China Welcomes Whistleblower Edward Snowden

Xu Peixi

Last week, a bright idealistic young man named Edward Snowden almost single-handedly opened the lid on the U.S. National Security Agency’s PRISM program, a program which marks the bleakest moment yet in the history of the Internet due to its scope, exact country of origin and implications.

In terms of scope, major transnational service providers ranging from Google to Apple are involved in allowing the NSA to access their customers’ data for the purposes of “surveillance.” Nearly all types of services ranging from email to VoIP have come within the program’s scope and it originates in a country which dominates the world’s Internet resources – a fact which is acknowledged in the information leaked by Snowden clearly states: “Much of the world’s communications flow through the U.S.” and the information is accessible. The case indicates that through outsourcing and contracting, Big Brother is breaching the fundamental rights of citizens by getting unfettered access to their most personal communications.

As the case unfolds, there are many things to worry about. How do we make sense of the fact that the market and the state colluded in the abuse of private information via what represents the backbone of many modern day infrastructures? How do we rationalize the character of Snowden and his fellow whistleblowers? How do we understand the one-sided cyber attack accusations the U.S. has poured upon China in the past few months? To what degree have foreign users of these Internet services fallen victim to this project? Among all these suspicions, let us clarify two types of American personality.

First of all, Snowden’s case offers us a rare chance to reexamine the integrity of American politicians and the management of American-dominant Internet companies, and it appears that while many of these individuals verbally attack other nations and people in the name of freedom and democracy, they ignore America’s worsening internal situation. In an eloquent speech on Internet freedom, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that if Internet companies can’t act as “responsible stewards of their own personal information,” then they would lose customers and their survival would be threatened. In the same speech, she also urged U.S. media companies to take a proactive role in challenging foreign governments’ demands for censorship and surveillance.

Clinton was certainly under the impression that her own government was above reproach on these matters, when every piece of evidence, whether in hindsight or not, suggests the opposite. We must also remember that Clinton’s Internet freedom speech was addressing Google’s grand withdrawal from China; so, following the logical thread of her speech, it is surely now time for Google to take responsibility for leaking data and information to the NSA and withdraw from the U.S. market. David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president and chief legal officer, justified Google’s withdrawal from China by citing state “surveillance” and the “fact” that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists were being “routinely accessed by third parties”. If Google wants to be consistent with its past pronouncements, the PRISM program gives the Internet giant much more cause for action.

We can see, therefore, that when American politicians and businessmen make accusatory remarks, their eyes are firmly fixed on foreign countries and they turn a blind eye to their own misdeeds. This clearly calls into question the integrity of these rich, powerful and influential figures and gives the definite impression that the U.S. bases its own legitimacy not on good domestic governance but on stigmatizing foreign practices.

Perhaps the most confusing issue revolves around the hypocrisy of those who preach about Internet freedom abroad while they stifle it at home. The Fudan University students who listened intently to President Obama’s speech about Internet freedom and censorship at a town hall-style meeting in Shanghai in 2009 certainly took his remarks seriously. How must they be feeling now that it is obvious that President Obama himself does not believe his own Internet rhetoric? In the same vein, many like-minded young Chinese once presented flowers to Google’s Beijing headquarters to pay tribute to its “brave” and outspoken challenge to perceived state surveillance by the Chinese government. How must they be feeling in light of Google’s involvement in PRISM and with the knowledge that Google’s action against China is only part of its commercial strategy? An increasing number of Chinese people will come to understand that the democratization of domestic Chinese media is entirely different from that which happens abroad.

Second, let us look at another kind of American personality. How can we understand and explain Snowden and similar figures? These young idealists, including the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who helped to bring down President Nixon in the Watergate affair, Wiki leaks’ Julian Assange and former American soldier Bradley Manning, among others, can be categorized as the “bright feathers” of our time, to borrow some words from the popular American movie The Shawshank Redemption. Plus, they all embody the courage to fight against the system, which the film also celebrates. The 25-year old Manning is now a prisoner, having been arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of having passed classified material to WikiLeaks. Assange has been confined in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for nearly a year. Snowden is on the run in Hong Kong. While human rights activists from developing countries (defined by Western apparatus for sure) are often blessed with a choice of hiding places, we are now seeing the dilemma of Western dissidents. For this reason China, despite the fact that it does not have a good reputation as far as Internet governance is concerned, should move boldly and grant Snowden asylum.

After all, what the American and British authorities have done to figures such as Snowden represents a challenge to the common sense of the global public. These people are too brilliant to be caged. Their feathers are too bright. For the surfacing evils that have been done and continue to be committed by the state-market alliance in the digital age, Snowden and those like him represent the hope and possibility that counter measures exist to combat these evils. Unfortunately, those who proclaim to the world “don’t be evil” are themselves willing cooperators in the whole game and their profit-driven nature has led them to play a major role in this evil. If intelligence work can be contracted or outsourced this way, anything can.

This is the reason why we appreciate and salute the efforts of Snowden et al, who have gambled their career, family, personal freedom, and even their life to let the global public know what the most powerful force in the world is doing with perhaps the central infrastructure of our age; to make the public aware that this force is acting in an unconstitutional manner and entirely contrary to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To further understand the likes of Snowden, let us end with a narrative by the character Red from the Shawshank Redemption as he rationalizes the escape of his friend Andy: “Some birds are not meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice.”

Washington Deepens Crisis on Korean Peninsula

Beijing Stalinists Could Betray an Ally

Emma Johnson

Washington’s unrelenting provocations and threats against North Korea are creating an increasingly dangerous and unpredictable situation on the Korean Peninsula.

With one after another round of crippling economic sanctions and its bellicose display of nuclear military capability, Washington is leaving the government of North Korea, which has stood up to U.S. imperialism for six decades, few options. And contrary to its pretensions, the Barack Obama administration has no control over the possible consequences of this course.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries are conducting large-scale military drills on the North Korean border from March 1 to April 30, involving as many as 200,000 South Korean soldiers and some 10,000 U.S. troops.

On March 18, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced to reporters at a press conference in Seoul that B-52 bombers would carry out their second simulated nuclear raid the following day as part of the drills.

Ten days later, U.S. military officials announced that two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers flew from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to a bombing range in South Korea, dropped inert munitions and returned to the U.S. in a single, continuous mission. This is the first time a training run by a stealth bomber over South Korea has been made public.

“The Korean Peninsula is now in a touch-and-go situation due to the nuclear provocation moves,” North Korea’s foreign ministry said March 26.

On March 31, the U.S. flew F-22 stealth fighter jets, ordinarily stationed in Japan, to South Korea to participate in the military drills. F-22s are low-flying planes, capable of evading radar and air-defense systems and can also be used to escort B-2 stealth bombers in a strike.

The following day, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, said that the USS McCain, a destroyer capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, was being positioned off South Korea. A second ship, the USS Decatur, was reported to be en route from the Philippines.

The current crisis is rooted in the 1945 division of the Korean nation, imposed by U.S. imperialism. Between 1950 and 1953 Washington carried out a bloody war under U.N. auspices in an attempt to overthrow the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Korea remains the only unresolved national division coming out of World War II. To this day Washington refuses to sign a peace treaty with North Korea and maintains some 28,000 U.S. troops in the South.

“Since early in the 1950s the U.S. has made ceaseless nuclear blackmail against the DPRK,” said a March 15 press release from North Korea’s permanent mission to the U.N., referring to nuclear threats during the Korean War by then President Harry Truman. After introducing tactical nuclear weapons into South Korea in 1957, Washington announced in 1991 that it had pulled them out, part of hypocritical calls to “denuclearize the peninsula” shortly after Pyongyang began its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has long-range strategic nuclear missiles aimed at North Korea. In recent years, for example, Washington shifted the majority of its Trident submarines armed with hundreds of intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles to the Pacific, explicitly targeting North Korea and China.

“Strategic nuclear missiles in the U.S. mainland are aiming at the DPRK and submarines with nuclear warheads are swarming the waters off South Korea and its vicinity in the Pacific region,” the March 26 North Korean statement pointed out.

Last month, Pyongyang cut off all military communication lines with South Korea and declared the cease-fire from 1953 void.

On April 1, the North Korean government said it would strengthen its nuclear weapons capacity in light of U.S. provocations, but would work to further nuclear non-proliferation if there were an “improvement of relations with hostile nuclear weapons states.” North Korean officials said the government would restart its uranium enrichment plant in Yongboun, which was shut down under a nuclear disarmament deal with Washington in 2007. Two days later, Pyongyang blocked 480 workers and trucks coming from South Korea from entering Kaesong industrial park in the North, where more than 120 South Korean companies employ 53,000 North Korean workers. Kaesong is the one joint venture between North and South Korea.

According to the April 2 International Business Times, Chinese military forces have been placed on high alert and the Chinese navy has conducted a live-fire naval drill in the Yellow Sea, close to the Korean Peninsula. Beijing was a co-author with Washington of the latest round of sanctions imposed on North Korea March 7. At the same time, a long-standing defense treaty between Pyongyang and Beijing obligates China to help North Korea in the event of war.

Fidel Castro: Avoid New Korean War

Fidel Castro Ruz

A few days ago I mentioned the great challenges humanity is currently facing. Intelligent life emerged on our planet approximately 200,000 years ago, although new discoveries demonstrate something else.

This is not to confuse intelligent life with the existence of life which, from its elemental forms in our solar system, emerged millions of years ago.

A virtually infinite number of life forms exist. In the sophisticated work of the world’s most eminent scientists the idea has already been conceived of reproducing the sounds which followed the Big Bang, the great explosion which took place more than 13.7 billion years ago.

This introduction would be too extensive if it was not to explain the gravity of an event as unbelievable and absurd as the situation created in the Korean Peninsula, within a geographic area containing close to five billion of the seven billion persons currently inhabiting the planet.

This is about one of the most serious dangers of nuclear war since the October Crisis around Cuba in 1962, 50 years ago.

In 1950, a war was unleashed there [the Korean Peninsula] which cost millions of lives. It came barely five years after two atomic bombs were exploded over the defenseless cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which, in a matter of seconds, killed and irradiated hundreds of thousands of people.

General Douglas MacArthur wanted to utilize atomic weapons against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Not even Harry Truman allowed that.

It has been affirmed that the People’s Republic of China lost one million valiant soldiers in order to prevent the installation of an enemy army on that country’s border with its homeland. For its part, the Soviet army provided weapons, air support, technological and economic aid.

I had the honor of meeting Kim Il Sung, a historic figure, notably courageous and revolutionary.

If war breaks out there, the peoples of both parts of the Peninsula will be terribly sacrificed, without benefit to all or either of them. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was always friendly with Cuba, as Cuba has always been and will continue to be with her.

Now that the country has demonstrated its technical and scientific achievements, we remind her of her duties to the countries which have been her great friends, and it would be unjust to forget that such a war would particularly affect more than 70% of the population of the planet.

If a conflict of that nature should break out there, the government of Barack Obama in his second mandate would be buried in a deluge of images which would present him as the most sinister character in the history of the United States. The duty of avoiding war is also his and that of the people of the United States.

Voice of America Promotes Tibetan Self-Immolation

Tibet Online

On December 2, 2012, Sangdegye, an 18-year old Tibetan young man from Xiahe County of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China’s Gansu Province, bought three liters of gasoline and some painkillers in the village grocery, and drove a borrowed motorcycle toward the nearby Bora Temple.

At 2 pm, he poured the gasoline on his clothes and set himself on fire. Although the hospital rescued him, he lost both legs forever.

Why did he set himself on fire?

“I burned myself because of the Voice of America (VOA for short),” said Sangdegye, who used to watch the VOA Tibetan-language programs, said he admired the self-immolators VOA reported on, as they were like “heroes”.

Actually, the “heroes” in the eyes of Sangdegye are also young audiences poisoned by those VOA reports.

Kimba, a regular viewer of VOA Tibetan-language programs in Tongren County, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province, also watched the VOA self-immolation reports with his friend named Kumi Tenzin the day before he set himself on fire.

After hearing that the Dalai Lama would “pray for the self-immolators”, Kimba set himself alight on the Regong Cultural Square of Tongren County the next day. He did it because he “wants to be famous”.

From the screen to the reality, the Voice of America has been involved in the Tibetan self-immolation incidents. It is not only the behind plotter of the stage “heroes”, but also the “invisible killer” who grips the soul of the self-immolators.

According to the Xinhua news report, police in northwest China’s Gansu Province said on February 27, 2013 that they found Karong Takchen, a 21-year-old monk from a temple in neighboring Sichuan Province, had entered Gansu last July to organize self-immolation activities.

Karong Takchen acted under the instruction of Gantrin and Kunga, both members of the Tibetan Youth Congress, as well as Amdo, a Tibetan broadcaster for the Voice of America and a VOA journalist Palden.

He had colluded with local monks Samuten, Tashi Gyamuktso and Tentsang to recruit self-immolation volunteers in several places.

They encouraged a series of self-immolations within 20 days that led to the death of three people.

However, David Ensor, director of the VOA denied the report. Losang Gyatso, head of the Tibetan language department of the VOA claimed that “any news reports are not affected by the Dalai Lama or the Tibetan government-in-exile.”

Even the U.S. government, which has always advocated “press freedom”, stands out as shield for the VOA’s misconduct.

Victoria Nuland, spokesperson of the US State Department said in Washington that “the State Department supports the VOA’s declaration that it had not been involved in the Tibetans self-immolation incidents.”

Had the VOA really “not been involved in the Tibetans self-immolation incidents”?
How could VOA obtain first-hand materials?

Since 2012, the Tibetan Language service center of the VOA for many times first released scoops about the self-immolations taken place in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province and Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. In 2013, the reports become much more detailed.

For example, as soon as the self-immolation took place in Aba on January 18, the VOA soon “obtained” the first-hand photos at the scene. On January 22, no sooner had a Tibetan burned himself in Xiahe County of Gansu than a photo of his identity card was uploaded on its website. On February 3, the VOA again released its exclusive report after a monk in the Roige County of Sichuan set himself on fire.

Although it is quite far from the scene, the VOA always has the first-hand material and immediately responds to the self-immolations.

“By Reviewing the reports about the self-immolations for the past two years, we have found that VOA always took the lead in releasing news of self-immolations, and most of them were exclusive reports,” a netizen commented on the website.

Could the VOA foretell the occurrence of self-immolations? Or how could it respond to them in such a short time with photos and exclusive reports？Didn’t it claim that all news in the Tibetan areas “has been strictly controlled”?

People could feel the political inclination of the VOA through every word of its reports.

The information source of the VOA is unbalanced either from the macroscopic or microcosmic point of view.

“Both its blurred information and careful choice of words are deliberate with ulterior motives,” said Song Ying, a scholar of the Beijing Foreign Studies University who has been carrying out an analytical research on the discourse of the VOA reports since 2005.

For example, she talked about a VOA report on February 26, 2013 that all quotations used were from the Tibetan activists without any words from the Chinese government. It intentionally misled readers to believe that the Tibetans “had no other choice but burned themselves as they were in a great dilemma”, and claimed that the self-immolation “is permissible by the Chinese law”.

“VOA committing crimes against the Chinese, especially Tibetans”

In order to help the U.S. government gain maximum political interest the VOA collaborates with the Dalai clique to distort truth, which is the only reasonable explanation for the VOA’s act.

The VOA stated to launch the Tibetan Language Channel in 1991. As China is becoming more powerful, the Dalai clique soon became the only bargaining chip for the U.S.government to contain China.

USA: Enemy of the People of the World

KCNA

The Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army in a statement called upon the progressive people across the world to actively join the army and people of the DPRK in defending independence and justice, not blindly following the U.S. high-handed and arbitrary practices.

The U.S. ambition to hold sway the world has lasted for many years. Its aggressive nature became more undisguised after the Second World War.

In this regard, President Kim Il Sung stressed long ago the need to conduct a vigorous struggle against the U.S.-led imperialists. On August 6, Juche 60 (1971), he set forth a strategy for anti-imperialist and anti-U.S. struggle, the keynote of which is to dismember the U.S. imperialists in any places around the world.

The current situation, in which the U.S. high-handed practices have become more rampant in the Korean Peninsula and other parts of the world, represents the validity of this strategy.

The U.S. is intensifying its interference in China’s internal affairs, including the issues of Xinjiang Uygur, Tibet and human rights, and openly poking its nose into the territorial and territorial water disputes in Southeast Asia.

It has almost finished setting up European MD system against Russia and made use of Central Asia and Caucasia as a bridgehead for rounding off encircling regional powers.

U.S. forces are still present in western and southern Europe, Persian Gulf, the Mideast and Africa.

With its anti-Cuba blockades continued for scores of years, the U.S. has cooked up a wave of sabotage plots against the progressive governments in Latin America.

It will be a mistake for those countries to think that the U.S. provocation moves are committed only against the DPRK.

It is the DPRK’s will to put a definite end to the U.S. nuclear threat to other countries.

Progressives Support North Korea’s Steps for Self-Defense

KCNA

The Nepalese newspaper Hangk on Feb. 27 carried an article titled “DPRK’s nuclear test to be observed from new angle”.

The newspaper said the DPRK’s successful satellite launch in December last year and its third underground nuclear test on Feb. 12 make the world look at it from a new angle, adding:

The DPRK’s third underground nuclear test that stunned the world was a message to the UN Security Council and the U.S. which have adopted only unfair resolutions on it.

Had the U.S. put an end to its hostile policy toward the DPRK and treated it as a friendly state, it would have taken no such tough measure.

The U.S. forces’ permanent presence in south Korea and Japan, their ceaseless joint war drills, economic sanctions, etc. were the main factor that prevented the DPRK from exercising its self-restraint.

At a time when the DPRK was striving to develop its economy and improve the people’s living standard, the U.S. and its followers hamstrung its efforts and violated its sovereignty.

The DPRK took measures to safeguard its sovereignty by itself despite repeated interference and pressure, winning praises from the world progressives.

As a matter of fact, the DPRK’s nuclear test was a product of the repeated pressure and violation of its sovereignty by the U.S. and its followers.

The U.S. and other Western countries, south Korea and Japan should make efforts for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, though belatedly.

USA’s New Cold War Against Russia and China

Zhao Jinglun

If NATO further expands to Georgia and Ukraine, crossing the Kremlin’ s “Red Line,” hostility would be further heightened. The missile-defense installations are supposedly aimed at Iran, but do pose a direct threat to Russia in the event of a nuclear first strike.

Former president Bill Clinton started his illegal air war over Kosovo ostensibly to save Kosovo Albanians from being massacred by the Serbs. The real purpose, however, has been rumored to be Moscow’s deprivation of its last European ally, Serbia.

Moscow has steadfastly opposed Western efforts to block Iran’s nuclear program as those efforts could be designed to support a regime change that would pave the way for Western penetration into Central Asia.

Russia has just published its new foreign policy concept in which President Vladimir Putin indicates that the most important aspect of Moscow’s foreign strategy is to strengthen its ties with China. The two countries hold the same principle on core issues in international politics and that can constitute a basic element in maintaining regional and global stability. Russia will engage in full spectrum foreign policy cooperation with China when dealing with new challenges or menaces, as well as in solving regional and global problems.

This may not exactly be what the Obama administration wants to hear. It has succeeded in stirring up conflict between China and Japan; but has been unable to sow any dissension between China and Russia. Its efforts to “reset” the relations with the Kremlin ended in slight disappointment.

Indeed, U.S.-Russia relations are now seemingly at their nadir. The publication of Moscow’s new foreign policy concept was delayed as Putin wanted to emphasize the principle of non-intervention in Russia’s internal affairs. He especially resents the humiliating Magnitsky Act, which was overwhelmingly passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Barack Obama. Moscow retaliated by banning the American adoption of Russian orphans.

Stephen F. Cohen, Russian expert and professor emeritus at NYU and Princeton, is even talking about a potential new Cold War. As one Chinese saying goes, “It takes more than one cold day for the river to freeze three-feet-deep. ” Cohen points to four components of U.S. policy resented by Moscow:

* NATO expansion to Russia’s borders which now includes European missile-defense installations. This poses the most serious threat to Russian security. If NATO further expands to Georgia and Ukraine, crossing the Kremlin’ s “Red Line,” hostility would be further heightened. The missile-defense installations are supposedly aimed at Iran, but do pose a direct threat to Russia in the event of a nuclear first strike. Moscow has demanded participation in the European system, failing that, a written guarantee that it will never be directed against Russia. It was rebuffed on both counts.

* “Selective cooperation, ” or the obtaining of concessions from the Kremlin without any meaningful White House reciprocity. Putin has never forgotten his vital role in the 2001 U.S. war in Afghanistan and was later rewarded by George W. Bush’s further NATO expansion and tearing up of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

* “Democracy promotion” in Russia’s domestic politics, viewed by Russian leaders as an intolerable interference with their internal affairs. The National Endowment for Democracy openly funded Russian NGOs.

* Last but not least, high-level Moscow circles have repeatedly complained that “the Americans do not care about our national security.”

It is unlikely that Washington will make any meaningful concessions on these four issues. So the chill in relations will probably continue.

In fact, the clash of strategic interests has a long history. Former president Bill Clinton started his illegal air war over Kosovo ostensibly to save Kosovo Albanians from being massacred by the Serbs. The real purpose, however, has been rumored to be Moscow’s deprivation of its last European ally, Serbia.

Moscow has steadfastly opposed Western efforts to block Iran’s nuclear program as those efforts could be designed to support a regime change that would pave the way for Western penetration into Central Asia.

Russia has also blocked Western efforts to intervene in Syria, its ally in the Middle East, where it has a naval base at Tartus.

The Kremlin also pursues a hard line refusing to return the Northern Territories (four islands), which Moscow calls the Southern Kurils, to Japan. It is not just a conflict with Japan. It is also a response to the United States’ pivot towards Asia and the (Asia) Pacific region – Russia also considers itself a Pacific power. The latest incident occurred on February 12, the day President Obama delivered his State of the Union Address.

The U.S. military reported that two Russian “Bear” (TU-95) strategic bombers, capable of carrying nuclear cruise missiles, visited the U.S. strategic island Guam (Moscow denied this). U.S. Air Force F-15 jets were scrambled from Andersen Air Force Base to intercept the intruders. Nevertheless, both sides “stayed professional. ”

U.S. military officials hold that ever since Putin reclaimed the Russian presidency, the number of such flights in the vicinity of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska has increased, but encounters with U.S. aircrafts have generally remained “very professional. ”

Neither side is looking for a fight; but they’re not on the best of terms either.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn.

With Rocket Launch, South Korea Escalates Tension on Korean Peninsula

Shortly after the sanction of the United Nations against the DPRK’s launch of Kwangmyongsong-3, the launch of KSLV-1 by South Korea naturally leads to the question: why is South Korea allowed to do it, but not the DPRK?

The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSVL-1), also known as Naro, blasts off from the Naro Space Center, located 480 kilometers south of Seoul, Jan. 30, 2013. South Korea successfully launched a space rocket in its third attempt to put a satellite into space on Wednesday.

People’s Daily

South Korea’s first space rocket Korean Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-1), also known as Naro, successfully lifted off at Naro Space Center in South Korea on Jan. 30, 2013. Yonhap said South Korea plans to complete the independent research and development of Korean three-stage rocket in 2018–2019.

Backstage considerations

KSLV-1 was launched twice previously and both ended up with failure. The two launching plans last year were also cancelled because of technical fault. The launch on Jan. 30 was “one last shot” which finally succeeded.

Cui Zhiying, director of Korean Peninsula Research Office of the Asia-Pacific Research Center of Tongji University said that pertaining to foreign affairs, the launch of KSLV-1 was stimulated by the launch of Unha-3 rocket by the DPRK, but at the same time gave the latter an excuse to maintain the justification for its launching.

Internally, Pang Zhihao, space expert, executive editor of the International Space magazine said the launch of KSLV-1 has also brought about a lot of gains to South Korea. In politics, it is helpful to improve its international status and national cohesion; economically, KSLV-1 is alleged to have brought South Korea 2 trillion won of output. Finally, it laid an important foundation for the development of medium-range missiles since the rocket technology to launch a satellite can be transformed into ballistic missile technology.

Possible influences

Pang Zhihao said South Korea’s rocket technology is still at primary level and does not pose a threat to other countries. It mainly influences the DPRK but may give rise to a competition situation on the peninsula.

Gong Keyu, deputy director of Asia-Pacific Research Center of Shanghai Institute of International Studies said the DPRK may protest against the launch of KSLV-1 but in fact, the rocket technology of South Korean still lags behind that of the DPRK. Shortly after the sanction of the United Nations against the DPRK’s launch of Kwangmyongsong-3, the launch of KSLV-1 by South Korea naturally leads to the question: why is South Korea allowed to do it, but not the DPRK? This may lead to the alternating upgrade of the situation on the peninsula.

According to some other analysis, the lift of KSLV-1 may be regarded as a new round of provocation by the DPRK, who might even be so angered as to accelerate the process of its third nuclear test.

Reunification Is Driving Force of Politics on Korean Peninsula

John Studer

The partition of Korea remains the only unresolved national division imposed by Washington and its imperialist allies coming out of World War II. Sixty years since the July 1953 cease-fire—marking U.S. imperialism’s first military defeat—the desire by working people for reunification remains the driving force in politics on the peninsula.

The North Korean government responded to ongoing provocations by Washington by reiterating Jan. 1 Pyongyang’s long-standing call to unify Korea.

“A key to ending the divide of the nation and achieving reunification is to end the situation of confrontation between the North and the South,” said Kim Jong Un, head of the North Korean government, in a New Year’s address.

“All the members of the Korean nation in the north, south and abroad, should subordinate and orientate everything to the great national cause of reunifying the country,” Kim said. “The entire nation should vehemently reject any moves for domination, intervention, aggression and war by outside forces, and never tolerate any acts hindering the country’s reunification.”

In recent years, Washington has been carrying out a “pivot” toward Asia, seeking to reinforce U.S. naval domination and economic interests in the region. This includes stepping up military deployments, war games and shoring up alliances in the region.

These moves are aimed at countering China’s growing influence, as well as reinforcing Washington’s 67-year military presence on the Korean Peninsula and its squeeze on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the North.

“In the present international arena, the moves of the imperialists to interfere in the internal affairs of other sovereign states and their acts of military aggression pose a serious threat to peace and security of mankind,” said Kim in his Jan. 1 speech. “The Asia-Pacific region, the Korean Peninsula in particular, has become the hottest spot in the world in which constant tension persists.”

The U.S. rulers imposed a capitalist regime on the South in the course of the 1950-53 Korean War. After the imperialists army was defeated in the North, Washington refused to sign a peace treaty and remains officially at war with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to this day.

Washington maintains more than 28,000 troops in the South, some 32,000 across the Korea Strait in Japan, and still retains “wartime control” over the South Korean military.

Washington, Seoul military exercises

The U.S. and South Korea have conducted a series of provocative military drills over the past year aimed at intimidating the DPRK. In June, 2,000 South Korean and U.S. forces conducted operations at Poncheon near the North Korean border. One of the drills had a North Korean flag as its target.

At the end of October, U.S. troops joined 240,000 South Korean troops in military maneuvers to “prepare for provocations by North Korea.”

“We will continue working shoulder to shoulder to demonstrate our combined resolve,” U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-Jin on the day before the exercises began.

The drill came a week after Seoul announced a new pact with Washington that will triple the range of South Korean ballistic missiles, enabling them to reach anywhere in the North.

In December, the Barack Obama administration announced it will provide South Korea with four Global Hawk aerial drones to expand spying on the DPRK. While the drones are designed for intelligence, the Dec. 29 New York Times reported, they could be modified to carry a weapon.

New South Korean president

Park Geun-hye was elected as the new president of South Korea Dec. 20 in a close and hotly contested race, the first woman in the country’s history to become president. Park is the daughter of former President Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea with a iron fist, jailing and torturing thousands, before being assassinated by his chief spy in 1979.

Relations with North Korea were among the central issues in the election. Park’s opponent, Moon Jae-in, who had been imprisoned under his opponent’s father, won two-thirds of the vote among Koreans in their 20s and 30s. Moon campaigned for a return of the “sunshine policy,” which refers to 10 years of improving relations between the governments of the North and South that included summits, South Korean investments in the North, and reunions of separated families. The policy was reversed under outgoing President Lee Myung-bak, who was elected in 2008.

Park vowed to keep a “promise of a new era of strong national security.” But widespread working-class sentiment for reunification was reflected when she said she hoped to meet with the North’s Kim Jong Un and improve economic and political relations.

North Korea successfully launched a long-range rocket bearing a weather satellite into space Dec. 12, the week before the election in the South. The North, Fox News reported, is “one of the few countries to have successfully launched a working satellite into space from its own soil; bitter rival South Korea is not on the list, though it has tried.”

The United Nations Security Council condemned the achievement, saying it violated a 2009 council resolution banning “any launch using ballistic missile technology.” The resolution had been adopted under U.S. pressure after North Korea conducted a nuclear detonation test.

The White House called it a “highly provocative act that threatens regional security.”

Meanwhile, in the midst of U.S.-led moves to further isolate North Korea, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, led a humanitarian visit to the country. U.S. authorities have bitterly denounced the trip, arguing it will “boost Pyongyang’s profile,” reported the Associated Press.

Full Text of Kim Jong Un’s New Years Address

KCNA

Dear comrades,

Officers and men of the heroic People’s Army and all the beloved fellow countrymen,

Dear compatriots,

Having seen out the year 2012 characterized by the events that will go down in the history of the nation, we are seeing in the new year 2013 full of high hope and confidence in final victory.

Reflecting the unanimous reverence of all the service personnel and people for President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il, the fathers of the nation and eternal Sun of Juche, I would like first to pay the highest tribute and New Year greetings to them.

I extend my warm greetings to the service personnel and people who are devotedly striving for the prosperity of the country, firmly united around the Workers’ Party of Korea, and sincerely wish all the families across the country harmony and greater happiness.

My New Year greetings also go to our compatriots in the south and abroad who are ringing in the new year with yearning and expectations for the reunification and prosperity of the nation and the world’s progressive peoples and our foreign friends who love justice and peace.

Last year was a historic year in which the great Generalissimos were upheld as the eternal leaders of our revolution and a firm guarantee was provided for brilliantly carrying forward the revolutionary cause of Juche to completion under the leadership of the Party.

The President and the General were great leaders whom our people acclaimed for the first time in their history spanning thousands of years; they are the eternal images of the great Paektusan nation and banners of all victories and glory. Last year we celebrated the centenary of the birth of the President as the greatest national holiday, reviewed the 100-year history of Juche Korea with pride and held up the General as the eternal leader of our Party and people, realizing the cause of immortalizing the leader. By doing so, we have been able to glorify the new century of the Juche era as the annals of victory and glory for the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche under the unfurled banner of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism.

Although they saw in 2012 in tears of blood after the sudden demise of the General whom they had believed in as in heaven, our service personnel and people determinedly rose up following the Party with firm faith that the great General would always be with them and fully supported the leadership of the Party. With loyalty as pure as white gem, noble sense of moral obligation and all sincerity, they refurbished the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in the most sublime way as befits the supreme sanctuary of Juche and erected the statues of the Generalissimos on Mansu Hill and in several other places.

Placing deep trust in and faithfully supporting the Party, they established the ties of blood with it, their hearts pulsating in the same beats with it, and always shared sweets and bitters with it. Major political celebrations held amid the deep interest of the whole nation and the days of last year bore testimony to the single-hearted unity between the Party, the army and the people which was further consolidated to be unbreakable ties of blood.

Last year our service personnel and people achieved historic victories which would brilliantly shine in the history of the country by waging a general offensive to put the intentions and instructions of the General into practice.

Our reliable scientists and technicians successfully launched the artificial earth satellite Kwangmyongsong 3-2, carrying out the instruction of the General with credit and fully demonstrating the high level of space science and technology and overall national power of Juche Korea. That we successfully manufactured and launched the scientific and technological satellite by entirely relying on our own efforts, technology and wisdom was an event of national jubilation that raised the dignity and honor of the Sun’s nation onto the highest level and a great event which inspired all the service personnel and people with confidence in sure victory and courage and clearly showed that Korea does what it is determined to do.

Through the parade held in celebration of the centenary of the birth of the President, our revolutionary armed forces demonstrated the inexhaustible might of the powerful revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu steadfast in ideology and faith and equipped with Korean-style modern military hardware capable of defeating any formidable enemy. And they reliably safeguarded the security of the country by resolutely smashing every war provocation and anti-DPRK smear campaign of the enemy. The officers and men of the People’s Army and the People’s Internal Security Forces made breakthroughs on all major fronts of building a thriving country with the mettle of “At a go” and did many good things for the happiness of the people, thereby living up to the expectations and trust of the Party and people.

Although the situation was acute and complicated and severe natural calamities hit the country in succession last year, our army and people made great strides in their efforts to build a thriving socialist country and improve the people’s living standards by displaying an indomitable will and waging an unyielding struggle.

We put the Huichon Power Station and Tanchon Port into commission, built many Juche-oriented and modern factories and enterprises and reconstructed major production bases in key industrial sectors on the basis of advanced science and technology, thus further consolidating the material and technological foundations of our economy.

Thanks to the exalted patriotic zeal of the service personnel and people, monumental edifices including Changjon Street and Rungna People’s Pleasure Park sprang up in Pyongyang and many cultural facilities for the promotion of the wellbeing of the people were built in different parts of the country, changing its looks.

Last year, the superior socialist education system was further consolidated through the adoption of the law on enforcing universal 12-year compulsory education; our sports people achieved laudable successes in international games, adding glory to the country; and our revolutionary artistes conducted artistic activities in a fresh and enterprising manner, imbuing society with an animating spirit and greatly encouraging the people in their struggle.

The brilliant successes we achieved in the revolutionary struggle and construction work last year were ascribable to the fact that the General had unfolded an ambitious blueprint and laid firm foundations for the building of a thriving country. Last year’s significant successes were a valuable fruit born of the unshakeable determination and correct leadership of our Party to glorify Kim Il Sung’s and Kim Jong Il’s Korea all over the world by translating the far-reaching plan and instructions of the General into reality and the lofty sense of loyalty and patriotic devotion of our service personnel and people unfailingly faithful to the Party.

I extend my warm thanks to all the service personnel and people who adorned the first year of the new century of the Juche era with great victories in hearty response to the Party’s militant call.

Comrades,

The new year 2013 is a year of great creations and changes in which a radical turnabout will be effected in the building of a thriving socialist country on the road of the onward march in the new century of Kim Il Sung’s and Kim Jong Il’s Korea.

All the people and service personnel should dynamically turn out in the grand onward march for building a thriving country full of pride of victors and confidence in a rosy future.

The road of Juche is the only path for our Party and people to invariably follow and great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism is the ever-victorious banner of our revolution. We should march forward along the road of independence, the road of Songun and the road of socialism to the end upholding the banner of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism. Our Party will triumphantly build a thriving socialist nation, the most powerful country, on this land in our own way, the way the General did, by relying on our people who are the best in the world.

This year we will be greeting the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, our glorious motherland, and the 60th anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War.

The dignified and glorious present of our people and the bright prosperous future of our country are ensured by the immortal nation-building exploits the Generalissimos performed while founding a genuine state of the people for the first time in the 5 000-year-long history of our nation and developing it into a powerful socialist country that is independent, self-sufficient and self-reliant in national defence and by the great achievements the President made while leading the Fatherland Liberation War to brilliant victory on the strength of his outstanding strategy and tactics and wise leadership.

In this significant year we should add brilliance to the immortal achievements of the great Generalissimos and make persevering efforts to build a thriving socialist country and carry out the cause of reunifying the country.

The building of an economic giant is the most important task that comes to the fore in the present stage of building a thriving socialist country.

We should further consolidate the successes achieved so far in economic construction to raise the status of our country to that of an economic giant in the new century, thus realizing the wish of the great General who devoted all his life to making our people well off with nothing to envy in the world.

In the same manner as we demonstrated the dignity and might of Songun Korea through the manufacture and launch of the Juche-based application satellite, the entire Party, the whole country and all the people should wage an all-out struggle this year to effect a turnaround in building an economic giant and improving the people’s standard of living.

“Let us bring about a radical turn in the building of an economic giant with the same spirit and mettle as were displayed in conquering space!” — this is the fighting slogan our Party and people should uphold this year.

All sectors and all units of the national economy should launch a vigorous general offensive to boost production in hearty response to the Party’s militant slogan.

All economic undertakings for this year should be geared to effecting a radical increase in production and stabilizing and improving the people’s living standards by solidifying and making effective use of the already-built foundations of the independent national economy.

By adopting decisive steps to shore up the vanguard sectors of the national economy and the sectors of basic industries, we should develop coal-mining, electric-power and metallurgical industries and rail transport on a preferential basis and provide a firm springboard for the building of an economic giant. We should make innovations in coal-mining and metallurgical industries in particular so as to revitalize the overall economy of the country.

The success in economic construction should be manifested in the people’s standard of living. We should direct great efforts to bolstering up the sectors and units that have a direct bearing on the people’s livelihoods and increasing production there, so as to give them more benefits in living.

Agriculture and light industry remain the major fronts for economic construction this year, too. We should fulfil this year’s plan for grain production without fail by concentrating nationwide efforts on farming and raising the efficiency of agricultural production by dint of scientific and intensive methods. We should take concrete measures for the supply of raw and other materials to light-industry factories and thus increase the output of quality consumer goods.

We should decisively bolster up livestock, fish and fruit farming to provide the people with a better, more bountiful diet. The soldiers of the People’s Army and the shock-brigade members who volunteered to work at the reclamation site of Sepho tableland in response to the Party’s call should achieve miraculous successes and perform heroic feats in this year’s campaign to open a bright prospect for carrying the Party’s grand nature-remaking plan to completion at an earlier date.

We should wage a dynamic struggle to boost production at the modern factories and production bases that were built under the leadership of the General who, going on with his super-intense forced march, made painstaking efforts to improve the people’s living standards. By doing so, we should ensure that his ennobling affection reaches the people as it is.

All sectors and all units of the national economy should push ahead with a socialist emulation drive to reenergize production and fulfil their quotas as fixed in the national economic plan for this year.

We should bring about a radical turn in the building of an economic giant on the strength of science and technology by fanning the flames of the industrial revolution in the new century.

The industrial revolution in the new century is, in essence, a scientific and technological revolution, and breaking through the cutting edge is a shortcut to the building of an economic giant. Like the satellite scientists who conquered outer space we should wage a dynamic campaign to push back the frontiers of science and technology so as to develop the country’s overall science and technology to the world standards as soon as possible. All sectors of the national economy should direct primary efforts to the development of science and technology, bring science and technology into close combination with production in order to boost production by relying on domestic resources and technology, and introduce CNC technology in equipment and production lines and achieve their full automation in the long run.

We should improve economic guidance and management as demanded by the developing reality.

All sectors of the national economy should make scrupulous arrangements for economic planning and guidance to boost production by tapping every possible reserve and potentiality, and work out in a scientific way the immediate plans and long-term strategies for stage-by-stage development and push ahead with them in a persistent manner. We should hold fast to the socialist economic system of our own style, steadily improve and perfect the methods of economic management on the principle of encouraging the working masses to fulfil their responsibility and role befitting the masters of production, and generalize on an extensive scale the good experiences gained at several units.

We should continue to channel great efforts into consolidating our political and military might in every way.

The single-hearted unity of the army and people around the Party is our strongest weapon and a powerful propellant for the building of a thriving socialist country.

We should invariably carry forward the proud tradition of single-hearted unity, the tradition of adorning the red flag of the revolution only with victories on the strength of the harmonious whole wherein the Party believes in the people and the latter absolutely trust and follow the former.

All officials, Party members and other working people should become genuine comrades united with a single heart, who share ideology and purpose, weal and woe with our Party on the road of the Songun revolution, and make devoted efforts for the sake of their country and people. They should orient all undertakings towards defending and cementing the single-hearted unity, and strengthen the political and ideological position of our revolution as solid as a rock by grasping the people’s sentiments and rallying broad sections of the people firmly behind the Party.

The military might of a country represents its national strength; only when it builds up its military might in every way can it develop into a thriving country and defend the security and happiness of its people. We should put continued stress on increasing our military might under the great banner of Songun, reliably safeguard the security and sovereignty of the country and render services to assuring regional stability and global peace.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the advancing of the slogan “a-match-for-a-hundred” by the great Generalissimo Kim Il Sung. It is important to bring about a fundamental change in strengthening our revolutionary armed forces and perfecting their combat preparedness.

The People’s Army should set up a revolutionary command system and military climate, establish steel-strong military discipline and perfect its regularized features as befits an elite revolutionary force. It should make its training more intensive, as the anti-Japanese guerrillas did on Mt. Paektu, so as to prepare all its officers and men to be a-match-for-a-hundred combatants who have acquired capabilities for actual warfare, and maintain full combat readiness. If the aggressors dare launch a preemptive attack against our sacred country, the People’s Army should mercilessly annihilate them and win victory in the war for the country’s reunification.

Officers and men of the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces and members of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards should intensify combat and political training and maintain full combat readiness with a determination to safeguard their Party and leader, country and people, and defend their hometowns.

The sector of defence industry should develop in larger numbers sophisticated military hardware of our own style that can contribute to implementing the Party’s military strategy, thereby fulfilling its mission as the arsenal of the powerful revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu.

We should spur the building of a civilized socialist nation to usher in a new era of cultural efflorescence in the 21st century.

The thriving socialist country we are building is a civilized socialist one where all its people are possessed of profound cultural knowledge, sturdy physique and noble moral virtues, enjoying a socialist life to their heart’s content under the most cultured conditions and environment, and a beautiful and sound lifestyle pervades the whole society.

All sectors in cultural construction should implement to the letter the ideas, lines and policies set forth by the General, and develop education, public health, literature and the arts, physical culture, public morals and all other branches as appropriate to an advanced civilized nation.

We should develop Pyongyang into a more majestic and picturesque city as befits the capital of Juche Korea, the centre of Songun culture, and turn all streets and villages, mountains and rivers in provinces, cities and counties into a socialist paradise. At the same time we should set up modern cultural and welfare facilities, parks and pleasure grounds in larger numbers, thus making our people enjoy a cultured life of a new era to their heart’s content.

In order to effect a radical change in this year’s campaign to build a thriving socialist country, officials should make a fundamental turnabout in their ideological viewpoint, work style and attitude.

Those who acquire the President’s and the General’s outlook on the people, make tireless efforts for their good, rid themselves of the old way of thinking and attitude and make ceaseless innovations in all work, and rouse the masses to make breakthroughs for the advance, can be rightly claimed to be genuine officials required by our Party at present. Officials should strive with devotion, upholding the slogan “Everything for the people and everything by relying on them!” They should work to the best of their abilities with a high sense of responsibility, eagerness and an enterprising approach to work, so that their loyalty and performance can be judged by the Party and the people.

Party organizations should further enhance their militant function and role.

As the political staff of the units concerned, they should firmly establish policy-oriented principles in implementing the Party’s policies and conduct political and organizational work with scrupulous care. By doing so, they should ensure that a great upsurge is brought about in their respective sectors and units. Party organizations, out of maternal feeling, should embrace all the people, take warm care of them and lead them forward to ensure that they share the same destiny with the Party to the end and fulfil their tasks at their posts in a responsible manner.

We should conduct Party work in the same way as it was done on the battleline in the 1970s, and put a focus of the work on thoroughly applying Kim Jong Il’s patriotism in all activities.

Kim Jong Il’s patriotism is the eternal soul and breath of Kim Il Sung’s nation, and a driving force for the building of a thriving country. Party organizations should ensure that all officials, Party members and other working people cherish Kim Jong Il’s patriotism deep in their hearts and give full play to their patriotic enthusiasm and spirit of devoted service in the ongoing sacred struggle to achieve prosperity of their socialist country.

Working people’s organizations should conduct effective education among their members to suit their specific features, thus inspiring them to an all-out offensive for this year. Youth league organizations should educate young people to dynamically advance straight forward along the road indicated by the Party and become youth heroes who glorify the present era of great upsurge with their creative activities and feats.

The reunification of the country is the greatest national task that brooks no further delay and was the lifelong desire and instructions of the great Generalissimos.

Deeply grieving over the national division, President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il, the fathers of the nation and lodestars of national reunification, worked heart and soul throughout their life to hand down a reunified country to their fellow countrymen, laying firm foundations for the independent reunification, peace and prosperity of the nation.

We should staunchly safeguard and add brilliance to the undying exploits the great Generalissimos performed for the sacred cause of national reunification, and accomplish the historic cause of the country’s reunification, a long-cherished desire of our nation, true to the lofty intention of the peerlessly great persons.

This year the entire Korean nation should turn out in a nationwide patriotic struggle for reunification in unity so as to usher in a new phase in the reunification movement.

An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the north and the south.

The past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war. Anti-reunification forces of south Korea should abandon their hostile policy against their fellow countrymen, but take the road of national reconciliation, unity and reunification.

Respecting and thoroughly implementing the north-south joint declarations is a basic prerequisite to promoting the inter-Korean relations and hastening the country’s reunification.

All the compatriots in the north, south and abroad should launch a dynamic struggle to carry out to the letter the June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration, great reunification programmes common to the nation in the new century and milestones for peace and prosperity.

The reunification issue should be solved by the concerted efforts of our nation in an independent manner.

The driving force of the reunification movement is the entire Korean nation, and nothing is impossible if it achieves firm unity. All the members of the Korean nation in the north, south and abroad should subordinate and orientate everything to the great national cause of reunifying the country from the standpoint of giving priority and attaching importance to the nation and achieving its unity. The entire nation should vehemently reject any moves for domination, intervention, aggression and war by outside forces, and never tolerate any acts hindering the country’s reunification.

Whatever trials and difficulties lie in the way of national reunification, we will build a reunified thriving country without fail on this three-thousand-ri land by the concerted efforts of the whole nation.

In the present international arena, the moves of the imperialists to interfere in the internal affairs of other sovereign states and their acts of military aggression pose a serious threat to peace and security of mankind. The Asia-Pacific region, the Korean Peninsula in particular, has become the hottest spot in the world in which constant tension persists.

The aspiration and desire of mankind to lead an independent life free from all sorts of domination and subjugation is growing stronger, and no force can stem the trend of history towards independence and justice.

The present international situation demands that our Republic continue to advance along the road of independence under the unfurled banner of Songun.

By holding fast to the ideals of independence, peace and friendship, we will, in the future, too, strive to develop relations of friendship and cooperation with the countries that are friendly to our country out of their respect for its sovereignty, and safeguard regional peace and stability and make the whole world independent.

A brighter and broader vista is open for us in the new year, and only victory and glory are in store for our people on their onward march.