Group 1 Global Security Studies

When thinking about North Korea many questions can be asked about its population and even its leaders but a major question that has yet to be fully understood is how does a regime control the whole country? The problem within the country is that the government has everything and the people get the scraps that the higher up people decide worthy to be thrown their way. This can be easily seen with the only electrical output that you can see from pictures from space is the capital of Pyongyang and everywhere else it is black with little spots here and there throughout the country. The whole country being in a state of an electrical blackout can be okay if the country itself is not doing that well in aspects of their economy and their own natural resources but this is coming from a country that is attempting to create nuclear weapons and clearly has the money to invest into this and continue their trade with China so the argument that North Korea has no choice but to let its people suffer...

The supportive relationship China has with its neighboring country North Korea dates back to the Korean War. China’s political approach to supporting North Korea arose from the mindset of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ During the Korean War, China fought in support of Communist North Korea in retaliation of the United States interfering in South Korea. While the US and China have an unspoken pact to try and keep peace, it is quite clear that the two super powers disagree far more than they agree. Ultimately, China supports North Korea merely because they do not want to suffer from the instability it might cause if the state were to collapse under its current regime. While the human and individual security in North Korea is at risk from all the humanitarian injustice it’s people are enduring, the national security of the state has been far more constant with this regime. The insecurity of its people is only one cost of maintaining stability of the nation. To the North Korean g...

       In the 1990s, at the end of the Cold War when tensions in eastern Europe were easing and western Europe and the United States were enjoying a period of relative peace, the notion of ethnic cleansing or conflict of cultures was not prominent in the international community. After World War II, the international community set forth policies and law to ensure a genocide or unification of a single race would never plague any nation and that global diversity was a positive implication. However, the fall of the Soviet Union and the ending of the Cold War appeared to usher in a period of progressive ideas to promote stability in eastern Europe; however, ironically, the sudden independence of the former Soviet-controlled Balkan States led to a rise in nationalistic pride where religion was used as justification for war and ethnic cleansing.  The reunification of Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall, both symbols of the fallout after World War I...

           Imagine a situation in which the Kim regime was overthrown and in a swift and peaceful action the Korean peninsula becomes united once more. I understand that this situation is very unlikely, but I am interested in how North Koreans would begin their journey to assimilate into a sense of western culture. Many individuals living in this reclusive nation may be oblivious as to what is going on outside their boarders, thus their sense of reality would appear very different to outsiders. I want to explore the effects of life within North Korea and how individuals would adjust to live free from physical and political oppression, by analyzing the stories and experiences of escapees.             Shin Dong-hyuk, was born into a life of slavery in a North Korean labor camp for political prisoners. He spent the first twenty-three years of his life farming, mining, or performing any other tasks th...