It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

DPRK TO THE U.S. (AND THE BBC): "WE'RE WATCHING"

Pyongyang, February 5 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea today gave the following answer to the question put by KCNA as regards the U.S. ridiculous smear campaign against the DPRK. These days the United States is busy holding a Congressional hearing from "north Korean defectors," spreading a sheer lie that north Korea tested a chemical weapon on prisoners, the spokesman said, and went on:

The U.S. let loose a string of balderdash against the DPRK over "the issue of drug", "the issue of counterfeit money" and "the issue of north Korean defectors". Not content with this, it is spreading a lie about the "test of chemical weapons on prisoners".

This shows what a base anti-DPRK smear campaign the Bush group is engaged in.

The U.S. seems to have no more material for conducting such a campaign.

It is a trite method of the present U.S. administration to use those defectors for inventing lies and justifying a war of aggression under that pretext. This was clearly evidenced by the U.S. war of aggression against Iraq.

We do not feel any need to argue about this cheap U.S. propaganda, but we can hardly overlook an ulterior aim sought by it.

Now the Bush administration finds itself in a tight corner as it provoked a war against Iraq after deceiving Americans and the world. The Bush group, dismayed at the election campaign turning unfavorable for it, is working hard to get rid of the difficult situation by leading the situation on the Korean peninsula to an extreme pitch of tension under the pretext of the nuclear issue.

Its dirty smear campaign is aimed to invent plausible pretexts for starting another Korean war, raising a hue and cry over the "human rights issue" in addition to the "issue of weapons of mass destruction," and thus not to repeat its setbacks in Iraq.

We are watching every movement of the Bush administration with vigilance.

Some media acting tools for the U.S. smear campaign for cheap publicity are well advised to come to themselves, though belatedly.

That last line is probably aimed at the BBC for committing the crime of interviewing defectors from North Korea.

More interesting to me is a line hidden nearly in the middle of the piece:

The Bush group, dismayed at the election campaign turning unfavorable for it . . .

Do you think there is any chance that the DPRK will give any significant concessions at the approaching six-party talks when it knows that the hard-line Bush administration may be gone by next year? I didn't think so. Time may be on North Korea's side. On the other hand, if Bush wins again all bets are off.