Sticking to its policy of unremitting hostility, Washington has broken its agreement with the Pyongyang and driven the ongoing negotiations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s into a wall.
|
The list is a demonization mechanism and an instrument for sanctioning some of the top targets of U.S. imperialism: Cuba, Syria, Sudan, Iran and North Korea. It has nothing to do with support for terrorism.
“We neither wish nor expect to be delisted as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism,’ ” North Korea’s KCNA news agency quoted a ministry spokesperson as saying. “We can go our own way.” (New York Times, Sept. 19)
Three days later, Pyongyang told the International Atomic Energy Agency to begin removing equipment from its Yongbyon nuclear facility.
North Korea has “asked the agency’s inspectors to remove seals and surveillance equipment to enable them to carry out tests at the reprocessing plant, which they say will not involve nuclear material,” said IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. (New York Times, Sept. 22)
The corporate media would like the U.S. public to believe North Korea’s latest move amounts to hostile posturing. Rather, it is a legitimate response to Washington’s unwillingness to follow through with agreements made earlier this year.
In May, North Korea gave the U.S. a declaration of its nuclear operating records at its Yongbyon installation dating back to 1986. The declaration’s 18,822 pages even included extensive new information about its nuclear programs.
In a tit-for-tat, the U.S. agreed to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism on June 26. It also promised to take North Korea off its Trading with the Enemy Act if the country agreed to inspections of its nuclear facilities within a 45-day verification period. The deal was in exchange for information on North Korea’s nuclear programs and guarantees on the continued dismantling of the country’s nuclear facilities.
At the time, John W. Lewis, from the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, stated that North Korea had followed through with roughly 80 percent of its agreement to dismantle the Yongbyon facility. (Boston Globe, May 17)
In June, Pyongyang allowed the IAEA and U.S. nuclear experts to oversee the shutdown and continued disablement of all key plutonium facilities at Yongbyon, a continuation of similar moves made in the fall of 2007.
Washington torpedoes negotiations
For the North Korean government, these were no symbolic concessions. The successful test of a nuclear weapon in October 2006 gave it much-needed leverage to ease U.S. aggression. The need for breathing room in the face of continued U.S.-imposed economic strangulation certainly weighed heavily on its subsequent decision to divulge information on the country’s nuclear program and take major steps toward its suspension.
Nevertheless, the U.S. government immediately began stalling, qualifying its stated concessions and indicating that it might ramp up hostilities at any moment. While announcing the lifting of some sanctions, Bush reaffirmed U.S. policy loud and clear, “North Korea will remain one of the most heavily sanctioned nations in the world.” (U.S. News & World Report, June 26)
By July, Washington essentially demanded that North Korea comply with inspections at any time or place with little to no advance warning. The demand was more than any sovereign nation could countenance. U.S. officials declared the right to unilaterally reinstate sanctions whenever they deemed it necessary.
By mid-August, when the 45-day verification period had come and gone, North Korean officials were fed up with the constant delays and lack of progress. They announced they had stopped dismantling nuclear facilities, and now North Korea is on track to resume nuclear production.
Washington’s failure to follow through on agreements with North Korea is nothing new. In 1994, the two countries signed the Framework Agreement: The United States agreed to provide fuel and other aid to North Korea in exchange for replacing “heavy water” reactors with “light water” reactors. However, nearly eight years passed before the U.S. government began to follow through with its promises. In 2002, the North Korean government gave up on any hopes of U.S. cooperation, pulling out of the agreement after the Bush administration accused it of possessing a secret uranium enrichment program.
Who is the real aggressor?
The message is unambiguous: No steps that the North Korean government takes toward implementing its part of any deal will appease Washington. From the perspective of U.S. officials, the central issue is not the North Korean government’s compliance or lack thereof; the central issue is the government itself. The overthrow of socialism and subjugation of the North Korean people are the ultimate aim. This has been the objective of Democratic and Republican administrations alike for the past six decades.
The logical conclusion of the ever greater demands imposed by the Bush administration is that it seeks remove any and all of North Korea’s self-defense capabilities. A similar combination of endless demands, inspection and sanctions heaped upon Iraq following the Gulf War were instrumental in laying the groundwork for the 2003 invasion.
The United States—the one country in the world to ever use nuclear weapons—has one of the world’s largest stockpiles and is currently spending billions to develop newer, more advanced weapons of mass destruction. Pundits in the corporate media can spew all sorts of nonsense about the North Korean “nuclear threat” in a single breath, yet take not one moment to remind the U.S. public that Dwight Eisenhower had authorized the use of nuclear weapons against North Korea in 1953.
Oppressed nations that seek to remain independent from U.S. imperialism can draw a valuable lesson from the U.S. invasion of Iraq: Arm yourselves or face destruction. Pyongyang’s only crime is that it learned this lesson all too well. For as long as the threat of imperialist aggression looms, all oppressed nations must have the right to defend themselves by whatever means necessary, including the development of nuclear weapons.
Stop the sanctions! Respect North Korean sovereignty! Hands off North Korea!
