What do we know about this country? Is there any truth to the picture the media and defectors paint of them like the concentration camps and punishments over several generations?
Perhaps more importantly, does the goverment have any interest in following the road to socialism once they have a credible deterrent against imperialist powers, or is the leadership just pushing defensive measures to the extreme, at the massive cost for their citizen's wellbeing, in order to keep their power and muh privileged position?
The leadership is pursuing its own survival at all costs, that means resistance to US influence who will get rid of them. Developing the economy is up to a certain point arguably a threat to their position of power, in fact is more likely to ensure a revolution against them unless it coincides with reduction of the threat level overall. So the answer is no, unless that development = greater military capabilities.
Christopher Martin
As for the media and the defectors. The media sensationalizes and produces a lot of bs about North Korea and defectors often play along since its literally all they have. As for prison camps and the severity of punishment that is possible, I don't know about the several generations part but it is also possible because it helps as a deterrent for family members to (passively) support sedition and the like. It fits a state apparatus with siege mentality to operate harshly.
Julian Wilson
That would be possible, but in that case they could just follow China's path and liberalize the economy while keeping the absolute power politically, no? Accepting massive aid from China and increasing trade between the two is imo a way better strategy to stay in power than alianating even their closest allies and making military intervention a plausible scenario. China should have shown us that economic liberalization doesn't imply a loss of power, to the contrary the only reason why the CCP is still in their position is probably because they did manege to increase the economic wellbeing so much.
One reason I can imagine why they don't do this is that that the leadership doesn't want to go the same path economically as China and know that China isn't going to accept the North Korean regime acting sovereignly and possibly endangeing the Chinese grip on the country. If they really just cared about their positions and wealth the best bet i think would be to give up sovereignty and accept what the Chinese want in exchange for help and protection instead of isolating themselves.
Christopher Johnson
There has been is some evidence that they try exactly this but the big difference is that North Korea isn't China. China has huge labour population whereas North Korea is actually very small, but is rich in mineral resources. Liberalization would make them über dependent upon exports and international price fluctuations.
What seems to have happened according to what I read is that they have allowed some more freedom for small farmers and petty bourgeois traders to operate. They apperantly also developed a domestic IT economy from their North Korean Intranet project years ago.
The Policy of self-reliance is actually vital to their power (next to military first), given they can survive even the worst conditions (even if it means starvation for the ordinary people). Which actually creates a better position for them to barter with foreign powers. Any sort of economic development like China's makes them vulnerable to foreign influence, competition and the effects of price fluctuations. Just look at what has happened to Venezuela as a worst case scenario of such a situation. North Korean state power is uncontested and untreated under the status quo even though it might seem otherwise.
There is no reason why North Korea would give it up, they have China exactly where they want them for the most part. China needs North Korea to counter US hegemony by proxy. North Korea depends upon China for a lot of support (as well as selling those aforementioned minerals), but China has more to loose than they stand to gain by removing them and the North Korean government knows this. That is why they act as they do and they get away with it, slaps on the wrist by the PRC are often symbolic and not actually effective as deterrent. Before imposing sanctions they imported a years worth of coal and other minerals from North Korea.
Noah Nelson
Search DPRK 360 on YouTube
John Martin
What role do military threats and dick waging play in NK elite's efforts to stay in power? Wouldn't it be better for them to do their thing, keep developing weapons and just don't bring attention to themselves by threatening US and her allies?
Brody Lopez
If they make a scene then the US invading and subsequent nuclear strikes will fall squarely under "you knew this would happen" and it would be an extremely damaging blow to America's relationships. If the US invaded DPRK and they actually nuked some part of the US it might actually be enough to start a rebellion or even civil war given the state of things here.
Spoiler : very little. The people live here relatively happily as long as they obey the principles, it's very clean, very ordered, and pretty much always kept fanatically clean just in case Kim comes knocking. Schools are functional, hospitals too, the buildings are very tall, very imposing, and built in a retro-futuristic style that gives them a weird impression of being somewhere else in time.
Almost all streets, building and towns, feel empty, like ghost towns because people are very secretive and the towns are vastly over-dimensioned. A lot of people in uniform fucking everywhere.
Kayden Morales
Putting the military first is a covert operation to withdraw the state from the economy. Also, it creates a big army of cheap labourers fit, obedient and pumped with patriotism instead of old citizens.
The army is often tasked to help farmers in the North during harvests.
Aiden Wright
A workers' paradise. For more reliable information: korea-dpr.com
James Davis
They wouldn't have such economic hardships if they didn't put the military first in to the extend that they do. If it weren't for the constant threats and military provocations there also wouldn't be as much justification for the international sanctions that drag down the economy.
Bentley Baker
It's a small country. When you drive through a country with low density like Russia or Finland you will feel a similar vibe. Watch these GoPro videos in Pyongyang on YouTube, you will see that life goes on relatively normal although I can not say how often the average North Korean citizen is able to use installations like museums, planetariums and water parks.
The state didn't just "withdrew" from the economy, the central planning completely collapsed in the 90s, they had to allow black markets and such to overcome the food shortage and such. Under Kim Jong Un's administration, Songun policy has been reduced and it has been announced to go back to the system of his grandfather, more detailed five year plans were drafted, and the political expression of Songun has been removed by merging the National Defense Comittee with the Civil government. The state is in the process of almost completely getting control of the economy back.
Again, that's just untrue. Kim Jong Un has rejected the military first policy and has managed to simultaneously develop both the civil economy as well as the military. He even purged cronies of his father who were proponents of military first (remember the whole "fed to the dogs" horror story they perpetuated in western propaganda?) Here you have an article of an American think tank crying how they manage to have economic growth and ICBMs despite of the growing irrelevance of the economic zones and great reductions in foreign trade: 38north.org/2017/09/rfrank091817/ The guy writing this article is obviously a blatant anti-communist and is unable to wrap his head around the fact that a socialist economy performs well. It's an interesting article to read because he uses reliable data.
Luis King
Arguably I don't really know much aside from tidbits which led me to think the country is being more lenient with 5-year plans.
Tourism, small shops, and a few other things, are now entirely privatised.
Luis Ross
Maintains state of siege, which stabilizes the North Korean state's hold over their society. Think of it as psychological warfare. Among other things, there are also other aspects. Besides the fact the North Korea is still officially at war. I think the sablerattling is also part of playing China and the US against each other which helps them improve their position in regional relations ironically (it does not make friends though).
Justin Butler
Where do you find all this information? Is there a good book I can read or is it all just scrambled together from the few sources not fed through the filter of western propaganda.
Jonathan Miller
38north.org/ is a decent start, although it's pro-western and anti-socialist, so critical reading is required, I use it mostly because their sources of data and information are mostly reputable.
Additionally to that, this is a really good article that debunks the claims about racism and a caste system, and also shows the genesis of the so-called academic information about the DPRK in the West (spoiler: it almost always goes through some US foreign policy or South Korea think tank): rhizzone.net/articles/songbullshit/
Nathan Johnson
North Korea is secretly a utopia. Watch Jason Unruhe and donate to him so he can fund expedition.
Caleb Russell
Butthurt American detected.
Josiah Gonzalez
This is a really bad article of the do-you-have-a-single-non-imperialist-source-to-back-that-up level.
Jose Carter
I'm not a murrilard. And I genuinely want to see it happen.
Colton Turner
lmao you're fucking delusional. what do you want the leadership to do, commit suicide and then welcome the USA in to enslave everyone?
Cooper Stewart
KYS
Gabriel Peterson
It's a repressive shithole, but most of the horror stories you hear are put out by literal tabloids in South Korea and picked up by mainstream foreign media. Several defectors have recanted a lot of bullshit they were paid to say or were found out to not even be from North Korea. I'm not even a tankie. I just don't think it does any good to exaggerate the crimes committed by North Korea and it lessens the real horrors.
I highly doubt they give a shit about actually pursuing socialism in any form. It's a brutal dictatorship. Of course that doesn't in any way excuse American imperialism and threats to slaughter North Koreans.
