People Must Heighten Vigilance Against Imperialist ‘Liberty’ and ‘Democracy’

In terms of observing the global media, North Korea takes the prize for coming the closest to permitting the reader to engage in time travel.

Apparently, that notorious despot Kim Jong-il is finding it necessary to again inoculate his people against the impinging imperialist world outside.

As his nation once again starves, what is Kim now telling his people to persuade them not to veer toward the hellfire of capitalism? This op-ed article from the Kim clan’s family newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, tells North Koreans not to be fooled by the “aggressive ‘liberty and democracy’ of the imperialists.”

The article warns, “A failure to maintain vigilance against the ‘liberty’ and ‘democracy’ promoted by the imperialists may result in grave and irrevocable consequences.”

The newspaper then cautions its presumably patriotic audience to be careful about ‘freedom of thought’: “Now keep in mind, the imperialists regard ‘freedom of thought’ as an important method of destabilizing and causing degeneration in socialist countries … This is how they spread bourgeois ideas and culture.

And why are we – the Western imperialists – doing all this – and what should be done?

“This they do in an effort to realize their ambition for global domination the easy way. This is why revolutionary peoples must intensify ideological education. The ideological and cultural poisoning of the imperialists must be prevented, and the socialist cause defended.”

COMMENTARY

May 22, 2008

North Korea – Korea Central News Agency – Home Page (English)

Pyongyang: The world’s progressive people should not be taken in by the much-publicized and aggressive “liberty and democracy” of the imperialists, but instead wage a dynamic struggle for genuine freedom and democracy.

[Editor's Note: The word "progressive" in the West generally means to advocate improving workers' rights and building social justice. In the mind of the Pyongyang regime, it seems to mean opposing capitalism, pluralism and of course, siding with Kim Jong-il against his "imperialist" enemies].

This appeal appeared in the Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article.

It is sheer hypocrisy for the imperialists to claim that a capitalist society could be likened to a “free world,” and for them to allege that this would give people all sorts of freedom. The article goes on:

This is nothing but a foolish attempt to keep mankind from what it truly longs for: socialism. It is merely a bid to create an illusion about capitalism in order to westernize the world.

The loud-mouthing of the imperialists about “liberty and democracy” is just a slogan for aggression and interference designed to realize their ambition for global domination.

The “liberty” and “democracy” advertised by the U.S. are the keynotes of a strategy for a “peaceful transition” to capitalism. By touting “liberty,” the United States seeks to widen the wave of bourgeois liberalization and overtake other nations and in a bid to prod the people of those nations into expressing suspicion and distrust of their own systems. It is an effort to get people to rise up against their own nations. It is an effort to return society to the law of the jungle in which the one is permitted to live and behave as one pleases, sacrificing others for oneself. Its ultimate aim is to bring down the socialist systems of other countries.

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing coverage of the United States from the Koreas.