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We typically like to add value, but sometimes it is worthwhile simply to read what the North Koreans and their spokesmen are saying. First up, a story that appeared on the KCNA website on Tuesday, reproduced in full.
Rodong Sinmun Urges Imperialists to Opt for Rolling back Their Hostile Policies towards DPRK
Pyongyang, August 9 (KCNA) -- The imperialists should not make vain efforts to lead the DPRK to "reform and opening," wasting time, but opt for rolling back all their hostile policies towards it.
Rodong Sinmun Tuesday urges this in a bylined article.
The DPRK has nothing to reform or open, it says, and goes on:
"Reform" and "opening" much touted by the imperialists and reactionaries are not "a remedy" for the DPRK to weather its economic difficulties or to revitalize its economy.
Their talk about "reform" and "opening" is aimed at checking the onward movement of the DPRK and isolating and stifling it by blockade.
Their escalating moves to force "reform" and "opening" on the DPRK are a wanton infringement on its sovereignty, shameless interference in its internal affairs and a blatant violation of international law on relations among countries.
The imperialists do not want to change their system but work hard to pressurize others to change their systems as dictated by them. This is an arbitrary and high-handed practice intolerable in the international community.
They must not forget the lesson taught by history. They have run the whole gamut of means and methods to stifle socialism in the DPRK ranging from blockade to threat, pressure, subversive activities and sabotage in the past half a century, but all of them ended in failures.
The imperialists' moves for military aggression against the DPRK and their moves to stifle it are bound to meet a disgraceful fiasco in the future, too.
End.
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Second in the queue is a quite extraordinary piece in the Asia Times entitled “North Korea nears age of affluence” by Kim Myong Chol. Arguing that the country will “likely” enter the club of “strong and prosperous nations” in 2012, it is then poised to “follow up on next year's achievement by joining the ranks of the "most advanced" countries by 2020.”
The piece starts with a discussion of North Korea’s achievements in import-substituting industrialization, including in the production of super-computers. Who is responsible for these achievements? None other than Kim Jong-un, “a manifestation of the founding father, Kim Il-sung that effectively keeps him alive and in charge for ever.” Kim III is personally responsible not only for the country’s economic achievements but for its “satellite” and nuclear accomplishments as well, the two developments that constitute it as a “strong” state.
Of particular interest is the following passage, which shows the relationship between sanctions, the country’s “self-reliant” path and the course of future negotiations:
“One of the most important upsides of North Korea's transformation into a thriving nation is that the American offer of economic aid and guarantee of security for disarmament has been rendered unattractive.”
So much for speculation about returning to productive talks. What’s to negotiate?
Also responsible for the country’s great achievements is the songun or military-first policy. In case anyone harbored the misconception, North Korea is not a “militarized state” and the military is not a drain on the country’s growth. Rather, the military plays—and will continue to play—a key role in North Korea’s economic development (or in classic Marxist terminology, the process of “extended reproduction” through its involvement in the capital goods sector):
“As society's largest institution of most disciplined, well-educated and highly motivated people, the North Korean armed forces play a key productive and benign role in national life in addition to their role of safeguarding national sovereignty and the safety and peace of the population from infringement from any foreign powers.
Contrary to their image as unbridled consumers, the North Korean armed forces are part and parcel of extended reproduction as leading manufacturers of heavy and light industrial items including foods.
So to speak, the Korean People's Army functions as the most efficient civil engineering corps and university complex providing good vocational training and able members of society.”
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