DPRK's President, Kim Jong-un.
Another sign that the empire, the rogue controllers of the universe, are running on empty, that they are in sheer fear of losing their grip of the world, is that Canada and the US have decided to hold an international meeting in Vancouver, Canada, on North Korea on 15 and 16 January 2018. The Conference is hosted by Canada, sponsored by the US. In addition to Canada and the US, there are 18 countries in the "Vancouver Group", including Denmark, Greece, Norway, New Zealand and others - but not Russia, nor China - and most ridiculously of all - North Korea itself is absent. Russia and China will be briefed at the end of the meetings, in the evening of 16 January; that was the proposal. - Have these wannabe hegemons along with their breath also lost their marbles?
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the obvious: This is not acceptable. Adding with his always positive humor, "With all due respect towards those who came up with such an initiative, I don't expect anything productive. Hopefully, nothing counterproductive will happen. It'll be a great result already, while it's hardly believable."
The Peace talks were initiated under the pretext of the North wanting to participate in the South's winter Olympics in PyeongChang in February this year. A clever move. It reminds of the Ping Pong diplomacy between Nixon's America and China of the early 1970's. Interestingly this was the thawing of relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) which was being ‘sanctioned' - alas! sanctions are not new! - because of Beijing's ‘interference' in the totally illegal, unjustified and devastating US-led Korean war which from 1950 - 1953 totally destroyed North Korea with a death toll of at least 4 million people, almost half of the then North Korean population. The US bombs left not a brick untouched in the now DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea). The goal of this inhuman atrocity was then, as are Washington's 60 years-plus aggressions towards Pyongyang today, an attempt of further encroaching on China with the final goal of full domination.
Korea's new president promises to change the noxious and dangerous stalemate imposed by Washington on Seoul.
The US table tennis team was in Nagoya, Japan, in 1971 for the 31st World Table Tennis Championship, when in April 1971 the team received an invitation to visit Beijing. Hence started a diplomatic journey which later opened the (flood) gates for an immense, intense and at times controversial trade relationship between Washington and Beijing. For the PRC sports played an important diplomatic role, reflected in the slogan "Friendship First, Competition Second".
Was Pyongyang inspired by this example of sports paving the way for a new and improved relationship between brothers? - Possibly. Yet. It is not clear, who really took the initiative, and who persuaded the Donald to be quiet and let it happen? - Will he indeed be quiet and let these historic peace talks take place undisturbed? What is happening behind the curtains in Trump's camp - other than the Vancouver Group gathering - is anybody's guess. That these Peace Talks are taking place is what the world should concentrate on - a step forwards in a peace movement that cannot be undone. It is a master piece of two sovereign nations to cement their relationship which unites them, plus portions of China and today's Russian Federation with a 5000-year history.
It is important to understand Korea's history to understand that everything that comes out of the lie-infected mouthpieces of Washington is incoherent and does not fit reality, the thousands of years of a peaceful Korea, whose believes are still today largely influenced by Confucius. The history and image of thousands of years of peaceful Korea is a revelation. See box - below.
Korea's 5000 years of history is said to have started with the kingdom of Gojoseon (2333 - 108 BC). At that time, the kingdom encompassed a large portion of Manchuria, today parts of China and the Russian Federation. It was the first ancient Korean kingdom and was founded upon "Hongik Ingan" as its national ideal. It means "changing the world beautifully through love and service instead of violence and war." This principle was and still is highly admired by their strong neighbor, China. It is deeply ingrained and very much alive in the spirit of the Korean people. There is no threat coming out of Korea - either North or South.
Returning to today's reality - only a few weeks ago, all fifteen members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) have condemned the DPRK as an aggressor that has to be punished, piling insult after lies and more insults on President Kim Jon-un and on his nothing-else-but-defense strategy. Today, the same UNSC should get together again and unanimously praise DPRK for this tremendous feat of against all odds engaging in peace talks with its natural brother for millennia. Why will such praise for a peace-loving nation not happen? - Because the Donald's and Nikki Haley's of this world, the master aggressors of the universe, and all the President's Men and Vassals, would have to bite their tongue.
However, we know this is not the end of it. Washington still has more than 28,000 servicemen and women stationed in South Korea and a deadly arsenal of warships, fighter planes and nuclear bombs to strike - preemptively if the hegemon deems it necessary. Never mind that 80% of South Koreans want this murderous occupation to end. Similar with Japan's Okinawa US base with more than 40,000 US servicemen and women - the vast majority of Japanese, and especially Island inhabitants, want them out. They bring crime, drugs, prostitution and even murder to the island. Rapes are on the rise.
"Reuters: tens of thousands protest in Okinawa against the US military last year, after a base employee raped and murdered a 20-year old woman."
May these Korean talks set in motion something bigger than just peace talks between two brothers. Could this first serious encounter in over sixty years (delegations of the two countries have met in 2014 for an exchange of family visits) become an eye-opener for the 15 UNSC members who thoughtlessly dished out murder sanctions to North Korea just a few weeks ago?
Could this be an eye-opener for the world, showing how fake the entire UN-operation has become, how subservient to the paymaster they have become? Could this be a signal for China and Russia that their non-veto, their submission to the bully, for whatever strategic reason they may have had - was a mistake? - Or would they simply claim credit for what is happening - that threats and sanctions do work? Any thinking people who know the history and Mission of Peace of Great and Ancient Korea, the Gojoseon Kingdom - and surely China and Russia ought to know it - will see either how ignorant the world is, or else, how blood- and greed thirsty humanity has become under the Kingdom of Capitalism.
The two Koreans may have seized the opportunity to fulfill their highest goal, to become one again, bringing their families together in a lasting way; initiating a movement of joy and harmony; a new era of unification that cannot be broken. This is fully in line with the Buddhist preachings of love, still deeply enshrined in the two Koreas.
President Kim Jong-un has always and repeatedly said that he is not seeking war, is not threatening anybody, but that the nuclear arms are a defensive weapon aiming only at the aggressors - the one and only aggressor, the United States, which for over 60 years-plus has not let go, not allowed converting a shaky armistice agreement into a peace agreement. The people of the DPRK want nothing more than peace.
Wars over the last century and especially during the last 17 years - with the onset of the eternal "war on terror", the one business terminology that drives the profit of the military-security industrial complex, has become so ingrained in people's minds, that a world of peace, harmony and love is almost unimaginable.
Under what type of regime would a united North-South Korea function? A hard-core socialism, DPRK style, a Seoul type capitalism, with a soft Moon Jae-in touch, or a Chinese type socialism with a capitalist coating, yet controlled by a centralized socialist party? - Difficult to predict at this point, but given Korea's historic link to Manchuria, to both today's China and Russia, it would likely be a political model of social sensitivity.
The regional pressure led by China to withdraw the US military base from the Korean Peninsula would grow - and in parallel the Japanese people would find an additional argument for expelling the US occupiers from the beautiful island of Okinawa. Would the US supported puppet leaders - leaders, not people - Japan, Guam, Singapore Philippines, Indonesia, Australia - cave in to peoples' pressure and kick the war hounds out of their sovereign territories, as they should, if they want to deserve even a shred of the meaning of democracy?
Let me dream for a moment: If this tremendous endeavor - peace and unification - were to succeed, it might set an agenda in motion, the world at large has not thought of yet. China and Russia would come out stronger with their objective of a multi-polar world.
Mr. Putin, who supports the Moon-Kim Plan knows very well what political role the Olympics play - and how sports act in politics. He and Russia are living "sports as politics" almost on a daily basis. Russian athletes being banned from Olympics, and other sports events; Russian athletes constantly being singled out for doping, when the number of US athletes caught doping is much larger. US sports people found doping fill pages on Internet, but nobody cares to look - and dares speaking up against injustice. The Olympic committee is a puppet of the same league as are the United Nations, the European Union and all the international courts. For what reasons? -I can only think of cowardice. That’s what globalized neoliberalism has made us – afraid of sanctions, afraid to stand up for justice and instead subservient to bullies. That’s greed above integrity.
President Putin, along with the Presidents Moon and Kim, cleverly turns sport around as a peace initiative - who could oppose banning DPRK athletes from participating in South Korea's Olympics - and behind the scene is an actual peace initiative being mounted that could literally turn the world's techtonic power plates around. Dynamics of such developments, coupled with a rapid shift towards more economic equilibrium, already taking plae in the form of SCO's growing strength and with increased monetary independence from the west - such dynamics are unpredictable. But they could rapidly move our civilization from darkness into light.
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik, PressTV, The 4th Media (China), TeleSUR, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance. ^0America's Goal...
Make every homeless tranny
gender comfortable!
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Parting shot—a word from the editors
The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found
In his zeal to prove to his antagonists in the War Party that he is as bloodthirsty as their champion, Hillary Clinton, and more manly than Barack Obama, Trump seems to have gone “play-crazy” -- acting like an unpredictable maniac in order to terrorize the Russians into forcing some kind of dramatic concessions from their Syrian allies, or risk Armageddon.However, the “play-crazy” gambit can only work when the leader is, in real life, a disciplined and intelligent actor, who knows precisely what actual boundaries must not be crossed. That ain’t Donald Trump -- a pitifully shallow and ill-disciplined man, emotionally handicapped by obscene privilege and cognitively crippled by white American chauvinism. By pushing Trump into a corner and demanding that he display his most bellicose self, or be ceaselessly mocked as a “puppet” and minion of Russia, a lesser power, the War Party and its media and clandestine services have created a perfect storm of mayhem that may consume us all.— Glen Ford, Editor in Chief, Black Agenda Report
4 comments
Oh, Mr. Koenig!
I recall rubbing my eyes in disbelief, when I discovered Mr. Stephen Lendman’s articles on OpEd News … “A businessman can write like this ?!”. More recently, on TGP, the same shock: “An economist from WB can write like that ?”
Today, Mr. Koenig reaches new heights (in my eyes): the first (I ever see) to point out one little detail, after enthusiastically talking about Korean reunification – what kind of Korea would that be ?
“Under what type of regime would a united North-South Korea function? A hard-core socialism, DPRK style, a Seoul type capitalism, with a soft Moon Jae-in touch, or a Chinese type socialism with a capitalist coating, yet controlled by a centralized socialist party? – Difficult to predict at this point, but given Korea’s historic link to Manchuria, to both today’s China and Russia, it would likely be a political model of social sensitivity.”
Can it really be anything other than a “democracy” ? Isn’t this tiny detail the one which has delayed reunification for decades ? Are the Korean masses so strong as to impose something else, other than “democracy” ?!
On the other hand …
“The US table tennis team was in Nagoya, Japan, in 1971 for the 31st World Table Tennis Championship, when in April 1971 the team received an invitation to visit Beijing. Hence started a diplomatic journey which later opened the (flood) gates for an immense, intense and at times controversial trade relationship between Washington and Beijing. For the PRC sports played an important diplomatic role, reflected in the slogan “Friendship First, Competition Second”.”
I do recall this World Championship, I think … Wasn’t it the one in which Forest Gump was part of the US Dream Team ? How did it end ? In any case, we may have been lied to, namely that we’d been among the peace brokers, back then!
“The two Koreans may have seized the opportunity to fulfill their highest goal, to become one again, bringing their families together in a lasting way; initiating a movement of joy and harmony; a new era of unification that cannot be broken. This is fully in line with the Buddhist preachings of love, still deeply enshrined in the two Koreas.”
Hmmm …
Sir, modern physics (quantum stuff) seems to be saying that anything can be broken, with the proper amount of (arm)twisting. Even worse: I think it says it has a hard time defining the impossible!
“The Olympic committee is a puppet of the same league as are the United Nations, the European Union and all the international courts. For what reasons? – I can only think of cowardice. That’s what globalized neoliberalism has made us – afraid of sanctions, afraid to stand up for justice and instead subservient to integrity. That’s greed above ethics.”
Here Mr. Koenig seems to be saying sanctions are of the order of magnitude of having one’s hot water cut off …
“instead subservient to … INTEGRITY” ?! I didn’t get that at all.
All in all … impressive!
How about some article on the merits of scientists in the overwhelming success of democracy all over the world ? (Since when are they siding with the masses, though ?!)
REPLY TO COMMENTER “A.D.”
You are right that the sentence as originally printed did not make sense. It was a typo, since corrected. The line should read as follows:
Thank you!
I could not have seen that far, I only suspected it – but it was hard to imagine how such a typo could happen.
This article is certainly hopeful and were it on display in a rational world with rational actors, we could draw much inspiration from this vision of contagious bridge-building and cooperation. The problem is that the U.S. has very few rational actors in decision-making positions anymore, not rational actors who can embrace basic concepts like mutual respect, empathy, power sharing, cultural and political multilateralism. We hear words from our leaders which are designed to lead us to believe that America’s leadership in the world is based on noble, time-honored values, that we are a principled nation operating from a high moral ground. But the truth is America’s relationship to other nations is about power, the ruthless, savage, inhumane, lethal application of raw power. It’s our way or the highway … to hell and obliteration. Until those now at the reins of power are removed, indicted, tried and incarcerated for their epic crimes against the rest of humanity, it’s hard to believe any good will come from the best and noblest efforts of others. Our button is bigger and our bombs do work extremely well. To that superiority and the moral vacancy and decay which sits at the center of U.S. leadership, we are all held hostage.
I genuinely hope that North and South Korea set a new standard, and the dominoes start to fall, tossing us into a new redefined age of cooperation and harmony, as suggested in this breathtaking piece. But recent — and not so recent — history would reinforce the fundamental law of entropy. It’s much easier to break an egg than put it back together. We have lazy, uninspired, dull-witted megalomaniacs at the helm of our “exceptional” empire. For them there is no other option other than the easy way.