North Korea: don't be confused
"Chaos. Corruption. Civil war. He's back to lay down the law" runs the promo for Hollywood's latest extravaganza of violence, Robocop 3. It just about describes US policy on North Korea.
The US-supported regime in South Korea has put its army on full alert and, in response, North Korea followed suit on March 25. Almost 2 million soldiers now face one another across the demilitarised zone. Memories flood back of the Korean war and its one million dead.
Tensions began to mount in March 1993 when inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency claimed they were refused access to buildings at the Yongbyon nuclear research facility. Based on this and satellite pictures purportedly showing shadowy secretive buildings, the US claims that North Korea has enough nuclear material to build one or two nuclear bombs and is in fact doing so.
However, in 1992 the IAEA produced two reports that insisted the facility was intended only for power generation. Both reports were rejected by the US. North Korean leaders protest that inspections demanded by the IAEA and the US have been allowed, but the inspectors have now made new demands.
Nuclear weapons are a threat to the survival of humanity, and the proliferation of them does nothing to ease the threat. But the only country ever to use these weapons of mass destruction, and on a defenceless civilian target at that, is the United States. The US remained unconcerned when apartheid South Africa and Israel developed nuclear weapons. The US is not opposed to nuclear weaponry — as long as it is in the hands of its allies.
Why should the North Korean regime of Kim Il Sung desire to develop a nuclear weapons capability? What would be gained by the Pyongyang regime lobbing one or two nuclear bombs onto to its trading partners and near neighbours, China or Japan? It lacks the capability to propel anything as far as the US. And what possible advantage could be derived from obliterating the population of South Korea, the alleged target of North Korean political designs?
Any desire for more deadly weaponry lies in the decades-long aggressive stance of the US and the compliant Seoul regime of Kim Young Sam. Every year provocative military manoeuvres between the US and South Korean forces takes place just across the border from the North. North Korea has always seen these as preparations for an invasion. Politically, the US, which has 35,000 troops permanently stationed in the South, has made no secret of its desire to topple the Pyongyang regime.
North Korea is not threatening anyone, but rather is being threatened by the US. The nuclear issue is being used by the US to cloak its own military intentions. Journalist John Pilger's simple advice to those wondering about the US intervention in Somalia — "don't be confused" — is valid in the case of North Korea.