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North Korea Food Insecurity Leads to Regime Insecurity? Likely Not Unfortunately
This is a re-post of an article I wrote this month for The National Interest.
The editor asked me to comment on whether North Korea’s recently announced ‘food crisis’ could lead to regime instability? The answer is probably not.
North Korea has proven remarkably resilient to the buffets of history and geopolitics. Much of this, I bet, is simply due to repression. If you are willing to eat your own children to stay in power, then you probably will. Kim Jong Il let a million of his people starve to death in the late 1990s in order to not change anything meaningful about the governance of North Korea – no opening, no aid with conditions, no nothing, even if people were literally dying in the streets.
It’s true that his son seems less openly callous and bloodthirsty. By North Korean standard, Kim Jong Un is a step up. At least he has admitted this food crisis, unlike his father’s adamant refusal during the ‘Arduous March.’
But the limits of Kim III’s ‘modern outlook’ are likely pretty narrow. He won’t change the economy to be more efficient, because he fears an unraveling akin to the USSR after perestroika. And of course, he’ll kill anyone has must to stay in power.
So after 75 years without a revolt, including a brutal famine, it is unlikely this latest round of food insecurity will lead to regime challenges. Alas…
The full essay follows the jump:
North Korea is once again having food shortages. This is by now a well-known problem, and the government is at least admitting it this time. When North Korea last experienced major food insecurity – in the late 1990s – then-leader Kim Jong Il refused to admit it, as some one million people starved to death around him. Thankfully, current leader Kim Jong Un is admitting reality. This means he is more likely to do something about it. This Kim is no reformer, but at least he seems to care about the state of the economy more than his reclusive, disinterested father.
The cause of this latest round of food insecurity is apparently the weather. The same excuse was used twenty-five years ago. Somehow weather variations do not provoke famine alerts in neighboring South Korea, where I live. The real reasons, as always, are almost certainly political – staggering misgovernment and corruption.
Sanctions will be blamed, but their impact on agriculture is marginal. They are mostly concentrated on elite luxury goods and industrial items of dual-use (those which can be used for either military or civilian purposes), and there are humanitarian carve-outs if the regime would take advantage of them. Food aid would be forthcoming if some kind of oversight could insure that aid would go to the hungry and not to the military or other regime actors. This was a problem in the late 1990s and likely will be this year too.
This is inherently a political question: foreigners could help but the regime has been unwilling to accept even the slightest accountability mechanisms. Indeed, this crisis is a test of the claim that this Kim is a reformer. If he is, he will recognize that outside assistance is not simply a blank check. There needs to be some mechanism to insure its proper use.
The closure of the border with China due to covid is the most likely the proximate cause. North Korea’s corrupt ‘socialist’ agronomy is underproductive and inefficient. To avoid a repeat of the late 1990s famine – the Arduous March – the regime has looked the other way on illicit food imports from China. Informal pathways into northeastern China were set up by North Koreans crossing the border in desperation during the famine. The regime has not much cracked down on them since – likely because these continuing illicit inputs facilitate regime security by helping to feed the population and forestall genuine popular desperation.
A famine is a fairly obvious reason to revolt: if you are starving to death, you have nothing to lose. If the regime cannot feed its people, it must either change, take foreign help, or risk bread riots and internal dissent. Even Mao Zedong relented on the Great Leap Forward when the extent of the ensuing famine became undeniable. But the Kim regime of North Korea has rejected political change for decades, likely because it fears opening a pandora’s box of demands from below, including unification. So if ‘socialism’ – despite its corruption and inefficiency – must be maintained, and foreign aid is anathema because of accountability mechanism, inward ‘leakage’ from China is a useful alternative to keep the population fed and quiescent.
But if that informal backdoor is now closed because of covid, the system’s internal contradictions start to accumulate. Collectivized agriculture is notoriously inefficient, and in North Korea, rampant corruption worsens this. The regime’s answer last time was to simply take the political risk of allowing mass starvation. And it was indeed remarkable that no violence at scale occurred. This suggests that the regime is indeed stable: it allowed 10% of its population to starve in the late 1990s and nothing happened. While a staggering humanitarian catastrophe, it is an astonishing testament to regime strength – if only because the government so successfully terrorizes its own people.
But permitting two decades of inward, illicit China traffic also suggests that regime knows how risky the late 1990s really was. Kim Jong Un promised on his ascension that such ‘belt-tightening’ would not happen again. This promise likely does not reflect care for the population, but his recognition that a mass famine is an obvious catalyst for regime challenges.
So is the regime stable this time? Will another food crisis in North Korea finally bring popular pushback? Probably not. The regime, amazingly, survived a similar, more extreme crisis twenty-five years ago. It would be foolish to bet against it. North Koreans may actually believe in the Kim cult, or perhaps the sheer harshness of the state against dissent has deterred North Koreans these many years. There has never been a revolt in North Korea in its seventy-five year history.
But that Kim felt compelled to admit what his father never admitted testifies to the scale of the crisis. Kim promised such an event would never happen, and yet here it is. Economic growth, after his father’s catastrophic mismanagement, has been a legitimizing element of his rule. If push-back, from below or regime elements, ever does occur, this will likely be a part of that narrative. And if food insecurity spirals into a famine yet again, the regime will likely re-open the Chinese door and risk a covid spread.
—Robert E KellyAssistant Professor
Department of Political Science & Diplomacy
Pusan National University
@Robert_E_Kelly
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Datjib – The Canopy: 닺집
Inside almost all Korean Buddhist temple shrine halls, and standing above the main altar, is a canopy. While this canopy is brilliantly adorned and beautiful, the meaning behind it is less clear. So why are there canopies above the main altar? And why do they have somewhat differing designs?
The CanopyThe Korean Buddhist canopy that stands above the main altar inside a temple shrine hall is known as a “datjib – 닺집” in Korean. “Dat” means “separate” in English, while “jib” means “house” in English. So the canopy literally means “Separate House.” Another name for this canopy is “Celestial Canopy” in English, which is in reference to the airy feel that the roof-shaped structure exudes.
As for the actual material that makes up the canopy, it’s wood. And the woodwork consists of finely made interconnected brackets that have been ornately decorated with a variety of Buddhist motifs. The pillars that support the weight of the canopy are usually thin, which helps contribute to the airy feel of the canopy’s overall design. These pillars are also usually either red or gold in colour. Surrounding the typically red or gold coloured canopy are a variety of images like dragons, phoenixes, lotus flowers, and Bicheon (Flying Heavenly Deities). These four images aren’t the only figures that will appear around canopies, but they are the most common. And they add a certain luxuriousness to the normally solemn interior of a temple shrine hall. In fact, and at a glance, the canopy looks like a mini-palace.
Types of CanopiesIn total, there are three different types of canopies that take up residence inside a Korean temple shrine hall above the main altar. They are: 1. “The Cloud Palace Type”; 2. “The Treasure Palace Type”; 3. “The Bejeweled Canopy Type.”
A great example of a “Cloud Palace Type” at Botaam Hermitage in Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do.The first of these three, “The Cloud Palace Type,” does not have any brackets in its design. Overall, the design is simple. However, while the design is more simplistic, the canopy area of the design directly above either the Buddha’s or Bodhisattva’s head is more ornate in design with images of clouds, dragons, flowers, and phoenixes. A great example of this can be found at Botaam Hermitage on the Tongdosa Temple grounds in Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do.
A “Treasure Palace Type” inside the Muryangsu-jeon Hall at Buseoksa Temple in Yeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do. And another “Treasure Palace Type” inside the Daeung-jeon Hall at Beomeosa Temple in Geumjeong-gu, Busan.The second type is “The Treasure Palace Type.” This type of canopy design appears as though it’s a completely separate structure. With the passage of time, this type of canopy grew more elaborate. A great example of this type of design can be found inside the Muryangsu-jeon Hall at Buseoksa Temple in Yeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do and the Daeung-jeon Hall at Beomeosa Temple in Geumjeong-gu, Busan.
And the third, and final, type of canopy design is “The Bejeweled Canopy Type.” This type of canopy is receding into the ceiling. Additionally, there are four sides to this canopy with finely designed brackets. A good example of this style of canopy can be found inside the Daeung-jeon Hall at Donghaksa Temple in Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do.
“The Bejeweled Canopy Type” inside the Daeung-jeon Hall at Donghaksa Temple in Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do. The Canopy’s MeaningSo now that we know what they look like, why are canopies situated above the heads of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas upon the main altar of temple shrine halls? The textual reference appears in the Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, which is a Mahayana sutra in Pure Land Buddhism. In fact, it’s one of the three principle Pure Land texts. This sutra consists of discourses that Seokgamoni-bul (The Historical Buddha) gave to Śāriputra, who was one of his disciples at Jetavana in Shravasti. These discussions focused on the beautiful and wondrous adornments that await the righteous in the Pure Land. The text also discusses what one must do to be reborn in the Pure Land. The canopy, in this context, is meant to symbolize the beauty that awaits in the Pure Land. More specifically, it’s a beacon in an unclear world which has an endless cycle of rebirth that we presently live. So the canopy acts as a reminder of the Pure Land for those that live in a world tainted by the cyclical existence of Samsara.
ConclusionSo at first glance, while a “datjib” may look like nothing more than a beautiful decorative item, it is packed with the symbolic meaning of the Pure Land. A canopy is a little piece of heaven that reminds people of the potentiality of what could be. So not only is this rather stunning structure beautiful in design, but it’s also loaded with meaning for Buddhists.
A beautiful canopy inside the Daeung-jeon Hall at Sujeongsa Temple in western Ulsan. And the highly ornate canopy inside the Daeung-jeon Hall at Haedong Yonggungsa Temple in Gijang-gun, Busan. —Dale's Korean Temple Adventures YouTube
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Korean Test Practice with Billy [Ep. 30] – Intermediate Korean (Listening Practice)
Preparing for a Korean test? Want to see what a test question is like? I made this series for practicing test style questions that you could see in any Korean test. There are various levels, from Beginner to Advanced.
Today's test question is for intermediate level or above, but you can give it a try no matter your level. Let me know how you did in the comments!
Here is the listening example with its English translation.
여러분 안녕하세요. 오늘 제가 소개해 드릴 제품은 선풍기예요. 여기 이걸 보세요. 선풍기처럼 보이시나요? 정말 작죠? 이렇게 작아도 아주 시원해서 에어컨과 함께 사용하시면 방이 금방 시원해진답니다. 에이컨이 없으시다고요? 그래도 문제없습니다. 추가로 구매 가능한 미스트 수건과 함께 사용하신다면 에어컨처럼 시원한 바람을 만들어 낼 수 있습니다. 어떻게 이게 가능하냐고요? 이 선풍기의 특별함은 이 날개에 있습니다. 여기 이 선풍기 날개 보이세요? 이 선풍기 날개가 1초에 200번을 회전하며 강력한 바람을 만들어 낸다고 하네요. 정말 빠르지 않나요? 구매를 원하신다면 지금 방송에 나오는 이 번호로 전화 걸어주세요. 정상 가격 159,000원에서 오늘 하루만 특별한 가격, 99,000원으로 모시겠습니다. 시원한 여름을 보내고 싶으시다면 서둘러주세요!
Hello everyone. The product I will introduce to you today is a fan. Look here. Does this look like a fan? It’s really small, isn’t it? Even though it’s so small, it’s very cool, so if you use it together with an air conditioner the room will become cool right away. You don’t have an air conditioner? No problem. If you use it together with a misting towel, which you can purchase in addition to this, it can create cool air like an air conditioner. How is this possible, you ask? The specialty of this fan is in these blades. You see these fan blades here? These fan’s blades rotate 200 times per second, creating a strong wind. Isn’t it fast? If you’d like to make a purchase, please call this phone number in the broadcast. From the normal price of 159,000 Won, today only there’s a special price – it can be yours at 99,000 Won.
The post Korean Test Practice with Billy [Ep. 30] – Intermediate Korean (Listening Practice) appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.
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Korean Test Practice with Billy [Ep. 30] – Intermediate Korean (Listening Practice)
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