...In the PBS documentary, Secret State of North Korea, journalist Kiro Ishimaru is trying to expose what Kim Jong Un’s regime wants to hide. The are trying to expose the secret world of North Korean people. Jiro and the people who work for him have an undercover network, which covertly films life inside the country and smuggles their footage back across the Tumen River. Within North Korea, the State through means of television, make the country out to be a land of plenty. They show pictures of an advance economy, happy, well-fed children and shops overflowing with good. On street corners, speeches made by Kim Jong Un are pumped through speakers where he promises his people a bright economic future. There is no escape to the ever-present propaganda and ANG JIN-SUNG, a former propagandist says its for a certain reason. “As well a physical dictatorship, they oppress people with an emotional dictatorship. In North Korea, they promote the leader to be the sun. If you go too close, you burn. If you go too far, you freeze to death. You think of him as incredibly god-like.” Although it is perceived as a land of plenty this is far from the truth and throughout the film there are many examples of what Koreans face everyday. Jiro’s undercover network has filmed orphaned street kids who gather in markets. They beg for money and are constantly on the lookout for scraps of food. When interviewed an eight year old said that “My mom tried to look after me, but she said it was too hard, so...
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...Nuclear Proliferation Should “Secret State Countries” such as Iran, and North Korea have the right to produce nuclear energy, and nuclear weapons? Iran along with North Korea have been opposing Security Council resolutions by refusing to suspend the enrichment of the country’s uranium. The U.S. has provided a resolution by giving Iran and North Korea energy incentives for closing down nuclear facilities. However, both Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and North Korean President Kim Jong II describe diplomatic efforts to deter their nuclear programs as “useless resolutions”. Diplomacy and implementing regulations continue to be the only probable solution to the “weapons of mass destruction” crisis, however Iran and North Korea continue to stand firm in defiance. Nuclear material can either be resourceful or dangerous. When nuclear materials such as uranium are used to develop weapons, they can become a threat. However, nuclear material can also be used as an efficient source of power and is in fact today’s second largest source of energy after coal. For example, nuclear energy reduced the United States dependence on oil. Reducing the dependence on oil is beneficial because the U.S. does not have to spend millions of dollars that would normally be spent on drilling for oil. A drawback to this material is its potential to help develop powerful and threatening nuclear weapons. These weapons are capable of mass destruction and can destroy nations in a matter of minutes...
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...of democracy let us look through the window of what government and law are like in the communist state of North Korea (more recent review of the Constitution of North Korea leads scholars to believe it is more of a racialist nationalism government system) (“Top 10 non-democratic countries in the world,” April 28, 2014). However, since this is only an opinion, the North Korean government is still considered that of a communist state. What are laws like in North Korea? What is the purpose of the laws and what is the effect? Do they compare to our laws? This writing would not be complete without some preface information regarding how the North Korean government works. At the head of every part of the Government is the “Great Leader” (Yop, H.J., N.D.); which would be the Supreme Leader (at this time it is Kim Jong-un). Essentially all things in North Korea revolve around the desires of Kim Jong-un. While there are different committees and bureaus; there power is limited to what commands are given to them from the top. Party secretaries, whom are appointed by higher secretaries, hold all of the power within the committees and bureaus; even the highest positions in the bureaus and committees ultimately answer to the party secretaries (Yop, H.J., N.D.). The party secretaries get their orders from the top after they are handed down through other secretaries. While researching North Korean law one particular law kept...
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...United States. These actions were taken after the United States deployed intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles to Italy and Turkey. The United States built more than 100 missiles having the capability to strike Moscow with nuclear warheads. On October 14, 1962 a Unites States U-2 plane captured photographic evidence of a Soviet missile base in Cuba. The ensuing crisis ranks with the Berlin Blockade as one of the major confrontations of the Cold War and is generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict (Strategic Studies Institute). The confrontation ended on October 28, 1962 when John F. Kennedy reached an agreement with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to return the offensive weapons to the Soviet Union. In exchange the United States agreed not to invade Cuba. As a secret part of the agreement the United States deactivated IRBM’s deployed in Europe during 1963. This pertains to current events based upon North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons. North Korea stated they have nuclear weapons and the CIA believes they have an arsenal of chemical weapons. On October 9, 2006, the North Korean government issued an announcement that it had successfully conducted a nuclear test for the first time. Both the United States Geological Survey and Japanese seismological authorities detected an earthquake with a preliminary estimated magnitude of 4.2 in North Korea, corroborating some aspects of the North Korean...
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...The story that led United States officials to blame North Korea for the cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, took place in November. North Korea is getting better at their capabilities of hacking. The United States spy agency hacked into the Chinese networks that connect North Korea to the outside world. They picked through connections in North Korea hackers and cracked directly into North Korea with the help of South Korea, and another United States ally. A classified agency program expanded into the best effort to track computer and networks used by North Korea hackers. South Korea’s military recently said numbers around 6,000 people. The evidence gathered by the “early warning radar” purposefully hid to monitor North Korea’s activities....
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...to a train station, where a large crowd of people who had gathered yelled anti-American slogans, spit on and hit the crew members. After almost 10 hours on the train, the crew reached Pyongyang and "the Barn." From the moment their ship was boarded onwards, one of the most disturbing things for the crew was the North Koreans "total and complete hatred" for the US crewmen. "You could just feel it," Russell recalled in an interview with CNN. It bewildered the young Americans, many of whom "had no thoughts about North Koreans one way or another." It wasn't until much later he...
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...increasing communist influence in Asia. China is a large and, in comparison to other Asian countries, powerful place. With their help, North Korea’s chances of winning the war and therefore increasing communism in Asia was much more likely. The other possibility is that Stalin encouraged China’s involvement due to his foreign policy which meant that communist countries such as China and the USSR should help other communist countries (i.e. North Korea) in disputes whereby Nationalists and Communists are fighting. The idea of Chinese involvement in the war seems possible, to a small extent, to be due to Stalin’s policy when we look at his involvement in the decision. The military campaign against South Korea was agreed between Stalin and Kim Il-Sung, showing Stalin’s genuine interest in helping North Korea in the dispute. Stalin’s enthusiasm in Chinese involvement also suggests that he was motivated by his foreign policy and helping a fellow communist state as he was aware of China’s power in Asia. He knew that China were much larger and therefore capable of helping North Korea win the war, showing that he just wanted to help protect North Korea from the Nationalist state of South Korea. However, the negotiations seemed to show aggressive tactics into attacking South Korea, showing the war was not defensive on the communist side. The negotiations were kept secret from Mao, too, suggesting that Stalin’s claims that...
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...Why did the USA get involved in Asia in 1950? (30) After the end of the Second World War, the two war time allies the USA and Soviet Union became involved in a war of ideologies, the cold war. The US saw communism as a threat to democracy and capitalism. Therefore the US set out a new foreign policy, the policy of containment, in the Truman doctrine. There were however other reasons for the USA’s involvement such as their military confidence, UN agreement, domestic pressure which called for Truman to be more tough on communism and their economic interest in Japan which led to the US government’s decision to intervene in the Korean War. One of the main reasons for the US’s involvement was due to the ‘Policy of Containment’. The aim was for the USA to work with its allies to contain the spread of communism in eastern Europe and Asia using political, economic and if necessary military pressure to prevent the spread of the every growing ideology of communism. The US’s main worry was the communism would spread as most of the eastern European countries were devastated by the war were weak and communism could easily spread through these weakened countries such as Hungary. Europe was divided by ‘an Iron curtain’, the west with capitalism views, and the east with growing communism views. Furthermore, China had fallen to Communism under Mao, which may have been a huge wake up call for President Truman. In addition, Mao had signed the treaty of friendship with Stalin; therefore the spread...
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...There were four major dictators around the time between WW1 and WW2. Vladimir Lenin was one. Known as Lenin, he was elected as Chair of the Council of People’s Commissars in 1917. Lenin created a secret police called the Cheka to secure the new Bolshevik government. The Cheka made sure nobody would get in the way and kept public newspapers from saying anything about Lenin that Lenin didn’t want. Lenin died from a stroke in 1924. Josef Stalin rose to power after the death of Lenin in 1924. During Stalin’s rule, “Stalinism” was created; he called himself a Marxist but accepted the term. Stalin created the “five year plan” which insisted on in five years things will be better, four of these five year plans were made. In 1932 Stalin came up with the “Great Purge” in where all the non loyal members of the government were killed. Stalin didn’t want anybody that saw wrong in the way he ruled and speak out. Because he killed all of the smart people there were not many people to stop him. After the Great Purge all the old communist party members were gone and all that was left were Stalin followers, increasing Stalin’s power in the country to semi-god. Stalin also created the Gulag which were very brutal work camps. Over 18 million people passed through the camp from being late to work, petty theft, saying something bad about the government, and other small things. Most people died or were deported from these work camps. Stalin under much paranoia from Hitler died of a stroke. Mussolini...
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...Less than 5,000 people visit North Korea every year. The tourist money is some North Korean citizens only source of income. When someone visits, the entire look and feel of the country changes. People are moved off the streets, some are told to paint their houses, and everyone gets electricity back for the time being. All of this is because of Kim Jong-un, the country’s current leader. (The Ethics of Taking a Trip to North Korea as a Tourist) Kim Jong-un assumed power when his father, Kim Jong-il, passed away in 2011, and has been in power ever since. (Kim Jong-un Biography) Kim Jong-un has not yet been overthrown. The people of North Korea treat him like a god more than a leader. They worship and acknowledge him in every way. They give all...
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...The Cold War Overview * Arms Race * Communism * Glossary and Terms * Space RaceMajor Events * Berlin Airlift * Suez Crisis * Red Scare * Berlin Wall * Bay of Pigs * Cuban Missile Crisis * Collapse of the Soviet UnionWars * Korean War * Vietnam War * Chinese Civil War * Yom Kippur War * Soviet Afghanistan War | People of the Cold War Western Leaders * Harry Truman (US) * Dwight Eisenhower (US) * John F. Kennedy (US) * Lyndon B. Johnson (US) * Richard Nixon (US) * Ronald Reagan (US) * Margaret Thatcher (UK)Communist Leaders * Joseph Stalin (USSR) * Leonid Brezhnev (USSR) * Mikhail Gorbachev (USSR) * Mao Zedong (China) * Fidel Castro (Cuba) | http://www.ducksters.com/history/cold_war/summary.php The Cold War Communism Communism is a type of government and philosophy. Its goal is to form a society where everything is shared equally. All people are treated equally and there is little private ownership. In a communist government, the government owns and controls most everything including property, means of production, education, transportation, and agriculture. History of Communism Karl Marx is considered the Father of Communism. Marx was a German philosopher and economist who wrote about his ideas in a book called the Communist Manifesto in 1848. His communist theories have also become known as Marxism. Marx described ten important aspects of a communist government: * No private property * A single central bank...
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...Missile Crisis that brought the world to the brink of a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Most historians mark the start of the Cold War on February 4, 1945 at the Yalta Conference between Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin Roosevelt. At this point in the war, Stalin had a 12 million-man army with 300 divisions that had already reached the Oder River. They were only waiting for the order to attack toward Berlin. The Red Army commander was ordered by Stalin to pause while the conference was in session. While Roosevelt was at the conference, it was obvious that he was not in the best health from photographs that were taken. He was accused by some of his critics of selling out at Yalta and handing Eastern Europe to Stalin. Here was also the accusation that he had made secret deals with Stalin at this conference. “Bert Andrews in the New York Herald Examiner wrote about 4 secret deals: Russia's demand for $20 billion in reparations from Germany, for Poland to the Curzon line, for 3 seats in the United Nations, for territory in the Far East including Outer Mongolia, south Sakhalin Island, the Kuriles” (Schoenherr, 2006). The results of this conference on both sides were not helpful for East-West relations. There were no free elections in Eastern Europe that was under control of the Soviet communists. As a result of this, the media in the United States grew increasingly hostile towards the Soviet Union. Roosevelt held out hope that the...
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...Alexandria D. Maese Dan Berliner Global Politics 14 March 2016 Current Events Report Wednesday, January 6, 2016, North Korea made an announcement that their hydrogen bomb testing was successful, resulting in “raised cries of indignation from the international community”. In the past the U.N had implemented sanctions against North Korea for continuing their development in nuclear weapons in 2006, 2009, 2013. Yet despite this, on Monday March 14, 2016, DPRK Today reported that a fifth test would be run and a new test involving ballistic missiles would also be included. Mr. Jongun had explained that the reason his country is now involving ballistic missiles is “. . . [so that] the warheads [are able] to survive heat and turbulence while plunging through the atmosphere toward its target, to further enhance the reliance of nuclear attack capability”. It is no secret that North Korea’s leader has had it out for the U.S, but what is the actual reason for creating nuclear weapons? In my opinion, national interest is at play but not because Kim Jongun wants his country to be recognized as a nuclear power as he has mentioned previously. North Korea’s, current leader consolidated authority at the assumed age of 27 in 2011, after his father’s death in December; he is the youngest of his three siblings. Since he has come into power he has ruled just as brutally as his father, killing plenty of his senior officials. One could say that given his “early” age he would need to prove...
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...to teach them how to behave.”-Harry Truman, 33rd President of the United States. The Cold War was a period of East-West competition, tension, and conflict short of full-scale war, characterized by mutual perceptions of hostile intention between military-political alliances or blocs. The U.S. struggle to contain Soviet communism worldwide resulted in what came to be known as the "Cold War". Although full-scale war between the U.S. and Soviet Union did not occur, two major wars, (Korea and Vietnam), and many smaller conflicts occurred between 1946 and 1991 over the battle between democracy and communism. The Cold war was a product of many social and political reasons, a few but not limited to: The portioning of North Korea and Germany, the Marshal Plan, the Berlin Blockage and NATO. I’ll begin my explanation with the Yalta Conference, held in Yalta in February 1945 where Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill planned the final stages of World War II and agreed to the territorial division of Europe. “At Yalta, Roosevelt and Churchill discussed with Stalin the conditions under which the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan and all three agreed that, in exchange for potentially crucial Soviet participation in the Pacific theater, the Soviets would be granted a sphere of influence in Manchuria following Japan’s surrender” (Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State). Stalin's "sphere of influence" consisted of territories that his armies...
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...is a reality for the most third world countries. Approximately 40% of the worlds population does not have freedom of speech. In the countries Vietnam, North Korea, and Pakistan many of its people are victimized through stringent laws such as killing of future generations, beheading of innocent people, and jailing for many years. The South Asian country of Vietnam is well known for its restriction on freedom of speech. Vietnam has been through many wars and revolutions that have affected its laws. In Vietnam’s penal code it states that the people of Vietnam have Freedom of speech,...
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