Wednesday, June 15, 2005

The North Korean Nightmare From One Who Has Seen It

Regular Decision '08 readers (and God bless every one of you) know that I occasionally return to a subject that is of great importance to me, and that is the nightmare that is North Korea. I specifically made an exception to my Bipartisan Anti-Inflammation Pledge of 2005 for Kim Jong-Il's regime, for it is the only modern equivalent to the horrors of Stalinist Russia.

Norbert Vollertsen is a German doctor who was showered with accolades and special privileges for donating skin tissue for a skin graft while working as a German aid worker in North Korea. As a result, he was given access to areas most foreigners would never see. The story he tells is horrifying: hospitals where beer bottles and safety razors are surgical instruments, starving children dressed in blue and white uniforms, an entire nation beset by constant anxiety about what new horror waits around the bend.

This is a demon that must be faced, sooner rather than later. Every day that Kim Jong-Il remains at the top is a day that thousands will never live through. I don't know the solution, but we have to keep the pressure on.

No comments: