North Korea

The worst place on earth

A country with little hope of change

Aug 11th 2012 | from the print edition

The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future.By Victor Cha. Ecco; 530 pages; $29.99. Bodley Head; £25.Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

NORTH KOREA’S young new dictator, Kim Jong Un, has a taste for funfairs, miniskirts and Winnie the Pooh. This seemingly cuddly outlook, along with hints of a few substantive reforms, has spawned hopes that Mr Kim might be ready to open up his country, ending the benighted isolation in which his people suffer hunger and disaster, and oppression harsher than anywhere else on the planet.

Yet as Victor Cha’s new book makes clear, this is an unreformable regime. Whereas other Communist dictatorships, such as China’s, have sought to stay in power by making their people prosperous, the Kim dynasty, of which the young Un represents the third ruling generation, relies on impoverishing them and keeping them from any knowledge of the outside world. North Korea is an economic disaster, where hundreds of thousands are this year yet again desperate for food. Any serious economic reform threatens the Kims’ hold on power. It is not on the cards.

Despite this, Mr Cha, an American academic who worked on Korea in the National Security Council during the Bush administration, manages to conclude his engrossing book on an optimistic note: that sooner or later it will be reunified with the thriving, democratic country that occupies the southern half of the peninsula.

That would have been a common view a generation ago, when the wounds left by the Korean war’s arbitrary division of an ethnically homogeneous nation still bled, and millions of Koreans in the south yearned to be reunited with separated family members. However, the reunification of Germany drove home just how much it costs a rich capitalist country to absorb a poor Communist one. After 1989 the reunification of Korea seemed to be something to be deferred indefinitely rather than embraced. Mr Cha notes a shift, however; in South Korea, unification “is now discussed more openly than ever in the past decade”. The current president, Lee Myung-bak, has even raised the possibility of a “unification tax ”.

Since reunification offers virtually the only hope for North Korea’s unfortunate people, it is understandable that Mr Cha cleaves to the idea. He acknowledges the obstacles, but perhaps does not give them sufficient weight. China, allergic to the notion of a country where American forces would have bases on its border, will take a lot of convincing. And every country—including America, Japan and South Korea—will worry about the chaotic collapse that might precede absorption. One reason the appalling North Korean system has lasted so long is that so many of its “enemies” have an undeclared interest in its survival.

Despite a profusion of grammatical errors and\ the occasional malapropism, “The Impossible State” is accessible and readable. It offers perhaps the best recent one-volume account of North Korea’s history, economics and foreign relations. Those already familiar with the outlines will enjoy Mr Cha’s anecdotes from his time in government, and gossip from the abortive negotiations to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear arsenal. As Mr Cha concedes, it will never do so under this regime.

As is perhaps inevitable for a former official, he cannot resist some score-settling. His argument that the breakdowns in talks with North Korea during his time in office were always entirely the North’s fault is not always wholly convincing. But he has a point that American administrations of all ideological stripes find themselves backed into the same corner and, basically, the same policies, by North Korea. And he is surely right that the common tendency in the West to blame America for North Korea’s provocations is ludicrous. America may sometimes be inept or hypocritical. North Korea’s rulers are just plain evil.

from the print edition | Books and arts

The worst place on earth

Aug 16th 2012, 09:06

Famous Victor Cha is a prominently skilled negotiator in Northeastern Asian affairs. He was former American President George W. Bush's top advisor on North Korean affairs and deputy head of US delegation in Six-Party Talk from 2004’s December to 2006’s fall. His long-term career in American and Asian media, adding to his work for Washington D.C, reflects on numerous reports, papers and publication, comprised of a large amount of hard-working writings.

As a representative in Six-Party Talk, Victor carefully manipulated multilateral diplomatic relations between Beijing, who chairs the talk (the present Chinese representative is Dai Bing-guo), and Washington administration. From his accumulating experience, he has certain understandings about Korea peninsula, especially predicting the young leader in Pyongyang, Kim Jong-Un. Undeniably, Victor is one of the few researcher who constantly focuses on Northeastern Asian geopolitics. But after scanning the Economist’s brief, I hold the conservative attitude toward his book. The basis of North’s history and economy relative to this book is from his own eyesight and, seemingly, lacks of the direct evidence provided by local or indigenous ordinaries. That is to say, his individualism may be too much in this new book.

About North’s past, present or future, there are two more for advanced reading - about depiction of whole social situation or author’s thoughts of contemporary political evolution. These books are “Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader” by Bradley K. Martin and “Nothing to Envy” by Barbara Demick, respectively containing the viewpoint of the Kim Family’s foundation of Pyongyang’s regime with author’s dexterous experienced reporting and some famous examples of near-time ordinary life (most of them are defectors from North).

For a short time, North’s economy had been better than Southern. So had North’s military and culture. In Martin’s book, there are detailed description and photographs in the process of his report and visit due to his traveling life in North Korea. And for about ten years, I keep contact with the late Kim Jeon-Il and his son Kim Jeon-Un through upcoming prime minister Li Ke-qiang. Sometimes, I think that the economic embarrassment in North may be easily dealt with but there are impediment such as the late’s unstable health, and serious corruption or power struggle - annoying the late Kim the most - among political factions.

At 67th anniversary of World War Two’s end, East Asian nation commemorates the historical miserable. Time after time goes by with wax and wane. The nation play paradoxical role in Six-Party Talk- sometimes they cannot be recognized as ally or the hateful to each other. North Korea, as the most impoverished and isolate among these six, depends on the traditional land service, troops and nuclear weapon’s technology so that North can keep face at international stage with China’s support. On the contrary, it’s said that Japan, South Korea and America show the cooperation in front of the world.

From the last late month, China, Japan and Korean peninsula get tightened after Japan’s defense ministry released the research about world’s top 10 army and the potential crisis surrounding Japan. Last week, the dispute over Takeshima in Japanese or Dokdo in Korean suddenly returns to 2002’s situation, especially after South Korea’s president Lee Myung-bak stubbornly toured islets. By this released research to see land army in six nations, China owns the strongest (1.6 million, but more in reality) and North has second 1.02 million while South holds the advanced facility (0.52 million with US 29086) and Japan has just 0.14 million. In the term of navy, North has worse navy and air force than South and Japan, let alone America while China gets the latest Eastern-Wind missile, J-20 for preparation of potential crisis.

So young Kim needs more China’s friendship. From 2000, China’s former vice-president Tsang Qing-hung assisted the late Kim to promote Sino-Korean trade affairs. After the last time 2008’s recovery of late Kim’s health, these two Kim became active in market supervision and strengthened the position in the world by restructing troops. According to Nikkei last week, in 2012’s first half, Sino-Korean trade amount increases 24%, with young Kim putting forward the economy-first thoughts after the late’s military-first one. China and North strengthens the tie, after the young Kim’s missile test several months ago, by a meeting between the young Kim and Chinese Communist Party’s contact minister, Wang Jia-ruan on two weeks ago. His uncle Jang Song Thaek visited Beijing this week for the reservation about young Kim’s visit to Beijing in the future. Also, Japan wants to ease tension by rebooting talks on Aug.29, through the mechanism of Red-Cross, after 2008’s meeting urged by Japan’s former minister Yasuo Fukuda. Hope goes as willing live forever, like Super Junior’s “Hope is a unstoppable dream of liveliness”.

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*附北朝鮮官方媒體Korean Central News Agency的金正日新聞照片及NBC 2011年「The Life of Kim Jong Il」描述金正日的先軍政治和一代強人風範

Korean Central News Agency / Korea News Service via AP Images

Undated

Kim Jong-Il takes part of a souvenir picture during his childhood with his parents, Kim Jong-suk, right, and leader Kim Il-sung.

Korean Central News Agency / Korea News Service via AP Images

1980

Kim Jong-il attends at the first meeting of the Sixth Central Committee of North Korean Workers’ Party. He was named Politburo Presidium member and a member of the Central Military Commission at the meeting.

AFP / Getty Images

1988

Kim Jong-il meets with Korean People’s Army personnel.

AFP / Getty Images

1999

Kim Jong-il waves to a military parade to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

Getty Images

2000

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il are all smiles as they raise their arms together at the signing ceremony of a joint agreement for cooperation between the two Koreas upon concluding the second day of summit meetings in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

Chien-min Chung / AFP / Getty Images

2000

Kim Jong-il toasts U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Pyongyang.

AFP / Getty Images

2001

Chinese President Jiang Zemin poses with Kim Jong-il in Beijing.

Korean Central News Agency / Korea News Service via AP Images

2001

Kim Jong-il has a conference with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

AFP / Getty Images

2001

Chinese President Jiang Zemin is greeted by Kim Jong-il at the Pyongyang airport.

STR / AFP / Getty Images

2007

South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun is greeted by Kim Jong-il during a welcoming ceremony in the capital Pyongyang. North and South Korea were proclaimed as separate nations in 1948, three years after the peninsula was divided between U.S. and Soviet zones of influence.

Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service / AP Photo

2009

Kim Jong-il and high-ranking North Korean officials sit in front of a giant red flag with an image of his father, late Kim Il-sung during a gathering at an auditorium in Pyongyang to mark the 15th anniversary of the death of the country’s founder.

Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service / AP Photo

2010

Kim talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao during his visit to China.

Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service / AP Photo

2010

Kim Jong-il (front row, second from right) poses with senior officials of the Workers’ Party, including a man believed to be his third son, Jong-un (left), Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho, and Kim Yong-nam (right), Kim Jong-il's long-serving No. 2, in Pyongyang.

2011

Dmitry Astakhov / RIA Novosti / AP Photo

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev shakes hands with Kim Jong-il, at a military garrison outside the capital city of Ulan-Ude, Buryatia.

Son and Heir

Yao Dawei / Newscom

North Korean senior leader Kim Jong-il (right) with his son and heir, Kim Jong-un, in Pyongyang in October 2010.

Happy family

X marks the spot

Calling on a cotton farm