North Korea - Unbroken Succession

How is a strong leader brought to power? Some say it takes a habitancy who are conditioned to receive him. precisely the Korean habitancy were so conditioned. Centuries of harsh rulers have been permitted to hold sway over the minds of the citizens of Chosun. Take Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. He was the founder of the Ming Dynasty that ruled Korea from 1364-1666. He required absolute obedience. He was the law and the source of all laws. When he died, generations after him were forced to sit under lectures mouthing his philosophies.

Such lectures take place in contemporary North Korea, but their branch is not Emperor Zhu.

News North Korea

Over a thousand years earlier much of the peninsula was ruled by the Silla kings. In those days a man's hereditary position thought about his place in the social standing. Top aristocracy did not have to sign up for the military. They went instead to the top executive offices in the land.

A practice carried down to today's Korea.

Later came the Koryo State, equally aware of rank, whose "caste" principles rivaled that of contemporary India and persists in North Korea as well. One third of the nation was precisely a slave class in old Koryo. This practice was only outlawed in 1894, but was speedily picked up by the occupying Japanese.

And of course, by today's labor camp mentality . Most did not consider it unusual. This is how things had been "forever".

Caste prolonged in the final Choson dynasty. The distinct groups wore tags that branded them as high or low in Korean standing.

Today's principles has changed only in name, and involves 50 or 60 ranks according to class background. There are "families that fought the Japanese," " veterans of the Korean War," "poor peasant farmers" etc etc. One's rank determines where one lives and how much one eats and if one lives or dies.

There are many other appealing similarities between the present oppression and the oppression of his predecessors. North Korea is starved for freedom and truth. Starved.

Can Koreans be free? Where shall we look for hope, for faith that things can ever be different? That's easy. South Korea, and the God upon whom so many South Koreans call every day. South Korea is the constant conference against feudalism, brutal monarchies, Communism, Juche, and the government of the North. Koreans precisely can be free, given the allowable God and the allowable leadership.

For this we pray.

North Korea - Unbroken Succession

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