As one watched and listened Amanpour, Christiane, CNN's chief international correspondent and eternal apologist for a beneficent Anglo-American world hegemony condescendingly expressd a hope that the New York Philharmonic concert in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Monday, February 25, 2008 might be a small first step toward helping North Korea “join the community of nations.”
CNN viewers aware of Ms Amapour’s decade long championing of the righteous foreign policies of the U.S. and Britain, understand well her meaning, namely, that North Korea should hopefully join the community of nations that duly accept that only the United States should have atom bombs (tens of thousands) and the right to bomb, invade and occupy any nation it considers necessary to its national interests.
Before the broadcast of the New York Philharmonic concert on public television, there was an hour of videos of Pyongyang, and its surroundings, of public events and of interviews by Western reporters of citizens in various walks of life and venues of work and school. The Koreans all appeared very modest, kind and sweet in their behavior and answers, but, as was brought, out were extremely nationalistic and all expressed the same attitude, seemingly as something obvious and taken for granted, that Americans were a dangerous enemies of their country.
During this pre-concert part of the telecast the viewers heard various commentators and experts on North Korea describe a kind fantasy world wherein all citizens and children sincerely worshiped their nation’s founder Kim Il-sung and happily declared dedicating their work and lives lovingly to him and their present leader, his son, Kim Jong-il. Explanations were illustrated with many short video examples of this all-pervading sentiment among the North Koreans.
It was from start to finish a beautiful telecast, the music, the musicians, the huge attractive modern concert hall, the subtle expressions on the faces in the audience, the gorgeous displays of mammoth outdoor and indoor stadium coordinated dancing and mass movement effects, the neatness of well and colorfully dressed people the cleanliness and orderliness in the streets shown. And when those interviewed spoke of avowed resolve to protect their country and explained that they knew the U.S. was out to hurt Korea still again, they spoke softly, politely and with calm and pleasant looking countenance.
Even the political lecture on North Korea’s hermetically “sealed-in” society, sometimes referred to as “The Hermit Kingdom” was not as heavy and much less disparaging as what is usually seen on U.S. major network TV. But of course people either old enough or conversant with the history of the West sealing-off and trying to strangle or ‘contain’ a young Soviet Union for decades starting in the 1920’s and lasting until the USSR became our ally in WWII; and familiar with the same effort to quarantine a new Chinese Revolutionary government in 1949, again for decades, until the famous ping-pong diplomacy of 1971, would recognize that it would be more correct to say North Korea, like China and Russia before it, had been originally punitively ‘sealed-off’ from the rest of the world rather than to say that they had intentionally arranged to have their countries 'sealed-in' from the beginning.
But the most poignant perspective missing for Americans watching this spectacular televised concert, scenic description and didactic lecture on North Korea, is that during what was a Korea civil war that began in 1950, the United States leveled from the air, if not already torn up by ground artillery from both sides, every town in Korea, both North and South with the exception of Pusan, which is located at the extreme southern end of the peninsula - the only area that the North Koreans had not taken in the first weeks of its invasion of the south.
Regardless of what people outside North Korea think, regardless the pride that Americans are taught for having reconquered the south, which, as the nation South Korea has long become the 11th strongest economy in the world, and regardless that most political leaders in the industrialized nations consider that the death of more than a million Koreans was worth not allowing a unified Korea under a communist government to be born. (Not withstanding that communist Russia did not last, and that communist China and Vietnam are now welcomed trading partners, and a communist Korea might have just as likely changed as well.)
North Koreans have the memory of the most brutal of bombings, protracted war, the U.S. and allied invasion of its land, the further devastation incurred in expelling the U.S. Army and Navy with the aid of the Chinese, plus all the terrifying rumors (if not actuality) of bacteriological warfare and threats of atomic bombing endured. These Koreans, have also experience terrible suffering during the postwar rebuilding of their scorched land while under duress of strict U.S. sanctions. Progressives in the West attribute the some the responsibility for the severity of the government in the North and the lack of freedom of its people to the effects of the merciless and vindictive foreign policy of the U.S., which has kept tens of thousands of troops near its border all these years, while decrying the North’s massive build-up of its military.
Of course all this is justified with an American shrug of the shoulders and, 'The North attacked the South first.' Simple. Maybe so, but this writer remembers photos of U.S. Senators and Congressmen visiting the trenches separating the Korea divide on the front pages of issues of the New York Times during the months prior to the North’s armed forces sudden invasion. Remembers as well the captions and accompanying articles of tough talk of some of these in calling for ‘cutting the ropes’ holding back the unpopular dictator Sigmund Rhee from going north.
Remembers seeing in an Australian produced documentary, The Forgotten War, still- shots of young South Korean young men roped together after capture for running away from induction into the army of the Sigmund Rhee government; newsreels of substantial amounts of Koreans lining the streets welcoming the troops from the North. Remembers reading dozens of articles throughout the Korean War, bewailing the lack of will to fight of much of the South’s forces during the war, as the U.S. continually bore the brunt of the fighting. Remember the accounts of Sigmund Rhee eventually fleeing his country and the many years of military dictatorship under which the economic miracle of South Korea took place. Of course at the same time reading of the despicable behavior and inhumanity of the government in the North. But at the same time disturbing events like the head of the South Korean CIA assassination of his country’s president; reading of so many citizens, students, even a famous composer, who was a German citizen being imprisoned for having merely visiting in North Korea. One remembers a massacre of considerable proportions of students, before kinder civilian dominated government finally came to power by the end of the 1980s. In recent years have come revelations of various massacres of Koreans, inadvertently, in the South by American troops during the war.
All this is to point out the perspective of Koreans regarding Americans, Americans who tend to forget they are all Koreans, whether in the North or South. That is to say, the Koreans in the concert audience in Pyongyang all have at least knowledge if not memories of all the almost insufferable happenings that played out with their country a pawn in the cold war, a cold war that has not yet ended on their peninsula.
Lastly regarding perspective, it is sobering for Americans to contemplate Picasso’s Cheju Massacre painting, for the massacres that Picasso sought to portray occurred in 1948, two years before the Northern invasion during a civil war between pro-communist and anti-communists on the southern island of Cheju far off the mainland, and during the time of the American occupation. The death toll was in the tens of thousands, many brutally executed after surrender. Whether many deaths can, or should not be, attributed to American military forces, the rebellion on Chuju island shows that story of the U.S. war should not be naively justified in all its length and breadth with a simple, ‘they attacked first’, for there was great turmoil and dissatisfaction being expressed in the South long before the North invaded.
Americans may go on thinking of themselves as the good guys doing good. But they might like to remember that the good was done in Korea, to Koreans, all of whom obviously were not in agreement that it was for their own good.
Musician and writer, who has lived and worked on all the continents and whose articles on media have been published in China, Italy, England and the US, and now resides in New York City.
It is interesting how we human beings can develop a thesis and find all kinds of arguments and supposed facts to support it. You, my friend, have an amazing perspective on the Korean War, and some interesting fabrications to support it. But you have your facts wrong!
I would not support every action and policy of the United States, particularly with the present administration, but I was in Army intelligence before and during the Korean war, serving two tours in Korea and considerable time in Tokyo. The facts: Kim Il Sung was a high ranking Soviet Army officer, put in place as the puppet leader of North Korea after the Soviet occupation at the end of WWII. The invasion of South Korea was planned and directed by Soviet officers who were Russian, not Korean. Orders, which we intercepted and read, were sent from the chief Soviet advisor at North Korean Supreme Headquarters to other Soviet advisors at the North Korean corps level, up to the time of the landing at In Chon by MacArthur. The North Koreans were supported by a Soviet bomber division and two Mig fighter divisions based at airfields across the Yalu in Manchuria. The Soviets also sent enough Migs to China for two fighter divisions, and trained Chinese and North Korean pilots to fly them. Later, the two divisions, one Chinese and one North Korean, replaced the two Soviet Mig divisions, but continued to be led by their Soviet advisor/trainers. I interrogated a Lt Colonel from North Korean Headquarters, who gave us a book-length report. It was particularly interesting to me that they had a Communist political organization mirroring the military, with the military officers being closely observed by their corresponding political officers, to make sure they towed the party line.
The president of South Korea was Syngman Rhee, not Sigmund. He was backed by the United States, of course, as Kim Il Sung was backed by the Russians in the north, and, I agree, was not that popular among the South Koreans, although they elected him. Regarding Soviet Russia, you seem to place all the blame for the cold war on the U.S. If you have access to their equivalent of the State of the Union address for 1949, you will read that they said their aim was to spread Communism, that they would do it through peaceful means wherever possible, but they would not hesitate to use force where required. But, they added, they would not allow themselves to become involved in a major conflict unless they were absolutely certain of victory. At the time of the Korean War, we had the superiority, with the atom bomb. They would let the Koreans and the Chinese do the fighting for them.
You should get your facts straight, and not be advocating spreading old propaganda.
by
Albert Wight (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 36 comments)
on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 11:27:13 PM
Albert does not point out any facts that were 'not straight'
Dear Albert, Your first paragraph of correct military history contradicts nothing in the article, in which all the historical facts ARE ‘straight.’
The mention of events little known by Americans, for instance, the rebellion and massacres on Cheju island two years before your correct ly described invasion, are meant to show something of what Koreans know and feel about this turbulent period of great suffering, as opposed oversimplified history in black and white, good guys against the bad guys.
That American governments have always had the best interests of Koreans in their hearts is unfortunately not the way Koreans see it. And this goes all the way back to President Wilson refusing even an audience with Koreans asking that the Japanese occupation/annexation of Korea not be recognized, as it was continuously for various U.S. administrations.
If one is interested in Korea and Koreans, then some study is in order. In the absence of knowing in depth, we suffer from propaganda – which requires a degree of ignorance.
Yes, the Korean spelling is ‘Syngman Rhee’, the anglicized ‘Sigmund Rhee - was also often used and is still is found in many pages of articles on the Internet. He was brought in from the U.S., by the American occupying forces, and Albert noting that he was not popular is an understatement. And was elected in an election, boycotted by many parties for his inordinate support by the occupying forces running the election.
P.S. Albert did not point out any particular fact that needed 'straightening out.'
by
Jay Janson (83 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 93 comments)
on Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 10:06:30 PM
2 comments
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