People's Democracy

I AM writing from Pyongyang, the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a country the US president has lately described as being part of the "axis of evil," along with Cuba and Iraq. Indeed, one of the reasons that prompted me to come here was to see what is there in this small country, kept divided by nuclear warheads and the US army’s presence that is unwelcome in the eyes of the people of Korea, both those in the north and in the south.

To root this so-called evil out, the USA has broken agreements, imposed an illegal embargo on the DPR Korea and even threatened the country with a nuclear attack. As for its puppets in the south, they did not echo Bush’s sentiments. They knew that would unleash people’s anger against them. So they chose to ignore his statement.

What is it that Bush finds evil in this country? It has self-respect and believes in self-reliance. This is a refreshing difference from the states that stand at the beck and call of the US administration, with begging bowls in their hands.

There is a shortage of food and there is a shortage of electricity, but there is no shortage of the will to work harder than ever before to overcome both. As a young Korean teacher told me: "I used to eat only porridge three times a day during the worst period after the drought and floods, but everyone of us knew that we would overcome these. So we never lost heart." In this way, adverse conditions that were meant to break the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea actually became a boon for the Koreans, with socialist Korea spearheading it. This was the last thing Bush wanted.

In fact, anyone visiting DPR Korea can see that its people are among the most active in the world. There is no unemployment here. So people cannot be seen lounging around at street corners. Everyone one sees has a purpose and is going about it collectively.

The collective life of the Korean people strikes one wherever one goes. Even in the many squares of Pyongyang, one can see hundreds of young men and women dancing in their spare time. And on April 15 we were among the 1,00,000 strong crowd that watched an amazing collective performance using fireworks, laser shows, hundreds of performers with boards creating huge backdrops, musicians, acrobats, aerobatic performers and thousands of dancers --- a collective show of culture that only an organised and disciplined people can put up. This too is not to the liking of Bush.

Here we have a people whose creativity was unleashed by late Comrade Kim Il Sung. Always addressed as the Great Leader by the people, he led them to victory over brutal Japanese imperialist rule and later the savage attempt of US imperialism to crush their fighting spirit, and established socialism here. This has given the people a powerful momentum, guided by the Workers Party of Korea with its roots deep among the people.

More than that, it is an invincible force as it is armed. The existence of the People’s Army is bound up with that of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with its "army first" policy that has taught every Korean to defend himself and his country. Men and women alike are fighters. And they rely on themselves, taking the cue from their Great Leader’s slogan that the people need no god, for they are gods themselves. Clearly a hypocritical born-again Christian like Bush, who sees the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in Palestine destroyed by the Zionists and refuses to do anything about it, is no match for Korea’s active, disciplined and united people. This is what has driven him to savage, helpless abuse.

And he is helpless. Any attack on socialist Korea will result in a conflagration in South Korea and many other parts of the world in solidarity with it. Bush knows this and is afraid.

He is afraid of a people whose young do not indulge in gang-wars and drug-taking, like the young in the USA. He is afraid of a people who are employed, organised and think collectively. They are not unemployed hustlers like millions in the USA. And they rely on themselves and not on gods to make their lives worthwhile. Religion is there. There are temples, churches and mosques in the country. But religion does not serve as an alternative to a sound political life. It is only a spiritual aid for those who need it. Bush cannot turn it into an instrument to divide the Korean people. That is why he is afraid and angry.

And it also shows us how, despite its great show of strength, Bush’s USA is really hollow inside and incapable of facing even small, organised socialist states like Cuba and Korea. So Bush tries to whip up hysteria by calling them an "axis of evil." But the hysteria has not come up. Quite the reverse has happened. In fact, I met people from USA, Africa and Asia here, who came to Korea precisely because the US president had declared it "evil." And they have learnt that if there is an axis of evil, it is Bush and his friends, like Tony Blair of Britain, Musharraf of Pakistan and the Vajpayee government in India. It is evil because it is an axis based on exploitation, oppression and division of the people on the basis of race and religion. So, these forces are calling others evil only in order to cover up their own evil. But like a man who spits at the sun, Bush has his own face covered with his lies. And Korea, Cuba and Iraq are more united than ever before as a result of the diatribes of the US president.