Kim Myong Chol

Asia Times

7th January, 2011

“The captured crew members of the armed spy ship USS Pueblomust be brought to Pyongyang for a photo session. Photos of thePueblo crew members arriving with their hands raised should be sent worldwide to show for all to see that the Americans are captured red-handed violating our sovereign territorial waters.”
– Kim Jong-il, January 1968

“The South Korean puppet regime of LMB [South Korean President Lee Myung-bak] and its American wirepullers have blinked at our prompt merciless counter-strike to their reckless provocation. They are again going to play with fire despite the mounting global objections. This time only a wiser course of action is to refrain from military retaliation at their face-keeping show of force, unless our territorial integrity is in direct jeopardy. We instead use the drill to expose LMB and his American masters to the world as dangerous, trigger-happy warmongers. ”
– Kim Jong-eun, December 2010

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Stephen Gowans

Voltairenet

24th December, 2010

There are three key facts that place the brinkmanship being played out on the Korean peninsula into perspective. With these facts providing the context, the recent behavior of south Korea is revealed to be that of a local bully acting on behalf of a much larger global one.
Canadian journalist Stephen Gowans dissects the fast-unraveling crisis between the two Koreas.

The first key fact is that north Korea is a military pipsqueak in comparison with the militaries that have taken an actively hostile stance towards it. South Korea’s military budget is many times larger than north Korea’s, and the south Korean military is integrated into the world’s preeminent military machine, the US armed forces. Close to 30,000 US troops are stationed on Korean soil; 40,000 in nearby Japan can be deployed quickly to increase US military power on the peninsula. US submarines lurk on the edges of north Korea’s territorial waters. US spy planes fly high over its territory. And US strategic nuclear missiles are targeted on north Korean sites. To think that north Korea poses a danger to south Korea is to think that a flyweight boxer is a threat to a middleweight backed by the world’s superheavyweight champion. The best a flyweight can do is strike back if attacked and inflict some damage, knowing he’ll be pulverized in the conflict.

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