Tim Shorrock: As Tensions Rise on Korean Peninsula, Newly-Elected South Korean President Seeks Diplomatic Thaw with the North

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

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"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

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SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

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SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

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As Tensions Rise on Korean Peninsula, Newly-Elected South Korean President Seeks Diplomatic Thaw with the North

Posted July 5, 2017

Interview with Tim Shorrock, journalist, conducted by Scott Harris

As the U.S. celebrated the nation's Independence Day on July 4, North Korea claimed to have conducted its first successful test of a long-range missile that it says can "reach anywhere in the world." The country claimed it was an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, that Pyongyang says could potentially hit the U.S. mainland.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who confirmed North Korea's claim that it had launched a long-range missile, said that "testing an ICBM represents a new escalation of the threat to the U.S., our allies and partners, the region and the world. ” While Donald Trump said on Twitter in early January that a North Korean test of an ICBM capable of reaching the United States, “won’t happen,” U.S. options to pressure Pyongyang are limited to engaging China to exert new pressure on the North’s leader Kim Jong Un and ratcheting up sanctions.

Although Trump’s National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has said that military force was a possible option in confronting North Korea, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford maintain that any conflict would devastate South Korea’s capital, Seoul, and inflict horrific casualties on its 25 million residents, including an estimated 300,000 U.S. citizens residing in the metropolitan area. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with independent journalist Tim Shorrock, who has reported widely on Asian and Korean affairs. Here. he assesses rising tensions in the Korean peninsula, the Trump administration’s bellicose rhetoric and newly-elected South Korean president Moon Jae-in’s pledge to revive what’s called a sunshine policy of economic and diplomatic engagement with the North. [Rush transcript.]

TIM SHORROCK: North Korea has been building nuclear weapons since it has been missiles to carry them on and it has actually made quite a jump in its missile capability in the last year or so. But, you know, they are building these because they are afraid and have been concerned for many years about the possibility of the United States attacking them, as the United States did during the Korean War.

And the U.S. has surrounded North Korea with an incredible array of weapons for decades, including nuclear weapons, and so, this is between North Korea and the United States and it's dangerous for both. So I think the problem is, North Korea - the fact that it's developing nuclear weapons and developing missiles has to be looked in sort of a historical context because, you know, there's a lot of people who've been involved in negotiating with North Korea, have been talking about recently, you know the North Koreans look at places like Iraq, or Libya. Iraq, where the U.S. invaded and replaced a government, and in Libya, where they convinced (Moammar) Gadhafi to give up nuclear weapons, and then with NATO bombed and replaced his government also. They see nuclear weapons as protection against that kind of attack.

So, the question of how to deal with that has to confront how does North Korea feel safe so it's not attacked by the United States or the combined powers of the United States and Japan, and South Korea, which have a three-way military alliance. And I think that's the real issue before the United States, as well as with South Korea, in terms of dealing with North Korea as its neighbor. And so, there has to be some kind of resolution to this long conflict.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Tim Shorrock, North Korea and its current leader Kim Jong Un are often portrayed in the U.S. media as irrational, dangerous and as examples, there's often discussion about the really overheated rhetoric coming out of North Korea's new media. You have people who visit North Korea from the U.S., sometimes taken prisoner, as this young man who came back in a coma and later died for stealing a political slogan on a banner. How do you assess the rationality of the leadership of the nation of North Korea when it comes to these concerns about their nuclear program?

TIM SHORROCK: Well, first of all, their policies are completely rational. I don't think its irrational to protect your country from another attack. They're also very predictable, not unpredictable, as many people say. However, they are without a doubt, it's a very cruel regime. What happened to this young man, Otto Warmbier, who went there as a tourist, an innocent kid, not knowing what kind of government he was dealing with, and clearly a year ago something happened that cut the flow of blood to his brain and he went into a coma. It's a tragedy what happened to him.

We need to have better communication with North Korea. I mean, the United States has never recognized North Korea and put an embassy there, some kind of diplomatic presence there would really alleviate these kinds of issues when Americans are arrested and taken prisoner.

BETWEEN THE LINES: South Korea's newly-elected President Moon Jai-in was in Washington recently speaking with President Trump. Tell us about Moon Jae-in and his stated policy of wanting to ramp up diplomacy and outreach to North Korea, hearkening back to a time that another South Korean president pursued what they called the "Sunshine Policy." How was that greeted in Washington by the Trump administration and what are the chances that this newly-elected president in South Korea could make some kind of breakthrough here.

TIM SHORROCK: Well, I actually think the chances are pretty good. I was actually in South Korea for two months this spring, April and May and I heard him give campaign speeches a couple times, where I was in the city of quanju in the south and he made the Sunshine Policy a big part of his speeches. And he would talk, how we need to restore that kind of economic dialogue and cooperation with North Korea and go back to those days under certain conditions, of course.

But that's a very popular notion in Korea. There was a recent poll in South Korea that showed 80 percent of people want to restart the intro Korea talks and negotiations. So I think that all these sanctions are very strong. That the U.S. and U.N. has endorsed. South Korea would like to open a door to negotiations. They still want to maintain a strong military alliance they have with the United States to prevent a war and to be there in case there is a war, but they really want to reach out more, and already Moon Jae-in is doing that. For example, way before I came here, a North Korean tae-quando team was here for a world tae-quando championship. And Moon went to greet the North Korean team, and he proposed they form a joint Olympic team for next Winter Olympics when they are in South Korea.

For more information, visit Tim Shorrock's Nation magazine page at thenation.com/authors/tim-shorrock.