North Korea's Right To Self-Defence.

“If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing” – Malcolm X.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un. Picture Credit: Alaska Dispatch News.

by Kudakwashe Kanhutu

In condemning North Korea’s latest missile test, but not the large-scale military drills between the United States and South Korea and other shows of force as well, the United Nations Security Council is being true to its stock-in-trade: Hypocrisy. International law itself outlaws even the threat of the use of force, but allows use of force in self-defence. United States show of force against North Korea is a threat of the use of force, while North Korean actions, properly understood, are preparations for the act of self-defence. 

The way I see it, military drills between the United States and South Korea, and flights by nuclear capable bombers, are a threat of the use of force against North Korea. The two countries are essentially perfecting how they will fight North Korea. North Korea thus has every right to perfect how it will fight its enemies when the time comes. 

What is also missing from the headlines is that the United States has harmed North Korea even more grievously through what Johan Galtung called “Structural Violence” – structural violence are all those actions that are not overt violence, but which still result in injury and death (just as would happen had open violence been used). This is precipitant from the United States’ involvement in the 1950 – 1953 Korean War, the United States has since blockaded North Korea for over 6 decades, with the result being stunted economic development for North Korea, and all the human insecurity that that precipitates.