BY IZZY YUHA– On September 25, 2019, North Korea tested a missile that challenged President Trump’s vision of denuclearization.
Life in North Korea isn’t what an American middle class citizen would call a happy life. In North Korea, many people live in poverty on the outskirts of the cities. Not only that, their mobile phones can only call inside the country. It is also well known in North Koreans cannot travel inside their own country. The life here is anything but “cozy.” However, the media doesn’t pay attention to this.
A popular picture that is one that compares North and South Korea shows North Korea at night, a sad place, cloaked by darkness. North Korea goes almost completely dark at night. Compared to South Korea, it doesn’t look like a safe area to live in. Residents of North Korea must go to bed early every night to save on electricity.
How would IJHS students feel if they had to go home early to save on electricity? Going home early would constrict the time that students could spend with friends, go out into town, and do so much more.
Maizie Baunoch (6) said, “It would be unfair, and I would be sad. I wouldn’t be able to go to my friends’ houses late at night!”
“I would be sad,” said Luc Fields (6), “because I wouldn’t be able to do the tasks I need to do if there’s no electricity!”
Photographs comparing South Korea and North Korea show that North Koreans doesn’t have much self expression; photos don’t have much color. Imagine living somewhere where instead of lushous hills there is bare land everywhere!
North Korean life would not be the happiest place to live for a lot of people. Unfortunately, North Koreans don’t exactly know what is going on in the outside world. Hopefully, one day North Korea will have the same freedoms as most countries have.
As of November 2019, there has not been an abundance of news about North Korea, but North Korea announced that the window for negotiations with the United States is closing. As of November 1, they confirmed a test on a large missile. For the sake of the future, a way forward for both countries must be found.