrong way can cost you your life.
From the fate of those who have resisted, we have learned a bitter truth. That is that, to preserve your life, you must accept your fate. If you lack the strength to break the chains of fate, you must find a way to live within them. This lesson taught us how to survive, but it took away our courage to stand against injustice.
When I see people who shed blood for democracy, I’m in awe. Did they fight knowing they would die? What kind of heart willingly gives its life for a greater cause?
The power that sustains the North Korean regime, that suppresses opposing forces and maintains the system, comes undoubtedly from the military. The ruling Kim family knows this well. They know the military is key, and that as long as they control it, their regime will endure.
So the highest position in North Korea is not the President, but the Chairman of the National Defense Commission.
In a country of 26 million people, 1.3 million are active-duty soldiers. That is five percent of the population, which makes North Koreans the most militarized people in the world.
You may not know, but this relatively small country leads the world in some other things too. For example, military service lasts 10 years. That’s long enough for even the weak to be forged into steel.
Here’s a story about a friend of mine. He hated organizational life and loved South Korean dramas. In other words, he qualified as a “corrupted” youth. We used to call him “Yellow-water,” meaning he held capitalist ideas in his head instead of the red water of the Workers’ Party ideology.
But to reach his desired position in society, he had to serve in the military. Only those who have completed military service can attain key posts.
Three years later, I saw him at a school reunion. As always, we talked, laughed, drank, and talked again, conversation blooming.
“How’s life these days?”
“It’s dark. I can’t see ahead.”
“Why? Are you stuck in a cave?” one friend joked, and others laughed along.
“All the more reason to trust the Party, don’t you think?” said Yellow-water. We honestly couldn’t believe our ears. Yellow-water said this. He was transformed. His comment left us speechless.
The whole way back from the reunion, I kept wondering, how could a person change that much?
I came to better understand the nature of the military and the ideological indoctrination that happens there. The military is not just a place that teaches you how to shoot a gun. It is of itself an educational system that could, in three years, turn our Yellow-water into a revolutionary warrior.
That is why, as I said, only those who graduate with honors from this system are entrusted with key roles in the country.
All the factors I’ve mentioned combine to keep the system alive. It survives due to our short-sightedness, the survival instinct that drives people to keep going no matter how hard life gets, our fear, the lifelong indoctrination, and the regime’s ruthlessness. Among these, the pillar that most supports the system is clearly that merciless repression.
When I learned that in the U.S., it’s legal for ordinary people to own firearms, I wondered at once if the reason was to allow citizens to prepare for the possibility that their government might one day wield unilateral violence, like in North Korea.
That makes me sometimes imagine. What if we weren’t afraid of death and had fought injustice head-on? What if North Koreans could own guns like Americans? What if it hadn’t been such an obviously one-sided fight that one side was bound to lose?
Would North Koreans have still complied as they do now, or would they have fought back?
At dawn, in the alley, I write your name. Democracy.
My mind has long forgotten you, my feet have long strayed from you,
But deep inside my burning chest remains a memory of thirst,
And I secretly write your name. Democracy.
(Excerpt from “The Burning Thirst” by Kim Ji-ha)
Born in Chongjin in 1990, Jang Mi was not a studious child, but under her mother’s influence, she graduated from high school and went on to university to take math and science. She worked as a wedding video editor for seven years until her defection in 2019.
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