Fidel Castro pens first column in 9 months, urges restraint on tense Korean Peninsula
Ismael Francisco, Cubadebate, File/Associated Press - FILE - In this Feb. 3, 2013 file photo, Fidel Castro talks to reporters at a polling station after casting his ballot in parliament elections in Havana, Cuba. Retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro published his first column in nearly nine months on Friday, April 5, 2013, urging both friends and foes to use restraint amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
노병은 죽지 않는다 다만 사라질 뿐이다. 2006년에 권좌에서 물러난 노장 미국의 앞마당에서 케네디와 일전을 불사했던 밤 야밤의 노장 카스트로가 북한을 향해 인류를 위해 전쟁 따윈 그만 두라고 옛 친구국구가들을 기억하라고 ... 이게 핵전쟁으로 발발되면 오바마는 미국 역사에 가장 처참한 대통령으로 남을 것이라고... 극심한 병으로 알려진 이 엄청난 노장이 9개월만에 펜을 잡은 것과 cnn이 북한 이슈로 도배를 하고 있는 것을 보면 지금의 김정은은 이미 방아쇠에 손가락을 얹은 것 같다. 세계를 긴장 시켰던 케네디와의 미국 앞마당 전쟁상황을 회상하며 도전하는 북한에게 절대 내지는 치명적 타격이 될 것임을 알려주는 노장노병의 기억과평가를 김정은이 받아 들이는 길이 자신과 북한과 세계와 인류를 위한 길임을 김정은과 군부와 측근이 인식하기를 ...
HAVANA — Retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro published his first column in nearly nine months on Friday, urging both friends and foes to use restraint amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
In the brief piece published in Communist Party daily Granma and other official media, Castro warned of the impact that nuclear war could unleash in Asia and beyond. He said Havana has always been and will continue to be an ally to North Korea, but gently admonished it to consider the well-being of humankind.
“Now that you have demonstrated your technical and scientific advances, we remind you of your duty to the countries that have been your great friends, and it would not be fair to forget that such a war would affect ... more than 70 percent of the planet’s population,” he said.
Castro used stronger language in addressing Washington, saying that if fighting breaks out, President Barack Obama’s government “would be buried by a flood of images that would present him as the most sinister figure in U.S. history. The duty to avoid (war) also belongs to him and the people of the United States.”
North Korea has issued a series of escalating threats in recent weeks as the United States and South Korea have conducted joint military exercises beginning in March, and expressed anger over U.N. sanctions imposed after it held a nuclear test in February. Pyongyang says it needs nuclear weapons for self-defense, and on Tuesday it announced it would restart a plutonium reactor that was shut down in 2007.
Analysts say the elevated rhetoric is probably calculated to push for concessions from South Korea, prod Washington into talks and bolster the image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
But Castro called the situation “incredible and absurd,” and said war would cause terrible harm to the people of both Koreas and benefit no one.
“This is one of the gravest risks of nuclear war since the October Crisis in 1962 involving Cuba, 50 years ago,” he wrote, a reference to what is known in English as the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Castro last published one of his columns known as “Reflections” on June 19, 2012. In October, amid the latest round of rumors of his purportedly dire health, he said he had stopped writing them not due to illness but because they were occupying space in official newspapers and state TV news broadcasts that was needed for other uses.
Letters signed by him have been released periodically, however, including a message of condolences last month following the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a close friend and ally.
He also appeared in February at a voting station, bantering for more than an hour with poll workers, island reporters and children.
Castro has been out of office since 2006, when a near-fatal intestinal ailment forced him to hand power to his younger brother Raul.