To keep a hideously repressive regime in place requires a lot of resources. Secret police, mass surveillance, and propaganda agencies don’t just come cheap. It’s unnatural for people to be kept in a state of subjugation.
■ That cost is both direct and indirect. Even if the tools of the state were free of charge, the difference in output between people who are free and people who live in fear is large (and consistently found).
■ All of this is to say that it’s heartbreaking to imagine just how much the North Korean regime wastes on remaining in power through fear.
■ It is nearly equally heartbreaking to witness the apparent eagerness of some US officials to serve them the appearance of greater legitimacy through diplomatic talks. Some 25 million people live harsher, poorer lives because they are under the shadow of North Korea’s authoritarian regime. Nothing we do from the outside should enlarge that shadow or enhance its prestige if it shows no signs of real conversion.