I’ve written this article about human rights in North Korea. Some parts are probably outdated now, but others are not, and the general lessons hold, I think.
All but very few of the citizens are isolated from all information from the outside, so that they have no way to know that the rest of world isn’t actually envious of the prosperity of North Korea and they aren’t under a constant threat from the US, and the south isn’t just US-occupied territory, etc. The only things that can weaken this information monopoly are phone networks from China that extend a bit across the border, leaflets from South Korea, and similar influences from the outside. But they are localized because people are not allowed to move freely within the country. The information monopoly of the government is probably fairly complete a bit further away from the borders. But note that I haven’t been following this closely in the past 5 years.
They also have this very powerful system in place where everyone is forced to snitch on everyone else if they learn that someone else knows something that they shouldn’t know or else you and your whole family can go to prison or concentration camp. The snitching is also systematically, hierarchically organized so that there are always overseers for small groups of citizens, and those overseers have their own overseers and so on, so that everyone can efficiently be monitored 24⁄7.
A big exception to that is all the “corruption” and the gray markets. They’ve basically become the real economy of the country. But those are mostly based on Chinese currency, Chinese phones and networks, etc. So again I think black markets would be easier to prevent if there were no outside influences.
Without outside forces to defend against, you can concentrate completely on using the military as a mechanism of oppression as opposed to giving it any real power. Almost everyone in NK is in the military but that’s just to keep them busy and to have them build stuff. They have no useful military training. The real military in NK is said to be well-trained but tiny by comparison. It would probably not be needed and even a risk factor if it weren’t for other countries.
That was probably a real mistake that Kim Il-sung made. Everyone thought that he was immortal, so when he died it was probably hard to spin. He should’ve predicted that he might die and create a fictional ruler from the start who would then really be immortal, sort of like with God and the pope or something. Generally he combined the most successfully manipulative strategies of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and others, so this seems like a strange lapse in evil judgment. An even more perfect system of oppression would probably not make such a mistake. But I suppose after his death he probably become the sort of incorporeal, immortal leader, so maybe that loose end is tied up now too, sadly.
I’ve written this article about human rights in North Korea. Some parts are probably outdated now, but others are not, and the general lessons hold, I think.
All but very few of the citizens are isolated from all information from the outside, so that they have no way to know that the rest of world isn’t actually envious of the prosperity of North Korea and they aren’t under a constant threat from the US, and the south isn’t just US-occupied territory, etc. The only things that can weaken this information monopoly are phone networks from China that extend a bit across the border, leaflets from South Korea, and similar influences from the outside. But they are localized because people are not allowed to move freely within the country. The information monopoly of the government is probably fairly complete a bit further away from the borders. But note that I haven’t been following this closely in the past 5 years.
They also have this very powerful system in place where everyone is forced to snitch on everyone else if they learn that someone else knows something that they shouldn’t know or else you and your whole family can go to prison or concentration camp. The snitching is also systematically, hierarchically organized so that there are always overseers for small groups of citizens, and those overseers have their own overseers and so on, so that everyone can efficiently be monitored 24⁄7.
A big exception to that is all the “corruption” and the gray markets. They’ve basically become the real economy of the country. But those are mostly based on Chinese currency, Chinese phones and networks, etc. So again I think black markets would be easier to prevent if there were no outside influences.
Without outside forces to defend against, you can concentrate completely on using the military as a mechanism of oppression as opposed to giving it any real power. Almost everyone in NK is in the military but that’s just to keep them busy and to have them build stuff. They have no useful military training. The real military in NK is said to be well-trained but tiny by comparison. It would probably not be needed and even a risk factor if it weren’t for other countries.
That was probably a real mistake that Kim Il-sung made. Everyone thought that he was immortal, so when he died it was probably hard to spin. He should’ve predicted that he might die and create a fictional ruler from the start who would then really be immortal, sort of like with God and the pope or something. Generally he combined the most successfully manipulative strategies of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and others, so this seems like a strange lapse in evil judgment. An even more perfect system of oppression would probably not make such a mistake. But I suppose after his death he probably become the sort of incorporeal, immortal leader, so maybe that loose end is tied up now too, sadly.