Posted on 01/17/2016 1:42:21 AM PST by Citizen Zed
PYONGYANG - After ringing in the new year by claiming its first successful test of a hydrogen bomb, North Korea is now calling on the United States and the world community to accept it as a nuclear power, jettison the pursuit of punitive sanctions and allow it to focus on what it really wants: building up its troubled economy.
While waiting to see what kind of new sanctions might be imposed by the United States, the United Nations and others, North Korean officials say that with the test now out of the way, they want the U.S. and its allies to back off and allow them to turn their attention toward peaceful economic growth, as promised by leader Kim Jong Un in his New Year's address.
"The U.S. should be accustomed to the status of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state whether it likes it or not," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement issued Friday, adding that the North will continue to bolster "in every way" its ability to field nuclear weapons to cope with the "ceaseless provocations" emanating from Washington. North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Reflecting Pyongyang's concerns over the looming threat of sanctions, the statement struck a deliberately conciliatory tone by adding that the North stands by its previous offers to put a moratorium on nuclear tests and seek a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War if the United States halts its annual military exercises with the South - an offer Washington has repeatedly ignored in the past.
It also said the North would not use the weapons recklessly.
But the statement then switched back to a defiant mode, accusing the United Nations of rushing to "fabricate a resolution on sanctions aimed at such hostile acts as hamstringing our efforts for peaceful economic construction and the improvement of the people's standard of living."
While it may be wishful thing on Pyongyang's part to expect a quick welcome into the nuclear club, the statement and others made recently by North Korean officials through the state-run media accurately reflect Kim's twin goals of bolstering the country's nuclear deterrent - whatever sanctions that may bring - while at the same time improving domestic living standards.
"The DPRK is not interested in aggravating the situation, as it is channeling all its efforts into the building of an economic power," the spokesman said, adding that Pyongyang's "primary task for this year is to develop economy and improve the people's standard of living, and to that end it requires stable situation and peaceful climate more than any time."
Exactly how it intends to invigorate its centrally controlled, isolated and inefficient economy remains to be seen, especially if it continues to refuse to bow to international pressure on its nuclear program and development of the long-range missiles needed to deliver them to targets on the U.S. mainland.
But North Korea's ruling regime - pushed by realities on the ground - does appear to be genuinely considering at least some kind of economic reform.
Kim has decided to convene a major party congress in May, the first of its kind in decades, and some analysts believe that could be an opportunity for the North to announce significant new economic policies. However, few expect Kim to stray too far from the principles of self-reliance and old-school socialism that were set down by his father, Kim Jong Il, and paternal grandfather, national founder Kim Il Sung.
Official proclamations that the country must stick to its old socialist ideals notwithstanding, there has been an upsurge since the famine years of the 1990s in entrepreneurial activity and quasi-market-style capitalism that has spawned a growing number of citizens, particularly in Pyongyang, the North's relatively affluent capital, who now make up a nascent middle class.
That demographic is able to afford to buy more goods and services, fueling a cycle of supply and demand that is being met by business-minded individuals operating either with the government turning a blind eye or providing some sort of support, often in return for a cut of the profits.
The conundrum for the North is that while the rise of a middle class and the inevitable problem of creative destruction that comes with a free market economy would pose a threat to its status quo, its ruling regime knows it must get out in front of its economic problems to maintain control and to retain credibility among a populace increasingly aware of the gap between their living conditions and those in capitalist rival South Korea and in post-economic reform China.
Communist Gerber Baby, “I can eat all of these baby back ribs quicker than you can sing your national anthem’s first stanza!”
They’re either True Believers and moved to tears, or they’re terrified of him.
North Korea ping
this is how we should deal with them.
Michael Corleone: Senator? You can have my answer now, if you like. My final offer is this: nothing. Not even the fee for the gaming license, which I would appreciate if you would put up personally.
they have to give up ALL nukes, hand them over, open inspections anytime, anywhere. then they can have their food.
plus why is no woman smiling in that picture?
So we are supposed to trust the fat kid with the bad haircut. Better get Mad Madeline Albright warming up in the bull pen.
N. Korea would reform its economy if there is absolutely no other choice. The current level of market economy, however marginal it is, came about during the great famine period in 90's. The state's food distribution system collapsed, and millions were dead. They abandoned millions of N. Koreans, leaving them to fend for themselves. So out of sheer necessity, the surviving population learned to make a living by trading and making things, while always facing the specter of starvation. Thus the rudimentary market economy was born in the region hit hard by the famine. The state does not like it, but they cannot feed them, so they looked the other way. Over the years, there were occasional attempts to roll back the growth of market, and emergence of business class, who got very rich. The market won't die, though. The current situation is no different. Again the state has less money than it used to. It can take care of smaller number of elites. Less economic aid has been flowing in for quite a while, and it started to show its impact. They have no choice but to loosen state control further: make state farms keep the proceeds beyond the state quota, for example.
Despite these development, it is slow and heavily restrained. The market should not be allowed to challenge the absolute power of hereditary cult of personality. You need to push them to the brink to squeeze out a small change. If we give them money again, then they will be back to their old ways.
I agree somewhat. No more of those damnable sanctions. Nuke the nuke sites and invade NK. Depose and eliminate the Communist and military command presence in the country altogether and embark on at least feeding the people and bringing them back to the world. The Koreans in the South have shown that they are very hard working and productive. The northerners share those genes and if unchained will aspire to and attain the same status as the Southerners.
The only economy the NorK leadership care about is funneling goodies to their powerful elites to buy their loyalty. Everyone else are slaves that could starve to death for all the leadership cares.
Even in the big cities, they regularly get epidemics of diseases that have been mostly eradicated in the rest of the world. Their response: meh. No effort at all to even mitigate such plagues.
Ironically, there are a lot of insane leftists in the US who think that NorK is *better* than the US. Just like the ones who ignored what Stalin actually did, compared to their fantasies. Some of them even thought that Mao’s murderous “cultural revolution” was a good thing.
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