Since the beginning of time, many kingdoms and empires have risen and fallen. The resilient ones have been able to transform themselves into countries, be they autocratic nations/states. Throughout history, we have seen many cases of autocratic leaders such as the Nazi Party and the Soviet Union. Most autocratic countries have managed to transform into democracy or have mitigated human rights abuse and extreme autocracy. There are some countries in the modern era that are autocratic or dictatorial such as Saudi Arabia, Belarus, United Arab Emirates, Brunei, Turkmenistan, and Eritrea. All the listed countries have managed to make living conditions reasonable and significantly eliminate the extremist way of running a country according to the UN Human Rights Guidelines. However, North Korea has not reduced its extreme autocratic views and human rights violations. I will further discuss the origin of the Kim Dynasty, their philosophical belief known as Juche, and the atrocities that followed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The country's first leader after the end of Japanese rule, in 1948 Kim Il-Sung came to power and brought with him the state philosophy known as Juche which would later be adapted by his successors, his son Kim Jong Il and the grandson Kim Jong Un. Juche is Kim Il-Sung's self-proclaimed "original, brilliant and revolutionary" contribution to the nation. It mandates that “man be the master of his identity” and focuses on becoming strong and self-sufficient to achieve true socialism. Juche is very similar to Marxism in that it places emphasis on man (individual), nation and its sovereignty. The Kim dynasty has used Juche as a way to justify their cruel and inhumane government policies. Juche ideology promotes the concept of agricultural independence and lack of dependence on the outside world. This ideology was passed down to North Korea's third and current generation leader, Kim Jong Un. The state controls everything and keeps an eye on its residents using a vast network of reconnaissance and informants. The economy is also carefully monitored, and the government funnels large amounts of money into its nuclear program despite significant shortages of food, fuel and other necessities. North Korea's media is the most controlled on the planet. Their citizens receive all their news, information and entertainment from state media, which invariably portrays the leader as supreme through propaganda tools in its media, education system and cultural beliefs. Nowadays, cell phones in North Korea are more common than they were in the past, but they are limited to local calls only, while making an international call comes at a very high price. Internet access is available only to a select few individuals in Pyongyang who are what the rest of the world calls “the 1%.” Individuals indicted for political violations are routinely sent to labor camps, which include extremely harsh work in mines and forests. Amnesty International has described the labor camps as “harsh beyond endurance”. Prisoners suffer torment and beatings at the hands of guards, and women are left defenseless against sexual misconduct and rape. One of North Korea's harshest policies involves collective punishment, meaning that if one family member commits a crime, the entire family or other family members can be imprisoned or sent to labor camps. When government policies are not followed, punishments are brutal, theThe death penalty is given very casually to all prisoners and the executions are public as a deterrent to any other people who commit crimes. North Korea also detains foreign citizens it suspects are spies from other countries and very often mistakes a real tourist for a spy which drives away tourism in the country. North Korea has also falsely imprisoned American tourists in an attempt to use them as political tourist pawns for sanctions and other political benefits. For example, in 2018, before the US-North Korea summit, 3 American prisoners who had been imprisoned in labor camps for “anti-state activities” they were released as a gesture of goodwill. The close-knit communities only believe in propaganda published by the government which largely depicts an evil external enemy trying to invade North Korea and their supreme leader keeping them at bay, which in my opinion is absolutely delusional and is a clear proof of a megalomaniac. Women's rights are widely violated, many reports describe immeasurable inequality in North Korea, even though it presents itself as an equal society among its citizens. Women suffer torture, rape and other sexual abuse in labor camps and prisons. Furthermore, culturally women are not seen as equals, so their oppression is widespread. Due to sexual abuse and rape, many children are forced to live a poor life. Although education is provided, the curriculum consists of state propaganda and disinformation about the world. From an early age, the state limits people's knowledge of the outside world to better manipulate and control the masses. Kim Jong Il, father of Kim Jong Un, leads the most repressive government of all time, ruling by fear and prioritizing power above all else. Kim Jong Un is following in his father's footsteps as growing up he watched his father Kim Jong Il oversee mass famine, entrenched abuse, cult of personality, and mass starvation. However, under Kim Jong Un's rule, North Korea is no longer as isolated from the outside world as it once was. In recent decades, many North Koreans have fled the state and traveled to China and South Korea and then around the world. These defectors highlighted the reality of life in North Korea to an even deeper extent with their first harsh experiences and testimonies of the regime's extremism. Additionally, many news outlets and investigative journalism have managed to obtain permission to film inside North Korea. Journalists are always escorted, monitored and restricted by a government liaison. “It seems like they want you to see only limited parts of their world because the rest might be more than bearable to see,” says a deputy journalist who has officially obtained permission from the government for this “controlled” tour of limited parts of the capital. Every year thousands of North Korean defectors make it to South Korea, where global broadcast networks have established contacts in South Korea to obtain first-hand accounts from people who suffered the atrocities. As more and more information became available, the world decided to take a stand and react. There is only one way to provide information to the North Korean population without government censorship controls and that is through shortwave radio stations operated by foreign NGOs. The flow of information occurs through multiple methods. Information physically crosses borders in cell phones, USB flash drives, DVDs, and other digital media. Some NGOs have even put USB sticks in glass bottles and floated them across the East and Yellow Seas. These methods to provide them.