In Dimitri Volkogonov's Autopsy for an Empire, Kim Il-sung, the founder of the DPRK and grandfather of current DPRK dictator Kim Jong-un, is quoted as saying to Terenti Shtykov, Soviet Ambassador to North Korea, early in 1950: "Now that the liberation of Korea is nearing completion, the question arises of liberating Korea in the south of the country ... The partisans will not settle the issue. I cannot sleep at night, thinking of how to deal with the question of unifying the whole country."
Kim Il-sung responded to Stalin's congratulations in August 1950: "We are firmly resolved to fight to a victorious conclusion in the struggle against the American interventionists who have been trying to enslave Korea again."
This explains why Kim Jong-un is ecstatic in his dealings with nuclear scientists and rocket engineers, because he is getting close to fulfilling his grandfather's dream of reunifying Korea under brutal DPRK terms. North Korea will soon be able to blackmail the U.S., the country which pretty much single-handedly prevented Kim Il-sung from occupying South Korea starting on June 25, 1950, the start of the Korean War, when North Korean tanks and troops invaded, by forcing the U.S. to either stay out of it or trade a major U.S. city for Seoul.
Stalin said to Chou En-lai in August 1952: "The Americans are not able to carry on a big war. All their strength is in air raids, the atom bomb. The Americans are merchants. It took the Germans twenty days to conquer France; the USA haven't been able to deal with little Korea for two years. What kind of force is that? You cannot win a war with the atom bomb." This might have led to Mao's view that the atom bomb was a "paper tiger."
The many pundits who tout the nuclear superiority of the U.S. simply do not get it. The DPRK has 10,000-20,000 artillery pieces, many with chemical munitions, situated in hardened bunkers dug into the hillsides just north of the DMZ, all within range of Seoul. And these bunkers have their entrances on the northern side of the hills, where South Korean and U.S. artillery cannot get to them. North Korea could kill millions of South Koreans before the U.S. could destroy all of the bunkers. As I wrote before, the U.S. military does not possess enough smart bombs and cruise missiles, or the capability to deploy them quickly enough, to eliminate all of North Korea's artillery.
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North Korea has breathlessly called for "independent unification" of the two Koreas.
"Let all Koreans rise up in the peace-keeping struggle against war to baffle the reckless nuclear war moves of the U.S. which brings disaster to this land, setting dangerous flames," read the official statement.
"Let us smash the moves of the separatist forces at home and abroad and dynamically usher in a fresh phase of national reunification, holding aloft the banner of national independence and by our nation itself," it continued.
Bolshevik rhetoric is usually heard in Kim Jong-un's New Year's address, though it's especially strident this year due to the Winter Olympics being held in South Korea, not to mention that Moon Jae-in, the current president of South Korea, was a major player in the second half of the Sunshine Policy, the appeasement strategy employed by two consecutive liberal governments from 1998 to 2008.
Just a short time ago Kim was channeling his inner Khrushchev, bantering with his management-style soulmate, Donald Trump, telling the U.S. that North Korean nuclear weapons were rolling off conveyor belts like sausages, or the Korean version thereof.
South Korea constantly offers to schedule family reunions for the people separated by the Korean War, a population which is rapidly decreasing due to old age. Reunions could be held every month, but sometimes there are none for years due to North Korean intransigence.
North Korea could open its borders and allow North Koreans to travel to Seoul, but then again, most of the country would leave in a few weeks.
North Korea could allow the UN to visit its labor camps where as many as 200,000 political prisoners are being held in conditions the Nazi SS would recognize. But instead Kim is trying to convince South Koreans to massively expand the camps with hundreds of thousands of new residents.
Kim's message will certainly resonate with liberals and communists.
Kim Il-sung responded to Stalin's congratulations in August 1950: "We are firmly resolved to fight to a victorious conclusion in the struggle against the American interventionists who have been trying to enslave Korea again."
This explains why Kim Jong-un is ecstatic in his dealings with nuclear scientists and rocket engineers, because he is getting close to fulfilling his grandfather's dream of reunifying Korea under brutal DPRK terms. North Korea will soon be able to blackmail the U.S., the country which pretty much single-handedly prevented Kim Il-sung from occupying South Korea starting on June 25, 1950, the start of the Korean War, when North Korean tanks and troops invaded, by forcing the U.S. to either stay out of it or trade a major U.S. city for Seoul.
Stalin said to Chou En-lai in August 1952: "The Americans are not able to carry on a big war. All their strength is in air raids, the atom bomb. The Americans are merchants. It took the Germans twenty days to conquer France; the USA haven't been able to deal with little Korea for two years. What kind of force is that? You cannot win a war with the atom bomb." This might have led to Mao's view that the atom bomb was a "paper tiger."
The many pundits who tout the nuclear superiority of the U.S. simply do not get it. The DPRK has 10,000-20,000 artillery pieces, many with chemical munitions, situated in hardened bunkers dug into the hillsides just north of the DMZ, all within range of Seoul. And these bunkers have their entrances on the northern side of the hills, where South Korean and U.S. artillery cannot get to them. North Korea could kill millions of South Koreans before the U.S. could destroy all of the bunkers. As I wrote before, the U.S. military does not possess enough smart bombs and cruise missiles, or the capability to deploy them quickly enough, to eliminate all of North Korea's artillery.
* * * * *
North Korea has breathlessly called for "independent unification" of the two Koreas.
"Let all Koreans rise up in the peace-keeping struggle against war to baffle the reckless nuclear war moves of the U.S. which brings disaster to this land, setting dangerous flames," read the official statement.
"Let us smash the moves of the separatist forces at home and abroad and dynamically usher in a fresh phase of national reunification, holding aloft the banner of national independence and by our nation itself," it continued.
Bolshevik rhetoric is usually heard in Kim Jong-un's New Year's address, though it's especially strident this year due to the Winter Olympics being held in South Korea, not to mention that Moon Jae-in, the current president of South Korea, was a major player in the second half of the Sunshine Policy, the appeasement strategy employed by two consecutive liberal governments from 1998 to 2008.
Just a short time ago Kim was channeling his inner Khrushchev, bantering with his management-style soulmate, Donald Trump, telling the U.S. that North Korean nuclear weapons were rolling off conveyor belts like sausages, or the Korean version thereof.
South Korea constantly offers to schedule family reunions for the people separated by the Korean War, a population which is rapidly decreasing due to old age. Reunions could be held every month, but sometimes there are none for years due to North Korean intransigence.
North Korea could open its borders and allow North Koreans to travel to Seoul, but then again, most of the country would leave in a few weeks.
North Korea could allow the UN to visit its labor camps where as many as 200,000 political prisoners are being held in conditions the Nazi SS would recognize. But instead Kim is trying to convince South Koreans to massively expand the camps with hundreds of thousands of new residents.
Kim's message will certainly resonate with liberals and communists.