Anti-Bush riots in Korea

Hundreds of people have become involved in violent clashes with the police as they protest against the presence of George Bush, furious that he has halted the unification process with his thoughtless “axis of evil” speech.

The South Korean Member of Parliament Song Suk-Chan declared that Bush is “the incarnation of evil which conspires to perpetuate the division of the Korean Peninsula by segregating North Korea to an axis of evil”. He was immediately shouted down by the other members of the house and reprimanded by President Kim Dae-Jung.

However, his words struck a chord, one echoed by the growing number of demonstrators on the streets of Seoul, accusing Bush of interfering with the Korean unification process. Typically, Washington states that it will continue to use the same language. Karen Hughes, advisor to the US President, said that George Bush “will approach the situation in North Korea using the same language as the speech on the State of the Union. He will speak about stopping the most dangerous regimes, some of the most dangerous in the world, developing the most dangerous weapons in the world”.

He did. However, in the 13 months of the Bush administration, the interest expressed by the North Koreans in a concerted peace policy has substantially diminished, faced by the belligerent rhetoric from Washington. US National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice declared recently that North Korea was arming “a great part of the world, particularly Iran”.

It should however be pointed out that during the conversation process on unification, North Korea unilaterally suspended its nuclear arms programme, back in 1994, and in 1999, imposed a unilateral moratorium on missile tests. What right Washington has to accuse other nations of selling arms, when the USA is the largest arms seller in the world, defies logic. Most of the nations Washington has in its sights need to obtain weapons to defend themselves and their culture…against Washington.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru