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The Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea Deserves Self-Determination and Nuclear Technology

By The Red Phoenix on June 18, 2009 • ( 0 )

Imperialist powers such as the United States, the UK, Russia and China have been eager to “condemn” the recent underground test of a nuclear device by the DPRK (North Korea). President Obama was quick to announce on TV that the DPRK was “a grave threat to the peace and security of the world,” while USA Today labeled it “an erratic, potentially dangerous regime.” The United Nations and France have already called for more imperialist sanctions against the legitimate and sovereign Korean nation. The capitalist governments of the world, led by the US, are trying to sanction and isolate the DPRK and to portray it as a “rogue regime” because it stands up to their colonial ambitions and demands independence.

While their President goes on TV and complains about the DPRK standing up to threats of invasion, the United States seems to have no problem with Israel’s huge stocks of nuclear and biological weapons, nor with their genocidal massacre against the people of the Gaza strip earlier this year, which killed over 1,400 and wounded over 5,000 Palestinians. It is the utmost hypocrisy for the United States and its cronies in the NATO bloc to criticize the DPRK for “aggressive” actions when currently a million people lie dead from their wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as their air strikes in Pakistan. Likewise, it is utterly ridiculous for the US imperialists to demand that the DPRK stop “disrupting peace” when it is the larger capitalist countries which are intensifying the calls for invasion and war against the nations of the world.

To date, the United States remains the only country to ever use nuclear weapons in warfare. It is worth noting also that the United States possesses enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world many times over, and has massive stockpiles of smallpox, plague, mustard and nerve gas and other biological weapons. The use of napalm and chemical weapons in both the Vietnam and Korean Wars, both of which killed over three million people each, is also widespread and well-known. The United States government has no right to act as the ruler and emperor of the world, and has no right to dictate who has the right to nuclear technology and who doesn’t. The DPRK has the right to its own self-determination and access to modern technology without the interference of foreign powers.

The DPRK is a Sovereign State with a Popular Government

Lies Concerning the DPRK
The American media has always endeavored to portray the DPRK as a “nightmare” or a “hell-on-earth,” a “dictatorship” which is ruled by an “insane kook” of a ruler. There is also non-stop talk of famine and food shortages in the DPRK, which is never corroborated by facts. The DPRK has kept itself independent and self-reliant since being allied with the USSR. It currently has a planned economy, and provides its people with food, clothing and housing, free medical service and preventive care as well as free education up through college. Despite the fairy tales about its “prison camps,” the DPRK imprisons a far smaller percentage of its population than the US, and then rarely for political reasons. In addition, charges of “poverty” are mostly superpower chauvinism, since the DPRK has a far better economy than other capitalist post-colonial nations such as Jamaica or Haiti. It is also important to realize the small country is not more than 50 years old, and does not have a history of slavery or genocide, nor has it invaded and occupied other nations.

The capitalist media, which parrots the ruling class, insists on talking endlessly about the “famine” in the DPRK and of the suffering of the people, when there has not been a famine in over a decade, and the original one occurred due to the massive destruction of the Korean peninsula during the Korean War, in which over 115,000 air raids were conducted and 600,000 tons of bombs were dropped. This lead not only to the destruction of most of the buildings and infrastructure, but also the trees and vegetation, causing flooding and agriculture failure. The DPRK is still dealing with these problems, and has mostly solved them. The 1954–56 three-year plan repaired much of the massive damage caused by the war and brought industrial production back to pre-war levels. By the 1960s North Korea was the second most industrialized nation in East Asia, trailing only Japan. The Republic of Korea (South Korea) would be in far worse shape than the DPRK today if it hadn’t received billions of dollars of aid from capitalist powers over the past few decades, which has lead the country’s economic success to be upheld as the myth of “capitalism’s superiority.” In reality, before economic aid was sent, the two states were running evenly, with the DPRK even surpassing the ROK at times.

The American Party of Labor maintains that Juche is a revisionist ideology that is devoid of the teachings of scientific socialism. Nevertheless, the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea is a progressive and anti-imperialist force in the world. The American Party of Labor fully upholds the Korean peoples’ right to self-determination and its right to have access to nuclear technology.