Over the course of history there have been ruthless dictators
who have soiled the very essence of international
stability-bringing death, destruction and suffering to not only
their political enemies, but to their own people as well. Some of
these dictators include Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Benito
Mussolini.
There is a new dictator who should be watched. He is close to
joining the ranks of these nefarious men. I’m not talking about
Saddam Hussein, although he certainly could fit into the category
as well. The person I’m talking about is just as dangerous and
cruel, if not more so, but may not be as well known. I’m talking
about Kim Jong-Il, the Communist dictator of North Korea, and his
record so far is a troubling one. Let’s take a look at the
numbers.
First, it has been estimated that as many as several hundred
thousand to over 2 million people have died of starvation in North
Korea already, and the number keeps growing. Why do so many North
Koreans die of hunger?
Kim Jong-Il’s government spends around 20 to 25 percent of its
domestic budget on the military. Several parts of the country are
left without electricity or access to clean water and food. In
fact, since there are 22 to 23 million people living in the
country, Kim Jong-Il’s military spending is literally killing off
one- tenth of his population.
In response to a question at a recent news conference, Secretary
of State Colin Powell criticized the North Korean leadership for
not meeting the needs of the North Korean people. Powell said that
Kim Jong-Il’s government “takes what limited resources it has and
invests it into an army that hangs over the 38th parallel in great
strength, a leadership that spends its limited resources on
developing nuclear weapons, resources that should be going to
the people.”
As the United States recently pledged to send up to 100,000
metric tons of food to North Korea under the U.N. World Food
Program, U.S. officials accused Kim Jong-Il’s government of playing
a political game with its people’s hunger. The United States has
legitimate fears that the food would be distributed to North
Korea’s military instead of civilian populace.
“The North Korean government makes judgments on who, among the
elderly, children and pregnant women, will receive food,” Richard
Lugar(R-Indiana), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, said.
Kim Jong-Il, while accepting our food, also has been busy lately
revamping North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. He recently
revoked North Korea’s membership in the United Nations Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Since leaving the treaty, North Korea declared its plans to
prepare for defending against a perceived attack by the United
States and plans to initiate a nuclear weapons buildup if the
United States increases its nuclear development.
On Feb. 24, North Korea fired a short-range, anti-ship missile
into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan raising
tensions in the region that were already heightened by the nuclear
standoff.
This same aggression was previously demonstrated a few years
earlier when North Korea fired a missile into Japan’s airspace.
North Korea’s tense relations with our ally, South Korea, make
these recent developments even more harrowing.
The bottom line is that Kim Jong-Il’s North Korea controls a 1.1
million-member military, the fifth largest in the world. This,
combined with nuclear weapons capabilities, an unwillingness to
cooperate with the United Nations and a history of aggression make
this regime a danger not to be overlooked or underestimated.
The United States needs to place a higher priority on reducing
military tensions in the area before things become “really
hostile.” After all, the last thing we need to do is ignore another
madman.
Aaron Monroe is a junior history major.