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In the early 1980s, historian Jon Halliday asked Genaro Carnero Checa, a radical Peruvian writer and frequent traveler to the DPRK who published a book on the country in 1977 entitled Korea: Rice and Steel, his honest opinion of North Korea. Checa replied, โThey fought the North Americans; they have done incredible things in the economy; itโs the only Third World country where everyone has good health, good education and good housing.โ Halliday then asked Checa about his view of North Korea as a poet. Checa said, โIt is the saddest, most miserable country Iโve ever been in in my life. As a poet, it strikes bleakness into my heart.โ Checaโs statements reflect what many in the Third World thought of North Korea during the Cold War era. On one hand, this small nation overcame Japanese imperialism, brought the mighty U.S. military to a standstill in a three-year war, and rapidly rebuilt itself into a modern socialist state. For many struggling peoples in the Third World that recently overcame decades of Western colonialism and imperialism, North Koreaโs economic recovery and military prowess were justifiably admirable. On the other hand, the oppressiveness and brutality of the North Korean political system undermined the appeal of the DPRKโs developmental model to the Third World. The growing inefficiencies of North Koreaโs economic system also became too obvious to ignore. In fact, Kim Il Sungโs Third World diplomacy may have furthered the DPRKโs domestic economic troubles. A former member of the North Korean elite, Kang Myong- do, said after his defection to South Korea that โexcessive aid to Third World countries had caused an actual worsening of North Koreaโs already serious economic problems.
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Benjamin R. Young (Guns, Guerillas, and the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World)