 Many North Koreans are now aware of the poverty of their country and are voicing discontent after years of near-starvation, according to the fullest study yet conducted of refugees from the Stalinist dictatorship.
While the popular image of North Koreans is of a nation living in blissful ignorance of the outside world and unquestioning loyalty to the leadership of Kim Jong-il, refugees interviewed while in hiding in China reported that there were increasing signs of dissent.
| Kimmie's survived coup attempts before, when he had the Chinese solidly in his corner. Wonder if they're still there, and whether he'd survive another coup attempt? |
Eighty per cent of those questioned said North Koreans no longer believed official propaganda that living standards were better than in capitalist South Korea. In reality, income per head is 20 to 30 times higher in the South. Nine in 10 of the refugees agreed that inside the country "North Koreans are voicing their concerns about chronic food shortages".
"Resentment toward the North Korean leadership for the continued hardship in the country is high," they said.
| If Ronald Reagan were around today he'd find a way to nudge the North Koreans and give Kimmie a push. |
Televisions remain tuned to one government channel and other sources of information are tightly censored, but news about life in neighbouring China, where living standards have fast outstripped their own, was seeping through by word of mouth.
The findings match other reports that radios are illegally altered to pick up South Korean broadcasts, and mobile phones smuggled over the border from China enable some people to speak to relatives outside.
| Make sure we broadcast how the nuke program has been cutting into the food aid. Make sure in particular that the NKor Army knows it. |
The 1,300 people questioned by the bipartisan US Committee on Human Rights in North Korea revealed harrowing details of the hunger, imprisonment, and torture they had suffered and witnessed. Ten per cent of respondents reported having been in prison or labour camps. Of those, nine out of 10 had witnessed someone dying of starvation, three quarters someone dying under torture, and seven per cent a case of infanticide.
| Whoever pushes Kimmie out is going to be a hero. Might as well be us. |
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