North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets with former NBA star Dennis Rodman in Pyongyang, North Korea. (photo: Rodong Sinmun)
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Dennis Rodman has returned from yet another visit to North Korea and
President Kim Jong-Un. Rodman is predictably under fire from mainstream
media for entertaining a dictator, for treason (via former boxer Mike
Tyson’s assertion), and for generally sticking his pierced nose where it
could not possibly belong.Well, Kudos to Dennis Rodman for doing what the American government has cynically refused to do since North Korea transgressed by attempting to drive US, Russian, and Japanese forces from all of Korea following World War II.
Rodman spoke to the North Koreans and reached out. Proving that it could always have been done and still can by any US official bold enough to buck the American War Industry.
We needed to know that while Rodman was there hobnobbing with Kim, Kim took time out to summarily execute his uncle, whom he accused of corruption, but probably did not feed to hungry dogs, but probably did dispatch by firing squad within 72 hours of arrest. None of which changes the historical record. Korea is a land long dominated by foreign armies. The sense of rage there, in North and South, is little understood by Westerners.
Western right-wing talking heads – primarily American – are quick to point out that North Korea engages in acts of torture and summary executions. Quite serious if true, but worse than Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, or drone strikes?
What is the point of continuing to isolate North Korea? It’s been clear for decades that the North Koreans would be receptive to talks with any US official willing to participate in good faith, or Dennis Rodman for that matter. North Korea wants to rejoin the world community, there can be no doubt. What prevents it from doing so is American imperialist will. Are we safer with an isolated North Korea left to endure unending economic hardship, or a North Korea rebuilding its economy as part of the international community?
By continuing to keep North Korea isolated we maintain a military foothold in Asia, but we also invite the instability we often cite as the rationale for continuing the very same conflict.
It is time to reengage North Korea and allow a pathway to Korean reunification. The world would undoubtedly be safer for it.
Thank you, Dennis Rodman, for doing what no US official has had the courage or the vision to do since Japan surrendered.
Marc Ash was formerly the founder and Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.
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