On the 22nd of May, 2014, Julie Bishop heard from two NK defectors – Mr Myung Chul Ahn and Ms Young Soon Kim. Ahn worked as a prison guard and defected after finding out about children who were born in captivity, and who were destined to live their lives in the work camps.
By contrast, Kim was friends with Kim Jong Il’s former wife, and after being interned by the North Korean authorities had to bury her husband with her bare hands.
The defectors gave her a copy of the UN investigation into North Korean Human Rights.
Just 29 days later, Julie Bishop was interviewed by VOA, and she expressed her concern that “no country [can] improve its economy or security by threatening its neighbors and by impoverishing its own people,” she said.
Of course she’s missing the point. Kim Jong-un has no interested in improving it’s economy or security. He just wants to stay in power. To hell with improving people’s lives or reducing the nuclear threat. None of that is import, what’s important is being able to swig cognac in an enormous palace while the people starve to death.
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