NORTH KOREA

1. Do some research and explain the origin of the North Korean Communist Regime. 

The history of North Korea began with the partition of Korea at the end of World War II in 1945.

From 1910 to the end of World War II, Korea was under Japanese rule. Most Koreans were peasants enganged in subsistence farming. In the 1930s, Japan developed mines, hydro-electric dams, steel mills, and manufacturing plants in northern Korea and neighboring Manchuria. The Korean industrial working class expanded rapidly, and many Koreans went to work in Manchuria. As a result, 65% of Korea's heavy industry was located in the north, but, due to the harshness of the terrain, only 37% of its agriculture.

Meanwhile, a Korean guerrilla movement emerged in the mountainous interior and in Manchuria, harassing the Japanese imperial authorities. One of the most prominent guerrilla leaders was the Communist Kim Il-sung,the head of the Communist-aligned Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Northern Korea had very little exposure to modern western ideas. One partial exception of this was the penetration of religion. Since the arrival of missionaries in the late nineteenth century, the northwest of Korea, and Pyongyang in particular, had been a stronghold of Christianity.

2. Find three recent news about North Korea from different digital sources and include the links to them. 
North Korea works around the clock to prepare for Kim Jong Un’s ‘70-day campaign’ Source: The Washington Post.

Defense Minister: North Korea has new rocket launcher capable of striking deep  Source: The Hankyoreh.

‘North Korea has become an increasing threat to China’ Source: South China Morning Post


3. What are the names of the North Korean leaders mentioned in the documentary? Who is the current leader of the country?

Kim Il-sung ->   Kim Jong-il ->  Kim Jong-un (actual leader).



4. What are the instruments used by these leaders to maintain this dictatorial regime? 

They are two main things North Korean leaders do for maintaining their dictatorial regime: Fear and Lies.

First of all, they trick people, they don't tell all the truth; the only thing leaders do is to make people believe all they are doing is for them to have a good quality of life. For this reason leaders have to manipulate all the news or things that North Koreans are going to read or watch, as newspapers or TV programmes. 

Moreover there are some estrict laws as inclining when you are in front of any picture or statue of the leader. If people don't follow the rules, or the laws, they will have very bad punishments, so we can say leader's most important instrument is fear. 

5. What's the meaning of the word "gulag"? What does it come from? Is there anything similar in NK? 

That word is a synonim of prisioners camps. The word has its origins in the Sovietic Union, but it is still used in North Korea. Although in the documentary the guide said that they have disapeared, of course they haven't. This is for example one of the reasons that cause korean's fear, one of the bad punishments I mentioned before. Well, probably they are not the same as they were before, but they are bad anyway.


6. According to the video, what are the main characteristics of a dictatorship?

First of all, dictatorships are stablished without taking into account people's preferences, wants, believes or even rights. Moreover, in a dictatorship, the leader is like a kind of God, whatever he does, it is well done, he never mistakes. For this reason, laws and rules aren't permanent, they can change as leader's wants change. Furthermore, other characteristic is that you never know when dictatorship is going to finish, or when the leader is going to change, you just have to adapt to what is happening without complaining about it.


7. Compare the life of a North Korean family with your own. In addition, try to describe the life of a North Korean teenager of your same age.

This way I think me and my family are very lucky, we don't live with fear. For a teenage living there has to be very difficult, since you are small you are learning how to battle against americans for example. They are like in a permanent war, it won't end until dictatorship ends, and you don't know if it is going to happen.