We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

This Is What’s Really Behind North Korea’s Nuclear Provocations

Click here to access article by Bruce Cumings from The Nation.

Cumings is America's foremost historian on Korea in the modern era. (read the above Wikipedia link) As such he knows of what he writes about North Korea in this article which provides details about their weapons program in recent decades in relation to US concerns.
North Korea is the only country in the world to have been systematically blackmailed by US nuclear weapons going back to the 1950s, when hundreds of nukes were installed in South Korea. I have written much about this in these pages and in the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists". Why on earth would Pyongyang not seek a nuclear deterrent? But this crucial background doesn’t enter mainstream American discourse. History doesn’t matter, until it does—when it rears up and smacks you in the face.
For a much needed (for Americans) full history of US-Korean history of relations, I highly recommend that you read at least volume 1 of Cumings' 2 volume book entitled The Origins of the Korean War.