This book is a must read — an absolute MUST READ! It is inexcusable not to be informed about what has been going on in North Korea. What we hear on the news is just simply not enough.



There are great reviews of this book on Goodreads. So I won’t elaborate about the contents of this book.



What I would like to do is compare The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (in short DPRK, or just simply North Korea) to Hitler’s Third Reich.



Upfront: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is just as much

This book is a must read — an absolute MUST READ! It is inexcusable not to be informed about what has been going on in North Korea. What we hear on the news is just simply not enough.There are great reviews of this book on Goodreads. So I won’t elaborate about the contents of this book.What I would like to do is compare The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (in short DPRK, or just simply North Korea) to Hitler’s Third Reich.Upfront: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is just as much democratic as Hitler’s “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” (National Socialist German Worker’s Party) was a Socialist Worker’s Party. Both designations are misnomers with the clear purpose to fool the population. Brutal dictatorships like to disguise themselves with terms that are well received. The word “democratic” had a good reputation after WWII, and the word “socialist” rang well in the ears of workers during the 1920s and 1930s.I’ll take the liberty of using LeeAnne’s wonderful review of “Nothing to Envy”as basis for my comparison of the two oppressive regimes.LeeAnne writes: “North Koreans live in the most isolated bubble in the world”. This is very true. North Koreans cannot correspond with anyone outside of North Korea (with certain exceptions of relatives in Japan); there isn’t even any mail service across the borders.There is no Internet in North Korea, and cell phones are banned.It is forbidden in North Korea to tune in on foreign TV and radio stations. The usual punishment for breaking this law is to be sent to the gulag (or concentration camp, whatever name for this North Korean institution you prefer).There is no free speech in North Korea. The most harmless remark criticizing the leader or the regime will be punished by declaring the person who made the remark an “enemy of the state” and sending him/her to the gulag for life. The same thing happens to people who tell jokes about the leader.There is no free assembly in North Korea.Without free assembly it is next to impossible to start a revolt against a regime. How many people can secretly meet in someone’s bedroom? (And how can one organize a revolution in a bomb-tight police state without being found out and executed before the revolt can draw momentum?)There is no religious freedom in North Korea, and North Korea’s rulers (dead or alive) are worshipped as gods.There is no free movement allowed to North Koreans, not even within their country.There are no workers’ rights in North Korea.I don’t think there were any workers’ rights in Hitler’s Germany either, and if there were, they were just on paper.There is no independent media in North Korea. TV, radio, and newspapers are state-controlled. Instead of news and information, they spread propaganda, brainwash, and outright lies. — Propaganda and brainwash has turned the vast majority of North Koreans into ignorant robots.It is estimated that about one fifth of the North Korean population has starved to death during the 1990s. People ate tree bark; that is, if they could still find any. Those who weren’t able to tend a private vegetable garden, if only so small, had the least chances to survive.Since there was no chemical fertilizer and hardly any livestock in North Korea during the famine (and may not even be today), human feces were (and might still be?) collected on a large scale to fertilize state-grown crops. There were huge campaigns, assigning people to these dirty jobs and have them carry the buckets filled with feces for miles, on foot, to collection plants. Hygiene was (or is?) obviously a non-issue.There is severe fuel shortage in North Korea. Only few institutions (amongst them schools) and private homes can be heated in winter. There are no street lights, and the availability of electricity is limited to very few hours weekly. People have cut down all accessible trees for firewood. Parks are stripped bare. Private cars and motorcycles are nonexistent.There isn’t supposed to be any unemployment in “the communistic workers’ paradise” of North Korea, but there is (or rather, eventually came to be).When anyone is shipped to the gulag in North Korea, his or her blood relatives (parents, grandparents, children, siblings, aunts, uncles) are usually shipped along with him or her (unless they are party members in very good standing or they are protected by some party big shot).Sippenhaft of any kind makes it rather impossible to oppose a regime. Even when someone is ready to risk his own life, he or she is rarely ready to risk the lives of family members and relatives.LeeAnne writes: “People are expected to work 7 days a week, even if they are unemployed. It is not unusual to be employed and working 7 days a week but not receive a paycheck for years.”North Korea does not allow everyone to join the North Korean Workers’ Party (the only existing party). Being allowed to join this party is a privilege, and applicants are not only required to have a history of absolute loyalty to the regime but must also have a spotless family background. Career advancement is only possible with party membership.The living conditions in North Korean gulags (concentration camps) are horrific. There are different types of camps. Those for minor offenses offer a tiny chance of survival. Those for higher graded offenses are designed for life sentences, and due to the conditions in these camps, the convicted can be rather sure that their lives won’t last very long.The main difference between North Korean and German concentration camps is that the North Korean ones don’t have gas chambers, yet some of the inmates may wish that they had, for their tortured existence cannot really be called “life”.Summa summarum: North Korea and Hitler’s Germany deserve both to be called “hell on earth”, North Korea is just a little different kind of hell. You really would not want to have to choose. (As an Aryan non-Nazi, I would consider Hitler’s Germany the lesser of two terrible evils. As a Jew, I would not be so sure.) Hell is known for containing devils who make hell what it is, and North Korea as well as Hitler’s Germany have/had plenty of those.Something else: North Korea, even though a small country, has a huge and highly efficient military. Every North Korean male has to serve 10 years in the military. This makes a lot of military experts. And North Korean’s leadership pumps immense sums of money into armament. Thus, North Korea’s military force has to be taken seriously.Hitler’s Germany was also a small country, yet it was a very powerful military force. Maybe Hitler’s Germany wasn’t taken seriously enough because of Germany’s relatively small geographic size. If this should have been the case, such mistake should not be repeated with North Korea.The question remains: What can the outside world do against such hellish boils on this globe, which not only treat their own citizens in a barbaric way but also pose a serious danger to the rest of the world?There was a time when Hitler could have been stopped by the governments of other countries, especially the U.S. This was before he proceeded with the rearmament. The chance was missed. We all know the result.There was a time when North Korea’s regime could have been reigned in (or ousted) by the Chinese government. (Yet the Chinese appreciated North Korea as a buffer between China and the Western-oriented South Korea.) The chance was missed. Meanwhile, China feels herself threatened by North Korea.Once a totalitarian, oppressive, belligerent regime is armed to the teeth, trying to stop it means war (in our day and age probably nuclear war).So what can we do at this point? I don’t know. Does anyone have an answer?