N. Korea threatens to shell Blue House over U.N. vote (It’s not just about balloons)

At my comments section, also known as The Diplomat, two recent articles take opposing views on ideas I’ve written about at length here. The first piece, by Zach Przystup, entitled “Pyongyang’s Poverty Politics,” argues that the regime in Pyongyang deliberately keeps large segments of its population hungry. It’s a question I’ve struggled with for years, but the more I know, the more difficult it becomes to avoid that conclusion.

Then, Steven Denney posts a “respectful riposte” to my criticism of the South Korean left for its illiberal authoritarianism, particularly when it comes to ideas that challenge the totalitarians in Pyongyang. Denney agrees with my post in part, conceding the existence of censorship during previous left-wing governments. His principal criticism is that my argument wasn’t nuanced enough to catch the vibrancy of the NPAD’s intra-partisan debates.

Please note, however, that in the post that is the subject of Denney’s riposte, I linked (but chose not to rehash) a previous OFK post that described the battle for the NPAD’s ideological soul in depth, even expressing my hope that moderate views might finally prevail in the NPAD. I don’t believe I’ve ever characterized the entire Korean left as authoritarian, but it’s fair to say that I generalized. It’s also evident which faction has won the argument, at least for now. When the leaders of the “mainstream” left-opposition NPAD introduce legislation to censor leafleting — without any apparent opposition — I think it’s fair to generalize the views of the NPAD as favoring censorship of anti-North Korean speech.

(As for the other “left” party, the fringe UPP, goes, I’m not sure Mr. Denney really wants to go there, although the UPP is also riven into opposed factions.)

I would agree (or at least hope) that Lim Su Kyung doesn’t represent the NPAD’s future. Now, would Denney deny that Chung Dong Young or Moon Jae In might? The latter came within a few percentage points of winning the presidency in 2012, and both men represent continuity with the Roh Moo Hyun years, which were marked by troubling censorship, among other forms of appeasement.

Like my old friend Assemblyman Ha Tae Kyung, who I would describe as a classical liberal, I have my own tactical disagreements with the leafleters, even as I insist that a civil democracy must defend their right to speak freely. In the New York Times op-ed that Prof. Sung-Yoon Lee and I recently co-wrote, we suggested that the launches should be moved away from populated areas as a precaution to protect the safety of local residents. Of course, if the South Korean government gave financial support for radio broadcasting, allowed activists to broadcast on the medium wave spectrum, or (imagine this!) did its own broadcasting, crude (if telegenic) methods like balloon launches wouldn’t be necessary. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Not that any such change in medium would satisfy North Korea, which, not so long ago, threatened to shell the offices of South Korean newspapers for printing criticism of its regime. Pyongyang’s latest threat is timely for purposes of this discussion. It has threatened war over South Korea’s vote for a U.N. General Assembly resolution criticizing the North for its crimes against humanity:

We would like to question the Park Geun Hye group busy billing the adoption of the above-said “resolution” as a sort of a significant event. Does she think Chongwadae will be safe if guns roar for aggression and a nuclear war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula? Can she prolong her remaining days in America after leaving south Korea?

The article doesn’t portend well for the thaw in North Korea’s relationship with Japan, either.

Japan, political pigmy, would be well advised to behave itself properly, cogitating about what miserable end it will meet.

Once a sacred war is launched to protect the sovereignty of the DPRK, not only the U.S. but the Park Geun Hye group and Japan will have to be hit hard and sent to the bottom of the sea.

We probably aren’t far from the day when Pyongyang can make good on that threat.

The UN also can never evade the responsibility for the catastrophic consequences entailed by what happened there. All this is the DPRK’s response to the “human rights” racket of the U.S.-led hostile forces. [KCNA, Nov. 23, 2014]

I’ve posted KCNA’s  entire missive below the fold, along with grafs from two other KCNA rants that accuse the South of a “a declaration of an all-out war” and threaten to attack the South for supporting the General Assembly resolution condemning the North’s human rights record.

President Bush removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008. The Obama Administration’s official view is that North Korea is “not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since the bombing of a Korean Airlines flight in 1987.” Discuss among yourselves.

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Denney, I think, sanitizes the view of the Korean left a bit too much when he summarizes it this way: “Do not engage in acts that could unnecessarily provoke or offend the North Korean regime, because this will only make genuine engagement and possible rapprochement harder, if not impossible.”

Leaving aside the question of whether genuine engagement and rapprochement with Kim Jong Un are remotely plausible, isn’t the word “unnecessarily” an example of the “no true Scotsman” fallacy? One struggles to find examples of even mild criticism of Pyongyang that Uri and Minju-led governments weren’t willing to censor when they were in power. Under their leadership, South Korea repeatedly abstained from General Assembly resolutions on human rights in the North. We can be fairly certain that had Moon Jae-In won the last election, South Korea would not be supporting action in the U.N. today.

For years, the NPAD and its predecessors blocked a human rights law that would fund some of the civic groups that oppose Pyongyang’s abuses … maybe even civic groups that want to broadcast to North Korea, over the radio. The Saenuri Party, possibly shamed that the U.N. is showing South Korea to be a passive bystander to the brutality of its kindred in the North, is again trying to force the issue:

The National Assembly has been slow to handle bills addressing North Korea’s human rights situation due mainly to opposition parties’ concerns that they could anger Pyongyang and worsen the already strained cross-border ties.

In their deliberations, the rival parties are expected to clash over the issue of giving assistance to civic groups engaged in flying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border. [Yonhap]

More recently, the NPAD has shifted strategy, supporting an alternative “human rights” bill that would amount to another aid giveaway for Pyongyang.

The point being this: this argument is about much more than leaflets or balloons. It’s about North Korea’s deliberate state policy of using the threat of violence to shut down any form of criticism in South Korea, and Pyongyang’s refusal to coexist with even nonviolent criticism, regardless of the medium, and without regard to whether the speaker is a fire-eating activist, the President of the Republic, the United States, or the United Nations General Assembly.

That is, it’s the message, not the medium. If the NPAD thinks that censoring free expression to shrink from those threats is appropriate at certain times, it should say where the censorship would end, and when it would finally stand firm and defend the rights of Koreans on either side of the DMZ to speak, print, read, and think freely. The question is whether South Korea chooses to remain a free society.

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Correction: In my haste to promote Steven Denney to his rightful station in life, I assigned him the title “Professor,” prematurely, as it turns out. Mr. Denney writes in to note that he’s still working on his doctorate.

S. Korean Puppet Regime Flayed for Taking Lead in Adoption of Anti-DPRK “Human Rights Resolution”

Pyongyang, November 22 (KCNA) — The Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea Saturday issued information bulletin No. 1080 condemning the south Korean puppet regime for joining those states which co-sponsored the railroading of the anti-DPRK “human rights resolution” through the UN session.

The information bulletin said:

It is the south Korean puppet regime which cried out for the adoption of the “resolution” with the information full of lies, fabrications and plots, while begging for the cooperation for the anti-DPRK “human rights” campaign. It is also the regime which, not content with arranging interview of human scum by riff raffs of the international community in south Korea, let them present “testimonies” in the international arenas. [….]

The south Korean puppet group actively joined the U.S. manipulation of the provocative “human rights resolution” against the DPRK while kowtowing to the U.S. This is little short of a declaration of an all-out war against the social system and people of the DPRK. The DPRK will neither remain a passive onlooker to the puppet forces’ “human rights” racket nor pardon anyone who provokes its dignity, social system and people even a bit with the “human rights” as a pretext. [….]

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KPA and People Will Not to Tolerate “Human Rights” Racket of U.S. and Its Allies: NDC of DPRK

Pyongyang, November 23 (KCNA) — The National Defence Commission (NDC) of the DPRK issued the following statement Sunday:

    We have already seriously warned of the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by the reckless anti-DPRK “human rights” racket kicked up by the U.S. and its followers.

    This warning was aimed to help cool their heads overheated by confrontation and hostile policy, though belatedly, and refrain from committing another anachronistic criminal act of challenging justice after judging the gravity of the situation with reason.

    This measure taken by the DPRK aroused deep sympathy of the public at home and abroad and various righteous and upright countries made every possible effort to put the situation under control while voicing opposition to the U.S.-orchestrated “human rights” racket against the DPRK.

    We feel sincerely thankful for this and will always remember it.

    However, the U.S., steeped in brigandish bad habit, finally perpetrated such reckless action as fabricating the anti-DPRK “resolution on human rights” at the UN by manipulating riff-raffs bereft of elementary view and principle, instead of thinking twice.

    The U.S. let the EU and Japan draft the “resolution” and UN member states blindly following and obeying it voted for it.

    This hideous charade staged in the international arena is a shameless, politically-motivated farce to suppress justice with injustice and cover truth with lies and the height of impudent burlesque to deceive the world people with plots and fabrications.

    What happened there is lashing our service personnel and people into great fury and their determination to make retaliation against this is running high.

    The U.S. and its followers are now unable to escape merciless punishment for daring impair the prestige of the DPRK and foolishly trying to bring down the socialist system, the cradle of our people.

    They adopted the extremely unreasonable “resolution on human rights” against the DPRK and, not content with this, continue behaving impudently as if they had put it in an awkward position. The NDC of the DPRK solemnly declares the following principled stand in this regard:

    Firstly, our army and people categorically deny and reject the “resolution on human rights” fabricated by the U.S. and its allies by abusing the UN.

    We have never recognized any “resolution” worked out by the U.S.-led undesirable hostile forces to encroach upon our sovereignty and vital rights.

    The same is the case with the present “resolution.”

    This is because the “resolution” is a fabrication made on the basis of misinformation provided by a handful of human scum who fled the country after committing unpardonable crimes before it and its people and abandoning their native places and parents and wives and children.

    It is also because the “resolution” is a product of political fraud as it was railroaded through highhanded and arbitrary practices, allurement and bribery by hostile forces including the U.S., without expression of the free will of UN member states who sympathize with justice and value conscience.

    Worse still, the “resolution” was adopted under the manipulation of the U.S. which has sought the infringement upon our sovereignty in violation of the UN Charter which considers respect for the sovereignty of all countries and non-interference in their internal affairs as a basic principle.

    This “resolution” may work on those poor guys who throw away human dignity like a pair of old shoes, steeped in sycophancy and submission.

    But it can never work on the DPRK, highly dignified with independence and demonstrating its might with self-defence and self-reliance.

    The U.S. and Japan are the worst human rights abusers as they have mercilessly trampled down the peoples’ rights to exist, live and develop and took countless human lives in Korea and other parts of the world for centuries. And such riff-raffs as the Park Geun Hye group of south Korea kowtowing to them joined them in sponsoring the above-said “resolution” reminiscent of a thief crying “Stop the thief!” This cannot but be a tragicomedy unprecedented in history.

    Our army and people urge the Obama administration to make a formal apology by bending its knees before us for its crimes.

    This stand of ours is a warning served to Japan and riff-raffs of the EU as well as the Park Geun Hye group that they can also never go scot-free.

    This stand of the DPRK is, at the same time, a warning served to the UN to make haste to take a fair measure to put the situation under control, though belatedly.

    The UN needs to seriously recollect the time when the DPRK declared a just nuclear thunder to defend its supreme interests 20 odd years back.

    Secondly, our army and people will take an unprecedented toughest measure for mercilessly smashing the heinous “human rights” campaign against the DPRK as it has already declared.

    The recent “resolution” is a full revelation of the hostile intention to stamp out everything dear to our army and people.

    Human rights precisely mean the right to independence and the sovereignty of a relevant country.

    Therefore, the brigandish “resolution” against the DPRK’s genuine human rights means the most undisguised war declaration to infringe upon its sovereignty.

    The recent “resolution” dared take issue with the dignity of our supreme leadership. This fact alone goes to prove that the sponsors of the “resolution” and all those involved in its adoption deserve a severe punishment.

    This is because the dignity of the supreme leadership means the destiny of the DPRK which cannot be bartered for anything.

    The U.S. is the primary target of our toughest countermeasure.

    The U.S. has run the whole gamut of hostile policies including the political isolation, economic blockade and military pressure upon the DPRK.

    As the U.S. found all this unworkable on the DPRK, it is making desperate efforts to use the “human rights issue” for creating a new theatre for invasion under the pretext of armed intervention.

    We will take toughest counteraction against the U.S. as already declared before the world, as long as its “human rights” racket and its hostile actions go on.

    Japan, too, can never escape this toughest counteraction of the DPRK.

    It is the sworn enemy of the Korean people as it committed thrice-cursed crimes, crudely violating their human rights from the beginning of the last century like the U.S.

    It is disgusting for Japan to pull up the DPRK over its genuine human rights just to please the U.S., far from repenting of its crime-woven past.

    Japan should bear in mind that if it continues behaving as now, it will disappear from the world map for good, not just remaining a near yet distant country.

    The Park Geun Hye group is also the main target of the DPRK’s toughest counteraction as it has turned the whole of south Korea into the worst tundra of human rights.

    We warned it enough to understand that its improper tongue-lashing would end in cutting off its head. It, however, is still busy talking rubbish about somebody’s nukes and “human rights” and a sort of life.

    It would be well advised to realize itself what miserable end its heinous confrontation with compatriots will bring.

    Availing ourselves of this opportunity, we would like to urge the UN to come to its senses and awaken itself.

    If the UN allows the U.S. to turn the inviolable political arena into a mayhem under the sway of its highhanded and arbitrary practices, abandoning the principle of impartiality and equity and its original mission and role, it will be hard to maintain its existence amid the world people’s condemnation.

    Our army and people can never overlook the insult to their genuine human rights and the infringement upon their right to independence and sovereignty.

    Time will prove what high price those who unreasonably violated the dignity of the DPRK despite its repeated warnings will have to pay.

    Thirdly, the U.S. and its followers will be wholly accountable for the unimaginable and catastrophic consequences to be entailed by the frantic “human right” racket against the DPRK.

    We offered the U.S. a series of opportunities of redeeming its crimes by turning over a new leaf.

    Recently, the DPRK treated with magnanimity U.S. high-ranking officials who came here, bringing with them Obama’s personal letter and showed such humanitarian leniency to several American criminals who were sentenced to heavy penalties for violating the law of the DPRK.

    Nevertheless, the U.S. responded to it with the frantic “human rights” racket against the DPRK.

    We would like to question the Park Geun Hye group busy billing the adoption of the above-said “resolution” as a sort of a significant event.

    Does she think Chongwadae will be safe if guns roar for aggression and a nuclear war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula?

    Can she prolong her remaining days in America after leaving south Korea?

    Japan, political pigmy, would be well advised to behave itself properly, cogitating about what miserable end it will meet.

    Once a sacred war is launched to protect the sovereignty of the DPRK, not only the U.S. but the Park Geun Hye group and Japan will have to be hit hard and sent to the bottom of the sea.

    The UN also can never evade the responsibility for the catastrophic consequences entailed by what happened there.

    All this is the DPRK’s response to the “human rights” racket of the U.S.-led hostile forces.

    Nobody can infringe upon the DPRK’s sacred and supreme interests.

    It is the firm stand of the army and people of the DPRK not to tolerate the U.S. and its followers’ vicious “human rights” racket.

    The sponsors of the “resolution” and all those involved in its adoption will repent bitterly. -0-

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S. Korean Authorities Accused of Escalating “Human Rights” Racket against North

Pyongyang, November 24 (KCNA) — The National Reconciliation Council in a statement Monday accused the south Korean puppet group of its zealous involvement in the fabrication of the “human rights resolution”.

After the anti-DPRK “human rights resolution” was railroaded through the recent 3rd Committee of the 69th UN General Assembly, the south Korean puppet forces are becoming more zealous in their “human rights” racket against the DPRK while “welcoming” the “resolution” and terming it a “reflection of concern of the international community”. [….]

The desperate efforts made by the puppet forces for the adoption of the “resolution” as stooges of the U.S. meant a declaration of a war against the DPRK as they were an indication of their total denial of its social system. The south Korean puppet forces should stop running amuck, clearly aware of the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by their racket. -0-