By Yves Engler - May 11th, 2013

The official story is that the Korean War began when the Soviet-backed North invaded the South on June 25, 1950. The US then came to the South’s aid. As is the case with most official US history the story is incomplete, if not downright false...“The best explanation of what happened on June 25 is that [South Korean dictator] Syngman Rhee deliberately initiated the fighting and then successfully blamed the North. The North...took advantage of the southern attack and...launched its own strike with the objective of capturing Seoul. Then a massive U.S. intervention followed.”

The Times is America's unofficial ministry of information and propaganda. Daily managed news misinformation is featured.

Washington needs enemies. When none exist, they're invented. North Korea's straight from central casting. Pyongyang threatens no one. Media scoundrels say otherwise. So does Obama.

By STANSFIELD SMITH - April 10, 2013

An accurate reading of the events leading up to the present situation shows that North Korea is responding to US military escalation, and in particular to US refusal to negotiate. This includes a peace treaty to end the Korean War, any steps towards reunifying Korea, the end to the US occupation of South Korea and ending the annual month-long US-South Korean war maneuvers. Even today, it includes US refusal to talk in order to lower the tensions.

By Peter Symonds - 9 April 2013

Amid sharply rising tensions, Washington is not simply responding to North Korean threats, but is engaged in reckless provocations of its own that risk the outbreak of war...The Obama administration’s confrontational stance toward North Korea is part of a far broader strategic shift — the “pivot to Asia” — that is aimed at containing China militarily and undermining its economic and political influence throughout the region.

For decades, North Korea's wanted normalized relations with Washington. It's been repeatedly rebuffed. Promises made were broken. America needs enemies. North Korea's straight from central casting.

Beating up on North Korea persists. It's done for geopolitical reasons. Washington needs enemies. When none exist they're created. North Korea comes straight from central casting.

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers - Thursday, 28 February 2013

US political leaders and media pundits trumpet North Korea's recent testing of missiles and nuclear weapons as a great threat. But the US mass media do not tell the whole story. Without the context of history and current events, the actions of North Korea look insane, but when put in context we find that the United States is pushing North Korea on this path. North Korea is really not a significant threat compared to what the United States is doing with nuclear weapons, the Asia Pivot and war games off the Korean coast.

By JOHN FEFFER - August 02, 2012

When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently watched a concert that included Disney figures like Mickey Mouse, it was big news. Foreign analysts rushed to the conclusion that the young leader was presiding over a shift in Pyongyang’s attitudes about the West. After all, Mickey Mouse is a symbol of American imperialism and Western penetration almost as potent as McDonald’s...But the worlds of Walt Disney and Kim Il Sung are actually not that far apart.

Washington needs enemies. When none exist, they're created. North Korea and Iran are prime targets. Neither poses threats. Yet they've faced decades of false accusations.

By James Cogan - WSWS

Pyongyang expressed its frustration at the recent inconclusive talks, issuing stronger than usual denunciations of annual military exercises by South Korean and American forces...A North Korean military statement denounced the exercises as a “silent declaration of war”. The official news agency labeled them an “unpardonable infringement” upon the country’s sovereignty and said North Korea was “fully ready to fight a war”. Kim Jong-un was cited as calling for “powerful retaliatory strikes” if South Korean or American ships entered waters claimed by North Korea.

By Peter Symonds - 20 December 2011

Kim Jong-il headed an oppressive Stalinist regime that represented the interests not of the North Korean working class and peasantry, but those of a privileged bureaucratic elite. However, the chief responsibility for the perennial regional tensions lies with the aggressive policies of the US, which has repeatedly sought to destabilize North Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

By Conn Hallinan - Znet

North Korea is hardly going to unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons while its two major enemies are designing war games to “stabilize” Pyongyang in the advent of major unrest. The recent NATO bombing of Libya certainly caught the attention of the North Koreans, who essentially said that it would never have happened if the Gaddafi regime had not abandoned its efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Libya is “teaching the international community a grave lesson...The truth that one should have power to defend peace.”

By Will Morrow - WSWS

Successive US administrations have maintained sanctions on North Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953, and exploited Pyongyang’s nuclear programs as the pretext to impose new ones. Over the past two decades, the nuclear issue has been used to pursue a two-track policy — either bring about the economic and political collapse of the North Korean regime, or force it to the negotiating table on American terms...The US and its allies are using food as a means to effectively starve North Korea into submission.

By Tim Beal - Z Magazine

The Yeonpyeong clash happened at the time South Korea, with American support, was carrying out yet another huge military exercise practicing war against the North...These military exercises...have been growing in strength and scope and are part of conservative South Korea President Lee Myung-bak's strategy of precipitating a crisis that will bring about the collapse of North Korea and its takeover by the South. To counter this, the North has a "zero-tolerance" strategy, whereby any attack...would be met with fierce retaliation.