North Korea

North Korea
Location	Asia
Type	nation state
Interest of	Tim Shorrock
One of the most politically and culturally isotated nations in the world, a dictatorship under Kim Jong-un.

North Korea was split from South Korea at the end of the Korean War. It has very limited commercial and other relationships with most other nation states.

Official narrative

North Korea was named as an "Axis of evil" member, and the country is reported to have a poor record as regards human rights.

Famine

In sharp contrast to the affluence of South Korea, North Korea suffers severe famine. In the late 1990s hundreds of thousands of people (at least) died from starvation. A 2016 government warning told people to prepare for food shortages but not to despair, because “the road to revolution is long and arduous.”

Internet

In December 2016, a query of their DNS revealed that their national top level internet domain (.pk) was used by just 28 websites.

Nuclear Weapons

North Korea reported a successful nuclear test on 9 October 2006, and a H-bomb test on 5 January 2016. It is believed to have nuclear weapons, although the truth of these claims is debated.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Bruce Cumings	“The Korean War did not begin on June 25, 1950, much special pleading and argument to the contrary. If it did not begin then, Kim II Sung could not have "started" it then, either, but only at some earlier point. As we search backward for that point, we slowly grope toward the truth that civil wars do not start: they come. They originate in multiple causes, with blame enough to go around for everyone—and blame enough to include Americans who thoughtlessly divided Korea and then reestablished the colonial government machinery and the Koreans who served it. How many Koreans might still be alive had not that happened? Blame enough to include a Soviet Union likewise unconcerned with Korea's ancient integrity and determined to "build socialism" whether Koreans wanted their kind of system or not. How many Koreans might still be alive had that not happened? And then, as we peer inside Korea to inquire about Korean actions that might have avoided national division and fratricidal conflict, we get a long list indeed.”	Bruce Cumings	2005
Bruce Cumings	“Destruction was particularly acute in the North, which was subjected to years of American bombing, including with napalm. Roughly 25 percent of its prewar population was killed, Professor Cumings said, and many of the survivors lived underground by the war’s end. “North Korea was flattened,” he said. “The North Koreans see the American bombing as a Holocaust, and every child is taught about it.”	Bruce Cumings	2018
Bruce Cumings	“The United States is the power that introduced nuclear weapons into Korea, and it took this drastic step primarily to stabilize volatile North-South relations. Always suspicious of North Korea's intentions, in the mid-1950s the Eisenhower Administration also worried that South Korean President Syngman Rhee might reopen the war. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles wanted to restrain both sides -- with nuclear weapons. Even hotheads like Rhee and Kim Il Sung, he believed, would think twice before starting a war that would rain atomic destruction on the peninsula. In January of 1958 the United States positioned 280mm nuclear cannons and "Honest John" nuclear-tipped missiles in South Korea; these were followed a year later by nuclear-tipped Matador cruise missiles. Soon American and South Korean defense strategy rested on routine plans to use nuclear weapons very early in any new war -- at "H + 1," according to one former U.S. commander in Korea, meaning within one hour (more likely a few hours) of the outbreak of war if large masses of North Korean troops succeeded in attacking south of the DMZ. Annual "Team Spirit" military exercises included rehearsals for battlefield nuclear war. North Korea responded by building enormous facilities underground or in mountain redoubts, from troop and materiel depots to munitions factories and warplane hangars. This was a bit of a problem for American surveillance, in that it allowed for a great many places to hide an atomic bomb.”	Bruce Cumings	2005

 

Event

Event	Description
Korean War/Biological warfare	Alleged experimental usage of insect-born biological/bacteriological weapons during the Korean war

 

Group

A Group Headquartered Here	Description
Kim Il-sung University	The first and most important university in North Korea

 

A citizen of North Korea on Wikispooks

Title
Kim Jong-un

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Good war - Bad war	article	12 February 2014	John Pilger	A short readable expose of how the myth of the "Good War" is used by the Western Establishment to fashion our 'reality' - focussing on the largely forgotten devastation visited upon the Korean peninsular by the US and its victorious World War II allies.
Document:Korea and the "Axis of Evil"	article	2002	Brian Willson
Document:North Korea - The Grand Deception Revealed	article	10 March 2017	Christopher Black	Post-WWII Korean history and the relentless demonisation of North Korea by the US.
Document:The Korea issue is now in the hands of the BRICS	Article	3 September 2017	Adam Garrie	"Simon says: 'There's a 7½-hour flight from the BRICS summit in Xiamen, China to Pyongyang, North Korea so if Sergei Lavrov and the Chinese FM took that flight together to meet Kim Jong-un, it would have huge impact, and get the ball rolling on dialogue'."
Document:The sinking of the Cheonan: Another Gulf of Tonkin incident	article	20 May 2010	Stephen Gowans	A parallel between the Cheonan incident and the Gulf of Tonkin.
Document:There is no military solution in North Korea	Interview	5 September 2017	Mishal Husain	Former Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell says the United States needs to bring the international community together more effectively over North Korea
Document:US Nuclear Policy Review: The World Is Our Enemy	Article	8 February 2018	Christopher Black	“We (the United States) will keep you guessing as to when and against whom we will use them (nuclear weapons). We will maintain our role as the greatest state terrorist by keeping the nuclear Damocles sword over the heads of the people of the world constantly to ensure that the world acts in our interest.”
Document:Washington Considers Military Action Against North Korea to Force Regime Change	article	7 March 2017	Stephen Gowans	A history of Post-WWII US military threats against North Korea leading to the latest escalation in Spring 2017, with due weight given to the North Korean perspective
Document:Why Does the West Hate North Korea?	article	8 March 2016	André Vltchek	Suppressed information about North Korea and suggestions as to why it gets such a bad press in the West