ONE FACT YIELDS A DOZEN

by joyce kwon

Viewing contemporary North Korea through the lens of history

One fact can yield multiple interpretations. We look to the same cloud but you see a hippo and I, a grazing cow. We witnessed the same rocket launch but we saw a nuclear missile test and they, an experimental communications satellite. But the fact remains. There is a cloud in the sky and it was created by a rocket launch on April 5, 2009. Our interpretation of this fact, then, cannot hinge merely on the fact itself, but must be taken in political, social, and in particular, historical, context.

We must resist the temptation to give in to convenient cookie-cutter paradigms of understanding North Korea, spoon-fed to us by the American media. Instead, we need to actively seek out alternative viewpoints arising from research and reflection. In this way, we may progress beyond the simplistic caricature of North Korea as a brainwashed nation under a lunatic leader, and begin to dialogue on the current state of North Korea on a deeper and better-informed level, while remembering its place in history.

Unified Korea had existed for about a couple thousand years, starting off as a few kingdoms that eventually formed Koryo Dynasty in 918 AD, until it was divided by foreign superpowers at the end of World War II. Liberation from the Japanese annexation of 1910 to 1945 over the Korean peninsula proved short-lived, as the US and the USSR promptly divvied up the nation in their race to win the Cold War against each other, snuffing out Korean hope for true independence and liberation from imperialism. In this climate, North Korea established itself as a sovereign nation on September 9, 1948, under leaders of many competing Communist factions, and initially struggled with internal conflicts arising from the great amount of diversity in the ideological spectrum.

However, anti-Japanese partisan Kim Il-Sung gradually rose up and purged all rivals to his own guerilla faction that fought in the mountains of Manchuria. He built himself up as a nearly mythological and invincible figure, effectively deifying himself and mobilizing an entire nation to form his own cult of personality that would continue to worship him, even after his death in 1994. Mindful of the weight and power of history, he eliminated the “Hojok,” the Korean family registry, so that his own family lineage would become the only legitimate subject of “Chesa,” or ancestral worship. In addition, he greatly exaggerated each North Korean feat over the South and the U.S., such as the USS Pueblo Incident on January 23, 1968, in which North Korea captured a U.S. Navy surveillance ship. The North Koreans still have this ship on display as a historical reminder of their accomplishment; by continuing to maximize the significance of this incident, they breed a sense of national pride coupled with a hatred for all things American.

This anti-Americanism certainly did not grow out of nothing. We must not forget the atrocious American aerial bombings on North Korea in the early 1950’s, in which the American forces casually dropped napalm that leveled cities and burned millions of innocent civilians to death. These attacks also destroyed crucial irrigation dams for the North’s food supply, contributing to death from starvation, since instant deaths from fire-bombings failed to satisfy the American appetite for carnage. While this event has been conveniently erased from our collective historical memory, the North Korean regime continues to vividly remind their citizens of this horrific American legacy, holding the U.S. accountable for its overlooked war crimes to ensure that history does not repeat itself.

In response to its violent history, North Korea has invested in an extensive underground system to protect itself and has made the military its number one priority, over the starving population and dwindling economy. It makes sense that a small nation once nearly wiped out by the U.S.’s weapons of mass destruction would desire the means to protect itself. The country’s military power offers it a bargaining chip in negotiating during six-party talks regarding its nuclear program. Otherwise, North Korea would have little to no power in resisting the demands of the U.S. and its allies; it would be coerced into giving up whatever semblance of independence, dignity and pride it possesses and prizes for having clenched onto its beliefs for over half a century, despite unfavorable conditions with the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the U.S. as a superpower.

In light of history, we can begin to understand the present North Korean regime and its actions without falling back on half-baked and misconstrued perceptions, readily formulated by the American regime to pacify inquiring minds. Let us wake up from our collective amnesia and remember the history of the U.S.–Korean relationship in analyzing North Korea today. Without looking back to history, we cannot interpret the present. And that’s a fact.