Asia
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117. North Korea: Hell on Earth
Oct 22nd 2009 From The Economist print edition

The West still turns a blind eye to the world's most brutal and systematic abuse of human rights

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A SPRAWLING encampment of think-tankers, academics, hacks and policymakers earns a living outside North Korea's walls. They pick over its nuclear intentions and the prospects for the diplomatic dance known as the six-party process, which is meant to persuade North Korea to give up its nukes for cash and security guarantees. The encampment needs something to live on. Since North Korea declared the six-party talks dead in the spring, scraps have been meagre. So the North's recent signals of a readiness to return to the forum, after talking to America first, come as a relief. This week a senior North Korean nuclear negotiator was on his way to America. The dance is starting up again, and the encampment is not short of views about what's in store.
Yet the focus on nukes comes at the cost of other things worth noting about North Korea. Human rights, for instance. In recent years the outlines of daily life, and the state's miserable part in it, have become plain. First came the horror stories told by refugees in China escaping the famine from 1995-98 that killed 600,000-1m people. A more detailed picture has since emerged from refugees now settled in South Korea, from aid-workers, diplomats and from satellite pictures which, among other things, map another form of encampmentthe North's gulag.

A. 어휘
brutal 잔인한. abuse 학대, 악용, 濫用(남용).
sprawl 손발을 보기 흉하게 뻗다. encampment 야영, 野營地(야영지).
think-tankers 연구소. academics 학회회원, 대학교수, 대학원생.
hacks 삼류작가, 돌팔이. pick over 골라내다.
prospects 가망, 전망. six-party process 六者會談(육자회담).
persuade 설득하다. cash 현금. security guarantees 안전보장.
live on 먹고살다. declare 선언하다. scraps 조각, 먹다 남은 것.
meagre 빈약한, 불충분한. relief 안심, 구원. negotiator 협상하는 사람.
short of ...이 부족한. in store 비축하여, 준비하여.
at the cost of ...를 희생하고. miserable 불쾌한, 부끄러운, 비참한.
plain 명백한. horror 戰慄(전율), 소름끼치는 것. refugees 難民(난민).
famine 饑饉(기근). detailed 자세한. emerge 출현하다.
diplomat 외교관. encampment 야영지(수용소). gulag 수용소.

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So long out of sight, out of mind. Yet the emerging picture is horrendous, especially for ordinary people in the lesser cities and hardscrabble northern provinces. Take a slice of daily life from the bulletin of a South Korean aid outfit, Good Friends. It is plausibly consistent if unverifiable. Around Wonsan city, more than 70% of residents survive on a corn porridge mixed with grass. In mountainous Kangwon province residents fear the biggest food shortage next spring since the "Arduous March" (ie, the famine). Much of the trouble lies with a campaign, called the "150-day battle", just ended, to boost socialist production and turn North Korea into a "powerful nation" by 2012. It took farmers away from their plots. "We are being led to our deaths," says one.
In South Pyongan province farmers organise patrols to prevent grain theft. One confronted three soldiers attempting to steal corn. When a police officer was called in, the soldiers attacked him. In South Hamgyong province the government has run out of fuel for heavy machinery so residents have to move heavy rocks by hand. In South Pyongan province housewives complain about being forced to make gloves for dam-workers, send meat to the army and collect scrap metal. In Chungjin city the construction office has been unable to feed its 550 employees for 16 months. The rate of absenteeism has reached a third. In a "labour-exertion drive" ten policemen enforce attendance.

A. 어휘
horrendous 끔찍스러운, 무서운.
scrabble 앞을 다투어 뺏으려고 하다, 맞붙어 싸우다, 휘저어 찾다.
province 州(주), 道(도), 顯(현). bulletin 회보, 소규모신문, 便覽(편람), 게시.
outfit 단체, 장비. plausibly 그럴듯하게. unverifiable 증명할 수 없는.
resident 거주민. porridge 죽. arduous 힘든, 불요불굴의.
“Arduous March'”고난의 행군.“ famine 饑饉(기근).
plot 작은 땅, 텃밭. grain theft 곡식 도둑. confront 대면하다, 대결하다.
run out of 떨어지다. fuel for heavy machinery 중장비 연료.
complain 불평하다. scrap 쓰레기, 조각. absenteeism 장기결근.
a third 3분의 1. exertion 힘을 내기, 盡力(진력).
"labour-exertion drive" “노력 동원 운동”. enforce 강요하다. attendance 출석.