Korea

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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Wed Mar 16, 2022 2:57 pm

What does Yoon Seok-yeol’s presidency mean for South Korea?

Right-wing candidate Yoon Seok-yeol triumphed in South Korea’s presidential election by a razor-thin margin last week. What might his presidency mean for the peninsula?

March 16, 2022 by Ju-Hyun Park

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Yoon Seok-Yeol of the right-wing People Power Party will serve as South Korea's next president.

Last week’s presidential elections in South Korea saw 77% of the country’s 44 million eligible voters mobilize to the polls. The race remained too close to call until 98% of votes had been counted early the next day. With a lead of less than one percent of the vote, the narrowest margin in Korean history, Yoon Seok-Yeol of the right-wing People Power Party bested his liberal opponent from the ruling Democratic Party, Lee Jae-Myeong.

Yoon’s victory marks a return to power for the South Korean right, which was ousted in 2017 by the impeachment of then President Park Geun-hye. With Yoon’s inauguration just two months away, many are bracing for the coming assault on progressive politics, and a possible return to South Korea’s autocratic past.

Sliding back to autocracy?

Buoyed by support from young men in their 20s and 30s, Yoon has pledged to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality, which since its founding in 1998 has guided national gender equality policies while providing services to marginalized women and children, including single mothers and survivors of domestic and sexual violence. As in other patriarchal societies, South Korean women face the devaluation of their productive labor and an uneven burden of reproductive labor. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), women accounted for 63.5% of all part-time workers in 2020. 20.8% of all employment for women was part-time, compared to just 8.9% for men. Correspondingly, about 28% of women workers earned below the minimum wage in 2018, compared to 12.8% of male workers. The OECD further found that South Korea had the highest gender pay gap among its 38 member countries, and that South Korean women spend roughly 215 minutes a day performing unpaid labor, compared to just 49 minutes a day for men.

Many commentators have pointed to the intensity of South Korea’s culture wars over gender equality as an explanation for Yoon’s anti-feminist politics. As the #MeToo movement swept the globe, several high profile sexual assault and harassment cases involving South Korean celebrities and politicians became the subject of intense media scrutiny. The Moon administration’s attempts to implement greater protections and punishments against sexual violence have provoked backlash and charges of “reverse discrimination.”

Read more: Two polarizing choices in South Korea’s presidential election
While Yoon’s appeals to misogyny do strike a chord with a considerable swath of the electorate, his anti-feminist politics also complement his anti-labor politics. As a self-described proponent of small government and private sector-led growth, the President-elect proposed to slash the minimum wage and raise the ceiling on working hours, which were lowered last year from 68 to 52 hours a week. Housing emerged as a key issue in the election after a surge in real estate prices, with the city of Seoul seeing a 52% increase in apartment prices in under five years. Yoon has eschewed calls to expand the public housing system, and instead offered to lower taxes on property owners as a way to stimulate development. As rising healthcare costs and privatization place additional strain on working people, Yoon has pledged to remove foreigners, particularly Chinese immigrants, from the national health insurance system. When considered comprehensively, Yoon’s misogyny and xenophobia are entirely consistent with a broader capitalist agenda to make all working people more vulnerable to exploitation.

How successfully Yoon will manage to implement his domestic agenda remains to be seen. More than half the seats in South Korea’s National Assembly remain under Democratic Party control, and legislative elections won’t be held again until 2024. Yoon’s People Power Party simply lacks the votes to pass anything without serious compromise, Whether the opposition will hold the line or capitulate in an attempt to broaden their appeal with conservative voters remains to be seen.

While Yoon may not have control of the legislature, he can still inflict considerable damage on South Korea’s progressive movements. In a country that experienced a democratic transition from military dictatorship within living memory, this threat is not taken lightly. The most recent period in which a conservative party held power from 2008-2017 saw heightened restrictions on press freedoms, blacklisting of thousands of artists and brutal crackdowns on working people’s movements.

The anti-communist National Security Law, first implemented in 1948 to facilitate the massacre of an estimated 60,000 people on Jeju island, is still on the books in South Korea. The law, which broadly criminalizes “anti-state activity,” has been applied to varying degrees under different administrations. Under President Park Geun-hye, it was used to outlaw the minor Unified Progressive Party and jail its leader, a member of the National Assembly at the time, for nearly a decade. More recently in 2021, a small publisher was charged under the National Security Law for reprinting deceased North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung’s autobiography. Only time will tell how the Yoon administration deploys the National Security Law. In the meantime, those who see in Yoon a troubling return to South Korea’s autocratic past take no comfort in knowing the legal tools that enabled past reigns of terror remain intact.

Scrapping rapprochement, siding with Washington
The geostrategic significance of the Korean peninsula at the crossroads of the Pacific and continental Northeast Asia has made it a battleground for clashing great powers since the 19th century. As the US steps up its belligerence against China, Korea’s significance as a potential flashpoint in a wider regional conflict also rises. The stakes of South Korea’s handling of its relationships with China, North Korea and the US were clearly demonstrated during the Moon administration. After South Korea agreed to host the US THAAD missile defense shield, China retaliated with sanctions in 2017 that dealt a severe blow to South Korea’s economy. That same year, Korea veered dangerously close to the return of open hostilities as the Trump administration ramped up its infamous “fire and fury” rhetoric against North Korea. The Moon administration responded to these pressures by seeking greater rapprochement with North Korea, advocating for an end to the Korean War, and avoiding Washington’s more explicit anti-China alliances without abandoning the US military alliance.

The President-elect’s foreign policy agenda seeks to upend Moon’s balancing act. While Yoon outwardly supports “normalizing inter-Korean relations,” the substance of his proposals present a clear departure from the past administration’s approach. In a recent essay for Foreign Affairs, Yoon rejected the importance of denuclearization as a peninsular rather than a North Korea-only issue, and stated that inter-Korean cooperation should only proceed if North Korea makes the “bold decision” to denuclearize. Such a position denies Pyongyang’s legitimate security concerns (the US stationed nearly 1,000 nuclear warheads in South Korea from 1958-1991), and essentially amounts to a refusal to negotiate. Past conservative administrations’ attempts at similar strategies did not succeed, and Yoon seems likely to repeat this history, albeit in a much more volatile international context.

In the same piece, Yoon also criticized the “three no’s” the Moon administration acknowledged as necessary to respect China’s security concerns: no new THAAD missile defense batteries, no joining a US missile defense network, and no trilateral military alliance with South Korea, Japan, and the US. Yoon not only called for new THAAD battery deployments on the campaign trail, but even went as far as to declare his intent to request the return of US tactical nukes to the peninsula (the Biden administration quickly rebuffed him). He has supported Seoul’s participation in working groups hosted by the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a military alliance between the US, India, Japan, and Australia aimed at containing China. Yoon has also campaigned on improving bilateral relations with Japan, with an eye towards enhancing trilateral security cooperation with the US. These signals could lead to South Korea’s membership in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, as well as the creation of a possible trilateral military alliance with Japan and the US. Both outcomes long sought-after by Washington, and that would drastically raise the stakes in any potential regional dispute.

With 28,000 US troops and the largest US military base outside North America, South Korea has already been a battleground against expanding militarization for decades. The coming of new THAAD batteries and possible other military hardware will only inflame existing struggles and open new fronts in resistance to US occupation. Yet new military installations could be the least of South Koreans’ worries. Yoon’s brash endorsement of a preemptive strike on North Korea under certain conditions alarmed many observers on the campaign trail. While such antics might appeal to some voters, any attempt to follow through on such threats would have obviously catastrophic consequences.

What may prove a more pertinent question is what South Korea’s deepened economic and military alignment with the US could mean for the regional balance of power, particularly as US antagonism against China escalates. With 600,000 active-duty troops, South Korea has one of the largest armies on earth, and plays a crucial role as a “force multiplier” for US security interests. While the current US-South Korea Treaty of Mutual Defense only obliges South Korea to engage its military within the peninsula, South Korea’s potential entrance into new military pacts could change the conditions under which South Korean troops could be deployed elsewhere. As the Yoon era dawns, the shifts in South Korea’s political winds may well set the course for the region and the wider world.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/03/16/ ... uth-korea/
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Fri Mar 25, 2022 2:20 pm

A vivid demonstration of the absolute strength and military might of the DPRK
colonelcassad
March 25, 9:46 am

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North Korean official about testing a new intercontinental ballistic missile.

A vivid demonstration of the absolute strength and military might of Juche Korea

Conducting a test launch of a new type of ICBM

Dear Comrade Kim Jong-un led the test launch of an ICBM of the Hwaseong-17 type in

Pyongyang, March 25. /CTAC/-- Under the personal leadership of the Secretary General of the Workers' Party of Korea, Chairman of State Affairs of the DPRK, Supreme Commander of the DPRK Armed Forces, respected comrade Kim Jong-un, on March 24, Juche 111 (2022), a test launch of a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) "Hwaseong-17" was carried out » strategic forces of the DPRK.


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Dear Comrade Kim Jong-un, on March 23, personally signed the order to conduct a test launch of a new type of ICBM of the DPRK strategic forces, and on March 24 visited the test launch site and personally supervised the entire process of test launch of Hwaseong-17 ICBMs.


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Comrade Kim Jong-un, at the Eighth Congress of the Workers' Party of China, put forward the Juche a strategy for the development of the state's defense and a course towards a long-term strengthening of the nuclear war deterrence force. He was at the forefront of organizing and directing the most important struggle to strengthen the defense capability to implement this strategy and course, while giving special, priority attention to the development of a new type of ICBM, almost every day carefully managed and outlined the development directions. In this way,

Defense workers, scientists, technicians and the heroic working class of the defense industry, who charged their fiery hearts with the ideas of independent defense strategy of respected comrade Kim Jong-un and worked under his personal guidance, with creative mind and unwavering spiritual strength, launched an active struggle for research, development and production, in as a result, a new type of ICBM was developed in a short time.

Dear comrade Kim Jong-un, on the afternoon of March 24, personally familiarized himself on the spot with the preparations for the test launch of a new type of ICBM "Hwaseong-17" and gave the order to go to the launch position.

Dear Comrade Kim Jong-un, who went to the launch position, carefully and meticulously guided every launch preparation process to the last, instilled strength and courage in the defense industry scientists and rocket scientists who took part in the test launch, to bring a meaningful moment when it will be demonstrated to the whole world the appearance of the development of the defense capability of the Republic with a radical change.

Ready for a test run!

Finally, the moment of the historic event arrived.



The test launch site on the eve of the launch of huge strategic weapons is seized by the fiery will of all scientists of the defense industry and workers in the defense industry to announce to the whole world the birth of another powerful strike nuclear weapon of Juche Korea and defiantly show the deterrent forces of the DPRK nuclear war.

As soon as respected comrade Kim Jong-un, together with the leading cadres of the defense research area, took over the launch control center, a combat alert was announced at the launch position, at the technical test observation posts and at the relevant research institutes for the test launch of the Hwaseong-17 ICBM.

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Then the order of the General Secretary to launch was transmitted to the firing unit, and the commander of the Red Banner company, which had taken over the task of testing the launch of strategic weapons, loudly commanded "Fire!"

At that moment, with a roar that shook the sky and the earth, with a brilliant brilliance, a huge substance rose into space, charged with the irresistible power of the DPRK.

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The test launch of the ICBM was carried out at the largest angle, taking into account the safety of the surrounding countries.

The Hwaseong-17 ICBM, launched at Pyongyang International Airport, rose to 6248.5 km (maximum altitude) and flew 1090 km in 4052 seconds and accurately hit the designated water area in the open sea of ​​the East Sea of ​​Korea.

During the current test launch, it was clearly confirmed that all parameters of the weapon system exactly correspond to the design requirements, and that it is possible to guarantee the reliability of its urgent operation in wartime conditions in scientific, technical and practical terms.



This super-large ICBM "Hwaseong-17", which will be put into operation and adopted by the strategic forces of the DPRK under the plan for the construction of state nuclear armed forces, will reliably fulfill its mission and task as a powerful nuclear war deterrence force. This ICBM will consistently control the threat of nuclear war and challenges against the Republic, respond aggressively to any military crisis, and protect the security of the Republic.



Dear Comrade Kim Jong-un said that the birth of a new strategic weapon of the DPRK will once again give the whole world a clear understanding of the power of our strategic forces, and that this will serve as a moment to strengthen the modernization of our strategic forces, the basis for guaranteeing the security of the state and trust in it. And he noted with pride that the successful development of a new type of ICBM - a combination of cutting-edge defense science and technology - is a vivid demonstration of the power of our independent defense industry, which has grown and developed on its own.

Dear Comrade Kim Jong-un said that today's yet another miraculous victory is a priceless victory achieved by the great Korean people, who, despite all the difficulties and trials, with one soul and one mind, unconditionally supported the line of our Party on the construction of self-defense defense and its line on the construction of nuclear strength for the security of the Motherland and the eternal peace of future generations.



Dear Comrade Kim Jong-un said that the strategic choice and determination of our party and government to continuously strengthen the powerful nuclear war deterrence force both qualitatively and quantitatively in response to all kinds of crises for the security and future of the country are unshakable. And he continued that having an incomparably overwhelming military strike capability is having the most reliable war deterrence force and state defense capability, and that we will continue to prioritize all the forces of the state on the continuous strengthening of defense capability. This is the determination of our party to protect its dignity, sovereignty and peace, for the eternal peace of our Motherland and future generations, as well as the noble choice of our people itself,” he said.

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Dear comrade Kim Jong-un said that to make everyone understand: whoever dares to violate the security of our state will certainly pay a bitter price. And he noted that our state defense capability will have powerful military-technical strength, unshakable from any military threat and blackmail, and consistently prepare for a long-term confrontation with US imperialism.

Dear comrade Kim Jong-un said with confidence that the strategic forces of the DPRK are fully prepared to consistently suppress and contain any dangerous military attempts by the US imperialists.

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Dear comrade Kim Jong-un was photographed for memory with the soldiers of the "Red Banner" company and leading workers in defense science, who contributed to a vivid demonstration of the strategic status of our Republic to the whole world.

All the fighters of defense science, who enjoyed Marshal's most ardent love and trust in the launch position at a significant moment when the absolute strength of our Republic was clearly demonstrated to the whole world, took a fiery oath to develop in the future as many invincible nuclear offensive weapons as possible in the name of our state, in the name of our party, in the name of our comrade Kim Jong-un.

Absolute strength, invincible self-protective forces to deter nuclear war, which only our great party, our great people can possess!

This mighty and just nuclear treasurer, firmly held by the great WPK and the great Korean people, will completely break the military bluff of the American imperialists and their satellites, reliably protect the victorious progress of our revolution and the eternal peace of future generations.

https://t.me/nucdprk - zinc (text provided by the Atomic Juche channel)
https://t.me/ChDambiev/14320 - video of a Japanese F-15 watching a North Korean ICBM in flight


https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7 ... tml#cutid1

Google Translator

More photos at link.
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Wed Apr 27, 2022 1:56 pm

Develop nuclear forces at maximum speed
April 26, 9:03 am

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Kim Jong-un shared his opinion on the prospects for a North Korean nuclear baton.

1. North Korea will not give up nuclear weapons.
2. North Korea will make serious efforts to develop and build up its nuclear forces "at maximum speed."
3. North Korea must be ready to use nuclear weapons at any moment in the interests of deterring hostile countries.
4. The main task of the DPRK's nuclear weapons is to ensure security and prevent war. But his goals may not be only in this.

In general, the DPRK will obviously not give up the nuclear baton, but will develop it quantitatively and qualitatively.
As before, the DPRK does not intend to be the first to use nuclear weapons, except for direct attacks on the DPRK, where the option of using nuclear weapons in response to a conventional attack is considered a working option.

All talks about "denuclearization" are not worth a damn. The DPRK has successfully created a full-fledged nuclear arsenal + ICBMs, while chatting the topic at the talks, while everyone got used to the idea that Pyongyang has its own nuclear weapons and their medium and long-range delivery vehicles. Now it's all part of reality. And in the conditions of the destroyed world order, there is not a single reasonable reason why the DPRK will give up nuclear weapons, which is the best guarantee that it will not be attacked. Kim Jong-un's sister made this clear to South Korea twice in the past month, pointing out that threats to attack North Korea could end very badly for Seoul.

It is hardly worth worrying about the fact that the DPRK will attack someone first - the country has not fully fought since 1953 and lives by the principle - just don't interfere with us. How much more of a problem could be created by attempts by the US and its satellites to attack the DPRK in order to change the regime. In this case nuclear mushrooms in the region can become a reality. Otherwise, the DPRK, living in the shadow of China and having nuclear weapons in stock, can quite successfully go through the stage of transformation of the current world order, especially since Kim Jong-un has shown by deed that he is not going to merge the work of his father and grandfather.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7580166.html

Google Translator

***********************************

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North Korea Demonstrates Military Might During Nighttime Parade
April 26, 2022
North Korea has carried out a military parade in a large-scale exhibition of its military might and internal unity.

The ceremony took place at 10 p.m. local time this Monday, on the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army (KPRA).

Satellite images of show that thousands of North Korean soldiers and other key military formations prepared for the event for weeks.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that “Pyongyang could involve up to 20,000 soldiers in the parade, and show off its new strategic weapons, such as its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), its Hwasong-8 hypersonic missiles, and a guided projectile with tactical nuclear warhead.”

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Given the failure of negotiations with the US on nuclear disarmament, and the frequent joint military operations of Washington and South Korea, Pyongyang has opted in recent months for an intensification of its weapons tests and demonstrations of military power.
In the previous year, the North Korean government has carried out more than 10 tests, including a the test of a Hwasong-12 medium- to long-range ballistic missile which, according to experts, could reach US soil.

The leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea), Kim Jong-Un, stated this past March that his country would continue to develop its “formidable” attack capacities in order to ensure his country’s security in the face of imperialist threats.

Despite DPRK’s continued efforts to strengthen its military power, its authorities have declared that these activities should be understood within a framework of self defense, given the provocations and warmongering hailing from the US and its client state, South Korea, where about 30,000 US troops are stationed.

Featured image: A military parade in North Korea. Photo: HispanTV.

(HispanTV) with Orinoco Tribune content


https://orinocotribune.com/north-korea- ... me-parade/
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Mon May 02, 2022 2:17 pm

South Korea exposed that the US military laboratory secretly made "biochemical weapons"?What do you intend to be close to China?
2022-05-02 20:04 HKT


The zombie movie "Travel to Busan" was shown in the world a few years ago. In the film, the virus leaked by the Busan Biopharmaceutical Company in South Korea triggered a terrible zombie crisis. Now, with the exposure of the biochemical laboratory hidden by the United States in South Korea, Koreans have begun to chant that "Travel to Busan" is not a fiction, but a preview of reality.

Recently, the United States has repeatedly sent biological warfare reagents to the Korean peninsula through the US military stationed in South Korea. After the incident was exposed, South Korean people and media investigations discovered that the US military had secretly established four biochemical laboratories in South Korea, one of which was in Busan. The sinister behavior of the United States has triggered many demonstrations by South Koreans.

So, what secret weapon is the U.S. Biochemical Warfare Laboratory making? Is it related to the coronavirus pandemic that WHO is tracing? What does the US military intend to build the laboratory on the doorstep of China?

Today, Xiaota will talk to everyone about the conspiracy of the United States in overseas biochemical laboratories.



South Korea exposed that the US military laboratory secretly made "biochemical weapons"?What do you intend to be close to China?

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South Korean people protest

As early as last year, South Korea's "Tong Shimbun" published an article that broke the news: "The U.S. Army in South Korea has set up Bacillus anthracis biological laboratories at four bases in Yongsan, Busan, Gunsan and Pyeongtaek." Bacillus anthracis is a species that can pass through the skin and mucous membranes. The bacteria spread by the respiratory tract and the digestive tract, German and Japanese fascists, have tried to make it into biochemical weapons, but now, the U.S. military, which has inherited the Japanese biochemical warfare technology and experience, has vigorously developed this extermination weapon, even It has been made "more terrible than coronavirus". This virus can not only kill people and animals, but can even survive and reproduce in the soil. As long as it is contaminated with Bacillus anthracis, the soil must be completely removed, otherwise it will always be a forbidden zone for life.



The U.S. military has built extremely dangerous laboratories overseas, obviously not willing to allow its own country to bear unexpected risks. The United States' wishful thinking is brilliant. Judging from the information that has been released so far, from 2009 to 2014, the US military conducted at least 15 anthrax experiments in South Korea, and there have indeed been at least one virus leak.

It happened in May 2015. The bacillus anthracis was accidentally leaked at the U.S. Air Force Base in Osan, South Korea. 5 U.S. Air Force personnel, 10 U.S. Army personnel, 3 U.S. military members, and 4 Koreans who may be exposed to the virus He was treated in isolation, and his later situation is unknown.

It was this leak that exposed the news of the US military at the Korean Biochemical Laboratory, which caused a violent shock in Korean society. Countless South Korean citizens took to the streets to launch protest marches, demanding a reply from the US, and disclosure of laboratory information, and the laboratory was immediately cancelled. Many South Korean civil organizations gathered to call for a comprehensive revision of the “Status of Forces Agreement in South Korea” to limit the privileges of US troops in South Korea. There are also calls for the South Korean government to conduct independent investigations to find out the truth of the incident.

South Korea exposed that the US military laboratory secretly made "biochemical weapons"?What do you intend to be close to China?


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Busan Port No. 8 Pier

Obviously, the South Korean people have extremely distrusted the United States. Their request is tantamount to allowing the United States to return South Korea's sovereignty. Of course, the United States cannot agree to it. However, in order to deceive public opinion, the US military still politely gave in. After the leak was exposed, the US military in South Korea and the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a "joint proposal" to restrict the US military's biochemical experiments to prevent similar incidents from happening again. But in fact, not only did the United States fail to comply with the agreement and restrict testing, it has instead intensified its efforts. At the 8th terminal of Busan Port, the US military base is implementing the experimental plan code-named "Centaur", and the scale of the biochemical laboratory established in South Korea is continuously expanding. In January 2019, the U.S. military transported three kinds of bacteria including Staphylococcus toxoid to Busan and other U.S. military bases in South Korea, and the Korean Bacteria Family Barrel ushered in a new member.

Faced with interviews by the South Korean media, the head of the US military stationed in South Korea said: “The US system is very safe. Our experiments do not aim at biochemical experiments. They are mainly for defensive experiments against the threat of biochemical weapons. In this way, if the US military When biochemical threats are detected with South Korea, we can provide timely warnings."



What the Americans say is better than what they sing. The United States says that "the American system is very safe", but I'm sorry, the system cannot be built in the United States. The United States engages in biochemical experiments, but does not aim at biochemical experiments. The U.S. states that it will alert in time when it finds danger, but what is the use of such alert? It may be for the United States to block South Korea in time and prevent the virus from spreading to the United States. The United States says that the purpose of developing chemical weapons is to defend against biological and chemical threats, but the biggest threat in the world is the United States. The United States should still find a way to defend itself.

Even more frightening is that in the surrounding area of ​​the US military laboratory, there have been outbreaks of uncommon local diseases many times. According to a 2019 report by the U.S. Audit Office, in the past 10 years, there have been 400 accidents in U.S. biosafety tertiary laboratories. Although the victims of these accidents are mainly confined to the staff in contact, the number of accidents Leakage, the harm will be to all mankind.

South Korea exposed that the US military laboratory secretly made "biochemical weapons"?What do you intend to be close to China?

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Fort Detrick Biolab

In July 2019, the Fort Detrick Biological Laboratory in the United States suddenly announced its closure, but the specific reason was not announced. In view of the subsequent occurrence of "white lung disease" and the mysterious death of elderly people in nearby nursing homes in the United States, it is highly suspected that this laboratory is related to the ongoing global coronavirus epidemic.

The United States has not only built a large number of biological laboratories overseas, but also tried its best to prevent the resumption of the Biological Weapons Convention. In 1972, the "Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons" signed by various countries stipulated that the development, production, storage and use of biological weapons are prohibited. However, the Convention lacks a mechanism for monitoring implementation, and there is no permanent enforcement agency. In response to this problem, in 1994, the Special Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention authorized an ad hoc working group to be responsible for formulating a protocol to comprehensively strengthen the effectiveness of the Convention.

However, at a meeting of the ad hoc working group in July 2001, the United States refused to accept the draft convention protocol on the grounds that "biological fields are not verifiable" and "international verification may threaten US national interests and commercial secrets." To this day, the United States is still the only "blocker" in resuming negotiations on the verification protocol of the Biological Weapons Convention.



Therefore, the various actions of the United States have to make people doubt the United States' motives for setting up biochemical laboratories. The so-called biochemical defense is only an excuse. Manufacturing biochemical weapons to serve the hidden purposes of the United States is the real goal of establishing these laboratories. .

With regard to the use of biological and chemical weapons, the United States has always been "severely treating others and lenient in self-discipline." In the past, the Americans held a bottle of white powder and declared that they had the iron evidence of Iraq's use of biological and chemical weapons. Then they launched a war of aggression, but they did not find Iraq after the war. Chemical weapons base. Putin asked, what was the white powder you took out that year? Maybe it's washing powder. The United States still dare not answer Putin's questions.

South Korea exposed that the US military laboratory secretly made "biochemical weapons"?What do you intend to be close to China?

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U.S. representative demonstrated Iraq's incriminating evidence "washing powder" at the United Nations

But now, it's the irrefutable evidence that the United States uses biological and chemical weapons.

In 1945, on the eve of the Tokyo trial, the U.S. military, which had long studied biological warfare, launched an investigation into Japanese germ warfare, and secretly contacted more than 20 Unit 731 criminals, including Ishii Shiro and Kitano Masaji, in order to avoid war crimes. Obtained a large amount of data on the bacterial warfare and human experiment research of the Japanese Unit 731. For many years, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan have denied the existence of this secret exemption agreement, leading to the public's ignorance of the consequences of Japan's use of biological weapons. But in fact, after World War II, the US military has never stopped research on biological weapons such as bacteria and viruses.

And on the Korean battlefield, the United States used germ warfare. In early 1952, several U.S. military aircraft circled the northern area of ​​North Korea. Unlike the past, the planes did not drop bombs, they just left people's sight after flying a few laps. After the plane left, the North Korean soldiers and civilians and the Chinese People's Volunteers all found that there were many fleas, flies, crickets, ants and other insects around them that shouldn't be in this season. The health department of the Volunteer Army paid great attention to this abnormal phenomenon, and quickly carried out laboratory analysis on the insects that appeared, and found that these creatures carried a large number of deadly viruses such as plague, cholera, and dysentery.



Although the Volunteers uncovered the conspiracy of the U.S. Army and took precautions, the virus dropped by the U.S. Army has spread in water sources, residential areas, positions, and farms, and it is impossible to guard against under the harsh conditions of the war. As a result, the Volunteers still have nearly forty commanders and fighters. Suffered from acute diseases such as encephalitis, meningitis, and plague.

South Korea exposed that the US military laboratory secretly made "biochemical weapons"?What do you intend to be close to China?

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Geographical map of bacteria dropped by the United States on the Korean battlefield

The use of germ warfare by the US military has aroused strong condemnation from the international community. In June 1952, China and North Korea invited the International Scientific Committee to investigate the use of bacterial weapons on the Korean battlefield. The committee was led by Joseph Needham, a well-known biologist at the University of Cambridge. After two months of investigation, the Needham investigation team submitted a 600-page report to the international community. The report clearly pointed out that there are indeed signs of germ warfare in northeastern China and North Korea. The Chinese Volunteer Army and North Korean soldiers and civilians have indeed become targets of germ weapons. There is solid evidence that the US military is engaged in germ warfare. Moreover, the germ warfare of the US military on the Korean battlefield is very similar to the germ warfare of the Japanese army during World War II. It can be seen that the United States is the heir of the Japanese fascism that exterminated humanity in this era.

This time, South Korea's protests once again pushed the US biochemical laboratory to the forefront, but in the words of the Americans, the protest crowd is just a group of ants lined up. The demands of the people cannot be answered by the United States. The Koreans can only target the South Korean government and criticize the government's weakness, but the South Korean government is probably powerless.

South Korea is a country established under the control of the United States. The South Korean military obeys the command of the US military. The US military is stationed in South Korea in front of the master. The South Korean government has to pay a huge amount of military expenses to the United States every year.

South Korea exposed that the US military laboratory secretly made "biochemical weapons"?What do you intend to be close to China?


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U.S. troops stationed in Korea

In addition to military control, the United States is also the back controller of South Korea's economy and politics. South Korea is a chaebol country. Driven by funds from the United States and Japan, the Korean chaebol monopolized South Korea's economy. Several big chaebols such as Samsung accounted for more than half of the market share. The United States uses investment, exchange rate, and financial means to firmly control South Korean chaebols. When the South Korean president does not conform to the chaebol's interests, the president will be defeated by the chaebols, because the chaebols are behind the American power. Therefore, successive South Korean governments have had to listen to the words of the United States.

The United States controls South Korea everywhere, and South Korea is their overseas base in the eyes of the Americans. So how can the United States care about South Korea's resistance? But biochemical viruses endanger the security of all mankind, and peace-loving countries around the world should unite to fight the threat from the United States.



According to incomplete statistics, the United States has more than 200 biological laboratories in the world, covering Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. In recent years, the center of the US biochemical laboratory has gradually shifted to the Sino-Russian border. In Ukraine, close to Russia, the United States has set up 16 biological laboratories. South Korea is densely populated, and the people's voice against biological and chemical weapons is very high. The US military does not build dangerous laboratories on remote islands without people, but in South Korea. This is obviously treating China as an imaginary enemy. Therefore, China must maintain a high degree of vigilance against such a potential enemy with no bottom line.

https://inf.news/en/world/5e5a217b52c55 ... a5858.html
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Sat Aug 20, 2022 3:02 pm

Nobody changes fate for a corn pie
August 19, 9:30

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Nobody changes fate for a corn pie

The North Korean authorities will never accept the Republic of Korea's proposal for denuclearization in exchange for economic assistance. This was stated by Kim Ye-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who holds the post of deputy head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), Yonhap news agency reported on Friday, citing the Rodong Sinmun newspaper.

"I don't know what other brazen ideas they'll come up with next, but I'll make it clear that we'll never deal with this," said Kim Ye Jung. According to her, the initiative of the administration of the President of the Republic of Korea, Yun Seok-yeol, is "the height of stupidity" and is only a copy of the proposal of another South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak.

"The thought that Yoon Seok-yeol dreams of an offer to exchange our asset - nuclear missiles - for "economic cooperation" and this is his plan, makes one think that he is really naive and still young. Nobody changes fate for a corn pie," - the Central News Agency of Korea quoted Kim Ye-jong as saying. In her opinion, the assumption that the DPRK will agree to take steps towards denuclearization is an inherently wrong premise.

Kim Yo-jong also said that certain representatives of South Korea undermine the epidemic situation in the DPRK. Previously, South Korean activists sent anti-state leaflets and medicines to the People's Republic in balloons. "These villains encroach on our security by continuing to send dirty garbage to our territory and talk about food supplies and medical assistance to the people of the North. Such actions will only provoke the anger of our people," said Kim Ye-jeong. The DPRK authorities previously said that the outbreak of coronavirus in the country arose due to similar "foreign objects" found in the border area.

On August 15, on the occasion of the anniversary of the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japanese colonial rule, South Korean leader Yun Seok-yeol laid out some details of his "daring plan", which involves economic assistance from Seoul in exchange for Pyongyang's renunciation of nuclear weapons. On Wednesday, at a press conference, he repeated his proposal.


https://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/15510735 - zinc It is

obvious that North Korea will never give up nuclear weapons. This is the main guarantee of its survival.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7810283.html

Hahaha. good thing for Trump that he only had to deal with her more tolerant brother, who just smiled at the Donald's delusional bullshit. This woman would have ripped him a new asshole, which I'd pay to watch.
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Tue Oct 11, 2022 2:48 pm

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Fooling all the people!
Originally published: Countercurrents on October 9, 2022 by Brian Victoria (more by Countercurrents) | (Posted Oct 11, 2022)

Many if not most readers will be familiar with the following saying attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” While this saying may hold true in most situations it’s most definitely mistaken in today’s Japan, for the government, with the enthusiastic support of the media, has found a way, ever since the Korean War of 1950-53, to convince the Japanese people that North Korea and China are Japan’s implacable enemies, ever ready to strike Japan should it remove itself from the “nuclear umbrella” so generously provided by the United States.

The latest example of fooling the Japanese people all of the time is the panic fostered by the Japanese mass media and government over North Korea’s recent nuclear-capable, intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) test. It was the first time in five years that North Korea flew a missile over Japan and, as in the past, the test flight elicited a flurry of condemnations, not to mention triggering air raid sirens in the northern part of the country. This missile test, plus subsequent short range missile tests, were no doubt triggered by (or in response to) the joint military drills between the US, Japan and South Korea taking place at the same time, drills premised on a resumption of the Korean War. It will be recalled that the Korean War did not end with a peace treaty but with no more than an armistice, meaning the war could resume at any time.

In a 25-minute phone call following the missile test, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden called the North’s launch of an IRBM “a serious and imminent threat to Japan’s security and a clear and grave challenge to the international community,” according to the Japanese government.

This said, and as incongruous as it may seem, there is one organization in Japan that secretly welcomes North Korea’s missile tests – Headquarters US Forces Japan, located at Yokota Air Force Base just outside of Tokyo. How do I know this? Because I was formerly an intelligence analyst at the Headquarters US Forces Japan. At that time I listened to intelligence officers brief a general who was worried about the anti-base feelings of the Japanese people, especially in the event of the resumption of the Korean War. The intelligence officers, however, told the general there was nothing to worry about. Why? Because although Korean missiles would be aimed at US military bases in Japan in the event of war, their guidance systems were still primitive and many would no doubt fall on civilian areas near the US bases, resulting in the deaths of many Japanese civilians. When this happened, the Japanese people would become very angry, and their opposition to US bases in Japan would disappear overnight. Instead, they would welcome the protection American bases afforded them.

This exchange tells us two important things. First, North Korean missiles are not aimed at the Japanese people, but rather they are aimed at American military bases which provide the crucial logistical support needed to sustain a war in Korea (or with China over Taiwan). In this connection, note that at the time of the Korean War the required logistical support was also a boon to the postwar Japanese economy, for 27 percent of Japan’s total export trade consisted of war-related procurements.

Today, both the US and Japanese governments employ the threat of Korean missiles to frighten the Japanese and American people into supporting war against North Korea as well as China. In particular, the Japanese government uses the fear of North Korean missiles to justify its American-backed proposal to double Japan’s military budget. The Japanese government also uses the same fear to enact a new program in which they would acquire the capability of striking enemy targets even before those targets could launch missiles against Japan. Of course, the Japanese government could always claim that North Korea (or China) was preparing to attack Japan to justify the launch of a first strike. The Japanese people would be unable to determine whether this was true or not.

Additionally, it is important to know that North Korea has every reason to fear that in the absence of possessing nuclear weapons themselves it is they who might become the victims of nuclear warfare. This was demonstrated as early as October 1951 when the United States effected Operation Hudson Harbor to establish a nuclear weapons capability. USAF B-29 bombers practiced individual bombing runs from Okinawa to North Korea (using dummy nuclear or conventional bombs), coordinated from Yokota Air Force Base.

It is important to know, moreover, that as recently as 2016 North Korea approached the United States about conducting peace talks to formally end the war. While the White House initially agreed to secretly participate in these talks, the US eventually quit the talks due to North Korea’s refusal to discuss nuclear disarmament as part of the terms of the treaty. Two years later, on 27 April 2018, North Korea and South Korea agreed to hold talks to end the ongoing 65-year conflict. Both countries pledged to work towards the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Further, on 22 September 2021, liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in reiterated his call to formally end the Korean War in his speech at the UN General Assembly. However, in April 2022 everything fell apart, several months after US President Joe Biden assumed office, amid mutual recriminations, a situation that continues to the present.

While there can be no question that the denuclearization of the entire Korean peninsula is a worthy goal to be pursued, it should be realized that this will come at the end of a series of trust-building measures necessary to reach that goal. The first step in that process is the signing of a formal peace treaty ending the Korean War. Following this, a series of steps need to be taken that will convince the North Korean government that “regime change” is not the goal of either the US, South Korea or Japan.

It is then, and only then, that the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula can be pursued in earnest. It must never be forgotten that as historian of Korea Bruce Cumings wrote, “What hardly any Americans know or remember is that we carpet-bombed the north for three years with next to no concern for civilian casualties.” For his part, US Colonel Dean Rusk, later US Secretary of State, admitted the US bombed “everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.” The result was the virtual destruction of North Korea as an industrial society.

Added to this were the wartime deaths of an estimated 12%–15% of North Korea’s prewar population of approximately 10 million. Thus, there are no people on the face of the earth who better know the utter devastation that war can bring to a country. Consequently, as a small and relatively poor country that in January 2002 President George W. Bush labelled as one of three countries forming an “axis of evil,” it is not surprising that the North Korean government clings to nuclear weapons as the best means of ensuring it will not become the latest victim of the ongoing US policy of regime change.

In this environment it can be argued that the real reason the US, Japan and South Korea refuse to sign a peace treaty with North Korea is that it would provide that regime with legitimacy, making it just that much more difficult to overthrow. By this time it should be apparent that, like the Japanese government, the US government has also managed to fool its populace into believing that North Korea is an imminent danger to world peace. This is despite the fact that the North Korean government and its people know perfectly well that were they to initiate a military strike against either the US, Japan or South Korea, it would result in the almost instant nuclear annihilation of their country.

Notwithstanding this, both the US and Japanese governments, now with the support of the current conservative-ruled South Korean government, continue their longtime policy to “fool all of the people all of the time” regarding the alleged threat posed by North Korea. How long these governments will be successful in continuing this policy remains to be seen. One can only hope that for the sake of world peace and the lives of millions, the end of the adage will prove true, namely, “but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

https://mronline.org/2022/10/11/fooling-all-the-people/
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Thu Nov 03, 2022 1:52 pm

North Korea responds to massive, ‘reckless’ U.S.-led war games
November 3, 2022 Gary Wilson

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South Korea Defense Ministry photo.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has condemned the five days of U.S.-South Korea joint war drills that launched Nov. 1.

After a flurry of joint exercises held in April, August, September and October – some of which included Japan – a DPRK spokesperson said the Nov. 1 aerial drills were the “largest-ever” in history and showed that “the U.S. nuclear war script against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has entered the final stage.”

The north vowed to take “all necessary measures” to defend itself, saying that the joint aerial drills are in preparation for a nuclear strike on the DPRK.

A statement from a foreign ministry official cited in KCNA describes “an aggression-type war exercise with the basic purpose of hitting strategic targets of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” which presents the risk of “serious confrontation with great powers.”

“Nowhere in the world can we find a military exercise with an aggressive character like the joint military exercise held by the United States and its followers in terms of duration, scale, content and density,” the foreign ministry official said. “The U.S. nuclear war script against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has entered the final stage.”

The drills include about 100 U.S. warplanes and 140 South Korean aircraft, with Australia also participating.

The DPRK foreign ministry official said, “We are ready to take all necessary measures to protect the sovereignty of the country, the safety of our people and our territorial integrity from external military threats,” adding that Washington will “pay an equal price if it attempts to use force against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

The foreign ministry official reiterated that the DPRK’s nuclear arsenal is for defensive purposes only.

Massive protests are ongoing in South Korea, demanding the end of right-wing President Yoon Suk-yeol’s tenure and the U.S.-South Korea-Japan war exercises.

https://struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/11/0 ... war-games/

Reports I hear on national propaganda radio are all about 'missiles, missiles, missiles!' The 'war games' barely mentioned, apparently irrelevant.....

****************

Another Day, Another False Scare Story
The Biden administration believes that everyone is stupid enough to eat the bullshit it produces.

Consider this latest nonsense:

North Korea has secretly shipped munitions to Russia through the Middle East and North Africa, the U.S. says. - NYT

The United States on Wednesday accused North Korea of covertly shipping a “significant number” of artillery shells to Russia to aid its war effort in Ukraine, a sign that Moscow is increasingly turning to pariah states for military supplies as the grinding conflict persists.
The White House’s national security spokesman, John Kirby, said that it was unclear if the artillery munitions, which are being transferred through the Middle East and North Africa, had reached Russia. The United States does not believe that the additional weapons will alter the trajectory of the war.

“Our indications are the DPRK is covertly supplying and we’re going to monitor to see whether shipments are received,” Mr. Kirby told reporters on Wednesday, referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “Our information indicates that they’re trying to obscure the method of supply by funneling them through other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.”


Russia and North Korea have a common border. Artillery ammunition is heavy and one needs lots of it. That is why it is preferable to transport it in bulk - by ship or railway.

Russia's and North Korea's railways are connected.

Image

In 2019 Kim Jong Un visited Russia by train. While the passenger traffic had been closed down due to Covid quarantine measures it has recently been reopened. The U.S. has no means to know what products are in the boxcars and containers that travel across that border.

There are also ships. In 2017 the U.S. accused North Korea of exporting coal via Russia to third parties:

[T]he secretive Communist state has at least three times since then shipped coal to the Russian ports of Nakhodka and Kholmsk, where it was unloaded at docks and reloaded onto ships that took it to South Korea or Japan, the sources said.
Now tell me: Why would North Korea or Russia put any deliveries between them in jeopardy by transferring them via a third party far away from their areas of influence and operation?


They won't.

My hunch is that Russia does not buy ammunition from North Korea. But it could do so. North Korea has, in constant preparation for war, over decades accumulated lots of ammunition that is getting old and should be replaced by newer one. To sell off the old stuff for cheap would be a rational move. Russia is unlikely to need it but, if the price is right and the quality still acceptable, there is no reason to reject any such offer.

Most likely though the Biden administration is just making this up to somehow put Russia as well as North Korea into a bad light.

As the Russian president Vladimir Putin explained:

I already said that the dictate of the Western countries and their attempts to apply pressure on all the participants of international communication, including countries that are neutral or friendly to us, are achieving nothing, and they are looking for additional arguments to convince our friends or neutral states that they all need to confront Russia collectively.

The U.S. public and some dull inhabitants of U.S. colonies in Europe may well fall for such nonsense. But no one outside of that closed club will believe such claims without being shown some reasonable evidence.

There is of course none.

Posted by b on November 3, 2022 at 11:23 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/11/a ... .html#more
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Tue Nov 22, 2022 3:58 pm

North Korea: Missiles and Geopolitical Positioning
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on NOVEMBER 21, 2022
Yoselina Guevara López

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North Korean ballistic missile,November 2022

This Friday, November 18, North Korea successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that would be capable of reaching and hitting any part of U.S. territory. The weapon tested by Pyongyang, according to specialized agencies, is the Hwasong-17 developed by North Korea, which is equipped with two nuclear warheads, which reached a maximum altitude of 6,100 km and flew for 1,000 km before sinking in the East Sea, about 250 km off the coast of Japan. With this intercontinental missile, Pyongyang has launched a total of 30 missiles since the beginning of November; but the great novelty is that it is the first time that North Korea achieves really optimal results in the tests of these powerful weapons.

Missile warnings

There is no doubt that Pyongyang with these missiles is sending a warning especially to the United States; the Hwasong-17 test came just after the statement of North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, who lashed out at the recent trilateral meeting between South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden. At the meeting, the three leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s actions, and agreed to increase their security cooperation and strengthen deterrence against Pyongyang.

The message of Kim Jong-Un’s government through the missile tests was very clear, and is part of a dynamic of responses to the military provocations and countermeasures consolidated in recent months to actions considered hostile that have been carried out by South Korea and the United States, as in the case of the recent joint military maneuvers.

Positions on the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Although with these responses North Korea is strengthening its position in the region; geopolitically Pyongyang has regained a centrality, and a capacity to maneuver, that it seemed to have lost some time ago .The Russian special operation in Ukraine has strengthened the position of North Korea that can now count on the unconditional support of Russia, for being one of the countries in the world that has disassociated itself from hostilities towards Moscow.

On the contrary, South Korea has decided to side with the positions of its American, European and Western allies in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Seoul has condemned the Russian operation and discreetly supplies weapons to countries such as the United States and Poland which in turn equip Ukraine. But South Korea adroitly denies that it supplies arms directly to Ukraine; added to that, it has also adopted some of the Western sanctions against Russia. For Seoul, however, it remains too distant a conflict to elicit strong responses.

The geopolitical table in Asia

As for the sort of “tacit” and “informal alliance” between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington, it is showing signs of strengthening, having been weakened in recent years by the disputes between South Korea and Japan. It will be important to see whether these three countries decide to act together, and what the reaction will be, in the event of a new escalation of provocations, for example with a nuclear test that North Korea has already indicated it is highly likely to carry out in the near future.

In this sense, the ongoing global competition between China and the United States allows North Korea, also because it is a country with nuclear weapons, to figure as one of the many fields of the geopolitical chessboard in which this confrontation is also taking place. Beijing, which has a complex relationship with Kim Jong-Un, has every interest in using North Korea, and its nuclear potential, as a means of putting pressure on Washington. For its part, Pyongyang is interested in consolidating its status as a nuclear power and continuing to position itself as a threat to the security of both the United States and its two major allies in the region, namely Japan and South Korea, in order to present itself to China as a valuable, albeit unpredictable, ally in the competition against Washington.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/11/ ... sitioning/

*************

WP of Korea, WPK Solemnly Declares Its Immutable Will to React to Enemy's Nuke and Full-frontal Confrontation in Kind
11/21/22 11:09 AM

WPK Solemnly Declares Its Immutable Will to React to Enemy's Nuke and Full-frontal Confrontation in Kind


Pyongyang, November 19 (KCNA) -- The DPRK strategic forces test-fired a new-type ICBM on Nov. 18 amid the strict implementation of the top-priority defence-building strategy of the Workers' Party of Korea and the DPRK government on steadily bolstering up the most powerful and absolute nuclear deterrence.

The test-fire was conducted under the intolerable condition that the reckless military confrontational moves of the U.S. and other hostile forces persistently driving the military and political situation in the Korean peninsula to the red line have gone beyond the limit and hypocritical and brigandish sophisms have been justified even in the UN arena to brand the right of a sovereign state to self-defence as provocation in every way.

Kim Jong Un , general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, guided the test-fire on the spot.

Jo Yong Won, Ri Il Hwan, Jon HyonChol, Ri Chung Gil, Kim Jong Sik and other senior officials of the WPK Central Committee watched the test-fire in the presence of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un .

Kim Jong Un was greeted on the spot by Col. General Jang Chang Ha, leading officials in the national defence scientific research sector and commanding officers of the Red Flag Company.

The test-fire was aimed at checking the reliability of the weapon system and its operation.

The new-type ICBM Hwasongpho-17, launched at the Pyongyang International Airport, traveled up to a maximum altitude of 6 040.9 km and flew a distance of 999.2 km for 4 135s before accurately landing on the preset area in open waters of the East Sea of Korea.

The test-fire clearly proved the reliability of the new major strategic weapon system to be representative of the DPRK's strategic forces and its powerful combat performance as the strongest strategic weapon in the world.

Encouraging the successful test-fire, Kim Jong Un said he came to confirm once again that the nuclear forces of the DPRK have secured another reliable and maximum capacity to contain any nuclear threat.

The recent dangerous situation in which the U.S. and other hostile forces' military threats get ever more undisguised around the DPRK more urgently requires it to substantially accelerate the bolstering of its overwhelming nuclear deterrence, he pointed out.

Stressing the need to show more clear action under the present situation in order to make the U.S., south Korea and other vassal forces be aware that the military counteractions against the DPRK lead to their self-destruction and they have to reconsider a wise choice to improve their security environment, Kim Jong Un said that our Party and government should clearly demonstrate their strongest will to retaliate the hysteric aggression war drills by the enemies seeking to destroy peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region. Then he stated that the more the U.S. imperialists make a military bluffing in the Korean peninsula and its surrounding area while being engrossed in "strengthened offer of extended deterrence" to their allies and war exercises, the more offensive the DPRK's military counteraction will be.

Kim Jong Un solemnly declared that if the enemies continue to pose threats to the DPRK, frequently introducing nuclear strike means, our Party and government will resolutely react to nukes with nuclear weapons and to total confrontation with all-out confrontation.

Referring once again to our Party's defence-building strategy for steadily bolstering up the nuclear strategic weapons, he urged the national defence scientific research sector to put more vigorous spurs to the development of Juche-based strategic weapons of Korean-style and the ICBM units and all the units for the operation of tactical nukes to intensify their training with high vigilance so as to perfectly discharge their important strategic duty in any situation and at any moment.

All officials and scientists in the sector of the national defence science and combatants of the strategic nuclear weapons units vowed to absolutely worship and remain intensely loyal to Kim Jong Un who came out to the site for the historic major strategic weapon test-fire, a crucial milestone in bolstering up the nuclear forces of the DPRK, together with his beloved daughter and wife, to personally guide the whole course of the test-fire and warmly encourage them and showed the road of eternal victory, giving greater strength and courage in the dynamic advance for bolstering up the state nuclear strategic forces. And they hardened their determination to accelerate the building-up of the DPRK's powerful strategic forces in the future, too, and seize more tightly the nuclear weapons to defend the Party and the revolution, the country and the people forever. -0-

http://solidnet.org/article/WP-of-Korea ... n-in-Kind/

*************

Biden Needs To Accept That the US Can’t Intimidate North Korea
NOVEMBER 19, 2022

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North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attends a welcoming ceremony and review an honor guard at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on March 1, 2019. Photo: Manan Vatsayayna/AFP via Getty Images.

By Ju-hyun Park – Nov 16, 2022

A flurry of North Korean missile tests has captured international attention, but a longer view of US military threats and diplomatic obstinacy is missing from the picture.

An increasingly tense standoff has been simmering on the Korean Peninsula for months, and is now escalating to a potentially “uncontrollable phase,” North Korean officials warn. Since August, the US and South Korea have conducted five major joint military exercises and numerous smaller ones—the most recent of which, Vigilant Storm, just concluded on Nov. 5 and involved over 240 military aircraft in the largest ever aerial drills the countries have conducted together.

Denuclearization may be off the table, but the possibility remains for dialogue on normalization and security, including a negotiated end to the Korean War.

In the same time frame, North Korea has conducted several rounds of weapons tests involving dozens of ballistic missiles. The largest of these occurred on Nov. 2 in response to the impending Vigilant Storm exercises and reportedly involved 23 missiles, two of which landed off the east coast of South Korea, and one of which landed in waters south of the Northern Limit line, a maritime buffer zone in the Yellow Sea. This is the first time North Korean missiles have landed in waters delineated as South Korean.

Other military exchanges have also occurred on a near-daily basis over the past two months. Barrages of US and South Korean missiles have been launched, usually without notice from Western media; hundreds of North Korean artillery rounds have been fired in military demonstrations; and both South and North Korean shows of force have occurred along the Demilitarized Zone and the Northern Limit Line.

While similar saber-rattling has certainly occurred in Korea in the past, the frequency and intensity of these military exercises in recent weeks are part of a dangerous game of escalation that has no off-ramp. The US has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, meaning the two states lack an official channel through which they could cooperate to de-escalate the situation. This is particularly worrying as recent military exchanges at the Northern Limit Line threaten to upend the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, which has, until recently, kept the peace in disputed maritime areas.

The Biden administration seems determined to outmuscle North Korea, but the assumption that North Korea can, will, or should be intimidated through military force is as risky as it is outrageous. North Korea is taking unprecedented and bold steps to not only deter, but even to limit US military actions. This is indicative of a new DPRK strategy for dealing with Washington—one that Pyongyang itself has proclaimed and is currently being borne out in the escalating military struggle in Korea. Even if the two sides manage to avoid a clash now, they cannot avoid it forever, unless the US radically changes its approach to Korea.

In declaring itself a nuclear state, North Korea is seeking to internationally legitimize its nuclear weapons program as part of its sovereign right to self-defense. The self-imposed ban on sharing nuclear weapons technology with other countries is a step towards demonstrating responsibility for non-proliferation. This, crucially, means North Korea has now closed the door to negotiations with the US about its nuclear programs, marking the end of an era in relations between the two countries.

The crisis that has been unfolding since August began with the decision of the US and South Korea to proceed with the Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises—a massive combined drill conducted throughout South Korea, including sites within just a few miles of the DMZ. Even in the year prior to Ulchi Freedom Shield, however, the situation in Korea had already deteriorated significantly. Weapons tests on the Korean peninsula reached a record high earlier this spring due to an arms race between the two Korean states that began in 2021. Yet from June to August 2022, no major North Korean military activities occurred. Ulchi Freedom Shield broke this pause, and also triggered a crucial shift in North Korean nuclear policy.

On Sept. 9, the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea’s official name) passed a new law codifying the country’s status as a nuclear state. This new legislation includes provisions that (1) prevent North Korea from engaging in negotiations regarding its nuclear program for the foreseeable future, (2) bar the sharing of nuclear technology, and (3) establish the legal conditions under which a preemptive nuclear strike may be authorized. In a speech the following day, President of the State Affairs Committee Kim Jong Un declared, “We have drawn the line of no retreat regarding our nuclear weapons so that there will be no longer any bargaining over them.”

This new law marks a significant departure from previous North Korean policy. Despite testing its first nuclear weapons in 2006, North Korea has never had a first-strike nuclear policy. In fact, its government did not even establish legal conditions for the use of nuclear weapons in any situation until 2013. This dimension of the new legislation can be understood as a response to South Korea’s “Kill Chain” doctrine—a military strategy promoted by recently elected far-right President Yoon Seok-Yeol, which enshrines the use of preemptive strikes against North Korea.

While most mainstream media outlets have emphasized the preemptive strike provisions of North Korea’s new law, its real significance arguably lies elsewhere. In declaring itself a nuclear state, North Korea is seeking to internationally legitimize its nuclear weapons program as part of its sovereign right to self-defense. The self-imposed ban on sharing nuclear weapons technology with other countries is a step towards demonstrating responsibility for non-proliferation. This, crucially, means North Korea has now closed the door to negotiations with the US about its nuclear programs, marking the end of an era in relations between the two countries.

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Two US B-1B Lancer strategic bombers, four South Korean Air Force F-35 fighter jets and four U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets flying over South Korea during the “Vigilant Storm” joint air drill on Nov. 5, 2022, at an undisclosed location in South Korea. South Korean Defense Ministry via Getty Images

The US’s failed strong-arm approach to negotiations

For over 30 years, negotiations concerning North Korea’s evolving nuclear programs have helped diffuse escalating tensions with the US on the peninsula. Until now, North Korea has been willing to bargain in exchange for normalization of relations and security guarantees. In 1994, a deal known as the Agreed Framework was reached based on such an arrangement. Pyongyang would dismantle its nuclear reactors in exchange for safer light-water reactors from the US, and the two countries would eventually establish formal diplomatic ties. The Agreed Framework fell apart because the US never provided the promised technology.

Sanctions Against North Korea a ‘Dead End,’ Russia Warns


When Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump met in Hanoi in 2019, a US reporter asked Kim if he would be willing to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Kim responded, “If I [wasn’t] willing to do that, I wouldn’t be here right now.” At that point, North Korea was chiefly concerned with lifting comprehensive US sanctions that had placed its economy in a stranglehold. It also needed the cooperation of the US in order to realize the goals of the 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, a jointly agreed and signed North and South Korean roadmap for reconciliation and eventual reunification premised on ending the Korean War, which has never been formally concluded by a peace treaty. Instead of offering any leeway on these matters, Trump’s proposal to Kim in Hanoi stated that the US would offer nothing until North Korea dismantled all of its nuclear weapons, material, and facilities. In response, Kim and the North Korean delegation walked out of the summit.

As relations with the US deteriorated towards the end of the Trump administration, North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ri Son Gwon remarked, “In retrospect, all the practices of the present US administration so far are nothing but accumulating its political achievements. Never again will we provide the US chief executive with another package to be used for achievements without receiving any returns.”

The failure of the US to seriously engage in previous negotiations with North Korea has directly contributed to the latter’s recent policy changes, including formally establishing itself as a nuclear state. As relations with the US deteriorated towards the end of the Trump administration, North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ri Son Gwon remarked, “In retrospect, all the practices of the present US administration so far are nothing but accumulating its political achievements. Never again will we provide the US chief executive with another package to be used for achievements without receiving any returns.”

Washington’s conceit that it can disarm North Korea without a fight—or without making concessions—has brought us to this juncture. However, it’s important to stress that this does not mean a future diplomatic resolution is impossible. Denuclearization may be off the table, but the possibility remains for dialogue on normalization and security, including a negotiated end to the Korean War.

That being said, judging by the situation on the ground, a resumption of dialogue shouldn’t be expected any time soon. North Korea’s change in policy has been accompanied by a noticeable shift in the calculus guiding its military decisions. In the past, North Korea was more cautious about testing US resolve. Lately, North Korea has matched the US military’s shows of force, and in the process taken unprecedented steps. With the opportunity for diplomacy significantly reduced, North Korea is pursuing a policy of expanding deterrence against the US. While it is a common practice in Western media to ascribe a kind of ontological irrationality to North Korea, this kind of approach is as foolish as it is racist, because it ultimately only obscures reality. North Korea is sending a clear message to the US that it will no longer accept its freewheeling military behavior. Failing to take heed of these warnings will only push the region, and possibly the entire planet, closer to a catastrophic clash.

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A woman walks past a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul on Nov. 3, 2022. Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images

A new era of deterrence

Both Washington and Seoul condemned North Korea’s new law enshrining its nuclear status and warned of an “overwhelming, decisive response” should North Korea conduct another nuclear test. On Sept. 18, The New York Times quoted South Korean President Yoon saying his government and the Biden administration were prepared to deploy “a package of all possible means and methods” to deter North Korea, including recourse to nuclear weapons. On Sept. 23, the US escalated the situation further by deploying the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan to Busan for unannounced joint military exercises with the South Korean navy. This move provoked a flurry of missile tests from North Korea, including an intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan.

On Oct. 7, the Ronald Reagan returned to the East Sea1 for another round of surprise naval drills—this time including military vessels from Korea and Japan. This only exacerbated the situation, prompting even more military activity from the north and corresponding weapons tests from the south. In the second half of October, South Korea conducted its annual Hoguk military exercises with the participation of US troops, practicing an amphibious invasion of North Korea. The massive Vigilant Storm aerial exercises began shortly after the conclusion of the Hoguk exercises on Oct. 28. Like Ulchi Freedom Shield, each of these exercises was preceded by stern warnings from North Korea that were ultimately disregarded by the US and South Korea.

Prior to these incidents, North Korea had never before conducted missile tests with a US aircraft carrier present in Korean waters. In the past, similar maneuvers from the US would be principally met with fiery rhetoric; now, North Korea is responding with unprecedented military measures that signal a more aggressive approach to deterrence. Last week’s record barrage of North Korean missile tests drove this point home. A number of these missiles landed in waters off the southern part of the peninsula for the first time, and Pyongyang later clarified that the tests were intended to rehearse strikes against key South Korean and US military targets.

For Washington, deterrence means preventing North Korea from threatening the archipelago of overseas US military bases that stretches across East Asia and the Pacific. South Korea is the tip of a trans-Pacific spear pointed at the heart of China, now openly identified as the US’s chief rival. In other words, what is at stake for the US is its military hegemony in the region, which it needs to secure preferential “free market” arrangements in Asia.

These moves are about more than North Korea flexing its muscles—in upping the ante, Pyongyang is raising the risks incurred by Washington and Seoul should they engage in continued provocations. US military leaders and their South Korean counterparts have been careful to appear unfazed, but recently released documents from the Department of Defense offer some insight into how Washington is taking note of North Korea’s increasingly bold displays. The 2022 Missile Defense Review, released at the end of October, identifies North Korea as an “increasing risk to the U.S. homeland and U.S. forces in the theater,” while the complementary Nuclear Posture Review acknowledged North Korean military activity as a “deterrence dilemma” and “a persistent threat and growing danger.” The latter document also included a warning that “any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its Allies and partners is unacceptable and will result in the end of that regime.”

As these and other official documents demonstrate, the US nominally views its military activity through the same framework of deterrence as North Korea does, yet there is an unevenness here that must be contended with. For Washington, deterrence means preventing North Korea from threatening the archipelago of overseas US military bases that stretches across East Asia and the Pacific. South Korea is a strategic pillar of this network of overseas bases—US troops have never withdrawn from Korea since the 1953 armistice, and 28,500 soldiers remain stationed there to this day. With an additional 50,000 US troops in Japan, and aerial and naval bases stretching from Guam to Hawai’i, South Korea is the tip of a trans-Pacific spear pointed at the heart of China, now openly identified as the US’s chief rival. In other words, what is at stake for the US is its military hegemony in the region, which it needs to secure preferential “free market” arrangements in Asia.

In contrast, North Korea is fighting for its survival against what has been, historically and presently, an existential threat. During the Korean War, the US dropped 635,000 tons of bombs and 32,557 tons of napalm on North Korea. By 1953, out of the 4 to 5 million Koreans who had been killed during the war, over 2 million people were killed in North Korea. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the shadow of nuclear annihilation loomed large over the hostilities, and remained for decades after—long before North Korea was even close to acquiring nuclear weapons. General MacArthur, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Presidents Truman and Eisenhower all threatened to use the atomic bomb with varying degrees of premeditation. From 1958-1991, the US stationed hundreds of nuclear weapons in South Korea, aimed at North Korea as well as China and the USSR. To this day, South Korea remains officially under the US nuclear umbrella, meaning the US will deploy nukes for its defense; North Korea has never had a comparable arrangement with another power.

This history rarely figures into US accounts of the conflict in Korea, and it does much to explain North Korean actions. For the past 72 years, North Korea has been dedicated to ensuring the survival of its people. With the door to diplomacy seemingly closed by US intransigence, Pyongyang is now opting to place even more emphasis on its capacity to conventionally deter US aggression.

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Thousands of candlelight action members, civic groups, and Seoul citizens hold a rally in front of the Seoul Finance Center to urge President Yoon Suk-yeol to resign and his spouse Kim Gun-hee to run a special prosecutor investigation on Oct. 29, 2022, in Seoul, South Korea. Chris Jung/NurPhoto
via Getty Images

What now?

After the most recent North Korean missile launch on Nov. 9, one State Department official claimed, “We continue to seek serious and sustained dialogue with the DPRK, but the DPRK refuses to engage.” Taken in view of the longer history of US-North Korea relations, this is an incredibly self-serving statement. A closer look at the aforementioned 2022 Nuclear Posture Review recently released by the Department of Defense offers some insight into why US claims to openness have failed to bear fruit: “With respect to reducing or eliminating the threat from North Korea, our goal remains the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” Any mention of a peaceful resolution to the Korean War or normalization of relations with North Korea is notably absent from this position. The problem for the US is not the absence of a just peace, but North Korea’s capacity for deterrence in a situation of unfinished war. With this in mind, North Korea’s unwillingness to engage in negotiations at this time makes sense in the context of its own interests and historical logic. After all, what Biden is offering is ultimately no different than what Trump did: a demand for surrender, rather than a commitment to detente.

The current conflict may not boil over into open warfare, but that risk will only increase so long as the status quo in Korea set in 1953 continues to hold. The US has always had the option to de-escalate in Korea, and that possibility remains open today. The catch is that Washington must actually treat negotiations as negotiations, rather than as a shakedown. That will have to entail making concessions that were previously unimaginable: recognition of North Korea’s nuclear status, an end to US sanctions, full normalization of relations, a peace treaty to end the Korean War, and an eventual full military withdrawal from the peninsula. These are the only solutions that accord with the reality of the situation—North Korea has become a nuclear state to protect itself from constant US threats, and until those threats are fully removed they will remain a barrier to transforming the status quo of division and hostility in Korea.

These measures might alarm those who still cling to the idea that the US is defending democracy in Korea. If the democratic will of the Korean people is of such concern, it ought to be noted that the policies of current South Korean President Yoon, including his approach to North Korea, are widely unpopular. Thousands of people mobilized in August to protest the resumption of US-South Korean military exercises. Opposition was so extreme that it actually managed to unite South Korea’s rival trade unions; even more surprisingly, those unions stood in solidarity with the North Korean General Federation of Trade Unions. Support for North Korea is still a crime in South Korea, and it cannot be understated what an incredible risk these union leaders took in making a stand for peace. Since August, the movement calling for Yoon’s resignation has only grown, and is now being magnified even more as his administration’s bungled response to the tragic Itaewon disaster, which claimed 158 lives, continues to inflame passions.

There is no standard of ethics or democracy by which the US can continue to defend its position vis-a-vis North Korea. The ongoing Korean War is not only a threat to regional security and the lives of millions of people, it is also a deep scar on the psyche of the Korean nation. Countless families were separated by the war, enduring for generations the pain of national division in the most intimate terms possible. The constant threat of renewed war has deeply shaped the politics of both Korean states, and made the peninsula one of the most militarized places on earth for the better part of a century. Previous South Korean governments have demonstrated a willingness to move forward with North Korea, yet the US has stuck to its narrow interests, hiding behind a narrative of “national security” that conveniently belies the historical fact that it was the US that traveled thousands of miles searching for this fight. Until and unless the Biden administration reframes its goals towards removing itself as an obstacle to Korean peace, anything it says about openness to dialogue should be disregarded.

https://orinocotribune.com/biden-needs- ... rth-korea/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Mon Nov 28, 2022 3:25 pm

Nuclear program of the DPRK
November 28, 13:28

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Nuclear program of the DPRK

A large analysis of the current state of the DPRK nuclear program and its constituent elements, including nuclear warheads, carriers and delivery vehicles.
The issue of the nuclear doctrine of the DPRK, which is primarily defensive in nature, is also being examined.

(Video in Russian at link.)

Abstract:

On November 18, under the direct leadership of Comrade Kim Jong-un, the armed forces of the DPRK successfully launched a new type of missile, the Hwaseong-17. This again forced the whole world to recall the history of the DPRK nuclear program.

As part of the new program of the "Revolutionary Initiative" channel, the main myths associated with it, which are still circulating in unscrupulous media, were disassembled and refuted:

- the DPRK's nuclear technologies were created by Soviet and Chinese specialists - the DPRK
has always sought to possess nuclear weapons
Korean Peninsula switched to equipping its armed forces with nuclear projectiles and missiles
- the DPRK did not want to negotiate on the "denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7999570.html

Once again I warn the impudent and ignorant...
November 24, 10:46

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Official statement by Kim Jong-un's sister regarding North Korea's right to conduct missile tests.

STATEMENT BY WPK CC DEPUTY MANAGER KIM YO-JUNG

On November 22, the thugs from the South Korean Foreign Ministry called our use of the right to self-defense a "provocation" and blathered that they were considering the use of the so-called. additional "personal sanctions".

The bad act of South Korea, which, like a parrot, exactly repeats the US statement about the application of separate sanctions against our country, more clearly confirms that it is a "faithful dog" and a minion of America.

Every time I see the actions of South Korean henchmen, I am overcome with utter stupefaction.

Chickens laugh that South Korea, which, like a stray dog, maintains a miserable existence only with the help of the United States, wants to interfere with us with some restrictive measures.

If the owner and his henchman are still so clinging to useless and insignificant "sanctions", then let them introduce them at least a hundred, at least a thousand times.

I have to admit: if they cunningly calculated that they could get out of the current dangerous situation with their insignificant “sanctions”, then they are real idiots. Apparently, they are simply not able to coexist normally with us.

It is not clear why South Korean citizens allow the "power" of idiots led by Yoon Seok-yeol, who, after coming to power, only create new dangerous circumstances. Under Moon Jae-in's rule, Seoul, at least, was not our target.

Once again I warn the impudent and ignorant: the more violently the US and its South Korean puppets resort to sanctions and pressure against us, the stronger will be our hatred and anger, which, like a noose, will strangle them.

https://t.me/nucdprk/1766 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7991884.html

Google Translator

Bravo!
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Re: Korea

Post by blindpig » Sat Jan 21, 2023 3:26 pm

Image
Mass Protest in Gwangju, May 1980.

South Korean Dictator Dies, Western Media resurrects a Myth
By K.J. Noh (Posted Jan 21, 2023)


Speaking Ill of the Dead

General Chun Doo Hwan was the corrupt military dictator that ruled Korea from 1979–1988, before handing off the presidency to his co-conspirator General Roh Tae Woo. Chun took power in a coup in 1979, and during his presidency he perpetrated the largest massacre of Korean civilians since the Korean war. He died on November 23rd, in pampered, sybaritic luxury, impenitent and arrogant to the very last breath.

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Park Chung Hee as Japanese military officer.

Many western media outlets have written censorious, chest-beating accounts of his despotic governance and the massacres he perpetrated (here, here, here, and here)—something they rarely bothered to do when he was actively perpetrating them in broad daylight before their eyes. Like the light from a distant galaxy—or some strange journalistic time capsule—only after death, decades later, do “human rights violations” in South Korea burst out of radio silence and become newsworthy.

Better late than never, better faint than silent, better partial than absent, one could argue. Still all of them miss out on key facts, spread lies through omission. A key dimension of Korean history and politics looks to be buried with his death. A little background history is necessary to elucidate this.

The Sorrows of the Emperor-Dictator

Chun’s predecessor and patron, the aging South Korean dictator Park Chung Hee, had ruled the country as an absolute totalitarian despot for 18 years, but he knew in his bones that his days were numbered. He had survived two violent assassination attempts, mass civil protests, and even opprobrium from his American puppet masters, despite serving them loyally by sending 320,000 South Korean troops to Vietnam. Even Park’s closest advisors were worried about the fragility of his rule.

Park Chung Hee had been a former Japanese military collaborator during Japan’s colonization of Korea. A U.S.-installed puppet Syngman Rhee had smashed socialism in the South through genocide—a method later to be replicated in Indonesia’s “Jakarta method.”

But the puppet-genocidaire Rhee was in turn toppled by student protests in 1960, and the integration of South Korea into a U.S.-led security structure and capitalist order looked precarious due to popular hatred of the United States. Into this foment, Brigadier General Park took power in a vicious putsch. Park was a totalitarian fascist groomed within the Japanese military system, where he had conducted counterinsurgency against Korean independence fighters in Manchuria. (One of them, a legendary guerrilla leader called Kim Il Sung, would escape his clutches and become a life-long nemesis). He had then been trained and cultivated by the United States during the 1950s, attending military school in the United States. When Rhee was deposed, Park rapidly took power, pledging fealty to the United States and total war against communists. Having already proven his anticommunist credentials through a massive treachery, betrayal and slaughter, he was welcomed by the Kennedy Administration. This established the Junta’s legitimacy, while maintaining the continuity of U.S. colonial “hub and spoke” architecture in the region.

Park nominally assumed the presidency through an election but then tightened his regime until he attained the powers of the Japanese Emperor, whom he had worshipped and admired during Japanese rule. He formally rewrote the constitution after the Japanese imperial system, legally giving himself the powers of Showa-era Sun God. This, along with his dismissal of colonial atrocities to normalize relations with Japan, in obeisance to the U.S. strategic design for the region, resulted in massive civil insurrection against him. These protests were barely put down with mass bloodshed, torture, disappearances, and terror. But even among his inner circle, doubts were voiced about his extreme despotic overreach.

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Riot troops and paratroopers assault protestors and bystanders in Gwangju.

The Insurance Policy: Ruthless and Cunning

Hanahwe” [also, “Hanahoe”; “the council of one”], a group of officers within the 1955, 11th class of South Korea’s Military Academy, had signaled their total fealty to Park during Park’s military coup in 1961. As a result, Hanahwe members were rapidly brought in-house, rewarded with powerful roles within the military government, and formed a deadly, elite Praetorian guard within the labyrinthine power structures of the Park Administration.

Two of them were the leaders of this secret-society insurance policy. One of them, Chun Doo Hwan, would be referred to as the “ruthless one,” known for his amoral brutality and utter lack of conscience. He would later be called “the slaughterhouse butcher.” The other was Roh Tae Woo, Chun’s military blood brother, the “cunning one,” known for his strategic, tactical, and political cunning.

Together, “Ruthless and Cunning” would prove their mettle in Vietnam, auditioning as understudies for the U.S. Imperial war machine, and proving their bona fides by operating a rolling atrocity machine, the SK 9th Infantry “White horse” Division, where Chun’s 29th regiment would cut its teeth on brutal massacres against Vietnamese civilians. Psychopathic and Amoral, they would form a two-headed hydra, ensuring Park’s rule against enemies within and without. A third member of Hanahwe, Jeong Ho Yong, would also cut his teeth in the 9th Division in Vietnam, as would the Capital Mechanized “Fierce Tiger” Division, and various Marine and Special warfare brigades. All would gain recognition and favor with the U.S. military brass in Vietnam, where South Korean troops would eventually outnumber U.S. troops on the ground. They would also play key roles in future Korean history.

Sex, Whiskey, and Guns: High Deductibles

Park’s insurance policy kicked in when his KCIA chief pumped him full of bullets at a whiskey-sodden orgy gone bad in late autumn of 1979. Two young women—a nervous college student and a popular singer—had been procured to serve the sexual whims of the president at a luxurious KCIA “safehouse” that had been set up for such routine vernal assignations. During the pre-coital dinner banquet, with expensive whiskey serving as lubricant, a heated argument arose between the KCIA Chief, Kim Jae Kyu and Chief Presidential Bodyguard, Cha Ji Chol, about how to put down massive civil protests against Park’s rule in Pusan and Masan. Cha Ji Chol proposed the “Pol Pot option” arguing that a massacre of 30,000 civilians would subdue civilians and put the genie back in the bottle. This was accompanied by insults at Kim for not having implemented such “effective” measures. Kim Jae Kyu, incensed either at the casual brutality or at the blatant criticism, put an abrupt end to the debate by drawing his pistol and shooting Cha and Park. “I shot the heart of the beast of the (Yushin) dictatorship,” he would later claim. Park’s insurance policy would rapidly kick in at that point, although the deductible would be his own life.

Enter the Praetorian Guard: Tigers, Horses, and Dragons

After Park’s death, Oct 26th, Lt General Chun Doo Hwan, the head of the Armed Forces Defense Security Command (DSC)—Park’s institutional Praetorian Guard—rapidly took matters in hand. Chun would rapidly take over, first the investigation of the assassination, then key army positions, and then the government. Some historians marvel at the rapidity with which Chun consolidated power and how quickly he disciplined loose factions within Park’s old guard. This ignores the rhizomatic base of Hanahwe deep within the executive and in all branches of the military, and the institutional powers baked into the DSC to preserve loyalty and deter subversion and coups.

Chun, using his statutory powers, and good dose of military firepower, arrested key military leaders for the assassination, and then on December 12, 1979 instigated a coup, supported by Hanahwe comrade Roh Tae Woo, now division commander of the 9th “White Horse” Division. Roh withdrew the elite unit away from its critical position on the DMZ to the Capital, where they were joined by another Vietnam/Hanahwe classmate, general Jeong Ho Yong. These troops, with another Vietnam-veteran division, the Capitol Mechanized “Tiger” Division, and various special warfare brigades, fought the old guard in the streets before rapidly subduing them. Not long after this class reunion, Chun would declare martial law and appoint himself president with a new constitution and fill all key military ranks with his Hanahwe classmates.

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Face off between troops and protestors in Gwangju.

A “Splendid Holiday” Turns Sour

Mass protests broke out again after Chun’s declaration of Martial Law on May 17th, 1980. In the city of Gwangju, hundreds of students protested.

Chun’s response was to send a crack division of special warfare troops to smash heads, assault bystanders, and shoot protestors, in an operation named “Splendid Holiday.” Beatings, rapes, and mass killings were the order of the day; “blood flowed like rivers in the streets.”

However, in an extraordinary turn of events, stunned protestors, instead of capitulating at the terror, responded by storming police armories and requisitioning weapons, taxis, buses, and improvised explosives, to fight the elite troops to a standstill. Despite the deployment of helicopter gunships and Armored Vehicles, 3000 Special Warfare Paratroopers, along with 18,000 riot troops, found themselves driven out of the city. In this, the liberation of Gwangju stands out as one of the most astonishing feats of civil resistance of the twentieth century.

This victory was not to last, however. After the rebels surrendered thousands of arms as a gesture of good faith to seek amnesty, Chun’s administration would assault the city with 2 armored divisions and 5 special forces brigades. An untold number of civilians—excess death statistics note 2300 individuals—would be slaughtered, searing Gwangju into the historic annals of atrocity and infamy.

Anti-government protests would go underground, and re-erupt 7 years later, when Chun’s presidency, which had been awarded the Olympics found it inconvenient to perpetrate another massacre in front of the international press in the run up to the Olympics. Chun would accede to protestors’ demands for a direct election, the outcome of which conveniently passed the presidency to his Hanahwe second, General Roh Tae Woo.

The Missing Factor: Who Let the Dogs Out?

The above are the basic historical outlines, acknowledged by most journalists and historians. But what they miss out, is the platform and permissions that circumscribed these historic events. In particular, two questions arise: Under what authority did Chun initiate his coups? And how did he subdue Gwangju? The answer leads back to the same place.

South Korea has never had a policy independent of the United States—it has always been a vassal neo-colony. This was demonstrated when the United States placed THAAD missiles on Korean soil, ignoring the explicit orders of President Moon Jae-In by coordinating secretly with the South Korean military. Even U.S. Ambassador Donald Gregg, acknowledged openly before Congress that the U.S.-South Korea relationship had historically been a patron-client relationship.

This is because the Southern state of Korea, from its inception, was created deliberately by the United States after liberation to thwart a popular, Indigenous socialist government (the Korean People’s Republic) from taking sovereign power over the entire peninsula.

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Declaration of the Korean People’s Republic, August 1945.

Since its occupation in 1945 by the U.S. military government, South Korea has always been constrained and controlled by the United States. Its politics and culture, even where it might be nominally independent, has been thoroughly colonized by the United States. For example, in the early 1990s, a fractious intra-party conflict broke out between two Cabinet factions of the Liberal Kim Young Sam presidency. The “irreconcilable” fight was between cliques who had studied political science at UC Berkeley and those who had studied at Yale. Such were boundaries of South Korean discourse and the overarching nature of U.S. influence.

This state of affairs is most true of the South Korean military, which was cloned from the U.S. military during the U.S. occupation of 1945-1948, and which has been continuously under U.S. control (OPCON) since July 14, 1950.

Key leaders such as Park, Chun, Roh were trained and indoctrinated into U.S. military practices and culture and had close personal connections with the U.S. military. Chun, for example, had attended the U.S. Psychological Warfare school and Special Warfare school in Fort Bragg, Ranger school at Fort Benning, and Airborne training at the U.S. Army infantry school before receiving commissions to lead Special Warfare forces. He then in Vietnam fighting under U.S. MACV command before ascending to key positions in the ROK military.

This dependency is starkest regarding military operational control, which the United States still maintains in “wartime” to this day. ROK divisions cannot move or act independently without explicit orders from the top of the military command chain, or unless explicit permission is granted to be released from this operational control. The head of the military command chain at the time of Gwangju was General John A Wickham Jr, the head of the UNC/CFC command. Wickham would have been subordinate to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In other words, SK troops do not get to commit massacres on their own. They need a hall pass from the United States to engage in any military maneuvers or actions. The U.S. military granted them such a hall pass to travel down to Gwangju, knowing that this plan that would likely result in the slaughter of students and citizens. The released units under the Special Warfare Command, a lethal killing machine, are all divisions with a deep integration with and long history of serving the United States.

The United States claims that it was utterly in the dark and in no position to refuse the release of OPCON demanded by South Korea: that the Koreans snatched up OPCON, like a bully stealing lunch money, and then went on to commit mass atrocities that the United States could only sit by and watch in slack-jawed innocence. These are after-the-fact re-workings of history by creative lawyers ignorant of military realities. Militaries are instituted to have unity of command, and Chun was a U.S.-trained, known actor in a specific chain of command, with close ties to the U.S. brass. The notion that a partially established coup junta of a client state could simply Swiss-cheese U.S. military command structure and snatch OPCON to commit massacres at will strains credibility. The absurd official portrayals of the U.S. Military brass as hapless damsels before roguish generals is refuted by official records and smacks of satire or desperation.

In fact, journalist Tim Shorrock using the declassified “Cherokee files,” has detailed well the discussions that happened at the time of Gwangju: top U.S. officials in the Carter administration (1) knew of the brewing crackdown and (2) greenlighted military action, knowing full well the costs. According to Shorrock’s meticulous reporting:

[Troops] were sent with the approval of the U.S. commander of the U.S.-Korea Joint Command, Gen. John Wickham…That decision, made at the highest levels of the U.S. government…exposed how deeply the Carter administration was involved in the planning for the military coup of 1980.… The Carter administration had essentially given the green light to South Korea’s generals to use military force.

This action was authorized to avoid a second “Iran” debacle, where another U.S.-placed despot had been overthrown by popular revolt to U.S. consternation, humiliation, and loss. Not only did the United States greenlight the massacre by U.S.-familiar Vietnam-veteran divisions, the United States deployed the USS Coral Sea to support the flank of Chun’s military during the retaking of the city and heightened surveillance support with AWACS. In other words, the Gwangju massacre was a U.S.-enabled-and-supported operation, done with explicit U.S. knowledge and coordination.

Pentagon lawyers have argued that they had previously “released OPCON” to the Korean military, so that these massacres were not done under direct U.S. control. That is a distinction without a difference, akin to a pit bull owner saying that they took their beast off the leash, and therefore are not responsible for the deadly consequences. The ROK military was a U.S.-trained-and-coordinated combatant force; some units involved had served directly under the U.S. I Corps in Vietnam only years prior to Gwangju. The very fact that the United States released OPCON, knowing full well their capacities, military histories, and what was on the cards, makes the whole argument a poor exercise in plausible deniability. No one who has the smallest understanding of how armies work would fall for “the pit bull ate my homework” excuse.

The United States has also argued that the Special Warfare division was exempt from OPCON at the time. This, too, is a legal fiction—Special Warfare Troops, of all ROK troops, are the most tightly integrated and bound to U.S. command, where they have a long history of training, coordinating, and working with and as proxies for the U.S. military. (The United States maintains this pretense because SWF are designed to infiltrate into NK, where the necessity to avoid U.S. command responsibility requires a legal fiction of “independence”).

The same could also apply for Chun’s coups as well. The December 12 coup involved the movement of the Vietnam-veteran 9th division, far away from its position guarding the DMZ to attack the incumbent government, along with maneuvers of the Capital Mechanized Division and Special warfare troops. The May 20 coup also involved large troop maneuvers to threaten and dissolve the Korean parliament. South Korea is a small, crowded peninsula, bristling with arms and military bases on hair trigger alert, surveilling and monitoring every inch of its territory for military movement. To assert that the U.S. command was aware of the coups is not conspiracy that presumes U.S. omniscience. It’s simply assuming clear signaling on a crowded dance floor to avoid inadvertent collisions. It’s inconceivable that such a massive troop maneuver would not have been signaled up the chain at minimum to avoid a friendly fire incident.

Return OPCON, Restore Peace

So where do these facts leave us? As the media stir up the flies around Chun’s sordid past, they also seek to bury with his body the fact that South Korea’s military is an appendage of the U.S. military, and that its warts, chancres, and tumors are grown from within the U.S. body politic. Exorbitant atrocities such as the Bodo League Massacres, or the Gwangju Massacre, accrue to the secret debit account of the U.S. imperial ledger, where human rights violations vanish off the books, and where moral debt and karmic interest are never calculated or reconciled.

Despite a confusing, bifurcated organizational structure (Independent command control vs. Subordinated operational control; Peacetime OPCON vs. Wartime OPCON), the bare political fact is that South Korea’s military falls effectively under U.S. control, not simply in “wartime,” but whenever it is politically expedient or strategically necessary. This card was obvious when the ROK military simply defied Moon’s moratorium on THAAD missile installation and took its orders from the United States, not even bothering to notify the Korean president that the missiles had been delivered in-country. Subsequent investigation revealed that the South Korean military claimed a confidentiality agreement with the U.S. military as the reason to hide the information from South Korea’s own commander-in-chief. Not only does the ROK military translate the will of the United States in domestic actions—including coups and massacres, but it has also functioned as a brutal sidekick for U.S. aggressions abroad, and serves as a strategic force projection platform and force multiplier for U.S. containment against China. Unlike any other “sovereign” state in the world, South Korea’s 3.7 million troops and materiel all fall under U.S. operational control the instant that the United States decides that they want to use them.

This is despite the fact that since the inception of its civilian government in 1993, SK has sued the United States for the return of OPCON. This request is now going into its third decade; the United States has simply stalled, moved goal posts, changed definitions and conditions, and stonewalled to this date. This debate around OPCON is important in the current historical moment as the United States is escalating to war with China. Any de-escalation with North Korea will require the declaration of peace, predicated on the return of sovereign OPCON to South Korea. However, the United States will not seek to de-escalate tensions with North Korea, because if that happens, South Korea is likely to confederate in some manner with North Korea, join China’s Belt and Road Initiative and then become integrated as an ally of China. This would cripple the U.S. security architecture in the Northeast Pacific. This renders any peace with North Korea antithetical to U.S. strategic interests.

Secondly, the U.S. escalation for War with China requires the capacity to access and threaten the Chinese continent across a series of leverage points. Inescapably, South Korea will be a key theater of battle, because of its geostrategic position as a bridgehead onto China. Also, the temptation to leverage a force of 6.7 million South Koreans (3.7 M troops +3 M paramilitary) as cannon fodder for war against China is simply too irresistible to pass on. In light of this, Korea expert Tim Beal argues that in this moment of heightened tension with China, the most dangerous place in the Pacific is not the South China Sea or the East China Sea, but on the Korean Peninsula.

We will see this conflict heighten as South Korea enters into a new presidential election cycle between a U.S.-favored conservative candidate, and a China-sympathetic progressive candidate.

Nevertheless, South Korea’s history offers a stark and ominous lesson, one that the MSM would prefer you ignore: a battle is brewing, with very high stakes. Under pressure, the United States has taken brutal actions to maintain control and hegemony. It may do so again.

Chun’s passing is being taken as an opportunity to distribute soporific drafts of historical amnesia—the better to sleepwalk into war or tragedy, again.

People with a conscience should not let this misdirection pass. To close one’s eyes to history is to enable future atrocities and war. Only with eyes wide open does the public have a chance of staving off this coming war.

https://mronline.org/2023/01/21/south-k ... ts-a-myth/

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“Protesters in Seoul demand dissolution of ROK-U.S. alliance and withdrawal of U.S. troops.” CGTN, August 22, 2022.

South Korea prosecutes its citizens for screening North Korean drama
By K.J. Noh (Posted Jan 19, 2023)

The Western Corporate Media often claims that “North Korea prosecutes (or even executes) its people for watching South Korean dramas.”

It’s hard to ascertain if that’s actually the case, as fake news about North Korea is the norm. The only allegations of this phenomena come from unreliable defector testimony of known liars (like Park Yeon Mi), who are rewarded for telling hyperbolic lies; or from dubious South Korean sources like the rightwing Chosun Ilbo.

These hyperbolic claims are then amplified by right wing anti-communist organizations (like Liberty in North Korea) and the US MSM.

However, contrary to these dubious claims, we can ascertain with certainty that South Korea does prosecute people for screening North Korean films.

In fact, it’s not an exaggeration to say that much of what South Korea accuses North Korea of doing can actually be attributed right back to South Korea. In other words, these claims are projection—not cinematic, but psychological.

Dangerous Dramas

According to the Jeju Today newspaper, the Yoon government is claiming that screening the North Korean film “The Story of Our Home”, shown in South Korea in February 2019 as part of a national reunification festival, violated SK National Security Law. It is now investigating the organizers of the film screening three years later.

The North Korean film is a family drama about how a young teenage girl and her two younger siblings try to adapt to the loss of their mother. The community rallies to support her, but she is stricken with grief and acts out with hostility, especially towards a neighbor who tries to help out in caring, maternal ways. It’s a common dynamic you might see in any foster or hybrid family here. There’s also an older brother, in the military, who is kept in the dark about the loss. There’s a math contest, a cooking contest, elegant bike riding—and several punctures— and lots of pastoral greenery.

This is utterly harmless stuff, a story about neighborly kindness—with a wholesome message about studying math thrown in—but the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) is hounding the organizers, the former head and current head of the Jeju branch of the Progressive Party and the Secretary-general of the Jeju Federation of the National Farmers’ Association, for violating the National Security Law. They are accused of engaging in “ideological education” and “praising the North Korean system.”

The organizers of the screening have argued that the film was approved by the South Korean government (Ministry of reunification) itself for screening. The DVD, after the screening, was promptly returned to the ministry.

These prosecutions are happening within the current political context where the South Korean Yoon government is reverting to a full red scare/red-baiting mode, a reversion to the habits of the SK military dictatorships of the 60-80’s.

Yoon’s Strategy of Denial

The Yoon administration, with the recent promulgation of its Indo-Pacific Strategy, has gone full bore in adopting a confrontational—if coded—military, economic, and political escalation against China. As the identity of the name suggests, South Korea’s strategy is in lockstep ideological, military, and political congruence with the US’s own Indo-Pacific strategy. This is a strategy developed to contain, constrain, and rollback China’s economic development and global/regional prominence, and to prepare for kinetic engagement. South Korea is engaging in this extreme strategy despite the considerable risk this poses to its own economy. It is already seeing harm to its own domestic semiconductor industries.

The Yoon administration’s coordination and co-militarization with Japan in the service of this US containment against China, along with its neoliberal policies and massive labor suppression, and its general incompetence—leading to mass catastrophes such as the recent mass crush catastrophe—has resulted in fierce opposition by large numbers of South Korean citizens. To date, they have taken to the streets in mass “candlelight” demonstrations 23 times, on occasion, approaching a turnout of half million according to organizers. They show no signs of abating.

These huge weekly demonstrations have demanded Yoon’s immediate resignation along with prosecution of the first lady for corruption. The demonstrations also express strong opposition to US militarization and military exercises, demand the return of South Korean sovereignty, and charge President Yoon with selling out and betraying the nation. The Yoon administration currently has a 24% approval.

To counter this, the Yoon administration has been stifling and shutting down opposition to its policies with allegations that opposition is derived from pro-North sentiment or even alliance with North Korea. It is currently engaged in a massive political witch hunt of its opponents. It has arrested key top officials of the previous progressive administration, has raided the opposition party headquarters, raided opposition party candidate’s (Lee Jae Myung’s) house four hundred times and has just subpoenaed him, acts unseen in South Korean constitutional history. It is widely feared that Yoon will try to imprison the former progressive president, Moon Jae-in, possibly for acts of commission or omission in his policy towards North Korea. Even the South Korean military is alarmed: a former four star general, deputy commander of the ROK/US Combined Forces Command denounced Yoon’s administration as a “dictatorial regime” that is “suppressing freedom”—a military first.

Republic of Prosecution

President Yoon, a former chief prosecutor, sometimes compared to a “Korean J. Edgar Hoover”, had promised during his campaign that he would create a “Republic of Prosecutors” and re-institute a 120-hour work week. (The previous Moon Jae-In administration had painstakingly winnowed down South Korea’s working hours—the longest in the OECD—to a 52 hours per week cap). A silver-spooned dunce with no political experience, Yoon had failed the bar exam 9 times. He was pitted against a popular governor, Lee Jae Myung, who had worked—and was injured—in sweatshops since the age of 12 but who had entered law school on a scholarship after taking night school classes. Lee had aced his bar exams.

Needless to say, the US backed the wealthy, underperforming dunce rather than the conscientious over-achiever. Candidate Yoon received the blessing and endorsement of top US leaders and the US power establishment. He was commissioned to publish an article—a public confession of the doctrine of the faith—for the Council on Foreign Relations’ journal Foreign Affairs magazine, where he detailed his hawkish concordance with US policy against China and his desire to be a global “pivot state”—a clear reference to the “Pivot to Asia”.

Seoul should seek a comprehensive strategic alliance with Washington…actively promote a free, open, and inclusive order in the Indo-Pacific…[and] willingly participate in Quadrilateral Security Dialogue..[and] trilateral security coordination with the United States and Japan.

The Obama administration’s “Pivot to Asia” had started the momentum for military encirclement and escalation against China; Trump escalated this hybrid war into the economic domain, initiating a trade and tech war against China. Biden rebranded the Pivot to Asia as “The US Indo-Pacific Strategy” and Trump’s neo-mercantilist trade war as the “IPEF (Indo-Pacific Economic Framework)”, and has since escalated even further with full spectrum sanctions designed to destroy key Chinese industries. Yoon’s roadmap article for Foreign Affairs was widely welcomed and lauded, celebrated as an early Christmas in Washington, effectively the fulfillment of Biden’s wish list for its Korean anti-China strategy.

After squeaking by on the tightest of margins in South Korea’s electoral history, President Yoon has been making good on his promises to the US, shaping, sculpting, and subordinating South Korean military, economic, and foreign interests to align with US policy and goals. To backstop what are clearly unpopular, dissent-and-hardship-generating extreme far right policies—and in fulfillment of his promise of creating a “republic of prosecutors”—Yoon has appointed prosecutors who were subordinate to him to the majority of top administration positions, and prosecuting his opponents without mercy. Anyone who shows the slightest sign of opposition to his foreign or domestic policy has been put in the cross hairs of his army of prosecutors. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Yoon has sent his prosecutorial clown car barreling straight down on the road mapped out in his FP article, with “values” attached as a hood ornament, and “democracy” attached to the bonnet as road kill. The vehicle deployed has been “Rule of Law”, in particular, South Korea’s National Security Laws.

For example, Yoon is claiming that the recent labor strikes in SK organized by the KCTU “were upon orders from North Korea”, a hyperbolic claim completely denied and deried by the organizers.

The Devil in Democracy

SK’s national security laws (see here)—are a relic of the past red-baiting military dictatorships—and are some of the most draconian in the world. They have been applied to destroy lives and livelihoods, despite their commonsense-and-human rights-contravening extremism and punitiveness. Revised and massaged several times over the years, they are still imprinted with the core genes of their intent: a political version of the Malleus Maleficarum (a medieval guide for witch hunting) to destroy “subversive” thought and movements in the South and to squelch political opposition. Like the Malleus, during South Korea’s military dictatorships, they were broadly written, malleable in interpretation & application, and relied heavily on confession extracted under torture. They are outdated and incompatible with any notion of a modern state, let alone South Korea’s much self-promoted “freedom and democracy” and “respect for individual rights’ ‘.

For example, Under the South Korean National Security Law, for the act of “praising or sympathizing with” North Korea (in the legislation, NK is always referred to as “anti-state group(s)”), South Korean individuals can be imprisoned for up to 7 years:

Article 7: Praising Or Sympathizing
Up to 7 years in prison for those who praise, encourage, disseminate or cooperate with anti-state groups, members or those under their control, being aware that such acts will endanger the national security and the democratic freedom.

If investigation of the KCTU labor strikes shows that they were “upon orders from North Korea“, as is claimed by the government, depending on the judicial outcome and the specific crimes they are charged with, the accused could be sentenced to death for “commission of anti-state acts under the influence of NK”:

Article 4: Commission Of Anti-State Acts
Members of an anti-State group or those who are under the influence of an anti-State organization who commit an anti-State act shall be punished as follows:

Those who commit an act as defined by the Criminal Codes articles [92], [97], [99], [250.2], [338] or [340.2] shall be punished as set forth in the Codes.
Those who commit an act as defined by the Criminal Codes article [98] or who access, gather, leak, transmit or compromise a national security secret shall be punished as follows:
Death, life or minimum 10 years for violating Criminal Codes [115], [119.1], [147], [148]. [164] or [169]. [177.1] or [180]. [192] or [195]. [207], [208], [210], [250.1], [252], [253], [333] or [337], [339] or [340.1, 2]
Death, life or minimum 5 years in prison for destruction of public or government buildings or other structures essential for transportation, communication; abduction or seduction of officials; or theft or removal of ships, airplanes, automobiles, weapons or other materials—related to the fore-mentioned functions.
Minimum 2 years in prison for promoting or propagating acts defined in [1] or [5] or for creating or spreading false rumors aimed at causing social turmoil.
Meeting with NK officials, as alleged against the organizers could result in a 10 year sentence.


Article 8: Meeting, Corresponding And Etc.
Up to 10 years in prison for those who confer, correspond, or communicate using other means with anti-state groups, members or those under their control, being aware that their acts will endanger the national security and the democratic freedom.

If any of the accused are successfully prosecuted, then those in their vicinity could be charged with “failure to inform”—i.e. failure to “rat out” their friends, neighbors, colleagues, or even family:

Article 10: Failure To Inform
Maximum five years in prison or a fine of 2000,000 won for those who fail to inform the police or security officials of persons who have committed acts defined in [3], [4], [5.1, 3 and 4]. This punishment may be reduced or waved in the case of involving family members.


The film organizers could be charged with “possessing (even temporarily) or disseminating arts” (from NK):

Punishments as defined in [1], [3], or [4] for those who create, import, duplicate, possess, transport, disseminate, sell, or acquire documents, arts or other publications for the purpose of committing acts as defined in [1], [3], or [4] respectively.

This devil here is not in the details, but in the conception. Summoned by the US as an anticommunist familiar to purge the peninsula clean of all challengers to Empire in 1945, the rightwing Yoon administration is stoking the coals and heating its branding iron again. South Korea is re-descending into a dark and dangerous path to war in service of the Unipolar Empire, and its long-enduring and long-suffering citizens are worried. What is certain is that it cannot find its way out with the road map the administration has adopted: there are no off-ramps or turning points. South Korea is already coordinating operations and exercises with a belligerently and rapidly remilitarizing Japan, and it has committed to participate in any conflict in the South China Sea or the Taiwan straits as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy.

Only the continued and dedicated struggle of South Korean citizens against US imperialism and for national liberation and sovereignty can find a way out of this dangerous and deadly situation.

In solidarity with these struggles, the first duty of the people of the Western Imperial core is to prevent their own governments from manipulating and militarizing South Korea—and other countries—to push them into a catastrophic confrontation with China.

If war breaks out in Asia, no one wins. History itself would come to a full stop.

https://mronline.org/2023/01/19/south-k ... ean-drama/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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