You Say You Want a Revolution

It’s curious that the Korean press has paid almost no attention to the government-in-exile story.

I haven’t had a chance to listen to the full Radio Free Asia report, and probably won’t until the weekend, so I don’t know much more than that this group is allegedly dominated by old former Workers’ Party officials. I’m initially inclined to agree that the people who ran the old North Korea into the ground should not be in charge of the new North Korea. Furthermore, I’ve seen Hwang Jang Yop speak, and he’s certainly no revolutionary dynamo–a fact he probably wouldn’t deny himself.

Now switch to the big picture. A government in exile is more than a good idea; it’s an absolute necessity. Have we learned nothing from Iraq? If you want to change a regime, you need to prepare one to replace it.

Furthermore, you wan’t win much popular support for a political alternative to Kim Jong Il unless you offer that alternative–some vessel in which to put hope for a better future. There are sure to be many disagreements about that alternative, just as there were among the Afghan rebels, the Contras, and the Iraqi exiles. All of those movements were coalitions of patriots (Ahmad Shah Massoud, Abdul Haq), scoundrels (Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, General Dostum), and others who lay somewhere in between (Ismail Khan). Collectively, they all met the basic requirement of being at least better than the governments they were fighting to replace (The Afghan Communist leader Najibullah ran an infamous political prison called Pol-e-Charki–he’d occasionally stop by to crush some heads under his jackboots or order a few people to be buried alive).

What these movements did not all share was unity within a cohesive political structure. It showed later.

The key to post-revolutionary success here is obvious–a coalition that can overcome its inevitable differences to form a cohesive unit reflecting the will of the people is far more likely to prevail at taking power and wielding it successfully. Those that can’t either face an ignominious extinction or inherit and breed chaos. We should recall Mao’s lesson that resistance is first and foremost a political struggle. That requires people who can draw a political map to a better future.

Perhaps this government isn’t the right vehicle for North Korea’s national aspirations, but then again, if it has a reasonably open and democratic structure, it will have room for more dynamic members and leadership.