Bush praises South Korea, rebukes North

[Manuel]

U.S. President George W. Bush praised the U.S. relationship with South Korea on Wednesday and said the two nations should continue to work together to eliminate threats from North Korea.

Bush said he was still concerned about North Korea and said the country has a long way to go before it is taken off his "axis of evil list" as well as removing it from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

Bush praises South Korea, rebukes North - CNN.com

 

[editec]

I have the world night map as my desktop. ("Earth at night..NASA) I have that on my desktop to remind myself where Rosetta Project's market is.

The world is aglow with lights...except in N. Korea.

Horrible place, I am told. Stalinesque in its oppression, it's leadership is a completely failure.

 

[cyanrival]

Indeed, North Korea leadership is failure!

Thousands of people are suffering from starvation and yet, Kim seems to have gained a little more weight~

Communist regime must fall back for his own sake.

 

[we_ourselves]

1910: Japan annexes Korea; 1939-1945: Korean resistance establishes liberated zones with peasants electing their own leaders in democratic elections; 1945: U.S. and Soviet Union, having defeated Japan, divide Korea at 38th parallel. Soviets recognize native governments created by Korean resistance; U.S. forces set up military dictatorship in Seoul. Both sides agree to reunification of Korea through national elections in 1949. 1949: These elections are held. On both sides of the border, the Workers' Party wins a majority of the votes. The "Republic of Korea" (puppet regime in the south) refuses to honor the results of the elections, continues persecuting communists, and launches an attack on north Korea. 1950-1953: During the Korean War, the U.S. uses more bomb tonnage on north Korea than were used by all parties during World War II. Eventually they stop bombing when they run out of targets, including huts. 100,000 south Korean civilians are massacred and buried in mass graves. While the U.S. is unable to achieve its goal of forcing the north Korean (and Chinese?) leaders from power, it is able to force a division of the country that has persisted to the present. As a result of the destruction of infrastructure and military threat to the country, as well as Soviet pressure, the north Korean government becomes more dictatorial, which leads to corruption. North Korea also becomes heavily dependent on the Soviet Union, which also creates bureaucratic deformities in the state. 1954-1961: Despite this corruption and these deformities, North Korea rapidly industrialized, rebuilding its country from scratch to become the 2nd-most industrialized nation in East Asia. 1974: North Korea's economy took a major hit when oil prices skyrocketed, while prices of metals mined in North Korea dropped. 1990s: North Korea's economy took another hit when its #1 trading partner and the source of 100% of its fuel (the Soviet Union) cut off nearly all trade. Among other responses, North Korea sought to respond by building a nuclear reactor, which was strongly opposed by the U.S. North Korea agreed to put its nuclear program on hold in exchange for fuel and food aid from the U.S. However, more than two years went by and the aid was never delivered as promised. North Korea resumed its production of enriched uranium (to meet its energy needs, as well as to build weapons); in response, the U.S. and its allies--who had refused to provide an alternative means for North Korea to produce energy--cut off nearly all trade with North Korea, and in particular the delivery of fuel of any sort.

Is the Democratic People's Republic repressive, corrupt, and less competent than could be wished? Should it be replaced with a government under workers' control? Certainly. But is the current plight of north Korea (which is not unique; in fact, much of sub-Saharan Africa is without electricity) more a result of the U.S.'s unremitting hostility? Without question.