A
Friends of Korea committee seminar was held at the NCP Centre in
London to commemorate the victory of the Korean people of US
imperialism and its lackeys. Chaired by Andy Brooks the symposium
heard papers from Michael Chant and Dermot Hudson video link
contributions from Jong Gi Kim from the DPR Korea embassy in London.
This is the contribution from Michael Chant, the secretary of the
Friends of Korea Committee.On
July 27, 1953, the heroic forces of the Korean People’s Army and
Chinese People’s Volunteer Army achieved victory in the Korean War
by forcing the US imperialists and their allies to come north of the
38th parallel to sign the Armistice Agreement that ended the fighting
in the Korean War. This was a victory not only for the Korean people,
but for peace-loving humanity. The signing of the Armistice Agreement
also signalled the first military defeat of the US following the
Second World War — a humiliation which has haunted the US
imperialists ever since, and for which it has yet to forgive the DPR
Korea and the Korean people. From Britain, there were 81,084 men and
women who served in the conflict, including 1,108 British servicemen
who were killed in action. This is also a crime for which Britain
must be held responsible.
As
we said in the invitation to participate in this seminar, on June 25,
1950, the US imperialists, under the aegis of the United Nations, had
launched a brutal illegal war of aggression against the Korean
nation. Since July 27, 1953, the US has done everything possible to
maintain its military presence on the Korean Peninsula and keep the
Korean War going. But the resistance of the DPRK continues, as the
Korean people proudly demonstrate their mettle and build their own
future.
The Victory Day is not simply a celebration day for commemorating and
looking back to a chapter of resistance in a previous era. The day
also serves as a reminder that the US imperialists and their
appeasers are stepping up war preparations in the Asia Pacific, and
that the terrible tragedies visited upon the Korean people during the
Korean War must never again be permitted. The significance of that
war is taking on new meaning today as the US imperialists beat the
drums of war to attempt to justify a nuclear catastrophe that
threatens the very survival of the Korean people and the peoples of
the world. But it further serves as a reminder that it is the people
who are the makers of history and that they themselves must prevail
against war.
This
year, on the 70th anniversary of July 27 1953, the people of the
DPRK held activities to celebrate the victory, together with a
delegation from the People’s Republic of China which took part in
the events and a military delegation from the Russian Federation
which also paid a congratulatory visit to the DPRK on the occasion.
On
July 25, leader Kim Jong Un had visited the Fatherland Liberation War
Martyrs Cemetery, paying high tribute to the martyrs who defended the
sovereignty and security of the country and people at great cost. Kim
Jong Un said that they provided the precious ideological and moral
heritage and tradition of victory as a steadfast cornerstone for the
DPRK. He made the important point that the victory of July 27, 1953,
is of significance to all humanity. This is the case since it
inflicted such a disgraceful defeat on US imperialism, but also
played its part in preventing a new world war at that time.
On
visiting the martyrs' cemetery of the Chinese People’s Volunteers,
Kim Jong Un further elaborated on the significance of the DPRK’s
victory in the war, saying that it was a hard fought just war not
only to defend the dignity, honour and sovereignty of Korea and its
people but also essential to defend world peace and security. It was,
he said, an acute political and military confrontation with the
imperialist forces which was waged on behalf of the peace-loving
forces and progressive humankind. That great victory continues to
show its vitality today.
The
US had intervened in Korea based on the reactionary Cold War policy
of the “containment of communism”. From the Japanese colonial era
through the Second World War, the outstanding resistance and
guerrilla warfare carried out in Korea under the leadership of Kim Il
Sung and other communists brought great prestige to communism
throughout Korea for its ability to mobilise and organise the people
to defend themselves.
Even
before the surrender of Japan, the US divided Korea by force at the
38th parallel with the aim of imposing their rule over the victorious
Korean people who had contributed, second to none, to the Allied
victory in the Second World War. The aim was to keep the Korean
people divided and to turn the south of Korea into a US military
beachhead in order to wage war against China and the Soviet Union.
Following
the Japanese surrender, the US brutally suppressed and outlawed the
Korean People’s Republic that had been proclaimed by the
representatives of the whole Korean people on September 6 1945, in
Seoul. The US installed the US Military Government of Korea in the
south which carried out a campaign of terror against the Korean
people’s resistance to US dictate and occupation. A virulent
anti-communist, Syngman Rhee, who had spent most of his life in the
US, was installed as the first President of the so-called Republic of
Korea (ROK) in July 1948. The pro-US Rhee government continued to
suppress the Korean people’s widespread resistance to US military
occupation through extrajudicial killings, civilian massacres, mass
incarcerations and other crimes, carried out with impunity.
Meanwhile
in the north, the Korean people, under the leadership of Kim Il Sung,
were able to establish the Workers’ Party of Korea and found the
DPRK in 1948. They took control of their future and began to build a
modern socialist society on the basis of self-reliance. President Kim
Il Sung and the Workers’ Party of Korea also provided political and
practical leadership to the Korean people’s aspiration for a
reunified Korea. It was following the ROK elections of May 29, 1950,
when the Syngman Rhee government suffered a major electoral setback
and the forces for reunification were gaining momentum, that the US
launched the Korean War on June 25, 1950, to block the independent
reunification of Korea.
In
the Korean War, the people of the DPRK, led by Kim Il Sung, were
organised by the Workers’ Party of Korea and mobilised to support
the Korean People’s Army. The newly established People’s Republic
of China sent troops in the form of the Chinese People’s Volunteer
Army to support the Korean people after US forces approached China’s
eastern border with the DPRK. They ardently defended the Korean
people in this war of aggression carried out by the US imperialists
and 15 allied countries, including Britain, under the fig leaf of the
UN flag.
The
armistice talks began on July 10, 1951. However, the US refused to
agree to a ceasefire as a condition of talks and also refused to
abide by the Geneva Convention regarding the repatriation of
prisoners. During the two-year period of negotiations, the US and its
allies employed all sorts of delaying tactics in the hope of
achieving an outright military victory. They massacred hundreds of
thousands of civilians in the north and south of Korea, with many
buried alive, dismembered, burned to death or drowned. They carried
out such war crimes as germ and chemical warfare, the bombing of
infrastructure including dams and irrigation canals to flood the
grain fields and starve the people, the carpet bombing of civilian
targets, and the massive use of napalm — all to terrorise the
Korean people into submission. An estimated 4.6 million Koreans,
mostly civilians, perished during the war.
However,
a US victory was not to be. The Korean people, led by Kim Il Sung and
the Korean People’s Army, with the help of the Chinese People’s
Volunteer Army, defeated the troops of the US and the other aggressor
nations. The US was forced to come to the north to sign the Armistice
Agreement in Panmunjom. It was a bitter pill to swallow — being
defeated for the first time in the 20th century and by a small Asian
nation at that.
In
the spirit of revenge-seeking and stubbornly following its own
geopolitical interests, the US has refused ever since to sign a peace
treaty to end the Korean War, as stipulated by the terms of the
Armistice Agreement, despite the repeated invitations by the DPRK to
do so.
Item
60, Article IV of the Armistice Agreement states: “In order to
insure the peaceful settlement of the Korean question, the military
Commanders of both sides hereby recommend to the governments of the
countries concerned on both sides that, within three (3) months after
the Armistice Agreement is signed and becomes effective, a political
conference of a higher level of both sides be held by representatives
appointed respectively to settle through negotiation the questions of
the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Korea, the peaceful
settlement of the Korean question, etc.”
ongoing
imperialist aggression
Since
July 27 1953, the US has done everything possible to maintain its
military presence in Korea and keep the Korean War going. On October
1, 1953, it concluded the US-South Korea Mutual Defence Treaty, which
has since become the basis of the continued US military presence in
south Korea that is opposed by the vast majority of the Korean
people. It is also the basis by which the US/south Korean forces
carry out their Key Resolve/Foal Eagle and many other joint military
exercises, which now include Britain, as well as Japan, Australia,
and others, and are aimed at invading the DPRK and imposing regime
change.
The
US continues to rebuff all attempts at normalising DPRK-US relations,
including diplomatic resolutions to such issues as the DPRK’s use
of nuclear energy and the development of its nuclear deterrent
capability, while at the same time it maintains and expands its own
nuclear weapons in the south. The US has also increased economic and
political sanctions against the DPRK, another form of warfare, as it
is doing against other countries that affirm their right to be and
refuse to submit to US dictate. The Biden administration continues
the disinformation about “human rights violations” in the DPRK in
a feeble attempt to divert from its own human rights abuses at home
and abroad.
The
British government for its part maintains its hostility to the DPRK,
following the lead of the US. On the anniversary of the Armistice
Agreement, it shamelessly referred to the US and British aggression
as a “war for freedom”. Today the government also follows the US
in promoting the so-called “rules-based international order”, in
which it is not international law which prevails but “rules”
which are made by and serve the interests of US imperialism. Britain
also follows the US in terming its marauding in the Indo-Pacific
region as “enhancing security”, which the government defines as
“shifting greater resource to the region and developing nations’
ability to police and protect their waters”.
The
British government further shamelessly states: “Two Royal Navy
Offshore Patrol Vessels are deployed to the Indo-Pacific on a
permanent basis, and in their first year of operation succeeded in
enforcing UN sanctions against North Korea, […]. The UK’s Carrier
Strike Group will return to the Indo-Pacific in 2025, representing
our commitment to exercise the best capabilities our Armed Forces
have to offer alongside partners in the region.”
However,
as time goes on, the US imperialists and their allies are
increasingly isolated in terms of relations with the DPRK. The DPRK’s
principled stand in defence of its sovereignty and right to
self-determination, and its consistent defence of the Korean nation’s
honour continue to win the support of all humanity who can clearly
see who is the aggressor on the Korean Peninsula.
The
aim of the US remains the same today as it was at the end of the
Second World War — to occupy the entire Korean Peninsula as a
launching pad for its takeover of Asia and then the world. And the US
justification for doing so remains as bankrupt as ever. All the
attempts of the US to realise its domination of the region — its
occupation of the Korean Peninsula with almost 30,000 troops and its
military bases, the ongoing attempts to sabotage the Korean people’s
movement for national reunification, and its engineering of puppet
regimes in the south — have failed to silence the resolve of the 70
million Koreans who are united in their aspiration for the peaceful,
independent reunification of their homeland, free of US imperialist
interference.
the
anti-war movement
The
criminal role of the US imperialists in Korea, from 1945 to the
present, has been exposed for the whole world to see, and the
resolute struggle of the Korean people for peace and justice,
independence and reunification stands as an example for all the
peoples of the world aspiring for peace. It is the task that Friends
of Korea and all friendship organisations have taken up to tell the
truth about the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and patiently
explain the contribution that the DPRK is making to peace and
stability to the region and its wider implications.
The
first demand of the Korean people and all peace- and justice-loving
people around the world is that the US signs a peace treaty with the
DPRK to replace the Armistice Agreement and end the Korean War. This
would be a major step to stabilise the political situation on the
Korean Peninsula and ease tensions. To date the US has violated all
the terms of the Armistice Agreement since the time it was signed and
has constantly rebuffed efforts by the DPRK to normalise relations
between the two countries. The DPRK knows first-hand the perfidy and
subterfuge of the US imperialists and refuses to participate in
“empty talks” that do not advance peace on the Korean Peninsula.
For
the people in Britain, it is crucial that the demand be made that
Britain make amends for its role in the crimes perpetrated against
the Korean people during the Korean War. Further, Britain must
immediately end its participation in the illegal naval embargo
against the DPRK, which is part of the US-led sanctions regime and an
act of war and a crime against the peace, the most serious war crime
under international law. Friends of Korea will itself do its work to
hold the US responsible for its crimes on the Korean Peninsula
before, during and since the Korean War and demand that it sign a
peace treaty with the DPRK to end the Korean War. For the people,
this is a matter of contributing to making sure that another Korean
War does not break out and providing every support to the Korean
people’s drive to reunify their divided country. It is also a
contribution to ensuring peace around the world.
One
of the crucial issues about which confusion is spread is that of the
danger of nuclear war. Using the nuclear threat as an instrument of
negotiations – agree with our terms or else – was a practice
introduced by the US at the time of the criminal bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. This practice was first
heroically rejected by the Korean people in the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Subsequently the heroic Vietnamese people did the same in the context
of their War of National Liberation.
The
US, together with Britain, are intent on raising hysteria on the
nuclear issue to a fever pitch in order to prevent humankind from
thinking, from actually assessing the conditions and what these
conditions reveal, and so prevent people uniting in favour of peace.
The hysteria and disinformation is an attempt to block discussion on
what can be done to turn things around in favour of the peoples. To
open a path to progress and end the retrogression which the
imperialists are pushing onto the peoples of the world, it is crucial
to broaden discussions amongst ourselves so as to not permit the
campaign of disinformation to be effective.
The
conditions given rise to after World War II ended with the collapse
of the former Soviet Union. That ended the domination of two
superpowers and an equilibrium between them based on nuclear
deterrence. The so-called unipolar world which they tried to bring
into being, with the US as self-declared indispensable nation, also
no longer exists.
The
Korean War is an example of seeing where justice prevails.
Furthermore, it can be seen that the present defensive measures being
taken by the DPRK, far from being the threat to peace that is being
claimed by the US, Britain and others, is a defence against the
danger of war, a danger comes from the criminal striving of the US
for world domination.
The
world that the people aspire to is in the grasp of the people’s
forces working to make it happen. It can be said that fighting for an
anti-war government at home will also be a contribution to ensuring
peace on the Korean Peninsula and vice versa. Friends of Korea will
certainly continue its work in favour of support and friendship with
the DPRK. This is not a narrow aim, but is a component part of
bringing into being a world where peace prevails, and countries can
follow their path of independence, security and sovereignty without
the interference of US imperialism, together with Britain and other
big powers.
US
Troops Out of Korea!
US Sign a Peace Treaty with the DPRK
Now!
No to the Warmongering of Britain!
Unite in Favour of
Peace and Independence!
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