Published: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:26:50 +0900

Oh My News has actually published a decent article about the North Korean missile test issue. A decent article in Oh My News is a rare occurence so I thought I would share it with everyone. Here is an excerpt from the article I found interesting:

The current speculations on the missile programs of the North are quite similar to the rumors on its testing nuclear weapons in terms of the reporting practice of the media. Namely, whether it is correct or not, the media reports rumors first. It seems that the media do not care if their reports did present the truth. Indeed, they describe simple possibilities as if they could become the truth.

What I found interesting about this comment is that Oh My News are the kings of publishing rumors and inuendo as fact. Need I remind everyone of this recent classic Oh My News article about the Top Secret "Spy" Program on Camp Humphreys. So for Oh My News to now come out and publish an article condeming the publishing of rumors I find quite interesting.

Anyway here is the meat of the article I had to agree with:

When the Bush administration exaggerated the risks of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in 2003 in order to go to war, the mainstream media in the U.S. presented the risks without self-screening by simply following the positions of the government. But, among the media, some, such as the New York Times, apologized and changed their positions later. However, there is no such reflection from the media concerning their reporting practices on North Korean issues.

Besides the fact that the reporting ethics may have been violated, there is another interesting point. The global media's one-sided, biased reporting seems to be intended by the Kim Jong-il regime of North Korea.

Dr. Kim Myung-cheol at the Korea-America Peace Center based in Japan is a member of the second generation of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, and known as an "unofficial spokesman" of Kim Jong-il.

He argued in his interview with the KBS Radio 1, a public TV channel in Korea, on June 19 that it is not important whether Pyongyang really possesses nuclear weapons.

"Wars are, in fact, psychological warfare. We should understand the nuclear weapons of my country (North Korea) in this context. It is not important whether North Korea possesses nuclear weapons or not. A more important point is whether the U.S. says it does or not. If the U.S. thinks that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea's official name) has become a nuclear power, it would be more influential than the real possession of nuclear weapons," he said.

His points are rather simple and clear. A more important matter is whether the U.S. believes that the North has nuclear weapons. It means that North Korea could enhance its negotiating power if the U.S. considers it as a nuclear power.

That is exactly why I have been advocating letting Kim Jong-il fire his stupid missile and calling his bluff. Let's see him show his hand and see if his missile really does work or is it all talk?

By the way the cheap shot comment about President Bush I also found interesting because the author is saying that intelligence agencies are over-estimating North Korea's WMD capabilities because North Korea wants them to in order to increase their bargaining power during negotiations, yet when these same intelligence agencies over-estimated Iraq's WMD capabilities than it is the typical Bush lied or exagerrated the threat comments. Has it occurred to anyone that Saddam Hussein was also eager to inflate to perceptions of his WMD capabilities to also increase his bargaining power and deterent capabilities just like Kim Jong-Il?

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