Anyone who has followed Vice, or the tumultuous career path of retired NBA star Dennis Rodman, knows what a delightfully spooky place North Korea is. Drab in the most depressing ways, North Korea has been a source of bemusement for Westerners for some time.
Much like ISIS and other Western World-hating militant groups, the country ruled by Kim Jong-un continuously threatens the United States with sharp verbiage. However, unlike the fear and terror that ISIS and other extremists have been able to strike into the hearts of Westerners, North Korea continues to prove an almost laughable foe. A foe for which idle threats and the blocking of James Franco is more the norm than say, launching real military offensives. Which, in its own farcical way, is a good thing.
However, North Korea shouldn’t be taken lightly, not because of any realistic military threat that they pose to the US, but because of the ongoing human rights crises that North Korea’s dictator has created for the country’s people.
Recently three professional snowboarder’s Terje Haakonsen, Dan Liedahl, and Mike Ravelson were invited to travel to North Korea to help bolster tourism to a North Korean ski resort, and as of this writing (and based on the media firestorm that followed the announcement), it seems that they’ve accepted the invitation, which is disheartening to say the least.
As was recently reported by the Human Rights Watch “the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), chaired by retired Australian judge Michael Kirby concluded that the North Korea(n) government has committed systematic human rights abuses at a scale without parallel in the contemporary world—including extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions, and other sexual violence.”
We don’t do bomb drills in school because of North Korea. But we should still be cognizant of the suffering the North Korean people have tolerated, especially those who have openly opposed the reign of the Kim family. And Terje, of all people, should know better than to become a marketing tool for an oppressive regime. The two younger snowboarders included in the invite might not have the same understanding of North Korea’s humanitarian atrocities. To them, it’s probably just a cool opportunity to check out some place new, which is in line with snowboarding’s boundary-pushing culture. But this carelessness could ultimately have a negative impact.
This isn’t meant to demonize the three riders traveling to North Korea, but maybe it should be a reminder to everyone in the sport that while riding a board on snow is cool, and fun, having a little global awareness and educating ourselves about how our actions and decisions impact the environments and societies that we engage with isn’t a bad thing.
So this is an invitation to Terje, Mike, and Dan; Please rethink your decision and cop a read about the realities of the humanitarian crisis that’s taking place in the country you’re about to visit. Ask yourselves if what you’re doing is good for snowboarding. But more importantly, if it’s good for humanity.
I hope we see a free North Korea in my lifetime, where people are able to travel as they please, information isn’t suppressed, and the people aren’t beaten down by a vicious dictator. Until then, we shouldn’t be engaging with their government leaders. North Korea lacks the civil liberties inalienable to all human beings, and as long as they continue to diminish the hope and wellbeing of their people, why support their tourism campaigns? Their profits might only be fueling further atrocities.
