It's everywhere. I can't go anywhere and not hear about it. Kim Jong Il "The Great Leader" died. We know. We get it.
As an American, this was big news to me. I became really interested in North Korea (NK) in college after watching a National Geographic special. How an entire country could worship and follow one man, cut itself off from the rest of the world, and be a blank slate on google maps was beyond me. It fascinated me. Here in the Republic of Korea (the south) NK is just a crazy crazy country that causes problems every once and a while. Now a days, there are few who can distinctly recall the Korean War and there are precious few who have family still alive in the North. When the news reached Koreans there was a mix of emotions: mothers were nervous that their sons would be sent to war, families stocked up on ramyun, some celebrated with soju, while business men worried about their stocks plunging. There is no war, people stock up ramyun anyway, stocks did plunge, and there is still some soju left over. Korea moves on, all the while watching their northern neighbor with a weathered eye. They have, after all, been at war with the North since the 1950's.
When I watched that National Geographic special, they showed a clip of a mother and daughter walking hand in hand headed towards school. They were happy. They were an idyllic mother daughter couple. They were singing a lullaby about the blood of Americans flowing down the streets. Horrified? I was. After more research, it turns out that NK teaches it's citizens that the Americans invaded Korea, started the war, and are imperialist. Fantastic. Perhaps this is why Americans are so interested in the North. We are the enemy. We persuaded the south to follow our imperialistic ways and kill/torture/throw nukes at anyone and everyone who opposed. Muahaha
I have always looked at NK from a humanitarian point of view. Kim Jong Il has allowed his people to starve while he enjoys fine wines. He has opened labor camps and forced people who "break the law" (aka don't do worship him with every fiber in their Korean bodies) to live in a "Korean concentration camp" while his son, "The Great Successor" is fat and chunky and attended school in Switzerland. If people are caught defecting to China or the ROK they are killed, tortured, or put into labor camps until they die of exhaustion and starvation. Oh wait! Didn't Kim Jong Il die of exhaustion working for the good of the people? That's what the NK state television said. That's what none of us believe.
Many of us here in Korea, expats and Koreans alike, hope for a better future economically, politically, and nuclear (ly) between the two countries that share the same peninsula. We hope that the NK's are secretly excited that the Dear Leader is gone and that now their country and their people might have a chance at peace, growth, and a life without monthly food and fuel rations. It is my prayer and thought that truth and hope would enter into the country and that the people around NK (ROK, Japan, China, Russia) would want the same. One can dream right?
And for your viewing pleasure, this website which is freaking hilarious and always good for a laugh: Kim Jong Il looking at things.
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