Life in North Korea

Today I wanted to talk about something that I've learned a little about in the past few days, and that would be North Korea. 

I don't want to talk about what everyone thinks of North Korea: a country full of nukes. 

I want to focus a little more about the day-to-day life in North Korea. 

As you might know, the official name for North Korea is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. My dad told me a few weeks ago that many countries who spice up their own name are sketchy. That's a paraphrase by the way. 

Just to give some examples: Canada is just Canada. China is the People's Republic of China. Many past communist controlled countries have done the same. 

I don't know the purpose of it. No one I know believes North Korea is some heavenly place even if North Korea tries to plant that image in our brain. They've done so many things to try to better their image, but there's so many obvious signs that the country is not that successful as it seems.

A satellite picture will show the amount of nighttime light in North Korea versus South Korea. Other than a few lights visible in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, the rest of the country is pitch black. 

Pictures that were supposed to be illegal were taken and leaked of North Korea, showing the extent of the poverty. 

There even have been people who have successfully defected from North Korea and lived to tell the story of that place. 

When it comes to brainwashing its citizens, North Korea reminds me a little of China, but it's a lot worse. Both North Korea and China censor things that would make their country look bad, but China still has a little bit of freedom. 

People in China are allowed to travel around for things. On the contrary, North Korea only allows you to leave the country if you have a really good reason, such as you need to visit a dying family member, or if you are leaving for labor reasons. They also have a social caste system that was prevalent in India but now has been abandoned. 

A child's parent's actions will dictate how they will live their life. It determines if he can leave the country, if he can get a good job, and if he can go to a good school.

Another big thing that North Korea uses to brainwash their kids is propaganda. They will do whatever they can to make themselves look like heroes and make America look like a big stinking mess. 

One big propaganda used to glorify North Korea is the USS Pueblo. This was a spy ship attached to Navy Intelligence. It was attacked and captured by North Korean troops. The crew were taken prisoners and likely taken to labor camps or killed. The ship was in what they thought were international waters, but North Korea tells their kids that the U.S. deliberately sent this ship in to attempt to destroy North Korea.

The ship is a site where many kids still go to. 

In addition to that, North Korea has many posters. They depict Americans as horrible and cruel slobs that will torture their enemies. They even have drawings of Americans picking the toes off of a North Korean girl and eating them. 

They even have a TV show where a hedgehog will repeatedly cleverly escape from a tiger. It seems very obvious that the big clumsy tiger symbolizes USA and the clever nimble hedgehog is North Korea.

Even defectors have been scared to go to the USA because of stories they heard, only to be shown that all those stories were bullcrap. 

North Koreans live in an impoverished country that only cares about their military prowess. Many don't even have electricity or running water.

It truly sucks.

Thanks for reading my blog today!