A Passage to Pyongyang

I was reading this article titled "A Passage to Pyongyang" featuring a Singapore journalist's account on his trip to the city of the great Kim II Sung. The description of his depicts North Korea as a modernized and a dynamic country with a certain degree of restriction and strange culture. He wrote, "Traffic lights come on only in winter and there are monuments everywhere. But the people of North Korea are no different from you and me.” Are there really no differences? Does the journalist know that he is only comparing the elites of the country to our average citizen in Singapore? I have watched a documentation the very last year, filmed secretly by a foreigner pretending to be a North Korea, about the truth behind this communist country. From that day onwards, I never believe in anything good written about this country. This video has truly touched me and left prints in my heart. I do not blame the young generations of the North Korea; they are simply brain-washed and are oblivious of the things that are going on at the countryside of their own homeland.

A true brave man had risked his life filming a video and presented to me the cruelty of life; well, I wish I could spread it further. North Korea indeed has a modernized capital; however, they are only mend for visitors and the so-called "royal blood" of the North Korea. The city is empty most of time; there is a gigantic theme park but it's close throughout the year. Well, I guess that they wanted to save electricity since they rather employ pretty girls to mend the traffic than switching on the traffic light. The students spend months preparing for their mass dance to celebrate the birthday of their founders and spend the other months singing songs to praise about him. Those able-bodied strong young man would be send into the army, isolated in some deserted dilapidated factories, training skills on how to be mean and heartless to their own citizens. Their main job is to capture children roaming on the streets (mostly at the countryside) and locking them up in factories that are once used for manufacturing purposes. They feed the children with a spoonful of liquid food everyday and taught them to torture one another. For example, those who disobey the order of throwing stones at one's friend tied on a tree would be shot dead on the spot. These soldiers have become beast in other words, they even raped women and when they become pregnant; they think it's a burden and invented ways to cut them open.

Children on the street have no family; they can only speak simple words at the age of twelve. They steal, rob and pick up anything edible to fight for survival. They do not understand the meaning of dirt and drink anything from the puddle of mud at the roadside. One scene after one scene, I have never been able to forget that moment of truth. We are not talking about the past but the present, this very minute. Many had tried to escape into China, some succeeded but many shot dead. Other nations had tried to help but the food they sent in never reach the needy. That's the reality. Those who have watched the >BLOOD DIAMOND starring Leonardo Dicaprio could better understand. People killed each other for no apparent reason (it's only the leader that craved for the diamond); they are just taught to kill. It is not their natural instinct, maybe, it is their fate.