Spin

I'm no lover of the North Korean régime. Until someone can show me evidence to the contrary, I shall continue to suspect it is anything but Democratic or a People's Republic - though sometimes, out of ironic courtesy, I refer to it as DPRK. As far as I can tell, its leadership treats ordinary people with contempt: lies to them, cheats them of knowledge, political power, and even food. It cheats its young men of their youth by requiring 10 years' National Service. It has kidnapped foreign nationals for use by the state as educators. It imprisons people for crimes of dissent, uses their slave labour, and if some defectors are to be believed, even experiments on them in the manner of a latter-day Mengele.

However, that doesn't mean I'm a dyed-in-the wool neocon. I'm fairly ignorant of what's going on, trying to inform myself a little, and be critical of the sources of information. The west does itself no favours when it descends to the level of news distortion.

AOL, for instance, today is running a story with the headline "N Korea Prepares for War with US":

North Korea has ordered its people to be ready for a protracted war against the United States, issuing guidelines on evacuating to underground bunkers with weapons, food and portraits of leader Kim Jong Il.

The 33 page Detailed Wartime Guidelines published in South Korea's Kyunghyang newspaper and verified by Seoul, was issued last April, at a time when the communist regime was claiming that it was Washington's next target following the Iraq war.

The manual -- the first such North Korean document made public in the outside world -- was signed by Kim Jong Il in his capacity as chairman of the Central Military Committee of the ruling Workers' Party. That ended speculation over whether Kim has assumed the top military post following the 1994 death of his father, President Kim Il Sung.

Analysts said the guidelines reflected Pyongyang's fear over a possible US military strike amid stalled talks on its nuclear weapons programmes, as well as its campaign to whip up a sense of crisis among its 22 million population, reportedly growing discontent amid economic hardship.

"The United States has cooked up suspicion over our nuclear programs and is escalating an offensive of international pressure to strangle and destroy our republic," the booklet said. "If this tactic doesn't work, it plots to use this nuclear problem as an excuse for armed invasion.

"Kyunghyang did not clarify where it acquired the document classified as "top secret".

Seoul's National Intelligence Service said in a one-sentence statement: "We believe the document reflects North Korea's wartime preparations.

"The manual urged the military to build restaurants, wells, toilets and air purifiers in underground bunkers where government offices and military units will move in if war breaks out.

When North Koreans evacuate to underground facilities, they should make sure that they take the portraits, plaster busts and bronze statues of Kim and his parents so that they can "protect" them in a special room.

The Kim family has ruled North Korea for more than a half century, creating a powerful personality cult. Portraits of Kim and his father hang side-by-side on the walls of every house.

In fact, it's the same story that Korea Times was carrying earlier in the day, the same story that is repeated endlessly and thoughtlessly in news services around the world. The headline suggests that N Korea is rattling its sabres, and that this is something new. The detail is entirely different. It's not news (except that somehow the top secret document was "recently obtained by a local daily, the Kyunghyang Shinmun", as Korea Herald points out. And there is hardly anything surprising in a country preparing for siege when it's already been declared as part of the "axis of evil", seeing what's happened in Iraq.

The Chosun Ilbo casts a suspicious eye on the reasons for the document's appearance now. There has been a flurry of stories suggesting that Kim Jong Il's hold is weakening, and that vast numbers of senior military have been defecting, and so on. And of course they've been denied.

I don't know what to believe about those stories. I have no confidence that Washington isn't behind the scenes, stirring up stories from almost nothing. Given the twitchiness of news services, as soon as something appears it's spread globally, often without much analysis. It seems, sometimes, that the mere proliferation of these stories is enough to lend them credibility.

I don't suppose I'm alone in finding the requirement that citizens "should make sure that they take the portraits, plaster busts and bronze statues of Kim and his parents so that they can "protect" them in a special room" both laughable and deeply offensive.