(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Sean Burton, PV South Korea correspondent

I am really tired of endless speculation about North Korea. Going through the archives of any South Korean newspaper, one can find article after article about North Korea's intentions as assumed by other countries. I suppose that if you only rely on pictures from the spy planes that regularly violate the North's airspace, you just have to guess.

     The media has rammed down our throats almost everyday that the North is about to test an ICBM, based on aerial evidence that some sort of missile device was being prepared at a launch site. Thus it's not surprising that when the North made an official announcement that it was going to launch an experimental satellite, the government agencies and media started calling it a cover up. Perhaps they cannot accept that the North has some of the best rocket technology in the world, and is quite capable of conducting such an experiment? They must maintain a frightening image of the North, and going on about the missile is one way to do it.

     I was honestly quite surprised to read that Obama's new national intelligence chief, Admiral Dennis Blair, reported to the U.S. Senate Armed Service Committee that North Korea is, in fact, preparing a "space launch vehicle". He even admitted that the technology involved is virtually indistinguishable from ballistic missiles, and that a three‑stage launch vehicle could indeed reach parts of the U.S., though perhaps not the continental states.

     This is not yet the official American position, but it is quite a strong statement.

     Alas, such news has not been widely reported in the west. North Korea has followed international procedure with this launch, notifying the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization of the launch date between April 4‑8, and the coordinates. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) also reported that their country has also recently signed treaties regarding peaceful space exploration. Is all of that a deliberate cover up? As far as South Korea is concerned, it does not matter. Unification Minister Hyun In Taek stated that whatever the case, "it is still basically a missile", and in violation of UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea.

     Threats from abroad continue as well. Japan, ever eager to reassert its regional power, has said it will use its own missiles to shoot down anything the North fires, whether a missile or a satellite. Japan's defence minister, Yasukazu Hamada, has stated that "It is natural to react to even a satellite if it can cause serious damage when it falls down to Japan." What an outrageously belligerent stance! If that were to happen, it would be an unfortunate accident, but nothing more. The U.S. government also is not showing any quarter to the North. Hillary Clinton has accused the North of unhelpful and unwelcome rhetoric. Evidently, Japan is not to be held to the same standards. And of course, President Obama continues to speak about the "risks" of North Korea's missile program. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who happens to be South Korean, has also claimed that either launching a satellite or missile will threaten the peace and stability of the region.

     These claims are getting ridiculous. The North wouldn't have devoted so many of its scarce resources to building a large military and nuclear weapons were it not for the decades of threats from the U.S. and its allies in the region. Having such weapons is a way for the North to say, "We have such powerful weapons, you daren't touch us!" Objectively, North Korea is no military threat to the continental U.S. But consider the thousands of American soldiers and weapons maintained in South Korea since the 1950s, and the lack of an actual peace treaty. Who is threatening whom?

     On a concluding note, North Korea held elections for the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) on March 10. There has been a huge amount of media speculation in the South that one of Kim Jong Il's sons will eventually replace him as the country's leader.

     Daily NK, "the hub of North Korean news", a website based in Seoul, jumped the gun and claimed Kim Jong Woon, third son of Kim Jong Il, was on the ballot. This has since turned out to be false information. So how reliable is any of this speculation? Daily NK ought to change its slogan to "the hub of ANTI‑North Korean news".

     If I want North Korean news, I'll go directly to the KCNA website http://www.kcna.co.jp or "The People's Korea" http://www1.korea‑np.co.jp/pk/. Both sites are maintained by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, made up of over 150,000 Koreans who refused South Korean citizenship, and even have representatives to North Korea's SPA. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm in South Korea, where those websites, and many others, are banned.