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Maoist Internationalist Movement

Imperialist banks:

You can unfreeze money, but not a lackey's thinking

March 22 2007

Northern Korea left talks over its nuclear program(1) because of a revealing incident concerning international banking. Although the United $tates agreed to unfreeze northern Korean funds in a bank in Macau, China, the international community is having differences of opinion regarding the action. Both Russia and China took the way that the united $tates unfroze Korean money as subjecting their banks to potential U.$. sanctions in the future.

All along the Chinese allowed the united $tates to pressure their bank in Macau, where northern Koreans had their funds. China even took the unfreezing of money as putting pressure on Chinese banks. This in turn caused U.$. denials. U.$. diplomat Christopher Hill said the banking issue was the last issue he expected to cause a problem in nuclear negotiations.

Both the U.$. and U.$-lackey regime in southern Korea said the banking issue was "minor technical issues" or "minor banking issues" to send the northern Koreans a paltry $25 million.(2) In the meantime, northern Korea's government abandoned six-party talks on the nuclear issue, because it did not receive its money back from the united $tates as promised.

As MIM pointed out in the Hamas situation, the U.$. dominance of the international banking situation is rather embarrassing to other imperialists. Finally, in this annoyance regarding six-party talks a deputy foreign minister for Russia instructed Russian banks to stay out of similar such situations.(3)

"Earlier Thursday, Losyukov also warned Russian banks against transferring money from the unfrozen North Korean accounts in Macao.

'Although we have not received any such requests, I would not recommend any Russian bank or organization to handle such transactions,' he said.

Losyukov called on the U.S. to provide guarantees that no sanctions or restrictions would be imposed on a bank from a country involved in the mediation.

'The U.S. Administration should provide a guarantee that financial transactions involving North Korean assets will not lead to sanctions from the U.S.,' he said."(3)

The U.$. negotiator said it was a mere technical issue now holding up Korean talks. Instead, it appears to be an issue of how the whole international banking system works merely revealed by the Korean talks.

Connected to these conflicts is the underlying interpretation of why U.$.-Korea relations are thawing. Ingrained U.$. lackeys could not think of any reason for the u.$. thaw except that the united $tates was playing off northern Korea against China--very narrow geopolitical thinking employed by lackeys used to being someone's puppet. The idea that perhaps the Korean people earned some breathing room from U.$. imperialists through struggle was lacking and this will hold back further diplomatic progress that is possible.

Shameful lackey thinking showed up in both Korea and China. In China, the president of the Bank of China Li said he was unwilling to unfreeze the money because of a lack of assurances from the United $tates.(4) The discussions of the unfreezing of money occurred throughout the international press, but Li was unwilling to take the risk nonetheless. In reality, he should have used the press publicity to take a stand and transfer the money--and blame the united $tates if the united $tates later balked. Li revealed himself to be not just a lackey, but a weenie.

Not to be topped was lackey thinking in Korea. "We Could Be Left Out of a U.S.-N.Korea Deal,"(5) read one editorial headline. We can even sympathize with the editorial writer, because southern Korean lackeys are so used to lackey-thinking that it probably sounded effective to be crying about a lack of U.$. attention in the headline.

The lackey crybabies said, "it seems that North Korea is now willing to cooperate with the strategic U.S. interest of restraining China. . . North Korea may attempt to isolate and restrain South Korea through strategic relations with the U.S."(5) Let's make it clear that this southern Korean cry for monogamy with the united $tates is not one that we support--bitch.

True, the U.$. imperialists are to blame for creating the banking system where Russia, China and southern Korea won't sneeze without asking permission first. The bankers and diplomats are right to ask for the united $tates to write more general rules allowing other countries' banks to sneeze.

The Russian deputy foreign minister went about the political problem the polite way. At least he said, "'the whole problem came from the American side.'"(1) Yet politeness cannot resolve the problems among the Koreans and with the Chinese. The Koreans in particular should not be less anti-Amerikan than the Russians in this circumstance. There the problem is lackey thinking making one unfit for politics and international life. The southern Korean and Chinese diplomats were nowhere to be found doing or saying the obvious.

It appears that bourgeois diplomatic analysts who said that a thaw in U.$.-northern Korea relations would take a while to reverberate to the rest of the world are correct. The diplomatic world is used to matters being so rigid, that new roles are difficult to move into. Now even China to Korea relations come into sharper focus.

The Chinese and Koreans should stop angling for geopolitical advantage from Uncle $am. Such geopolitical lackey thinking is not everything. The normal course of events is for colonized people to "grow up" and behave as co-equal adults. Korea has developed its own nuclear weapons and has partaken in politics and international affairs for more than 50 years since the U.$. invasion. It is time to stand up. We are glad to see the Koreans erect a monument to the hundreds of Koreans refugees killed by Uncle $am at No Gun Ri.(6) It's about time.

Notes:
1. http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/03/22/nkorea.talks.stop.ap/index.html
2. http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20070322/480100000020070322215134E9.html
3. http://en.rian.ru/world/20070322/62463313.html
4. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8O1BR000.htm
5. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200703/200703190032.html
6. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070322-0442-skorea-nogunri.html