The
DPRK Confronts Barbaric Actions by UN Security Council By Carla Stea Global
Research, June 11, 2017 “My conscience leaves me no other choice than to break
the betrayal of my own silences…I know that the greatest purveyor of violence
in the world today is my own government.” The Reverend Martin Luther King,
Recipient of the Nobel Peace prize. “The United Nations which was created to
prevent the scourge of war has become an instrument of war.” Former U.S
Attorney General Ramsey Clark Introduction Washington, D.C. White House tape
recordings, April 25, 1971 President Nixon: “How many did we kill in Laos?”
National
Security Adviser Henry Kissinger: “In the Laotian thing, we killed about ten,
fifteen thousand” President Nixon: “See the attack in the North Vietnam that we
have in mind..power plants, whatever’s left, POL (Petroleum) the docks..and I
think we ought to take the dikes out. Will that drown people?” Kissinger:
“About two hundred thousand people.” Nixon: “I’d rather use the nuclear bomb.
Have you got that Henry?” Kissinger: “That, I think, would just be too much.”
Nixon: “The nuclear bomb, does that bother you? I just want you to think big
for Christ sakes.” May 2, 1972 Nixon: “America is not defeated. We must not
lose in Vietnam…
The
surgical operation theory is all right, but I want that place bombed to
SMITHEREENS If we draw the sword, we’re going to bomb those bastards all over
the place. Let it fly, let it fly.” Former President Jimmy Carter: “More than
any other nation in the world, the US has been involved in armed conflict and
has used war as a means of resolving disputes…I listed 10 or 15 wars and I
could have listed 10 or 15 more.
The
rest of the world, almost unanimously, looks at America as the No. 1 warmonger.
That we revert to armed conflict almost at the drop of a hat.” (April 10,
2014). Upon my return, on May 25, 2017 from the DPRK I was appalled by the
totalitarian mind-set revealed by the fifteen members of the UN Security
Council who supported the new Chapter VII Resolution 2356, increasing the
strangling sanctions against the DPRK, a heroic , progressive, admirable people
desperately trying to defend themselves from any repetition of the barbaric
slaughter inflicted upon their nation, with the criminal collusion of the UN
Security Council, during the first Korean War, 1950-1953.
The
unanimous support for the new sanctions by all 15 Security Council members is
shameful. All fifteen members of the Security Council, including the United
States, know, categorically, that the DPRK will not attack another country
unless they are attacked first, or provoked intolerably. The United Nations is,
once again, demonstrating that it is an annex of the US Pentagon. It had
seemed, with the Russian-Chinese veto of Chapter VII Resolutions against Syria,
in recent years, that the UN had some dignity as an independent organization.
On
June 2, the UN Security Council revealed that each and every member is under
the thumb of the U.S., and willing to unleash a barbaric and criminal attack
against a tiny Asian country that is a successful example of a socialist
system, and still enduring, despite the criminal sanctions that have so far
been inflicted upon that noble people by a racist society that still seeks to
impose its will throughout the Eurasian continent. As General MacArthur said,
“the Pacific Ocean is an Anglo-Saxon lake.” When the great statesman, Lakhdar
Brahimi was asked why the United Nations premises and personnel are attacked,
repeatedly, in recent years, Brahimi replied that the UN is no longer perceived
as an impartial organization, but is now perceived as a party to disputes.
There is no more glaring example of the United Nations craven servility to the
United States dictate than the Security Council’s unanimous support of the
viciously punitive sanctions against the DPRK, a country that must be described
as a paradise for children, providing excellent, up-to-date health care and
education, free of charge, an achievement that few western capitalist countries
can demonstrate.
Joseph
Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, asserted that “A lie told one
thousand times becomes accepted as truth.” One of the greatest successes in
totalitarian brainwashing has been achieved by the Western Media, which
dominates too many people in the West, and within the UN system, who, ignorant
of the realities of life within the DPRK, nevertheless challenged me with
arrogance when I described what I had discovered during my actual, personal
visit to the DPRK. None, and I repeat, none of these people had ever visited the
DPRK, yet they held forth with aggression exceeded only by their ignorance,
insisting, like imbeciles, that they, despite their complete dearth of accurate
knowledge, knew what I had seen. Part I
After
just returning from an in-depth visit to the DPRK, it is difficult, if not
impossible to convey in words, or even in photographs, the absolutely
awe-inspiring achievements of the people and government of North Korea, who
following an unspeakably barbarous attack by the US and South Korea, which,
with shameful collaboration by the United Nations, obliterated their entire
country, heroically rebuilt their nation. Today, North Koreans heroically
persevere in their socialist development, despite the criminal sanctions being
inflicted upon the DPRK by the UN Security Council, which is attempting, in
craven servility to US “interests,” to demolish this noble example of an
economically and socially equitable and democratic society.
The
DPRK remains an example of the courageous pursuit of social and economic
justice, despite the existential menace to their survival resulting from the
relentless and deadly threats from the overwhelming military power of the
ongoing US and South Korean military “exercises” at their border, (exercises
entitled “decapitation of the head of government,”) and economic and atomic
blackmail by the US, and its servile Security Council.
DPRK
Free Public Housing (Source: Andre Vltchek) Prior to my visit, I was invited to
submit a list of activities and people I wanted to visit in Pyongyang. Almost
all my requests were honoured during this visit. When I stepped off the Korya
jet onto the airport of Pyongyang, I had no idea of what to expect, beyond the
propaganda blitz and dire predictions of danger, preconceptions that had
overwhelmingly corrupted the minds of almost everyone in the West, and at the
United Nations at the mere mention of North Korea. I knew instinctively, based
on past experience with such propaganda, that the truth must inevitably be
entirely different from the horror stories I had been told by even the more
educated and sophisticated of my colleagues. But nothing I had heard had
prepared me for this discovery of a nation of courageous, loving people, of
great intellect, whose efforts to create a society of economic and social justice
and equality were succeeding, beyond my wildest hopes and expectations, and
despite the barbaric Gestapo-style sanctions inflicted upon these remarkable
people by the US and its puppet creation, the UN Security Council.
My
discovery began on the Air Korya jet transporting me from Beijing to Pyongyang,
and the conversation I began with the North Korean man sitting next to me. He
was not the dour, fearful person the propaganda had led me to expect, but a
friendly and riotously funny raconteur, who described North Korea as one of the
last socialist countries left in the world. As we spoke with the lovely flight
attendant sitting opposite us, he whispered to me that she was a spy. I
replied: “Which side is she spying for, the CIA or North Korea?” He then added the
man sitting in the row behind us was a spy. I peeked through the seats, and
said that the man behind us was sleeping. My new Korean acquaintance said that
the man behind us was only pretending to be asleep. I finally realized that my
new acquaintance was teasing me, and knowing that I am American, was playing
upon the preconceptions he knew I had been indoctrinated with. We discussed the
current chaotic world, and as the short flight ended, and he thanked me for an
interesting conversation, I realized that these North Koreans might be more
interesting, and charming than I had been led to expect.
Awaiting
me at the Pyongyang airport was Mr. Jang Su Ung, the interpreter and guide I
had requested when I had presented my long list of requests, in submitting my
visa application from New York. The North Koreans could not have chosen a more
perfect guide for my journey throughout their capital, a man whose infinite
patience, sensitivity and sophisticated intellect were so well suited to my own
insatiable curiosity and temperament that my entire visit became the seamlessly
happy discovery of a nation of people of surpassing intelligence and dedicated
to those humanitarian values I had despaired of ever finding. The totalitarian
campaign demonizing North Korea had prepared me for the exact opposite. I was
whisked to the lovely Kobangsan guest house, and immediately upon arrival I was
greeted by the elegant and gracious Mr. Ri Yong Pil, Deputy Director-General of
the North American Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He thanked me
for my prior articles about his country, and invited me to a dinner that
evening. After I had changed out of my pink sneakers and into more formal
attire, we enjoyed a long dinner of delicious Korean cuisine and a candid,
comprehensive discussion of the current extraordinarily complex realities of today’s
world, and North Korea’s unique situation within it. I asked the most probing,
undiplomatic questions, avoiding evasions and confronting the most
controversial issues.
I
raised the question of the infamous Kirby Report, which I had already studied
in depth, and discovered to be a propaganda fabrication based upon reports by
defectors who were highly paid for the their gruesome fabrications, and the
more grotesque their stories were, the more highly paid they were. The chief
defector, upon whose account Michael Kirby’s Report was chiefly based, Shin
Dong-hyuk, subsequently admitted he had lied and falsified his statements,
which were, in fact repudiated by the defector community itself. Knowing my
questions might be embarrassing for my host, but knowing, also that my probe
was essential for the authenticity of my own investigation, I asked Mr. Ri
about the identity of these defectors.
He
replied that some of the defectors had been imprisoned for rape, and other
crimes, and that these were not “political prisoners,” as Michael Kirby’s
Report falsely alleged. It is important to mention that Michael Kirby has never
visited North Korea, and his “commission of Inquiry” is based entirely on hearsay,
which was subsequently revealed to be fraudulent. UN Assistant
Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan Simonovic admitted that the Kirby
report by the Commission of Inquiry (based on statements by defectors highly
paid to provide the salacious fabrications they understood were sought by the
“inquiry,”) does not meet the standard of proof required for admission as
evidence in a court of law. Mr. Ri advised me that, although China had recently
turned back two North Korean ships delivering coal to China, in submission to
the abhorrent UN sanctions, in fact many nations and industrialists were eager
to do business in North Korea, and to invest in developing the DPRK‟s rich
resources. The UN‟s outrageous sanctions are comparable to the embargo the US
placed upon Cuba for decades, and which many astute businessmen, in the US and
elsewhere, regarded as counter-productive and idiotic.
Mr.
Ri emphasized that the North Korean government and economy, in particular, was
based upon the principle of self-reliance, and had avoided, whenever possible,
becoming excessively dependent upon any other country, and this explained North
Korea’s ability to sustain their progressive, humanitarian social programs
despite the punitive and criminal UN sanctions which were attempting to
strangle the nation. He mentioned, with greatest respect, that when, recently,
severe floods devastated the northern part of the DPRK, causing many deaths and
destruction of people’s homes, President Kim Jung-un immediately suspended work
on less essential structures in Pyongyang, and directed the workers to go to
the northern flooded area, and build new homes for the flood victims. His
immediate assistance to the victims was admired by everyone in the country.
One
of the many theatres in Pyongyang (Source: Andre Vltchek) The dinner, my
introduction to the DPRK government, lasted several convivial and illuminating
hours, and Mr. Ri revealed zero ideological rigidity or fanaticism, and
absolutely no belligerence or aggression toward any other country, including
the American people. His focus was upon sustaining and protecting the economic
and social programs providing dignified and fulfilling lives for the citizens
of the DPRK. I disclosed to him, and to Mr. Jang, in confidence, that I was
present at a reception in New York when a famous and respected American
mainstream reporter, accredited to the UN said to Chinese Ambassador Liu: “If I
were Kim Jong-un witnessing the attack on Libya, and the torture-murder of
Gaddafi, after he had abandoned their nuclear program, I’d hold on to my
nukes!!!”
The
morning of May 19 we visited the Okryu Children’s Hospital, which can only be
described as a miraculous tribute to the children of North Korea, a design so
comforting and respectful of children’s needs that the building itself helps to
relieve the trauma, for both children and their parents, of children’s
illnesses and injuries, which are treated by expertly trained physicians and
nurses, with the most up-to-date equipment. There are similar hospitals
throughout the country, and physicians at other facilities consult, by Skype
with medical staff at the main Pyongyang hospital, and where cases are too
complex or cannot be handled at regional hospitals, children needing more
complicated surgery or emergency treatment, are transported by helicopter to
the main hospital in Pyongyang for the more extensive treatment necessary.
There is a helicopter landing facility, or helipad, just outside the hospital.
All
medical treatment is free of charge, and all children throughout North Korea
have access to these medical facilities. I have never, anywhere, seen any children’s
hospitable of comparable high quality and concern for the particular physical
and emotional needs of children – and their parents. The physical therapy section
for children born crippled, or with leg deformities which render them unable to
walk, was absolutely extraordinary, teaching exercises which built – or rebuilt
their foot and leg muscles, transforming them from cripples into children free
to walk and run and play normally. And the diligence with which the children
practice these healing rehabilitating exercises is both inspiring and
profoundly moving. Just prior to entering this hospital, I noticed a detail
which revealed a world of information about the North Korean women. To my
amazement, a woman entering the hospital with her child was wearing gold
stiletto high heels – she was indeed glamorous and elegant, confounding my
expectations.
This
exploded the stereotypical myth that Korean people are attired in drab, dowdy
clothes, exposing their impoverished, degraded condition that the outside world
so erroneously attributes to them. I then noticed, with fascination, that other
women, too, wore glamorous high heels, often combined with elegant clothing and
colourful parasols protecting them from the sun. I mentioned to Mr. Jang that I
emphasize this detail, because a woman’s shoes, especially high heels, are very
often an expression of her self-esteem. And these women, throughout Pyongyang,
evidently enjoy high self-esteem. And as my visit progressed, I recognized that
the DPRK has achieved notable progress on gender-equity, one of the UN‟s 2030
Sustainable Development Goals. Next, that morning, we visited the Ryugyong
Ophthalmic Hospital, which provides the most modern, up-to-date treatment for
everything from Glaucoma to Macular Degeneration.
I
can attest to the expert level of their facilities, as I had my own monovision
contact-lenses checked there, and the results of their examination were
identical to those of my top ophthalmologist in New York. These hospitals are
filled with patients of all ages, and all of whom receive treatment completely
free of charge. Mr. Jang informed me that physicians and their families have
all their expenses paid by the government, so that the doctors are free to
concentrate, without distraction, exclusively upon the needs of their patients,
thereby providing their patients with the optimal level of care. Ryugyong
General Ophthalmic Hospital (Source: KFAUSA.org)
That
afternoon we visited the Pyongyang High School No. 1, where, at my request, I
visited classes of biology, chemistry and physics. They invited me to look
through the microscope with which the students were examining the composition
of plants, and I saw the greatly enlarged veins of a leaf. In the chemistry
class, I discussed with the students the chemical substances they were
studying, and when I saw the beautiful woman teaching the class I mentioned to
my translator that these students might fall in love with their chemistry
teacher, and like the new French President, Emanuel Macron, might marry this
beautiful teacher, probably 25 years older than they, as the French President
Macron had done. My remark, in jest, was conveyed to the teacher, who laughed,
and understood my reference, and my translator, with sincere amusement enjoyed
my observation, irreverent though my comment was! The physics students
explained that the object I noticed on their desks was a gyroscope, and we
discussed their plans and ambitions as the future physicists of the DPRK. These
science classes included both girls and boys. I explained that I was a visitor
from the United States, and I look forward to the future friendship of our
countries. All the students agreed with my hopes. They were normal, delightful,
beautiful, and (I was told) occasionally mischievous children, the future of
their country.
Outside
the school were basketball and tennis courts. The Schools throughout the
country are free of charge, and education is compulsory throughout the DPRK.
Afterward, I discussed this visit with Mr. Jang, who advised me that this level
of students is serious and diligent, as they are preparing for exams to enter
the college and universities. I mentioned to Mr. Jang that the educational
level of the parents would contribute to the students‟ performance on
examinations, and I mentioned that the children of factory and agricultural
workers would be deprived of the intellectual enrichment that children of
professional and intellectual workers would receive, and these differences
might affect their examination performance. Mr. Jang replied that, in fact, all
factories had schools and other educational facilities on their actual
premises, so that factory workers had access to all educational facilities both
during and after their working hours, to correct any inadequacies in their
educational preparation, which thereby enabled them to impart to their children
information similar to that provided by their professional or intellectual
comrades.
Agricultural
workers are also provided with access to educational facilities, to supplement
their education. Saturday Morning, May 30, we visited the Monument Tower to the
Worker’s Party of Korea, depicting the Korean struggle, under the leadership of
Kim Il Sung, for independence from Japanese imperialism.
I
was intrigued by the symbol of the WPK, which Mr. Jang explained to me as
follows: whereas other symbols of communist parties depict the sickle and
hammer, symbolizing both the industrial worker and agricultural worker, in the centre
of the DPRK symbol is a pen, signifying the prestige of the intellectual worker
in North Korean society. This was a revelation, and may explain the great
success of the DPRK in developing an advanced socialist society, prevailing
over renewed attempts to obliterate the entire country, and speeding ahead with
scientific achievements, medical developments, green technology, clean energy,
space satellites, and now the development of the nuclear weapons that are
essential to protect the country from another attack by the US-ROK aggressors,
or by Japan, or aggressive imperialist invasions by any other country. Unlike
other ill-advised attempts to dispatch intellectuals to manual work, Kim il Sung’s
decision to afford prestige to the intellectuals propelled North Korea’s development,
and it remains today so successful a model of socialist economic and social
development and its achievement is so threatening to the deteriorating
capitalist economies of the US and Western Europe that those capitalist
countries are pathologically obsessed with destroying what their own systems
cannot achieve.
The
UN sanctions are deliberately isolating the DPRK, and forcing it into an
economic and political ghetto, in persecution for its chosen economic and
political path of development, and way of life. This is no different from the
Nazis forcing the Jews into a ghetto in Warsaw.
The
UN sanctions are suffocating the industries of the DPRK, just as the Gestapo
forced the closing of Jewish businesses in the ghetto. And this preceded the
extermination of a people in Europe, as the UN Sanctions against the DPRK may
well be preceding attempts to exterminate that people in Asia Western
Capitalist countries are confronting economic crises, with ill-advised
“austerity measures” destabilizing Germany, Italy, France, England, dismantling
social protections, provoking riots and increasing terrorist attacks. Scape-goating
the DPRK is a distraction, and North Korea remains an impediment to Western
Capitalist hegemonic control of Eurasia. Geographically, Korea, which borders
on Russia and China is the gateway to the Asian continent. General Douglas
MacArthur, aware of the military and strategic importance in the situation of
Korea raved, “By occupying all of Korea we could cut into pieces the one and
only supply line connecting Siberia and the South…, control the whole area
between Vladivostok and Singapore…nothing would then be beyond the reach of our
power.”
On
the afternoon of May 20, we visited the Sci-Tec Hall, a dazzling exhibition of
the DPRK‟s scientific achievement, from space satellites to clean energy
technology, and my guide, the exquisite Ms. Kim Won Sim, a theoretical
physicist, was the quintessence of elegance, personal and intellectual, and
when she mentioned her interest in the Schrodinger equation and quantum theory,
I replied that I had also been fascinated by advanced mathematics, which I
studied years ago as an undergraduate at
Bennington
College, and later at Columbia University, and I had a particular interest in
the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. At that moment, she understood my
thinking, and a bond was forged between a North Korean woman physicist and an
American woman journalist, who were united by Schrodinger and Heisenberg,
sharing a language transcending national boundaries and the insanity of war.
Like so many other North Korean women, I noticed that her complexion had a
translucent purity, and I did not know whether this was the result of a special
moisturizer unknown in the West, or simply good health.
I
confessed to Ms. Kim, as to no one else, why I had given up science – I had not
integrated or differentiated a function in decades. Nevertheless, as she now
knew that I was well acquainted with these subjects, she promised to present me
with a mathematical puzzle. Though I protested that I had not looked at a
mathematical equation for three decades, I could not resist the temptation of
her challenge. After showing me the special rooms providing scientific
equipment and facilities for the disabled, including the blind, and the
enchanting rooms and displays introducing science to children, and innumerable
other scientific exhibits of achievements in fields of bioengineering, marine
and space technologies, and their scientific and technological principles,
trends in agriculture, hydraulics, hydrometeorology, metal, rail transport,
architecture, electronics, to mention only a few displays, she presented me
with the mathematical puzzle she had promised.
When
I had determined the correct method of solving it, sequentially, she advised me
that it required 127 steps to complete, and as I was already late, and had only
minutes left, I could not complete the task, which, in any case, she informed
me I had already basically solved. She insisted, however, before we parted, on
teaching me how to say “Hello” in Korean, which opened up another new world of
discovery to me, when, each time I greeted a Korean child in their own language,
they bowed, politely, deeply and ceremoniously to me, and I, in turn curtsied
to them. I spoke freely and at random to people I met in all places, and I
greeted North Korean soldiers in their language, stating that I am a US
citizen, and our two countries should be friends.
They
unhesitatingly agreed, as all barriers of nation, race, language and
stereotyped preconception dissolved and the human connection replaced those
artificial, alienating obstacles. In these transformative days I forgot the
past, all programming and indoctrination, as I became assimilated in the rich
intellectual and humanitarian culture of North Korea. Our day ended at the
Mirae Scientist Street, where Mr. Jang showed me the housing community where
the scientists and their families live, free of all expense, as all facilities,
including medical, necessary for their families were supplied without charge,
so that the scientists were unfettered by worry about supporting their
families, and were able to concentrate their minds on their scientific endeavour.
This was another clue to the rapid scientific development of North Korea. As we
drove back to the Kobangsan Guest House for dinner, I witnessed a sight of
unforgettable beauty: we passed a rural area of agricultural workers in a
field. On the field was spread a gorgeous hot pink blanket, and on the blanket
was a little girl of approximately 6 or 7 years, dancing, for her own
amusement, and that of any observer. Where she learned those dance movements I
do not know, but her precision and delight in her own performance were riveting
to behold. She was most probably the child of one of the agricultural workers,
awaiting the end of the work day when the family would return home for supper,
and she was practicing her dance movements as she waited for her parents. Her
pleasure and her skill were obvious. I regret that I did not ask Mr. Jang to
stop the car immediately to take a video of that beautiful child in her
brightly coloured dress, as she graced the field on that golden afternoon.
The
Perversion of “Human Rights” as a Weapon of Mass Destruction The corruption of
the concept of “human rights” for use as a weapon of mass destruction has been
perfected at the United Nations. As Michael Bassett points out in his essay:
“Modern Warfare Korea: the Weaponization
of Human Rights”: “For decades, the American government has shaped and
harnessed mass hysteria,“ according to Andrew Burt, “to achieve American
political ends abroad. The UN North Korea human rights Commission of Inquiry
conveniently established itself within four months of Kim Jong-il‟s death. As
PhD. Candidate Steve Haarink points out, “Since 2006 every Commission of
Inquiry has preceded military action that worsened human condition.”….. “The
National Endowment for Democracy heavily finances those NGO‟s who develop such
hysteria. …Governments intentionally manufacture and harness human rights
hysteria. “…..While NED is the go-to organization for financial support amongst
North Korea Human Rights NGO‟s, the Department of Defense finances a vast human
rights industry…..” “Following international media big and small, especially
from the US, one acutely gets the feeling that human rights awareness campaigns
operate like bombs – they target, they explode, and they seek to destroy all
that is in sight.
hey
are about precisions, but like bombs their explosions can be exactly the
opposite – imprecise, unpredictable, and indiscriminate in their maiming.
Though their campaigns impact thinking here, their devastation is always across
the border – foreign land, foreign lives, and foreign necessary cost of
winning. Human rights awareness campaigns have transformed North Korea Human
Rights NGO‟s into US government-funded information warfare contractors….”
“First, it is known that a lying Iraqi defector influenced the decision-making
process that led the US into Operation Iraqi Freedom – a war that destabilized
the Middle East, leaving it in ruins. Second, North Korean defectors have been
known to organize secret disinformation campaigns to sway public opinion in
their interests….” “Collapsing a country is no easy task. The strategy, or so
it appears, consists of several campaigns occurring simultaneously. It is
unknown to the author who – if any single person – is orchestrating the overall
“North Korea Operation,” but it is apparent that there is a concerted effort to
forcibly collapse the regime. Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation
establishing NED, was quite candid when he said in 1991: “A lot of what we do
today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” In 1993 the distinguished
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Murray Kempton wrote me a personal letter
describing the National Endowment for Democracy as a “repellent and vicious
pest,” and those words perfectly describe the NED‟s protégés, the “celebrity
defectors,” central to the militarized disinformation campaign. As Shen
Dong-hyaks falsifications have disgraced him, a new rock-star defector, Yeon Mi
Park makes over $12,000.00 per speech, slandering the DPRK with her
disinformation campaign, with much more money in the offing. Indeed, contriving
disinformation slandering the DPRK is becoming a very profitable industry, a
lucrative profession comparable to the oldest one.
One
afternoon, as we drove to a meeting, Mr. Jang brilliantly analyzed the methods
and purpose of the sanctions. To paraphrase what he said: The sanctions depress
and degrade the quality of life for the people in a nation, who, in misery and frustration
eventually blame and attack the government, bringing about its collapse, and
causing regime change, and this is accomplished without military intervention.
On the April 28, 2017 Ministerial Level Security Council meeting, Russia’s
Deputy-Minister Gatilov stated: “Sanctions should not be used either
economically to suffocate the Democratic People‟s Republic of Korea or to
worsen the humanitarian situation.
This
applies in particular to the illegitimate unilateral restrictions targeting
civilian areas not associated with the country’s nuclear missile programmes.
Such sanctions are the reason for the serious deterioration in the living
conditions of the North Korean people, which, incidentally, were identified as
a cause for alarm in the most recent report of the Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs. They are justifiably very alarmed about that. We must
acknowledge that the humanitarian exemptions provided for by the Security Council’s
sanctions regime essentially do not work. Because of the ban on correspondent
relations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, it is impossible to
purchase abroad the goods and food stuffs necessary for the economy. Because of
the way the financial and banking system works, it is very difficult to obtain
funding for the United Nations humanitarian agencies that are still working in
the country.
Since
Pyongyang cannot replenish its foreign currency reserves owing to the existing
restrictions, it could find itself in a situation where it is impossible for it
to give the United Nations the funds that are to be channelled to it, as permitted
by the Committee. A separate issue is the situation with regard to foreign
diplomatic missions in Pyongyang. We should not allow a situation in which
diplomatic missions continue to experience difficulties in carrying out their
work because of the restrictions imposed on the country. We have repeatedly
raised this issue at meetings of the Security Council Committee established
pursuant to resolution 1718 (2006), but as a result of the obstructionist
position taken by its individual members, the situation has not changed at
all.” Among the most despicable examples of hypocrisy and double standards
contained in Resolution 2356, adopted under Chapter VII, is the passage
stating: “Expressing great concern that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s
prohibited arms sales have generated revenues that are diverted to the pursuit
of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles while the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea citizens have unmet needs.” The above passage is a grotesque
travesty of concern, and a projection by the United States of its own brutal
and inhumane investment in nuclear weapons while the needs of the American
people are ignored, and while the taxes of the American people are stolen to
fund “upgraded” nuclear weapons – and war. By April, 2016 the United States
government invested one trillion dollars in developing and modernizing nuclear
weapons, a nuclear “revitalization program,” including five classes of improved
nuclear arms and associated delivery vehicles, building nuclear weapons that
are smaller, stealthy and precise. At Los Alamos, New Mexico, senior military,
nuclear weapons officials convened in Albuquerque to promote $1 trillion
nuclear weapons Plan.
The
meeting was organized by the “Strategic Deterrent Coalition” (SDC) and by Northrup
Grumman, Boeing, Orbital ATK, BAE Systems, etc., and directly funded by the Air
Force. Present at the meeting are Speakers: Adm. Cecil Haney, Commander of the
US Strategic Command, Lt. General Jack Weinstein, Dep. USAF Chief of Staff for
Nuclear Integration, General Robin Rand, Commander, Air Force Global Strike
Command, and others, including the Mayor of Albuquerque Richard Berry. As was
stated by an opposition group, “The fairly tight-knit, militarist,
anti-environmental political faction shaped and sustained by the nuclear
weapons enterprise in New Mexico has worked with considerable success to
undermine labour, environmental protection, and socially-progressive policies
in our state for many years.
Their
negative influence has strongly contributed to the poor economic and social
outcomes we see. Our fawning loyalty to the nuclear weapons mission, to the two
big labs and to Kirtland among the other bases is a political addiction, a
sickness.” While the United States invests $1 trillion tax dollars in
“revitalizing nuclear weapons,” Save the Children Federation, based in
Fairfield Connecticut reports that: “The United States continues to have one of
the highest infant mortality rates among high-income industrialized
countries…In 2015 an estimated 23,455 babies in the United States died before
their first birthday – more than the combined total of infant deaths in 40
European countries during the same year. Nine small, impoverished rural
counties in Texas reported a combined average mortality rate of more than 22
per 1,000 live births in 2013..” “One in every five children lives in a
household that does not have regular access to food.” “Millions of families
across America struggle to put healthy food on their tables. One in every five
children lives in a household that does not have regular access to food
throughout the year.
Nearly
1 in every 3 households with an income below the poverty threshold experienced
food insecurity in 2015. In addition, more than half a million children live in
households with „very low food security,‟ according to the latest government
figures. Children in these households face a much higher risk of malnutrition,
obesity and hunger, which could hinder their physical and mental development
and reduce their chances of growing up strong and healthy….Overall, 13.1
million children lived in households that lacked access to adequate food
sometime during 2015.
Of
greatest concern are the estimated 541,000 children who live in households that
experienced „very low food security.‟ for these children, the situation was „so
severe that caregivers reported that children were hungry, skipped a meal, or
did not eat for a whole day because there was not enough money for food.” “Lack
of education traps children in poverty. Each year an estimated 750,000 students
drop out of school and join the ranks of some 5.5 million U.S. youth aged 16-24
who are neither in school nor working. For millions of young adults, they have
dropped out of school and now face a life of endless struggle, with few prospects
of finding a job with a liveable wage, buying a home or supporting a family. “
“Child abuse and drug dependence also disrupt the lives of hundreds of
thousands of U.S. children each year. In 2015 there were 683,000 reported
victims of child abuse. Three out of four were victims of neglect. 17 percent
were physically abused and 8 percent were sexually abused…..Drug overdose
deaths among teens and young adults have skyrocketed”
June
2, 2017: USA Today reports “Homelessness in Los Angeles hits a new high after
county supervisors declare a state of emergency.” More than 57,000 people are
homeless in Los Angeles County. In New York City, 60,000 are homeless, as
reported in Gothamist. On any given night, 600,000 people are homeless in the
United States. This condition of homelessness often deprives these people of
the right to vote, as photo identification containing home address are required
in some states, so the poorest, the homeless in the United States are also
disenfranchised. The Los Angeles Times features a May 31, 2017 article by Carla
Hall that states: “Homelessness is everywhere, and if you thought this fog of
misery was beginning to lift, thinks again. In fact, the new numbers are grim.
The number of homeless people has risen a startling 20% in the City of Los
Angeles.”
What
is the American government doing for the American people? The government
invests huge sums in nuclear weapons, but almost nothing in poverty
alleviation. While I was in North Korea, many people told me that their
President Kim Jung-un loves children, and there is strong evidence of this in
the many facilities available to encourage and assist children in health,
education, and recreational activities enticing for children, including a
“Dolphinarium,” during which positively reinforced trained dolphins perform,
and plump sea lions sit in front of an audience packed with children, shaking
their fins with children’s hands, and kissing members of the audience, then
waddling off behind their trainers, as the children stared with enchantment.
At
the circus, both children and adults gasp at the phenomenal skill and daring of
acrobatic trapeze artists! On May 22 I met with Dr. Lee Ki Song, an official in
the Institute for Economy of the Academy of Social Science. During our two hour
meeting we discussed the necessity for more equitable global distribution of
wealth and access to health care and education, and Dr. Lee discussed the need
for the anti-imperialist countries to unite to oppose the aggression of
imperialist powers, and he affirmed the right of the countries victimized by
imperialism to defend themselves from the multi-pronged forms of attack upon
their lives.
For
the sake of brevity, I must omit many of the fascinating events I witnessed,
but it would not be possible to close without describing my visit to the
“Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum,” with its miniature
reconstruction of the horrors of the United States-Republic of Korea attack
upon North Korea during 1950-1953. The brief documentary film clips showed
President Truman, General MacArthur and Dulles methodically and
psychopathically planning that attack, and gloating over their own cleverness
in planning a surprise attack on North Korea on Sunday, June 25, when it was so
unexpected, and the people of North Korea, unprepared for the attack, would
suffer the greatest shock. The documentary ended with the terrorized faces of
the North Korean children, whose lives were instantly blown apart.
I
suddenly wept at the realization that after the Armistice, MacArthur was replaced
by other psychopathic generals, but the horrors of imperialism were repeated in
country after country, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, human lives were decimated,
nations exploited and bled white, and exorbitant war profits fattened the
bloated bank accounts of that 1% whom Oxfam states now have more wealth than
the rest of the world combined. “A global network of tax havens further enables
the richest individuals to hide $7.6 trillion dollars.” This was the process
the US government also used to destabilize and overthrow the democratically
elected government of Goulart in Brazil, replacing him with a fascist military
government subservient to US corporations.
This
process was repeated to destabilize and overthrow the democratically elected
socialist government of Salvador Allende in Chile, replacing his government by
one of the most vicious fascist dictatorships in history, a puppet installed
and supported by the U.S., a Chilean fascism whose police routinely forced live
rats into the vaginas of female political prisoners, as reported by David
Remnick in the Washington Post, in 1986. I worked, as a reporter, in both
Brazil and Chile during the years of those horrific dictatorships, and I can
never forget. And in the North Korean War Museum I remembered everything.
Imperialism is a cancer that spreads and morphs and adapts its methods to
changing conditions, and it has now metastasized and spread its cancer to the
UN Security Council.
The
United Nations has never apologized to Iraq for Security Council Resolution 678
which authorized the US-UK “Coalition” to use “all necessary means,” in
attacking Iraq, and which Finland’s President Martii Ahtissari reported
“destroyed the infrastructure necessary to support human life in Iraq.” The UN
has never apologized to Libya for Security Council Resolution 1973, which
authorized US-NATO to use “all necessary measures,” and which entirely
destroyed the Libyan state, transforming it into an incubator for terrorism.
One
can only hope that now, witnessing the carnage of Security Council action, DPRK
President Kim Jong-un will also use “all necessary means” to protect his
astoundingly brave and beautiful people, and their chosen humanitarian way of
life. The DPRK President, though ridiculed by the American press, is evidently
very dedicated to his people, attending to the needs of orphans, and the
disabled, providing the highest level of education for his people, building
factories to supply women with excellent leather shoes, while the UN sanctions
are designed to degrade the intellectual and cultural level of the North Korean
people.
This
has nothing to do with the nuclear weapons production. This is a US driven UN
plan to degrade the culture of North Korea, a form of cultural genocide,
alongside the sanctions crushing the economy, reducing the lives of the North
Korean people to a level that will become intolerable. Just in case this “full
court press,” intended to eviscerate the lives of these heroic North Korean
citizens does not succeed, we can count on attempts to assassinate Kim Jung-un,
as were reported by the Financial Times, and the New York Times, and the
Pyongyang Times in May, when a CIA-South Korean plot to assassinate the
President of DPRK, using bio-chemical substances, was discovered.
This
article began with quotes from three great American patriots, Reverend Martin
Luther King, former President Jimmy Carter, and former US Attorney General
Ramsey Clark, denouncing our country‟s violence. History will condemn the
current US-led United Nations assault on the DPRK as one of the greatest crimes
of the twenty-first century. Carla Stea is Global Research‟s correspondent at
United Nations Headquarters, New York, N.Y.
