The “D” Word
When diplomats speak about North Korea, they call it “DPRK” — the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”. South Korea goes by the less colourful “Republic of Korea”.
It got me thinking. What the hell is so “democratic” about North Korea? I remembered another country of notoriety using this in its name, so I got curious about what other thugocracies were attempting to make up for their reality in this fashion.
According to the ISO Country Names, there are only three.
Sharing this distinction with North Korea is the venerable “Democratic Republic of the Congo” (the one I recalled), and “Lao People’s Democratic Republic”.
Joseph Kabila of The Congo (or, the DRC, hmmm…) makes Kim Jong-Il look like a pretty nice guy. Even AU pal Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe doesn’t make laughable use of the word “Democratic” in it’s official name. But then again, this is Africa, home to places like Liberia, which has rarely lived up to its namesake.
Admittedly, I know little about North Korea’s Asian “Democratic” counterpart, Laos. I do know that it is a socialist, landlocked country in Eastern Asia that started market reforms long after China. They are only 139th in GDP per capita, so things must be going pretty good.
Well, three is clearly enough: Let’s call them the “Axis of Democracy”.
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