Whether it be due to deliberate ignorance or lack of media coverage, most Americans seem to have little interest or understanding when it comes to foreign affairs. Given how many domestic problems we have, this is quite understandable and may even be the correct attitude to have towards foreign affairs.

But even in this state of ignorance it’s hard avoid all news involving foreign politics. Currently, one country that sticks out is the enigma that is North Korea. Most of us have heard of the nuclear tests and have a faint idea of the authoritarian government, but I still think most of us can ask ourselves, “What the fuck is going on in North Korea?”

Recently, a U.S. Ambassador addressed

the UN hoping to agree upon new sanctions against North Korea after their recent test that involved a hydrogen bomb with long range capabilities. To my non-scientific brain incapable of understanding the logistics of such a bomb, this sounds like a big deal.

However, I can’t help but feel like this is nothing new. Every other week it seems my Newsfeed tells me of some North Korean nuclear test. After so many tests without any actual violence it’s hard to recognize any serious threat. In fact, this has led many of us to treat North Korea as a joke, as for example, the 2014 comedy movie ‘The Interview

’ that focuses around an assassination attempt of Kim Jung-un.

So clearly some of us here in America don’t exactly take North Korea and their nuclear threats seriously. Thus, many of us view the whole country as superfluous, since they appear to be all talk when it comes to nuclear war. This may be true, but it is also an incredibly selfish view of the situation; we here in America might be safe, but we ignore the actual problem with North Korea, not its nuclear program but quality of life for their people.

As already mentioned, I’m not sure anyone, especially millennials, fully understands how a place like North Korea came to be. A place where the entire political structure and culture revolves around the greatness of their leader, where freedom is at a minimum and autonomous thought is practically non-existent. How should we feel about this? Are we supposed to accept the fact that anyone born in this country is forced to live in an ideological prison and just move on?

According to the media and our foreign policy, the answer to that question would be yes. While I respect Nikki Haley, the ambassador mentioned above, for taking North Korea serious, I don’t think her reasons are respectable.

She claims North Korea is “begging for war” (her words) due to their technological advances in nuclear science. What she and most the world fails to recognize is that North Korea’s authoritarian government and country wide oppression are why we should intervene; not because our lives are in danger but because North Korean lives are at stake.

Now, it’s very debatable how much “at stake” North Korean lives are at, especially considering biologically speaking, their lives aren’t in danger. But on a deeper, more human level I think we should ask ourselves what kind of a life these people have. How alive can you be when all the art you experience is devoid of meaning? When religious expression is usurped by false nationalism? When transcendence means complete submission to your political leader and your life’s purpose consists of improving the greatness of your country?

As an English major who has read too much Romantic poetry, this is a life that’s hardly worth living, and I do believe we, meaning the rest of the world, have a moral obligation to fix the cesspool that is North Korea. With that being said, I have to realize the idealistic nature of liberating North Koreans, that in theory we should do something, but the practical means of liberation are far-fetched and may even be impossible for all I know.

But even if we don’t have an immediate way of fixing North Korea, it’s important that we recognize that it does need to be fixed. We may laugh at the threats of their ridiculous leaders and how our ridiculous leader responds, but this doesn’t change the fact that North Korea is one of the biggest humanitarian crises we have ever seen.

And all this adds up to very mixed feelings about North Korea. Because it is hard to take them seriously sometimes, yet their people are practically living in a simulation. I admit I have done little research on North Korea, but I don’t think any amount of research will make me comprehend what North Korea hopes to achieve with its extreme isolation and global hostility. All I know at this point is North Korea doesn't pose a threat to American lives, only the lives of its citizens.