When a country is believed to have a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons,
refuses to sign up to arms limitation treaties, and has indicated that it is
willing to use nuclear warheads in first-strike scenarios we are right to be
afraid. We are dealing with the only country in the United Nation's General
Assembly who voted ( in 1990 ) against a ban on bombing and attacking nuclear
reactors in foreign countries.When that country is manufacturing and stockpiling Anthrax, Smallpox and other
toxic substances which can be used as bio-weapons, their claims that this is
only for "Scientific research", and a "Defensive move", ring as hollow as
Japan's claims to be legitimately harvesting Whales. It's not surprising that
international inspectors are refused access to alleged manufacturing plants.
This is a country which has long experimented on its own population, without
their knowledge, to see how effective biological weapons are, and how serious
diseases spread, and has used biological and chemical agents while waging its
wars.
It is a country which has supported terrorism, both financially and by providing
training facilities, and has undertaken, and supported, covert and overt
operations against countries it has disliked and whose governments and leaders
it has disagreed with.
Its leaders may claim to have the full support of its people, but that did not
stop a eugenics program operating until 1979, during which time, numerous
citizens were forcibly sterilised. Huge sections of the population have been
treated as slaves of rich landowners, and ethnic cleansing has taken place
on a massive scale. It is one of only two countries ( along with Somalia )
which has refused to ratify the International Convention on the Rights of
the Child.
Alleged respect for its citizens has not prevented the state from
carrying out the testing of drugs on prisoners and other experiments.
Execution of prisoners is still routine, as
is the punishment of enforced castration. Political prisoners are labelled as
"enemies of the people". They are imprisoned, without any evidence of their
crime being presented, without trial, and without access to lawyers, or a
process of legitimate civil law. International calls to treat its detainees
with dignity, and grant them the right of a fair trial, have been met with
indifference and rejection. It refuses to accept the creation of an
International Criminal Court.
This is a country which has threatened to go to war with those who will not
bend to its will. This is a country that is prepared to risk Armageddon
in the Middle East, in order to have its ideological views accepted, or
imposed, on others. It shrugs off international concern, and refuses to be
swayed by those who urge control.
This is a rogue state, more dangerous than any other.
Welcome to the United States of America.
