Damn near everything you might want at this link, lots of documentation. A taste from the section 'Democracy: US vs DPRK – Towards the Annihilation of a Narrative' here:




Nihil humani a me alienum puto
(Nothing human is alien to me)
– Karl Marx

Parroting propaganda backed up with liberal ideological terms (“Totalitarian!”) is the easiest thing in the world to do. The plight of the anti-imperialist is to come out of a very difficult position, in the face of hegemonic opposition, and say “no, you are wrong, and it kills good people.” Not an easy thing to convince people of!

After viewing the videos above… can a government simply organize that level of popular participation without the actual support of the people? Does it make sense to say that the “regime” enjoys no support, and all it requires is some good old fashioned US bombers to tip things in the “peoples” favor? For a liberal this makes perfect sense. For the more sophisticated, they may use some anarchist-type reasoning: this would shock them out of their supposed brainwashing and release them from their status as sheeple into glorious Western subjects!

But for a Marxist this begs the question (or it should): Why not confront this apparent contradiction? Why not ask what material circumstances accounts for this level of support and the ideology behind it, instead of denying there is support when there is clear evidence that it exists – why not move beyond ideology into an historical-materialist analysis?

(Or maybe just admit that we’ve been lied to?)

Let’s look at the DPRK’s history. For this I will be pulling from Stephen Gowan’s Understanding North Korea. Japan colonizes the country in 1910 and it is used to extract extreme profits, as they treat the country with disdain (including with its use of sexual slaves as “comfort women”). In the aftermath of WW2, Japanese forces are required to remain as an occupying force in part of southern Korea, and the USSR remains in power over the North. Both of these are supposed to leave the country to allow for a re-unification. In the South, Japanese occupation increasingly turns into an American occupation, and the US sabotages re-unification of the country, as belligerence between the leftist North and occupied South begin to increase. The occupying forces have a campaign during this period to isolate and destroy leftist elements, killing many and jailing hundreds of thousands, and unrest begins becoming significant. Eventually this leads to a war with the US wherein 3 million Korean civilians lose their lives. More bombs are dropped on Korea than were used in the whole of the European theater of WW2, and the entire North is leveled to the ground, with Pyongyang being left completely flattened.

Not mentioned by Gowans is that there was, in fact, germ warfare used against North Korea during the Korean War. A report was made in 1950s on what this warfare consisted of, The International Scientific Commission Report on Bacterial Warfare during the Korean War. Here is what the Korean Central News Agency reports on the issue (emphasis added):

The U.S. imperialist aggression forces who had put the northern half of Korea under their temporary occupation during the June 25 war were beaten back by the Korean People’s Army and took to flight when they spread in a crafty manner a number of contagious disease germs including smallpox in many areas including Pyongyang, Yangdok County of South Phyongan Province, and Kowon and Jangjin counties of South Hamgyong Province between November 29 to December 8, 1950.

A top secret document dated September 21, 1951 which ordered the “large experiment of specified pathogens in actual situation to see their effects for germ warfare in operational situation” was discovered at the U.S. national archives in 2010.

In November 1951 the U.S. imperialists dropped the first germ bomb in the areas north of the River Chongchon and south of the River Amnok and in Yangdok, Hamhung and Wonsan with the involvement of the U.S. third bomber wing in the Kunsan air base and the 19th bomber wing under the command of the U.S. air force in the Far East based on Okinawa.

Entering 1952 they began an all-out germ warfare, massively dropping germ bombs in all areas of the northern half of Korea.

They made no scruple of using even internationally banned chemical weapons, to say nothing of germ weapons.

During the indiscriminate bombing of Nampho City on May 6, 1951, the U.S. spread toxic gas, killing 1,379 inhabitants. On July 6 and September 1 it dropped tear, asphyxiating, and other toxic gases in the area of Wonsan and several areas of South and North Hwanghae provinces, poisoning and killing many people.

They even made no scruple of mixing poisonous substances in sweets, biscuits, taffy, toasts, canned food, shellfish and other foodstuff and bank notes before dropping them from planes.

The U.S. imperialists used prisoners from our side as guinea pigs for germ and chemical warfare in wanton violation of international agreement on treatment of POWs and killed them in a barbarous way.

Side-note: Some pilots were interrogated by North Korea during the war and admitted to germ warfare. When they returned to the US it was claimed that this happened because of communist brainwashing and harsh interrogation. This was used as a justification to create a program to train military personnel how to withstand torture; this program is what morphed into the modern torture program, though the US has a history of torture outside of this. It is, however, interesting to note that part of the justification for having a torture program was founded in a cover-up of US use of germ warfare in Korea.

After the war ends, the DPRK develops its economy extraordinarily quickly, with coming support from the USSR and China. The DPRK is a more economically successful country than its southern neighbor up until the 1980s, once South Korea becomes a development project for the West and unrest leads to a democratization of the country. When the Soviet bloc disintegrates, the DPRK loses its main trading partner, and during the 1990s starvation spreads as sanctions choke the country and natural conditions generate problems with internal food production. The DPRK eventually recovers from this dark period.

Often those disparaging the DPRK on the left obscure the horrors of imperialism behind superficial attempts at comparisons of social forms (never substance, mind you, they don’t have enough information to do that) reliant on propaganda instead of concrete facts of how the DPRK works. They can even go so far as compare it to a place like South Vietnam or another US proxy dictatorship, conflating an imperialist ideological construction (the pervasive lies about the DPRK) with an imperialist concrete construction (the horrors visited upon Vietnam). The level of chauvinism in many Western Marxists, especially those of the more individualistic camps, frankly disheartens me more than the good people of the DPRK ever could!

https://vngiapaganda.wordpress.com/pro-dprk-propaganda/

You could beat up all comers with what's here...

You could beat up all comers with what's here...

vngiapaganda is solid.

Horrific videos reveal the true face of North Korea's repressive dictatorship
WARNING: The videos you are going to watch depict parts of daily life in the "repressive dictatorship", the "living hell" of North Korea. It is highly advised for people suffering from pathological anticommunism to avoid watching the videos. Please proceed at your own discretion.


http://youtu.be/5-WjeQAuEmM

http://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2016/09/horrific-videos-reveal-true-face-of.html

There are a number of equally horrific videos at link.

http://youtu.be/hQJJQIF0aqo

Shitheads will scream, "It's propaganda!" and then go back to whatever they were watching....

Outstanding twitter thread:

I don't know if I have a good answer to this question, but here's my perspective, shaped by growing up on the s. korean marxist left

first, the assessment of a regime needs to be grounded in a historical analysis that foregrounds the constraints set by imperial aggression

this doesn't mean that every decision made under imperial coercion is a good one

but without a serious reckoning of the conditions set by empire, it is impossible to properly identify what a regime's mistakes are/were

much less why and how the regime came to make those mistakes

this should be obvious to the left but I can't even count how many times I've seen west. leftists take the latest bit of propaganda on DPRK

add it to their general impression of DPRK formed by the accumulated racist/imperialist propaganda so prevalent in the culture

and spout off a flippant condemnation without even the slightest clue about both the historical and current conditions that shape the regime

Second, whether you like it or not, whether you think it's fair or not, criticism of a regime (even when justified) is political

in the context of imperial aggression, reproducing the line of imperialists serves the cause imperialism.

this is something my comrades and I in s. korea are acutely aware of.

when a prominent comrade issues a well-meaning critique of the dprk, it gets picked up and amplified by the lackeys of imperialism

"see, even the commies think kim jong un is a nightmare!" this helps to muddy the anti-imperialist line and sew confusion in the public

people start to think well if even the reds have all these qualms about dprk, things up there must be really bad now

at the same time, thanks to the national security act, the extent to which we can defend the dprk is greatly curtailed

numerous comrades have served jail time. family friend was imprisoned for translating Capital (in 1987).

more recently, leftist (hardly revolutionary) party banned and its leaders jailed. president of korean confed of trade unions jailed, etc.

in this context, marxist-leninist anti-imperialists in s. korea can't afford to be glib about the line on dprk

of course, there's plenty of disagreement, but my comrades in s. korea have a much better grasp of the political content of critiquing dprk

than what I see from a lot of western leftists.

does this mean one has to be silent and avoid all criticism of dprk or be an "apologist" for the dprk? well, yes and no.

if you aren't committed to defending the peninsula from the constant escalation of imperialist subjugation, then yes, please remain silent

for good faith anti-imperialists, i think it's vital to seriously consider what function your criticisms of a regime will serve

for me, personally, this means i engage in these discussions privately among anti-imperialist comrades.

i have plenty of criticisms of dprk and i'm sure they are way more thorough and historically informed than the jokers i see shitting on dprk

but with Obama/Trump's 'pivot' to Asia underway, the deployment of THAAD being forced down S. Korea's throat, Japan led by a crypto-fascist

hostile war games, expansion of US bases in S. korea/Japan, the beating of the war drum in the US

and shockingly racist and orientalist tropes about dprk being circulated by the press to reinforce all of this (incl. leftist Jacobin)

in circumstances like this, as a Marxist-Leninist, I can't in good conscience air DPRK condemnations to western audiences

the end. thanks for reading comrades!

빨갱이 파티‏ @DangunsProgeny

https://twitter.com/DangunsProgeny/status/836303117692076033

I'm actually disappointed if KJU hasn't executed anyone with an ack ack. Or did they claim it was a rail gun this time?

Pyongyang: "The U.S. is the worst human rights abuser"
KCNA (Korean Central News Agency) Commentary on U.S. Inveterate Repugnancy and Hostility toward DPRK.
Source: Solidnet.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cOMLIiilcsQ/WMPxV2CaWnI/AAAAAAAACZg/p8B7BTfzvt8qGuV4QXWKfI2gNafEEqtMwCLcB/s320/Kim%2BJong%2BUn%2Bvs%2BDonald%2BTrump.jpg

Pyongyang, March 9 (KCNA) -- The U.S. State Department in "2016 country report on human rights" published on March 3 cited "data" on "human rights issue" in the DPRK and went so bully as to list the DPRK as an "authoritarian state".
The State Department made a flurry of rhetoric, let out by human scum-like "defectors from the north" who fled the country after committing crimes against their kinsmen and the nation, established facts in a bid to use them for tarnishing the dignity of a sovereign state. This is an expression of inveterate repugnancy and hostility toward the ideology and social system in the DPRK.
We strongly reject its "human rights report" aimed to threaten the political stability of a country and bring down its social and political system under the "human rights standard" based on the American view on value.
Aggression and interference in the internal affairs of other countries and nations are justified on the international arena at present under the "human rights standard" set by the U.S. and other Western countries.
Prompted by their unilateral interests, quite irrelevant to human rights, the U.S. and other Western countries label other countries preserving their own social system and political mode "human rights abusers" and put collective pressure on them.
The recent report, too, took issue with human rights situation in other countries through prejudice and fabrication guided by the American-style "human rights standard" as before.
But the U.S. is the worst human rights abuser as it brought down legitimate states through "color revolution" and spawned the worst-ever refugee problem while wantonly interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states under the signboard of "defence of human rights".
It is ridiculous for the U.S. to publish the report faulting the human rights performance in other countries while styling itself "human rights judge," being unaware of where it stands.
Polaris, a flesh traffic information body, made public a report that flesh traffic in the U.S. in 2016 increased 35.7 percent as compared with that in the previous year, a clear proof of the poor human rights performance there.
Polaris in its report disclosed that 7 572 cases of flesh traffic occurred in California, Texas, Florida and other states of the U.S., terming it "one form of modern-day slavery".
The U.S. is heading for the grave of history due to the extreme gap between the rich and the poor and all sorts of social evils prevalent there. However, it is faulting the Korean-style socialist system where the working masses fully enjoy genuine political freedom and rights and a happy life. It is ridiculous, indeed.
No country considers that the U.S. is making "efforts" to work out "human rights reports" on other countries out of its true concern about human rights performance.
The U.S. "human rights report" is just a tool for aggression for bringing down the ideology and system of other countries and attaining its domination aims.
A clear proof of this is the human rights abuses perpetrated by the hegemonic forces in various countries of the world like Iraq.
The U.S. has no elementary moral qualifications to talk about "human rights issue" of the DPRK as it threatens the right to existence of the Korean people to the extremes through the unprecedented blockade-type "sanctions" pursuant to its vicious hostile policy toward the DPRK.
All the countries on earth have the right to exercise their right to realize their own independent desire under the institutional and legal guarantees provided by the state where they reside.
The "human rights report" annually made public by the U.S. for decades is aimed to infringe upon the sovereignty of other countries. This fact glaringly reveals the nature of the U.S. styling itself an "international judge".
The U.S. will get nothing through the "human rights" smear campaign, part of its hostile policy toward the DPRK.
The people in the DPRK are enjoying genuine political freedom and rights and a happy life under the best socialist system in the world. The DPRK will invariably advance along the road of promoting the Korean-style human rights chosen by its people themselves while foiling the U.S. hostile rhetoric about "human rights".
Human rights can never be a playing thing of the U.S.

https://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2017/03/pyongyang-us-is-worst-human-rights.html

The Korea Problem
This is What Democracy Looks Like
by Keith Harmon Snow / March 22nd, 2017

The United States and its allies have embarked on a dangerous path of aggression against the government of North Korea and its allies China and Russia.

As usual, the western propaganda system presents a near unified front showing how horrible and atrocious the North Korean government is purported to be, and how murderous and ruthless and amoral their intentions are purported to be, and how their military objectives and missile programs — now allegedly targeting the “free” world–are out to dominate the rest of the world, starting with their deadly missiles being launched against the United States and our ally Japan. So goes the propaganda.

Let’s look again

The people of South Korea — a country occupied by the US military since 1950 with between 326,000 US soldiers (during the Korean War) and 28,500 US soldiers (today) — have seen massive human rights violations, repression and state terrorism. Since the first military dictator was installed in South Korea by the United States military in 1953, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has perpetrated massive atrocities against its own citizens and against citizens in other countries. This is a so-called “member of the international community.”

http://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CBA-pics-South-Korea-Protests-10-May-1990-4-e1490154456178.jpg
South Korea — Seoul, 10 May 1990: Student pro-democracy and anti-US imperialism demonstrations rocked Seoul for two days on 9 May and 10 May 1990. (Keith Harmon Snow)

The Central Intelligence Agency under Allen Dulles launched covert operations in South Korea by 1950 — utilizing South Korean police and other secret agents to serve the imperial “pro-democracy” agenda. The ever touted claim that North Korea launched a very clear war of aggression by crossing the 38th parallel — an arbitrary line of demarcation between Soviet Russian and US/allied forces after WW-2 — and invading South Korea is not born out by the facts that existed on the ground in the Korean peninsula in June of 1950. Not only are there credible reports of death squads crossing into the northern territory and committing atrocities, but the diplomatic record shows a pattern of belligerence and war-mongering that has become de rigeur for the United States all over the world since then.

The Un-Pretty History of the Korean Peninsula

Massive post-WW-2 repression and murder (extrajudicial summary executions) by South Korean troops, with US military oversight, occurred against their own people in the south, including such horrible massacres as occurred on Je Ju island 1948-1949 and were white-washed by the western propaganda and intelligence apparatus (see, e.g., the documentary film The Ghosts of Je Ju). The somewhat more well-known Koch’ang incident in February 1951 involved some 600 men and women, young and old, that were reportedly herded into a narrow valley in South Korea and mowed down with machine guns by a South Korean army unit on the loosely applied claim that they were “suspected of aiding guerrillas” — these being Korean people who resisted the overt terrorism that the Korean people (north and south) were subjected to by the southern forces and US troops.

http://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CBA-pics-South-Korea-Protests-10-May-1990-10-2.jpg
South Korea – May 1990: A map posted in the northern zone just south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) showing the DMZ and major dams contstructed on both sides of the illegal border. (Keith Harmon Snow)

“The Governor of Je Ju at the time admitted that the repression of the Island’s 300,000 residents led to the murder of as many as 60,000 Islanders,” wrote S. Brian Willson, “with another 40,000 desperately fleeing in boats to Japan. Thus, one-third of its residents were either murdered or fled during the “extermination” campaign. Nearly 40,000 homes were destroyed and 270 of 400 villages were leveled.”

US troops fired on crowds, conducted mass arrests, combed the hills for suspects, and organized posses of Korean rightists, constabulary and police for mass raids (reported at the time by correspondent Mark Gwyn for the Chicago Sun: see in William Blum Killing Hope).

http://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CBA-pics-South-Korea-Protests-10-May-1990-7-2-e1490155919414.jpg
South Korea – May 1990: A partially camouflaged military encampment in the northern region of South Korea a few miles south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates the Korean people at the 38th parallel (Keith Harmon Snow)

Said one British scholar Jon Halliday at the time: “After all, if civilians could be mowed down in the South on suspicion of aiding (not even being guerrillas — what about the North, where millions could reasonably be assumed to be Communists, or political militants?” (See: Killing Hope p. 51).

The US military’s carpet bombing and chemical napalm bombing against the northern Koreans during the Korean War was murderous and unprecedented (though rivaled by the bombing of Dresden) and set the stage for the horrors that we perpetrated on the people of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. Entire villages were wiped off the map and off the Korean peninsula. Some three million Koreans north of the 38th parallel were killed, with one million Korean people killed in the south and over one million Chinese deaths.

http://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CBA-pics-South-Korea-Protests-10-May-1990-10.jpg
South Korea – Seoul, 10 May 1990: Student pro-democracy and anti-US imperialism demonstrations rocked Seoul for two days on 9 May and 10 May 1990. (Keith Harmon Snow)

Note that United Nations forces were involved in the war: UN troops were commanded by general Douglas McArthur and committed egregious atrocities all over the place — and these atrocities were always blamed on the “North” Korean forces — a particularly poignant tactic (blaming the victims) ever exercised by the pro democracy forces of the New World Order in the process of exercising our military freedoms and exorcising anyone deemed to be undemocratic (meaning: opposed to predatory capitalism, the IMF and the World Bank, multinational corporate destruction, and the feeding, housing, clothing, educating and taking care of the people).

Under then US-installed puppet dictator Syngman Rhee the allied (US/UN/south Korean) troops confiscated massive tracts of land and other “spoils of war” (confiscated property of the former brutal Japanese occupiers) and doled them out, for example, to ultra-right wing former sympathizers and collaborators with the former Japanese occupation, the most wealthy, and other conservative elements. This further set the stage for widespread resentment amongst the Korean population — whose ancestors saw and who did not forget the first massacres in Korea at the hands of invading US forces in 1871.

http://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CBA-pics-South-Korea-Protests-10-May-1990-18-e1490156521565.jpg
South Korea – May 1990: A military jeep carries soldiers along a remote road in the northern region of South Korea a few miles south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates the Korean people at the 38th parallel. (Keith Harmon Snow)

The arbitrary and illegal line of demarcation drawn at the 38th parallel became the de facto border separating the Korean people due to US/UN/NATO/South Korean military aggression and refusal to compromise with the northern power structure (the northerners made many overtures and granted many concessions toward reunification).

Domestic and Foreign Terrorism

Subsequent to the war, the Republic of Korea military under its US tutelage did not limit the atrocities against innocent civilians to the domestic arena. Some 300,000 South Korean troops joined the NATO war in Indochina, and committed serious atrocities there: at least several major massacres are well documented. Examples include:

Bình Hòa massacre
Binh Tai massacre
Hà My massacre
Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre

— all being located in South Vietnam and all being massacres of hundreds of unarmed non-combatant children, pregnant women, and the elderly. The South Korean troops committed brutal atrocities — such as cutting the breasts off women and bayonetting pregnant women in the bellies and bulldozing shallow graves for summary burials to cover up the evidence. Some of the villages and people so targeted were known to be very sympathetic and supportive of the US military, but after these atrocities many survivors joined the Viet Kong.

http://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CBA-pics-South-Korea-Protests-10-May-1990-12-e1490156777823.jpg
South Korea – May 1990: The northern region of South Korea a few miles south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates the Korean people at the 28th parallel (Keith Harmon Snow)

There is no doubt the South Korean forces were trained in brutal euphemistically named “counter-insurgency” techniques now well-documented to include the most horrible crimes that people have ever committed against people and hardly ever having anything “counter” about their insurgents — all under the watchful binoculars and logistical coordination of the United States and our intelligence apparatus (e.g. the Phoenix Program — a campaign of absolute terror and egregious crimes against humanity and war crimes conducted in Indochina during the US wars there).

For example: at Binh Hoa village (December 1966) in South Vietnam the South Korean “Blue Dragon Brigade” slaughtered over 400 mostly children, women and elderly; ROK troops then burned the village to the ground and slaughtered the people’s buffaloes.

South Korea – May 1990: Camouflaged cement structures ready to be deployed as barricades on the roads in northern South Korea, a few miles south of the DMZ that separates the Korean people at the 38th parallel. (Keith Harmon Snow)

Over the past 60 years the people of South Korea have been subject to egregious curtailment of freedoms under certain “National Security” directives (laws) including: the (repeated) jailing of thousands of “dissidents” who have, in one form or another, protested imperialist US involvement and occupation in South Korea; people who have organized against US imperialism; students and other civilians that have maintained contacts with people in North Korea; civil society groups and individuals that have contacted foreign organizations seeking help against repression; the censoring and destruction of truth in education and educational materials.

http://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CBA-pics-South-Korea-Protests-10-May-1990-2-2.jpg
South Korea – Seoul, 10 May 1990: Some 40,000 riot police were deployed on 9 May and 10 May to crush demonstrations involving over 100,000 people. (Keith Harmon Snow)

There have been suspicious deaths of student activists, and attempts to get outside help to demand proper investigations of such deaths have led to further repression of the petitioners (seeking help).

On 9 May 1990, some 100,000 Koreans marched and demonstrated against the then latest US/UK/EU-backed dictatorship of president Roh Tae-Woo (1988-1993); over 40,000 South Korean storm troopers (riot police) were mobilized and over 1900 people detained. Some of the perceived organizers were jailed for several years. Torture has been selectively used on political prisoners, but was routinely deployed against certain segments of the population during particular periods since the 1950’s, such as the run-up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

In 1975, the self-declared president-for-life dictator Park Chung-hee issued a special directive to police and government officials to round up and remove ‘vagrants’ from South Korean city streets. Some 8600 people were initially detained and imprisoned at 36 nationwide facilities, including so-called panhandlers, small-time street merchants, the disabled, lost or unattended children, and dissidents (such as college students that were holding anti-government leaflets).

One of these detention centers was a ‘welfare facility’ called ‘Brothers Home’, where thousands of small children were subject to years of brutality and many suffered routine and repeated rape and fatal beatings. The internment program continued under Chung-hee’s successors presidents Choi Kyu-hah (1979-1980) and Chun Doo-hwan (1980-1988) and eventually led to the imprisonment of more than 16,000 people by 1986. The dictatorships of President Chun Doo-hwan and Roo Tae-woo (1988-1993) suppressed any investigation into these massive human rights violations, and the true scale and magnitude of the atrocities, numbers of victims and names of perpetrators did not more fully emerge until 2016. Few of the survivors have spoken out publicly, and the government has never apologized for nor compensated any of them.

Dictator Park Chung-hee ruled for 18 years, supporting Washington’s militarization and warfare in the Far East and Indochina. Park’s daughter Park Geun-hee became the 11th president of South Korea in 2013, and was known as the “Strongman’s Daughter” (appearing under that headline on the front cover of Time magazine in 2013) and she was impeached for influence-peddling and other corruption in December 2016.

Throughout her tenure the ROK government naturally blocked all attempts by the citizenry to further expose and gain accountability for the ‘Brothers Home’ and related atrocities orchestrated by her father and his successors. For her pro-war pro-US imperialist policies and posturing, and for her other intransigences, duplicity and state-orchestrated repression, the people of South Korea nicknamed president Park Geun-hee their ‘Lady Hitler‘.

Corporate Goon Squads and Hired Thugs

South Korean labor unions and struggles have in the past been infiltrated and co-opted by gangs of thugs hired by / for multinational corporations like Daewoo, Samsung and Hyundai. The bribery, influence peddling, hired thuggery, and other forms of corruption by the chaelbol — giant family run multinational conglomerates — rival those of the Japanese Sogo Shosha (trading houses) and the Japanese mafia (Yakuza) and their western corporate criminal counterparts (CIA/FBI/NSA/DIA/USAID and the 1 percent) — where anything and everything can be bought and sold with reckless abandon and near zero accountability, and where the corruption and criminals are shielded by the judiciary.

http://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CBA-pics-South-Korea-Protests-10-May-1990-3.jpg
South Korea – Seoul, 10 May 1990: Some 40,000 riot police were deployed on 9 May and 10 May to crush demonstrations involving over 100,000 people (Keith Harmon Snow)

The corporate goon squads have often used various forms of torture, including beatings and kidnappings, and the thuggery by corporate gangs has in many cases been supported by state security and police — who have furthered the extrajudicial punishments and torture against labor organizers and employees of the large corporations targeted, for example, for exercising their freedom of expression. Public and private school teachers have also suffered retaliation and repression for their involvement in activities that the “state” deemed a threat to “national security” — such as labor and pro-democracy organizing.

South Korean people lived under more than 30 years of military dictatorship from 1960s-1993 but given the corruption and absence of freedoms the situation under “democratically elected” presidents has not been particularly encouraging, to say to least, for the average South Korean — repressive laws instituted under military dictatorship continued to serve a repressive state security apparatus, including arbitrary arrests and detentions — and so democracy has been an absolute farce.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2017/03/the-korea-problem/cba-pics-south-korea-protests-10-may-1990-2/
South Korea – Seoul, 10 May 1990: Riot police searched shop to shop, door to door hunting down demonstrators and arresting some 1900 people. (Keith Harmon Snow)

As S. Brian Willson discusses, the current inhabitants of Je Ju Island have been opposed to the construction of a deep water port that would serve US/ROK military objectives enabling guided missile equipped AEGIS class destroyers access to port facilities at the village of Gangjeong. The ROK’s CIA-like Korean National Intelligence Service has spied on and raided citizens and organizations that are opposed to the deep water port that would be built by the criminal Samsung Corporation. Samsung has a history of more than 50 years of environmental pollution, trade union repression, corruption, tax flight and tax evasion.

http://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CBA-pics-South-Korea-Protests-10-May-1990-27-e1490158085518.jpg
South Korea – One photo of just one of the many Je Ju Island massacres that occurred in South Korea and were committed by US-backed South Korean forces in 1948 and 1949. (Photo credit unknown)

South Korean civilians have also been persecuted from the 1950s to the present day, including arrests, kidnappings, beatings and torture, for advocating reunification with North Korea. Millions of Koreans were separated from family members by the illegal US-enforced bifurcation of the Koreas before and after the Korean War (1950-1953) and, as we can imagine, reunification is blocked by powerful political interests whose motivations (power, control, private profit) do not serve the greater common interest of the Korean people (north and south) or the rest of us.

South Korea is effectively run by an organized crime syndicate with deep ties to the United States power structure (see, for example, notes on The Cohen Group below). Beyond a repressive security apparatus and pro-imperialist international foreign policy, South Korea suffers very high and epidemic numbers of suicide, alcoholism, and sexual and domestic violence.

South Korean corporations have also run roughshod over the environment domestically and abroad and slavery conditions have historically prevailed for their labor forces while sweatshop conditions still do.

http://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CBA-pics-South-Korea-Protests-10-May-1990-15-e1490158336831.jpg
South Korea – Seoul, 10 May 1990: Riot police occupied all major subway stations and train stations in the search for demonstrators. (Keith Harmon Snow)

While the South Korean government has offered an “aggressive” public face to the issue of “calling for reunification”, this is mere lip service as they have simultaneously increased military spending, maintained a compulsory draft (with severe penalties for any conscientious objector), and moved to the front of the line as a leading arms exporter. In recent years South Korea has purchased scores of billions of dollars worth of warplanes, anti-missile systems and other weapons (of mass destruction), and the ROK has annual defense budgets of over $30 billion.

Meanwhile, South Korea and its western allies (including Japan) have escalated aggressive military posturing and rhetoric targeting North Korea, including deployments of troops and weaponry (e.g. battleships) in “joint military exercises” within striking distance of North Korea. The escalation of tensions and probability of war — on the Korean peninsula — are due to the duplicitous sociopathic criminal hegemony and aggression by the United States “government” and its closest allies and their “leaders”.

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South Korea – Seoul 10 May 1990: Riot police search shops and restaurants for demonstartors. (Keith Harmon Snow)

South Korea sealed its biggest-ever — until then — arms purchase in September 2015 with a U.S. $7.04 billion deal for 40 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets. South Korea has also been stocking up on spy satellites and drones — courtesy of US weapons manufacturers like Northrup Grumman. South Korea also sports a large number of Apache attack helicopters, and it has more than “capable” air force and navy.

In the summer of 2016 the United States and ROK militaries announced their decision to deploy an advanced missile defense system — Terminal High Area Missile Defense (THAAD) — that has previously been deployed in both Hawaii and Guam as a supposed “counter-measure” against North Korea’s nuclear missile capabilities. The THAAD system is designed, built and integrated by Lockheed Martin Space Systems (prime contractor) with subcontractors Raytheon, Boeing, Aerojet, Rocketdyne, Honeywell, BAE Systems, Oshkosh Defense, MiltonCAT and the oliver Capital Consortium.

Said differently, this is a lot of cheese!

South Korea’s militarization has benefited US, UK, Canadian, EU and Israeli corporations — further wagging the dog of war and serving the powerful interests that will never move toward a peaceful equitable reunification serving the interests the Korean people (north and south) and peace in the Far East. Permanent war is the desired state of foreign affairs.

On 16 March 2017 a THAAD radar system arrived in South Korea. The deployment of the THAAD system has critically heightened tensions between China, North Korea, South Korea and the United States primarily because China is adamantly opposed to the deployment in South Korea. US taxpayers began paying for the development of the THAAD system circa 2005; annual expenditures on THAAD / THAAD AN/TPY-2 radars are: $985.7 / $593.6 million in 2012; $684.2 / $623.2 million in 2013; $824.8 / $328.9 million in 2014; $725.1 / $334.2 million projected for 2015; $718.3 / $300.7 million projected in 2016.

Said differently, that is a lot of cheese for these US and British corporations!

The ROK is cost-sharing the THAAD system with United States taxpayers, who spend billions annually maintaining the United States Forces Korea (USFK) under a 50% cost-share with the ROK government. South Korean defense officials requested at least two THAAD batteries be deployed to “help thwart the North’s missile attacks.” Operating a single THAAD unit is estimated to cost about $1.6 billion. One unit consists of six truck-mounted launchers, 49 interceptors, a fire control and communications unit, and an AN/TPY-2 radar. The USFK is apparently paying for one of the THAAD batteries and the ROK for the other.

Estimates of the costs to US taxpayers of annually stationing around 30,000 US forces in Korea — the rough number of US troops that have annually been in occupation there for decades — were around $2.9 billion in 2014, with the ROK paying $866 million or approximately 30% of the total costs ($3.75 billion/year).

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South Korea – Seoul 13 July 2016: Thousands of residents in the town of Seongiu hold up banners in a demonstration in opposing the deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system there. (Photo credit: Yonhap News Agency)

Who benefits from all this war making?

Who are the directors of Lockheed Martin? Northrup Grumman?

Don’t miss the revolving doors between these corporations and the United States military.

For example, one Lockheed Martin director is a retired US Air Force General and former director of the profoundly secretive National Reconnaissance Office on Lockheed’s board. The NRO plans, builds and operates North America’s spy satellites, and they specialize in intelligence-gathering and information warfare — and the NRO coordinates the analysis of aerial surveillance and satellite imagery from several intelligence and military agencies, including the Defense Investigative Agency (DIA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Oh, and, don’t miss that retired US Admiral and Commander of the US Strategic Command, also on Lockheed’s board, who is also a director of the highly dishonest and destructive Institute for Nuclear Power (INPO).

Oh, and don’t miss the revolving door of former admirals and generals and CIA directors now working for Northrup Grumman.

Oh, and don’t miss the Lockheed directors that are also directors of The Cohen Group — founded and run by former U.S. Secretary of War (1997-2001) and bona fide war criminal William S. Cohen. According to his own The Cohen Group web site: “Under his leadership, the US military conducted the largest air warfare campaign since World War II, in Serbia and Kosovo, and conducted other military operations on every continent” — including the U.S. proxy wars in Congo and Sudan — and “The Cohen Group principals have decades of experience working with The Republic of Korea (ROK) government and military and with ROK industry.”

I bet they do.

Now, let’s talk about North Korea.

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Imagine, a country like North Korea, which, in fact, there is no other country like, that does not have the stellar record of committing war crimes and/or crimes against humanity and/or genocide that Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Japan, Rwanda, Uganda or the United States do, but one that has the audacity (please note the irony and sarcasm) to develop a missile (capability) of their own…to defend themselves against the world’s leading military aggressor(s), one(s) with long and un-pretty records of massacres, tortures, double-dealing and back-stabbing, amounting to a lot more than massive war crimes, crimes against humanity and mass murder in one country after the next and year after year.

According to the western propaganda system, the Korean People’s Army (North Korea) has some 5,889,000 paramilitary personnel, making it “the largest paramilitary organization on earth.” This includes the local militia, the Worker Peasant Red Guards, which mobilizes at the local village level. The entire military budget of the paramilitary KPA is considered to be approximately $8-10 billion annually; in contrast, the budget of the US Department of War in 2015 was $597 billion and far overshadows the KPA in superior weaponry, capabilities and technology.

While the western propaganda system ever decries the supposed horrible human rights atrocities committed in North Korea, there is little or no attention to several more poignant issues: 1. the human rights atrocities and war crimes committed in South Korea by the ROK are far more substantial and 2. there is substantial internal meddling in North Korea by U.S. intelligence and state department agencies and front groups.

The problem — North Korea’s problem — of meddling and foreign intervention in North Korean affairs is even less advertised or exposed by the western propaganda system than the problem of South Korean (the ROK’s) own abrogation, denial and trampling of human rights and commission of atrocities, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Beyond the obvious and little known covert operations against North Korea that are hidden in classified black programs and shrouded in the secrecy of U.S. intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and all the other secretive Pentagon operations, are the many other stealthy subversive and clandestine U.S. government organizations that are more openly meddling and intervening in North Korea’s domestic affairs.

These include the North Korea programs of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a ‘soft-power’ front organization that has more openly pursued many of the former objectives of the covert intelligence apparatus and does so under an open source cover that hides their true agenda and duplicitous activities. NED’s war against Korea is euphemistically defined as a campaign of ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ building, of ‘support’ for ‘civil society’ and ‘democratic elections’ and ‘press’ and ‘speech’ and other ‘freedoms’ — but which really amount to ultra-right wing fascistic programs peddling the ruthless predatory capitalism and corporatism of unregulated private enterprise and ‘free market’ ideas of the ‘American dream’ variety. In 2015 alone the NED dispensed some $2,017,290 to individuals, organizations and initiatives designed to leverage, factionalize, divide and destabilize North Korea; in 2014 it was $2,062,913.

Meanwhile, NED has also dispersed obscene sums of money to destabilize and mold China into the ‘American’ image: in 2015 alone, for example, NED spent $8,497,642 on China. NED operations in Mongolia — another country where western meddling, intervention and plunder is completely whited out by the western press — and Russia (need I say more?) are also very substantial, and each of these countries has some stake in regional alliances and allegiances to North Korea. Of course, NED also dispenses sizable funds for programs in South Korea, but, curiously, the statistics and lists of programs and grantees are not readily discernible from their web sites and annual reports. Further, the sums noted above do not include the additional very sizable disbursements of US taxpayers dollars to “regional” think tanks, ‘training’ institutes or so-called ‘non-government’ organizations like the neoliberal Solidarity Center, The Asia Society, Brookings Institute, Center for International Private Enterprise, and the East Asia Institute.

The National Endowment for Democracy is not the only U.S. front organization meddling in North Korean and regional foreign affairs. The International Republican Institute, National Democratic Institute and others are also deeply involved in pushing the U.S. private enterprise and new world order agenda of power, control, and private profit by any means necessary. And, the United States is not the only country with covert and overt intervention programs assaulting the government of North Korea. Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6) and Israeli intelligence services (Aman, Mossad) — and other NATO allied intelligence and defense agencies — are certainly complicit and directly involved. There is also the Pentagon’s Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and Special Operations Command Korea (SOCOR).

How exactly is a country like North Korea (or Cuba) expected to deal with foreign meddling, interventions and destabilizing operations? They aren’t. According to the pundits of the New World Order they are supposed to get down on their hands and knees and beg. However, given such examples as Iraq or Libya, we know that even doing that would not protect these countries from what the ‘leaders’ of the ‘free world’ have in store for them.

The Arrogance of Freedom

The ROK Armed Forces is one of the largest standing armed forces in the world, with a reported personnel strength of 3,725,000 in 2016 (625,000 active duty soldiers and 3,100,000 reserves). The further militarization of the peninsula serves powerful interests: whether the North Korean missile tests were actually encouraged or discouraged, applauded or reviled by the west doesn’t at all matter: either way the U.S. and our allies benefit from weapons sales and radar installations and missile and troop deployments.

It’s obvious that the escalation of tensions that initially provoked the North Koreans to increase their defensive military capabilities was prompted by the growing USFK and ROK and allied military presence/profile — through our military operations and maneuvers or deployments of weapon systems in and around North Korea — and this in turn led to North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and missile systems, which in turn allows Washington and Seoul and Tokyo to justify the deployment of sophisticated radar and missile warning and missile defense systems. No matter how you look at it, the United States wins.

And such is the mindset of the western war-maker. No matter how they look at it, they think, the United States wins. Profits. Deployments. Power. The Korean peninsula is far away. And this is the true deeper problem: arrogance. It is also the hubris of the bully who thinks he can never get a black eye. But people are playing around with the lives of all humanity, and in their hubris and sociopathy they don’t have the capability to understand their foolishness.

Will the real war criminals please stand up?

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South Korea – May 1990: Scores of military vehicles (background) at a military base in the north of South Korea a few miles south of the DMZ that separates the Korean people at the 38th parallel. (Keith Harmon Snow)

P.S. I have also provided some (amateur) photos of the South Korea’s northern zone, where I was able to use my mountain bicycle to gain access to the area just south of the DMZ. At the time (May 1990) it was highly militarized and I used my camera judiciously, though I always suspected that the ROK patrols that saw me assumed I was US military and gave me a certain carte blanche to bike freely. The landscape there, it seems to me, was highly “manicured” devoid of almost all wildness. Other than the soldiers and police, the only people I saw were universally lower class farmers — warm, kind and friendly. i imagine that this northern region has been substantially more militarized since 1990, but really I have no idea.

http://dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CBA-pics-South-Korea-Protests-10-May-1990-23-e1490159217435.jpg
South Korea – May 1990: Camouflaged cement structures ready to deployed as barricades on the roads in northern South Korea, a few miles south of the DMZ that separates the Korean people at the 38th parallel. (Keith Harmon Snow)

Keith Harmon Snow is a war correspondent, photographer and independent investigator, and a four time (2003, 2006, 2007, 2010) Project Censored award winner. He is also the 2009 Regent's Lecturer in Law & Society at the University of California Santa Barbara, recognized for over a decade of work, outside of academia, contesting official narratives on war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide while also working as a genocide investigator for the United Nations and other bodies. The first UCSB Regent's Lecturer, in 1960, was Aldous Huxley; other recipients include Margaret Mead, Peter Matthiessen and Meredith Monk. Read other articles by Keith, or visit Keith's website.
This article was posted on Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017 at 12:02am and is filed under Cambodia, China, CIA, Crimes against Humanity, Espionage/"Intelligence", FBI, Imperialism, Japan, Korea, Laos, Massacres, Media, Militarism, Narrative, NATO, NSA, Police, Propaganda, Terrorism (state and retail), Torture, Viet Nam, War Crimes, Weapons Sales.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2017/03/the-korea-problem/

U.S. aggression causes escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula - A view from Pyongyang

By Kim Kwang Hak*.
Source: nknews.org.

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Throughout the centuries the Korean Peninsula has been drawn to a vortex of the vicious cycle of the escalation of the tension year after year.

There surely exists a problem on the Korean Peninsula, which has drawn the attentions and interests of the world and also made a number of politicians, policymakers and experts to argue over the “solutions” for some decades.

The dominant viewpoint of the mostexperts on the Korean affairsis that the “the Korean Peninsula Issue is the North Korean Nuclear Issue” and the prospect of its solution seems vague like a “chicken and egg story”. They are “differentiating” the Korean Peninsula by asserting that there should never be nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and the possession of the nuclear weapons by the DPRK invites more tension on the Korean Peninsula.

In other words, those assertions are based on the logic that there is no problem with thousands of nuclear weapons and the delivery systems possessed by the existing nuclear powers andwith those deployed in the place where the nuclear powers have interests in, while the nuclear weapons possessed by the DPRK for the purpose of the self-defense should never be allowed.

I have questions for those who look like setting great value on the “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”by “enthusiastically asserting” that “there should not benuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula under no circumstances”.

Why are youturning blind eyes to the fact that the US frequently introduces the nuclear assets including the nuclear aircraft carriers, nuclear strategic bombers, nuclear submarines into the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula while not satisfied by the fact that they had already deployed more than 1,000 nuclear weapons of the various kinds in south Korea during the Cold War?

Why are you keeping silence on the fact thatsouth Korea is under the “nuclear umbrella” provided by the US?

Why could you notsay a “flat No” to the US, the one whichis most loudly talking about the keeping of the “nuclear non-proliferation system” and the observation of the international law, is turning the blind eye to the nuclear weapons and the test-fire of the ICBM of the countries in which the it had interests,and to the fact that the US committed the brutal armed aggression upon the countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libyain defiance of the international law?

The calls of the US and some nuclear weapon states for the “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” are absolutely based on theirsinister aims and interests, far from defending of the peace and security on the Korean Peninsula. The problem with the Korean Peninsulahas nothing to do with the possession of the nuclear weapons by the DPRK.

The problem with the Korean Peninsula is none other than the issue of the decades-long hostile policy towards the DPRK pursued by the US, the so-called “solesuperpower” and the biggest nuclear power, which drove a nonnuclear country to go nuclear in order to safeguard its sovereignty, dignity and the right to existence. The US hostile policy towards the DPRK had been initiated since it never recognized the sovereignty of the DPRK from the very first days of its founding, and it had been further consolidated into the unprecedented political, economic and military pressures which had been lasting for more than half a century.

In other words, it is the US, not the DPRK, whichtook first in pursuing the hostile policy, and that policy generated the Korean Peninsula Issue which was extended to the breakout of the nuclear issue. The “achievements” performed by the US on the Korean Peninsula, who likes to portray itself as the “Guardian of the world peace and stability”, are none other than the division of the territory, invitation of the irreparable misfortunes of the war, and making the Korean nation, an homogenous nation which shared the same blood and lead a harmonious life from the ancient times to be hostile against each other and engage in the fratricidal war.

At the same time, the US had deployed number of nuclear weapons in south Korea and pursued the hostile policy by resorting to the constant nuclear blackmailing and threats, economic sanctions for the past several decades, thus it gravely threatened the sovereignty and right to existence of the DPRK constantly.

The US pursued the hostile policy towards the DPRK, neither because the DPRK threatened the security of the US nor did a great deal of harm to it. The ridiculous “reasons” for the pursuit of that policy are the fact that the ideology and system of the DPRK differ from those of the US,and the DRPK does not obey the US and furthermore the DPRK could be an obstaclein realizing its strategy to dominate the Asian region.

The US hostility towards the DPRK is not a simple hostility because it is based on the inveterate sense of rejectionto seek the criminal purpose of obliterating the DPRK by all means. The US hostility towards the DPRK has been pursued by the most vicious means, not by the simple means of sanctions or military threats; the US has completely blocked the air, ground and sea of the DPRK to stifle it and at the same time the US has posed a direct threat against it with thousands of nuclear weapons to directly threaten the right to existence.

If you want to solve the problem, you should have a clear understanding of the root cause of it. The root cause of the escalation of the tension on the Korean Peninsula lies in the fact that the US has been pursuing the hostile policy towards the DRPK. The root cause of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula lies in the fact that the US gravely threatens the sovereignty and right to existence of the DPRK with the nuclear weapons by deploying them in south Korea.

It is crystal clear that the DPRK could not afford to focus on developing its economy under the current situation where the biggest nuclear power is steeped in threatening and blackmailing the DPRK, of which population and the depth are not so great, by continuously introducing the nuclear assetsfor more than half a century.

We can only expect the development and the future as long as we survive. It is preposterous to talk about the peace, development and prosperity under the grave situation where the right to existence is severely threatened. The powers, regarding that the nuclear weapons play an important role in achieving their political and military goals, abused the successes of the latest science and technology to develop the nuclear weapons and hastened the increase of their nuclear arsenal in quality and quantity in the past Even now, the nuclear weapons states justify their possession of the nuclear weapons by asserting that the defending of the domestic and international peace and stability and the prevention of the conflicts could be mainly ensured by the possession of the nuclear weapons.

The purposes of the possession of the nuclear weapons can be divided into 2 kinds:

One is to assume the hegemony by means of the nuclear blackmails and threats, while the other is to neutralize this kind of threats and to defend itself. The first one means the nuclear possession of the injustice and the second one can be interpreted as the one of justice.

The DPRK had no ambition to go nuclear. It’s possession of the nuclear weapons can be interpreted as of the justice nature, because it had inevitably possessed the nuclear weapons in order to defend its right to existence and the sovereignty against the constant nuclear threats from the US. The DPRK had never threatened the world with the nuclear weapons, and moreover it had never practically used themlike the US. From the first, the DPRK’s standpoint was nonuclear and anti-nuclear.

The DPRK came out with several proposals to create the nuclear free and peaceful zone on the Korean Peninsula and made sincere efforts to realize it, for example through the DPRK Government Statement dated June 23, 1986 and the DPRK MFA Statement dated July 30, 1991. In the past the DPRK tried to eliminate the ever increasing nuclear threats of the US through the means of negotiations and dialogues, and the international law.

However, all these efforts were met by the open hostility and military threats from the US, including designation of the DPRK as the “axis of evil”, “rogue nation”, “outpost of tyranny” and“the target of the nuclear preemptive strikes” etc. All the efforts through the dialogues and international laws went to nothing and the DPRK had become more exposed to the biggest-ever nuclear threats of the nuclear superpower. Under this situation, the only option left for the DPRK was to resist the “nukes with nukes”. The nuclear deterrent forces of the DPRK are not the one of the injustice with which it wields them to threaten the others for no good reason.

Furthermore, it is not the bargaining chip with which the DPRK intimidates someone in order to obtain the economic assistance, the respect for its system and guarantee for its security. The mighty nuclear deterrent forces of the DPRK are the nuclear treasured sword of justice with which the DPRK defends itssoveignty and right to existence of the people against the ever increasing hostile policy and nuclear threats of the US. The issue on the Korean Peninsula is the issueof the hostile policycaused by the anachronistic hostile policy and the nuclear threats of the US towards the DPRK, far from the “nuclear issue” of someone. The prospect of its solution depends on whether those kinds of policy could be withdrawn or not.

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The US hostile policy towards the DPRK is an extremely dangerous and unwarranted policy that completely undermines the right to existence of tens of millions of the Korean nation and further peace and security in the rest of the northeast Asian region and the world at large. Firstly, the US hostile policy against the DPRK is dreadfully unjust policy. There are a number of countries at hostile relationship worldwide due to the aftereffect of World Wars and international disputes. However, incomparably, the US hostility towards the DPRK derives from inveterate and deep-rooted sense of rejection of the other party.

It is absurd that a variety of policy plans advanced by the successive administrations and policy research institutes of the United States are based on the common theory that the DPRK’s political system is “unstable and irrational”, such an “irrational” State which dooms to collapse must be prevented from possessing the nuclear weapons.

A couple of weeks ago, Tillerson, the US Secretary of State acknowledged that the US policy towards the DPRK of the last 20 years has failed while making an Asian tour including Japan and south Korea. The reason why the US policy on the DPRK has failed and will be doomed to fail is because it derives from the morbid sense of rejection that the DPRK should be obliterated by all possible coercive means as the DPRK’s lines of policy are illegal and the DPRK itself is a threat to international peace and security.

Such a US’s inveterate sense of rejection of the DPRK, which is built on the perception that the latter is banned from doing anything others can do, has failed to offer successive US administrations little opportunity to map out a Korea policy based on a correct viewpoint and thereby, it rather drove the US to slip into a trap of its own.

The US’s blatant hypocrisy is well vindicated by the its rejection of attending to the UN conference on negotiating a convention on prohibiting the nuclear weapons while touting much about preserving the non-proliferation regime and building a nuclear-free world, its connivance on pursuit of nuclear weapons and test-fires of intercontinental missiles by some other countries beyond expectation and others.

A couple of days ago, the US ambassador to the UN argued that prohibition of nuclear weapons worldwide is unrealistic and use of nuclear weapons may be necessary for the sake of the security due to untrustworthy “bad actors”. It clearly proves the ulterior motive behind the US’s demand of nuclear abandonment.

The US targets the DPRK’s survival and development itself beyond its nuclear weapons. Secondly, the US hostile policy towards the DPRK is an extremely risky policy. The nature of the US hostile policy against the DPRK is to obliteratepolitically, isolateeconomically and stifle by use of force the latter.

The US has blatantly spitted out all sorts of wicked words against the DPRK such as “axis of evil”, “evil place”, “rogue nation”, “state sponsor of terrorism” and etc., and it even took a president to make a blast about seeking a “regime collapse” of the DPRK through the means of “change”. Apart from sanctions subject to the UNSC’s resolutions, the US has imposed unilateral sanctions under dozens of domestic laws according to different reasons of “non-market oriented economy”, “engagement in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction” and etc.

It also stands in the way of the DPRK’s economic development by following through all sorts of presidential executive orders. The US Congress has paid lip service to its expressed concerns about the Korean people’s “difficulties in life” and its call for “channeling fund into raising the living standard”. However, it has recently expanded the scope of sanctions to banning sales of foodstuff, agricultural products, textile and minerals irrelevant to the “development of weapons of mass destruction”. Worse still, it has sponsored “the Korea Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act”.

All in all, it lays bare to the American-style hypocrisy and deception. The US has committed massive strategic nuclear assets to south Korea and surrounding areas of the Korean peninsula; it poses the gravest threat ever on the DPRK by staging the so-called “annual” and “defensive” joint military exercises at the threshold of the DPRK.

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This is the height of the US hostile policy against the DPRK. The US has enlisted the most advanced nuclear war hardware it has at its disposal in the on-going exercises. Worse still, it is openly elaborating and conducting several operations; the “Decapitation Operation” targeting the supreme leadership of the DPRK, “Tweezers Operation” to blow up the nuclear and rocket bases of the DPRK, the “Offensive operation into the deeper inlands of the North” and the “Pyongyang Occupation Operation” to ensure the “regime collapse” of the DPRK, even the “High-precision strike exercises”to attack the offices of the supreme leadership of the DPRK. Moreover, the special mission units have been hurled into the exercises; the “DavGuru” (a.k.a.“Navy Seal” Team 6) known as “Warriors’ Unit using the occult art of transforming” which specializes in the “operations for removing the headquarters” and “Delta Force”, known as “detached force of the White House”, belonging to the joint special warfare headquarters.

All these facts vividly show that the ultimate goal sought by the U.S. is none other than the “physical elimination” of the DPRK’s supreme headquarters. No country in the world would condone such attempt of eliminating its headquarters. Much more is it the case with the people of the DPRK who regardtheir Leader as the whole of their lives and destiny. Any US attempt to “hurt and murder” the noble feelings of the people of the DPRK is bound to invite the toughestbacklash from all the service personnel and people of the DPRK.

The world still remembers “ABLE ARCHER-83”, a nuclear preemptive strike exercise that NATO staged back in Nov. 1983 - an incident that could have invited a nuclear preemptive strike of theUSSR (then). Military insiders, at that time, rated that incident in 1983 more perilous than the “Crisis in the CaribbeanSea” in 1962, saying that if the “ABLE ARCHER-83”had been lasted for more 24 hours, the USSR would have unleashed a nuclear preemptive strike.

Such hostile moves of US against the DPRK such as the nuclear blackmails and joint military exercises could invite a “nuclear Armageddon” which the world has never experienced before. In case a nuclear war breaks out on the Korean peninsula, the war would not be confined to the region alone; the entire Northeast Asia, North America and the whole world would be engulfed in a nuclear holocaust.

According to an estimate, the outbreak of war on the Korean peninsula would bring 4 devastating calamities - an economic loss worth of $2billion, devastation of 500 mega-cities, and death toll of 1 billion people, and deserted of the whole world. The US hostile policy towards the DPRK is dreadfully unjust policy as it poses a grave threat not only to the peace and security on the Korean peninsula but also to the world at large.

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ Some people are saying that the vicious cycle of the escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula is like“putting more noodles in case of much water and putting more water in case of many noodles”. The DPRK is bolstering up its nuclear arms to protect its sovereignty and right to existence; the US poses persistent nuclear threat and blackmail to the DPRK, the prime example of which are the large-scale joint military exercises, which are rooted out from the anachronistic hostile viewpoint on the DPRK. Putting these two facts on the same footing is nonsense.

The DPRK is taking the measures of bolstering up its nuclear arms to cope with the nuclear threat and blackmail coming from the US and its vassal forces. All these measures are being taken on a routine basis in linewith the Byungjin policy, the national line, and have nothing to do further strain of tension. The more powerful the DPRK’s nuclear deterrence of the self-defensive nature become, the safer and more peaceful the Korean peninsula will be.

The new U.S. administration should squarely recognize the strategic position of the DPRK, now that it has risen to the position of the nuclear power in the east, and the military giant; it should make a resolute decision to scrap its anachronistic hostile policy towards the DRPK, the root cause of the escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula.

We will continue to build up our self-defense capability, the pivot of which is the nuclear forces, and the capability for preemptive strike as long as the United States and its vassal forces keep on nuclear threat and blackmail and as long as they do not stop their war games they stage at our doorstep disguising them as annual events.

* Researcher of the IFAS of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DPRK.

https://communismgr.blogspot.com/2017/04/us-aggression-causes-escalating-tension.html

Why North Korea Needs Nukes - And How To End Them

Media say,
the United States may
or may not
kill a number of North Koreans
for this or that
or no good reason
but call North Korea
'the volatile and unpredictable regime'


Now consider what the U.S. media don't tell you about Korea:

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- China proposed "double suspension" to defuse the looming crisis on the Korean Peninsula, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday.
"As a first step, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) may suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the suspension of large-scale U.S.-Republic of Korea (ROK) military exercises," Wang told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress.
...
Wang said the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is mainly between the DPRK and the United States, but China, as a next-door neighbor with a lips-and-teeth relationship with the Peninsula, is indispensable to the resolution of the issue.

FM Wang, 'the lips', undoubtedly transmitted an authorized message from North Korea: "The offer is (still) on the table and China supports it."

North Korea has made the very same offer in January 2015. The Obama administration rejected it. North Korea repeated the offer in April 2016 and the Obama administration rejected it again. This March the Chinese government conveyed and supported the long-standing North Korean offer. The U.S. government, now under the Trump administration, immediately rejected it again. The offer, made and rejected three years in a row, is sensible. Its rejection only led to a bigger nuclear arsenal and to more missiles with longer reach that will eventually be able to reach the United States.

North Korea is understandably nervous each and every time the U.S. and South Korea launch their very large yearly maneuvers and openly train for invading North Korea and for killing its government and people. The maneuvers have large negative impacts on North Korea's economy.

North Korea justifies its nuclear program as the economically optimal way to respond to these maneuvers.

Each time the U.S. and South Korea launch their very large maneuvers, the North Korean conscription army (1.2 million strong) has to go into a high state of defense readiness. Large maneuvers are a classic starting point of military attacks. The U.S.-South Korean maneuvers are (intentionally) held during the planting (April/May) or harvesting (August) season for rice when North Korea needs each and every hand in its few arable areas. Only 17% of the northern landmass is usable for agriculture and the climate in not favorable. The cropping season is short.

The southern maneuvers directly threaten the nutritional self-sufficiency of North Korea. In the later 1990s they were one of the reasons that led to a severe famine.

Its nuclear deterrent allows North Korea to reduce its conventional military readiness especially during the all important agricultural seasons. Labor withheld from the fields and elsewhere out of military necessity can go back to work. This is the official North Korean policy known as 'byungjin'.

A guaranteed end of the yearly U.S. maneuvers would allow North Korea to lower its conventional defenses without relying on nukes. The link between the U.S. maneuvers and the nuclear deterrent North Korea is making in its repeated offer is a direct and logical connection.

The North Korean head of state Kim Jong-un has officially announced a no-first-use policy for its nuclear capabilities:

"As a responsible nuclear weapons state, our republic will not use a nuclear weapon unless its sovereignty is encroached upon by any aggressive hostile forces with nukes," Kim told the Workers' Party of Korea congress in Pyongyang. Kim added that the North "will faithfully fulfill its obligation for non-proliferation and strive for the global denuclearization."
During the congress, as elsewhere, Kim Jong Un also emphasized (transcript, pdf, v. slow) the above described connection between nuclear armament and economic development. Summarized:

After decades of emphasizing military strength under his father, Korea is moving toward Kim's “byongjin” — a two-pronged approach aimed at enhancing nuclear might while improving living conditions.
The byongjin strategy, despised by the Obama administration, has been successful:

What are the sources of [North Korea's economic] growth? One explanation might be that less is now spent on the conventional military sector, while nuclear development at this stage is cheaper—it may only cost 2 to 3 percent of GNP, according to some estimates. Theoretically, byungjin is more “economy friendly” than the previous “songun” or military-first policy which supposedly concentrated resources on the military.
To understand why North Korea fears U.S. aggressiveness consider the utter devastation caused mostly by the U.S. during the Korea War:

http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/MacArthur-s.jpg
via Jeffrey Kaye - bigger

Imperial Japan occupied Korea from 1905 to 1945 and tried to assimilate it. A nominal communist resistance under Kim Il-sung fought against the occupation. After the Japanese surrender in 1945 the U.S. controlled and occupied the mostly agricultural parts of Korea below the arbitrarily chosen 38th parallel line. The allied Soviet Union controlled the industrialized part above the line. They had agreed on a short trusteeship of a united and independent country. In the upcoming cold war the U.S. retracted on the agreement and in 1948 installed a South Korean proxy dictatorship under Syngman Rhee. Kim Il-sung still commanded a strong resistance movement in the south and hoped to reunite the country. The Korea War ensued. It utterly destroyed the country. All of Korea was severely effected but especially the industrialized north which lost about a third of its population and all of its reasonably well developed infrastructure - roads, factories and nearly all of its cities.

Every Korean family was effected. Ancestor worship is deeply embedded in the Korean psyche and its collectivist culture. No one has forgotten the near genocide and no one in Korea, north or south, wants to repeat the experience.

The country would reunite if China and the U.S. (and Russia) could agree upon its neutrality. That will not happen anytime soon. But the continued danger of an "accidental" war in Korea would be much diminished if the U.S. would accept the North Korean offer: an end to aggressive behavior like threatening maneuvers against the north in exchange for a verified stop of the northern nuclear and missile programs. North Korea has to insist on this condition out of sheer economic necessity.

The U.S. government and the "western" media hide the rationality of the northern offer behind the propaganda phantasm of "the volatile and unpredictable regime".

But it is not Korea, neither north nor south, that is the "volatile and unpredictable" entity here.

Posted by b on April 14, 2017 at 09:09 AM | Permalink

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/04/the-reason-behind-north-koreas-nuclear-program-and-its-offer-to-end-it.html#more

Live from North Korea
colonelcassad
April 15, 2:51

https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/852585942493913089/6MgTJ1QH?format=jpg&name=600x314

Suddenly. Live from North Korea.


http://youtu.be/q901s3wcNSU

In case war breaks out, there is likely to be announced. And if the war is not (as is likely), then look to the military parade of the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung.
And I went to sleep.

http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/3362962.html

Google Translator


And I went to sleep.

Yes indeed, Boris's analysis has been a little off of late but his ease of repose is justified. Push come to shove the imperialists ain't gonna risk it, pointing to the total correctness of North Korea's strategy.

Anti-DPRK propaganda exposed: Greek TV news presented still from Hollywood movie as real fact!

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XASjwVz64og/WPqawZruHsI/AAAAAAAACmo/hJfufudsRps5gtZsoh4T3NPICN66t4PvwCLcB/s200/TV%2Bpropaganda.jpg

Greek TV news presented still from Hollywood movie as real fact!

Gaffe or deliberate propaganda? In the effort to vilify the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) all possible means can be used. In their news programs, two Greek TV channels- Epsilon and Alpha TV- used stills from the film "The Interview" (2014), which they presented as a real fact! More specifically, both TV channels used the film's opening scene where a little North Korean girl sings an anti-american song.

"Is for the United States to explode in a ball of fiery hell. May they starve and beg, and be ravaged by desease. May they be helpless, poor, sad and cold" say the lyrics of the film's opening scene, which Epsilon and Alpha TV presented as an actual fact that took place in the DPRK!

"Creepy! Kim Jong-Un even put a little girl to threaten the US" was the headline of the Epsilon TV news report (20/4/2017) about the ongoing tension between Washington and Pyongyang!



http://youtu.be/pHmNC7C9dyU

The same part of the film was also used in the news programme of Alpha TV which- like Epsilon- presented the little Korean girl's song as a real video created by the DPRK against the US!

(video at link)

The US film "The Interview", directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, starring Rogen and James Franco, is an anti-DPRK propaganda movie masquerading as "comedy". In the film, a TV host (Franco) and his producer (Rogen) manage to secure an interview with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea – only to find themselves hired by the CIA to assassinate him. The release of the film in 2014 had caused Pyongyang's reaction and the DPRK officially complained to the UN and denounced the movie as "reckless US provocative insanity".

https://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2017/04/anti-dprk-propaganda-exposed-greek-tv.html

Salute to level 80
colonelcassad
April 27, 3:32

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-X-6HbXoAAibi2.jpg

North Korea said the shock of 85 years since the establishment of the Korean People's Army.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-YEFe5XoAEzylS.jpg

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/colonelcassad/19281164/1103789/1103789_900.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-X_CvTXcAUAoAl.jpg

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/colonelcassad/19281164/1103385/1103385_900.jpg

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/colonelcassad/19281164/1104394/1104394_900.jpg

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/colonelcassad/19281164/1105365/1105365_900.jpg


http://youtu.be/AnbpQBabQLQ
Here the old footage mixed with the new.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-YELSvXoAAz3wk.jpg
"And I tell them - remove from our shores your pet, or we drown."

http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/3383829.html

Google Translator

Other images at link.

Lordy but that's a shitload of artillery. Wouldn't want to be on the DMZ when that rain starts falling.

Trump's gonna bluff the North Koreans...yeah, right.

Lordy but that's a shitload of artillery. Wouldn't want to be on the DMZ when that rain starts falling.

Trump's gonna bluff the North Koreans...yeah, right.

It is simply amazing to me (naive, I know) that there seems to be no one in the Trump admin who can see how dangerously stupid this dick-wagging is. Even from a western capitalist viewpoint North Korea is no threat. Could the DPRK bomb Japan? Yeah. Will they? No. Could they bomb South Korea? Yeah. Will they? No. But if Bonehead Trump insists on dick-wagging, a mistake could be easily made by either side and everything goes to shit. This is beyond stupid and it just illustrates how insane the whole imperialist apparatus is - government, media, military, ruling class - all fucking nuts. Nuts, because there is no money in any of this. So, why are they pursuing it?

It is simply amazing to me (naive, I know) that there seems to be no one in the Trump admin who can see how dangerously stupid this dick-wagging is. Even from a western capitalist viewpoint North Korea is no threat. Could the DPRK bomb Japan? Yeah. Will they? No. Could they bomb South Korea? Yeah. Will they? No. But if Bonehead Trump insists on dick-wagging, a mistake could be easily made by either side and everything goes to shit. This is beyond stupid and it just illustrates how insane the whole imperialist apparatus is - government, media, military, ruling class - all fucking nuts. Nuts, because there is no money in any of this. So, why are they pursuing it?

It ain't all economic all the time, at least not directly. For one thing beating the war drum is a fine way to impel military spending, however absurd. And a demonstration for the world audience of prowess and lack of restraint goes far in keeping other nations on their toes, good for business and diplomacy. But I think Trump's fucking up cause I don't think NK gonna back down and I don't think the US military want it's occupation force in Korea, 30K strong, turned into hamburger. I suspect the likely outcome will be continued stalemate. Perhaps NK will say something that allows Trump to walk back some of his belligerence and declare victory. But they ain't giving up their nukes, the recent history of states that have surrendered their WMD's is clear. If i were Kim I'd tell the US "You first.'

It ain't all economic all the time, at least not directly. For one thing beating the war drum is a fine way to impel military spending, however absurd. And a demonstration for the world audience of prowess and lack of restraint goes far in keeping other nations on their toes, good for business and diplomacy. But I think Trump's fucking up cause I don't think NK gonna back down and I don't think the US military want it's occupation force in Korea, 30K strong, turned into hamburger. I suspect the likely outcome will be continued stalemate. Perhaps NK will say something that allows Trump to walk back some of his belligerence and declare victory. But they ain't giving up their nukes, the recent history of states that have surrendered their WMD's is clear. If i were Kim I'd tell the US "You first.'

I wonder if there is that much thought going into things with the Donald in charge. But yeah, all Kim has to do is sit and smirk and the US has got nothin'.

Edit to add:

Have you actually heard a description of what DPRK is accused of doing? All I've heard is "provocations", but don't know what those were. And if this is all to get Kim to hand over his nukes, then the US IS nuts.

US flagWashington Is the Real Threat to Peace on the Korean Peninsula


John Wight

The current crisis on the Korean Peninsula is the product of a militarized state, led by an unpredictable and capricious leader, which cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons. That militarized state is of course the United States, and that unstable and capricious leader is Donald Trump.

If Western media is to be believed, of course, the precise opposite is the case. How could it be otherwise, given that the dominant historical and news narrative is written to suit the interests of the powerful at the expense of the less powerful or powerless? It is why we are continuously fed a distorted rendering both of the current crisis and nature of the DPRK (North Korea).

Indeed, from this rendering you would be entitled to believe that it was North Korea that, in its history, had used nuclear weapons — and used them against civilians — rather than the United States. You would also be entitled to believe that it was North Korea that had destroyed one country after another since the Second World War rather than the United States and its allies.
This is the trouble with Western ideology; it rests on foundations of historical distortion and, dare we say it, fake news.

North Korea's crime is not that it is led by an anti-democratic despot, as we are expected to believe. How could it be so when among Washington's closest allies is a Saudi kleptocracy for whom even the mention of the words democracy and human rights will earn you a flogging, and perhaps even worse? And how it could it be, considering that the various other anti-democratic despots that Washington has counted among its friends and allies over the years?

The reality is that the demonization of North Korea, the aggression being leveled against it, has more to do with imperialism than democracy. It is the same imperialist aggression responsible for destroying the country between 1950 and 1953, during the most destructive war fought since the Second World War. Up to 5 million Koreans, north and south, perished — the majority of them civilians — while North Korea was almost completely obliterated courtesy of a US bombing campaign that took the carpet-bombing of towns, cities, and villages to a new level of wanton destruction. It was, as with the Vietnam War a decade later, a war that was fought in the context of a Cold War that by then was underway between East and West.

Over the decades since, North Korea has existed in a state of near splendid isolation, with China its main source of trade and, with it, income. Outside of that it has endured economic sanctions by the West, which combined with periodic natural disasters and famine, have served to impede its development, both economically and politically.

Putting it another way, you cannot place an entire country under the kind of economic and military pressure that Washington has placed North Korea and not expect its people and society to develop a garrison and siege mentality.

Currently the United States has around 30,000 troops stationed in South Korea, along with nuclear submarines and naval ships permanently within striking distance of Pyongyang. The notion that North Korea is the aggressor, taking this into account, is simply ludicrous, as is the claim made by successive US presidents that it is a threat to regional peace and stability.

On the back of President Trump's remarkable about-face, which in his first 100 days in office has seen him go from a leader committed to ending Washington's attachment to unilateralism and hard power to one of its most committed proponents, the world has never been more unstable. After his recent unilateral and illegal missile strike against Syria, we have in Trump a leader emboldened with a reckless and dangerous belief in his own infallibility when it comes to adopting a military-first strategy in dealing with major international crises, such as the one involving the Korean Peninsula.
Lost in this worship of aircraft carrier battle groups, as the harbinger of peace and security, is the essential role of diplomacy and negotiation in averting the disastrous consequences of conflict and war. And when it comes to any potential conflict with North Korea, even the most conservative estimates provide a grim analysis of the likely consequences that would entail.

North Korea is not the enemy of peace and stability in the region, as claimed, just as the former Yugoslavia was not the enemy of peace and stability in Europe in the 1990s, and just as Iraq and Libya did not pose that threat in the Middle East in more recent times. What each of those states have/had in common was their defiance of Washington and its writ, which is the real reason they found themselves attacked and destroyed. The usual justification employed — i.e. democracy and human rights — was cynically employed as a smokescreen in order to gain domestic public support for unleashing war in each case.

https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/images/105319/11/1053191162.jpg
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un watches a military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) in this handout photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) made available on April 26, 2017

The salient lesson the North Koreans took from the destruction of those states by the US and its allies was that nuclear weapons are a necessary protection against the same fate befalling them. Brutal logic, maybe, but logic nonetheless.

Only when the Washington ends, finally, its commitment to domination and embraces cooperation and respect in its dealings with the world will stability and peace cease to be a forlorn hope and at last become a reality.

Sadly, given what we know of Washington, nobody should make the mistake of holding their breath.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201705021053190529-korean-peninsula-crisis-washington/

Good piece.


Only when the Washington ends, finally, its commitment to domination and embraces cooperation and respect in its dealings with the world will stability and peace cease to be a forlorn hope and at last become a reality.

This is the problem. The ruling class is making far too much profit for it to ever let go of imperialism. It would take something along the lines of a revolution to make it happen. And the author recognizes as much in the next sentence:


Sadly, given what we know of Washington, nobody should make the mistake of holding their breath.

The author says, "what we know of Washington", when it should be, "what we know of capitalism", but no one is allowed to make that connection. It is the people involved, not the system, that is to fault. Still, if enough citizens can raise their voices against this brutality and insanity, it might be a positive in regards this particular case? Am I being rosy-eyeglassed at the thought that "hands off Syria" may actually be having an affect?

Trump’s reckless brinkmanship has created a tinderbox on the Korean Peninsula, where a miscalculation or provocation could quickly escalate into a disastrous war.

More... (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/05/06/nkor-m06.html)

The unstable, crisis-ridden North Korean regime is increasingly under siege on all sides, as the Trump administration ramps up its threats of war on the Korean Peninsula and pressures Beijing to compel Pyongyang to give up its nuclear and missile programs. While formally an ally of North Korea, China has already voted for a series of UN resolutions imposing harsh sanctions and is currently discussing further UN penalties with the US.
A commentary published this week by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) lashed out at Beijing, accusing it of “insincerity and betrayal” and warning of “grave consequences entailed by its reckless act of chopping down the pillar of the DPRK [North Korea]-China relations.” The KCNA reiterated that North Korea would not give up its nuclear weapons, setting it on a collision course not only with the US and Washington’s allies, but also China.
The Pyongyang regime, which depends heavily on China economically, is reacting to growing pressure from Beijing to bow to US demands. In February, China announced the suspension of coal imports from North Korea for the remainder of the year, and last month reportedly turned away a fleet of North Korean cargo ships laden with coal. Beijing is deeply concerned that Pyongyang’s weapon programs have created the pretext for a US military build up in North East Asia aimed against China.

China does appear to be turning its back on DPRK, but China is in a precarious position. China and no one else quite understands the Trump thing. They got Kim on one side and The Donald on the other. But the stoppage of coal sales is critical and I admit I don't understand it. This is crippling for DPRK and it really gets China nothing from the US.

Anyway, DPRK cannot give up their nukes and China should know better - except for the Trump wild card. China feels unsure of Trump...join the club.

China does appear to be turning its back on DPRK, but China is in a precarious position. China and no one else quite understands the Trump thing. They got Kim on one side and The Donald on the other. But the stoppage of coal sales is critical and I admit I don't understand it. This is crippling for DPRK and it really gets China nothing from the US.

Anyway, DPRK cannot give up their nukes and China should know better - except for the Trump wild card. China feels unsure of Trump...join the club.

Dunno how much of this is expediency, just to chill Trump for time being. Some 'bright/shiny' will get his attention soon enough, especially if things bog down. As for his 'unpredictability', he might be wearing out that gambit pretty quick. Recent events make it clear that he is on a leash and cannot go far beyond the imperialist program. What Trump does, all he does, is throw up glitzy facades around mediocre, overpriced product and his presidency is much the same. He will declare victory after taking a shit. I think the Chinese gotta have his number and will play him, and they got a hole card, massive piles of US debt. Coal shipments can be resumed easily. Hell, that 'cry of anguish' from NK might be feigned. Dare I say 'Kabuki Theater'?

Running Hwasong-12
colonelcassad
May 15, 18:21

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_4BvF8XgAAzsIp.jpg

Running Hwasong-12 ballistic missile, which was held yesterday in the DPRK.
The missile is capable of not only hitting US bases and other targets in South Korea and Japan, but also with the stock fly to the US base on Guam.


http://youtu.be/Ep2ub8tzuX8

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_4BsQXWsAAKw_Q.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_4At_UXgAEKB0L.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_4Btr6XUAMiibD.jpg

http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/3420025.html

Google Translator

Did I hear a "Fuck You!"?

WP of Korea, DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman Rejects Press Statement of UNSC [En]
Thursday, 18 May 2017 09:11 Worker's Party of Korea E-mail Print PDF

DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman Rejects Press Statement of UNSC [En]

Pyongyang, May 16 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry Tuesday gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA as regards the successful test-fire of ground-to-ground medium long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12:

The successful test-fire of Hwasong-12 is of great and special significance in ensuring peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region, and it is the greatest victory of the Korean people.

As part of the routine work to raise the nuclear capability to the maximum and thus increase the military capability for self-defense, the test-fire was conducted at the highest angle in consideration of neighboring countries' security. It was aimed at verifying the tactical and technical specifications of newly-developed ballistic rocket capable of carrying a large-size heavy nuclear warhead.

However, some countries described this legitimate exercise of right to self-defense as "violation" and "threat" and the UNSC issued a press statement pulling up the DPRK over the ballistic rocket launch.

The DPRK categorically and totally rejects the UNSC's press statement which called into question its bolstering of nuclear deterrence for self-defense, pursuant to the U.S. vicious anti-DPRK policy.

Just in recent one week the U.S. conducted two test-fires of intercontinental ballistic missiles, but the UNSC never mentioned them.

The right to self-defense is the first criterion of sovereignty. Therefore, accusation against it is an undisguised encroachment upon sovereignty and an act of rude interference in internal affairs.

Should the U.S. dare make a military provocation against our State, we will readily counter it.

The most perfect weapon systems in the world will never be the eternal exclusive property of the U.S., and the day when the DPRK uses corresponding retaliatory means is sure to come.

Then, the U.S. will come to see for itself whether the ballistic rockets of the DPRK pose actual threat to it or not.

http://www.solidnet.org/dpr-of-korea-workers-party-of-korea/wp-of-korea-dprk-foreign-ministry-spokesman-rejects-press-statement-of-unsc-en

WP of Korea, DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman Rejects Press Statement of UNSC [En]
Thursday, 18 May 2017 09:11 Worker's Party of Korea E-mail Print PDF

DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman Rejects Press Statement of UNSC [En]

Pyongyang, May 16 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry Tuesday gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA as regards the successful test-fire of ground-to-ground medium long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12:

The successful test-fire of Hwasong-12 is of great and special significance in ensuring peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region, and it is the greatest victory of the Korean people.

As part of the routine work to raise the nuclear capability to the maximum and thus increase the military capability for self-defense, the test-fire was conducted at the highest angle in consideration of neighboring countries' security. It was aimed at verifying the tactical and technical specifications of newly-developed ballistic rocket capable of carrying a large-size heavy nuclear warhead.

However, some countries described this legitimate exercise of right to self-defense as "violation" and "threat" and the UNSC issued a press statement pulling up the DPRK over the ballistic rocket launch.

The DPRK categorically and totally rejects the UNSC's press statement which called into question its bolstering of nuclear deterrence for self-defense, pursuant to the U.S. vicious anti-DPRK policy.

Just in recent one week the U.S. conducted two test-fires of intercontinental ballistic missiles, but the UNSC never mentioned them.

The right to self-defense is the first criterion of sovereignty. Therefore, accusation against it is an undisguised encroachment upon sovereignty and an act of rude interference in internal affairs.

Should the U.S. dare make a military provocation against our State, we will readily counter it.

The most perfect weapon systems in the world will never be the eternal exclusive property of the U.S., and the day when the DPRK uses corresponding retaliatory means is sure to come.

Then, the U.S. will come to see for itself whether the ballistic rockets of the DPRK pose actual threat to it or not.

http://www.solidnet.org/dpr-of-korea-workers-party-of-korea/wp-of-korea-dprk-foreign-ministry-spokesman-rejects-press-statement-of-unsc-en

Boy, that was well said! And succinctly true - no bullshit, at all.

Boy, that was well said! And succinctly true - no bullshit, at all.

Yep, and compare that to what they say about NK, what they say that NK said, and you get an inkling about how far down the rabbit hole we've gone. As with Ukraine, as with Syria, as with Venezuela...if they say the sun is shining you better sure as hell look out the window.

I think people think it hyperbole when I tell them everything on TV is lies but I'm closer than not to the truth.

The Happiest People On Earth


http://youtu.be/ztcLh-cTJfs