North Korea’s Depiction as Ogre Is Mostly Hype : Peace: Tensions remain high but the opening is there if U.S. agencies and media turn down the rhetoric about the North.

Any attempt to use military means to force North Korea to comply with inspections of its nuclear facilities could bring catastrophic results to the Korean peninsula and the tens of thousands of Americans residing there. It is for that reason that the recent agreement fostered by the unprecedented cooperation between the United States and North Korea is encouraging. Yet, the portrayal of North Korea, particularly on the issue of nuclear development, by the Pentagon, by U.S. intelligence agencies and by the media is extremely disconcerting.

Although the Cold War continues on the Korean peninsula, there has never been so much optimism among Koreans and Korea-watchers as there is today that the 40-year standoff between the South and North can be ended, resulting in the peaceful reunification of Korea.

Both the United States and North Korea have made political concessions in the name of peace. In 1991, President Bush withdrew nuclear weapons that had been kept in South Korea since 1957. President Clinton is considering canceling “Team Spirit,” the military exercise that the United States has held in South Korea since 1976. This annual event had been a particularly imposing threat to the fragile peace since it involved 200,000 U.S. troops and practice in the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

Reciprocally, North Korea has entered into high-level talks with the United States and has also shown a willingness to compromise on a number of political issues. Most notable was North Korea’s consent to six inspections of its facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency between May, 1992, and February, 1993. Furthermore, both North Korea and the United States demonstrated a willingness to cooperate through a U.S. sale to North Korea of light-water reactors. This would allow North Korea to shelve its old plutonium-producing graphite reactors, thereby reducing the possibility that it could create nuclear weapons.

It was only when the CIA charged that nuclear development might have taken place at a sensitive military base that North Korea denied the IAEA permission to inspect this additional site, thus provoking the most recent crisis.

Why is there so much attention to a possible North Korean threat? During the Cold War, the CIA and the Pentagon commanded huge budgets. But in the absence of a threat from the Soviet Union, these institutions must now identify new enemies to justify their funding.

Another area of great concern is the media’s distortion of the North Korean situation. From the portrayal of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung as another Saddam Hussein to headlines in major U.S. media, the coverage has been misleading at best and warmongering at worst.

The headline on a front-page article in the Los Angeles Times claimed that 51% of Americans polled said that they would support the use of force as a way to deal with the North Korean nuclear issue. However, it turns out that of 1,616 Americans surveyed, only 3%--or 48 individuals--were concerned with foreign issues at all. When asked specifically which foreign issues were most important, the North Korean issue ranked third behind trade and the Bosnian crisis.

Because other national media pick up such reports, their significance goes beyond just one headline of one issue of one newspaper. Further, such sensationalistic journalism manipulates public opinion.

Americans do not want another Korean War. The last one left millions dead; 130,000 U.S. casualties and 5,000 missing in action. Today, war tensions between the North and South remain high. Only a cease-fire keeps the Koreas at peace. Another war on the Korean peninsula would exact a toll far greater than the last one and would also heavily involve U.S. forces. Therefore, it is crucial that we continue to support the slow yet constructive advances made toward a peaceful resolution to the current situation, the signing of an armistice treaty and the peaceful reconciliation between the Koreas.