During the summer, the big powers in the world – especially President Trump in the US – have become increasingly upset with a small county in Asia: North Korea. North Korea has nuclear weapons, which the US, China, Japan and many others find threatening. The United Nations want the country to get rid of them. The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un, however, does not budge. Our reporter Hamish gives you some history and he has interviewed a relative who visited this very closed country that few westerners have been allowed into.
North Korea was separated from South Korea after World War 2. The Russians took control of North Korea and the Americans and British took control of South Korea. The two countries are very different. South Korea in many ways is like a western country; maybe it was influenced by America and Britain. For example South Korea has a democratic system of government, but North Korea is a communist dictatorship.
As a result of that, North Korea has a very bad human rights record. Last year a 21 year old American student was arrested for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster. He was sentenced to 11 years of hard labour. He was recently been sent back to America but died a few weeks after returning. He had severe brain damage, presumably because of drugs or mistreatment. Several tissues in different areas of the brain had died.
I interviewed my uncle who has visited North Korea twice as a tourist in 2008 and 2011. He said you cannot go everywhere you want to; where you go is already decided for you by the authorities. This is the same for which hotel you are in, where you eat, what you eat and who your tour guide is. To go anywhere you have to have at least a driver and two government officials at all times. Due to all of these constraints there are very few tourists.
North Koreans are much smaller than South Koreans because of the lack of nutrition in the food and many North Koreans have very little food. My Uncle thought the American student was very silly – he should have thought about the consequences. However, should someone be (allegedly) forced to take drugs, go into hard labour, have brain damage and eventually die because of stealing a poster? Unfortunately it is unlikely anyone will know the conditions of how he was treated.
By: Hamish