People's Democracy

TALKS ON KOREAN REUNIFICATION

Setback To US Interests

Suneet Chopra

IT is a significant step forward in securing peace in East Asia when Kim Jong Il, the general secretary of the Workers Party of Korea, the supreme commander of the Korean Peoples Army and the chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK invites the South Korean President, Roh Mu Hyun for talks on reunification of the country at Pyongyang between August 28 and 30. But the most recent reports tell us the talks are likely to be delayed till early October on account of the South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan. This is something that was forced on the South Koreans by their “strategic alliance” with the USA which has put them into danger and has done nothing to save their lives once they were taken hostage by the Taliban. One cannot discount the fact that the USA is even dragging the tension on as it needs it to remain in Korea and cannot be too happy to see the North and South coming together for talks. In fact, it has chosen this very period for military manoeuvres with the South Korean army simulating an attack on the North from August 20, despite the fact that North Korea is badly ravaged by floods and needs all the help it can get. This gives the US just the chance it wants to increase the tension.

Earlier talks had been stalled by US pressure on South Korea after the June 15,2000 agreement between Kim Jong Il and the then President of the South, Kim Dae Jung, which led to the launching of a joint industrial zone in Kaesong. The delay in holding fresh talks on Korean reunification reflects the intransigence of US imperialism not only in keeping the Korean people divided, obviously against their will, but also to keep international tensions alive to keep the profits of international arms dealers rolling in.

The Korean people have long been aware of how uncomplicated the question of Korean reunification is if left to the Korean people themselves. The three principles involved in achieving this were spelt out by Kim Il Sung the leader of the Korean national liberation struggle both against Japanese fascism and US imperialism, and his South Korean counterparts as far back as 4 July 1972. These principles are independence, peaceful reunification and national unity. The obvious hurdle to this is the presence of an army of tens of thousands of US troops in the South armed with a thousand nuclear war-heads. The first condition for Korean reunification is the evacuation of foreign troops. The USA must step out of the Korean peninsula or a peaceful reunification is not possible nor an independent one.

US INTEREST IN DIVISION

The USA however, has no interest in Korean reunification as its aim is to control and retain a strategic foothold in East Asia. As far back as November 1943, at the Tehran Conference of the victorious Allies of World War II, the USA sought a forty-year mandate over Korea. The Soviet Union refused to allow it. The USA did not relent. In February 1945, at the Yalta conference, it demanded a 20 to 30 year mandate over Korea “to cultivate the ability of the Koreans for self-government.” The Soviet refusal to accept this finished the scheme. The real interest is obvious from Report no. 4849 of the Information and investigation bureau of the US state department dated January 28,1949. “In view of the strategic position held by Korea in North East Asia, establishment of control over Korea and her people… will considerably strengthen our country.” So, despite all US lies to the contrary, it was US strategic interests that led to the Korean War and the division of the country.

It is shameful how, when the Korean Peoples Revolutionary Army was sweeping across the country in a popular upsurge, on August 20, 1945, General Mac Arthur instructed the Japanese fascist governor general, Abe Nobuyuki, and the fascist army of occupation of Japan to ensure “public peace in South Korea entirely on their own responsibility.” On September 7, 45000 US occupation troops landed at Inchon and established a military occupation under General Hodges who simply took control of the Japanese colonial administration as his own on September 9. Death penalties were made enforceable under a summary “Military Occupation Court”, political activity was forbidden, the property of collaborators of the Japanese regime was protected and English was enforced as the official language. This was hardly a way to teach the Korean people democracy.

Almost immediately, incursions of the South into the North were unleashed. There were 270 instances in 1947 which snowballed into 2617 by the end of 1949. Chae Pyong Dok, chief of general staff of the “South Korean” army stated in no uncertain terms: “The only way of reunifying North and South Korea is for the Republic of Korea (the South) to restore the lost territory, North Korea, by force”. The Japanese were involved and the US General in charge reported to the South Korean President, Syngman Rhee: “Why should we appoint June 25 as the D-day of the Korean War? Because that day is Sunday. Sunday is the Sabbath for Christian countries like USA and South Korea. Nobody can believe that we would launch a war on Sunday. And so, they will be convinced of our innocence”.

And strictly according to plan, the US-led Southern forces invaded the North on just that date. A map for this attack was seized by the Korean Peoples Revolutionary Army when it captured Seoul on June 28, 1950. So strong was the peoples feeling for independence that according to a report submitted to the UN commission on Korea, no less than 1,18,621 people were arrested under newly promulgated draconian laws to suppress the anger of the South at this move.

MEDIA MANIPULATION

In fact, according to the Hershel D. Meyer’s ‘Modern History of America’, “the North Korean army was surprised by the Republic of Korea army and retreated two to three kilometers from the 38th parallel before finally switching over to a counter-attack”. These events do not reflect a Northern attack, but rather the opposite. Then how did the USA manage to get a UN vote? In fact, none other than John Prat, the Chief of the Far Eastern section of British intelligence has this to say: “The verdict of guilty given against the DPRK was based on the telegram sent by the UN Commission in Seoul which said that there was no evidence as to which side has launched the attack.” And yet, our leading news papers like the Hindustan Times of 9 August 2007 can state blandly that the “North invades the South, initiating the Korean War”. It is evident that not only are the protestations of the USA to be trusted, but it also has the capacity of twisting things to its advantage by hook or by crook.

IMPERIALIST MACHINATION

The Korean people and the leadership of the DPRK are more than well aware of the unreliability of US promises, like that of giving the country a heavy water reactor being just one of these. And if the DPRK has survived it has been because of its “army first” policy that made the USA wary of attacking it. Now, with its being stuck in the quagmire of the Iraq war, its capacity to intervene in Korea is far less than before, otherwise the election of the son of a chicken farmer, President Roh, defeating an heir of the Hyundai empire could never have happened in South Korea. This gives one the hope that the North, backed by its strong army and stable political system, can ensure that the Korean people will edge forward on the fifty seventh anniversary of the conquest of Seoul by the Korean Peoples Revolutionary Army with a diplomatic conquest to carry forward the initiative of June 15, 2000. Already there has been a delay thanks to the US refusal to intervene in a hostage crisis created by its old allies, the Taliban and its involving the South Korean army in hostile military exercises when what is needed is help to the flood victims of DPRK.To add to this, Japan is being roped in to attack the General Association of Korean Residents in that country and violating the human rights of Koreans living there on a racist basis.

The Korean people, however, want unity. The USA has done all it can to prevent it. But its chances of success are bleak It was the DPRK that was responsible for the first defeat of the USA in history leading to the signing of the Armistice of July 27, 1953.Since then the DPRK has successfully warded off all attempts to destabilise it under the pretence of its being one of the “Axis of Evil” in US eyes. On the contrary, it has forced the USA to provide 50,000 tonnes of fuel for shutting down its nuclear reactor recently. Now it has boldly gone ahead with its initiative to reunite with the South, a reunification that means expelling US troops and weapons from Korea. And with them, a major imperialist threat to North East Asia.

Seeing this retreat, one must view the attempt of the US to conjure up an Asian NATO with India, Australia and Japan as participants in it, as a measure to counteract the effect of its being inevitably being kicked out of the Korean peninsula. This poses a dangerous threat to India, the only Non-Aligned state being roped into this “alliance” of pro-imperialist military powers that is bound to lead to an arms race in Asia with the possibility of wars which can ruin us but from which the USA hopes to profit. Such developments, and the interest shown in them by the Manmohan Singh government, must be viewed by the Indian people with concern. They must come out on the streets and voice their anger at our country becoming part of an alliance of international bandits.