The North Korean government has taken control of cell phones in its country. The goal of this latest step in total dictatorship was to limit the knowledge of a food crisis among the natives.
According to The Times, 2.7 million people will run out of food by the end of this month. The country’s government has decided it can’t risk people calling the outside world and finding out about this deadly situation. They are even confiscating phones of travelers to North Korea claiming they are worried about spying.
The government has turned to public executions to intimidate the people. Apparently, harboring a banned cell phone is deserving of punishment. They have also been hunting down people who crossed the Chinese border and returned, as well as religious people in the country. They have gone so far as to disguise government personnel (a.k.a. spies) as religious persons in order to infiltrate and monitor the doings of these groups.
It is stories like this that make me grateful to live in the United States. I mean, can you imagine living without a cell phone? I don’t think I could last a whole day without texting my friends, looking up my horoscope or using various other important features on my cell phone (like gossip). Nevermind the fact that generations before us survived without such technology. What do they know?
Religious persecution isn’t too good either. Thank goodness we don’t have religious harassment in America, just people shouting, “Tolerance!” all the time and then hating Muslims because of 9/11.
And public executions seem kind of messy. But no cell phones? Really? That’s what gets to me.
I’m not sure who the North Korean government thinks they are protecting by banning cell phones. The whole world already knows that Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s “supreme leader” (more like total dictator), is crazy. And does it matter when people already know they are starving? You’d think they would have noticed that by now.
Knowledge of the situation will not change the fact that people will starve anyway. On the plus side, North Korea’s government has let in some outside aid to help in parts of the country that were devastated by flood, but even that is strictly controlled. If they don’t let more groups come in to help care for the estimated 6.5 million people who need help, the country might crumble even more.
On the other hand, perhaps if people found out about this crisis, they would rise up and attack the government and overthrow the dictator. I’m really not sure how the government over there has been able to stay in power so long without people fighting against all of the horrible things they do. Then again, Cuba’s been that way for a lot longer. Still, it seems unreasonable that people would simply go along with what they are told when things just keep getting worse.
Hopefully, the current crisis will show the world why North Korea has an oppressive government. Perhaps the UN will finally step in and do something about this totalitarian government killing people. These citizens of North Korea need help in a bad way, but mostly, I think they need their cell phones back.
Hannah Kaase is a sophomore majoring in animal and dairy science. She can be contacted at [email protected].