Korea

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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Wed May 16, 2018 10:47 pm

North Korea may “reconsider” participation in summit with U.S.: official
Kim Kye Gwan warns comparisons to Libya or Iraq from senior American officials could scupper talks
Dagyum Ji May 16th, 2018

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North Korea will “reconsider” a planned summit with U.S. President Donald Trump if Washington forces the country to unilaterally abandon its nuclear weapons, the DPRK’s first Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kye Gwan said on Wednesday.

In a Korean-language report carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim said the Trump administration had issued “ludicrous statements which are extremely provoking” ahead of the DPRK-U.S. summit – scheduled to be held on June 12 in Singapore.

The vice foreign minister denounced several senior officials at the White House and the U.S. State Department, including National Security Adviser John Bolton, for raising, among other things, the potential for a “Libyan model” for denuclearization.

Kim condemned comments calling for “Complete, Verifiable, and Irreversible Denuclearization (CVID)” and “complete discarding of nuclear arsenals and chemical and biological weapons.”

“If the Trump administration comes forward to the DPRK-U.S. summit with sincerity for the improvement of the DPRK-U.S. relations, it will receive the deserved response,” Kim said in the written statement.

“But if it forces the abandonment of our nuclear arsenal unilaterally while driving us into the corner, we won’t have any interest in such dialogue, we can’t help but reconsidering if we acceded to the DPRK-U.S. summit.”

The DPRK vice foreign minister said the comments showed the U.S.’s “impure intention” to push the DPRK into a Libya or Iraq-style situation instead of resolving the issue through dialogue.

The statement particularly singles out John Bolton.

“We’ve explicitly clarified who Bolton is, and we don’t hide the repulsion toward him now,” it reads.

“I can’t hold my violent anger over the U.S. behavior, and I doubt if the U.S. sincerely hopes for the improvement of the DPRK-U.S. relations through wholesome dialogue and negotiation,” he said.

Kim said it was “stupid” to compare the DPRK – a nuclear weapons state – to Libya, which was at the early stages of developing nuclear weapons.

In his statement, the DPRK diplomat also reiterated Pyongyang’s stance that Washington had downplayed the North’s “generosity and bold measures” in pursuing dialogue, instead citing it as the result of a maximum pressure campaign.

“We’ve expressed the intention of the denuclearization on the Korean peninsula, we’ve clarified several times that the prerequisite is to terminate the U.S. hostile policy against the DPRK and nuclear blackmail,” he said.

Kim also, notably, dismissed claims economic incentives could be given in return for North Korean denuclearization.

“The U.S. is clamoring that they will offer economic rewards and benefits if we abandon nuclear arsenals,” he said. “But we’ve never built our economy while having expectations on the U.S, and we will never make such deal.”

The comments are likely a response to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s comments earlier in the week that “private sector Americans coming in” could be allowed to go to the North to improve its energy, infrastructure, and agriculture sectors in the event of a nuclear deal.

Wednesday’s statement also saw the DPRK vice foreign minister warn the Trump administration not to repeat the mistake of his predecessors, and that bilateral ties will suffer should Washington follow the opinion of “pseudo-patriots.”

In a marked shift from the diplomatic niceties of the past few weeks, Wednesday also saw the North cancel a planned high-level inter-Korean meeting, citing the ongoing joint ROK-U.S. Max Thunder military exercise.

An accompanying statement also warned that the North might withdraw from the upcoming summit.

“The U.S. will have to think twice about the fate of the DPRK-U.S. summit now on high agenda before a provocative military racket against the DPRK in league with the south Korean authorities,” it said.

Edited by Oliver Hotham

https://www.nknews.org/2018/05/north-ko ... -ministry/
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Thu May 17, 2018 11:26 am

WP of Korea, Press Statement by First Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of DPRK [En]
Wednesday, 16 May 2018 09:28 Workers' Party of Korea

Press Statement by First Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of DPRK [En]



Pyongyang, May 16 (KCNA) -- Kim KyeGwan, first vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK, made public the following press statement on Wednesday:

Kim Jong Un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, made a strategic decision to put an end to the unpleasant history of the DPRK-U.S. relations and met Pompeo, U.S. secretary of state, for two times during his visit to our country and took very important and broad-minded steps for peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the world.

In response to the noble intention of Chairman Kim Jong Un, President Trump stated his position for terminating the historically deep-rooted hostility and improving the relations between the DPRK and the U.S.

I appreciated the position positively with an expectation that upcoming DPRK-U.S. summit would be a big step forward for catalyzing détente on the Korean peninsula and building a great future.

But now prior to the DPRK-U.S. summit, unbridled remarks provoking the other side of dialogue are recklessly made in the U.S. and I am totally disappointed as these constitute extremely unjust behavior.

High-ranking officials of the White House and the Department of State including Bolton, White House national security adviser, are letting loose the assertions of so-called Libya mode of nuclear abandonment, "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization", "total decommissioning of nuclear weapons, missiles, biochemical weapons". etc, while talking about formula of "abandoning nuclear weapons first, compensating afterwards".

This is not an expression of intention to address the issue through dialogue. It is essentially a manifestation of awfully sinister move to impose on our dignified state the destiny of Libya or Iraq which had been collapsed due to yielding the whole of their countries to big powers.

I cannot suppress indignation at such moves of the U.S., and harbor doubt about the U.S. sincerity for improved DPRK-U.S. relations through sound dialogue and negotiations.

World knows too well that our country is neither Libya nor Iraq which have met miserable fate.

It is absolutely absurd to dare compare the DPRK, a nuclear weapon state, to Libya which had been at the initial stage of nuclear development.

We shed light on the quality of Bolton already in the past, and we do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him.

If the Trump administration fails to recall the lessons learned from the past when the DPRK-U.S. talks had to undergo twists and setbacks owing to the likes of Bolton and turns its ear to the advice of quasi-"patriots" who insist on Libya mode and the like, prospects of upcoming DPRK-U.S. summit and overall DPRK-U.S. relations will be crystal clear.

We have already stated our intention for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and made clear on several occasions that precondition for denuclearization is to put an end to anti-DPRK hostile policy and nuclear threats and blackmail of the United States.

But now, the U.S. is miscalculating the magnanimity and broad-minded initiatives of the DPRK as signs of weakness and trying to embellish and advertise as if these are the product of its sanctions and pressure.

The U.S. is trumpeting as if it would offer economic compensation and benefit in case we abandon nuke. But we have never had any expectation of U.S. support in carrying out our economic construction and will not at all make such a deal in future, either.

It is a ridiculous comedy to see that the Trump administration, claiming to take a different road from the previous administrations, still clings to the outdated policy on the DPRK - a policy pursued by previous administrations at the time when the DPRK was at the stage of nuclear development.

If President Trump follows in the footsteps of his predecessors, he will be recorded as more tragic and unsuccessful president than his predecessors, far from his initial ambition to make unprecedented success.

If the Trump administration takes an approach to the DPRK-U.S. summit with sincerity for improved DPRK-U.S. relations, it will receive a deserved response from us. However, if the U.S. is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue and cannot but reconsider our proceeding to the DPRK-U.S. summit.

http://solidnet.org/dpr-of-korea-worker ... of-dprk-en
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Thu May 17, 2018 2:44 pm

Xi emphasizes friendship 'sealed in blood' with N.K.
2018/05/17 09:25

SEOUL, May 17 (Yonhap) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has met with visiting North Korean ruling party officials and emphasized the importance of advancing a friendship "sealed in blood" between the two countries, the North's state-run media reported Thursday.

The group led by Pak Thae-song, a member of the Political Bureau and vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, arrived in Beijing on Monday. He is accompanied by senior party officials representing major provinces and cities.

"Welcoming the friendship group's visit to China, Xi Jinping said that China is attaching very importance to the work to propel the traditional friendship between the two countries sealed in blood to a higher stage as required by the new era," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English report.

"He noted with pleasure that he met Chairman Kim Jong-un two times and exchanged the comprehensive and detailed views on the matters of concern including the development of the relations between the two parties and the two countries and the regional and international situation," it added.

Pak said that the party officials' trip to China would serve as an important chance to further relations between the two countries. He also emphasized that North Korea is "concentrating all their efforts" on economic development.

Since arriving Monday, the North Koreans have reportedly toured major industrial and economic areas, including the Zhongguancun High-tech Zone, known as China's Silicon Valley.

Last week North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian and met with Xi. It was their second meeting and followed Kim's surprise March visit to Beijing.

Ties between North Korea and China are showing signs of improvement after going through a tough patch for several years caused by the North's defiant advancement of its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korean leader Kim is set to hold an unprecedented summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12, with denuclearization likely to top the agenda. The meeting follows his historic inter-Korean summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in last month.

kokobj@yna.co.kr

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/20 ... tml?sns=tw

Loose talk of China's betrayal of Korea by various ultra-lefts is premature, at the least
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Mon May 21, 2018 1:40 pm

U.S. Scrapped Training Exercise With South Korea Involving B-52s

South Korea expressed concern in advance of U.S.-North Korea summit, officials say

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A South Korean soldier walks past a television screen in Seoul showing pictures of President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in March. PHOTO: JUNG YEON-JE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
By Michael R. Gordon and Nancy A. Youssef
Updated May 18, 2018 7:20 p.m. ET

A planned training exercise involving U.S. B-52 bombers and South Korean planes was scrapped earlier this week after the South Korean government expressed concerns that it could generate tensions before the summit meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to U.S. officials.

The move follows repeated assertions by the Trump administration that it is keeping up a campaign of maximum economic and military pressure until North Korea gives up its nuclear-weapons programs and that the U.S. hasn’t changed the scope of its exercises.

Behind the Scenes of North Korean Diplomacy

Top diplomats and government officials discuss risks, hopes and the future of North Korean relations at the WSJ CEO Council in Tokyo ahead of the planned Trump-Kim meeting in Singapore.
But the South Koreans asked not to participate in what was intended to be a three-nation air drill involving the U.S., South Korea and Japan, the U.S. officials said. The U.S., which has sought to maintain political solidarity with Seoul during a turbulent period of diplomacy with North Korea, hasn’t commented publicly on the South Korean decision.

more...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-scrapp ... 1?mod=e2tw

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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Mon May 28, 2018 12:05 pm

Korea takes another step in solving its own problems

While the United States is looking increasingly desperate and floundering, the two parts of Korea have taken yet another step in solving their own problems – a long-standing wish and policy, as I have pointed out on a number of occasions.

Yesterday, Moon Jae-in ducked across the informal border for a candid and unannounced discussion with a new friend, Kim Jong Un. As one does in Korea!

No better source that Rodong Sinmun to report on it (KCNA carries the same report):

The top leaders of the north and the south open-heartedly listened to each other’s opinions on the crucial pending matters without formality, and had a candid dialogue. The meeting offers another historic occasion in opening up a new chapter in the development of the north-south relations.

In a little more detail:

At the talks there were in-depth exchanges of opinions to tackle the matters that should be resolved to quickly implement the Panmunjom Declaration agreed upon at the third north-south summit and to realize the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and achieve regional peace, stability and prosperity, and the matters the north and the south are now faced with, and the one of successfully holding the DPRK-U.S. summit.

Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae In shared the view that the two sides should trust and take care of each other and exert joint efforts to make sure that the Panmunjom Declaration reflecting the unanimous desire of all Koreans is implemented at an early date.

They agreed to hold the north-south high-level talks on coming June 1 and further accelerate the talks of various fields including the ones of military authorities and Red Cross.

They shared the opinion that they would meet frequently in the future to invigorate dialogue and pool wisdom and efforts, expressing their stand to make joint efforts for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula …

The fourth north-south summit held at Panmunjom, recorded in history as a symbol of national reconciliation and unity, peace and prosperity, will provide all Koreans with a new hope and vitality.

Or as Moon himself observed after the meeting: ‘I wish to place a great meaning on the latest talks that were held as if they were an ordinary event between friends. I am convinced that this is the way that South and North Korea must meet’.

Meanwhile, the United States is feeling somewhat left out of all this, so they are now begging to meet Kim Jong Un in June – although by then matters will have moved on. The declaration of course includes the removal of hostile US troops from the peninsula.

To add another twist, KCNA debunks the spin that the DPRK is desperate for ‘economic aid’ from the United States. Simply put, the DPRK does not need that kind of assistance, not least because it has China’s backing and has been doing quite well of late.

The article observes:

This is the nonsense of hack media on the payroll of power, ignorant of who is the rival …

Now that U.S. media are still building up public opinion that the DPRK comes to the negotiating table with the U.S. in a hope to get “economic aid” from it, we can not but make the fact clear.

It is the U.S. that asked for DPRK-U.S. talks first.

The U.S. has recently come to realise that the military strength, it regards as almighty, and the anti-DPRK sanctions, it pinned hope on, were all doomed to failure. After all, there could be no other way out for the U.S.

The international community contends that the world-startling dramatic change in the DPRK-U.S. ties was entirely thanks to the DPRK’s efforts for peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the world.

As far as the “economic aid” advertised by the U.S. is concerned, the DPRK has never expected it.

U.S. media would be well advised to stop talking nonsense as hack media and deeply study what the strategic line advanced at the historic April Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea means.

Finally, a useful piece in Rodong Sinmun called ‘Let Us Give Full Play to the Advantages of Socialism’.

Pictures from yesterday’s meeting:

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The text by Moon Jae-in reads: ‘Peace and Prosperity of the Korean Peninsula, together with Chairman Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea! May 26, 2018. President of the Republic of Korea Moon Jae In’.

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And here is a video report of the meeting:



https://stalinsmoustache.org/2018/05/27 ... -problems/
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Tue May 29, 2018 3:25 pm

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A Conversation with a North Korean Citizen
May 28, 2018 CYM Committee 2 Comments

I recently had the opportunity to speak with a citizen of North Korea living in a city called Wonsan. Located along the Eastern side of the peninsula, it is a port city containing a naval base. The city in which he lives contains numerous major factories for the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and has about 300,000 citizens, as of a 2013 census. The man, who gave me an alias of “Hyun-Sik”, spoke with me and gave me an insight into North Korea and his life there.

My first question was “How is a North Korean citizen able to access Western websites?”

He explained to me that Western internet, apps and media are very largely accessible by the North Korean population but that they mostly use their own media. He told me of an app similar to Facebook or Instagram called “Weibo” which is used by people in North Korea. He said that while Western media is accessible, it is “expensive, slow and to most people not really worth it”. Weibo is a microblogging website based in China which he says is used by “a fair amount” of people in the DPRK. This comes contrary to what we are told in the West, namely that there is no internet in the DPRK or it is only accessible by the government in a heavily censored form.

Hyun-Sik told me that he uses a Chinese mobile provider called “ChinaUnicom” and that he can access Western news through his provider. However, he adds “I do not normally read western news”. He said his main news sources are “Russia Today, Korean Central News, China Global and Central Television, Syrian Arab News Agency, China Daily and People’s Daily”. This shows that he has access to sources of news outside of North Korea from multiple countries. Lastly, he told me that almost all of the internet access comes through China, which is why he uses Chinese websites and mobile providers. He said that this likely leads to some sort of filtering by the Chinese government, but he does have access to western media that you and I would use.

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My surprise at how well Hyun-Sik could speak English led me to my second question: “Is it common for people in North Korea to speak English?”

He told me “No, not very much”. He went on to explain that it was only in university that any substantial amount of people spoke English. Hyun-Sik speaks three languages; Korean, Mandarin and English. He told me that speaking other languages was of interest to him and that he learned to speak English in a school class. Although this class was not mandatory and he chose to take it, this skill has proven of use to him as he speaks to people in English on the internet on a daily basis.

Next, we discussed the political climate of North Korea, particularly its relation to South Korea and the West: “What do you think of the idea of a reunification between North and South Korea?”

He responded: “I’d love unification, like any Korean it is a dream and goal. It is vital. As we are one people on one land sharing the same language and culture”. When I followed by asking what was currently holding Korea back from reunification, he explained: “Simply enough, the United States and their sympathisers in the ROK” (Editor’s Note: ROK is short for the Republic of Korea, the state which exists in the southern half of the peninsula). It seems to be that in the eyes of the DPRK and its people, America’s imperialism is what is stopping peace and reunification.



We discussed the current president of the US and I asked, “Do you think Trump was better or worse than Obama?”

“They are all the same. Same wars. I like that he has made for peace, but they are all imperialists, warmongers. What he’s doing in the Middle East is disastrous, but expected”. This shows he even has an awareness of contemporary politics in the wider world, including the Middle East.

I decided to get his view on the story American media outlets have been concentrating on for the last few weeks: “What do you think of the narrative of Trump being the cause for the talks between the DPRK and ROK (Republic of Korea)?”

“It’s absolute and complete nonsense, he’s trying to redeem himself, make him look like he’s done good when in fact he has nothing to do with inter Korean dialogue and communication for peace”. He said that he believes that unification on the Korean Peninsula will happen “within two decades”.

Hyun-Sik supports the Korean Workers’ Party, which is the party that holds the current majority in their parliament, headed by Kim Jong Un. In a comment on Kim Jong Un, he said that “he is the right man for the situation” He says that in the 2014 election, he was not of age to vote (17) but in the next election he will vote for the WPK (Workers’ Party of Korea). He commented that the party was “slightly authoritarian, but not extremely” like the narrative where we are commonly told that the DPRK government is totalitarian. He noted that military service is mandatory in the DPRK, he has not done his military service yet, but he said that it will be “Most likely after university, it depends onto what branch and if one would like to make into a career in the military”.

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A common claim in the West is that DPRK citizens are not free to criticise their government and that their speech is heavily restricted. I asked Hyun-Sik if he were free to criticise his government, he told me “ah, most definitely”. When I asked him if he knew of anyone who had been punished for criticisms made of the DPRK government, he simply said “not to my knowledge”. He said that the general public favours the WPK, from what he has seen. His reasoning for supporting the WPK and Kim Jong Un are is that “the WPK is the founding revolutionary party of the DPRK, their policies have helped Korea achieve rapid progress and later modernisation through the arduous march”. He says he is a supporter of Juche socialism.

He went on to explain that DPRK citizens are aware of the many myths that are propagated about the DPRK in the West. I named a few such myths like that the DPRK citizens believe Kim Jong Un invented the hamburger and that the DPRK thinks they won the World Cup. He responded to me saying these are both false along with others. The examples he gave included the myth that citizens are only allowed certain haircuts and that citizens of the DPRK cannot watch western movies. He said that while there are stands in Pyongyang where people can buy DVDs, he personally prefers Chinese movies. He has watched the English movie “Mister Bean’s Holiday” and did not enjoy it very much.

One interesting thing which Hyun-Sik told me was that people in the DPRK are generally very happy in their lives, and that he would assume that people in the DPRK are, overall, happier than people in the West. I told him that in the West people often describe life as difficult due to large workloads and the pressure of competition: “Do people in the DPRK view life in a similar light?”

“We have many rights regarding labour, like the Right to Work and Right to Relaxation. We work between 7-10 hours a day, varies by job” The working week would be “between Monday and Saturday with Sunday off”.


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“Do citizens of the DPRK feel the same way about their work that Westerners do?”

“Frankly that is a question difficult to answer, it’s really a personal one. I know some people who throughly enjoy their career and come home happy and satisfied, some absolutely hate work and their lives. Mostly it is seen as positive,as we in the end are all helping each other”.

My final question to Hyun-Sik was “What would you like the West to know about the DPRK?”

“That we do not hate the people of the nations of imperialism, but only their government”.

Overall my discussion with Hyun-Sik was very informative. A learning experience through which I gained a deeper insight into daily life in the DPRK and the political climate from the perspective of an ordinary 18 year old citizen. CR.

https://cym.ie/2018/05/28/a-conversatio ... n-citizen/

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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Wed Jun 20, 2018 4:27 pm

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BAR Book Forum: Stephen Gowans’ “Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea's Struggle for Freedom”
“The leader of every state that has refused to submit to US political and economic domination is defamed as a monster.”

In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Stephen Gowans . Gowans is an independent political analyst whose principal interest is in who influences formulation of foreign policy in the United States. His book is Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea's Struggle for Freedom.

Roberto Sirvent: How can your book help BAR readers understand the current political and social climate?

Stephen Gowans:The conflict between the United States and North Korea didn’t start at the moment North Korea embarked upon a program of nuclear weapons development, although the discourse surrounding US-North Korea relations—focussed largely on the ostensible threat Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles pose to the United States and the consequent demand for denuclearization—would lead you to believe it did. On the contrary, the conflict began in 1945, when the United States, taking its first steps to establish a global empire of unprecedented scale, arrived on the Korean peninsula to accept the Japanese surrender and refused to recognize the newly established Korean People’s Republic, the state Koreans proclaimed for themselves after 40 years of foreign rule by the Japanese.

Korea had been bisected by the United States into separate US and Soviet occupation zones to accept the Japanese surrender. US forces quickly eradicated the Korean People’s Republic within their occupation zone. They did so by fighting an anti-insurgency war against Korean guerrillas who took up arms to defend the nascent republic. In place of the republic, Washington installed a US military dictatorship, and subsequently a puppet regime, South Korea, which possessed, and continues to posses, the trappings of a viciously anti-communist police state.

“US policy since 1945 has been to crush any independent Korean government.”

The Korean People’s Republic survived north of the 38thparallel, in the Soviet occupation zone, and became the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), known informally as North Korea. US policy since 1945 has been to crush any independent Korean government, whether the short-lived Korean People’s Republic, or its DPRK successor.

My book traces the history of US efforts to quash independent political movements in Korea, not only in the north, but in the south as well, and the struggle waged by Korean patriots to unify their country and emancipate it from the foreign rule and military occupation inflicted on it, first by the Empire of the Rising Sun, beginning in 1905, and subsequently by the US empire, since 1945.

What do you hope activists and community organizers will take away from reading your book?

I hope they take away a number of things, but two are particularly important.

The first is a basic understanding of what the aims of US foreign policy are and who shapes and influences it. US foreign policy largely shaped what Korea is and has become since 1945, and it is impossible to understand Korea without first understanding US foreign policy. US foreign policy is set, not by the broad public acting through its elected representatives to serve broad public interests, but by an elite based in the business and especially finance and banking communities to serve their sectional interests. I cite in my book an observation made by Lenin: “Unless the economic essence of imperialism…is studied, it will be impossible to understand and appraise modern war and modern politics.” Although Lenin made the point in 1917, it remains undiminished in its relevance. It is impossible to appraise modern war and modern politics, both domestic and foreign, without reference to political economy, by which I mean the study of who, by virtue of their control of economic assets, is able to wield enormous political power, enabling them to degrade others into an instrument of their own interests.

“It is impossible to appraise modern war and modern politics without reference to political economy,”

The second take-away is that the foreign policy elite, of which I include the major US mass media, defuse opposition to US aggressions around the world by defaming the people or nations which refuse to submit to what Domenico Losurdo has called the international dictatorship of the United States. An invariable aspect of this program of public opinion management is the dehumanization of the leaders of independent states. The leader of every state that has refused to submit to US political and economic domination is defamed as a monster,whether Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam, Robert Mugabe, Bashar al-Assad, Muamar Gaddafi, or Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un. The language of the bestiary is as favored by US presidents as it is by some figures of the Left. Once the targets of US foreign policy are dehumanized, opposition to such unlawful acts against them as unilateral air strikes, invasion, economic warfare, and aid to internal rebellions, melts away.

We know readers will learn a lot from your book, but what do you hope readers will un-learn? In other words, is their a particular ideology you’re hoping to dismantle?

One ideology I hope to dismantle is the notion that the absence of liberal democratic institutions in states made to suffer the aggressions of the US empire spring from ‘authoritarianism’ inherent in the states’ ideologies or in lust for power on the part of the states’ leaders, rather than from the state of crisis and emergency engendered by US aggression.

People naturally view other societies through the lens of their own experience, and if their experience is one of living in a country secure from invasion and attack, as is true of US citizens, they might have difficulty grasping the dual realities that North Korea lives under an incessant threat of attack and invasion, and that countries which are threatened are denied the luxury of openness.Liberal democratic institutions in North Korea would facilitate the organization by Washington of North Korea’s demise. (If there’s any doubt that bringing about the quietus of the DPRK is a US goal, John Bolton, the current National Security Advisor, once described Washington’s North Korea policy to a New York Times reporter by pointing to a volume on his bookshelf. The book was titled ‘The End of North Korea.’)

“Countries which are threatened are denied the luxury of openness.”

From the moment of the DPRK’s birth, the independent Korean state has faced a determined effort by the United States to bring about its destruction. This effort has included threats of war, an actual invasion, the total incineration of the country from 1950 to 1953, threats of nuclear annihilation, the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops along its borders at least once per year in US-led war games exercises, continual harassment of its borders by US warships and warplanes, an unceasing propaganda barrage, and 70 years of economic warfare, culminating in a blockade that is now nearly total. Under these circumstances, liberal democratic institutions are impossible.

The proof of this is manifold: First, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights exempts states in “time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation” from their responsibility to guarantee civil and political liberties. This follows from liberal democratic theory, which makes provision for dictatorship in times of crises. What’s more, the United States, Britain and Canada became virtual dictatorships during the first and second world wars, regimented their societies, controlled the flow of information, brought their economies under state control, and immured political opponents in concentration camps. Two of these countries, the United States and Canada, faced no existential threat and both were protected from invasion by two vast oceans. Once the crisis of war lifted, liberal democratic institutions re-emerged. Anyone who truly wants liberal democratic institutions to flourish in North Korea should work to lift the threats that make these institutions impossible.

Who are the intellectual heroes that inspire your work?

The story I relate of Korea’s history through the Japanese colonial period and the US occupation of the peninsula is based largely on the work of the historian Bruce Cumings, whose work is very compelling. My approach to US foreign policy is inspired by social scientists, some working in the Marxist tradition, including Albert Szymanski and Laurence Shoup, and others, including William Domhoff and Thomas Ferguson, who don’t. The work of Domenico Losurdo provides the overarching intellectual direction of the book.

In what way does your book help imagine new worlds?

The book imagines a world that others have already imagined, including North Koreans and other peoples and nations that have had to endure and struggle to overcome empires. The new world they imagine—one of an international order of sovereign and equal states linked by relations of mutual benefit—is hardly new; it is formally imagined in the Charter of the United Nations.

Tim Beal, who has written voluminously on Korea, argues that North Korea is the embodiment of the UN Charter, and, indeed, the UN Charter’s themes are evident in the North Korean view of what the international order ought to be. In their view: “All countries and nations are equal and have the right to exercise their sovereignty…A big and developed country has no right to issue orders to and rule small and less developed countries. Only when all countries and nations develop relations on the principle of equality and mutual benefit can [the international order] be democratic and friendly.”

This is the complete antithesis of the US view, which is that big and developed countries have the right to issue orders to and rule small and less developed countries. The book helps us to imagine what democracy means on an international level in contradistinction to the current international dictatorship of the United States.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/bar-b ... le-freedom
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Mon Jun 25, 2018 1:01 pm

Pentagon Indefinitely Suspends More War Games With South Korea
Exercises were scheduled to happen in the next three months
Jason Ditz Posted on June 24

The Pentagon announced on Friday that they have indefinitely suspended a number of additional war games with South Korea. The US agreed to such suspensions as part of the Trump-Kim summit deal.

Image
The 2016 version of the frozen Freedom Guardian

The Pentagon has been slowly suspending planned exercises since the summit, and this new announcement covers everything scheduled for the next three months. This includes the major annual Freedom Guardian exercise, along with some smaller drills related to officer exchange programs.

These war games often sparked the worst tensions between the US and North Korea. Trump conceded that they are “very provocative” during his announcement that they would be frozen. North Korea has also frozen their nuclear program and missile testing under the deal.

With the US-South Korea exercises mostly annual, the Pentagon still will have a few more suspensions to announce to cover all of them. The slow pace of freezing them is likely being done to allow them to make multiple positive announcements about the easing of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

https://news.antiwar.com/2018/06/24/pen ... uth-korea/

Uh-oh, the prez is fucking up imperialism again. Time to yank his chain, some new 'revelation' is proly incoming. That he is utterly incapable of doing anything good unless it is to his immediate personal benefit and accidental anyway does not take away the material benefit of this move. Look for it to be scuttled.
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Mon Jul 09, 2018 11:27 am

Pyongyang Talks - How Pompeo Put The Cart Before The Horse
U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo just visited North Korea to further the agenda President Trump and Chairmen Kim had agreed upon in Singapore. The visit did not go well:

The specifics of what happened behind closed doors remain unclear. Whether Pompeo somehow annoyed his counterpart, or pressed too hard, or whether the North Koreans are simply reverting to their hot-and-cold tactics, is hard to say. But the regime made sure to have the final word, and it was not pleasant.
As he was leaving, Pompeo told reporters the conversations were “productive and in good faith.” Hours later North Korean state media issued a statement that did not mention him by name but called the demands he presented “gangster-like.”

The Trump administration has long set out its goal as CVID, the "Complete, Verifiable and Irreversible Dismantlement" of North Korea nuclear weapons program. After applying "maximum pressure" on North Korea through international sanctions, the U.S. believed that long planned steps North Korea took to start talks with its adversaries were already the total surrender it was hoping for. Somehow the people became convinced that North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons. From a Washington Post story:

Amid increasing scrutiny of North Korea's commitment to giving up its weapons, Pompeo came to Pyongyang in a bid to hammer out the details of a denuclearization plan. While the secretary told reporters that progress was made "on almost all of the central issues” and involved “good-faith negotiations,” North Korea said the U.S. attitude, demanding denuclearization, was “regrettable.”
"North Korea's commitment to giving up its weapons" is presented as a matter of fact in the U.S. media. However, North Korea never made such a commitment. The declarations it agreed to set out denuclearization as an aspiration goal that will be worked on only after the normalization of economic and military relations and after a peace treaty has been agreed on or signed. The record on that is clear.

In April President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and Chairman Kim Jong-un of North Korea met in Panmunjom and signed a common Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula . The declaration had three numbered main points, each with a list of subitems. The first main point covers inner-Korean relations including economic relations, the second point is about the lowering of military tension, the third is about a peace agreement. The second subitem of the third main point sets out a step by step process of disarmament:

South and North Korea agreed to carry out disarmament in a phased manner, as military tension is alleviated and substantial progress is made in military confidence-building.
The third subitem is about a peace treaty that includes the U.S. and China. It is only the fourth subitem of the third mainpoint and the last of the whole declaration that mentions a goal of denuclearization within a bigger context:

South and North Korea confirmed the common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. South and North Korea shared the view that the measures being initiated by North Korea are very meaningful and crucial for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and agreed to carry out their respective roles and responsibilities in this regard. South and North Korea agreed to actively seek the support and cooperation of the international community for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Denuclearization of the north AND south is the last point of a long agenda that will be fulfilled in a "phased manner" or step by step. The whole paper describes a chronologic order in which the set of tasks will be worked on.

In June Kim Jong-un met U.S. President Trump in Singapore. A "freeze for freeze" - the stop of nuclear and missile testing in exchange for a stop of military maneuvers - was agreed upon. A Joint Statement was signed with a list of future tasks in similar chronological order as in the Panmunjeom Declaration (numbering added):

President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un conducted a comprehensive, in-depth and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues related to [1] the establishment of new US-DPRK relations and [2] the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. President Trump committed [3a] to provide security guarantees to the DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un [3b] reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The program detailed in that paragraph is repeated in an itemized and numbered list:

President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un state the following:
The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
The United States and DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula

Denuclearization of the north AND south is again described as an aspirational goal and as the last item of the longer list.

The Panmunjeom Declaration and the Singapore Statement are the only public commitments North Korea agreed to. Both describe numbered steps that are to be taken by both parties one after the other. Denuclearization is the last step.

Now Pompeo came to Pyongyang and asked for details about North Korea's nuclear program and how it plans to abandon it. As far as we know he did not talk about point 1, the "establishment of new US-DPRK relations" which would include the opening of embassies and economic engagement. He did not talk about point 2, "a lasting and stable peace regime" i.e. a peace treaty. He did not talk about 3a, the "security guarantees to the DPRK". The only item he talked about was 3b, the last item on the list.

The Trump administration put the cart before the horse and now wonders why that did not work.

After Pompeo left Pyongyang North Korea published a statement that condemns Pompeo for getting the sequence wrong:

[T]he U.S. side came up only with its unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization just calling for CVID, declaration and verification, all of which run counter to the spirit of the Singapore summit meeting and talks.
The U.S. side never mentioned the issue of establishing a peace regime on the Korean peninsula which is essential for defusing tension and preventing a war. It took the position that it would even backtrack on the issue it had agreed on to end the status of war under certain conditions and excuses.

As for the issue of announcing the declaration of the end of war at an early date, it is the first process of defusing tension and establishing a lasting peace regime on the Korean peninsula, and at the same time, it constitutes a first factor in creating trust between the DPRK and the U.S. This issue was also stipulated in Panmunjom Declaration as a historical task to terminate the war status on the Korean peninsula which continues for nearly 70 years. President Trump, too, was more enthusiastic about this issue at the DPRK-U.S. summit talks.

First peace, then denuclearization.

The statement goes on to laud Trump while condemning his minions:

Valuable agreement was reached in such a short time at the Singapore summit talks first ever in the history of the DPRK-U.S. relations. This is attributable to the fact that President Trump himself said he would move towards resolving the DPRK-U.S. relations and the issue of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in a new way.
If both sides at the working level reneged on the new way agreed at the summit and returned to the old way, the epoch-making Singapore summit would be meaningless ...
...
We still cherish our good faith in President Trump.

The U.S. should make a serious consideration of whether the toleration of the headwind against the wills of the two top leaders would meet the aspirations and expectations of the world people as well as the interests of its country.

This is a quite interesting play. North Korea tells Trump that his staff is sabotaging the "valuable agreement" he made.

There is little doubt that this is the case. As chinahand aka Peter Lee explains (recommended video), "sabotaging Korean peace is as American as apple pie."

Image

Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton has a long history of destroying talks with North Korea. It was likely John Bolton who organized the recent intelligence leaks about North Korea's continuing work on its missile programs. In March, before joining the Trump administration, Bolton went on Foxnews and talked about the already agreed upon Trump-Kim summit. He opined (@4:10m) that the purpose of the meeting was, in his view, to ..

".. foreshorten the amount of time that we’re going to waste in negotiations that will never produce the result we want, which is Kim giving up his nuclear program.”
If such hawk engagement was the purpose of the Trump-Kim meeting then the end point is nearly reached. Trump could now twitter the lie that Kim "betrayed" him and "failed to fulfill his commitment", the one he never made. The U.S. establishment, the Korea specialists and the mainstream media all argued against these talks. They want full denuclearization of North Korea without giving it much - if anything - in return. They would applaud Trump if he stops the talks and again ramps up tensions.

But Trump might really want to get that Nobel Peace Prize. He will not get one for nuking Pyongyang. He will (first) have to make peace. He will have to order Pompeo to go back to Pyongyang and to talk about the opening embassies and the peace process before raising the issue of 'denuclearization'. He will have to tell Bolton to stop his games.

Trump may also have a another aim in mind. China is the main competitor of the United States, in Asia as well as globally. North Korea is China's T/trump card, a proxy state that can be used to dial up tensions and to keep the U.S. busy whenever it wants. If Trump really wants to go after China, neutralizing North Korea (and Russia?) first is a desirable step.

It is not discernible what Trump really wants. It might well be that he has not made up his mind, or that he changes his position as the days go by.

Posted by b on July 8, 2018 at 02:02 PM | Permalink

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/07/py ... horse.html
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Fri Jul 27, 2018 12:45 pm

The Sinister Truth Behind the Abduction of the 12 Waitresses Revealed
Posted by KOREAN FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION IRELAND onJULY 27, 2018

The 12 Waitresses that were abducted by the National Intelligence Service(NIS) of south Korea in April 2016, are still being kept in south Korea against their free will. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea(DPRK) have demanded their return to their families in Pyongyang, but the south Korean authorities have claimed that it was a matter of defection. The DPRK have always claimed that this was an operation orchestrated by the NIS. The truth can no longer be covered up, no matter how much the criminal authorities of the puppet regime is trying. Tomás Ojea Quintana(Argentina), the United Nations special rapporteur, said Tuesday at a news conference in Seoul, the South’s capital, that some of the women who defected had confirmed part of that version of events in interviews with him. The abduction took place under the corrupt rule of Park Geun Hye, whom was later impeached and sentenced to two consecutive sentences of a total of 32 years behind bars for abuse of power and corruption. During her rule, trade unionists were sentenced to long prison sentences, trade unions were banned and also the third largest party in south Korea, the Unified Progressive Party, was banned.

The neo-liberal policies and authoritarian rule of Park Geun Hye, was popular among the big corporations, but not among the Korean people in the south. She was impeached in 2017, after a popular rising. The abduction took place about a year prior to her impeachment. It is now confirmed that it was indeed an operation carried out by the NIS, and Park Geun Hye executed the order. In an interview in May of 2018 with the south Korean news channel JTBC, the women’s manager, Heo Kang Il, said he had conspired with NIS officers to bring the women to the south. Heo Kang Il was a part of the traitorous group of Jang Song Thaek who conspired to “opening up” the DPRK (aka the restoration of capitalism). He told the waitresses they were being transferred to another restaurant in Southeast Asia from their then current location, Ningbo, China. He also said: “It was luring and kidnapping, and I know because I took the lead”. Neither Tomás Ojea Quintana nor JTBC have been able to interview all of the 12 abductees. Mr. Heo said he decided to speak out because after he defected, Park was impeached and the NIS never gave him the rewards it had promised. He said he also realized, after arriving in the South, that the timing of the group’s defection was moved up more than a month to help rally conservative votes in parliamentary elections.
“They had me believe that this was a big patriotic operation,” he said. “But they used me and then shot me in the back.”

While the UN investigation backs up the line of the DPRK which contradicts the south Korean officials, who still claim that it was a case of defection, facts remains- south Korean authorities have committed serious crimes and gross human rights violations. While inter-Korean progress are being made since Moon Jae In took office as president of south Korea, and family reunions is being a hot topic, it goes without saying that no new abductions can take place and these recent crimes of the Park Geun Hye regime can not be covered up for by the new administration of Moon Jae In.

Even do south Korean president, Moon Jae In, moves towards reunification is applauded by all progressive forces on the Korean peninsula, the crimes of Park Geun Hye must never be forgotten. The common practice of capitalist countries of pardoning rich and influential criminals so they can go unpunished for their crimes, will never be tolerated. Park and her henchmen must be punished for their crimes against the Korean people!

https://jucheireland.wordpress.com/2018 ... -revealed/
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