For quite some time, the US imperialists have been trying to bully socialist DPRK popularly known as North Korea into submission by slapping one after another stringent economic sanctions and continuously strengthening military encirclement of this tiny state. In fact, for long the US imperialists were escalating war tension along the Korean peninsula by arraying a huge arsenal. Right now, there are about 30,000 US troops in South Korea and 50,000 US troops in Japan. Giant US warships fitted with nuclear weapons have been patrolling the South China Sea. The US B-1B supersonic bombers, which are nuclear capable, have been making regular sorties in the Korean peninsula. Evidently, the whole design of the imperialist US war-mongers has been to overpower this tiny country by launching full scale military offensive at an opportune moment. But, their conspiracy is not seeing the light of the day as North Korea refused to fall in the trap of the US imperialists and, unlike Iraq or Libya, did not abandon its programme for development of armaments, including nuclear bombs and missiles in self-defence. So, it has been a thorn in the flesh of the US imperialists in their hegemonic pursuit of making the entire world their fiefdom of reckless loot and plunder. Of late, North Korea has successfully tested a series of long range inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM) and powerful nuclear bombs. In the wake of that, the US imperialist regime, now under President Donald Trump has raised their pitch of hostility against North Korea, both in words and deeds. Making counter-charge against North Korea of “begging for war” and “threatening peace”, the Pentagon rulers and their allies with UNO in tow have imposed draconian sanctions on this tiny socialist country and thus launched a virtual war of attrition against it. They have warned North Korea of witnessing “fire and fury … the likes of which the world has never seen” unless it capitulates to them and abandons development of sophisticated nuclear armaments. Just a few days back, US President Trump in his first speech at the UN minced no words in saying that they would “destroy North Korea”. The entire bourgeois media have also been pressed into action to continuously propagate that North Korea is a recalcitrant country and hence needs to be taught a lesson. Alongside is unleashed a false propaganda that North Korea is developing its military might against the wishes of its people and keeping them hungry. Concocted stories of human rights violation by North Korean government and character assassination of the North Korean President are also part of this orchestrated vilification campaign. Most despicable is the role of the United Nations Organization (UNO) which once was formed to maintaining international peace and friendly relations among countries based on the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples. Renouncing all its declared objectives, UNO has long taken recourse to the practice of bluntly rubber-stamping all the piracy, war, subversion of autonomy of other nations, illegal occupation of foreign territory and flagrant violation of human rights by the US imperialists and their cohorts world over. In keeping with that ongoing practice, it has shamelessly endorsed increasing belligerence of US imperialism against North Korea with an ‘emblem of justice’. Both Russia and China, which are now capitalist countries after counter-revolution, have joined the bandwagon of denouncing North Korea for firming up its nuclear capabilities and thereby virtually consented to Pentagon’s war threats and sanctions, albeit with some riders not from any comraderie with their socialist neighbour but out of the contradiction they have with the US imperialists centering on market and political ambition of extending sphere of influence. In this unipolar world with bared tooth and claw of the US imperialist sharks, what alternative North Korea then has to defend its motherland and socialism, other than developing capabilities to confront the US war machine?
Reality check on war and peace
The question that arises at the outset is what has been the history of both socialist North Korea and US imperialism in so far as war and peace is concerned? Has North Korea ever attacked any country under any pretext? Has it invaded or subverted sovereignty of any country on a false plea? Has it used nuclear and chemical weapons on any country and killed millions of innocent citizens? Is there any precedence of DPRK setting up military bases across the world or stationing its army in any other country to launch attack on foreign lands? Has it sent naval force studded with deadly nuclear weapons to patrol along the shores of other countries, violated the airspace of any sovereign country, strafed and raided others’ territories with unmanned drones, threatened other countries of armed interventions, star wars and nuclear warfare if they dared to disobey its whips? Has it overrun the integrity and freedom of other countries? Has it assassinated or abducted any elected head of any country or orchestrated regime change anywhere through either military intervention or planting civil war with its espionage agencies and fifth columnists? Has it been engineering coups and internal disturbances to destabilize the elected regimes of other countries? Has it brought down any economic-military onslaught on any country branding the latter as ‘ill-disposed to its interest’? The only answer to all these questions is an emphatic NO.
On the contrary, the US imperialists are guilty of each of these horrendous crimes. They have orchestrated 70 wars after the Second World War, killed more than 20 million people in 37 “victim nations”. Imperialist US has been the only country to drop atom bomb on a foreign land killing around 2 lakhs innocent citizens in a flash of a second, and crippling generation after generations with radiation-borne diseases. Based on documentary evidence, the US rulers are also accused of using weapons of mass destruction first in the Korean war of 1950s, then in Vietnam in the 1960s and ’70s and of late in Iraq and Syria. They have so far installed 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories across the world and kept every country within their missile range. In South Korea, it has as many as 38 military bases. US military with all its artillery and modern weaponry are posted in more than 150 countries around the world, with nearly 3 lakhs of its active-duty army personnel serving there. The US imperialists have openly declared that any country “is an enemy country, unless proved otherwise”, meaning, unless it consents to be subservient to their economic-political-military interest. The Pentagon rulers have been the chief perpetrators of localized and partial wars, wars of aggression, armed hostilities and military invasion of foreign lands. They have an ‘enviable’ record of indiscriminately killing innocent people, bombing foreign territories into rubbles, arm-twisting, sabotages, secret assassinations, engineering coup d’états, abduction of the elected heads of other countries and large scale espionage with the help of their notorious secret services [i.e. the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA)] in the name of ‘exporting democracy’ and ‘civilizing the uncivilized’. The list of their ghastly acts and war crimes is so big that space falls short of accommodating.
In view of this, who is to be called a war maniac? Who is a threat to peace? Who is buttressing a heinous agenda to keep everyone under its feet by flexing brute military muscle? Who is holding the entire world into ransom? Is it tiny socialist North Korea or imperialist kingpin USA? Who has its military arsenal stacked in various countries round the globe by travelling thousands of mile away from its own territory and has long been weaving ploys and making all possible efforts to enslave people of the targeted country at gunpoint? North Korea or USA? To be familiarized with facts, let us recall the heinous role of the US imperialists in launching the 4-year long Korean War (1950-53) and division of the country.
Historical background of Korean War
After the crushing defeat of the fascist axis of Germany-Italy-Japan at the hands of the valiant Red Army of Soviet Union in the Second World War, credibility of socialism and appeal of communist ideology spread fast throughout the world inspiring the oppressed global humanity to tear apart the chain of bondage. While the entire East Europe turned socialist, Chinese Revolution was on the verge of achieving victory. Anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist struggles in the colonies and semi-colonies of Asia, Africa and Latin-America gained tremendous impetus and found in the socialist bloc headed by USSR under leadership of great Stalin a dependable ally and source of inspiration. Also, with one-third of the world turning socialist, the global capitalist market shrunk considerably.
These post-war developments struck great consternation into the hearts of the established imperialist powers. A noteworthy feature was that while the giant European imperialist powers were war-ravaged, US imperialism virtually remained unscathed. The US mainland did not suffer any bombing damage nor did it face any military casualty. Exploiting the advantages, the US imperialists began nurturing aspiration to dominate the world by flexing both economic and financial muscles and soon emerge as the ring-leader of the imperialist-capitalist camp. Moreover, as many war-devastated smaller countries begged for US “aid and assistance” for rebuilding, US imperialist regime found in it an opportunity to pursue neo-colonial domination (colonial domination without direct rule over the colony) on as many countries as possible by virtually controlling their economies with finance capital and installing puppet rules. Alongside, the US imperialists continued their crusade against socialism, branding the socialist states as ‘autocratic and totalitarian’ and projecting US as “the defender of liberty, democracy and humanism” and an “apostle of peace”. Also they had embarked upon the infamous “blockade policy” aimed at cordoning the socialist countries in an all-round way under the pretext of confronting “threat of international communism” and left no stone unturned to curb growth of the forces of socialism and national liberation, disrupting, undermining and wherever possible destroying the people’s struggles for emancipation.
The Korean War and division of the country
Korea bordering both Soviet Union and China was a colony of Japan. When the Red Army inflicted crushing defeat on the fascist axis in 1945, Japan surrendered and withdrew from Korea. The jubilant Korean people then were enthusiastically ready to embrace socialism and foster progress. Korean communists fought alongside the Chinese communists in the 1930s and 40s against Japanese occupation. Kim Il-Sung, the first President of North Korea and one time member of the Chinese Communist Party, had emerged as an accepted, revered leader of the Korean people.
This development visibly rattled the US imperialists. Already upset because of the growing admiration for socialism, they could realize that a unified socialist Korea would shut the door of not just north-East but entire Asia to them. So, they rushed to occupy a large territory in the southern part of Korea with the help of their deployed military force in the pacific region on the pretext of “disarming the Japanese troops in the south of the 38 degrees north latitude”. Though, it was agreed at the Cairo Conference on November 22, 1943 that “in due course Korea shall become free and independent”, the US imperialists did not relent from pursuing their imperialist objective and unilaterally fixed the 38th parallel as the imaginary demarcation line between two Koreas. Backed by the US imperialists, South Korea declared separate statehood in May, 1948 and a pliant regime of US headed by Syngman Rhee was established. Then, in September 1948, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was established in the North as a socialist state. This was how Korea was divided into two parts after the Japanese surrender, because of imperialist machination of the Pentagon rulers. It is the US imperialists who thus impeded fulfillment of the aspiration of the Korean people of living in a unified strong socialist Korea and blatantly trampled underfoot the fundamental right of the people of any land to choose the kind of social system or governance they intend to have.
But that was not all. The US imperialists as part of their imperialist design and expansionist policy converted South Korea into a forward base and a logistical hub for their war machine to mount armed assault anytime on DPRK. From 1949, the US imperialists had begun making full-scale preparations for war in the Korean peninsula using South Korea as the pawn. As a provocation for generating war in the region, the US imperialists conducted frequent airstrikes inside Chinese territory between August and October, 1949 and moved its notorious Seventh Fleet in the Taiwan Strait obviously to threaten nascent socialist China of armed intervention if it dared to come in the way of their sinister design of overrunning North Korea and extend their sphere of influence on the entire Korean peninsula. In his speech on 10 January, 1950, the then US President Truman openly said: “We needed two big wars and a period of thirty years until we realized that we ourselves assumed a leading position in the world. Today we want to maintain this dominant position.” Finally, on the pretext of ‘protecting’ South Korea from ‘communist aggression’, the US launched full scale armed assault on DPRK. More than 5.7million US troops were sent to war in Korea. The object of the US aggressors was to frighten the Korean people and bring them to their knees by reducing Korea to ashes and slaughtering the Korean people at random. By indiscriminate bombing, t1he US pirates destroyed factories, schools, hospitals, houses and eventually made as much as 20 percent 1of the country’s population perish within months. Using lethal bacterial and chemical weapons, strictly banned by the law of nations, the US aggressors killed over three lakh Korean people. They even threatened of using nuclear weapons in the war. This was the extent of their barbarity and war crimes to annex North Korea as imperialist aggressors. But their dream of “complete annexation of the peninsula”, as spelt out in 1949-50 by General Roberts, the then head of US occupation forces, was not allowed to materialize by the anti-war peace-loving socialist camp which declared strict allegiance to the principle of peaceful co-existence. But at the same time, it stated that in case the imperialist forces attack any socialist country, it would not hesitate to retaliate. The USSR and China, led by great Stalin and Mao Zedong respectively, had taken due note of the sinister gameplan of the US imperialists of forcibly occupying DPRK through military intervention. Both USSR and China spurred on by the ideology of proletarian internationalism pledged to stand by DPRK in case the US imperialists launched any military offensive. So when the US imperialists pounced upon North Korea with their artillery and weapons of mass destruction dishonoring the principle of peaceful co-existence, China, though then at the incipient stage of socialism, viewed this as an attack on its own motherland. So, it immediately sent socialist volunteers to DPRK to fight the mercenary army of the US aggressors. USSR too lent all necessary help and assistance. Grit and determination of the ideologically imbued valiant socialist fighters of Korea and China succeeded in repulsing monstrous US. Finally, the US imperialists were brought to their knees by the valiant Korean people, and the Korean War that lasted three years and one month ended in a great victory for the Korean people the conflict ended in 1953. But the US imperialists did not allow South Korea to sign any peace treaty and both DPRK and South Korea continued to exist as two separate countries. Thus, the aspiration of the Korean people of getting united remained unfulfilled because of interventionist and expansionist policies of the US imperialists.
The ignominious military defeat suffered by the US aggressors in the Korean War proved the complete bankruptcy of the myth of their “mightiness” built on military and technical superiority and exploded the myth that the nuclear bomb decides the outcome of war. The whole history clearly reaffirmed that US imperialism was and still is the most heinous war igniter, a vicious enemy of peace and democracy, a shameless strangler of freedom and national independence and a blood-thirsty cut-throat. The Korean War also proved the truth that if the people of even a small country rise up in the fight for freedom, independence and progress guided by the most advanced ideology of communism, they can frustrate any imperialist conspiracy.
Unbridled gangsterism of the US imperialists in unipolar world
So long a powerful socialist camp was in existence, it served as a deterrent to the war manoeuvring of the imperialist-capitalist powers headed by the US imperialists. But after revisionist Khrushchevite leadership of USSR succumbed to nuclear blackmailing of the imperialist bloc and resorted to appeasement of imperialist camp in the name of peaceful co-existence, socialist China under the able leadership of great Mao Zedong was compelled to develop nuclear weapons to keep war threats of US imperialism under check. So long as Mao Zedong was alive, China provided the shield of defence to all socialist countries against imperialist aggression and intimidation. But when China also fell to revisionist grip after Mao’s death (that finally brought the counter-revolution to completion in 2004), there was once more a discernible tilt in the balance of power in favour of the imperialists.
Finally, when the socialist bloc was dismantled due to revisionist conspiracy backed by the imperialist-capitalist world, the US imperialist sharks in particular became unbridled in pursuit of their hegemonic design, overlordism and brigandage. Theirs has been a policy to bring the entire world under their domination through either the neo-colonial route or militarily overpowering the countries refusing to bend before their dictates, orchestrating planted revolt to change disobedient regimes with the help of infamous CIA and DIA, and generation of full-fledged wars. It has thus become extremely difficult for the weaker countries to hold out against US threats.
Why should not US imperialists and their allies give up nuclear arm production?
There is another height of audacity on the part of the US imperialists. While they have been asking other countries to give up nuclear programme, they themselves have not abandoned or even restricted their own production of sophisticated lethal weapons including nuclear arms. They have been continuously upgrading their nuclear armoury and regularly coming out with innovations in the category of mass destructive weapons. US so far has conducted as many as 1,054 tests by official count, which far exceed the number of similar tests by others taken together. The US imperialists were the first to manufacture atom bomb and flaunt their military supremacy by dropping nuclear bomb to descend upon the world an era of horror and holocaust, destruction and devastation on an unprecedented scale. Lethal weapons like napalm bombs, agent-orange have all been their inventions which have been used by them in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other countries to kill millions of innocent people and leaving many more millions crippled with radiation-borne diseases. ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ (MAD) is the name of the military doctrine that has been guiding US nuclear weapons development since at least 1962. The US at present maintains a nuclear arsenal of almost 7,000 warheads. The Arms Control Association of US estimates that the total cost of the ongoing “nuclear modernization program” now on full-throttle under Trump would be between $1.25 trillion and $1.46 trillion. The US government has also earmarked over a trillion dollars to upgrading its nuclear arsenal. What does it prove other than the fact that the US imperialists are putting forth a gangster’s logic in support of their unfettered right to nuclearize themselves. While negotiating at the United Nations a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, they and their allies advanced a queer argument. They said that nuclear weapons are not safe in anybody’s hands other than themselves. So, while asking others to abandon production of nuclear weapons, the eight states— US, UK, Russia, China, France, Israel, India and Pakistan– that are known to possess nuclear weapons- are averse to apply such ban on themselves.
US imperialists rejected legitimate demand of total disarmament
It is relevant to mention that after the nuclear holocaust of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the socialist camp under Stalin’s leadership, to free the earth from the horror of war, gave call for complete and all-out disarmament including full nuclear disarmament (once USSR had quickly produced atom bomb itself against looming US imperialist threat). The peace loving people of the world stood up and lent total support to the proposal. But the imperialist bloc led by US imperialism did not pay any heed to this world people’s opinion and instead stuck to developing yet more sophisticated nuclear weapons and pursued all sorts of nefarious activities. However, spate of anti-imperialist struggles inside various countries and wave of international communist movement did produce some countervailing effect in abating to some extent the imperialist tyranny and war mongering. It was gradually prevailing on the toiling masses that more the movement would intensify, more cornered would be the imperialist brigands. But then with revisionism creeping into the world communist movement after Stalin’s demise and further strengthening its grip after Mao’s death, this militant peace movement round the world was considerably enfeebled and the pressure on the imperialists to yield to the legitimate demand of total disarmament was considerably eased. Ultimately, this legitimate demand for total disarmament was relegated to the back and the US imperialists were boosted to shoot up their international gangsterism with renewed enthusiasm. It bears recall that immediately after the Korean War, there were US backed military interventions and coups in Cuba, Guatemala and Iran, and the long war in Vietnam was initiated.
Thus, every fact goes to prove that the US imperialists and their allies have decided to make the domain of nuclear weapons an exclusive preserve of theirs and a forbidden territory of others. Is it not ridiculous that there are two standards for two sets of countries—the ones who have nuclear weapons and sophisticated arms and others not in possession of the same? While those possessing nuclear teeth would enjoy unfettered right to continuously upgrade their capabilities, the others would be forcibly debarred from carrying out nuclear programme. Is this a civilized move to preserve peace or brazen overlordism to turn the world as an exclusive dominion of theirs?
Draconian imposition of economic sanction
Apart from the threat of direct military intervention, the US imperialist fiends are on a spree to strangulate the countries ‘disobedient’ to them by slapping one after another draconian economic sanctions on them. Who has given them the authority to rob anyone of the right to live? How would their own countrymen feel if such inhuman economic embargo is imposed on them? Would they give it a seal of approval as a highly ‘democratic’ act? People of every country have unfettered right to decide what kind of socio-political system and pattern of governance they should have. Every country has inalienable right to defend itself against any foreign attack or invasion. How can the US imperialists arrogate to themselves the absolute and unquestionable power to intervene in the internal matter of any country, arm-twist them and force it to bend before them by flexing their economic and military might? If, in the face of continuous arm-twisting and constant threat of being attacked any time, any country builds up its capabilities for self-defence, on what ground can that be called a threat to world peace? Clearly, the biggest threat to world peace, democracy and right to live is the US imperialist regime. The US imperialists are the biggest enemy of the mankind.
North Korea branded as part of the ‘axis of evils’ by US imperialists.
The US imperialists had declared long back that North Korea, Cuba and Iran are constituents of an ‘axis of evils’ meaning their prime targets of attack and arrogated to themselves the unchallenged “righteousness to triumph over evil.” And in discharge of that “righteousness”, they, using UNO as a tool, have embarked upon a cunning policy of forcing other countries to give up production of nuclear arms in the name of so called one-sided Non-Proliferation Treaty. Once any country yielded to that pressure, it became easy for the US imperialists to overrun that country militarily or overpower it or browbeat it to capitulation. Ukraine, Libya, Iraq and, of late, Iran have been glaring examples of that.
From all these developments, events and direct threats, North Korea could realize that the US imperialists would any day overpower it with their brute military might. And if attacked, there would not be a single country to come to its rescue as because almost all have meekly surrendered to the Pentagon regime. North Korea has never refrained from exploring all diplomatic channels for keeping the war threats of US imperialists at bay and ensuring peace. But for 64 years since 1953, the US has refused to sit down with the DPRK and sign a peace treaty formally ending that war. In such a situation, there are two alternatives before North Korea, to either submit timidly or face boldly the threat by developing deterrents and once more set an example of courageously and doggedly repulsing imperialist attacks. North Korea has justifiably chosen the second alternative. Hence it began developing military strength including nuclear capacity as an ‘equaliser’, to deter constant US threats. The present DPRK President has made it amply clear that “North Korea loves peace more than anybody…The US and the puppet forces are seriously threatening and harassing the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and the region. They are war fanatics obsessed with provocation and aggression…The army and people of the DPRK will bolster up the nuclear deterrence for justice in every way to foil the US high-handed and arbitrary practices and thus more reliably defend the sovereignty of the country, the right to existence of the nation and the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and the region”. It is worth mentioning that Moon Jae-in, present South Korean President, could win the elections recently because he promised to improve relations with the DPRK. But US President Trump has taken umbrage at Moon’s pro-dialogue policy and compelled him to abandon the move. It is US imperialism who is the offender and DPRK is only exercising its right to defend itself.
Imperative to develop worldwide anti-imperialist movement
So, North Korea is not just building up its own defence but defence of the anti-war right-thinking people against dreaded imperialist attack on humanity. As per media reports, the toiling people of South Korea are increasingly developing fraternity and solidarity with North Korea. Just the other day, the aggrieved South Korean people vehemently protested installation of ‘Terminal High Altitude Area Defence’ (THAAD), advanced missile defence system, by the US imperialists on their soil. Clearly, the Pentagon rulers are caring a fig for the desire of the South Korean people. It is, therefore, incumbent on all democratic-minded right-thinking people to unitedly and unwaveringly stand by North Korea. The imperative need is that toiling people of each country close their ranks, build up powerful anti-imperialist particularly anti-US imperialist militant peace movements, integrate such movements globally and prevail upon their respective regimes to staunchly oppose US war threats to and sanctions on North Korea so that there is effective assertion of world people’s opinion on the imperialist sharks and the heinous conspiracy is frustrated. Unitedly and firmly raise the slogan, ‘US imperialism, Hands off North Korea!’
