I lived in South Korea for a while. Talk about corrupt.

Like I've said before many times-, whatever regime, state or system of governance you are, if The US Empire has you in its sights as one of its self-declared Axis of Evil, and you desire to survive the long haul, if you ain't attempting to build nuclear capability and update your military system, you are just waiting for the US Marines to land. Too bad, too sad, but true.

The US and North Korea, like the former Sadaam and the US, have more in common than actually differentiates them. They are all heirarchical/elitist systems, this or that one more overtly so, another one with an inadequate elitist dominant system of more formal than real democracy. Money rules.

The "main" problem here though, is the US Empire rampage about the world. It forces everyone else to arm themselves to the teeth, and go over to an aggressive "defensive mode". This situation isn't going to change, only get worse, until the US Empire stands down from its interferences into all other people's internal affairs, including this country.

The overwhelming need is, to compel the US to shut down its system of overseas bases and return its imperial forces home, back onto their own territory, and allow for a voluntary global system based on non-interference in each other's affairs to emerge in place of this "superpower" system of dominance, that is the road to endless war.

In other words, fundamentally, I agree with Gloomy. :-)

]

Hyperbole aside, perhaps that thesis is going just a little too far.

Man, you people are so negative!

It's extortion of US riches again, by N.Korea. Today Japan mused about themselves making a preemptive strike. They would need to adjust their constitution possibly, but this does indicate how seriously that Japan takes the threat of nuclear arms next door in the hands of a madman. Perhaps the left will embrace this maniac too. I see at least Gloomy has.

Geez gloomy, there is a more corrupt regime than the US. The arrogant little shit who lets his people starve while he builds nukes, not ones to give them light, the ones that go bang.
We should do our part and invite him to Peace Talks in Ottawa, then make his plane 'have an accident' over the Rockies...

Some of you people live too close to the USA, to see it as the rest of the world does.
US has forever meddled in other countries internal affairs, for instance by promising aid, only if their agenda is carried out ......meaning selling the countrys rescources or allowing US firms to take over.
The term "the ugly American" was coined a long time ago, and is more true now, than ever!
so, Yes, a few countries happen to have a card up their sleeve, and it seems that the world actually believe they would start a nuclear war!
That my friends is poker-playing at its best!
Name any other way in which such countries can expect any kind of a deal?
Suppose Cuba had nuclear capability, do you suppose they would be just ignored for years?
Get real, if local politics are bloodsports, imaging what international politics are?
Ask the kids who are worried about dying in Afghanistan or Iraq?
It is finally leaking out that the "morale" is fading there as they realize that the enemy are simple peasants.

So you have confirmed it Gloomy, it's all about extortion of the riches of the west by the poor in the east. Except you don't want to admit that Canada is part of the west, and we all stand to lose by this wealth transfer scheme.
There is no way Cuba would ever have dreamed about developing nuclear weapons to extort the US, even they are not that stupid.
The brave dead soldier you are referring to as a kid, was a man who did a second tour, by his own consent. What a cheap shot that was. I hope you weren't trying to lower morale. That would be despicable.

Gloomy - as a Korean-Canadian with relatives still living in Korea, my mother having born in what is now Pyongyang and having to flee as the Communists took over the North, I find your cavalier attitude to the so-called "poker-playing" to be ignorant and insensitive at best, and repugnantly callous at worst.

If you had any personal stake in what is happening there, you would likely sing a far different tune. Similarly, I level the same claim against the author of the article positioning the fact that the only reason why people in BC need to pay attention to this is because N. Korean missiles could theoretically hit N. America. Oh geez, we'd all better pay attention now. . .could impact real estate prices in the Lower Mainland.

Regional instability in North Asia is a very serious affair - a nuke landing in Japan - the second largest economy in the world and a nation over 100 million people shoulod be cause enough to take this very seriously. Not too mention a squaring-off of the USA vs China(and maybe Russia) - or at the very least a militarily resurgent Japan(hugely destabilizing and would set-off a huge round of accelerated regional re-arming).

If you and others want to treat this as some detached parlour game and tsk-tsk from afar while not undestanding the potential for major escalation - then that's fine. You've positioned yourself into an irrelevant peanut gallery.

So, go on and cheer the Don King of dictators and slap him on the back for going "all-in" on the nuclear card. I can't be as cavalier. You see, one of the great things about Canada is the fact that we have lots of people from different places in the world. When something happens in a seemingly remote corner of the world, from Burma to Darfur, you have neighbours, friends and fellow citizens who take these events not as remote events to grease the stone on which you grind your axe against the USA, but as personal and very important events.

I didn't mean to get all PC on your ass - but just keep in mind there are some folks in BC who take what is happening there very seriously.

Yea, that'll work alright. Like the exploding cigar the CIA was actually thinking of attempting to assasinate Castro with during the Bay of Pigs time. Which is the kind of "Washington Think" that has led the world to here.

Wingnuts are such dipshits.

Though Incredulous I treat modestly more seriously.

No one here of whom I am aware is much sympathetic to the Communist regime of North Korea per se, or its dictator. The reality is, however, that this is an "internal" Korean problem, a civil war process within it such as the US itself went through at one point in its own history, but long stalemated and unresolved because of this foreign US interference. And which now threatens the entire world because of this same intransigent US "interference" as well, and its Axis of Evil declarations which serve no good purpose, but only inflame.

And lest you be tempted to again remind me that you are of "Korean" lineage, which presumably gives you some special insight and "right of exclusive knowledge",I would only remind you that apparently large masses of South Korean citizens seem to agree with me as well: Given the huge demonstrations and street fights of masses of South Korean citizens to rid the country of this same US imperialist "interference" as well, which periodically erupt and run until they are finally crushed by the brutality of the South Korean regime.

So clearly, it is not quite as straight forward an issue, nor quite so black and white obvious in the manner and direction which you indicate.

There are many huge problems of national development, political and economic cleavage in the New Western Colonialism attempt world, all of which are frustrated and never secure a proper and satisfactory resolution one way or another, and are made in fact more dangerous and world threatening by the interferences and empire ambitions and assertions of the United States. (

Everybody leave Korea alone, like the people of the Middle East they need the time and space to resolve their own problems, perhaps even fight their own civil wars, to a final resolution. (Which may even involve a period of some see-sawing conflict and protracted war and peace processes back and forth.) Amerikkka is only exacerbating world problems and conflicts. The New US Colonialism is incapable of resolving the internal issues of other peoples, nor should they be allowed to arbitrarily even "play the game" of attempting to do so, in their own interests. Nor are they capable of for much longer controlling the rest of the world, and making it conform to their diktats, including hopefully this country of Canada, without it leading to conflict with other major powers and likely world war.

End ALL imperialist interferences in the internal affairs of other countries, be it US, Russian or Chinese.

Just as an aside, perhaps a more accurate characterizations of this "Axis of Evil" concept would include firstly, the United States, then much of the "old" colonial era powers of Europe such as Britain, German and France, with Canada playing its classic "flunky" role, and including Russia and China.

All of these powers are playing the same old, same old fighting amongst themselves to divide up the world amongst themselves game, which has so characterizes the modern "global capitalism" period, no less than it did the "slave system empires" of the ancient world.

So there is a true Axis of Evil reforming out there, probably correctly enough, but not including the heretofore presumed States of Asia and the Middle East still fighting to recover and reform into viable states and economic entities from the last time this process played itself out, from the time of the First World/European War(s). It is the major exploitive state systems of the world, largely now all "capitalist", though there may still be a red flag or two masking a couple of them, who are attempting to recreate a New Colonialism, that are all, led and/or inflamed by the behaviours of the US Empire, that are all of them the main dangers and threats to peace in the modern world.

It is this true Axis of Evil and their driving, exploitive and ambitious economic systems of capitalism which pose the main threat to the peace and the wellbeing of the rest of the world, including ourselves. There needs to emerge a new egalitarian and non-class/non-sex exploitive based economic and political system in the world, especially amongst the "non-Axis of Evil" nations, which can seek to assert and over time win a new global relationship of mutual respect, national self-reliance and sovereignty, fair and voluntary trade, and non-interference in each others internal affairs.

The current global economic, social and political system is the source of the problem. We and the world need to get beyond it.

cluelesss:
It is about not exploiting countries that already are poor!
USA do not "help", but get involved only to better its own interest.
The poor east has no chance of ever working its way up, with the restrictions that the US imposes on them.
Maybe you should read up, on what has been going on, all over the world?

incredulous:
It is understandable that neighbours get worried with all that posturing.
My point was that just like poison-gas, there are weapons that never gets used, but still pose a treath.......like what if?
That is the poker-game, and it is there whether you understand it or not!

Correct! so he did!
It has also leaked, that he was pleading to be allowed to go home! Considering to claim suicidal tendencies in order to get out!
So while I certainly hope to see no more bodybags, I do recognize that our "heroes" are loosing their enthusiasm.
Have anyone noticed that a person becomes a hero if he dies, while serving "on duty"?
I suspect a few casualties result from driving those big machines as if they were go-carts?
Is it unpatriotic to point out that alcohol and dope at times could be a factor?

Not too sure what an article on North Korea and Six Nations Talks is doing on a local news blog like The Tyee but anyhow. Maybe a story including how the local Korean community is responding would help.

Anyhow if you are living in Northeast Asia the nightly news will drill into your head the importance of the Six Nations Talks; here, it is barely mentioned: You just get the report of fear that North Korea has a missile that could reach North America.

North Korea can destroy the capitalist American/Japanese system in flash by firing on Tokyo (and expose all that gold that Japan stole out of Korea during the occupation). It doesn't really need a missile to reach Los Angeles.

Of course, we didn't hear any of the provocative stances by the Japanese government such as the Ministry of Education condoning textbooks that claim parts of the Korean peninsula because Japan is our goody-goody corporatist facist ally.

When is the "reverse course" policy of American liberals going to be chucked and US support of Japanese facists like Tokyo mayor Ishihara terminated?

You want to help peace in Northeast Asia? See that Article 9 (the pacifist article) of the Japanese Consitution is not removed by funding community unions in Japan such as the one below who work for peace every day...

http://www.generalunion.org

Coyote,

Your parallel between the North Korean situation and the civil war process that occurred in America is flawed. You are correct in your observation, however, that the situation is due to foreign interference from both the USA and the USSR. End game near the close of WW2 was a real bitch and the Korean peninsula suffered its fair share, like many other places. The most responsible response is not necessarily instant and complete disengagement, but usually an unwinding over time. Nature abhors a vacuum as that old chestnut goes - and you can't argue with physics.

A civil war generally needs to occur within a single political entity. North Korea and South Korea are independent countries with shared histories and cultures - but NOT one unified entity. If China attacked Taiwan - would you call this an internal civil war? They both have separate status as independent countries with separate heads of state. I guess since we all rook arike, you would think that it would be a civil war, wouldn't you?

Second, I apologize if my "being Korean" has caused you consternation. My main point was that due to my personal stake, eg. having relatives living in Korea, the issue was not as distant to me as it was to others without this personal connection. But your dismissive and sanctimonious tone make it pretty apparent that you just can't stand it when someone tries to take the moral high ground - though this is a tactic you routinely make use of. So, I take back my apology and merely state this: you seem pretty pissed-off by the fact that I said that I was Korean - not because of my personal connection to the situation, but because you thought that I claimed my heritage gave me absolute certitude. I never wrote that - read my post again.

If that pissed you off, well here's some more gas to throw onto the fire. As I write this post, I sit in my hotel room in Seoul - gasp - South Korea. . .literally in the hot-zone, while you sit comfortably out of Taepongdong-2 missile range. But I'm not going claim that my being here imbues me with any more validity than anyone else. All I asked for was that people understand that when they write about these world events - due to the diversity of Canada (to which you seem to take a stridently-negative tone) - that these events aren't so distant.

Asher - you obviously didn't hear about Shinzo Abe - the current Cabinet Secretary and front-runner to replace Koizumi as Prime Minister muse aloud about how a pre-emptive strike by Japan against North Korean missile installations might NOT contravene their constitution. In this situation, I actually think that Japan pulling an Israel on North Korea - like in '82 when Israel bombed Iraqi nuclear installations might be a good thing to do.

Japan is freaked-out as they should be -Hell, they're target number one.

Gloomy, I get your gist. I was reacting more to your statement

Which cause me to wonder if you actually are a Korean, or one merely naively over influenced by that US propaganda effort to make true what was never, or only distordedly true.

The reality is, for over a millenium, there was only "one" Korea, only to be "temporarily" divided as part of the settlement of the Second WW2, following the defeat of Japan in Asia, including Korea.

The Korean War (1950-1953) left the two Koreas separated by the DMZ..." from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Korea

So, clearly, Korea is Korea, a single entity historically. And what was at work following the division of Korea by the US and Russia and the end of WW2, was objectively a civil war, whether one wants or has been conditioned by ideology to call it that or not, initiated by the Communist side to be sure, to drive out the US from the south and reunite the country under its hegemony. Which was stalemated of course, as a consequence of superpower interferences. Had the Korean War not involved the active intervention of US and other allied flunky Western states and forces on the side of South Korea, that civil war might have then and there been resolved and Korea reunited, again whether one agreed with or supported the aims of this or that side or not.

I think maybe, maybe, in my view, you need to rethink your own understanding of the division of Korea and precisely what was at work in the civil war that was objectively the so-called Korean War. (The Chinese only entered into it with its forces once MacArthur declared his intention to enter into China, and US forces were at one point in the war positioned far enough north to be able to actually do so.)

Just because the US Empire has declared Korea to be two separate and distinct entities does not make it necessarily true, certainly for all time, or in the eyes of the great mass of the Korean people. Indeed, many, many South Koreans have come to see the US and their regional interests as the main obstacle to the reunification of Korea, which has been the main bone of contention and driving element to a lot of the Korean demonstrations against US influence of recent.

I remember the Korean War very well, like it was yesterday, because at the time I was just about old enough and wanted to join the Canadian Army in order, again, pathetic I know, to serve the cause of the evolving US Empire, which at that point still had my naive loyalty. I bought into the bullshite. The war, fortunately, ended before I could enlist in the infantry. (For which I have been hugely grateful just about ever since.)

Oh, and by the by, I am not in the least pissed off by your being Korean. What is at issue is, whether even being so, you actually have a correct understanding of your own former country's history or not. And I think not.

I am of Scottish decent, for example, which certainly does not make me an expert on Scottish history.

Nor does where you are at this moment sitting in the world mean very much, in this regards. One can still have an incorrect understanding, even of the homeland in which one resides. Witness our right wingnuts here, who would serve the cause of the US Empire over that even of Canada.

And similarly anyway, I could as easily as yourself claim to be sitting anywhere in the world, whilst stuck in Vancouver traffic. :-)

A good day. :-)

Coyote, I do not agree with you on much but having spend a good bit of time in South Korea I can attest that Koreans have a rather warped view of their history.

Indeed, Working Man, we do not agree on much. :-) Almost goes with saying, I think. Which I can live with, to the degree you can. :-) (Mind you, most Canadians probably have a warped/naive view of their own history, no less than Koreans. It seems to be a more or less universal phenomena.)

A very interesting piece in today's Globe and Mail, page A13, in a colummn by Marcus Gee titled Something Strange in South Korea. I quote:

"Even stranger than the hostility against Japan (???), which at least has roots in Japan's history as a colonial occupier of Korea, is South Korea's rising anti-Americanism. Labour groups denounce a planned free-trade agreement with the United States. Student groups rant about US imperialism. A recent poll of South Koreans aged 17-23 showed that nearly half would side with North Korea if it were attacked by the United States."

Now the general tone of this piece definitely looks down its nose at the popular South Korean attitude towards the US, as compared with North Korea, which makes its admissions more important even, I think. And also helps to make further clear that what we have are "internal social differences or contradictions" occurring within one Korea, which remain alive and operative, and a source of great danger to the world, as a consequence of foreign interferences which have not allowed a civil war situation to resolve itself within what is in fact a singular Korea. My own sympathies lie more with the popular South Korean attitudes towards the United States, of course. :-) But not only that, I am no less implacably opposed to all "foreign" interferences in internal Korean affairs.

What I would want for Canada, I desire also for others amd their homelands: That folks and their nations should be free to decide their own destinies, and the character and form of their own societies.

N. Korea wants and needs money.
What better and faster way to get it than to pose a threat to the U.S.?

Through negotiations to abandon its missile/nuclear program the Americans will end up paying billions to N. Korea in foreign aid.

All it has to do is create a missile that actually flies.

Well, certainly they want an end to the quasi-trade restrictions against them, imposed especially by the US, no doubt, which are at least in part responsible for their economic woes, this is clearly not the main issue with them, in my view. Were I them, like Iran or anywhere else in the US's declared "Axis of Evil" world, they are probably more interested in securing a "non-aggression" pact with the US; some reassurance that they will not suffer the earlier fate of Vietnam or current Iraq/Afghanistan/Iran.

Are they in touch with the real world, which I think they are, whatever else one might think of N. Korea, this is what they will be wanting. Indeed, this is precisely want they claim to want, an end to the economic sanctions against them, and security from fear of a US nuking or invasion.

They US feigns innocence of all this of course, attempting to suggest that N. Korean fears are baseless, for their own global control reasons/ambitions, preferring to assign North Korean actions to the old "mad man" demonization of one's enemy soft-shoe shuffle routine. But we should certainly know better than to fall for this shill of US Empire propaganda.

And that is not to suggest that North Korea is a collection of saints. They certainly are not. But the artificial division of Korea is destined to fail sooner or later, and only survives as a consequence of US insistance and power, and the final resolution of this problem should be left to the Koreans themselves.

It is all part of that global need to shove Amerika's interferring nose and military force out of everywhere it should have no business. (Including Canada.) It needs to be compelled to shuffle off the world stage and join the old British and Roman Empires in the historical past.

The world is just about at that point with the US Empire where enough is enough. (The Russian and Chinese Empires will be dealt with soon enough, in good time as well.)

No fear of the Americans ever invading N. Korea because of China's reaction.

I think it was MacArthur or Eisenhower or both, who steadfastly believed that the U.S. could never win an East Asian conflict.

Hopefully you are right Jack's. I personally would not want to presume anything about the US however, given its history and aggressive expansionist present.

Still, we can hope, for sure.

General MacArthur, who was then directing US war operations in Korea, at one point in the war advocated and prepared to invade China, if fact. It was this which brought him into conflict with Eisehnower. Indeed there was quite a tussle that went on between them, all played out in the media, but which MacArthur eventually lost, fortunately. During the course of which he was removed from his command position over US war operations in Korea, returned home, and quickly forced to retire. (From whence came his iconic statement about old soldiers just fading away.)

Eisenhower, in my view, from a US standpoint at least, had a better understanding of the dynamic that was then beginning to play itself out concerning the US global position and ambition than anyone before or since in a US power position. Which phenomena and consequence we are all still living and having to deal with. It was afterall him who gave his fellow US citizens and us the telling warning about the danger to the peace being posed by the US "military-industrial complex" as he politely called it.

To that extent, Eisenhower indeed had a prescient understanding of the world that was taking shape post WW2, the imperialist ambitions inherent in the US military-economic system then overtly beginning to present itself on the world stage, and the danger that posed to the peace.

I believe that, at that time (1951), Harry Truman was U.S. President (Eisenhower still being two years away from holding that title). According to Wikipedia, at that time Eisenhower was Supreme Commander of N.A.T.O. and commanded N.A.T.O. forces in Europe. Therefore, I don't see wher he had anything to do directly with General MacArthur's firing.

My red faced apology indeed, wassamattaU! It was indeed Truman who had the famous spat with General MacArthur, over the latters insistance that the US should invade China. (Eisenhower, who was the last and maybe only US president I actually liked, at least had some respect for, and still have, comes along a short while later.)

I made the classis mistake of relying on my memory of the time, which works well enough generally, but misfires often enough to be embarrassing. I'll put it down to having another senior's moment. :-) LOL

Thanks for the correction.

Coyote
No red face necessary.

I noticed your wee slip yesterday but decided that a nominal error didn't affect the pith and substance of what you'd written so I let it go with a thought about whether or not someone would pick it up.

I agree with you about Eisenhower. I don't know if you've read his book - Crusade in Europe I think it's called? There is a passage in there where he describes the carnage in the Falaise Gap where it was virtually impossible to walk without encountering bits of human and horse flesh intermingled on the bloody ground among the other detritus of a horrendous battle

No one who'd seen and understood the horrors of war in that kind of visceral way could ever behave like the current occupant of the White House has and is behaving.

More the pity and higher the risk for humanity into the bargain.

Have a good weekend, bro.

Coyote wrote

What is wrong with that? Of course, it is about a civil war, amongst other things.

And being Korean isn't necessarily going to help one to better understand the situation. How many Koreans collaborated with the Japanes during the Japanese occupation? Do you think these families learn the truth about their role to enslave their own people? Wasn't there a recent attempt in 2004 by the South Korean governemnt to deal with the collaborationist past of South Koreans, but officials of a rank of captain or higher would not be investigated?

Give me a break. Do you think being Japanese (from Japan) helps a person to understand Japanese history? Being Korean, you ought to know that the opposite is true. God, there is even a saying in Chinese that outsiders can see better.

Anyhow, do you think United Empire Loyalist families in Canada tell their kids that the land they are sitting on was stolen from the Mohawk, Salish, Huron etc? But Malaysia's former Prime Minister Mahatir, an outsider, would often point out to Canadian diplomats about the absence of "red Indians" (as he called them) at international diplomatic sessions.

And the schools won't tell you the truth: I was taught that when the First Nations won a battle it was called a "massacre" and when Canadians won, it was called a "victory."

Do you think American school children are taught about how their governemnt committed atrocities such as blowing up dams in North Korea during the Korean War?

About as many early Amerikans as collaborated withe the British.

Actually, you make many good observations, most of which I agree with.

So what's your point?

Gloomy
So forever can now be defined as 230 years?

As for the good Corporal, you will notice that it was an Uncle and girlfriend talking, not the immediate family, and having someone’s personal comments aired in public is pretty low, soldiers bitch and complain for most of history, of course he would want to come home, but I suspect that he also wanted to do it honourable. I have seen comments in another forum by his mates that indicated that he was not the basketcase being presented by the media.

Regarding the story here. For NK a million man army is not enough for it, nor the thousands of guns directed at Seoul. Despite millions of people starving to death or being killed in concentration camps, the leader of NK elects to spend money on missiles and nukes. This article blames Bush administration for pushing NK down this road, sorry but it was already on this road, it just has stopped pretending to. SK has now cut off food deliveries to NK and likely Japan has barred vessels from NK entering it’s waters. There is a real possibility of Japan attacking NK, the question will be how would NK retaliate, it can only hurt Japan with missiles, but it can attack SK or unleash a portion of their sleeper saboteurs against SK.

Frankly I don’t see China getting drawn in, there is no benefit to them, hopefully they have the resources in place and plans to deal with the Nutbar leader and replace him with someone they trust.