![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I just finished watching an absolutely fascinating video on North Korea as part of my research for my presentation on Monday. Said documentary, called North Korea: beyond the DMZ, can be found at the following website: Third World Newsreel: North Korea. Please make certain you read the FAQ, which is gives the current North Korean situation in brief. THIS IS IMPORTANT, dammit.
Anyway, back to the documentary: it did its best to be impartial, showing the reasoning and philosophies of both sides on the Korean conflict, but where it really shone was in speaking to ordinary North Koreans. Hearing their version of events and occurances, so different from what is taught here . . . well.
It's one of those issues where no one is entirely wrong. And while I would not like to live in North Korea, not before I watched the video and not now that I feel I have a much better idea of what life is like there, I am struck by the urgency of establishing better relations with North Korea and the necessity of nuclear disarmament on a worldwide scale.
To me, this is the most dangerous part of the world at the moment, though there have been no major military operations there since 1954 (that I know of; the video did mention that there have been many small conflicts along the border). But technically, the Korean War is not over. Sure, you can go visit the monument in Washington DC (and I have), but no peace treaty was ever signed.
I felt deeply touched as I watched long-separated families reunite. A man broke into tears and had to stop speaking for many minutes when he told about meeting his sister after being separated for fifty years-- fifty years! Half a century of not knowing, of wondering . . . one son said to his mother, "I tried to see you in my dreams, but even there I could not . . ." I can't imagine. Can not imagine.
I'm reminded of the biggest news story that was running on the TVs while I was in Japan (no, not the water main that broke and sent water cascading over a nearby apartment building, soaking almost everyone inside. That was only big because nothing particularly exciting really happens in Japan other than earthquakes). It was about a Japanese woman who was kidnapped from Japan to North Korea some twenty or thirty years ago who was returning to Japan for the first time with her two daughters and her husband. Her husband happened to be an ex-US army soldier who had ended up in North Korea during the Korean War . . . there was a distinct possibility that he might be extradited to the United States if he came to Japan due to his questiionable status as a possible deserter and certain treaties between the US and Japan (and with the current administration, the possibility of leniency was iffy at best). Needless to say the entire issue caused a great deal of fervor and was taken very seriously, though Erika and I made jokes about it a lot at the time (this was more due to the habit of the Japanese news broadcasts to show the same footage over and over and over again).
I was especially effected by the end of the movie, which covered the diplomatic progress made with North Korea during the Clinton administration, and the backslide under the Bush administration that (I feel) has directly led to North Korea's announcement of its nuclear capability. Watching clips of Bush's famous 'Axis of Evil' speech after having met (via the earlier sections of the tape) actual North Koreans (who of course were not evil at all), I found myself deeply frightened over what might happen in the next four years. The video mentioned the US's inability to let go of the 'Cold War mentality' and cited that as one of the main reasons for the hightening of tensions with North Korea.
I don't know if Kerry would manage to get past that mentality, but at least the idea of working with and through the UN is firmly a part of his policy. Bush, on the other hand . . . having already gotten us into a war that shows distinct possibility of becoming 'another Vietnam,' I find it impossible to believe that he can possibly calm down tensions with North Korea. Especially when there is rising sentiment in South Korea and Japan (also due to the Iraq war) that the US should just bloody well mind their own business and that they themselves would be the best ones to sort it out. Considering how many American troops are stationed in Japan and South Korea, somehow I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon.
My sister was talking about the economy when she was telling me how much she missed Clinton over the past weekend, but I miss him, too, because of his insistance on negotiation. According to my sister, he had nearly badgered Israel and Palestine into agreement and scaled down the conflict there simply by sending diplomat after diplomat and refusing to give up. And although I disapprove of the US actions during the 95-2000 famine in North Korea (US sanctions prevented N. Korea from getting the international loans it needed to bail itself out, and towards the end of the famine the US cut its food aid entirely), I still long for that kind of insistance on diplomacy, and that persistant desire to make things work out no matter how hard it may be, WITHOUT resorting to war.
I don't want to live in the most hated country in the world, dammit. I want to be able to be proud, not of an illustrious past for my country, but of a productive and peaceful present, and a prosperous and inviting future.
Anyway, back to the documentary: it did its best to be impartial, showing the reasoning and philosophies of both sides on the Korean conflict, but where it really shone was in speaking to ordinary North Koreans. Hearing their version of events and occurances, so different from what is taught here . . . well.
It's one of those issues where no one is entirely wrong. And while I would not like to live in North Korea, not before I watched the video and not now that I feel I have a much better idea of what life is like there, I am struck by the urgency of establishing better relations with North Korea and the necessity of nuclear disarmament on a worldwide scale.
To me, this is the most dangerous part of the world at the moment, though there have been no major military operations there since 1954 (that I know of; the video did mention that there have been many small conflicts along the border). But technically, the Korean War is not over. Sure, you can go visit the monument in Washington DC (and I have), but no peace treaty was ever signed.
I felt deeply touched as I watched long-separated families reunite. A man broke into tears and had to stop speaking for many minutes when he told about meeting his sister after being separated for fifty years-- fifty years! Half a century of not knowing, of wondering . . . one son said to his mother, "I tried to see you in my dreams, but even there I could not . . ." I can't imagine. Can not imagine.
I'm reminded of the biggest news story that was running on the TVs while I was in Japan (no, not the water main that broke and sent water cascading over a nearby apartment building, soaking almost everyone inside. That was only big because nothing particularly exciting really happens in Japan other than earthquakes). It was about a Japanese woman who was kidnapped from Japan to North Korea some twenty or thirty years ago who was returning to Japan for the first time with her two daughters and her husband. Her husband happened to be an ex-US army soldier who had ended up in North Korea during the Korean War . . . there was a distinct possibility that he might be extradited to the United States if he came to Japan due to his questiionable status as a possible deserter and certain treaties between the US and Japan (and with the current administration, the possibility of leniency was iffy at best). Needless to say the entire issue caused a great deal of fervor and was taken very seriously, though Erika and I made jokes about it a lot at the time (this was more due to the habit of the Japanese news broadcasts to show the same footage over and over and over again).
I was especially effected by the end of the movie, which covered the diplomatic progress made with North Korea during the Clinton administration, and the backslide under the Bush administration that (I feel) has directly led to North Korea's announcement of its nuclear capability. Watching clips of Bush's famous 'Axis of Evil' speech after having met (via the earlier sections of the tape) actual North Koreans (who of course were not evil at all), I found myself deeply frightened over what might happen in the next four years. The video mentioned the US's inability to let go of the 'Cold War mentality' and cited that as one of the main reasons for the hightening of tensions with North Korea.
I don't know if Kerry would manage to get past that mentality, but at least the idea of working with and through the UN is firmly a part of his policy. Bush, on the other hand . . . having already gotten us into a war that shows distinct possibility of becoming 'another Vietnam,' I find it impossible to believe that he can possibly calm down tensions with North Korea. Especially when there is rising sentiment in South Korea and Japan (also due to the Iraq war) that the US should just bloody well mind their own business and that they themselves would be the best ones to sort it out. Considering how many American troops are stationed in Japan and South Korea, somehow I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon.
My sister was talking about the economy when she was telling me how much she missed Clinton over the past weekend, but I miss him, too, because of his insistance on negotiation. According to my sister, he had nearly badgered Israel and Palestine into agreement and scaled down the conflict there simply by sending diplomat after diplomat and refusing to give up. And although I disapprove of the US actions during the 95-2000 famine in North Korea (US sanctions prevented N. Korea from getting the international loans it needed to bail itself out, and towards the end of the famine the US cut its food aid entirely), I still long for that kind of insistance on diplomacy, and that persistant desire to make things work out no matter how hard it may be, WITHOUT resorting to war.
I don't want to live in the most hated country in the world, dammit. I want to be able to be proud, not of an illustrious past for my country, but of a productive and peaceful present, and a prosperous and inviting future.
Tags: