SunWuKong
09-02-2003, 09:12 PM
The socialist roots of the Korea crisis
By Jeffrey Robertson
The current nuclear crisis is inextricably linked to the long-term failure of the North Korean economy - a problem that arguably cannot be solved without revolutionary change.
Contrary to accepted public opinion, the current nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula did not start last October 16 with a public statement by US assistant secretary of state James Kelly alleging that North Korea had admitted to the possession of a highly enriched uranium program. Nor did it start with an earlier North Korean decision to commence a covert nuclear-weapons program in response to what it saw as an increased threat from an enraged United States, which had labeled it a member of the near-comic-book trio the "axis of evil". To determine the starting point of the current nuclear crisis we need to step farther back in history to the earliest signs of decay in a once promising socialist paradise.
Indeed, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was once a proud standard-bearer for the international proletarian revolution. During the 1960s the now-cliched propaganda posters reflected a society that could vividly recount the brave struggles fought by small bands of revolutionaries against the Imperial Japanese Army in Manchuria. Its relatively quick recovery from the Korean War and the continuing although often stifled support from like-minded groups in South Korea kept alive the dream that a unified Korea would emerge from a groundswell of public support and opposition to the continued dominance of what were, perhaps rightly, perceived as "imperialist lackey governments" in the undemocratic South.
more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EI03Dg04.html)
By Jeffrey Robertson
The current nuclear crisis is inextricably linked to the long-term failure of the North Korean economy - a problem that arguably cannot be solved without revolutionary change.
Contrary to accepted public opinion, the current nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula did not start last October 16 with a public statement by US assistant secretary of state James Kelly alleging that North Korea had admitted to the possession of a highly enriched uranium program. Nor did it start with an earlier North Korean decision to commence a covert nuclear-weapons program in response to what it saw as an increased threat from an enraged United States, which had labeled it a member of the near-comic-book trio the "axis of evil". To determine the starting point of the current nuclear crisis we need to step farther back in history to the earliest signs of decay in a once promising socialist paradise.
Indeed, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was once a proud standard-bearer for the international proletarian revolution. During the 1960s the now-cliched propaganda posters reflected a society that could vividly recount the brave struggles fought by small bands of revolutionaries against the Imperial Japanese Army in Manchuria. Its relatively quick recovery from the Korean War and the continuing although often stifled support from like-minded groups in South Korea kept alive the dream that a unified Korea would emerge from a groundswell of public support and opposition to the continued dominance of what were, perhaps rightly, perceived as "imperialist lackey governments" in the undemocratic South.
more... (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EI03Dg04.html)