
Yet the recent confrontation comes 72 years after Roosevelt and Stalin divided the colonised Korean people at the 38th parallel, and 60 years after the US brought nuclear weapons to the peninsula. The US military still occupies southern Korea and, in the current climate, the reunification summits of 2000 and 2007 seem a distant memory.
Rarely do we listen to the North Korean side. Yet it should be no surprise that they have a distinct perspective on the successive Japanese and American attacks, invasions and occupations that have defined their past century. Even when UN commissioned 'human rights' reports are prepared, it is not thought necessary to get the North Korean view, or even to visit the country.
Popular western history blames North Korea for starting the Korean war (1950-53). By this story the US is said to have intervened (killing more than 4 million, according to the DPRK) to 'protect' South Korea from 'communist aggression'.












Comment: Eva Bartlett: Photos from a week in the DPRK