Kim Jong-Il has banned North Koreans who were working in Libya from returning home — for fear that they will spread the word of revolution.
About 200 North Koreans were working for Moammar Gadhafi’s regime and were witnesses to the six months of fighting that ultimately saw the overthrow and killing of the strongman, reports the
Daily Telegraph. Most were doctors, nurses, or construction workers.
Now they want to return to their families, but Pyongyang says that’s not going to happen. North Koreans caught up in the revolutions in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt are similarly not welcome home.
North Korean media have not reported on the revolutions in the three North African countries, the Telegraph says.
The paper quotes the Seoul-based Korea Herald as saying, “Despite their boasting of the perfect loyalty of the 23 million people to the party and the leader, the ruling elite are afraid of what effect the information on the fates of the overseas dictatorships will have on the oppressed people of the country.
“It is a matter of time before the North Korean people reach the limit of their endurance of hunger and repression and rise up against Kim’s rule."