Propaganda Hour: Kim Jong Un Describes US Military as ‘Cannibals’
Published in Der Spiegel
(Germany) on 25 November 2014
by (link to original)
(Germany) on 25 November 2014
by (link to original)
Translated from
by Adam Yeomans.
Edited by Eva Langman.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who has apparently been struggling with foot problems for a while, seems to have recovered to some extent. This is why he had not been seen in public much, but now he's back — taking the fight to the enemy as only he knows how.
Kim Jong Un recently exploited a cultural institution as a means to settle the score with the Americans. In Sinchon, he visited a museum about U.S. war crimes during the Korean War. The state news agency KCNA quoted the dictator as saying that the exhibit, which is about a massacre in the Sinchon community, showed that the United States Army was made up of "cannibals" and that the soldiers are supposed to have "enjoyed the slaughter." North Korea accuses the Americans of having killed 35,000 civilians in Sinchon in 1950.
There is some evidence that this comment, made during a propaganda visit, was a tit-for-tat response to U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee’s resolution the previous Tuesday that could bring North Korea before the International Criminal Court. The resolution calls on the Security Council to instruct the tribunal in The Hague to initiate proceedings against Pyongyang.
The resolution, which is nonbinding, will come before the U.N. General Assembly in December. Russia and China could then use their right to veto the resolution in the Security Council.
The basis of the resolution is a U.N. report that describes the North Korean detention system, giving details of torture, executions and rape. On Sunday, North Korea's highest military committee described the United Nations' actions as a "declaration of war." Supporters of the resolution have threatened Pyongyang with "catastrophic consequences.”
Kim Jong Un recently exploited a cultural institution as a means to settle the score with the Americans. In Sinchon, he visited a museum about U.S. war crimes during the Korean War. The state news agency KCNA quoted the dictator as saying that the exhibit, which is about a massacre in the Sinchon community, showed that the United States Army was made up of "cannibals" and that the soldiers are supposed to have "enjoyed the slaughter." North Korea accuses the Americans of having killed 35,000 civilians in Sinchon in 1950.
There is some evidence that this comment, made during a propaganda visit, was a tit-for-tat response to U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee’s resolution the previous Tuesday that could bring North Korea before the International Criminal Court. The resolution calls on the Security Council to instruct the tribunal in The Hague to initiate proceedings against Pyongyang.
The resolution, which is nonbinding, will come before the U.N. General Assembly in December. Russia and China could then use their right to veto the resolution in the Security Council.
The basis of the resolution is a U.N. report that describes the North Korean detention system, giving details of torture, executions and rape. On Sunday, North Korea's highest military committee described the United Nations' actions as a "declaration of war." Supporters of the resolution have threatened Pyongyang with "catastrophic consequences.”
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