Songbun.

To us, the word is meaningless, but for 25 million human beings, this simple term dictates the course of their entire lives without question. How much food will you receive from the latest rations? Will you study at the top university or the lowest farm? Will you live–or die?

In North Korea, this is reality. Worth is determined by a person’s songbun, or social status, which depends on the past and present loyalty of your relatives. Songbun is a big part of how the Kims have held on to power all these years; a person in the lowest class is closely watched and can never rise above the hostile label–they’re forever rendered powerless.

The government has also relied on censorship to control its people. Foreign literature is restricted to all but the top students, and no one is allowed to access unfiltered media–an attempt to do so is likely to get you killed, especially for members of the hostile class.

How can they rebel without access to any semblance of truth?

Over the last 70 years, countless millions of North Koreans have been kept in the dark, both figuratively and literally due to the ongoing energy crisis. Outside of Pyongyang, the wealthy capital, the small nation sits forgotten in the darkness.  

The time has come to remember.

Options regarding North Korea have been limited for quite some time now. The U.S. has provided more than $1 billion in aid, but it’s not even clear that this funding is going to the people as it’s meant to. We can’t truly help these people until we free them.

Kim Jong Un’s nuclear threats, however, vastly complicate things. There are countless theories on the best way to deal with it, but as our deliberation shows, there’s no clear choice. Anything we do at this point will be criticized. We just have to do something.

Kim Jong Un is well aware that his regime is on thin ice–North Korea has little economic value for the U.S., but more importantly, they constantly ignore global standards for human rights. A nuclear arsenal is his last frantic attempt to regain control.

We must fight back at whatever cost. Helping North Koreans begins with liberation, and that has to be remembered in our decisions regarding the nuclear threats–protecting ourselves is not all that matters.