Home   >   News   >   North Korea   >   Facing new sanction threats, North Koreans defiant as ever

Facing new sanction threats, North Koreans defiant as ever

February 15, 2016
Men pump their fists in the air and chant "Defend!" as they carry propaganda slogans calling for reunification of their country during the "Pyongyang Mass Rally on the Day of the Struggle Against the U.S.," attended by approximately 100,000 North Koreans to mark the 65th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War at the Kim Il Sung stadium, Thursday, June 25, 2015, in Pyongyang, North Korea. The month of June in North Korea is known as the "Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism Month" and it's a time for North Koreans to swarm to war museums, mobilize for gatherings denouncing the evils of the United States and join in a general, nationwide whipping up of the anti-American sentiment. The banner at right reads: Issue an Order." (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

Men pump their fists in the air and chant “Defend!” as they carry propaganda slogans calling for reunification of their country during the “Pyongyang Mass Rally on the Day of the Struggle Against the U.S.,” attended by approximately 100,000 North Koreans to mark the 65th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War at the Kim Il Sung stadium, Thursday, June 25, 2015, in Pyongyang, North Korea. The month of June in North Korea is known as the “Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism Month” and it’s a time for North Koreans to swarm to war museums, mobilize for gatherings denouncing the evils of the United States and join in a general, nationwide whipping up of the anti-American sentiment. The banner at right reads: Issue an Order.” (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — The United States and Japan have already announced plans for new sanctions over North Korea’s recent nuclear test and rocket launch, and the U.N. Security Council is likely to deliver more soon. Cross-border tensions with Seoul are escalating quickly and even China is starting to sound more like an angry neighbor than a comrade-in-arms.

But with a storm brewing all around them, North Koreans have their own take on things — and it’s decidedly unapologetic.

Pyongyang started off the new year with what it claims was its first hydrogen bomb test and followed that up with the launch of a satellite on a rocket condemned by much of the world as a test of banned missile technology. When Seoul responded by closing down an industrial park that is the last symbol of cooperation between the two rivals, Pyongyang lashed back, expelling all South Koreans from the site just north of the Demilitarized Zone and putting it under military control.

It’s America’s fault.

“It’s not right for the U.S. to tell our country not to have nuclear bombs,” Pak Mi Hyang, a 22-year-old children’s camp worker, told The Associated Press as she walked with a friend near Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on Sunday. “The U.S. has a lot of them and tells us not to have any. It’s not fair. We’ve been living with sanctions for a long time and we are not afraid.”

Candor in street interviews is rare in North Korea. Pak and others who agreed to be interviewed by the AP were mindful of the fact that speaking out of turn can have severe repercussions, especially when talking to an American journalist with his North Korean escort.

“We have a lot of hatred toward Americans,” Pak said, politely, before walking on.

It hard to discern exactly how much of that is political correctness, North Korean style.

But anti-U.S. sentiment in this country does run deep, for good reason.

That is partly because the relentless propaganda that depicts Washington — which has made no secret of its desire for regime change — as its biggest existential threat. But it also reflects the brutality of the Korean War, which left millions of Koreans dead and most of North Korea’s cities and industrial base in ruins.

Though called the “Forgotten War” in America, it is anything but forgotten in North Korea. It is used by authorities to rally the nation around anti-U.S. feeling and a common outside enemy, and it also resonates with many North Koreans who remember wartime suffering or have family or friends who died in the fighting, which the North says was started by the United States and South Korea.

And since the 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, the U.S. is still technically and literally “the enemy.”

Reflecting that sentiment, Kim Cho Yong, a 49-year-old who works at the ministry of coal mining industry, said he feels “proud of the H-bomb.”

“We made a big step in making bombs so we are not afraid of any attacks from the enemies,” he said. “No enemy can attack us because we have an H-bomb.”

North Korea’s media has also tried mightily to show the public that nuclear tests, rocket launches and other acts condemned by the U.S. and its close allies are seen by countries outside Washington’s sphere of influence as symbols of national pride, socialist progress and strength. Every day brings new praise from places like Guinea and Bangladesh or political organizations such as the Workers’ Party of Hungary and the Group of Youth for the Study of Kim Jong Il Juche Idea in Vienna.

Even so, Pyongyang’s message has always been twofold: North Korea has every right to defend itself against a U.S. government bent on bringing it down, but if Washington would give up its hostile policies, it would be willing to seek peace, too.

The only realistic way to turn the situation around on the Korean Peninsula, Pyongyang has long said, is for Washington to remove its troops from the South — or at least stop its huge annual war games there — and start talks toward normalizing relations and negotiating a peace treaty.

“The U.S.’s ceaseless military threat and nuclear blackmail against the DPRK are precisely the reason why the nuclear issue in the Korean Peninsula was spawned and still remains unsettled,” the official Minju Joson newspaper said in an editorial Sunday using the acronym for the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “The only solution to it is to put an end to the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK.”

In Washington, of course, that position is seen as a non-starter. North Korea must, it claims, make the first move and dismantle its nuclear program.

Taking a deep dive into the U.S. media to suggest that even many Americans question that logic, the North’s official news agency, KCNA, on Sunday cited articles on the popular website Reddit and a recent issue of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that hit two of Pyongyang’s favored themes — failed U.S. policy toward the North and the need to engage, not isolate.

“Our country wants peace, and if the U.S. wants peace too then there will be peace,” said Pak, the children’s camp worker.

But she added that right now, as her country is once again coming under the threat of sanctions that will probably have a negative impact on her daily life, North Korea in her eyes is only growing stronger.

“I feel proud to be a member of the Korean nation,” she said.

Each move brought a new round of international outrage. But while the motives of Kim Jong Un’s regime are — as usual — a matter of speculation, ask a North Korean what’s going on and the reply is swift, indignant and well-practiced.

One Comment

  1. Horangih Gomtoki

    February 15, 2016 at 6:37 PM

    North Korea is ruled by a vile regime. The Kim Dynasty is petty and tyrannical. It is vain and egomaniacal. If a nation were ruled by trashy K-pop celebrities, it would be like North Korea. Kim Jong Un rules North Korea like he’s the Korean Idol or some spoiled pop star. Everything is ‘me, me, me.’ He is a pig.

    BUT, United States is most to blame for the problems in Korea.
    Let’s go back to 1945. It was US’s decision to divide Korea, an innocent nation. US requested Soviets to enter Korea. US offered the northern half to Russia and took southern half.
    So, North Korea was the creation of the US. If US had not asked USSR to advance into Korea, Korea would have remained whole.

    But no one wants to talk about this. US doesn’t want to talk about it because it would have to take responsibility for Korea’s tragic fate. South Korea doesn’t want to talk about it because it is a political puppet and whore of US. North Korea doesn’t want to talk about it because it doesn’t want to admit that its very existence owes to US-initiated policy(of dividing Korea with Russia). Sadly, the real truth as to how Korea became tragically divided is hardly known among many Koreans and Americans.

    And US never takes responsibility. Japan admitted its colonial past in Korea. But US never admits that it played the key role in the division of Korea. US also hasn’t admitted to aerial holocaust over North Korea. US dropped more bombs on North Korea than all the bombs dropped in the Pacific War in WWII. US policy was to kill as many North Koreans as possible. Women and babies too. US killed many more innocent Koreans than Japanese ever did. But there is only silence from the US. US bombing of North Korea went far beyond military. There was an effort to wipe out as many Koreans as possible. 25% of all people in the north died in the war. It produced great profits for US military-industrial complex.

    Also, since end of WWII, US has been using Korean women as whores and wives. US took over half million Korean women and used their wombs to make babies for American men. South Korea has been a whore and sex slave of the US. American men think they have a special claim on Korean wombs. American men think Korean wombs exist to be used to make babies for American men. And Korean women welcome this because they admire American men as superior to Korean men. And Korean men have come to accept this(and even celebrate their inferior status vis-a-vis American men) because they believe their #1 role in life is to serve the US and win American approval. South Korea is also trying to have ‘gay marriage’ because US pressures it to have it. Whatever US had, South Korea must have too. SK is a whore of US. South Korea is no longer any independent nation. It is just a commonwealth of the US empire.

    Because SK is a useful whore, US wants a divided Korea forever. If Korea unites, then US military will have no reason to remain in Korea, and Korea will move closer to China. So, US provokes tensions in the region so that SK will remain whore of US.
    The problem is with the US than with any other nation. Russia and China want good relations with both north and south Korea. But US will not make peace with North Korea. Yes, North Korea is ruled by evil people, but then, so is the US.
    US cooked up lies and deceptions to destroy Iraq, Libya, and Syria. US backs Israel that was created through massive ethnic cleansing of Palestinians whose fate is more tragic than that of Koreans living under Japanese imperialism. And It was US that divided Korea in the first place even though Korea was an innocent victim nation. Why was Korea punished most after WWII when it had nothing to do with the war? Why did Japan remain whole and united but Korea was divided? Why did US do such an evil thing? It was indeed evil to divide an innocent nation that had been victimized, especially since the division led to war that killed 3 million Koreans.

    US calls itself a democracy, but it has acted like an imperialist power since end of Cold War. It destroyed entire nations in the Middle East. Madeline Albright said it was worth it to starve 500,000 Iraqi women and children to death. US government starves innocent people to death just like North Korea does.

    Also, why should North Korea give up its nukes and WMD? When Gaddafi gave up his, US promised him peace and a new beginning.
    Instead, the US toppled him, and he was lynched to death by terrorists.
    So, why should North Korea trust the US? US is ruled by liars who never keep their promises. North Korean leaders are vile, but surely it’s understandable why they don’t want to end up like Gaddafi.

    Furthermore, even though North Korea is ruled by rotten leaders, it didn’t invade foreign nations like US had done. North Korea didn’t starve all those people in Iraq. North Korea didn’t destroy Libya and foment a coup in Ukraine. North Korea didn’t support Alqaeda terrorists in Syria like the US has done in order to weaken Assad.

    North Koreans live in their own nation. In contrast, Zionists occupy Palestinian lands, and US fully backs Zionist imperialism against Palestinians. Just because a nation is a democracy doesn’t mean it has the right to bomb other nations, invade other nations, and kill millions around the world. But US and Israel invoke their ‘democracy’ as excuse to invade and destroy entire nations.

    I’m not defending the vile regime of North Korea. But Korean-Americans and South Koreans should stop defending America that has become an imperialist power destroying so much of humanity. Remember this: North Koreans didn’t destroy Iraq, Libya, and Syria. North Koreans don’t occupy Palestinian land. No, US did all that, and US backs Zionists who still oppress Palestinians who suffer like Koreans under Japanese rule.

    Reply