What remains undiscussed is the legitimacy and impact of Western sanctions against the Republic of North Korea. The West imposes confinement upon the people of the nation, preventing any opportunity for social development. In limiting trade and commerce, Western sanctions only strengthen the autocratic control of the North Korean state government. North Korean citizens continue to be punished for the aggressive posture adopted by their communist government's incursions below the 38th parallel, which was undoubtedly encouraged by the U.S. annexation and militarization of Japan following WWII, with additional encouragement supplied by the Communist Chinese and Soviet Union.

Instead of diffusing the climate of conflict and tension, Western nations opted for isolation and containment, which can only lead to future escalation of tensions and likely conflict.

Policy makers have taken full advantage of an exasperated North Korean threat by arming their demonized and isolated dictator with nuclear technology, furnished by Pakistan early in this century, under the watchful eye of G.W. Bush.
Consider the psychological impact of the U.S. demonization campaign. Korea's ridiculous leaders are made to feel empowered that the mighty United States would regard them as such a threat, fostering narcissism and ego mania. The same propaganda is filtered and in turn distributed amongst the North Korean people, being led to believe that the U.S. wishes to invade and corrupt their culture - which is very likely the case.

I'll leverage an expression capitalized on by Mr. Bush during his tenure to make my final statement.

Make no mistake, North Korea is being manipulated as a chess piece to promote the commercially-viable threat of global insecurity, and justify continued U.S. presence on the Korean peninsula. We should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing our institutions to play games with people's lives by fostering adversarial politics. It's time to promote a détente between South Korea and North Korea, to enable trade and communication to bring separated families back together again.

Get the war mongers out of politics! Vote Sanders and push both he, and your respective Congressional/Senatorial representatives, to end violence, war, inequality, and poverty through direct action.

Mr Munkey: Which "incursions below the 38th parallel" do you mean, besides that reported to have begun the Korean War?
On Sen Sanders, I would push him, too, to end violence, etc. The question begs, whom could he push to accomplish those goals?

Hi goedelite,

Yes, I was referring to the North Korean incursion below the 38th parallel, giving rise to the Korean War, that remains unauthorized by U.S. congress. My statement above was possibly vague in certain respects; I should have qualified my comment to suggest that North Korea might have felt threatened by the U.S. militarization of Japan and South Korea following the second world war.

Concerning Senator Sanders; should he achieve the office of U.S. President, he would be required to restrict and/or police the sale of weapons that only contribute only to making the world a violent and dangerous place. Guns are useless without bullets.
Horrific policies of punishment in the Middle East kill and displace far more civilians than enemy combatants.
We all watched with horror, the impact of the U.S. rearmament of the IDF during the 2014 51 day war in Gaza. We all watch with horror as U.S., French, and Canadian weapons manufacturers continue sales of product to the Saudi government during the war of aggression in Yemen.
He could redirect funds otherwise allocated for the mismanaged Pentagon to useful reconstruction projects both at home and abroad.
The U.S. foreign policy is reviled in most foreign countries.

During the first and second world wars, toy manufacturers in many allied nations converted their toy factories to produce weapons and armaments... it's time to demilitarize these manufacturers and put them back to work making toys again.

In addition to curtailing the covetous corporate, financial, and government corruption, and putting an end to unpopular interventionist policies, he could start in these areas that I have put forward.

...my 2 cents, for what it's worth.

Regs,
P.Munk

This is very good news, I appreciate the news coming from the Real News. Keep up the good work.

Many thanks to TRN for publishing poignant productions of international origin. I've long appreciated your broad range of international guests, and now find your inclusion of international productions to provide a refreshing, worthwhile, and even necessary perspective on both local and global events.

Such perspectives remind us all that we are not alone in the struggle against corporate and financial exploitation and authoritarianism. A perspective necessary to build and maintain solidarity.

ADDITIONAL MEDIA PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS PROJECT: [http://www.thepressproject....]

Fans of Yanis Varoufakis, can find an interesting interview hosted by 'The Voice of Europe' host, Christos Ntatsios, concerning Mr. Varoufakis' new "Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM 25)" (12m:19s) at: [http://www.thepressproject....]

Mr. Varoufakis' open letter announcement of the DiEM 2025 February 9th launch in Berlin can be found here: [http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2...]

It's such a pleasure to listen to someone in the media like Fragiska who doesn't seem to have a political agenda.

Cool; another good joint effort.

Bit of an odd ending. "When business gets involved things will resolve themselves." Apparently she wasn't listening when she agreed. Her point was that when business gets involved we stop giving a shit about ethics.

To get such a meaning across it would be necessary to be explicit. It was a clumsy way to end what was frankly a rather inept interview.

"Business is above politiics", Fragkiska wrote. I would rather add: "and politics are above ethics". That's how it works in capitalism.

Mr White we probably interpret in a different way the last phrase of the host journalist. To my view what he said, confirms what I pointed out in the interview. Business is above politics. When business and corporations get inside a country then the international community can easily forget human rights violations, totalitarian regimes, dictators and so on. Things "resolve themselves" in that sense. We have seen it happening in so many countries. The latest example is Myanmar -it used to be a "rogue" state until it opened up to western interests and investors. Even the IMF opened up an office there. Since then, we forget the on going violations against the ethnic minority of the Rohinga or against the Kachin people. Myanmar is just an example. Do we ever talk about the oppressive regimes of central Asian nations (ex soviet union states)? We do not. Do we openly criticize the Saudis that have one of the worst records of human rights violations? This is what it means -to my view- the last phrase. I am sorry you found the interview inept.

Very informative....nice series and looking forward to more. China has every interest in keeping a buffer nation between it and the S. Korea.

A well conducted and informative interview! Thanks TRNN!:

Nations are ruled by their interests. That is a longstanding axiom. Propaganda is used everywhere to make citizens believe that the interests of the ruling class are their interests. Nowhere is this more true than in the US. The ruling class in N.Korea have principally two interests: defense against the US; survival of their regime. The US with regard to N.Korea has principally two interests: attempting to change the regime to one that would favor US corporate interests; presenting the US as the protector of northeast Asia.

The defense strategy of N.Korea, a nuclear deterrence to US aggression, has been highly effective. Their regime's survival has also been successful, secured as it is by the isolation of their people and by the irrational sanctions by which the US punishes the N.Koreans.

The US's strategy of trying to change the N.Korean regime by punishing its people has not only failed but strengthened the loyalty of N.Koreans to the regime. The US as protector of northeast Asia, must continually be proven in the conflicts that exist between China and Japan, Philippines, and in southeast Asia, as well. This is a dangerous situation, because it could lead to war. The best outcome would be for the countries of east Asia to realize that they must come to terms with China through negotiation rather than through alliances with a remote, bankrupt power, the US, whose foreign policy record is one of folly, bloodshed, and failure.

It would be nice to know something of the background of the interviewee. What is her affiliation, prior credentials. How did she alone get to be chosen as a long term visitor to North Korea, not known for its welcome of Westerners?

Robert I lived in Norh Korea for two years under a UN/diplomatic visa. You can see more about me here www.fragkiskamegaloudi.com. Thank you for asking and I would be happy to give more details about North Korea or any other issue that I have some knowledge.

I know that humanitarian aid can be a tool of political intervention and I fully agree that the UN and NGOs play a political role. Ideally I would like humanitarian aid to be separated from politics but I know that might not be possible. However I am not a UN staff, I worked as consultant and then I turn to free lance and although I have worked for media that could be considered mainstream (such as Al Jazeera), I also contribute to alternative media such as the Counterpunch; so I believe that I have managed to keep my integrity. I know that we cannot be 100% objective because we live in the society and we are influenced by the ruling system and by the information we get, by the education we receive, by the media... But specifically to North Korea, there are a lot misconceptions, half truths and wishful thinking. There is a bunch of so called experts that make fortunes and fame from writing about North Korea but they have never set foot in the country. North Korea is opaque and difficult to access and this could explain the fascination of the media but also the so many lies. I just hope to be able to speak the truth and be heard. Its not easy, if you don't say what the mainstream media wants, you cannot find a way to be heard. So I am really grateful that TRNN have published this interview and it reached the American public.

Germany was making huge investments in Iran before the Nuke deal solidified...and Germans welcome in Iran. Only Bourdain's friends get thrown in jail if associated with CNN and why not... one of the largest trainers of CIA journalists in US.

The Press Project has an English website: http://www.thepressproject....
A glance at it persuades me that it would be helpful in keeping up with events in Greece and analyses by journalists who are free of US influences,
My guess is that she was welcome in N.Korea for the reason just stated.

We only get propaganda from our corporate led feds that would lead one to believe, if you do that sort of thing, that N Korea is a gulag. I would welcome all of the info I can get about what is happening in N Korea right now.

Tyranny of sanctions emboldens dictators while doing nothing to limit tranny. In fact sanctions advance tyranny by limiting populations access to good or services that could empower segments of population to breakdown walls of tyranny. We ask would sanctions on DDR or east Germany lead to fall of Berlin wall or was fall of Berlin wall due to populations desire for end of DDR sanctions of travel and potential liberation denied by walls like sanctions.