motivation
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Paranoia and Desire for Control: North Korea's Kim dynasty, like the many socialist and communist regimes that preceded it, demands absolute control. Like many dictators, Kim sees fear and force as the best method of ensuring this control. A government that operates through trickery and force often expects the same from its people. Especially with no real political allies and a military made up of 40% of the nation's 16 to 24-year-olds, North Korea is in a very vulnerable position. Its military could easily take control, and it has nobody to help keep such a thing from happening. These real fears encourage the government to use extreme measures to keep its people in line. Nobody will rebel if their families' lives are on the line. Nobody will speak out if they have been brainwashed to believe the authority of the regime from a young age. People will cooperate if rewarded with safety and food, especially in a famine-stricken nation. Rewards and harsh consequences for misbehavior serve as the perfect methods of ensuring total control.
targeted groups
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"Enemies of the State": Yet another of the vague titles that are the hallmarks of a communist state, "enemies of the state" are basically defined as anyone the Kim dynasty sees as a potential threat. These people may be native North Koreans or foreigners, and they face punishments ranging from imprisonment to death, depending on their perceived threat level.
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Christians: Christianity is seen as a threat to the official Kim personality cult and juche ideals. Because is is a part of a worldwide group, the religion also threatens to become an outlet through which North Koreans could organize against the government and interact with the outside world. It is believed that as many as 70,000 Christains are currently being held in North Korean prison camps.
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Handicapped: Handicapped people are seen as an embarrassment to the nation. Mainly in the 1990s, handicapped people were exiled to isolated regions in the northern part of the country or to islands in the Yellow Sea. Dwarves were arrested, sent to labor camps, and sterilized. Today, handicapped people and dwarves are still exiled from Pyongyang, and many are sent to the infamous Ward 49. Despite this harsh treatment, North Korea had its first competitor in the Paralympic Games in 2012. An estimated 7.5% of the population, or 1.8 million people, are disabled, and therefore potential or current victims, or survivors.
Methods of control and punishment
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Propaganda: The North Korean government controls all forms of media and uses them to disseminate pro-socialism, anti-democracy propaganda to the populace. At a young age, children begin their indoctrination into the regime's ideals in their schools. All citizens are required to be part of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), which controls all social events. The state-controlled media is the only legal source of information. North Korean media blocks nearly all coverage of the outside world. The media serves to cover up any crimes of the state, promote North Korean self-sufficiency, encourage the people to follow the juche ideology of the state, and demonize the democratic nations of the outside world.
North Korean propaganda has two main focuses. The first is to promote socialism over all other forms of government, especially democracy and imperialism. Other types of government are the enemy, and the people must be alert to protect themselves from treacherous outside agendas. Socialism is the perfect government, producing excess amounts of food and healthy, happy people. The second is to promote the Kim dynasty as the outlet of the will of heaven on Earth. Kim is a god on Earth. He has the power to command the weather. He is all-powerful, and his will is the will of the gods.
North Korean propaganda has two main focuses. The first is to promote socialism over all other forms of government, especially democracy and imperialism. Other types of government are the enemy, and the people must be alert to protect themselves from treacherous outside agendas. Socialism is the perfect government, producing excess amounts of food and healthy, happy people. The second is to promote the Kim dynasty as the outlet of the will of heaven on Earth. Kim is a god on Earth. He has the power to command the weather. He is all-powerful, and his will is the will of the gods.
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Identification system: Everyone in the country is issued a passport that is used to carefully track people's movement and regulate travel. Traveling abroad is almost completely banned, and even movement within the country requires government authorization. Anyone who travels outside the country or into an area known for political unrest is an instant target for the paranoid government's suspicion and may be questioned or detained as a potential enemy of the state. Those who try to emigrate without permission face torture, detention, rape, imprisonment, and execution. Despite an earlier commitment to accept political refugees, China forcibly repatriates all North Koreans who seek shelter and safety within its borders.
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Rewards: Citizens are encouraged to report their fellow North Koreans to the state. Those who do are rewarded with better housing, more food, or monetary bonuses. In a nation where starvation and poverty are so common, this is an especially effective way of discovering "traitors," though it is not uncommon for those reported to the state to be either completely innocent or guilty only of trying to survive. As a result, there is currently a large network of informants who monitor their communities and report any suspicious people or activity to the authorities.
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"Enforced disappearances": Enforced disappearances are basically arrests combined with kidnappings. People suspected of anti-government actions are taken away by government agents to labor camps or prisons and generally never seen again. Their families are not notified of their locations or conditions, even if they are killed. North Korea also abducts nationals from other countries, including China, South Korea, Lebanon, Thailand, and Japan, to train them as spies.
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Imprisonment in labor camps: The default punishment, so to speak, for most crimes is to be sent to a forced-labor camp. At the most recent count, in 1997, there were 927 camps in the country. This number has most likely grown since then. Prisoners live in barracks at a density of about 40-50 people per room. There is no heat or sanitation, and quite often no running water. Each camp holds several hundred to a couple thousand people. With an average sentence of two months, it is estimated that as many as two million people may pass through the camp system each year, as of 1997. For more information, click here.
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Forced starvation: In North Korea, most food supplies are managed by the state. This puts a huge amount of pressure on the people to cooperate. They have a terrible choice: cooperate, and feed their families, or speak up and starve. As it is, there is precious little food to go around, not nearly enough to feed the entire population. The food shortage has two direct results: first, families are desperate to earn what food they can get, and second, food becomes a weapon against those seen by the state as traitors. Anyone suspected of crimes against the regime, as well as their families, are starved. At the same time, state-caused famines have occurred frequently in North Korea's recent past.
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Torture: Those declared guilty of various crimes, from treason to stealing food to survive, often fall victims to torture while they are imprisoned. This torture ranges in brutality, depending on the particular prison camp and guards. Victims are deprived of sleep, beaten, raped, forced to sit, stand, or exercise for hours on end, and starved. Pregnant women are subjected to forced abortions. Guards sometimes spit into prisoners' mouths and force them to swallow. For more information about the torture prisoners of labor camps face, click here.
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Public executions: Officially, North Koreans can be executed for very few crimes, but those crimes are extremely vague and can include a long list of minor actions. "Crimes against the state," "Crimes against the people," and "Anti-socialist actions" are punishable by death. In practice, these three offenses include anything from helping people flee the country to China, hoarding food in a time of famine, and even removing glass from an outdoor photo of Kim Jong-Il.
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Collective punishment: When a North Korean is detained and punished for a crime, it is common practice to also arrest and punish three generations of his or her entire family. That means when Citizen A is arrested and sent to a labor camp, so are his parents, grandparents, wife, and children. If he is elderly, it may be his parents, wife, children, and grandchildren, or even his wife, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Whatever the situation, one thing is constant: a large number of innocent, helpless people are punished for something they did not do (quite often, the "criminal" also did nothing wrong). The safety of one's family serves as a strong incentive to cooperate with the state.