U.S. Imperialism Blocks the Reunification of Korea

U.S. Imperialism Blocks the Reunification of Korea

The following article is reprinted from "The Worker" newspaper, July 9, 2002.

During this month of international solidarity with the workers and people of Korea (June 25 to July 27), the Workers Party, U.S.A. calls on the U.S. working class and people to step up their struggles against U.S. imperialism's military occupation of south Korea and its militarization and interference on the Korean peninsula.

Today the U.S. government is creating new tensions and provocations and marching down the road to a new Korean war.

Since the Bush administration assumed office, for example, it has suspended talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and attacked it as part of an "axis of evil," again using prefabricated lies about the DPRK developing "weapons of mass destruction" and "exporting missile technology."

The recent Nuclear Posture Review prepared by the Pentagon includes plans for "preemptive" nuclear strikes against the DPRK. Despite the fact that North Korea has frozen its missile technology program, the U.S. is going full-steam ahead with its National Missile Defense system, which will be deployed, in part, to further put the entire Korean peninsula and Asia under the U.S. nuclear sword.

In March of this year, the largest ever joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises were staged with nearly 700,000 troops and huge quantities of military equipment and hardware.

Every month, thousands of U.S. fighter bombers, assault planes, refueling tankers, electronic jamming planes and other planes have engaged in aerial espionage over North Korea while staging air battle "drills and games." The U.S. is also deploying new F-15 fighters, anti-missile radars, and other war equipment throughout south Korea, and U.S. troops have been engaging in provocative military activities near the north-south border area of Panmunjom.

The U.S. is also pressuring Japan to revise its constitution and to participate in overseas military actions. In June, over 11,000 U.S. and Japanese troops participated in "RIMPAC-2002" military maneuvers near Hawaii, which included "simulated first-strikes" against North Korea.

U.S. imperialism is creating these new tensions on the Korean peninsula in order to justify its decision to scrap the "DPRK-U.S. Agreed Framework" and to sabotage the historic "North-South Joint Declaration" of June 15, 2000 in which the DPRK and the Republic of Korea (ROK) agreed to "solve the question of the country's reunification independently and by the concerted efforts of the Korean nation responsible for it."

This Joint Declaration gave tremendous new impetus to the decades-long struggle of the Korean people for national reunification. In both the north and south of the country, millions of people have actively rallied and organized themselves to work for implementation of the great principle of national reunification. Numerous north-south seminars and rallies have been organized, family members have been reunited, joint north-south sporting events have taken place and several high-level ministerial meetings have been held by leaders from the south and north of the country.

But in recent months, the U.S. government has pressured its client regime in south Korea to put new obstacles in the way of implementing this agreement. For example, south Korean officials have prohibited or hindered a number of reunification rallies. They have also begun asserting that Korean reunification must be achieved with "outside assistance," while insisting that North Korea is "the principle enemy."

U.S. imperialism aims firstly at continuing the military occupation of south Korea by 37,000 U.S. troops. The occupation of Korea is a linchpin in the U.S. strategy of "forward military deployment" as the key to projecting U.S. economic and strategic interests throughout the region.

The morbid dreams of U.S. imperialism include reigniting the Korean war in order to subjugate North Korea and use it as springboard for its conquest of Asia.

Today, the DPRK and the Korean people in the north and south are resisting the pressure and provocations of imperialism. In this struggle the Korean people are not only advancing their sacred cause of national reunification but helping to inspire and rally people everywhere into a world-wide front against U.S. imperialism's "international war against terrorism," the program of contemporary American fascism and imperialism.

In fact for the last half century, the Korean people have been in the forefront of the struggle of the world's peoples against U.S. imperialism. Fifty-two years ago, the Korean people took up the great war of resistance against U.S. aggression. Despite the savage crimes of the imperialists who killed more than 4 million Koreans, including 2 million civilians, the Korean people successfully defended the independence of the DPRK and defeated U.S. aggression, foiling the plans of U.S. imperialism to use Korea as a springboard for its worldwide counter-revolutionary war against communism and national liberation.

For the last 50 years, the Korean people have persisted in struggle against the U.S. military occupation of south Korea, persisted in building the DPRK as an independent and forward-looking country, and persisted in their efforts to peacefully reunite their country, according to the will of the Korean people themselves and without any foreign intervention.

The duty of the American people is to support these just struggles and to demand an end to U.S. occupation of south Korea and an end to U.S. militarization and interference throughout Asia.