Grumblefish
24-11-2003, 01:55 PM
I just feel like clearing up some misconceptions a lot of you may have, so I decided to post this paper on the glorious and beloved Kim Jong Il:
Dear Leader
Democratic Philanthropist or Heartless Misanthrope?
Ever since its inception, the ruling Korean Worker's Party has come under heavy criticism from abroad, with many reputable figures decrying the current North Korean regime as a brutal, totalitarian dictatorship that grinds its constituents into dust. Yet, in stark contrast to this view, millions of citizens who live under the regime worship the party, devoting their lives to the success and progress of its glorious ideals. At the head of the controversy today is the enigmatic Kim Jong Il, successor to his father and hero of the people, Kim Il Sung. These two are regarded as terrible dictators to the bulk of people outside of North Korea, yet known by various affectionate terms by the vast majority within.
In making an unbiased review of the contemporary Dear Leader, both sides of the debate must be inspected. A major hurdle in coming to an acceptable conclusion is the lack of information available, and contradictions in what is known, as North Korea has always by nature been a very secretive society. If the opinions that the North Koreans project are to be believed, and who would know better than the regime's subjects themselves, then the Dear Leader truly is a living saint, guarding his wards from filthy, foreign rogue nations, while keeping their minds pure with Juche socialist ideology. In the other corner, however, there are some hateful foreigners and treacherous expatriates raising their voices, claiming that he is a careless playboy who is willing to sacrifice the lives of his people for his own personal, sadistic enjoyment. Needless to say, the true character of the Dear Leader probably lies somewhere betwixt and between these two extremes.
Finally, if there is to be a true representation of the Dear Leader as a person in his own right, then this discourse needs to forget the country and party at one point, and focus solely on the personality and experiences of the great figure himself. What of his friends, his family? How was he raised, is his reputation deserved, and how does he spend his time? Verily, all of these questions cannot be conclusively answered due to the aforementioned lack of reliable information, but they must be tended to as best can be.
The Dear Leader was born in Siberia on the sixteenth of February, 1942, and was originally known by the Russian name of "Yura". His father was the famous freedom fighter, Kim Il Sung, and his mother Kim Jong-Suk was also an active revolutionary. During his very early years, the Dear Leader lived and played amongst the children of his father's comrades, spending his time in a nursery. By his seventh birthday, the Dear Leader entered the recently liberated northern section of Korea, taking up residence in Pyongyang and starting education in the respectable school of Namsan. By all measures, he seems to have had a decent early childhood, save for the death of a younger sibling in a pond accident.
Unfortunately, his life took a turn for the worse when, after his father had failed to free the southern half of the Korean peninsula from the oppressive and destructive imperialist clutches of Syngman Rhee's evil US-backed regime, a UN invasion captured Pyongyang. The Dear Leader was forced to flee with his mother to Manzhou, and could not return until Chinese troops avenged his brave countrymen and pushed the foreign imperialists back across the 38th parallel. With the offenders expelled from North Korea, the Dear Leader was able to resume his education, and graduated secondary college in the sixties. Following on from secondary college, the Dear Leader was given a most marvelous military education, and it is for this that he is often referred to as the "Respected and Beloved General". The Dear Leader also graduated from the Great Leader Kim Il Sung University, having studied Political Economics for four years.
Making his debut into the professional realm, the Dear Leader was awarded a position on the Organisation and Guidance department of the North Korean government. The Dear Leader worked here for a whole decade, and it is during his time here that he was groomed as his father's successor. By 1973 he was declared the "Leader of the Party and the People", and within a year made several major political moves, including his issuing of the "Ten Principles". The “Ten Principles” strengthened his subjects resolve and loyalty to their fatherly overlords, the Korean Worker's Party, with the Dear Leader heading that governing body. As well as his own political decrees and actions strengthening his power, many other major political figures began allying themselves with the quick-witted Dear Leader during this period, increasing his already impressive power base greatly. The transition of power seems to have been rather smooth, although it has been noted that the Dear Leader ruined several people’s reputations in order to secure his political ascension.
Since the seventies, the Dear Leader has slowly taken over more and more responsibility from his father, practically running the country himself during his father's later years. Keeping in line with Confucian tradition, however, the Dear Leader kept himself somewhat behind the scenes until his father’s death, so as not to upset people. In 1997, he was given his father's old position as chairman of the Korean Worker's Party, and was the most powerful man around. 1998 saw a re-election and convening of the Supreme People's Assembly, and the Dear Leader was of course re-elected to his position in the National Defence Commission, supposedly due to his extreme popularity. As time has progressed to the present, he has continued to defend the North Korean people from outside imperialism, and maintained the country's glorious solitude.
His successes are hotly contested, however, with defectors and dirty imperialists daring to suggest that the North Korean paradise falls short of being a bed of roses. They offer several seemingly rational arguments against the Dear Leader, such as the claim that the Dear Leader is anything but democratic. For this point to be disputed, we must firstly define democracy. Merriam-Webster tells us that the term democracy finds its roots in Greek language and at its most basic can be explained as the rule of the majority. The challenge of enacting democracy is properly discovering the wish of the majority, and carrying it out. Several methods have sprung up over the years, with representative democracy being one of them. A basic form of representative democracy can simply be defined as the vesting of power in one person, who represents the wishes of all his constituents. Indications that power has been democratically vested in the governor of the people can be the likes of elections, mass demonstrations, and other signs of support for the ruler.
Claims that democracy ensures human rights should also be dispelled by noting that all democracy is at its core is the rule of the majority. While it is perhaps true that human rights should be ensured, this act is hardly inseparable from democracy, as democracy is not inherently good. If the majority of the people wish to see a good man hung, then that good man’s hanging is democratically sanctioned. Whether or not the Dear Leader is a benevolent ruler who assures his citizen’s rights is not the issue at stake here, but rather whether or not he is democratic and derives his power from the majority. Democracy can be brutal and totalitarian if it is what the people call for, no matter what their motivation for doing so.
While it was previously noted that the Dear Leader has been elected to many of his positions, and according to KCNA repeatedly re-elected, the validity of the elections themselves has come under fire, with claims of violence and threats against those who dare oppose the Dear Leader's wishes. Even if this were to be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, which it is far from, free elections are not the only thing supporting the Dear Leaders claim to democratic statesmanship. The North Korean populace regularly shows their support for their overlord, participating in massive parades and demonstrations, and building him tremendous structures which reach high into the sky. They show their support for their leader through blood and sweat, devoting their lives, and often losing them, to worshipping him. While outsiders claim that they do this because they have a proverbial gun to the head, even North Korean defectors whose thoughts are conveyed by Kongdan Oh, those who have the greatest motivation to decry the Dear Leader and his regime, admit that he is, at bare minimum, truly respected by his people. If his greatest enemies call him respected, then one must ask what of his greatest fans, the loyal North Korean people?
Dear Leader
Democratic Philanthropist or Heartless Misanthrope?
Ever since its inception, the ruling Korean Worker's Party has come under heavy criticism from abroad, with many reputable figures decrying the current North Korean regime as a brutal, totalitarian dictatorship that grinds its constituents into dust. Yet, in stark contrast to this view, millions of citizens who live under the regime worship the party, devoting their lives to the success and progress of its glorious ideals. At the head of the controversy today is the enigmatic Kim Jong Il, successor to his father and hero of the people, Kim Il Sung. These two are regarded as terrible dictators to the bulk of people outside of North Korea, yet known by various affectionate terms by the vast majority within.
In making an unbiased review of the contemporary Dear Leader, both sides of the debate must be inspected. A major hurdle in coming to an acceptable conclusion is the lack of information available, and contradictions in what is known, as North Korea has always by nature been a very secretive society. If the opinions that the North Koreans project are to be believed, and who would know better than the regime's subjects themselves, then the Dear Leader truly is a living saint, guarding his wards from filthy, foreign rogue nations, while keeping their minds pure with Juche socialist ideology. In the other corner, however, there are some hateful foreigners and treacherous expatriates raising their voices, claiming that he is a careless playboy who is willing to sacrifice the lives of his people for his own personal, sadistic enjoyment. Needless to say, the true character of the Dear Leader probably lies somewhere betwixt and between these two extremes.
Finally, if there is to be a true representation of the Dear Leader as a person in his own right, then this discourse needs to forget the country and party at one point, and focus solely on the personality and experiences of the great figure himself. What of his friends, his family? How was he raised, is his reputation deserved, and how does he spend his time? Verily, all of these questions cannot be conclusively answered due to the aforementioned lack of reliable information, but they must be tended to as best can be.
The Dear Leader was born in Siberia on the sixteenth of February, 1942, and was originally known by the Russian name of "Yura". His father was the famous freedom fighter, Kim Il Sung, and his mother Kim Jong-Suk was also an active revolutionary. During his very early years, the Dear Leader lived and played amongst the children of his father's comrades, spending his time in a nursery. By his seventh birthday, the Dear Leader entered the recently liberated northern section of Korea, taking up residence in Pyongyang and starting education in the respectable school of Namsan. By all measures, he seems to have had a decent early childhood, save for the death of a younger sibling in a pond accident.
Unfortunately, his life took a turn for the worse when, after his father had failed to free the southern half of the Korean peninsula from the oppressive and destructive imperialist clutches of Syngman Rhee's evil US-backed regime, a UN invasion captured Pyongyang. The Dear Leader was forced to flee with his mother to Manzhou, and could not return until Chinese troops avenged his brave countrymen and pushed the foreign imperialists back across the 38th parallel. With the offenders expelled from North Korea, the Dear Leader was able to resume his education, and graduated secondary college in the sixties. Following on from secondary college, the Dear Leader was given a most marvelous military education, and it is for this that he is often referred to as the "Respected and Beloved General". The Dear Leader also graduated from the Great Leader Kim Il Sung University, having studied Political Economics for four years.
Making his debut into the professional realm, the Dear Leader was awarded a position on the Organisation and Guidance department of the North Korean government. The Dear Leader worked here for a whole decade, and it is during his time here that he was groomed as his father's successor. By 1973 he was declared the "Leader of the Party and the People", and within a year made several major political moves, including his issuing of the "Ten Principles". The “Ten Principles” strengthened his subjects resolve and loyalty to their fatherly overlords, the Korean Worker's Party, with the Dear Leader heading that governing body. As well as his own political decrees and actions strengthening his power, many other major political figures began allying themselves with the quick-witted Dear Leader during this period, increasing his already impressive power base greatly. The transition of power seems to have been rather smooth, although it has been noted that the Dear Leader ruined several people’s reputations in order to secure his political ascension.
Since the seventies, the Dear Leader has slowly taken over more and more responsibility from his father, practically running the country himself during his father's later years. Keeping in line with Confucian tradition, however, the Dear Leader kept himself somewhat behind the scenes until his father’s death, so as not to upset people. In 1997, he was given his father's old position as chairman of the Korean Worker's Party, and was the most powerful man around. 1998 saw a re-election and convening of the Supreme People's Assembly, and the Dear Leader was of course re-elected to his position in the National Defence Commission, supposedly due to his extreme popularity. As time has progressed to the present, he has continued to defend the North Korean people from outside imperialism, and maintained the country's glorious solitude.
His successes are hotly contested, however, with defectors and dirty imperialists daring to suggest that the North Korean paradise falls short of being a bed of roses. They offer several seemingly rational arguments against the Dear Leader, such as the claim that the Dear Leader is anything but democratic. For this point to be disputed, we must firstly define democracy. Merriam-Webster tells us that the term democracy finds its roots in Greek language and at its most basic can be explained as the rule of the majority. The challenge of enacting democracy is properly discovering the wish of the majority, and carrying it out. Several methods have sprung up over the years, with representative democracy being one of them. A basic form of representative democracy can simply be defined as the vesting of power in one person, who represents the wishes of all his constituents. Indications that power has been democratically vested in the governor of the people can be the likes of elections, mass demonstrations, and other signs of support for the ruler.
Claims that democracy ensures human rights should also be dispelled by noting that all democracy is at its core is the rule of the majority. While it is perhaps true that human rights should be ensured, this act is hardly inseparable from democracy, as democracy is not inherently good. If the majority of the people wish to see a good man hung, then that good man’s hanging is democratically sanctioned. Whether or not the Dear Leader is a benevolent ruler who assures his citizen’s rights is not the issue at stake here, but rather whether or not he is democratic and derives his power from the majority. Democracy can be brutal and totalitarian if it is what the people call for, no matter what their motivation for doing so.
While it was previously noted that the Dear Leader has been elected to many of his positions, and according to KCNA repeatedly re-elected, the validity of the elections themselves has come under fire, with claims of violence and threats against those who dare oppose the Dear Leader's wishes. Even if this were to be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, which it is far from, free elections are not the only thing supporting the Dear Leaders claim to democratic statesmanship. The North Korean populace regularly shows their support for their overlord, participating in massive parades and demonstrations, and building him tremendous structures which reach high into the sky. They show their support for their leader through blood and sweat, devoting their lives, and often losing them, to worshipping him. While outsiders claim that they do this because they have a proverbial gun to the head, even North Korean defectors whose thoughts are conveyed by Kongdan Oh, those who have the greatest motivation to decry the Dear Leader and his regime, admit that he is, at bare minimum, truly respected by his people. If his greatest enemies call him respected, then one must ask what of his greatest fans, the loyal North Korean people?