North Korea is a small country compared to the USA and by population about half the size of South Korea. South Korea hosts US troops and large military bases. North Korea is called 'the hermit kingdom" because it does not embrace the imperialist 'free trade' in goods and services. It is fiercely independent and there is little information about how its political system works but much criticism from the West that it is essentially run like a feudal monarchy. There may be some truth in this with one family dominating for decades in the leadership positions of government.
Despite its faults, there are some things its leadership says that make sense, especially regarding relations between North Korea and the USA. The North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong visited New York this month to attend a UN meeting on sustainable development. The US restricted his movements in New York due to the firing of a ballistic missile test off the coast of North Korea.
Minister Ri did not kowtow in response. He said, "If they believe they can actually frustrate us with sanctions, they are totally mistaken...A country as small as the DPRK cannot actually be a threat to the US or to the world. How great would it be if the world were to say to the US and the American government not to conduct any more military exercises in the Korean peninsula. But there is not a single country that is saying this to the US. These big countries alone or together are telling us that we should calm down For us, this is like a sentence, that we should accept our death and refuse our right to sovereignty."
Minister Ri said that the US drove North Korea to develop nuclear weapons as an act of self-defence. He added that North Korea saw the increased military exercises between South Korea and the US as preparation for an invasion of North Korea.
Such a move would be a disaster for the Korean people in the South and the North, not to mention the people of the world.
The Australian government and the Labor Party both support the growing US military presence in Australia, using Australia as a launching pad for aggression in the Asia Pacific region to our north.
On Anzac Day it is worth asking the question as an election approaches, do the Australian people want the country to be used for this purpose and possibly see Australian military personnel die in yet another war far away from our shores in the interests of a foreign imperialist power?
