Image is from this CNN article.
The DPRK’s history has been a rollercoaster, with admirable highs and heartbreaking lows, most notably the Korean War and the fall of the USSR. Its steadfast commitment to Juche, a variant of Marxism-Leninism that focuses on self-sufficiency, has both made the DPRK a target for imperialist genocidal powers, and allowed them to survive these attacks.
Lately, we seem to be seeing a transition from surviving to thriving. China and the DPRK have always had a much more complicated history than Western education and media allows its population to know, with periods of quite strong disagreement - it’s not the case that China is somehow the DPRK’s master. Russia is the DPRK’s other neighour that isn’t US-occupied, and while they obviously differ substantially in ideology since the USSR fell, the tsunami of sanctions on Russia has changed things. The stick has been removed from the equation, with Russia facing no possible punishment from the West because they were unable to enact sanctions effectively and used all their ammunition in the first few barrages rather than turning the screws over time (I don’t care if we’re on the 14th sanctions package, it’s all been meaningless for Russia since the end of 2022).
The carrot is also more visible, with an alliance making a lot of sense for both. Once again, Western education and media would have you believe a Parenti-esque reality in which Korea is a massive and unpredictable danger to the world, but is simultaneously so poor and destitute that their artillery pieces are made of wood and their missiles out of paper-mache. The truth is that Korea has innovated greatly in missile technology, with some of their weapons matching or even exceeding those of the Russians, hence the Russians’ use of them in Ukraine. Russia also finds it advantageous to invest in Korea to strengthen the anti-hegemonic alliance’s presence in the Pacific, countering the US-occupied lower half of the peninsula who has naturally sided with Ukraine. Additionally, Russia is investing deeply in the Arctic sea route. This will open up as climate change continues; is naturally quite defensible for Russia so long as Korea is there to provide further defense at its eastern edge; and is both a faster and safer route for Russia to access China - especially in a world where straits can be blockaded by even impoverished yet determined countries like Yemen. The situation in the Red Sea benefits Russia and China now, but in the coming years, the US may apply the same lesson for their own benefit elsewhere.
It is perhaps this new sense of self-confidence that has let Korea give up on reunification with its lower half via peaceful measures. A new Korean War would be devastating for both sides even if it remained non-nuclear, but with a rising DPRK and with the South falling yet further into hypercapitalist exploitation and misery, and a US that remains non-committal to its “allies” when times get difficult (as in Ukraine and Europe), a reality where Korea may finally hold the upper hand and have the ability to liberate its south may be approaching in the years and decades to come.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you’ve wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don’t worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is *the DPRK! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week’s thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Milei ends a press conference where he announced that he’s giving the USA a naval base in Argentina by screeching his stupid ass catchphrase. No one else joins in, the US ambassador laughs at him, and he leaves the stage to no applause.
Reddit president
I’ve been buying Israeli tahini this whole time
mods, you can ban me now
It’s not your fault. All these food corporations deliberately obfuscate those kinds of origin details.What brand was it?
Fast food chains are using algorithms to cooperatively fix prices
Hotel chains are using algorithms to cooperatively fix prices
Meat processors are using algorithms to cooperatively fix prices
Landlords are using algorithms to cooperatively coordinate rent increases
Amazon is using an algorithm to specifically coordinate cooperative price rises with Target
The current era of inflation is due to capitalist GOSPLANning.
“We live in a free country without state planning/control.” Except that we don’t. We live in one large corporate state.
When I’m older and all the corporations have merged together I look forward to being buried in a Ronald McDonald coffin that will take my future children 10 years, at least, to pay off.
This is happening globally unfortunately. It’s very transparent in South Africa. I’ll explain how it works later.
cool, there’s like 5 companies that own the entire country and they’re all collaborating with each other to raise prices. who could have seen this coming.
That’s definitely a salient aspect but the new development is the manner in which even archetypically “competitive” and decentralized markets, markets with many “competing” suppliers of largely equivalents goods and services such as hotels and fast food, are now also routinely engaging in cartel behavior.
The other aspect that is new is the way this process is often entirely automated.
It’s an automated solution to the prisoners dilemma of idealized capitalism. Even decentralized and ideally competitive markets are operating as cartels now.
The feds are starting to take notice and the most egregious examples might get fined in a decade, maybe, but it’s hard to think of a way out of this process that isn’t simply centralized price fixing by the government.
It is essentially impossible to put this information genie back in the bottle and capitalism only has administered prices to offer to consumers now.
they could force them to reveal their code, its not that unthinkable. If one vendor for pricing models has input tables from all of the suppliers its trivial to prove what that produces is cartel behavior via ml
and big tech has already demonstrated how they’re very capable of colluding in their collective interest
About 60,000 tech employees filed a class action lawsuit against Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe in 2011 accusing those companies of agreeing not to hire one another’s employees in order to drive down salaries. The plaintiffs cited emails from top executives like the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt in which they discussed an agreement not to poach each others’ workers and thus enter a salary war.
In one particularly damning email, Schmidt tells Jobs that an employee recruited from Apple to Google will be fired per their agreement—an email that Jobs forwarded to an Apple human resources executive with the comment: “:)”
Jeez I knew about the rent one. I’m not exactly surprised by the rest of these. I am a little surprised how blatant it is now that even the US Gov cannot pretend anymore.
“Can we have gosplan 2.0?”
“okay”“how could you think that’s what I meant?”
Cybersyn but terrible
Cyber-sin
The President of Peru, Dina Boluarte, has said on national radio and TV that she is the victim of judicial persecution in the Rolex case. Together with her cabinet, Boluarte is victimizing herself, in the style of Peru’s former presidents.
Members of Congress from the Peru Libre party (Leftist party but not insane or a weird cult) have just tabled a motion to vacate office against the President of Peru, Dina Boluarte, for the corruption cases related to the Rolex affair.
The Peruvian National Police, following a search warrant, broke down the door of one of the homes of the President of Peru, Dina Boluarte, who is being investigated for corruption. This marks an event, as never before has the private residence of a sitting president of Peru been the target of a search. Dina Boluarte has been Peru’s president since December 2022, when former president Pedro Castillo was ousted for attempting a coup d’état.
Dina’s usefulness to the US and the Fujimoristas is running out; after the elections, she will go to jail.
If I stop posting, you can blame my excited delirium
Security forces repel warlord’s attempt to storm Haitian presidential palace
Troops thwart push led by Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Chérizier to invade unoccupied residence as firefights break out in Port-au-Prince.
At least one policeman was shot after he and other officers were forced to flee an armoured car that was later set on fire, according to local media reports. Heavy gunfire has erupted in the downtown area of Haiti’s capital as police battled gang members near the National Palace for several hours.
Scores of people were trapped by the gunfire in downtown Port-au-Prince on Monday, while dozens of others managed to flee. One man who declined to provide his name out of fear for his life told The Associated Press that he was stuck for five hours until police rescued him.
“It’s the armoured car that covered us (so we could) leave the area,” he said. The latest gunbattle comes more than a month after gangs began attacking key government infrastructure.
Gangs have torched police stations, opened fire on the main international airport and stormed the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. The violence has somewhat subsided in certain areas since erupting at the end of February, but gunfire still echoes daily.
At least 1,554 people have been reported killed up to 22 March and another 826 injured, according to the UN. The situation forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry to announce last month he would resign as soon as a transitional council is created.
Henry, who was on an official trip to Kenya to push for the UN-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country, remains locked out of Haiti. The proposed transitional council of nine members, which has yet to be formally established, will be responsible for choosing a new prime minister and council of ministers.
On Monday night, Haiti’s government issued a statement raising concerns over its creation, saying the current council of ministers "stumbled over proven constitutional and legal questions. The Constitution and Haitian laws nowhere provide for this institution.”
The government noted ministers met Monday to talk about the transitional council and shared the draft decree with legal experts so they “could finalise it and make it compliant with the laws of the republic.”
The current council of ministers also plans to create a joint commission to oversee the handover of responsibilities. Haiti’s government noted Henry received a list of nine people nominated to the transitional council on Friday and a draft decree establishing the council on Sunday.
There is this MEP, Nico Semsrott, a comedian, got elected to the European Parliament for a satire party. Anyway he’s depressed and quitting, and promoting his book (which he didn’t write or read apparently, based on his notes), so there’s a bunch of recent interviews.
That guy is such a fucking lib. He describes how utterly pointless and soul-crushing this whole system is, and how it’s 100% totally impossible to change literally anything as an MEP, and yet, he still sounds so very lib. Like how is that even possible? Zeit interview (in German)
Ecuadorian-Mexican Crisis
The government of Ecuador, led by President Daniel Noboa, has declared Mexico’s ambassador to the country persona non-grata.
This follows the Mexican president’s remarks about the elections in Ecuador, which have angered the government. Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) referred in an interview to the 2023 elections in Ecuador, where radical right-wing candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated 11 days before the elections.
Obrador echoed former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa’s comments that Villavicencio’s murder had harmed the candidate of the Citizens’ Revolution (left) in the elections, after linking the movement to the candidate’s death.
The statements did not go down well with the Ecuadorian government, which not only declared the ambassador persona non-grata, but also surrounded the Mexican embassy in the country as a form of intimidation.
want to be depressed about argentina? Ben Norton - CIA and Wall Street are taking over Argentina: President Milei sells off his country
Mexico Grants Asylum to Former Ecuadorian Vice President Glas
Mexico demands that Ecuador comply with the right to asylum and its international obligations.
On Friday, the Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary issued a statement announcing that Mexico grants political asylum to former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas.
“After a thorough analysis of the information received, the Mexican government decided to grant political asylum to Jorge Glas, who is currently at the Mexican Embassy in Quito,” it said.
“This will be officially communicated to the Ecuadorian authorities, along with the request for the safe conduct, in accordance with the 1954 Diplomatic Asylum Convention, an international treaty of which Mexico and Ecuador are parties,” specified Mexican diplomacy.
The Foreign Affairs Secretary pointed out that “the asylum-granting State - in this case Mexico - is the only one empowered to assess the nature of the persecution against political asylum seekers (Article IV), that its decision to continue with the asylum must be respected by the territorial State - in this case Ecuador - (Article IX) and that, once asylum is granted, the granting State may request the departure of the asylee to foreign territory, and the territorial State is obliged to immediately provide the corresponding safe conduct.”
In the same communication, Mexican diplomacy regretted that its ambassador to Ecuador, Raquel Serur Smeke, had been declared persona non grata and must leave the country.
“Since presenting her credentials to the Ecuadorian State on June 18, 2019, Ambassador Serur Smeke has carried out outstanding diplomatic work in favor of deepening political dialogue between Mexico and Ecuador,” it recalled.
“During her tenure… bonds were strengthened between the business sectors of both countries, and cultural exchange was intensely promoted. At all times, Ambassador Serur Smeke adhered to the principles of foreign policy established in the Mexican constitution and in international law. So the aforementioned declaration clearly has a political character.”
After President Daniel Noboa declared Serur Smeke persona non grata, Ecuadorian security forces increased their presence outside the Mexican Embassy in Quito.
“This constitutes clear harassment of the Embassy and a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. It is evident that these actions do not correspond to the usual surveillance and protection practices of diplomatic properties, based on the norms that regulate good relations between nations,” the Mexican Foreign Affairs secretary stated.
“Mexico demands that Ecuador respect our sovereignty, refrain from harming the asylum right, comply with its international obligations, guarantee the inviolability of diplomatic missions, and cease the policy of harassment and intimidation. If this situation persists, Mexico holds Ecuador responsible for any harm to the diplomatic headquarters, its accredited personnel, and any person under the protection of the Mexican state,” it pointed out.
On Friday, despite all of the above, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) ratified that his administration will not sever diplomatic relations with Ecuador.
“We are not going to break relations nor are we going to do the same with the ambassador of Ecuador… I gave instructions for the Mexican Air Force to bring our ambassador,” he said.
Didn’t know Biden was a posadist
There was an article I read a while ago explaining how the US not only stopped Japan from expelling or significantly scaling down US troops from the base in Okinawa, but also forced Japan to pay for their base in Guam. I used to be able to easily find it by searching it and would come back to it every now and then, but I can’t find it anymore. If anyone knows the article I’m talking about or some equivalent literature that explains what happened, I’d appreciate it.
Additionally, I’m looking for reading on how the US forced Japan into economic stagnation after the 80’s. Thanks for any help.
Edit: found it, it’s an interesting read for anyone who’s interested
Peru: Governors Testify in President Boluarte’s Rolexgate Case
On Friday, Dina Boluarte is expected to testify about bank deposits, jewelry, and luxury watches that were not included in her asset declaration.
On Thursday, the Attorney General’s Office received testimonies from the Governor of Cusco, Wilfredo Oscorima, and the Governor of Ayacucho, Wilfredo Oscorima. This occurred amid the investigation against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte for illicit enrichment.
After a meeting that lasted more than an hour, Governor Oscorima left the Attorney General’s Office without answering questions from the journalists who were awaiting him.
Previously, an investigation published by the Latina channel revealed that he purchased a Rolex watch with the same characteristics as those owned by Boluarte.
Governor Salcedo handed over two Rolex watches and said that he didn’t need his “door broken down,” referring to the raid on Boluarte’s residence over the weekend.
“The Ayacucho governor gave me the watch because he saw that my wrist was empty. I accepted it without realizing it was a Rolex and without thinking that the cameras would focus on my wrist,” Salcedo told the press and apologized for these “trivial acts.”
On Friday, President Boluarte must appear before the Attorney General’s Office to testify about bank deposits of unknown origin, valuable jewelry, and luxury watches that were not included in her asset declaration.
Gustavo Adrianzen, the president of the Council of Ministers, trusts that the statements will clarify what happened and hopes that the Attorney General’s Office will close the investigation.
He also stated that the US$27 million appearing in the Ayacucho government’s accounts come from a transfer made by the Executive Branch for the construction of a soccer stadium for the celebration of the Bicentennial Bolivarian Games.
COTW: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Did 72T noticed my comment from last week??!!
I want to believe. I really have to force myself to write something now. No excuses anymore.
