Vladimir Putin should never have been allowed to go to North Korea

Featured image caption:  DPRK Workers Meet to pledge revenge on U.S. Imperialists

http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?MTJAMjAyNC0wNi0yMi1IMDA2QDVAMUBAMEAx==

There you have it.  A US Imperialist speaks in the headline and the DPRK speaks in the featured image caption acting as the second headline.

I was watching the video of Garland Nixon, Scott Ritter, and Andrei Martyanov and this is what I heard.  Vladimir Putin should never have been allowed to go to North Korea because Donald Trump should have been the one to do what Putin did in the last few days. Such an American – The Americans should do it, nobody else.  Forgive him because he knew not what he said!  That is exactly the attitude that has the rest of the world, the majority, going a different way and not always friendly.  There are many western pundits, supposedly fully in solidarity with the aims of multipolarity and everything that goes with that, very confused with the concept and how it is carried out.  These Americans should not do it.  Because you are an American you do not have a higher profile.  If you cannot get yourself to understand and accept the sharing of human resources and equality with the rest of humankind, (yes, we can call it socialism) then you are wasting the time of the rest of us.  Donald Trump is about the worst example one can quote.

Let’s talk about North Korea because our pundits, our talking heads either have it wrong or they don’t have it at all. As I’m trying to keep this critique as high-level as possible, it is necessary to say at the outset that mostly everything regarding North Korea is estimated. Some estimates are outright guesses and some are based on something else estimated.  What is not estimated is the idea that this Russian/North Korean agreement (Strategic Partnership, Mutual Defense) that Putin and Kim signed, is new.  We don’t have to estimate that, as Putin said it several times.  It is not new.  It is the old agreement signed because the time periods required a renewal.  The only new thing is that Putin selected an incredibly sensitive time to renew the agreements. and the west uhm … can we say it?  They had a cow!  They melted down. And then Putin stepped ‘with malice aforethought’ right on that sore spot and visited Vietnam.  The west thought they had tamed Vietnam.  It may be a bitch but it is our bitch worked out to be: It may be a bitch and it just bit us on the ankle.  The US is now sending an aircraft carrier to Vietnam as well as a second rated State visitor whose name I’ve long forgotten!

Yet, anyone could see this coming.

Back to the estimations:

Example: Understanding North Korea’s modest nuclear stockpile and conditions for use

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) ranks last among nuclear-armed nations by number of warheads. Despite having the least extensive arsenal and specific use conditions in its doctrine, its nuclear program still raises Western concerns.

So how many warheads does it have and what are the conditions for their possible use?

Arsenal

Its nuclear arsenal is estimated to include 30 (per Arms Control Association, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists) to 50 (per SIPRI) warheads.

On this basis, this estimate, they build further estimates on delivery vehicles, strategic and tactical ability, short-range, longer-range, medium, intermediate, intercontinental, submarine-launched, and other types and what it resembles, i.e, a Russian rocket or a Chinese rocket or an Iranian rocket.  This is as if North Korea could do nothing by and of themselves.  Thus we have a pure thumb-suck, a total estimate based on think tankers.   They have the doctrine right because it is written down, and the doctrine is very similar to Russian doctrine and different from Chinese doctrine.  North Korea will resort to nuclear weapons if they are attacked, their leadership is attacked, or their key strategic sites are attacked and a few more.  There is nothing to be concerned about;  it is a normal nuclear doctrine inasmuch things of that nature can be considered normal.

North Korea closed down for Covid.  Nobody could go in or go out and that is how they dealt with the emergency health issue.  This level of just about zero activity seemed to have worked on the minds of some and they think this is the norm.  Seemingly, there is no understanding that Kim Jong-un visits China regularly, something like five times since he took over in 2012 and not highly advertised, yet he is accepted as a State visitor with all the red carpet pomp and circumstance and Xi Jinping meets with him.  Listening to our pundits, the Russophiles are convinced North Korea is where it is (and this will become clearer later in this writing) because of Russia, and the Sinophiles are convinced that North Korea is where it is because of China.  This stands out like a sore thumb, because the Russophiles are not reading in-depth Chinese material and the Sinophiles are not reading in-depth Russian material.  In our world, there is a level of schism and some even make clear attempts at creating enemies between those two, that are evident and noticeable.  Russia always allowed North Koreans to cross the border for work opportunities.  China is not closed to North Koreans but I have little information on the number of travellers to and fro.  Estimates upon estimates and accusations of slave labor abound from western sources.  China is quiet and so is North Korea and so is Russia.  North Korea was not the flavor of the day, and people did not speak about North Korea, because both China and Russia in the UNSC agreed to certain sanctions.  Occam’s razor is of interest here and it is almost certain that they broke their own sanctions and kept quiet about it.  Land borders can hide a multitude.  I’ve heard many explanations for North Korea being out of the headlines since the Trump visit but not once did I hear the explanation with the least number of moving parts.

When the country decided to open after COVID-19, Kim Jong-un visited Russia and that was quite a major trip.  Kim even extended his trip for several days.  The BBC could not say much wrong besides the tedious warnings, but I like their image of Kim’s train  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66810830.  During this visit last year, the formats and agreements for the current visit were laid down in principle and all that needed to be done was to prepare the documents for signature and have some fun.  Does anyone remember Kim’s previous visit to Russia?  I did not hear anyone recall that, and I binge-watched everyone!  And do our pundits know that Xi Jinping has visited North Korea on a State visit?  Kim Jong-un has visited China at least five times that I know about.  Even the Iranian Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has visited.  Kim Jong-Un has visited Vietnam.  And these are state-level visits.  We cannot treat North Korea as if it has suddenly appeared to astound our talking heads.  There is a history here.  If we do not look at this history, our analysis of current affairs will be wrong.  Who knows, they may even drag us out of the lines where we stand waiting for something, a journey, or something.

Our pundits also repeat MSM propaganda lies about North Korea.  A big deal is made around satellite photos that show North Korea dark at night, except for certain cities. I looked at some of these and all of them are US-centric – every single one of them (NASA of course).  Every single one of them places North Korea correctly where it is geographically, but has China with its always-on lights, and South Korea on the other side, to show clearly that North Korea has materially less light at night than the other two.  The contrast is stark and this presentation of the satellite images is not a bug, it is a feature. It is so done deliberately. Let’s take a look at one, and then compare:

Korean Peninsula at night, satellite image. North is at top. The illuminations mark heavily populated areas with a high intensity of light emissions. South Korea has a high-density urban population, with the capital city of Seoul particularly prominent at centre. This contrasts markedly with North Korea (above South Korea), which has power shortages and frequent blackouts. The line of light on the border is the Korean Demilitarized Zone. The dot of light seen within North Korea, near its western coast, is the capital city of Pyongyang. At upper left are the lights of cities in China, and at bottom right the lights of cities on the southern islands of Japan.

So that is the average image that we see. The caption clearly states South Korea has a high-density urban population, ergo a lot of light.  North Korea has a rural population, ergo not much light at night.  So, let’s compare it with another rural population. Here is South Africa and the light is at Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Durban.  Johannesburg is a high-density urban population and a mining city. Cape Town and Durban are port cities.  I don’t know much about Port Elizabeth, it has a new name now and I’ve only visited the city a few times, in and out for business.  Half of South Africa is light-less at night and so is Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Eswatini because it is mainly rural and there is no stark contrast to show how little light it has compared to any other area, as the geography is just not made that way.  There are no other very large cities so the photos cannot be contrasted as it is with North Korea.

Southern Africa at night. Satellite image of Southern Africa at night, showing country borders (white lines) and urban and industrial lights (yellow). Clockwise from upper left: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa. Lesotho (small, centre-right) is completely surrounded by South Africa. The South Atlantic Ocean (dark, left) and Indian Ocean (right and bottom) are also shown. Photographed in in 2012.

Let’s put the whole of Africa up for comparison. Do I need to say more? Do the folks know what they are talking about? Have they done one moment of studying or are they just motormouths?  North Korea is dark at night, therefore it is terribly undeveloped is the overt or covert statement.  This is just used by the hegemon to allege that Putin has to treaty with the deplorables of our world and so our pundits are not doing us any favors.

Africa at night. Satellite image of the Earth at night, set against a background of stars, centred on the continent of Africa. North is at top. City lights (yellow) show areas of dense population. Most of Africa is dark in comparison with the bright lights of the cities of Europe and the Middle East (across top). Rural and undeveloped areas in Africa include the vast Sahara desert in the north, tropical forests in central Africa, and the savannah and deserts of eastern and southern Africa. City lights seen outside Africa and Europe include part of South America (lower left), India (upper right) and islands in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Image data obtained in 2001 by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP).

I hope our pundits will now get it right!

With Covid, North Korea slammed closed. Nobody went in or out. This is the way they decided they could protect themselves. Many of their larger projects had to stand still. But please take a look at the development because the next sentence from someone is that North Korea will never have to suffer from hunger again. What do these people think happened since the war and thereafter since the USSR fell? China has and is still doing its share. Do we think before we analyze?  When the USSR fell early 1990’s, North Korea also fell.  And as the USSR struggled with hunger, so did North Korea as their relationship with the USSR in terms of food production and supply was tight.  Called the Arduous March it was a period of starvation and general economic crisis from 1994 to 1998.  There was an increase in defections and this peaked toward the end of the famine period.  Loss of Soviet support caused food production and imports to decline rapidly and a series of floods and droughts did not help.  Then, they dragged themselves up by the bootstraps and now there is no hunger given their farming continues without continual interruptions by the US and cronies.  The North Korean military forces work on farms for half their service and each time military drills make South Korea the center, they withdraw their farm labor and become soldiers.  These war game interruptions are deliberate and is a feature, not a bug.

We need to look at other countries with new eyes if we don’t know much about them.  And North Korea kept itself as the Hermit Kingdom and they never told much about themselves.  USofA eyes assume a level of affluence that does not even exist in their own country these days and so they are not even aware of how deeply they insult this country of North Korea.

You must have heard that North Koreans are much shorter than South Koreans.  They’re stunted says the western press.  This is valid during the time of the Arduous March, and today they are running programs to get kids to grow!  Food and exercise.  I cannot tell you how many western commentators I heard say that.    Let’s see ..

(From a British paper)  Why North Korean ‘racist dwarfs’ really are three inches shorter than their cousins in South Korea.

It became worse as I read further and I was reminded of the Europeans putting Africans in cages to display at their fetes and fairs.  But in reality:

According to a study conducted by the World Health Organization in 2016, the average height of adult men in North Korea was 5’7″ (173 cm) and the average height of adult women was 5’2″ (158 cm).

In contrast, the average height of adult men in South Korea was 5’8″ (173 cm) and the average height of adult women was 5’4″ (162 cm). It is worth noting that these averages may not accurately reflect the current situation in either country, as both North and South Korea have undergone significant changes in recent years. Additionally, the study was conducted several years ago and may not reflect the current state of affairs.  (Remember the estimates!)

I hope our pundits will now get it right!

Kim Jong-un, after the fall of the USSR and with the incredible sanctions burden, set certain objectives.  Please take a look at the development that is carried out consistently given the ability of the country.  They are not a rich country but a poorer country and should rather be compared with some of the Central and South American countries.  I wonder what their light profiles look like on satellite?

I want to make a thread showing you what the DPRK has completed building this year so far, when I stopped to really think about it I was very moved by what their society is accomplishing together, especially under such a difficult situation. Awe-inspiring.https://t.co/jw9eVnB6EI

— Natalie Everhart 🇰🇵 (@NatalieRevolts) October 19, 2022

Modern supermarkets, massive farming development, schools, theaters, skyscrapers, gravity-fed waterways, 8-lane highways, hydropower stations, hospitals, munitions factories, all manner of productive production facilities, and these were just the bigger and more noticeable projects.

This is where much of the detail resides:  https://kfausa.org/blog/

Does anyone know what their philosophy of Juche is? It is a philosophy of Do It Yourself. The estimate, because the west does not know, is that it is a country of 26,241,928 inhabitants. We cannot lay overinflated US-style expectations on a country such as North Korea.  And yes, China helped like it helped a little brother.  We have to look at such a country reasonably and compare like with like.  One of the Juche values is to have realistic expectations. It is a communist country and housing for example is free of any costs. You get your house once it is built and some may remember that it used to be similar in Africa in Libya before the empire killed al-Gaddafi.  A North Korean, like the Libyans, may live in a small farm-style house, even a hovel, until you can get a more modern house.  If one looks at the poverty alleviation program in China, the farmers’ houses were the same quality as the North Korean farmer’s houses.  Some were hovels.  This is the state of play if you live in a State that does not extract its value from the peoples of the rest of the world.  You have to bootstrap!

Here are some more: https://www.youtube.com/@DefendKorea/videos

Juche is how they base their values. There is an active study organization in Brazil to study Juche ideas with joint seminars held. https://koreaisone.com/2020/10/21/brazilian-followers-of-juche-idea-hold-joint-seminar/

So, we hear the story of hunger and now with Russia in the mix, no matter that Russia has always been in the mix, North Korea will not be hungry again, we hear.   Right, the first hunger was because of the USSR that fell.   Let it be a surprise that North Korea now has an active culinary culture. https://koreaisone.com/category/culinary-culture-of-korea/

Africa has become a Russian continent is one comment from one of the pundit videos that I watched.  Oh Wow – Africa is an African continent. Otherwise, we have to say that Russia has become an African continent.  Do we think before we analyze?  What would an African say about that?  Oh heavens, these Americans have a lot to learn.  Fix your country first before you meddle with others.  That is the main lesson here.

http://www.naenara.com.kp/main/index/en/first
http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php
http://www.pyongyangtimes.com.kp/
http://www.korean-books.com.kp/en/
https://www.youtube.com/@PhuongDPRKDaily (first video talks about collapse of North Korea when the Soviet Union collapsed – they were all hungry together)
https://www.youtube.com/@dprknews1912
https://x.com/Pyongyang_Today
https://www.youtube.com/@DPRKVideoArchive (yes, they make movies)

So Natalie, who I’ve followed for many years says: “might have to do a deep dive going through some of the absurd shit they’ve been spreading.”

This was not about Vietnam, but here is something that most of us just do not know:  Russia and Vietnam: Soulmates From Across Borders

“In the hundreds of years of human life, it is difficult to find someone who deeply sympathizes with you, called a soulmate. In the thousands of years of a nation’s history, it is even more difficult to find people who are harmonious with the core of soul and compatible in dignity and mettle. Although I do not know the best way to call it, I can see that rare value in viewing Russia-Vietnam relations as “soulmates.”Source: Vietnamtimes”