“We don’t like living without electricity and water,” she went on. “We know we are not a rich country. But it is the United States that has put sanctions on us and has deprived us of these things. What did we ever do to the United States?” Paris wasn’t the only person I’d spoken with who blamed the U.S. sanctions for North Korea’s lack of electricity. This was a common theme discussed by my other guards and Mr. Yee. To them, every blackout–and they happen multiple times a day–reminds them of the evil U.S. enemy that is trying to hold North Korea down. I could understand the immense pride the people of North Korea feel about their nuclear program, which in their eyes is a step toward becoming a self-sufficient, powerful nation.
This is from Laura Ling and Lisa Ling, Somewhere Inside: One Sister’s Captivity in North Korea and the Other’s Fight to Bring Her Home, which I posted about earlier this month. The section above is from Laura Ling, the one who was imprisoned. “Paris” is the name she coined for one of her captors.
Ms. Ling doesn’t ever address whether the U.S. sanctions were responsible for North Korea’s lack of electricity and water. My impression is that she doubts the claim, and is right to doubt it.
Nevertheless, it was disappointing not to see Ms. Ling address the harm the sanctions were doing. It was even more disappointing, given that she wrote her sections of the book while safely back in the United States, to see her not address “Paris’s” question: “What did we ever do to the United States?” The U.S. government is largely the aggressor here. The NK government is vicious in its treatment of U.S. prisoners and of its own people. But the NK government has done little to hurt the vast, vast majority of Americans, and much less than the U.S. government has done to hurt North Koreans.
READER COMMENTS
chris
Jul 29 2019 at 3:18pm
Our actions toward NK are not to protect America per se, but to protect America’s allies: SK and Japan, both of which NK have threatened for many years and continue to do so. I understand the rational reasoning for NK to saber rattle, however, if they changed course and began supporting their local economy rather than expanding their military capabilities, they would be under significantly less political pressure and, in the long run, would be in a better situation, economically.
The downside is that it is harder to maintain a totalitarian government when you have a more open market and a lack of common enemy outside the country to blame for everything.
Rationally, if other countries stopped sanctions on NK tomorrow, would the populous feel the change, or would the government continue in its current course and funnel the extra resources into more humanitarian abuses and military efforts?Past experience indicates that it would be the latter, and that is largely why the sanctions continue to stay in place; it is the less dangerous route for American allies and is one of the few non-military actions we can take against a regime that is as abusive and closed as that in NK.
Dan
Jul 29 2019 at 4:28pm
When I was there, there was a very clear lack of agricultural machinery and a ridiculous amount of manual labor on the fields. I suspect this to be a direct result of the sanctions and therefore assume that a lot of people in DPRK hunger and freeze in winter because of the sanctions. I’m certain that a reduction of sanctions on fuel imports by the DPRK would immediately benefit civilians there. However I haven’t been up to date on current sanctions for a while so feel free to correct me if they were relaxed/lifted in the mean time.
Here in Europe I keep hearing of the danger posed by their military. They had a biplane squadron flying in formation over their military parade and it’s very hard for me to imagine them being a serious threat to anyone. As far as I know military extrapolations of the South estimate that the North’s military would be defeated within 2-3 weeks in an all-out war. This means that Seoul is in danger in case the conflict escalates, but since it would be a self-destructive move it’s not a realistic scenario unless another nation attacked first.
I would also like to see a quicker reduction of the isolation of the country, but having experienced first hand how foreign concepts of free markets were to the people I talked to, I doubt that rushing the change that is already taking place would be a good idea.
Disclaimer: My view is tainted by my limited experience during my 9 day visit to DPRK 3 years ago and the hospitality with which we were treated there. My experiences there absolutely did not reflect the depiction of the DPRK in western media.
Benjamin Cole
Jul 29 2019 at 9:00pm
South Korea and Japan are big boys now and are much more technologically advanced than North Korea and also with larger populations. Both South Korea and Japan have excellent leadership, something that cannot be said about the United States.
It would be well for the United States to withdraw from South Korea entirely, and turn diplomacy in that region to the people who live in that region.
Thomas Sewell
Jul 31 2019 at 10:14pm
Sanctions on North Korea don’t prevent them from purchasing electrical turbines and wiring, nor plumbing fixtures and water purification plants. They don’t prevent North Korea from converting to a market economy and increasing their wealth. They don’t require the government of North Korea to centrally plan their agriculture and thus regularly destroy most of it.
Can you purchase materials useful for nuclear weapons in North Korea from the U.S. or other countries which have applied sanctions? Not easily, no.
Other than luxury goods which are mostly affordable by only the DPRK political elite and products which are used to make nuclear weapons, anyone in North Korea is free to purchase just about anything they want from most countries in the world.
Are people in North Korea too poor to afford much? Yes, but that’s not due to sanctions. The DPRK mostly evades them anyway, falsifying paperwork, trading via willing partners, doing ship-to-ship transfers. They’re an inconvenience, but they aren’t the cause of their problems.
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