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.
Some light Korean history I'll make occasionally posts of
Joseon Era (1392 - 1897)
Korea's first encounter with America, but they didn't know it at the time.
1867, Summer period, the Sherman Incident
Aug 9 to 16
An armed U.S. merchant ship, a centerboard schooner named The General Sherman, sets sail to attempt to force Joseon (Korea) to open up to foreign trade with its holds filled to the brim with cotton cloth, glass, tin plates, and other items bought from China. The captain and crew also had a secret objective of using the opportunity to trade to loot the royal tombs that lie north-east of Pyongyang.
Even though the ship flew the U.S flag, there were only three to five 'westerners' onboard. The Americans owner of the ship Preston, captain Paige, first mate wilson, a welsh missionary Thomas, and some nameless brit. The crew primarily consisted of around a dozen Chinese and a handful of Malay sailors.
At this time Korea, ruled by prince Yi Ha Eung acting as regent to the young king Gojong, was known as the “Hermit Kingdom” due to its isolationist policies. Policies stemming from Korea being invaded many times over the past years by Chinese and Japanese bandits, soldiers, looters, etc.
Shortly prior to the American incident, the Korean kingdom had rebuffed an invasion attempt by the French who had mounted a punitive expedition on Korea for their persecution of Korean converts to catholicism and the death of seven French missionaries. That last bit is important so keep it in your head for a short while.
Aug 16 to 31
The General Sherman stopped at the mouth of the Taedong River at a government checkpoint, but instead of waiting for the local officials to message the kingdom officials, the captain ordered the ship to continue upriver towards Pyongyang, making occasionally stops for the welsh missionary to step off the boat and proselytizing villagers and passing out bibles.
The governor of Pyongyang dispatched his adjutant general with a small crew to meet and provide food to the crew in order to try to slow them down and hopefully persuade them to leave instead while the governor went to meet with the Regent.
The Adjutant General's journey would take a few days but the meeting with the regent was more faster and his decision more severe. The foreign ship must leave or the crew was to be slaughtered to the last man. The reason for this decision was because the regent thought they were another French warship sent on a punitive expedition and decisive action must be taken to protect the capital from being bombarded by their guns.
Aug 31 to Sept 2
The General Sherman continues upriver until it runs aground in shallow water and becomes stuck. Unknown to them, it was due to rainwater swelling the river larger than its normal size that caused the crew mistake the amount of maneuvering room they had and leading to their current predicament of taking a break in a sandbar
While trying to unstick the ship, some of the crew were dispatched for forage for supplies on one of the ship's smaller boats while another was sent to recon further upriver. Coincidentally the smaller boat that was dispatched for foraging would encounter Pyongyang's adjutant general and his men and decided it was a good idea to take him hostage.
All the while this was going on, the scout boat sent north got shot at and returned back to the General Sherman while the crew and Pyongyang militia would skirmish with each other for days culminating in the ship opening fire on a protesting crowd of Korean villagers with their 12 pound cannons murdering 7 or so.
This would lead to the Korean militia trying to improvise a cannon-armed turtle ship (a precursor to the then-modern western iron clads designed by Korea that saw great use in repelling Japanese invading ships in prior centuries) unfortunately the Korean cannon did not have enough power to penetrate the hull of the general sherman and was repelled shortly after. The decision was then made to launch fire ships at the American ship until it caught fire and sunk.
The first two fire ships failed but the third one succeeded in setting the general sherman alight with all its cargo. The last of the crew that hadn't been burned to death abandoned ship. Many drowned before reaching the shore and the few who did would shortly join the rest of their dead crew after being beaten to death by a mob of angry Koreans.
This incident would be covered by the kingdom of Korea as another skirmish between the kingdom and France. The U.S government would inquire about the missing ship and its crew to which the diplomatic department of the kingdom would reply saying they had no idea what happened to the ship and that there were no Americans in Korea.
The loss of the merchant ship general sherman would give the U.S government enough reason to launch an "investigation" expedition into Korea that would lead to u.s forces temporarily capturing several fortresses over the 'disappeared' General Sherman. But that's enough for now.