North Korea denounces “rubbish-like provisions” of H.R. 757

It is my great honor to report, if somewhat belatedly, that for the second time, North Korean state media have denounced something I had a part in writing. While searching the Korean Central News Agency for an article on UNSCR 2270, I stumbled upon this:

A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry issued the following statement on Saturday;
The U.S. is getting evermore frantic with the anti-DPRK campaign obsessed with inveterate hostility toward it.
“2016 North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act” passed through the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and it took effect after Obama signed it on February 18. The act is peppered with rubbish-like provisions calling for obstructing the normal economic and trading activities of the DPRK while intensifying psychological warfare for internal destabilization and plot-breeding over “human rights issue”.
The U.S. scenario to hold in check the DPRK’s implementation of the line of simultaneously developing the two fronts through despicable sanctions and psychological warfare is as foolish as trying to get the sun eclipsed by palms.

KCNA is unlinkable, so I’ve posted the full article below the fold for posterity.

Recall that last May Day, no less, the North Koreans also denounced my report documenting North Korea’s extensive state sponsorship of terrorism. So while I have not earned the supreme honor of being called “human scum,” “plot-breeder, with oak leaf cluster” is still a high honor.

When I was a boy, my father once dissuaded me from fighting with my younger brother by teaching me that a man is judged by the size of my enemies. I don’t suppose he imagined then that one day, I would have enemies with nuclear weapons and assassination squads.

In conclusion, it has been quite a week.

U.S. Anti-DPRK Sanctions Denounced

Pyongyang, February 20 (KCNA) — A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry issued the following statement on Saturday;
The U.S. is getting evermore frantic with the anti-DPRK campaign obsessed with inveterate hostility toward it.
“2016 North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act” passed through the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and it took effect after Obama signed it on February 18. The act is peppered with rubbish-like provisions calling for obstructing the normal economic and trading activities of the DPRK while intensifying psychological warfare for internal destabilization and plot-breeding over “human rights issue”.
The U.S. scenario to hold in check the DPRK’s implementation of the line of simultaneously developing the two fronts through despicable sanctions and psychological warfare is as foolish as trying to get the sun eclipsed by palms.
Sanctions do not work on the DPRK as it has been subject to the U.S. harsh sanctions more than half a century. The DPRK manufactured even H-bomb entirely on the basis of its self-development principle despite the sanctions.
It is the unanimous view of the international community that sanctions and threats cannot help settle the issue of the Korean Peninsula but make it more complicated.
The DPRK can never overlook the fact that the campaign launched by the U.S. while branding the DPRK’s just measure for self-defence as an act of disturbing peace is aimed at bringing down the socialist system in the DPRK, cradle of worthwhile life and happiness of its people.
The U.S. has often repeated the assertion that sanctions are not targeting the people of the DPRK and their living but this time it openly blustered that the essence of its policy toward the DPRK is to suffocate its overall national economy and bring down its social system.
This proves that the U.S. remains unchanged in its hostile policy aimed at physically eliminating the state and people of the DPRK and is going beyond the tolerance limit, far from weakening.
The U.S. is working hard to use the “human rights issue” as an excuse for slapping sanctions in a sinister bid to bring down the social system of the DPRK but the harsh economic sanctions mean the worst abuse of the human rights of its people and the U.S., a kingpin of human rights abuses, is bound to be punished for them.
The desperate moves of the U.S. will only harden the unshakable will of the service personnel and people of the DPRK to firmly defend the most advantageous socialist system whereby they fully enjoy their genuine human rights and to proudly build an economic giant and a highly civilized nation under the unfurled banner of the self-development-first principle.
The harsher the U.S. becomes in its hostile policy, the more firmly the DPRK will stick to its line of simultaneously pushing forward economic construction and the building of nuclear force. -0-

6 Responses

  1. First being commended by Ed Royce, then being condemned by Koreans Creating Nonsense and Annoyance. You’re on a roll, Josh. 🙂

  2. I’m almost surprised that KCNA would bring up the human rights accusations…that is playing with fire as they must be undeniable to anyone in country, even if the elites are the only ones with access to the propaganda papers and state television.

    I must admit that I do enjoy the shakespearian tongue that the KCNA uses at times, especially when insulting someone or describing the futility of efforts against the mighty DPRK “trying to get the sun eclipsed by palms”. Post-unification, I think a lot of KCNA’s writers will have no problem finding jobs as poets.

  3. Don’t assume that North Korea’s propaganda for external consumption is the same as its propaganda for internal consumption. In his new book, “North Korea’s Juche Myth,” Prof. B.R. Myers devotes considerable attention to the differences between Pyongyang’s “outer-track” and “inner-track” propaganda. Recall, for example, that KCNA’s most racist screeds against President Obama weren’t translated into English at all. This was probably a case of “middle-track” propaganda, targeting left-leaning ethnic Koreans.

  4. Joshua, just looked for that book and it’s not on Kindle yet but will pick it up as soon as it is available. Very interesting and I wasn’t aware there was a concerted difference between different KCNA for different audiences. Thanks for the heads up