NK Investigative Report 2001

North Korea Investigative Report

Week 7 - Brainwashing (cont)

An In-Depth Look

The extent that the North Korean government has an entire nation brainwashed is amazing. Despite the deplorable conditions in North Korea, starving refugees will refuse to put any blame on Kim Il Sung. Even after giving refugees food and clean clothes, if a missionary blames Kim Il Sung for North Korea's problems, the refugees get upset and scorn the missionary for defaming their great leader. They will continue to fight for him and his cause.

Juche, the highly upheld ideology in North Korea, teaches that Kim Il Sung alone is God. Your destiny is in your own hands, and you can find your destiny by obeying Kim Il Sung's words. There is no concept of life after death. During our encounters with refugees, we asked many times if they believed in God or thought about life after death, and many would say that they never had the chance to think about it.

From childhood, North Koreans are taught that North Korea is the wealthiest and best country in the world. Everyone in South Korea is supposedly a beggar, and many North Koreans believe that even during their most difficult times, people in South Korean are worse off than they are. Many are in shock when they realize how advanced South Korea is, and that they are the ones who are beggars.

Details:
During our second night in Yanbian, we met two male refugees. They were both first-time escapees, one about 30-years-old and the other in his 40s. They looked surprised when we told them we were Americans. They were taught all their lives that the U.S. is North Korea's biggest enemy, and the only thing preventing reunification on the Korean peninsula is the hated U.S. Even during their current difficulties, they are taught that North Korea is going through economic hardship because of conniving Americans.

The information on newspapers, televisions and radios is strictly monitored by the government for propaganda purposes. For example, during the North-South Korean summit in 2000, North Koreans were told that South Korean President Kim Dae Jung came to seek Kim Jong Il's favor because of North Korea's mighty army. They are also taught that the U.S. sends food and medicine to North Korea as peace offerings.

Due to this life-long one-sided education, people are literally willing to die for Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. One of the refugees we met, who finished his North Korean army duties a few years ago, told us that they are taught that reunification will come by force and one day there would be a war. He said many believe that war is inevitable to reunite the Korean peninsula, and all believe the North will win. Although this refugee has begun to see that North Korea isn't the country he once thought, he remains very patriotic. When we started to ask about the current state of North Korea, he was very defensive.

Other refugees shared that they had a constant fear of death. Many had seen or heard about people taken away in the middle of the night for watching a foreign television program, listening to a foreign radio station, criticizing Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il, or owning a Bible and praying. There is no dissent; no one can talk against the North Korean government, and people who complain about North Korea are immediately arrested and punished. Refugees have shared that one in three North Koreans are government monitors. People live in constant fear of one another, and are never free to share their thoughts.

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