History of North Korea (2019)

Reuploaded from the Ama Duniya Magazine in November 2019 at age 13, unedited from back then.

History of North Korea - by Ishaan Padhi

As most of everyone knows about North Korea, I'll explain from the start of the country, from start to present.

We would have to go back to 1910, after the two wars, the Empire of Japan won, and in 1910, Japan annexed all of Korea.

During the Occupation, Japan suppressed Korean Traditions, used the economy primarily for their benefit. During this time, Korean resistance groups such as the Dongnipgun (Liberation Army) operated along the Sino-Korean border, fighting guerrilla warfare against Japanese forces, one of the guerrilla leaders was the Communist Kim Il-Sung, who later became the leader of North Korea.

Divisions of Korea

At the end of World War II in 1945, Korea was split up along the 38th parallel, with the northern part occupied by the Soviet Union, and the south by the United States.

Soviet General Terentii Shtykov recommended the establishment of the Soviet Civil Authority which was the occupying government of North Korea and supported Kim Il-Sung as chairman of the Provisional People's Committee for North Korea.

In 1948, South Korea declared its statehood and two months later, Anti-Communist Syngman Rhee becomes the ruler.

Soviet forces withdrew from the North in 1948, and most American forces in 1949, Ambassador Shtykov suspected Rhee was planning to invade the North and was sympathetic to Kim's goal of Korean unification under socialism. Both Kim and Shtykov lobbied Joseph Stalin to support a quick war against the South and the Korean war begins.

The Korean War

The military of North Korea invaded the South on June 25th, 1950, and swiftly overran most of the country. A United Nations force, led by the United States, intervened to defend the South and advanced into North Korea. As they neared the border with China, Chinese forces intervened on behalf of North Korea, shifting the balance of the war again. On July 27th, 1953, with an armistice that restored the original boundaries between the two countries, the Korean war ended. With 3 million killed during the war, most North Korean buildings destroyed, North Korea suffered the most out of any country. In 1957, Industrial production had reached 1949 levels, in 1959, relations with Japan started to improve and allowing the repatriation of Japanese citizens in the country. In the same year, they revalued the Korean Won, in the 1980s, the economy had begun to stagnate and started its long decline in 1987, and completely collapsed in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, where all Soviet aid to the North had halted, so the North began reestablishing trade relations with China shortly thereafter, but the Chinese could not afford to provide enough food aid to meet demand and in 1994. Kim Il-Sung passed away due to a heart attack, and the same year, the Famine began.

The Famine

The famine, between 240,000 and 3,500,000 North Koreans died from Starvation or hunger-related illnesses, with deaths peaking in 1997.

Several factors caused the famine to happen, from Economic Mismanagement to loss of Soviet support. series of floods and droughts exacerbated the crisis.

North Korea's vulnerability to the floods and famine was exacerbated by the failure of the public distribution system. The regime refused to pursue policies that would have allowed food imports and distribution without discrimination to all regions of the country. During the famine, the urban working class of the cities and towns of the eastern provinces of the country was hit particularly hard. The distribution of food reflected the basic principles of the stratification of the socialist system.

Food was distributed to people according to their political standing and their degree of loyalty to the state.

The Kim Dynasty

If you haven't noticed, there's a really big connection between the 3 leaders.

Kim-Il-Sung, the first leader of North Korea is the father of Kim Jong-Il and the great-grandfather of Kim Jong-Un.

North Korea is ruled by the Kim Dynasty, which they call the Mount Paektu Bloodline.

It is a three-generation lineage descending from the country's first leader, Kim Il-Sung in 1948.

To solidify Mount Paektu Bloodline, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il have recalled all the family genealogy books under the pretext that familyism and regionalism are the hotbeds of the revolution. In 1958, North Korea declared its ideology to be socialism and took away all of the people's private property and dismantled family groups that had been living in the center of genealogy and ancestors.

The situation in North Korea

This article shouldn't simply just tell information, but to explain the situation in the country of North Korea, under a brutal dictator, all North Koreans are to be told to treat the leaders as "god-like creatures"

Anyone who attempts to speak out gets sent to a political camp. Which is brutal.

Simply ripping a poster off a wall resulted in the death of a college student, Otto Warmbier.

You see, in the capital of North Korea, only people loyal and trusted lives in Pyongyang. Tourists are allowed in the country, but must travel with a tour company, and are shown propaganda, or simply. What they want you to see. Rumors state that all the acts they put up are simply an act, like a play. Just to fool people into thinking North Korea is a stable, well country.

Every Citizen must be in the military at one point in their life.

The KPA has 1,106,000 active and 8,389,000 reserve and paramilitary troops, making it the largest military institution in the world.

Human rights is a major issue in the country, no freedom of the press, freedom of speech, you have no rights, you can be executed for listening to foreign music, movies. As of right now, North Korea has launch tested over 100 missiles, some that can hit the United States.

I believe that personally, the world should be doing something about them, try to help the people that are suffering in the country.

Being sent to camps for doing the smallest of crimes, even being executed. This is all wrong, and is a violation of our human rights, and something should be done about it.

I hope very soon, the North and South can unify as one country, and solve their issues, and hope that people in the country of North Korea do not suffer any longer under a brutal dictator.

Thank you for reading this article about North Korea, sources are from Wikipedia and the book Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee.