North Korea

Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, April 22nd, 2018 - 17 comments
Categories: International, Korea, Politics, Propaganda - Tags: , ,

I can’t quite remember what kind of hullabaloo followed any of the multiple agreements around nuclear testing that were signed off between the US and the USSR or Russian Federation. But I think I’m on safe ground to suggest they were lauded to one degree or another and that credit was claimed by various parties or given to various parties. And I’m pretty sure we were encouraged to feel good about it.

Not so with North Korea’s announcement that it would end its nuclear weapons and long range missile tests as well as shut down its principle nuclear test site. That’s to be treated with anything from downright suspicion to suspicious optimism at best. I guess the problem for many western commentators and news outlets is that everyone possibly connected with this decision has been portrayed as an enemy. So how to say anything positive?

Can’t give credit to Kim Jong-un, because he’s mad, bad and well – “end of story”. Can’t give credit to Donald Trump, because the idea is to undermine him and his administration at every turn, not make him look good. And it’s ‘hardly on’ to suggest that China – the great “Yellow Peril” in many peoples’ eyes – might deserve some credit for making the world just a little safer. And there’ll be no mention of the “little fish” in the big global pond – like South Korea for example. That would be downright absurd!

Best then to diminish and dismiss.

Suspending nuclear and long range missile testing obviously isn’t the same as throwing away a nuclear capacity. But it isn’t the ‘nothing’ that much liberal commentary is suggesting it to be.

As Alex Wellerstein, echoing a fairly widespread understanding, is quoted as saying in an Observer piece

People like to talk about North Korea as ‘crazy’. The absolute ‘craziest’ thing they could do is give up their nuclear deterrent in a situation where they have an aggressive nuclear-armed enemy. Does anyone think they are that crazy? I don’t.

Apparently, North Korea has also dropped objections to US troops being stationed in South Korea and to joint US/South Korea military exercises.

Maybe it’s time (actually, it’s long past time) for western leaders, who have seen fit to starve North Korea into complying with their own notions of what a “good” North Korea should think and do, to cut the ‘holier than thou’ crap. Time to stop using ideas of western moral superiority as an excuse to impose widespread misery on ordinary Koreans. Time to sit down and talk things through.

Constructing an enemy and hammering away at them relentlessly is the lazy, easy and stupid behaviour of incompetents and infantile idiots (as is encouraging such behaviour). Finding common denominators and moving forward on those bases is much more difficult, but much, much better for all of us ordinary people.

17 comments on “North Korea ”

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  1. Bill 1
    22 April 2018 at 12:37 pm

    heh – I’m assuming that’s quite deliberate, yes?

    • Bill 2.1
      22 April 2018 at 12:53 pm

      So the first “no transmission” comment wasn’t intended after all then? Shame that. I thought it was quite appropriate…if almost a little too subtle 🙂

      • adam 2.1.1
        22 April 2018 at 6:08 pm

        LOL, no I used the wrong link.

        This case it’s not so much the song (although really quite good) it’s the video that goes with it, that I thought fitted with your post quite well.

    • JohnSelway 2.2
      23 April 2018 at 10:36 am

      Fucking dope tune that one

  3. Stuart Munro 3
    22 April 2018 at 12:57 pm

    Might have something to do with Moon Jae In – used to work with Noh Mo Hyun, who also ran sunshine policies towards the North.

    Cynically though, it may be an anti-China play on the part of the US. The south is pretty pro-US on the whole, though the Iraq invasion disillusioned most of the intelligentsia. The North has leaned increasingly toward China since the Russian abandonment of the soviet model cut off their free arms supplies, but China have also absorbed a fair amount of formerly Korean land. A weak North is forced to lean on China, a reunified Korea might begin to move away from the historical “Lips and teeth” relationship.

    The value of a rail route through both Koreas is calculated to be substantial, and would be a good transitional mechanism to pay for lifting the North out of poverty.

  4. tracey 4
    22 April 2018 at 2:14 pm

    It will be interesting to see what comes of the US and NK meeting/s. One might equally claim that NK was strategically clever be developing the programme and launching at a range to reach Guam, they finally had a decent bargaining chip.

  5. dukeofurl 5
    22 April 2018 at 4:10 pm

    Remember it was the US who broke the terms of the Korean armistice by first bringing its own nuclear weapons onto the peninsula.

    Yes it was the mid 50s when that occurred but hey who is the great power that talks to everyone else about ‘decisions have consequences’

  6. WILD KATIPO 6
    22 April 2018 at 5:01 pm

    … ” Maybe it’s time (actually, it’s long past time) for western leaders, who have seen fit to starve North Korea into complying with their own notions of what a “good” North Korea should think and do, to cut the ‘holier than thou’ crap. Time to stop using ideas of western moral superiority as an excuse to impose widespread misery on ordinary Koreans. Time to sit down and talk things through ”…

    But then again , what about the testimony and footage of Nth Koreas prison /death camps?

    And while a more cooperative, sane and peaceful resolution is good, perhaps the Donald deserves some credit for the John Wayne style diplomacy he used, yet saner was the sanctions…. even though its the little people that suffer most under them. True, it was U.N led by and large , admittedly but the U.S had a rather large point of leverage with Trump…

    Now lets never forget the Nikita Khrushchev and John Kennedy years and the Cuban missile crisis… commentators who have opened up say just how close we were to WW3. Yet Kennedy was lauded as a ‘brave man’ for being both confrontational and diplomatic at the same time.

    Similar to Trump in a way.

    And Kennedy wanted to ‘smash the CIA into a thousand pieces’ and withdraw from Veitnam’.

    Similar again to Trump with the Deep State and the Middle East / Syria etc.

    I think the George Soro’s global media and his City of London Bank masters have tried every which way to discredit Trump. First it was Russian collusion in the US elections which failed, then whipping up a frenzy against Nth Korea… that too has failed… now the latest flavor of the month is Russia is the bad guy in Syria.

    Though I do agree, western notions of superiority are to blame in a big way. Pretty arrogant to say the least.

    But doesn’t it strike you that the real bad guys in all this are in fact the globalist bankers ?

    • dukeofurl 6.1
      22 April 2018 at 5:34 pm

      Very hard to follow your ramblings which seem to based on …..well a hotchpoge of vague remembering which barely connect with reality

      eg the Kennedy thing only appeared 3 years after his death, and yes he ‘might have said’ after the Bay of Pigs fiasco…. sooooooo
      Trying to Fisk the rest of your stuff… but time is short and likely you would carry on.

      • WILD KATIPO 6.1.1
        22 April 2018 at 6:30 pm

        Cmon , even you know the Kennedy thing was an example of how social climates change and people of another generation are swift to forget.

        Ramblings indeed.

        And if you cant pick up what I was doing in drawing some similarity’s between now and then and only resort to puerility , – perhaps that speaks more of the fact that you are a blinkered herd Trump hater. Try be a little more objective next time for petes sakes.

        And what ‘Kennedy thing’ ? one of the reasons he was assassinated was BECAUSE he made certain statements about withdrawing from a foreign war and curbing the powers of the Deep State.

        And what ?, – do you reckon he came back from the grave and said those things AFTERWARDS ?

        I get a bit tired of people on blogs playing dumb and acting as they cant understand what someone is saying because it conveniently serves their purpose to insert the words ‘ rambling’, ‘rant’ and be dismissive when they find an opinion that they disagree with.

        Perhaps the thinking of the time including Kennedy’s was the same as Dwight Eisenhower. You are aware of Eisenhower’s valedictory speech …

        No ?

        Here it is just for you.

        Eisenhower Farewell Address (Full) – YouTube

        Whats he warning about ? – a combination of Deep State , a burgeoning unelected military industrial complex , and Communism. Pretty much what Kennedy was about- that and withdrawing from Vietnam. And decades later – pretty much what Trumps been about. Except in Trumps case its partially withdrawing from the Middle East . Less sending troops to foreign wars, less Deep State , – yet like Kennedy – being confrontational if needed. He may not have the polished panache of a Kennedy , – but their are similarities.

        • Stuart Munro 6.1.1.1
          22 April 2018 at 6:54 pm

          North Korea was pretty Stalinist, even quite recently.

          The deep state may have prompted Lee Myung Bak’s unraveling of the sunshine policy but attributing positive engagement to Trump, absent some evidence, is a bit of a reach.

          The Olympics may have been a more important factor.

        • dukeofurl 6.1.1.2
          23 April 2018 at 7:09 am

          Dont be silly.. what you are saying about Kennedy was only ‘reported’ some years after he died was killed by the deep state

          And as others will comment crediting Trump….pleeese

  7. McFlock 7
    22 April 2018 at 6:17 pm

    To a certain degree it validates Nixon’s “madman” strategy.

    But we’ll see how the summits go. Unilateral pledges are well and good as a precursor to the talks, though.

  8. Tamati Tautuhi 8
    23 April 2018 at 6:20 am

    Evidently the North Korean people are very pleasant just like the Cuban people according to people I know who have visited the country ?

    The US have not been particularly kind to either Cuba or North Korea over the years ?

    • dukeofurl 8.1
      23 April 2018 at 7:12 am

      The South Korean people dont see the North as some crazed demons, I wonder why
      ?

  9. Win Win 9
    23 April 2018 at 8:39 am

    Well of course if you have your country bombed to hell by some ‘big guy’ nation, and that same ‘big guy’ nation is known to renege on agreements – both written and oral (Russia in Syria, NATO moving towards Russia’s boundaries, Iran nuclear deal etc etc ), sanction upon sanction piled on you by same ‘ big guy’ nation, but hey you’re still standing, then you would want to protect your sovereignty and your people. Kim in my opinion, has played it rather cleverly, no matter the inordinate amount of propaganda we have been subjected to in the West about the ‘little’ man.
    He has done well to keep his country whole and peaceful and is confidently reaching out to the outside world. I would think his confidence is because China has his back as probably does Russia. China needs North Korea as part of the one belt one road initiative. And North Korea has a trove of untapped mineral wealth. I also give credit to the ‘orange’ one. He has done more than any other president to bring about a thawing out of relations between North Korea and the ‘big guy’. I also think that perhaps the big powers (Russia, China and the US ie Trump) are working in collusion to make the world ‘a better place’. But because of deep state power most of the work is behind the scenes and we only see the result of their actions. Well that’s my optimist theory at least.

    And yes my cousin who visited North Korea was very positive about North Korea and its people. Sad that many of us have such a negative/unhelpful view of the country.