A most backwards China visit

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il moved 3,000 kilometers by train for three days to visit China. He continued his anachronistic practice in his trip, traveling three days over a distance that takes just one day by plane. Kim is reportedly acrophobic. His abnormal and unrealistic trip itself, which is unprecedented among leaders anywhere in the world, vividly represents the reality of North Korea, however. As long as a tyrannical leader like Kim wields absolute power, the Stalinist country has little hope.

Commenting on the purpose of Kim’s surprise visit, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak at their summit Sunday, “We invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to help him understand economic development trends in China, and to use this experience in developing North Korea.” He apparently meant that Beijing hopes Kim embraces reform and opening, two things that fundamentally changed economic livelihood in China.

In January 2001 when Kim visited the Fudong district of Shanghai, the hub of Chinese-style capitalism, he was said to be amazed and declared “a sea of change.” His path drew attention back then as he was expected to copy Deng Xiaoping’s “southern path for development.” The late Chinese leader had presented a roadmap for reform and market opening while touring Wuhan, Hebei and Guangzhou in 1992. Following Kim’s return to Pyongyang, North Korean media reported en masse, “Shanghai underwent a sea of change.” Kim reportedly scolded his deputies, saying, “What`ve we been doing over the past years,” causing many to speculate that the North would seek massive reform and opening. South Korean government officials also predicted that a North Korean version of an aggressive drive for reform and change will unfold. The high expectations for the North ended up as a huge disappointment, however, given the grim reality facing North Koreans today.

Despite the sunshine policy of engaging North Korea under the 10-year liberal administrations of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun in South Korea, Pyongyang continued nuclear weapons development and even launched attacks rather than implement reform and opening. As a result, North Koreans are starving and many are risking their lives to escape their country amid starvation and hunger. Since his solo visit in June 1983, Kim has toured China eight times. He should have known that the achievements that China’s reform and opening have brought about in the Chinese economy and the reality around the world. Kim has opposed reform and opening because he apparently fears a setback to his goal of maintaining his dictatorial rule through a hereditary succession of power. Democratization in North Africa and the Middle East clearly illustrates, however, that the North`s communist regime that rejects change has no future.