The Past and Present of the Kim Dynasty in North Korea

        In Northeast Asia, there is a country called "Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)". However, almost everyone knows that it has no "democracy" at all, and the people live in great pain. Under the Kim family's hereditary autocracy, there is no "republic". According to various public or secret information, North Korea under the rule of the Kim Dynasty can be described as the most closed and backward, the most authoritarian, totalitarian, and brutal regime in the entire world, and the severity of human rights violations is the highest in the world.

    So, how was such an extremely evil regime established? And how can it survive for a long time? What does its future hold?

    The history of Kim Il Sung's fortune

   Regarding the establishment of the Kim Dynasty, we need to start with the history of Kim Il Sung's fortune. Kim Il-ben, whose real name is Kim Sung-joo, was exiled from North Korea to Northeast China with his father when he was a teenager. After coming to Northeast China, Kim Il Sung joined the CCP and the Anti-Japanese Alliance, participated in the anti-Japanese struggle, and gradually became an important leader of the Anti-Japanese Alliance. Kim Il Sung's actual record in the War of Resistance was very poor. In fact, the biggest victory he commanded the guerrillas, the "Puchonbo Victory" (this battle was boasted after Kim Il Sung came to power), only killed or injured more than 20 Japanese policemen and civilians. .Later, under the encirclement and suppression of the Japanese army and the puppet Manchukuo army, Kim Il Sung led his troops to retreat into the territory of the Soviet Union. During the Soviet Union, he managed to survive the brutal political struggle and purges, and became the leader of the Koreans in the anti-union guerrillas.

   In 1945, the Soviet Army sent troops to Northeast China, and occupied and "trusted" the northern part of the Korean Peninsula (the area north of the 38th parallel north latitude) according to the agreement with the Allied Forces. At this time, the Soviet Union needed to support agents in North Korea to fight against the Syngman Rhee regime in South Korea supported by the United States. At the beginning, the Soviet Union tried to support Cho Man-sik, the North Korean independence activist known as the "Gandhi of North Korea". However, Cao Wanzhi has anti-communist tendencies and tries to free North Korea from the control of the Soviet Union and independently determine the fate of the peninsula. This naturally made the Soviets vigilant and dissatisfied.

    Under such circumstances, Kim Il Sung received the attention and affirmation of the Soviet Union as a "replacement candidate". Under the support of the Soviet Union, in February 1946, Kim Il Sung became the chairman of the "North Korean Provisional People's Committee", starting his long career as a North Korean leader.

    Kim Il Sung Eliminates Political Enemies to Consolidate Power

    But then and for the next decade, Kim Il Sung's power was not secure. This instability comes not only from external threats, but also from conflicts and contests within the ruling group. There are many political factions and powerful figures within the North Korean regime, which restricts Kim Il Sung's inability to act arbitrarily. Political factions in North Korea include the "Yan'an faction (very close relationship with the CCP)" headed by Kim Jue-bong, the "Soviet faction (studying in the Soviet Union or serving in the Soviet army for a long time)" headed by Xu Jiayi, and the "Nanlao faction (Southern labor faction)" headed by Park Hyun-young. from the Workers’ Party of Korea), and the “guerrilla faction” headed by Kim Il-sung. Characters from various factions have their own ghosts and intrigues with each other, all wanting to seize the supremacy of North Korea.

   After Kim Il Sung became the supreme leader of North Korea, he used power tactics to gradually exclude dissidents. Using the power and prestige accumulated during the Korean War, he began to eliminate political opponents one by one. After the armistice of the Korean War in 1953, Kim Il Sung immediately took action against the "Nanlao faction" who had no background and lost strength, executed the representative of the "Nanlao faction" Park Hyun-young, and thoroughly cleaned the "Nanlao faction" forces. After that, shortly after Stalin's death and the period when the Soviet leader changed, Xu Jiayi, a member of the "Soviet faction", was forced to commit suicide (one said that he was killed by someone sent by Kim Il Sung), and the rest of the "Soviet faction" also collapsed and dispersed. In 1956, in the "August sect incident", the "Yan'an faction" was defeated in one fell swoop. Except for a few people who fled to China, members of the "Yan'an faction" were executed or sent to labor camps. After eliminating these three factions, Kim Il Sung's position in North Korea is unshakable.

    However, the cleaning never stopped. For example, in the 1960s, Kim Il Sung eliminated the "Gapsan faction", which was inclined to oppose Kim Il Sung, within the "guerrilla faction", and the leader, Park Jinzhe, was executed. In 1976, Nam Il, a general of the Korean People's Army, died in a car accident, suspected of being murdered by Kim Il Sung. These are only relatively well-known figures who have been purged, and there are countless middle- and lower-level party, military and political figures who have been purged. Kim Il Sung maintained his rule through this kind of long-term purge. Until the death of Kim Il Sung, this kind of purge did not stop, and was continued and used by his son Kim Jong Il and his grandson Kim Jong Un.

    Some people may have doubts, why he can successfully clean up so many political opponents, but those people did not succeed in fighting back? The reasons are complex. First of all, North Korea's highly centralized and opaque system allows Kim Il Sung, as the supreme leader, the absolute power of life and death, and it is difficult for other people living under him to successfully resist successfully. Second, Kim Il Sung has always held high the banner of independence and opposition to "major affairs", and won the support of many nationalists in the ruling class of North Korea. These people also regard other factions as foreign puppets or weak and incompetent. Third, due to various considerations, the Soviet Union and China adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards Kim Il Sung's purge, and did not support the faction close to them, allowing Kim Il Sung to act unscrupulously. The fourth is that Kim Il Sung does have very superb tactics, for example, he can effectively confuse political opponents, and pull one faction to fight the other, and defeat them one by one. Of course, Kim Il Sung's vicious means, and his willingness to kill the grass and roots, is also an important factor for him to have the last laugh.

    The Korean War, post-war construction, and the consolidation of the Kim Il Sung regime under international aid

    Kim Il Sung established and consolidated the Kim family dynasty, of course, not only relying on purges. Undefeated in the Korean War and post-war economic and social construction, the Kim Dynasty was initially formed and consolidated.

    The outbreak of the Korean War gave Kim Il Sung an important condition for the centralization of power. In times of war, everything must be subject to the needs of the war, which often leads to a high concentration and violence of power. Because only by centralizing power and using violence can we maintain discipline and improve efficiency, gain a firm foothold in the war and even win the war. Relying on the special environment brought about by the Korean War, Kim Il Sung quickly firmly controlled the party, government, and military power in his own hands. At the end of the war, the inertia of the wartime system was exploited by Kim Il Sung, and he achieved personal dictatorship faster than Stalin and Mao Zedong.

    The success of the subsequent post-war reconstruction also improved the legitimacy of Kim Il Sung's power to a certain extent. During the 20 years from 1953 to the early 1970s, North Korea relied on international aid and achieved great economic development. Kim Il-sung initiated the "Chollima Movement", focusing on the development of heavy industry, supplemented by agriculture and light industry. It has indeed achieved great development, and the people's living standards have also greatly improved, even if this is somewhat exaggerated. North Korea’s per capita GDP, urbanization rate, and agricultural mechanization rate were always higher than South Korea’s before the mid-1970s, calling itself a “socialist paradise on earth.” Compared with the colonial period and the war period, the Korean people at this time were indeed happier. Therefore, the North Korean people also have a lot of respect and praise from the heart for Kim Il Sung. Better economic development naturally consolidated Kim Il Sung's rule.

    Kim Il Sung took all the credit for the "victory" of the Korean War and economic development for himself, and he has a cult of personality in North Korea. Every family in North Korea enshrines a photo of Kim Il Sung, there are murals depicting Kim Il Sung on every street, there are statues of Kim Il Sung in every city, and Kim Il Sung's badge is also hung on the chest of every North Korean , There are countless literary and film and television works praising Kim Il Sung. In terms of the "intensity" of personality worship, Kim Il Sung surpassed Stalin and Mao Zedong, and was a synthesis of feudal emperors, religious gods and modern totalitarian state leaders.

    International assistance and various supports are another important factor, even the most important factor, for the survival of the Kim Il Sung regime and the establishment and continuation of the Kim dynasty.

    As mentioned earlier, Kim Il-sung himself was fostered by the Soviet Union. The Korean War was won with the strong support of China's "volunteer army" and the support of the Soviet Union's abundant military resources. What's more, many of the main forces of the Korean People's Army (three divisions and ten regiments) were "sent" to Kim Il Sung after being directly reorganized by the Korean troops in the former Chinese Communist Army. It can be said that without the Soviet Union and China, there would be no Kim Il Sung regime.

    After the end of the Korean War, the Soviet Union and China actively provided economic aid to North Korea for their own interests and to win over North Korea. For example, during the implementation period of North Korea's "Three-Year Plan" from 1954 to 1957, more than 80% of the industrial projects reconstructed in North Korea were completed with the assistance of fraternal countries. And there are 90 industrial projects (excluding military projects) that are entirely under the responsibility of the Soviet Union, China and Eastern European countries, accounting for 20% of the total number of restored and newly built factories in North Korea during this period. These aids have had a seeding effect. The funds, technology, talents, and resource assistance provided by China, the Soviet Union, and countries in the "socialist camp" to North Korea greatly improved North Korea's economic situation and contributed to North Korea's economic take-off from the mid-1950s to the 1960s. Of course, this played a very important role in consolidating the Kim Il Sung regime.

   In addition to military support and economic aid, the Soviet Union and China also supported North Korea in politics and international relations. In order to please Kim Il Sung, Mao Zedong will also "give up" half of the Changbai Mountain Tianchi and a large number of other territories to North Korea. Even though North Korea purged the "Soviet faction" and "Yan'an faction" in the country, the Soviet Union and China still tolerated it. After China and the Soviet Union became hostile in the 1960s, both China and the Soviet Union hoped to get the support of North Korea, so they increased all kinds of support and assistance to North Korea, making North Korea benefit from it, and Kim Il Sung benefited from it.

   Under the combined influence of these factors, Kim Il Sung successfully grasped and consolidated his power, established a highly arbitrary and totalitarian personal dictatorship in North Korea that is rarely seen in the world, and further moved towards a family hereditary dictatorship.

    Establishment of hereditary system

    Kim Il Sung, who has the absolute authority of saying one thing, is no longer satisfied with his lifelong ruling, but hopes to pass power on to future generations and realize the hereditary rule of the Kim family.

   In the 1970s, as Kim Il Sung grew older, the issue of successors gradually surfaced. Kim Il Sung was worried and unwilling to hand over power to any outsider, so he decided to find a successor from among his relatives. At the beginning, Kim Il Sung considered making his younger brother Kim Young Joo his successor. However, apparently out of the selfishness of "passing on the son", Kim Il Sung finally decided to let his son Kim Jong Il inherit the throne. So he began to try every means to squeeze out Kim Ying-joo, who has certain power and prestige, and pave the way for Kim Jong-il to succeed to the throne.

   Due to Kim Il Sung's absolute monopoly on power and the highly prevalent personality cult in North Korea, Kim Il Sung's arrangement of Kim Jong Il as his successor hardly encountered any resistance in North Korea. Although the hereditary system seriously violated Marxism, Kim Il Sung, who had already become a feudal emperor, did not care. From the 1970s to the early 1990s, Kim Jong Il became known as the "prince prince" in North Korea. In 1994, Kim Il Sung passed away, and Kim Jong Il formally succeeded him as the second leader of North Korea.

    North Korea from prosperity to decline and the Kim regime that remains immovable

    Since the 1970s, North Korea began to decline. Due to the defects of the highly centralized planned economic system, the economic vitality is declining day by day. Too much emphasis on the development of heavy industry has also led to serious deformities in the industrial structure, as well as insufficient and low-quality light industrial products for the purpose of satisfying people's livelihood. The harsh and high-handed politics have also made it impossible for North Korea to carry out effective economic reforms. In the 1980s, North Korea's economy further declined, and the "belated Chollima" no longer had the glory of the past, and it barely survived by relying on support from the Soviet Union, China, and other countries of the "Economic and Interaction Council".

    What happened at the same time was the take-off of South Korea's economy. The "Miracle of the Han River" created by Park Chung-hee increasingly showed its vitality in the late 1970s, and his successors Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo also maintained the rapid development of South Korea's economy. With every rise and fall, the decline of North Korea's economy is more obvious.

   Not only economically, but also in terms of international relations, North Korea has gradually lost to South Korea. With economic development, South Korea has more and more international friends, and the international environment is getting better than North Korea. In 1981, South Korea successfully bid to host the 1988 Olympic Games. In order to prevent South Korea from holding the Olympic Games and attack South Korea, North Korea did not hesitate to create the "Rangoon bombing incident" and "Korean Air plane bombing incident".However, such terrorist acts did not frustrate South Korea. The Olympics were held as scheduled, and North Korea was still isolated from the world. In order to counter the South Korean Olympics, North Korea devoted all its efforts to hosting the "World Youth and Students Festival" in 1989. As a result, in addition to winning some support and applause, its influence is not enough to match the Seoul Olympics. On the contrary, this huge investment has made North Korea's economy even worse.

    What caused the fatal blow to North Korea was the upheaval in the Soviet Union and the East from 1981 to the early 1990s and the disintegration of the entire Cold War system. The drastic changes in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the disintegration of the "socialist camp" overnight, and China's economy was also in trouble after the "June 4th Incident", and foreign aid was greatly reduced. The foreign aid that North Korea relied on was almost completely lost.

    This directly led to the collapse of the North Korean economy. According to relevant documents cited by Wikipedia, North Korea lacks the ability to purchase food, fuel and fertilizer, and its food production has dropped sharply. Between 1994 and 1996, grain production dropped by 60%. This caused industrial production to be affected as well. The subsequent natural disasters further exacerbated the decline in agricultural production. Since then, the official food rationing system has collapsed and famines have occurred on a large scale. The flooding also damaged many chemical plants and other facilities, polluted the river, and made the victims sick after drinking the sewage. Due to the previous flood, a large amount of medical supplies have been destroyed, coupled with the backward medical system, the serious shortage of medicines and manpower has caused the failure of the medical system. Industrial production was almost completely brought to a standstill by this series of disasters. The whole of North Korea fell into a huge disaster. This period was called the "March of Misery" by North Korea. During the "March of Misery", a total of hundreds of thousands to 3.5 million people died abnormally in North Korea (while North Korea's total population at that time was only more than 20 million people).

    At the same time, it is the deterioration of North Korea's foreign relations during and after the drastic changes between the Soviet Union and the East. In the past, North Korea refused to establish diplomatic relations with countries that established diplomatic relations with South Korea, and took a confrontational stance against regimes that were friendly to South Korea. However, the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and the East, as well as the sharp increase in South Korea's economic strength and influence, have caused many countries that had established diplomatic relations with North Korea to choose to establish diplomatic relations with South Korea. North Korea cannot sever diplomatic relations with all these countries. Instead, these countries have taken the initiative to become indifferent to North Korea.

    However, the Kim regime did not end in this "march of suffering", but survived and exists to this day.

    why is that? This article has analyzed and summarized the various factors that made Kim Il-sung succeed in taking power and maintaining power, but it seems that it is not enough to explain the reasons why the Kim family could survive in the extremely difficult situation in the 1990s. In my opinion, there are two other important factors, which are the key reasons for the survival of the Kim regime.

    First, it is the blessing of the highly conservative culture dominated by East Asian Confucianism and Legalism to the power of regime control. The drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe caused the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries to "change the sky" one after another, but the autocratic regimes in China, North Korea, and Vietnam remained standing, obviously due to cultural differences.

    Although Soviet and Eastern countries are not considered "Western countries", they are greatly influenced by Western liberal ideas and democratic political structures. Under the influence of "European style and beautiful rain", Soviet and Eastern countries are more likely to form resistance gaps and resistance forces, which eventually lead to autocracy. The regime fell.

    And several authoritarian countries in Asia, including North Korea, started with left-wing revolutions. Although they seem to use left-wing ideas to attack traditions, more traditions have infiltrated the left-wing, and eventually turned into a feudal and conservative regime combining Confucianism and Legalism. . The Kim regime in North Korea is the most conservative. This kind of Confucian-Legal conservatism has a huge confinement power on people's thoughts and behaviors. The social atmosphere, policies and even systems created are enough to oppress the people to the point where they cannot resist or even breathe. The reason why the Jin family was able to establish a hereditary system and practice a high degree of personality worship is also closely related to the prosperity of oriental feudalism and conservatism in North Korea.

   The second is the oppression and control of a strong and meticulous autocratic system based on Confucianism, Legalism and feudal conservative thinking. Kim Il-sung was born as a left-wing revolutionary, and the left-wing should have emphasized freedom and liberation. But the Leninist party and the Stalinist system turned the system advocated by Marxism 180 degrees into a system that highly imprisoned individuals. North Korea has not only the blessing of Confucianism, legalism, feudal and conservative thinking, but also accepted the Leninist party and Stalin system introduced by the Soviet Union, and also imitated China's household registration system and the imperial rule model formed by the personality cult of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. It has become an unbreakable social cage in which everyone cannot break free.

    Under this kind of imprisoning system, which is rare in the world and mixes a variety of ideas and systems, even if the economy collapsed and the people starved to death in the 1990s, the regime can still be as safe as a rock.

    Of course, external forces also played a role in helping the Kim regime "maintain stability" during North Korea's "March of Misery". Although North Korea was unprecedentedly isolated diplomatically during that time, it did not lose all support. As an ally of North Korea's "Blood Alliance", China has always firmly supported the survival of the Kim regime. Although China once sharply reduced its aid to North Korea due to its own difficulties, it resumed large-scale aid a few years later, providing North Korea with a large amount of materials including food, machinery, and daily necessities.

   Ironically, the biggest contributor to North Korea's escape from the "March of Misery" is North Korea's sworn enemy, the United States. In order to soften North Korea, prevent North Korea from launching military adventures in a difficult situation, and urge North Korea to abandon its nuclear program, the Clinton administration decided to provide North Korea with a large amount of food aid. The amount of aid exceeded that of South Korea and China. However, the Kim dynasty did not give up nuclear weapons because of US assistance. Instead, it got a respite, maintained the regime, provided conditions for further research and development of nuclear weapons, and continued to adopt a diplomatic policy hostile to the US and the entire outside world. This has to be said to be a misstep by the United States and even the international community.

   Under the influence of the above factors, the Kim Dynasty successfully passed the most dangerous ruling stage since the "August sectarian incident" in 1956, successfully "continued life", and completed the transition from Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong Il. International inheritance.

    Nuclear Weapons Development: The Kim Regime’s Trump Card Against External Intervention and Overthrow

    North Korea's nuclear weapons research and development began in the 1950s. After the Korean War, Kim Il-sung sent many scholars to the Soviet Union to study nuclear technology. However, formal nuclear weapons development did not begin until the 1980s. Kim Il Sung, who is well aware of the deterrent power of nuclear weapons, is certain to win nuclear weapons. Some people think that Kim Il Sung's possession of nuclear weapons is to prepare for the unification of the Korean peninsula, but I think it is mainly to ensure the survival of the Kim family dynasty.

    After the United States and other countries learned of North Korea's nuclear weapons program, they tried their best to prevent North Korea from possessing nuclear weapons. The well-known "six-party talks" have been held for many years to solve the North Korean nuclear issue. The United States, China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea have all put forward their own proposals, including providing assistance (carrots) to North Korea, imposing sanctions (sticks) and other means to get North Korea to denuclearize.

   But those approaches didn't work, and in 2006, North Korea conducted its first nuclear test. North Korea conducted five nuclear tests between 2006 and 2016. According to US intelligence estimates, North Korea now possesses at least dozens of nuclear bombs and is capable of actual combat.

    So far, the international community has not given up on the goal of urging North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program. North Korea has repeated itself on the nuclear issue many times, including blowing up and dismantling its nuclear facilities many times. However, it is an indisputable fact that North Korea possesses and is capable of using nuclear weapons.

    Due to the development of nuclear weapons, North Korea has suffered severe international sanctions, and suffered extremely heavy economic and diplomatic blows and suppression. But North Korea still insists on nuclear development. The reason is that nuclear weapons are the trump card of the Kim dynasty to maintain family rule. The three generations of the Kim family all believed that with such a powerful weapon of deterrence, countries would not dare to take the risk of a nuclear explosion to overthrow their regime easily, so the Kim family dynasty could last forever.

   And the judgment of the three generations of the Kim family seems to be correct. Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi, who gave up or were forced to give up nuclear weapons research, all died unexpectedly, while the Kim regime in North Korea survived alone. Although there are other factors such as geopolitics, North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons is indeed one of the reasons. When North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons has become a fait accompli, all parties are a little more cautious about overthrowing the Kim family regime, and are more willing to choose to accept the existence of the Kim family regime and maintain the status quo.

    Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un Era: Inheritance of the Old System and the Formation of North Korea's "New Normal"

   During Kim Jong Il's rule, North Korea generally maintained the traditional appearance of the Kim Il Sung era, but it was a more difficult, tragic, and cruel period than the Kim Il Sung era.

    Due to changes in the international situation and North Korea's nuclear development, North Korea under Kim Jong Il suffered unprecedented isolation and international sanctions. The "March of Misery" also mainly took place during Kim Jong Il's rule.

   Under such circumstances, on the one hand, Kim Jong-il tried every means to maintain the situation, and on the other hand, he was also trying to emulate China's "reform and opening up", so that North Korea could escape the crisis and find a way out for the Kim family.

    Therefore, in the few years at the turn of the century, North Korea adopted certain reform and opening measures, such as allowing self-employment, sideline production, and market transactions to stimulate the economy, improve people's livelihood, and increase taxation; announced the opening of the border and the implementation of preferential foreign trade policies, To attract foreign capital and develop the economy.

   These measures have played a certain positive role in the economy and people's livelihood, but they have also allowed the people to obtain limited but precious freedom, which has shaken the totalitarian rule of the Kim Dynasty. People have become less blind and crazily worshiping Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and prefer the market and banknotes.

   This made Kim Jong Il very angry and frightened. Therefore, it gradually stopped further reform and opening up, and also tightened or even stopped some of the innovative measures that had been made. So North Korea's "reform and opening up" failed halfway.

   However, North Korea still retains some reform measures, and introduces some opening policies from time to time, but the strength is limited, stop and go. A typical example is the development and stagnation of the construction of "Rajin Pioneer Port" in North Korea. And some domestic underground trading markets are also allowed to exist by the authorities with a blind eye. Of course, this cannot bring North Korea out of the situation of serious economic and social backwardness, and most North Korean people live in extreme poverty.

    However, under the influence of the aforementioned reasons, Kim Jong-il successfully maintained the rule of the Kim family dynasty until his death, and passed on to Kim Jong-un.

   Kim Jong Il has three sons, the eldest son Kim Jong Nam, the second son Kim Jong Chol, the third son Kim Jong Un, and a daughter Kim Yo Jong. Kim Jong-nam wants to be located in Kim Jong-nam, but Kim Jong-nam is more open-minded and advocates that North Korea should follow the example of China in implementing reform and opening up. This made Kim Jong Il extremely worried about him. The second son, Kim Jong-chul, is obsessed with music and doesn't care about politics. That's why Kim Jong Il passed the throne to Kim Jong Un.

   To some extent, Kim Jong-il's choice is correct. Since Kim Jong-un succeeded to the throne, the rule of the Kim family dynasty is still very stable, and the domestic economy has improved somewhat. There were even some diplomatic breakthroughs. Although these achievements are not necessarily the result of Kim Jong-un's initiative, but other positive external factors, Kim Jong-un has at least seized relevant opportunities.

   The most prominent breakthrough in North Korea's diplomacy is obviously the holding of the "Kim-Trump meeting". For the first time, North Korea's supreme leader has met with the sitting leader of the United States, its biggest enemy. Although the meeting did not produce many substantive results, the symbolic significance is already quite huge.

   A more substantive diplomatic achievement is the establishment of good relations with the pro-North Korea Moon Jae-in regime in South Korea. When Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in were the supreme leaders of the north and south of the Korean peninsula, the relationship between North Korea and South Korea was greatly warmed up. Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in held many meetings and crossed Panmunjom together. However, the relationship between the two sides has not been smooth sailing, and it is even a bit like wishful thinking in the south. During this period, North Korea blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in the Kaesong Industrial Park, and repeatedly condemned South Korea strongly. This shows that North Korea has not fundamentally abandoned its policy of hostility to South Korea.

    In terms of internal affairs, Kim Jong-un has shown a more conservative attitude, basically continuing the internal policy of Kim Jong-il's period. Compared with Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un put more emphasis on the issue of people's livelihood, and repeatedly mentioned the importance and determination to improve people's livelihood. However, Kim Jong-un has not made too many actions to improve people's livelihood in real terms, which seems to be lip service. However, because North Korea has stepped out of the "march of misery" under Kim Jong-un, the current economic and people's livelihood conditions in North Korea are obviously better than those under Kim Jong-il.

   It can be said that North Korea under Kim Jong-un has entered a "new normal", that is, some reforms and progress while generally maintaining the old appearance, the economy is barely operating, and major breakthroughs have been made in diplomacy, while the politics and military remain the same.

   In North Korea, the people are divided into three classes "core class", "wavering class" and "hostile class", with a population ratio of about 3:4:3.Although North Korea as a whole is very poor, 30% of the members of the "core class" are barely able to survive. The citizens living in Pyongyang, in particular, are the "privileged class" in North Korea. Most people's living standards are similar to those of the lower middle class in China's fourth- and fifth-tier cities. In Pyongyang and the North Korean cities near the Chinese border, there are also many upstarts who benefit from various means, especially foreign trade with China, and enjoy the privileged life of being superior to others. These people are still from the bottom of their hearts and quite loyal to the Jin family regime.

   However, most North Korean people still live in extreme poverty and worry about food and clothing. Not to mention the harshness of politics, don't be fooled by Kim Jong-un's smiling face, his actual cruelty is no less than that of his grandfather and father. Kim Jong Un executed his uncle Jang Song Thaek and assassinated his elder brother Kim Jong Nam overseas, which shows the cruelty of his methods. Various executions continue in North Korea, and concentration camps and labor camps are still everywhere, telling the world of the existence of North Korea's long-term purges. North Korea is still an extremely closed, extremely backward, and extremely authoritarian country. As long as the Kim family stays in power, North Korea will almost never have any hope of changing this status quo.

   The Future of North Korea and the Kims: High Bundle and Lack of Hope

   So what is the future of North Korea? This is a question that is easy to make a certain judgment but difficult to answer completely. To put it simply, there is no possibility of fundamental change in North Korea under the rule of the Kim family. Only when the Kim family regime collapses can North Korea change. But no one can accurately predict what will happen to North Korea after the collapse of the Kim regime.

    The three generations of the Kim family have refused to carry out extensive and fundamental reform and opening up, which is "reasonable" to some extent. Fundamental reform and opening up are incompatible with the status quo of the Jin family's dictatorship, and major reforms will inevitably lead to a great impact on the rule of the Jin family dynasty. This has been demonstrated by the results of some reforms in North Korea in the early 2000s. Therefore, from the perspective of the Jin family, it is "wise" not to reform and open up. And the Kim family decides everything about North Korea. Whatever the Kim family does, North Korea will be like. The Kim family and North Korea can be said to be highly bound together.

    As for North Korea, which continues to close the country and implement extremely high-pressure totalitarian rule, unless there are sudden and special changes (such as Kim Jong-un being killed and his family members being killed; China has undergone tremendous changes, and North Korea’s dependence is completely severed), I am afraid that it will be able to survive for a long time in the foreseeable future. As long as it exists, the North Korean people will continue to live and die in this "big prison".

    Under various coincidences and accidental and inevitable events, the Kim Dynasty of North Korea, a dictatorial regime that is completely out of touch with modern civilization and unique in the world today, and the state of this country, the living conditions of the Korean people who are imprisoned for life , sad and hopeless.

   However, North Korea has been able to maintain an abnormal and distorted state for more than half a century, and has created long-term human rights disasters. All kinds of support, appeasement, and misjudgment by the international community cannot be blamed. All countries in the world only consider the interests of their own country and even the ruling group, but they pay little attention to the human rights of North Korea. For example, the North Korean nuclear issue, which may endanger the security of other countries, has attracted widespread attention, but the extremely bad human rights situation in North Korea has received little attention.

   However, North Korea's totalitarian rule cannot last forever, and the Kim family dynasty will eventually perish. It's just that this requires people to find ways to promote it, rather than waiting for it to come automatically. When the North Korean people are helpless, the international community should take responsibility, put aside their own selfishness, pay a certain price, and work hard for North Korea to move towards prosperity, civilization, and human rights protection, and finally end the rule of the Kim dynasty and any dictators, so that The Korean people ushered in the light.

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  8.William J., Moon. The Origins of the Great North Korean Famine: Its Dynamics and Normative Implications. North Korean Review. Spring 2009

  9.Ralph Hassig Kongdan Oh “the hidden people of North Korea:Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom”

  10. Forty years ago, North Korea's economy was comparable to that of Japan and surpassed that of China and South Korea -- Sina

   11. NHK Documentary North Korea Series: Episode 1: Towards a Personality Cult; Episode 2: The "Hereditary" Covered; Episode 3: The Trembling of Nuclear Development

    12. NHK documentary What is happening on the Sino-North Korean border

    13.Phoenix Satellite TV documentary about North Korea

    14. Relevant entries on Chinese and English Wikipedia