No War in Korea!

Tariq Ali speaking

by Theo Russell

 About 90 people attended a meeting at Friends House in central London last Tuesday called by the Stop the War Coalition, with writer and film-maker Tariq Ali, CND General Secretary Kate Hudson, Stop the War convenor Lindsey German, and Owen Miller, a Lecturer in Korean Studies at the School of African and Oriental Studies, on the panel.

All of the speakers condemned the warmongering history and recent actions by the USA and NATO, and recalled in great detail the crimes committed by the US-led forces in the Korean War. The platform also showed how the history of the introduction of nuclear weapons into the Korean peninsula, the failure of attempts to negotiate any agreements because of US sabotage, and the recent history of wars and regime change, all explained why the DPRK had embarked on its nuclear and missile development programmes. The peace and anti-THAAD [Terminal High Altitude Area Defence; an American anti-ballistic missile defence system] movements in south Korea, and solidarity with them and with the DPRK, were also discussed. Tariq Ali summed up the feeling of the meeting when he said that thanks to its strong defences “North Korea is one of very few  genuinely sovereign states left in the world.”

DPR Korea’s H-Bomb success

by our Asia Affairs correspondent

 ANGLO-AMERICAN imperialism and its lackeys at the United Nations are pushing for more sanctions against Democratic Korea (DPRK) following the DPRK’s successful H-bomb test last weekend.

The DPRK’s H-Bomb test, which rapidly followed the successful test of a new ballistic missile that could reach the American mainland, is a response to US imperialism’s blockade, military exercises, nuclear threats and diplomatic blackmail that began almost immediately after the guns fell silent at the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Unlike the Americans and Russians, Democratic Korea has pledged never to be the first to use nuclear weapons. They rightly believe that their nuclear deterrent is the only thing that staves off renewed American aggression against the people’s government that fought the imperialists to a standstill during the Korean war. Now the Americans want to tighten the screw against Democratic Korea and those who trade with the DPRK, including Russia and People’s China, whilst refusing to rule out a ‘pre-emptive’ strike that would inevitably lead to a devastating conflict, which would not be confined to the Korean peninsula.

But Russia and People’s China, who have so far gone along with the American demands, are now openly voicing concern at the American escalation that has raised tension on the Korean peninsula to levels not seen since the end of the Cold War.

Russia and China are calling on the Americans to end their military exercises in south Korea and pull their missiles out in exchange for a halt to missile and nuclear weapons testing in the north. But this ‘double freeze’ proposal has been repeatedly rejected by the Americans.

Speaking after the BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] Summit in China’s southern city of Xiamen on Tuesday, the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, said the issue could only be solved through peaceful means: “There is no other way apart from a peaceful and a diplomatic one to resolve the north Korean nuclear problem.” President Putin also said that the sanctions were a useless and futile exercise. “The use of all types of sanctions in this particular case is useless and inefficient,” he said. “As I’ve told one of my colleagues yesterday — they will rather eat grass than abandon this programme if they do not feel safe.”

The Russians want the UN Secretary-General to act as a mediator and think that further sanctions are pointless. UN Secretary-General António Guterres says he’s willing to help. Whether the imperialists will allow him to do so is another matter. In March the DPRK demanded an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the issue of the US—south Korea joint military exercises. The Americans made sure this was rejected.

Meanwhile, at a Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Tuesday, the DPRK’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva called Sunday’s nuclear test a “gift package” for the United States and warned that there would be more to come.

“I am proud of saying that just two days ago on the 3rd September, the DPRK successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test for an intercontinental ballistic rocket under its plan for building a strategic nuclear force,” Han Tae Song said. “The recent self-defence measures by my country, the DPRK, are a gift package addressed to none other than the US,” Han said. “The US will receive more gift packages from my country as long as it relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the DPRK.”

At the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok this week President Vladimir Putin held talks with the south Koreans and repeated the call for a ‘double freeze’ on the Korean peninsula.

But whatever happens, Democratic Korea will never put its nuclear deterrent on the negotiating table nor will it take even an inch backward from the path of bolstering its nuclear force as long as the US imperialism's hostile policy and nuclear threats continue.

US troops out of Korea!

Andy Brooks with Italian and other comrades on the line

By New Worker correspondent

 Korean solidarity activists returned to Grosvenor Square last weekend to denounce the latest provocations of US imperialism and its lackeys that have taken the Korean peninsula to the brink of war. NCP leader Andy Brooks and other London comrades joined the protesters demonstrating outside the American embassy in London on Saturday for an afternoon picket that called for the end to sanctions against Democratic Korea  and the withdrawal of all imperialist troops from south Korea.

The picket called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) was supported by the NCP and the British section of the Italian Communist Party, as well as by members from London’s Irish community. Some comrades sold the {New Worker} whilst others helped give out KFA leaflets to passers-by. A known fascist who attempted to take part in the protest was asked to leave before the demonstration began.

KFA Chair Dermot Hudson said: “We are here today to demand that the US and south Korea cancel the ‘Ulji Freedom Guardian’ exercises, withdraw US troops, revoke the sanctions and end the hostile policy towards the DPRK."

The KFA holds monthly meetings and protest pickets in London throughout the year in support of the struggling people of south Korea and in solidarity with the DPRK in the north.

DPR Korea will not be cowed

by our Asia Affairs correspondent 

ANGLO-AMERICAN imperialism stepped up its threats against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea this week following the successful firing of a DPRK missile that flew over Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean as planned. US President Donald Trump warned that “all options are on the table” while Theresa May refused to rule out future British military action against the DPRK when asked by the media on the eve of her talks with the Japanese government in Tokyo.

Meanwhile the US imperialists have been carrying out atomic weapon tests of their own. This week the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced the successful flight tests of its B61-12 gravity nuclear bombs operating in a non-nuclear assembly. The NNSA say the tests were carried out to check the “aircraft’s capability to deliver the weapon” and it coincides with reports that some US senators are pushing Trump to withdraw from the 1987 INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union to eliminate cruise and short-range ballistic missiles,

The renewed testing of the DPRK deterrent was the legitimate response to the start of new US military exercises in the occupied south of the Korean peninsula, which simulate an invasion of Democratic Korea. It was also clearly intended as a warning to Japan, the weakest imperialist country in the world and little more than an American vassal, of the consequences of slavishly supporting US aggression in Korea.

Though the DPRK has fired missiles over Japan in the past the two previous occasions, in 1998 and 2009, they were to launch satellites. This time Japan activated its public early warning system and reactionary Japanese premier Shinzo Abe called the test an “unprecedented and a grave threat”.

But the fact is that Democratic Korea had not broken any international law by conducting the test as the missile flew above the main atmosphere. There is nothing to prohibit extra-atmospheric overflight of sovereign territory. Sovereignty does not extend beyond the atmosphere.

At the United Nations the 15-strong Security Council, which includes People’s China and the Russian Federation, unanimously condemned Monday’s missile test and called for the immediate end of “such “outrageous actions”.

But the Chinese repeated their call for the Americans and their south Korean puppets to halt their military exercises and remove the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile system from south Korea in exchange for the DPRK’s halt of missile and nuclear weapon tests. Russia supports this “double freeze” proposal but it has been dismissed out of hand in Washington.

Trump began threatening north Korea as soon as he stepped into the White House demanding that the DPRK abandon its nuclear deterrent while offering nothing in return. In August the Americans forced the UN Security Council to rubber-stamp more sanctions while Trump raged that Democratic Korea would face “fire and fury ... the likes of which the world has never seen” if it did not do the bidding of US imperialism.

But in the DPRK everyone knows the fate of countries like Libya and Iraq, which disarmed under the mistaken belief that this would spare them from the horrors of imperialist invasion and regime change. No one in the DPRK takes any takes any notice of threats coming from the imperialists who devastated the country in an attempt to overthrow the people’s government during the Korea War.

The DPRK has been under American sanctions of one form or another since the end of the Korean War in 1953. But despite unrelenting hostility from US imperialism and its regional lackeys, Democratic Korea has continued to advance along the road of socialist construction.

The United States should reconsider its aggressive stance and know that no economic pressure, threat or blackmail will overthrow the Democratic People’’s Republic of Korea, said an editorial in Rodong Sinmun (Daily Worker), the voice of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.

The DPRK’s self-defence measures continue, among them the development of nuclear abilities, while Washington, in collusion with south Korea and Japan, carries out military exercises off the coasts near Democratic Korea.

“Our country does not belong to the category of those that are frightened or subjugated to the pretensions of the White House” the Korean communist daily said.

“Our position is unchanged that as long as the hostile policy and nuclear threat of the United States against DPRK is not radically eliminated, we will never put the nuclear deterrent at the negotiating table, or will step back from the road to bolster up the nuclear armed forces.”

No new Korean War!

Andy Brooks with the latest edition!

By New Worker correspondent

London comrades joined other peace campaigners outside the American embassy on Friday 11^th August to protest against Donald Trump’s latest threats against north Korea. New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks and other members of the Central Committee gathered outside the centre of US imperialism in London to call on the US President to pursue a diplomatic solution to the crisis that is entirely of America’s making.

Some comrades sold the New Worker whilst others gave out Korean Friendship Association (KFA) leaflets to the crowd, which included a woman dressed as the “Statue of Taking Liberties” and a man wearing a Trump mask who had come along for the lunch-time protest in Grosvenor Square.

Even though the emergency protest was called at short notice by the Stop the War campaign and CND, there was still a good turn-out to hear the campaign speakers who later attempted to deliver a letter from the peace movements but were turned aside by US embassy staff.

The Winds of War

IN A WEEK in which we’ve been remembering the hundreds of thousands killed when the Americans nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, we’ve heard the new US president mouthing off with his usual threats against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Donald Trump, emboldened no doubt by last weekend’s shameful decision of the United Nations Security Council to impose even more sanctions against the beleaguered beacon of socialism in Asia, bragged that: “North Korea best not make any more threats to the US. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” But US threats count for little these days, least of all with the Korean People’s Army, who responded in turn by threatening to nuke the strategic US nuclear base on the Pacific island of Guam.

In the past the Americans have used the UN Security Council as a rubber-stamp for imperialist aggression against the former Yugoslavia, and regime change in Iraq and Libya. And Democratic Korea would clearly have been next if the DPRK did not now possesses nuclear missiles that can cross the Pacific and hit the American mainland.

As Lindsey German, the leader of the Stop the War movement said that Trump’s statement: “has been enough to strike fear into the hearts of millions of people. Unfortunately the world has already seen what Trump and his predecessors have been capable of, and it does not bode well for the future.”

She rightly said: “The alternative to war is demilitarisation and negotiation, something Trump refuses to contemplate... there are international agreements in favour of nuclear disarmament and of stopping proliferation. All Trump’s recent actions shows he will ignore them as the US continues to control the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world.

“This is a frightening point in world history and one where the populations of an increasingly crisis ridden world have every interest in stopping war. It is time to build a big movement against this.”

Democratic Korea has had no choice but to develop its nuclear energy programme and its own independent nuclear deterrent. The DPRK threatens no one. Its enemies are close by. US nuclear-armed warships are stationed off the Korean coast and thousands of US troops are in the south of Korea as well as in Japan. US imperialism wants to make the Pacific Ocean an American lake. US imperialism wants to perpetuate the division of Korea to justify the occupation of the south and ultimately to extinguish socialism in the Korean peninsula. All communists must stand by Democratic Korea and condemn all imperialist aims and threats.

Democratic Korea’s stupendous achievements

Dermot Hudson and James Taylor

By New Worker correspondent

The Chadswell Centre in central London once again became the venue for Korean solidarity activists gathering last weekend to commemorate the defeat of US imperialism and its lackeys in the Korean War, and to celebrate the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s successful launch of a new ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile]. Called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA), the meeting was opened by Dermot Hudson who praised the launch that strengthens Democratic Korea’s nuclear deterrent capacity. He said: “The US imperialists are putting immense pressure on People's Korea and we must rally around DPRK and defend it.” The latest missile test showed that the DPRK can not only defend itself from US imperialism but can win a war for national reunification, a war to liberate south Korea from the colonial rule of US imperialism.”

Other speakers included Theo Russell from the Central Committee of the New Communist Party, and KFA activists Shaun Pickford and James Taylor. Sadly Prof Dr Harish Gupta of the International Institute of the Juche Idea could not join us but his paper, detailing the great feats achieved by Korean communist leader Kim Il Sung in liberating Korea from Japanese colonialism and later defeating the might of US-led imperialism in the Fatherland Liberation War, was read out.

As usual there was plenty of time for questions and general discussion, which continued over refreshments after the meeting ended.