According to recent news reports, China might place sanctions on North Korea.

The news of possible sanctions against the neighboring country, while not a pressing issue, is extremely important. Ever since the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) formed in 1947, China has been its big brother, giving them monetary aide and the like.

The DPRK has always relied on China for its aide, but since China’s slow but large embrace of a capitalist system, it’s gaining more of a reason to part ways with the Soviet wonderland that is North Korea.

In the past, North Korea has threatened to bomb many western countries. The problem is that most of those countries threatened by North Korea are trading allies with China. So, if China wishes to keep good relations with its trading partners, they have to constantly keep their angry little brother — North Korea — in check. Now, this is becoming increasingly hard to do, and it seems China is slowly giving up providing aide to North Korea.

For many years, China shipped food on trains into North Korea, because many of its citizens are starving and malnourished.  What has North Korea done with the hundreds of pounds of food sent in? They only gave it to the higher ranking citizens, who already had access to food. Those with real need had very little access to these supplies.

Due to the country’s “juche” ideology, fashioned by its founder and eternal president Kim Il-Sung, ensuing leaders believe that the country should be self-reliant. Sanctions placed by China could have detrimental effects on North Korea. Since North Korea has depended on China for so long, they will now be left completely on their own.

North Korea is surrounded by much larger countries with humongous economies such as the powerhouses that are South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. North Korea’s economy makes Uganda look like the China of Africa. Twenty years down the road, after twenty years of sanctions by every known country, North Korea would likely begin to completely crumble. Knowing this, we would need to worry about what would happen to the twenty-three million people who live there.

The citizens of North Korea have been brutally brainwashed and have little knowledge of the outside world because they have been prohibited from learning about anything that is not about North Korea. If the country begins to collapse, these people will likely begin to flee like bats out of hell.

Now, imagine yourself as someone who has no knowledge of the outside world, no money, starved, and worried; how are you going to handle trying to find a new place to call home? South Korea has a program set in place to aide North Korean refugees, but that would program would likely become overwhelmed. For many North Korean refugees, getting used to the real outside world is daunting. They no longer have the usual comfort of knowing their “dear leaders” are watching over them. They no longer have every last piece of their life planned out and handed to them by the mercy of the Great Marshall Kim Jong-Un, their current dictator.

The citizens of North Korea are in desperate need of our help. When North Korea inevitably falls, the global world has no choice but to come to their aide.

The last bastion of Soviet glory that is North Korea was part of the experiment of Communism. The idea that all people could be equal, free and taken care for sounded great. Everyone had a job, an education, a house and a salary, but in the end, it turned out the communism practice failed. North Korea remains the last country in existence that was formed directly by the Soviets. After 69 years of glorious communism, it seems that the charade is finally coming to a close and soon the people of North Korea will be free to pick their own destiny, and live with a government which truly believes all people are equal.