1. Myth: North Korea was always a Stalinist dictatorship.
Fact: During the Japanese occupation, elections were organized by partisan forces in liberated zones. Out of these elections the resistance developed the People's Republic of Korea. In the Soviet zone, this native democratic government was left in place. In the American zone, a puppet dictatorship was set up under Syngman Rhee, who left about 100,000 opponents of his government buried in mass graves. S. Korea would remain a dictatorship for most of the next 40 years, including under the notorious Park Chung Hee who tortured political prisoners to death. The Stalinist dictatorship in the north coalesced gradually as war, deprivation, and emulation of south Korean methods greased the skids for a party already steeped in Stalinist-Maoist counterrevolution.
2. Myth: The UN went to war to defend a democratic country under attack.
Fact: As per treaties involving the U.S., Japan, the USSR, and the People's Republic of Korea, elections were held for a government reuniting the Korean peninsula in 1949. These elections were swept by the Workers' Party in both zones, despite the repression in the South. With U.S. advice, Syngman Rhee refused to honor the results of the elections and declared S. Korea independent. In the north, a government led by the Workers' Party--which became the Democratic People's Republic of Korea--prepared an invasion of the south to overthrow the U.S.-backed dictator and restore the elected government.
3. Myth: The South Korean people are almost unanimously against the N. Korean state.
Fact: the South Koreans welcomed the Korean People's Army, allowing it to conquer virtually the whole country except a fortified area around Seoul. Thousands of them defended it to the death against the best-armed empire in history. 100,000 were buried in mass graves by Syngman Rhee. Just as in Vietnam, "free fire" zones were declared (in violation of the Geneva Convention) and villages thought to be sympathetic to the enemy were massacred by American (e.g., No Gun Ri) and S. Korean forces. Since the restoration of multiparty elections in South Korea, the major party with the most pro-North Korean position has always been the most successful at the national level. However, it is hard to gauge the continued level of pro-North sentiment in S. Korea. The S. Korean press is strictly censored, membership in the Workers' Party is illegal, and expressing support for peaceful reunification is illegal. The movement of S. Korean citizens is strictly controlled by the state, and most foreigners are unlikely to have unsupervised contact with South Koreans who aren't wealthy, government-connected, or both.
4. Myth: North Korea is some sort of giant Dachau from which everyone is trying to escape.
Fact: North Korea's government is repressive, but it has a lower incarceration rate than the U.S., and I don't know of any political prisoners who have served as long as, say, Leonard Peltier. There are tolerated opposition parties which are part of the popular front that rules the country. North Korea does not have a policy of executing citizens without trial, unlike the U.S. which just did. Most of the people trying to leave North Korea are economic refugees.
5. Myth: North Korea has always lagged behind South Korea economically.
Fact: The U.S. dropped bombs with more explosive energy than all the bombs (conventional and nuclear) they dropped on Germany and Japan during WWII. The bombing campaign ended only when they ran out of North Korean targets to bomb, including huts. Despite this bombing which caused countrywide devastation unparalleled in history, N. Korea rebuilt its infrastructure with Soviet and Chinese help, saw high economic growth rates, and had a higher standard of living than S. Korea until the late 1960s, when an economic crisis was sparked by the failure of investments N. Korea had made in enterprises in capitalist countries. Even today, N. Korea has a higher employment rate and a higher literacy rate than S. Korea. As a matter of fact, N. Korea has the highest literacy rate in the world as per the World Almanac.
6. Myth: N. Korea is in a perennial state of famine.
Fact: N. Korea suffered a severe famine in the early-to-mid 1990s when it stopped receiving oil, which its highly industrialized economy requires, at subsidized prices from the USSR. This was exacerbated by the American embargo on oil. Today, the famine has been ended through a combination of nuclear energy, native food production, expensive oil, and international aid.
7. Myth: N. Korea's nuclear weapons program is offensive in nature.
Fact: The U.S. invaded Korea in 1945, disbanded the elected government, based nuclear weapons in Korea, and established a military dictatorship which systematically massacred over 100,000 political opponents while American planes bombed N. Korea to the last hut. 47,000 U.S. troops are based in S. Korea, and it is illegal to call for their removal, although they have a nasty record of raping and killing S. Korean civilians. Neither the U.S. nor S. Korea has ever ratified a peace treaty with N. Korea. S. Korean forces shell N. Korean territory while American boats enter N. Korean waters. S. Korea is capable of building a powerful uranium bomb in months, while U.S. forces have a variety of nuclear weapons at their disposal. N. Korea stopped its nuclear weapons program in the 1990s in exchange for U.S. food aid and help developing peaceful nuclear energy, and resumed it only when the U.S. failed to deliver the promised aid. N. Korea continues to call for the elimination of all nuclear arms from the Korean peninsula.
8. Myth: N. Korea has put a strong military ahead of the basic needs of its people.
Fact: OK, this is actually true. But did you ever wonder whether N. Korea's militarism and the dictatorship it fosters have anything to do with seeing half their country occupied, watching the occupying power act with astonishing brutality on both sides of the border, and living in a state of siege for decades?
