INTRODUCTION
The documentary “Inside North Korea” by Lisa Ling shows the isolation that North Korea faces, the fear that Kim Jong Il creates in the people, and it shows what life is like for North Koreans. This country has a political ideology called "Juche” enforce by Kim Il Sung. The ideology “Juche” will be presented in more detail below. North Korea is known as the hermit kingdom because it has been cut off from the rest of the world (Yi, Sun-Kyung, 2004). It is known to be one of the most isolated countries on earth (Lisa Ling). North Korea, Cruelly colonized by Japan early in the 20th century, and split from the south after World War II by cold war politics; it has suffered repressive governments and frequent famines (Yi, Sun-Kyung, 2004). Even with high numbers of famines in North Korea, nothing is imported or exported; this does not benefit the country or its people.
This documentary shows the hardships the people have to go through. For example they have no freedom, there’s famine, they do hard labor, are isolated from the world, are punishment, killed, controlled, not allowed to even travel with-in their own country and cannot own a cell phone. It also shows the brainwashing and fear Kim Jong Il, known as The Great Leade, has created his very own people. No one is allowed to talk bad about him, better said to even think bad thoughts about him. He makes North Koreans think he is a supreme being and their God.
SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY
The political ideology in North Korea is called "Juche”. This idea was developed by Kim Il Sung in the 1940s and it replaced Marxism as the predominant ideology in the North Korean constitution in 1977 (Locher). Juche is seen by its followers not as a political ideology, but as a functional ideology system that must be followed. Structural Functionalism theory is a theoretical framework in which society is viewed and composed of various parts, each with a function that, when fulfilled, contributes to society’s equilibrium (Henslin, 2011). North Korea is ruled by these structural rules in order to retain stability.
Kim Jong Il and his father had the power to brainwash the Koreans, and make them believe that Juche is a norm way of living and that it works for the best. Social control is when a groups formal and informal means enforce its norms. Kim Jong Il, is enforcing his ruling for his norms to become the norms of the country. Many Koreans in the documentary say they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if it wasn’t for The Great Leader and his ruling. They have been trained to believe that the ruling of their great leaders is the correct way of living.
The outside viewers, us the student can classify this political ideology as social inequality. Social inequality is a social condition in which privileges and obligation are given to some but denied to others (Henslin, 2011). We can see that some North Koreans have fear for their leader therefore that produces social inequality. On the other hand the privilege North Koreans seem to have pride towards their leader. Another example of social inequality is the simple fact that the cataract patients are simply chosen by Kim Jong Il. That is deviant behavior on behalf of The Great Leader; it’s unfair towards the other North Koreans whom have cataracts.
The conflict theory also comes into play with "The basis of the Juche idea, that man is the master of all things and the decisive factor in everything" (Kim Il Sung, quoted in Ajami, 1978: 19). The Conflict theory is a theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of two groups that are competing for scarce resource, bourgeoisie’s and the proletariat’s (Henslin, 2011). In this case the bourgeoisies are Kim Jong Il with his army and the proletarians are the North Korean people. Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il stress the country’s self-sufficiency and independency. A strong army is considered to be important (Locher). This causes a conflict between other countries and North Korea, it even causes conflict with the country itself. The great leaders wanted their country to be independent and not depend on any other countries for food, money and much more. The great leaders seem to recognize the receiving of aid as weakness. Despite the fact that Kim Jong Il is unable to feed its population and is economically extremely vulnerable, largely having to depend on foreign aid, nonetheless North Korea wants respect and security guaranteed (Locher).
Conflict with in the country itself is caused when the North Korean people begin to strive for a consistent view of the world and begin to be curious about what’s on the other side of the border, called the 38 parallel. When information does not fit, it tends to be overlooked or interpreted in a different way so it fits with the countries view. Many North Koreans seem to not agree with the ruling of the great leader, and want answers, causing rebellion and conflict towards the great leaders ruling. This also holds true for the negotiations to solve the North Korean conflict. If the other side is sufficiently demonized, it becomes difficult to have a negotiation about peace.
North Korea is a so-called People's Republic with President Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994, but nonetheless remains president, this is an exaplme of the fear that the North Koreans have adapted them self to. The current head of state is his son Kim Jong Il, which makes Korea the only communist dynasty. North Korea is a dictatorship; dictatorship is a form of state violence. It is based on the state’s monopoly on the exercise of power, in many cases using force, is directed against the citizens. It is called 'soft' dictatorships, characterized by strong control, force and abolition of democratic rights. So-called 'hard' dictatorships are characterized by direct violence, oppression, torture, and prosecution of citizens that are not part of the oppressive system (Bonacker/Imbusch, 2005:96f). Based upon these criteria’s, North Korea is a 'hard' dictatorship.
Dissidents or refugees or anybody that seems suspicious may be sent to labor camps with terrible conditions. “North Korea has camps of thousands of prisoners', mostly conscientious objectors, only made known by the few prisoner guard defectors whom have escaped the country, and give their testament about the brutal and right subverting practice of peer policing. These defectors have spoken of the existence of detention camps with approximately 150,000 to 200,000 prisoners who are subjected to torture, rape, undernourishment, starvation, murder, medical experimentation, and forced labor” (Wood, 2008).These concentration camps can be related to what Hitler did with the concentration camps as well. Both country’s practiced slavery, but North Korea still practicing slavery. Slavery is a form of social stratification in which some people own other people. This brutality causes conflict and rebellion towards the great leader, which is why we see the North Korean defector, Joo Sung Il escape from one of the camps he was a guard for. “There is one main core value that is missing there, in North Korea, is freedom” said Joo Sung Il. The great leader see’s this action from North Koreans as deviant behavior, leading to the deaths of the family members. This punishment is called capital punishment. Capital punishment is death penalty. In this case the families of the defectors are the ones that get punished.
In the documentary we can also see the neglect for social change. Social change is the alteration of culture and societies over times (Heslin 2011). However from the time that Kim Il Sung was the leader till Kim Jong Il’s ruling we have not yet seen much of any social change in North Korea. The great leaders did their best to prevent cultural diffusion, so he may have the people under control and not rebel against him. If social change was allowed in North Korea, you will have a country full of competent people and not ignorant, this will rise for social change.
We can also see in this documentary the social interaction between the Koreans, what people do when they are in one another presence. For example we can see the interaction between the privileged North Korean family that Lisa had the opportunity to visit at their home. When Lisa asks a question to the family as a group, you immediately see the son in law answer the questions. Unless otherwise a question is directly asked to the women, only then she will answer. We can see how there is comparison of male dominance in this home and the Amish people. This takes us back to the Amish people, when the family was asked a question the husband answered immediately. On the other hand here in America when a family is asked a question is relevant for either the women or the man to answer the question. This is yet just another example of the cultural difference there is worldwide.
WHAT STOOD OUT
Many things stood out to me. One of those things was the statue of the leader Kim Il Sung. The blessed leader Kim II Sung, has a tower made of 26-metre stones statue, that overlooks the banks of Taedong River, his arm stretched out to indicate the country's bright future. North Korean sculpture is impressively realistic and monumental (Bossuet, 2009). Society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, and develop their views of the world, and communications with one another (Henslin, 2011).We all have symbols in, despite our differences. For Americans a statue of Abraham Lincoln is one of the many statues we have as symbols to our country. In the other hand for North Korea statue of The Great Leader’s is there symbolic interactionism. I just can’t come to the understanding of how they are willing to build a statue and yet not have food to feed the people.
Another thing that stood out to me was that workers are closely shadowed to ensure their actions are not a ‘threat to national security'. Officially, local people are not allowed to communicate with foreigners and foreigners are not allowed to possess won, the national currency, unless converted at the official rate (Bossuet, J. 2009). This goes to show you just how far the great leader is willing to go to maintain control and be dominant. North Korea is a 'communist theocracy'. Even though Kim Jong Il’s father, Kim Il Sung, died in 1994, he is the country's Eternal President. The North Koreans have adopted The Great leader as their god, as part of their culture. Culture is a symbolic aspect of human nature; it tells us what is right, wrong, good, bad, beautiful, and ugly and on a deeper level also why that is the case. “In North Korea, everyone is trained from birth to love the dear leader” ( Lisa Ling).
WHAT DID YOU STRONGLY AGREE WITH
What I strongly agree with from this documentary “Inside North Korea” is the effort, determination and willingness that Dr. Sanduk Ruit (Eye Surgeon) had the entire time while he operated on the North Korean patients. Dr. Ruit was so determined to go to North Korea and operate on more than 1000 cataract patients in just 10 days. He was eager to help them retrieve their eye sight; he mentioned he would like to train the North Korean doctors/surgeons on how to do this procedure, for cataracts. However even though he has such a determination for his patients, he was given only 10 days exactly to operate on patients. That meant operating more than 100 patients in a single day. On the other hand the patients that the doctor did surgery on where hand-picked by The Great Leader himself, Kim Jong Il. By this time in the documentary, it was obvious that such a thing like this would come from The Great Leader. Approximately 1000 people where handpicked by the Leader, what about all the other North Koreans who have cataracts? Until now I still ask myself that question, why did Kim Jong Il have to choose the patients. I believe it’s all tied with in his diplomatic ruling. He wants to be in charge and needs to be in charge so there won’t be no rebellion towards him or the country itself. They consider him to have authority over them as if he were the one who gave them life. For the North Korean people, consider Kim Jong Il’s power and authority over them, legitimate meaning rightly exercised over them.
Despite only given only 10 days to do eye procedures on over 1000 patients, Doctor Ruit successfully completed and achieved his goal, on operating over 1000 cataract patients. In the video all the patients whom where seen upon taking off their eye patch, had retrieved their eye sight and could see.
WHAT DID YOU STRONGLY DISAGREE WITH
One of the things that I strongly disagree with is the simple fact that the people don’t have freedom of speech; they don’t even have the freedom to have their own thoughts. Refering back to earlier in my paper, no one is allowed to talk bad about the great leader. For instance, when Lisa asks whether the "Great Leader" has ever done anything wrong, they don't understand her question. It shows how incompetent the people are, not by choice but by force. I don’t agree with how Kim Jong Il makes the North Koreans think he is a supreme being and there God. For instance when the eye surgeon operates on over more than one thousand patients and the patients are able to retrieve their eye sight, the patients worship and praise Kim Jung Il “The Great Leader”. Not one word of gratitude was expressed towards the eye surgeon. I strongly disagree with this form of gratitude. It’s as if they are giving thanks to the great leader, because he hand-picked every single one of them to be operated, and because of that they are now able to see. Here in America we give thanks to people, for the simple fact of just opening the door for us. Having the ability and power to hand pick patients whom will get procedures done, is a form of power elite. Power elite was coined by C. Wrights Mills’ stating that the top people in the U.S corporations, military, and politics are whom make the nation’s major decisions. In this case the great leader is the one whom makes the major decisions about his people. With that being said, the people are thankful towards the great leader because he gave them the opportunity to be chosen and get surgery done on their eyes. They thanked him with tears of joy and with praises.
The majority of The United States people all have agents whom they look up to or idolize. Most of the time those agents are, movie stars, singers, or family members. However, it’s sad to say that in North Korea the agent of socialization to the people is on person only, The Great Leader. In the libraries and hotels all the books are by one author Kim Sung Il. The people idolize their leaders as if they were Gods. They all look up to them, that they even went so far out of their way to cover a blue bench in which Kim Jong Il sat on, to keep it sacred. Overall I disagreed with 99.99% of North Koreans actions and character. I cannot believe how North Koreans are so blinded. One thing is to be blinded by incompetence and another is to be blinded by ignorance (Blossom, 2012).
CONCLUSION
North Korea is a place, country, with no hope or future like most communists countries. It’s a place where human lives are dictated by government instead of by freedom. On Dec. 19, 2011 it is announced that the great ruler, Kim Jong Il, died of a heart attack on a train on Dec. 17 (New York Times). Kim Jong Un, the youngest and previously least-known son of Kim Jong-Il, was declared to be the country’s next leader (New York Times).
A recent visitor to North Korea finds more signs of modernization in Pyongyang as Kim Jong Un consolidates power. But it's hard to tell if reform is afoot in a country that remains deeply impoverished and isolated (Kirk 2012). We can see a bit of change in North Korea; traffic lights are replacing the legendary traffic ladies at key intersections, and taxis with checker designs on the front doors line up outside hotels and restaurants. However despite all these new changes who knows when this country will ever be a free country and will throw out there Juche ideology. There are still signs of famine, and isolations in this country.
“Now outsiders are scrutinizing Kim Jong Un for any glimmer that he may be opening the country. Yet the veneration of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il is so total that it's not clear if Kim Jong Un, believed to be still in his late 20s with no previous experience in governance, can or even wants to reverse the pattern his grandfather and father set before him” (Kirk). Kirk also says, “life may be marginally more open here than a few years ago, but visitors aren't permitted to talk with ordinary people or walk into stores or markets to see if the shelves are as empty as they appear from quick looks through the windows”. There is a new statue of Kim Il Sung, who ruled for nearly half a century until his death in 1994, and his son and heir, Kim Jong Il, who died last December, stand tall over Mansudae.
In the end, a visit to North Korea turns into a game in which authorities, minders, keep watch over foreigners with the same consummate skill they show in controlling their own people. “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressors, it must be demanded by the oppressed” said Martin Luther King Jr. I hope soon North Koreans will demand freedom and be delivered from slavery, fear, and bad norms and can be declared as a free country.