[imText1]A former official from the Science Department of the (North) Korea Workers’ Party who applied for asylum in South Korea, said in an interview with the Japanese media, “The North has become much freer in ideology – it is about ready to explode”.
The North Korean defector is the highest-known official in the field of science and technology to defect. He said, “North Koreans have started to publicly criticize the regime. Even doctors and members of the Party make decisions to defect to save their lives. It seems like a big change will occur in North Korea.”
A female North Korean defector who used to be the president of a military hospital accompanied the North Korean defector above. She said, “There is no future if North Korea keeps itself closed. However, I did not think that there was a possiblity that North Korea might open up, which is why I decided to defect.” She added, “Medicine is not distributed to the people. Doctors have begun to sell medicine because they’re starving as well.”
Two high officials from North Korea said there is no future for North Korea and question if North Korea is headed for collapse as many say.
North Korea has not collapsed so far, even after milions of people have starved to death, and after the death of Kim Il Sung. The North Korean regime has shown great resiliency, proving that it will not collapse easily.
However, the pessimism regarding North Korea’s ability to survive much longer is increasing rapidly. Up to the 1990s, the call for changing the problematic regime came from the world outside North Korea’s borders, however, the need for change is now also proclaimed from within.
Food shortages drastically changed North Korean society. Governmental bodies such as the National Security Agency and the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces have lost their moral authority and dignity. They are recognized as corrupt bodies which exploit the North Korean people. However, accusations of corruption are not isolated to government bodies. In North Korean society right now, the phiolosophy that “there is nothing that can’t be done with money, and nothing that can be done without money” is widespread.
A North Korean trader in Dandong, China says, “North Korea is not a socialist state. Anyplace where you can do anything with money is not a socialist state”. Money can even get prisoners released from gulags.
Soldiers steal food from people everyday, slaughtering livestock and resorting to violence if owners attempt to resist to the appropriation of their goods.
The military protects farms belonging to ethnic Chinese obtained through bribery, receiving rice in return. The military has become a protector of ethnic Chinese over North Koreans.
A noticeable change in recent years is that people have lost the desire to become (North) Korea Workers’ Party members. Money is what matters, and people see no reason to sacrifice the necessary number of years in order to become a member of the Party. People no longer seem to respect the Party.
In addition to the lack of food, another big complaint of North Koreans is the lack of education. Many hope that their children will be educated and will be able to live a better life than themselves, but it is not easy to send children to school. The attendance rate for elementary school is under 70%. North Koreans say things need to change as soon as possible for the benefit of their children.
Above all, complaints about Kim Jong Il have begun to permeate North Korean society. Within the privacy of their own homes, people openly say that it is because of Kim Jong Il that life is harder than when they were under Japanese rule. “Kim Jong Il has done nothing but drink and be naughty with women,” says a former hospital president in North Korea.
Close friends openly ridicule Kim Jong Il in North Korea. They say, “He says he didn’t sleep or eat when the people were starving, but then how did he get that potbelly?” They have also called him, “A coward who always rides trains”, and stated that “he is not as good as his father in ruling the country”. They question, “Is it his job to wear shoes with heels and get perms?” and “why does he make songs that praise himself and make us sing them?”
An ethnic Chinese who has been observing North Korean society says, “if the U.S. pressures North Korea, it might take one year. If they don’t, it will take two years. It is only a matter of time until North Korea collapses.” However, the South Korean government says North Korea will not, and should not collapse.
Kim Jong Il sustains his regime through military force, general surveillance carried out by the National Security Agency, and a small number of powerful intellectuals.
Internal change in North Korea cannot be stopped by China or nuclear weapons. Nobody can predict the exact time of its collapse. It completely depends on the people of North Korea. It is clear, however, that signs indicate that the end is near.
