NK war rhetoric. Rhetoric or truth?

[Saen]

I have been perusing the official DPRK news papers and have come to the conclusion that a despotic/totalitarian government is not worth the risk of war. I mean, can you imagine living in a world where the truth is what the government tells you it is. I agree that in the US the media tends to lean one way or another and wants to show you what they think is the truth. But at least here you have the opportunities for alternatives and different perspectives. There are no absolute truths in this context. And not only are they proclaiming absolute truths, but they are saying it is what they say it is.

Just an example.

http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

U.S. warned against any more piratic acts against DPRK trading cargo ships

If the U.S. had even an iota of conscience, it should have honestly apologized for its piratic act of grossly infringing upon the sovereignty of the DPRK and duly compensated for all the mental and material damage done to the DPRK ship and its crew.The hearts of the people’s army and people of the DPRK are afire with the towering grudge against the U.S. imperialists who are wantonly infringing upon the sovereignty and interests of the country and the **resolve to take a thousand-fold revenge upon them. It is their fixed faith and will not to show any mercy and tolerance to the U.S. imperialist aggressors but force them to pay for the blood shed by Koreans.
If the U.S. commits another reckless provocation despite the DPRK’s warning, the KPA will counter it with a decisive measure and the U.S. will be held entirely responsible for all the ensuing consequences. **

U.S. urged to behave with decorum

The DPRK has been exposed to a constant nuclear threat of the U.S. which has become more undisguised in recent years. As the United States is keen to bring a nuclear disaster to the Korean nation the DPRK obviously cannot remain a passive onlooker to it.
Under the situation where the NPT and IAEA are being misused for implementing the U.S. policy of stifling the DPRK it can no longer remain bound to them.
A military option is not a monopoly of the United States. If the United States dares challenge the DPRK with a “military punishment”, the DPRK will take a thousand-fold retaliation against it and root out the very source of aggression on the Korean Peninsula.
The U.S. imperialists should drop its suicidal option, mindful that they will not escape an ignominious defeat in the DPRK-U.S. confrontation

KCNA refutes U.S. officials’ lies about cause of economic difficulties

Some elements of the Bush administration hostile to the DPRK are floating sheer lies that some economic difficulties in the DPRK are attributable to its wrong policy. This is nothing but a U.S. hypocritical political propaganda to cover up the criminal nature of its blockade policy, a crime against humanity, committed against the DPRK for several decades. Temporary economic difficulties including the acute shortage of electricity and food in the DPRK were partly caused by consecutive years of natural disasters. **But they are chiefly attributable to the U.S. aggressive and hostile policy of blockade towards the DPRK. **
The U.S. has pursued this policy for over half a century since its military occupation of South Korea in 1945. **This was, in fact, aimed to deprive our state and people of their right to existence. **
…
In order to cope with this situation the DPRK advanced a line of simultaneously carrying on the economic construction and defence upbuilding and had no option but to direct enormous efforts to boosting the country’s defence capability.

Rodong Sinmun on DPRK withdrawal from NPT

The whole army and people of Korea fully support the statement of the DPRK Government, determined to foil the Yankees nuclear racket, firmly defend the people-centered Korean-style socialism and build a powerful nation of Juche at an early date.
Our army and people hold General Secretary Kim Jong Il, the illustrious commander of Mt. Paektu, in high esteem as their supreme commander. We have the army-based policy most powerful in the 21st century and the weapon of singlehearted unity stronger than nuclear weapons.

U.S. urged not to run amuck

If the U.S. evades its responsibility and recklessly challenges the DPRK, the army and people of the DPRK will never miss the chance but certainly make them pay for the blood and turn the stronghold of the enemy into a sea of fire. Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed commentary.

This is one of my favorites.
Koreans called upon to defend security and interests of nation

Under the present situation where the U.S. policy of aggression on the DPRK has gone beyond its danger line Koreans who are concerned about the destiny of the nation and its future should turn out as one in an anti-U.S., anti-war struggle. All political parties, organizations, classes and social strata in the north and the south of Korea should wage a struggle to frustrate the Yankees moves to invade the DPRK. If a war breaks out, all the Koreans will suffer from the disaster.
**All the Koreans should be mindful that only anti-U.S. struggle would guarantee their life. ** Clear is that the target of the Korean people’s struggle is the U.S. imperialists and their policy to invade the DPRK.
Their moves to provoke a nuclear war are a cancer-like one that wrecks peace in Korea and a main stumbling block lying in the way of its independent reunification. The target of struggle is the Yankees who, displeased with the inter-Korean reconciliation and reunification, run amuck to disturb them and force the holocaust of a war upon the Koreans for the sake of their own interests.

All bolding is mine of course. Would this last be considered a threat from the government to the people?

All the Koreans should wage a bold nationwide struggle against the U.S. and war.Peace and independent reunification are guaranteed only by anti-U.S. struggle. If the enemies dare provoke a war, we will resolutely wipe out the aggressors and reduce them to the forlorn wandering spirit and certainly remove the bulwark of aggression from the earth.

So they should wage a war against the US’s intended war?

All Koreans called upon to frustrate U.S. anti-peace moves
(“All Koreans”, of course, means north and south.)

Whoever wishes national reunification should turn out to achieve the great unity of the nation irrespective of their abode, idea and ism. One of the major goals sought by the U.S in sparking a nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula is to prevent the north and the south of Korea from achieving unity.
All the Koreans should see through the U.S. trite trick to perpetuate Korea’s division and turn out in an anti-U.S struggle for independence and demonstrate the strength and mettle of the Korean nation.

Letter to IAEA director general

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will completely withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) from Jan. 11, 2003. Ri Je Son, director general of the General Department of Atomic Energy, clarified this in a letter sent to Mohamed el-Baradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on Jan. 10 as regards the statement of the DPRK Government. …

The DPRK Government declared its withdrawal from the NPT on March 12, 1993 as a measure to defend the supreme interests of the country so as to cope with the abnormal situation caused by the nuclear threat posed by the U.S. and the partiality of the IAEA.

…

Instead of giving formal assurances against its use of nukes, the Bush administration listed the DPRK as part of “an axis of evil” and a target of preemptive nuclear attack, thus not only breaking the foundations of the DPRK-U.S. joint statement and the DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework (AF) but wantonly violating the basic spirit of the NPT.
Even under this grave situation, the DPRK Government, proceeding from its peace-loving stand to save the AF from its total collapse, exercised its maximum self-restraint and proposed to conclude a non-aggression treaty with the U.S. as a realistic way of settling the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula on Oct. 25 last year.
Still worse, the IAEA unilaterally adopted unreasonable resolutions against the DPRK on Nov. 29 last year and on Jan. 6 this year while keeping mum about the U.S. which scrapped the AF and is openly posing a nuclear threat to the DPRK after listing it as a target of preemptive nuclear strike, ignoring the nature of the nuclear issue, a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK, and the DPRK’s unique status in which it declared a moratorium on its withdrawal from the NPT.

What preemptive policy? I thought our policy on nukes where deterrence and retaliation unless countries threaten to use wmd.

More than one million Pyongyangites support DPRK’s withdrawal from NPT

Today more than one million Pyongyangites met to fully support the statement of the DPRK Government on withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and firmly resolve to devotedly protect the sovereignty, vital right and dignity of the country and the nation. People from all walks of life thronged to Kim Il Sung Square and other parts of the city, the meeting places, with burning hatred for the U.S. imperialists.

Seen in the meeting places were slogan boards titled “Let us fight against the U.S. imperialists to the finish and protect the nation’s dignity and sovereignty” “Let us win certain victory in the sacred anti-U.S. war with the might of army-based policy” “Let us wipe out the U.S. imperialists to the last man if they invade the DPRK” etc. And posters reflecting the iron will of the Korean people to wage a life-and-death battle with the aggressors.

The current measure demonstrated to the whole world once again the revolutionary principle and determination of the DPRK that it does not say an empty word but does what it intends, they said, **adding that if the U.S. brings dark clouds of war to hang over this land, the army and the people of the DPRK will remove the land of the U.S. from the earth and root out the very source of evil and war. **

What’s funny is that all of the rhetoric I hear from the administration is that they have no intention of going to war with NK. They have offered talks and aid, and have only threatened them with sanctions. Yet in 90% of the entire news headlines for the past 3 days is war rhetoric from the DPRK.
Sure its bluff and bluster from the tiny nation to get what they want. I guess my beef is that this is the only means of information that is readily available to the N.Koreans. At least I think it is. I have tried to find an independent and opposing news source in the country.

Yes, the US used allot of war rhetoric and spent lots on the military when it felt threatened by the Soviets. Our country, however, did not build up the military at the expense of starving it’s people. And if it did, would we buy the fact that it was the Soviets fault that hundreds of thousands where dying of neglect so that we could match our enemies in military strength? As much support our government gets from the people for it’s “hegemony” and “imperialism”, what would the support be if we didn’t have opposing view points in our face every day. And that whatever the Government said was the truth.

This is part rant, part IMHO part question and part debate. So I have no idea where to put this and if a mod thinks another forum is more appropriate then by all means…

[Saen]

Well, I see this is an issue that others are getting burned out on so I’ll let it go after this… maybe

http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

**DPRK, too, has option
**

If the U.S. and its followers respond to the DPRK’s recent exercise of its option with new sanctions, blockade and pressure offensives, it will exercise the second and third corresponding options, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. Saying that no one can estimate what they would be, the article continues:

…
The DPRK’s option is guaranteed by its powerful military capacity.
…
The U.S. should not unilaterally exercise an option, facing up to the option of the DPRK.

and

http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,75445,00.html

**North Korea Threatens New ‘Options’ as China Offers to Mediate **

China offered Tuesday to host talks between the United States and North Korea in a bid to end their standoff, and the North warned it was running out of patience with Washington, threatening to exercise undefined “options.”

A vaguely worded statement from Pyongyang did not specify what options it was considering, but suggested the isolationist communist nation was prepared to escalate the crisis over its drive to develop nuclear weapons.
…
On Wednesday, the U.S. military said North Korean soldiers have stepped up patrols in one area of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.

“Over the past week, we have some increased activity,” said Lt. Col. Matthew Margotta, who commands a combined battalion of U.S. and South Korean soldiers stationed near the border village of Panmunjom. He described the activity as “not alarming, just unusual.”

[Duckster]

And the debate is …?

[Saen]

*Originally posted by Duckster *
**And the debate is …? **

Well, I guess it is NK war rhetoric. Rhetoric or truth?

In a totalitarian government, could the truth of the people be what the government says it is because they control the stringent dissemination (oxymoron?) of most information provided to the people.

We could go further and hypothosize that we will eventually do to them as we are to Iraq. Could we use a moral excuse of liberating the people even if they may disagree with us? And if the answer is yes on my first question, should it matter what they feel, even if we agree with them, because we feel their information is unobjective and biased. And if yes/no , could the same be applied to Iraq or any other instance where it would fit.

Perasonally I am torn on the issue. While I would think it would be wrong to force our version of the truth upon others, I do not feel it is my responsibilty to accept their truth as valid. In that case I find the “liberation” arguement valid. And regardless of who’s "truth is correct, the liberating is not forcing my version upon them, but giving them the freedom of having the unobjective information. Of course, this does not count those in the countries that feel bonded against their will to the regimes. That is obvious liberation.
I am reaching for a specific debate here. These are just some of the issues I wanted to discuss when I felt compelled to start this post. It may not be a great one or even cognitive. Thats why I added my little addendum at the end of my first post.

[Sam_Stone]

The North Koreans have a habit of escalating their rhetoric to near hysteria. Mainly because it works. They’ve done this before, and were rewarded for it.

The big problem is this: If the empty rhetoric of a country sounds exactly the same as their serious preparation to attack, how can you know the difference?

This is exactly the dilemma George Bush has put Saddam in. If you can’t distinguish rhetoric from reality, you’d better be prepared for the reality.