Cuba and Korea: Part I
Let’s hope they are joined at the stomach
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has sent a get-well note to Cuba’s Fidel Castro, who has undergone stomach surgery, the North’s KCNA news agency said on Thursday.
Castro, who has lead Cuba for 47 years and is the world’s longest-ruling head of government, has not been seen in public since temporarily relinquishing power to his brother this week.
“I sincerely wish you a speedy recovery to your health so that you can excellently continue to carry out the Cuban revolution and the great mandate given to you by the people of Cuba,” Kim said in a telegram to Castro dated Aug. 2, KCNA said.
Kim, known as the “Dear Leader” at home, has ruled the North since the 1994 death of his father and the founder of the communist state, Kim Il-sung.
North Korea’s official media often writes articles expressing solidarity with the Castro government.
To me, Cuba is the North Korea of the Western Hemisphere. Both are brutal and oppressive regimes that revolves around a single personality. Fidel Castro is Kim Il Sung, and hopefully, will share the same earth as him very soon. But I’m not interested in finding out whose worse, I’m more interested in each countries’ respective human rights movements. From my perspective, the Cuban movement is massive.
As a North Korea activist, one can learn a lot from the Cuban-Americans of South Florida. Obviously, “Liberty in Cuba” began as soon as Fidel Castro became a Communist. Cubans are blessed with having only the Gulf of Mexico (not that sharks, tropical storms, and US Coast Guard are a cakewalk) between them and the road to freedom whereas North Koreans have the DMZ and a lesser evil in China to deal with. Whereas Korean-Americans are spread out from coast to coast, Cubans are heavily concentrated in South Florida and the Congressional Districts in it. More importantly, almost every Cuban-American is someone or is related to someone that had escaped Cuba. Cuban-Americans are more tied to Cuba than Korean-Americans are tied to North Korea (though some Korean Christians told me that Pyongyang used to be the Jerusalem of the East). Alot of these advantages seem to be natural, as they are products of time. So how can a North Korea activist hope to gain these advantages?
To be Continued…
