In 2003 I had, along with some American lawyers, members of the National Lawyers Guild, the good fortune to be able to travel to North
Korea, that is the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, in order to
experience first hand that nation, its socialist system and its people.
The joint report issued on our return was titled “The Grand
Deception Revealed.” That title was chosen because we discovered that
the negative western propaganda myth about North Korea is a grand
deception designed to blind the peoples of the world to the
accomplishments of the Korean people in the north who have successfully
created their own circumstances, their own independent socio-economic
system, based on socialist principles, free of the domination of the
western powers.
At one of our first dinners in Pyongyang our host, Ri Myong Kuk, a
lawyer, stated, on behalf of the government, and in passionate terms,
that the DPRK’s Nuclear Deterrent Force was necessary in light of US
world actions and threats against the DPRK. He stated, and this was
repeated to me in a high level meeting with DPRK government officials
later on in the trip, that if the Americans would sign a peace treaty
and non-aggression agreement with the DPRK, it would de-legitimize the
American occupation and lead to reunification. Consequently there would
be no need for nuclear weapons.
He stated sincerely that,
“It’s important that lawyers are gathering to talk about
this as lawyers regulate the social interactions within society and
within the world,”
and added just as sincerely that “the path to peace requires an open heart.”
It appeared to us then and it is apparent now, in absolute
contradiction to the claims of the western media, that the people of the
DPRK want peace more than anything else so they can get on with their
lives and endeavours without the constant threat of nuclear annihilation
by the United States. But annihilation is what they in fact face and
whose fault is that? Not theirs.
We were shown American documents captured in the Korean War that are
compelling evidence that the US planned an attack on North Korea in
1950. The attack was carried out using American and south Korean forces
with the assistance of Japanese Army officers who had invaded and
occupied Korea decades before. The North Korean defence and
counter-attack was then claimed by the US to be “aggression” which the
United States manipulated in the media to get the UN to support a
“police operation,” the euphemism they chose to use to carry on what was
in fact their war of aggression against North Korea. Three years of war
and 3.5 million Korean deaths followed and the US has threatened them
with imminent war and annihilation ever since.
The UN vote in favour of a “police action” in 1950 was itself illegal
since Russia was absent for the vote in the Security Council. The
quorum required for the Security Council under its Rules of Procedure,
is all member delegations so that all members must be present or a
session cannot proceed. The Americans used a Russian boycott of the
Security Council as their opportunity. The Russian boycott took place in
defence of the position of the Peoples Republic of China that it should
have the China seat at the Security Council table, not the defeated
Kuomintang government. The Americans refused to do the right thing, so
the Russians refused to sit at the table until the legitimate Chinese
government could.
The Americans used this opportunity to carry out a type of coup in
the UN, to take over its machinery for its own interests by arranging
with the British, French and Kuomintang Chinese to back their actions in
Korea by a vote in the absence of the Russians. The allies did as the
Americans asked and voted for war with Korea, but the vote was invalid,
and the “police action” was not a peace-keeping operation nor justified
under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, since article 51 states that all
nations have the right of self defence against an armed attack, which is
what the North Koreans faced and had reacted to. But the Americans have
never cared much about legalities and they did not then for the
American plan in its entirety was to conquer and occupy North Korea as a
step towards the invasions of Manchuria and Siberia and the law was not
going to get in their way.
Many in the west have little idea of the destruction carried out in
Korea by the Americans and their allies; that Pyongyang was carpet
bombed into oblivion, that civilians fleeing the carnage were strafed by
American planes. The New York Times stated at the time that 17,000,000
pounds of napalm were used in Korea just in the first 20 months of the
war. More bomb tonnage was dropped on Korea by the US than the US
dropped on Japan in World War Two.
American forces hunted down and murdered not only communist party
members but also their families. At Sinchon we saw the evidence that
American soldiers forced 500 civilians into a ditch, doused them with
gasoline and set them on fire. We stood in an air raid shelter with
walls still blackened with the burnt flesh of 900 civilians, including
women and children who had sought safety during an American attack.
American soldiers were seen pouring gasoline down the air vents of the
shelter and burning them all to death. This is the reality of the
American occupation for Koreans. This is the reality they fear still and
never want to repeat. Can we blame them?
But even with this history, Koreans are willing to open their hearts
to former enemies. Major Kim Myong Hwan, who was then the main
negotiator at Panmunjom on the DMZ line, told us that his dream was to
be a writer, a poet, a journalist, but said in sombre tones, that he and
his five brothers “walk the line” at the DMZ as soldiers because of
what happened to his family. He said their struggle was not against the
American people but their government. He was lonely for his family lost
at Sinchon; his grandfather strung up a pole and tortured, his
grandmother bayoneted in the stomach and left to die. He said,
“You see, we have to do it. We have to defend ourselves.
We do not oppose the American people. We oppose the American policy of
hostility and its efforts to exercise control over the whole world and
inflict calamity on people.”
It was the opinion of the delegation that by maintaining instability
in Asia, the U.S. can maintain a massive military presence and keep
China at bay in its relations with South and North Korea and Japan and
use it as a lever against China and Russia.
With the continuing
pressure within Japan to remove the U.S. bases in Okinawa, the Korean
military operations and war exercises remain a central point of American
efforts to dominate the region
The question is not whether the DPRK has nuclear weapons which it is
legally entitled to have, but whether the United States, which has
nuclear arms capability on the Korean peninsula, and which is now
installing its THADD missile defence system there, a system that
threatens the security of Russia and China, is willing to work with the
North toward a peace treaty. We found North Koreans avid for peace and
not attached to having nuclear weapons if peace can be established. But
the American position remains as arrogant, aggressive threatening and
dangerous as ever.
In this age of American “regime change,” “pre-emptive war” doctrines,
and American efforts to develop low yield nuclear weapons as well as
their abandonment and manipulation of international law it was not
surprising that the DPRK plays the nuclear card. What choice do the
Koreans have since the United States threatens nuclear war on a daily basis
and the two countries that logic dictates would support them against
American aggression, Russia and China, join with the Americans in
condemning the Koreans for arming themselves with the only weapon that
can act as a deterrent against attack.
The reason for this is unclear since the Russians and Chinese have
nuclear weapons and built them to act as a deterrent to an attack by the
United States just as North Korea is doing. Some of their government
statements indicate that they fear not being in control of the situation
and that if North Korea’s acts of defence draw a US attack, they will
be attacked as well. One can understand that anxiety. But it begs the
question why they cannot support North Korea’s right to self-defence and
put more pressure on the Americans to conclude a peace treaty, a
non-aggression agreement, and to withdraw their nuclear and armed forces
from the Korean peninsula. But the great tragedy is the clear inability
of the American people to think for themselves, in the face of
continual deceptions, and to demand that their leaders exhaust all
avenues of dialogue and peacemaking before even contemplating aggression
on the Korean Peninsula.
The fundamental foundation of North Korean policy is to achieve a
non-aggression pact and peace treaty with the United States. The North
Koreans repeatedly stated that they did not want to attack anyone, hurt
anyone or be at war with anyone. But they have seen what has happened to
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and countless other
countries and they have no intention of having that happen to them. It
is clear that any U.S. invasion would be defended vigorously and that
the nation can endure a long, arduous struggle.
At another location on the DMZ we met a Colonel who set up field
glasses through which we could see across the divide between north and
south. We could see a concrete wall built on the South side, a violation
of truce agreements. The major described such a permanent structure as a
“disgrace for the Korean people who are a homogenous people.” A loud
speaker continuously blared propaganda and music from speakers on the
south side. The irritating noise goes on for 22 hours a day, he said.
Suddenly, in another surreal moment, the bunker’s loudspeakers began
belting out the William Tell overture, better known in America as the
theme from the Lone Ranger. The Colonel urged us to help people see what
is really going on in the DPRK, instead of basing their opinions on
misinformation. He told us “We know that like us the peace loving people
in America have children, parents and families.” We told him of our
mission to return with a message for peace and that we hope to return
someday and “walk with him together freely in these beautiful hills.” He
paused and said, “I too believe it is possible.”
So while the people of the DPRK hope for peace and security the
United States and its puppet regime in the south of the Korean
peninsular wage war, carrying out for the next three months the largest
war games ever conducted there, involving air craft carriers, nuclear
armed submarines and stealth bombers, aircraft and large numbers of
troops, artillery and armour.
The propaganda campaign has been taken to dangerous levels in the
media with accusations that the North murdered a relative of the leader
of the DPRK in Malaysia, though there is no proof of this, and no motive
for the north to do it. The only ones to benefit from the murder are
the Americans and their controlled media using it to whip up hysteria
about the North and now allegations of the North having chemical weapons
of mass destruction. Yes, friends, they think we were all born
yesterday and that we haven’t learned a thing or two about the character
of the American leadership and the nature of their propaganda. Is it
any wonder that the North Koreans fear that any day these on going war
“games” can be switched to the real thing, that these “games” are just a
cover for an attack, and in the meantime to create an atmosphere of
terror for the Korean people?
There is a lot that can be said about the real nature of the DPRK,
its people and socio-economic system, its culture. But there is no space
for that here. I hope people can visit as our group did and experience
for themselves what we experienced. Instead I will close with the concluding paragraph of the joint report made on our return from the DPRK and hope that people take it in, think about it, and act to bring on its call for peace.
The people of the world have to be told the complete
story about Korea and our government’s role in fostering imbalance and
conflict. Action must be taken by lawyers, community groups, peace
activists, and all citizens of the planet, to prevent the U.S.
government from successfully generating a propaganda campaign to support
aggression in North Korea. The American people have been subjected to a
grand deception. There is too much at stake to get fooled again. This
peace delegation learned in the DPRK a significant piece of truth
essential in international relations. It’s how broader communication,
negotiation followed by maintained promises, and a deep commitment to
peace can save the world – literally – from a dark nuclear future.
Experience and truth free us from the threat of war. Our foray into
North Korea, this report and our on-going project are small efforts to
make and set us free.
Christopher Black is an international criminal lawyer based in Toronto.
He is known for a number of high-profile war crimes cases and recently published his novel “Beneath the Clouds. He writes essays on international law, politics and world events, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
Source: Global Research
|