Freedom — The Right of All Mankind

Throughout history, dictators — despicable tyrants — have fought tooth and nail to control the masses.

If  they would only understand — violence and oppression may guarantee short-term power (a generation or two, at most), but never the respect nor the support of its people necessary for the governance and prosperity of a sovereign nation.

Iran, for example, is at a point of no return.  People are openly defiant; cell phone photos and the Internet exposing the regime’s violent acts for the world to see.

The dust will settle; sooner, if not later.

Then what?  Who will be next on world’s stage?

North Korea, perhaps — an isolated nation of human tragedies, a regime thriving on criminality, “hell on earth” with an estimated unemployment rate as high as 95 percent — where bribery, stealing, starvation, human trafficking, imprisonment, and torture are the norm.

Atrocities abound:

• In North Korea, good people can’t survive; stealing, a necessary evil.
• High-ranking North Korean defectors have testified before Congress saying that the government is overseeing the production and export of heroin and methamphetamine.
• The quality of fertilizer South Koreans give the North is so good (and expensive), the North Korean government sells it to a Southeast Asian country.  The North continues to use fertilizer full of acidity, yielding minimal harvest.
• The regime practices collective punishment — guilt by association.  “Political wrongdoers” and their families (accidentally sitting on a newspaper printed with the leader’s face, not hanging leaders’ portraits in homes [officials check residences], etc.) — up to three generations — are imprisoned for their “crime.”

Despite horrific accounts, positive changes are taking place inside one of the world’s most oppressive regimes.  Political shifts are occurring due to the flow of refugees back and forth from China.

These days, North Koreans are openly criticizing their government — when a few gather, discontent spills over … North Koreans are learning their country is not “paradise on earth.” (Full Story)

As people discover the truth, the regime’s grip loosens … Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, is now the last bastion of super-control.  The rural area is becoming the ‘Wild West.'”  With fear declining, there’s great potential for change.  The regime’s control is deteriorating. (Tom White, Executive Director of Voice of the Martyrs)