Despite Clinton, Korea has rights

It is impossible to find objective reporting about the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the U.S. corporate media. When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to Japan and China recently for her first official visit to Asia, she did what no diplomat is ever supposed to do: launched into a wildly speculative and personal attack on DPRK leader Kim Jong Il. Instead of chastising her for poisoning the atmosphere and precluding the “openness” in foreign relations promised by the new administration, the media gleefully egged her on.

Next came a media frenzy over the DPRK’s plans to launch a communications satellite. The U.S., which constantly rattles its huge arsenal of nuclear and conventional weapons at this besieged small socialist country, has the gall to label the Koreans’ scientific and technological achievements as “the greatest threat to peace in Asia.”

Of course, it is the imperialist U.S., not north Korea, that has been waging wars and killing millions all over Asia since it first grabbed the Philippines in 1898. And while freaking out over the DPRK having missiles on its own soil, it is the Pentagon that is pushing hard to expand its missiles to Eastern Europe, against the will of the peoples there.

The DPRK has the right to develop its own technologies, just like the rest of the world. It will not bow down to the dictates of the imperialists, who want to deny development and the right to defend itself to any country they can’t control.

Since there’s little chance our readers will find anywhere else in the U.S. press the Koreans’ view of this issue, we reprint here in its entirety the Feb. 24 statement of the Korean Committee of Space Technology:

“Outer space is an asset common to mankind and its use for peaceful purposes has become a global trend.

“The DPRK has steadily pushed ahead with researches and development for putting satellites into orbit by its own efforts and technology since the 1980s, pursuant to its government’s policy for the development of space and its peaceful use.

“In this course, scientists and technicians of the DPRK registered such great success as putting its first experimental satellite Kwangmyongsong-1 into orbit at one try in August 1998.

“Over the past decade since then a dynamic struggle has been waged to put the nation’s space science and technology on a higher level, bringing about signal progress in the field of satellite launch.

“The DPRK envisages launching practical satellites for communications, prospecting of natural resources and weather forecast, etc. essential for the economic development of the country in a few years to come and putting their operation on a normal footing at the first phase of the state long-term plan for space development.

“The preparations for launching experimental communications satellite Kwangmyongsong-2 by means of delivery rocket Unha-2 are now making brisk headway at Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground in Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province.

“When this satellite launch proves successful, the nation’s space science and technology will make another giant stride forward in building an economic power.”