“My heart bleeds for our people who are still eating corn. Now what I have to do is feed our great people as much white rice, bread and noodles as they want.”
Who would say such a thing? It sounds like the comment of a benevolent king from a feudal age watching his people starve following a poor harvest. However, they are the words of Kim Jong Il, released in the main publication of the North Korean Workers’ Party, Rodong Shinmun on February 1.
Rodong Shinmun also previously reported on January 9 some words which almost suggested Kim Jong Il had suddenly discovered how to empathize, “We have already reached the status of a strong country in the military field, let alone politics and ideology, but there are still quite a number of things lacking in people’s lives,” he said, “I am trying to implement the will (of Kim Il Sung) by solving these problems,” explaining, “Although the Suryeong (Kim Il Sung) told us that we have to let the people eat rice with meat soup, wear silk clothes and live in a tiled roof house, we have not accomplished his will.”
It sounds as though he has worked tirelessly day and night to feed the people white rice and meat soup, but failed despite his colossal effort.
However, every semi-intelligent person on earth knows that he is not a softhearted leader, but a tyrant who left more than two million people to starve to death during the March of Tribulation while pouring the better part of $800 million, enough to buy six million tons of corn, into eternally preserving his father’s decaying corpse.
Additionally, lest we should forget, according to the latest report released by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) in the U.S., Kim has spent around $7 billion of South Korean economic cooperation funds on developing his nuclear weapons.
Moreover, a book by Kenji Fujimoto, Kim’s former private chef, long ago revealed that on the menu at the leader’s dinner table during the famine one could still find coconut shark fin soup, caviar, barbecued piglet and goat, steamed turtle and many, many more.
Indeed, when the famine was at its peak in the mid-1990s, Fujimoto was travelling the world searching out Kim’s favorite things; the freshest caviar, Japanese traditional rice cakes, tropical fruits and more.
And what was Rodong Shinmun saying at the same time? “During the March of Tribulation, the General slept restlessly on just a few rice balls out of his concern for the people.”
In any case, there are two reasons why Kim Jong Il will have decided to unleash such unabridged, unbelievable lies on the people at this point.
First of all, it shows off his pride at being a nuclear power to the world.
Regarding the January 9 report, President of the Committee for Democratization of North Korea Hwang Jang Yop explained, “This was not a real admission of failure, but a bold-faced excuse,” and added, “It means that he thinks he has achieved everything in politics and the military, but has come up short on economic policies. He is someone who cares not one bit about people’s food security, but pretends to have great concern for people’s problems.”
Second, it suggests that internal unrest and resentment at the system among the people has been emerging. That is, Kim Jong Il is trying to soothe the people so as to smooth the path to the succession by emphasizing his interest in improving the people’s lives and promoting light industry and agriculture, as the authorities stated in the 2010 New Year’s Statement.
Anyhow, while it may be far, far too late for this kind of humility, sincere or otherwise, we can all agree that there is no reason to oppose feeding the people white rice, bread and noodles. However, the real problem, which Kim seems to be doing his best to ignore, is “how.”
The clear answer is to abandon nuclear development and open the country’s doors wide. The dilemma of what kind of reform to adopt; Vietnamese, Chinese or somewhere else, is largely irrelevant. The status quo is the problem.
But if Kim is trying to reach a breakthrough with his recent provocations around the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea, dire warnings of “sacred wars of retaliation” or whatever else, he is badly mistaken. His shallow, transparent tactics have finally sunk in for both the South Korean and U.S. administrations.
Rodong Shinmun claims that Kim Jong Il plans to “implement definitively (Kim Il Sung)’s last testament… so that the people can live a contented life as soon as possible.”
Well, a contented life for the people will only come when Kim gives up his nuclear weapons and opens the country to international investment and assistance. Then, perhaps, Kim Il Sung’s dying wish will have a chance of becoming reality.
