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community [This Month’s GIC Talk]
Building a Bridge to North Korea Words by Amy Badenhorst Logo courtesy of LiNK www.libertyinnorthkorea.org www.facebook.com/gwangju.rescueteam
R
ight now 24 million people in North Korea face one of the most oppressive regimes in the world. They are denied even the most basic human rights-including freedom of speech, movement, and information-because the ruling elite prioritizes regime survival over all else. This elite uses a brutally repressive system of political control to ensure their domination over society, employing such extreme measures as collective punishment, public executions and political prison camps. One fourth of all children in North Korea are chronically malnourished. This poverty is not the result of a lack of conditions for economic development. North Korea has the same potential that enabled South Korea to transform within 50 years from one of the poorest countries into the dynamic economy it is now. North Korea's enforced poverty is the tragic consequence of the ruling elite's absolute prioritization of their own political stability, maintained through micromanaged restrictions on society and the ruthless repression of alternative views, which stifles the people's potential and denies the entire population any chance of economic and social progress. The media reports that international politics are currently deadlocked. Such coverage affects North Koreans because their country's highly politicized and securitized image makes the issue seem hopeless. It appears as if there is nothing you or I can do to support the North Korean people. While parts of the outside world have ignored these people, unique agents of change have been quietly emerging both inside and outside of North Korea. The people are breaking away from the control of the regime and are transforming their society from the bottom up. The people have driven the growth of markets across the country and created new ways for North Korea to connect to the outside world. Since the collapse of the state economy in the 1990s, unofficial markets have not only enabled the North Korean people to make a living but also provided the people with goods outside the government's control, including new technologies such as DVDs, USBs, laptops and
Hard life in North Korea is depicted in the South Korean movie “Crossing�
cellphones. These new resources provide the people with new perspectives and possibilities. North Koreans are not as isolated as they once were, and they are gaining physical and psychological independence from the regime. Tens of thousands of North Koreans have risked their lives to escape to better living conditions outside the country's borders. Many North Koreans have also emerged as agents of progress by sending money and information back to their home communities through illicit channels. This progress helps to accelerate social change, fuels grassroots marketization and weakens the regime's control. Driven by and for the North Korean people, these grassroots changes are irreversible and longterm; they will lead to a transformation of North Korea. The North Korean PEOPLE have shown incredible resilience in the face of their challenges, and they have emerged as a unique force of human progress. Members of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) has made it their mission to come alongside the North Korean people and act in the most effective ways possible to help them accelerate these positive changes, so that they can gain the freedom and living conditions necessary to pursue their hopes, talents and potentials to the fullest. Thousands of people around the world are fundraising to help rescue North Korean refugees. You can help! Come to the GIC's first Talk in March for more information.