Daily Headline – 06/04/13

Korean peninsula update

The Korean peninsula still dominates the global media in a one-sided look at the issue, the evil North Korea against the innocent US/South Korea. It’s almost as ridiculous as North Korea’s propaganda!

In the latest developments North Korea has told the embassies in Pyongyang that, in the event of war, it cannot guarantee their safety and that they should strongly consider evacuating the country, it has asked to be notified whether they are staying or going by the 10th April.
The US has moved missile defence systems to new locations including Guam and in a statement said that is is ready for any eventuality.

North Korea is guilty of lacking democracy, incompetent management, developing nuclear technology and a space program and as such pretty much just has China as a trading partner with sanctions coming from all corners of the globe. The US has a nuclear program, has used nuclear weapons against civilians and has a phoney two-party state ‘democracy’.
If you box someone into a corner, the only rational response is to lash out, from a caged animal to a country.

North Korea shouldn’t have nuclear weapons but should it be under such economic sanctions?
Are North Koreans actions and words justified? Have you ever thought about understanding the situation from their perspective?

No war, no nuclear weapons, it is the innocent, the working class who suffer.

Daily Headline – 30/03/13

‘State of War’ on Korean Peninsula

“The long-standing situation of the Korean peninsula being neither at peace nor at war is finally over.” – Statement from DPRK

Still analysts are saying that all-out war is very unlikely, which could be true but with daily threats coming from the North and daily antagonisms coming from the South/US it certainly couldn’t be ruled out.

It has been reported that North Korean troops and artillery have moved into combat positions. It seems that both sides are just waiting for the word from their leaders before they start massacring each other.
Leadership and governments as always under Capitalism will sit in their offices with a brandy (or any drink of their choice) and give the order, sending men, women and children to their deaths.
Around 3 million people lost their lives in the last Korean war, Chinese, Koreans, Americans, British and a small assortment of other nationals. The leaders were fine though.

No to war, workers of the world unite and down with leadership!

Daily Headline – 22/03/13

UN; human rights political ploy over North Korea

Yes, another North Korea post! It’s not our obsession but things are extremely tense on the Korean peninsula and there is a lot of media attention.

This time the United Nations (UN) has voted to investigate North Korean human rights abuses.
No, this is not a joke. For over 65 years North Korea has been abusing the human rights of its citizens but for some reason the UN has decided now would be a good time to investigate.

The fact that North Korea and the US seem to be gearing up for military confrontation is surely just a coincidence that the UN has made this decision… I think not.

Does the UN need political motivation before it starts investigating and taking action against human rights abuses? If so then surely it’s not fit for purpose!

The BBC reports:
“UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the UN had evidence indicating that North Korea’s political prisons held around 200,000 people, with many subjected to rape, torture and slave labour.”

So the UN can tell when North Korea develops nuclear warheads underground but only now has been able to tell that human rights are being abused? Disgraceful.

UN Human-rights

There are 30 ‘articles‘ of human rights, how many are North Korea abusing?

Of course without proof and evidence it is hard to say but I suspect the violations would include:

Article 2
Article 3
Article 5
Article 9
Article 11
Article 12
Article 13
Article 18
Article 19
Article 20
Article 23

So that’s 11 violations out of 30.

US continues to antagonise North Korea

By Leon J Williams

If a nation who had killed or injured over 1.5 million civilians just 60 years ago and then subsequently continues to carry out military exercises on your doorstep, you’d be nervous and on edge to say the least.

Well this is the situation North Korea finds itself in.

Much of the worlds media has focused on the tyranny of North Korea and the Kim family dynasty that has ruled North Korea since its inception.
And while it is true that The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea does not belong to the people, is not a republic and is not democratic (1 out of 4 is true!) North Korea is behaving as anyone would and should expect given the circumstances.

In 1945 Korea was split in two without any consultation of the Korean people. The Soviets took the North and the Americans took the South in order to set up Korean governments following the end of Japanese colonial rule.

Who started the war?

Pretty much everyone will say North Korea and while this is true it does leave out an important piece of information. The North attacked the South because after calling for unity elections South Korea arrested North Korean diplomats, this is why the war started.

The war led to 2 million fatalities of the Northern alliance and 1 million from the Southern alliance.

Both sides of Korea have every right to be on edge but probably more so for the North, losing over two million people and most of the world against you, the biggest military constantly carrying out military drills by your borders, economic sanctions as tight as they can be with the only bigger step being a military attack.

The US is pretty much justifying the rhetoric coming from the North and the development of their long range missiles and nuclear weapons.

If the US backed down, there would be no justification for North Korea and its dictatorship to behave the way it is, meaning any retaliation to a North Korean military action would be wholly legitimate and accepted by all sane people of the world.

A fine example is today’s news where the US is flying nuclear capable B-52s around South Korea as part of joint military exercises amid the already extremely high tensions on the peninsula. It is like the US is deliberately trying to provoke a reaction from the North in a childish and pathetic attempt to to legitimise an invasion.

No to North Korean dictatorship and no to the US in North Korea. It is always the people who pay the ultimate price!

W.A.N.K.E.R says ‘we’re ready to explode’

By Leon J Williams

Working for the Advancement of North Korean Energy Research

W.A.N.K.E.R (Working for the Advancement of North Korean Energy Research) has announced with some vigour that it is ‘ready to explode all over you’ referring of course to its enemies the US and South Korea.

Kum Yung-un, the head of W.A.N.K.E.R rose to the occasion by sending out the troops.

China has urged restraint and suggested cold showers all round.

But Mr Kum seems to have dismissed the idea saying ‘the soldiers need to be fully ready for action’ and that ‘deadly blows must be struck’.

Tensions have been extremely high in recent days after Mr Kum announced that ‘pre-emptive strokes’ could be required.

Daily Headline – 08/03/13

Korean peninsula on verge of war

The situation on the Korean peninsula is amazingly tense, further escalations have taken things to the verge of war.

All of the 15 UN security council members voted unanimously for tighter sanctions on North Korea (DPRK) (known as resolution 2094).

The 15 members of the UN security council consists of 5 permanent members and 10 other members who normally serve 1 year terms before being changed:

5 permanent members:
China
France
Russia
UK
US

10 current other members:
Azerbaijan
Argentina
Australia
Guatemala
Republic of Korea
Morocco
Pakistan
Luxembourg
Rwanda
Togo

In response to resolution 2094 North Korea has scrapped the ceasefire armistice agreement that was signed in 1953 by the UN, North Korea and China.

The North went on to say that it had the right to launch pre-emptive strikes following on from foreign aggression.

The scrapping of the armistice agreement leaves the Korean peninsula in a desperate situation and on the verge of war.

Daily Headline – 22/02/13

Iran set to join nuke club

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that Iran is now installing advanced centrifuge machines for enriching uranium at one of its nuclear plant.

Last week it was said that Iranian observers were in North Korea for their nuclear test and now this, it seems certain that Iran is set to follow in North Korea’s footsteps and join the nuclear club.

This has angered the US and they say they are not surprised by Iran’s latest nuclear development.

Where next for the US and the UN over North Korea and Iran? Options and time are running out if they wish to continue exerting their global dominance over other countries.

Daily Headline – 12/02/13

North Korea tests nuclear bomb

Working for the Advancement of North Korean Energy Research

North Korea tests a nuclear weapon, the US does nothing. Someone mentions in a pentagon corridor that Iraq might have WMD, the US invades.

What’s the difference?

The skeptic says: Iraq has oil
The realist says: Chinese soldiers will kill US soldiers (again)
The optimist says: The US is a peaceful nation

North Korea said it would test a small nuclear bomb after the UN added further sanctions and it did just that this morning (3am GMT).

The situation so far…

Dec-11 Kim Jong-un becomes the leader of DPRK
Dec-11 EU adds sanction against DPRK
Dec-12 DPRK successfully launches a space rocket carrying a satellite
Jan-13 US/UN increases sanctions against DPRK
Jan-13 ROK successfully launches a space rocket carrying a satellite
Feb-13 DPRK successfully carries out 3rd nuclear test

Following this mornings nuclear test the UN’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said it was a “clear and grave violation” of UN resolutions and that it was “deeply destabilising”.

The UN will meet at 2pm (GMT) to decide what action should be taken.

Daily Headline – 30/01/13

South Korea launches into space

South Korea has successfully launched it’s Naro-1 rocket into space for the first time, on board is a Science and Technology Satellite (STSAT 2C).

Previous attempts by South Korea in 2009 and 2010 both failed.

Last month North Korea launched their Unha-3 rocket into space which was followed by further UN sanctions.

Why is it that two nations who are technically still at war face a situation of complete double standards?
North Korea launches a space rocket, gets more UN sanctions, South Korea launches a space rocket, gets a pat on the back.

Whether we agree or not with North and/or South Korean politics and general way of doing things surely they must be treated in the same way considering their joint history and the fact that both sides over-step the cease fire agreement.

Daily Headline – 29/01/13

Iran follows North Korea into space

Iran has launched a rocket carrying a monkey into space, one month after North Korea’s successful launch.

This is not the first time Iran has successfully launched into space, in February 2009 and 2010 Iran had success. It is not thought that anything significant was learnt by Iran nor were any significant new technologies used.

Iran plans to use this experience in their aim of putting a man in space and then setting a manned orbital post by 2020. Which still remains highly ambitious.

For more information click here.

There are 10 nations (not including ESA) that can independently launch into space, can you name them?