KOREA/NORTH KOREA

ANDRE VLTCHEK—Anti North Korean propaganda is so pervasive, so vicious, and so obsessive that it easily outstrips the anticommunist vitriol dispensed to other nations designated as “enemies” by the perennially sanctimonious “indispensable nation”.  Such unrelenting hybrid war by the empire’s minions is designed not only to keep the victimised nation isolated and in penury, but to serve notice to other nations that anyone defying Uncle Sam’s diktats is also liable to find itself in similar sorry circumstances. In any case, here’s perhaps the best and most lucid denunciation and rebuttal of the arch-hypocritical effluvia emanating from the US disinformation machine and that of its vassal states. It was penned by our editor emeritus André Vltchek.

TV mini-series telling the PRC’s official narrative of its involvement in the Korean War (1950-1953). It’s one of several films produced in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) (founded in July 1921).

CGTN—On October 1, 1950, a large crowd filled Tiananmen Square in Beijing. They were celebrating the first anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. However, the nascent state received letters from the leaders of two of its neighbors on the day – leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Il Sung and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, asking for military assistance. How did this come about? CGTN’s documentary “Enemy on the Doorstep: China’s Involvement in the Korean War” shows you what was behind the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, which defined history.

KIM PETERSEN—As A.B. Abrams expressed with crystal clarity in his excellent book, Immovable Object: North Korea’s 70 Years at War with American Power, North Koreans are well aware of how American imperialism works, of its military depravity, and its proclivity for disinformation. North Koreans have demonstrated resistance, resilience, and self-reliance. It has served them well since the armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. North Korea is an economically sanctioned country, yes, but it is not an economically stunted country.

Anxiety in both countries about China-US tensions sits alongside not-so-latent long-standing  doubts about the reliability of US promises of nuclear protection. Grievances flowing from the Australian submarine deal may well feed the domestic cases for Japanese and South Korean nuclear weapons. 

The timing of Mr Morrison’s announcements also merits some consideration. In our view, this project is a political stunt aimed to distract from Covid failures, please coalition constituencies, and split the Labor Party and render the Greens shrill and sidelined. In reality, it is likely that after a passage of years of staged announcements and pseudo-planning there will be little to show for it, and the enormously expensive, strategically ill-considered, and force-structure distorting project will quietly die.