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revolutionary-marxism · 1 year

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U.S. Denounced as Destroyer of Peace and Stability of Korean Peninsula

Pyongyang, June 26 (KCNA) -- The Institute for American Studies of the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK released a research report on Sunday to give the full picture of the war of aggression provoked by the U.S. against the DPRK in the 1950s and to disclose once again the aggressive nature of the U.S. still making desperate efforts to ignite a nuclear war.

The report stressed that the U.S. is the provoker of the aggression war against Korea, adding:

The U.S. has had its eye of greed on the Korean peninsula, the gateway to the Asian continent, since the mid-19th century, and illegally occupied south Korea in the guise of "liberator" and "protector" right after the end of the Second World War.

The U.S. laid a pro-U.S. political foundation in south Korea through the puppet regime fabrication. In a bid to militarily swallow up the whole Korean peninsula, it put spurs to the war preparations to occupy the DPRK by force of arms.

The U.S. tightened up its forces, arms and equipment and military infrastructure for unleashing a war of aggression against the DPRK in south Korea. In January 1950 it concluded an agreement with the puppet Syngman Rhee clique on stationing 500-strong U.S. military advisory group in south Korea, the largest-ever at that time.

In early 1949 the U.S. buckled down to mapping out the plan for igniting a war of aggression against the DPRK by mobilizing not only the information and operation departments including the G-2 and G-3 of MacArthur's Command but also the "History Class" and "KATO" institutions composed of senior officers of the former Japanese army.

The U.S. hurled the south Korean puppet army into ceaseless armed provocations to verify the effectiveness of the operation plan. In 1949 the number of their armed provocations reached over 2 610, which was 2.8 times as many as the previous year.

The U.S. deployed five divisions of the south Korean puppet army in the area along the 38th Parallel and three divisions of the operational reserve corps near Seoul, thus making more than 70 percent of the puppet army ready for attack.

In particular, the U.S. brought two aircraft carriers, two cruisers, six destroyers, three bomber groups, six pursuit fighter groups and two transport plane groups to Japan under the pretext of amphibious drill from late April 1950, and made full preparations for their immediate mobilization for the Korean War.

After rounding off the preparations for a war of aggression against the DPRK, the U.S. dispatched the advisor to the State Department Dulles to south Korea as a special envoy of Truman on June 17, 1950 to make final on-the-spot confirmation of the war preparations near the 38th Parallel, and handed over the secret order on igniting a war finally ratified by Truman to puppet traitor Syngman Rhee and issued a special order to "launch an attack on north Korea along with the propaganda that north Korea had invaded first."

According to the war scenario worked out by the U.S., the puppet traitor Syngman Rhee let all the reptile propaganda means be mobilized to spread the false information that the "emergency martial law" which had been enforced from early June 1950 "was lift" at 0 o'clock on June 24 to "allow" the south Korean puppet army personnel to leave, stay out and take time off.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Truman, Secretary of State Acheson, advisor to the State Department Dulles and other senior officials of the U.S. administration found themselves in weekend rest, travel and dinner and MacArthur, commander of the U.S. forces in the Far East, slept in a bedroom at the outbreak of the war to deceive the world public.

The U.S. finally ignited a war of aggression against the DPRK on June 25, 1950. During the three-year war, it hurled vast numbers of its armed forces amounting to more than two million, including one third of its ground forces, one fifth of its air force, most of the Pacific Fleet, troops from its 15 satellite countries, south Korean puppet forces and Japanese militarists, into the Korean front and spent more than twenty billion U.S. dollars.

The U.S. is a wrecker of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the region, the report said, and went on:

Far from drawing a due lesson from the disgraceful defeat it suffered in the Korean War, the U.S. has persistently pursued hostile policy toward the DPRK to realize its wild ambition for dominating Asia and the rest of the world at any cost by occupying the whole Korean peninsula for 70 years since the ceasefire.

The U.S. has staged various kinds of war drills in south Korea under the pretext of "defense" and "annual" since the late 1950s and massively brought nuclear attack means including nuclear carriers, nuclear submarines and nuclear strategic bombers to south Korea to turn it into a mobile nuclear arsenal.

The U.S. has deliberately fabricated various incidents and events and steadily escalated its nuclear threat and blackmail against the DPRK.

The U.S. checked a nuclear attack on the DPRK when its armed spy ship Pueblo was captured in 1968, put nuclear-capable tactical bombers on emergency alert when its large spy plane EC-121 was shot down in 1969. In 1976 when Panmunjom incident broke out, it made its nuclear-capable strategic bombers fly in formation near the demilitarized zone, frequently posing nuclear threats and blackmail to the DPRK. The U.S., which had made it its official policy to offer "nuclear umbrella" to south Korea in 1982, detailed it as the concept of "extended deterrence" which calls for striking the opponent in the same way as when the U.S. mainland is under nuclear attack in 2009. It thus invented a pretext for bringing its huge nuclear forces to south Korea not only in contingency on the Korean peninsula but also at any ordinary times, and has maximized its nuclear threats.

The U.S.-south Korea joint military exercises, which was kicked off in 1954 under the codename Focus Lens, have been staged ceaselessly for nearly seven decades under such different codenames as Ulji Focus Lens, Ulji Freedom Guardian, Ulji Freedom Shield, Focus Retina, Freedom Bolt, Team Spirit, RSOI (reception, staging, onward movement and integration), Key Resolve, Foal Eagle and Freedom Shield.

The U.S.-south Korea joint military exercises, which hit a world record in its frequency and scale, have been staged over 40 times annually. The number of troops involved in them exceeded 500 000 long ago, including the U.S. forces, south Korean puppet forces, those from satellite countries, personnel of puppet south Korean public organs and businesses and even special forces from the U.S. mainland.

The current U.S. ruling forces in the White House are more openly pursuing the inveterate attempt for mounting a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK in cahoots with the south Korean puppet regime led by Yoon Suk Yeol hell-bent on sycophancy toward the U.S.

The present ruling forces of the U.S., which came up with the "minutely coordinated practical method of approaching the DPRK" and touted "resumption of dialogue" and "diplomatic engagement" after taking office, have unhesitatingly revealed their hostile military attempt against the DPRK

Amid the accelerated transfer of various arms and equipment to south Korea, the U.S. urgently dispatched its Defense Secretary to south Korea in December 2021 for the 53rd U.S.-south Korea annual security consultative meeting, in which he was closeted with the south Korean military to draw up "strategy planning guidelines" for a new nuclear war scenario.

After puppet traitor Yoon hell-bent on sycophancy toward the U.S. took office in south Korea, war exercises under different codenames have been spearheaded by the U.S. nonstop across south Korea and such war rehearsals are getting more and more adventurous and reckless in their scale, scope, intensity and contents as the days go by.

Ulji Freedom Shield joint military exercise, resumed as large-scale maneuvers four years after its last round, was staged according to the extremely provocative and reckless war scenario the keynote of which is to advance to Pyongyang via Kaesong.

In 2022 alone, the U.S., in collusion with the south Korean puppet forces, staged various nuclear war exercises, including joint air drill with strategic assets involved, carrier strike group joint drill involving a nuclear carrier for the first time since November 2017 and joint naval maneuvers, every day to stoke the aggressive fever against the DPRK.

This year the U.S. is resorting to the worrying hostile acts of wantonly encroaching upon the sovereignty and security of the DPRK more persistently than ever before and their gravity and danger have reached the threshold of explosion which can no longer be tolerated.

As a preceding military process for igniting a nuclear war, the U.S. is conducting different forms of espionage against the DPRK on an unprecedented scale on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity.

Such bellicose moves of the U.S. have pushed the military tensions on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia already plunged into an extremely unstable situation closer to the brink of a nuclear war.

If a war breaks out on the Korean peninsula located in an important geopolitical position, where the interests of big powers are intermingled, it will rapidly expand into a world war and a thermonuclear war unprecedented in the world. This will entail the most catastrophic and irreversible consequences to peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia and the rest of the world.

Unless the U.S. anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK and persistent military threats to it are rooted out, the DPRK's efforts for bolstering up its self-defensive capabilities for safeguarding its sovereignty, dignity and security and preserving regional peace and stability will be further accelerated and its exercise of the just right to self-defence as a sovereign state will continue in the future, too. -0-

www.kcna.kp (Juche112.6.26.)

#korea #DPRK #reading #usa #us imperialism #kcna #long post

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workersolidarity · 9 months

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Photo: KCNA

🇰🇵 DPRK HOLDS 9TH SESSION OF THE 14TH SUPREME PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY: RATIFIES CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO ENSHRINE NUCLEAR POLICY

The General Secretary of the Worker's Party of Korea and President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jung Un gave a speech Thursday which was reported in the DPRK's official news outlet, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

In the speech, Comrade Kim made the announcement of the new Constitutional amendment which enshrines the DPRK leader's Nuclear Policy into the very framework of the nation:

"Today the strategic strength of our state, the nuclear war deterrent, is being remarkably bolstered and steadily strengthened to the extent incomparably greater than the past decades."

"The major tasks of the Five-Year-Plan for the Development of the Defense Science and Weapons System have been successfully carried out and a radical leap was made in the development and introduction of powerful nuclear attack means and new strategic weapon system of our own style. Thus, we demonstrated the reliability of the nuclear strategic force of our Republic to the whole world, exposing the hostile forces to insurmountable threat and striking terror in their hearts."

"This eye-opening success, which actually shows great military muscle of the Republic fully equipped with strong and overwhelming defensive and offensive capabilities, clearly and definitively proves the courage and decisive action ability of the DPRK not to tolerate any acts of violating its sovereignty and right to existence."

"The present SPA successfully carried out the work of reflecting the actual state of our national power in the new era in the constitution of the country, along with the adoption of various laws related to state administration, economic development and people-oriented policies. As a result, the current session has been recorded as a historic one which added a remarkable page to the constitutional history of the DPRK."

"It is of very deep and weighty significance that we have adopted the decision with unanimous approval to supplement Article 58 of Chapter 4 of the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with new contents- to ensure the country's right to existence and development, deter war and protect regional and global peace by rapidly developing nuclear weapons to a higher level - just in this assembly hall where the codification of the policy of the state nuclear force solemnly took place in accordance with the general will of all the Korean people just one year ago."

"The DPRK's nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything. This is a historic event that provided a powerful political lever for remarkably strengthening the national defense capabilities, including the nuclear force, for firmly consolidating the institutional and legal foundations for guaranteeing security and protecting national interests by relying on it, and for accelerating the overall development of our style of Socialism."

"The crystal clear stipulation of the keynote policy of bolstering the nuclear force in the supreme state law, which will permanently exist along with socialist Korea, is the most just and reasonable crucial step which fully meets, not only the urgent requirements of the present era, but also the lawfulness and the long-term requirements of building a socialist country."

"It is the fact recognized by the world that the DPRK inevitably had access to nuclear weapons for self-defense and developed its policy of bolstering up the nuclear force into a law, for it is standing in protracted confrontation with the US., the world's biggest nuclear weapons state and the most dangerous war state, and its vassal forces."

"Saying that the important task facing the WPK and the DPRK government, the fulfillment of which should be pushed ahead with nonstop in implementing the present-stage fighting programme set forth at the 8th Congress of the WPK, is to rapidly bolster up both in quality and quantity the nuclear force, he stressed the need to push ahead with the work for exponentially boosting the production of nuclear weapons and diversifying the nuclear strike means and deploying them in different services."

Kim ended the section of the speech about nuclear deterrence by urging the external affairs sector to, "consistently hold fast to the external strategy of the Party Central Committee and conduct in a broad and prospective way the external activities for creating conditions and environment in favor of the Korean revolution and further promote solidarity with the nations standing against the U.S. and the West's strategy for hegemony while firmly adhering to the revolutionary principle and the stand of independence at the fore of the struggle of the anti-imperialist independent countries."

You can read the Full speech of the DPRK leader's speech here:

#source

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olivia2010kroth · 9 months

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TASS / RUSSIA TODAY / NORTH KOREAN NEWS AGENCY / VOICE OF KOREA : Russia and North Korea - Russland und Nordkorea

TASS / RUSSIA TODAY / NORTH KOREAN NEWS AGENCY / VOICE OF KOREA: Russia and North Korea TASS / RUSSLAND HEUTE / NORDKOREANISCHE NACHRICHTENAGENTUR / STIMME KOREAS: Russland und Nordkorea TASS: Kim Jong Un said his visit to Russia illustrates importance of bilateral strategic ties. Kim Jong Un sagte, sein Besuch in Russland verdeutliche die Bedeutung der bilateralen strategischen…

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sheltiechicago · 10 months

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Pyongyang, North Korea

Fireworks illuminate the sky at an inauguration ceremony for 10,000 flats in the Hwasong area of the capital. The display comes a day after the 111th anniversary of the birth of the North Korean founder, Kim Il-sung, adding to the celebrations of the national holiday, also known as the Day of the Sun

Photograph: KCNA/EPA

#kcna #photographer #epa #pyongyang #north korea #celebration #fireworks #night photography #skyline #hwasong area #day of the sun

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ydmunpress · 2 years

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Europe and Renewable Energy

By Korean Central News Agency

The delegates of the European Commission have proffered solutions to distancing themselves from Russian energy exports while also ensuring they are environmentally friendly.

Most delegates advocate solutions such as biomass and solar energy, with many countries such as Belgium surprisingly disagreeing on nuclear power on the basis of radioactive waste. “Portugal believes that nuclear energy is a dirty energy source and there should be no further long-term investments into it due to its danger of being weaponised and the greenhouse emission gases from it.”, says the delegate of Portugal.

However, countries such as Austria claim that nuclear power plants are cheaper to construct and Estonia plans to build its first nuclear power plant by 2035 and also increase their use of nuclear energy.

Other solutions also include public education and information sharing. Estonia supports the country-wide information campaign especially on greenwashing, which is the “process of conveying a false impression or misleading information about how a company’s products are environmentally sound.”

Germany proposed increasing research efforts and a research organisation to work on environmentally friendly solutions and information sharing such as sharing information on alternative information sources which could significantly lower the costs of renewable energy.

However, the European Commission seems to be torn on where to source their short-term energy should be from. The Middle East seems to be out of the picture due to its increasingly close relations with Russia.

This then begs the question of where will Europe source its short-term energy.

Many countries agree that renewable energy as a short-term solution is not viable due to the high costs associated with constructing power plants and solar panels which leaves non-renewable energy sources as the only source of energy in the short term till costs can be lowered.

Estonia suggests sourcing energy from the United States and Canada however feel that they rely on Russia in the meantime along with Germany and Romania. In fact, Germany and Estonia feel that they should repair the recently damaged Nord Stream pipelines.

It seems like there’s still a long way to go before renewable energy actually has a greater presence in Europe than non-renewable energy sources. In the meantime, Russia seems to be the ultimate winner, selling discounted energy to countries in Europe.

#kcna

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globalhappenings · 2 years

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Ukraine, North Korea: now friendship with separatist republics

(ANSA) – BEIJING, JUL 14 – North Korea has formally recognized the independence of the two pro-Russian separatist “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine, those of Donetsk and Luhansk, becoming the third nation in the world to do so after Russia and Syria. North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui sent letters on Wednesday to her counterparts in the Donetsk People’s Republic (Dpr) and the…

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#abroad #counterpart #country #diplomatic relations #Donetsk #Embassy #fly #friendship #independence #Kcna #link #Luhansk #Minister #North Korea #people&039;s-republic #Russia #separatist #Syria #Ukraine

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theculturedmarxist · 1 year

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Polite reminder that you can watch North Korean television from the internet

Due to the recent discussion about North Korea I've decided to repost this link again.

KCNA Watch relays Korea Central TV's daily broadcasts from Pyongyang and has an archive of past broadcasts. I'm afraid its utility is limited if you don't speak Korean, but it's also gives you a direct feed from NK that isn't filtered/laundered through Western "analysis."

IMO it's really just... normal television. It's got children's cartoons in the morning, news, state propaganda, general interest segments, and educational portions. I can't really make much more than a surface-level critique of it without a knowledge of the language and more of the national context it's broadcast in, but I still think its worth a watch.

#north korea #best korea #pyongyang #livestream #streaming

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collapsedsquid · 3 months

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Kim [Jong Un] said the military must "dynamically usher in a new heyday of intensifying the war preparations in line with the requirements of the prevailing situation," KCNA reported. "Our army should ... steadily intensify the actual war drills aimed at rapidly improving its combat capabilities for perfect war preparedness," KCNA quoted Kim as telling the troops.

Love that Kim's picked up a 90s management consultant somewhere.

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fuckyeahmarxismleninism · 1 month

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By Friends of Socialist China

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the official news agency of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), published two important commentaries in April concerning US strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, noting that its principal target is China.

#DPRK #China #socialism #imperialism #New Cold War #Asia-Pacific #militarism #Pentagon #Struggle La Lucha #Korea

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beardedmrbean · 14 days

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South Korea's military briefly issued an air raid warning late on Tuesday after it detected suspected North Korean "propaganda" balloons carrying waste and excrement across the border.

Residents in the provinces of Gyeonggi and Gangwon, both located on the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone, were told to refrain from going outdoors, and to report any unidentified objects to South Korean military and police authorities.

By Wednesday morning, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said at least 150 balloons carrying "anti-South leaflets" had crossed the border. Authorities continued to discover balloons carrying plastic bags landing across the country throughout the day.

Images shared to X (formerly Twitter) by Seoul-based freelance reporter Raphael Rashid showed just some of the balloons that had drifted into South Korean cities and towns.

The South Korean military sent bomb disposal and chemical response units to inspect the objects, which social media pictures showed carried various types of trash including old disassembled electronic components and used batteries.

Witnesses told local media that some of the bags, apart from containing pro-North Korea propaganda, produced an odorous smell and likely contained animal feces.

South Korean authorities were conducting a major cleanup operation. Its Joint Chiefs of Staff called the North's actions "low-class and dangerous."

North Korea has long complained of propaganda being sent across its border from the South, including balloons released by defectors who have fled the regime. They often contained messages seeking to undermine Kim Jong Un's leadership.

Pyongyang had in fact telegraphed this week's response on Sunday, when Kim Kang Il, its vice minister of defense, railed against Seoul's "despicable psychological warfare by scattering leaflets and various dirty things near border areas of the DPRK," referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The official warned that "tit-for-tat action" would be taken, according to the state-owned Korean Central News Agency.

"Mounds of wastepaper and filth will soon be scattered over the border areas and the interior of the ROK and it will directly experience how much effort is required to remove them," he said, referring to the Republic of Korea in the south.

The DMZ has served as the de facto inter-Korean border for seven decades since the Korean War armistice of 1953. Gyeonggi is South Korea's most populous province and surrounds the capital Seoul.

It was not immediately clear whether the North's decision was related to Monday's failed satellite launch, when a rocket carrying Pyongyang's latest military reconnaissance device exploded in midair minutes after liftoff.

The United States and treaty ally South Korea responded to the North's launch notification by conducting air drills near the DMZ, which Kim Jong Un later slammed as "recklessness," KCNA said.

North Korea's embassy in Beijing did not respond to a written request for comment.

#nunyas news

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zvaigzdelasas · 1 year

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North Korea's foreign ministry on Sunday called on the United Nations to demand an immediate halt to combined military drills by the United States and South Korea, saying they were raising tensions that threaten to spiral out of control. The drills and rhetoric from the allies are "irresponsibly raising the level of confrontation," Kim Son Gyong, vice foreign minister for international organisations, said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.

The U.S. and South Korea say the exercises are in self-defence[...]

North Korea on Saturday blamed the United States for what it said was the collapse of international arms control systems and said Pyongyang's nuclear weapons were a just response to ensure the balance of power in the region.[...]

"The UN and the international community will have to strongly urge the U.S. and South Korea to immediately halt their provocative remarks and joint military exercises," Kim said. It is regrettable that the U.N. has been consistently silent on the exercises, which have a "clear aggressive nature," he said.

5 Mar 23

The [...] sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Tuesday that the country is ready to take “quick, overwhelming action” against the United States and South Korea, as the allies expand their [...] military drills. Kim Yo Jong’s statement came a day after the United States flew a nuclear-capable [!] B-52 bomber to the Korean Peninsula for a joint drill with South Korean warplanes. The U.S. and South Korean militaries are also preparing to revive their largest field exercises later this month.[...]

North Korea has often performed missile tests in response to U.S.-South Korean military drills because it views them as an invasion rehearsal.[...]

In her statement Tuesday, she said North Korea would consider a possible U.S. attempt to intercept a North Korean ICBM a declaration of war. She cited a South Korean media report saying the U.S. military plans to shoot down a North Korean ICBM if it’s test-launched toward the Pacific.

6 Mar 23

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divinum-pacis · 2 years

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Members of a North Korean church choir sing during a Christmas service held at the Jangchung Cathedral in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Dec. 25, 2007. Photo by KCNA / Epa / Corbis

#religion #christianity #catholicism #christians #women #veiling #christmas #north korea #divinum-pacis

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legalkimchi · 1 year

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It's weird to me when white leftists defend North Korea.

For one, they don't really know much about it. Mostly it is based off the assumption that if a nation is the enemy of the United States, they can't be that bad. They are just demonized by American propaganda.

I understand that impulse.

But as someone who does research north korea, I feel like you are missing the point and making yourself look... silly? You lose some credibility.

See, some of it comes from the want to defend a communist country. Except, north korea is not a communist country. Not even nominally. Under Kim Il Sung, it started to transition from Marxism to the state ideology of Juche Sasang.

Juche seems to have a foundation of Marxism, but it shifts into a hypernationalist, militaristic, quasi-religious ideology.

Juche sees itself as an evolution of Marxism. Think of how Christianity views Judaism. Juche is critical of the original Marxist koreans that founded the communist party of korea (the original cpk which proceeded the workers party of korea or WPK)

Kim il Sung purged most of the other leaders of the communist groups in the north after the korean war.

In subsequent years, Kim il Sung pushed Juche Sasang as the new ideology of the DPRK. This was associated with a push towards a "military first" approach. In fact, newer North Korean constitutions removed references to communism, and established Supreme leadership from the communist party, to the military.

This shift also pushed north korea into its current state of regime.

I can't stress this enough. North Korea is NOT a communist nation. The people do not own the means of production and do not direct the politics of the nation or the economy.

Rather, through Juche, the Supreme leader is the autocratic and absolute ruler. This isn't propaganda, this is from the DPRK constitution. This isn't conjecture, this is what the North Korean news says about itself. For English speaking folks, check out KCNA. That's north koreas state news service. (Aka their propaganda) this is their own messaging. (Though they say the Supreme leader speaks "for the people")

North Korea, by any political definition, is an fascist Monarchy.

An absolute, hereditary ruling family, that leads a military regime.

Please stop defending them because they used to be communist. It is not a great look.

I could go into the corruption of South Korea as well. Maybe another time.

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naturalrights-retard · 5 months

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South Korea has asked the residents living on the island of Yeonpyeong to evacuate after North Korea live-fired over 200 live rounds toward the Korean Islands. This “provocation” follows repeated warnings from that it is prepared for war against South Korea and its United States ally.

Authorities on Baengnyeong Island also reported an evacuation order there.

The reports of North Korea’s “provocation” came soon after joint US-South Korea live-fire military drills near the border, which the North condemned as “reckless war maneuvers.” Involving a South Korean Army mechanized infantry brigade and the US Stryker Brigade Combat Team, the drills began on December 29th in the border city of Pocheon, some 46km (28.5 miles) northeast of Seoul.

The evacuation order was issued twice on Friday afternoon by local authorities, Yonhap News reported, noting that it came amid “apparent signs of a military provocation by North Korea.”

“We announced the evacuation after receiving a call from a military unit saying it was carrying out a maritime strike on Yeongpyeong Island as it has a situation with a North Korean provocation,” an unnamed official was quoted as saying by Yonhap News.

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un accused the United States of posing “various forms of military threat” and ordered his armed forces to maintain the “overwhelming war response capability”, according to KCNA’s account of the meeting that ended on Saturday.

According to a report by RT, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said later that North Korea launched around 200 artillery shells off its west coast on Friday morning. The projectiles landed in a maritime buffer zone established under a 2018 deal between the countries, though Pyongyang has since withdrawn from the agreement.

“We gravely warn that the entire responsibility of such crisis-escalating situations lies with North Korea and strongly urge for its immediate halt,” JCS spokesperson Colonel Lee Sung-jun said.

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