On the 60th anniversary of the Korean War which divided the Korean peninsula, the government of North Korea is demanding approximately $65 trillion from the United States government over its “atrocities” and damages done by them since 1945, according to
Asia Times Online.
Agence-France Presse reports that Pyongyang’s compensation demands include $26.1 trillion for the 5 million deaths of the North Korean people and the injuries, missing and or kidnappings by the U.S. over the last six decades. It also includes $13.7 trillion for 60 years of U.S. sanctions and $16.7 trillion property losses.
However, the Korean committee’s calculations did not include the damages that incurred from sanctions after its first nuclear test in 2006.
The government has stated that their compensation claims are “the justifiable right” for the blood that was lost.
The Obama administration dismissed North Korea’s demands on Friday as “preposterous” and called the nation an economic “basket case” due to its own failed economic and monetary policies, reports the
Associated Press.
“The South Korean GDP is now six times that of North Korea, which is, for all intents and purposes, an economic basket case,” said spokesperson for the U.S. State Department. “We certainly hope that North Korea will look at the exemplary example of development and democracy in South Korea and choose a different course from the one it is currently on.”
Crowley also urged North Korea to take full responsibility and accountability for what has happened in the last 60 years “Rather than submitting a preposterous bill to the United States of what? ... $65 trillion, as we have said and stressed many, many times there is a choice that is available to North Korea.”
