The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced
on January 6 that it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. Immediately there
was an anti-communist hue and cry that that country had dared to join the
nuclear-weapon-bearing states. Turning truth on its head, the DPRK is painted
as the country threatening others. This counterfeit “outrage” is designed to
cover up the crimes being committed by the US-led imperialist system of states,
including Britain, who are the threat to the sovereignty and integrity of so
many countries across the globe, and who openly speak of regime change and take
steps to carry out that threat.
The DPRK has drawn the legitimate conclusion that in these
circumstances it must develop nuclear weapons to defend itself, stymie all the
plans of the Anglo-US imperialists for regime change, and maintain the peace.
It is not legitimate of the US and its allies, not to mention the UN Security
Council under their domination, to absolve themselves of responsibility, play
the thread-bare human rights card, and seek to isolate the DPRK and other
countries that will not bow to their dictate. The United Nations has the
responsibility to take a stand against international aggression. But it has
long since abandoned this and in these circumstances the DPRK cannot be
condemned for taking the measures that it has done to deter aggression and
prevent regime change.
The facts of the matter are that it is the development and
criminal use of nuclear weapons by the US imperialists that have led to a
nuclear arms race in the first place. The US imperialists are the ones
threatening to wipe out humankind. They are the only ones who have taken the
criminal step of using nuclear bombs in warfare which they did against
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to attempt to establish their global hegemony
at the end of the Second World War. They will never be forgiven for this crime,
nor for that matter for the crimes they committed on the Korean Peninsula
during the Korean War of 1950-1953 when the use of nuclear weapons was also
considered when the US was facing imminent defeat. These monstrous acts of the
US imperialists have demonstrated to the Korean people of the DPRK that there
is a serious threat of nuclear annihilation and that they must take decisive
steps. Neither has the DPRK got its eyes shut to the imperialists' strategic
plans for East Asia, the increasing concentration of US military forces in the
South China Sea, and the Obama administration's conception of a “Pivot to
Asia”.
And it is the US who today is the one carrying out nuclear
blackmail against the DPRK, threatening it with pre-emptive nuclear strikes. It
is the US which is carrying out annual warmongering manoeuvres off the shore of
the Korean Peninsula with south Korea and Japan, which has its troops and
nuclear weapons stationed in the south, which carries out exercises simulating
regime change in the north, including the use of B-52 bombers. It is any wonder
that the DPRK takes seriously the threats to its sovereignty and independence,
and responds with its own nuclear deterrent?
The nuclear hysteria of the US and its allies aimed at the
DPRK should be opposed. It is the countries with the biggest nuclear stockpiles
which must disarm their nuclear arsenals and remove all their weapons and troops
from foreign soil. This is the pre-condition for a nuclear-free world which is
the demand of all humanity. When the US and all other nuclear weapons states
give up their nuclear weapons, there will be no need for the DPRK to develop a
nuclear weapons programme either.
The government of the DPRK pointed out in its January 6
statement that the hydrogen bomb test “is a measure for self-defence the DPRK
has taken to firmly protect its sovereignty [...] from the ever-growing nuclear
threat and blackmail by the U.S.-led hostile forces and to reliably safeguard
peace on the Korean peninsula [...]” The statement also affirmed that the DPRK
is a “genuine peace-loving state which has made all efforts to protect peace on
the Korean peninsula” and that it would not use its nuclear weapons to commit
aggression against another country nor would it suspend its nuclear weapons
programme unless the “US rolled back its vicious hostile policy” towards it. It
is quite clear that the US must end its hostile policy towards the DPRK, remove
its 28,000 troops from the Korean Peninsula and sign a peace treaty with the
DPRK to draw a line under the Korean War. This would ensure peace and stability
on the Korean peninsula and permit the people of Korea and East Asia to live in
peace. When that is done there would be no necessity for the DPRK to develop
its nuclear weapons in self-defence. And until that is done, in the face of
nuclear blackmail and the most egregious hypocrisy of the Anglo-American
imperialists, the DPRK has the right to develop and test the H-bomb.
The peace-loving people of the world must direct their anger
and outrage against the US and its allies, including Britain, who are the ones
bringing the world to the edge of a nuclear catastrophe. The working class and
people must take up in all earnest their own quest for an anti-war government
to act as a block to aggression, nuclear blackmail, the use of force to settle
international affairs and the most unjust plans to topple sovereign
governments. The democratic forces should take a stand to further develop
friendship and solidarity with the DPRK in its heroic path of defending its
sovereignty and independence in the face of all the threats to this sovereignty
and independence by the US imperialists and the big powers.
Workers Weekly
24th January 2016
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