Thirtieth anniversary of Kwangju Uprising celebrated... in Pyongyang

To those of us who make the case that the Kwangju Uprising/Massacre/Rebellion/Whatever-you-call-it was not done under the direction of North Korean operatives, it becomes a bit challenging when North Korea itself honors those who were part of the struggle.

From the KCNA:

The Kwangju Popular Uprising was a just anti-U.S. and anti-fascist democratic resistance waged by the south Korean people to achieve the independence and democracy of society and the country's reunification against the colonial fascist rule of the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys. And it was a popular armed uprising in which all the citizens of Kwangju rose against the U.S. imperialists and the puppet military fascist clique, braving death.

Yang Hyong Sop said in his report that the uprising ended in a failure due to the U.S. imperialists and the puppet military fascist clique's barbarous bloody suppression, but it shook the colonial fascist rule of south Korea to its very foundation, fully demonstrated the indomitable will and heroic stamina of the south Korean people to achieve the independence and democracy of society and the country's reunification and powerfully encouraged the oppressed people in colonies to the struggle for national liberation.

The uprising taught the south Korean people a bitter lesson that the U.S. imperialists are the heinous aggressors and murderers who do not hesitate to commit horrible genocide when they deem it necessary for achieving their purpose of domination and meeting their interests and that they can never realize any desire unless the military presence and colonial domination of the U.S. imperialists are brought to an end, the reporter noted.

And in the spirit of the coming together of North and South Korea for the Kim-Kim summit of 2000, the article suggested obstructing the business of the ROK government:

Saying that this year is a significant year marking the 10th anniversary of the June 15 joint declaration and the 30th anniversary of the proposal for founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo, he called upon all the compatriots in the north and the south and abroad to courageously frustrate all obstructions of the anti-reunification forces at home and abroad under the banner of the joint declaration and vigorously accelerate the nation-wide grand march for reunification.

Someday, in a reunified Korea, the KCNA will have morphed into a normal news outlet, à la Pravda, and this will all be a distant memory. Ah, KCNA. Is it too much to ask you, don't ever change?

Meanwhile, I can't wait until this "light comedy" comes to the Sejong Cultural Center.