Yesterday, South Korean President Lee Myung Bak announced that he intends to donate much of his private fortune, approximately $26 million, to the cause of educating the less privileged children of South Korea through a scholarship program. Naturally, the news earned blanket front page coverage in South Korean daily newspapers.
As a defector, this news was almost unbelievable. Just the expression, “private fortune of the President” was an unheard-of idea for me.
In North Korea, every piece of national property, not to mention the lives of every man, woman and child, is to all intents and purposes a possession of the leader. The fate of everything and everyone that exists within North Korean territory is in the hands of Kim Jong Il alone.
I have been told that documents listing the property and assets of the President and other politicians are open for public scrutiny in South Korea. In North Korea, the very thought of it is impossible.
The assets of Kim Jong Il and his family are veiled in deep secrecy. The only thing the people know for sure is that the No. 39 Department, which officially manages Party finances, deals with Kim Jong Il’s private assets.
Kim Jong Il does not have any interest in his people’s lives or the national economy. Apart from one thing; his interest is in possessing nuclear weapons and missiles, and that requires money.
This year, the people are waiting for the harvest, substituting mixed grains or vegetables for staple foods just to make do.
In the lower classes, cases of suicide are reportedly on the rise. We often get news of families which, after selling everything in their houses to try and get by, simply commit suicide for want of any other choice.
And yet, during the famine of the 1990s when around three million people died of starvation, Kim Jong Il’s private chef was busy travelling the world to collect ingredients for the leader’s table; rice cakes from Japan, caviar from Iran, tropical fruits from countless locations, and other luxuries.
Moreover, foreign currency generated from exports of weapons or illegal businesses has been invested in developing missiles and nuclear weapons, and in the loyalty of core officials. And now Kim Jong Il is trying to hand on absolute power to his son.
If he is successful, the North Korean people will have lived as slaves in the name of the power of the Kim family for more than a half century, with no end in sight.
We should not assess President Lee Myung Bak on the basis of this praiseworthy deed alone, of course, yet we should not underestimate his brave action in releasing his assets for the benefit of the poor either.
We also should not pass over the difference between Kim Jong Il, who holds people’s lives hostage in the name of weapons and the comfort of his inner circle, and President Lee Myung Bak, who was willing to donate most of his fortune to the people of his nation.
