Spicy in Korean: what's happening on the peninsula right now. Revelations of a man who escaped from North Korea (5 photos)

Workers who live without breaking laws and do their jobs well receive up to 1 thousand grams of rice, meat and eggs in return. They constantly report on TV that residents of other countries do not have all this and live much worse. It is beyond the power of an ordinary person to check this, since only trusted individuals are allowed to communicate with foreigners.

Life in North Korea is about complete obedience. If a person keeps a radio in his house, listens to the music of foreign performers, or watches foreign TV channels (although this is practically impossible), he will be sent to hard labor or prison. The situation is worsened by the fact that repression is imposed not only on the offender, but also on his entire family. And the whole family ends up on the so-called black list. This is fraught with the fact that no one will be accepted into the university, there will be no work, and entry into the capital is also prohibited. For particularly serious crimes, a person is publicly executed.

There is one huge advantage to such laws: there is virtually no crime. The nation is growing healthy and strong, because from childhood everyone attends classes, is regularly examined by doctors and does not eat much. No woman has the right to pick up a cigarette.

North Korea's birth rate exceeds South Korea's. But these numbers will soon become equal, as the country’s government is pursuing a policy to reduce the number of children in families.

Decrease in life expectancy

As strange as it may sound, even though Koreans often do not have bad habits, their life expectancy is decreasing. Now he is 66 years old. This figure is constantly falling due to the fact that women and children suffer from the general situation in the country.

An expert on US international affairs said that the amount of food allocated per person is not enough to restore vital energy. Therefore, life expectancy in North Korea, especially for ordinary workers, is only falling.

The problem with this system is that some areas of the country simply do not receive it. This is due to the fact that the state has a basic rule - to notify the government of your intentions to visit any area.

The impact of the Korean War on the country's economic development

The war, or police operation, was carried out from 1950 to 1953. This confrontation is also called the “Forgotten War”, since it was not mentioned in official publications for a long time.

In fact, this conflict was fueled by poor relations between the United States and its allies and China. The Northern Coalition consisted of the DPRK, the army) and the USSR. The latter two countries did not officially participate in the war, but actively supplied weapons and finance. The Southern Coalition consisted of the Republic of Korea, England and the United States of America. In addition to the listed countries, the UN was also on the side of the South.

The cause of the war was the desire of the president of both North and South Korea to unite the peninsula under his leadership. This belligerent mood radically changed life in North Korea; photographs from those times are indisputable evidence. All men were liable for military service and were required to serve more than 10 years.

During preparations for the confrontation, the government of the Soviet Union feared the outbreak of the Third World War, which was their reason for not fulfilling some requests from North Korea. However, this did not affect the supply of weapons and military personnel. The DPRK gradually increased the power of its army.

The war began with the occupation of Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea. It ended with India making a proposal to create a peace treaty. But since the South refused to sign the document, Clark, a UN general, became its representative. A demilitarized zone was created. But an interesting fact remains that an agreement to end the war has not yet been signed.

Foreign policy

The DPRK is very aggressive, but at the same time reasonable. Political scientists in other countries suspect that the leader of the state has experts who are able to suggest the right decisions and predict the consequences in a given situation. It is worth noting that North Korea is a nuclear state. On the one hand, this forces hostile countries to take it into account, on the other hand, maintaining such weapons is quite expensive; many European countries have long abandoned them.

Relations with developed countries and their influence on the economic development of North Korea

• Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, relations with the Russian Federation almost died out. Only during the reign of Vladimir Putin were cooperation agreements signed in many areas. In addition, in 2014, all debts of the north to the Russian Federation were written off. In some ways, this did little to make life easier for the North Koreans.

• USA. Relations with the United States are still quite tense. America to this day stands on the side of South Korea and supports it in every possible way, which helps the economy develop significantly. The same cannot be said about the northern part of the state. US representatives portray North Korea as an aggressor and often accuse them of provoking their southern neighbor and Japan. Some serious publications conducted investigations and wrote that the northern government was trying to kill the president of South Korea, shooting down planes, sinking airliners. This American attitude does not contribute to the country's economic development, and it does not improve life in North Korea for ordinary people.
• Japan. Relations with this country are completely severed and could escalate into a full-fledged war at any time. Each state imposed sanctions on each other after the Korean War. And the DPRK openly stated in 2009 that if Japanese planes flew into Korean territory, lethal fire would be opened.
• South Korea. Due to strained relations and desires to unite the peninsula, kidnappings, murders and attacks occur regularly. Shootings are often heard on the outskirts of countries, and they are also recorded on the land border. Several years ago, North Korea announced its decision to launch a nuclear attack against Seoul. However, this event was prevented. This is one of the main reasons why life in North Korea is dangerous and leads to the fact that young people, at the first opportunity, try to leave for permanent residence in other countries.

Military life of men

In 2006, there were more than 1 million people in the army of the Democratic People's Republic. There were over 7,500,000 in reserve, and 6,500,000 people were members of the Red Guard. About 200,000 more work as security guards at military installations and in other similar positions. And this despite the fact that the country's population is no more than 23 million.

The contract with the ground military is for 5-12 years. A man has the right to choose where to serve: in the army, division, corps or brigade.

Service time in the Navy is slightly shorter, ranging from 5 to 10 years. Thanks to the fact that the government spares no expense in developing its army, people are fully equipped with the necessary equipment, weapons and protective suits.

Unlike other countries, the state in question is investing in intelligence development, which significantly worsens the lives of people in North Korea.

Most of the military is concentrated in the area of ​​the demilitarized zone. The People's Army has at its disposal more than 3 thousand main and 500 light tanks, 2 thousand armored personnel carriers, 3 thousand artillery barrels, 7 thousand mortars; The ground forces also have approximately 11 thousand anti-aircraft installations. Such uniforms require the investment of large amounts of money, which could bring the country out of stagnation.

Life in North Korea (feedback from ordinary people confirms this) due to such a bellicose attitude does not make progress, or rather, it simply stands still. The indigenous people don’t even know that it is possible to exist in any other way. It’s not for nothing that the country’s rulers came up with a slogan, the essence of which is not to envy anyone and live only on your own. This policy helps in some way to maintain control over the common population.

What is life like in North Korea? Reviews from foreigners

Unfortunately, all people living in the country are prohibited from talking about how hard their lives are. However, tourists who have visited North Korea willingly share all their memories and impressions.

According to reviews from travelers, entry into the country is carried out only with the help of travel agencies. All the time, a person or group of people is under surveillance and moves around the city or region only with a guide. Radios, telephones, and any other gadgets are not allowed to be imported. This goes against the government's beliefs. You can only take photographs of what is permitted by the guide. In case of disobedience, the person is added to the blacklist and is prohibited from entering North Korea.

It is immediately clear to the naked eye that people live an average life. Poorly dressed, empty roads. Cars appear very rarely, which is why many children play on the roadway.

There are a lot of soldiers on the streets, who are also forbidden to photograph, especially if they are resting.

People travel on foot or on bicycles. Tourists are given free rides near the hotel. By the way, the corridors in the building resemble horror films. There have been no renovations for a long time, people appear here extremely rarely. In addition to bicycles, residents use bulls.

Both women and children work in the fields. Abandoned areas located on military bases are rich in small decoys that look like tanks.

Some buildings have escalators, which have only recently appeared. People are not yet used to them and have little understanding of how to use them.

Electricity in houses is provided for several hours. Trees and small monuments are whitewashed not with a brush, but with hands.

In the spring, people eat ordinary grass added to dishes, which can be quickly and unnoticeably picked from a neighboring lawn.

Economic spheres

The DPRK's economy is not well developed. Due to the fact that since 1960 the country has become closed and stopped publishing production statistics, all conclusions are given by independent experts and cannot be 100% reliable.

• Industry. North Korea (the everyday life of citizens depends on the level of development of the state in this area) is moving well in the direction of mining. In addition, there are oil refining plants on the territory.
• Mechanical engineering. The country produces machine tools that the Russian Federation imports. However, the models are not modern; they were produced in the USSR several decades ago. Cars, SUVs, and trucks are produced here.
• Electronic sphere. After the DPRK imported several million more smartphones and regular cell phones in 2014 than in 2013, daily life in North Korea has become better. Over the past 5-7 years, companies have produced tablets, several smartphones and a special computer for working in factories.
• Agriculture. Due to the fact that the country lacks fertile land, agriculture is poorly developed. A large area of ​​the country is occupied by mountains. The main crops planted are rice, soybeans, potatoes and corn. Unfortunately, few greens and vegetables are grown there that can be eaten raw. And this leads to deterioration in health and, as a result, reduces the life expectancy of ordinary Koreans. Livestock farming is dominated by poultry and pig farming. Due to the poor development of the country, the crops are harvested by hand.

Comparison of living standards of people in North and South Korea

The most closed country is North Korea. Life for ordinary people here is not the best. You can only get around the city by bicycle. Cars are an unprecedented luxury that an ordinary worker can hardly afford.

Anyone wishing to enter the capital must first obtain a pass. However, it's worth it. There are picturesque places, various monuments and monuments, and even the only metro in the whole country. Outside the city you can hitch a ride. Military personnel must always be given a ride - this is the law.

All residents of the DPRK must wear badges with state leaders. Also, citizens who have reached working age must get a job. But since there is often simply not enough space, local authorities come up with new activities, such as baling hay sheaves or cutting up old trees. Those who have retired also need to do something. As a rule, parties are allocated a small plot of land, which the elderly undertake to look after.

Everyone has long known that North Korea, where the life of ordinary people sometimes turns into hell, has cruel laws and follows in the footsteps of fierce communism. However, there is something with which this country attracts and beckons. These are parks, nature reserves and simply very beautiful places that you can admire endlessly. What is “Dragon Mountain” worth, which is located 30 minutes drive from Pyongyang.

Life for women in North Korea is very difficult. Mostly men are involved in the army, they have practically no benefit for the family, so the weaker sex became more active and was able to prove that they could live in such conditions. Nowadays, women are the main breadwinners. They are the ones who work around the clock due to the somewhat inadequate laws of the DPRK, aimed only at protecting the state. If we compare modern life with any historical era, we can say with confidence that Korea is living in 1950. The photo below is proof of this.

South Korea is a country of cinema, music, prosperity. The country's main problem is alcoholism. The state ranks 7th in the world in terms of drunkenness, but this does not prevent it from advancing, expanding its sphere of influence and becoming a powerful power. The Government of the Republic conducts its foreign policy in such a way that it has good relations with many European countries.

The people living in the country are kind, helpful, they always bow and smile at passersby. And this trait is especially evident in the service sector: in cafes, restaurants, cinemas. The buyer, or rather the person who pays the money, is treated like God. Under no circumstances should he wait long for his turn. Due to such rules, service in this country is distinguished by quality and speed.

Education is what makes South Korea different. It's top notch. Poor academic performance, which entails failure at university, means expulsion from society.

The army is not as well developed as in the north, but everyone is required to serve here - from workers to pop stars. The consequences that await after attempts to evade service are reminded of the constantly flying North Korean planes in the sky. Men are drafted closer to the age of 30. As a rule, Koreans get married very late, often after demobilization.

Their apartments look sparse. Only those who work tirelessly can afford houses. The citizens themselves laugh at the apartments and other housing that is shown on TV and published in magazines, saying that this is just a fantasy.

North and South Korea, whose living standards vary greatly, unfortunately, do not even think about uniting with the world. Some kind of conflicts and risks of renewed war constantly arise, which greatly impacts ordinary citizens of the north and forces them to migrate to other countries.

Two news: the US threatens aggression against North Korea; a new street in the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang (we recommend checking it out, it’s interesting).

First news. The United States is ready to strike North Korea (DPRK).

The media reported this, but the United States did not refute it and, moreover, indirectly confirmed its readiness to attack North Korea. US intelligence sources told reporters that Washington is considering this possibility in order to prevent another nuclear weapons test by North Korea. According to NBC, the United States has already deployed two destroyers closer to the shores of North Korea - ships with Tomahawk cruise missiles are allegedly located 300 miles from the proposed site of future tests. There is an American aircraft carrier and US flotillas not far from the coast of North Korea. Also, US President Trump previously spoke about the presence of US nuclear submarines in the region and called North Korea a “problem.”

In general, this is the height of hypocrisy - the United States, which over the past half century has unleashed many wars around the world, intervened in the affairs of a huge number of countries and shed rivers of blood, calls a country (North Korea) a “problem”, which over the same half century has not started a single war and did not interfere in the affairs of other countries. North Korea lives on its own. It is already under sanctions and in partial international isolation due to its anti-American position. North Korea has more or less normal contacts with China, which is considered the patron of North Korea, and Russia. North Korea (DPRK), under unprecedented pressure from the United States and its satellites (Japan, South Korea), was able to master space technology, launch a satellite into space and even create nuclear weapons. It is the presence of nuclear weapons in the DPRK that saves it from aggression from the United States. History shows that countries that did not possess such weapons (Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria and other countries) easily became victims of American aggression, the military invasion of US troops in these countries, which led to hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Now the United States is preparing to commit a new crime - to attack a sovereign state. The United States is seeking to prevent North Korea from conducting another nuclear test. US ships arriving off the coast of North Korea are ready to open fire.

At the same time, the US authorities claim that with such actions they are “protecting” South Korea and Japan. At the same time, as the media report, South Korea and Japan are extremely concerned: after all, the United States can start a war in the region with its aggressive and inadequate actions against North Korea. Therefore, South Korea and Japan, being dissatisfied with such “protection” from the Americans, are already preparing evacuation plans and are urgently working on plans in case of the outbreak of war.

Celebrations are planned this weekend in the DPRK to mark the anniversary of the birth of North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung. There is speculation that new nuclear tests may be timed to coincide with the celebration of this anniversary.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea (DPRK) stated that the tests will be carried out when the country's leadership deems it necessary. At the same time, the North Korean Foreign Ministry stated that in the event of an attack on the DPRK by the United States, the DPRK is ready to strike back.

Later, a representative of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army stated that in the event of aggression from Washington, the DPRK would attack American military bases and the residence of the US President in Seoul (the capital of South Korea).

https://ria.ru/world/20170414/1492270707.html

Judging by the recent criminal US attack on Syria, there is virtually no prudence on the part of the US leadership. It is clear that Trump seeks to use such inadequate and aggressive actions to show his strength and uncompromisingness, to intimidate other countries, winning initially more advantageous negotiating positions for himself and the United States. The US attack on Syria and the intention to attack North Korea is a threat that the US addresses to all other countries. Therefore, there is no need to rely on the prudence of the United States at all. We can only hope for the Americans’ sense of self-preservation and that they will still not dare to attack a sovereign state (DPRK), since with such an attack the United States could start a terrible war with numerous casualties.

Regarding the US threats towards other countries, it can be noted that the US flaunts its aggression and its criminal attacks on independent states in order to threaten the rest of the world. The US carries out these attacks because it is confident of its impunity. Therefore, all countries must take this into account and demonstrate their readiness to firmly defend their independence and integrity - otherwise the United States, taking advantage of the sense of fear it has instilled in the rest of the world, will continue to arbitrarily attack different countries of the world, and US crimes will attract more and more victims.

And now another equally interesting news about the DPRK - about life inside the DPRK.

The day before, the head of the DPRK Kim Jong-un took part in the grand opening ceremony of the “street of dawn” (Ryomyon or Ryomnyo Street), which brought together several thousand residents of the capital of the DPRK Pyongyang - students, professors, workers, and military personnel. This attention to the new street is justified by the fact that it is an environmental project. In addition to residential buildings, the new street has shopping centers and a center for the development of green technologies. The new area will be powered by geothermal energy and clean solar energy.

The opening of Römno Street was covered by about 120 journalists from around the world, including Russia, Japan, the USA, Spain, Great Britain, China and others.

Families of professors, university teachers and the most distinguished employees will move into apartments in the new buildings.

A 70-story skyscraper, equipped with high-speed elevators, was built in 45 days, and the construction of the entire street (about thirty high-rise apartment buildings) took one year.

Prime Minister Park Bong-ju said that the construction of the street is even more significant for a country that is actively developing its nuclear program than the production of one hundred nuclear warheads.

Earlier, Mirae Street was built in Pyongyang, and families of engineers, technical specialists, scientists, teachers, and athletes moved into residential buildings.

Reportedly, the construction of these new modern areas in Pyongyang is the idea of ​​Kim Jong-un, who insisted on completing all work as quickly as possible and distributing new apartments among citizens. As reported by international media, by the time citizens moved in, the apartments already had furniture, dishes and many things provided as gifts to new residents.

Also, in recent years, leisure places have been put into operation, including the Rynra amusement park and the Oksu water park.

And once again it is worth noting that the situation is now extremely tense. We have to hope that war will not happen after all.

Of all the Koreas in the world, North Korea has had the most murderous dictators per capita. North Korea is a country of 25 million people who live, by our standards, a very strange and deprived life.
We wanted to know what life was really like for these people, so we sat down and spoke with a North Korean escapee, an American journalist who spent a lot of time there researching Pyongyang, and the grandson of an Asian country's ambassador to the DPRK. They told us that...

This is blatant propaganda, and all people know about it.

North Korea is home to some of the funniest propaganda in the world, but when you live there and all those bombastic messages in support of Kim Jong Un follow you your whole life, it doesn't seem so funny anymore. For Mr. Lee (the refugee we spoke to), every morning as a child began the same way: a loudspeaker blaring about the accomplishments of the Kim family and their regime.

Sun is up? “Kim Jong Il invented the hamburger!”
Sunset? "Kim Jong Il is the greatest golfer in the world!"

Combine that with a radio that never turns off and you have an entire nation of captive listeners. And the next question that immediately comes to the mind of a Westerner is: “Do people there really believe that Kim Jong-un has magical powers?” No, not all of them. For example, Mr. Li grew up with a great-aunt who suffered a lot of abuse and humiliation from the government. When they turned on the loudspeaker, she said: “Oh, they are doing their own thing again, they like to spread their lies.” Mr. Lee's family had never been one to support the ruling party, so he realized as a teenager that his national government was lying to its people a lot. He knew that many of his countrymen believed much of the propaganda. Although Michael Malice, an American journalist who spent some time in Pyongyang, has a slightly different opinion. He believes that most North Koreans know the propaganda is ridiculous, but they are too scared to say it out loud. “When you're in a public place, you better sound like a true believer. After all, when an actor is completely immersed in his role, he copes better with it.”

And this training begins very early. Overall, Mr. Lee says that about 30 percent of his education was completely useless because it only concerned the Kim family. When he was younger, he had full lessons on the lives of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung. But as he got older, the teacher would only spend 10 minutes talking about Kim (who ruled at the time) and his achievements, and then tell many other stories about him during other lessons.

North Korean schools treat world history as an afterthought, just like American schools treat art classes. He was taught at school about the First and Second World Wars, about the Allied Powers and the Fascists, but not about the Italian Renaissance. He knew about things like Sputnik, but didn't know that an American was the first man on the moon (he was aware that someone had landed on the moon, but the teachers never specified whether it was Americans or Russians). And starting from middle school, he was also forced to participate in mass games and processions.

Have you ever wondered how these children can perform all the joint movements so precisely? This is because they begin preparing for them at a young age (including on weekends), and North Korean teachers do not hesitate to resort to corporal punishment if something happens.

And parents know that they are also obliged to contribute to the common cause. Another of our informants who had previously lived in North Korea for several years (namely, the ambassador’s grandson) told us this story:

“There are photographs of the Great Leader all over Pyongyang, lavishly decorated with flowers, and surrounded by regular groups of adoring citizens...they go to these little kiosks, buy flowers, and then arrange them around their 'shrine.' Later that day, other people come here with handcarts, collect all the flowers and return them to the stalls to resell them to even more people.”

“One day I saw a girl, maybe 4 or 5 years old, who brought a rather large bouquet here (almost the same size as herself), but she put it near a photograph with one hand. Her parents started yelling at her... her dad hit her in the face. Is this a crime? Do not use two hands to place flowers near a place of worship. Then her parents bought her an even larger bouquet (this one was even larger than the girl herself), and she placed it in the right place with both hands.”

This is what happens when public punishment resembles a prison camp. Because, you see...

There is almost no resistance, and the punishment for any offense is very cruel

People in North Korea are taught from childhood to report on those who even remotely resemble a dissident. So forget about organizing a mass protest or sit-in here, because you have no right to raise any objections even in a private conversation. As Mr. Lee explained: “It's something you can never talk about in public unless you might discreetly tell your closest friend that you're not happy with the Kim regime, and then only after one or two beers. Even with your wife you have to be careful.”

Before Mr. Lee fled his country, he saw several of his neighbors deported to camps. There is no ceremony here, and the soldiers simply take away entire families in front of everyone. People are forced to watch as neighbors who have just been doomed to deportation load their belongings into government vans.

Local residents know that this practice is used only in their country. But what can you do about it? If you want to imagine yourself as Braveheart going up against an evil king, keep in mind that crimes such as “treason” and (as most often happens) “being like someone who is about to commit treason” are punishable by life imprisonment or the death penalty... both for the accused himself and for three generations of his family. You are not just condemned for some behavior or careless words, but even for a simple change in intonation during a conversation.

Our interlocutor from the [anonymous country] embassy recalled a time when a high-ranking North Korean officer took him aside and - in English - began to utter an opinion that was shockingly close to outright criticism of the regime:

"He said, 'What's happening here is a disgrace... but our leader is putting us on the right path.' He paused in the middle of his sentence, and I think that in the first part he sincerely told me his opinion, and in the second he said what he had to say... I saw his assistant look at him during the pause, and Now I'm a little worried about him. Because I never saw this guy again.”

People here only get a glimpse of the outside world.

The strangest thing about North Korea, besides all the other strange things we already know about it, is its position as an isolated country in the 21st century. At a time when Ukrainian protesters are lively commenting on their revolution on Twitter, and half of us have many online friends living on the other side of the planet, it is very strange to think about people existing in complete isolation, who are not aware of anything that is happening behind them. border of their country.

Although, in truth, some news does reach their ears. A North Korean, our diplomatic source, whom we met at Kim Il Sung University, told us about how they share their “smuggled” knowledge:

“One guy told me to read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” I was surprised: “Is this book allowed? - No!” - He secretly brought it here. And he asked me if people had already built any underwater settlements. I told him that there are underwater hotels in the world, and a very pleased smile appeared on his face. It looked like the one I see on my little brother's face at Christmas."

But in general, provocative devices such as mobile phones, DVD players and modern films are not always available to local residents. Possession of any of these items is punishable by death, which will be applied to you and anyone who happened to be standing nearby when you were detained. You might assume that North Korean citizens can get by without any of this. But if you think that, then you're grossly underestimating the human need to watch poorly dubbed, bootlegged releases of the latest Iron Man movie.

Mr. Lee told us that foreign films and gadgets are regularly smuggled into North Korea, but this is of course not publicized. Dealers look for likely buyers and approach them in the market. “They start with Chinese films, and then, if they see that you are not at all against such a product, they move on to American things.” In other words, Hollywood movies are like heroin on the North Korean black market (along with actual heroin, of course).

All this suggests that the Hermit Kingdom is actually much less isolated than you might assume based solely on the news about its life. Mr. Lee was able to talk to members of his family in South Korea, including his sister, who fled several years before him. North Koreans are quite aware that hunger is not an everyday factor in life in America, or even in South Korea. And instead of shooting everyone who understood this, the North Korean government should start changing its propaganda.

Michael Malis, Kim Jong Il's unofficial biographer and one of the few Americans who visited Pyongyang, explained: "Their propaganda used to say that 'we are not jealous of anyone.' Now, as the outside world has slowly begun to creep into their country, they have begun to claim that they support the ideas of North Korea, while South Korea is completely destroyed by America.”

After Mr. Lee's sister reached South Korea and confirmed that this "destruction" by America was more like a "friendship with benefits" between the countries, he began planning his escape from the DPRK.

Leaving the country is a long, terrifying flight

Any North Korean who decides to escape knows that his entire family could end up in a labor camp if the government catches him. Mr Lee (who used a fake name and only spoke to us via Skype with his face hidden in the shadows) had to work out a complex web of lies before he could leave the country. He said it was essentially the same as telling your parents you were "staying at a friend's house" while you went to a party. Only here, instead of continuing to live in peace, your entire family risks ending up in a forced labor camp, where all its members will have to work literally until death if anyone finds out about your trick.

Mr. Lee escaped two years ago. Fortunately, the illegal removal of refugees from the personal murderous Disney World created by the Kim family is not a random incident at all, it is an established international mechanism. Sister Lee saved him with the help of male smugglers and paid for all the services herself, because people who live in North Korea do not have the money to pay for something like that. And if you think all it takes is someone sneaking you across the border into South Korea, think again. Even if you have a specific location designated, you'll have to walk a very long way to get there unless you want to get shot several thousand times before you even see the border fence itself.

Mr. Lee was smuggled out of the country through a network of undercover agents on a long train journey consisting of walking, buses and cars from North Korea to China, then to Vietnam and then to South Korea. Each part of the trip was handled by a different intermediary who specializes in smuggling North Koreans along one specific route. Mr. Lee followed the instructions of each secret agent and had to trust that none of them would send him back straight into the hands of the “thought police.” At various points throughout his trip, he called home saying, “I'm safe in Beijing” or “I'm safe in Saigon.” After his sister heard these words from him, she transferred another portion of cash to the intermediaries’ account, and he could move on.

Obviously, the business of smuggling North Koreans is illegal in North Korea, although it is also illegal in each individual country. If you can get to South Korea, you'll be safe, but these brokerage networks are also illegal there, so you won't have any claim against them if they, say, sell you into slavery. As a South Korean sponsor, you risk paying them thousands and thousands of dollars for the privilege of having a loved one by your side who will not one day be betrayed or killed.

But nothing like that happened in this case. Mr. Lee was brought to a part of the world where soap operas are held instead of mass games, where Internet cafes are held instead of labor camps, and where food competitions are regularly held instead of constant hunger.

For those who fled the DPRK, the outside world is a real shock

"It's like being in a completely different reality," Mr. Lee said. In North Korea they teach that capitalist countries are filled with people dying in the middle of the streets. Even if he was skeptical about this (he had seen many American cities on DVD, and many of the car chases depicted in the movies did not feature piles of starving hobos), he still had the feeling that capitalism was "bad teaching." He was shocked to see that South Koreans, for the most part, lived as they pleased, and quickly adopted the new concept of work that he was, in fact, paid for his work.

Mr. Lee also came here with a rather negative view of South Korean women, after decades of seeing them portrayed as sex-crazed, clueless young ladies. He always believed that South Korean women wore makeup that made them look like "clowns or prostitutes" (basically, government propaganda convinced him that Seoul girls looked exactly like the rich people in The Hunger Games).

He was also surprised to learn about human rights. Particularly the very notion that people have rights and that they can claim them from their government. The North Korean government solved its "human rights" problem by simply choosing not to tell its people they existed. After all, you cannot demand something that you don’t even suspect exists.

Remember, Mr. Lee grew up in a country where people are taught from childhood that even simple curiosity about the lives of their leaders is immoral. That's why his arrival in South Korea also brought him a shocking realization of some facts about the Kim family. He did not believe all the crazy propaganda about the achievements of Kim Jong Il, but the real facts from the life of the glorious leader were very different from what he attributed to himself. “During the famine, government propaganda said that Kim Jong Il was suffering along with the people, eating only one bowl of rice a day.” The reality is that it is now impossible to say how much rice Kim ate during the famine, but we do know that he spent $600,000 a year to replenish his personal supply of brandy.

If this were a movie, the evil dictator with an iron fist would get his due before the end credits. But in real life, the Kim family endlessly oppressed their starving little country for 65 damn years and got crazier every day they lived.

The United States and North Korea are once again on the brink of war. Countries exchange threats to use military force almost daily. The situation is heating up and the threat seems more serious than ever. However, most experts still refuse to believe in a military outcome of this conflict and believe that not all diplomatic options have yet been exhausted.

Nevertheless, for the first time since 1961, after the memorable Cuban Missile Crisis, the world smelled of nuclear war. In this regard, “Our Version” examined a possible scenario of how the war between the United States and the DPRK will develop, how it will end and what it will lead to.

As you know, in response to another nuclear weapons test by North Korea, Donald Trump threatened the DPRK with “fire and wrath the likes of which the world has never seen” if Pyongyang does not stop threatening the United States. At the same time, he did not rule out the possibility of a strike on North Korea after its next nuclear weapons test. In response, the DPRK snapped back, declaring its readiness to launch missile strikes in the vicinity of the island of Guam, on which the United States has its military base. North Korean Hwasong-1 and Hwasong-2 medium-range missiles can be used as weapons. The island of Guam is located approximately 2 thousand kilometers from the Korean Peninsula, is not part of the United States, but those born on Guam are American citizens, although without the right to vote. In this regard, let's assume that Kim Jong-un fulfilled his promise and launched the rocket. The war has begun.

Act 1. Kim Jong-un will be pulled out of the ground

Back in early August, the Pentagon, through the American press, made a statement about a plan to attack North Korea under the code name US Operations Plan 5015 - OPLAN, which provides for preventive airstrikes on strategically important targets on the territory of the DPRK. In it, Washington hinted that it would wage the war remotely, without the use of ground forces. The main role in this case is given to the B1B Lancer strategic bombers, which are based on the same island of Guam. These aircraft were successfully used in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they are not carriers of atomic weapons. Apparently, this indicates that the Americans would not want to lead to a nuclear conflict. The fact is that a one-time atomic strike on the DPRK will be ineffective - there are too many military targets and they are scattered throughout the country. But Washington will not dare to carry out a carpet bombing for purely political and psychological reasons - against the backdrop of the unfaded memory of Hiroshima, after a new strike, the United States will turn into a nuclear terrorist for the whole world.

Therefore, the United States will limit itself to an air strike, for which up to five aircraft carrier strike groups can be deployed to the region in a short time. In addition, it is worth considering that the US Army currently has the most effective non-nuclear weapons, which are sufficient to achieve the main goals of OPLAN. The first priority will certainly be the destruction of Kim Jong-un. If war breaks out, he will go to a special bunker, but the Americans will try to get the DPRK leader there too. How this will happen was demonstrated by the US military in June in Afghanistan when they used Mother of All Bombs, that is, “the mother of all bombs”, attacking a Mujahideen bunker with its help. At the same time, command posts and nuclear facilities will be destroyed with the help of precision weapons. Thus, North Korea will be deprived of central power. It is believed that the DPRK does not have a reliable air defense system and over-the-horizon radars, and the air force is small in number and is armed with old Soviet aircraft, which is why American losses at the first stage will be minimal. It is also believed that North Korea has severely limited fuel resources, which will hamper its combat capabilities.

On this topic

The United States and the Russian Federation are not doomed to be adversaries and compete, as was the case during the Cold War, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said today during a speech to participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Alexander KHRAMCHYKHIN, Deputy Director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis:

– China is unlikely to provide military assistance to Pyongyang in the event of war. It is much more likely that after the American strikes, Beijing will try to occupy North Korea. Under the pretext of humanitarian aid, China will enter the weakened republic and install its puppet regime there. Technically, it will look like this: after the war starts, China will observe what is happening, and if the Americans do not decide to occupy the DPRK, then Beijing will do it, and will try to seize as many territories as possible.

Action 2. Seoul will answer for US aggression

It is difficult to say whether Kim Jong-un will launch another nuclear attack on the United States in response. Now no one can guarantee that North Korean missiles with nuclear warheads will not reach American territory directly. Let us recall that at the end of August, North Korea fired a missile that flew unhindered over Japanese territory. It appears to be a Hwasong-12 medium-range ballistic missile, technically capable of traveling 3,000 miles, which is what North Korea is threatening to launch towards Guam. It is alarming that neither Japan nor the United States even tried to shoot down this missile or were unable to. And this despite the fact that already a month ago, due to the missile threat from the DPRK, Japan put American-made Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile systems on full alert. The systems were deployed in the west of the country in three prefectures - Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi - over which North Korea's ballistic missile trajectories lie. The Japanese military monitors missile launches in the DPRK around the clock; in addition, there is a Japanese destroyer at sea equipped with the American shipborne multifunctional combat information and control system Aegiscombat-system, specifically designed to track launches of North Korean ballistic missiles. The interception could also be carried out by American THAAD air defense systems stationed in South Korea, which could destroy the launched missile on the take-off portion of the trajectory. But neither one nor the other was done - Hwasong-12 was given the opportunity to fly unhindered over Japan and fall into the sea. Of course, we can assume that the Americans and Japanese did not set themselves the task of destroying the North Korean missile, but, as they say, the residue remained.

Nevertheless, the United States will certainly be able to protect its territory from a missile attack. Therefore, Kim Jong-un will apparently launch the main attack in a different direction - North Korea has long prepared a retaliatory strike, with the capital of South Korea chosen as the target. Greater Seoul is located right on the border with the DPRK - it is a gigantic agglomeration, home to about 25 million people. In addition, an American group of about 20 thousand people is stationed in the Seoul area - it will be one of the main targets. The North Korean army has already concentrated a powerful artillery group in the Seoul area, which includes approximately 250 long-range, high-power guns, some of which may be equipped with nuclear warheads. The guns are dispersed and located in fortified positions, making their elimination a difficult task. As a result, the shelling of a huge city will inevitably lead to large casualties among the civilian population.

In addition, it is worth considering that Seoul is among the top 10 cities in the world in terms of the number of headquarters of corporations from among the 500 largest transnational companies located there. Their destruction will lead to a global economic crisis. But new prospects will open up for European and, above all, American companies.

Alexander PERENDZHIEV, expert of the Association of Military Political Scientists:

– If a war between the United States and North Korea does happen, then it is obvious that there is no point in Russia interfering in this war. Getting involved in a conflict where there will be huge casualties is madness. I believe that if war breaks out, Moscow will make every effort at the diplomatic level to prevent war on its border. At the same time, the Russian Federation will support the position of North Korea and counteract aggression against the DPRK, especially with the use of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, Russia will most likely bear the burden of accepting refugees.

Act 3. North Koreans join the partisans

Apparently, the Americans will first of all try to use surprise strikes to disable some key facilities of the North Korean nuclear missile complex - weapons production centers, enterprises where missile components are manufactured and assembled, as well as testing centers and warehouses. However, a problem arises here: the fact is that North Korean missile and nuclear facilities are dispersed and hidden in the mountains throughout the country, and the United States simply has no information about many of them. And in order to identify the location of these objects (and the United States cannot leave them intact), ground forces will have to be used. Of course, at first we will not be talking about a large-scale landing operation - special forces will be sent to conduct additional reconnaissance of important military installations. Such scenarios were considered very seriously and were repeatedly played out during joint exercises between the United States and South Korea.

The US Army has one special-purpose parachute regiment designed specifically for operations in the Pacific theater of operations. A separate Marine Corps special forces regiment, the 1st US Special Forces Operational Detachment "Delta", the DEVGRU naval special rapid deployment group and other units can be sent to help the paratroopers. However, unlike pilots, they most likely will not have an easy ride. It must be taken into account that, within the framework of the civil defense system, the North Koreans are perfectly prepared for a military invasion, and are also powerfully pumped up with ideology. Therefore, despite their superiority in weapons, the Americans will have to seriously fight such fanatics on the ground. This will require additional forces for ground operations. However, even defeated North Korean units will retain combat effectiveness, switching to guerrilla actions. The partisans will put up fierce resistance, carry out acts of sabotage, and fight for every centimeter of land. It will take about six months to destroy the North Korean troops, as a result of which the Americans will suffer significant casualties.

Leonid IVASHOV, President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Colonel General:

– The Pentagon is truly capable of achieving a military victory over Pyongyang with precision weapons strikes alone. From a military point of view, the Americans are capable of carrying out a lightning war against North Korea; they have a wealth of experience in this, because the concept of a lightning-fast global strike has already been repeatedly tested in other countries. But now the Americans fear a retaliatory strike, which will most likely hit Seoul - this is a significant pressure factor.

Although the possibility of war should not be ruled out, especially given the bellicose rhetoric of the parties to a potential military conflict, I still believe that war between the DPRK and the US-Japan bloc remains unlikely. They are all afraid of a military conflict near their borders, especially with the use of nuclear weapons. Another player is China, which indicates its tough position. Beijing is hinting that if North Korea starts an armed conflict and the United States starts a war, then China will take the side of North Korea. When in April of this year the American aircraft carrier group moved to the shores of the DPRK, China sent an almost 100,000-strong group to the borders of North Korea, after which the Americans immediately cooled their ardor. Russia's position is half-hearted - Russia does not give North Korea any guarantees. Perhaps the Russian Federation also needs to state that if the Americans strike first, Russia will take countermeasures.

Act 4. They will try to drag China and Russia into war

According to some experts, a military conflict in North Korea today is beneficial to Donald Trump, but only if it is a short, victorious war without major casualties. However, in this case, the nuclear-missile DPRK was chosen as the victim, and not some harmless Libya or Serbia, which could be very costly for the American leadership. The United States risks being drawn into a full-fledged military conflict, comparable in scale to the Vietnam War, which will lead to serious complications.

As a result, the United States will try to drag other countries into the conflict. First of all, Russia and China. After all, we should not forget that the defeat of Pyongyang will undermine the prestige and authority of China in Southeast Asia. Previously, China promised to stand up for the DPRK if the country was attacked for no reason. In addition, China has absolutely no need for a flow of refugees from North Korea. But Beijing is much more afraid of the appearance of the military forces of its “worst friend” in the person of the United States on its borders. Therefore, Beijing will strive to support the existing Kim regime. However, few people in China now want to fight for the DPRK, so there will be no open military assistance. But at the same time, a number of experts are confident that Beijing will support North Korea indirectly, including by providing it with military assistance. Such support will lead to prolongation of the conflict.

Russia, which shares an almost 40-kilometer border with North Korea, could also be drawn into the war. Let us recall that Russia has already put air defense systems in the Far East on high alert. And it is no coincidence - it is impossible to say exactly where the rocket will fly, taking into account the incomprehensible qualifications of the North Korean rocket scientists. In addition, American interceptor missiles may be over Russian territory. According to experts, if North Korea launches missiles towards Hawaii, then American interceptors will fly significantly south of the Russian borders. But if the DPRK strikes on the US mainland, then the trajectory of American interceptors could lie not only over the Far East, but even over the European part of Russia. Provocations are also possible from both the American and North Korean sides, which could even result in deliberate shelling of Russian territory.

REFERENCE

Balance of power

* North Korea

Armed forces - about 1.5 million. In the ground forces: more than 50 tactical missiles, 3 thousand tanks, 2 thousand armored personnel carriers, 13 thousand artillery pieces, more than 1 thousand multiple launch rocket systems, about 2 thousand anti-tank installations, 2 thousand anti-aircraft missile systems.

Air Force and Air Defense: over a thousand planes and helicopters, 200 suicide pilots trained to perform missions of particular importance, 1 thousand anti-aircraft guns. North Korean naval forces: 3 missile ships, 2 destroyers, 18 anti-submarine ships. Combat boats: 40 missile, 134 torpedo and 108 artillery. About 100 submarines. The nuclear missile potential is about a thousand missiles, including tactical missiles with a range of up to 70 kilometers, operational-tactical missiles with a range of up to 1,500 kilometers. Intercontinental ones with a range of up to 7 thousand kilometers are being developed.

* South Korea

Armed forces - 672 thousand people. In the ground forces: 2 thousand tanks, 2.5 thousand armored personnel carriers, 4,400 guns, 143 combat helicopters. The Air Force has 460 combat aircraft and helicopters, including 195 F-5 fighters and 60 F-16s. The Navy has 9 submarines and 40 surface ships.

* USA

Seventh Fleet, land and air forces stationed in South Korea. The total number of military personnel (including sailors and marines) is more than 70 thousand people. The United States maintains a permanent military contingent of 28.5 thousand people. At two US air bases in South Korea there are F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters and A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft. In the event of a full-scale conflict, the United States can use the B-1 Lancer and B-52 bombers stationed on the American island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, as well as the B-2 Spirit strategic bombers, designed to break through air defenses and drop conventional or nuclear bombs. A 50,000-strong military contingent in Japan may also be involved.

Last time I also wrote about one of the eastern countries: . And about North Korea here on the website. Read more.

Human society is constantly experimenting with how it can arrange itself in such a way that most of its members would be as comfortable as possible.

From the outside, this probably looks like the attempts of a rheumatic fat man to make himself more comfortable on a flimsy couch with sharp corners: no matter how he turns, the poor fellow will certainly pinch something on himself, or he will serve time.

Not to express deep respect to the image of the leader is to endanger not only yourself, but also your entire family.

Some particularly desperate experiments were costly. Take, for example, the 20th century. The entire planet was a gigantic testing ground where two systems clashed in rivalry. Society is against individuality, totalitarianism is against democracy, order is against chaos. As we know, chaos won, which is not surprising. You see, it takes a lot of effort to ruin chaos, while the most perfect order can be destroyed with one well-placed bowl of chili.

Order does not tolerate mistakes, but chaos... chaos feeds on them.

Love of freedom is a vile quality that interferes with ordered happiness

A demonstration defeat took place at two experimental sites. Two countries were taken: one in Europe, the second in Asia. Germany and Korea were neatly divided in half and in both cases the market, elections, freedom of speech and individual rights were introduced in one half, while the other half was ordered to build an ideally fair and well-functioning social system in which the individual has the only right - to serve the common good.

However, the German experiment went unsuccessfully from the very beginning. Even Hitler did not completely exterminate the cultural traditions of the freedom-loving Germans - where does Honecker belong? And it is difficult to create a socialist society right in the middle of the swamp of decaying capitalism. It is not surprising that the GDR, no matter how much effort and money was poured into it, did not demonstrate any brilliant success; it produced the most pathetic economy, and its inhabitants, instead of being filled with a competitive spirit, preferred to run to their Western relatives, masquerading at the border as the contents of their suitcases.

The Korean site promised great success. Still, the Asian mentality is historically more inclined towards subordination and total control, and even more so if we are talking about Koreans, who lived under Japanese protectorate for almost half a century and have long since forgotten all freedoms.

Juche forever

Kim Il Sung at the beginning of his reign.

After a series of rather bloody political upheavals, the former captain of the Soviet Army, Kim Il Sung, became the almost sole ruler of the DPRK. He was once a partisan who fought against the Japanese occupation, then, like many Korean communists, he ended up in the USSR and in 1945 returned to his homeland to build a new order. Knowing the Stalinist regime well, he managed to recreate it in Korea, and the copy in many ways surpassed the original.

The entire population of the country was divided into 51 groups according to social origin and degree of loyalty to the new regime. Moreover, unlike the USSR, it was not even kept silent that the very fact of your birth in the “wrong” family can be a crime: exiles and camps here for more than half a century have officially sent not only criminals, but also all members of their families, including minors children. The main ideology of the state became the “Juche idea,” which, with some stretch, can be translated as “self-reliance.” The essence of ideology comes down to the following provisions.

North Korea is the greatest country in the world. Very good. All other countries are bad. There are very bad ones, and there are inferior ones who are in slavery to the very bad ones. There are also countries that are not exactly bad, but also bad. For example, China and the USSR. They followed the path of communism, but distorted it, and this is wrong.

The characteristic features of a Caucasian are always signs of an enemy.

Only North Koreans live happily, all other peoples eke out a miserable existence. The most unhappy country in the world is South Korea. It has been taken over by the damned imperialist bastards, and all South Koreans are divided into two categories: jackals, vile minions of the regime, and oppressed pathetic beggars who are too cowardly to drive out the Americans.

The greatest man in the world is the great leader Kim Il Sung*. He liberated the country and expelled the damned Japanese. He is the wisest man on Earth. He is a living god. That is, he is already lifeless, but this does not matter, because he is forever alive. Everything you have was given to you by Kim Il Sung. The second great man is the son of the great leader Kim Il Sung, the beloved leader Kim Jong Il. The third is the current owner of the DPRK, the grandson of the great leader, the brilliant comrade Kim Jong-un. We express our love for Kim Il Sung through hard work. We love to work. We also love to learn the Juche idea.

• By the way, in Korea we would have been sent to a camp for this phrase. Because Koreans are taught from kindergarten that the name of the great leader Kim Il Sung must appear at the beginning of the sentence. Damn, this one would have been exiled too...

We North Koreans are great happy people. Hooray!

Magic levers

Kim Il Sung and his closest aides were, of course, crocodiles. But these crocodiles had good intentions. They were really trying to create an ideally happy society. And when is a person happy? From the point of view of order theory, a person is happy when he takes his place, knows exactly what to do, and is satisfied with the existing state of affairs. Unfortunately, the one who created people made many mistakes in his creation. For example, he instilled in us a craving for freedom, independence, adventurism, risk, as well as pride and the desire to express our thoughts out loud.

All these vile human qualities interfered with a state of complete, orderly happiness. But Kim Il Sung knew well what levers could be used to control a person. These levers - love, fear, ignorance and control - are fully involved in Korean ideology. That is, they are also involved a little in all other ideologies, but no one here can keep up with the Koreans.

Ignorance

Until the early 80s, televisions in the country were distributed only according to party lists.

Any unofficial information is completely illegal in the country. There is no access to any foreign newspapers or magazines. There is practically no literature as such, except for the officially approved works of modern North Korean writers, which, by and large, amount to praising the ideas of the Juche and the great leader.

Moreover, even North Korean newspapers cannot be stored here for too long: according to A.N. Lankov, one of the few specialists on the DPRK, it is almost impossible to obtain a fifteen-year-old newspaper even in a special storage facility. Still would! Party policy sometimes has to change, and there is no need for the average person to follow these fluctuations.

Koreans have radios, but each device must be sealed in the workshop so that it can only receive a few government radio channels. For keeping an unsealed receiver at home, you are immediately sent to a camp, along with your entire family.

There are televisions, but the cost of a device made in Taiwan or Russia, but with a Korean brand stuck on top of the manufacturer’s mark, is equal to approximately five years’ salary of an employee. So few people can watch TV, two state channels, especially considering that electricity in residential buildings is turned on for only a few hours a day. However, there is nothing to watch there, unless, of course, you count hymns to the leader, children's parades in honor of the leader and monstrous cartoons about how you need to study well in order to fight well against the damned imperialists.

North Koreans, of course, do not travel abroad, except for a tiny layer of members of the party elite. Some specialists can use Internet access with special permits - several institutions have computers connected to the Internet. But to sit down at them, a scientist needs to have a bunch of passes, and any visit to any site is naturally registered and then carefully studied by the security service.

Luxury housing for the elite. There is even a sewer system and elevators work in the morning!

In the world of official information, fabulous lies are happening. What they say in the news is not just a distortion of reality - it has nothing to do with it. Did you know that the average American ration does not exceed 300 grams of grains per day? At the same time, they do not have rations as such; they must earn their three hundred grams of corn in a factory, where the police beat them, so that the Americans work better.

Lankov gives a charming example from a North Korean third-grade textbook: “A South Korean boy, in order to save his dying sister from starvation, donated a liter of blood for American soldiers. With this money he bought rice cake for his sister. How many liters of blood must he donate so that half a cake will also go to him, his unemployed mother and his old grandmother?

The North Korean knows practically nothing about the world around him, he knows neither the past nor the future, and even the exact sciences in local schools and institutes are taught with the distortions required by the official ideology. For such an information vacuum, of course, one has to pay for a fantastically low level of science and culture. But it's worth it.

Love

The North Korean has almost no understanding of the real world

Love brings happiness, and this, by the way, is very good if you make a person love what he needs. The North Korean loves his leader and his country, and they help him in every way possible. Every adult Korean is required to wear a pin with a portrait of Kim Il Sung on his lapel; in every house, institution, in every apartment there should be a portrait of the leader hanging. The portrait should be cleaned daily with a brush and wiped with a dry cloth. So, for this brush there is a special drawer, standing in a place of honor in the apartment. There should be nothing else on the wall on which the portrait hangs, no patterns or pictures - this is disrespectful. Until the seventies, damage to a portrait, even unintentional, was punishable by execution; in the eighties, this could have been done with exile.

The eleven-hour working day of a North Korean daily begins and ends with half-hour political information, which tells about how good it is to live in the DPRK and how great and beautiful the leaders of the greatest country in the world are. On Sunday, the only non-working day, colleagues are supposed to meet together to once again discuss the Juche idea.

The most important school subject is studying the biography of Kim Il Sung. In every kindergarten, for example, there is a carefully guarded model of the leader’s native village; preschool children are required to show without hesitation exactly under which tree “the great leader, at the age of five, thought about the fate of humanity,” and where “he trained his body through sports and hardening to fight against Japanese invaders." There is not a single song in the country that does not contain the name of the leader.

Control

All the youth in the country serve in the army. There are simply no young people on the streets.

Control over the state of minds of the citizens of the DPRK is carried out by the MTF and MOB, or the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security. Moreover, the MTF is in charge of ideology and deals only with serious political offenses of the residents, while ordinary control over the lives of Koreans is under the jurisdiction of the MTF. It is the MOB patrols that carry out raids on apartments for their political decency and collect denunciations from citizens against each other.

But, naturally, no ministries would be enough for vigil, so the country has created a system of “inminbans”. Any housing in the DPRK is included in one or another inminban - usually twenty, thirty, rarely forty families. Each inminban has a headman - a person responsible for everything that happens in the cell. Every week, the head of the Inminban is obliged to report to the representative of the Ministry of Public Security about what is happening in the area entrusted to him, whether there is anything suspicious, whether anyone has uttered sedition, or whether there is unregistered radio equipment. The head of the Inminban has the right to enter any apartment at any time of the day or night; not letting him in is a crime.

Every person who comes to a house or apartment for more than a few hours is required to register with the headman, especially if he intends to stay overnight. The apartment owners and the guest must provide the warden with a written explanation of the reason for the overnight stay. If, during a MOB raid, unaccounted-for guests are found in the house, not only the owners of the apartment, but also the headman will go to a special settlement. In particularly obvious cases of sedition, responsibility may fall on all members of the inminban at once - for failure to report. For example, for an unauthorized visit of a foreigner to a Korean’s home, several dozen families may end up in the camp at once if they saw him, but hid the information.

Traffic jams in a country where there is no private transport are, as we see, a rare phenomenon.

However, unaccounted guests are rare in Korea. The fact is that you can move from city to city and from village to village only with special passes, which the elders of the inminbans receive at the Moscow Public Library. You can wait months for such permits. And to Pyongyang, for example, no one can go to Pyongyang just like that: people from other regions are allowed into the capital only for official reasons.

Fear

The DPRK is ready to fight the imperialist vermin with machine guns, calculators and volumes of Juche.

According to human rights organizations, approximately 15 percent of all North Koreans live in camps and special settlements.

There are regimes of varying severity, but usually these are simply areas surrounded by energized barbed wire where prisoners live in dugouts and shacks. In strict regimes, women, men and children are kept separately, while in regular regimes, families are not prohibited from living together. Prisoners cultivate the land or work in factories. The working day here lasts 18 hours, all free time is reserved for sleep.

The biggest problem in the camp is hunger. A defector to South Korea, Kang Cheol Hwan, who managed to escape from the camp and get out of the country, testifies that the standard diet for an adult camp resident was 290 grams of millet or corn per day. The prisoners eat rats, mice and frogs - this is a rare delicacy; a rat corpse is of great value here. The mortality rate reaches approximately 30 percent in the first five years, the reason for this is hunger, exhaustion and beatings.

Also a popular measure for political offenders (as well as for criminal offenders) is the death penalty. It is automatically applied when it comes to such serious violations as disrespectful words addressed to the great leader. Death executions are carried out publicly, by shooting. High school and student excursions are brought to them so that young people get a correct idea of ​​what is good and what is bad.

That's how they lived

Portraits of precious leaders hang even in the subway, in every car.

The life of a North Korean who has not yet been convicted, however, cannot be called a raspberry. As a child, he spends almost all his free time in kindergarten and school, since his parents have no time to sit with him: they are always at work. At seventeen, he is drafted into the army, where he serves for ten years (for women, the service life is reduced to eight). Only after the army can he go to college and get married (marriage is prohibited for men under 27 and women under 25).

He lives in a tiny apartment, 18 meters of total area here is very comfortable housing for a family. If he is not a resident of Pyongyang, then with a 99 percent probability he has neither water supply nor sewerage in his house; even in cities there are water pumps and wooden toilets in front of apartment buildings.

He eats meat and sweets four times a year, on national holidays, when residents are given coupons for these types of food. Usually he feeds on rice, corn and millet, which he receives on ration cards at the rate of 500–600 grams per adult in “well-fed” years. Once a year he is allowed to receive ration cards for 80 kilograms of cabbage in order to pickle it. A small free market has opened up here in recent years, but the cost of a skinny chicken is equal to a month's salary of an employee. Party officials, however, eat quite decently: they receive food from special distributors and differ from the very lean rest of the population by being pleasantly plump.

Almost all women have their hair cut short and permed, since the great leader once said that this particular hairstyle suits Korean women very well. Now wearing a different hairstyle is like signing your own disloyalty. Long hair on men is strictly prohibited; cutting hair longer than five centimeters can lead to arrest.

Experiment results

The ceremonial children from a privileged Pyongyang kindergarten, allowed to be shown to foreigners.

Deplorable. Poverty, a practically non-functioning economy, population decline - all these signs of failed social experience got out of control during Kim Il Sung's lifetime. In the nineties, real famine came to the country, caused by drought and the cessation of food supplies from the collapsed USSR.

Pyongyang tried to hush up the true scale of the disaster, but, according to experts who studied satellite imagery, approximately two million people died of hunger during these years, that is, every tenth Korean died. Despite the fact that the DPRK was a rogue state, guilty of nuclear blackmail, the world community began to supply humanitarian aid there, which it is still doing.

Love for the leader helps not to go crazy - this is the state version of the “Stockholm syndrome”

In 1994, Kim Il Sung died, and since then the regime began to creak especially loudly. Nevertheless, nothing has changed fundamentally, except for some liberalization of the market. There are signs that suggest that the North Korean party elite is ready to give up the country in exchange for guarantees of personal integrity and Swiss bank accounts.

But now South Korea no longer expresses immediate readiness for unification and forgiveness: after all, taking on board 20 million people who are not adapted to modern life is a risky business. Engineers who have never seen a computer; peasants who are excellent at cooking grass, but are unfamiliar with the basics of modern agriculture; civil servants who know the Juche formulas by heart, but have not the slightest idea of ​​what a toilet looks like... Sociologists predict social upheavals, stockbrokers predict St. Vitus's dance on the stock exchanges, ordinary South Koreans are reasonably afraid of a sharp decline in living standards.

Even in a store for foreigners, where Koreans are not allowed to enter, the range of goods is not very diverse.

So the DPRK still exists - a crumbling monument to a great social experiment, which once again showed that freedom, despite all its untidiness, is perhaps the only path that humanity can follow.

A country in half: historical background

Kim Il Sung

In 1945, Soviet and American troops occupied Korea, thus freeing it from Japanese occupation. The country was divided along the 38th parallel: the north went to the USSR, the south to the USA. Some time was spent trying to agree on unifying the country back, but since the partners had different views on everything, naturally no consensus was reached and in 1948 the formation of two Koreas was officially announced. It cannot be said that the parties gave up like this, without effort. In 1950, the Korean War began, somewhat reminiscent of the Third World War. From the north, the USSR, China and the hastily formed North Korean army fought, the honor of the southerners was defended by the USA, Great Britain and the Philippines, and among other things, UN peacekeeping forces were still traveling back and forth across Korea, throwing a spanner in the works of both. In general, it was quite stormy.

In 1953 the war ended. True, no agreements were signed; formally, both Koreas continued to remain in a state of war. North Koreans call this war the “Patriotic Liberation War,” while South Koreans call it the “June 25 Incident.” Quite a characteristic difference in terms.

In the end, the division at the 38th parallel remained in effect. Around the border, the parties formed the so-called “demilitarized zone” - an area that is still crammed with unrecovered mines and the remains of military equipment: the war is not officially over. During the war, approximately a million Chinese, two million South and North Koreans, 54,000 Americans, 5,000 British, and 315 soldiers and officers of the Soviet Army died.

After the war, the United States brought order to South Korea: they took control of the government, banned the execution of communists without trial, built military bases and poured money into the economy, so that South Korea quickly turned into one of the richest and most successful Asian states. Much more interesting things have begun in North Korea.

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Photo: Reuters; Hulton Getty/Fotobank.com; Eyedea; AFP/East News; AP; Corbis/RPG.