History
North Korea exists and is recognized as a state from 1953, after the Armistice Agreement which ended the civil war between North and South Korea upon who will control the whole Korean Peninsula. North Korea has a population of 24,051,218 (Wikipedia, 2011, 2009 estimation) and the capital city is Pyongyang. North Korea declared independence in 1919, but was under Japanese occupation until the latter’s defeat after World War II. In 1945, and after the World War II, with an arrangement of United Nations, agreed by Truman, Churchill, Chiang Kai-shek and Stalin in the Potsdam Conference that Korea would be divided into North and South, the former to be controlled by Soviet Union and the latter by United States. Thus the Soviet Army establishes authority to rule North Korea until a USSR-friendly domestic regime can take control. In 1948 the Democratic Peoples Republic is formed with Kim Il-sung as the local leader which is a Soviet type, communist regiment. Kim Il-sung establishes the North Koreas nation with Pyongyang as a capital and a democratic republic government. However, United Nations and most of the United Nations countries did not recognize the North Korean nation but only South Koreas government of Syngman Rhee as the legal authority in the Korean Peninsula. In 1949 all the foreign army departs from the Korean Peninsula.
A civil war starts in Korea, between North and South Korea for the control of the whole region in 1950. North Korea started the war by attacking and invading to Seoul, the capital of South Korea. United Nations considers and declares the civil war as a menace to the World-wide Peace, and thus asks United States to interfere. United States grasps the chance, being afraid of an attack by Soviets to both West-Germany and Iran and thus wanting to avoid letting the opportunity to the Soviets to take control of the situations. United States attacks North Korea and with its intrusion reaches the Chinese borders. So in November 1950, China intrudes in North Korea as well to fight back and avoid the United States attack. United Nations then declares China as an intruder favoring and taking the part of the United States. It then calls for support from other UN nations as well. France, Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey, Greece respond sending help. In spring of 1951 North Korea invades to Seoul once again. In summer of 1951 negotiations start for a solution to the problem. The negotiations last for 2 years, however no solution can be found. At the meantime, the Cold War takes place between Soviets and the Americans. The whole purpose is showing a force of weapons by both sides. South and North Korea act as proxies for this war. The episode in South Korea, the war and the involvement of UN and US can be considered as a trigger for the Cold War.
In 1953, Eisenhower has become the president of United States and with an armistice the situation is being settled and the borders are reestablished between North and South Korea avoiding a menace of nuclear war. From now on, Kim Il-sung is the supreme leader of North Korea. North Korea is governed by a single party developed by Kim Il-sung called the Korean Workers Party, with profound elements of a soviet type communist form. Kim Il-sung’s party follows the Juche ideology of self-reliability. Kim Il-sung tries to enforce the economy by industrialization and to modernize the country. He also sets up a strong army to fail-safe the country from outside menace. Being one of the few left fortresses of communism the western industrial menace is considered significant. He also intends to enforce and preserve the local customs of the Koreans. In fact, Kim Il-sung also establishes a dynasty, with the power passing from father to son. Korea at the moment preserves good relationships with China and Soviet Union. However, the Soviet Union goes to disassembly in 1991. China, in its turn, follows a west-type industrial growth. North Korea is led to isolation. Nuclear weapons factories are constructed in North Korea, and tests take place in a show-off of power.
In 1994, Kim Jong-Il, the son of Kim Il-sung becomes the president of North Korea. Kim Jong-Il adopts a shogun, or military-first policy to strengthen the country. North Korea is the world’s most militarized nation, having nuclear weapons into its possession, and an amount of around 9.5 million militaries (active and reserved). In December 2011, Kim Jong-Il dies and his son Kim Jong-un becomes the president at the age of 29 years old.
North Korea – Characteristics
North Korea, under the Kim dynasty has become one of the most bizarre countries in the world. For the first part, the country is governed by a regiment supposedly being communist and enforcing the peoples’ power, but however serving at the same time a dynasty with Kim family recognized as “Great Leaders” and the power and president’s position passing from father to son. North Korea is the most militarized country world –wide, having an army of about around the half of the population, active and reserved. An obsession with racial purity is also a strong ideology of the country. The country is largely isolated from the surrounding world and the state is characterized by one of the lowest-ranking human-rights records. Access to the country by air and connection with flights exists only from China, the only country that assists North Korea (with financial aid). People are not allowed to talk to outsiders, international calls are punished, and internet does not exist to connect to the outside world. Tourists have to be accompanied and followed by ‘guides’ all the time and only authorized guides can talk to them. The population is starving and the economy in the country is horrible. International trade is disallowed and a series of unfortunate events led the country to poverty. Financial aid comes from China, the only considered ally of North Korea. However, one third of the total gross national product of the country is spent in the army and in weapons. The people of North Korea have this strong opinion against the outside world that is corrupted by the western materialism and imperialism. The possession and construction of massive nuclear weapons is isolating North Korea more from the outside world.
The current situation in the country is that Kim Jong-Il has died and his son, the 29-year-old Kim Jong-Un has taken over as the new ‘Great Leader’. Will Jong-un be able to control the compelling and possibly competing forces and powers in the country? The military, the party and the organs of the state will have to be controlled. Does the new leader have the ability to handle the situation of the country? Most think that this is a great opportunity for a change in the state in North Korea.
Peoples Variety (Requisite Variety principle)
Following and advising Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety, in order to control a system, and especially a complex system, you have to come up with a greater variety than that system can produce itself. By simplifying a system you can reduce the effort to control it. A system, according to Ashby is creating variety. And a way to kill variety is variety itself. In North Koreas case, the dynasty is controlling the variety that the people of the country are able to create. North Korea is unique compared to the other entire world that surrounds it, the environment that it has to live in. Variety within the country can be produced by the military, the party and the people themselves. By isolating the habitants from all the rest of the world, the Kim dynasty tries to diminish the variety that the people are able to create. The borders are closed. Flights to North Korea exist only from China. Only selected and qualified people are allowed to communicate with incomes. Freedom of press, that would allow another form of variety to be handled, is not a fact. International calls are punished with death. Internet is blocked and the civilians can only use a sort of intranet, with the ‘Great Leader’ deciding what is needful for them to know and apparently manipulates the content and the information that the civilians will have access to. Foreign books are translated to tapes and people are able to listen to the tape recorder along with a book (as a form of translation). With the excuse that the outside world is corrupted with west materialism and industrialism, the ‘Great Leader’ will preserve the innocence and the purity that the Korean nation has.
It is one thing trying to preserve your national identity as a nation, and another thing to completely ignore and extort all the other surroundings. Nations live in a greater system, the world, and the globalization will of course lead to a mix in identities but trying to ignore what is happening around you is not a solution.
Another issue is the starvation, and the low level or lack of local economy. Is that random? Is it caused by the outside nations? By the approach the world had in trying to control the situation there in the past? Or is it a situation that works well for the local regime? Does the so called Juche ideology of self-reliance actually help the people in North Korea to preserve their national purity or does it favor the regime’s attempt to control the people? I could imply that the answer leans to the latter. Having financial aid and support from China helps the people survive even if it is in the worst living condition, nevertheless it does not allow the people to evolve.
With all these limitations, in order to decrease the variety that the people can create I can only reach the question of whether the system is North Korea is what it is named to be. A communistic, Stalinist party leading the country should be considered Democratic. However, can someone claim that there is Democracy at the time in North Korea? Do the people have the power in their hands? Is that how a Stalinist society should function? And then I pose another question as an answer to the latter: If the people in North Korea had the power to vote and select their representatives what would they choose? Watching all this massive crying over their dead leader, all this devotion and the belief that Kim Il-sung is still alive makes me lean to the opinion that if the people in North Korea had to vote it would vote for the very same leaders. But what is Democracy? Democracy implies freedom. And what is freedom? Isn’t freedom of mind and thoughts included in the term? If someone is not free-minded how can he fight for his rights? And I come to think that all this ignorance enforced to the people leads to slavery of mind and a slavery of mind is a slavery overall.
To control the system
North Korea is a closed system. The secrecy that the regime has settled does not allow the outside world to know what is happening and how does the system actually function. This of course is a defense mechanism from the part of North Korea. However, the increased military as well as the possession of nuclear weapons make the outside world being considerate of the situation and willing if not considering necessary to control the situation in order to avoid disastrous aftermaths. You can control a system that you don’t know by using an outside control system that contains three subsystems: a detector, a comparator and an effector. Such a system acts as a feedback system. The comparator should compare the reaction after applying forces with the effector and detecting the outcome with the detector. However, the isolation of North Korea, as well as the increased military and the menace of using nuclear weapons do not allow experiments to be done. Such a black-box system could only take into account actions that took place in the past and the outcomes. After all having the same leader in a way (same family, same values etc.) assures that a same force would cause the same result that did in the past. In the past, Korea, to be controlled was divided by the UN into two pieces. Moreover, The involvement of UN and United States in the civil war managed to isolate North Korea more from the outside word and possibly the menace from abroad is a reason for North Korea to maintain a large army, to spend one third of its total gross national product in the military and weapons and for constructing and maintaining massive attack nuclear weapons. The downfall of the Soviet Union, as well as the turn of China to a west-affected development isolated North Korea more, as they feel they are now alone(Its only China that supports them in a way) against the whole world.
They should have been left alone in the past, even when the civil war took place. They should have solved the situation on their own, as they shared the same cultures with South Korea.
North Korea – A living system
According to Millers theory, all living systems can be divided into 7 levels and 19 critical subsystems. There is no control or security subsystem but control is achieved by the internal processes and especially by the information processing subsystems.
SUBSYSTEMS WHICH PROCESS BOTH MATTER-ENERGY AND INFORMATION
1. Reproducer , the subsystem which is capable of giving rise to other systems similiar to the one it is in.
2. Boundary , the subsystem at the perimeter of a system that holds together the components which make up the system, protects them from environmental stresses, and excludes or permits entry to various sorts of matter-energy and information.
SUBSYSTEMS WHICH PROCESS MATTER-ENERGY
3. Ingestor, the subsystem which brings matter-energy across the system boundary from the environment.
4. Distributor , the subsystem which carries inputs from outside the system or outputs from its subsystems around the system to each component.
5. Converter , the subsystem which changes certain inputs to the system into forms more useful for the special processes of that particular system.
6. Producer, the subsystem which forms stable associations that endure for significant periods among matter-energy inputs to the system or outputs from its converter, the materials synthesized being for growth, damage repair, or replacement of components of the system, or for providing energy for moving or constituting the system’s outputs of products or information markers to its suprasystem.
7. Matter-energy storage , the subsystem which retains in the system, for different periods of time, deposits of various sorts of matter-energy.
8. Extruder , the subsystem which transmits matter-energy out of the system in the forms of products or wastes.
9. Motor, the subsystem which moves the system or parts of it in relation to part or all of its environment or moves components of its environment in relation to each other.
10. Supporter , the subsystem which maintains the proper spatial relationships among components of the system, so that they can interact without weighting each other down or crowding each other.
SUBSYSTEMS WHICH PROCESS INFORMATION
11. Input transducer , the sensory subsystem which brings markers bearing information into the system, changing
them to other matter-energy forms suitable for transmission within it.
12. Internal transducer , the sensory subsystem which receives, from subsystems or components within the system, markers bearing information about significant alterations in those subsystems or components, changing them to other matter-energy forms of a sort which can be transmitted within it.
13. Channel and net , the subsystem composed of a single route in physical space, or multiple interconnected routes, by which markers bearing information are transmitted to all parts of the system.
14. Decoder, the subsystem which alters the code of information input to it through the input transducer or internal transducer into a “private” code that can be used internally by the system.
15. Associator , the subsystem which carries out the first stage of the learning process, forming enduring
associations among items of information in the system.
16. Memory , the subsystem which carries out the second stage of the learning process, storing various sorts of information in the system for different periods of time.
17. Decider , the executive subsystem which receives information inputs from all other subsystems and transmits to them information outputs that control the entire system.
18. Encoder, the subsystem which alters the code of information input to it from other information processing subsytsems, from a “private” code used internally by the system into a “public” code which can be interpreted by other systems in its environment.
19. Output transducer , the subsystem which puts out markers bearing information from the system changing markers within the system into other matter-energy forms which can be transmitted over channels in the system’s environment.
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