N. Korea more isolated than ever after Malaysia killing
AFP News
Theo Merz
AFP NewsFebruary 22, 2017
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un
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North Korea had few friends even before the assassination of the leader's half-brother at a Kuala Lumpur airport last week, but the fallout from the killing looks set to further isolate the nuclear-armed state.
Pyongyang and Kuala Lumpur have enjoyed relatively warm economic ties, with some bilateral trade and citizens from both countries entitled to travel to the other under a unique reciprocal visa-free deal.
Malaysia has also provided a channel between Pyongyang officials and the wider world, with Kuala Lumpur in recent years serving as a discreet meeting place for talks between the regime and the United States.
But all that could come to an end following a war of words over Malaysia's probe into the assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, which has seen Pyongyang's envoy to Kuala Lumpur savage local police, and Malaysia recall its ambassador to the North.
Singapore cancelled its visa-free arrangement with Pyongyang last year in protest over the regime's fourth nuclear test. Andray Abrahamian of Choson Exchange, a non-profit that provides economic policy training to North Koreans, believes Malaysia could now make a similar move.
"It wouldn't surprise me. The arrangement is already absolutely unique. North Koreans don't need a visa to work in Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos. But the Malaysian side is the unusual thing," he told AFP.
Malaysia and North Korea are both non-aligned nations and the one-off visa deal was likely hashed out as they sought to develop business ties, he said.
Muhammad Fuad Othman, a lecturer in international politics at Universiti Utara Malaysia, said diplomats would need to be seen to respond to the killing -- which Seoul has said was orchestrated by Pyongyang.
"In order to pacify the West maybe there is a need to re-evaluate the free visa policy that we accord to North Koreans," he said.
Up to 1,000 North Koreans currently work in Malaysia and, like expats from the Stalinist state worldwide, their remittances are a valuable source of foreign currency for the isolated regime.
North Korea imports refined oil, natural rubber and palm oil from Malaysia, which buys electrical and electronic items, chemicals as well as iron and steel products from North Korea.
On the Malaysian side bilateral trade is negligible, amounting to just 23 million ringgit ($5.2 million) out of the country's total external trade of 1.5 trillion ringgit, according to figures cited in the Malaysian press.
The pinch of any tail-off in trade would be felt more keenly in North Korea, especially when combined with the much harder blow of China's snap decision to halt coal imports from the country last week.
- With friends like these -
In other areas the strain is already beginning to show, with Malaysia's sports minister asking the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to consider safety concerns ahead of the national team's planned match against North Korea in Pyongyang next month.
"I will ask the AFC to monitor the situation in Pyongyang because security is our priority. It is a difficult situation now because the diplomatic relationship between North Korea and Malaysia is strained," Khairy Jamaluddin said Tuesday.
But officials in the North are unlikely to be losing any sleep over the spat, whatever the economic, diplomatic or sporting repercussions.
Evans J.R. Revere of the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the US-based Brookings Institution said Pyongyang had a history of sidelining the concerns of allies as it pursued its own aims.
In 1983, for example, North Korea bombed a mausoleum in Myanmar during a visit by South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan. He survived but 21 people were killed and once-close ties were torpedoed.
"North Korea is even prepared to put at risk relations with a friendly country as it pursues its enemies, and is even willing to damage ties with friends as it commits acts in violation of international norms," Revere told AFP.
John Delury from Seoul's Yonsei University said Pyongyang would likely pick up the pieces as it has many times before, and find another venue for its tentative contacts with the world.
"It has a good relationship with Malaysia by North Korean standards, but North Korean standards are so appallingly low," he told AFP.
"It's always being pinched in one way or another, so this is just another pinch. They have an extraordinary capacity to absorb pain."
KacheeTee: 1 Year of Blogging & De-Mystifying 6 Blogging Myths
22.02.2017 at 10:00 am By Kachi T 15 Comments
KachinI think I’ve made quite some good decisions in my life, and so it’s rather interesting that one year later, choosing to start a blog is up there as well. I was so scared to start, so scared to let people into bits and pieces of my life. But on 10th February 2016, which happened to be Ash Wednesday, I thought “what purpose is there to life if we don’t try, step out of our comfort zones and inspire others”. So I paid for the domain name KacheeTee.com, and shared my first post on Facebook. The response was pretty encouraging. And well, since then I haven’t stooped. I’ve published roughly 130 blog posts and just passed 150,000 views. I’ve met incredibly amazing people. I’ve grown. I’ve become better. I’ve worked with a couple of brands and I’ve actually made money from my blog via a sponsored post (little, but hey, humble beginnings).
I’ll love to write about how blogging has changed me, but I’ll save that for another day. Today, let’s discuss the myths associated with blogging. Because there are quite a few.
I was in a meeting recently with a couple of lawyers. And at the end of it, the conversation tilted to what we like to do outside of work. A lot of interesting answers came up – skiing, wine tasting, baking etc. To borrow Chimamanda Adiche‘s phrase of happily boring, I said “well, I like to chill at home, read a good book, see a good movie, and write“. After a couple of back & forth and “what do you like to write about?”, the dreaded question popped out. “So do you have a blog?”. I’m not sure why I shifted slightly uncomfortably in my seat. What was the big deal if I blogged? Were there going to take me less seriously – if the term blogger was associated with my name? I answered half heartedly, “Yeah I blog occasionally” – (but with my aim to have a daily lifestyle blog, I’m not sure this qualifies as occasional).
And when they asked what I blogged about, I was sure to include the fact that I love to write about law and career. Perhaps this is also why my previous posts on BellaNaija have been slightly serious. I’ve written on Tips to Secure an Academic (Foreign) Scholarship, How to Make the Most of Nigerian Law School, 4 Practical Things to do while Job Hunting and 11 Contract Terms every Small Business Owner should be Aware Of. Even this post is still slightly serious.
I leave the more fun personal posts on my blog, where I have control over it.
But I love blogging, and day by day I admire bloggers. It’s therefore unfair that a lot of people believe these myths and under-appreciate bloggers. If you’re also thinking of starting a blog anytime soon, this will help set you on a clearer path.
Blogging is Easy
Bloggers get a lot of flack because most people believe it’s easy. I mean, what could be difficult in it? You write and/ or take photos and you upload right? But in actual fact, blogging could almost be tougher than a regular 9-5. It’s often a one man business and you run on full steam, all the time – particularly if you’re serious about it, creating original content, building a brand and a community. You’re the writer of posts and the editor. You’re responsible for constantly promoting your posts on social media (and this is tough! – forever saying #LinkinBio and Don’t forget to subscribe and follow me!). You design graphics and posters. You may have to learn to code, and become a tech geek – keeping tabs on latest apps and software. It’s crazy the amount of new things I’ve learnt in this one year. From building my website from scratch to some of the other things mentioned above. Blogging can be tough and some days bloggers may want to break down. But they love it so much so they keep pushing. And for some people, blogging has actually become their full time job. So if you ever thought blogging was easy, please erase that thought.
Blogging is Cheap
How I wish. Even if I forgot about my blog anniversary, the £100 that was taken out of my account for my host registration definitely reminded me. Plus the very many apps and software I’ve put off buying, because I’m not sure I can justify it at this point.. Blogging is not cheap. And it’s probably because of this myth, many people brands refuse to pay bloggers due remuneration.
I laughed, when I considered buying an iMac to help with the blog, and my husband said “can’t your blog pay for this?” . Unfortunately it couldn’t. But asides gadgets that have to be bought, there’s regular software subscription to be paid – for emails, graphics, promotion and maybe even ads. Blogs which rely on great photography or video might have to pay for these as well. So when you require a service from bloggers, please consider paying them in cash.
Everyone’s in it for the Money
We can’t really blame people who think this way, can we? Based on myth number 1 & 2 above – it might seem like an easy way to get rich!
I was slightly upset one day on Facebook when someone suggested that I was all about the clicks, when I was genuinely hoping that someone would share her story in a bid to inspire others. And so yes, once you start a blog, there’d be people who think you’re in it for the money. The truth is, the money may come – but except you start of as being incredible – it’ll come much later. And it’ll come in different ways. Lots of people have built their brands first by blogging. Others have created products, others have begun to render services & others have worked with brands. So for many, passion comes first. That and a genuine desire to share and add value is what sustains a majority of bloggers, while they hope the big bucks come soon. Plus honestly, not everyone is in it for the money.
Blogging is not real writing
Where do we even start to debunk this? Someone once said to another blogger on Twitter, “But all you guys do is copy and paste?”. I was literally too weak to engage in a sensible conversation. I guess it’s as a result of this myth that some have chosen to identify as “Content Creators“, rather than bloggers – to show the emphasis that they create original content. And truth is, for many bloggers, it’s real writing. Whether it’s their style or thoughts on fashion, on beauty, on faith, fitness, lifestyle, career, food – there’s so much real effort and creative energy that goes into it. Not to say that some bloggers do not simply copy and paste. But for a whole lot, blogging is often real writing. Please appreciate this. And if you intend to succeed in blogging you’d probably have to come up with real original writing / content.
Blogging is dead and saturated
The truth is, there are A LOT of blogs out there. Trust me, you wouldn’t realise how many unless you were a blogger or an avid blog follower. When I launched my blog, I had no idea just how many people blogged. And as time went by, I often started to think “geez who would read my blog”. So we can’t blame the audience if they roll their eyes when someone says “Guys I finally launched my blog, please subscribe!“. But it’s hard for a field to be truly saturated, as everyone brings a different perspective. I mean, just look at the MUA industry in Nigeria. Yet new entrants are still making their mark. As a blogger, you’ll probably find yourself wanting to quit sometimes when you think you’ll struggle to shine. Don’t! The top is never saturated. If you’re willing to be excellent, are passionate and put in the work, you’ll most likely stand out. Plus there’s always someone who wants to hear from your unique experiences.
Blogging has no use
This is surprisingly common and even though I’m in it, sometimes I have those “why am I bothering with this blog” kind of days. And interestingly many people have this opinion as well. I think fashion bloggers get hit the most with the question “so you just dress up and take photos, why!?” But if we truly think about it, bloggers share so so much that help us in our daily lives. Whether it’s fashion tips, or improving our natural hair slay or quick food hacks, inspirational & motivational posts, travel and tourism, career guidance or even just for laughs. That’s the use of blogging. And that’s why contrary to myth 5 it’s unlikely to die anytime soon. It may evolve, but I doubt it’d die. So as a blogger, for the days you think it has no use, the days no one leaves a comment on your blog, think of the very many people you continue to inspire in one way or the another. Even if it’s just one person. It’s probably worth it!
So that’s it. Some popular blogging myths hopefully de-mystified. I’ll generally be sharing some of my blogging tips and everything else I learn going forward. So if you’re interested in that, subscribe to the blog! If you’re not, well, still visit us and subscribe – there’s a whole lot of posts you’d love – I promise. Lawyer’s honour. Plus, this is good timing, as we’re about to have a one year anniversary giveaway (that’s a clear plug in!)
Bloggers what other myths can you relate to. If you don’t blog, what do you genuinely think of bloggers?
About Kachi T
Corporate Lawyer, with two first-class Nigerian Law degrees and an LL.M from the University of Cambridge. Wife, Writer, Foodie, Aspiring Life Hacker and generally the Girl-Next-Door making a conscious effort to live intentionally and fully love life. By night, she blogs at www.KacheeTee.com.
Instagram/ Twitter: @KacheeTee
Hostile (적대), 27%. Includes descendants of landlords, capitalists, religious people, political prisoners, those who had assisted South Korean forces during the Korean War, or were otherwise judged anti-Party or associated with external powers. The data is now managed using the software system “Faithful Servant 2.0.” This digitization makes it easier for authorities to access any citizen’s songbun file from any Ministry of Public Security computer terminal from provincial to county levels. Wavering (동요), 45%. Includes people who had previously lived in South Korea or China, those with relatives who went to the South, families of small-scale merchants, intellectuals, practitioners of superstition, etc. Core (핵심), 28% of the population. Includes professional revolutionaries, descendants of ‘war heroes’ who died working or fighting for the North, peasants or those from peasant families. http://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/songbun/ http://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/songbun/ http://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/songbun/ http://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/songbun/ SONGBUN | SOCIAL CLASS IN A SOCIALIST PARADISE
POSTED June 25, 2012
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes…
The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.
So begins Chapter 1 of The Communist Manifesto, written by Marx and Engels and published in 1848. If we take the last paragraph, and change a couple of labels, it perfectly describes North Korea today:
The North Korean society that has sprouted from the ruins of the division of Korea and the Korean War has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.
In fact, the North Korean regime has established 3 new classes divided into 51 categories, and has created what is widely recognized as the most oppressive society in the world. Maybe Marx rests easier now that his portrait no longer adorns Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang; it was taken down before Kim Il-sung’s centenary celebrations in April. The North Korean regime has been extremely intentional at creating and enforcing social classes based on political loyalty and this system, known as songbun (성분), is key to understanding North Korean society as a whole and specifically and the system of oppression which the ruling elite uses to maintain political control. So a new report on Songbun by our colleagues at HRNK, Marked for Life, is a great addition to the literature on NK.
The report describes songbun as a state-directed system of discrimination based on hereditary classes determined by perceived loyalty to the regime. It decides your prospects in almost every area of life, including education, occupation, military service, Party membership, treatment by the criminal justice system, housing, medical treatment, marriage, and even food supply. The individual has no control over this system, their songbun being decided by their family line, making it analogous to discrimination along racial lines. The whole system can be described as a political apartheid, reminiscent of the racial apartheid in South Africa that attracted such international criticism until it ended with the election of Nelson Mandela.
CREATION OF SONGBUN
The songbun system was devised in the early years after the formation of North Korea out of a motivation to protect the Kim regime by isolating and controlling perceived internal political threats. It did this by categorizing every single North Korean resident according to how politically safe or risky they might be. The key factors considered were your ancestors’ socioeconomic background at the time of liberation (1945), their activities during the Korean War (1950-1953), and whether you had relatives in South Korea or China (being connected to the outside world is bad for your songbun).
North Koreans were split into three broad classes:
Core (핵심), 28% of the population. Includes professional revolutionaries, descendants of ‘war heroes’ who died working or fighting for the North, peasants or those from peasant families.
Wavering (동요), 45%. Includes people who had previously lived in South Korea or China, those with relatives who went to the South, families of small-scale merchants, intellectuals, practitioners of superstition, etc.
Hostile (적대), 27%. Includes descendants of landlords, capitalists, religious people, political prisoners, those who had assisted South Korean forces during the Korean War, or were otherwise judged anti-Party or associated with external powers.
The regime keeps a file on every single person above the age of 17 (before that age your details were registered on your parent’s file), and an incredible amount of work goes into creating and regularly updating these records. The data is now managed using the software system “Faithful Servant 2.0.” This digitization makes it easier for authorities to access any citizen’s songbun file from any Ministry of Public Security computer terminal from provincial to county levels.
EFFECTS OF SONGBUN
Songbun is deeply entrenched in North Korean society and affects nearly all aspects of a North Korean’s life, including (see HRNK’s full report for further details):
Occupation: In NK, you do not choose your job. The regime chooses it for you, and it is heavily influenced by your songbun. Simply put, if you have low songbun, you will be put into gruelling manual work, whereas if you have high songbun, you might expect a relatively cushy Party cadre position. There is no element of meritocracy here and ability does not factor in much, meaning that it is quite possible that more able workers are placed in less important roles while less able workers are given positions of responsibility. This failure to efficiently utilize their national talent-pool is yet another reason why North Korea’s state-controlled economy struggles so much.
Education: Again, this is not meritocratic. If your parents have good songbun, then you are allowed to progress. Otherwise, no matter how hard you study, you will not advance academically. As you can imagine, this can cause resentment (although that resentment is sometimes aimed at the parents, not the regime). This system also ensures that “elites play together.” Those with good songbun go through the same schools and the same colleges, and they network within this pool for their future mutual benefit. Those with bad songbun are of course denied such opportunities. The importance of personal connections in North Korean society compounds the importance of songbun.
Family: Knowing the importance of keeping a clean record in NK society, parents impress on their children the importance of not doing anything to step outside the Party line, as it would affect the whole family. The importance of songbun also means it is one of the most important factors to consider when finding a spouse. If you marry someone of lower songbun you and your children will lose out, so people tend to marry within their songbun level, as indicated by the occupation and status of their partner’s family. (Note that these phenomena are not unique to North Korea, as people tend to marry within their own social class in other countries too. What is unique in North Korea is how this is being played out within a class system which has been systematically created according to the interests of the ruling elite.)
Internal Exile: For decades, the regime has systematically exiled tens to hundreds of thousands of low-songbun political undesirables to isolated and unfavourable mountainous areas in the northeast of North Korea. Here they have been forced into hard labour, subject to tighter controls, excluded from population centres, and effectively removed as a potential political threat. It could be argued that the regime has not only tried to cut off the outside world but is now increasingly cutting off Pyongyang from its outer provinces, leaving those who are judged as potential political threats isolated and with no way to demonstrate their frustration without risk of complete elimination.
Food: Songbun has a huge effect on a North Korean citizen’s food supply. Particularly at times of scarcity, the distribution of food and resources has been concentrated to the higher songbun levels – Pyongyang and central regime institutions (Party, government and military). This was particularly noticeable during the famine of the 1990s and the chronic food shortages that have blighted the people ever since. When the state-economy collapsed and there were not enough provisions to go round, the regime stopped providing food to the politically undesirable northeast regions, so the famine hit those regions the hardest. It has been reported that as many as 30% of the population died in the worst affected regions, particularly North Hamgyeong Province. It should come as no surprise then that around 60% of North Korean refugees who have made it to South Korea are also from that province. An issue for another post is how this demonstrates the inextricable linkage between human rights and humanitarian / economic issues in North Korea. Understanding songbun should call us to question the wisdom of distinguishing between “economic migrants” and “political refugees” when it comes to this population.
Medical Care: The public health system all but collapsed in the 1990s, but special treatment is still available for elites in Pyongyang. People of lower songbun cannot access these facilities, even if they have independent wealth, and the best they can hope for is to buy medicine on the black market.
In short, songbun institutionalizes the dominance of the ruling elite and their descendants over all other groups in society, and as this system has been implemented over several decades, the privileges of the core class have grown while the others suffered.
The operation of this system is not at all transparent but people are generally aware of it, although they may not know details, including of their own songbun. Quite a few of the North Korean refugees that I have interviewed about their songbun have not been very sure about their own level. People of higher songbun are better aware of the system, and one gentleman that I interviewed jokingly half-boasted to me that his family was “totally red, the core of the core.” To him it was clear that he had good songbun because so many of his relatives held positions of responsibility within regime institutions, and some members of his family had also been granted considerable educational opportunities.
It is worth noting that while it is extremely difficult to improve your songbun, you can easily drop levels if you get in trouble through committing criminal or political offenses, or fail to cooperate with regime officials, or if a family member gets into such trouble. The implementation of songbun therefore creates considerable fear and forces people to obey the regime, and in reality it is an effective tool used by the regime to maintain control and power.
As we might expect, the changes inside North Korea over the last 15 years have affected the implementation of this system, albeit without being able to overturn it. The interaction between marketization and songbun (both mitigating and exacerbating effects), songbun’s effect on anti-regime sentiment, and the extent to which the songbun system can constrain change in North Korea will be covered in the next blog post…
Red_Line
SOKEEL J. PARK | Research & Policy Analyst https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:Cd9dygz2HJ2cIjjPgRDnWVydRP-cFto3-zLyzg0T2ZmhupGyyRsdGWthl6ZgOLA8KEe42lJ78A98ElOtT6bbUAcfgyoSCc-BEOdZXJ1EEXOfb5mMsu-TKhIJ_15wW2jf7MvIRE6K3b4-ocOgqEgnODRPZmaG6kREocBJQSccx6CoSCbLJGx0Za2GXEXxvG4pfCOdXKhIJpmA4sDwoR7gRSHhiEC9yHR0qEgnaUnvwD3wSUxHIHKezZNxrmCoSCa1PpttQBx-DEeLHni8tUrKB&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiWqP74zaXSAhVLqVQKHZwVCfoQ9C8ICQ&biw=1366&bih=623&dpr=1 https://www.google.com.ph/imgres?imgurl=http://study.com/cimages/videopreview/sb86hdl6r5.jpg&imgrefurl=http://study.com/academy/lesson/social-stratification-definition-theories-examples.html&h=576&w=1024&tbnid=313KDPYcnZx_0M:&vet=1&tbnh=118&tbnw=211&docid=l-x2BcHY9WPUUM&usg=__i0d1yREpjG-rlQdEyPWt7FGBt7U=&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwienPfFzaXSAhXnrlQKHSZ2BqEQ9QEIHDAA#h=576&imgrc=313KDPYcnZx_0M:&tbnh=118&tbnw=211&vet=1&w=1024 http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/how-does-indias-caste-system-work
SONGBUN | SOCIAL CLASS IN A SOCIALIST PARADISE
POSTED June 25, 2012
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes…
The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.
So begins Chapter 1 of The Communist Manifesto, written by Marx and Engels and published in 1848. If we take the last paragraph, and change a couple of labels, it perfectly describes North Korea today:
The North Korean society that has sprouted from the ruins of the division of Korea and the Korean War has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.
In fact, the North Korean regime has established 3 new classes divided into 51 categories, and has created what is widely recognized as the most oppressive society in the world. Maybe Marx rests easier now that his portrait no longer adorns Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang; it was taken down before Kim Il-sung’s centenary celebrations in April. The North Korean regime has been extremely intentional at creating and enforcing social classes based on political loyalty and this system, known as songbun (성분), is key to understanding North Korean society as a whole and specifically and the system of oppression which the ruling elite uses to maintain political control. So a new report on Songbun by our colleagues at HRNK, Marked for Life, is a great addition to the literature on NK.
The report describes songbun as a state-directed system of discrimination based on hereditary classes determined by perceived loyalty to the regime. It decides your prospects in almost every area of life, including education, occupation, military service, Party membership, treatment by the criminal justice system, housing, medical treatment, marriage, and even food supply. The individual has no control over this system, their songbun being decided by their family line, making it analogous to discrimination along racial lines. The whole system can be described as a political apartheid, reminiscent of the racial apartheid in South Africa that attracted such international criticism until it ended with the election of Nelson Mandela.
CREATION OF SONGBUN
The songbun system was devised in the early years after the formation of North Korea out of a motivation to protect the Kim regime by isolating and controlling perceived internal political threats. It did this by categorizing every single North Korean resident according to how politically safe or risky they might be. The key factors considered were your ancestors’ socioeconomic background at the time of liberation (1945), their activities during the Korean War (1950-1953), and whether you had relatives in South Korea or China (being connected to the outside world is bad for your songbun).
North Koreans were split into three broad classes:
Core (핵심), 28% of the population. Includes professional revolutionaries, descendants of ‘war heroes’ who died working or fighting for the North, peasants or those from peasant families.
Wavering (동요), 45%. Includes people who had previously lived in South Korea or China, those with relatives who went to the South, families of small-scale merchants, intellectuals, practitioners of superstition, etc.
Hostile (적대), 27%. Includes descendants of landlords, capitalists, religious people, political prisoners, those who had assisted South Korean forces during the Korean War, or were otherwise judged anti-Party or associated with external powers.
The regime keeps a file on every single person above the age of 17 (before that age your details were registered on your parent’s file), and an incredible amount of work goes into creating and regularly updating these records. The data is now managed using the software system “Faithful Servant 2.0.” This digitization makes it easier for authorities to access any citizen’s songbun file from any Ministry of Public Security computer terminal from provincial to county levels.
EFFECTS OF SONGBUN
Songbun is deeply entrenched in North Korean society and affects nearly all aspects of a North Korean’s life, including (see HRNK’s full report for further details):
Occupation: In NK, you do not choose your job. The regime chooses it for you, and it is heavily influenced by your songbun. Simply put, if you have low songbun, you will be put into gruelling manual work, whereas if you have high songbun, you might expect a relatively cushy Party cadre position. There is no element of meritocracy here and ability does not factor in much, meaning that it is quite possible that more able workers are placed in less important roles while less able workers are given positions of responsibility. This failure to efficiently utilize their national talent-pool is yet another reason why North Korea’s state-controlled economy struggles so much.
Education: Again, this is not meritocratic. If your parents have good songbun, then you are allowed to progress. Otherwise, no matter how hard you study, you will not advance academically. As you can imagine, this can cause resentment (although that resentment is sometimes aimed at the parents, not the regime). This system also ensures that “elites play together.” Those with good songbun go through the same schools and the same colleges, and they network within this pool for their future mutual benefit. Those with bad songbun are of course denied such opportunities. The importance of personal connections in North Korean society compounds the importance of songbun.
Family: Knowing the importance of keeping a clean record in NK society, parents impress on their children the importance of not doing anything to step outside the Party line, as it would affect the whole family. The importance of songbun also means it is one of the most important factors to consider when finding a spouse. If you marry someone of lower songbun you and your children will lose out, so people tend to marry within their songbun level, as indicated by the occupation and status of their partner’s family. (Note that these phenomena are not unique to North Korea, as people tend to marry within their own social class in other countries too. What is unique in North Korea is how this is being played out within a class system which has been systematically created according to the interests of the ruling elite.)
Internal Exile: For decades, the regime has systematically exiled tens to hundreds of thousands of low-songbun political undesirables to isolated and unfavourable mountainous areas in the northeast of North Korea. Here they have been forced into hard labour, subject to tighter controls, excluded from population centres, and effectively removed as a potential political threat. It could be argued that the regime has not only tried to cut off the outside world but is now increasingly cutting off Pyongyang from its outer provinces, leaving those who are judged as potential political threats isolated and with no way to demonstrate their frustration without risk of complete elimination.
Food: Songbun has a huge effect on a North Korean citizen’s food supply. Particularly at times of scarcity, the distribution of food and resources has been concentrated to the higher songbun levels – Pyongyang and central regime institutions (Party, government and military). This was particularly noticeable during the famine of the 1990s and the chronic food shortages that have blighted the people ever since. When the state-economy collapsed and there were not enough provisions to go round, the regime stopped providing food to the politically undesirable northeast regions, so the famine hit those regions the hardest. It has been reported that as many as 30% of the population died in the worst affected regions, particularly North Hamgyeong Province. It should come as no surprise then that around 60% of North Korean refugees who have made it to South Korea are also from that province. An issue for another post is how this demonstrates the inextricable linkage between human rights and humanitarian / economic issues in North Korea. Understanding songbun should call us to question the wisdom of distinguishing between “economic migrants” and “political refugees” when it comes to this population.
Medical Care: The public health system all but collapsed in the 1990s, but special treatment is still available for elites in Pyongyang. People of lower songbun cannot access these facilities, even if they have independent wealth, and the best they can hope for is to buy medicine on the black market.
In short, songbun institutionalizes the dominance of the ruling elite and their descendants over all other groups in society, and as this system has been implemented over several decades, the privileges of the core class have grown while the others suffered.
The operation of this system is not at all transparent but people are generally aware of it, although they may not know details, including of their own songbun. Quite a few of the North Korean refugees that I have interviewed about their songbun have not been very sure about their own level. People of higher songbun are better aware of the system, and one gentleman that I interviewed jokingly half-boasted to me that his family was “totally red, the core of the core.” To him it was clear that he had good songbun because so many of his relatives held positions of responsibility within regime institutions, and some members of his family had also been granted considerable educational opportunities.
It is worth noting that while it is extremely difficult to improve your songbun, you can easily drop levels if you get in trouble through committing criminal or political offenses, or fail to cooperate with regime officials, or if a family member gets into such trouble. The implementation of songbun therefore creates considerable fear and forces people to obey the regime, and in reality it is an effective tool used by the regime to maintain control and power.
As we might expect, the changes inside North Korea over the last 15 years have affected the implementation of this system, albeit without being able to overturn it. The interaction between marketization and songbun (both mitigating and exacerbating effects), songbun’s effect on anti-regime sentiment, and the extent to which the songbun system can constrain change in North Korea will be covered in the next blog post…
Red_Line
SOKEEL J. PARK | Research & Policy Analyst
