As a person who cherishes democracy and human rights, I hope that that passing on of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will pave the way for positive change for the long suffering people of the hermit state.

North Koreans have virtually been prisoners in their own country for over 60 years.  Successive dictatorships beginning with the Kim Il-sung tyranny have shut North Koreans out from the rest of the world and kept a tight lid on what is happening in the country.

Rare glimpses into the world’s most secretive and isolated country reveal people who are nothing more than zombies whose every aspect of life is controlled by the state.

Even the hysterical grieving for the death of the “Dear Leader” we have been seeing on television since his death was announced last Monday is a carefully choreographed routine first seen when his father died in 1994.

The paranoid and unpredictable regime in Pyongyang has spared no expense in ensuring that the country acquires nuclear weapons.  While the regime has in recent years poured billions of dollars into its nuclear programme, thousands of North Koreans have died of hunger.

It is difficult to believe that North and South Korea were once one country.  The two are now light years apart in terms of development and the welfare of their peoples.  

Sadick Mwakitubu,
Arusha.

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