Pre-teen North Koreans trained as soldiers

[jimnyc]

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea's newest batch of future soldiers — scrawny 11-year-olds with freshly shaved heads — punch the air as they practice taekwondo on the grounds of the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School. Students and teachers here say they're studying harder these days to prepare for a fight.

Across the country, banners, slogans and artwork have been redrawn to focus on fighting "the imperialist Americans and their traitorous followers," a reference to South Korea. Slogans on improving North Korea's economy had dominated since 2009, but anti-American propaganda has re-emerged over the past year, particularly following U.S.-led censure of North Korea's decision to launch a long-range rocket and test a nuclear bomb.

At the military school, where students work on desktop computers without Internet access and practice their English with chants such as "The respected Marshal Kim Jong Un is our father," classwork is infused with conflict.

"Because of the present situation, I am trying to study harder, because I really think that's how I can get my revenge on the American imperialists: by getting top marks in class," one student, Jo Chung Hyok, told The Associated Press.

"It's my revolutionary duty," Jo said. "I'm working extra hard to get top marks in military subjects like tactics and shooting."

The uptick in anti-American sentiment comes on the heels of international condemnation and U.N. sanctions for North Korea's long-range rocket launch in December and its underground nuclear test in February, which Pyongyang accuses Washington and Seoul of instigating. Joint U.S.-South Korean military drills south of the border also have incensed Pyongyang.

The anti-American campaign also comes as North Korea prepares to mark the 60th anniversary in July of the close of the Korean War. The three-year conflict pitting North Korea and China against U.S.-led U.N. troops ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The continued division of the Korean Peninsula, and the presence of 28,500 American troops in South Korea, has rankled North Korea's leadership.

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/22025698/pre-teen-north-koreans-trained-as-soldiers

[NightTrain]

Got caught up making breakfast... Jim, can you delete the above post?

It's been about 10 years or so since I visited North Korea's official website... it's quite humorous to see the distorted history and outright lies that are taught as fact to the peasants.

http://northkorea.activeboard.com/t49135311/modern-korea/


In August Juche 39 (1940), the President who penetrated deep into domestic and foreign situations, convened the meeting of military and political cadres of the KPRA at Xiaohaerbaling, where he set out the new strategic line of switching over small unit activities from large unit activities to meet the great event of national liberation flexibly, having clarified that the fall of Japanese imperialism was inevitable.

As the final battle drew nearer, the KPRA's small unit operations worked on positively. After the defeat of Fascist Germany, the preparation for the final battle of national liberation was in a full swing. The dawn of national liberation was breaking. On the basis of mapping out the detailed plan for the final offensive operation, the President gave orders to all the units of the KPRA to launch the general attack for national liberation. The KPRA units smashed Japanese imperialists and advanced into the homeland.


The KPRA small units and political workers who were already dispatched operating in the theatre organized and agitated armed units consisting of people, organizations for the armed rebellion and the popular masses to armed uprising. They mounted attacks on Japanese ruling bodies all over the country, disturbed the enemy's rear and supported the operations of the advancing KPRA units.


Under the fierce attacks mounted by the KPRA and active nation-wide uprising, Japan declared its unconditional surrender on 15 August, Juche 34 (1945). The heroic anti-Japanese armed struggle of the Korean revolutionaries and people led by President Kim Il Sung achieved a brilliant victory, and thus Korea was liberated.

I remember there was something to the effect that the U.S. Navy sent over warships to demand rice in the early 1900s or so... I'll see if I can find that, it was pretty funny.

At least they got the date correct, but we have a nation of fervent commies that think NK defeated the Japanese in WWII.

[NightTrain]

Here's the official story of the Korean War :


Owing to the US armed invasion on June 25, Juche 49 (1950), the peaceful construction of the Korean people was temporarily halted and harsh ordeals were brought to the fatherland and people.

At the moment only 2 years past since the DPRK was founded and the Korean People's Army (KPA) was developed into a regular army. Worse still, the country's economic power was horribly fragile. The Korean people and the KPA, however, displayed unrivalled bravery, self-sacrificing spirit and mass heroism to the fullest and fought to humble the arrogant US imperialists who boasted about being the "strongest" and shattered to smithereens the myth of the US "invincibility".


On July 27, Juche 42 (1953), the US imperialists finally knelt down before the Korean people and the KPA and signed the Armistice Agreement. Accordingly, the 3-year-long Korean War ended with a great victory of the Korean people.

The US imperialists mobilized a third of its ground forces, a fifth of its air force, most of its Pacific fleet, mercenaries from its 15 satellite countries, adding up to over 2 million including south Korean troops and squandered 165 billion US dollars in military spending.


The KPA killed and captured 1,567,000 including 405,000 US soldiers, destroyed and captured over 12,200 aircrafts, over 560 vessels of different kinds, 3,250 tanks and armored vehicles, 13,000 trucks, 7,695 artillery and other numerous combat equipment. It is 2.3 fold the size of losses suffered by the US in the 4-year¬long Pacific War in the period of the Second World War.

:laugh: