April 23, 2009

North Korea: Let Freedom Wring

The approach of North Korean Freedom Week (April 26-May 2) recalls my trip to Berlin as a college exchange student, courtesy of a West German propaganda operation. While our group was there, we were treated to a real 70s show – a lecturer’s authentic Realpolitik perspective as to why no one really wanted a unified Germany, socialist or capitalist.

The UK and France didn’t want to see their long-time rival strengthened. America found Europe so much more stable with the Teutonic horde divided into weaker camps. The Soviets? Less than eager for a unified, socialist Vaterland of Marx and Engels with claims on leadership of the communist bloc.

All this brand of conventional, cynical geopolitics accomplished was to condemn half a continent to two generations of oppression at the hands of communist goons, until pressure from dissident movements led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, which led to . . . aaaahhhh . . . freedom. Which is a good, if sometimes messy, thing.

Fast forward to 2009. The same Wimp-politik reigns in the world’s dealings with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which, of course, is neither democratic nor popular nor a republic nor all of Korea.

Most attention focused on North Korea relates to the health of its supremely nerdy Great Leader Kim Jong Il – and his efforts to obtain nuclear weapons and lob missiles in the general direction of Japan and Los Angeles. But like most despots, Kim is emboldened in his foreign misadventures by being allowed literally to get away with murder at home.

Check out the State Department’s list of horrors inflicted by this punk and his henchmen:

“(S)evere beatings; electric shock; prolonged periods of exposure to the elements; humiliations such as public nakedness; confinement for up to several weeks in small ‘punishment cells’ in which prisoners were unable to stand upright or lie down; and forcing mothers recently repatriated from China to watch the infanticide of their newborn infants.”

In fact, all 23 million-plus North Koreans are held prisoner by a ruling clique that deploys isolation, economic deprivation and starvation to maintain an inviolable grip on power. Yet just as was the case with Eastern Europe, the world is complicit in maintaining a cocoon of benign neglect around Li’l Kim’s pernicious playpen.

Because once again, the only thing the world fears more than Kim’s nuclear improprieties is the prospect of his collapse. With nothing to lose, he or his successors might unleash conventional and biological hell on more than 23 million innocents in metropolitan Seoul, minutes from the Demilitarized Zone. The economic costs of reunification could also devastate South Korea. Mr. Putin? Vladivostok’s just up the pike, but he mostly wants Kim around as a thorn in our side.

Still, the worst enabler is China, which trembles at the thought, however unfounded, of a destabilizing outflow of millions of refugees. So the Sino-tyrants pursue a cruel policy of putting defectors back into Kim’s bloodthirsty hands for death or worse, even though other nations have pledged to relieve any pressure by receiving refugees.

The truth is that obsessing over nukes and missiles is focusing on the symptoms, not the disease. The world must push for a little glasnost on the Peninsula.

So here’s how I want you to observe North Korea Freedom Week: First, go to www.nkfreedom.org and check out the events. Then, forward this column to the White House and/or your representatives in Congress and tell them you want to see the U.S. start leaning on Kim not just to stow his weapons, but also to lift the yoke of his cruel oppression. Or fax the Chinese Embassy (202-745-7473) and let them know of a product you intend to boycott until they start letting refugees pass through.

Because history shows us that the best way to stop Li’l Kim from holding the world hostage is to “let freedom wring” the absolute power from the punk’s evil grasp.