Skip to main content

I (still) Believe North Korea...

From the CJL archives, c. 1997.


I Believe! by Casey J. Lartigue Jr.

A resident of Songnam City, Pundang, Korea

I believe North Korea when it says that South Korea started the Korean war in 1950. I didn't believe Boris Yeltsin when he released secret documents revealing that North Korea started the Korean war.

I believe North Korea didn't send 31 commandos into Seoul in 1968 to kill Park Chung Hee. I believe North Korea didn't send another 130 guerrillas onto the East Coast area of Uljin and Samchok later that year. Or June 1969 when it didn't send armed agents into Huksan. Or April 1970 into Hukchon.

I believe the assassin who killed the South Korean first lady in 1974 wasn't a North Korean agent. I believe several North Korean agents didn't cross the border in October 1979. I believe the Earth moved and they only appeared to be in South Korea. I believe that three North Korean agents shot near the Han River in March 1980 were just out for a swim. I believe that North Korean agents shot to death in November 1980 in Hwenggando got lost while hiking.
I believe that three North Korean agents shot to death in Namhae a few months later were part of a search party looking for those lost hikers. I believe that three agents who infiltrated into Kumhwa in March 1981 were sleep walking.

I believe that it is routine for North Korean agents to go to sleep in North Korea and magically wake up in South Korea the next morning, fully armed with grenades, a machine gun and dreams of reunification.

I believed the North Koreans when they said they weren't digging tunnels underground in the 1970s. I didn't believe the South Koreans when they showed the pictures of the tunnels to the world. I believe the mob of North Koreans who chopped up two U.S. army officers in 1976 did it in self-defense. I believe nine North Korean agents shot to death after their boat sank off the coast of Susan in 1981 were lost fishermen. I believe that North Korean agents shot to death near the Imjin River in July 1981 and June 1983 were wayward scuba divers. I believe the North Korea agents spotted along South Korea's east coast in 1982 were tourists.

I believe the North Koreans didn't set off the bomb killing South Korean government officials in Rangoon in 1983. I believe that the alleged North Korean agent who killed three South Korean civilians in September 1984 was a South Korean decoy. I believe that Kim Hyun-Hee, who helped blow up a South Korean plane in 1987 (killing all 115 on board), wasn't a North Korean agent. If she was, technically speaking, a North Korean agent, I believe she honestly forgot to take her bomb off the plane.

I believe that North Korean agents shot to death in May 1992 (three along the West Coast) and October 1995 (two in Puyo) were bringing reunification messages. Or messages of apology about the terrorist plane bombing. Or were lost. Or whatever the North Korean government says they were doing.

I believe that it is the responsibility of people who have never been to North Korea to feed starving North Koreans. I believe North Koreans want peace, and that the imperialists and puppets from the U.S., Japan and South Korea who are feeding starving North Koreans want war.

I believe that defectors from North Korea are "rats," "criminals," and "cowards." I believe that North Korea is a worker's paradise and that only rats, criminals and cowards would voluntarily leave. I believe that if North Korea opened the border that only rats, criminals and cowards would leave. I believe the North Koreans are trying to protect the South Koreans from those rats, criminals and cowards.

I believe that reports of North Korean soldiers illegally entering the DMZ is South Korean propaganda to justify increased military. I believe that the North Korean government official who threatened to turn Seoul into a "sea of flames" was misquoted. I believe he meant to say a "sea of happiness." Or a "sea of love." He was misquoted in his own life story. His words were mistranslated from the Korean language into the Korean language. He wasn't there. He was having an off-day.

I believed North Korea when it said that one of its submarines, while on a "routine mission" in September 1996, "drifted" to the South because of "engine trouble." I didn't believe North Korea when it threatened to retaliate against Seoul "a hundred and a thousand times" for killing most of the submarine's 26 agents who had fled months later when its spokesmen of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed "deep regret" for the submarine incident.

I believed North Korea two days later when it blamed Seoul for the submarine incident. I believed North Korea when it said it would try to prevent future incidents. I believed that it couldn't prevent such incidents because North Korean subs naturally drift to the South when they have engine trouble. I believe the South uses a large magnet to attract North Korean subs.
I believed North Korea last month when it said that its submarine "drifted" into South Korean waters after it experienced "engine trouble." I believe the South Koreans were responsible for the nine crewmen committing suicide. I believe the dead man discovered washed up on a beach wearing North Korean clothing and armed with North Korean weapons wasn't a North Korean agent.

I believe all of this because I don't believe that North Korea actually exists. I believe that North Korea is a figment of South Korean imaginations. I believe that Boris Yeltsin has the secret documents to prove it.

CJL
Linked by NetRightNation
One of Kim Il-Sung's mentors

Popular posts from this blog

Radio, Harvard

I'll be a guest on XM 169 The Power this morning from 10:15 a.m. EST. I'll be talking about teaching English abroad. I'll be interviewed by Brian Higgins of MYB Talk . I sang last night for about five hours with friends but I'm sure my voice will be fine. Tuesday, I'll be interviewed by a Harvard University representative who wants my input on a new doctoral program for education leaders . It is a collaboration between the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School. Some folks at the Booker Rising site are (again) reminding me that I'm not as smart as I think I am. CJL

Easy to find Supermarket!!!!

Getting around Seoul is easy. On the other hand, actually finding your final destination can be very difficult. The main reason is that Koreans don't actually use street addresses. I am constantly amazed when I find a new place. I always leave early, giving myself a 30 minute cushion to walk around lost, meeting Koreans who are happy to get lost along with me. Still, I have had a few Koreans tell me that a particular place is "easy" to find. At one meeting with a group of folks, when I called to say I was lost the organizer said the place was easy to find. She called me about 20 minutes later, guessing that I was still trying to find the place. I was actually a few subway stops away from home. She was a bit surprised, letting me know they were waiting for me. I told her that it would be easy for them to find me. A colleague of mine mentioned that a supermarket nearby was easy to find. He later gave me directions that sounded something like, "Sure, just go down the st...

Scam? Yo Momma!

Note: This was originally posted shortly after Jesse Lee Peterson's book was published, reposted in 2005, and now because of a fight between black customers and a Korean merchant in Dallas, Texas. Scam? Yo Momma! During the summer of 2002 I was an observer to a dispute between the Asian owners of a Chinese takeout and some of their black customers in Washington, D.C. The month-long boycott began when a local activist accused a cook at a Chinese takeout of attempting to cook a piece of chicken he had allegedly dropped on the floor. Despite the best efforts of human rights activist Dick Gregory, popular talk-show host Joe Madison, and Rev. Walter Fauntroy, the protestors were unable to coax any media to report on the protest. On some days there were, by my unofficial count, as many as 100 people chanting songs and marching. But one key person was missing: Rev. Jesse Jackson. It was important to the foot soldiers at the boycott that someone from the media report on...

Random photos from today

I went walking around today. Whereas some people like to go walking in the mountains, I enjoy walking around in the city. Well, not D.C. or other cities with many homeless, crazy and/or armed people walking around... * * * Here's where I had lunch today. About $1.90 for a hamburger hamberger.   * * * Ha-ha! Bet you never would have guessed that Batman is a drinking place in Korea! * * * Man Clinic? The Koreans walking by seemed to be very curious about why I was taking a photo of a "Man Clinic." They may know something I don't know...Actually, I wasn't curious enough to go in and find out what it was... * * * Right down the street from the Man Clinic...there's a Love Shop! I love the euphemism. "Love Shop" sounds much better than Sex Shop. I'm guessing that if you don't go to the "Love Shop" to buy condoms that you may need to visit the Man Clinic a short time later? * * * Nobo...

How long until they get arrested? Not long enough!!!

As I recently noted, some executives were arrested for putting industrial ethanol in food they sold. I noted: "Of course, it seems that NO ONE checks on the stuff sold on the streets of Seoul..." I haven't been this wrong since 1982! What will happen to these folks? The Korea Times reports: 24 Percent of Ice Cream Contaminated With Germs About a quarter of ice cream and ice at restaurants and drink shops in Seoul is contaminated with high levels of bacteria that can cause food poisoning, according to Seoul City, Monday. The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) inspected 74 ice cream shops, fast food franchises, coffee houses and bakeries. Among the shops selling ice cream and ice, 18 shops sold products that contained more than the permitted levels of bacteria such as colon bacillus and staphylococcus aureus that can cause food poisoning. I love 팥빙수 (patbingsu) so I would support the death penalty for anyone selling contaminated stuff in it. The city government also inspec...