As extra-strong sanctions are implemented
against the nuclear weapons-obsessed Kim Jong Un regime, suggestions have been
made to facilitate fundamental power changes in the North by enlightening the
consciousness of North Korean residents from the outside and supporting their
democratization efforts.
The international community has focused its
efforts of damaging the regime on blocking the sources of its funding. At the
same time, additional efforts should be poured into undoing the foundational
structures that support the oppressive power of the totalitarian, hereditary
dictatorship from the inside.
In order to accomplish this aim, North
Korean residents should be contacted directly, supplied with outside
information, and empowered to act as the driving force of domestic change. A
number of the restrictions that have blocked up information flows – such as
signal jamming or the difficult and dangerous task of disseminating leaflets –
can be overcome by launching a consolidated, organized effort to break through
to the North Korean people.
 Image: NKnet |
Since the late 1990s, Kim Yong Hwan (pictured left) has
been leading the charge. He worked as a North Korean democratization advocate
in China for 13 years and is a researcher for Network for North Korean
Democracy and Human Rights (NKnet). In an interview with Daily NK, Mr. Kim said,
“North Korean resistance work means embracing the North Koreans who give
trouble to the Kim regime and helping them to form underground organizations
and undertaking measures to promote regime change in the long term.”
Mr. Kim continued, “When engaged in the
North Korean democratization movement, the first step is to contact defectors
and North Koreans spending a short amount of time in China. It is important to
inform them about the corruption and contradictions made by the ruling class.
Some people might say that the North Koreans know better than outsiders about
the intricacies of their country, but just as it is hard to know the shape of a
forest when standing inside it, North Korean residents are missing access to
information about the nature of the Kim regime.”
Mr. Kim then described the next steps:
“After informing North Koreans about the true state of affairs in their
country, it is important to give them factual accounts about how the outside
world is progressing, about the fundamentals of democracy theory, and about the
specifics of how the modern world developed. Only after going through these
stages did we begin to cultivate the desire for democratization and help
organize underground resistance groups.”
According to Researcher Kim, the ultimate
aim of the North Korean democratization movement is to establish underground
organizations in every region. Then, when ruptures in the regime begin to
appear or the oppression becomes unbearable, these groups will rise up to lead
a revolution. Because the risks of detection are high, NK Net has elected to
pursue a long term strategy of waiting for an emergency situation to seize the
opportunity that leads to revolutions rather than attempting to destroy regime
facilities or launch a haphazard uprising.
“While developing the revolutionary
movement in North Korea, I was constantly worried that our North Korean
partners faced torture, execution, and punishment to their relatives if they
got caught. Because of this, the democratization movement advocates had to
overcome considerable fear to deliver and circulate USBs and CDs containing
information from outside the country,” Kim said.
Including Mr. Kim, four members of the
democracy movement were detained for 114 days by China’s Ministry of State
Security in March of 2012. They received a permanent deportation afterwards,
but this was temporarily suspended. There were multiple leaks that led to this
problem, not to mention the fact that border security has been extra tight in
recent years. Because of these hurdles, it has been difficult to continue the
measures that NK Net used in the past to launch their democratization
activities.
Despite this, Kim has called for more
attention and dedication to the organization and the support of democratization
efforts given the present circumstances. He asserted that considering the
current consciousness level of North Korean residents, the probability of being
able to make significant changes through these types of inroads has increased.
Party and leader loyalty are at an all time low and money making has
become the most important thing to most North Koreans. These trends offer a
good lever for which to begin strengthening resistance organizations.
“As the democratization movement is
developed, we should contact residents, give them outside information, and
provide democracy education so that we can accelerate the process of
consciousness change. When the residents interact with this kind of media and
information, they are confronted with the regime’s lies and gradually become
more trusting of the outside world. There are already plenty of residents who
have undergone this transformation. This makes it easier to continue the trend
and increase the scale of the movement,” Mr. Kim continued.
“Even if high-class cadres and well-off
residents do not favor regime change, the desire for economic improvement is
strong throughout North Korean society. So, it might be possible to invest in
these individuals to help support the organizations. In the past, after
residents were informed about the truth, they lost their loyalty to the party
and the ruling elite and developed a sense of passion and justice about the
democratization movement. However, because it is hard to adequately interact
with a large enough proportion of residents in this way, money and other lures
will have to be utilized to attract more individuals to the cause.”
For this aspect, Mr. Kim is hoping for
South Korean government assistance.
“In order to get a fundamental solution to
the ‘North Korea problem,’ it is absolutely necessary to see a regime change
take place,” he explained. Therefore the resolute commitment and investment of
the South Korean government is a must. If a mere 0.1% of the South Korean GDP
(1 trillion KRW/867 million USD) or even one third of that figure (300 billion KRW/ 260 million USD) were used to support consciousness change and democratization movements
in the North, the results would be considerable.
“The hardest thing about conducting
democratization activities is the constant lack of funds. Supporting the
democracy advocates who are risking their lives with enough money to conduct
activities and make a living was difficult because of this insufficiency. As we
expand the scale of these operations, the scale of the North Korean authorities
surveillance will also increase. To deal with this fearsome prospect, financial
support is crucial,” he concluded.
