Global Research

Washington’s behavior following Trump’s signing of the Singapore Summit Agreement with Kim Jong-un must be described as schizophrenic.  The Singapore Summit agreement states:

1. “The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new U.S.-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
2. “The United States and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.”

The DPRK has already fulfilled point “4.” Of the Singapore Summit, and repatriated POW/MIA remains to the USA.  It is fulfilling point “3.”, which requires “complete denuclearization of the  Korean Peninsula:  

It has ceased testing weapons, and on May 25, 2018 destroyed its major test-site, Punggye-ri. 

By contrast, the United States persistence in maintaining punitive and ultimately genocidal sanctions against the DPRK reached the savage extreme on October 17, 2018, when it was announced in The New York Times  that

“The Trump administration has barred American aid workers from going to North Korea…Barring aid workers from traveling affects humanitarian programs in North Korea, including efforts to alleviate tuberculosis and provide medical training and farming assistance.  ‘People are suffering,’said Robert King, a former American special envoy for human rights in North Korea.  ‘Ít’s not the same as limiting luxury goods for the elite or reducing access to military goods.   The idea of focusing effort and time on limiting humanitarian services strikes me as being totally counterproductive.’” 

“’The potential life-threatening consequences of this policy are far-reaching,’ said Keith Luse, spokesperson for these US humanitarian aid groups.”

Whether a manifestation of dangerous insanity, or vicious bad faith, Washington’s recent prohibition on humanitarian aid to the DPRK is a cynical violation of articles 1 and 2 of the Singapore Summit Agreement committing the US and the DPRK to establish new US-DPRK relations building peace and prosperity, and building a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. 

Washington’s infamous ban on humanitarian aid to the DPRK will be condemned by history and by every civilized state and organization, and should have been condemned by the United Nations Secretary-General.  The ban on humanitarian aid to the DPRK is a sadistic act of war, targeting the most vulnerable civilians of North Korea, and consigning them to slow and agonizing deaths that could have been prevented or mitigated.

And, together with Washington’s refusal to sign a peace treaty, this exacerbation of the sixty-five year  US effort to destroy the socialist government of the DPRK, it would be preposterous to expect the DPRK to divulge one iota of its defensive capability.  The purpose of this ban on humanitarian aid is one and one only:  to demoralize and break the heroic spirit of the most sophisticated and advanced, and possibly the only remaining socialist country on earth.  Washington has zero interest in the human rights of the people of the DPRK;   if there were a scintilla of truth to Washington’s incessant droning on and on about human rights, this ban could not possibly have been passed under any circumstances.

According to UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock,   “sanctions are exacerbating humanitarian problems.” Reuters reported:

“The UN had to stop nutrition support for kindergartens in North Korea in November, due to the lack of funding.  Its $111 million ‘2018 Needs and Priorities Plan’ is nearly 90 percent under-funded.”  “A ban on the shipment of any metal objects, from health diagnostic instrments to spoons to nail clippers, makes it nearly impossible to deliver even basic healthcare to North Korea…Farm machines, greenhouses and ambulances, meanwhile, are sitting idle without spare parts.”

Compellingly stated by an official of a large humanitarian NGO, “For humanitarian organizations the Sanctions are ‘Death by a Thousand Cuts.’

According to Christine Hong, Associate Professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, 

“In point of fact, when you sanction things like fuel…fertilizer..or things that have any sort of dual-use capacity—things like plastic tubes that are used for IV fluid, you’re harming ordinary people.  This harm is not an inadvertent side effect of sanctions; it’s the deliberate impact of sanctions meant to destabilize a society..’’ The goal is to get the general population so restive that they rise up against the leadership of the society.  That is the sinister logic of sanctions.’” 

Truthout.org quotes Hong stating that

“sanctions are not a soft alternative to war, nor are they aimed at bettering the lives of ordinary North Korean people.  Rather, she calls sanctions against North Korea ‘an explicit part of US war policy’ dating back to the earliest days of the Korean War.’  “Part of the legacy of the US’s bombing campaign on North Korea are the 420,000 bombs dropped on Pyongyang in what historian and professor Bruce Cumings called a ‘bombing holocaust.’  ‘Historians routinely say 4 million, some even say 5 million North Koreans were killled in that war.  Seventy percent are understood to be civilians.   That’s not a clean war.  It’s a profoundly dirty war.  If there is to be normalization of relations between the US and DPRK, sanctions have to go by the wayside.’”

The UN Security Council sanctions are a cancer defiling the reputation of the UN and every member state supporting these genocidal resolutions.  The complicity of the UN Security Council is encouraging and enabling the US to  indulge its most pathological tendencies and its interest in exterminating a brave and remarkably advanced socialist people in Asia, (and one cannot exclude racism from the US agenda).

However, it is also at the United Nations that the masks are torn off, and the voting record of the US and the DPRK in the First Committee and throughout the UN General Assembly Committees reveals who is the menace to world peace and survival, and who genuinely seeks a nuclear-weapon free world of peace and security, democracy and development.

On October 23, DPRK Ambassador Kim Song stated to the UN Fourth Committee On Agenda Item 53  “International Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space”:

“The DPRK maintains independent and self-reliant character in the development and use of outer space and ensures that space development be oriented towards the peaceful purpose of developing the country’s economy and improving the people’s living standard.  It is noteworthy that more than 280 valuable dissertations were presented on the DPRK’s achievements and experiences of application in the areas of manufacturing and control engineering of an artificial satellite at the ‘Outer Space Science and Technology Seminar-2017’ held in Pyongyang in the period from 28 November to 1 December, 2017….”

“It is a due right of a UN member state, to say nothing of a state party to the Outer Space Treaty, to take part in the international exchanges and cooperation for peaceful use of outer space.  This year, the DPRK’s outer space experts were invited to the international outer space conferences organized by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in such countries as Austria, Pakistan and Russia.  However, they were not able to attend to any of them due to the opposition by the 1718 Committee of the UNGA (the Sanctions committee).  This is a flagrant violation of our legitimate right as well as open disregard for the international outer space-related laws of the UN Charter.  My delegation protests in strong terms against the outrageous and immoral behavior of the 1718 committee that stubbornly denies our peaceful satellite launches, and went to the extreme of rejecting our space experts’ engagement in the international scientific exchanges.  We also express our regret at the irresponsible attitude of the UNOOSA which fails to take any appropriate measures while admitting the improper nature of such behavior.”

It is therefore now imperative to examine the voting record of the US and the DPRK, a record which reveals which states are a threat to international peace and security, and which states support global human development,  and world peace.

First Committee  (Disarmament)  Voting:

Resolution A/C.173/L.3  99 (a) WHOLE  “Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space.”

181 nations voted “Yes,” in support of this Resolution, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, China and Russia.  2 States voted “No,” opposing this resolution, including the United States and Israel.

Resolution A/C.1/73/L50  99 ©  WHOLE  “Further Practical Measures for the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (DECISION)”:

127 States voted “Yes,” in support of this Resolution, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, China and Russia.  3 States voted “No,” opposing this resolution, including the United States, Ukraine and Israel.

Resolution A/C.1/73/L.51 99 (b)  WHOLE  “No First Placement of Weapons in Outer Space.”

129 States voted “Yes,” in support of this Resolution, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, China and Russia.  12 States voted “No,” opposing this resolution, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Georgia, Israel, Latvia, Poland

Resolution A/C.1/73/L.44 102 (b) WHOLE  “Convention on the Prohibition of the Use of Nuclear Weapons”

120 States voted “Yes,” in support of this Resolution, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  50 States voted “No,” opposing this resolution,  including the United States, Latvia, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, etc.,

Resolution A/C.1/73/L.46 101 (mm)  PP.9  “Universal Declaration on the Achievement of a Nuclear-Weapon-Free-World” 

137 States voted “Yes” in support of this Resolution, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  Three states voted “No,” opposing this resolution, including the United States.

Resolution A/C.1/73/L.12 101 (cc)  WHOLE  “Effects of the Use of Armaments and Ammunitions Containing Depleted Uranium” 

140 States voted “Yes” in support of this Resolution, including the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  4 States voted “No,” opposing this Resolution, including the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom.

This voting record confirms, unequivocally, which countries want peace and which countries menace global peace and stability.

On October 9, Ambassador Kim Song of the DPRK addressed the Second Committee (Economic Development): 

“The present realistic situation in which the socio-economic development is hindered by widespread ongoing conflicts, escalation of tensions and instability shows vividly how it is important to ensure peaceful environment for development and prosperity common to all humanity…Amidst the situation of easing tensions and peace prevailing on Korean peninsula, our people are waging a decisive struggle to build a civilized powerful nation and achieve the SDGs with great motive force of self-reliance and self-development and the might of modern science and technology, upholding the strategic line of concentrating all efforts on the socialist economic construction ….the effort of the DPRK for peace and development makes great contribution to ensure peace and security not only in Korean peninsula, but also in the region, and help bring about the development and prosperity for the common good to all humanity.  …Nevertheless, the right of existence and development of our people are severely infringed.  The delivery of humanitarian assistance materials such as essential medicines, x-ray diagnosis equipments as well as even sports items which are utmost in necessity for our citizens, children and women are prohibited in the pretext of implementation of the UN Security Council’s “sanctions resolutions’ against the DPRK.”

The statement of DPRK Ambassador Kim Song at the Third Committee on October 26 must be quoted here, as the Third Committee, with the most blatant hypocrisy, and outrageous irresponsibiliity has adopted those infamous “country-specific resolutions” which slander and defame any country the US, the UK want to destroy and plunder.  These “country-specific” resolutions are extremely dangerous engines of propaganda fabricated by the West, and are used to manipulate the Security Council to authorize murderous sanctions resolutions and military interventions which have destroyed some of the most progressive governments in the Middle East, and are attempting to eviscerate the government of the DPRK.

Ambassador Song stated at the Third Committee:

“The prevailing reality shows that egregious human rights abuses result without any exception from those places where national sovereignty is trampled down and social inequality is rampant.  It stands clear testimony to the situation of human rights violations where innocent people are killed bare-handed in Iraq, Syria, Libya and occupied Arab territories and discriminatory practices pervade in Western countries.  The root cause is attributable to some Western countries that pursue ulterior purposes in an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the independent countries and seek regime change, while abusing the promotion and protection of human rights as an instrument of political and economic pressure…..Those same countries that advocate promotion and protection of human rights block the delivery of humanitarian aid supplies including the medicines and X-ray equipment which are badly needed for our people, children and women and even the sports equipment and materials under the pretext of the ‘sanctions resolutions’ of the UN Security Council against the DPRK, thereby gravely violating the rights to existence and development of our people.   We demand that the inhumane and barbarous UN Security Council’s ‘sanctions resolutions’ should be lifted immediately as required by evolving present era and international relations.

Investment in health and education are given highest priority in socialist DPRK.  I was there in May, 2017, and I witnessed the superlative level of free health care and education.  Subsequent sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council have probably destroyed much of that admirable social system.  By contrast, in the United States, and I quote the late Mrs. Evelyn Lauder, who stated at a meeting of “Power Couples” at the 92 Street “Y’ in New York, shortly before her death from cancer:

“In the United States we pay 30 million dollars yearly to a basket ball player, but we pay only 30 thousand dollars yearly to a teacher.  I think that is shameful!” 

So spoke the honest Mrs. Evelyn Lauder at a conference I attended several years ago.  Today,  on September 24, 2018, a Time Magazine cover article stated:  “I have a master’s degree, 16 years of experience, work two extra jobs and donate blood plasma to pay the bills.  I’M A TEACHER IN AMERICA.”  Hope Brown, Woodford County High School, Versaille, Kentucky.

Last week I received a letter from “City Meals on Wheels” stating: 

“There are 2.5 million elderly Americans who go to bed hungry….  A recent study conducted in partnership with Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging found that 67 per cent of the seniors we serve are over 80 years old.  Fifty-seven percent live alone.  THEY ARE ALSO VERY POOR.  More than one third of the seniors we serve live below the poverty level!!!!!”

This is the capitalist paradise President Trump promised the DPRK if they abandon socialism and adopt capitalism.  A brief walk through midtown Manhattan, from 42 Street and Sixth Avenue toward Seventh Avenue reveals homeless and shattered human beings sleeping in the gutters and living in the streets.  Exiting Grand Central Terminal at Lexington Avenue, at 7AM,  reveals long lines of homeless people sleeping in the streets.  White New Yorkers, Black New Yorkers, Hispanic New Yorkers.  This is the capitalist paradise the DPRK can aspire to if it relinquishes its defenses and grovels before the one percent who control more than 50 percent of the wealth of this planet.  I doubt the DPRK is so stupid.  But the capitalist West will never stop trying to force them to their knees.

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Carla Stea is Global Research’s correspondent at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, N.Y.

Featured image is from The Unz Review.

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