Washington Deepens Crisis on Korean Peninsula

Beijing Stalinists Could Betray an Ally

Emma Johnson

Washington’s unrelenting provocations and threats against North Korea are creating an increasingly dangerous and unpredictable situation on the Korean Peninsula.

With one after another round of crippling economic sanctions and its bellicose display of nuclear military capability, Washington is leaving the government of North Korea, which has stood up to U.S. imperialism for six decades, few options. And contrary to its pretensions, the Barack Obama administration has no control over the possible consequences of this course.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries are conducting large-scale military drills on the North Korean border from March 1 to April 30, involving as many as 200,000 South Korean soldiers and some 10,000 U.S. troops.

On March 18, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced to reporters at a press conference in Seoul that B-52 bombers would carry out their second simulated nuclear raid the following day as part of the drills.

Ten days later, U.S. military officials announced that two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers flew from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to a bombing range in South Korea, dropped inert munitions and returned to the U.S. in a single, continuous mission. This is the first time a training run by a stealth bomber over South Korea has been made public.

“The Korean Peninsula is now in a touch-and-go situation due to the nuclear provocation moves,” North Korea’s foreign ministry said March 26.

On March 31, the U.S. flew F-22 stealth fighter jets, ordinarily stationed in Japan, to South Korea to participate in the military drills. F-22s are low-flying planes, capable of evading radar and air-defense systems and can also be used to escort B-2 stealth bombers in a strike.

The following day, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, said that the USS McCain, a destroyer capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, was being positioned off South Korea. A second ship, the USS Decatur, was reported to be en route from the Philippines.

The current crisis is rooted in the 1945 division of the Korean nation, imposed by U.S. imperialism. Between 1950 and 1953 Washington carried out a bloody war under U.N. auspices in an attempt to overthrow the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Korea remains the only unresolved national division coming out of World War II. To this day Washington refuses to sign a peace treaty with North Korea and maintains some 28,000 U.S. troops in the South.

“Since early in the 1950s the U.S. has made ceaseless nuclear blackmail against the DPRK,” said a March 15 press release from North Korea’s permanent mission to the U.N., referring to nuclear threats during the Korean War by then President Harry Truman. After introducing tactical nuclear weapons into South Korea in 1957, Washington announced in 1991 that it had pulled them out, part of hypocritical calls to “denuclearize the peninsula” shortly after Pyongyang began its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has long-range strategic nuclear missiles aimed at North Korea. In recent years, for example, Washington shifted the majority of its Trident submarines armed with hundreds of intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles to the Pacific, explicitly targeting North Korea and China.

“Strategic nuclear missiles in the U.S. mainland are aiming at the DPRK and submarines with nuclear warheads are swarming the waters off South Korea and its vicinity in the Pacific region,” the March 26 North Korean statement pointed out.

Last month, Pyongyang cut off all military communication lines with South Korea and declared the cease-fire from 1953 void.

On April 1, the North Korean government said it would strengthen its nuclear weapons capacity in light of U.S. provocations, but would work to further nuclear non-proliferation if there were an “improvement of relations with hostile nuclear weapons states.” North Korean officials said the government would restart its uranium enrichment plant in Yongboun, which was shut down under a nuclear disarmament deal with Washington in 2007. Two days later, Pyongyang blocked 480 workers and trucks coming from South Korea from entering Kaesong industrial park in the North, where more than 120 South Korean companies employ 53,000 North Korean workers. Kaesong is the one joint venture between North and South Korea.

According to the April 2 International Business Times, Chinese military forces have been placed on high alert and the Chinese navy has conducted a live-fire naval drill in the Yellow Sea, close to the Korean Peninsula. Beijing was a co-author with Washington of the latest round of sanctions imposed on North Korea March 7. At the same time, a long-standing defense treaty between Pyongyang and Beijing obligates China to help North Korea in the event of war.

Fidel Castro: Avoid New Korean War

Fidel Castro Ruz

A few days ago I mentioned the great challenges humanity is currently facing. Intelligent life emerged on our planet approximately 200,000 years ago, although new discoveries demonstrate something else.

This is not to confuse intelligent life with the existence of life which, from its elemental forms in our solar system, emerged millions of years ago.

A virtually infinite number of life forms exist. In the sophisticated work of the world’s most eminent scientists the idea has already been conceived of reproducing the sounds which followed the Big Bang, the great explosion which took place more than 13.7 billion years ago.

This introduction would be too extensive if it was not to explain the gravity of an event as unbelievable and absurd as the situation created in the Korean Peninsula, within a geographic area containing close to five billion of the seven billion persons currently inhabiting the planet.

This is about one of the most serious dangers of nuclear war since the October Crisis around Cuba in 1962, 50 years ago.

In 1950, a war was unleashed there [the Korean Peninsula] which cost millions of lives. It came barely five years after two atomic bombs were exploded over the defenseless cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which, in a matter of seconds, killed and irradiated hundreds of thousands of people.

General Douglas MacArthur wanted to utilize atomic weapons against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Not even Harry Truman allowed that.

It has been affirmed that the People’s Republic of China lost one million valiant soldiers in order to prevent the installation of an enemy army on that country’s border with its homeland. For its part, the Soviet army provided weapons, air support, technological and economic aid.

I had the honor of meeting Kim Il Sung, a historic figure, notably courageous and revolutionary.

If war breaks out there, the peoples of both parts of the Peninsula will be terribly sacrificed, without benefit to all or either of them. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was always friendly with Cuba, as Cuba has always been and will continue to be with her.

Now that the country has demonstrated its technical and scientific achievements, we remind her of her duties to the countries which have been her great friends, and it would be unjust to forget that such a war would particularly affect more than 70% of the population of the planet.

If a conflict of that nature should break out there, the government of Barack Obama in his second mandate would be buried in a deluge of images which would present him as the most sinister character in the history of the United States. The duty of avoiding war is also his and that of the people of the United States.

USA: Enemy of the People of the World

KCNA

The Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army in a statement called upon the progressive people across the world to actively join the army and people of the DPRK in defending independence and justice, not blindly following the U.S. high-handed and arbitrary practices.

The U.S. ambition to hold sway the world has lasted for many years. Its aggressive nature became more undisguised after the Second World War.

In this regard, President Kim Il Sung stressed long ago the need to conduct a vigorous struggle against the U.S.-led imperialists. On August 6, Juche 60 (1971), he set forth a strategy for anti-imperialist and anti-U.S. struggle, the keynote of which is to dismember the U.S. imperialists in any places around the world.

The current situation, in which the U.S. high-handed practices have become more rampant in the Korean Peninsula and other parts of the world, represents the validity of this strategy.

The U.S. is intensifying its interference in China’s internal affairs, including the issues of Xinjiang Uygur, Tibet and human rights, and openly poking its nose into the territorial and territorial water disputes in Southeast Asia.

It has almost finished setting up European MD system against Russia and made use of Central Asia and Caucasia as a bridgehead for rounding off encircling regional powers.

U.S. forces are still present in western and southern Europe, Persian Gulf, the Mideast and Africa.

With its anti-Cuba blockades continued for scores of years, the U.S. has cooked up a wave of sabotage plots against the progressive governments in Latin America.

It will be a mistake for those countries to think that the U.S. provocation moves are committed only against the DPRK.

It is the DPRK’s will to put a definite end to the U.S. nuclear threat to other countries.

Progressives Support North Korea’s Steps for Self-Defense

KCNA

The Nepalese newspaper Hangk on Feb. 27 carried an article titled “DPRK’s nuclear test to be observed from new angle”.

The newspaper said the DPRK’s successful satellite launch in December last year and its third underground nuclear test on Feb. 12 make the world look at it from a new angle, adding:

The DPRK’s third underground nuclear test that stunned the world was a message to the UN Security Council and the U.S. which have adopted only unfair resolutions on it.

Had the U.S. put an end to its hostile policy toward the DPRK and treated it as a friendly state, it would have taken no such tough measure.

The U.S. forces’ permanent presence in south Korea and Japan, their ceaseless joint war drills, economic sanctions, etc. were the main factor that prevented the DPRK from exercising its self-restraint.

At a time when the DPRK was striving to develop its economy and improve the people’s living standard, the U.S. and its followers hamstrung its efforts and violated its sovereignty.

The DPRK took measures to safeguard its sovereignty by itself despite repeated interference and pressure, winning praises from the world progressives.

As a matter of fact, the DPRK’s nuclear test was a product of the repeated pressure and violation of its sovereignty by the U.S. and its followers.

The U.S. and other Western countries, south Korea and Japan should make efforts for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, though belatedly.

With Rocket Launch, South Korea Escalates Tension on Korean Peninsula

Shortly after the sanction of the United Nations against the DPRK’s launch of Kwangmyongsong-3, the launch of KSLV-1 by South Korea naturally leads to the question: why is South Korea allowed to do it, but not the DPRK?

The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSVL-1), also known as Naro, blasts off from the Naro Space Center, located 480 kilometers south of Seoul, Jan. 30, 2013. South Korea successfully launched a space rocket in its third attempt to put a satellite into space on Wednesday.

People’s Daily

South Korea’s first space rocket Korean Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-1), also known as Naro, successfully lifted off at Naro Space Center in South Korea on Jan. 30, 2013. Yonhap said South Korea plans to complete the independent research and development of Korean three-stage rocket in 2018–2019.

Backstage considerations

KSLV-1 was launched twice previously and both ended up with failure. The two launching plans last year were also cancelled because of technical fault. The launch on Jan. 30 was “one last shot” which finally succeeded.

Cui Zhiying, director of Korean Peninsula Research Office of the Asia-Pacific Research Center of Tongji University said that pertaining to foreign affairs, the launch of KSLV-1 was stimulated by the launch of Unha-3 rocket by the DPRK, but at the same time gave the latter an excuse to maintain the justification for its launching.

Internally, Pang Zhihao, space expert, executive editor of the International Space magazine said the launch of KSLV-1 has also brought about a lot of gains to South Korea. In politics, it is helpful to improve its international status and national cohesion; economically, KSLV-1 is alleged to have brought South Korea 2 trillion won of output. Finally, it laid an important foundation for the development of medium-range missiles since the rocket technology to launch a satellite can be transformed into ballistic missile technology.

Possible influences

Pang Zhihao said South Korea’s rocket technology is still at primary level and does not pose a threat to other countries. It mainly influences the DPRK but may give rise to a competition situation on the peninsula.

Gong Keyu, deputy director of Asia-Pacific Research Center of Shanghai Institute of International Studies said the DPRK may protest against the launch of KSLV-1 but in fact, the rocket technology of South Korean still lags behind that of the DPRK. Shortly after the sanction of the United Nations against the DPRK’s launch of Kwangmyongsong-3, the launch of KSLV-1 by South Korea naturally leads to the question: why is South Korea allowed to do it, but not the DPRK? This may lead to the alternating upgrade of the situation on the peninsula.

According to some other analysis, the lift of KSLV-1 may be regarded as a new round of provocation by the DPRK, who might even be so angered as to accelerate the process of its third nuclear test.

Reunification Is Driving Force of Politics on Korean Peninsula

John Studer

The partition of Korea remains the only unresolved national division imposed by Washington and its imperialist allies coming out of World War II. Sixty years since the July 1953 cease-fire—marking U.S. imperialism’s first military defeat—the desire by working people for reunification remains the driving force in politics on the peninsula.

The North Korean government responded to ongoing provocations by Washington by reiterating Jan. 1 Pyongyang’s long-standing call to unify Korea.

“A key to ending the divide of the nation and achieving reunification is to end the situation of confrontation between the North and the South,” said Kim Jong Un, head of the North Korean government, in a New Year’s address.

“All the members of the Korean nation in the north, south and abroad, should subordinate and orientate everything to the great national cause of reunifying the country,” Kim said. “The entire nation should vehemently reject any moves for domination, intervention, aggression and war by outside forces, and never tolerate any acts hindering the country’s reunification.”

In recent years, Washington has been carrying out a “pivot” toward Asia, seeking to reinforce U.S. naval domination and economic interests in the region. This includes stepping up military deployments, war games and shoring up alliances in the region.

These moves are aimed at countering China’s growing influence, as well as reinforcing Washington’s 67-year military presence on the Korean Peninsula and its squeeze on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the North.

“In the present international arena, the moves of the imperialists to interfere in the internal affairs of other sovereign states and their acts of military aggression pose a serious threat to peace and security of mankind,” said Kim in his Jan. 1 speech. “The Asia-Pacific region, the Korean Peninsula in particular, has become the hottest spot in the world in which constant tension persists.”

The U.S. rulers imposed a capitalist regime on the South in the course of the 1950-53 Korean War. After the imperialists army was defeated in the North, Washington refused to sign a peace treaty and remains officially at war with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to this day.

Washington maintains more than 28,000 troops in the South, some 32,000 across the Korea Strait in Japan, and still retains “wartime control” over the South Korean military.

Washington, Seoul military exercises

The U.S. and South Korea have conducted a series of provocative military drills over the past year aimed at intimidating the DPRK. In June, 2,000 South Korean and U.S. forces conducted operations at Poncheon near the North Korean border. One of the drills had a North Korean flag as its target.

At the end of October, U.S. troops joined 240,000 South Korean troops in military maneuvers to “prepare for provocations by North Korea.”

“We will continue working shoulder to shoulder to demonstrate our combined resolve,” U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-Jin on the day before the exercises began.

The drill came a week after Seoul announced a new pact with Washington that will triple the range of South Korean ballistic missiles, enabling them to reach anywhere in the North.

In December, the Barack Obama administration announced it will provide South Korea with four Global Hawk aerial drones to expand spying on the DPRK. While the drones are designed for intelligence, the Dec. 29 New York Times reported, they could be modified to carry a weapon.

New South Korean president

Park Geun-hye was elected as the new president of South Korea Dec. 20 in a close and hotly contested race, the first woman in the country’s history to become president. Park is the daughter of former President Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea with a iron fist, jailing and torturing thousands, before being assassinated by his chief spy in 1979.

Relations with North Korea were among the central issues in the election. Park’s opponent, Moon Jae-in, who had been imprisoned under his opponent’s father, won two-thirds of the vote among Koreans in their 20s and 30s. Moon campaigned for a return of the “sunshine policy,” which refers to 10 years of improving relations between the governments of the North and South that included summits, South Korean investments in the North, and reunions of separated families. The policy was reversed under outgoing President Lee Myung-bak, who was elected in 2008.

Park vowed to keep a “promise of a new era of strong national security.” But widespread working-class sentiment for reunification was reflected when she said she hoped to meet with the North’s Kim Jong Un and improve economic and political relations.

North Korea successfully launched a long-range rocket bearing a weather satellite into space Dec. 12, the week before the election in the South. The North, Fox News reported, is “one of the few countries to have successfully launched a working satellite into space from its own soil; bitter rival South Korea is not on the list, though it has tried.”

The United Nations Security Council condemned the achievement, saying it violated a 2009 council resolution banning “any launch using ballistic missile technology.” The resolution had been adopted under U.S. pressure after North Korea conducted a nuclear detonation test.

The White House called it a “highly provocative act that threatens regional security.”

Meanwhile, in the midst of U.S.-led moves to further isolate North Korea, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, led a humanitarian visit to the country. U.S. authorities have bitterly denounced the trip, arguing it will “boost Pyongyang’s profile,” reported the Associated Press.

Full Text of Kim Jong Un’s New Years Address

KCNA

Dear comrades,

Officers and men of the heroic People’s Army and all the beloved fellow countrymen,

Dear compatriots,

Having seen out the year 2012 characterized by the events that will go down in the history of the nation, we are seeing in the new year 2013 full of high hope and confidence in final victory.

Reflecting the unanimous reverence of all the service personnel and people for President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il, the fathers of the nation and eternal Sun of Juche, I would like first to pay the highest tribute and New Year greetings to them.

I extend my warm greetings to the service personnel and people who are devotedly striving for the prosperity of the country, firmly united around the Workers’ Party of Korea, and sincerely wish all the families across the country harmony and greater happiness.

My New Year greetings also go to our compatriots in the south and abroad who are ringing in the new year with yearning and expectations for the reunification and prosperity of the nation and the world’s progressive peoples and our foreign friends who love justice and peace.

Last year was a historic year in which the great Generalissimos were upheld as the eternal leaders of our revolution and a firm guarantee was provided for brilliantly carrying forward the revolutionary cause of Juche to completion under the leadership of the Party.

The President and the General were great leaders whom our people acclaimed for the first time in their history spanning thousands of years; they are the eternal images of the great Paektusan nation and banners of all victories and glory. Last year we celebrated the centenary of the birth of the President as the greatest national holiday, reviewed the 100-year history of Juche Korea with pride and held up the General as the eternal leader of our Party and people, realizing the cause of immortalizing the leader. By doing so, we have been able to glorify the new century of the Juche era as the annals of victory and glory for the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche under the unfurled banner of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism.

Although they saw in 2012 in tears of blood after the sudden demise of the General whom they had believed in as in heaven, our service personnel and people determinedly rose up following the Party with firm faith that the great General would always be with them and fully supported the leadership of the Party. With loyalty as pure as white gem, noble sense of moral obligation and all sincerity, they refurbished the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in the most sublime way as befits the supreme sanctuary of Juche and erected the statues of the Generalissimos on Mansu Hill and in several other places.

Placing deep trust in and faithfully supporting the Party, they established the ties of blood with it, their hearts pulsating in the same beats with it, and always shared sweets and bitters with it. Major political celebrations held amid the deep interest of the whole nation and the days of last year bore testimony to the single-hearted unity between the Party, the army and the people which was further consolidated to be unbreakable ties of blood.

Last year our service personnel and people achieved historic victories which would brilliantly shine in the history of the country by waging a general offensive to put the intentions and instructions of the General into practice.

Our reliable scientists and technicians successfully launched the artificial earth satellite Kwangmyongsong 3-2, carrying out the instruction of the General with credit and fully demonstrating the high level of space science and technology and overall national power of Juche Korea. That we successfully manufactured and launched the scientific and technological satellite by entirely relying on our own efforts, technology and wisdom was an event of national jubilation that raised the dignity and honor of the Sun’s nation onto the highest level and a great event which inspired all the service personnel and people with confidence in sure victory and courage and clearly showed that Korea does what it is determined to do.

Through the parade held in celebration of the centenary of the birth of the President, our revolutionary armed forces demonstrated the inexhaustible might of the powerful revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu steadfast in ideology and faith and equipped with Korean-style modern military hardware capable of defeating any formidable enemy. And they reliably safeguarded the security of the country by resolutely smashing every war provocation and anti-DPRK smear campaign of the enemy. The officers and men of the People’s Army and the People’s Internal Security Forces made breakthroughs on all major fronts of building a thriving country with the mettle of “At a go” and did many good things for the happiness of the people, thereby living up to the expectations and trust of the Party and people.

Although the situation was acute and complicated and severe natural calamities hit the country in succession last year, our army and people made great strides in their efforts to build a thriving socialist country and improve the people’s living standards by displaying an indomitable will and waging an unyielding struggle.

We put the Huichon Power Station and Tanchon Port into commission, built many Juche-oriented and modern factories and enterprises and reconstructed major production bases in key industrial sectors on the basis of advanced science and technology, thus further consolidating the material and technological foundations of our economy.

Thanks to the exalted patriotic zeal of the service personnel and people, monumental edifices including Changjon Street and Rungna People’s Pleasure Park sprang up in Pyongyang and many cultural facilities for the promotion of the wellbeing of the people were built in different parts of the country, changing its looks.

Last year, the superior socialist education system was further consolidated through the adoption of the law on enforcing universal 12-year compulsory education; our sports people achieved laudable successes in international games, adding glory to the country; and our revolutionary artistes conducted artistic activities in a fresh and enterprising manner, imbuing society with an animating spirit and greatly encouraging the people in their struggle.

The brilliant successes we achieved in the revolutionary struggle and construction work last year were ascribable to the fact that the General had unfolded an ambitious blueprint and laid firm foundations for the building of a thriving country. Last year’s significant successes were a valuable fruit born of the unshakeable determination and correct leadership of our Party to glorify Kim Il Sung’s and Kim Jong Il’s Korea all over the world by translating the far-reaching plan and instructions of the General into reality and the lofty sense of loyalty and patriotic devotion of our service personnel and people unfailingly faithful to the Party.

I extend my warm thanks to all the service personnel and people who adorned the first year of the new century of the Juche era with great victories in hearty response to the Party’s militant call.

Comrades,

The new year 2013 is a year of great creations and changes in which a radical turnabout will be effected in the building of a thriving socialist country on the road of the onward march in the new century of Kim Il Sung’s and Kim Jong Il’s Korea.

All the people and service personnel should dynamically turn out in the grand onward march for building a thriving country full of pride of victors and confidence in a rosy future.

The road of Juche is the only path for our Party and people to invariably follow and great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism is the ever-victorious banner of our revolution. We should march forward along the road of independence, the road of Songun and the road of socialism to the end upholding the banner of Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism. Our Party will triumphantly build a thriving socialist nation, the most powerful country, on this land in our own way, the way the General did, by relying on our people who are the best in the world.

This year we will be greeting the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, our glorious motherland, and the 60th anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War.

The dignified and glorious present of our people and the bright prosperous future of our country are ensured by the immortal nation-building exploits the Generalissimos performed while founding a genuine state of the people for the first time in the 5 000-year-long history of our nation and developing it into a powerful socialist country that is independent, self-sufficient and self-reliant in national defence and by the great achievements the President made while leading the Fatherland Liberation War to brilliant victory on the strength of his outstanding strategy and tactics and wise leadership.

In this significant year we should add brilliance to the immortal achievements of the great Generalissimos and make persevering efforts to build a thriving socialist country and carry out the cause of reunifying the country.

The building of an economic giant is the most important task that comes to the fore in the present stage of building a thriving socialist country.

We should further consolidate the successes achieved so far in economic construction to raise the status of our country to that of an economic giant in the new century, thus realizing the wish of the great General who devoted all his life to making our people well off with nothing to envy in the world.

In the same manner as we demonstrated the dignity and might of Songun Korea through the manufacture and launch of the Juche-based application satellite, the entire Party, the whole country and all the people should wage an all-out struggle this year to effect a turnaround in building an economic giant and improving the people’s standard of living.

“Let us bring about a radical turn in the building of an economic giant with the same spirit and mettle as were displayed in conquering space!” — this is the fighting slogan our Party and people should uphold this year.

All sectors and all units of the national economy should launch a vigorous general offensive to boost production in hearty response to the Party’s militant slogan.

All economic undertakings for this year should be geared to effecting a radical increase in production and stabilizing and improving the people’s living standards by solidifying and making effective use of the already-built foundations of the independent national economy.

By adopting decisive steps to shore up the vanguard sectors of the national economy and the sectors of basic industries, we should develop coal-mining, electric-power and metallurgical industries and rail transport on a preferential basis and provide a firm springboard for the building of an economic giant. We should make innovations in coal-mining and metallurgical industries in particular so as to revitalize the overall economy of the country.

The success in economic construction should be manifested in the people’s standard of living. We should direct great efforts to bolstering up the sectors and units that have a direct bearing on the people’s livelihoods and increasing production there, so as to give them more benefits in living.

Agriculture and light industry remain the major fronts for economic construction this year, too. We should fulfil this year’s plan for grain production without fail by concentrating nationwide efforts on farming and raising the efficiency of agricultural production by dint of scientific and intensive methods. We should take concrete measures for the supply of raw and other materials to light-industry factories and thus increase the output of quality consumer goods.

We should decisively bolster up livestock, fish and fruit farming to provide the people with a better, more bountiful diet. The soldiers of the People’s Army and the shock-brigade members who volunteered to work at the reclamation site of Sepho tableland in response to the Party’s call should achieve miraculous successes and perform heroic feats in this year’s campaign to open a bright prospect for carrying the Party’s grand nature-remaking plan to completion at an earlier date.

We should wage a dynamic struggle to boost production at the modern factories and production bases that were built under the leadership of the General who, going on with his super-intense forced march, made painstaking efforts to improve the people’s living standards. By doing so, we should ensure that his ennobling affection reaches the people as it is.

All sectors and all units of the national economy should push ahead with a socialist emulation drive to reenergize production and fulfil their quotas as fixed in the national economic plan for this year.

We should bring about a radical turn in the building of an economic giant on the strength of science and technology by fanning the flames of the industrial revolution in the new century.

The industrial revolution in the new century is, in essence, a scientific and technological revolution, and breaking through the cutting edge is a shortcut to the building of an economic giant. Like the satellite scientists who conquered outer space we should wage a dynamic campaign to push back the frontiers of science and technology so as to develop the country’s overall science and technology to the world standards as soon as possible. All sectors of the national economy should direct primary efforts to the development of science and technology, bring science and technology into close combination with production in order to boost production by relying on domestic resources and technology, and introduce CNC technology in equipment and production lines and achieve their full automation in the long run.

We should improve economic guidance and management as demanded by the developing reality.

All sectors of the national economy should make scrupulous arrangements for economic planning and guidance to boost production by tapping every possible reserve and potentiality, and work out in a scientific way the immediate plans and long-term strategies for stage-by-stage development and push ahead with them in a persistent manner. We should hold fast to the socialist economic system of our own style, steadily improve and perfect the methods of economic management on the principle of encouraging the working masses to fulfil their responsibility and role befitting the masters of production, and generalize on an extensive scale the good experiences gained at several units.

We should continue to channel great efforts into consolidating our political and military might in every way.

The single-hearted unity of the army and people around the Party is our strongest weapon and a powerful propellant for the building of a thriving socialist country.

We should invariably carry forward the proud tradition of single-hearted unity, the tradition of adorning the red flag of the revolution only with victories on the strength of the harmonious whole wherein the Party believes in the people and the latter absolutely trust and follow the former.

All officials, Party members and other working people should become genuine comrades united with a single heart, who share ideology and purpose, weal and woe with our Party on the road of the Songun revolution, and make devoted efforts for the sake of their country and people. They should orient all undertakings towards defending and cementing the single-hearted unity, and strengthen the political and ideological position of our revolution as solid as a rock by grasping the people’s sentiments and rallying broad sections of the people firmly behind the Party.

The military might of a country represents its national strength; only when it builds up its military might in every way can it develop into a thriving country and defend the security and happiness of its people. We should put continued stress on increasing our military might under the great banner of Songun, reliably safeguard the security and sovereignty of the country and render services to assuring regional stability and global peace.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the advancing of the slogan “a-match-for-a-hundred” by the great Generalissimo Kim Il Sung. It is important to bring about a fundamental change in strengthening our revolutionary armed forces and perfecting their combat preparedness.

The People’s Army should set up a revolutionary command system and military climate, establish steel-strong military discipline and perfect its regularized features as befits an elite revolutionary force. It should make its training more intensive, as the anti-Japanese guerrillas did on Mt. Paektu, so as to prepare all its officers and men to be a-match-for-a-hundred combatants who have acquired capabilities for actual warfare, and maintain full combat readiness. If the aggressors dare launch a preemptive attack against our sacred country, the People’s Army should mercilessly annihilate them and win victory in the war for the country’s reunification.

Officers and men of the Korean People’s Internal Security Forces and members of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards should intensify combat and political training and maintain full combat readiness with a determination to safeguard their Party and leader, country and people, and defend their hometowns.

The sector of defence industry should develop in larger numbers sophisticated military hardware of our own style that can contribute to implementing the Party’s military strategy, thereby fulfilling its mission as the arsenal of the powerful revolutionary army of Mt. Paektu.

We should spur the building of a civilized socialist nation to usher in a new era of cultural efflorescence in the 21st century.

The thriving socialist country we are building is a civilized socialist one where all its people are possessed of profound cultural knowledge, sturdy physique and noble moral virtues, enjoying a socialist life to their heart’s content under the most cultured conditions and environment, and a beautiful and sound lifestyle pervades the whole society.

All sectors in cultural construction should implement to the letter the ideas, lines and policies set forth by the General, and develop education, public health, literature and the arts, physical culture, public morals and all other branches as appropriate to an advanced civilized nation.

We should develop Pyongyang into a more majestic and picturesque city as befits the capital of Juche Korea, the centre of Songun culture, and turn all streets and villages, mountains and rivers in provinces, cities and counties into a socialist paradise. At the same time we should set up modern cultural and welfare facilities, parks and pleasure grounds in larger numbers, thus making our people enjoy a cultured life of a new era to their heart’s content.

In order to effect a radical change in this year’s campaign to build a thriving socialist country, officials should make a fundamental turnabout in their ideological viewpoint, work style and attitude.

Those who acquire the President’s and the General’s outlook on the people, make tireless efforts for their good, rid themselves of the old way of thinking and attitude and make ceaseless innovations in all work, and rouse the masses to make breakthroughs for the advance, can be rightly claimed to be genuine officials required by our Party at present. Officials should strive with devotion, upholding the slogan “Everything for the people and everything by relying on them!” They should work to the best of their abilities with a high sense of responsibility, eagerness and an enterprising approach to work, so that their loyalty and performance can be judged by the Party and the people.

Party organizations should further enhance their militant function and role.

As the political staff of the units concerned, they should firmly establish policy-oriented principles in implementing the Party’s policies and conduct political and organizational work with scrupulous care. By doing so, they should ensure that a great upsurge is brought about in their respective sectors and units. Party organizations, out of maternal feeling, should embrace all the people, take warm care of them and lead them forward to ensure that they share the same destiny with the Party to the end and fulfil their tasks at their posts in a responsible manner.

We should conduct Party work in the same way as it was done on the battleline in the 1970s, and put a focus of the work on thoroughly applying Kim Jong Il’s patriotism in all activities.

Kim Jong Il’s patriotism is the eternal soul and breath of Kim Il Sung’s nation, and a driving force for the building of a thriving country. Party organizations should ensure that all officials, Party members and other working people cherish Kim Jong Il’s patriotism deep in their hearts and give full play to their patriotic enthusiasm and spirit of devoted service in the ongoing sacred struggle to achieve prosperity of their socialist country.

Working people’s organizations should conduct effective education among their members to suit their specific features, thus inspiring them to an all-out offensive for this year. Youth league organizations should educate young people to dynamically advance straight forward along the road indicated by the Party and become youth heroes who glorify the present era of great upsurge with their creative activities and feats.

The reunification of the country is the greatest national task that brooks no further delay and was the lifelong desire and instructions of the great Generalissimos.

Deeply grieving over the national division, President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il, the fathers of the nation and lodestars of national reunification, worked heart and soul throughout their life to hand down a reunified country to their fellow countrymen, laying firm foundations for the independent reunification, peace and prosperity of the nation.

We should staunchly safeguard and add brilliance to the undying exploits the great Generalissimos performed for the sacred cause of national reunification, and accomplish the historic cause of the country’s reunification, a long-cherished desire of our nation, true to the lofty intention of the peerlessly great persons.

This year the entire Korean nation should turn out in a nationwide patriotic struggle for reunification in unity so as to usher in a new phase in the reunification movement.

An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the north and the south.

The past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war. Anti-reunification forces of south Korea should abandon their hostile policy against their fellow countrymen, but take the road of national reconciliation, unity and reunification.

Respecting and thoroughly implementing the north-south joint declarations is a basic prerequisite to promoting the inter-Korean relations and hastening the country’s reunification.

All the compatriots in the north, south and abroad should launch a dynamic struggle to carry out to the letter the June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration, great reunification programmes common to the nation in the new century and milestones for peace and prosperity.

The reunification issue should be solved by the concerted efforts of our nation in an independent manner.

The driving force of the reunification movement is the entire Korean nation, and nothing is impossible if it achieves firm unity. All the members of the Korean nation in the north, south and abroad should subordinate and orientate everything to the great national cause of reunifying the country from the standpoint of giving priority and attaching importance to the nation and achieving its unity. The entire nation should vehemently reject any moves for domination, intervention, aggression and war by outside forces, and never tolerate any acts hindering the country’s reunification.

Whatever trials and difficulties lie in the way of national reunification, we will build a reunified thriving country without fail on this three-thousand-ri land by the concerted efforts of the whole nation.

In the present international arena, the moves of the imperialists to interfere in the internal affairs of other sovereign states and their acts of military aggression pose a serious threat to peace and security of mankind. The Asia-Pacific region, the Korean Peninsula in particular, has become the hottest spot in the world in which constant tension persists.

The aspiration and desire of mankind to lead an independent life free from all sorts of domination and subjugation is growing stronger, and no force can stem the trend of history towards independence and justice.

The present international situation demands that our Republic continue to advance along the road of independence under the unfurled banner of Songun.

By holding fast to the ideals of independence, peace and friendship, we will, in the future, too, strive to develop relations of friendship and cooperation with the countries that are friendly to our country out of their respect for its sovereignty, and safeguard regional peace and stability and make the whole world independent.

A brighter and broader vista is open for us in the new year, and only victory and glory are in store for our people on their onward march.

Japan’s “Territorial Disputes”: Pretext for U.S. Confrontation with China & DPRK

International Department, Japan Communist League

Recently in East Asia, political tension regarding the territorial sovereignty over Dokto Island (Takeshima in Japanese) and also the Diaoyu Islands (Senkaku Islands in Japanese) has grown. The former has been claimed by both governments of South Korea and Japan, while the latter has been claimed by China and Japan.

Especially in mainland China, massive “anti-Japan demonstrations” have risen in many cities in response to Japan’s announcement of the nationalization of the disputed Diaoyu Islands. Japanese-owned shopping malls were attacked in these demonstrations and even some worker’s strikes were held in some Japanese-owned factories to denounce the Japanese government’s act and also to demand improvement of working condition.

The Japanese government and mainstream media have repeatedly claimed that both Dokto Island and the Diaoyu Islands are the “inherent territory of Japan,” rejecting one-sidedly the argument from South Korea and China. They have encouraged ultra-rightwing and racist forces in Japan, and even caused attacks against the South Korean consulate and the Chinese consulate in Japan.

How should Japanese communists and working people behave in this situation?

Historical fact

What we should point out first is the fact that both Dokto Island and the Diaoyu Islands are NOT the “inherent territory” of Japan.

Prior to the Meiji Restoration in 1868, which was a political revolution that paved the way for the establishment of Japanese capitalism, Japan did not recognize both islands as part of its own territory. In spite of intentional disregard by the Japanese government and media, history shows that Japan unilaterally seized Dokto Island from Korea and the Diaoyu Islands from China in the process of its imperialist expansion that led Japan into both World Wars for division and re-division of colonies.

Immediately following the Meiji Restoration, Japan rapidly came into the way of imperialism and expanded its colonies. Japan colonized Taiwan after its victory in the Sino-Japanese war in 1895, concluded the Anglo-Japanese alliance in 1902 and plunged into the Russo-Japanese war in 1904 in order to gain dominion over the Korean Peninsula. During the same period, the U.S. took over the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico as its colonies through the Spanish-American war and established dominion over Cuba as a protectorate.

In 1905, Japan and the U.S. signed the Taft-Katsura Agreement. In this agreement, both imperialist countries secretly acknowledged Japan’s domination over Korea and the United States’ domination over the Philippines. With an imperialist military alliance with the U.K. and secret agreement with the U.S., Japan had further expanded its invasion in Asia.

Japan forced the then Korean Empire to disband its army and also deprived it of diplomatic rights in 1905. Then, it annexed Korea and deprived it of national sovereignty in 1910. It meant the start of 36 years of Japan’s colonization of the Korean Peninsula. At the same time, Japan also started its invasive movement in mainland China leading to the waging of all-out invasive war in the 1930s. Furthermore, Japan expanded the hand of invasion to Southeast Asia in early 1940s.

The seizing of the Diaoyu Islands and Dokto Island by Japanese imperialism was a part of the above-mentioned history of Japan’s invasive war and colonization in Asia. Regarding the Diaoyu Islands, Japan secretly decided they were a Japanese possession in a cabinet meeting (without announcement) in January 1895 in the midst of the Sino-Japanese war and then actually seized them from China after victory of the war. Regarding Dokto Island, in the same way, Japan decided to incorporate the island into its territory in a cabinet meeting in January 1905 in the midst of the Russo-Japanese war and named the island “Takeshima.”

The Japanese government, however, has neglected to engage in sincere reflection on its past invasive wars and colonization of Asian countries, and has intentionally separated the seizing of Dokto Island and Diaoyu Islands from the whole process of the history of its invasion. The government has claimed that Japan’s possession of both islands is occupation of terra nullius (land belonging to no one) and has legal effect under international lows. But as world history shows, the logic of the “occupation of terra nullius” itself is nothing but the logic of imperialist robbery. The Japanese government’s claim has no legitimacy at all.

Japan’s aim and U.S. intervention

Hiding historical fact, the Japanese government has claimed its territorial sovereignty over Dokto Island and the Diaoyu Islands. The present Noda administration claims that “there is no territorial issue’” on the Diaoyu Islands that are under Japan’s effective control, while it denounces South Korea’s effective control over Dokto Island as an “illegal occupation.” Such an attitude of the Japanese government is based on imperialist territorial expansionism.

Why does the Noda administration claim the territorial sovereignty of both islands in a loud voice , denouncing China and South Korea?

The Noda administration is facing a serious decline in approval ratings because of its anti-people policies such as the continued use of nuclear power energy, the reinforcement of U.S. bases in Japan and decision to increase the consumption tax etc. In this situation, the Noda administration intends to deflect the anger and discontent of workers and people, and oppress the growing people’s movement against U.S. bases and nuclear power plants by means of chauvinistic propaganda on “territorial disputes.”

The Japanese government has justified the establishment of its invasive military posture, the consolidation of the U.S.-Japan military alliance and the reinforcement of U.S. bases in Okinawa and “mainland” Japan, emphasizing the ‘”threat of China.” Against the backdrop of economic interest in Asia, in recent years the Japanese government changed its “Defense Only” policy and has pursued a more proactive or invasive defense policy based on the concept of so-called “Dynamic Defense.”

Under this line, Japan has planned to reinforce the deployment of the Self Defense Forces (Japanese army) in Okinawa. It has also supported the consolidation of U.S. bases in Okinawa and other areas, including building a new base in Okinawa, and the deployment of the newest U.S. transport aircraft Osprey also in Okinawa, disregarding mass opposition. All these maneuvers target China. The “territorial dispute’ has been used to justify all these maneuvers against China as well the oppression against the anti-U.S. base movement in Okinawa and “mainland” Japan.

At the same time, we strongly denounce the U.S. intervention in territorial disputes in East Asia, especially the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands between China and Japan. It was the Heritage Foundation that provided the venue for ultra-rightwing Tokyo governor Ishihara’s speech on the “metropolitan government’s plan to purchase the Senkaku Islands’” from a private owner, which was proposed in April 2012 in the U.S. and led to the latest dispute with China. Furthermore, the U.S. government and military officials have repeatedly said that “the Senkaku Islands are covered under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.” It is a threat against China and a declaration that the U.S. is preparing a military intervention on the territorial dispute regarding the Diaoyu Islands or an invasive war against China under a U.S.-Japan military alliance. In this context, the U.S. and Japan will hold a joint drill “to retake remote islands” on in November 2012. These maneuvers coincide with the United States’ “rebalancing” strategy that the Obama administration announced in January 2012 in order to consolidate the U.S military posture in the Asia-Pacific for confrontation with China and DPRK.

The task of Japanese communists and working people

The raging response of workers and people in China and South Korea regarding these territorial disputes with Japan has a valid historical basis. It is also an expression of opposition and criticism against Japan’s recent building-up of an invasive military posture. In this situation, what stance should Japanese communists and working people take regarding the territorial disputes over Dokto Island and the Diaoyu Islands?

Our answer is as follows.

FIRST is to demand that the Japanese government should withdraw the claim of territorial sovereignty over Dokto Island and the Diaoyu Islands, criticizing the government’s fictional logic of the ‘”inherent territory” and exposing the historical fact of Japan’s seizing of both islands.

SECOND is to fight for the realization of the government’s sincere apology and compensation for victims of Japan’s past invasive wars and colonization in Asia.

THIRD is to oppose Japan’s recent building-up of an invasive military posture and the consolidation of the U.S.-Japan military alliance.

FOURTH is to struggle against chauvinistic and racist forces, and release Japanese workers and people from their influence.

Implementing this line may be difficult because Japanese imperialism has thoroughly promoted the campaign that Dokto Island and the Diaoyu Islands are “inherent territory” of Japan through the education system; all corporate media coincide with the government’s chauvinistic propaganda. But only through the raising of these demands can Japanese workers and people build a relationship of genuine solidarity with workers and people in China and the Korean Peninsula. Urgently raising demands based on proletarian internationalism regarding the present “territorial disputes” in East Asia is required for communists and working people in Japan, an imperialist country. At the same time, to raise these demands in the present situation in Japan is in keeping with Lenin’s revolutionary and internationalist spirit, as expressed in his attitudes on “the national and the colonial question” and “Revolutionary Defeatism” as he faced the First World War.

U.S. Calls on Myanmar to Cut Ties with DPRK

“Reform” in Myanmar: Who Benefits?

Clinton in Myanmar: More State Department Meddling in Asia

Wall Street to “Open Up” Myanmar

KCNA

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA Friday as regards to the U.S. pressuring Myanmar to break off relations with the DPRK:

The high-ranking authorities of the U.S. pressured Myanmar to cut off the relations with the DPRK, a vicious politically-motivated provocation.

At first, it pressured Myanmar to suspend military ties with the DPRK. Now it is openly urging the country to sever bilateral relations, calling the DPRK a “bad friend.”

In May the U.S. president said that the U.S. would render more aid to Myanmar if it breaks off relations with the DPRK. The U.S. State secretary urged Myanmar to move in the direction of cutting off the relations with the DPRK whenever an opportunity presented itself. A few days ago, the assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs let loose such invectives that Myanmar should move to break off the relations with the DPRK, “bad friend,” at an early date.

This proves that the U.S. hostile policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK remains unchanged and has been pushed forward with increased zeal.

It is precisely for this reason that the DPRK has kept itself fully prepared to cope with the U.S. hostile policy toward it.

The U.S. which sows discord among countries, nations and tribes and harasses regional and world peace and stability is, in fact, a “bad friend” whom all the countries aspiring after independence should shun.

Anti-U.S. protests are unabated in Mid-east countries which suffer from untold misfortune and pains due to the U.S. interference, being caught in its tentacles of aggression.

The U.S. has shifted its strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific region and has fostered discord and stand-off. This resulted in fierce territorial disputes and escalation of tension in the region.
All facts teach a lesson that tragic incidents occur wherever the U.S. sets its foot.

The DPRK has ensured the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula by dint of a powerful war deterrent built by itself.

If the U.S. keeps its anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK, it will meet a miserable end in the Korean Peninsula and the region.

North Korea’s Food Crisis Exploited by US Imperialism

John Peter Daly

Weather-related challenges have caused severe food shortages and famine in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea since the mid-1990s. This year North Korea has experienced drought and then heavy flooding, mostly from Typhoon Bolaven in August.

On Sept. 4, the Korea Central News Agency reported that Typhoon Bolaven destroyed an estimated 45,000 hectares of crops—about 1.7 percent of the country’s arable land.

The United Nations estimates that North Korea needs around 5.3 million tonnes of grain a year and can normally produce 4.5 million tonnes. This destruction of crops and shortage this year will represent an estimated 13 percent drop in production.

More than one-third of the population works in agriculture in the DPRK. However, one of the biggest challenges—as Korea is divided at the 38th parallel, enforced by the 28,000 U.S. troops—is that the northern part of the country does not have enough arable land to sustain the food needs of the population—especially in the case of natural disaster. The DPRK needs to turn to the outside world to trade for food to feed the 24 million people in the country.

The famines have caused malnutrition in up to 16 percent of the population, particularly in the province of North Hamgyong.

If it were not for the centralized planning of the North Korean economy and centralized distribution of food, the crisis and impact would be much more severe. By 1950, all agriculture was collectivized in North Korea and subsequently resulted in the increase of agricultural production.

Washington has sought to isolate the DPRK and maximize the hardships faced by the North Korean people in hopes of destabilizing the country and promoting regime change. The United States has maintained economic sanctions against the DPRK for more than 50 years, preventing the DPRK’s government from accessing loan credits from international banks to finance the country’s development and trade. Now most of the DPRK’s trade is with China.

The prospect of increasing trade with China is one of the ways the North Korean government is seeking to meet the challenges of the shortfall in agricultural production.

End the U.S. sanctions against North Korea—sanctions mean war and hunger for the people of North Korea!

U.S. out of the Korean Peninsula!