Dear (American) Leader United Nations troops patrol the North-South Korean border. As a child Kwang Soo strolled through parks in Hongwan, North Korea, read novels about her Great Leader, and stitched yarn dolls in the likeness of U.S. soldiers. Then she and her friends tossed those stuffed Americans into the air and beat them apart with sticks. Soo’s history teacher taught her that the United States launched the Korean War. In mathematics Soo learned that if you have seven Americans and kill four of them, only three are left. At assemblies, her teachers told her to fortify herself for another great war against the U.S. and South Korea. They said that within her lifetime war would reunite the peninsula America split apart in 1945. Soo was born in 1964 to a well-respected North Korean family. Her grandfather was a prominent lawyer for the Workers Party of the Great Leader, Kim Il-sung; her father a distinguished professor; and her mother a party administrator. But high status didn’t bring great wealth in this ‘Socialist Paradise.’ Her family of six all lived together in a one-room apartment. Ten other families shared one shower and one toilet. Though there were faucets, clean water didn’t run through them. Soo pulled water from the river. Electricity was always scarce. As time passed, food grew scarce as well. At twenty-nine, Soo married a party administrator who had just left thirteen years of mandatory military service. She became entirely dependent on her new spouse. Her parents passed away and she says there were so few jobs in the country by the early 1990s that married women didn’t work. With crisis looming, the couple gave birth to a son. By 1995 North Korea’s communist patrons had shriveled up. With them went food sold at friendly prices. The government dispensed less food day by day. From three meals to two to one. People began starving to death on the streets. Soo’s friends told one another they weren’t far behind. As the situation deteriorated, the government increased its anti-American broadcasts. TV documentaries from North Korea and select old ones from Mainland China claimed that America was squeezing North Korea to force regime change. The U.S. sought world dominion at any cost, TV and radio said. But Soo was less receptive to that talk now. Private conversations with close friends by 1996 were all about the failures of the government. State military and police agents were stealing food, extorting bribes, and executing civilians. Then the summer of 1997 robbed Soo of all she loved. Dysentery swept across her town. Chronic diarrhea combined with poor nutrition caused her husband and newborn son to waste away in a matter of weeks. With nothing left to lose, Soo traveled north to the Tumen River, clasped hands with five strangers, and waded into Mainland China. She contacted distant relatives there and got a job as a maid. At the night she listened through to South Korean broadcasts on TV. Over the next three years and seven months she slowly discovered all the North Korean regime had hidden. But in 2001 and 2002, the China began cracking down on illegal North Korean immigrants. Soo feared that they would send her home to North Korea to die either of hunger or a bullet. No longer enamored by her Great Leader, hoping simply to survive, Soo sought asylum in South Korea. Now Soo lives in Seoul with a new husband. The couple ekes out a living through entry-level office jobs. She recently gave birth to another son. Life is beginning again for Soo, but her sisters remain in Hunong. She spoke to them last year. To stop famine, North Korea opened up slightly, allowing new ways of making contact across the border -- some legal, some not. Soo contacted a ring of smugglers, supported by corrupt members of the North Korean military. They brought money to her relatives for a 70% commission, and allowed them a ten minute cell phone conversation. Pyongyang. “They were terrified by it,” Soo says, widening her black eyes and pressing her hands against her cheeks. “They had never seen anything like it.” She told them the North Korean regime was cruel; that the south was liberated; and that she had remarried and given birth again. Her family said little, afraid someone was listening. “At least they are not dead,” says Soo. From a childhood spent detesting the U.S., Soo now prays it will help her sisters. "They need it,” she says, “One has a baby girl." Soo's solution: U.S. and international aid organizations must demand direct access to real people like her sisters. "Watch the food be delivered to their mouths," Soo says. This can help widen cracks in the once airtight regime, allowing people like Soo to quietly reveal the brighter outside world to relatives -- a world that must stand with them and help them survive, with or without their Dear Leader. Join Monthly Mailing List | Del.icio.us | Digg | Facebook POSTED BY AMAR C. BAKSHI ON DECEMBER 31, 2007 10:40 AM COMMENTS (46) KRENZ KARR: Sure, now she and the rest of her countrymen want more international handouts. Just because she has now seen the light, maybe we still harbor some resentment against her and her countrymen. After all OUR real people died over there trying to protect her and her people. They chose to hate us (America) for that. DECEMBER 31, 2007 12:26 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS JUSTICE: I'll be too busy making yarn dolls in her's and her sister's likeness to help. DECEMBER 31, 2007 12:40 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS KAMDOG: There is little reason for us to help them out. It is time we got out of the business of going around the world doing good as we see it only to be hated for it. We saved South Korea from this fate, helped them become a prosperous democracy, and now, only the older South Koreans have a good thing to say about us. It is time for us to disengage and take care of our own problems. Cut the cord. DECEMBER 31, 2007 12:41 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS DAN: The only ways a regime change have been successful have been when people risked all in revolution; when people have realized their gov't was wrong and tried to atone; or when the opposition was killed off or tortured to the point of capitulation. No amount of food aid or such will change hearts and minds, not in N Korea or anywhere. This is not to say that sending food isn't the right and morally just thing to do; it is just not an effective tool of foreign policy. Even if the government allows the food, they use their media to exclaim what a great victory it was for their ideology to stick it to the USA and obtain this food for the people, and that their ideology will conquer all, ad nauseum. They don't have the same American Legion approved history books that we do. There will be people that hate us (the USA)for centuries after we are long gone. Send the food to feed the hungry, but accept it only prolongs the evil that rules that land. DECEMBER 31, 2007 12:43 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS ANONYMOUS: North Korea represents a terrible tragedy on many levels. Beyond the more obvious human costs, one thing is clear: Kim Jong Il is holding his own people hostage, knowing that the International Community cares more about their well-being than he does. He will us food aid and financial aid to strengthen his military and ensure his survival. The fact of the matter is that the only way to deal with the North Korean problem is to force Kim Jong Il to bring about significant economic reforms (like China). Failing that, we will have to stomach the continued suffering of many innocent civilians until someone decides that enough is enough dispatches Kim and his haircut once and for all. DECEMBER 31, 2007 12:47 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS DUNNAGE: At least she doesn't recommend bombing. DECEMBER 31, 2007 12:53 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS FROM A KOREAN AMERICAN: Dear Krenz- You are correct in many ways but the propaganda tactics in North Korea are extremely powerful and isolates a lot of information from the general public. This is how a country such as North Korea maintains control. Do not hate the people for what they know as it is what they are told to know. Having lived in South Korea and understanding more details to the atrocities in the North. They did not just simply "choose" to hate. I do agree that just handouts are probably not the most impactful way to resolution but resenting the people is also ignorant. If anything, hate their government and their "Dear Leader". DECEMBER 31, 2007 12:53 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS ZARTAN: I remember watching a documentary on US doctors that were allowed to enter N. Korea to perform simple cataract eye operations to same the eye site of many N. Koreans. Even this gesture of goodwill was twisted by the N. Korean government to heap praise on Kim Jong-Il. They gave no thanks to the American Doctors using every minute of their time there to perform as many operations as possible. While I hate the thought of people starving, only a people's revolution can overthrow the current regime in N. Korea. DECEMBER 31, 2007 1:41 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS JACK: Kwang Soo, if more Americans were to read newspapers and books written outside the United States, and heard news from foreign reporters, they too might understand your plight. If things continue as they are in the United States, its citizens might be in the same situation as you. DECEMBER 31, 2007 1:43 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS PAUL: China has a economic interest to improve the situation in North Korea. They should be leading the effort to open up NK, to make things better for their people, thereby creating new markets for their goods. The US needs to participate in a major way, but China should be pushing harder. DECEMBER 31, 2007 1:47 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS PAUL: China has an economic interest to improve the situation in North Korea. They should be leading the effort to open up NK, to make things better for their people, thereby creating new markets for their goods. The US needs to participate in a major way, but China should be pushing harder. DECEMBER 31, 2007 1:47 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS CHARLES: Karr, Justice, Kamdog, Dunnage: Let's read history a little. Well, Bush tried to ignore the North Koreans (and South Koreans) for much of his administration, instead focusing on invading and occupying Iraq. Difference? Iraq has a lot of oil and maybe Bush had a personal thing for Hussein due to Hussein threatening his father. Now the North Koreans have successfully tested a nuclear weapons device and we now back pedal and talk to the North Koreans. Difference? North Koreans left alone may wittingly or unwittingly share/sell their nuclear assets. By the way, Bush's ally Pakistan gave some good stuff to the North Koreans. Why do Koreans blame US for their division? It was the Americans who arbitrarily drew the 38th parallel to draw the Soviets sooner into the Pacific War: Americans would disarm the Japanese south of the line; the Soviets would disarm the Japanese north of the line. But of course, the Koreans have it wrong. The ultimate perpetrator is the Cold War, the Japanese who weakened them through their brutal colonial policies, and their past inability to fend for themselves. The Japanese still deny their experience. So ultimately, they have nobody but themselves to blame. Still why should Americans care about the hungry, helpless, and oppressed? Because despite our failings as exemplified in the current administration, we are still Americans, we are still the beacon of hope and liberty for the rest of the world. DECEMBER 31, 2007 1:52 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS RORY: It's always amusing to read Post articles and see how many people twist them in an effort to attack Bush and/or the United States. A communist country not actually being a Socialist Paradise? Life better in modernized, Western countries, where your children don't starve to death in front of you? That can't be right! Just like Homer said when leaving Cuba, "It's hard to believe there's a place worse than America, but we found it." I guess the reason North Korean soldiers plaster over the American flags on the hundreds of thousands of sacks of grain we give them every year is because we're so evil. DECEMBER 31, 2007 1:59 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS CC: What I really enjoy seeing is the burning flag in the graphic header on this blog. Just lovely. What 19-year-old Daily Kos-ite created that? And for those who have commented that we should just leave the people of North Korea to starve: The world thanks you for your compassion. This North Korean crackpot has to go, and all you have to say is "revolution." So much collected brilliance here! DECEMBER 31, 2007 2:00 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS CC: What I really enjoy seeing is the burning flag in the graphic header on this blog. Just lovely. What 19-year-old Daily Kos-ite created that? And for those who have commented that we should just leave the people of North Korea to starve: The world thanks you for your compassion. This North Korean crackpot has to go, and all you have to say is "revolution." So much collected brilliance here! DECEMBER 31, 2007 2:01 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS CHARLES: Just a thought to add: There are more selfish reasons why we can't ignore the hungry, helpless, and the oppressed in comparison to our tarnished principals: International terrorism. Those people who are left out would tend to join forces with those who would be our enemy. DECEMBER 31, 2007 2:02 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS BELIEVER: I believe in self determination. The people in represed countries like North Korea may not know any better, but at some point instinct and desire must win over. They will never appreciate the gift they are not willing to earn themselves. Much like in the USSR (which is on its way back). Because nothing was sacraficed, there was no knowledge of the effort required to be free. However with a starving animal like north korea who holds a few nukes, I'm more likely to feed the dog until I can get his bones away from him so he can't hurt anyone or worse, sell them. DECEMBER 31, 2007 2:04 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS TMURT: We will send food and aid wherever people are starving. We will send our doctors and nurses to save lives, eyesight, hearing, organ function and whatever else needs their attention. We will donate funds to "adopt" severly underprivileged children around the world. We will send tools and building materials for disaster-torn countries to begin to rebuild. And we will send our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen to fight the fight of those who cannot fight for themselves, because that's simply what we do. DECEMBER 31, 2007 2:10 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS FUJI: A guy I know who likes to go on "danger" tours went to N. Korea about three years ago. He said the trip was heavily regulated. He kept a diary, and the cute thing was that a communist Swede who was also traveling informed on him to the N. Korean police. They confiscated his journal. Communists are studid. DECEMBER 31, 2007 2:18 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS FUJI: tmurt: We will send food and aid wherever people are starving. We will send our doctors and nurses to save lives, eyesight, hearing, organ function and whatever else needs their attention. We will donate funds to "adopt" severly underprivileged children around the world. We will send tools and building materials for disaster-torn countries to begin to rebuild. And we will send our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen to fight the fight of those who cannot fight for themselves, because that's simply what we do. -- You are correct, Tmurt. And they will hate us for it. DECEMBER 31, 2007 2:19 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS CA: Unfortunately in a country where the government has brainwashed their people it's difficult for them to even have an opinion of their own without fear of retribution from the police/military. A majority of the people are uneducated or taught from an early age to hate the US and anything un-North Korean. The people of N.K. have no clue what the outside world is like, save for the few who have successfully left the country and found a new life. Everyone deserves a chance to live free and live by their own free will without fear of retribution. We may not have it as great here as we wish, but at least we have the right to choose our leaders, make our own decisions without fear of being taken away in the night by state police and we can live a comfortable lifestyle with and enjoy the fruits of capitalism and democracy. DECEMBER 31, 2007 2:26 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS CHARLES: Fuji: How can such regulated tour be a "danger" tour? An Auzie bunjee jumping tour would be more dangerous than that. And when people say "And they will hate us for it" it seems like there is some kind of self-hate to begin with. DECEMBER 31, 2007 2:33 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS TMURT: Fuji - I can understand how you could feel the way you do - very little we do in this world are we thanked for, but that shouldn't deter us from doing whatever we can to help others, After all, we don't it for the accolades - we do it because it's the right thing to do. Having been born in the midst of WWII, grown up during Korea, served in the Army during Vietnam, and now watching the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on TV, I am still not as cynical as you seem to be. Lighten up, dig down deep inside yourself and find the American I know is in there. DECEMBER 31, 2007 2:52 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS JAMES: Maybe if they starve there will not be anymore North Koreans DECEMBER 31, 2007 3:02 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS DAVID: In an article about North Korea, it's disappointing that the Post has a picture of a South Korean border guard in its link on its main web page. Please try to maintain the Post's standards for accuracy in journalism. DECEMBER 31, 2007 3:16 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS ON THE PLANTATION: It's like humankind did not learn the primary lesson of the 20th century. If there is no global authority in some recognized organization like the once gloriously idealized but now failed United Nations, then we need to disassemble the pretense, because the illusion gets in the way of addressing realities. NK is exactly what Cuba would be like if Cuba were far from the U.S. The decades-long lack of regional leadership from South Korea, our purported friend, speaks volumes. DECEMBER 31, 2007 3:39 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS DATDAMWUF: I find some of the comments uninformed. Apparently you are not aware of the stranglehold the NK government has on information there. Try to put yourself in their place, where the only info you have is state sponsored propaganda. Try to understand that these people are underfed, uneducated and unable to get true news. And they aren't walking around with weapons. How the hell do you expect them to stage a revolution? DECEMBER 31, 2007 3:50 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS ANON: Zartan - fyi, regarding the documentary you are referring to, the doctor was not American, I think he was Nepalese. The journalist following him for a National Geographic show was American. Just thought I'd clarify. DECEMBER 31, 2007 3:56 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS MARK: I'm sure Kwang Soo would be singing to a different tune, if her body had been crushed by a U.S. military humvee, or had she been raped by a U.S. servicemen like so many other south Korean girls. BTW, Kwang Soo sounds like a fake name for a North Korean; A name like that would belong to a taiwanese, rather than a korean. DECEMBER 31, 2007 3:58 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS HUGH WILLIAMS/BRADENTON FL: There is no reason whatsoever for North Korea to exist as a political/sovereign entity. DECEMBER 31, 2007 4:18 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS AN OLD LADY IN THE BLUE RIDGE: Kang Soo has no one to blame but her ancestors, members of a shortsighted athiestic priviledged and intellectual class that left this legacy of hate and starvation to their children. There are no easy answers and unfortunately, the North Korean people will continue to pay for the sins of their fathers until someone worthy and wise risks everything to lead the masses to revolt against their unworthy leaders. I pine for the day when "TO LEAD meant TO SERVE" DECEMBER 31, 2007 4:18 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS JEFF: Mark - What on earth is your point? Are you implying that because there have been incidences of US service personnel raping South Korean women that people in North Korea are better off than there neighbors to the south? Take off your anti-US blinders and read a little history. This sort of thing has happened anytime troops from any nation are stationed in a foreign country for a protracted period of time. You are aware that the Soviet army raped its way across Europe in 1944-45, or do you refuse to acknowledge when communist nations commit atrocities? Millions of Germans desperately tried to reach the western allies’ zone of occupation for reason. DECEMBER 31, 2007 4:26 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS OMAR: Karr, Justice, Kamdog, Dunnage: You guys are idiots. DECEMBER 31, 2007 4:39 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS GARY: north koreas problem belongs to russia and china. china wants us in there so we can buy them off. let the chi-coms break out their money. DECEMBER 31, 2007 4:48 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS JS: The North Korean get little information from the outside world so they think they are better off than other countries because of the Great Leader. Of course they don;t know he cornered the market on Cognac or has a bevy of women to keep him company. As along as he keeps the military happy nothing will change. Pressure needs to be put on China to take away any nukes NK has and to get rid of this guy. China put them in power so they are responsible. But the UN and US should be saying to China if NK causes any problems, CHina will be responsible. Yes there are rulers that don't care about their citizens. A lot of Amercian soldiers died because of the UN police action in Korea to keep the SOuth free. It is unfortunate that so many of our citizens do not know their history and always think the U.S is the bad guy. The U.S has done a lot of good for millions of people in other countries and that is not recognized enough. At least in Europe their citizens take meticuluous care of the graves of our servicemen. DECEMBER 31, 2007 4:54 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS :(: On the bright side, the DMZ apparently has a thriving tiger population DECEMBER 31, 2007 5:07 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS IM AMERICAN: How come people who hate us want our help? We give Pakistan, BILLIONS of dollars and they all hate us there. And locate Bin Laden because he is in the mountains on their borders. For our return of investment, we want Bin Laden and you to secure your nukes. If not, write us a check for a refund. North Korea, Unforunately the are brainwashed by some loser who thinks he is Stalin/Mussolini hybrid. DECEMBER 31, 2007 5:11 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS WILLANDJANSDAD: Only those people who have lived and died for their own freedom will appreciate and nurture it... The fiasco in Iraq shows you can't impose freedom and democracy. DECEMBER 31, 2007 5:18 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS DAVID: To the Post editors: Thank you for changing the picture I mentioned in my previous post. DECEMBER 31, 2007 5:41 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS LEROY: Jesus wasn't the son of God. Evolution created the earth. There is no Heaven or Hell. Gays are born that way. There is no God. You think the North Koreans have propoganda and are brainwashed. Try saying any of the above around most places in the US lately. The Great Leader would be proud of the Christian Right's propaganda machine. Jesus doesn't rule America. DECEMBER 31, 2007 5:58 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS JOE: I agree with many others writing here -- it's long past time we quit meddling in others countries affairs and problems and concentrate on our own. I really don't care if all of North Korea starves to death. Several of my family members nearly died in military efforts in that miserable country and see what it got them and the rest of us. Nothing! South Korea has the right idea and should be left alone to pursue it's chances. I don't expect much because the NK leadership will not give up it's privleges, just like many Muslim or other countries. But one thing is for sure, we do not need to waste one more dime doing anything one way or the other there in the Koreas. Just get out and stay out! DECEMBER 31, 2007 6:30 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS KACOO: America could not unite Korea. America could not divide Vietnam. America could not invade Japan. People remark on all the things that North Korea does not have. The only thing it seems to have for sure is its independence. American children are taught sayings from Patrick Henry, "Give me liberty, or give me death," and from Nathaniel Hale, "I regret that I have only one life to give for my country." North Koreans live these slogans every day. DECEMBER 31, 2007 6:59 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS ANONYMOUS: When foreign aid is sent to North Korea, The North Koreans are told that it is tribute sent by other countries to the Great North Korea. The inability of these people to see through this kind of nonsense is so galling that I tend to feel our foreign aid dollars are better sent elsewhere. They will have to work out their own addiction to propaganda and "Dear Leader" DECEMBER 31, 2007 7:39 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS KOREAN QUESTION(?): Will China allow us to take over North Korea(?) that is the question. It is certainly in all our interests (one way or the other) to do it; American, South Korean and Chinese. It's a great competition and together with an ally like S. Korea the U.S. should be able to make enough havoc to cause the government there fall 'almost' all by itself - it's already doing a great job at that -- let's just make sure it's us, rather than the Chinese picking up the pieces. I'm just hoping that the world community will not stand for yet another invasion by the Chinese imperialists. The U.S. must assist uniting North and South Korea very soon before it's too late to act. This is the time and it requires bold decisions. Not to act would cost too much for the free world. DECEMBER 31, 2007 8:31 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS TEAM AMERICA: I love it when North Koreans sing "I'm so Rornery". It makes my heart cry. DECEMBER 31, 2007 8:35 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS SPITFIRES: Gee, where are the other 138 countries on this one? Seems like a new cause for the UN to take up and solve. Oh?? They already knew about it??? Gee.. Maybe if all the member countries took up a collection the UN could respond. Oh?? The UN already gets regular funding to fight hunger, crime, and injustice from all its members?? Golly.... Maybe if the UN reps could give up their limos and perquisites for a week they could solve the problem with the money saved. Then they could collectively step back and say: "We did this all by ourselves". Obviously this isn't a bet I'd care to make. 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