Ethics

Moral absolutists take a strictly black-and-white view of morality. Relative moralists argue that some actions though wrong in some circumstances, can be justified in other circumstances. Moral absolutionists, in the other hand, have no such provisions. What is wrong or unacceptable remains so regardless of the circumstances, in what has at times been referred to as an all-or-nothing view of the world (Petraeus 61). The rules used by absolutists, whether written or otherwise, are stiff and fixed, and therefore rarely change. A mother who has no food or money and whose child is starving, and who therefore steals food would have grounds to justify the theft among relative moralists as the circumstances leave the mother with the option of either stealing the food, or losing her child. Among absolutist moralists however, stealing would be wrong irrespective of whether her child was starving or not. They would argue that stealing is wrong, and no reason or circumstance can justify stealing.

Absolutism
Absolutism requires that people behave or act in the accepted manner, the slightest deviation from which any action becomes wrong and unacceptable. A good example of absolutist script is the ten commandments which are believed to have originated with God, a supernatural and absolute being. Believers have no room to bend any of the commandments or negotiate for an amendment. They simply have to follow the commandments if they have to be on the right path. Among Muslims, dogs should not be allowed into mosque compounds. If a blind woman is walking with her guide-dog just next to a mosque and a storm suddenly strikes, absolutist Muslims would require that she either leaves her dog outside and seeks shelter in the mosque alone, or they both seek alternative shelter outside the mosque compound. Despite the growing problems which have been blamed on population growth and unprotected sex, and the unreliability of natural of natural methods of birth control, use of contraceptives remains banned among Roman Catholics (Ethical Studies Rsrevision).

Communism in Korea
The Republic of North Korea offers a classic example of a country whose leadership subscribes to absolutism.  Since the 1950s, North Korea has used a system of Great Leader (Su-Ryeong) absolutism which North Korean presidents have used to build cults around themselves. Although the Soviet Block collapsed in the early 1990s, bringing to an end one of the worlds largest Communist blocks, North Korea has guarded its Communist system vigorously and has opposed attempts to accept democracy. According to the Great Leader absolutism, the countrys leader cannot go wrong and it is the duty of North Koreans to obey and not question the word of the ruler. Violation and abuse of the human rights of North Koreans by the Dear Leader, either directly or through government agents, is morally justified by the Great Leader absolutism (Yop, n.d). Consequently, hundreds of dissenters, political opponents , and critics have been tortured or killed, while yet others have had to flee from the country to criticize their Great Leader from other countries as doing it from within North Korea is wrong and sure to attract severe punishment.

The rulers word becomes policy, even though some of the decisions made by Kim II Song and his successor Dear Leader Kim Jong II have led to disastrous outcomes. An estimated three million people died during the March of Tribulation. To absolve himself from blame, Kim Jong II ordered the public execution of the then Secretary of Agricultural Affairs, Seo Kwan Hee, in 1997 (Joo). Millions of other North Koreans have died of starvation before and after the March of Tribulation yet it remains absolutely wrong to place the responsibility of these deaths on the Great Leader. The price of ill-fated decisions by the Dear Leader is paid by his juniors who are dismissed the minute a decision becomes disastrous. The Director of Planning and Financial Department of the Central Committee, Park Nam Aki, Chief of the No. 39 Department, Kim Dong Woon, and Choi Ik Gyu are just a few of top officials who have been fired following the criticisms against the governmen. The three were dismissed recently following rumours that the Peoples Safety Agency had been provided with live ammunition to use in case the public took to the streets.

Since the 1960s, the country has gone through changes which have devastated the countrys economy and the people. Most of these problems have been associated directly to the decisions made by the countrys irreproachable Communist leadership. For instance, North Korea still spends an unreasonably large proportion of its gross domestic product in military development at the expense of the economy.  North Koreas economy still lags far behind other economies in the region and is definitely much poorer than South Korea yet the two countries were once part of the larger Korea.
Largely due to the Dear Leaders over-emphasis on military development and hostility towards foreigners, which discourages foreign investors, North Koreas industries have produced way below their capacity for decades while many others have closed down. Deaths resulting from starvation are still common in some regions in North Korea while the government still arms the Peoples Safety Agency heavily, and directs the agents to arrest any instance of public anger towards the leadership at the earliest opportunity.

In short, North Koreas Communist leadership maintains an absolutist system whereby the people have to observe and obey the Dear Leaders word without question. Actions to the contrary are deemed entirely wrong regardless of the circumstances and are followed by harsh repercussions. The Dear Leaders word is therefore creed which North Koreans have no option but to live by.