North Korea - how has it got so dictatorial?

Everyone knows about North Korea and its situation.

Whether that may be a naïve teenager who sits at home playing video games in all their free time, or a political analyst who earns their living by talking about issues like these, we are all aware of Kim Jong-un and his autocratic control of the country. And it is also likely that we all have a basic knowledge of the increasingly escalating threat of nuclear war there. Just how has it got to this point?

Kim Jong-un, the much criticised and frankly crazy leader of North Korea is at the centre of this. It is his claims and threat of bringing war onto the USA and many of its allies that have started ringing alarm bells in many minds.

Such is the mystery around him and his personal nature though, that accounts of his age differ, with American records suggesting he is 33, yet North Korean statements indicating that he is 35. This is quite a poignant example of the enigma that is North Korea to our eyes.

Kim Jong-un has benefitted highly from what appears to simply be a monarchical system in place in the country, taking control from his father Kim Jong-il in late 2011. Instantly, he assumed several supreme hereditary titles that gave him total control.

It is a system that one would feel would be normal centuries ago, given the complete level-headed nature of democracy that we have in our society here in Europe. And it is a system that stems from North Korea’s creation as a state at the end of the Second World War.

After the surrender of Japan to the USA, Korea was divided into two separate parts – the North controlled by the Soviet Union and the South by America. Yet both countries claimed to be the rightful government of Korea and, in 1950, war inevitably broke out.

The Korean War is recognised as one of the early big events of the Cold War, yet its conclusion had led to neither North or South Korea being satisfied with the state of affairs, and tensions remained high thereafter.

Kim Il-Sang, the grandfather of Kim Jong-un, had originally gained control of the country in the war, and with the support of the army, he gradually suppressed any opposition that lay in his way, laying out false promises as well.

Many were deemed South Korean supporters and thus denounced and killed, and politically, when the party opened for government on 30^th August 1953, the leader came under attack by Choe Chang-ik (later executed in a show trial) for creating a state that was controlled too much on himself. He responded by promising to make the regime more moderate – and clearly these promises were never kept.

Kim Il-Sang created a large personality cult around himself, mainly based off Stalin, and this is clearly the main reason for the situation that North Korea finds itself in now. He attempted to rewrite history, and created posters of himself that were placed up publicly throughout towns and cities. His blood line has become idolised, and many of the North Koreans now simply don’t have the knowledge to question this, such is the autocracy that has engulfed the country.

We might lament this, after all, the common European view and sense of political understanding is that everyone should be entitled to a fair and free vote, speech, expression etc. That is the normality for us, it seems preposterous that anyone else can have a different view and that they may be idolised for it.

And whilst I can’t say that this is a wrong view, naturally I think the same, perhaps it does keep a degree of control over the country. For as we don’t know the conditions of North Korea, it is difficult to judge how much better a democratic state may be.

That said, if Kim Jong-un keeps waging war on the West, we may end up with a more democratic system in North Korea anyway.

It would be interesting to see how that would work, I for one doubt it very much.