[Dean's World] Dean: The Truth About North Korea

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Posted by Dean:
The Truth About North Korea
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1152181625.shtml


   I was asked recently to post something about the real state of affairs
   in North Korea, which is almost certainly the most psychotically
   oppressive regime on the planet. Saddam's Iraq? Paradise. Castro's
   Cuba? Nice vacation spot. Taliban's Afghanistan? Close but still not
   as nasty as North Korea.

   But where to begin? I've read so much about it over the last several
   years, so much of it punch-in-the-gut horrifying it's hard to know
   even what to talk about. [1]Brendan Miniter has a good start on some
   links, and be sure especially to check the ones near the bottom of his
   article. Be especially sure to spend some time at [2]U.S. Committee
   for Human Rights in North Korea.

   See also [3]this Washington Post story. And [4]this one in The
   Guardian. And [5]this report from Richard John Neuhaus. Notice how
   whether you look to sources left, right, or (moderately) centrist, the
   story is the same: horror after horror after horror.

   Here's a sample:

     ased on eyewitness accounts of those who have fled the North Korean
     dictatorship, the stories curdle the blood. For instance, in the
     building of a highway near Pyongyang, a house was demolished and a
     Bible was discovered hidden between bricks. Along with it was a
     list identifying a Christian pastor, two assistant pastors, two
     elders, and 20 members of the congregation.

     All were rounded up and the five Christian leaders were told they
     could avoid death if they denied their faith and swore to serve
     only Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, the founder of the
     communist dictatorship. Refusing to do so, they were forced to lie
     down and a steamroller used in the highway construction was driven
     over them.

   Maybe little stories like that help bring the horror closer to home.
   Or maybe learning that the regime has intentionally starved at least 1
   million people to death in the last decade? Intentionally starved them
   to death.

   If there's a man alive on Planet Earth who needs killing, it's Kim
   Jong Il. No question about it. When that regime finally ends, people
   are going to ask, "how could you talk about the Jews and the
   Holocaust, but then sit still and let this barbarism happen and do
   nothing?

   But it's what we do: nothing.

References

   1. http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008610
   2. http://www.hrnk.org/
   3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41966-2003Oct3?language=printer
   4. http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,1136483,00.html
   5. http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=79