North Korea dedicated to remaining independent of US empire

An analyst tells Press TV that North Korea’s dedication to remaining independent of the US empire is the main reason of conflict between Washington and Pyongyang.

North Korea has declared that it is in a ‘state of war’ with South Korea, warning that any provocation by Seoul and Washington will trigger an all-out nuclear war. Pyongyang also warned that if Washington and Seoul launched a preemptive attack, the conflict would “not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war.” The United States has reacted to the warning, calling it “unconstructive” while taking it “seriously.”

Press TV has conducted an interview with Dr. Kevin Barrett, author and political commentator from Madison, to shed light on the issue of tension at the Korean Peninsula. The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. Barrett, how much do you see the prospect of an all-out war?

Barrett: Well, it is hard to say. I doubt that North Korea is actually about to launch nuclear weapons at Washington DC, Austin, Texas, and the other cities that they say they are targeting, but on the other hand I think that North Korea is absolutely dedicated to remaining fully independent of the US empire and that is really what this conflict is about.

The US empire includes all countries where the US has military bases and Asia of course is dotted with US military bases. North Korea, which says it is the sole representative of the Korean Peninsula, the Korean people, wants to be an independent nation, like a number of other countries.

North Korea has been much more assertive in claiming its right to remain independent of the empire than most other nations. Here in the US we are told by our media that North Korea is crazy, that this is all crazy talk – ‘any country that would threaten me, US, must be crazy.’

Well the US runs around threatening every other country in the world. There is a record of many dozens of US threats to use nuclear weapons against other nations throughout the Cold War period and even after the Cold War period.

There is even some evidence that US did use nuclear weapons, not just depleted uranium but latest generation nuclear weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan. So there is a real double standard at work here when the West and the US try to pretend that North Korea is crazy for wanting to remain independent.

That is sad. It is clear that North Korea is much more extreme in its rhetoric and to some extent in its actions than nations like for example Iran, which the US is also bullying and trying to make out as a nuclear threat, where in fact Iran is absolutely clear about the fact that it will never develop nuclear weapons, because they are Haram and forbidden by Islam, whereas North Korea bought these nuclear weapons from Israel. They are apparently by way of South Africa’s Israeli arsenals, which was supposedly sold to the British and then stolen by the Israelis and some of these nuclear weapons were handed to North Korea.

We have a lot of paradoxes and examples of hypocrisy in this standoff, but I do not think it is going to lead to another Korean War. On the other hand, there really is only one Korea. Some day Korea will reunite and I think the North as well as many people in the South want to make sure that Korea will be an independent nation and not just a vassal of the empire.