Why is North Korea so advanced?
11 Answers
Sam Rahimi, former Technical Manager at IBM Global Business Services (2014-2016)
Answered Thu
TL;DR …NK is so advanced because it’s government is so oppressive. Now read this because I took an hour to write it for your benefit :)
I think this is a very good question - famines and tapeworms aside, fact is that NK has modern buildings and infrastructure (and high social stability) compared with any of the other brutal dictatorships currently in existence. Life expectancy is 70+ despite the hardships. Civilians conduct themselves in an orderly way. There is free public healthcare and education. And basic equality for women.
Now consider the Congo: essentially a failed state with rival warlords fighting civil wars everywhere but the capital. Tribal gangs hack each other to death with machetes and the winners (literally) rape the losers. Half the people have AIDS for crying out loud. Women who can’t afford to pay the obstetrician are forcibly confined in hospital and prostituted to doctors while babies look on. Millions of children die of diarrhea and malaria before age 5. And yes ppl are starving there too. This could describe any African dictatorship.
A less extreme example is Burma. But that place is still incredibly filthy and primitive compared to NK or anywhere else in Asia, and it too suffers from brutal violence wrought by out of control semi governmental factions.
While I don’t have a firm answer for you (my Political Science degree was acquired what seems like a lifetime ago), I would say, “look at China”. Up thru the early 70s that place was remarkably similar to NK: Mao the Dictator and his crazy personality cult making sure that potentially unfriendly factions (e.g. urban intellectuals) were deported to remote areas and systematically starved to death. That regime killed ~100mil in its first 30 years… yet somehow in the 1980s and 90s, the Chinese figured out how to become a developed economy (by exploiting its workforce and undercutting Western companies on price).
China is still just as totalitarian and amoral as North Korea - they have just gotten smarter about it. They let their citizens have their fun, watch movies, travel abroad - while spying on them far more thoroughly than NK and cracking down on dissent with an iron fist. And they have executed as many as half a million Falun Gong (god knows why they consider this modified tai chi to be a threat) - and then harvest their organs, for sale to wealthy locals or foreigners in need of a new kidney or a set of freakin’ eyeballs. And today news broke that they have collected dna samples and biometric data from all 10 million minority folks in Xinjiang (and inserted tracking devices in every one of their cars - as well as issuing them newly distinctive id cards). It’s not clear what they are planning but it sounds like a high tech version of Hitler’s obsessively detailed racial census of Europe - collecting the data required for orderly genocide.
You could argue that the reason China and NK are “modern” while Congo and Sudan are classically barbaric is that the former are simply more effectively fascist - while the African and Arab warlords will certainly kill their enemies without hesitation, their personal greed and tribal loyalties preclude them from implementing the chillingly efficient human and technological infrastructure required for absolute mass surveillance - in the African cases, the central regimes have no clue what the hell is going on in far flung rural areas, let alone an ability to enforce the law outside of the capital and neighboring provinces. Let’s not forget that the rape, murder, looting, and burning of villages that plagues Africa and also Burma is mostly perpetrated by nonstate actors - even the Burmese military is basically an autonomous rebel group that does what it likes more than it is an army under the direction of the legitimate government.
This is so TL;DR - but hopefully you see, the reason NK is perfectly efficient and modern is because it’s regime is so perfectly evil, ruthless, and disciplined. In a pragmatic sense, Machiavelli was right.
492 Views · 7 Upvotes
Joey Kim
Answered Thu
Comrade, North Korea is truly the most advanced Juche dictatorship in the world.
First, we have abandoned traditional streetlights and instead have beautiful women directing traffic. This inspires our male workers and gives our female workers a standard to strive for.
Next, we are so progressive in environmental issues that we don’t turn on our lights at all! Unlike those imperialist Americans, Japanese, Chinese, or South Korean, we make a commitment to our night skies.
We are so pro-animal rights that we give those poor parasitic worms a place to live in our citizens’ bodies. After all, those worms deserve as much a place in our lives as dogs and cats.
We have the world’s most advanced socialist music, with the beautiful idols in our first girl group “Moranbong Band!” We only allow patriotic and inspiring lyrics in our songs; you will never hear us denouncing our country or its people!
Our animation industry far outstrips the American and Japanese imperialists. Our cartoons aim to instill a patriotic spirit in our children from a young age, and by including graphic violence, our kids will surely know what do do with America. By the way, we like making America look really badass and cool, even though they’re supposed to be the enemy.
Plus, we have transcended time and created our own time zone, while our brothers in South Korea have to share a timezone with Japan! Now our adversaries will quail in fear from their inaccurate clocks!
So now, comrade, can you see why North Korea is so advanced?
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Zhuang Yao
Answered Thu
What did China look like 30 years ago? NK is coming if the international community stopped the blockade.
They can make a nuclear bomb with international blockade, they can do everything.
NK used be more modernized than SK, NK was highly urbanized and agricultural mechanized with the help of USSR.
↑NK donated a lot of rice,cement and medical supplies in 1984 to SK, because of the flood.
But after the ‘COLD WAR’ they couldn't get oil from Russia and their industrial level was not good enough to manufacture coal-power-machine, so they have to return traditional agriculture.
Now, they have nuclear weapons, it means they can develop economy intently.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/a...
↑It is a video of Pyongyang this year, just looks like China in 1970s.
Try to imagine what will happen 40 years later.
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Mike Chang, lives in New York City (1971-present)
Answered Thu
How is North Korea advanced? Are you referring to the nukes? The radioactive stuff comes from the light water nuclear reactors that Bill Clinton built in North Korea back when he was president. From that point they collected the uranium and followed public documentation and experimented to build nuclear bombs. The scientists went to school in Russia, Europe etc… how to build nukes is public information, just like pipe bombs, gernades, etc… getting the materials is next to impossible unless you have massive resources like a country.
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Max Sumpter
Answered Sat
actually you must have it wrong. N.K is rather a country that relies on economy to survive, but living as a citizen is described as a living hell. the education that most of the citizens acquire is merely propaganda. and defecting is not a option. the country can’t supply their capital city with enough power to last a week. but it is a whole new world in their southern counter part. the internet is high quality etc. but the thing is you may have it mixed up, S.K is far more advanced than N.K.
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The Beast
Answered Thu
Why? Just remember the construction of the Syrian nuclear facility, helpt by who? Yes the Kim Yong family, avoided cleverly by the Mossad. That was 25 years ago, now fast forward, what do you think?
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The BeastAnd don't under estimate those Koreans, the’re some clever people over there. Not a lot but they'...
Anonymous
Answered 21h ago
North Korea is NOT advanced at all. All its resources were put into developing nuclear weapons (and missiles). Most of the people are living in squalor in very primitive conditions, with no electricity, phone, or TV. Only those in the Army and the Government have cars. Travel is restricted, and contact with anyone outside the country is forbidden. If you commit a crime, you, your parents and yo...(more)
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Jin Han, Self-employed
Answered Thu
Oh, they are so advanced because only thing they focused on is nuclear missiles for the past 50 years. They have jet planes from Russia back in the 60s while being very short on gas and resources. They are so advanced that they eat corns all day along with some tape worms for their side dishes. Yeah, they are so advanced that America can't do anything to them. (Sarcasm)
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Mike Johnson, lives in Seoul (1995-present)
Answered Thu
Because it isn’t.
The leader doesn’t focus on it’s citizens, only nuclear weapons. Their food is diminishing and the leader isn’t doing anything about it. Even though it has modern buildings and infrastructure, most people cannot get it.
Even though it’s life expectancy is 70, most people may not live to that age. Also, prisons are brutal and even though they claim all their propaganda as “true”, they don’t really bring in much people, if at all.
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Evan Friend, worked at U.S. Marine Corps
Answered Thu
They can hardly feed themselves. They have nuclear weapons, but barely have internet access. They’re not exactly advanced by any metric but nuclear weapons.
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Candace Yua
Answered Thu
I knew this question would lead to Americans on here bashing on NK and claiming they are primitives, because this is common American propaganda to call them that and belittle them.
Korea isn’t anywhere near as bad as American propaganda makes it out to be, Americans that have bothered to visit the country have confirmed this. Kim also is not some devil who wants to nuke the USA like the US media tries to paint him as.
But so many average Americans are so gullible that they will just believe and repeat whatever they see on their TV.
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