After another failed attempt by Seoul officials to ease tensions between the two formerly unified Koreas, humanitarian aid to starving North Koreans was once again rejected this past month. The offer was made by South Korea on Sept. 3 in hopes of sparking a healthy discourse between the two countries, but was declined on the basis of insufficient and "deeply insulting" quantities. Regular aid to the North was suspended last year until Supreme Leader Kim Jung Un agreed to dismantle his nation's nuclear weapons program. After suffering heavy losses in farmland after floods in an already defunct agricultural country, The North has repeatedly requested hundreds of thousands of tons in construction equipment rather than food aid for their people. The South has denied these requests in fear that such materials will be used to bolster military projects.
In a report issued by NGO Human Rights Watch this past June, forced underpaid or unpaid labor and insufficient food rations were described in rampant detail from some of the few successful defectors the country has seen lately. The punishment for defection ranges from beatings, extensive stints in harsh labor camps, and even execution. The countries constitution contains articles protecting its citizens from child labor and other forms of exploitation, but the current regime has long ignored these laws in place. Defectors interviewed share common stories of beatings for missed work, even in the case of illness or severe malnutrition, forced work camps after immediately completing school, and even current students as young as 11 being forced to perform intense tasks like road building and tree clearing during normal school hours. The compensation for these tasks are typically meager and inconsistent wages, food rations, or nothing at all. Seeing as many North Koreans rely on government issued food rations that are regularly in short supply, the recent denial of South Korean aid is an especially hard, yet very familiar hit to their well-being.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that no internal force will effectively dismantle the current regime. The controlling grip on the media inside North Korea makes it difficult for any rebellion to mirror the Arab spring narrative, and it will have to be a corroborated effort between North Korean citizens and South Korea to overthrow the existing regime. North Koreans lack the resources and health to do it themselves, and any US involvement would further necessitate Chinese intervention at the behest of North Korea. Any external intervention on behalf of North Koreans would push the 38th parallel even closer to the brink of all-out war, but after 6 months in office, Kim Jung-Un has proved his Swiss-education has done nothing to distinguish himself from his predecessors, and the perpetual human rights violations will continue unless something is done beyond the border.
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/women-facing-harsh-new-pressures-in-north-korea/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/world/asia/north-korea-rejects-offer-of-aid-from-south-korea.html
https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/06/13/north-korea-economic-system-built-forced-labor
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