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I agree with some aspects of this article, but it ignores the human rights situation in NK which is appalling. Please read this woman’s true story and let me know if you agree:
http://ncafe.com/northkorea/SunOkLeeTestimony_w_llus.pdf
Posted by Chris Beaumont on Feb 17, 2003 at 9:34 AM
Yeah, it’s all the evil Americans fault that the “Great Leader” would rather build bombs than feed his people. Good lord, what drivel!
Posted by Jon on Feb 17, 2003 at 10:24 AM
The author leaves out the most important element for truly understanding North Korean actions
Posted by Corey Richardson on Feb 17, 2003 at 10:28 AM
USA must out of Korea.
Give freedom to the korean people, so they can be united. The ugly americans killed 35.000 people in sizon massare in 1950. The ygly ameraican people wants more massacres in korea. I think that northen Korea have the right to prosess n-veapons in face of the american terrorist threat.
Posted by lennart berg on Feb 18, 2003 at 11:29 AM
Well done, Mr. Kim.
Is it the “Kim cult” or the “Bush cult” that is the cause for more trepidation in the world? The majority of the world fears the latter and rightfully so.
Considering that north Koreans, given the appaling conditions they live in at least have an excuse for their devotion, their sychophancy can at least be understood.
This Bush-worship, on the other hand, this reflexive need to ignore the relation between cause and effect and to maniacally adhere to ideology even in the face of possible nuclear war is far more disturbing.
Is it possbile for a right-winger to respond to criticism of Bush without changing the subject?
“Oh yeah? You think Bush is wrong? What about Clinton, Saddam, Kim Jong-il, Osama, etc?”
okay, more more time:
Criticizing American policy is NOT an endorsement of North Korea.
With this in mind, Mr. Beaumont’s comment and the site he links to are excellent reminders of why this must be so.
However, such evidence only further supports the position that concessions are a minor price to pay for the benefits that increased engagement and opening will play in North Korea.
Posted by s. melmoth on Feb 18, 2003 at 1:48 PM
Good story and very close to the truth.
To bad it wont matter as the US under Bush is heading for war in every direction. He wants war with 3-4 countries at a time to speed his agenda on its way. On its way to what I dont know but it looks bad for everybody on the planet.
America seems to have forgoten the dictators they have placed in all the other countries.
It seems Bush and the American people now believe they can win a Nuclear war, and that they are so powerful that even Nuclear capable countries will fold rather than fight.
I consider that a fools bet, but I could be wrong.
Posted by RC Wilson on Feb 18, 2003 at 5:56 PM
The story sound like it was written in Pyung Yang. I can hear the Chosen accent.
Posted by Robert Phillips on Feb 18, 2003 at 8:10 PM
The U.S. has numerous stock piles of old nukes to go around! Let’s make Kim Jong Il the example that The US will no longer stand for black mail! This will also solve his country’s hunger problem cause there will be no one left in North Korea to feed! case closed!
Posted by Bunker Bob on Feb 18, 2003 at 9:47 PM
What liberal dribble. I will point your article says “6 to 8 million people
Posted by Paul V on Feb 19, 2003 at 12:41 AM
Very well written article. This article agrees with every observation I personaly made since I started to
follow the North-South meeting
2 years ago. This article should be
made available to the mainstream media
so more people can uncover the lies that
US government is fabricating.
Posted by Joh Kkachi on Feb 19, 2003 at 12:46 AM
After fifty years, it is time for the Korean war—which cost the Korean people millions of lives and the United States over fifty thousand—to be brought to an end, with a formal peace treaty between the DPRK and the United States. Kevin Kim’s article shows what needs to be done by the United States—given the enormous asymmetry of power and resources obtaining between the two countries and the responsibility the current US administration bears for the present impasse, the initiative will have to come from the latter—in order to bring about this closure. Of course, there will be costs to the administration in taking this initiative—e g, it would not be popular with the fundamentalist right-wing of the Republican party and it would undermine much of the rationale for the so-called <missile-defence> boondoggle, but in the long term it would probably be beneficial to the long-term US strategic interest in hindering that East Asia becomes dominated by a single (non-US) power (Britain in the 1890’s, Japan in the 1930’s, China in the near future). A peace treaty and a non-aggression pact between the DPRK and the United States would open the way to a reunification of Korea, which would certainly further this end. But the present US administration seems to believe that it can dominate the world on its own—or with the aid of faithful poodles like Mr Blair—and thus has other priorities….
Posted by M. Henri Day on Feb 19, 2003 at 9:05 AM
In response to R.C. Wilson:
I’m in complete agreement with your comments minus one. Please do not lump the current administration and the American people into one category. Myself and others have been working very hard to get our anti-war voice publicly heard in the mainstream media. Your comments make it sound as if we have all constructed bunkers and are ready to push the button.
Posted by Jason on Feb 19, 2003 at 11:40 AM
The Problem has always been that the South Korean government would rather have America pay a large part of its military budget, 26% nowadays but more than 50% for a long time, than to invest in its own future. Until this country begins to pull its weight in that area, America will pull many of the strings. Why shouldn’t they, after all its American’s who are footing a large portion of the south’s defense budget. The new president is an idiot, a find example of an opportunist. His views swing from left to right depending on the audience. Korea has had fifty years to solve its problems and what progress have they made? None! Unless you consider the $500 million that was sent to the enemy in 2000 for the summit. Its Korea who needs to reevaluate and readjust its views. They are dependent on America its not the other way around. If I were President Bush I would pull the troops out of Korea and deal with North Korea from Guam. I was born and raised in America and I hate it when Koreans (like the author) think that they speak for all ethnic Koreans.
Why is it that all the demonstrators call Americans murders and demand that they leave, shouldn’t they be carrying anti-Kim-Jong-Il signs and burning North Korea’s flag. This is like a bad movie where everything is backwards. I give the story a D- for lack of reality, good piece of fiction though.
Posted by Kim, Bung Ho on Feb 19, 2003 at 10:27 PM
Yes I admire the North Korean president actually, he seems committed, i dont like south korea at all.
Posted by kidicarus on Feb 22, 2003 at 8:12 PM
This guy is a scholar? Scholar, my fat ass. Bush is doing the right thing by leaving the crazy dog barking. Leave N. Korea alone for just a little longer… it will crumble.
Posted by P Park on Feb 22, 2003 at 8:18 PM
Great article.
Personally I don’t see what’s so significant about a country (that has had American high-yield thermonuclear weapons pointed at it for the past 45 years) now going about making a “Fat Man” hiroshima-type fission bomb. The U.S. does not negotiate from a position of moral authority on this issue, and the rest of the world knows it. A DPRK-owned nuke will not significantly change the balance of power on the Korean peninsula, since the North is supposedly capable of destroying much of the South without a nuke. As for the threat to the U.S.: why does Mutually Assured Destruction (Cold War-speak for “deterrence”) work with the Russians and Chinese and not the DPRK? Is this a double-standard? Are some nations “more equal than others” in regards to owning nukes? It’s like the proverbial parent puffing on a cigarette while telling his kids that they’re not allowed to smoke. Glaring hypocrisy? We’re soaking in it.
Posted by Mark on Feb 23, 2003 at 4:32 PM
Very interesting article!
After i read a book called America’s Black Book (and i must mention that i am never partial) but what you have written seems to make sense that the bush administration is not listening to the public that gave him the power,and then he says americans have the right to defend themselves…but it looks like the others are not supposed to! Keep dreaming boys!!
Posted by Ron Pinto on Feb 23, 2003 at 6:44 PM
As a korean myself, when I heard that “axis of evil” speech and the pre-emptive notion to obliterate countries on sight of passive-aggressive assertion against the US. It made me gringe in the feeling that one gets like a spider is walking along one’s spine. The only certainty is the spiral of events that followed so conveniently after 9-11. The missile defense system being enacted so quickly is one giant indication of the agenda of the bush administration. And don’t forget, the missle program was something in the works for a long time but couldn’t get enough backing even after years of hard deliberation. Now, it has quickly passed and that with the added certainty that N. K. will attack. Do your minds justice and those who do not have enough sense for discretion, think about this for a split second: was there ever a real threat to be in the situation we are in right now with N.K. or is there something else at work to bring us and keep us in the situation that we are in right now. For anybody thinking and enough sense for follow along some of the most crushing events happening in the history of earth, discern how you make up your minds. Regardless of how small, you may very well be responsible for hundreds of lives, lives just like your neighbors and families. As equally precious and as equally engratiating in all its most fundamental form. peace
Posted by singa lee on Feb 24, 2003 at 3:11 PM
Bush’s Democracy-
Their administration talks of a future democratic Iraq and that it will be the best thing for them….
wake up and smell the coffee!
there are millions of people in the streets opposing any kind of war and we are supposed to be a democratic country…..NOBODY IS LISTENING TO US!! are they waiting for the public to revolt one day? and then they will call them terrorists.
Is Canada next on the axis of evil thing in about 50years from now as we do have all the drinking water and they don’t?
Posted by Ron Pinto on Feb 27, 2003 at 5:45 PM
I just discovered this site and have to sit back and smile after reading all the ignorant, anti-American rhetoric posted here. It is good to see that it’s not just my hometown of San Francisco that is full of extreme right wing “revolutionaries”! I love reading commentary about how corrupt our government is and how we are the “real axis of evil” much of which is written by US citizens on their $1,200 home computers while relaxing in expensive ergonomic chairs sipping super distilled Russian vodka. Enjoy the privileged lives the US and it’s corrupt government have facilitated. It’s a shame that the good men and women in our armed forces have to put their lives on the line for ungrateful sycophants like you.
Posted by Dennis on Feb 28, 2003 at 4:38 PM
Sounds like you work for Kim Jong Il. Either that or someone who has no understanding of how the NK regime operates and naively accepts the North Korean view. The article suggests that establishing normalized relations with NK is a good thing. Doing so with the likes of Kim Jong Il is entirely unpalatable to me. How anyone can take such a sympathetic view of a regime that systematically brutalizes and lies to its people baffles me. One that has a strong stake in hiding the truth from its people for fear it would collapse if the truth were known. “If Bush really cares about Kim Jong Il’s starving people…” How about Kim Jong Il caring about Kim Jong Il’s starving people? Instead of expending its scant resources on military pursuits.
The tone of the article suggests that the blame for the current crisis falls entirely on Congressional Republicans and the current administration. Yes the administration is taking a hardline against NK. Look what good a softline did in 1994. You do not even entertain the idea that the untrustworthy NK never intended to abide by its obligation. The US was prudent it taking its time in constructing the plant, because NOTHING in the way the NK has behaved in the past indicated that it deserved to be trusted. You seem to forget that the only reason NK even got the Agreed Framework was by threatening the production of nuclear weapons—not exactly conducive to peace and stability on the peninsula. Also the reason they are energy starved and thus felt the need to threaten for assistance is because of their ass backward communist/stalinist system.
Why is it that you blindly accept Mr. Hersh’s assessment that NK has not enriched uranium until 2001 to make your point while summarily dismissing the other view? I think his view conveniently makes your point, when there is a body of evidence to suggest that the conservatives may be correct.
Posted by Eric Cha on Mar 6, 2003 at 3:24 PM
Everyone, please take a second to reflect here. There is little aggreement on what to do because bluntly, NOBODY knows what to do. There are clearly, some things we need to do that we are not doing.. One of them is doing what we can to destabilize Adolph Kim NONVIOLENTLY. I have quite a bit of material on http://www.ncafe.com/northkorea that explains why this is so. In particular read the Lankov papers on the northkorea.narod.ru site about propaganda and control and the Bradner paper exploring the reasons for North Korea’s strategy. What we need to do is AGGRESSIVELY break Adolph Kim’s “Blockade of Information” that encircles North Korea.. in such a way that it is widespread and total.. Expose his lies.. They are incredible.. big..appalling lies..
Drop 10,000,000 solar-powered tunable radios on North Korea..using balsa-wood drones to carry them there.. Oh boy, what that would do…
In order to prevent war, also drop food and current world news..which North Koreans cannot read.. behind the lines..bypassing the control by starvation system..
Relative to war, these are inexpensive, straightforward tactics..Then Kim will clearly fall. These tactics represent a revolution in thought in the US..with the idea being to spark a revolution in NK.
The alternative is millions of deaths, perhaps not just on the Korean peninsula.. here in the US.. because Kim has worn to take many Americans down with him.. And unlike Saddam he has the capabilities to do it.. Sign the petition on my site.. (http://www.ncafe.com/northkorea/ ) And write your legislators asking them to promote ‘breaking the information blockade’ instead of war on North Korea.. This is what Kim fears the most..His actions show that.. And this is what we must do..
This doesnt mean we should be weak.. This doesnt mean we shouldnt defend South Korea and Japan with all we’ve got.. But it does mean we should show restraint in the use of our military strength.. Often, to show restraint in the use of strength is the strongest thing of all.. And it preserves the human dignity of the long-suffering North Koreans, instead of turning the peninsula into glass.. a Phyrric victory that would kill more than all the US wars that went before and would elevate (if that is the proper word) the US to a company of madmen we should NEVER join..
Be strong.. Sow freedom..not fear..
Posted by Chris Beaumont on Mar 15, 2003 at 10:30 AM
Hello, Wake up and smell the coffee. Both the right wingers who promote immediate war on North Korea (a nice fantasy that ignores the ramifications on the South Koreans and Japanese.) and the fans of increased ‘engagement’ (which ignores that reality that Adolph Kim is simply playing us for fools. North Korea CANNOT open up.. and have Kims regime survive..)
When modeling NKs behavior, we need to keep in mind that ALL of NKs foreign policy is determined by ONE man.. Diplomats, etc. have zero power to do anything without Adolph Kims blessing..
Government and “Leader’ are not one. So we must follow a policy of spltting off the two.. Offer reasonable carrots.. But carrots that because of his paranoia and lies.. Kim cannot approve.. The idea.. show him for what he is.. an incredibly selfish pathological narcissist who cares LESS THAN zilch about North Korean people..
North Korea is an highly dysfunctional, apocalyptic cult.. like Om in Japan or the Scientologists here in the US. He DEPENDS on our playing the bogeyman.. He NEEDS Bush’s cronies unconsidered lapses into raw war-mongering.. That is his ‘narcissistic supply’..(google that term..NOW) It feeds him and helps him stifle dissent..The best thing we can do to destabilize Adolph Kim is to be NICE to the individual North Korean somehow.. (this would however, be necessarily have to be done while bypassing his government!) INFORM them.Let them know that..
They are a CULT. We need to treat them as such..We should stop playing games with Adolph..completely.. BUT AT THE SAME TIME- Why dont we show them love + PITY by dropping food on them..by parachute.. And toilet paper.. (I’m not kidding..) Do this with (OMG!) a sense of HUMOR..God knows they need it..
While we do that.. lets let the world hear what we know about their death camps.. (Which compare with Pol Pot’s.. a nightmare world.. read the paper I link at the top of these comments for an eye-opener..)
We should never make the mistake of thinking that we are dealing with a ‘normal’ country.. THEY ARE NOT.. Narcissists see kindness to them as a weakness.. it makes them worse.. The way to deal with narcissists is to expose their lies..MASSIVELY..
Only then will we AND THE NORTH KOREAN PEOPLE triumph.. Beautiful things will happen.. Heart warming things.. And HOPEFULLY we wont have to fire a shot..
We need to ACT..with courage.. NOW.. or we will face a terrible war the likes of which the world has never seen..
Posted by Chris Beaumont on Mar 15, 2003 at 11:13 AM
Where is the involvement of the of the nations closest to N Korea? This is one of the few situations where I agree with the Bush administration - Lets empower Japan and China, let them address this with their resources since they have the most to lose when the little big-haired guy decides to start throwing nukes around… During this time in history, it is easy to assume foreign policy mistakes, when in reality this is a good political and economic decision. ———————————————-Where are the French and Germans and Uzbeks on this issue? Will the Canadians use their good political nature to solve this problem? Lets hope the government of Argentina gets involved!——————- If you understand the sarcasm in these last 3 sentences, then you get my point.
Posted by ROCKTIME on Mar 16, 2003 at 8:30 AM
‘Where is the involvement of the of the nations closest to N Korea?’
The last thing China wants is nukes in NK. They won’t help Bush as much as they might because they know chimpaggeddon wants regime change in NK, something China does not support. The people who push Bush’s buttons want regime change in China, and numerous other countries. China knows it, the Russian’s know and the rest of the thinking world knows it. What would you do if you were them?
Chris is right in that NK is a cult and should be dealt with as such. The wrong advice was taken at WACO, we should have thrown a picnic for those people not run over their bikes with tanks, nor should we have shot their dog. Bush, by beefing up with b-52’s, again proves he is a small minded leader going in the wrong the direction. They are taught that the USA is ‘out to get them’ so Bush draws up plans to attack and moves in b-52’s. You figure it out.
One wonders what the conservative movement’s sugar daddy Moon has to say about all this. He is doing billions of dollars in business in NK. (While his paper, The Washington Times criticizes those against the Star Wars program to protect us from rogue nations like….like NK!!!)
Moon is close to the Bush family, having helped finance them, while financing the conservative movements takeover of the republican party, the country and the world. Moon has sponsored his ‘little angels’ dance troop and economic missions to NK. (he used his ‘little angels’ back in 50’s as the overture to get his teeth in the United States, too)
Posted by nathan on Mar 16, 2003 at 3:26 PM
Moon is friends with Kim Jong Il, he gave the Korean dictator 3 million bucks for his b’day besides cutting all the business deals. Poppy has traveled the world giving speeches honoring Moon, even called him “the man with the vision.”. Why won’t anyone ask what advice Moon has given the Bush administration on how to handle NK? I am sure they have consulted him. Why are reporters afraid to ask? Is it because they know Moon predicted decades ago his group would have a major role to play in all this and that ‘presidents would come to him for advice’? Do they not want to blow the cover that the Bushes and the conservative movement has helped Moon reach his goals and they are continuing to do so, with the Faith Based Initiative, for one instance?
Moon is laughing his ass off.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/moon.html
two from the WP/1996
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/55a/018.html
Bush and his wife, Barbara, have spoken at several events sponsored by the Women’s Federation for World Peace, which is run by Moon’s wife, Hak Ja Han Moon. More than 50,000 people paid to see the Bushes at a single event at the Tokyo Dome last year. Tickets cost between $105 and $196 each. The group would not disclose how much it paid Bush and his wife, nor would the former president reveal his fee, but estimates ran as high as $1 million for his six appearances with the group here.
http://www.freedomofmind.com/presskitarticles/fisher.htm
“All these people should know better. My daughter would tell me over and over how in their recruiting films they would show Moon with Bush to impress young people. They use the films of Moon and Bush and other celebrities to reassure parents that it is okay that their children are on the streets selling flowers 18 hours a day.” (Washington Post, July 30, 1996)
learn more:
http://nomoonies.tripod.com/index.html
Posted by nathan on Mar 16, 2003 at 3:27 PM
The involvement of the nations closest to North Korea is consistent with the world’s past behavior in the face of genocide. Indifference and worse.. The thing that all of the neighboring nations fear is the one thing that will end the bloodshed in North Korea, the collapse of the Kim regime. Thousands of refugees are defecting from North Korea into China, the only country that people can reach from North Korea (the border with South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world.) Basically, China hunts them down like animals and then ‘repatriates’ them to North Korea where they are imprisoned in the worst prison camps on Earth, or executed. These people are clearly political refugees, but, taking a lesson from the US’s treatment of Haitian refugees, China calls them ‘economic migrants’ China even lets thousands of North Korean security agents free reign to attempt to capture North Korean defectors. North Korea also pays China for each defector they capture and ‘repatriate’. China might be able to be convinced to do something else if there was another entity willing to take North korean refugees, whose stories of woe are by far the most heart wrenching stories I have heard. They are fleeing a land wracked with extreme starvation, extreme brutality and even, cannibalism. Here are some of them that I combined in a PDF file so people can read them.
http://ncafe.com/northkorea/StoriesOfNorthKoreanRefugees.pdf
Why cant the world get together and find a place where these people can go. China is having major problems with unemployment and civil unrest in their northeast, and the situation with the North Korean refugees only adds to their problems..
We should provide a refuge for them in the US, they are good people who desperately need our help.
For more info on the situation, see this URL:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/northkorea/norkor1102.pdf
Posted by Chris Beaumont on Mar 16, 2003 at 6:36 PM
The real issue here is North Korea’s terrible human rights abuses of their own people, and their willingness to sell weapons to anyone.. If fans of engagement can structure any engagement with North Korea around achieving the goal of addressing these two BIG issues, I am not against it. But I don’t know it can be done.. these are BIG problems.. Until we know how to go about this, in deference to our allies wishes, we should probably pull back and let them solve their own problems. If they attack anybody or sell any weapons of mass destruction, (not at all unlikely) we should respond appropriately, with all we have got. As far as I can tell, Kim is a Hitler and he should be treated like one.
Posted by Chris Beaumont on Mar 16, 2003 at 6:54 PM
Hello, your article is very, very good. i hope your continue doing this ‘cause believe me it helps a lot. i thank you. i got 1 question, if u.s. bomb north corea do you think there going to be a world war 3. if yes please give the exactly reasons, if not please give the specific answers. thank you god bless you my friend.
Posted by ery on Mar 26, 2003 at 3:20 AM
“the crumbling Korean regime’s “
I must have missed this. Haven’t Kim and his father been continuously in power for the last 50 years?
How was this monolithic dictatorship crumbling at the time referenced? Who besides the author thought it was crumbling?
Posted by Nus on Apr 10, 2003 at 12:06 PM
This article was excellent.
Trul excellent, well-researched, well-supported, well-written.
Posted by Keisha Hudson on Apr 24, 2003 at 10:15 AM
What planet are you people from? It must be one far, far from the sun, because you are in total darkness.
Posted by jim on Jan 27, 2004 at 2:27 AM
What planet are you people from? It must be one far, far from the sun, because you are in total darkness.
Posted by jim on Jan 27, 2004 at 2:27 AM
North Korea faces a big trouble on bombing South Korea. The war between that two states has not yet ended. In a very sharp escalation of stress, North Korea has attacked South Korea. Both North and South Korea verify that Yeonpyeong Island was shelled this morning, though there is debate over which country shot first. Many structures are on fire after the assault.
Posted by Carla B on Nov 25, 2010 at 12:43 AM
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Reader Comments
I agree with some aspects of this article, but it ignores the human rights situation in NK which is appalling. Please read this woman’s true story and let me know if you agree:
http://ncafe.com/northkorea/SunOkLeeTestimony_w_llus.pdf
Yeah, it’s all the evil Americans fault that the “Great Leader” would rather build bombs than feed his people. Good lord, what drivel!
The author leaves out the most important element for truly understanding North Korean actions
USA must out of Korea.
Give freedom to the korean people, so they can be united. The ugly americans killed 35.000 people in sizon massare in 1950. The ygly ameraican people wants more massacres in korea. I think that northen Korea have the right to prosess n-veapons in face of the american terrorist threat.
Well done, Mr. Kim.
Is it the “Kim cult” or the “Bush cult” that is the cause for more trepidation in the world? The majority of the world fears the latter and rightfully so.
Considering that north Koreans, given the appaling conditions they live in at least have an excuse for their devotion, their sychophancy can at least be understood.
This Bush-worship, on the other hand, this reflexive need to ignore the relation between cause and effect and to maniacally adhere to ideology even in the face of possible nuclear war is far more disturbing.
Is it possbile for a right-winger to respond to criticism of Bush without changing the subject?
“Oh yeah? You think Bush is wrong? What about Clinton, Saddam, Kim Jong-il, Osama, etc?”
okay, more more time:
Criticizing American policy is NOT an endorsement of North Korea.
With this in mind, Mr. Beaumont’s comment and the site he links to are excellent reminders of why this must be so.
However, such evidence only further supports the position that concessions are a minor price to pay for the benefits that increased engagement and opening will play in North Korea.
Good story and very close to the truth.
To bad it wont matter as the US under Bush is heading for war in every direction. He wants war with 3-4 countries at a time to speed his agenda on its way. On its way to what I dont know but it looks bad for everybody on the planet.
America seems to have forgoten the dictators they have placed in all the other countries.
It seems Bush and the American people now believe they can win a Nuclear war, and that they are so powerful that even Nuclear capable countries will fold rather than fight.
I consider that a fools bet, but I could be wrong.
The story sound like it was written in Pyung Yang. I can hear the Chosen accent.
The U.S. has numerous stock piles of old nukes to go around! Let’s make Kim Jong Il the example that The US will no longer stand for black mail! This will also solve his country’s hunger problem cause there will be no one left in North Korea to feed! case closed!
What liberal dribble. I will point your article says “6 to 8 million people
Very well written article. This article agrees with every observation I personaly made since I started to
follow the North-South meeting
2 years ago. This article should be
made available to the mainstream media
so more people can uncover the lies that
US government is fabricating.
After fifty years, it is time for the Korean war—which cost the Korean people millions of lives and the United States over fifty thousand—to be brought to an end, with a formal peace treaty between the DPRK and the United States. Kevin Kim’s article shows what needs to be done by the United States—given the enormous asymmetry of power and resources obtaining between the two countries and the responsibility the current US administration bears for the present impasse, the initiative will have to come from the latter—in order to bring about this closure. Of course, there will be costs to the administration in taking this initiative—e g, it would not be popular with the fundamentalist right-wing of the Republican party and it would undermine much of the rationale for the so-called <missile-defence> boondoggle, but in the long term it would probably be beneficial to the long-term US strategic interest in hindering that East Asia becomes dominated by a single (non-US) power (Britain in the 1890’s, Japan in the 1930’s, China in the near future). A peace treaty and a non-aggression pact between the DPRK and the United States would open the way to a reunification of Korea, which would certainly further this end. But the present US administration seems to believe that it can dominate the world on its own—or with the aid of faithful poodles like Mr Blair—and thus has other priorities….
In response to R.C. Wilson:
I’m in complete agreement with your comments minus one. Please do not lump the current administration and the American people into one category. Myself and others have been working very hard to get our anti-war voice publicly heard in the mainstream media. Your comments make it sound as if we have all constructed bunkers and are ready to push the button.
The Problem has always been that the South Korean government would rather have America pay a large part of its military budget, 26% nowadays but more than 50% for a long time, than to invest in its own future. Until this country begins to pull its weight in that area, America will pull many of the strings. Why shouldn’t they, after all its American’s who are footing a large portion of the south’s defense budget. The new president is an idiot, a find example of an opportunist. His views swing from left to right depending on the audience. Korea has had fifty years to solve its problems and what progress have they made? None! Unless you consider the $500 million that was sent to the enemy in 2000 for the summit. Its Korea who needs to reevaluate and readjust its views. They are dependent on America its not the other way around. If I were President Bush I would pull the troops out of Korea and deal with North Korea from Guam. I was born and raised in America and I hate it when Koreans (like the author) think that they speak for all ethnic Koreans.
Why is it that all the demonstrators call Americans murders and demand that they leave, shouldn’t they be carrying anti-Kim-Jong-Il signs and burning North Korea’s flag. This is like a bad movie where everything is backwards. I give the story a D- for lack of reality, good piece of fiction though.
Yes I admire the North Korean president actually, he seems committed, i dont like south korea at all.
This guy is a scholar? Scholar, my fat ass. Bush is doing the right thing by leaving the crazy dog barking. Leave N. Korea alone for just a little longer… it will crumble.
Great article.
Personally I don’t see what’s so significant about a country (that has had American high-yield thermonuclear weapons pointed at it for the past 45 years) now going about making a “Fat Man” hiroshima-type fission bomb. The U.S. does not negotiate from a position of moral authority on this issue, and the rest of the world knows it. A DPRK-owned nuke will not significantly change the balance of power on the Korean peninsula, since the North is supposedly capable of destroying much of the South without a nuke. As for the threat to the U.S.: why does Mutually Assured Destruction (Cold War-speak for “deterrence”) work with the Russians and Chinese and not the DPRK? Is this a double-standard? Are some nations “more equal than others” in regards to owning nukes? It’s like the proverbial parent puffing on a cigarette while telling his kids that they’re not allowed to smoke. Glaring hypocrisy? We’re soaking in it.
Very interesting article!
After i read a book called America’s Black Book (and i must mention that i am never partial) but what you have written seems to make sense that the bush administration is not listening to the public that gave him the power,and then he says americans have the right to defend themselves…but it looks like the others are not supposed to! Keep dreaming boys!!
As a korean myself, when I heard that “axis of evil” speech and the pre-emptive notion to obliterate countries on sight of passive-aggressive assertion against the US. It made me gringe in the feeling that one gets like a spider is walking along one’s spine. The only certainty is the spiral of events that followed so conveniently after 9-11. The missile defense system being enacted so quickly is one giant indication of the agenda of the bush administration. And don’t forget, the missle program was something in the works for a long time but couldn’t get enough backing even after years of hard deliberation. Now, it has quickly passed and that with the added certainty that N. K. will attack. Do your minds justice and those who do not have enough sense for discretion, think about this for a split second: was there ever a real threat to be in the situation we are in right now with N.K. or is there something else at work to bring us and keep us in the situation that we are in right now. For anybody thinking and enough sense for follow along some of the most crushing events happening in the history of earth, discern how you make up your minds. Regardless of how small, you may very well be responsible for hundreds of lives, lives just like your neighbors and families. As equally precious and as equally engratiating in all its most fundamental form. peace
Bush’s Democracy-
Their administration talks of a future democratic Iraq and that it will be the best thing for them….
wake up and smell the coffee!
there are millions of people in the streets opposing any kind of war and we are supposed to be a democratic country…..NOBODY IS LISTENING TO US!! are they waiting for the public to revolt one day? and then they will call them terrorists.
Is Canada next on the axis of evil thing in about 50years from now as we do have all the drinking water and they don’t?
I just discovered this site and have to sit back and smile after reading all the ignorant, anti-American rhetoric posted here. It is good to see that it’s not just my hometown of San Francisco that is full of extreme right wing “revolutionaries”! I love reading commentary about how corrupt our government is and how we are the “real axis of evil” much of which is written by US citizens on their $1,200 home computers while relaxing in expensive ergonomic chairs sipping super distilled Russian vodka. Enjoy the privileged lives the US and it’s corrupt government have facilitated. It’s a shame that the good men and women in our armed forces have to put their lives on the line for ungrateful sycophants like you.
Sounds like you work for Kim Jong Il. Either that or someone who has no understanding of how the NK regime operates and naively accepts the North Korean view. The article suggests that establishing normalized relations with NK is a good thing. Doing so with the likes of Kim Jong Il is entirely unpalatable to me. How anyone can take such a sympathetic view of a regime that systematically brutalizes and lies to its people baffles me. One that has a strong stake in hiding the truth from its people for fear it would collapse if the truth were known. “If Bush really cares about Kim Jong Il’s starving people…” How about Kim Jong Il caring about Kim Jong Il’s starving people? Instead of expending its scant resources on military pursuits.
The tone of the article suggests that the blame for the current crisis falls entirely on Congressional Republicans and the current administration. Yes the administration is taking a hardline against NK. Look what good a softline did in 1994. You do not even entertain the idea that the untrustworthy NK never intended to abide by its obligation. The US was prudent it taking its time in constructing the plant, because NOTHING in the way the NK has behaved in the past indicated that it deserved to be trusted. You seem to forget that the only reason NK even got the Agreed Framework was by threatening the production of nuclear weapons—not exactly conducive to peace and stability on the peninsula. Also the reason they are energy starved and thus felt the need to threaten for assistance is because of their ass backward communist/stalinist system.
Why is it that you blindly accept Mr. Hersh’s assessment that NK has not enriched uranium until 2001 to make your point while summarily dismissing the other view? I think his view conveniently makes your point, when there is a body of evidence to suggest that the conservatives may be correct.
Everyone, please take a second to reflect here. There is little aggreement on what to do because bluntly, NOBODY knows what to do. There are clearly, some things we need to do that we are not doing.. One of them is doing what we can to destabilize Adolph Kim NONVIOLENTLY. I have quite a bit of material on http://www.ncafe.com/northkorea that explains why this is so. In particular read the Lankov papers on the northkorea.narod.ru site about propaganda and control and the Bradner paper exploring the reasons for North Korea’s strategy. What we need to do is AGGRESSIVELY break Adolph Kim’s “Blockade of Information” that encircles North Korea.. in such a way that it is widespread and total.. Expose his lies.. They are incredible.. big..appalling lies..
Drop 10,000,000 solar-powered tunable radios on North Korea..using balsa-wood drones to carry them there.. Oh boy, what that would do…
In order to prevent war, also drop food and current world news..which North Koreans cannot read.. behind the lines..bypassing the control by starvation system..
Relative to war, these are inexpensive, straightforward tactics..Then Kim will clearly fall. These tactics represent a revolution in thought in the US..with the idea being to spark a revolution in NK.
The alternative is millions of deaths, perhaps not just on the Korean peninsula.. here in the US.. because Kim has worn to take many Americans down with him.. And unlike Saddam he has the capabilities to do it.. Sign the petition on my site.. (http://www.ncafe.com/northkorea/ ) And write your legislators asking them to promote ‘breaking the information blockade’ instead of war on North Korea.. This is what Kim fears the most..His actions show that.. And this is what we must do..
This doesnt mean we should be weak.. This doesnt mean we shouldnt defend South Korea and Japan with all we’ve got.. But it does mean we should show restraint in the use of our military strength.. Often, to show restraint in the use of strength is the strongest thing of all.. And it preserves the human dignity of the long-suffering North Koreans, instead of turning the peninsula into glass.. a Phyrric victory that would kill more than all the US wars that went before and would elevate (if that is the proper word) the US to a company of madmen we should NEVER join..
Be strong.. Sow freedom..not fear..
Hello, Wake up and smell the coffee. Both the right wingers who promote immediate war on North Korea (a nice fantasy that ignores the ramifications on the South Koreans and Japanese.) and the fans of increased ‘engagement’ (which ignores that reality that Adolph Kim is simply playing us for fools. North Korea CANNOT open up.. and have Kims regime survive..)
When modeling NKs behavior, we need to keep in mind that ALL of NKs foreign policy is determined by ONE man.. Diplomats, etc. have zero power to do anything without Adolph Kims blessing..
Government and “Leader’ are not one. So we must follow a policy of spltting off the two.. Offer reasonable carrots.. But carrots that because of his paranoia and lies.. Kim cannot approve.. The idea.. show him for what he is.. an incredibly selfish pathological narcissist who cares LESS THAN zilch about North Korean people..
North Korea is an highly dysfunctional, apocalyptic cult.. like Om in Japan or the Scientologists here in the US. He DEPENDS on our playing the bogeyman.. He NEEDS Bush’s cronies unconsidered lapses into raw war-mongering.. That is his ‘narcissistic supply’..(google that term..NOW) It feeds him and helps him stifle dissent..The best thing we can do to destabilize Adolph Kim is to be NICE to the individual North Korean somehow.. (this would however, be necessarily have to be done while bypassing his government!) INFORM them.Let them know that..
They are a CULT. We need to treat them as such..We should stop playing games with Adolph..completely.. BUT AT THE SAME TIME- Why dont we show them love + PITY by dropping food on them..by parachute.. And toilet paper.. (I’m not kidding..) Do this with (OMG!) a sense of HUMOR..God knows they need it..
While we do that.. lets let the world hear what we know about their death camps.. (Which compare with Pol Pot’s.. a nightmare world.. read the paper I link at the top of these comments for an eye-opener..)
We should never make the mistake of thinking that we are dealing with a ‘normal’ country.. THEY ARE NOT.. Narcissists see kindness to them as a weakness.. it makes them worse.. The way to deal with narcissists is to expose their lies..MASSIVELY..
Only then will we AND THE NORTH KOREAN PEOPLE triumph.. Beautiful things will happen.. Heart warming things.. And HOPEFULLY we wont have to fire a shot..
We need to ACT..with courage.. NOW.. or we will face a terrible war the likes of which the world has never seen..
Where is the involvement of the of the nations closest to N Korea? This is one of the few situations where I agree with the Bush administration - Lets empower Japan and China, let them address this with their resources since they have the most to lose when the little big-haired guy decides to start throwing nukes around… During this time in history, it is easy to assume foreign policy mistakes, when in reality this is a good political and economic decision. ———————————————-Where are the French and Germans and Uzbeks on this issue? Will the Canadians use their good political nature to solve this problem? Lets hope the government of Argentina gets involved!——————- If you understand the sarcasm in these last 3 sentences, then you get my point.
‘Where is the involvement of the of the nations closest to N Korea?’
The last thing China wants is nukes in NK. They won’t help Bush as much as they might because they know chimpaggeddon wants regime change in NK, something China does not support. The people who push Bush’s buttons want regime change in China, and numerous other countries. China knows it, the Russian’s know and the rest of the thinking world knows it. What would you do if you were them?
Chris is right in that NK is a cult and should be dealt with as such. The wrong advice was taken at WACO, we should have thrown a picnic for those people not run over their bikes with tanks, nor should we have shot their dog. Bush, by beefing up with b-52’s, again proves he is a small minded leader going in the wrong the direction. They are taught that the USA is ‘out to get them’ so Bush draws up plans to attack and moves in b-52’s. You figure it out.
One wonders what the conservative movement’s sugar daddy Moon has to say about all this. He is doing billions of dollars in business in NK. (While his paper, The Washington Times criticizes those against the Star Wars program to protect us from rogue nations like….like NK!!!)
Moon is close to the Bush family, having helped finance them, while financing the conservative movements takeover of the republican party, the country and the world. Moon has sponsored his ‘little angels’ dance troop and economic missions to NK. (he used his ‘little angels’ back in 50’s as the overture to get his teeth in the United States, too)
Moon is friends with Kim Jong Il, he gave the Korean dictator 3 million bucks for his b’day besides cutting all the business deals. Poppy has traveled the world giving speeches honoring Moon, even called him “the man with the vision.”. Why won’t anyone ask what advice Moon has given the Bush administration on how to handle NK? I am sure they have consulted him. Why are reporters afraid to ask? Is it because they know Moon predicted decades ago his group would have a major role to play in all this and that ‘presidents would come to him for advice’? Do they not want to blow the cover that the Bushes and the conservative movement has helped Moon reach his goals and they are continuing to do so, with the Faith Based Initiative, for one instance?
Moon is laughing his ass off.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/moon.html
two from the WP/1996
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/55a/018.html
Bush and his wife, Barbara, have spoken at several events sponsored by the Women’s Federation for World Peace, which is run by Moon’s wife, Hak Ja Han Moon. More than 50,000 people paid to see the Bushes at a single event at the Tokyo Dome last year. Tickets cost between $105 and $196 each. The group would not disclose how much it paid Bush and his wife, nor would the former president reveal his fee, but estimates ran as high as $1 million for his six appearances with the group here.
http://www.freedomofmind.com/presskitarticles/fisher.htm
“All these people should know better. My daughter would tell me over and over how in their recruiting films they would show Moon with Bush to impress young people. They use the films of Moon and Bush and other celebrities to reassure parents that it is okay that their children are on the streets selling flowers 18 hours a day.” (Washington Post, July 30, 1996)
learn more:
http://nomoonies.tripod.com/index.html
The involvement of the nations closest to North Korea is consistent with the world’s past behavior in the face of genocide. Indifference and worse.. The thing that all of the neighboring nations fear is the one thing that will end the bloodshed in North Korea, the collapse of the Kim regime. Thousands of refugees are defecting from North Korea into China, the only country that people can reach from North Korea (the border with South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world.) Basically, China hunts them down like animals and then ‘repatriates’ them to North Korea where they are imprisoned in the worst prison camps on Earth, or executed. These people are clearly political refugees, but, taking a lesson from the US’s treatment of Haitian refugees, China calls them ‘economic migrants’ China even lets thousands of North Korean security agents free reign to attempt to capture North Korean defectors. North Korea also pays China for each defector they capture and ‘repatriate’. China might be able to be convinced to do something else if there was another entity willing to take North korean refugees, whose stories of woe are by far the most heart wrenching stories I have heard. They are fleeing a land wracked with extreme starvation, extreme brutality and even, cannibalism. Here are some of them that I combined in a PDF file so people can read them.
http://ncafe.com/northkorea/StoriesOfNorthKoreanRefugees.pdf
Why cant the world get together and find a place where these people can go. China is having major problems with unemployment and civil unrest in their northeast, and the situation with the North Korean refugees only adds to their problems..
We should provide a refuge for them in the US, they are good people who desperately need our help.
For more info on the situation, see this URL:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/northkorea/norkor1102.pdf
The real issue here is North Korea’s terrible human rights abuses of their own people, and their willingness to sell weapons to anyone.. If fans of engagement can structure any engagement with North Korea around achieving the goal of addressing these two BIG issues, I am not against it. But I don’t know it can be done.. these are BIG problems.. Until we know how to go about this, in deference to our allies wishes, we should probably pull back and let them solve their own problems. If they attack anybody or sell any weapons of mass destruction, (not at all unlikely) we should respond appropriately, with all we have got. As far as I can tell, Kim is a Hitler and he should be treated like one.
People should watch these, they describe the mentality we are dealing with.
http://www.xenutv.com/cults/group.htm
http://www.xenutv.com/panels/waco-harvard.htm
Hello, your article is very, very good. i hope your continue doing this ‘cause believe me it helps a lot. i thank you. i got 1 question, if u.s. bomb north corea do you think there going to be a world war 3. if yes please give the exactly reasons, if not please give the specific answers. thank you god bless you my friend.
“the crumbling Korean regime’s “
I must have missed this. Haven’t Kim and his father been continuously in power for the last 50 years?
How was this monolithic dictatorship crumbling at the time referenced? Who besides the author thought it was crumbling?
This article was excellent.
Trul excellent, well-researched, well-supported, well-written.
What planet are you people from? It must be one far, far from the sun, because you are in total darkness.
What planet are you people from? It must be one far, far from the sun, because you are in total darkness.
North Korea faces a big trouble on bombing South Korea. The war between that two states has not yet ended. In a very sharp escalation of stress, North Korea has attacked South Korea. Both North and South Korea verify that Yeonpyeong Island was shelled this morning, though there is debate over which country shot first. Many structures are on fire after the assault.
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