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China-Japan-Koreas

Moment of Mutation: The US's Transformation into a Guarantor of Democracy Began with Korea'

2025-06-26

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Kirill Novikov

[REGNUM] 75 years ago, on June 25, 1950, the administration of US President Harry Truman brought the "Korean question" to the UN Security Council for discussion. At the same time, more than 8,000 kilometers from Washington, units of the Korean People's Army crossed the demarcation line that the US and USSR had drawn along the 38th parallel.

The Korean War began, which lasted three years and is formally still ongoing.

The conflict, which cost the lives of 9 million Koreans (80% of them civilians), is often called a civil war. In form, it was, at least until the direct intervention of the "UN troops", that is, the US and its allies, and until the arrival of the million-strong corps of "Chinese People's Volunteers".

Moreover, the war developed according to the plot of the American Civil War: North versus South.

But in fact, less than five years after the end of World War II, the planet was closer than ever to the start of World War III.

The recent allies, the Soviet Union and the United States, were on the brink of direct conflict.

Thanks to the help of the USSR and the intervention of China, the war was "slowed down" and stopped. But the conflict could not have matured without the participation of another great power - the United States.

This is worth remembering now, when the will of the Americans determines whether a war in another corner of Asia will flare up to a global level or stop.

Translation: Our side can start all the trouble it wants, but it only becomes a war when America chooses to fight back.

BURIED DISCHARGE
In January 1951, when the war on the peninsula was at its height, Pablo Picasso unveiled his painting Massacre in Korea in Paris. This expressionist painting is not as well known as Guernica, but it is executed in the same manner and serves as a “continuation” of the famous 1937 painting.

The scene of the Americans shooting peaceful Korean women and children is depicted in the same way as the aftermath of the bombing of the Spanish city of Guernica by the Luftwaffe Condor Legion. The artist equated the soldiers of the "UN peacekeeping corps" with the Nazis - and Picasso was not the only one who thought so.

I’m fairly ignorant about art history. Until just now I didn’t realize exactly how much of a posturing ass Mr. Picasso was.

But how did it happen that the recent liberators of Western Europe turned out to be punishers?

In the final stages of World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (who died in April 1945) was determined to achieve a lasting peace with the USSR. The American leader believed that involving “Red Russia” in the establishment of a new post-war order would reduce the likelihood of confrontation with Western countries. Addressing Congress in March 1945, the already seriously ill president noted that after victory, the world order could not be based on the dominance of “one man, one party, or one nation”; all countries needed to move away from the policy of confrontation and unite for joint creation.

In essence, Roosevelt formulated the principles of “international détente” – this rhetoric would be used by both Republicans and Democrats – from John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon to Barack Obama and Donald Trump. But in 1944-45, it was not just about rhetoric. At this stage, Washington organized the Lend-Lease program for its Soviet ally. At the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt “removed” the Polish question by agreeing to recognize the Curzon Line as the border between the Soviet Union and Poland. In return, the USSR took part in the UN and even signed the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944, which abolished the gold standard and recognized the dollar as the international currency of account.

Roosevelt's line still looks optimal: while conceding on points that were insignificant for American national interests, he sought to reach an agreement with Joseph Stalin on the USSR's participation in international settlement institutions. In our time, this policy of building bridges is consistently pursued by Moscow (demonstrating a readiness for dialogue with Washington) and is very inconsistently pursued by the Trump administration.

Oh dear. That poor writer sprained his wrist patting himself on the back…

But back then, in the late 1940s, "détente" was buried by Roosevelt's death.

Truman had already called on Congress in March 1947 to allocate funds to fight communist Russia. The formal pretext was the creation of a buffer zone in Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union.

CLAWS OF THE "HAWKS"
There was a strong isolationist sentiment among the ruling Republicans then, as now, but, as now, the tone is set by the "hawks" with a fixation on a power foreign policy.

Senator Arthur Vandenberg pushed through both houses of Congress, convincing them to approve the Truman Doctrine and vote on spending to counter the Red threat. And soon an opportunity arose to load the American military-industrial complex with military orders - although it "flared up" not in Central Europe (the first Berlin crisis of 1948-49 was the lightning bolt of which), but in the Far East.

In the autumn of 1945, the victorious powers, the USSR and the USA, divided Korea, liberated from Japanese colonial rule, into two occupation zones. This regime was supposed to last for 5 years, after which it was supposed to recreate a single state (as happened with Austria). But the plans were thwarted by the onset of the Cold War.

On September 7, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur issued Proclamation No. 1, which declared the introduction of a military dictatorship. Disobedience to the administration was punishable by death, and English was declared the official language of the occupation zone.

According to contemporaries, the pace and progress of reconstruction in the Soviet zone (and the way these successes were presented by propaganda) inspired greater optimism at the time, which provoked the growth of leftist sentiments in the South, including in the middle class. Understanding that reliance on big business and landlords alone was not enough to build a pro-Western democracy, Truman relied on a “strong hand.” Dr. Syngman Rhee, brought from exile on MacArthur’s personal plane and elected president of the Republic of Korea in 1948, became the first in a series of Seoul-based pro-American dictators.

The following year, 1949, when Mao Zedong emerged victorious from the Chinese Civil War, the Truman administration faced a barrage of criticism from the right, with hawks accusing the White House of weakness. In order not to lose the Korean Peninsula after mainland China, the United States stepped up support for its partners in Seoul.

INEVITABLE COLLISION
In June 1949 alone, the Americans transferred to their ally 50,000 carbines with ammunition, 2,000 rocket launchers, 40,000 vehicles, light guns and mortars, 70,000 shells for a total of $5.6 million. That's almost $76 million in today's dollars.

And this helped to increase the total number of personnel in the security forces of the South to 104 thousand people.

In January 1950, the United States signed an agreement with Seoul, according to which its army received 140 thousand rifles (40 thousand Japanese), 2 thousand anti-tank bazookas, a large number of artillery pieces, tanks and aircraft, and 4,900 vehicles.

The "Korean Military Advisory Group," made up of American officers, conducted training courses for South Korean soldiers and provided them with technical and material support.

In total, the US spent $190 million, or $2.5 billion in today's money, adjusted for inflation, on arming the South Koreans in 1949. And in March 1950, Congress appropriated another $100 million (or $1.33 billion in today's dollars) to "provide military and other assistance to the Republic of Korea."

After the start of the war and until 1953, the Americans invested 1.17 billion dollars at the time, or 15 billion today, in rearmament and other assistance to their South Korean wards.

To compare the scale, according to the Pentagon, from 2014 to 2022 the US allocated 2.7 billion in military aid to Ukraine. After the start of the Second World War, the pumping increased several times, by another 66.5 billion dollars, according to official data from the State Department.

The logic of the Cold War dictated the need for a mirror response from the USSR and North Korea.

Given that the USSR started it, mirror is not quite the right word.

Since 1949, the leader of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung, had been asking Stalin to support the Korean People's Army's (KPA) march to the South, insisting that once the war began, the South Koreans themselves would overthrow the puppet pro-American regime. Politically, Moscow held back its allies, but at the same time, Soviet military aid to the North Koreans was in full swing. A clash became inevitable.

INTERVENTION OF "PEACEKEEPERS"
Early in the morning of June 25, a 175,000-strong KPA force, supported by 172 combat aircraft and 150 T-34 tanks, crossed the border. South Korean historiography generally believes that the North attacked first. Pyongyang, however, points out that the start of the war was preceded by numerous (up to several thousand in recent months) armed provocations from the South.

Be that as it may, on June 26 the United States entered the war.

Truman, without seeking congressional approval, appealed to the UN, which gave the go-ahead for the so-called police action in Korea. The USSR boycotted the Security Council sessions, demanding that communist China be included instead of Taiwan. Thus, in September 1950, the only armed intervention of its kind by the "UN peacekeepers" began - the USA and its allies, including those in the newly formed NATO (Britain and Turkey played a real role), launched a frontal attack on Kim Il Sung's troops.

At that time, Democrat Truman, like Democrat Joe Biden now, was harshly criticized by some Republicans for interfering in a war on the other side of the world. In particular, by former President Herbert Hoover and influential Ohio Senator Robert Taft, son of President William Taft. The same Taft Jr., by the way, harshly criticized US participation in NATO, like today's isolationist Trumpists.

But the decisive “yes” to the war was said by the American military-industrial complex.

If, on the occasion of the end of World War II, Truman cut the defense budget to $13.5 billion, then in December 1950 the same president gave the Pentagon $50 billion. Translated into today's money, this is $667 billion - more than the military department had in the mid-2010s, but less than now (at the moment, the Pentagon has $886 billion).

During the Korean War, "civilian" business in America was going through hard times - the White House raised corporate and income taxes, and credit conditions were tightened. But defense contracts brought huge profits to companies such as Lockheed, Northrop, and Boeing, and they were able to increase the defense budget to 15% of GDP in 1952.

DANGEROUS LEGACY
During 1950, the US became increasingly involved in the war, to a degree not comparable to its current involvement in the Ukrainian or Middle Eastern conflicts. It seemed that the “UN troops” were winning – Pyongyang had been taken, the North’s army was pressed to the Chinese border.

After the arrival of the "Chinese volunteers" and the turning point in the war, Commander MacArthur advocated maximum escalation - bombing China, an invasion of the Kuomintang from Taiwan and, if necessary, atomic bombings. At that time, the PRC did not yet have a nuclear arsenal (as Iran does now), and by 1951 our country already had 15 RDS-1 bombs at its disposal.

Truman had the good sense to back down after the conflict had been brought to the brink of World War III. MacArthur's proposals were shelved, and in April 1951 he was removed from command altogether.

The US intervention in a conflict in another part of the world began under a Democratic president, and the US was withdrawn from the war and the conflict itself was ended by a Republican president.

Dwight Eisenhower did what Donald Trump would probably like to achieve: in 1953, the Korean War ended in a military draw on terms acceptable to the United States. The US-dependent South Korean regime was preserved, the front line slowed down at the same 38th parallel, turning into one of the most closed and guarded borders in the world.

The Cold War did not develop into a nuclear Armageddon, which can also be considered a happy ending.

But it was after the Korean conflict that US policy began to mutate in a dangerous direction.

America finally consolidated its role as the only superpower of the “free world” and “guarantor of democracy.” Since the mid-1950s, the role of the military-industrial complex (and this term itself appeared at that time) as one of the locomotives of the American economy has sharply increased, and the connections between the Pentagon, the defense industry, and lobbyists of Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General Electric in Congress that still exist today were formed. Since that moment, military spending has rarely fallen below 10-12% of GDP.

The Korean War was the first in a series of local wars that the United States fought in the Eastern Hemisphere. Vietnam, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were only logical continuations.

Now, when America is struggling to get rid of “aid” to Kiev and is balancing on the brink of yet another “export of democracy,” this time to Iran,

…no need for that. The Iranians know how to do democracy as they’ve been going through the motions for several generations, should they exert themselves to either drive out the Mullahcracy in bloody revolution or more slowly evolve in a less totalitarian direction…

it is more obvious than ever that the United States will be able to return to the Monroe Doctrine, limit itself to the affairs of the Western Hemisphere, or focus on domestic affairs, if it succeeds, only with great difficulty.

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Southeast Asia

'The Age of the Contemptible': How Left Radicals Committed Genocide After the US Fled

2025-04-18

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Artemy Sharapov

[REGNUM] Exactly half a century ago, on April 17, 1975, the residents of Phnom Penh – workers, intellectuals, clerks and hundreds of thousands of refugees who had gathered in the city – joyfully greeted the liberators who had entered the capital of Cambodia almost without a fight. Young partisans (among whom were many teenagers and even children) in black robes and under red flags – the Khmer Rouge – walked along the avenues and avenues laid out by the French. People hoped that the fighters who had emerged from the jungle would put an end to the long-standing civil war.

Almost 45 years ago, the same city was entered by men in khaki — the Vietnam People's Army. One of the most combat-ready forces in the Soviet bloc, which had recently defeated the Americans, drove out the "wrong" communists — the pro-Chinese Khmer Rouge — in less than two weeks. No one met the Vietnamese.

The word "post-apocalypse" was not yet in the lexicon, but that's what it was. The permanent population of Phnom Penh in April 1975 was over 2 million people. The population in December 1979 was zero.

"Luxurious villas with white walls and spacious terraces, covered with bright purple flowers up to the roof. I have never seen a city in Asia that was so harmoniously built... Only Southern California could compete with its charm... But the city was completely, absolutely empty. As if after a neutron bomb. As if after an epidemic," this is how Wieslaw Górnicki, a journalist from the Polish People's Republic who arrived "in the train," described the capital of the former Democratic Kampuchea.

Soviet international reporter Viktor Pritula, who visited the same place at the same time, remembered the city as less romantic: Phnom Penh “was still beautiful, but dirty, like a whore from a village brothel. In broad daylight, rats scurried around the backyards between the high-rise buildings…” The long civil war showed no sign of ending.

The overthrown, or rather retreated to jungle bases, regime called itself more than modestly: "Angka", which simply means "Organization". The pro-Soviet press from East Berlin to Hanoi called this strange dictatorship "the bloody Pol Pot - Ieng Sary clique ". Cambodians themselves still call the years of their rule "samai a-Pot" - the era of the despicable Pot.

The era lasted less than four years. During this time, the regime of "brother number one" Pol Pot turned the country he inherited into an experimental field for building agrarian socialism (with "killing fields"). From 1.7 to 3 million people died as a result of the genocide of the "exploiting classes" and ethnic cleansing, died during deportations and from backbreaking labor on rice plantations and simply from "unforeseen" famines and epidemics.

The brutal experiment in the rapid creation of a classless society (“ the socialist regime in its development moves directly, like a flying arrow, to communism!” – stated the resolution of the “Organization” in 1978) looked like a revived and illogical dystopia – with the abolition of not only money and religion, but also culture, medicine, technology and cities.

But both the emergence of the Khmer Rouge and their rise to power were a logical consequence of the games of the great powers, into which little Cambodia/Kampuchea was drawn. And when the regime decided to act independently, to restore the greatness of the country by relying on its own forces and at the same time to be the first in the world to come to communism, then the catastrophe turned into an apocalypse.

MAKE CAMBODIA GREAT AGAIN
The country of the Khmer people once dominated its part of the world. From the 9th to the 15th century, an empire with the Sanskrit name Kambujadesha existed in Indochina (its name refers to the Indian epic Mahabharata, which mentions the warlike people of Kambuja). The founder of the Khmer Empire, Jayavarman, whose name means "protected by victory", bore the title of chakravartin - the ruler around whom the universe revolves. At the height of its power, the Khmer Empire included, in addition to modern Cambodia, all of Laos, almost all of Thailand, and the south of modern Vietnam.

But from the 13th century onwards, the warlike and refined empire weakened in wars with the Thais, Vietnamese and the Cham people who had adopted Islam. A century later, only a memory remained of the Khmer state. But a “weighty” one: the huge temple of the god Vishnu – Angkor Wat and other palaces and temples in the abandoned imperial capital of Angkor. The Khmers themselves found themselves vassals of their former subjects – the Thais.

When Cambodians developed an intelligentsia in the 20th century, all of its members – liberals, conservatives, communists – were, among other things, Khmer nationalists who dreamed of making the country great again. Angkor Wat was on every Cambodian flag, even under the Khmer Rouge – and still is.

The French colonialists “brought in” the national intelligentsia for their administrative and technical needs. As a result of the game of redistribution of the great powers that lasted throughout the 19th century, the British received India, Burma and Malaya, and the French – Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Formally independent Siam-Thailand lost its possessions on the edges and found itself in the sphere of influence of Britain and France. Cambodia with its aristocracy and the royal dynasty of Norodom was considered a protectorate, but in fact it was a colony.

During the Second World War, French Indochina was occupied by Japan. Anti-French and simultaneously anti-Japanese resistance units, mostly of a left-wing nationalist persuasion, emerged throughout the colony. First of all, in the most populated and developed part of Indochina – Vietnam, and then in Laos and Cambodia.

When the French tried to restore colonial rule after 1945, the Indochina War broke out from northern Vietnam to western Cambodia. The 1946–54 conflict was one of the first proxy clashes of the Cold War. France was supported by the United States, Britain, and the Chinese Kuomintang. Behind Ho Chi Minh’s army (and the Khmer and Laotian patriots who were sponsored by Vietnam) stood the USSR, the countries of the socialist camp, and Mao Zedong ’s People’s Republic of China.

The Khmer Issarak movement for the revival of Cambodia was led by two former Buddhist monks and founders of the Cambodian Communist Party, Son Ngoc Minh and Tu Samuth. Many, however, perceived them as “not quite their own.” The independence movement was created under the supervision of the Vietnamese, both leaders came from Khmer Krom (historical Cambodian lands in the Mekong Delta, which were then and are still part of Vietnam), and Son Ngoc Minh was half Vietnamese.

Be that as it may, the Khmer Issarak successfully beat the French and by 1954 controlled up to half of the protectorate’s territory.

MR. SALOT, AN ADMIRER OF ROUSSEAU
The alternative to the "Hanoi protégés" were two men linked to both France and the Khmer royal dynasty. One would play an important role in the early years of independence, the other in the darkest years of independent Cambodia. The first, Crown Prince and later King Norodom Sihanouk, was educated at a military academy in Saumur, France, while in the metropolis the prince became acquainted with liberal and socialist ideas.

In 1941, Sihanouk was enthroned by decision of the French Governor-General of Indochina, then the king swore allegiance to the Japanese occupiers, after the war he did not contradict the French, but did not forget about the idea of reviving the state of Angkor.

The second person important for Cambodian history was born under the name Saloth Sar. From a family of wealthy peasants, but connected to the royal court. Saloth Sar's elder brother served at court, his sister and cousin were concubines of King Sisowath Monivong (and the cousin even became the mother of the royal bastard).

Saloth Sar received an excellent education - first in his homeland, at the Sisowath Lyceum, and then in Paris, at the School of Radio Electronics of the Paris-2 University. In France, Sar was imbued with socialist ideas - Stalinist and Maoist, and together with other Kampuchean comrades in the Cercle Marxiste - the "Marxist Circle" published the leaflet "Iskra", in honor of Lenin's newspaper. The more moderate experience of Josip Broz Tito, whom the Khmer met in a detachment in Yugoslavia, did not particularly inspire.

A colonial intellectual with a Parisian education, having returned to his homeland, chose a purely peaceful profession - a teacher. A quarter of a century later, the world will know the modest, delicate and ideologically strong comrade Saloth Sara under a new name - Pol Pot. According to one version, from the French pol itique pot entielle ("potential policy", which refers to the pan-European aphorism about the "art of the possible").

The author of one of the best books on the history of the Cambodian catastrophe, David Chandler, names another source of inspiration for Pol Pot, in addition to Lenin, Stalin and Mao. "A quiet teacher, educated in Paris, an admirer of Rousseau." This French educator of the 18th century taught: "natural", primitive humanity lived in peace, prosperity and freedom, while the state, private property, and even urban culture with civilization brought only evil to the world.

“Simplification” according to Rousseau, plus the communist experience of the 1920s-50s – the Red Terror, Stalin’s purges and the Maoist “Great Leap Forward”, plus the memory of the past greatness of the Khmer nation and the desire to punish all its enemies – and the ideology of Comrade Pol Pot is ready.

But in order to realize this potential, external conditions were needed.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY, YELLOW-FACED BROTHER."
In the year of Stalin's death, in 1953, Saloth Sar joined the People's Revolutionary Party of Cambodia (senior Vietnamese comrades believed that the Khmers were "not mature enough" for the Communist Party) and began to make a career - at first, quietly. He generally loved secrecy and obscurity. At the same time, as the curator from the senior comrades Phan Van Ba noted back then, Saloth, despite his average abilities, was consumed by ambition and a thirst for power.

At that time, another ambitious politician was on everyone's lips - Norodom Sihanouk. In order to untie his hands, he abdicated the throne in favor of his father and appointed himself prime minister. Sihanouk experimented with moderate leftist ideas, called himself a "Buddhist socialist" (whatever that means), but most importantly, he tried to play with multi-vectorism. Distancing himself from the conflicts of pro-Soviet North and pro-American South Vietnam, while maintaining consistently good relations with the USSR and the USA.

At the same time, the logic of the game of great powers forced the prince to drift towards Moscow and Beijing. The Americans did not forgive this - and already in 1959, with the help of right-wing generals, they tried to overthrow Sihanouk, but did not succeed.

And the following year the Vietnam War began - first as a war of the South Vietnamese Viet Cong guerrillas supported by Ho Chi Minh against the South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. The further the Americans got bogged down in Indochina affairs, the less they were satisfied with the local regimes playing at "neutrality". In 1963, the Americans removed Ngo Dinh Diem as insufficiently loyal. After the incident in the Gulf of Tonkin, the US directly intervened in the war between the two Vietnams and in 1965 sent troops.

"We even pushed them (loyal South Vietnamese) aside, saying, 'Get out of the way, little yellow brother. The good guys are here,' " recalled General Norman Schwarzkopf. One of the bloodiest conflicts of the second half of the 20th century had begun, in which, like the Indochina and Korean wars of the 1950s, the interests of the United States, the Soviet Union, and China clashed.

The war could not help but “affect” neighboring countries: Laos and Cambodia.

THE ROYAL WARPATH
Meanwhile, in Cambodia, Prince Sihanouk has finally turned his back on the "good guys" in Washington. Gone are the days when you could chat nicely with both John Kennedy and Mao Zedong.

Sihanouk concluded an agreement with the PRC (which was then supporting North Vietnam) on the presence of North Vietnamese troops and bases in the kingdom and on the transit of military materials through the port of Sihanoukville. The "Sihanouk Trail" stretched across Cambodia, similar to the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" that went through Laos. This flirtation with the old rival, the Vietnamese, did not please the Phnom Penh elite. The pro-Western generals and officials were "annoyed" by the fact that the ruler began to receive assistance from the USSR, Czechoslovakia and China. The elite was also unnerved by the fact that the US Air Force began to strike Cambodian territory - so far only pinpoint strikes, targeting Vietnamese bases.

At the same time, Khmer peasants were happy that the Viet Cong were buying rice at inflated prices. But the government was unhappy, because rice was the kingdom's main export commodity. Sihanouk sent "food detachments" of soldiers to the provinces to confiscate rice. In response, a peasant revolt broke out in 1967, starting in the remote province of Battambang, a traditional base for the rebels. The uprising was led by the communists - the Khmer Rouge.

Thus began the civil war.

To counter the Khmer Rouge, the "Khmer Rose" Sihanouk had to make a sharp turn - and turn to the Americans for support. At their "request", General Lon Nol, an anti-communist and friend of the United States, became prime minister.

By that time, the future "brother number one" Pol Pot had apparently already seized power, neutralizing the "founding fathers" delegated from Vietnam. Tu Samuth had died in a safe house in Phnom Penh back in 1962 (according to some accounts, he was killed on the orders of Saloth Sar). A few years later, another party leader, Son Ngoc Minh, went to Beijing for treatment and died just as mysteriously in the hospital. It is known that Saloth Sar's closest comrade, Ieng Sary, strongly advised Comrade Son to go to China for treatment.

While the future Pol Pot was intriguing at bases in the jungle, in Phnom Penh, their own intrigues were being woven against the Prime Minister, Prince Sihanouk.

In January 1970, the "Buddhist socialist" and Queen Monica went on a long vacation to a resort on the French Riviera. From there, Sihanouk flew to Moscow. It was from us, from the lips of the head of the USSR Council of Ministers Alexei Kosygin, that the ruler of Cambodia learned the following: riots had broken out in Phnom Penh, nationalists had smashed the North Vietnamese embassy, where they had allegedly discovered plans to seize Cambodia with the Viet Cong. In order to "restore order," the army staged a coup and proclaimed the Khmer Republic. With the full approval of the United States, General Lon Nol was appointed president.

Parisian publications, which were cautiously disapproving of what the Americans were doing in the former protectorate, noted that the Richard Nixon administration, having placed its bets on the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam and the “Vietnamization” of the conflict, clearly benefits from the establishment of a pro-American regime in the Cambodian rear.

The ex-king rushed to Beijing, where he was assured that Chairman Mao recognized Sihanouk as the legitimate ruler of Cambodia and would try to convince Comrade Kim Il Sung of the same. Moreover, His Highness Norodom Sihanouk formally became the head of the rebel coalition, where the main role was played by the most radical "leftists" in history - the Khmer Rouge.

The civil war entered a new phase.

And the United States and South Vietnam openly intervened in it on the side of their new ally, Lon Nol. The US Air Force ironed out the positions of the Viet Cong and Cambodian guerrillas, but often "worked on the ground." According to historian Ben Kiernan, by 1973, B-52s had dropped up to 500,000 tons of bombs on the small country (other sources mention 2.75 million tons of bombs). According to the most conservative estimates, up to 100,000 people fell victim to air attacks.

GENERAL'S SAND CIRCLE
Hundreds of thousands of homeless refugees headed for Phnom Penh. When the Khmer Rouge took power, many of them would become victims of the razing of the cities. But then, every American attack added points to the Khmer Rouge. Not only peasants (including peasant children and teenagers who grew up under American bombs) but also soldiers and officers of Lon Nol's army went over to their side en masse.

The jungle people promised to stop the ruin of the peasants, fight corruption and put an end to the "eternal dependence" on any foreigners if they won. The ghost of a revived Angkor empire arose again.

It is not surprising that by 1973 the guerrillas controlled two-thirds of the country's territory, and by early 1975 the rebels had surrounded Phnom Penh, beginning a blockade of the city.

The Soviet press happily stated: “Kampuchean patriots” had cut off roads number 3, 4 and 5, connecting Phnom Penh with the agricultural regions, the city was under siege, Saigon and Washington would not come to the rescue.

In March, the Nixon administration and a number of Asian countries asked Lon Nol to negotiate with the Khmer Rouge and resign. However, the head of government refused and began to "act eccentric." The president consulted with Buddhist mystics and soothsayers and, on their advice, he built a "protective line" of sand around Phnom Penh.

However, the blockade of the city led to the loyalist forces running out of ammunition. Realizing the futility of the struggle, Lon Nol resigned and fled on board an American military plane. The president did not forget to take a million dollars, which he later used to buy a villa in Honolulu.

Another pro-American client has fallen: like the Batista regime in 1959, like South Vietnam in April of the same 1975, or like the Kabul government under pressure from the Taliban in August 2021. But, as already mentioned, the fall of Lon Nol was only a prologue to the most terrible act of the Cambodian drama.

YEAR ZERO
The victors, with Maoist Beijing behind them, began in the classic way - with the Red Terror: with the execution of Lon Nol's family members and his closest supporters who had not managed to escape. It is curious that the former king Sihanouk and his wife Monica were allowed to return to their homeland, he was even declared the head of the State Council of the new country, Democratic Kampuchea. But the royal couple was immediately arrested.

And then the "Organization", headed by the "rubber plantation worker", brother number one Paul Pot, began to implement the plan.

1975 was declared the year zero — history was to start from scratch. The return to the natural state, according to the precepts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, was to be based not on Vietnam, the USSR, or even China, but only on one’s own strength. A kind of analogue of the North Korean Juche, with an important difference: Comrade Kim was creating an industrial power modeled on Stalin’s USSR, and not an equalizing peasant utopia. For which, moreover, there was clearly not enough rice.

On the eve of the capture of Phnom Penh, the US Agency for International Development (now abolished USAID) noted that Cambodia was facing a famine that could not be prevented without international assistance. The country needed at least 250 thousand tons of the main product. But the Khmer Rouge immediately set a course for isolation - and made a simple decision: rice would be grown by the former urban population.

And under the pretext of the danger of another American attack, Pol Pot's men began an unprecedented "evacuation" of millions of residents of the capital. Those who try to justify the actions of the Khmer Rouge compare them with the decision taken by the North Vietnamese who captured Saigon in 1975. Some of the residents of the former enemy capital were resettled in "new economic regions." But the fighters of the Vietnamese People's Army did not separate families or drive "exploiters" hundreds of kilometers to rural communes - essentially to slaughter.

Very soon, Moscow realized that the "patriots" (about whom practically nothing was known) were incapable of reaching an agreement. The staff of the Soviet embassy in Phnom Penh recalled: as the Khmer Rouge approached, diplomats hung outside - in addition to the red flag - a portrait of General Secretary Brezhnev. But the image of the "revisionist" seemed to only anger the victors.

"Having torn apart the main entrance with grenade launchers, the Khmer Rouge burst into the embassy building, " wrote journalist and Indochina specialist Mikhail Ilyinsky. " They pushed all the Soviet people in the embassy out into the street and ordered (journalist Yuri) Kosinsky, who was in the embassy, to dig a grave. For several hours, in forty-degree heat, he dug into the rock-hard earth, taking his time, hoping for a miracle. And it happened: one of the Khmer Rouge commanders ordered the prisoners to be taken to the French embassy, where the foreigners remaining in Phnom Penh were being taken." And from there the "Soviet revisionists" were taken along with the bourgeois foreigners to the border with Thailand.

"Democratic Kampuchea" has been completely encapsulated.

All Kampucheans were divided into castes, “categories” of people according to their loyalty to the regime, Ilyinsky noted: “Personal property was also liquidated along with private property… The doors of educational institutions were boarded up tightly, and one official information leaflet was issued to the entire country.” The Khmer Rouge did not forget to settle old scores – with the ethnic minority of the Cham, descendants of the ancient enemies of the Angkor Empire. But their desire for great power failed them – Democratic Kampuchea “decided” to return Khmer Krom, lands that now belong to Vietnam. The attack on the victors, the United States, turned out to be insane and suicidal.

Just as the truth about the Holocaust came to light in 1945, so in 1979 the whole picture of the accelerated construction of a bright future became known. The world saw the "killing fields", facts of mass murders in communes and labor armies became known. The new government established by the Vietnamese from repentant Pol Pot supporters - the "People's Republic of Kampuchea" - held a tribunal over the overthrown clique. Among other things, torture invented by the Khmer Rouge was mentioned:

"With hoes, picks, sticks, iron rods they beat their victims on the head; with knives and sharp sugar palm leaves they cut their victims' throats, ripped open their bellies, extracted the liver, which they ate, and the gall bladders, which they used to make "medicines". They threw people into ponds where they kept crocodiles, they hung people from trees by their arms or legs so that they would dangle in the air for a long time..."

But the organizers of the genocide did not live to see a full-fledged analogue of Nuremberg. The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, who had not been completely defeated, retreated to the Thai border, to their old bases in the jungle, where they fought for another decade against the "Vietnamese occupiers and collaborators."

In this struggle they found unexpected allies, and "brother number one" himself lived to old age and died a natural death. But that's a completely different story.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

North Korean Envoy 'Drowned' in Moscow Pond: Reports

2024-07-18

[Newsweak] The head of an elite North Korean military delegation that was deployed to Russia last week has been found dead in Moscow, according to local reports.

Kim Geum Chol, president of the Kim Il Sung Military University, is said to have drowned while swimming in the Russian capital, according to the SHOT Telegram channel, a Russian channel that posts updates on the Ukraine war, and the Astra Telegram channel, a project run by independent Russian journalists.

Newsweek couldn't independently verify the reports and has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment by email.

Kim and his delegation departed from Pyongyang on July 8, the news agency Yonhap said, on the first public visit by North Korean officials to Russia since Pyongyang and Moscow signed a new strategic partnership agreement in June.

The purpose of the delegation's visit is unclear.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

American Pressure

2024-05-10

[IsraelNationalNews] Israel has been constrained for months by the golden shackles of American support — a Hobson’s choice of the provision of US weapons in exchange for an agreement, essentially, that Israel does not use those weapons for the purpose of vanquishing its enemy. The pressure is intense, originates in the White House and State Department, and has enlisted Israeli politicians such as Yair Lapid to do America’s bidding.

That pressure has also coopted Jewish Democrats who have been quick to turn on Israel under the guise of contempt for Israel’s Prime Minister. Perhaps they are unaware that Israel’s Prime Minister serves because he reflects the views of most of the Israeli public and has a majority in the Knesset. Their contempt is thus for the Israeli voting public — or for Israel itself.

Thus, President Biden first directed Israel not to launch a ground invasion of Gaza and recently has threatened Israel with a variety of sanctions if Israel invades Rafiah, conquers Gaza, and defeats Hamas. Massive pressure, to which Netanyahu has a pattern of succumbing in every way except rhetorically, has led to an interminable delay and possibly undermined a chance for victory. The pressure always includes carrots and sticks and sounds so plausible that leaders are often enticed to act against their own country’s interests in deference to this pressure.

This week’s tiptoe incursion into Rafiah will likely lead to Hamas demanding a cease fire, dangling the hostages as bait, hoping to save itself and win the release of thousands of murderers so as to better murder and abduct more Jews in the future. A better negotiating tactic for Israel would be hardball: every hostage released in exchange for a temporary cease fire — and nothing else. We should not exchange innocent citizens wrongly held in violation of international for terrorist murderers rightly held because of their enthusiastic murder of Jews. The alternative for Hamas is their immediate destruction.

We should not play their game nor should we negotiate ourselves into a defeat, regardless of American pressure.

History teaches us that succumbing to American pressure is often unwise and occasionally fatal.

In 1946, Chiang Kai-shek, leader of Nationalist China, began a military campaign to defeat the Communist insurgents, led by Mao Zedong and General Lin Biao. The Communists were situated in mineral-rich Manchuria in the Mainland’s northeast. Within a month, the Communists were routed from southern Manchuria, and prepared to abandon the major city of Harbin, the key to the security of northern Manchuria. They were utterly desperate, but with Chiang’s army poised to enter Harbin, he suddenly stopped. His army never again advanced.

"What explains Chiang’s action? In two words: American pressure" ("What If?" edited by Robert Crowley, pages 379-380). General George C. Marshall, then the US Special Envoy to China having finished his service of Chief of Staff during World War II, coerced Chiang into halting his advance and abandoning this battle. Why? One reason, eerily similar to today, is that Marshall and other American leaders detested Chiang, and did not want him to succeed.

It is more reasonable to suggest that Marshall did not want to provoke a conflict with the Soviet Union which was supplying and supporting the Communists, and Marshall naively suggested that Chiang form a unity government with the Communists. That never happened, but Chiang unhappily agreed to stop his assault, later calling his failure to pursue this invasion the worst mistake he ever made in dealing with the Communists.

Eventually, the Communists regrouped, rearmed, and began a guerilla campaign against Chiang’s forces. Nationalist China suffered a major defeat in 1948 — that year should sound familiar to us — and by 1949 Chiang and his forces were completely driven off the mainland and established their political center in what today is called the island of Taiwan. By heeding Marshall, Chiang forfeited the greatest opportunity he had to defeat Mao and end the Communist insurgency.

By that time, of course, Marshall was gone from office, and even his brief tenure as Secretary of State was over, characterized by a fanatic opposition to an independent Israel which to him also seemed like a reasonable policy. Marshall even threatened to vote against President Truman in the 1948 election — and publicize that he would do so — if Truman recognized Israel. Truman did, Marshall didn’t, and so much for idle threats. Marshall may have had a great Plan, but he was often wrong on global strategy.

The ramifications were profound. Counterfactual history is always tantalizing and other factors could have intervened and produced unforeseeable outcomes. But if the Communists had been driven from China with Mao defeated, there would have been no Korean War; Kim Il Sung was energized by the Communist victory to invade South Korea a year later. There would have been no Vietnam War; absent Communist Chinese support, Ho Chi Minh could never have invaded South Vietnam. Without a Communist China, the Cold War would have had a completely different complexion — and without those wars, American society would not have deteriorated into an angry assortment of warring factions distrustful of their government.

And all because of American pressure that thwarted Chiang’s advance into northern Manchuria and the defeat of the Communists.

Where does that leave Israel today? The Americans (the State Department and even for a time Harry Truman) pressured Israel not to declare statehood. Israel did anyway, and Israel still flourishes. The Americans pressured Israel not to launch a preemptive strike in 1967 on the eve of the Six Day War. Israel did anyway and won a great victory. The Americans pressured Israel to withdraw from Sinai (in 1956 and then again in 1979). Israel did and we are paying the price for that today. The Americans pressured Israel not to destroy the Iraqi nuclear reactor. Israel did anyway and in retrospect spared the world a nuclear nightmare. The Americans are now pressuring Israel to acquiesce in the survival of the terrorist entity that committed atrocities against it, and then agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state that would reduce Israel, now roughly the size of New Jersey, to roughly the size of Delaware, Biden’s home state.

The list of American pressure ignored goes on but the point is clear: the United States generally operates according to the perception of its own interests, and that is how it should be. When American and Israel interests converge, it is good for the world. When they don’t, then Israel, like any self-respecting country, should operate in line with its own interests.

Sure, American supply of armaments is important but Israel has enough of its own weapons to wage a quick and decisive war, especially without the restrictions hypocritically applied only to the conduct of Israel’s wars and to that of no other country. Bear in mind that the Iron Dome, for example, is a technological marvel, but essentially a defensive system that accepts the enemy’s launching rockets and missiles against our civilians. That should be unacceptable — and the appropriate defense should be the eradication of those who are firing the rockets and missiles rather than the projectiles themselves.

We have for too long accepted this ridiculous situation because of our technological prowess. We should tolerate it no longer, which then renders impotent the American threat to stop replenishing the Iron Dome.

Note that Israel has stayed its military might to protect the not-so-innocent civilians of Gaza, presumably to avoid international recriminations. As should have been anticipated, Israel’s invasion was thus blunted, less effective than it could have been — and the international recriminations have come anyway, fast and false, furious and spurious. The battles to come should prioritize the lives of our soldiers.

...America’s foreign policy does change because the personalities in charge of it change. South Vietnam was cajoled by the US into accepting a flawed treaty that left North Vietnam on its territory, the Shah of Iran was abandoned which led to the takeover of Iran by radical Islam that imperils the world today, and the surrender of Afghanistan to the viciousness of the Taliban is still fresh in our minds. All were American allies — until they weren’t. All accommodated American pressure and all paid the ultimate price for it.

...The United States can weather its bad policy choices; it is big country protected by two oceans. It rarely pays any price for its diplomatic follies. That price is paid by its erstwhile allies pressured into acting against their own interests.

Link

China-Japan-Koreas

North Korea training, providing weapons to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis - report

2024-01-18

[Jpost] North Korea operates an illegal arms smuggling network used to finance its nuclear weapons program, across the world, according to US and UN investigators.

During the war in Gaza, the IDF recovered large quantities of weapons from the Gaza Strip that apparently were produced in North Korea, as reported by the South Korean National Intelligence Service.

Since these weapons were seized, new information has been published revealing the current and historical relationship between North Korea and Hamas, as well as other terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Syria, and the Houthis, according to a study by the Stimson Research Institute.

On October 16, Israeli Ambassador to South Korea Akiva Tor expressed concern that Hamas had used North Korean weapons against Israel and vowed to destroy North Korean weapons stocks in the Gaza Strip.

On October 17, a senior official from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed that “Hamas is believed to be directly or indirectly linked to North Korea militarily in various areas, such as the weapons trade, tactical guidance, and training.”

North Korea’s state Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) called the allegations that it arms Hamas “a groundless and false rumor.” It accused the US of creating the conspiracy to deflect from its own complicity in the Gaza war.

This statement was undermined by the North Korean F-7 rocket-propelled grenades from Hamas’s arsenal that were captured by Israeli forces. In addition, Israeli forces found North Korean Bang-122 artillery shells on the Israel-Gaza border, and a Hamas-aligned terrorist group in Gaza possesses North Korean-made 122-mm multiple rocket launchers.

NORTH KOREA'S HISTORY OF PARTNERSHIP WITH IRAN AND SYRIA
North Korea has a long history of partnership with Iran and Syria, detailed in the Stimson report, and as a result, its military technology has reached Iran’s terrorist proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.

Since the start of the war, North Korean state media has repeatedly illustrated violence perpetrated by Israel and has whitewashed Hamas. North Korea’s party daily newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, stated that the international community believed “Israel’s constant criminal acts against the Palestinian people” caused the war. The state media has not shown the carnage of the October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians.

North Korea historically has described Israel as an “imperialist satellite state” and recognizes Palestinian sovereignty over the entirety of Israeli territory, except the Golan Heights.

During the 2008-2009 and 2014 Gaza wars, North Korea said Israel was committing crimes against humanity. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman, Yasser Arafat, received North Korean weapons from Kim Il Sung.

North Korean intelligence officers provided training to Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) commander George Habash and facilitated the PFLP-Japanese Red Army 1972 terror attack at the Lod Airport in Israel, the report revealed.

Between the end of the Cold War and 2007, these ties weakened. However, they strengthened after the 2014 Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, when Hamas turned to North Korea for military assistance. Hamas reportedly gave North Korea a six-figure payment for rockets and military-use communications equipment. Hamas conducted this transaction through a third-party company in Lebanon.

At the time, North Korea said allegations that it was performing such activities were “utterly useless sophism and sheer fiction let loose by the US.”

Once again, North Korean Bulsae-2 anti-tank guided missiles were found in the inventory of the al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades, a Gaza-based terrorist group and one-time ally of Hamas.

In May 2021, a small quantity of F-7 rockets were found with the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the same Brigade that was part of the attacks on October 7.

This transfer of weaponry from North Korea to Hamas is largely performed through third parties, the Stimson report stated, possibly from North Korea to Iran to Sudan and then to Egypt, where arms are trafficked to Hamas through Hamas’s tunnel network.

In 2009, a North Korean plane smuggling 35 tonnes of rocket launchers, grenades, and missiles was seized in Thailand. US and UN investigators said it is part of a global North Korean illegal arms smuggling network used to finance its nuclear weapons program.

NORTH KOREA TIES WITH HEZBOLLAH AND THE HOUTHIS
In addition to Hamas, North Korea has a history of ties with Hezbollah and the Houthis. In the 1980s, Hezbollah terrorists arrived in North Korea for military training. After 2000, North Korean instructors came to Lebanon to train Hezbollah how to build underground bunkers to store arms, food, and medical facilities. Hezbollah’s tunnel network that stretches to the Israel-Lebanon border was built with North Korean guidance.

North Korea also allegedly transferred improvised Katyusha and Grad rockets to Hezbollah, also transferred through third parties in Syria and Lebanon from Iran. North Korea has aided Iran’s production of several types of rockets, which were then transferred to Hezbollah.

In July 2015, South Korean intelligence officials revealed that the Houthis had fired 20 North Korean-made Scud missiles at Saudi Arabia. The Houthis allegedly captured these scud missiles on the battlefield, as these had been purchased originally by the Yemen Armed Forces from North Korea in 2002.

A year later, Houthi's leadership invited North Korean officials to meet in Damascus, Syria, to discuss technology transfers. These arms transfers have not been officially confirmed.

Link

China-Japan-Koreas

Kim oversees N. Korea military parade showcasing new drones, ICBMs

2023-07-29

[Al Ahram] Flanked by visiting Russian and Chinese officials, Kim Pudge Jong-un
...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished...
oversaw a North Korea

...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
n military parade featuring new attack drones and Pyongyang's nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, state media reported Friday.

Standing between Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese politburo member Li Hongzhong in the VIP viewing stands, Kim smiled and saluted as thousands of soldiers marched past, trailed by the country's most powerful ICBMs, which are banned under UN sanctions.

The event, featuring Kim's first known foreign guests since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, was to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, which ended open hostilities and is celebrated as Victory Day.

Kim "extended warm murderous Moslem greetings" to the parade, the official Korean Central News Agency said, and video broadcast by KCTV showed hundreds of soldiers marching through Kim Il Sung square carrying portraits of North Korean war veterans.

Speaking at the event, defence minister Kang Sun Nam said the United States had no chance "of survival in case they use nuclear weapons" against the North.

"Now, the question is not if a nuclear war will occur on the Korean Peninsula, but rather who will start it, when and how," he added, according to KCTV footage of his speech.

Pyongyang routinely uses strong rhetoric to lambast US military deployments to the peninsula, and Kang said the North would act "if they attempt military confrontation as now".

The parade featured an array of new weaponry, including unmanned military drones first unveiled at a Pyongyang defence expo on Wednesday that was visited by Kim and Shoigu.

North Korea's new underwater nuclear attack drone, called the "Haeil", also appeared at the parade for the first time, Seoul-based specialist site NK News reported. Pyongyang claims the weapon can travel underwater for hundreds of kilometres before being detonated under a target.

But the "excitement and great joy of the spectators reached its height" when the nuclear-armed country's newest ICBM -- the solid-fuel Hwasong-18, tested in April and July this year -- was paraded through the square, KCNA said.

Link

China-Japan-Koreas

North Korea Tests New Weapons System To Improve 'Tactical Nukes'

2022-04-18

[NATION.PK] Kim Pudge Jong-un
...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished...
supervised the test-firing of a new guided weapons system to improve North Korea

...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
’s "tactical nukes", state media said Sunday, capping days of celebrations surrounding the birthday of the country’s founding leader.

The launch was the latest in an unprecedented blitz of sanctions-busting weapons-tests this year, which included firing an intercontinental ballistic missile at full range for the first time since 2017.

It also came just ahead of US-South Korea military training exercises — which have always infuriated Pyongyang — that were due to begin on Monday.

The "new-type tactical guided weapon... is of great significance in drastically improving the firepower of the frontline long-range artillery units and enhancing the efficiency in the operation of tactical nukes," the North’s official KCNA news agency reported.

It said the test was successful, but did not specify when or where it took place.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected two projectiles fired late on Saturday, which flew 110 kilometres (68 miles) at an altitude of 25 kilometres, travelling at speeds of around Mach 4. The United States was "aware of the North Korean statement that they conducted a test of a long range artillery system", a Pentagon spokesperson said, adding it was monitoring.

Analysts had widely expected Pyongyang could conduct a nuclear test as part of events to celebrate Friday’s anniversary of the 110th birthday of North Korea’s founding leader — and Kim’s grandfather — Kim Il Sung.

Expectations were heightened because of indications that Pyongyang had restarted work at one of its known nuclear testing sites. Analysts said the weapon tested over the weekend appeared to be a new short-range ballistic missile — but no less significant.

"This is North Korea’s first tactical nuclear weapon delivery system, it would seem," said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "You don’t have to be particularly imaginative to put this two and two together."

Link

China-Japan-Koreas

North Korea Marks Anniversary Of Prior Ruler's Death With 11-Day Ban On Laughing

2021-12-20

[ZH via Rantingly] North Korea is marking the 10th anniversary of former leader Kim Jong-Il's death in somewhat characteristically bizarre ways, with dictates from Pyongyang saying citizens must mourn on a "unified" front that includes a ban on laughing for 11 days.

More than mere commemorative moments of silence, all instances of general enjoyment have been banned during the week-and-a-half period, including shopping, recreation, and alcohol consumption. Even going for groceries is on the list of banned activities, according to Radio Free Asia’s Korean Service.

"During the mourning period, we must not drink alcohol, laugh or engage in leisure activities," a resident of the northeastern city of Sinuiju was cited in the US state-funded publication as saying. The source added that "In the past many people who were caught drinking or being intoxicated during the mourning period were arrested and treated as ideological criminals. They were taken away and never seen again."

"Even if your family member dies during the mourning period, you are not allowed to cry out loud and the body must be taken out after it’s over," the source told RFA further. "People cannot even celebrate their own birthdays if they fall within the mourning period."

While RFA is an American government-linked media agency, and so the report should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt, this type of strict mourning is somewhat common in many Eastern cultures from the Levant to East Asia, at least on a local level and within families. But strict dictates imposed on a national scale is something perhaps only common to the DPRK.

Dubbed by Pyongyang officials "the parent of our people," Kim Jong Ill's death anniversary commemoration ceremony observed in the capital included the following according to NY Post...

Cars, trains and ships blew their horns, the Hermit Kingdom’s flags were lowered to half-staff and people flocked to Pyongyang’s Mansu Hill to lay flowers and bow before giant statues of Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, who ruled for 46 years.

Link

China-Japan-Koreas

North Korean education official reportedly executed for 'anti-party activities'

2021-04-11

[Fox News] North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly ordered the execution of a top higher education official for "anti-party activities" — after he complained about not receiving support and resources from the government.

The man in his 50s, only identified as Park, had been selected to serve as chairman of the Ministry of Higher Education’s "non-standing commission for the implementation of the Distance Education Act," the Daily NK reported.

But an investigation by the Organization and Guidance Department into the commission revealed that Park failed to achieve any real progress to inform remote learning in the country — and that the commission only gathered to criticize the government, according to the South Korea-based news outlet.

"The non-standing commission was established in June of last year," a source in the Hermit Kingdom told the Daily NK. "The OGD conducted an investigation because [the commission failed] to make any progress and because some have criticized the government’s policies."

Among their grievances were that before the Distance Education Act could be implemented, the necessary facilities and equipment would have to be installed, according to the report.

Park repeatedly whined about this to his superiors, who responded by saying: "There are no instructions from the Central Committee, so stay put [and keep silent]."

But the chairman reportedly continued his rants.
committing verbal suicide
"I don’t understand why [the authorities] would choose to implement the act, create this commission, and call busy professors away from their university jobs [if they were not going to give the commission any resources]," Park said.

"Even if [we] make suggestions, [they] just tell [us] to keep [our] mouths shut, so let’s just go through the motions of gathering and then go home," he reportedly told his commission members.

The commission comprised about 20 professors who held weekly meetings.

The OGD launched an investigation after Kim Il Sung University President Ri Guk Chol then dug up comments by Park and reported him to the Central Committee.
Rut roh, Shaggy

Link

China-Japan-Koreas

Satellite images reveal Kim Jong-un may be at luxury family villa

2020-04-29

[Yahoo] New satellite images showing the recent movements of luxury boats by Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, have provided further indications that he may be ensconced in his seaside villa in Wonsan, on the country's east coast.

The location of the reclusive leader has been a mystery since his unprecedented no-show at April 15 events to mark the birthday of his late grandfather and North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung.

His absence, for the first time since he took power in 2011, unleashed a torrent of speculation about his health conditions, with unverified and conflicting reports claiming he was both recuperating from cardiovascular surgery and in "grave danger."

On Tuesday, commercial satellite imagery obtained by North Korea-monitoring website NK PRO showed boats often used by Kim had made movements in patterns that suggested he or his entourage may be in the Wonsan area.

"Extensive analysis shows that similar leisure boat movements at an exclusive villa in Wonsan and a nearby island near the Kalma peninsula have aligned with Kim's public appearances in the area in every one of a half-dozen instances since last summer, and many more dating back to 2013," it said.

The imagery adds to earlier satellite pictures studied by the Washington-based North Korea monitoring project 38 North, which appeared to show that a train similar to Kim's was parked in the resort's so-called "leadership station" reserved for the use of the Kim family a week ago.

Link

China-Japan-Koreas

North Korea's Kim Jong Un in grave danger after surgery, or so they say

2020-04-21

Rumors abound. Even Katy "Whut?" Tur at MSNBC is on it
Gastric bypass?
[NY Post] Earlier Monday, a South Korean media report said that the 36-year-old despot was being treated following a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month.

The reclusive leader missed the celebration of his grandfather’s birthday, the nation’s founder, Kim Il Sung, on April 15, sparking speculations about his health.

Kim underwent the surgery April 12 at a hospital in the Mount Kumgang resort county of Hyangsan and was recovering at a villa there, reported Daily NK, a website run mostly by North Korean defectors, citing unidentified sources inside the hermit kingdom.

The diminutive dictator’s health has deteriorated in recent months due to heavy smoking, obesity and overwork, the report said.

Reuters: S.KOREA GOV'T SOURCE TELLS REUTERS REPORTS OF N.KOREA'S KIM'S GRAVE ILLNESS WAS UNTRUE
— Vincent Lee (@Rover829) April 21, 2020

Regarding KJU rumors:

I'm told U.S. is "definitely monitoring" this because Kim has had health issues in the past, e.g. due to leg problems.

However, source says "don't be surprised" when he shows up soon as if nothing has happened.
— Chad O'Carroll (@chadocl) April 21, 2020

From Zero Hedge, courtesy of Clem:

Update (2252ET): Futures rebounded sharply after South Korea's Yonhap refuted reports that Kim Jong Un is seriously ill.

Update (2240ET): Bloomberg is now reporting that Kim is in a 'critical state,' according to a US official speaking on condition of anonymity.

US officials are now studying the North Korean line of succession.

Trump administration officials are looking into who would be in the line of succession if Kim Jong Un dies or is already dead, I'm told.
‐ Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 21, 2020

Link

China-Japan-Koreas

Rocket Man a 'no-show' at annual commemoration of North Korea's founder

2020-04-16

[Aljazeera] North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has skipped one of Pyongyang's most important and largest holidays - the birthday commemoration of his grandfather and the country's founder, Kim Il Sung - marking his first absence from the ceremony since taking power in 2011.

Official photos published on Thursday showed senior North Korean officials visiting the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun to pay tribute during the 108th anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth on Wednesday.

Among the senior officials in attendance were Pak Pong Ju, who has twice served as the country's premier, as well as Choe Ryong Hae, a military official and the head of North Korea's assembly who is under US sanctions.

Another image showed military officers carrying a wreath as they marched ahead of the senior officials in front of an oversized statue of Kim Il Sung and his successor Kim Jong Il, the late father of the current leader.

Wednesday's commemoration is also known as the "Day of the Sun" - in reference to the leader who led North Korea after it split from the south.

Current leader Kim Jong Un's sister and close aide, Kim Yo Jong, who is in charge of propaganda affairs and is suspected to be the reclusive country's second-in-command, was also not present at the event.

Link

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