Demonstrators Worldwide Demand
• Stop U.S.-Israeli Crimes Against Humanity! Israel Out of Gaza Now!
• Aggression Under False Pretenses Israelis Terrorize Civilians, Vandalize Media, Bomb Charities The Score: 9,000 Prisoners to 1? -- Destroying the Gaza Strip
US is Nuclear and War Threat
•
Defend the DPRK’s Right to Sovereignty
•
DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman on Its Missile Launches
•
DPRK Opposes U.S. Deployment of New-Type Reconnaissance Plane •
China Hopes UN Response Helpful to Peace, Stability on Korean Peninsula •
Missile Mania: US and Japan Threaten North Korea
Demonstrators Worldwide Demand
Stop U.S.-Israeli Crimes Against Humanity! Israel Out of Gaza Now!
As the US-Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people increased in Gaza, people worldwide took action to say, Stop U.S.-Israeli Crimes Against Humanity! Israel Out of Gaza Now! End the Occupation! Demonstrators also called for the immediate release of Palestinian government officials kidnapped and imprisoned by Israel, and that of the many women and children held prisoner by Israel.
In the United States several demonstrations took place to demand the U.S. stop its military, political and economic support of Israel. Participants brought out that the U.S. is guilty of the war crimes and genocide now occurring against Palestine because without U.S. support, Israel could not carry out its aggression. It is U.S. planes, helicopters and bombs that are raining down on Gaza. Actions took place in a number of cities, including, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Canada also saw numerous actions, including those in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Windsor.
Demonstrations also took place in many other countries worldwide, as the world’s people denounced the U.S-backed Israeli war crimes and called on their governments to take action to stop these crimes against humanity. These include actions in Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba, in Austria, Britain, France, Morocco, South Africa and Australia.
In Yemen thousands of people, members of parliament, Yemeni scholars, representatives of the Hamas and Fatah offices in Sana’a, the different Yemeni political parties, civil and human rights organizations and unions all demonstrated in al-Sabeen square to condemn the U.S-backed Israeli massacres against the Palestinian people and their government. The demonstrators then marched to the United Nations office in Sana’a where they handed over a letter to the UN representative condemning the Israeli aggression and urging the UN to force Israel to abide by UN resolutions, which require Israel to end the occupation and withdraw to the 1967 borders. The demonstrators demanded immediate action consistent with the UN resolutions and Geneva Conventions to end the crimes against the Palestinian people.
In Egypt and Jordan thousands took to the streets demanding an end to the Israeli crimes. In Cairo, the Al-Azhar Mosque was packed with more than 3,000 people who opposed the crimes against Palestine. Banners read “Palestinians We Are With You to the End,” and protesters chanted, “We will Not Back Down, We Will Not Be Silent.” In Jordan, protests took place at the Baqaa Palestinian refugee camp. In Beirut 5,000 worsh9ippers at one of the main mosques also took their stand in support of Palestine. As well Palestinians stage a sit-in outside the U.N building in downtown Beirut to oppose the U.S.-Israeli raids on Gaza. Demonstrations also took place in Syria and Pakistan. Participants demanded the immediate release of the Palestinian government officials detained and of the many Palestinian prisoners.
In Turkey thousands of people organized a demonstration in Istanbul, the country’s largest city. Participants opposed Israel’s ongoing crimes in the Gaza Strip. Chanting anti-Israel slogans and holding banners that read, “Israel commits crimes against humanity,” the demonstrators gathered in Istanbul’s Beyazit Square to defend the rights of the Palestinians, including their right to resist occupation. Participants also demanded that the current embargo imposed on the Palestinians be lifted. The embargo, including blocking food, medicine and financial resources, was initiated by the U.S., which blackmailed others to follow suit.
In Indonesia men, women, and children rallied at the U.S. Embassy to oppose U.S. backing of Israel and denounce the war crimes of both. Protesters accused the U.S. and Israel of human rights violations and crimes against humanity.
Many other actions took place worldwide and are continuing. With one voice the world’s peoples are insisting: No to U.S.-Israeli War Crimes! End the Occupation Now!
Aggression Under False Pretenses
GAZA, Palestine -- As Americans commemorated their annual celebration of independence from colonial occupation, rejoicing in their democratic institutions, we Palestinians were yet again besieged by our occupiers, who destroy our roads and buildings, our power stations and water plants, and who attack our very means of civil administration. Our homes and government offices are shelled, our parliamentarians taken prisoner and threatened with prosecution.
The current Gaza invasion is only the latest effort to destroy the results of fair and free elections held early this year. It is the explosive follow-up to a five-month campaign of economic and diplomatic warfare directed by the United States and Israel. The stated intention of that strategy was to force the average Palestinian to "reconsider" her vote when faced with deepening hardship; its failure was predictable, and the new overt military aggression and collective punishment are its logical fulfillment. The "kidnapped" Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit is only a pretext for a job scheduled months ago.
In addition to removing our democratically elected government, Israel wants to sow dissent among Palestinians by claiming that there is a serious leadership rivalry among us. I am compelled to dispel this notion definitively. The Palestinian leadership is firmly embedded in the concept of Islamic shura, or mutual consultation; suffice it to say that while we may have differing opinions, we are united in mutual respect and focused on the goal of serving our people. Furthermore, the invasion of Gaza and the kidnapping of our leaders and government officials are meant to undermine the recent accords reached between the government party and our brothers and sisters in Fatah and other factions, on achieving consensus for resolving the conflict. Yet Israeli collective punishment only strengthens our collective resolve to work together.
As I inspect the ruins of our infrastructure -- the largess of donor nations and international efforts all turned to rubble once more by F-16s and American-made missiles -- my thoughts again turn to the minds of Americans. What do they think of this?
They think, doubtless, of the hostage soldier, taken in battle -- yet thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of women and children, remain in Israeli jails for resisting the illegal, ongoing occupation that is condemned by international law. They think of the pluck and "toughness" of Israel, "standing up" to "terrorists." Yet a nuclear Israel possesses the 13th-largest military force on the planet, one that is used to rule an area about the size of New Jersey and whose adversaries there have no conventional armed forces. Who is the underdog, supposedly America's traditional favorite, in this case?
I hope that Americans will give careful and well-informed thought to root causes and historical realities, in which case I think they will question why a supposedly "legitimate" state such as Israel has had to conduct decades of war against a subject refugee population without ever achieving its goals.
Israel's unilateral movements of the past year will not lead to peace. These acts -- the temporary withdrawal of forces from Gaza, the walling off of the West Bank -- are not strides toward resolution but empty, symbolic acts that fail to address the underlying conflict. Israel's nearly complete control over the lives of Palestinians is never in doubt, as confirmed by the humanitarian and economic suffering of the Palestinians since the January elections. Israel's ongoing policies of expansion, military control and assassination mock any notion of sovereignty or bilateralism. Its "separation barrier," running across our land, is hardly a good-faith gesture toward future coexistence.
But there is a remedy, and while it is not easy it is consistent with our long-held beliefs. Palestinian priorities include recognition of the core dispute over the land of historical Palestine and the rights of all its people; resolution of the refugee issue from 1948; reclaiming all lands occupied in 1967; and stopping Israeli attacks, assassinations and military expansion. Contrary to popular depictions of the crisis in the American media, the dispute is not only about Gaza and the West Bank; it is a wider national conflict that can be resolved only by addressing the full dimensions of Palestinian national rights in an integrated manner. This means statehood for the West Bank and Gaza, a capital in Arab East Jerusalem, and resolving the 1948 Palestinian refugee issue fairly, on the basis of international legitimacy and established law. Meaningful negotiations with a non-expansionist, law-abiding Israel can proceed only after this tremendous labor has begun.
Surely the American people grow weary of this folly, after 50 years and $160 billion in taxpayer support for Israel's war-making capacity -- its "defense." Some Americans, I believe, must be asking themselves if all this blood and treasure could not have bought more tangible results for Palestine if only U.S. policies had been predicated from the start on historical truth, equity and justice.
However, we do not want to live on international welfare and American handouts. We want what Americans enjoy -- democratic rights, economic sovereignty and justice. We thought our pride in conducting the fairest elections in the Arab world might resonate with the United States and its citizens. Instead, our new government was met from the very beginning by acts of explicit, declared sabotage by the White House. Now this aggression continues against 3.9 million civilians living in the world's largest prison camps. America's complacency in the face of these war crimes is, as usual, embedded in the coded rhetorical green light: "Israel has a right to defend itself." Was Israel defending itself when it killed eight family members on a Gaza beach last month or three members of the Hajjaj family on Saturday, among them 6-year-old Rawan? I refuse to believe that such inhumanity sits well with the American public.
We present this clear message: If Israel will not allow Palestinians to live in peace, dignity and national integrity, Israelis themselves will not be able to enjoy those same rights. Meanwhile, our right to defend ourselves from occupying soldiers and aggression is a matter of law, as settled in the Fourth Geneva Convention. If Israel is prepared to negotiate seriously and fairly, and resolve the core 1948 issues, rather than the secondary ones from 1967, a fair and permanent peace is possible. Based on a hudna (comprehensive cessation of hostilities for an agreed time), the Holy Land still has an opportunity to be a peaceful and stable economic powerhouse for all the Semitic people of the region. If Americans only knew the truth, possibility might become reality.
Israelis Terrorize Civilians, Vandalize Media, Bomb Charities
Using the release of the Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit as a pretext, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert unleashed his occupation forces to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, terrorize Palestinian civilians with sonic booms, thin them to starvation, disrupt traffic, electricity supply, and access to water, bomb soccer fields, schools, TV stations, cultural centers and charities, vandalize hospitals, and in mafia-style kidnap cabinet ministers, mayors and parliamentarians, revoke Palestinian residency in Jerusalem, and bomb the offices of the prime minister and the interior minister.
Olmert told his Cabinet on Sunday: "I take personal responsibility for what is happening in Gaza. I want no one to sleep at night in Gaza."
Israel kidnapped on June 28 about 100 members of Hamas, including eight cabinet ministers, legislators and senior officials, the Government of Israel acknowledged in a statement on Thursday.
Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr. Nasseruddin Al-Shae'r was not among those kidnapped as was initially reported on Thursday.
Al-Shae'r said Wednesday the Israeli invasion of Gaza could not have been launched without a U.S. green light.
Israel's deputy Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, said on Sunday his country would prosecute the kidnapped Palestinian government officials: "They will be put to trial," he told CNN.
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) pushed their tanks and troops backed by warplanes into northern Gaza Strip overnight Monday in the second stage of "Operation Summer Rains," which began at midnight on Tuesday, and shootouts were reported with Palestinian defenders.
Christer Nordahl, the deputy director UNRWA, told Reuters Sunday: "We estimate that 25,000 people could be forced to flee Beit Hanoun if Israel attacks in the north" of Gaza Strip.
The IOF shot dead four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip Monday, including two in the vicinity of the Israeli-reoccupied Gaza airport. Another Palestinian wounded in an Israeli air strike died of his wounds in Gaza early in the day. An Israeli warplane the same day targeted a car in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, killing one Palestinian.
Israeli air and artillery attacks began shortly after Cpl Gilad Shalit, 19, was captured in a daring Palestinian attack on an IOF military base on June 25.
Israel's General Security Service (Shin Bet) head, Yuval Diskin, told the cabinet meeting on Sunday that the Israeli operations in Gaza "could take weeks or even months."
Israeli aircraft sent missiles tearing through the office of Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, on Sunday. Israeli warplanes bombed a building of the Palestinian Ministry of Interior at dawn Sunday, killing a night guard in the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabaliya.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accompanied by Haniyeh inspected the rubble of the premiership building on Monday.
Abbas on Wednesday condemned the Israeli invasion of Gaza as a "crime against humanity" and a "collective punishment" against the Palestinian people.
IOF sealed off and banned entry to and exit from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, besieging Abbas, Haniyeh and top officials of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) as leading anti-occupation activists went underground.
Abbas however told reporters that he had no intention to leave Gaza until the Israeli invasion stops.
Palestinians in Gaza Strip are preparing for what they feared could be a long Israeli invasion, and tried despite their meager resources amid an exacerbating food and humanitarian crisis to stock up on food, candles and batteries for radios.
Closure of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt for the 6th consecutive day is stranding more than 4,000 Palestinians in two Egyptian towns.
UN's World Food Program (WFP) and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on Israel Friday to allow urgent medical and food supplies into Gaza Strip.
Israel on Friday revoked the Jerusalem residency of four Palestinian lawmakers, including a Cabinet minister, Israel's Interior Ministry said.
The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) was scheduled to convene in an emergency session in Ramallah and Gaza on Monday to debate the deteriorating situation in the West Bank, including eastern Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied in 1967.
Israeli War on Infrastructure
"Israel is now openly engaged in infrastructure warfare, the wanton destruction of the basic platforms of human survival," Mike Whitney wrote on Monday.
IOF warplanes bombed the soccer field of the Islamic University in Gaza late Wednesday after destroying the only power plant in the strip early in the day, plunging Gaza Strip into darkness and depriving about one million Palestinians from electricity for months to come, hitting very hard not only households but also hospitals and schools.
Water supplies were also cut early Wednesday by bombing water pipelines, after destroying three bridges linking the south and north of the Gaza Strip.
Al-Arqam school, a cultural center and a charity in Gaza city were bombed to rubble by the IOF warplanes.
The IOF also damaged the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children's facilities in Gaza City. When IOF warplanes caused massive sonic booms and nearby explosions in air strikes, the windows of the Palestinian NGO's building shattered. As a result, several deaf vocational trainees were injured from the shattered glass.
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights six power transformers were destroyed, which provide an estimated 45 per cent of the electricity in Gaza for approximately half the population.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Gaza Electrical Distribution Company (GEDCO) estimates it will take nine months to procure replacement transformers.
The Coastal Municipalities Water Utility manages the 132 water wells in Gaza, which is powered by GEDCO. Since back-up generators are needed to keep water flowing, there is concern about the financial and physical stability of using back-up generators because the IOF closed off the energy pipeline into Gaza.
The Associated Press reported that the "Israeli tanks and bulldozers crossed the Gaza Strip and began razing farmland east of Khan Younis."
When the tanks withdrew from a spot of a farmland in A'basan in the southern Gaza Strip, they left a trail of destruction in their wake, AFP reported Monday.
Palestinian families, uprooted from their homes during Saturday's daylong operation, returned after dawn to ransacked homes. Israeli tanks and bulldozers had destroyed storehouses, knocked down bedroom walls and uprooted olive trees.
Soldiers battered down doors and upturned furniture in what an IOF spokeswoman said was an attempt to locate a tunnel Palestinians were reportedly digging towards Israeli positions along the Gaza border east of the city of Khan Younis.
Terrorizing Civilians
Israel is deploying a terrifying new tactic against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip by unleashing deafening "sound bombs" that cause widespread fear, induce miscarriages and traumatize children.
The Palestinian health ministry says the sonic booms have led to miscarriages and heart problems. The United Nations has demanded an end to the tactic, saying it causes panic attacks in children. The shockwaves have also damaged buildings by cracking walls and smashing thousands of windows.
"I have never heard such a loud explosion. I thought it was right over the top of my building," said the owner, Tareq Dayyeh. "Sometimes you hear the rockets the Israelis fire but this was different. I felt like I was in the middle of a bomb. When I ran out the door I thought I might find the rest of the street was gone."
Sonic booms are caused by aircraft when the fly beyond the sound barrier. When a warplane flies at low altitudes above civilian populations, the terrorizing sound as the aircraft "wakes" traumatizes children (Donald Macintyre, November 2005) and causes infrastructure damage.
Last year the petition filed by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Gaza Community Mental Health Program reported an increase in miscarriages from sonic booms as well.
War on Charities
Meanwhile the IOF were raiding, confiscating and sealing off several institutions and humanitarian services charities in several West Bank cities, towns and refugee camps, in Jenin and Bethlehem on Sunday and in Jericho on Monday.
The IOF troops were also vandalizing media outlets and hospitals.
On Monday they raided a local newspaper in Ramallah and the Nablus local TV station.
Separately, according to Ynet, the IOF soldiers caused a great deal of damage to the Nablus hospital property while searching for a suspect whom they failed to detain.
Palestinian sources in the hospital told Ynet that soldiers destroyed equipment and caused severe damage during the search. Activists from Physicians for Human Rights said that during the search, soldiers made all the hospital employees assemble on one floor and interrupted their work.
The Israeli Physicians for Human Rights organization condemned the soldiers' conduct in the hospital. The organization stated that, "Hospitals and hospital staff must be excluded from all military operations."
The Score: 9,000 Prisoners to 1? -- Destroying the Gaza Strip
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert lost no time in exploiting Hamas' capture of an Israeli soldier to justify Israel's long-planned re-occupation of the Gaza Strip and mass arrest of the Hamas leadership. In his haste, he has inadvertently achieved a rare thing. He has managed to reduce the absurdity of Israel's position to a known ratio: 9000 to 1.
Nine thousand captured Palestinians languish in Israel's notorious "security prisons," including 380 children and 115 women. Every day Israeli troops and Border Police kidnap, interrogate, torture and imprison Palestinians, often by the dozen. The arrest raids never stop, regardless of summits, truces, or cease-fires. It is estimated that 650,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned by Israel since the current occupation began in 1967.
Arrest and incarceration is such a common experience that it has become a virtual rite of passage for Palestinian boys; men go to prison. In the past year we've read several reports of pre-teen boys, some as young as 8, approaching Israeli soldiers and asking, even begging, to be arrested.
But God forbid that even one of Israel's tender teen warriors should be captured in battle, as young Gilat Shalit was. That would be going too far. That would justify blowing up key bridges and destroying the electricity source of two-thirds of the Gaza Strip. Columns of invading tanks and scores of U.S-supplied jet fighters and combat helicopters would be required to hunt for the missing soldier, and attack the Palestinian Interior Ministry. From top to bottom, little Gaza would be subjected to yet another round of fierce shelling from land, air, and sea. All in a day's hunt.
After years of bargaining with Hizbullah "terrorists" over prisoners captured during Israel's occupation of Lebanon, Israelis know that this hysteria over a single soldier is only a ruse. But that doesn't stop them from falling for it all over again, and Olmert appears to have public support for his new version of total war on the Gaza Strip, cynically code named "Operation Summer Rains." The score is 9000 to 1 and the Israelis are outraged. It should be 9000 to 0.
Accelerating Humanitarian Catastrophe
The western world seemed surprised by the scale and severity of Israel's collective punishment. As if it could join the war on Hamas by destroying Palestine's economy and not also encourage lawless Israel to destroy Hamas by any means necessary.
European and UN diplomats have expressed concern that the economic siege is succeeding too quickly. The fundamentals of social order and sheer survival in the occupied territories are collapsing sooner than anticipated, while the band-aid of humanitarian aid promised by the Quartet remains on the drawing board, largely due to persistent U.S. obstruction.
In 2003, international aid agencies compared the economy of the occupied Gaza Strip to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Malnutrition was endemic, poverty rates were over 50 percent, and unemployment was chronically high.
It is far worse today. Prior to this week's operation, Gaza faced a "humanitarian catastrophe" according to the UN and others. The international economic embargo has compounded the damage already inflicted by Israel's repeated closures of Gaza's borders, which have been shut more than they've been open this year. Most of an entire harvest has rotted while awaiting shipment. For several months Gaza has been living a hand-to-mouth existence. More than once the Strip has run out of critical staples like flour, sugar, and salt.
Now more than 800,000 people have no electricity. The Israeli attack on the central substation's transformer was precisely devastating -- repairs are expected to take several months. For most, no power means no water.
Perhaps Israel disagreed with its European allies. Perhaps it decided the Palestinians weren't starving fast enough, so thirst, disease, and heat prostration had to be added to "the mix" of tactics to "persuade" the Palestinian people to abandon the government they elected.
The citizens of Gaza now have no access to the outside world, very little food and water, no fuel, and little or no electricity, refrigeration, and air conditioning in the middle of a brutally hot summer. The Israeli army is back in force, a third of the bankrupt Palestinian Legislative Council is in Israeli jails, and the unpaid and unsupplied health care system has essentially collapsed.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of this expanding nightmare, has assured us that he is a "man who seeks peace...I do not look forward to battle." When this Moroccan-born labor leader and Peace Now member took the helm of Israel's Labor Party last year, he was greeted with a blizzard of liberal hosannas hailing a political "earthquake," the return of Israel's peace movement, and other wonders.
As if Israel's aspiring politicians hadn't always climbed to the top on the backs of dead Palestinians. Now the peaceful Mr. Peretz is indictable for war crimes perpetrated in the planning and conduct of Operation Summer Rain. He is on his way.
Dangers of the Peace Process
In its latest step up the escalator of compound violence, Israel has deployed a new blunt instrument to ensure that "there is no partner for peace." Now, if it decides it doesn't like a Palestinian diplomat, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar for example, it can simply imprison him on terrorism charges. And if it doesn't like the results of a free and fair Palestinian election, it can simply kidnap the elected government. This week, more than 60 Hamas party members of the Palestinian government have been arrested, including the heads of several ministries.
One challenge in following and predicting the path of Israel's foreign policy is that one can never be sure whether the next move will be a diplomatic proposal or an assassination.
The murders of Swedish diplomat Count Bernadotte in 1948 and Hamas leader Sheikh Yassin in 2004 (and probably Yasser Arafat, as well) bookend more than five decades of chronically violent diplomatic relations, in which the assassination of difficult leaders has always been an option.
It was recently revealed that in 1953, future Prime Minister Menachem Begin directed a failed plot to assassinate West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, simply to stop a reparations agreement the Chancellor was negotiating with the Israeli government.
True to form, Israel has now delivered a letter to PA President Mahmoud Abbas in which it threatens to assassinate Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh if Gilat Shalit is not released unharmed.
So now it's a soldier for a prime minister. Any equation can be made, as long as it is wildly disproportionate and morally untenable. The point is always the same: the life of a Palestinian is barely worth consideration in comparison to the life of a Jew. Their value belongs to a different order of magnitude. A number of Israeli rabbis question the very humanity of Palestinians. While attempting to apologize for the recent deaths of 14 Palestinian civilians by Israeli shelling, Mr. Olmert reportedly asserted that "threatened" Israeli lives are "even more important."
How can Israel deliberately destroy the economy and critical infrastructure of a starving people, arrest their government, and threaten to assassinate their leader, while the "international community" does nothing?
The U.S. government's determination to join Israel in destroying the Palestinians is obvious. Perhaps the EU's obsession with gathering Israel into its future Mediterranean empire has shriveled its moral obligation to the Palestinians down to spare change and servings of Javier Solana's hypocrisy.
Or maybe today's moral paralysis is the cumulative effect of doing nothing to stop Israel's crimes for the past fifty-eight years. Perhaps moral cowardice grows with repetition, until war crimes become an "understandable and measured response" and fascism is welcome at the front door. Whatever the causes, the trend seems clear: International law is dying with the Palestinians.
James Brooks serves as webmaster for Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel.
Defend the DPRK’s Right to Sovereignty
Following the recent test-firing of missiles by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) the U.S. has launched yet more provocations against the DPRK and all the Korean people. The U.S. is again trying to use the United Nations as an instrument for its aggression against a sovereign country that is exercising its rights. The DPRK has every right to test missiles, to arm itself, to prepare against aggression. It has not committed a single act of aggression and continues to call for negotiations.
The U.S. is creating a very tense situation and pushing the region toward war. Already engaged in an illegal and unjust war in Iraq, the U.S. is committing crimes against the peace by planning and promoting war against the DPRK. This includes conducting the largest military war-drill since Vietnam in the waters near Korea and positioning U.S. troops and missiles in south Korea and Japan for war.
In addition, before the missile tests, President George W. Bush threatened to shoot the test-missile down, an act of war. Former government officials suggested blowing up the missile before it was launched—also an act of war. Since the tests Bush has continued to say the U.S. planned to shoot down the missile. The government is also threatening a naval blockade, yet another act of war. Adding to the tension, the U.S. has done everything to create fear and hysteria about the tests. This includes promoting the idea that the missile was armed and headed to the U.S. and Canada.
The hysteria and disinformation serve to justify U.S. efforts to secure sanctions against the DPRK, and to line up other countries, like Japan and Canada, in its war plans. The aim is to first weaken the DPRK, as the U.S. did with Iraq, and then invade, using as many troops from other countries as possible.
The refusal of the DPRK to go along with these plans and instead defend itself is a block against U.S. plans. These and other stands by the DPRK to defend its sovereignty, including striving for peaceful reunification of Korea, serve peace. It is calling for and supports the de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula—something the U.S. rejects. It has called for a non-aggression pact with the U.S. and offered to negotiate the current problems with the U.S. The U.S. refuses. Instead the government is adding to the already tense situation by pushing for sanctions.
At a time when calm and negotiations are needed, the U.S. is increasing pressure on the United Nations to support U.S. war preparations and provocations. Let no one forget that the UN was used by the U.S. to launch its aggressive war against Korea in 1950. Today, promoting Japanese militarism against the interests of the Japanese and world’s peoples, it pushed Japan to propose a resolution to the UN Security Council calling for sanctions. Bush is demanding that Russia, China, Japan, and south Korea all support sanctions against Korea and speak with the “one united voice” of the U.S. So far, the Russians and Chinese, who have veto powers on the Council, have rejected sanctions, as have the south Koreans.
Voice of Revolution calls on all peace-loving people to stand in support of the right of the DPRK to exercise its sovereignty and defend itself against U.S. aggression and war. The efforts of the Korean people to defend their rights and organize for reunification, including demanding that all U.S. troops get out of Korea, are an important part of the bulwark against U.S. reaction and for peace. We urge everyone to support these efforts and vigorously oppose U.S. war plans against Korea and U.S. efforts to embroil the world in its war plans.
It is the U.S. that is positioning more battleships and troops for war against Korea, engaging in more spying in Korean airspace, and repeating its plans for nuclear first-strikes against the DPRK. It is the U.S. that is the source and threat of war on the Korean peninsula, a war that would likely lead to world war. We say NO!
U.S. Troops Out of Korea! Defend DPRK’s Right to Sovereignty!
DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesman on Its Missile Launches
Pyongyang, July 6 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question raised by the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) Thursday in regard to the missile launches in the DPRK:
In the wake of the missile launches by the Korean People's Army (KPA) the U.S. and some other countries following it, including Japan, are making much ado about a serious development. They are terming them a "violation" and a "provocation" and calling for "sanctions" and "their referral to the UN Security Council."
The latest successful missile launches were part of the routine military exercises staged by the KPA to increase the nation's military capacity for self-defense.
The DPRK's exercise of its legitimate right as a sovereign state is neither bound to any international law nor to bilateral or multilateral agreements such as the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration and the joint statement of the six-party talks.
The DPRK is not a signatory to the Missile Technology Control Regime and, therefore, is not bound to any commitment under it. As for the moratorium on long-range missile test-fire that the DPRK agreed with the U.S. in 1999, it was valid only when the DPRK-U.S. dialogue was under way. The Bush administration, however, scrapped all the agreements its preceding administration concluded with the DPRK and totally scuttled the bilateral dialogue.
The DPRK had already clarified in March 2005 that its moratorium on the missile test-fire was no longer valid. The same can be said of the moratorium on the long-range missile test-fire that the DPRK agreed to with Japan in the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration in 2002.
In the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration, the DPRK expressed its "intention to extend beyond 2003 the moratorium on the missile tests in the spirit of the declaration." This step was taken on the premise that Japan moved to normalize its relations with the DPRK and redeem its past. The Japanese authorities, however, have abused the DPRK's good faith. They have not honored their commitment but internationalized the "abduction issue," following the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK, although the DPRK had fully settled the issue. This behavior has brought the overall DPRK-Japan relations back to what they were before the publication of the declaration. It is a manifestation of the DPRK's broad magnanimity that it has maintained the moratorium on missile tests far so long given this situation.
The joint statement of the six-party talks on September 19, 2005 stipulates the commitments to be fulfilled by the six sides to the talks to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. But no sooner had the joint statement been adopted than the U.S. applied financial sanctions against the DPRK and escalated pressure on it in various fields through the sanctions. The U.S., at the same time, has totally hamstrung the efforts for the implementation of the joint statement through such threat and blackmail as large-scale military exercises targeted against the DPRK.
It is clear to everyone that there is no need for the DPRK to unilaterally keep on hold its test-firing of its missiles given this situation. Such being a stark fact, it is a far-fetched assertion grossly falsifying the reality for them to claim that the routine missile launches conducted by the KPA for self-defense strain the regional situation and block the progress for dialogue.
It is a lesson taught by history and a stark reality of the international relations proven by the Iraqi crisis that the upsetting of the balance of force is bound to create instability and crisis and spark even a war. Without the DPRK's tremendous deterrent for self-defense, the U.S. would have attacked the DPRK more than once as it had listed the former as part of an "axis of evil" and a "target of preemptive nuclear attack" and peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the region would have been seriously disturbed.
The DPRK's missile development, test-fire, manufacture and deployment, therefore, serve as a key to keeping the balance of force and preserving peace and stability in Northeast Asia.
It is also preposterous for them to term the latest missile launches as a "provocation" and the like for the mere reason that the DPRK did not send prior notice about them. It would be quite foolish to notify Washington and Tokyo of the missile launches in advance, given that the U.S., which is technically still at war with the DPRK, has threatened for a month that it would intercept the latter's missile in collusion with Japan. We would like to ask the U.S. and Japan if they have ever notified the DPRK of their ceaseless missile launches in the areas close to it.
The DPRK remains unchanged in its will to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula in a negotiated peaceful manner just as it committed itself in the September 19 joint statement of the six-party talks. The latest missile launch exercises are quite irrelevant to the six-party talks. The KPA will go on with missile launch exercises as part of its efforts to bolster its deterrents for self-defense in the future, too.
The DPRK will have no option but to take stronger physical actions of other forms should any other country dare take issue with the exercises and put pressure on it.
DPRK Opposes U.S. Deployment of New-Type Reconnaissance Plane
Pyongyang, July 3 -- Commenting on the deployment of the "U-2 S Block 20" high-altitude strategic reconnaissance plane at the U.S. air force base in Osan, south Korea, a Rodong Sinmun analyst Monday says: This is a grave military provocation and blackmail against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). It indicates that the U.S. is rapidly pushing ahead in various fields with extremely dangerous war moves against the DPRK, driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war.
As regards the deployment of the plane, the U.S. warmongers claim that it this was planned long ago. But this is nothing but a sophism.
Nowadays, the U.S. is daily escalating military pressure against the DPRK with reckless war exercises [the largest since Vietnam], massive arms buildup and persistent aerial espionage. The U.S. is also driving the six-way talks for a settlement to the DPRK-U.S. nuclear issue to a rupture by raising absurd pretexts and fictions. Thick clouds of war are hanging above the Korean Peninsula and a touch-and-go situation is prevailing.
Reality makes it crystal clear that the fond talk of the U.S. about "dialogue" and "peace" is a false advertisement to mislead public opinion at home and abroad about the criminal U.S. attempt to start a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula at any cost. These plans are now entering the stage of practice.
The military strain on the Korean Peninsula, carried now to extremes by the U.S. imperialists, affirms the validity of the stand of the DPRK to build up a strong war deterrent under Songun politics.
Convinced that peace is defended only by arms, the army and people of the DPRK are now in full preparedness to answer a preemptive attack with a relentless annihilating strike and a nuclear war with a mighty nuclear deterrent.
The U.S. imperialists should ponder over the possible consequences of their heedless provocations and moves for a war against the DPRK and get out of south Korea promptly with all their military hardware including strategic reconnaissance planes.
China Hopes UN Response Helpful to Peace, Stability on Korean Peninsula
China on Thursday expressed the hope that the response of the United Nations to the missile tests by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) should be helpful to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. "We think the Security Council should make a necessary response and the response should help maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the Northeast Asian region," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
The UN Security Council met Wednesday for an emergency meeting to discuss the missile tests by the DPRK, which reportedly launched seven missiles on Wednesday morning. "China participated in the consultations in a responsible way," said Jiang.
China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Wang Guangya told reporters before the meeting what action the Security Council would take depends on the consultations of all council members. Jiang reiterated China's deep concern over the tension caused by the missile tests, hoping the parties concerned would keep calm and exercise restraint and avoid action that could further intensify and complicate the situation. "China is in close contact and consultations with parties concerned," said Jiang.
China has been playing a constructive role in easing the situation on the Korean Peninsula and maintaining peace and stability in the region, said Jiang, adding that China will continue to push forward the negotiation process of the six-party talks. "Facts prove that dialogue and consultation are effective ways to solve problems," said Jiang, noting that China will strive to ease tension through diplomatic efforts.
Missile Mania: US and Japan Threaten North Korea
The hysteria surrounding the potential launch of a North Korean missile has generated an artificial crisis. For all the ballyhoo of a threat, there is in fact no danger other than that of U.S. reaction.
It is claimed that North Korea’s Taepodong-2 missile has a range that would allow it to strike Alaska and possibly the U.S. west coast. The Federation of American Scientists, however, estimates its range as far less. Little concrete information is known about the as yet untested Taepodong-2 missile, and its range is a matter of conjecture. For that matter, U.S. officials have admitted that they cannot be certain that the missile in question is a Taepodong-2. And some reports have indicated that the missile is estimated at just over 30 meters in length, whereas the Taepodong-2 is thought to be 35 meters long. Mention of a Taepodong-2 missile is based on supposition, not evidence.
U.S. and Japanese officials have threatened to impose additional sanctions on North Korea if it goes ahead with a missile launch. There has even been talk of a naval blockade, an act of war under international law. The Bush Administration has not spelled out its precise intent, but Peter Rodman, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, warns, “We would seek to impose some cost on North Korea.”
Meanwhile, there are those who advocate military measures. The U.S. has activated its anti-missile defense system, and there is talk of using the North Korean missile as “target practice.” The only concern expressed over such a provocative action is that the U.S. might suffer embarrassment should it fail to intercept the missile. Worse yet, prominent Democrats have sought through reckless posturing to pressure the Bush Administration from the right. William Perry, former defense secretary in the Clinton Administration, and his assistant, Ashton B. Carter, wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post, advocating a cruise missile strike on the North Korean missile as it sits on the launching pad. Former Vice President Walter Mondale quickly followed by urging the Bush Administration to tell North Korea to dismantle the missile or “we are going to take it out.” Mondale regards North Korea as “so dangerous” because of its “paranoid leader.” One wonders just who it is that is being paranoid here.
The impression given by U.S. officials and the news media is that there is something uniquely sinister and threatening in a missile launch. South Korean officials point out that the open manner in which North Korea has prepared the launch indicates that the intent is to put a satellite in orbit, a routine enough activity for a number of nations. North Korea’s previous launch of a satellite, atop a Taepodong-1 in 1998, ended in failure. What is overlooked is that North Korea has the right under international law to launch a satellite or even to test a missile. That this should be so openly disregarded in such an emotional manner is indicative of the low state of political discourse in the U.S. today.
North Korean Deputy UN Ambassador Han Song-Ryol offered to calm the situation through dialogue. “The United States says it is concerned about our missile test launch. Our position is, ‘Okay then, let’s talk about it’.” Predictably, his suggestion was quickly rebuffed by the Bush Administration, which remains opposed to one-on-one contact with North Korea. U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton blustered, “You don’t normally engage in conversations by threatening to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles, and it’s not a way to produce a conversation because if you acquiesce in aberrant behavior you simply encourage the repetition of it.” Neither Bolton nor anyone else commented on the U.S.’ own “aberrant behavior” when it test fired a Minuteman III ICBM on June 14. The missile flew 4,800 miles, before its three warheads struck the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands. For U.S. officials and media to condemn North Korea for preparing a launch even while the U.S. was conducting its own test was merely one more stunning example of hypocrisy.
The Bush Administration has correctly pointed out that for North Korea to launch a missile would violate its moratorium on medium and long range missile testing. That commitment, however, was unilateral. North Korea’s moratorium was implemented in 1999 after the U.S. agreed to lift some economic sanctions, a promise that failed to materialize.
The agreement on general principles reached at the six party talks on nuclear disarmament in September of last year obligated the U.S. to begin normalizing relations with North Korea. Instead, it chose to impose additional economic sanctions, ostensibly because of counterfeiting. First the Bush Administration pressured a Macao bank to close North Korean accounts, despite protestations by the bank that its financial dealings with North Korea were legitimate and commercial. Then it followed by imposing sanctions against eight North Korean import and export firms. Seeing the result of actions taken against the bank in Macao, other banks dealing with North Korea severed relations after receiving warnings from the U.S. Treasury Department. “The impact is severe,” observed Nigel Cowie, general manager of the Daedong Credit Bank. “I can’t speak for what everybody was doing, but I can say that in our case, a lot of legitimate business has been hurt.” The sanctions, said U.S. Treasury Department Under Secretary Stuart Levy, placed “heavy pressure” on North Korea, and had a “snowballing...avalanche effect.” Under the circumstances, North Korea’s continued adherence to a moratorium on missile testing was beginning to appear decidedly one-sided.
Vice President Dick Cheney has rejected calls for a cruise missile attack on the North Korean missile, responding, “Obviously, if you’re going to launch strikes at another nation, you’d better be prepared to not just fire one shot.” It is recognized that the North Korean military would be a tough opponent, and any attack is likely to trigger a responding strike at a U.S. military target. Events could rapidly escalate into military conflict, which the U.S. could ill afford at a time when the Iraqi resistance is tying up so many troops. Yet the situation remains precarious. Other mooted actions, such as shooting down the missile after launch or imposing a naval blockade, are acts of war and as such, risk inviting war. In the days to come, the Bush Administration may find pressure from the media and Democrats for military action impossible to resist. Cooler heads are needed, but those are in short supply among a political leadership accustomed to saber rattling.
Gregory Elich is author of Strange Liberators: Militarism, Mayhem, and the Pursuit of Profit, reprinted from GlobalResearch.ca, June 27, 2006