Conclusion
Conclusion
Is Past Prologue?
This concluding chapter tackles the main issue of the lack of communication within North Korea as one of the central concerns in the continuation of suffering and human rights violations in the country. It looks into how North Koreans are still held back by the repressive government. This loss of the ability to speak openly emerged in the oral accounts in previous chapters in the form of jokes and other humor but also in careful phrases, metaphors, and repetitions that show an interpellation of the state and daily social life. Just as the absence of food and other resources found a new presence in the form of ersatz food and makeshift resources, the use of speech in North Korea seems to have long adapted to limitations. The government exercises a detailed control of the population, both in terms of physical bodies and in terms of what people produce—their labor or the product of their words.
Keywords: communication, North Korea, suffering, human rights violations, repressive government, ersatz, makeshift resources, government control
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