Five Reasons Why the Ukraine Is a Bigger Threat to Peace and Safety than the DPRK Is

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It doesn’t fit the western narrative, but the Ukraine is a far bigger threat to its own people and its neighbours than the DPRK is or has been for decades.  Often, people think of the Korean Peninsula as a volatile region, a dangerous region, an unpredictable “weaponised” region.  In particular, the USA accused the DPRK of being a threat to regional peace and stability.  Objectively, there is some truth to all of this, but the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating the two Korean states is far less unstable than the Syria/Iraq border currently controlled by ISIS.  However, when it comes to threatening regional instability and causing bloodshed, one place is vastly more deadly and volatile than the Korean Peninsula… the battlezone between the fascist Ukraine and the Donbass Peoples Republics.  Despite the fact that the ROK and the DPRK are technically still at war, the region has been remarkably stable and calm since the ceasefire that ended the hot conflict on the peninsula in 1953.  Despite occasional worrying movements on the DMZ separating the two Koreas since 1953, life in the ROK and the DPRK has developed in such a way that all Koreans live their daily lives in a normal way according to the standards that each unique Korean state set for its citizens over the decades since the hot period of the Korean War.  For all of its rhetorical bluster, the DPRK remains technically committed to a “no first strike” policy in respect of nuclear weapons.  Because of this, letting a sleeping dog lie would be good advice for the more hawkish forces in Washington.  Compare that to the Ukraine/Donbass conflict.

1. Duration and Nature of the Conflicts

The Ukraine, a united country between 1991 and 2014 but with deep political divisions, has split.  The DNR and LNR arose after the fascist coup in Kiev.  Since then, regular forces, mercenaries, and terrorists loyal to Kiev invaded and attacked the DNR and LNR, almost without cessation.  This is in total violation of the Minsk II ceasefire agreement, which unlike the successful Korean War ceasefire, was dead on arrival.  The Ukrainian war of aggression against the Donbass Republics started in February 2014 and still rages.  It’s already gone on for longer than the 37 months of the Korean War.  That war lasted between June 1950 and July 1953 before the ceasefire took effect.  Besides this, there were attempted terrorist attacks on neighbouring Russia, attacks thankfully thwarted by Russian security services.  By contrast, the last time the DPRK violated the ceasefire with the ROK was in 1975 when DPRK soldiers committed an “axe murder” of two American soldiers chopping down a tree in the DMZ.  When all was said and done, the USA reacted by chopping down the rest of the tree as a “show of force”.

2. Chemical Weapons 

Whilst no heavy weapons have fired from one Korean state to another since 1953, the Ukraine is guilty of using illegal chemical weapons on civilian targets in the Donbass.  The SK RF concluded that white phosphorus was Kiev’s chemical weapon of choice when attacking the Donbass.

3. Deaths

While death hasn’t been a daily feature of Korean life since 1953, you can’t say the same for the Donbass.  As of December 2016, the UN reported that nearly 10,000 people, including women and children, died in the Donbass conflict, and many suggest the UN figure is low, compared to the even grimmer realities on the ground.  Many more people, including civilians, died since then.  Beyond the deaths, torture and rape, including child rape is a feature of Kiev’s war of aggression.  No such analogue exists in the Korean states.

4. Political Maturity 

Although both Koreas have a goal of uniting the peninsula under their respective flags, so, in turn, don’t acknowledge the political legitimacy of the other state, in reality, both accept the fact that for the foreseeable future they’ll have to live side by side.  Not even the most radical anti-communists in the ROK plan to storm the border in a “war of liberation”, nor will the DPRK turn Seoul into a “sea of flames” unless provoked.  It’s all bombastic rhetoric and has been since the 1950s.  Just as the Federal Republic of Germany and the DDR lived side-by-side without engaging in war, a similar “cold peace” exists between the ROK and the DPRK.

By contrast, the Ukraine is totally confused about its own position on the Donbass Republics.  On the one hand, they claim that the territory is part of a unitary Ukrainian state, but on the other, they cut off water, electricity and other vital supplies to the Republics.  The Ukraine legally removed the rights of Russian speakers throughout the country and purged Russian from Ukrainian media.  The Kiev régime refuses to allow trains from the Donbass into Kiev-controlled regions and they don’t issue passports and birth certificates in the Donbass, which led Russia to accept legal ID issued in the Donbass Republics as legitimate documents.  The Ukraine calls the Donbass people terrorists, “Russian agents”, and everything else to make them as distant as possible.  By contrast, neither Pyongyang nor Seoul challenges the “Korean-ness” of those on the other side of the DMZ.  Just yesterday, President Putin said that Moscow didn’t lure the Donbass Republics into its realm, but rather Kiev simply cut them off, isolated them, alienated them, and pushed them away.  One could add historical inevitability to this list. 

5. The Nuclear Question 

While there are no longer nuclear weapons in the Ukraine, there are many nuclear power facilities and most are in a state of total disrepair.  The Ukrainian nuclear sector is amongst the least safe in the world. The combination of lack of funds and a disorganised central government allowed a situation to develop that could result in another Chernobyl-style disaster.  The Energy Post described the Ukrainian nuclear sector as having “persistent safety problems”.  In an article from 2016, the Energy Post described how the Ukraine’s neighbours live in fear of another nuclear meltdown in the Ukraine:

“The Ukraine’s neighbours are also concerned.  Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria sent multiple questions for clarification and requests for participation in transboundary consultations.  However, Kiev, in response, denied its obligation to conduct any.  One might think that this experience, or perhaps civil society’s repeated warnings, would make decision makers reconsider this reckless adventure, but not the Ukrainian government”.

While “nuclear war” is a better headline than “nuclear safety concerns”, the fact is that since 1945, the world’s biggest nuclear disasters were the result of poorly managed nuclear power facilities and not nuclear weapons.  In this sense, the Ukraine’s “nuclear problem” is a more dire danger to global safety than the DPRK’s nuclear weapons programme, which thus far has never fired a missile in anger.

Between 2014 and the present day, the Ukraine killed more innocent civilians than either Korean state has even attempted to do since 1953.  The Ukraine breaks ceasefire agreements on a daily basis while the Korean states haven’t.  The Ukraine used chemical weapons on civilians whilst neither Korean state has done so, nor unlike the quiet Korean political conflict, Kiev’s war of aggression is going on at this very moment.  Furthermore, the Ukraine’s silent nuclear problem is manifestly more worrying than the DPRK’s weapons programme.  Objectively, no one could argue that either Korean state is as dangerous or as volatile as post-coup Ukraine.

3 May 2017

Adam Garrie

The Duran

http://theduran.com/5-reasons-why-ukraine-is-a-bigger-threat-to-peace-and-safety-than-north-korea/

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Metropolitan Ilarion Alfeyev sez Court Ruling will Weaken JW Influence in Russia

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Editor:

Note who’s saying this…  Alfeyev was always cosy with Westerners (especially, papists), but this drives a wedge between him and his Western pals.  The Westerns get peevish when vexed, and they’ve decided that they’re going to defend the JW nutters.  I think that Alfeyev’s ambition is kicking in…  he lusts for the Patriarchal throne… but his pro-Western stance makes him the most hated of all MP hierarchs.  Paris has ALWAYS been worth a mass…  but will it work for Alfeyev or will he be another Dmitri Banditsky?  Only time will tell us…

BMD

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Metropolitan Ilarion Alfeyev, the head of the MP OVTsS told us:

The Church welcomes the ruling of the Supreme Court to prohibit Jehovah’s Witnesses’ activities in Russia, as it destroys the traditional family.

In speaking on The Church and the World on the Rossiya24 news channel, he said:

This’ll weaken the JW’s influence, but it’d be scarcely possible to eliminate it altogether.  One should hardly have any doubts these sectarians would remain and would continue their activity, but at any rate, they’d stop equating themselves with Christian denominations openly.  To paraphrase it, this product won’t be on the market of existing denominations of Christianity anymore.  This’ll save families and people’s lives, and I think a ruling of this kind is only welcome.  The JWs are a totalitarian sect that misinterprets the Gospels and, on top of that, they destroy families.  The real danger isn’t in their distortions of faith; the danger is in their being a totalitarian sect that focuses its entire activity on manipulating the human consciousness.  They destroy the human psyche; they destroy families.

The religious doctrine of Jehovah’s Witnesses prohibits blood transfusions.  In addition, members of a family can’t sit at the same table with any relative if, for whatever reason, they decide to leave the sect.  Metropolitan Ilarion said:

I think that we should hail the decision, but the Church didn’t take part in any way in its formulation.  No one asked us for our opinion.  In general, the Church never advocates subjecting heretics or sectarians or other dissenters to criminal persecution.  When the state takes such decisions, it’s a judicial decision finding that a sect engages in extremist activities.  The case in this situation doesn’t encroach on any religion in any way, but rather it treats with violations of the law.

2 May 2017

TASS

http://tass.com/society/944305

China Demanded that the USA Stop Its Deployment of THAAD ABMs in the ROK Immediately

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On Tuesday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang said:

China’s position on the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) issue hasn’t changed. We oppose the deployment of the US missile system to the ROK and call on all parties to stop this process immediately. We’re ready to take necessary measures to protect our interests.

Colonel Rob Manning, US Forces Korea spokesman, told us earlier:

The THAAD system is operational and has the ability to intercept North Korean missiles and defend the Republic of Korea.

Supposedly, the ground-based THAAD missile system intercepts ballistic missile warheads at the end of their mid-course phase and during their approach to a target, to protect cities and key facilities from both short-range and strategic ballistic missiles. The USA claimed that they deployed the THAAD system in the ROK because of the DPRK’s nuclear missile threat. Seoul and Washington agreed on the deployment in July 2016. Russia and China strongly opposed this agreement.

2 May 2017

TASS

http://tass.com/world/944142