North Korea Calls the U.S. Bluff

by Leonard Brody | October 9, 2006 at 08:43 am

1904 views | 0 Recommendations | 3 comments

North Korea's announcement of a successful underground detonation of a nuclear weapon has called Washington's bluff. President Bush had long warned that the U.S. will not "tolerate" a nuclear-armed North Korea, and just last week his chief negotiator with the hermit regime, Christopher Hill, warned that Pyongyang would have to choose between having nuclear weapons and having a future. Monday morning's announced test suggests that Kim Jong-il has decided to test Washington's "or else."

The consternation at failing to deter North Korea from becoming the world's eighth declared nuclear weapons state (joining the U.S., Russia, France, Britain, China, India and Pakistan â Israel is generally believed to have nuclear weapons, although it has never publicly disclosed such capability) will hardly be confined to Washington. South Korea has called its national security council into emergency session, and will face pressure from the U.S. and Japan to terminate its "Sunshine" policy of trade and engagement aimed at moderating North Korean behavior. Japan, well within range of North Korea's missiles and a longtime object of its ire, will press for a tough response, and may see its own debate over whether to build nuclear weapons rejoined with new vigor. China will face the uncomfortable reality that its patronage of and friendship with North Korea gave it no leverage, at the decisive moment, over a troublesome neighbor whose actions threaten to destabilize the entire region and provoke a more assertive U.S. presence on turf that Beijing regards as its own back yard.

I just posted my article: Canada complicit in NK nucleur test :

NORTH KOREA NUCLEUR TEST
Canadian Photographer condemns US and Canadian foreign policy for encouraging North Korea.

North Korea’s nuclear test did not surprise anyone who has actually been listening to the statements of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). In doing my photography work, I have traveled to both sides of the Korean DMZ, the line that keeps the Korean peninsula artificially divided. I have come to see an enormous gap in how Canada’s media reports on North Korea, and the damage this causes to advancing peace and security in the region and in developing an intelligent Canadian foreign policy.

Sadly, since January 2002, the war-hawks in the Bush administration have relied on the North to react from the very corner the west has stuck them in. Without the ‘axis of evil’ boogey man popularized by the US media (and Canada’s alike) there would be less sales of US weapons systems in Asia, and little rationale for the Star Wars program. Does Canada’s media report on DPRK reaction to joint US/South Korea war games and their routine ‘mock invasion’ of the North? Instead we get sensational and inaccurate reports of the 'Dear Leader' living a playboy life, his Hollywood fetish and crazed dictator tendencies.

Can someone gently remind Canadians that we are still technically at war with Korea? North Korea is doing old fashioned gun-boat diplomacy because that’s the only avenue left for them. If Canadians genuinely cared for the plight of the Korean people, we would promote peace and security of the Korean peninsula. It was 53 years ago 45,000 Canadian troops came back from the Korean War, and we still have not signed a peace treaty and brought security to the region. Ottawa and Washington are complicit in this nucleur proliferation. It is time Canada breaks with the US' embargo rhetoric and end this cold war deep freeze. Despite starting diplomatic relations with the DPRK in 2003, Canada continues to deny their request for an embassy in Ottawa.

The US could have avoided all this by agreeing to North Korea’s decades-long request for bilateral talks. The capitalist west should stop the double standard of supporting only select developing countries, while trying to overthrow ones with a different economic system. By advancing development loans the DPRK has requested to deal with its severe famines, we would engage them to join the global community as a sovereign nation. By following through on the 1994 US-DPRK agreement to normalize relations, the DPRK could finally redirect it’s precious resources from military defenses, to the real needs of the Korean people.

Perhaps the silver lining in the DPRK nucleur test is that more American’s will see the dismal failure of the Bush administration’s pre-emptive strike policy, and possibly vote him out of office.

Irwin Oostindie
Vancouver

A Canadian view on North Korea:

My photo work titled ‘Axis to Grind’ was sponsored by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs & International Trade and toured Canada in 2004-05. AXIS TO GRIND photographs and digital works by artist Irwin Oostindie reveals how North America’s misrepresentation of North Korea stands as an obstacle to peace and reunification for the Korean peninsula

Irwin Oostindie’s North Korea photos on CBC:
http://archive.cbcradio3.com/issues/2004_01_09/index.cfm?Page=08 (required Flash)

“Beyond the Rhetoric” my North Korea work reviewed at: http://www.cankor.ca/issues/152.htm#six

Interviewed by CNN journalist on her NKZone site (scroll down):
http://nkzone.typepad.com/nkzone/2004/02/axis_to_grind_q.html

Occasionally available online at http://www.axistogrind.com/

AXIS TO GRIND was featured on various radio, print and TV interviews, including a feature segment on CBC’s The Hour with George Stromboulopoulos.

A most inspired 3 minute music video looking inside North Korea (download video from UK band Faithless): http://www.astateofmind.co.uk/upload/movies/faithless320.zip

A Canadian perspective on North Korea:
http://www.cankor.ca/

A North Korean view on nucleur testing:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HJ06Dg01.html

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Actual News Geezer

at 17:28 on October 9th, 2006

We do not yet know how important this event will become. But it is certain to enter the history books - no matter what else happens.

Philip Graham, one of the most celebrated of all news managers, once said that "Journalism is the first draft of history."

Mel Brooks rhymed,

Hope for the Best.
Expect the worst.
Life is a play.
We're unrehearsed.

At NowPublic, our members contribute to the writing of the first draft of history, in all its unrehearsed glory.

In hope and dread, we're interested in your submissions. How is this playing out in your circle of friends, in your neighborhood?

Please add your news.

TheArgus

at 18:35 on October 9th, 2006

It's interesting that Time assumes Washington is "bluffing."

I do agree that journalism is the first draft of history, although journalism should be an unbiased account of history, not a draft that is to be edited and re-written to bolster and reflect the editor's particular ideological point of view.

Perhaps this is just wishful thinking on my part.

matte

at 19:04 on October 10th, 2006

up until this week, has N Korea ever made a threatening comment against other nations or support for radical groups?

Dutchphoto

at 10:47 on October 22nd, 2006

NowPublic