People's Democracy

US Threat to Asia can’t be Tolerated

Suneet Chopra

ON April 15, the 101st birth anniversary of Comrade Kim Il Sung was observed with fanfare in Pyongyang, when one more dirty imperialist trick was exposed. It came out that the BBC had wormed three “journalists” into a student tour group of the London School of Economics’ Gremshaw Club on a trip to North Korea from March 23 to 30, during which time they did some secret filming in the country. The question is: is this behaviour typical of journalists or of spies and agents provocateurs?

Clearly, the university authorities were less than pleased; they said the entire team could have been arrested and punished if the three ‘journalists’ were found out. Moreover, the university authorities stated that “in advance of the trip it was not known to the rest of the party that these were three journalists working for or with the BBC.” Posing as tourists, their purpose was to do covert filming and recording in order to produce the “Panorama” programme. The authorities demanded that the programme be shelved, which the BBC has refused to do.

Clearly the extent to which the dirty tricks brigade went this time has not only exposed the double game of the USA calling for dialogue and engagement with the DPRK and then breaking off at the crucial moment or refusing to implement what they have promised, while continuously pursuing a policy of covert hostilities in their attempt to get its stranglehold over the Korean Peninsula. In fact, they would have succeeded if only Stalin had not put his foot down on the US demand for a mandate on Korea in 1946 and if the Korean national liberation movement had not led a series of uprisings, proving that US tutelage was the last thing the Korean people wanted. Indeed, with support from both the peoples Republic of China and the USSR, the DPRK forced the first military defeat of the USA by ending its thrust to capture Korea, with 17 countries in tow with the Armistice of 1953.

What is appalling is that the USA, after having failed for over 60 years, has not abandoned its design of gaining such a stranglehold.  This time the US got clear-cut rebuff from China after a series of general statements calling for peace in the Korean peninsula which the imperialist press and, following it, India’s corporate press motivatedly interpreted as the Chinese threat to DPRK.

Now the US line is to rearm Japan, while the growing military ambition of South Korea expresses itself in the demand not only for heavier arms but also for renuclearisation of the South. The US seeks to introduce its latest weaponry in the Korean region in the name of the DPRK’s “war-mongering.” But the fact is that it is the US strategic designs and not the DPRK’s threats that have led to these developments. As for the DPRK, this small country is only defending its right to survive; in fact its existence has prevented the US and its allies from having an even greater presence in the region. 

Recent events have more than proved this point. The DPRK, which had built a plutonium reactor to supplement its energy needs, made it inoperative on the basis of a US promise to give it a heavy water reactor. When that was not implemented, the North was forced to restart its original nuclear facility. This step alone is proof enough of the peaceful purpose of its nuclear reactor, if any is needed. But the US chose to ignore this fact and misrepresent the Korean position. Worse, the US misused the perfectly legitimate satellite launch by the DPRK in December last year, to slap further sanctions on the DPRK through the UN Security Council --- without doubt a hostile act on its part.

The latest situation is as follows: bilateral talks were held in Beijing in February 2012, resulting in an agreement that the DPRK would abide by a moratorium on long range missile testing in return for 2,40,000 metric tonnes of nutritional assistance. The US, for its part, stated it had no “hostile intent” and would implement the agreement in a “spirit of mutual respect and equality.” The US also gave its commitment of the US to honour the joint statement of September 19, 2005, whose violation by the US was what broke down the talks. This statement contained a step by step plan to denuclearise the Korean peninsula in exchange for economic and political normalisation. The US tried again and again to retreat from this position, but the Chinese chairman of the conference told the US to behave better or be seen as the disrupter of the peace process. So the US signed. But on September 20, against the letter and spirit of the agreement, it slapped financial sanctions on the DPRK. This attitude of a determined campaign to “sink” the DPRK, to use Obama’s terminology, is the basis of economic warfare, covert activities, false accusations and militarily threats to the country while accusing the DPRK of belligerence. And this has been going on at a heightened pace for the last four months. Its continuation is a threat to peace not only in East Asia but in the world as a whole. No self-respecting Asian state can accept this sort of interference in the affairs of Asia by a power from another continent bent on destroying Asia’s development and drowning it in war and bloodshed. China has already warned the US about the impermissibility of its imperial designs in Korean peninsula. Russia holds a similar position to the one it held in 1946.

The Indian government and the Indian people too must wake up to the US threat of interference in East Asia. West Asia is already up in flames. Recently it was exposed that the US agreed to ignore Pakistani terrorist camps bordering Kashmir for being allowed to use drones on the Afghan-Pak border. This should serve as a warning to us that the US will not leave South Asia alone either. It means a broadbased coalition of Asian states must come up to face the US threat to peace and stability in Asia. The DPRK offers a lesson in this regard. Its experience and friendship is valuable and necessary for us to understand and counter the US duplicity in dealing with other states.