Editorial: North Korea and the US elections
In the New World Order, it seems, world peace is hostage to the domestic needs of various factions in US politics. The latest war threat arises from George Bush's unpopularity in early contests to select a Republican candidate for the US presidential elections. Desperate to reinforce his world strong man image following an electoral mauling by far-right racist Patrick Buchanan, Bush has intensified threats against North Korea and Libya. The latest threat is a proposal to board two North Korean ships said to be carrying Scud C missiles to Syria and Iran.
The operation could be carried out by warships operating in the Gulf as part of the "United Nations" blockade against Iraq. US authorities admit the blockade has no authority to stop cargoes destined for places other than Iraq, but they openly say they are prepared to use it for purposes never voted on, let alone approved, by any United Nations body.
While North Korea's peddling of weapons in the Middle East does not serve the long-term interests of humanity, it is perfectly legal. The US would presumably act under a smokescreen of propaganda about limiting the spread of weapons of mass destruction, but its real intention is to maintain control of the most advanced weaponry among a select international club including Israel, which is pushing the US hard for action in this case.
The threat to board its ships is not the only recent move against North Korea. It also seems the US and the brutal South Korean regime are building up to a provocation based on the North's supposed nuclear weapons capacity. They have given the North until early May to open its nuclear facilities for international inspection.
This deal between the US and South Korea comes remarkably soon after the North and South agreed on negotiations to eliminate all nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula. Following this agreement, the US began claiming loudly that the North was within months of nuclear weapons capacity and planning to continue its program secretly. All this looks like stalling the North-South talks at an early stage, saving the US from any embarrassment over its nuclear weapons in Asia, and perhaps providing Bush with a pretext for his next war.
While it is desirable for all of us that nuclear weapons be eliminated from the face of the earth, and the international trade in all military weapons ended forever, these aims are brought no closer by standover tactics by the world's most powerful and most heavily armed powers against smaller nations. In fact, such tactics look ominously like the preliminaries for the next war in the drive of the big powers to dominate world trade and resources.