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 is wrong. To put this into perspective better based on the data from OEC North Korea spent just under $50 million just importing sculptures and I think a majority of the people who see this happening know that this is not an effort to make the overall population have a better life.
To the question about how the regime can control its citizens comes down to the point of how would it be possible to be so involved in their lives to the point where it is just the norm for the government to be associated with your daily life. This can be seen through the attempted movement of the citizens within the country since to leave the country they must obtain permission from the government and this even goes further to the point where the regime controls the movement within the country. The regime is also said to locate certain people to the poorer, less favorable parts of the country as punishment and even political persecution. It gets even worse when it comes to the point of freedom of speech and the media within the country. North Korea is regularly ranked near the bottom of the lists for freedom of speech and within a report from Freedom House it showed that the nation has “one of the most repressive media environments in the world”. Also, there is only a handful of high officials that even have access to internet and outside information. Living within the country seems to make it seem like there is no world outside the life that is offered to the citizens of the country. In a case though done by NGO it found that 35 out of 36 respondents who had enough freedom to just speak with them have said that they and their family make jokes about the regime. This might be a small case but there is not much information coming out of the very restricted country so even this information can help understand the citizens take on the regime itself.
We might be viewing the country differently from what it actually is since we might be seeing only one side of the story. We always are able to see the big celebrations with parades and marches that North Korea puts on with its citizens waving their flag proudly for the camera and this is seen as the majority of the country is backing the regime that constantly treats the citizens like nothing. This going back to the security of the people within the country can be seen as its citizens being ontologically secure since they seem to be happy with what is their lives and this is what is sent out to the world through the repressive media, but the truth that is seen through some small studies has found that they people of the country can see that they are oppressed and do not view their lives to be valued by their government since if the spoke ill they could be sent to prison or even worse. This side seems to be the more likely story with the ontological security of its citizens being not at all in the sense secure. They might be in a state of constant with them just getting by but imagine living in a place where one slip up and you could be sent to prison for expressing your views that differ from your government.
I like your implication and analysis of ontological security within the individual lives of every person living in North Korea. Within media especially, there is a notion that North Korea has brainwashed its people into robotic beings subjected under oppression with no reform or retaliation. While this is seemingly true for the mere fact fear is a major implication, people recognize their confinement to the country and understand the humanitarian crisis at hand. The options for escape are limited, however. Help of the international community is a necessity in order to provide a path to freedom. Either by democratic reform of eliminating elitist powers or through foreign aid and intervention all is necessary. North Korea can not continue their violations and can not set precedent for other elitist powers.
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