Tanzania must condemn North Korea’s recklessness

North Korea has been in the news again recently. The latest missile tests and its claims that it has miniature nuclear war heads have drawn the ire of the UN Security Council and led to even more sanctions.

Why the pariah state keeps on taking the militaristic measures in total violation of the UN directives is anyone’s guess. The subsequent sanctions imposed, however, hurt the ordinary people more, adding to their misery and sufferings.

Not that the regime is the least concerned about the sufferings its people have endured in the last 50 years; from famine to diseases. The regime itself is the perpetrator and responsible for gross human rights violations.

What is unfortunate is that the reckless militaristic adventures of North Korea create tension in the whole Korean peninsula, stocking unnecessary stress to the populations and keeping the militaries of South Korea and Japan on edge.

And the fact that the two Koreas are still technically at war and have exchanged fire several times since the armistice of 1953 does not help matters.

The rule of the thumb in South Korea is to take seriously North Korea’s threats and irresponsible military exercises.

Visiting the Korean demilitarised zone can help one understand how grave the situation is. The troops stationed there from both sides are on high alert.

They are stationed facing one another, separated only by a borderline of a few centimetres ready for combat at any time.

In fact, civilians visiting the zone are advised to avoid awkward gestures such as pointing fingers to the North Korea side because such gestures can readily lead to an exchange of fire.

But addition to stocking tensions in the Korean peninsula, North Korea has totally refused to open up its society and has failed to allow even some basic freedoms to its people.

Things like access to the internet and mobile phone communications, taken for granted even in the poorest of the nations, are a taboo in the reclusive state.

Summary executions on the slightest of offences are a common phenomenon and the right to basic needs is not guaranteed.

One needs to visit North Korean clinics in Dar es Salaam to observe the kind of lives the North Korean workers lead to get the feel of how life is back home. Over 60 per cent of salaries they earn here is repatriated back home to the accounts of the regime as a tax for being allowed to work overseas.

They end up leading a life of slavery and misery because they do not have enough to fend for themselves.

It is on this account that North Korean actions need to be condemned by all countries, Tanzania included.

South Korea, which suffers the most from the recklessness of the North Korean regime, is one of the largest development partners to Tanzania. Its contribution to the infrastructure, education, health, agriculture and capacity building programmes to the Tanzanian civil service is well documented.

Aid from South Korean has helped to build the one-kilometre-long Malagarasi Bridge, opening up the western region of Kigoma after 40 years without road access.

The MUHAS’ Mloganzila health facility, which is set to be one of the largest in the country, is funded by South Koreans, and so is the proposed new Selander Bridge that will connect the Msasani Peninsula and the city centre to ease congestion.

In fact, total commitment for current and future projects from South Korean amounts to $455 million (Sh955 billion).

Hundreds of Tanzanians, mostly from the civil service, are being trained in South Korean colleges and universities.

It is understandable that in the past, Tanzania was more ideologically closer to North Korea. But condemning the actions of the country’s regime could also serve as part of efforts to help the enslaved North Koreans to achieve a better future