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| North Korea Video |
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/secret-state-of-north-korea/
Your assignment is the following. Watch the video, answer the following question in a blog post. What is life like for an average person in North Korea?
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| North Korea Video |
North Korea is a brainwashed country. Their leader has taken all outside information and fit it to portray whatever information he feels his citizens should know. The citizens are unaware of what other country’s are allowed to do and how poorly they live.
ReplyDeleteThere are groups of people who live their lives with a goal of freeing the North Koreans minds. They want to help develop the nation and free the citizens of their brainwashing.
The population of North Korea is limited in comparison to many other countries. They are not allowed to watch television from other countries. They cannot listen to radio stations from other countries. And they presumably are not allowed to know how well other countries are doing.
Thanks to the North Korean government and its leader, North Korea citizens see America as a major threat and a bunch of bully’s. They are told of the horrible things we have done and are planning to do. They are shown images of our major cities being destroyed and our citizens being killed.
North Korea sucks and it’s good that some of their people are trying to help exploit their government and get the country on it’s feet.
R.A.
The vast majority of North Korean citizens are oppressed and terrified by the government. People are killed for offenses such as being associated with someone who spread a rumor about the government, or for watching foreign TV. They are required to attend weekly meetings glorifying their leader, and anyone who does not attend falls under immediate suspicion. There is no internet, and all media is completely government-controlled. Many people do not know about the current state of the world.
ReplyDeleteIf someone commits an actual offense against the government, their entire family is punished, even if they did not know they were related. North Koreans are taught, from an early age, to hate Americans and love their government. The mandatory attendance of meetings, and punishment if you do not comply, has made most citizens afraid to even try to escape the oppression.
In short, the North Korean government has complete control and no one is brave enough to stand against it.
A.P.
The life of an average North Korean person is different from most other people in the world. Their lives are completely controlled by the government and they don’t get to control many things in their lives. The people of North Korea do not know many things at all about the outside world because the government controls everything.
ReplyDeleteOne example of how controlled their lives are is the fact that their internet is all controlled, the radio is only from North Korea and they aren’t allowed to watch any foreign films. This to me seems completely outrageous because they are taking away the citizens chances to explore things and learn for themselves. Everything they know is based on the government and what they want you to know.
Another thing that shows how controlling the government is, is the department store shown on the documentary. Most things in there aren’t up for sale, they are just on display for propaganda to promote how good their country is and how it’s the best at everything. Citizens aren’t really allowed to get anything they really want unless it is actually allowed to buy it, which is rare. They really don’t have any say in their lives, which is completely unfair to everyone.
Another thing that struck me as being ridiculous is how if they catch you watching foreign films, radio, or even speaking bad about really anything they will put you and your whole family up to possibly your ninth cousins who you don’t even know in prison camps where they will torture you for months. You don’t even get to defend yourself. Even if someone who was almost no influence on anybody accuses you of something, you still could be killed.
North Korea controls your people and it is completely wrong what they are doing. The people have no freedom and the government controls everyone. What they say goes and that is that. There is no rebelling, no speaking up, and no disobeying the government.
AD
Life in North Korea is filled with fear and poverty. The government executes people who speak against them and forces communities to attend meeting to glorify Kim Jon Un. Propaganda and state-controlled media is the only exposure to the outside world most average North Koreans have. This leads to people who can't think of any better life than being controlled by a dictator.
ReplyDeleteOrphaned children have to steal and beg for food to survive on the streets. Feeding a family is hard in North Korea, so there are thousands of children fending for themselves. If you are lucky, you can survive the winter and escape through China.
People who don't cooperate are sent to camps where they are beaten and tortured. Owning laptops or flash drives are illegal. Without fair trial, people are executed for even watching/listening to outside media.
Even some of the 'better off' North Koreans still don't live very good lives. The average GDP is $1,800 per person, and food shortages are common. People are uneducated about the outside world, many not knowing a man has been to the moon.
The situation in North Korea is not getting better, and average life is nothing I would want to experience.
KW
For the people in North Korea, life is tough. Kim Jong-Un controls everything and shields the people from so many things. There is so much more going on in other countries than the people of North Korea know. There are so many problems with the ways that the people are treated. The people aren’t allowed to do or say near as many of the things as Americans are able to do each day.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest problems is that the people do not have enough access to food. In North Korea there are many starving children. So many children have to beg for money to buy food, and search for little scraps of food on the street. Many children become orphans, and many people just try to make sure that their family will get a meal or two each day. There are stores that are stocked full of food, and other resources, but these goods are not available to be sold.
The people in North Korea have to follow many rules, and they aren’t allowed to do many things. It is illegal for them to watch television shows from other countries. Another thing that is illegal is taking videos of the everyday lives of the people there. Some of the people risk their lives in this way, so that the rest of the world can know what is happening there. Kim Jong-Un wants to shield the people from the rest of the world.
In North Korea there are many consequences for the people who are suspected to have done something that goes against the Kim Jong-Un. The people are starved and tortured. The family of someone who has done something that goes against the rules gets punished too. Some of the people who are taken to prison camps do not even know that they are related to the person who got in trouble.
Kim Jong-Un does not treat the people of his country well at all. Overall, North Korea is controlled way too much, and life there is hard. There are so many people suffering there, and something needs to be done about it.
B.P.
North Korea is a very different place than almost anywhere else in the world. Life there is brutal and so different. The government controls the people and watches over them very closely. They don’t have nearly as much technology as we do. The people don’t have contact with anyone outside of North Korea. North Koreans can’t just leave the country; they have to escape very carefully.
ReplyDeleteLife in North Korea is definitely harsher than it is in the US. In North Korea there are orphans out in the streets, some as young as eight years old! That is way too young for children to fend for themselves, especially in a tough place like North Korea. Many of the people suffer because of the lack of necessities, which can be because of food shortages. They aren’t taught about what has changed in world around them, like some girls didn’t know that there isn’t a Soviet Union anymore.
The government is very strict in North Korea. The government controls the people, like when they had to make a railroad track for the leader’s birthday. If you commit a crime, then you and your family, all the way back to your 9th cousin is arrested. If you even watch foreign television that is against the law and you could be executed for that. They are supposed to attend a meeting for their leader, which could involve some singing, and if you don’t show up a couple of times, then they get suspicious. The government is so stern that the people live in fear.
The lack of technology is another important factor of North Korea. The people have limited technology because the more technology there is, the more ideas can be brought to the people about the outside world. The government controls how much technology they have so North Koreans don’t get new ideas or want to change the regime. North Koreans walk or ride bikes around because they don’t own vehicles like us. Cell phones recently became available, but they can only call people within North Korea.
I am really glad that I live in the US and not in North Korea. Their lives are not as easy as ours, and I think it would be very difficult to endure all those hardships. In my opinion, I think it is almost acceptable to be smuggling technology and other things across the border so that the people may get their own ideas and break free from the bonds of oppression. Existence is harsh, the government is controlling, and the limitations of technology are all different aspects of life in North Korea. By not living in North Korea, we take a lot of what we have for granted.
M.B.
In North Korea, the government runs by fear. The people experience fear and terror everyday of their lives. The fear that they could be thrown in prison for anything that some complete stranger did. They people are all scared of the government. They know that almost anything that they can say or do can be punished by death. The people are forced to suppress their words and not say anything that goes against Kim Jong-un. They are taught to go to ceremonies once a week in their city or town and praise the dictator. If they speak out against him, they will be thrown in prison or they could be sentenced to death. In the more modern areas of the country, they have technology. Unfortunately, many of the places in North Korea are impoverished. They have a lack of food and most children go hungry. Many people are also tortured for years and years in modern concentration camps. They are told that they have the best dictator and government and that America should be destroyed. They hate our country and they are shown propaganda images of America burning. Basically, North Koreans live in fear of expressing their own opinion. Being opinionated in North Korea is like a death sentence.
ReplyDeleteT.I.
In the country of North Korea they claim to have 100% literacy rate, naturally resourced exports, and about 2 children per female. Even though North Korea isn't the drought-ridden savannas of Africa or desolate areas of Siberia, life for the average person can be pretty rough once people know the truth. Unfortunately the public propagandas and "released" footage about the country itself isn't always true. All of that is just what they want you to see.
ReplyDeleteMany people in every day North Korea have to have mandatory practices to worship the Supreme Leader. If a citizen doesn't show up, officials may suspect you of being a defector. If someone is suspected of being a defector, everyone and their relatives down to their 9th cousins, are taken to concentration camps. There they are beaten, punished, and starved. Sometimes they are killed if the suspicion is high enough. People can get killed for complaining about the littlest things. If they're suspected of watching outside films and obtaining information illegally, they can be executed automatically.
On the streets, orphans roam looking for food and some scraps. A majority of orphans seen are under the age of 10 and beg you for money in their torn up coats. Eventually they grow into teenagers and adults. Very few orphans are able to escape the communist grip of North Korea, but it isn't easy. They could be killed on the spot for trying to escape. Escaping is almost as dangerous as smuggling outside entertainment.
DVD's, radios, laptops, and flashdrives with movies from other countries are smuggled into North Korea. They have to cross the river between China and North Korea to get them there. They are smuggled in because many people don't know the modern world. Some of them think the Soviet Union still exists and many don't even realize that a man has landed on the moon. Watching, buying, or selling these items can result in imprisonment or execution. They can imprison a whole family down to extremely distant cousins for being suspected of defectors. The way North Korea works isn't fair to the people who live there.
Many citizens have jobs, electricity, food, and the ability to read and write. They also have the danger of the Supreme Leader and his punishments. the consequences are drastic and the conditions can be extreme. They show fake commercials showing that everything is great in North Korea but behind the smiling faces and cheers, an out of control reign exists. The people don't know the world as it is, they just know it as to how they are brainwashed.
T.V.
Life in North Korea is completely different than here in the United States. The average person is living in fear of their life. The North Korean people are completely brainwashed and have no idea what is going on in the outside world. There are many children that are orphaned living on the streets. The average person barely has enough food to survive. Also North Korea punishes people for disobeying, they put them in these concentration camps as prisoners.
ReplyDeleteNorth Korea’s Population has very little knowledge of the outside world. North Korea’s Government regulates all the TV and the Internet. What the people know is what the state wants them to know. The citizens are curious though, and risk their life to watch movies, videos and listen to the radio. North Koreans freedoms are very limited especially in the media.
There are also many children on the streets begging for food. They are there because their parents either give them up or cant care for them anymore. They looked cold, hungry and alone. The government does nothing about these orphans well being. Many of the children try to escape, as they get older. Some have made it out to tell the stories of the other children struggling.
North Korea puts fear in their citizens by people being punished if they talk bad about the government. If you are accused of breaking a law not only you are punished by everybody in your family all the way up to your 9th cousin. Nobody wants to be punished so they go around day-by-day never stating their opinion and not knowing anything else. The camps they are taken to are very dirty and unkempt. There is barely enough food and the prisoner there are miserable.
North Koreas culture is completely different than any other cousin. It is weird to think about not being able to communicate with people from other countries, or state your opinions. North Korea’s government has taken things to far and needs to be stopped. I hope the daily lives of the North Koreans get better, and they stop living in fear.
K.H.
Life for an average person in North Korea is terrible. They live very different lives from people elsewhere in the world. The government controls everything in North Korea. They are Communist dictatorship, they only have one leader, Kim Jong Un, and he was born into it. He controls the country mainly through fear. If you commit a crime, your family, all the way to the 9th cousin, can be punished. They are usually executed or sent to camps where they are tortured and forced to do hard labor. Many children have been left as orphans because of famine and simply because the parents couldn’t care for them and they leave or abandon them. They are forced to beg and steal in order to survive. The people there have no freedom or rights. They are sheltered from the outside world. They are not allowed to know anything other than what the government allows in. They have no Internet and only received cell phones 5 years ago, they can only call people within North Korea. Many people try to escape, and if they fail or are caught, they will be killed or tortured. Many people living there are suffering. Only the wealthy, privileged class lives a comfortable life.
ReplyDeleteL.A.
North Korea is a harsh place and they hide the other countries from the people living in North Korea. It is not fair to the people who live there because they are stuck in their country and nowhere else.
ReplyDeleteKim Chang Un is the dictator and he doesn’t want people to see what it is like in the other countries because he doesn’t want them to like it better than North Korea or them to escape to get to that country. He has people that watch what all of the people in world do on the Internet and computers. If they get caught watching things out of the country then they will be sent to a prison or be killed. If you get in trouble then they will track down everyone to your 9th cousin and they will keep them in a prison. It is very strict on out of their country and what they do.
Many Koreans are in the army and have to train very hard. They have a harsh instructor and they march at important public events and are all on beat. They learn many different types of moves but it is very strict and they are kept in control and no one should mess anything up.
If it is hard for parents to keep their kids they just kick them out of the house or leave them somewhere to fend for themselves. Many kids are very young when they get kicked out. They have to look through garbage and other places to get scraps or pieces of food so they don’t starve.
North Korea is not a good place to live, although Kim Chang Un brainwashed them to think it is the best place to live. The people aren’t treated fairly and they all have to follow the leaders commands. I would never want to live there.
K.B.
Life in North Korea isn’t nearly as fantastic as the dictator says it is. North Korea has hungry children on the streets and people trying to escape to China, yet they have no trouble organizing giant parades. Kim Jong Un runs the country with fear. He tells everyone that Americans are evil and shows videos about buildings falling and evil Americans dying. People have no say in their choices, and if they speak out against the government, their entire family gets punished.
ReplyDeletePeople have to smuggle thumb drives and cd’s across the border into North Korea because the government doesn’t allow citizens to own any. They want the North Korean citizens to think that they live better than anyone else in the world, and to do this they must limit their contact with other countries. If you are caught with illegal cd’s or thumb drives, they will throw you in prison or kill you right on the spot.
There are poor orphans looking for food or money because they have no home or family. The famine from the 1990s is over, but food is still hard to buy. Orphans living on the streets pick pockets and steal money so that they can buy something to eat. There are stores where nothing is for sale. Why work in a store that has no business? If no one is buying anything, you’re wasting your time working in a store.
Most of the North Korean citizens are scared to death about what the government might do to them. If your family successfully escapes the country, you have to deal with people staring at you from across the street. Family friends, people you used to know, and people you’ve never seen look at you as you walk by.
The dictator is seen as the sun. If you go to far away from him, you get cold. If you go to far near him, you get burned. There are meetings that everyone has to attend that thank the dictator. If you don’t show up for a while, the government gets in your face about it. How does this even make sense? Kim Jong Un doesn’t lead his country the way he should, but if anyone speaks out, they’re history. I hope that life will become easier for the North Korean citizens, and that the dictator can start realizing that he’s not the center of the universe.
MvB
Life in North Korea is a lot different than life most anywhere else in the world. They hide most everything from their citizens. Most of the things in a store are not for sale and are just for show. There is also orphan children and people starving and homeless on the streets.
ReplyDeleteThey hide so much that they don’t even know that a man has been to the moon yet and that happened in 1969. They also have their own media and social media that broadcasts propaganda to the citizens, most of which they believe. The North Korean government tells the people that America is about to attack with nuclear missiles and they live in constant fear of the missiles and war.
They also live in fear that a random offical will show up to take them to a prison or kill them because they are the 9th cousin to someone who questioned the government in some way. Everything they have is not bought in a store, they can’t actually buy much of anything, almost everything they have is given to them from the government. Or not given to them.
Many children and people don’t have enough food or even a home. They live on the street and beg to all the people who try to ignore them because it could mean jail for them if they help them. The Government officials could see it as a show that their government doesn’t take care of them and they see that.
Korea thinks that they are the perfect country and that they have absolutely no problems. Well they obviously do have issues. They tell their citizens lies about life outside the borders, and that war is imminent. They show images of well stocked stores with everything for sale, but in reality absolutely nothing in those stores can be bought. To top the cake there is orphan children everywhere in the street that are starving.
Life in North Korea is a lot different than life most anywhere else in the world. They hide most everything from their citizens. Most of the things in a store are not for sale and are just for show. There is also orphan children and people starving and homeless on the streets.
ReplyDeleteThey hide so much that they don’t even know that a man has been to the moon yet and that happened in 1969. They also have their own media and social media that broadcasts propaganda to the citizens, most of which they believe. The North Korean government tells the people that America is about to attack with nuclear missiles and they live in constant fear of the missiles and war.
They also live in fear that a random offical will show up to take them to a prison or kill them because they are the 9th cousin to someone who questioned the government in some way. Everything they have is not bought in a store, they can’t actually buy much of anything, almost everything they have is given to them from the government. Or not given to them.
Many children and people don’t have enough food or even a home. They live on the street and beg to all the people who try to ignore them because it could mean jail for them if they help them. The Government officials could see it as a show that their government doesn’t take care of them and they see that.
Korea thinks that they are the perfect country and that they have absolutely no problems. Well they obviously do have issues. They tell their citizens lies about life outside the borders, and that war is imminent. They show images of well stocked stores with everything for sale, but in reality absolutely nothing in those stores can be bought. To top the cake there is orphan children everywhere in the street that are starving.
SD
The life of an average person in North Korea could easily be compared to the life of an individual in any other third world country. There is a scarce amount of food. So little that parents disown their children because they can't afford to raise them. Children live in the streets and steal food or eat scraps to survive. People in North Korea do not know what freedom feels like. They are in an incredibly controlled environment. They can't watch TV that was produced anywhere but in North Korea. They have a very limited access to internet. If anyone speaks out against Kim Jong Un or the dictatorship they will execute the basically the entire family. The citizens have no clue what the outside world is like. They think they live in the best country on the planet. Daily life in North Korea is poor at the very most. LW
ReplyDeletelife in north Korea is what some might compare to modern day slavery. Their freedom rating is the worst in the world. They are a communist government which means they do not even decide their own job. They make little to no choices about their life. The government is evil and threatens anybody who they want. They are lead to believe that the hole in the ground they live in is the best hole in the world. The government crackdown on law is completely wrong and evil. They punish you for looking at someone wrong. Then they punish people up to the ninth cousin people who don't even know they were related. Capital punishment is considered merciful when you think of those that have to trek in the mud to build a badly built facility that will fall down in a year. Which will be blamed on the workers and punishment will be handed out. Kim Jong Un might as well be committing genocide on his own people. The information they know outside of their village is minimal. They don't know a man has landed on the moon and that people are living better lives than them. Some information is smuggled in. for which you can be prosecuted for. Some can sneak across the border and escape, but many are torn because although it would be great for them any family they leave behind would be killed or worked to death.
ReplyDeleteZ.R.
These are all lies
Life in North Korea for the average person would be quite awful, in my own opinion.
ReplyDeleteJudging from the video and our comparative systems worksheet, it doesn’t seem like the government really cares much for the welfare of the citizens. I don’t think that life would be too great if there were children all over the streets begging for money. Another thing that wouldn’t be pleasant would be that you never get to leave, and nobody gets to come in. If you are born there, you never get to (legally) leave. Another bad thing about life in North Korea is that there are no trials. If you are accused of committing a crime, you get punished. You don’t have a chance to be pleaded innocent. These reasons are why life in North Korea would be bad.
- SD
Life for the average person in North Korea is really crappy. Judging by the video they have really small food rations and a lot of children are homeless and starving. Their leader is out there eating a lot while the citizens of the country are starving. It seems like the country leaders do not care at all about the North Korean people They also are not legally allowed to leave the country or they are killed and thier family is also. If they are accused of a crime they are put into a work camp and worked and beaten to death. Not only is the accused person put in there but the whole family is up to thier 3rd cousin. These are the reason why life in North Korea is crappy.
ReplyDelete-AH