Civil War in North Korea

The Original divide of Korea

Korea was originally a part of the Japanese empire however after the end of the second world war the allies took it from Japan and split it between the U.S.A and the U.S.S.R. They split it across the 38th parallel (shown below).

Lead up to the War

 Many question if the Korean war was really between North Korea and South Korea or the U.S.S.R and the U.S. However in March 1949 Kim Ill Sung asked for Stalin’s permission to invade South Korea and he said no several times, as he saw it as not ‘advisable’. He finally approved it in January 1950. Showing that although Stalin wanted to spread communism he was able to see that South Korea may have a lot of military support and wasn’t willing to risk North Korea for a united Korea. However Kim ill sung was more single minded, Never once taking back his proposal over the course of almost a year; the first example of his overconfidence and lack of experience.

In addition to this it is highly unlikely that Kim Ill Sung would’ve let himself become Stalin’s puppet for two main reasons. Firstly in order for the public to feel threatened by him in the future he has to of appeared forceful at all times. Secondly, it simply isn’t in a dictator’s nature to let himself be controlled.

Despite this once the war started the U.S.S.R and the U.S saw it not only as an opportunity to help South Korea and North Korea but to cause the other to lose money and soldiers. The U.S.S.R and the U.S.As interests 

The War

The war began in June 1950 when North Korea invaded the south. The U.S then called on the U.N to brand the North Koreans as aggressors. The U.N did this, and for the first time, sent in military assistance. This however is probably more an indication of the U.N feeling threatened by Stalin rather than Kim Il Sung, because even though Kim Il sung wasn’t a puppet he was seen as one.

China intervened in mid-september. China had many reasons to want to intervene:

• They worried that the U.N forces would cross the border to china whilst still fighting the North Koreans.
• They worried that if they took North Korea it made it easier for them to invade China at any point in the future.

The thing that triggered Chinas attack was General McArthur marching his troops further than he had agreed with China.

The war then went on for a year until they reached a stalemate in 1951.They then went on to discuss the future state of the civil war however they only agreed on an armistice, a temporary truce.This leaves South Korea and North Korea technically still at war however whilst South Korea will avoid war at all costs North Korea would do anything they could to gain more power.

The point at which they decided to split the country on was the 38th parallel, coincidently the place it was originally split on after WW2.

Escaping the Prison Camps

• Escaping Korea through the North/South divide is pretty much impossible. It is armed with North Korean soldiers and the wide area of No-mans land makes picking escapees off easy. They have a shoot to kill policy.
• Instead most people go through China and round, before coming back to Korea, this time entering through the South. South Korea is nearly always the destination of escapees.
• Because of the use of China as an escape route, a network, known as the Chinese Network, was formed. They arm the people attempting to escape with some money for a ticket, a switch blade (to kill themselves, not for defence) and some ground up chilies, to throw at attackers faces.
• Often people do not make it, and are either sent back, or become victims of human trafficking. They become sex slaves or are sold as wives to rural living Chinese men. They cannot find a legal job or even be seen due to a lack of documents.
• The woman are not always overly upset as they consider forced marriage a lesser of the two evils.
• Kids born to these women often end up in limbo when the North Korean Guards come back and take away the mothers. They have no paper work and therefore, officially, do not exist. Neither China or North Korea will accept responsibility for them, even their fathers sometimes abandon them.

Timeline of Recent North Korean activity (2013):

12 Feb:          North conducts underground nuclear missile test.

11 Mar:          US-South Korea annual military drills begin.

30 Mar:          North says it is entering a "state of war" with South.

2 Apr:             North says it is restarting Yongbyon reactor.

3-26 Apr:        North precipitates the shutting down of Kaesong industrial zone.

2 May:            North jails US man for 15 years.

22 May:          North sends envoy to China.

10 June:         North and South agree to government-level meeting in Seoul.

North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Development Timeline

1985

North Korea joins the Treaty of the non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as a non-nuclear weapon state.

1986

They start their operation of a five-megawatt nuclear reactor at Yongbyon after seven years of plan with Soviet help.

1993

They say they will quit the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, but later delays their withdrawal.

1994

They sign an agreement with the US under which the North shuts down the plutonium-based Yongbyon nuclear reactor in exchange for help in building two nuclear reactors for producing electricity.

2002

January 29

The US president, George Bush, labeled North Korea, Iran and Iraq an "axis of evil".

October 4

Washington says North Korea admitted to a visiting US delegation that it has a uranium enrichment program.

November 21

US-led consortium says it is suspending construction of the two new reactors.

2003

January 11

They withdraw from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

August 27-29

They join first round of six-nation nuclear talks in Beijing, which include China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US.

2005

February 10

They announce they have nuclear weapons.

2006

October 9

They hold an underground nuclear test blast.

2007

February 13

They agree to a six-nation talk to take first steps to disarmament, after the US moves to help free some $25m frozen in North Korean accounts.

July 14

North Korea shuts down its Yongbyon reactor.

September 6

Israeli warplanes bomb a Syrian nuclear reactor site allegedly built with North Korean design help.

October 3

The six countries at nuclear talks agree that North Korea will provide a complete declaration of its nuclear programs and disable facilities at its main reactor complex by December 31.

November 5

They start disabling the Yongbyon reactor under the watch of US experts.

December 31

They miss its deadline for declaring all its nuclear programmes.

2008

February 26

The New York Philharmonic performs in Pyongyang, in the highest-level cultural exchange between the US and North Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War.

April 24

The White House says North Korea assisted Syria's secret nuclear program and that the nuclear reactor destroyed by Israel was not intended for peaceful purposes.

May 8

North Korea gives the US more than 18,000 pages of records on the Yongbyon reactor after discussions between the two countries to resolve disagreements over what its nuclear declaration will include.

May 16

The US announces it will provide North Korea with 50,000 tonnes of food aid as a humanitarian gesture unrelated to the nuclear talks.

June 26

US begins steps to remove North Korea from list of states sponsoring terrorism after Pyongyang submitted inventory of its nuclear activities.

August 26

Pyongyang suspends disablement of nuclear facilities, accusing US of reneging on disarmament agreement.

September 3

South Korea says reconstruction has started at North Korea's Yongbyon complex.

September 24

UN nuclear inspectors expelled from North Korea, which pledges to resume plutonium processing.

October 12

Pyongyang says will resume dismantling nuclear weapons programme after US removes North Korea from list of terrorism-sponsoring states.

November 12

The relationship between North and South Korea get worse with Pyongyang announcing that it will close border crossings in December.

2009

February 24

Speculation mounts that North Korea plans long-range missile tests in defiance of American warnings not to destabilise region.

March 30

US and Japan deploy anti-missile batteries on land and sea to shoot down possible debris from the expected missile test although US insists has no intention of shooting down missile itself.

April 3

Barack Obama warns North Korea cannot go ahead with missile tests with permission.

April 4

Pyongyang launches a long-range rocket over Japan, drawing international disapproval.

Absolute Multi-Party Totalitarian Hereditary Military

North Korea call itself the 'Democratic People's Republic of Korea'. That would suggest that the people of North Korea have the ability to vote. However this is not the case. A dictatorship is a government that has the power to govern without consent of those being governed. This government is usually one person or a small group of people.

No one knows how North Korea works, the internal political structure is unknown. However, as far as we can tell it is technically an Absolute Multi-Party Totalitarian Hereditary Military Dictatorship. Multi-Party Totalitarian basically means, one can vote but there is only one name on the ballet and anyone who attempts a different vote is named an enemy of the state and is arrested.

Hereditary Military Dictatorship means, that it is an inheritable dictatorship and a dictator controls the army. The people of North Korea honestly believe they live in a powerful country due to their dictators threatening countries like America. Though their threats are ludicrous, they have been given what they want, in the past as an appeasement.

Daily Life in North Korea

• The nation’s isolationist attitude means its citizens are almost totally destitute by American standards and unaware of anything happening in the world.
• The average worker earns $2-$3 a month from the government.
• Some citizens also have a side job that may earn them up to $10 as well.
• All websites and tv programmes are censored and filtered.
• Citizens who have the privilege of access to electricity only receive this privilege for 1-3 hours a day, this is a privilege for 3.2 million citizens of Pyongyang.
• Pyongyang is made up of the citizens most loyal to Kim Jong-Il’s regime. The elite members of the public.
• In the countryside and suburbs alike, North Koreans are keeping warm by burning so-called “man-made coal”. Made from materials such as sawdust and dried corn stalks, these makeshift coals are being used in place of traditional fuels.
• There is a severe food shortage, which affects the whole population as rations are given out scarcely and starvation is a common cause of death.
• All land is state owned or collectively owned, therefore all housing is state provided.
• Material goods are scarce in North Korea and generally people do not have opportunities to be exposed to expensive commodities. This works to suppress any desire to own something.
• Basic goods are provided by the state either through ration or as a "gift" from the government (e.g. children's school textbooks or uniforms).
• Jobs are assigned by the state in accordance to its judgment of family rank, ability, and qualifications. Therefore it is unlikely for a high-ranking party officer's family to receive manual work in the mines or factories.
• Basic food is rationed, while one can buy canned meat or a small amount of vegetables either from a store or farmers' market.

Prison Camps in North Korea

• North Korea has, or had a population of 24 million people, somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 have ‘disappeared’. On satellite images, one can see a growing network of concentration camps in the country. And witnesses, mostly escapees, can confirm that they are exactly what everyone feared.
• 20-25% of the prison population is believed to die annually.
• People are often executed for a variety of reasons. ALL prisoners MUST watch.
• Prisoners are starved, leading to big heads and bloated stomachs. The supplied food is cornmeal and cabbage gruel. Often prisoners will eat rats and insects which they have caught to keep them alive.
• Categorisation of prisoners exists. If someone was 170cm, they should be 53.5kg-72.2kg. However in the camp the healthiest people (level 1) are 42kg. Once they have dropped to 40kg (level 2), they are moved to a less physically draining task, however it is still too big a strain for most. When they drop to 38kg or less (level 3), they are on the brink of death, and no change to their labour is deemed necessary.
• The average life expectancy, not including deaths under 5yrs old and executions, is 40yrs old. By 45, most woman's backs are bent 90
• Guards often terrorise and torture their captives. More often then not, this is for fun. The methods of torture are appalling. Fire is a common tool, and being eaten alive by the guard's dogs is not unusual. Small accidents and mistakes can lead to loss of fingers, ears and toes. Clock torture is used as a form of entertainment by the guards. Torturees must create a clock time, given to them by the torturer, with their hands. When they have, they are given another one to perform. This continues until they collapse from dehydration.
• Pregnancy is strictly banned unless, as a "reward" you are granted permission and the guards arrange a "marriage". If a woman, without permission, is found to be pregnant, the wards will cut her open, throw away the foetus and THEN execute her.
• They believe in the practice of '3 generation' punishment.This means that if a crime is committed the criminal will be put in a prison camp, as well as their families. If their families have children, those children will grow up in the camps. After 3 generations, their children are free to go.

Shin Dong-Hyuk

Shin Dong-Hyuk

Pregnancy is not allowed in the prison camps in general, that is unless, as a reward for hard work the guards arranged a ‘marriage’ for you, you may not live with your partner and may only see them, again, as a reward for hard work. Shin was the result of his parents being granted one of the rare reward for good behaviour. He spent his life there as a slave working hard labour on a diet made exclusively of cabbage and corn meal gruel and a few insects and rats he could catch,

Shin Dong-Hyuk

developing the survival skills – snitching and stealing – that were vital for a daily existence, constantly threatened by beating and starvation. At 13, when he learned that his mother and brother were planning to escape, he did what had become instinctive and betrayed them to the authorities. The pair were tortured before his mother was hanged and his brother shot. Shin, too, was tortured by fire, for weeks in an underground prison within the prison camp, within the prison state as the guard he told of their plan claimed that he had discovered the plan himself.

As he had lead a very controlled life so far with limited ideas, he did not know of a world beyond the camp, and therefore it never occurred to him to escape. That was until he met Park, a newer prisoner who knew of a life beyond the gates. With stories of food, not of ethics or freedom, he persuaded Shin to attempt escape with him. Unfortunately Park beat Shin to the fence and was electrocuted, killing him instantly. Shin then used Parks body to hold apart the wires, which he successfully managed to crawl through.

For months he traveled through North Korea and China and finally to South Korea, where he encountered a world completely strange to him.

He met a journalist who wrote a book on his life, it's called Escaping Camp 14.

Quotes:

'We also learnt from our teachers, who were also our prison guards, that they were humans and we were subhuman, like animals'

“I used to feel intense hatred for the guards. But now I think they are victims too."

“I was stripped, my legs were cuffed and my hands were tied with rope. I was hung by my legs and hands from the ceiling.

"Someone started a charcoal fire and brought it under my back. I felt the heat at my waist and shrieked.

"My torturers pierced me with a steel hook near the groin to stop me writhing. The pain was so bad that I passed out.’’

“I had no concept of human rights. I was only destined to live and die in this camp.

"We were always hungry, and the guards always told us ‘through hunger you will repent’.

An Introduction to North Korea

North Korea

Capital - Pyongang

Official Language - Korean

Population - 24,554,000 (2011 estimate)

Currency - North Korean Won

Current President - Kim Jong-un

This is our blog abour North Korea for a school project. A place to store the information for our project, making it easy to use and accesible. For the next few weeks we will be posting inforamtion about the history and current state of North Korea.