You have to hand it to the Democratic Labor Party, they don’t pussyfoot around. A case in point (Chosun Ilbo):
[Democratic Labor Party chairman Moon Sung-hyun] said in his arrival speech the Korean Peninsula faces serious challenges. “The U.S. and Japan have constantly made provocative speeches suggesting they can start a war any time to ensure their hegemony,” he said. “We are deeply frustrated by tension and conflicts surrounding North Korea’s nuclear test.” He said the DLP delegation came to Pyongyang “to foster peace.” “We came the long way round via China to meet our families on the other side of the nation, which has been divided due to external circumstances, and we are overwhelmed with joy and our hearts pound as we arrive in Pyongyang.” (emphasis added)
In my mind, this is evidence that the DLP is not really a Nork front. After all, why would they need to secretly be a North Korean tool when they are openly a North Korean tool.
BTW, the Hanky chose not to translate some of the more provocative lines.
While I am at the Hanky, I’ll give a quote to ponder:
It was because of [Nikita Khrushchev's] wartime experience that he was able to avoid the temptation to plant missiles in Cuba, right in front of the United States, and negotiated with the U.S. instead.
Feel free to read the rest after you have picked your jaw up off the floor.
11 Comments
The DLP are tools indeed, and yet their candidates win Assembly seats. What’s up with that?
The Hanky editorial is class, especially the bits about “adventurism” (who could that be referring to, hmmm…).
“People often say the North uses “brinkmanship tactics,” but the North is not at the brink because it wanted to end up there” Sure Mr. Hong, it was evil Bu$hie who made the norks start developing nuclear weapons, in 1990 –uh, pass the crack pipe please.
“Even in South Korea, it has become easy for some to give in to the temptation of wanting to oust Kim Jong-il this time around” God forbid.
Here’s a great example of the kind of convoluted bullshit the Hanky is famous for: “Given the uniqueness of the North Korean system - that Kim’s government ’is’ the North Korean system - you don’t even have to ask whether Bush’s policy of pushing Pyongyang could bring about a stable and peaceful change of government there.” Therefore KJI must remain in power and be appeased no matter what, because there’s no alternative in the Alice in Wonderland logic of Mr. Hong.
Guardian of the masses, The Hanky.
Well, it’s the right of a democratic electorate to choose nitwit socialists in a free election. So long as they leave when people are sick of them I have no complaint — although I do believe that if the politics are inimical to the United States, that ought to be considered when allocating our limited resources (yes, even Uncle Sam has limits). I’ll restate: The US defense commitment to the Republic of Korea costs America at least $30 billion a year. Do Americans want to spend that money on these types of people or not?
Guess what, Andy. Neither did the Chosun. I nearly spit coffee at my screen when I read the DLP’s speech yesterday.
Tools they are. As the guy who runs my neighborhood shop said, “I hope they don’t let the bastards back in. If they like the North so much, they can stay there!”
“if the politics are inimical to the United States, that ought to be considered when allocating our limited resources” Well, does the name Uri Party ring a bell? Anyway, these morons are just showing people how beyond the pale their thinking is and it should help them loose a few seats in the next election.
Can anyone remember how much cash those subway posters promise for turning in spies? These fools look like promising targets and I have some car maintenance to get done.
A better translation (me thinks) of the selections from the actual text:
“We’ve come from Seoul to open even wider the way of peace and intra-Korean reconciliation and cooperation… We had to come a long way through China to meet our family on the other side of this nation divided by foreign forces, but as we arrive in Pyongynag today, our heart races with joy and fluttering.”
“The current situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula is very serious… The schemes of the United States and Japan, which say they would start a war on the Korean Peninsula at any time for the sake of their hegemony, continue, and the tension and confrontation surrounding the nuclear test conducted by the North is frustrating all of us.”
“We’ve come from Seoul to open even wider the way of peace and intra-Korean reconciliation and cooperation…” by turning over Seoul’s defense plans.
“We’ve come from Seoul to open even wider the way of peace and intra-Korean reconciliation and cooperation…”
If by “the way of peace” they mean their ass cheeks, then I suppose there is some truth to what they say.
Brendon,
If Kim Geun-tae were up there saying that, I would be with you but the DLP is a relative fringe group. Their support level is in the 5-7% range, which is about what a Klan cadidate would get in the South (5% of folks would vote for Attila the Hun if he were on the ballot).
The only reason anyone listens to them is that they have 9 seats in the national assembly. Since they lost Ulsan last year, all those are proportional representation seats. That is the problem with PR; it gives nut jobs a place in government.
DLP are nothing but common thugs. I have had a run-in with them in 2003. Some of them attempted to jump me while I was querying others who were exploiting the memories of the two middle-school girls who were accidentally killed by the USFK bridge-layer in 2002.
I asked them what the DLP’s attitude was about the other 3000 pedestrians killed in Korea every year by Koreans and they freaked out on me.
Note also that DLP had to go to Pyongyang via Beijing (whereas for example Park Geun-hye went via Panmunjom in 2002 - NK Chosun interview of Park about his meeting with KJI), and all they get to meet are some government/party functionaries from the Unification Bureau (통일전선부) of the Workers’ Party (short article in Chosun) posing as social democrats.
Even if North Korean operatives would have approached some of the party members, their true attitude towards them was revealed for example before the previous by-elections (is that the word?) when Southern visitors to Kumgangsan were told to vote Uri instead of DLP.