North Korea is the most vilified nation in the world. But in truth, it should be considered the shining city on top of a hill as far as human spirit is concerned. HOW???
You wouldn’t think that by what you typically read in the international news (dominated by Western media). Oh, the people in North Korea are so wretched. They eat dirt, have no freedom, live in a police state (I’ve argued it is the U.S. that is the reigning police state), and are constantly bombarded with suffocating, stale state propaganda. Poor North Koreans. Look to the South – see how free, how happy, how prosperous they are!
Yet – can that be all but a mirage? I am not talking about why so many in South Korea don’t seem very happy, despite being so prosperous…
I am talking about how South Korea occupies a special sweet spot in world geopolitics today, with its proximity to China – the up and coming superpower – and its special relations with the U.S. – the reigning superpower from the last century. Just as Hong Kong became prosperous because of its special spot between the West and China, or Singapore, or Taiwan – so now is South Korea. It’s like Saudi Arabia being wealthy. All got lucky in some ways. But in the long term, are such fortunes really ever lasting (just ask the Japanese). The fate of South Korean prosperity in its current form lies in the hand of the U.S. Does South Korea want to stake its future in the U.S. – forever?
To the extent the last five centuries of history have been about the enslaving of the world by a privileged few through plunder, rape, savagery – i.e. imperialism – self-determination (not necessarily wealth) should be the most treasured and humane concept in our times. I can understand the if-you-can’t-beat-them-join-them mentality. But given current history, I really applaud those who fight for national self-determination. That’s why in today’s political environment, I applaud Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria. But foremost, I applaud N. Korea.
The Korean people is an ancient, proud people. And today – despite overwhelming odds – it is the North, not South, Koreans that carry on that proud tradition of independence. As someone who supports peace in Asia, especially East Asia, I support this letter (announced and published on the 4th media) that calls for the self determination of the Korean people on the Korean Peninsula, free from the geopolitics perpetrated by the reigning superpower.
A Global Campaign for a Peace Treaty in Korea:
No to War on Korean Peninsula and in the Whole Northeast Asia Region
The Final Draft
May 18, 2013
On July 27, 1953, Korean War hostilities were ended only temporarily by introducing the fragile Armistice Agreement which was signed by DRPK (aka, “North Korea”), China and USA/UN. However, that “temporary cessation” of the deadly military conflicts has not put an end to all hostilities as it was supposed to and as was clearly stated as its intent in the 1953 document. Instead, a situation has continued of the peaceful reunification of Korean peninsula being serially obstructed and with the DPRK put under continual siege and even serial threats of nuclear annihilation by the U.S. since November 1950.
The result has been that critical and scarce resources in both Koreas have been diverted from development into military and defense. This dangerous, unstable and development-damaging situation has been forcibly continued against the will of the great majority of over 80 million Korean populations in north, south and overseas.
The hostilities, past, present and intended for the future have been purposefully maintained on the Korean peninsula for the following several reasons: the military-industrial-complex interests of the U.S. and its allies; the prevention of the self-determined peaceful reunification of Korea under terms and conditions not dictated by the U.S.; the use of Korean peninsula for military bases and staging areas for imperial adventures with specific targets in mind such as China, Russia, etc; probably most importantly the warning message to any future nations seeking independence and self-determination from the U.S. imperial agendas; and so on.
Therefore, for the last 60 years, countless “manufactured crises” have purposefully maintained the DPRK-USA “semi-war status”. The “crises made by U.S.” have fundamentally defined, maintained and structured a “forcibly divided” Korean Peninsula over the last 60 some years. Those crises have been unilaterally imposed against the much weaker party almost in every aspects by “the strongest,” also known as “the only global superpower” since 1990s.
Indeed that unilaterally-imposed military confrontations have continued between the two most incomparable parties: the DPRK and the U.S. There can be no comparison. One side incomparably outweighs the other in everything in number, quality, quantity, size of the wealth, territory and population, and especially the number of WMDs, including tens of hundreds of most-sophisticated and -destructive nuclear weapons.
There has been also a unilaterally-employed nonstop global demonization campaign as “war propaganda” or “psychological warfare,” by “the world’s most strongest” against the incomparably much weaker side for several decades.
The human suffering that has resulted from the forceful division of the Korean people in general, and from the continued economic blockade, war threats, political isolation, financial sanctions and siege against the DPRK in particular cannot be easily measured or described.
It is simply beyond description. Beyond imagination!
The astronomical waste of human and material resources, ecological-environmental devastations, and the Korean national wealth as a whole incurred by the forcibly imposed division for over 60 years in general, by the ongoing US military presence in an unknown number of US military bases and the US-led (so-called) “military drills” and their continued “nuclear war games” in particular cannot be easily described or measured either.
Under those numerous manufactured crises, today symbolized by the declaration of an “All-out War” together with the “nuclear preemptive strikes” warnings against each other, and the continued immeasurable human sufferings, the fate of already-disrespected, -discarded and therefore already-dismantled fragile Armistice Agreement seems finally coming to an end.
In the last 4 months, the Korean peninsula, the Northeast Asia region and thereby the whole world seem to have been thrown into a new reality, i.e., a real possibility of the first-ever, Nuclear War.
Such a war is now again seriously deemed, as it was during the 1950-53 Korean War, a real possibility to most, if not all, Koreans in north, south and overseas. It must also seemed so to many Japanese and US military troops stationed in Korea, Japan, Guam, Hawaii, and other US military bases in the Asia-Pacific region.
This is the very reason why tens of millions of Koreans from all ends in north, south and overseas, together with tens of millions of peace-loving peoples from around the world, in unison and in solidarity, call for Peace on the Korean peninsula and the region, not for Wars not only in the region but also anywhere around the world.
Therefore, WE the undersigned PEOPLE, from all ends, not only in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia region but also in the whole globe, join with the tens of millions of Korean peoples in north, south and overseas to solemnly call for the following demands:
I. The Armistice Agreement must be replaced by a Permanent Peace Treaty signed by those responsible parties such as DPRK, China and the US/UN-South Korea;
II. Once the Peace Treaty signed, the international community as a whole should be able to support Koreans from all ends in north, south and overseas could begin to work for their own Self-Determined and Peaceful Reunification process, unhindered by any outside foreign forces;
III. The Asia-Pacific region must remain and be encouraged for a new future of a peacefully-coexisting and mutually co-prosperous region;
IV. The Korean Peninsula, the Asia-Pacific region and indeed the whole world must not be further manipulated for the sake of global warmongers, military industrial complexes, and hegemonic muscle-wielding powers that are eager to continuously raise military tensions not only in the region but also the whole world at the expense of peace, security and prosperity for the whole humanity.
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