The North Korean People Want the Kim Regime to End
An interview with a North Korean Democracy Activist Kang Chol-hwan
Interview
The Liberty magazine interviewed North Korean defector and democracy activist Kang Chol-hwan regarding his thoughts about the Kim Regime.
Kang Chol-hwan
Born in Pyongyang in 1968. Upon his parents’ return from Japan, the whole family was imprisoned in a concentration camp for 10 years as political criminals. After defecting to China and then South Korea, he founded the NGO North Korea Strategy Center. His book “The Aquariums of Pyongyang” has received wide acclaim. His family still remains in North Korea.
――What made you think the Kim Regime should be brought down?
Kang: North Korea is the world’s most degenerated country. Most citizens are not guaranteed human rights, and the entire country suffers from economic crisis and people are starving to death: it is a living hell.
North Korea is like a combination of Hitlerian Germany and Stalinism. Concentration camps like Auschwitz have been operating for over 50 years. It is embarrassing and blasphemous for such a country to continue to exist.
――Some people in the U.S. think it is satisfactory if North Korea stops nuclear development.
Kang: The crux of the North Korea problem is not the missiles or the nukes; it’s their crimes against humanity. Even if they stop their nuclear development, as long as they continue their inhumane treatment of the people, the U.S. has enough of a reason to take military action.
――What is the scenario that will bring the greatest happiness to the North Korean people?
Kang: If the U.S. takes military action to destroy the Kim Regime, it is highly likely that the U.N. will assume joint control over North Korea.
Ideally, the North Korean people will revolt, establish a democratic government, and begin negotiations with South Korea for reunification. But the people are being oppressed, so it would be up to the higher echelons – hitherto supportive of the Kim Regime – whether they could endorse an emancipation revolution.
China doesn’t want South Korea to absorb North Korea, so China will undoubtedly come into the mix after North Korea collapses to try to found a puppet government.
――What are your thoughts on Trump’s North Korea policy?
Kang: The U.S. administrations of the past had never truly tried to solve the North Korea problem. They were always fooled in the negotiation process, and lost a lot of money for it.
Seeing this sort of U.S. response, Kim Jong-un became confident that his life would never be endangered.
Trump, however, has even mentioned a plan to purge North Korea of the Kim Regime through military strikes. Trump really understands the issue, and has expressed his intention to do anything to resolve this problem. This power policy is good.
Actually, many North Korean people feel antipathy towards Kim and are happy for war as a quicker way to bring an end to the Regime.
――Aside from military sanctions, what do you think is necessary to bring an end to the Kim Regime?
Kang: Looking at the collapse of dictatorial regimes of the past, the key was always the awakening of the people. The greatest reason why North Korea can maintain the current regime is because they thoroughly block out all outside information from entering.
To destroy the regime, institutions from various countries such as Japan must work to spread throughout North Korea information on the country compared to other democratic nations. More specifically, we can smuggle in miniature radios or SD and USB memory cards full of video clips and information from the outside world, together with a playback device like a tablet.
We can make and smuggle in a documentary film about the Kim Regime’s atrocities. When the North Korean people see this they will be mortified, which will ignite the flame of revolt from within. Information disclosure is a necessary step in bringing down a dictatorial regime.
