Firstly the policy of
the US and other countries towards the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea
on the nuclear issue is
one of hypocrisy and double standards. It is the US that is the
biggest possesor of nuclear weapons and has carried out 1,000
nuclear tests. The US is the only country to have used nuclear
weapons and significantly it used nuclear weapons against a state
which at the time did not possess nuclear weapons. The US and its
friends allow India , Pakistan and Israel to have nuclear weapons but
regard it as a crime for the DPRK to the same.
The DPRK's nuclear
programme is both vital and absolutely necessary both from the point
of view of self-defence and also to produce cheap energy in order to
develop the national economy andimprove people's living
standards. The DPRK's nuclear programme is the independent rightof the DPRK , a matter
of inviolable sovereignty.
The
civilian use of nuclear energy in the DPRK which began on an
experimental basis back in the 1960s is crucial for tackling
shortages of energy that has arisen in the DPRK economydue to its rapid
development. In the past the DPRK relied on hydro-electric power for
roughly50 % of energy needs ,
however this became problematic because of a series of droughts which
severely affected the operation of hydro-electric power stations.
Some energy needs are met by coal fired power
stations but reserves of coal are of course finite . So nuclear power
is the best option for the DPRK.
It is actually the US that has caused the nuclear issue
on the Korean peninsula and has created the need for the nuclear
armament of the DPRK. The US considered the use of nuclear weapons during
the 1950-1953 Korean War . An article of the US owned Associated
Press of October 9th 2010
stated “Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in interviews published
posthumously, said he had a plan at the time to drop 30 to 50 atom
bombs across the northern neck of the Korean peninsula” .
Later on “The Pentagon’s Air Staff recommended using A-bombs to
achieve victory “in the shortest space of time,” according to a
Feb. 20, 1953, memo from the Air Force director of plans,Maj. Gen.
Robert Lee.” . After the end of the Korean War the US came close to
using nuclear weapons against
the DPRK in 1969 and in 1976. In 1969 to quote the AP article "USAF
tactical fighters armed with nuclear weapons are on 15-minute alert
in ROK (Republic of Korea) to strike airfields in North Korea,"
said the contingency plan Defense Secretary Melvin Laird sent to
White House national security chief Henry Kissinger, a document
obtained by the National Security Archive”
In April this year
the US sent nuclear armed B52 and B2 bombers to Korea to carry out
practise nuclear bombings.
The US turned south Korea into its nuclear forward
base. In 1957 they brought into south
Korea the Honest John tactical nuclear missile . This was in clear
violation ofArticle 13(d) of the
1953 Korean Armistice Agreement. At one point south Korea had 1700
US nuclear weapons on its soil making giving it a higher density of
nuclear weapons than Europe during the cold
war. The US refused to confirm or deny whether it had nuclear weapons
insouth Korea and indeed
their existence was again disclosed in 2005. Anyway it is easy for
the US to bring nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula on submarines
or by the air.
The Bush administration in 2002 declared the DPRK to be the target
of a pre-emptive nuclear strike and Obama excluded the DPRK from a
no first use of nuclear weapons pledge.
It would be sheer
naivety for the DPRK not to have nuclear weapons , no one should
expect the DPRK to defend themselves with bare hands . The DPRK lives
under the constant threat of aggression from the US
. The DPRK occupies a key geo-strategic position in Asia .It is the
strategic scenario of the U.S. policy makers to invade the DPRK by
every method and means, seize the areas along Rivers Amnok and Tuman
as a bridgehead and invade China and Russia to put vast areas of
Eurasia under its control. Also the DPRK is said to have a large
quantity of rare earth minerals . Lastly the US and other western
countries want to eliminate the DPRK because they see it as the 'last
bastion of hardline communism'.
Since
the end of the Korean war the DPRK has been targetted bya total
18,000 war drillsstaged by the US and
south Korea. This year the US and south Korea carried the Foal Eagle
andKey Resolve military
exercises from March to the end of April. These involved huge
quantities of military hardware including nuclear weapons and some
200,000 troops including contingents fromthe UK, Canada ,
Australia and Colombia .
Is not a matter of fact
that no state with nuclear weapons has ever fallen victim to
aggression by a foreign power , is it not a fact that Iraq was
attacked because it did not have nuclear weapons , it is not a fact
that Libya was attacked after it gave up its nuclear programme. ?
Thus the DPRK should
not and will not give up its nuclear programme.
Thank you for
listening.
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