In case you missed it, Victor Cha’s recent Foreign Policy article on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warns against any wishful...
In case you missed it, Victor Cha’s recent Foreign Policy article on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warns against any wishful thinking that the communist regime’s young new leader intends to liberalize the country. Cha dismisses Kim’s supposed Swiss education, attractive new wife, and love of pizza and NBA stars as “inane details” that distract attention from flooding, food shortages, and other crises that the regime is ignoring. Indeed, while Kim recently enjoyed himself at a variety show in Pyongyang featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse (of course, held without licensing the characters from Disney), an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 North Koreans continued to languish in prisons and slave labor camps for so-called offenses against the state. Especially worth noting in Cha’s piece is his discussion of unofficial markets, cell phones, the Internet, and other evidence in North Korea of “a society that is slowly and fitfully opening up” in spite of the regime.
This post was written by Amanda Schnetzer, Director of Human Freedom at the George W. Bush Institute
