North Korea agrees to stop nuclear enrichment

[Blanquist]

US officials say deal follows meeting in Beijing where US agreed to send food to the reclusive state.

North Korea will stop nuclear enrichment, nuclear weapons testing and long-range missile launches in exchange for food, according to US government officials.

The US state department said on Wedneday the agreement was reached after talks in Beijing at which the US agreed to give hundreds of thousands of tonnes to food to North Korea.

A North Korean news agency report says inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency will be allowed back in to monitor the moratorium on nuclear activities.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/02/201222915936296108.html

[Red Future]

The DPRK will likely collapse soon.I have a strong feeling of it.

[Blanquist]

The DPRK will likely collapse soon.I have a strong feeling of it.

I don't think so.

Maybe they will go the way of Burma.

[piet11111]

I don't think so.

Maybe they will go the way of Burma.

That would be a very hard thing to explain to the people why their mortal enemy that is out to destroy them suddenly is a foreign friend.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

North Korea's form of so-called "anti-Imperialism" seems more like extortion for food aid than anything else. "Hey America, give us food or our government will collapse and nuclear weapons will fall in the hands of rogue agents! Also, death to America!"


That would be a very hard thing to explain to the people why their mortal enemy that is out to destroy them suddenly is a foreign friend.

Mubarak managed to rack up 30 years in power after the peace treaty with Israel, and the Vietnamese government never cared about making deals with the US even after millions died in their country. If the leadership of the DPRK thinks that it will bring them economic growth, they really don't care, they have a great propaganda department. They will spin it as having defeated the Imperialist rats.

[Nox]

North Korea's form of so-called "anti-Imperialism" seems more like extortion for food aid than anything else. "Hey America, give us food or our government will collapse and nuclear weapons will fall in the hands of rogue agents! Also, death to America!"

I'd say it's the other way around. North Korea is being extorted and taking advantage of because of its poor food production/distribution

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I'd say it's the other way around. North Korea is being extorted and taking advantage of because of its poor food production/distribution

Do you not think that the countless man-hours of labor spent on developing its military and nuclear industry could have been utilized for other ends? It's also not like real "anti-Imperialist" countries should ever really expect food aid from the world's largest Capitalist country, and if the US were really extorting the DPRK they would demand harsher conditions than a moratorium on its nuclear problem alone. So no I don't think it's North Korea that is being extorted.

[Caj]

That would be a very hard thing to explain to the people why their mortal enemy that is out to destroy them suddenly is a foreign friend.

"We've always been at war with East Asia."


"Hey America, give us food or our government will collapse and nuclear weapons will fall in the hands of rogue agents! Also, death to America!"

I think it's more like "Hey, North Korea, stop with that nuclear enrichment or we'll continue starving your people."

I'm not supporting North Korea, but to act as if America is the victim in this situation seems absurd to me.

[Omsk]

North Korea is an actuely revisionist state which even formally abandoned Marxism-Leninism as it's state policy,North Korean leadership has never been active in the establishing process of the first step toward socialism,the Dictatorship of the Proleteriat,nor has it shown any vital marxist thought in its theoretical argumentation and the many theoretical questions opened up by the end of the Korean War.It has in fact been preocupied with the quick changing of its course,first during the De-Stalinization process and after the mentioned event,and than during the Sino-Soviet split.Since than it changed state politics,official state ideology and rhetorics a number of times,each time showing its completely opportunist and revisionist face.The elaborate cult around father and son,Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il,is familiar with even the use of paranormal and quasi-religious 'natural' phenomenons,all in order to present the Great Leader,as something beyond a mere human,and as someone who is able to change things,events,and someone the DPRK depends on.However,due to a number of 'Marxists-Leninists' who frequently post in defense of the DPRK,and its un-Marxist and non-Marxist-Leninist regime,the general picture that every Marxist-Leninist is completely supportive of the DPRK.Such an image has been created outside of this forum too,obviously,as many 'Marxist-Leninist' parties have been active in their support for the DPRK,Libya,Syria,and Iran.

I want to be clear in my attempt to present another ML opinion on North Korea.Not all ML's support the DPRK.And i hope i am not the only one.

[Red Noob]

I thought North Korea received a lot of aid from China. Why doesn't North Korea aim to improve its industry, or modernize their agriculture with their aid?

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I think it's more like "Hey, North Korea, stop with that nuclear enrichment or we'll continue starving your people."

I'm not supporting North Korea, but to act as if America is the victim in this situation seems absurd to me.

It's not that America's the victim, it's that America, South Korea and China are all scared that the DPRK could collapse, because the collapse of a nuclear armed state with that many conventional weapons would disrupt the entire East Asian economy.

As for "starving" North Korea's people ... that is the logical result of "socialism in one state" in a not-so-fertile area, despotism and the military first policy. If you spend that much labor time and material resources building up the defense of your country, it reduces the amount you can either trade with other states for food or invest in your own agriculture, and if you have a despotic state, the bureaucracy becomes less transparent and accountable. Blaming all of the country's problems on evil imperialists as opposed to the failures of their leaders is to fail to learn from their mistakes.

[Q]

So this is what is meant with Juche: You work for years on a nuclear weapon program, troll the world and then demand they feed you.

Self-sustaining indeed!

[Nox]

Do you not think that the countless man-hours of labor spent on developing its military and nuclear industry could have been utilized for other ends? It's also not like real "anti-Imperialist" countries should ever really expect food aid from the world's largest Capitalist country, and if the US were really extorting the DPRK they would demand harsher conditions than a moratorium on its nuclear problem alone. So no I don't think it's North Korea that is being extorted.

I am certainly no supporter of North Korea, it's a fucked up place with a fucked up regime. But the poverty in North Korea is a direct result of the US trade embargo, and they are basically being blackmailed to stop their nuclear program and the lives of millions of North Koreans are being put at risk in the name of imperialism.