Category Archives: Asia/ Pacific

Capitalist North Korea: The Power Conundrum

24 Monday Sep 2012

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Yousuke, Yamamoto. Korea-North. Digital image. Flickr.com. N.p., 6 Feb. 2012. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. .
Despite his illusion of power, any of Kim Jong-un’s reformation ideas will be dependent upon the North Korean military’s approval.

After decades of collectivized agriculture, North Korea appears likely to open up to partial privatization of the agricultural sector.

The new privatization policies are not yet confirmed, but reports from top North Korean officials imply that the reforms will almost certainly pass. On Tuesday, September 25, North Korean parliament will convene and likely clear up the doubts. The very fact that parliament is convening for the second time this year indicates that something out of the usual has likely occurred; parliament meetings in North Korea are sporadic, infrequent, and largely unproductive due to the North Korean military and Kim Jong-un’s undue power in North Korea.

This appears to be one of a series of steps toward capitalist, free market reform that North Korea is set to adopt from China. Ever since Kim Jong-un came to power, North Korea has grown ever more dependent on China for trade and foreign relations. It has embarked on a remarkably different path from that which it followed under Kim Jong-un’s predecessors Kim Il-sung and Kim-Jung.

Obviously, the question now arises: to what extent will North Korea continue to develop. While Kim Jong-un will almost surely allow for economic development, he will be hard-pressed to stagnate any potential diplomatic or political developments.

The most significant political and diplomatic trends that Kim Jong-un will be forced to uphold include anti-Western foreign policy, a swollen military budget, propaganda campaigns touting his regime, and aristocratic single-party rule. The fact of the matter is that Kim Jong-un is quite unpopular among the politically powerful KPA (Korean People’s Army), the North Korean military, who is allegiant mainly to the country’s First and Supreme Leader Kim Il-sung and, to a lesser extent, Kim Jong-un. From his assumption of power, they have feared his reforms to the strictly controlled North Korean state, worrying rightly so that the reforms could jeopardize their power and role in North Korean society.

Despite the misconception of North Korea as an autocratic state, Kim Jong-un has relatively little power for a dictator. He is entirely at the mercy of the KPA who could usurp power from him at any given moment. As such, any reforms he makes will be limited. Kim Jong-un would never dare to make political or diplomatic reforms to North Korea. Even the economic reforms he makes will likely be limited. A North Korean farmer claimed that Kim Jong-un would allow farmers to take 30%-50% of their crop output each year for private use. It is unclear on what basis he has made these claims. In all likelihood, even if Kim Jong-un does privatize the agricultural sector, there will be no paradigm economic shift. It seems unlikely that any farmer in North Korea would be able to use more than 10% of output for private use. Kim Jong-un is one of North Korea’s most astute leaders and will surely adhere to his political power limits.

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Walmart and India: The Deadly Duo

21 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in Asia/ Pacific, Economy

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Stuckert, Ricardo. Manmohan Singh. Digital image. Wikimedia Commons. N.p., 5 June 2007. Web. 19 Sept. 2012. .
Manmohan Singh has been heavily involved in Indian politics for decades and is well-known in India for many of the ‘radical’ free market economic policy changes he has enacted in India.

Contrary to common rhetoric, current Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent economic policy changes are not the best steps forward for the nation. Economists around the world have hailed his recent steps as the keys to developing the Indian economy, but in fact they are more detrimental than beneficial to India.

Manmohan Singh’s policies have 3 main impacts. Firstly, they cut diesel subsidies which will disproportionately pinch the poor. Secondly, they privatize the Indian economy, particularly in the energy sector. Third, and most importantly, they allow foreign retailers to invest up to 51% in India’s retail industry.

First and foremost, these new economic reforms threaten political unity in India. Many parties from Singh’s ruling coalition have already dropped out and many large parties may soon follow suit. Bureaucracy already plagues India. It is currently ranked the most bureaucratic nation in Asia, and further political party division will only make Indian Congress less efficient and in greater discord with the populace. Moreover, the decision to enact the portion of the bill allowing foreign retailers to gain a majority stake in India’s retail industry is given to individual states. At the moment, less than half of India’s states plan to enact the bill. While it is undoubtedly necessary to have a division of power between state governments and national governments, macroeconomic decisions such as economic regulation should be left entirely up to the government in order to have the greatest possible impact.

Secondly, these policies seek to undercut small businesses, the very backbone of India’s economy. Currently, the retail industry in India primarily consists of small retail businesses. However, with these new changes, large multinational corporations will likely dominate India’s retail landscape as is currently the case in the West. This will indeed serve to reduce the overall number of jobs in the retail industry although those employed by multinationals will likely have far higher wages than they would as small business owners.

Clearly, economists need to reconsider their statements. While increased FDI is necessary to improving India’s economy, a marginally stronger economy is certainly not worth the cost of political division and higher unemployment. India, like the rest of the Tiger Asian economies, has been far too growth focused rather than welfare focused over the past decade or so. Economic growth is important, but India must prioritize the quality of life of its citizens by repealing Singh’s bill.

Japan and Korea: Reluctant Dependence

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by in Asia/ Pacific, Foreign Relations

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Futureatlas.com. Liancourt Rocks. Digital image. Flickr.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Sept. 2012. .
Above is the island that Korea cals Dokdo which it contests territorial rights over with Japan.

Currently, Japan is involved in territorial disputes with both China and Korea. The territorial dispute with China is one with huge economic ramifications because the islands are thought to contain oil reserves. On the other hand, the dispute with Korea over the possession of the Liancourt Rocks is one based in bureaucracy and nationalism. The islands themselves are of little value.

The key issue in the territorial dispute is the discrepancy in Korea’s liberation from Japanese rule following World War 2 in 1945. Korea insists that the 1951 World War 2 peace treaty called for Japan to relinquish many of its colonial territories, including the Liancourt Rocks. Yet, Japan asserts that the Liancourt Rocks were not taken under annexation of Korea. Instead, the islands were attained under the Shimane Prefecture, which exempts Japan from relinquishing its control over the islands.

Both Korea and Japan are equally burdened with proving their legal possession in this case. Yet, while Japan has proposed for years that Korea and Japan appeal the territorial dispute in the International Court of Justice, Korea has irrationally asserted that the burden of proof is on Japan. A Newsweek article titled “You Say ‘Dokdo,’ I say ‘Takeshima.’ Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” explains, “The Koreans say there is no territorial dispute because the islets are theirs, and agreeing to a legal arbitration would only contradict this logic.”

At the moment, the correctness of the territorial claims pales in comparison with the division it that the dispute has caused between Korea and Japan. Japan and Korea are the two most Western, democratic nations in the East Asian region that houses antagonistic nations including, but certainly not limited to, Russia and North Korea. The issues for these Korea and Japan will only be exacerbated with the economic progress of East Asia powers and the new science and technology agreement ratified by Iran and North Korea that prioritizes efforts to contain “common enemies.” (i.e. the West and Western allied nations) The latter factor will likely expedite North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and provide North Korea with more sophisticated nuclear weapons. These will allow North Korea to pose a far greater threat to these nations than it already does.

Additionally, these political disputes could threaten the two nations’ close economic ties. Japan and South Korea both depend on each other for about 10% of imports and exports. If the political hostilities between Seoul and Tokyo persist, it is likely that the free trade agreement that Japanese and Korean diplomats are currently working towards will get scrapped. This would be a devastating scenario for both nations and could serve to increase each nation’s trade deficit.

Clearly, political tensions between Korea and Japan are based almost entirely on the political aims of each party, especially the nationalistic Koreans. A failure to resolve this conflict will have great consequences for both Korea and Japan in the long term.

Private Education in Asia: A Slippery Slope

04 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by in Asia/ Pacific, Education

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The majority of economically developed countries have educational systems based from the bottom up. That is, the educational systems cater to the least common denominator. They provide equal or at least similar educational quality to all students regardless of wealth in order to create a truly meritocratic society where talent is more important than wealth.

However, many of the economically underdeveloped nations in Asia have diverged from this model, choosing instead to minimize education spending. The United Nations set the precedent that nations should devote at least 6% of the GDP to education spending. However, only two Asian nations surpass this threshold: Maldives and Uzbekistan. In the majority of Asian nations, the only hope that students have for a sufficient education is private education. As a result, over 50% of the world’s private schools (not including tertiary education) are located in Asia, despite Asia’s low average GDP per capita. This leads to societies with little upward socioeconomic mobility. After all, education plays a key role in determining one’s economic future, and students from wealthier families will invariably have greater opportunities. Although morally wrong, this is also economically inefficient. A meritocratic economic model increases competition and thus economic growth.

The issue of education highlights greater woes for the ‘Asian tiger’ economies. The majority of these nations have posted record economic growth in the past two decades. However, income inequality has also risen dramatically in these nations. Their newfound wealth is disproportionately confined to the wealthy. While economic inequality and a burgeoning upper class is generally conducive to economic growth, high economic inequality tends to lead to social unrest, which can cripple a nation’s economy and political structure. The last large-scale experiment with laissez faire capitalism was in Europe during the Industrial Revolution; at that time, most of Europe’s monarchs were disposed. In Russia, it led to the birth of Communism. While some of these developments, such as the birth of democracy, were beneficial for citizens, the abrupt change in government led to economic stagnation for a long period. This is almost entirely as a result of a lack of spending on public education.

Another downfall of economic inequality is the volatility of markets. The two times in American history when income inequality was the highest were in 1929 and 2008. Both were the years preceding a huge market recession. The fact of the matter is that providing institutions to benefit the rich leads to the creation of larger enterprises able to acquire smaller ones. Corporations should never be large enough to be politically powerful, but a laissez faire capitalism model allows for that.

If developing Asian nations hope to achieve sustainable economic growth, they must adopt an educational model to cater to students of all economic backgrounds in order to reduce income inequality, market volatility, and prevent citizen unrest.

Old Chums at the Diplomacy Table: Pyongyang and Tehran’s Deal of Terror

02 Sunday Sep 2012

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Iran and North Korea have just signed a technology agreement to increase cooperation in science and technology, especially in the energy field (i.e. nuclear weaponry).

In discussions between Tehran and Pyongyang, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni told North Korea’s head of state Kim Yong Nam that such an agreement would be essential in tackling Iran and North Korea’s “common enemies.” Khameni elaborated, “Arrogant powers don’t tolerate independent governments. In the march towards great goals, one should be serious, and pressures, sanctions and threats should not cause any crack in (our) determination.” Khameni constantly asserted that Iran and North Korea needed to work together to support “the anti-hegemonic front” regarding foreign relations with the West.

This comes just one year after Iran denied a United Nations report stating that North Korea and Iran were violating the UN Non-Proliferation Treaty by trading nuclear weapons and related technology and resources.

This development might seem like nothing new from leaders Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-un, who have seemingly dedicated their lives to provoking the West militarily. However, this is one of the boldest overt steps that Ahmadinejad has taken thus far. In the past, Ahmadinejad’s threats to the United States and European nations have been implicit. He has constantly denied the fact that Iran’s nuclear energy and enriched uranium programs were producing weapons of mass destruction.

This seems to be a repeat of the Cold War, with the Iranian and North Korean alliance, most likely supported by Russia, Syria, and other nations in favor of nuclear proliferation and the Ahmadinejad regime, representing the Soviet led COMECON. Though, the West’s military supremacy currently far exceeds that of the Cold War era. Granted, nuclear proliferation dilutes America’s power to an extent. However, nuclear weaponry can only be used as a last case scenario. This was proven by the United States’ failure to intervene in Hungary’s anti-Communist revolution in 1956 because of its overinvestment in nuclear weaponry and underinvestment in conventional troops. The issue was to small to intervene through nuclear weaponry, so the U.S. was unable to aid the anti-Communist rebellion that it supported strongly ideologically. In terms of conventional forces, the United States and its NATO allies presently have a huge advantage over Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and other nations with similar ideologies. America on its own contributes to more than half of the world’s military power and spends more than the next 26 countries combined. Many have speculated that America’s military supremacy could be threatened by the rise of China, but that will surely be a gradual transition that will not be hastened in the least by China’s economic slowdown. Iran and North Korea can saber rattle the West as much as they wish. However, this will generate no impact barring more stringent sanctions that will ruin their citizens’ quality of life. In the potential war that could break out between nuclear-armed nations in this conflict, there would be no winner. However, Iran and North Korea, with extremely weak conventional forces, stand to have the most to lost in the distinct possibility that such a conflict did not progress to brinkmanship on nuclear war.

Sri Lanka’s Higher Education Plight

25 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by in Asia/ Pacific, Education

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The UN has set the precedent that nations should devote at least 6% of GDP to spending on education. The majority of developed countries are able to surpass this threshold, but many developing nations struggle to meet this quota due to corruption, tax evasion, and low tax rates. In Sri Lanka, just 2% of GDP is spent on education. As such, it is difficult for the small island to pay teachers appropriate salaries or afford world-class resources for students.

Two days ago, Sri Lanka shut down most of its universities after nearly two months of teacher unions protesting the low wages in Sri Lanka, a direct result of low government spending on education. These universities are all government-subsidized and the government now proposes privatization of the tertiary-level education system in Sri Lanka. However, given the presently high poverty rates in Sri Lanka, privatizing Sri Lanka’s education system will be extremely damaging to the nation’s economy.

Privatization of any economic sector is thought to be beneficial to efficiency and cost. However, education is an exception to this rule. With the exception of the United States, tertiary-level education in nearly all economically developed countries is highly government subsidized or completely government financed. Public education helps to promote greater income equality and upward socioeconomic mobility, two key economic features that promote both growth and quality of life.

This problem is further exacerbated by Sri Lanka’s poverty. In the United States, a largely privatized higher education system is successful, to an extent, due to lower income inequality and higher GDP per capita. However, privatized universities hinder even wealthy nations such as the United States. Higher education tuition rates in the United States are only 50% as high as they are in much of Western Europe where university tuition is free or heavily government subsidized. As such, the United States has the second highest income inequality of any OECD nation according to its Gini coefficient ranking.

As onlookers from the international community, we can only hope that Sri Lanka’s decision to shut down its state-run universities is a temporary one designed to end salary protests from teachers. However, it is impossible to pinpoint Sri Lanka’s aim in this decision for certain. In order to prevent greater income inequality in the future, Sri Lanka should re-open all state-owned or subsidized universities. Furthermore, to promote its value on education and ensure higher education standards, Sri Lanka should acquiesce to the demands of university professors around the country and raise their salaries. These steps will be a small price to pay for the great economic progress that they will entitle Sri Lanka to in the future.

Park Geun-Hye: Park Chung-hee’s Puppet

23 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by in Asia/ Pacific, Government

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South Koreans have much to worry about if Park Geun-Hye get elected president.

At the moment, Park Geun-Hye appears poised to win the elections for South Korean presidency. By doing so, she would become South Korea’s first female president in a patriarchal, Confucian society. Geun-Hye has already won the primaries of the current ruling party, New Frontier Party. She is now up against a candidate from the main opposition party, who will likely end up being Ahn Cheol-soo.

The most shocking fact about Park Geun-Hye is her family connections. She is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, the South Korean dictator who seized power through a coup and ruled the nation from 1961 to 1979. Granted, Chung-hee helped to develop the Korean economy into a superpower. However, his human rights violations far outweigh any benefits he may have had to the nation’s economy. It is unfair to blame Geun-Hye for her family members, but this fact must be taken into consideration during the elections because of her An article in the Herald Sun explains, “Opponents portray her as aristocratic and aloof. Analysts say she is seen by many young, urban voters as an autocratic figure who does not communicate with ordinary people.”

The fact of the matter is that Park Geun-Hye is the unfortunate victim of a father who was politically repressive. Doubtlessly, Geun-Hye’s election would be a great step forward for South Korean gender empowerment. However, her conservative human rights approach is too much of a danger to South Korea. It is likely that she will simply be a moderate conservative like previous presidential candidates from her party, but parents have too much influence over their children’s beliefs for her father, Park Chung-hee, not to play a decisive role in the election. Thus, liberals and moderates alike should vote for opposition candidate Mr. Ahn.

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Park Geun-Hye’s presidency will likely be impacted greatly by her father, Park Chung-hee, pictured above who was a hard-line authoritarian dictator.

Urbanization in India

08 Wednesday Aug 2012

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Urbanization in India

15,000 people immigrate to New Delhi, India each day, most of them from rural areas. In faster developing cities like Kolkata and Mumbai, this number is almost double. Urbanization in India is going alongside unparalleled economic growth. The past quarter in India has been disappointing, but outlooks for the future are bright. Double-digit economic growth is entirely feasible for the next ten years at least.

The situation in India is much akin to the situation in Europe during the Industrial Revolution; wages are low, working conditions are subpar, income inequality is high, and the rate of urbanization is leading to overpopulation. At the same time, though, capitalist policies, much as in the European Industrial Revolution, are prompting economic growth at or nearly at double-digit rates.However, India need not necessarily replicate the living conditions and squalor of 19th Century Europe. India has the potential to foster economic growth while improving living conditions for its people.

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As a result of urbanization and skyrocketing real estate prices, many people in India immigrating to cities are forced to live in urban slums.

India’s primary focus should be on improving living conditions in the country. India houses over 78 million homeless people, many of whom are subject to abuse and exploitation by the beggar’s mafia in India. One way to tackle this problem is through heavily government subsidized housing. In Singapore, the government launched a government subsidized housing initiative in the 1960s at a time when many Singaporeans were living in unhygienic living conditions. Currently, 80% of Singaporeans live in government subsidized HDB housing. Due largely to this initiative by the Housing Development Board (HDB), Singapore has no homelessness at all.

Secondly, India should invest heavily in its public education sector. The level of education in private schools in India is almost unparalleled universally. However, public schooling in India cannot even be classified as formal education due to a lack of government investment in this sector. In many developing nations, children are unable to get a complete education because they have to work part-time to supplement the family’s income. In India, however, the issue is the exact opposite. Teachers in India do not teach full-time. They are often extremely under-paid and, as a result, do not take their teaching role seriously. Many of them fail to show up to school or arrange substitute teachers. The vast majority of Indian students is unable to afford elite private schools and is condemned, therefore to a substandard education in Indian public schools. If India hopes to continue sustainable economic progress and improve the quality of life of its citizens, it should invest more heavily in public education. Although India is currently in the Industrial Revolution, it must prepare for the post-Industrial Revolution. While economic growth in the Industrial Revolution is contingent upon an unskilled labor market, the Post-Industrial economy will be dependent on more skilled human capital.

The main factors hampering these developments are government corruption and India’s bureaucracy. A report from Hong Kong’s Political and Economic Risk Consultancy shows that India’s bureaucracy is the most stifling of any Asian nation.  Transparency International ranks India as the ninth most corrupt nation in the world, In fact, more than half of all Indians have paid a bribe in the past year. If India manages to solve its woes in government efficiency and enforce the measures noted above, it will be possible to achieve greater socioeconomic development during its Industrial Revolution.

The Future of McDonalds in Myanmar

01 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in Asia/ Pacific, Regime Change

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McDonald’s has long been a symbol of democracy and legitimate government. Attempts by the West to lift sanctions on Myanmar and move multinational corporation operations to the conflict torn, military ruled nation are preemptive and short-sighted.

McDonalds is much more than just a fast food chain; it is a sign of stability and democracy. Under the McDonalds Theory of Conflict Prevention, no two countries with a McDonalds operating in the nation have ever gone to war with each other (one exception: Georgia and Russia went to war in 2008). Now, as Western franchises like Coca-Cola and, in the near future, potentially McDonalds enter Myanmar, the question of whether Myanmar will be able to uphold the McDonalds Theory of Conflict Prevention is raised.

The underlying assumption of the McDonalds Theory of Conflict Prevention is that democratic nations are inherently peaceful and will only go to war with repressive nations to liberate their people; other democratic nations would need no liberation, so any two nations with McDonalds operating would be peaceful with one another. After all, the American corporation is only able to operate in nations not under sanctions from the US, which limits it to operating only in democratic nations for all intents and purposes.

The theory is sound but the question remains: can Myanmar be trusted to remain democratic. The nation still has undue influence from the military junta that has ruled the nation for decades. Now, under president U Thein Sein, the beginnings of democracy are appearing. U Thein Sein was a military commander in the Burmese military and has gained political power undemocratically through support from the military junta. He has, however, worked diligently to restore rights to freedom of expression and democratic elections to the nation. He has also allowed Aung San Suu Kyi to challenge him in a democratic presidential election. How far, though, will these democratic efforts be allowed to continue under the military junta? It is unclear whether the military rule will continue or surrender to cries for democracy from Burmese and the international community.

My opinion: keep the sanctions for the time being. Financial aid to democratic parties and humanitarian aid is acceptable, but applying political pressure on the military regime is still vital to ensuring the democratic process continues in the nation. After all, the Egyptian Arab Spring revolt has shown that regimes may ostensibly democratize simply to gain popular support and reduce international pressure, while in actuality maintaining their reign. In fact, much of the international community, especially the United States, hoped to apply sanctions. However, Australia and Europe lifted sanctions on Myanmar too early. Therefore, multinational corporations have managed to persuade their governments to lift sanctions on Myanmar just as Europe and Australia have done, correctly citing that this will help them to remain as competitive as Europe and Australia in the competition for the newly democratic nation. Nonetheless, America and the international community’s duty to ensure legitimate government around the world supersede their economic interest. Global sanctions on Myanmar for the short term are necessary in the short term to continue to pressurize the military regime and ensure lasting democracy. Once the democratic process in Myanmar has been established, there will be plenty of opportunities for the international community to capitalize on the new market by lifting sanctions.

Intervention in the World’s Most Closed Society

31 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by in Asia/ Pacific, Regime Change

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Kim Jong-un’s continuation of his father’s cruel policies can be seen through his allocation of great resources to Olympic athletes while letting most citizens in North Korea starve.

It is amazing that North Korea has even participated in this year’s London 2012 Olympics. The Olympics are the only time in the year when citizens outside of the Kim family aristocracy are allowed to leave the nation because of Kim Jong-un’s irrational fear of his citizens’ ideological corruption from the West. Even once the Olympic team had come all the way to London, doubt remained over whether North Korea would participate. After mistakenly displaying the South Korean flag (the flag of the nation that North Korea has officially been at war with since 1950) instead of the North Korean flag before a women’s soccer game last Wednesday, North Korea protested and refused to start the match for over an hour until the International Olympics Committee formally apologized for the mishap.

More amazing than North Korea’s mere participation in the Games, though, is the nation’s performance. With more medals than even host nation Britain thus far, North Korea has shocked the world with its Olympic performance of late. The performance of the isolationist ‘Hermit Kingdom,’ however, is not something to look upon with awe, but rather disgust. It is well known and documented that North Koreans’ daily caloric consumption less than ½ of that of America or Western European nations. Much of this caloric intake is from grass and insects, as food rations from the Communist regime are infrequent and unsubstantial. Yet, somehow, the North Korean Olympic athletes are able to acquire the proper nutrition and caloric requirements to perform at par with internationally recognized weightlifters and judo fighters.

Much like the Soviet nations in the late 1900s, North Korea is prioritizing sport over the welfare of its citizens. Threatened by the lack of influence that its Communist ideology has had since the collapse of the Soviet Union, North Korea aims to promote the strength of its Communist society in other ways, most notably through sport. As the international community has few glimpses into the closed nation he rules, Kim Jong-un hopes to portray North Korean society very differently than it truly is. By showcasing to the world only the ‘best’ of North Korea (i.e. the strongest, best fed citizens), he aims to create the illusion that all Western views of the DPRK are flawed and that, in actuality, North Korea is prosperous enough to devote extensive resources to training athletes for the Olympics.

The North Korean Olympic performance highlights one of the issues that have plagued North Korea since Kim Il-sung imposed Stalinist Communism on the nation in 1948. Despite being a self-declared Communist state, economic inequality in the nation is extremely high. The Kim regime, currently led by Kim Jong-un, devotes welfare and resources that a Communist State would ideally devote to the lower class to the ruling elite and a selected few conservative nationalist allies of the regime. It is estimated that the Kim family dynasty is worth tens of billions of dollars gained from the nation’s collectivized agriculture meant to redistribute profits to the poor. Instead though, the rich ironically are the only ones benefitting from the Communist society.

The Kim regimes tyrannical rule has progressed for far too long. The stance of the international community has largely been to let the regime die a natural death; after all, most nations figured that the isolationism and repression of North Korean dictators was unsustainable. However, the time for waiting has elapsed. It is time for the international community to lead a charge to overthrow the illegitimate ruler Kim Jong-un. Much as they did in Libya, NATO or the UN Security Council should decide on definitive action aiming at applying political pressure on the regime. This action could include but not be limited to more stringent sanctions, or even military action. Granted, the Arab Springs protests have shown that often times the political vacuum following the fall of an oppressive regime is filled by an equally repressive regime (e.g. Egypt). However, there have been successful regime topples, such as Libya’s. Libya is currently transitioning into democracy. With international support in toppling the Kim regime and replacing it with a more enlightened government, the international community has the potential to make North Korea a success story just like Libya.

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