“The first public rallies we see in North Korea will not be about freedom or democracy, but they will be about livelihood,” said Kay Seok, a researcher in the Asian Division for Human Rights Watch in Seoul.

This are not mutually exclusive. The pursuit of happiness is one of the guaranteed “freedoms” set in writing by the founders of the American democracy.

Economic freedom is also one of the most closely guarded ones in American society – which we can see year-to-year in debates about government programs, regulations, and taxes.

Freedom (and human rights) aren’t just about speech or religion….There are plenty of bread-and-butter issues involved as well.

And the degree of their loyalty is perhaps inversely proportional to how chaotic the economy becomes. The regime seems to be making a lot of mistakes in its attempt to manage a return to a command economy. Some powerful forces in the military might feel that the time has come to cut their losses.

Not that they’d want collapse, more that they’d want rid of the Kim clique. But once the break occurs, things can quickly spiral out of control.

Jeffery Hodges

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