Must-See: Photo Essay on North Korean Refugees in China

The Korean site DKB news has a on the dugout shelters used by North Korean refugees in China. Text is Korean only. The comments are interesting as well, even from my somewhat limited Korean.

What else occurs to me from seeing these pictures? That the North Korean regime has taught most of its people to handle and use firearms, and that less intentionally, it has taught them how to build and live in crude earthen shelters; to live on wild plants and untreated water; to survive cold, hunger, and sickness; to infiltrate through heavily guarded borders; to smuggle; to evade and outrun the authorities; and to hate the government. And it has focused the acquisition of this knowledge and hatred of itself along its own increasingly cancerous logistical jugular–the provinces that border China.

The North Korean famine has created a nation of guerrillas. All they lack are sufficient food for survival, weapons, and a cohesive ideology. Consider that when some suggest that we have no options if the six-party talks fail, as is likely.