"A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Those words, crafted by Sir Winston Churchill, applied to the Soviet Union in 1939. Were he alive today it is certain he could construct no better description for the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in 2003.
Just what does the average American know about the Hermit Kingdom? Of the wars fought by the United States in the last hundred years, the conflict in Korea is hardly discussed, and is often referred to as "The Forgotten War."
What is it we recall, what is it we have learned since the tenuous truce was established in July of 1953 after 55,000 Americans paid the ultimate price in securing the freedom of that war-ravaged land south of the 38th parallel? Have we forgotten the January 1968 seizure of the USS Pueblo and its crew? These men were tortured and held for nearly a year prior to their release.
Have we forgotten the unprovoked April 1969 shoot down of a Navy EC-121 reconnaissance aircraft and the deaths of its 31-man crew? Have we forgotten that in the summer of 1976 North Korean soldiers entered the DMZ and bludgeoned to death an American army officer for no apparent reason? What about the 1983 failed assassination attempt on South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan in Burma, where North Korean agents still managed to blow to smithereens upward of 40 innocent civilians?
Certainly, we cannot forget the North's plan to derail the 1988 Seoul Olympics by planting bombs onboard Korean Airlines flight 858 in November of 1987. The victims of that plot numbered 115 dead. And then there was the 1993-94 food-and-oil-for-nukes extortion program, where Jimmy Carter – doing his best Neville Chamberlin – essentially assured us of peace for our time.
Am I alone, or do others see this disturbing trend where the cruel North Korean scientists ring the bell and the American dog begins to salivate? Maybe it is the other way around. Maybe we are the mad scientists in an experiment run amuck, where every time the dog barks or bites, we throw it the proverbial bone. Consider the facts. Each instance above described through 1987 – on its own an overt act of war – has been met with indifference and dismissal. What would any reasonable wild dog think?
Many Americans are focused on the apparent irrationality of the North Korean leadership. "Don't they know we would nuke them, turn their fourth-world country to smoking rubble? What do they have to gain by this?" With that attitude, we strive to understand the uniqueness of their belligerence – and fail.
Well what is it that we do know? Intelligence sources allege that Kim Jong-Il is apparently some sort of a sexual deviant with a bad hairstyle and a drinking problem. His worldview is limited and the only countries he has seen beyond his own are China and Russia. In his first attempt at golf, his minions claim he shot several holes-in-one.
We know that in his Worker's Paradise of 20 million citizens, there have been approximately 2 million deaths from starvation in recent years. We know that the North Koreans are the world's preeminent tunnel builders and that their only exports are weapons. We know that the average North Korean 7-year-old is almost a full six inches shorter than a similarly aged South Korean child. Sources tell us they have upward of 12,000 artillery tubes dug in on the DMZ with Seoul in their sites. That is about it.
Of the years spent in failing attempts to understand North Korea, it has finally dawned on me: The real danger is not that we are unable to figure them out. The real danger results from the complete isolation they suffer and the lack of any reality understood beyond their mined and barb-wired borders that makes them a danger to all.
The saga of the USS Pueblo and its crew is effectively chronicled in "Bucher: My Story." From pre-deployment planning and training through the nearly one year of captivity followed by a tumultuous homecoming, Commander Lloyd Bucher, Pueblo's skipper, tells it all in his 1970 autobiography. Of note are items such as the crews' final confession made to their communist captors just prior to release. Dripping with both subtle and not-so-subtle humor and sarcasm, it is almost unbelievable that they were able to sneak this "confession" past any serious intelligence people. In the body of the document itself there are references made to characters such as "Fleet General Barney Google," "superspy Sol Loxfinger," "the Great Speckled Bird," even "Don Ho" (remember this was done in 1968).
Older readers may recall the staged propaganda photographs taken by the North Koreans of Pueblo crewmembers. In a few shots, the viewer notices sailors with their middle fingers extended. Telling their captors it was the Hawaiian Friendship Sign, the North Korean intel pros missed that one as well.
In 1993, I was able to interview, at length, a member of the Pueblo crew. An observation he shared underscored the North's isolation and complete indoctrination. He said that upon capture, the North Koreans were initially afraid of the Americans. "Why?" I asked. "Because they had been taught that Americans were ogres who ate children." That was in 1968.
Fast forward to November 1987. Out of a plot devised by Kim Jong-Il to derail the Seoul Olympics, North Korean agents Kim Seung Il and Kim Hyun Hee were dispatched to the Middle East to plant explosives onboard Korean Airlines Flight 858 between Baghdad and Seoul. Successful in placing the bombs and destroying the plane with the deaths of all 115 aboard, the two agents were ultimately captured. Kim Seung Il, the man, was able to activate the cyanide capsule hidden in the butt of a Marlboro cigarette. Kim Hyun Hee, the woman, failed to activate hers, was captured, and ultimately turned over to the South Koreans for interrogation.
Kim Hyun Hee's tale, vividly told in her 1993 autobiography, "The Tears of My Soul" is perhaps more compelling than Bucher's story only because it is more current. At length she discusses her lifelong indoctrination and training into the fanatical cult worship of Kim Il Sung. Where South Korean and Western children generally live lives those reading this might think as normal – engaging in the enjoyment of fairy tales and imaginative play – children and students in North Korea are forced to study the complete works of Kim Il Sung as gospel. At very young ages, they are taught to hate America and its capitalist puppets (read: South Korea). The slightest deviations from state norms are met with swift and brutal retribution. Children are stirred by such rousing songs as "March of the Commandos":
Comrades, prepare the arms held in your hands
Destroy the imperialist invaders
Forward and forward we bravely march
Destroy the enemies if it takes a thousand deaths.
The story of Kim Hyun Hee's "conversion" is equally gripping. Understand that she was selected for her training and ultimate mission because of her intellectual and physical attributes. Years and years of stern instruction and brainwashing turned her into the consummate killing machine that she became.
What actions on the part of the South Korean intelligence professionals were required to "break" this hardened communist? Physical torture? Sleep deprivation? Sexual abuse, the water torture (where water is forced into a person's stomach until it bursts), ripping off her finger nails maybe? None of the above. Kindness and exposure to the truth over a two-week period were all it took.
As the reality of the complete lie upon which North Korea is built penetrated her soul, Kim Hyun Hee had a great epiphany. She converted to Christianity. Everywhere she went in South Korea the propaganda of the North was debunked. People living well and enjoying abundant lives. Regular people. As she listened to common citizens criticize the government in the course of mealtime conversations in street-side restaurants, she sat waiting for the secret police to strike. Even the beggars in Seoul lived better than most communist officials in Pyongyang. How could such a lie stand? How indeed.
Fast forward again to the present. Anyone who wishes to seriously study North Korea needs to visit the newssite they currently produce. Just like the ridiculous confessions given the North Koreans by members of the Pueblo crew, you can find humor in what is written for truth there today. Laugh at your leisure. It is the same old Stalinist dogma and tripe we might have read in the 1930s or 1950s full of "running dogs" and "capitalist lackeys." In it is revealed their complete and utter isolation from anything close to resembling truth.
It is a reasonably safe bet to predict that once Saddam is history, 95 percent of Iraq's people will be dancing in the streets. In the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, a country thoroughly devoid of joy, a land without smiles or chocolate or truth, there is not the same certainty. I have no doubt that the death and destruction of Kim Jong-Il and his Stalinist elite would only improve things ... but I am afraid that the people there have never learned to dance.
Richard Botkin, a member of the WorldNetDaily.com board of directors, was a Marine Corps infantry officer.