<\/p>\n Did you hear\u00a0the news?\u00a0<\/em>In\u00a0what Mother Jones labeled a\u00a0\u201cstunning announcement,\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0South Korean officials stated that North Korea is willing to talk with the United States about ending its nuclear program, which CNN reported as a\u00a0\u201cremarkable development.\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0It almost seems \u2014 as both\u00a0Fox News<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the Atlantic<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0speculate \u2014 as if Donald Trump\u2019s hard-line strategy with the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (DPRK) actually worked. It didn\u2019t, of course \u2014 the DPRK has offered to talk for a long time but most US-Americans don\u2019t know it because their media and policymakers have ignored it. Until\u00a0now<\/em>, that is \u2014 now, a development that is truly remarkable is announced \u2014 Trump appears to have opted to be the first US president in history who will meet the Chairman of the Korean Workers Party and Korean head-of-state,\u00a0Kim Jong Un<\/em>.<\/p>\n Despite the narrative pushed by the commentariat, North Korean readiness to halt its pursuit of a nuclear arsenal and the missile technology to deliver it is the same as it has been for ages. The DPRK has consistently said that its nuclear program is its only deterrent against a US attempt at regime-change and that it is willing to end it if the US will recognize its sovereignty by negotiating in good faith with DPRK leaders to withdraw US forces from Korea. With minor variations, this is what the North Korean leadership has been repeating from the start of its nuclear adventure up to today.<\/p>\n If this is so \u2014\u00a0and it is so<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 why is the media pretending that North Korea\u2019s willingness to negotiate its nuclear policy is somehow a new development? Has nobody shown Mother Jones or CNN how to Google?<\/p>\n Since the \u201cnews media\u201d\u00a0seems unable to find the many official North Korean public statements inviting the US and its allies to negotiate an end to its nuclear program, here is list of recent offers with complete citations.<\/p>\n Its not like we ever destroyed North Korea or anyth \u2014 oh, wait. (Pyongyang after US bombing during the Korean War)<\/p>\n Last year, July 6th, 2017, China and Russia brokered a deal with North Korea\u2019s leaders who\u00a0agreed to freeze their nuclear program<\/strong><\/a>if the US would suspend its yearly military exercises in the South, which the North views as aggressive (imagine what the US might do if DPRK soldiers trained just south of the US border!). Of course, Trump\u2019s USA declined the offer and neither CNN nor Mother Jones thought it was stunning or remarkable or even worthy of reporting. Earlier in \u201917 \u2014 on New Years Day \u2014 just before Trump took office \u2014\u00a0Kim Jong Un himself gave a public speech<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0explicitly stating the DPRK\u2019s position:<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue to build up our self-defence capability, the pivot of which is the nuclear forces, and the capability for preemptive strike as long as the United States and its vassal forces keep on nuclear threat and blackmail and as long as they do not stop their war games they stage at our doorstep disguising them as annual events\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The year before \u2014 on September 23rd, 2016 \u2014\u00a0\u00a0Mr. Ri Yon Ho,\u00a0DPRK Minister for Foreign Affairs, spoke during the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly<\/strong><\/a>, explaining:<\/p>\n \u201cGoing nuclear armed is the policy of our state.\u00a0As long as there exists a nuclear weapon state in hostile relations with the DPRK, our national security and the peace on the Korean peninsula can be defended only with reliable nuclear deterrence<\/strong>. The reason why we had no other option but to strengthen our nuclear deterrence with all hearts and soul may not be easily understood by [\u2026] countries which have never experienced the nuclear weapons of a hostile power appearing at their doorstep and around their air space.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Echoing Kim Jong Un\u2019s\u00a02016 New Years address, the North Korean Jurists\u2019 Committee released a paper<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0about the US refusal to sign the peace treaty offered by the DPRK \u201cto put a definite end to the state of war from a legal point of view and establish relations of lasting peace.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2015, after explaining the\u00a0DPRK position on its nuclear program and asking the US to sign a peace treaty during the UN General Assembly\u2019s 70th Session<\/strong><\/a>, Mr. Ri Su Yong stated:<\/p>\n \u201cIt is high time for the US to come up with the signing of a peace treaty. The Government of the DPRK is willing to hold constructive dialogue to prevent war and conflicts on the Korean peninsula, once the United States agrees to replace the armistice with a peace treaty [\u2026] If the US makes a policy change with courage, dramatic improvement will be affected in the security environment of the Korean peninsula and eventually lead to addressing security concerns of the US\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n On the\u00a027th of September, 2014, North Korean MFA Mr. Ri Su Yong<\/strong><\/a>\u2014 this time at the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly \u2014 said this:<\/p>\n \u201cThe hostile policy, nuclear threat and stifling strategy pursued by the US for more than half a century resulted in the decision [to become a] nuclear weapons [by] the DPRK. The nuclear deterrent of the DPRK is not intended to threaten or attack others, neither is it a bargaining chip to be exchanged for something else.\u00a0The nuclear issue will be resolved if and when the threat to our sovereignty and right to life is removed in substance with termination of the US hostile policy against the DPRK<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A\u00a0recent article in the Atlantic<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0had this to say on the recent developments in US-Korean relations:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026then, suddenly, South Korea said Tuesday\u00a0that the North was open to talks with the U.S., including on renouncing its nuclear weapons program\u2014something Kim Jong Un had never put on the table before.<\/strong>\u00a0Could that mean that Trump\u2019s blustery rhetoric \u2026 worked?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In light of the statements listed above by both\u00a0Kim Jong un himself<\/em>\u00a0and by the North Korean government in general, the Atlantic\u2019s analysis is ignorant or lazy at best and willfully dishonest at worst. But the Atlantic is not the only guilty one \u2014\u00a0CNN characterized the DPRK\u2019s latest bid<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for diplomacy as \u201ca decisive shift on the part of Kim Jong un towards diplomacy.\u201d True to form, Fox News managed to find multiple \u201cexperts\u201d who\u00a0somehow concluded that\u00a0this particular offer<\/em>\u00a0by the DPRK to negotiate is a result of Trump\u2019s\u00a0\u201cbrash rhetoric and his love for picking a fight via Twitter.\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n While CNN, Fox, the Atlantic, and Mother Jones pretended the DPRK\u2019s readiness to negotiate is a new development, MSBC looked at the situation from a different angle.\u00a0An article published by MSNBC\u2019s Steve Benen<\/strong><\/a>\u2014 a producer of\u00a0the Rachel Maddow Show<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 starts by acknowledging the DPRK\u2019s long history of urging the US to engage in direct diplomacy:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026Trump has agreed to give Kim Jong-un exactly what he wants. North Korean leaders have sought this kind of meeting for decades\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And then it takes a sharp turn by adding that North Korean leaders only want diplomacy to \u201cshow the world that North Korea\u2019s leader is being treated as an equal by the Leader of the Free World.\u201d Yes, wouldn\u2019t that be\u00a0awful<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 a North Korean leader treated\u00a0as an equal<\/em>! After this, Benen goes on to treat the DPRK like children by saying that other US presidents \u201cleft open the possibility\u201d for talks \u201cbut only as a reward for meaningful and tangible results.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n The strangest \u2014 and frankly most disturbing \u2014 part of this MSNBC article is that Benen concludes by accidentally offering a pretty solid analysis:<\/p>\n \u201cBesides, from Kim Jong-un\u2019s perspective, the purpose of his nuclear program is working beautifully: it\u2019s not only prevented hostile actions from its enemies, it\u2019s also bringing the president of the United States directly to the negotiating table.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is, in fact, true. The purpose of the North Korean nuclear program is, as Benen writes, to \u201c[prevent] hostile actions from its enemies\u201d and bring the US \u201cdirectly to the negotiating table.\u201d The context is what makes it disturbing. Though Benen\u2019s statement is true, he writes it in a way that assumes \u2014 and expects MSNBC\u2019s readers and viewers to also assume \u2014 that North Korea\u2019s attempt to protect itself from harm and force a peaceful diplomatic solution\u00a0is a bad thing<\/em>.<\/p>\n To MSNBC and others poisoned by this ideology, the US is entitled to be the boss in all situations, has no obligation to respect the wishes, well-being, or autonomy of other nations, and \u2014 if they don\u2019t like it \u2014 well,\u00a0then we can just fucking kill them<\/em>.<\/p>\n The fact that this nonsense is accepted at face-value is just more evidence that US-Americans pay almost no attention to anything that North Korea\u2019s spokespeople say. This near-total ignorance of the North Korean perspective is a direct result of the racist, imperialist ideology spread by mainstream news-outlets to justify the military adventures of US armed-forces across the globe.<\/p>\n There is no lack of readily-available statements from the DPRK \u2013 one Google search is all it takes to find them \u2014 but the news-media and public officials teach the US public that North Korean perspectives are invalid, insane, or disingenuous and so they never bother to look. The end result is that FOX, CNN, or MSNBC hosts with all their special guests and war-horny pundits get to think for them. People believe outlandish claims that Kim Jong Un fed his uncle to a pack of hungry dogs (which\u00a0he didn\u2019t<\/em><\/strong><\/a>) or that citizens are put to death for watching foreign movies (despite the verifiable fact that the\u00a0Pyongyang International Film Festival<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0is held in North Korea every other year).<\/p>\n Fox, CNN, mother Jones, and the Atlantic are all dead-wrong that North Korea\u2019s offer is a new development and dead-wrong that the offer is a result of Trump\u2019s tweets. MSNBC (or at least Benen\u2019s article) is right that the US engaging in direct talks with the DPRK is a big step forward for the Korean Workers Party and North Korean people, as well as an opportunity for Kim Jong Un to show that he is a leader worthy of succeeding his mighty grandfather, Kim Il Sung. What remains to be seen is whether Trump\u2019s administration is truly pursuing constructive dialogue to work toward reasonable and mutual compromise with the DPRK or simply putting on a good dramatic show for the public. Only time will tell and \u2014 until it does \u2014 we should all hope for the best.<\/p>\n In either case \u2014 if there is an anti-war movement, if there is a Left, and if there be friends of the Korean people in the US, this is exactly the time to make a lot of noise. This is the time to engage in outreach and to educate the US public about the\u00a0history of injustices inflicted by their government on North Koreans<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0from 1945 unto today. This is the time to raise your voices together to force each and every hand-wringing, spineless politician in the nation to understand that US-Americans wish\u00a0peace to North Korea<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0death to imperialism<\/em>.<\/p>\n In solidarity, By John Laurits (johnlaurtis.com) March 10, 2018 Did you hear\u00a0the news?\u00a0In\u00a0what Mother Jones labeled a\u00a0\u201cstunning announcement,\u201d\u00a0South Korean officials stated that North Korea is willing to talk with the United States about ending its nuclear program, which CNN reported as a\u00a0\u201cremarkable development.\u201d\u00a0It almost seems \u2014 as both\u00a0Fox News\u00a0and\u00a0the Atlantic\u00a0speculate \u2014… Continue reading ![\"US](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.johnlaurits.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/kim-jong-un-trum-talks-dprk-VP-pence-laborwave-juche-wave-best-korea.jpg?ssl=1\" "\\"US")
<\/a><\/p>\nUS Media Misrepresents
\nNorth Korean Nuclear Talks<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe Long History of the US Refusing<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/em>North Korean Calls for Nuclear Talks<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n2017:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>CHINA + RUSSIA BROKER\u00a0<\/i><\/b>DPRK\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>OFFER
\nTO HALT NUCLEAR PROGRAM, US REFUSES<\/i><\/b><\/h4>\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n2016: DPRK EXPLAINS ITS POSITION TO UN,
\nOFFERS PEACE TREATY TO US, US REFUSES<\/h4>\n2015: DPRK OFFERS PEACE TREATY & NUCLEAR TALKS, US REFUSES<\/h4>\n
2014: DPRK OFFERS TALKS TO RESOLVE NUCLEAR ISSUE, US REFUSES<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nIs US Media Lying About North Korea?
\n( Or Are They Really This Stupid? )<\/em><\/h2>\nMSNBC: #1 in Warmongering, Racist Vitriol<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a>The Dark, Dark Heart
\nOf the Neoliberal Worldview<\/em><\/h2>\n<\/a><\/p>\nBeware the Poison of the Media\u2019s Framing of North Korea<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a>Trump Meeting Kim Jong Un Is Huge \u2014\u00a0<\/strong>
\nBut Should We Feel Hope or Fear?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nJohn Laurits<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"