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| Visitors wait to enter the Museum of Natural History in Pyongyang on Sept. 28, 2016. Ed Jones—AFP/Getty Images |
You might not know as much about North Korea as you think.
After all, how much time have you spent really paying attention to the latest news on North Korea? Or the history of North Korea?
Or the history of U.S. actions on the Korean peninsula?
Don't be too attached to a mental image of "North Korea," if the facts turn out to be different...
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| Flag Wavers at a Stadium in Pyongyang in 2014 Eric Lafforgue |
Take the North Korean Economy and North Korean Famine for Instance
If someone's mental image of North Korea is a place where a lot of people are starving, they're like 20 years behind.
That's one of the most common clichés about North Korea, that it's a destitute, starving country.
But it's not accurate anymore:
"In the late 1990s, North Korea suffered a major famine that, according to the most recent research, led to between 500,000 and 600,000 deaths.
However, starvation has long since ceased to be a fact of life in North Korea...
Contrary to what a majority of lay people tend to believe, the last decade has been one of moderate economic growth north of the DMZ."
-N Korea and the myth of starvation
Andrei Lankov, professor of Korean Studies at Kookmin University, Seoul
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| Barbie and Ken |
So why do you still think North Koreans are starving?
For the same reason you like Coca Cola: Someone told you to.
Until very recently, corporate news companies would run stories every year citing international aid agencies saying:
about to have another famine."
Now since the 1990s, none of the North Korean famines, predicted year after year, ever happened.
But the media kept publishing the predictions every Fall, and you got the message. Okay. North Korea. Famine. Got it.
Just think how else someone's mental image might differ from the truth about North Korea?
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| BTW, that's way too organized. Any group of people like this needs to loosen up a little. |
North Korea Is Not a Threat to The United States
This country is not starving anymore, but it's still one of the poorest, least capable countries in the world.
They couldn't even win a fight with South Korea.
Which has the 4th Largest Economy in Asia.
(And the World's 11th Largest Economy.)
North Korea has the world's 113th largest economy. This is like the U.S. getting into it with Brunei, Gabon, or Mozambique.
You scared of those countries?
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| Brunei on a map |
My point is: North Korea's government would get squashed in a fight with the United States. And it knows that.
But it's just like the 20-years-stale famine story...
The corporate media regularly publishes headlines about:
Kim Jong-un's threats to attack the United States!"
But hardly ever puts any of this in context.
So I will...
The Leader of North Korea Is Not A Suicidal Madman
He's the world's most repressive dictator, no doubt.
But he's almost certainly not insane nor suicidal.
In fact, he's trying his best to stay alive.
The Washington regime has been in the business of toppling foreign governments for over half a century now.
In recent times, business has been booming. And it does not end well for the leaders of the toppled governments.
You may not know this but:
Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein was a Washington ally for years before America turned against him in the 1990s.
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| Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein at a Friendly Meeting in 1983 |
During the Iran-Iraq War, the U.S. gave Iraq billions of dollars, military aid, weapons, intelligence, and special ops training.
In 1990 Iraq started massing its troops on the border of Kuwait.
If you don't already know, you seriously won't believe what the U.S. State Dept. Ambassador to Iraq did next...
She assured Hussein of U.S. friendship toward Iraq!
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| U.S. State Dept had a friendly meeting with Saddam Hussein on July 25, 1990. He invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. |
And that the U.S. had "no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait," and "no special defense or security commitments to Kuwait."
Very strange considering the U.S. then went to war to push Hussein's military out of Kuwait.
By 2003 Washington wanted to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein.
And wouldn't you know he didn't even have WMD like the U.S. State Department said he did.
I bet he cursed the U.S. State Dept. with his dying breath.
And my point is...
This is how not having nukes and fully cooperating with U.N. weapons inspections worked out for Saddam Hussein:
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| (not that I feel bad for him one bit) |
So let me ask you a question now:
What do you think you would do if you were Kim Jong-un?
How about one more example?
I'll make this one quick...
Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi saw what happened to Saddam Hussein in 2003 and got scared!
And he decided to be even more cooperative with the West than Hussein was, hoping he'd avoid a similar fate.
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| Barack Obama warmly shaking hands with Muammar Gaddafi at G8 Summit in 2009 |
In 2006 the U.S. restored full diplomatic relations with Libya.
Secretary of State Condi Rice praised Gaddafi for dismantling his nuclear missile programs and denouncing terrorism.
Yet by 2011, the U.S., U.K., and France provided massive military and moral support for a rebel uprising to overthrow Gaddafi.
Here's how giving up his nuclear missile programs, and cooperating with the United States worked out for Gaddaffi:
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| (He was beaten and killed by a lawless mob, not tried and executed like Saddam Hussein) |
He was killed by a frenzied mob, shortly after being captured.
He had blood all over him and coming from the side of his head.
And he was beaten in front of a jeering crowd before they killed him. So by the time he died, he knew more about Jesus than most American Christians.
After he was captured, video emerged of rebels raping him with a knife before shooting him dead.
Hillary Clinton infamously cackled about his death on camera after gleefully saying, "We came. We saw. He died!"
So what would be the rational thing for Kim Jong-un to do?
Give up North Korean's nuclear program?
Like Saddam and Muammar did??
And then maybe end up like them too?
Or maybe stay armed with nuclear missiles to make the U.S. think twice about picking a fight with him?
Because Kim Jong-un knows more than American Christians about having to defend yourself from the U.S. Government.
And they're armed to the teeth to prevent an attack or takeover by the U.S. Government.
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| Quack! Quack! From my cold dead hands! |
The North Korea Nuclear Program Makes Sense
North Korea's government doesn't want nuclear weapons to try to attack the United States.
Kim Jong-un wants nuclear weapons to deter the United States from attacking North Korea, and it's not hard to see why.
It's the United States that seems bent on threatening and attacking North Korea, not the other way around.
War With North Korea Seems to Be Washington's Goal, Not Pyongyang's
The U.S. has already invaded and toppled a number of governments. Or provided military support to rebels.
Even of past U.S. allies.
Even of governments that cooperate with Western authorities.
And the U.S. government has been positioned to strike at North Korea for half a century now.
Its military bases right on North Korea's doorstep and constant war game activities to practice an invasion of North Korea send a clear message to the North Korean government.
Here's the U.S. and South Korean militaries practicing an invasion of North Korea in 2016, just like they do every year:
North Korea's nuclear missile program gives the country leverage to deter the U.S. from invading.
And Kim Jong-un knows better than to give that up.
All thanks to the U.S. government's catastrophically mishandled, totally arbitrary, and inconsistent foreign policy.
Which includes already attacking North Korea once before...
Brutally. Viciously. With NO REGARD for innocent civilian lives.
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| An elderly woman and her grandchild wander among the debris of their wrecked home after being bombed by the U.S. Photo: Keystone/Getty Images |
The History of North Korea and The Korean War
After World War II, the United States government did what it does best: supported a violent dictator overseas.
The Washington regime backed Korean dictator Syngman Rhee.
Rhee was a murderous villain who slaughtered as many as 100,000 of his political opponents.
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| U.S. Supported Korean Dictator, Syngman Rhee shaking hands with U.S. Rear Admiral Ralph A. Ofstie (1952) |
'Extensive archival research by The Associated Press has found no indication Far East commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur took action to stem the summary mass killing, knowledge of which reached top levels of the Pentagon and State Department in Washington, where it was classified "secret" and filed away.
Now, a half-century later, the South Korean government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission is investigating what happened in that summer of terror, a political bloodbath largely hidden from history, unlike the communist invaders' executions of southern rightists, which were widely publicized and denounced at the time.'
"AP: U.S. Allowed Korean Massacre In 1950"
-CBS News, July 5, 2008
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| This U.S. Army photograph, once classified "top secret,'' is one of a series depicting the summary execution of 1,800 South Korean political prisoners by the South Korean military at Taejon, South Korea, over three days in July 1950. (AP Photo/National Archives, Major Abbott/U.S. Army) |
Rhee's regime was so brutal, he was eventually overthrown by the South Koreans themselves in the student-led April Revolution.
The CIA secretly flew him out of Korea on a small airliner to save his life as protesters converged on the Blue House (South Korea's version of the White House).
The U.S. harbored him safely in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii for the rest of his life. He died of a stroke at the age of 90.
U.S. War Crimes Against North Korea During The Korean War
The record of the U.S. military's mass murder of Koreans living in both South and North Korea is hard to believe today.
First by allowing the Korean dictator in the South to murder tens of thousands of his political enemies.
So much for the notion that North Korea started the conflict.
If South Carolina just started murdering thousands of people...
Wouldn't North Carolina be justified to send in the Army?
Well that's exactly what North Korea did. And the U.S. responded by carpet bombing northern cities into the Stone Age.
Washington was content to fight its Cold War with the Soviet Union by spilling a sea of Korean blood.
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| When a stunned U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas visited North Korea in 1952, he confessed  , "I had seen the war-battered citiesof Europe, but I had not seen devastation until I had seen Korea.” |
The Immoral U.S. War with North Korea
During the Korean War, the U.S. Air Force indiscriminately carpet bombed North Korean population centers.
The sheer scale of physical destruction and mass murder from the skies is almost beyond comprehension.
The U.S. Air Force estimates that the destruction of North Korea was greater than that of Japan during the Second World War.
In World War II the U.S. turned 64 major cities in Japan to rubble and destroyed two others with atomic bombs.
The U.S. military dropped 635,000 tons of bombs on North Korea (including 32,500 tons of napalm).
More than the 503,000 tons of bombs dropped in the entire Pacific theater in WWII.
North Korea lost 20 percent of its population to war in three years.
For a sense of scale, that's how much of Poland's prewar population was exterminated by Nazi Germany.
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| "The Forgotten War" America forgot all about what the U.S. did in North Korea. But how could the North Koreans forget? |
The Continued U.S. Military Presence in Korea Props Up The North Korean Government
So the U.S. backs a murderous dictator in South Korea, that even the South ended up throwing out.
Then when the government in the North sends the Army in to stop the carnage, the U.S. military bombs North Korean cities and neighborhoods into oblivion.
And after that, keeps multiple military bases right on North Korea's border and regularly practices invading the country.
So for all the talk about how "insane," "crazy," and "paranoid" the North Korean people and government are...
See how insane and crazy our government looks to them? Think they might have a pretty fucking good reason to be paranoid?
The U.S. actions in North Korea very understandably instilled in it a deep dread, anxiety, and mistrust of the rest of the world.
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North Koreans walk in downtown
Pyongyang on April 18, 2017. |
Then Washington has spent the last half century stoking those fears with the constant threat of a possible invasion.
Which is how Washington actually props up and supports the brutal, repressive, authoritarian North Korean government.
Because just like you, those people put up with all the bullshit from their government because they're more scared of foreigners.
But unlike you, they actually have a damn good reason to be.
Your media keeps you afraid of North Korea even though it's never once dropped a single bomb on the United States.
So it shouldn't be hard to understand why the North Korean people fear the U.S. and support the D.P.R.K (Democratic People's Republic of Korea- the North's government).
At least those guys are working on nuclear weapons and anti-aircraft installations to keep the living hell of U.S. carpet bombing from raining fiery death down on North Korean cities again.
Going to War with North Korea Is Not in America's Best Interests Either
Because if the U.S. government really wanted to undermine the North Korean government, it would pull its bases out.
And let the D.P.R.K. just crumble like the U.S.S.R. did.
There's no good reason for our military to have bases on the Korean peninsula and in Japan. That country is not a threat to us.
So what are you getting for all this?
At most: Some entertainment.
If you're a decadent idiot.
That's it.
Unless you own shares of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, or Raytheon.
Then cheers.
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| Tampa Tribune CombsCartoons@yahoo.com |
I mean we've already reviewed the reasons why North Korea is not a threat to the United States. And never was.
The U.S. government just got involved in someone else's civil war. Like usual. And backed a brutal, violent dictator. Like usual.
And murdered civilians from the sky (remember the definition of terrorism is attacking civilians to achieve military or political goals).
And has spent the last half century with troops massed on North Korea's doorstep, practicing invading their country.
That's why all the bluster and "threats" from North Korea.
Not because they want to attack us, which they never have.
But because they don't want us to attack them, again.
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| Uncle Sham |
So what's really happening here is...
The United States government is:
Spending two and a half billion dollars every year to pay for its military occupation of Korea.
1. Which props up the North Korean government, by giving it an external enemy to distract its people from the D.P.R.K's own evils. (So 70 years of this bullshit is largely thanks to Washington.)
2. Actually makes the world and Americans less safe, by endlessly harassing and provoking another country to build nuclear weapons and seriously consider using them against us.
3. And steals money out of your pocket, by making your paycheck smaller to pay for something that doesn't benefit you in any way and only makes the world a worse place.
And not only are your paychecks smaller than they should be so the U.S. government can pay for this mad foreign policy....
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| I Like Ike |
The U.S. military occupation also hogs up massive amounts of resources and credit:
-Limiting the supply of resources that could be put to a more productive use.
-Hogging up credit that could be going to start value creating businesses and new jobs.
-And causing the prices for everything you buy to rise every year, which is called inflation.
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| Wonder why millennials are broke? |
Millennials, enjoy your part time jobs at Starbuck's serving coffee to Baby Boomers who trash talk you online.
And got your young broke asses to pay for their health care.
Even though they were the richest generation in the history of the world and had their whole lives to save for it.
Their moral failure as a generation to bring the pointless Korean War to an end and let South Korea, China, and Japan pay for their own defense is one of the reasons you can't have nice things.
While your wages and job prospects are depressed, their savings in companies that make powerful weapons of war (but do nothing to improve your standard of living) are at an all time high.
My recommendations for the Trump Administration's Foreign Policy on North Korea
If this post gets a lot of attention and people want me to share my recommendations for a sane, moral, libertarian solution to North Korea, including my opinion about North Korea sanctions...
I'll update this informal white paper with those recommendations.
To stay up to date if I do, please follow The Humble Libertarian's page on Facebook and I'll announce it there if I update this:
I've already spent a lot of time researching and writing this, and I don't know if anyone's even going to care.
If you liked this article and think this message needs to be heard as the world contemplates more killing...
Please share it on your Facebook wall or Twitter stream.
And If I'm Completely Wrong and Kim Jong-un Is a Mad Man...
