The sudden death of Kim Jong-il has triggered a deluge of early commentary and analysis on what this may mean for North Korea and the region. The North Koreans themselves are of course the people who will be affected most by this development, but the voice of the North Korean people has been severely lacking. While the regime has always been comprised of much more than one man, the death of the leader does usher in a new period of increased uncertainty for the North Korean people.
It is impossible to go inside North Korea to interview the people regarding their true feelings on the situation. However LiNK has spoken with refugees who have recently left the country. It should be noted that North Korean refugees cannot be considered to be necessarily representative of the general population, as the majority have come from border regions and therefore their views may be different from those living in Pyongyang or elsewhere.
LiNK works on the ground helping North Korean refugees who have escaped into China, bringing them out through a 'modern-day underground railroad' to its shelter in Southeast Asia where refugees can then seek safe resettlement in third nations. Prior to Kim Jong-il's death, we had interviewed refugees who came through our shelter on their attitudes towards the succession. Some of the refugees had left North Korea as recently as November 2011. Over the past few hours we have contacted further refugees for their comments and thoughts upon hearing about Kim Jong-il's death.
North Korean Refugees on the Succession:
"Some North Korean people believe that if Kim Jong-un takes over North Korean politics, he will be even worse than his father."
"Kim Jong-un has been presented to us by the state media as a military figure."
"Of course, people think badly of the succession. How could you think it is a good thing? The Government is not providing the people with any kind of standard of living."
"The North Korean people just hope to live in freedom and to live well."
North Korean Refugees' Reaction to the Death of Kim Jong-il:
"The North Korean people will currently be putting on feigned shows of sadness. This is very different to the death of Kim Il-sung. Kim Il-sung founded the country and the people think that he did a lot for them. Times have been hard during Kim Jong-il's reign. People have woken up and are much more aware of the reality of the country and the leadership now. People will outwardly be showing sadness but inwardly they will feel very differently. The people fear that anything but the required show of sadness could get them killed... The most likely outcome of the succession is that Kim Jong-un will continue in the same mold as his father."
- Shin Jong-wook, M, 20.
"This is not a happy or a sad event for me. But it is a big moment. This will be a shocking moment for the North Korean people. But there will not be as much grief as when Kim Il-sung died. Of course, people will have to pretend to be sad, and people may get caught up in the atmosphere, but it is not true sadness."
- Kim Moon-soo, M, 21.
"I worry about what this will mean for my relatives back inside and for the North Korean people. I fear that the relatives of defectors will be persecuted more. They are closing the markets and there are bound to be a lot of staged political events, so for the people that are already struggling things are going to get even harder."
- Park Yun-joo, F, 31.
"I didn't feel anything in particular when I heard the news. But I am worried that my family in North Korea will suffer because of the change in leadership."
- Lee Sunghee, F, 39.
"It was a big surprise. I don't know what the next leadership will be like, so its a big worry. Some people will be sad because the leader of the country has died. That is normal. But some people will probably be glad that he has died."
- Park Il-hyung, M, 37.
"I don't care that Kim Jong-il is dead. In North Korea now, the norm dictates that everyone has to cry. But people don't have any positive feelings towards Kim Jong-il. The majority of people will be faking their tears."
- Nam Gum-sook, F, 19.
"If you don't cry in North Korea after the leader dies, then you could come under suspicion as being against the Government. Then you have to live with that label and suspicion for the rest of your life."
- Kang Bohee, F, 21.
Notes for Editors:
LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) works to redefine the North Korea crisis, while providing emergency relief to North Korean refugees and pursuing an end to this crisis. LiNK is the only grassroots organization in North America dedicated full-time to the North Korea issue.
The names of refugees have been changed to protect their identities and ensure the security of relatives still inside North Korea.
LiNK cannot provide contact details for North Korean refugees to outsid e agencies.
For further information:
Sokeel Park
LiNK Research and Policy Analyst
Tel: +1-310-212-7190
Twitter: @linkglobal
All rights reserved to LiNK (Liberty in North Korea)
http://www.linkglobal.org/
+I did not write this. I simply copy and pasted the email I've received from LiNK.
More more information, please click on the link to LiNK website above.
Because I am done with my finals...
As of 11:30 AM on December 22, 2011, I finally became a free (wo)man from my first semester back.
Of course, my final would be scheduled on the last day of final week,
so while everyone else left early or played after their finals, I joined their company with guilty conscience ... instead of studying (oops!)
Anyways, it is finally done.
Nothing hanging loose, some perhaps tied with stronger knots than others,
but life goes, and here I am with my 15-inch screen computer (oh, HOW I MISSED YOU!)
Lately I've been thinking how much I've become more aware of myself.
Growing up entails so much of learning about yourself; but it's really hard to not become self-centered in the process that you lose your surroundings or friends.
The more I become aware of who I am and my natural tendencies towards certain things, weaknesses and strong points,
I become more convinced that even though humans are very simple beings, we cannot simply be caterogically classified as one type.
and how difficult it is to be a well-rounded person; or even a meaning of a well-rounded personality.
One of the things that I noticed about myself, and maybe others as well, is how inexpressive we become as we grow up.
I babysit two children when I come home and they love to tell me about what they did or what their mother did during the day.
Some of the things they share with me are things that I felt like T.M.I., haha, but who doesn't love to hear about other people's lives? heh. x]
I think I learn to filther things out before I speak or share.
I learn what is appropriate to share and talk about in certain setting, with certain types of people, depending on the characteristics of occasions, and etc.
We become more innate rather than expressive at times? at least I see that a lot from myself.
I remember this quote from one of my all-time favorite classic cartoon, Red Haired Anne,
when she talks about how she doesn't chat as much as she used to after she grows up.
She said that we learn to keep "jewels" in our hearts instead of just spilling them out -not exact quote, but you get the idea.
It's a pretty romanticized idea, but definitely doesn't apply to all our cases when we decide not to speak or share.
It's ironic that I consider myself inexpressive when I also consider myself as a blunt/too honest person.
I know those two are paradoxical, but this is why I think we cannot be just categorized into one type of classification that we like to do sometimes.
We just love to generalize things; who likes to complicate things when this world is already complicated enough?
One of the "side effects" of my "silence" I noticed is that I forget my position/situation.
I just don't express it and it just sinks in so deep, that I forget about them.
I like to enjoy myself with little petty matters that I face like the "average" college students deal with while I'm in college, and forget about what going on at home.
When I got home, I realized college has been a means of escape from my home-reality.
Actually... I think I always knew it is, but I just didn't bother to acknowledge it to myself.
But then again, home is also my "shelter" on earth.
I know I'm not making sense right now, but trust me, I always confuse myself when I start thinking about things like this.
I really don't mean to complicate things; I think the answer is simple and things are not as complicated as I make them to be, but I just like to think things through "out loud" into some kind of tangible forms of communication.
All these doesn't matter, not so much to what we make them to be.
The more I think about it, more I remind myself that Christmas is in a couple of days.
Final exams really drifted me away from enjoying this time of advent and celebration for the day of Jesus Christ...
Listening to Christmas carol really didn't lift up the mood for me and I know it's probably because there's been just too many thoughts and prayers that just brought me down a bit,
but I think it's time for me to cheer up and set my eyes on the eternity again.
It's so difficult to have eyes of eternity.
For my Christmas gift, I would like to get a pair of glasses with eternity-perspective prescription on them.
Pretty please? :]
Merry Christmas!
PS HAHAHA I love how this post doesn't have a clear focus, but just flow... stream of consciousness? meh.
I'm not a good writer. That's been established fact long ago. WHEEEEE!
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