Anna Fifield: No, Sir John Key, New Zealand is not like North Korea
OPINION: So former prime minister Sir John Key thinks we live in a “smug hermit kingdom” and has spent the past few days comparing New Zealand’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic to life in North Korea.
“The aim should no longer be to exist in a smug hermit kingdom, but to get back to a life where New Zealanders can travel overseas – for any reason – knowing they can return home when they want to, and where we again welcome visitors to this country,” he wrote on Stuff – and repeated the sentiment across newspapers and airwaves over the weekend. “Some people might like to continue the North Korean option. I am not one of them,” he continued.
I know a thing or two about North Korea. I’ve visited the country 12 times, reporting from there for two of the world’s most respected newspapers, the Financial Times and The Washington Post. My book The Great Successor, about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has been translated into 24 languages.
Let me tell you: New Zealand is not North Korea.
READ MORE:
* How North Korea got to where it is: A brief history
* Who is Kim Jong Un and how will he act on North Korea's missile threats?
* 'Inching to the brink of a nuclear war': North Korea says missile launch was training for attack on US's Japan bases
I understand the frustration that tens of thousands of New Zealand citizens feel about not being able to get home, and I feel immensely grateful that I was able to make it back before the MIQ booking system was introduced. In fact, exactly a year ago I was in MIQ in the Distinction Hotel in Hamilton.
I also know that the closed borders are affecting families here in New Zealand – including my own – by stopping us being able to go overseas to see close relatives. And we in the Wellington newsroom of Stuff have been actively reporting about the impact of our system on businesses, including the tech sector, and the long-term economic ramifications of it.
Here’s why Key’s hyperbolic headline-grab is completely wrong.
There is no criticism of the leader in North Korea: Key wouldn’t have been able to utter this criticism of the Government if he was in North Korea. Kim Jong Un had his defence minister killed with an anti-aircraft gun – an act that would have reduced him to a pulp – in front of a crowd of officials, after the minister fell asleep during a meeting, among other acts of disrespect. He had his own uncle, Jang Song Thaek, shot by firing squad because the mercurial official had different ideas about how the regime should be run. Even those helping the leader – the North Korean equivalents of Grant Robertson and Kris Faafoi – have been disappeared because Kim doesn’t like anyone rivalling him for influence.
There is no opposition in North Korea: There is one party, the Workers’ Party of North Korea, and one party only. In the party, there is one leader, and one leader only: Kim Jong Un is general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea’s official name), and supreme commander of the Armed Forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Kim Jong Un had the constitution revised in 2019 to say that his legal status “representing our state has been further consolidated to firmly ensure the monolithic guidance of the Supreme Leader over all state affairs”. No New Zealand leader – whether it be Jacinda Ardern or Sir John Key – has been able to boast being a “supreme leader” exerting “monolithic guidance” over everything.
There is no free press in North Korea: Here's a story that appeared in the Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the Workers' Party, over the weekend – the same weekend that Key was comparing New Zealand to North Korea. “Seminars on Exploits of Great Leaders of DPRK Held in Different Countries,” read the headline. And the story said: “The chairman of the Socialist Party of Romania noted that under the seasoned leadership of General Secretary Kim Jong Un the DPRK has achieved eye-opening successes in strengthening the national power despite the vicious moves of the hostile forces.” Even Government's fiercest critics could not say that New Zealand’s media talks about Ardern and her government in this way.
In case you think “well the party mouthpiece would say that” – all the papers are regime mouthpieces. There is no independent media in North Korea. There is no samizdat literature. There’s not even any graffiti. If you turn on any radio or any television, walk into any bookshop or go to any cinema, all you’ll hear is the greatness of respected comrade Kim Jong Un. Oh, and there’s no internet. A very small handful of North Koreans – the Kim family, and the propagandists in Pyongyang, for example – will be allowed access to a few sites. But for the general public, there is no access to any information about the outside world. They don’t have the luxury of comparing themselves to Denmark or Ireland.
There is no freedom of movement in North Korea: Yes, it’s painful not being able to come into New Zealand, and not really being able to leave. Yes, Auckland has borne the brunt of our lockdowns, and is still under heavy restrictions. But it’s not like in North Korea.
North Koreans need a travel permit to go anywhere within the country. Leaving your city or town? There’ll be a checkpoint at the city limits and passage is only allowed if you have the right paperwork – or a hefty bribe. Only elite regime officials or traders helping the Kims stay in power are allowed passports or export permits. And anyone who travels into the outside world will be subjected to some heavy re-indoctrination on their return.
That’s even without mentioning the Saturday self-criticism sessions where everyone outside the Kim family must confess how they’ve failed to serve Kim Jong Un that week, and itemise their workmates’ and neighbours’ shortcomings.
There is nowhere near enough food in North Korea: When I was in MIQ, I had to call the reception to ask them to skip some meals. There was so much cake, so much fruit, so many servings of chips. We were wasting too much food. If only North Koreans had the same problem.
North Korea is facing its worse food shortages in more than a decade, the North Koreans admitted a few months ago. North Korea will suffer a food gap of 780,000 tonnes for 2020-2021, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation estimated in June. In North Korea “10 million people are considered food insecure … 140,000 children under 5 suffer acute malnutrition … and higher rates of malnutrition and mortality are anticipated for 2021,” Unicef said in its Humanitarian Situation Report published in February.
This is immediately apparent when visiting North Korea. I’ve met kids who look 7 but turn out to be teenagers.
There are very valid reasons to criticise our current response to the Covid-19 pandemic. But to compare it to the situation in North Korea is not just sensationalist – it grossly diminishes the suffering of 25 million people in the world’s most totalitarian state.
The people of North Korea, struggling to feed and educate their children in the most repressive of circumstances, don’t deserve to be your punchline, Sir John Key.
Anna Fifield is now the editor of The Dominion Post and Wellington editor at Stuff. This is her personal opinion based on a decade of reporting about North Korea.
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