Lord David Alton: The Way Toward Change in North Korea
[Lord David Alton is a life peer of the House of Lords and chairman of the British-North Korea Parliamentary Committee.]
The North Korean state has been constructed on the ideology of juche — total self reliance: “Man is the master of everything and decides everything.” And, in the heart of Pyongyang, on the banks of the city’s Taedong River, opposite Kim Il-sung Square, stands the Juche Tower. Completed in 1982, to celebrate Kim Il-sung’s 70th birthday, at 558 feet the tower stands marginally taller than the Washington Monument, on which is appears to be modeled.
Last week, during my third visit to North Korea, I was taken to see the tower. Perhaps symbolizing both the condition of North Korea’s economy, and its desperate need for more than self-reliance, my embarrassed guide explained that we could not ascend, as debris was falling from within, onto the elevator. The situation, he explained, was very dangerous — it seemed an appropriately graphic metaphor.
No nation wants to be in thrall to others, especially one that experienced half a century of Japanese occupation But isolation has not served North Korea well....
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The North Korean state has been constructed on the ideology of juche — total self reliance: “Man is the master of everything and decides everything.” And, in the heart of Pyongyang, on the banks of the city’s Taedong River, opposite Kim Il-sung Square, stands the Juche Tower. Completed in 1982, to celebrate Kim Il-sung’s 70th birthday, at 558 feet the tower stands marginally taller than the Washington Monument, on which is appears to be modeled.
Last week, during my third visit to North Korea, I was taken to see the tower. Perhaps symbolizing both the condition of North Korea’s economy, and its desperate need for more than self-reliance, my embarrassed guide explained that we could not ascend, as debris was falling from within, onto the elevator. The situation, he explained, was very dangerous — it seemed an appropriately graphic metaphor.
No nation wants to be in thrall to others, especially one that experienced half a century of Japanese occupation But isolation has not served North Korea well....