Saturday, May 5, 2018

U.S. media: Don't give peace a chance in Korea

Historic Korean Summit Sets the Table for Peace — and US Pundits React With Horror | The Nation - Tim Shorrock:

May 2, 2018 - "April 27, 2018, was a historic day for Korea, and for the millions of people on both sides of that tragically divided peninsula. In a meticulously planned event, Kim Jong-un, the 34-year-old hereditary dictator of North Korea, stepped carefully over the border running through the truce village of Panmunjom and clasped hands with Moon Jae-in, the democratically elected president of South Korea....

 "Kim’s action marked the start of a remarkable day in which the two nations 'solemnly declared' an end to the Korean War, which ripped the country apart from 1950 to 1953.

"Over the next few hours, accompanied by top aides and diplomats, generals and intelligence chiefs, the Korean leaders discussed an agreement that would lead to what they both described as the “complete denuclearization” of the peninsula. The two also 'affirmed the principle of determining the destiny of the Korean nation on their own accord,' a signal to both the United States and China that the days of great-power intervention in their divided country may be waning....

"But almost from the moment of that first handshake, the pundits who shape the US media’s coverage of North Korea were spinning the summit, and Kim’s outreach in particular, as a dangerous, even ominous, event....

"'Yada, yada, yada,' the perennial hawk Max Boot wrote disparagingly in The Washington Post about the 'Korea summit hype,' adding that 'there is very little of substance here.' Similar hot takes were offered by Nicholas Kristof and Nicholas Eberstadt in The New York Times, Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post, Robin Wright in The New Yorker, and Michael O’Hanlon in The Hill. Their doubts were repeated and amplified as gospel by the usual critics on cable TV.

"The kicker came on Sunday, April 29, when the Times’ Mark Landler painted the Korean summit as an affront to US national-security interests. Citing every establishment pundit he could find, Landler argued that a resumption of diplomatic ties between the Koreas 'will inevitably erode the crippling economic sanctions against the North,' while making it hard for Trump 'to threaten military action against a country that is extending an olive branch.' It was depressing to see such overt cheerleading for US imperial control over Korea in the media."

Read more: https://www.thenation.com/article/historic-korean-summit-sets-the-table-for-peace-and-us-pundits-react-with-horror/
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