Repression during Kim Jong Un’s decade in power leaves North Korean defectors with little hope
In the 10 years since Kim Jong Un came to power, North Korea has cracked down on people trying to leave the country, leaving many defectors with no hope of ever seeing their families and homeland again.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic reduced the number of defectors to a minimum, Kim oversaw increased controls and pressured China to tighten measures on its side of the border as well.
Only two North Korean defectors entered South Korea from April to June this year, the fewest in a single quarter, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry, which handles relations with North Korea. Activists say that several hundred can arrive in a typical quarter.
“He has unconditionally blocked all North Koreans who defect from the country,” said Ha Jin-woo, who worked as a “go-between” in North Korea to help defectors leave, before fleeing himself in 2013.
Among those who sought a new life in South Korea after Kim became a leader in 2011 following the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, some say the new leader did little to improve their lives.
“People say that living is too difficult these days because the government is taking more and more things from the people, and more people are starving,” Ha said.
But Kim has made some changes.
According to a report released by the Unification Ministry on Thursday, Kim has allowed the private sector to overtake state actors to become North Korea’s largest economic player over the past decade.
An initial rise in gross domestic product and improved livelihoods have been undermined by international sanctions imposed for Kim’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, the ministry said, while a UN rights researcher says that self-imposed pandemic border controls risk causing hunger among vulnerable North Koreans.
Style changes, like that of Kim showing apparent emotion last year during a speech on people’s hardships, have not translated into systemic reforms, and Kim has overseen the crackdown in other areas, such as foreign media.
“(Under Kim Jong Un) I felt more discipline at school,” said Park, a 23-year-old dropout who left North Korea in 2014 and asked to be identified only by his last name.
“For example, the school cracked down on school uniforms and hair. They more strictly banned South Korean movies or music.”
‘Real fears’
At least seven people have been executed under Kim for viewing or distributing K-pop videos, according to a report by a Seoul-based human rights group on Wednesday.
North Korea has not released the text of its new “anti-reactionary thinking law,” but according to the Daily NK, a Seoul-based website that reports from sources in the North, it includes long prison terms or even death for women. people caught importing or distributing foreign content, depending on the severity.
State media have said that North Korea would “collapse” if such foreign influence is allowed to proliferate.
“There are real fears that these strict measures will last much longer than the pandemic,” said Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea, which supports the defectors.
US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said its interviews with North Koreans who left after 2014, or who still have contacts there, suggest that while Kim opened up the economy, illegal border crossings became nearly impossible, corrupt practices normalized and government demands for unpaid labor increased.
“Like those of his father and grandfather, Kim Jong Un’s government is built on brutality, fear and repression, instigating systematic rights violations, economic hardship and possible famine,” said Lina Yoon, lead researcher at HRW in Korea, in a statement.
The North Korean leader’s legacy ‘is one of brutal repression, purges, executions, food insecurity, suffering’
North Korea does not respond to questions from foreign journalists, but has denied allegations by rights researchers, the United Nations and others who have criticized both the humanitarian situation and rights abuses.
Kim’s empathetic style of showing emotion resonates strongly among North Koreans who have been taught to worship their leaders as gods, said Han Ji-yeon, 30, a defector who arrived in South Korea in 2015 and now leads a YouTube channel.
“(But) if the result is always the same, I wonder if the North Koreans will not believe it at some point … even those tears will not be effective,” he said.
(REUTERS)
