“Down with Kim Jong-il! Let’s all rise to drive out the dictatorial regime!”
Note: Video link fixed! Scroll down for updates. And a big welcome to all the readers from the Command Post and MSNBC!
From the North Korean exile newspaper DailyNK, via Kommentariat, comes this remarkable video. The tape, which is the third to emerge from North Korea in two weeks, appears to be the first ever of an anti-government organization in North Korea. Those who made the tape would almost certainly have faced a firing squad had they been caught. Because the tape is 35 minutes long, we couldn’t translate all of it, but we did translate three banners and one excerpt of a lengthy political discussion. The first banner, with the jerky images of black ink on beige paper, says:
Overthrow Kim Jong Il! Let’s rise up, my fellow citizens, and throw out Kim Jong Il!
The second banner, which is written in red ink, says:
The deaths Kim Il Sung and Kim Young Un, who demanded liberalization, and the arrest of Jang Sung Hyok, were all the acts of Kim Jong Il. Why should we die of hunger and in rags? Where are you leading us? Let’s fight and take back freedom and democracy!
Red ink is emotionally loaded in Korean culture; it signifies extreme anger. The third picture, posted above, says:
Kim Jong Il–Who are you? [illegible sentence] The people will throw you out of your position! We claim freedom and democracy! Reform and an open-door policy are the only way to live.
Both of the latter two posters are signed, “Young Comrades for Freedom.” Finally, one excerpt of the political lecture translates very roughly as follows:
Kim Jong Il blames America for our depression and our bad economy. But think about the fact that if life under socialism compares this way to life in America, then which system is really more democratic?
What does the tape tell us? That depends on whether it’s really North Korea. There aren’t enough distinctive landmarks in the tape for anyone except a native of Hoeryong to identify the location with any degree of certainty. The accents were clearly North Korean. The use of bicycles and the general state of bleak disrepair match descriptions of North Korea today.
If authentic, the tape would validate one of the foundational assumptions behind the North Korean Human Rights Act–that at least some of the North Korean people are deeply discontented with the regime and searching for ways to oppose and overthrow it. If the tape reflects the views of a fairly large percentage of the North Korean people, money appropriated to stir dissent could be money well spent. Such forthright advocacy for the overthrow of the regime suggests that it may indeed be possible to hasten its the extinction by supporting and empowering internal resistance.
The contents of the tape contained a few surprises for those (like me) with preconceptions about what North Korean dissenters might think. One could see that a degree of reverence for Kim Il Sung still survives, even among those who despise his son. The rumor that Kim Jong Il killed his father, previously reported in a number of Korea blogs, appears to have some currency in North Korea as well. The North Koreans also seem to have a pretty good idea that Americans–and presumably South Koreans and Chinese as well–live far better than they do. They realize that their unhappiness is not just absolute, but relative as well.
Reuters also picked up the story. You can see their story here.
This is an updated post.
UPDATE: The South Korean reaction is predictable: downplay, downplay, downplay. The government no longer even bothers to deny that it is doing its best to keep Kim Jong Il in power. Of course, I have questions of my own about whether the tape is authentic, but one of the Korea Times‘s “experts” blows right past that question to conclude (without much support) that the tape reflects the views of only a small number of North Koreans. Exactly how does one become an expert on suppressed thoughts–thoughts that carry the death penalty–in a reclusive, totalitarian state without traveling secretly among the North Korean people? Given that today’s North Koreans are psychologically so unlike the South Koreans, I suggest that one cannot become an expert on this subject from an office chair in Seoul any more than one can from the Washington, D.C. suburbs. One could well ascribe those views to wishful thinking, and the maintenance of such a murderous regime is a very damning thing to wish for.
UPDATE II: Brendan Brown has what I consider to be solid information that the tape was indeed made in Hoeryong, North Korea, thus setting (to the best of our ability, at least) the main question about the tape’s authenticity:
The footage on the tape has been confirmed by defectors from Hoeryong to definitely being Hoeryong. Three smuggled videos in about two weeks. My prediction is that cameras that double as camcorders will go the way of the cellphone and be totally prohibited in the future. Even just a few months ago the only item of extreme concern was the cellphone. The customs agent at Pyongyang had no idea about my camcorder as it looks like a regular digital camera.
Brendan, for those who are not regular readers, is an Australian national who lives in Seoul and teaches English to North Korean defectors. He collaborated with me in interviewing approximately two dozen of his students about their views on the attitudes of the North Korean people and the prospects for regime change. He has been to North Korea and reported his observations at NKZone. Thanks again, Brendan. You’ve illustrated how the participatory journalism (and sometimes, the participatory corrective process) of the blogosphere can outstrip the traditional media’s capacity to crank out accurate and relevant facts.
Note that the London Daily Telegraph and Instapundit have also picked up this story.
UPDATE III: The story is getting a great deal of ink, but almost all of that is in small-market newspapers via wire feeds from AP (more here–a better writeup by Choe Sang-Hun, which correctly warns that it’s not always possible to see distinctive scenes of Hoeryong behind the posters themselves, although that would be sheer suicide in North Korea), Reuters, and AFP. Small-market coverage is simply too voluminous to document, and mid-market coverage includes the unfortunately named The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The Boston Globe. The big media are paying very little attention thus far. There is also a significant amount of international coverage as well, including Ireland Online, The Guardian (UK), and Yonhap (South Korea), which adds the interesting tidbit that the dissenters called for international support for their cause. Australian and Pakistani newspapers also covered the story.
We hope to have more translations for you tonight. Damn. The video link is broken and I can’t find another one. Looks like the window has closed. If anyone can find a translation or a good link to the video, I’d be most appreciative. Fixed, thanks to Kinch. Booya!
UPDATE IV: The Chosun Ilbo (S. Korea) columnist Kim Dae-Joong (not to be confused with former President Kim Dae-Jung) has noticed who is not included in the aspirations of the speakers in the videotape:
But peculiarly, it makes no mention whatsoever of South Korea. It gives the impression that the earnest desire for change in North Korea is completely unrelated to the South.
What relevance does the existence of the Republic of Korea have to the pain and poverty of North Koreans? While calling them brothers of the same race, what have we done to lessen that pain? Defectors testify that while Seoul says it has been helping North Korea, all it has done is prop up Kim Jong-il. . . . Defectors say KBS broadcasts to North Korea are consistently bad and not worth listening to. One said South Korea, in terminating its broadcasts to the North along the DMZ, fell into Pyongyang’s trap. Suffering North Koreans no longer believe in Southern politicians, because we have disappointed them: we no longer represent hope.
As Koreans, our first duty now is to alleviate the grim realities faced by North Koreans every day and help protect their rights. Unification and intra-Korean cooperation come next. . . .
Do yourself a favor and read the entire column. He has it exactly right this time.
UPDATE V: The steady stream of coverage continues. I’ll start with the best writeup, which you can find in The Independent (UK). The story also contains a fairly solid analysis of what could be ahead for America’s North Korea policy during President Bush’s second term. Other papers covering the story include the Globe and Mail (Canada), Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Belfast Telegraph (Northern Ireland), Business Day (Thailand), and Washington Times. The Korea Times editorializes that the tape is evidence of Kim Jong Il’s political and economic weakening, and appears to despair at that trend and wonder how it can be reversed.