From John Beacham at Liberation News:
To me, the new sanctions make it once again very, very clear: In the conflict between North Korea and Washington, the United States is the aggressor.
On the basis of an unsubstantiated allegation that the DPRK hacked Sony, President Obama decided to increase economic sanctions on one of the most sanctioned countries in the history of the world. That—in reality—is an unprovoked act of war. U.S. sanctions, in the service of U.S. imperialism, cause suffering and death and are often a precursor to barbarous military onslaughts that destroy entire countries.
On the most basic level, we must all stand up and say that we refuse to let the DPRK become another Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya. The defense of Korean sovereignty is the basic duty of all revolutionaries and progressives.
But there is another component to the sanctions: The United States is not sanctioning the DPRK for the Sony hack. How could that be so—especially considering how utterly flimsy the “evidence” is.
The sanctions are meant to send a warning signal to all of Asia, and especially China and Russia, that the U.S. is very much focused on its “role” in Asia. They are meant to help reassure Japan and South Korea that the United States is ready to flex its muscles. Wall Street is very concerned about Washington losing ground in Asia, especially now that we’ve entered an era of greater hostility between Russia, China and the United States.
In other words, the defense of the DPRK’s sovereignty is central to the opposition to U.S. aggression in Asia.
What is the real ‘crime’ of North Korea?
The DPRK, though it has survived and come out of a period of horrible crisis that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union, is still a poor and vindictively isolated country. Technically speaking, the U.S. has been at war with the DPRK since 1950.
The U.S. has led a global effort, spending many millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money to strangle the country in the last two decades. The DPRK has been the subject of the most objectionable anti-Asian racism in Washington, in the media and especially in Hollywood.
They would have you believe that North Koreans are mindlessly brainwashed, tortured, starved and humiliated, that their suffering is being caused by a despotic and crazy regime—all of which is backed up by the most virulent forms of racist caricature and stereotype.
But let’s be honest. The people of the United States know extremely little about the society of the DPRK, and there is very little about what happens inside North Korea that we can be sure about. The DPRK has adopted, in the face of decades of the most severe imperialist aggression, a self-reliant approach to the world that prioritizes defense and security.
Considering the way the United States treats independent countries in the world, the defensive posture of the DPRK is entirely understandable. After all, independence and the right to defend yourself and your country from destruction and domination is a basic human right that all peace-loving people must defend.
Even if you believe every “human rights” accusation against the DPRK (I don’t), what right does the U.S. or United Nations have to carry out the investigations or the “punishment?” Even more than that: Why should we buy into the campaign against the DPRK at all? The United States, which has tried to make the DPRK the world’s #1 pariah, is itself the world’s #1 human rights abuser.
The human rights abuses of the United States not only include mass incarceration of people based on the color of their skin, an epidemic of racist police terror, globalized torture programs and the mass murder of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. They also include carrying out the genocide of 3 million Koreans in the Korean War, a war fought under the banners of the United Nations, the starvation of thousands of people in the DPRK under a brutal regime of sanctions and isolation, and the support of numerous South Korean human rights abuses and massacres.
What has allowed the DPRK to survive in the face of such severe aggression at the hands of the world’s most violently aggressive country? Is it really brainwashing and brutality or is it the fact that they have fiercely stood their ground against imperialism and have an independent economy based on a socialist ideal of people working together and sharing?
North Korea has faced a tough battle, one that’s very difficult for many people in the U.S. to understand. We must do whatever we can to patiently, but confidently, struggle to win our sisters and brothers over to defending the DPRK’s right to self-defense, socialist ideals and independence.
John Beacham is a community college teacher, union member and anti-war organizer based in Chicago. He is running for alderman in the 49th ward.
Gonna be a bit of a nerd here: North Korea isn’t communist. The Kim dynasty abandoned Marxism-Leninism in favor of Juche, or “Socialism of Our Style”. It’s similar in practice to the far-right model of Japan circa WWII. The DPRK has more in common with the AFP than the PSL.
Technically, I suppose you’re right, although I think the actual differences between communism and fascism are rather trivial. They are both extreme forms of authoritarianism, verging on complete totalitarianism. The distinction is primarily semantic.
It is true that sanctions may be a part of war, or an act intended to prepare for war. But to say that it is an act of war for a country to refuse to trade with you opens up a Pandora’s box. If refusal to trade with you is an act of war, then by implication, you are justified in using force to end the sanctions and force the trade.
There is a difference between opposing impediments to trade and favoring forced trade. Your 1973 analogy fails, if for no other reason than invading the Middle East to “take the oil” would amount to theft, plain and simple. The oil does not belong to the U.S. government. However, it also does not belong to any of the governments in the Middle East, and therefore, they have no right to prohibit or restrict its sale in any way.
To put it more simply, sanctions may not be “an act of war”, but they are definitely an act of aggression, and are therefore unjustifiable.
NK is a fascist state morphing into absolute monarchy.
“Sanctions on North Korea are almost pointless, because the regime has nothing to export…”
Really? I thought they were the number one supplier of black market small arms to the world.
Sanctions on North Korea are almost pointless, because the regime has nothing to export, and nothing to pay for imports with. Sanctions will not necessarily hurt the North Korean people, who have already been deprived by their regime of virtually everything above starvation rations, when they can supply those.
But it is problematic to declare that “sanctions are an act of war.” It is true that sanctions may be a part of war, or an act intended to prepare for war. But to say that it is an act of war for a country to refuse to trade with you opens up a Pandora’s box. If refusal to trade with you is an act of war, then by implication, you are justified in using force to end the sanctions and force the trade.
By that logic, the reactionaries were justified when, during the Arab oil boycott of 1973, they advocated invading the Middle East to take the oil. That is logic consistent with saying that “sanctions are an act of war.”
Gonna be a bit of a nerd here: North Korea isn’t communist. The Kim dynasty abandoned Marxism-Leninism in favor of Juche, or “Socialism of Our Style”. It’s similar in practice to the far-right model of Japan circa WWII. The DPRK has more in common with the AFP than the PSL.
While I find the author’s obvious admiration for the Communist regime in North Korea to be ludicrous, he does make some good points about the hypocrisy of the U.S. And of course, there’s also the fact that sanctions hurt the people far more than the rulers.
As for Obama’s motivation, I strongly suspect that, among other things, he’s trying to take the focus off the growing unrest at home, particularly with regard to the epidemic of police abuse.
Obama is clearly an unthinking puppet. The agenda was to impose sanctions on North Korea, for some reason and, even though we all know now that North Korea didn’t do the hacking, Obama placed the sanctions anyway. The Powers That Be really do think the people in the US are stupid.