Korea and the "Axis of Evil"

by Brian S. Willson

October 12, 2006
GlobalResearch. ca

Global Research Editor's Note

This text by Vietnam War Veteran, author and peace
activist Brian Willson was first published by Global
Research in 2002. It outlines, what most people in
America do not know and which is particularly
relevant in assessing the alleged "threats" of North
Korea to global security

North Korea lost thirty percent of its population as a
result of US led bombings in the 1950s. US military
sources confirm that 20 percent of north koreas'
population was killed off over a three year period of
intensive bombings:

"After destroying North Korea's 78 cities and
thousands of her villages, and killing countless
numbers of her civilians, [General] LeMay remarked,
"Over a period of three years or so we killed off -
what - twenty percent of the population." 6 It is now
believed that the population north of the imposed 38th
Parallel lost nearly a third its population of 8 - 9
million people during the 37-month long "hot" war,
1950 - 1953, perhaps an unprecedented percentage of
mortality suffered by one nation due to the
belligerance of another."

During The Second World War the United Kingdom lost
0.94% of its population, France lost 1.35%, China lost
1.89% and the US lost 0.32%. during the Korean war,
North Korea lost 30 % of its population.

These figures of civilian deaths in North Korea should
also be compared to those compiled for Iraq by the
Lancet Study (John hokins School of Public Health).
The Lancet study estimates that 655,000 deaths
resulting from the US led invasion and occupation
(March 2003- June 2006).

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 12 October 2006

The demonization of North Korea by the United States
government continues unrelentlessly. The wealthy oil
and baseball man who claims to be president of the
United States, used his first State of the Union
address on January 29, 2002 to brand perennial enemy
North Korea, along with former allies Iran and Iraq,
as "the world’s most dangerous regimes" who now now
form a threatening "axis of evil." Unbeknown to the
public, because it was intended to have remained a
secret (whoops!), was the fact that this claimed
president presented a "Nuclear Posture Review" report
to Congress only three weeks earlier, on January 8,
which ordered the Pentagon to prepare contingency
plans for use of nuclear weapons. The first designated
targets for nuclear attack were his newly identified
members of the "axis of evil," along with four other
lucky nations as well – Syria, Libya, Russia, and
China. That this is nothing short of a policy of
ultimate terror remains unaddressed in the U.S. media.

That Koreans are deeply concerned is an
understatement. However, they understand the context
in which their "evil" is being portrayed, not an
altogether new threat levelled at them. However, the
dangerous escalation of policy rhetoric following the
9-11 tragedy now boldly warns the world of virtual
total war. Vice-president Richard Cheney, another oil
man from Texas, declares that the U.S. is now
considering military actions against forty to fifty
nations, and that the war "may never end" and "become
a permanent part of the way we live."1 The Pentagon
has declared that the widening gap between the "Haves"
and "Have-nots" poses a serious challenge to the U.S.,
requiring a doctrine of "full spectrum dominance."
Thus, the U.S. demands total capacity to conquer every
place and its inhabitants in and around the Earth,
from deep underground bunkers, including those in
North Korea and Iraq, through land, sea, and air, to
outer space. All options for achieving global and
spatial hegemony are now on the table. Already, the
U.S. military is deployed in 100 different countries.2
Total war, permanent war. Terror!

Addiction to use of terror by the United States is
nothing new. The civilization was founded and has been
sustained by use of terror as a primary policy. For
example, in 1779, General George Washington ordered
destruction of the "merciless Indian savages" of
upstate New York, instructing his generals to
"chastize" them with "terror." The generals dutifully
carried out these orders. In 1866, General William
Tecumseh Sherman ordered "extermination" with
vindictive earnestness of the Sioux. They were
virtually exterminated. Secretary of War Elihu Root
(1899-1904) under President's McKinley and Theodore
Roosevelt, justified the ruthless U.S. military
conduct in the Philippines that savagely killed a
half-million citizens by citing "precedents of the
highest authority:" Washington's and Sherman's earlier
orders.3

War against nations around the world is not new
either. The U.S., over its history, has militarily
intervened over 400 times, covertly thousands of
times, in over one hundred nations.4 Virtually all
these interventions have been lawless. It has bombed
at least eighteen nations since it dropped Atomic
bombs on Japan in 1945. It has used chemical warfare
against Southeast Asia, and has provided chemical
warfare agents for use by other nations such as Iraq.
It has used biological warfare against China, North
Korea, and Cuba. The Koreans are quite aware of most
of this history. Most U.S. Americans are not. But now
the U.S. has declared a unilateral terrorist war on
the whole world.5

Two of the interventions in the Nineteenth Century
were inflicted against Korea, the first in 1866. The
second, larger one, in 1871, witnessed the landing of
over 700 marines and sailors on Kanghwa beach on the
west side of Korea seeking to establish the first
phases of colonization. Destroying several forts while
inflicting over 600 casualties on the defending Korean
natives, the U.S. withdrew realizing that in order to
assure hegemonic success, a much larger, permanent
military presence would be necessary. The North Korean
people regularly remark about this U.S. invasion, even
though most in South Korea do not know of it due to
historic censorship. Most in the U.S. don’t know about
it either, for similar reasons, even though in all of
the Nineteenth Century, this was the largest U.S.
military force to land on foreign soil outside of
Mexico and Canada until the "Spanish American War" in
1898.

I believe it important for U.S. Americans to place
themselves in the position of people living in
targeted countries. That North Korea, a nation of 24
million people, i.e., one-twentieth the population of
the U.S., many of them poor, a land slightly larger in
area than the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, continues to
be one of the most demonized nations and least
understood, totally perplexes the Korean people. It is
worthwhile to seek an understanding of their
perspective.

I recently visited that nation and talked with a
number of her citizens. I travelled 900 ground miles
through six of North Korea's nine provinces, as well
as spending time in Pyongyang, the capital, and
several other cities. I talked with dozens of people
from all walks of life. Though times have been hard
for North Koreans, especially in the 1990s, they long
ago proudly rebuilt all of their dozens of cities,
thousands of villages, and hundreds of dykes and dams
destroyed during the war.

U.S. interference into the sovereign life of Korea
immediately upon the 1945 surrender of the hated
Japanese, who had occupied the Korean Peninsula for
forty years, is one of the major crimes of the
Twentieth Century, from which the Korean people have
never recovered. (SEE "United States Government War
Crimes," Spring 2002 - issue # 1 of Global Outlook).
From a North Korean’s perspective they (1) have
vigorously opposed the unlawful and egregious division
of their country from day one to the present, (2) were
blamed for starting the "Korean War" which in fact had
been a struggle between a minority of wealthy Koreans
supporting continued colonization in collaboration
with the U.S. and those majority Koreans who opposed
it, (3) proudly and courageously held the U.S. and its
"crony U.N. allies" to a stalemate during the "War,"
and (4) have been tragically and unfairly considered a
hostile nation ever since. They have not forgotten the
forty years of Japanese occupation that preceded the
U.S. imposed division and subsequent occupation that
continues in the South. They deeply yearn for
reunification of their historically unified culture.

Everyone I talked with, dozens and dozens of folks,
lost one if not many more family members during the
war, especially from the continuous bombing, much of
it incendiary and napalm, deliberately dropped on
virtually every space in the country. "Every means of
communication, every installation, factory, city, and
village" was ordered bombed by General MacArthur in
the fall of 1950. It never stopped until the day of
the armistice on July 27, 1953. The pained memories of
people are still obvious, and their anger at "America"
is often expressed, though they were very welcoming
and gracious to me. Ten million Korean families remain
permanently separated from each other due to the
military patrolled and fenced dividing line spanning
150 miles across the entire Peninsula.

Let us make it very clear here for western readers.
North Korea was virtually totally destroyed during the
"Korean War." U.S. General Douglas MacArthur's
architect for the criminal air campaign was Strategic
Air Command head General Curtis LeMay who had proudly
conducted the earlier March 10 - August 15, 1945
continuous incendiary bombings of Japan that had
destroyed 63 major cities and murdered a million
citizens. (The deadly Atomic bombings actually killed
far fewer people.) Eight years later, after destroying
North Korea's 78 cities and thousands of her villages,
and killing countless numbers of her civilians, LeMay
remarked, "Over a period of three years or so we
killed off - what - twenty percent of the
population." 6 It is now believed that the population
north of the imposed 38th Parallel lost nearly a third
its population of 8 - 9 million people during the
37-month long "hot" war, 1950 - 1953, perhaps an
unprecedented percentage of mortality suffered by one
nation due to the belligerance of another.

Virtually every person wanted to know what I thought
of Bush's recent accusation of North Korea as part of
an "axis of evil." Each of the three governments
comprising Bush’s "axis of evil" of course immediately
condemned the remarks, North Korea being no exception.
I shared with them my own outrage and fears, and they
seemed relieved to know that not all "Americans" are
so cruel and bellicose. As with people in so many
other nations with whom the U.S. has treated with
hostility, they simply cannot understand why the U.S.
is so obsessed with them.

Koreans were relieved to learn that a recent poll had
indicated eighty percent of South Koreans were against
the U.S. belligerant stance against their northern
neighbors. The North Korean government described Bush
as a "typical rogue and a kingpin of terrorism" as he
was visiting the South in February, only three weeks
after presenting his threatening State of the Union
address.7 It was also encouraging that the two Koreas
resumed quiet diplomatic talks in March just as the
U.S. and South Korea were once again conducting their
regular, large-scale, joint military exercises so
enraging to the North, and to an increasing number of
people in the South among the growing reunification
movement there.8

In the English-language newspaper, The Pyongyang
Times, (February 23, 2002) there were articles
entitled "US Is Empire of the Devil," Korea Will Never
Be a Threat to the US," and "Bush’s Remarks Stand
Condemned." Quite frankly, all three of these articles
relate a truth about the U.S. that would draw a
consensus from many quarters around the world.

While in country, together we listened to Bush's March
14 Voice of America (VOA) radio chastizement of North
Korea. First, he stated that the North's 200,000
prisoner population was proof of terrible repression.
Though I had no way of knowing the number of prisoners
in the North, any more than Bush did, I do know that
the United States has 2 million prisoners which is
similar in per-capita detention rate to that of North
Korea if the 200,000 figure is accurate. Furthermore,
the U.S. has a minimum of 3 million persons, mostly
minority and poor, under state supervision of parole
and probation. The U.S. sweeps its class and race
problems into prison.

Second, Bush declared that half the population was
considered unreliable and, as a result, received less
monthly food rations. The Koreans are a proud people
living in a Confucian tradition, having rebuilt their
nation from virtual total destruction during the
Korean war. I did not notice any obvious display of
dissent. That some Koreans are desperate due to lack
of food, water, and heat, especially in some rural
areas, does not necessarily translate into dissent,
though some are seeking relief by travel to
neighboring countries.9

Third, Bush claimed that Koreans who listen to foreign
radio are targeted for execution. Together we
regularly listened to U.S.VOA radio broadcasts and
they freely discussed the content of the broadcasts
without fear of reprisals.

Fourth, Bush condemned the DPRK for spending too much
on its military, causing food shortages for the
people. Note: Again it must be remembered that it was
the U.S. that unilaterally divided Korea following the
Japanese surrender in August 1945, and subsequently
ruled with a military occupation government in the
south, overseeing the elimination of virtually the
entire popular movement of (majority) opposition to
U.S. occupation, murdering hundreds of thousands of
people. The consequent Korean civil war that openly
raged in 1948-1950 was completely ignored when the
U.S. defined the beginning of the Korean War in 1950.
The U.S. remains at war with the DPRK, never having
signed a peace treaty with her. The war has left a
deep scar in the Korean character with a memory that
is regularly provoked by continued belligerance
directed at the DPRK. The U.S. regularly holds joint
military exercises with South Korean military forces
aimed at the DPRK. The U.S. retains 37,000 military
troops at 100 installations south of the 38th
parallel. The U.S. has its largest Asian bombing range
where it practices bombs five days a week, fifty-two
weeks a year, despite opposition from many South
Koreans. And now Bush has identified North Korea as
part of an "axis of evil" targeted for nuclear attack.
This is no remote idea to North Koreans. The U.S.
possesses nuclear weapons on ships and planes in the
Pacific region surrounding North Korea. Virtually
every nation in this perilous position would be
concerned about their defense.

It is worth noting that the United States is the
leading military spender in the world resulting in
substantial underfunding of its own indispensable
social programs.

Fifth, Bush accused the DPRK of selling weapons to
other nations. That is like the pot calling the kettle
black. The U.S. is by far the largest manufacturer of
conventional, nuclear, chemical, and biological
weapons in the world. It is also the largest seller of
these weapons, and has used conventional (against
dozens of nations), biological (Cuba, China, Korea,
perhaps others), chemical (Southeast Asia), and
nuclear (Japan, and threatened to use them on at least
20 other occasions) weapons. In addition it has armed
other nations with these weapons of mass destruction,
including Iraq, one of those countries now identified
as part of the "axis of evil." In the year 2000,
international arms sales were nearly $37 billion, with
the U.S. being directly responsible for just over half
of those sales. South Korea was the third largest
buyer of weapons from the United States with $3.2
worth of military hardware.10 And in January 2002,
South Korea was seriously contemplating purchasing an
additional $3.2 billion worth of 40 F-X fighter jets
from U.S. arms giant Boeing.

At the conclusion of this VOA radio broadcast, Koreans
and I looked at each other in disbelief. But we also
knew that we were in solidarity with each other as
part of the human family. When I said goodbye to my
new friends we embraced knowing that we live in a
single world made up of a rich diversity of ideas and
species. We know that we are going to live or die
together, and hope that the arrogant and dangerous
rhetoric and militarism of the United States will soon
end so we can all live in peace. However, for that to
happen, there will need to be a dramatic awakening
among the people and a corresponding __expression of
massive nonviolent opposition that will make such
threatening behavior impossible to carry out.

S. Brian Willlson is a Vietnam veteran, long-time
peace activist, and writer. He has visited a number of
countries studying the impacts of U.S. policy. His
essays are posted on his website,
www.brianwillson. com. He published a small
autobiography, On Third World Legs (Charles Kerr,
1992), which describes his ordeal of having been
intentionally run over by a U.S. Government munitions
train accelerating to over three times the 5 mph legal
speed limit during a peaceful protest in California in
1987. He now walks on two prostheses after losing each
leg below the knee. Brian Willson possesses two
honorary Ph.D.s and a Juris Doctor degree.

Copyright © B. Willson 2002.

Notes

1. Bob Woodward, "CIA Told To Do 'Whatever Necessary'
to Kill Bin Laden," The Washington Post, October 21,
2001.

2. Bradley Graham, "Pentagon Plans New Command For
U.S. Four Star Officer, Would Over See Homeland
Defense," The Washington Post, January 26, 2002.

3. Richard Drinnon, Facing West: The Metaphysics of
Indian Hating and Empire Building. New York: Schocken
Books, 1990, p. 329.

4. B.M. Blechman and S.S. Kaplan, Force Without War:
U.S. Armed Forces As A Political Instrument. Wash.,
D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1978, Appendix B;
Congressional Research Service (Foreign Affairs and
National Defense Division), Instances of United States
Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-1993. Wash., D.C.:
Congressional Research Service, 1993; William Blum,
Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Intervention Since
World War II. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1995;
John Stockwell, The Praetorian Guard. Cambridge, MA:
South End Press, 1991.

5. William Blum, Rogue State. Monroe, ME: Common
Courage Press, 2000; Stephan Endicott and Edward
Hagerman, The United States and Biological Warfare:
Secrets From the Early Cold War and Korea.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998.

6. Richard Rhodes, "The General and World War III,"
The New Yorker, June 19, 1995, p. 53.

7."North Korea Calls Bush ‘Kingpin of Terrorism,"
Reuters wire story, February 23, 2002.

8."South Korea Envoy to Travel North," BBC News
Online: World: Asia-Pacific, March 25, 2002. Retrieved
March 26, 2002, from
http://news. bbc.co.uk/ low/english/ world/asia- pacific/newsid_ 1891000/1891457. stm

9. Ji-Yeon Yuh, "North Korean Enemy Should Be Made
Friend," The Baltimore Sun, February 27, 2002.

10. Thom Shanker, "Global Arms Sales Rise Again, and
the U.S. Leads the Pack, " The New York Times, August
20, 2001.

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