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Madness rules as Pyongyang celebrates

By: Lasha Tchantouridze

Posted: 06/21/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

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In preparation for this watershed event, Pyongyang has accelerated certain programs demonstrating the great successes of Kim's Juche theory, the official ideology of the country, which is based on Marxism, self-isolation and national narcissism.

Recently, North Korea's ruling party congratulated itself with another success -- a test of a sizable nuclear bomb, which firmly put North Korea among the world's nuclear powers.

Kim Il Sung is so important for Pyongyang that the country uses his birth year as the beginning of its official calendar. Thus, the successful nuclear test took place in Juche 98, which had been preceded by a less successful one in Juche 95 (2006).

In April, North Korea also celebrated a successful launch of the country's first Kwangmyongsong-2 satellite, which in an alternative reality shared by the rest of the world, was never deployed to orbit. However, that launch did demonstrate the North's growing long-range missile capabilities and expertise.

A combination of nuclear weapons and rapidly developing long-range missiles makes the North Korean regime a growing threat to international security. Not surprisingly, South Korea, Japan and the United States sounded the alarm, subsequently joined by most of the world, including China and Russia, the North's traditional allies. This has infuriated Pyongyang, as its official statements have condemned American imperialism and its South Korean puppets and threatened to defend the Juche homeland at all costs.

Pyongyang's fury has been triggered not as much by the overwhelming international condemnation of its nuclear test, but by South Korea's decision to join something called the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) created by the George W. Bush administration in 2001. More than 90 signatories of this treaty pledge to interdict material that could be used to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. Participants occasionally hold naval exercises to board and seize suspected vessels in international waters. North Korea perceives South Korea becoming part of the PSI as an attack on its sovereignty and the abrogation of the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.

According to the armistice, both Koreas should refrain from naval blockades of each other's territorial waters. North Korea views South's participation in the PSI as an intent to blockade and interdict its shipping. They have angrily promised to target U.S., Korean and other interests in the region, especially warships. Pyongyang has done these a few times over the years, and occasional naval casualties have resulted. However, this time their threat, voiced by a nuclear power, sounds especially worrisome.

North Korea's isolationist mentality and a geopolitically complex neighbourhood provides for another potentially deadly combination. According to the North's unrelenting propaganda, the country, which claims to be the freest and happiest in the world, has been besieged by the imperialist Americans and its puppets, poised to destroy the socialist paradise. Currently, only the wise and courageous leadership of Great Leaders and Dear Comrades Kim Il Sung (who died in 1994, but is listed as Permanent President of the country -- merely a formal post without effective powers), and Kim Jong Il (North Korea's living leader, and the Permanent President's son) keeps the capitalist dogs away.

Fantasies aside, all of North Korea's neighbours possess or host nuclear weapons. China and Russia are longtime nuclear powers, while South Korea and Japan host nuclear-capable U.S. warships and aircraft.

Every year, official Pyongyang celebrates progress in everything related to economic production and social advances in the country. Every year, they report more steel production and agricultural output, more cars and TVs per capita, more babies and better social services, also more missiles and better weapons. According to them, there is more of everything in the country except crime, mortality and insanity. Unfortunately, most outside observers disagree with them, especially when it comes to insanity.

Lasha Tchantouridze is a research associate in the Centre for Defence and Security Studies and an adjunct professor in the faculty of graduate studies at the University of Manitoba.

The Learning Curve is an occasional column written by local academics who are experts in their fields. It is open to any educator from Winnipeg's post-secondary institutions. Send 600-word submissions and a mini bio to thelearningcurve@freepress.mb.ca.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 21, 2009 B3

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