> LP
Oh brother. I'm no fan of the S. Korean low-wage zone (nor of S. Korean surrogates who help operate sweatshops in Vietnam and China), but this idea that that the cuddly N. Korean "people's" state can blame all its mutations on the US is ridiculous. Was Kim Il Sung an democratic socialist before the Korean War? Please. It's like saying that the US bombing of Cambodia paved the way for the Khmer Rouge. Yes, it did, but then does it follow that everything the KR did once in power could be blamed on the imperialists? Were you among those who defended the KR when they starved and slaughtered "The People"? Based on the above statement, it wouldn't surprise me.
And dig this choice bit from the WWP archives:
"The north was in the process of being freed from Japanese colonial rule by Marshal Kim Il Sung, leader of a national liberation movement that allied itself with the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communists because it recognized that only the masses of the people had the will and determination to resist imperialism until the end. There were other Korean nationalists, but their bourgeois class ties led most of them to collaborate with the Japanese occupation.
"Until his death just five years ago, Kim enjoyed immense popularity as he led north Korea in its efforts to build a socialist society. He was recognized as the leader who, against all odds, had defeated two imperialist attempts to subjugate the country--first from Japan, then from the U.S.
"The current Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, is pledged to continue the socialist course of Kim Il Sung. The Workers Party of Korea, which was built out of the country's glorious anti-colonial struggle, has made it clear that it will not surrender to the rapacious imperialist multinationals, which are scrambling to impose the profit system in every corner of the world."
<http://www.workers.org/ww/1999/korea0701.html>
Stalinist dreck. Not a word of criticism for that wretched state. The WWP does indeed worship the N. Korean dictatorship. Fess up, Lou -- you like the way they do things there. Stop hiding behind US imperialism and just admit it.
DP