Refuting the WSWS article on the DPRK (expanded version )

The so-called ‘World Socialist Website ‘ (WSWS) of the  Trotskyite ‘International Committee of the Fourth International' (actually one of numerous ‘Fourth Internationals' ) carried an hostile anti-DPRK article  titled ‘Covid 19  cases compound economic crisis in North Korea ‘ by one Ben McGarth .

The article is illustrative of how some on the Left ( of course there are many exceptions ) mindlessly and uncritically parrot the lies of the imperialist  mainstream media about People’s Korea when they should know better. Throughout the article the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK ) is constantly referred to as ‘North Korea ‘ rather than its correct title  DPRK  or Juche Korea or Socialist Korea . This is just copying the mainstream media and is no different to them . The article does not mention Juche or Songun once .

The article also copies cliches from the mainstream media  such as ‘impoverished ‘ and ‘isolated ‘  neither of which are true .  The DPRK’s closure of the border in January 2020 was a just and correct measure to prevent the inroad of Covid 19 into the country and kept it free from Covid 19 for over 2 years. Curiously the WSWS article tries to link as yet unconfirmed missile tests with both the DPRK’s closure of the border and the outbreak of fever in the DPRK . Strange thinking which mirrors that of  the mainstream media .

WSWS quotes both the south Korean puppet regime and also ‘ Radio Free Asia ‘(RFA) , the latter is correctly described as ‘a mouthpiece for US imperialism’ but WSWS quotes them anyway  !.

The article claims that the DPRK faces both an ‘economic crisis ‘ and ‘food shortages' but does not say where the figures for the supposed economic crisis come from and admit the evidence for the food shortage is from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ) !!! .  Does WSWS think that the CIA (and RFA ) are objective sources ?.

In fact the DPRK has a socialist planned economy which does not know the words ‘economic crisis ‘ . This year , in April , despite the intense imperialist sanctions and the closure of the border  the DPRK completed the construction of 10,000 new flats in the Songwha area of Pyongyang as well as 800 new homes in Kyongru-dong in Pyongyang , Another 10,000 new homes are under construction in the Hwasong district of Pyongyang .

The DPRK is also rapidly overcoming the Covid 19 outbreak as of today 4th of June there were only 73,000 new cases  compared to the peak of 392 ,000 on the 15th of May . The death toll is 71  , a fatality rate of 0.002 percent . Compare this to south Korea which has over 24,000 deaths from Covid 19 .

Whilst some groups in the West have theorised and polemicised about socialism , People’s Korea has successfully built socialism for the past 70 or so years, without any substantial outside help ,under the banner of self-reliance and the great Juche Idea.

What the article goes to prove is that the fake Left are just bad as the imperialist bourgeois mainstream media in slandering the DPRK and that even the so-called  'better Trotskyites' are agents of imperialism and counter-revolutionaries.