North Korea - still well short of entering the 20th century successfully.
Foreign journalists and diplomats who visit North Korea tend to come away with an uneasy feeling they never got anywhere else.
What you tend to hear from them is things like, “I’ve been to loads of dictatorships and oppressive countries before. But in the old communist countries, or in fundamentalist Muslim countries, you almost always met ordinary people who’d tell you (off the record, when they were sure nobody else was listening) what they REALLY thought of the government.” In most other dictatorships, you’d find that, privately, people didn’t really believe anything the government told them, and were even willing to laugh at their government. Moreover, most people were EXTREMELY curious about life in the outside world, and would jump at the chance to ask foreigners about what things were like in their homelands.
But not in North Korea. North Koreans NEVER volunteer opinions or information to outsiders, never deviate from the Party line, and never show any curiosity about the outside world… which means that, either North Koreans as a whole are frightened of their leadership to an unparallelled degree, or they really have drunk the Kool-Aid and genuinely believe in everything the Kim dynasty has beaten into their heads the past 60 years.
Perhaps SK might have a market for exotic pets?
I am under the impression it is both. The nation is run on the principles of brainwashing and mistrust of all your neighbors/family (people have to attend daily criticism sessions of their neighbors where everyone rats on everyone, and takes part in group punishment, it makes it hard to trust anyone in that situation), and then the Kims come in and offer comfort and security from the problem they created. It is no different than a cult or an abusive relationship where they do that, except 100x worse. And in those situations you get a lot of people who condone the abuse and think it is right, and think their abuser is their savior.
I’ve read many defectors do eventually realize that most of the situation is bullshit, but I think a lot of NK people who have never had foreign media have no idea how untrue what they hear is. Even if they do, again, you create a nation of paranoid people who will never trust authority again.
My pet project when I win the lottery…a leafletting campaign for the 21st century…
Mass manufacture millions of tiny earpiece digital receivers, small enough to be easily concealable and unnoticed when wearing. Put them all in a nice piece of chocolate or marzipan or something else edible. Better yet, in a small packet of farmable seed. Saturate the cities and countryside with airdrops. Have the earpieces constantly tuned to an appealing anti-propaganda that plays tons of music, arts, an audio-play of the first season of “Lost”, sifted in with world news. Irresistable.
I think ‘Never’ is not really accurate. During the devastating Won devaluation in 2010, North Koreans who escaped through the porous border to China reported the vocal frustration, anger, disgust, and sadness among those remained in North Korea over their savings suddenly becoming worthless, and a growing resentment with then leader Kim Jong-il.
There are approximately 3000 successful defections from North Korea every year, not counting those who are caught en-route and either shot on the spot or forcibly repatriated; these are people who are not asleep or numb to the allure of the possibility of a better life, and are willing to risk their lives to attain it.
Also, North Koreans are not as insulated from the outside world as one may be led to believe. There’s a growing black market for banned TV shows, movies, and small electronics, such as DVD players and writers, that get smuggled over the Chinese border. Granted, a relatively small number of the populace know such things exist but, like anything forbidden, the demand is increasing.
Perhaps North Korean citizens have begun lacing their Kool-Aid with No-Doz.
I’m not quite sure how this is different anywhere else.
It sounds a lot like my family.
Generally-speaking it’s great for a poor country to have a wealthy neighbour. Countries that are in such a situation experience a very quick rise in living standards as soon as they have anything approaching a free market.
In NK’s case, sandwiched between a superpower and one of the world’s wealthiest nations, I find it hard to imagine a situation in which the country could be peaceful, have a free economy, and yet not have its economy skyrocket overnight. Just providing an infrastructure link would be big business. If anything there is a danger of the economy growing too fast and having an asset bubble.
“Honey, why is your stomach insulting our Great Leader?”
Just to clarify: I mean “skyrocket” relative to where it is. So, say, sustained growth rates of 15-20% a year.
Of course even with such rates it could take two decades to have a living standard approaching that of the poorest Western nations.
I’ve read the spread of $3 radios and $0.15 vcds is playing a big role, supposedly about 20% of the country uses those. I don’t know if the rest can’t afford them, don’t know about them or just don’t want them for fear of punishment.
Mexico begs to differ.
Having a totally screwed up society full of traumatized, unskilled people with brain damage from famine could do it.
You left out Option #3: Both #1 & #2. North Koreans generally have “drunk the kool-ade” and are very afraid of their own government.
I thought that would come up.
But, it’s debatable whether Mexico counts as a “poor country” in this context. It’s in the world’s top third for GDP per capita according to most sources (and only barely outside the top third in others).
I wasn’t claiming that being next to a rich country is sufficient to make a country rich; just that poor nations will see their economies grow very quickly.
Also I did say if a poor country is peaceful.
Mexico’s drug war has become intense enough to count as an actual war according to organisations such as the UN.
That’s true of lots of poor countries. Clearly it is possible for a country’s economy to grow rapidly in spite of this.
And have nothing to which they can compare what the government tells them, I imagine.
Do they even have radios? Can they get South Korea radio shows? Would they even know what “oppa gangnam style” means?
Regards,
Shodan
They might not know the latest internet fads, but some, especially near the Chinese border, do get smuggled South Korean TV shows, which are incredibly popular across Asia right now.
At the very least, many know South Korean lifestyles aren’t as bad as they were led to believe.
But there’s a big difference between that and an ability to get rid of all the indoctrination. For example, some North Korean refugees in South Korea will readily admit they’ve been lied to their entire lives. But when asked about the possibility of war, some will exhibit remnant bits of nationalistic pride and claim North Korean soldiers are individually better than their South Korean or American counterparts.
Belief is a funny thing. It crops up sometimes, even if you think you’ve excised it.
In large part thanks to being next to the US; most of their money and weapons comes from us. The US has been a curse on Mexico.
This reminds me of a documentary I watched a year or so ago that followed a number of escaped North Koreans who were trying to make their way through China, Laos, and Thailand to South Korea.
One of the women who’d left her little sister behind in North Korea when she escaped to China, was able to locate her some time later and have her smuggled over the border. Her sister, after arriving in China and spending time with her, decided she wanted to go back to North Korea saying she could not betray Dear Leader. Her older sister tearfully tried to convince her stay, but she was adamant that she wanted to go back, all while spewing seemingly memorized North Korean propaganda.
The girl was ultimately smuggled back into North Korea. Her older sister was absolutely distraught because she knew she’d probably never see her little sister again. It was heart-wrenching to watch.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the smugglers killed the girl who wanted to go back to the Dear Leader. She certainly couldn’t be trusted to keep her mouth shut, and the smugglers had to know they were facing death if they were turned in.
I don’t know. These clandestine cross-border treks occur multiple times a day, every day. Sometimes the patrols are in on it as they’re paid off with opium and electronic goods from China.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the girl made it back to North Korea safely with no one the wiser.