译者 伯奚
Editor's note: John Sifton is the director of advocacy for Asia at Human Rights Watch.
(CNN) -- Since Kim Jong Il's death was announced on Monday, many people have marveled at the mourning scenes featured on North Korean state television, made viral on the Internet: North Koreans prostrate, weeping, hitting the ground. Many have asked whether the anguish is genuine. How could citizens mourn the passing of a totalitarian, such a gross abuser of human rights?
（CNN）星期一宣布金正日去世以后，朝鲜国家电视台公布的哀悼现场画面像病毒一样在网上流传开来。人们惊讶地看着朝鲜人捶胸顿足，哭天抢地，不敢相信他们的悲伤是真情流露。公民怎么会为这样一个极权主义者，这样一个人权践踏者而悲伤？
The answer may be found in the human rights abuses themselves.
也许能从他们践踏的人权中找到答案。
It is a lamentable characteristic of totalitarian regimes that they often demand acts of deceit from those they oppress. Often it is a matter of simple survival. Those who hate the regime are obliged to demonstrate patriotism. To fail is to risk persecution. The only alternative is to flee, a choice made by tens of thousands of North Koreans in the past two decades.
可悲的是，极权者常常欺骗其压迫的民众。生存法则非常简单：想要推翻政权，必须得诉诸于爱国主义，而失败就意味着迫害。因此，唯一的解决方式便是逃离。过去的20年内，正是有上万人走上了这条路。
North Korea is unambiguously a totalitarian state. An estimated 200,000 North Koreans are held under brutal conditions in remote forced labor camps called kwan-li-so. Citizens are deprived of the freedom to speak, to dissent, to assemble, to seek remedies for grievances. Perhaps worst of all, there is no freedom from fear -- knowing that one can be imprisoned and tortured for minor trifles, sent to a kwan-li-so for being related to someone who displeased the state, or face a kangaroo court trial and possible public execution for a long list of political or economic "crimes."
朝鲜毋庸置疑是一个极权主义国家。约有20万民朝鲜人关押在偏远的“管理所”，禁闭森严，强制劳教。公民无权发表言论、提出异议、集会、鸣冤。最糟糕的是，人民有着无限的恐惧。稍有风吹草动就有可能被关入监狱受折磨，与不受国家欢迎的人沾亲带故便会被投入“管理所”，或者面临私刑法庭审判。一长串的政治经济“罪犯”将被公开处决。
Even those who manage to keep out of trouble suffer from the government's deadly economic mismanagement and a "military first" policy: death from famines, widespread stunting in children from persistent malnutrition and untreated illness. It is difficult for many North Koreans to obtain adequate money or food without committing acts that are criminal or, given the crackdown on economic crimes, potentially suicidal.
即使是成功避开麻烦的人也受着政府对经济管理不善的折磨。政府实行军队优先的政策，因此引起饥荒，导致公民死亡，儿童持续营养不良以及无医救治。若不铤而走险违法法律（经济罪），许多朝鲜人很难保证足够的钱财和食物。
For many, to live in North Korea is to live in fear for one's very existence. In a context like this, there is no way to know what is genuine and what is theatrical. Totalitarianism and fear impair the idea of truth and the concept of objectivity.
对于大多数人，生活在朝鲜也就意味着生活在能否活下去的恐惧之中。这种环境下，无法明辨真假。极权主义和恐惧削弱了对真实的想法和对客观性的概念。
Rather than focusing on the televised tears of mourners for Kim Jong Il, we should be asking what needs to be done to ensure that someday North Korean television will show the tears of the fathers, mothers and children who have seen their relatives suffer or die because of the acts and omissions of Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, before him, during their unbroken 63-year rule.
除了关注在金正日追悼会上的被广播的眼泪，我们还应该做点别的。在金正日和金日成63岁魔咒之前，当人们因为对他们行动上的忽略而受罚或处死，我们应该尽我们所能让他们家人的眼泪出现在朝鲜电视台上。
The "Great Successor," Kim Jong Un, is still largely untested and doubts persist about whether he is really in charge in Pyongyang, but many hope that change is more likely now than a week ago.
“伟大的后继者”金正恩依然未受认可，他是否能执掌平壤依然存在疑问。但比起上一周，现在人们更希望改变。
The international community should use this transition period to press the new leader to break from the criminal tyranny of the past and steer the country in a new direction. Kim Jong Un could start by taking note of calls made in the latest U.N. General Assembly resolution on North Korea, and allowing a visit by U.N. special rapporteurs.
国际组织应借此变革的机会向新领导人施压，让其放弃从前刑事审判的方法，改变国家走向。上一次联合国大会中提出了解决朝鲜问题的方法，金正恩可以从这开始，并允许联合国特别调查队进入朝鲜。
Change needs to come to North Korea, in one form or another. Those who will lead North Korea now, Kim Jong Un and the generals and ministers who control the state apparatus, need to remember that history has not been kind to tyrants. Totalitarian regimes can linger, and often do, but ultimately gross injustices are unsustainable and those who commit them can (and now often do) face the punishments of international justice.
朝鲜需要变革。金正恩以及其管理政府的将军、内阁是朝鲜将来的领导者。他们要记住，历史对独裁者从来不客气。极权国家经常出现并且总是存在。但最终，大量的不公平会导致社会无法持续发展。同样对于那些声称自己能够面对并且的确能够面对国际正义的人来说，也是巨大的不公平。
from 译言-每日精品译文推荐 http://article.yeeyan.org/view/275914/245865
