North Korea 2.0
- Pavel Latushka
- Apr 8
- 4 min read
How the Regime Wages War on the Future, Common Sense, and Its Own People
Recently, Alexander Lukashenko visited North Korea. We all saw the footage. But it seems he brought back more than just impressions. He brought back blueprints. Blueprints for building "North Korea 2.0" in the very heart of Europe.
What is happening in our country today is no longer simply a dictatorship. It is a methodical, daily slide into total absurdity, where the state declares war on everything alive: children, culture, digital progress — and even spring itself.
Let us look at the facts. At what our country is living through in the spring of 2026.
Let us begin with the most horrifying and cynical — the regime's treatment of children. In March, the authorities liquidated the KinderVita charitable foundation. For five years, these people helped children with cancer. For five years, they gave children and their families what the state is incapable of providing — human compassion and hope.
And what does the illegitimate authority do? It does not simply shut the foundation down. The propaganda machine unleashes utterly inhuman lies against the volunteers. Simply because in North Korea 2.0, there can be no independent acts of mercy. Kindness must come only from Lukashenko — and only under duress.
The regime is in a panic whenever Belarusians gather together. It fears our smiles and our joy. That is why culture in Belarus is being methodically destroyed.
The FESTIWOW, Lidbeer, and WOSTRAU festivals have been cancelled. Because the Council of Ministers invented a "registry of cultural and entertainment event organisers." One step out of line — and you are banned.
But the absurdity has reached the point where the system has begun to devour its own. In Gomel, riot police storm a restaurant where people are celebrating the traditional folk festival "Hukanne Viasny" — the Calling of Spring. People are given detention and fines of 1,500 to 2,000 dollars for singing.
And do you know who was among those detained? A police major. A man the propaganda held up as a role model for years. A man to whom Minister Kubrakow personally gave a watch, and whom the state awarded the prize "For Spiritual Revival" for preserving traditions. And now this major receives a citation under the "people's" Article 24.23. Because in North Korea 2.0, even spring must be cleared with the ideologists. Meanwhile, when Russian football fans march through Gomel with smoke flares, the authorities call it "a procession from fraternal Russia." Their own people — into the police van for singing. Outsiders — a green light.
Look at our streets. They are plastered with billboards featuring security forces and soldiers. Total militarisation is underway. The regime is trying to convince us that we are surrounded by enemies.
But the real tragedy is unfolding not on posters — but in barracks. At Pechи, in military unit 3214 overseen by Karpenkow, a conscript soldier took his own life. A strong young man who dreamed of becoming a pilot. He was sent "on exercises" to special forces, and the system broke him. The regime does not need citizens, does not need individuals — it needs cannon fodder and blind obedience. A human life, in their calculus, is worth nothing.
And yet look at how these "valiant," heavily armed security forces respond to phantoms. A blogger uses a neural network to generate an image — four people holding red-and-white flags in the centre of Minsk. And what happens? Three vehicles with flashing lights arrive instantly, armed men jump out... to arrest pixels. They are mortally afraid even of artificial intelligence, because they know: the real people hate them.
To keep people from knowing the truth, a digital iron curtain is being erected. The regime is blocking access to websites hosted abroad. The tax authority prohibits receiving notifications to @tut.by email addresses because the domain is deemed "extremist." The foreign websites of the BBC and Novaya Gazeta Europa have been declared "extremist" in their entirety.
And how are ordinary Belarusians living inside this isolation? I read interviews with our people from within the country, and it is heartbreaking.
A 57-year-old woman says that mobile internet has become capped — watch one film, and the whole family loses connection. Stairwells go uncleaned, outages leave people without water for days.
A 46-year-old Belarusian woman says that free healthcare no longer exists. Mammography machines in clinics are broken, and doctors openly redirect patients to private centres. Taxes for sole traders have multiplied — any initiative is being strangled.
A pensioner admits through tears that buying a banana and an avocado on pension day is a celebration. Apples cost 5 roubles. She lives in a state of fear that has enslaved her.
A construction worker notes: there are no Belarusians on building sites anymore. Migrants from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh have taken their place. Belarusian workers have simply vanished — some emigrated, some drank themselves into despair. And our famous MAZ trucks have disappeared — only Chinese lorries are seen on the roads now.
People live with a sense of "countdown." Parents want only one thing: to get their children out of the country, because education is deteriorating, places on state-sponsored programmes are filled regardless of grades, and there are no prospects. Instead of dog parks, the authorities invent new levies, and janitors have simply ceased to exist as a profession.
Dear Belarusians. What we are witnessing today is the death throes of a system that has chosen to freeze time.Lukashenko is building his Pyongyang because it is the only model in which he can hold onto power: isolate, intimidate, cut off access, ban celebrations, and march everyone in formation beneath military billboards.
But they are forgetting one thing. We are not North Korea. We are a European nation at the heart of the continent.Freedom is in our blood, we have access to technology, and most importantly — we have a solidarity that cannot be crushed by detention, or fines, or any decree.
Spring will come — to nature, and to Belarus. And no enforcers, no internet decrees, and no trips to Pyongyang will stop it.
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