North Korea, Get In The Line!

When abc’s Diane Sawyer and her crew landed in Pyongyang, the airport was empty. Surrounded by minders, interpreters and airport employees, she was welcomed with a careful smile. A warm welcome might put them in trouble

Last week, abc network’s promotion of the Sawyer’s Primetime was very interesting. It was about visiting a hidden country that Iraq almost looked like one day.

Since the Americans became increasingly worried, TV networks started mentioning North Korea, the nation’s new enemy, frequently. After the North Korean declaration of conducting a nuclear test, the U.S. administration started encircling the country with a red marker to prevent the world from global terrorism and tyranny, they said.

Since then, the US media started concentrating about the North Korean tyrant and the possibility that he might use his weapons of mass destruction in the future. They raced to get into that sealed world. They have had enough news about Iraq.

Sawyer’s Primetime was finally aired last Friday. She spent twelve days in a world she considers “astonishingly different” from the one she inhabits.

I was interested in watching the show because I wanted to see how different North Korea is from the rest of the world. I heard Iraq was another copy of that sealed off country. I didn’t really care much about the weapons of mass destruction and all this fuss about it.

The trip started with Sawyer at the airport which was decorated with the huge posters of the country’s most fearful leader Kim Jong-il who succeeded his father Kim Il-sung, the founder of the Democratic People's Republic. As I saw that image, memories of old Iraq flashed back in my mind. The streets were filled with the Korean dictator’s posters everywhere and the entire nation seemed to praise their “great leader” for the achievements he claimed to lead the country to.

“We are the descendants of the great leader,” three North Korean children sang pausing before the abc camera. I laughed out loud at this, not because I was surprised but because I went through the same thing when I was in their age. It was exactly the same when we were trained to praise the “great leader,” in my case it was Saddam Hussein, when we were in school. I recalled how we sang for Hussein praising victory against the Persian and American enemies.

Sawyer showed copies of the country’s state-owned newspapers which looked exactly like the ones we used to have before 2003: a picture of the president below a bold-font headline, “Glory to the Korean People’s army”.

“We noticed a magazine that said the United States was the biggest human rights violator in the world,” Sawyer said in her notes published on the network’s website. “Because women make just 75 cents on the dollar compared to men, and there are 14 million people in America without health care.”

In her tour in the city, Sawyer interviewed students and children. She asked them about their future dreams and looked amazed at how insistent they were to study and serve their country.

These ambitious generations have no idea about the internet. One student who wants to be an expert in the nuclear experiments knew nothing about Google. “I am sorry. I don’t know what you are talking about,” the student replied.

Although there are some similarities between Iraq under Saddam and North Korea under Kim Jong-il, I’ve noticed some differences between the two countries. Under Saddam, internet was allowed in 2000 as Saddam’s regime accepted that Iraqis use it with a full government censorship.

Another thing that drew my attention was that the North Korean young people are not allowed to listen to American music. In my case, I was exposed to western music when I wanted. When Sawyer gave them a copy of an American magazine, they were not excited about going through it. Instead, they passed it to each other looking at the cover only.

Another difference is that the government in North Korea interferes even in how people are dressed. They said their leader likes conservative dresses! However, some young people appeared wearing clothes with American brands like Nike with no idea it is an American product. That was not the case in Iraq, though. Always, Iraqis chose what to wear until the new religious extremists came to power and forced people to wear what the religion wants!

The North Korean people denounced the U.S. on camera.

“I like nothing about America,” one man said. “I don’t want America to interfere,” a woman said. “It’s our enemy,” another man said.

After the show was over, I thought about what is going to happen if the Americans intervened in North Korea? What would happen to the children, student, farmers, and all the innocent people? Will they pay the price of their government’s challenge like what happened in Iraq? If they already hate America, what would happen if America hurt them?

The main question remains, what would the U.S. administration do? Do you think they would “liberate” them from their tyrant? I don’t think so. These guys DO have nuclear weapons and ARE able to defend themselves.

baghdadtreasure@gmail.com