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The DPRK government does not act the same way the US government acts, not by a large margin. NK doesn't go to war, so it doesn't have to pretend it goes to great lengths to prevent civilian casualties. Wars, and military conflicts the DPRK has been involved in over the past century have had the goal of defending itself from American invasion and occupation...
It's well understood that the unprovoked war by NK on SK in 1950 had as its goal unifying Korea as one communist nation.
You are talking about a conflict that should have only been a civil conflict within Korea and not a world war where the US tries to dictate what happens on the other side of the world. To state "unprovoked" so matter of factly makes me believe you have no bothered to look into the details. I invite you to take a deeper, more precise look into the history for historical context. I know most people won't care to learn about the detailed history of the situation (or they would have already?) but I will put it out here for you anyway.
First, you need to learn about the People's republic of Korea, the first post-war government, established according to the will of the Korean people at the end of Japanese rule, and rejected by the US who wanted to control the fate of Korea themselves. They placed South Korea under the authoritarian rule of an American general and suppressed the people's repubic.
Appointed as military governor, Hodge directly controlled South Korea as head of the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK 1945–48).[75] He attempted to establish control by restoring Japanese colonial administrators to power, but in the face of Korean protests quickly reversed this decision.[76] The USAMGIK refused to recognize the provisional government of the short-lived People's Republic of Korea (PRK) due to its suspected Communist sympathies.
In the South, localized governing committees were outlawed and PRK political leaders were imprisoned, murdered or suppressed in some way.
The idea was not popular among Koreans and riots broke out.[62] To contain them, the USAMGIK banned strikes on 8 December 1945 and outlawed the PRK Revolutionary Government and the PRK People's Committees on 12 December 1945.[79] Following further large-scale civilian unrest,[80] the USAMGIK declared martial law.
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The military governor Lieutenant-General John R. Hodge refused to recognize the PRK and its People's Committees, and outlawed it on 12 December.[4]:p.57 He later stated, "one of our missions was to break down this Communist government".[6]:p.202 On July 19, 1947, Lyuh Woon-hyung was assassinated by a right-wing Korean.[4]:p.65
The US mission was to assert its will in Korea and its right there in that quote. The people did not want this. You can't just skip over all of this and talk about the puppet regime.
Meanwhile in the North...
When Soviet troops entered Pyongyang on August 24, 1945, they found a local People's Committee established there, led by veteran Christian nationalist Cho Man-sik.[4]:p.54–57 Unlike their American counterparts, the Soviet authorities recognized and worked with the People's Committees[5]:pp.105–107[6]:p.227–228 By some accounts, Cho Man-sik was the Soviet government's first choice to lead North Korea.
Up until 1950, there were still Koreans fighting for their country in the South, and the North knew this and wanted to liberate the South to unite the country. Keep in mind, it was one Korea before the US divided it. Kim Il Sung tried to peacefully unite the country through elections but puppet Rhee was not having it
On 7 June 1950, Kim Il-sung called for a Korea-wide election on 5–8 August 1950 and a consultative conference in Haeju on 15–17 June 1950. On 11 June, the North sent three diplomats to the South as a peace overture that Rhee rejected outright.[
Before calling the preemptive strike "unprovoked, have to consider who Rhee was, how he came to power, and what is intentions were.
President Harry Truman installed Syngman Rhee as dictator. South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission recently estimated that Rhee killed from 100,000 to 200,000 political prisoners.
Rhee bragged about invading the North. “South Korea’s neurotic right-wing government leaders clamor stridently for United States help to ‘unify’ Korea — that is, for the South to conquer the North,” wrote Andrew Roth in the Nation magazine (Aug. 23, 1949).
Truman emissary John Foster Dulles went to South Korea five days before the war erupted. Dulles had been managing partner of Sullivan & Cromwell, the Rockefellers’ law firm and would become President Dwight Eisenhower’s secretary of state.
Dulles egged on Rhee, who had constantly launched attacks on the North. A half-billion dollars had been lavished on the South Korean puppet army and it was expected to roll over the North.
The US had no business intervening but the truth is that American capitalists were so butthurt about the "loss of china" (as if china belonged to them in the first place) that they had to make an example of the next country that tried to control its own destiny.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_of_ChinaIt sounds so absurd that if I didn't know any better, I'd think the notion was made up by anti-americans, but it really is an accurate portrayal of how US policy felt about a certain side winning a civil war on the other side of the planet.
Since 1950 the difference in economic growth of the two Koreas is breathtaking.
You mean since 1976? Another key detail you either didn't know or choose to omit in order to sound more convincing. North Korea was more economically advanced than South Korea for 25 years and didn't stagnate until the 80s. So many people form such strong opinions with so little information and without even bothering to look into context.
