No to US Imperialist Warmongering and Threats Against the Korean Nation! Long Live the Struggle for Korean Reunification!

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

59th Anniversary of Korea's Liberation from Japan
Letter from National Spokesperson of Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) to General Secretary of Workers' Party of Korea

Massive US Arms Build-up in South Korea
Letter to UN Secretary General from Representative of Panmunjom Mission of Korean People's Army
Complete Pullback of US Forces from South Korea Demanded
More on US Imperialism's War Preparations
US Conducts Over 1,200 Air Espionage Actions on DPRK in First Half Year
US Attempt at Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack Under Fire
Disinformation Spread by South Korean "Ministry of Unification"
International Solidarity
SUPPLEMENT

August 9, 2004 (Juche 93)

Kim Jong Il
General Secretary, Workers’ Party of Korea
Pyongyang
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Dear Comrade Kim Jong Il

            On behalf of our Central Committee and our Party I convey to you our warm congratulations and communist greetings on the important occasion of the 59th anniversary of the liberation of Korea from the cruel Japanese rule.   This was an immense victory not only for the Korean people but also for the people of the whole world, and part of their great victory over the forces of fascism.   It made the Korean people master in their own country and of their own destiny for the first time in centuries.   It came after 20 years of bloody and revolutionary struggle led by the great leader Kim Il Sung.   It is the thinking and practice of the great leader, embodied in the Juche idea, further developed by you yourself and implemented in the Songun policy, that have kept the people of the DPRK masters of their own destiny ever since and will do so in the future too.

            Faced as you now are with the threat of foreign attack or invasion once again, for the second time since the Second World War from US imperialism, we join you in demanding that the US drop its hostile policy towards your country, sign a non-aggression agreement, lift economic sanctions, de-list DPRK as a “sponsor of terrorism” and compensate you for energy loss.

            We are, as always, shoulder to shoulder with you in our common cause.   And we take the opportunity to wish you success in your sacred work, good health and a long life.

            Yours fraternally,

            Chris Coleman
National Spokesperson RCPB(ML)

The United States is focusing the much publicised reduction and redeployment of its forces overseas on the Korean peninsula and the rest of Northeast Asia. This is not truly aimed at disarmament, peace and detente. Rodong Sinmun July 15 says this in a signed article. Terming the US imperialists' reduction and redeployment of its forces a move to bolster its forces, the article continues:

            The US immediate aim is to relocate its forces in south Korea in the area south of the River Han and turn them into a regional force in charge of the Asia-Pacific region including Northeast Asia. This means that the US seeks to expand the sphere of operation of its forces in south Korea, which has been confined to the Korean peninsula, to the vast area of Asia-Pacific region and use them as a strategic and task force.

            The US reduction and redeployment of its forces is targeted against the DPRK, China and Russia.

            The US imperialists are working hard to stifle the DPRK and, furthermore, contain and bring under their control its neighbouring countries with south Korea as a military stronghold. This is one of the reasons why they are relocating their forces in south Korea in the area south of the River Han.

            It is intended to help the US forces get out of the range of the People's Army's first retaliatory strike in case of "emergency", preserve them and mount an attack on the DPRK. The US imperialists plan to launch a pre-emptive attack, wave-like strike and surgical operation-form attack by aircraft, missiles and other means. To this end the US intends to use Japan as the most important military base while implementing its plan for the reduction and redeployment of its forces.

            After getting a hold in the Mideast and Central Asia in the wake of the September 11 incident the US felt the need to have military bases and armed forces to lay a military siege to China and Russia in those regions.

            The US seeks to achieve this aim through the reduction and redeployment of its forces.

            The US plan to pull some of its forces out of south Korea and deploy them in Iraq is part of this move.

            The US reduction and redeployment of its forces in south Korea is a new dangerous military measure to guarantee their "qualitative edge" in a bid to stifle the DPRK by force of arms, it concludes.

- July 26, 2004 -

Colonel General Ri Chan Bok, representative of the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army, on July 26 sent a letter to Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, as regards the touch-and-go situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula due to the US massive arms build-up in south Korea. Recalling that the KPA side on July 1 last year declared that if the US bolster of the combat power of its forces in south Korea starts as planned, the letter dated July 22 will regard it as the US total denial of the Armistice Agreement (AA) and take a resolute step to defend the security and sovereignty of the DPRK, the letter said:

            However, the US, challenging this, is going to drastically increase 11 billion US dollars originally envisaged to spend for the implementation of its "plan for bolstering combat power" to 13 billion US dollars. And it massively introduced into south Korea Striker armoured cars, Shadow 200 unmanned tactical reconnaissance planes, F-117 Stealth fighter bombers, M1-Abrams tanks, Patriot PAC-3 system and other latest weapons and operation equipment in less than one year after the announcement of the plan.

            On June 29 the US Defence Department announced that three squadrons of F-117 Stealth fighter bombers of the US Air Force would be deployed in the Kunsan Air Force Base of south Korea within three months and it has already begun their deployment. Earlier, the US officially announced that it would keep two Aegis destroyers equipped with an ultra-modern missile system in the East Sea of Korea on a permanent basis and deploy two battalions of up-to-date Patriot missiles in south Korea within this year.

            What is more serious is that the US has already completed the development of new type missiles capable of destroying underground facilities of the DPRK and these missiles to be mass-produced will be immediately supplied to the US forces in south Korea before any others.

            Such massive arms build-up of the US prompted the KPA side to judge that the US preparations for a pre-emptive attack on the DPRK have reached their height.

            The US seems to have forgotten that the AA is nothing but a temporary step to guarantee the provisional ceasefire between the warring parties and both the DPRK and the US are still at war technically.

            A pre-emptive attack in such relations of belligerency as those between the two countries cannot be a monopoly of the US.

            It is common military knowledge that a resolute and decisive, pre-emptive attack on the enemy at the crucial moment the enemy's attempt at attack has been judged is a form of effective defence to smash the enemy's attempt to attack and protect the security of the country from the enemy's aggression.

            The KPA side informs Your Excellency that it solemnly declares once again that it cannot remain a passive onlooker to the frantic arms build-up made by the US behind the scenes of the six-party talks whiling away the time with empty words on the plea of settling the nuclear issue and it will never remain with folded arms until the US side has completed its preparations for attack, occupied the starting position and launched a pre-emptive attack on the DPRK.

            This is the unshakeable stand of the army of the DPRK toward a war and enemy.

            It is our view that a war in Korea is almost unavoidable as long as the US hostile policy toward the DPRK goes on.

            In case another Korean war breaks out the army and people of the DPRK will fight with deep-rooted rancour and resentment against the US, which has pursued the extremely hostile policy toward the DPRK. It will be a fierce decisive war unprecedented in the world, which may cause horrible destruction and terrible sacrifices beyond human imagination.

            The army and people of the DPRK have long been ready for this and have never stopped even a moment the preparations to cope with this despite indescribable ordeals.

            We are well aware that we cannot protect our faith and future without such readiness and preparations.

            It is a stark fact recognised by the world that the constant danger of war prevailing on the Korean peninsula is attributable to the US hostile policy toward the DPRK and the presence of the US forces in south Korea.

            The danger of war can neither be removed from Korea nor can peace and security in this region be expected unless the more than half a century-long presence of those forces in south Korea is terminated.

            The United Nations is also responsible for the misfortune and sufferings the Korean people have undergone, we think.

            During the last three-year Korean war the US committed shuddering atrocities against the Koreans under the UN flag and it is again under the same flag that the US has pursued a hostile policy toward the DPRK and kept south Korea under its occupation for the last more than half a century.

            It was impossible to implement paragraph 60 of the AA which envisages a peaceful solution to the Korean issue and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the country because the UN adopted a resolution on blocking the implementation of the paragraph at the instigation of the US.

            It is painful to think that the UN has not yet implemented the resolution on dismantling the "UN command" and withdrawing the US troops from south Korea although it had adopted it 29 years ago.

            All these facts left the world people sceptical about the raison d'etre of the UN and its biased act of meeting the interests of a big country at the sacrifice of small countries hurt its own dignity, I think.

            If the UN admits itself that it was a signatory to the AA it is obliged to implement paragraph 60 of the AA true to its commitment under the document it signed and thus give a peaceful solution to the Korean issue and settle the issue of withdrawing all foreign forces from Korea as early as possible.

            The UN, however, asserts that its name was only abused by the US and a de facto signatory to the AA was the US. The UN is, therefore, urged to take a practical measure to disband the "UN command" organised by the US. Only then is it possible to prevent the US from abusing the sacred name of the UN any longer.

            This would fall in full accord with UN resolution 3390B dated November 18, 1975.

            It is my hope that the UN with a noble peace-keeping mission will stop the arrogant US high-handed and arbitrary practices and implement paragraph 60 of the AA and the resolution adopted at the 30th UN General Assembly on withdrawing the US troops from south Korea and thus make a positive contribution to putting the earliest possible end to the US troops' occupation of south Korea and promoting peace and security in Korea and the rest of the world.

The United States, lording it over the United Nations, has used it for meeting its interests and realising its ambition for domination. This practice has impaired the dignity of the UN and damaged the member nations' confidence in it. Rodong Sinmun July 28 says this in a signed article. The article goes on:

            The US insisted that its forces in south Korea are UN forces. But recently it has unilaterally taken a measure to cut down the troops without getting in touch with the UN. This is little short of admitting itself that the US troops in south Korea are illegal occupation forces, not UN forces. The US organised the UN forces in south Korea in July 1950 in violation of the UN Charter and regulations after starting the Korean war on June 25, 1950.

            The US forces in south Korea have nothing in common with the UN forces in view of their organisation and control system. Those UN forces hurled into the Korean war in 1950 were not organised under an agreement signed between the UNSC and those countries that offered troops but they were American forces the US had dispatched to Korea timed to coincide with the outbreak of the war before the UNSC adopted Resolution 84.

            At the 28th UN General Assembly representatives of many countries accused the US of faking the above-said resolution by abusing the name of the UN and preposterously calling the forces not responsible before the UNSC UN forces.

            The US troops in south Korea are, in every case, illegal occupation and aggression troops.

            They have done nothing but threaten the peace on the Korean peninsula and increase the danger of war on it. The Korean people have undergone a holocaust of a war due to the US imperialist aggressive troops' presence in south Korea. The escalating tension on the Korean peninsula is also attributable to south Korea-based US troops' moves to launch a war of aggression against the DPRK.

            The measure unilaterally taken by the US to cut down its troops in south Korea has deprived them of UN helmets and made it hard for it to insist any longer that they are UN forces.

            This measure also laid bare the brazen-faced and deceptive nature of the US, which has ignored and mocked at the UN.

            The US had better stop insisting that the US forces are UN forces. It should not fool the world public with talk about a partial troop cutdown but completely pull its troops out of south Korea.

The "landmark proposal" made by the United States is little worthy to be considered any longer, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, answering a question put by KCNA July 24 as regards the nonsense talked by the US over the proposal made by it at the third round of the six-party talks. He continued:

            High-ranking officials of the Bush administration are busying themselves to create the impression that the ball is in the court of the DPRK. They asserted that they hoped it would understand the meaning of the "landmark proposal" set out by the US at the third round of the six-party talks and make a "strategic calculation" and that they were waiting for a response from north Korea.

            Worse still, they "recommended" the DPRK to follow the precedent of Libya, saying if the DPRK scrapped its nuclear weapons programme first, it would be given stupendous reward for this.

            This only reveals the US utter ignorance of the DPRK.

            As already known, the DPRK made a more bold and flexible proposal at the third round of the six-party talks held in June proceeding from its consistent stand to make the Korean peninsula nuclear-free. It clarified details of its nuclear freeze, saying that denuclearisation is the DPRK's general goal and the freeze is the first starting point leading to the final dismantlement of its nuclear weapons plan.

            The DPRK's proposal for "reward for freeze" has enjoyed widespread support and sympathy not only at the six-party talks but from many countries of the world as it is the most reasonable way for a solution to the issue which reflects the actual situation where there is no confidence between the DPRK and the US.

            The US, too, paying heed to the DPRK's proposal, said that it would seriously examine it.

            We have closely watched the Bush administration's policy toward the DPRK after the talks, paying attention to the "landmark proposal" made by the US side.

            The study of the recent policy clarified by high-ranking officials of the Bush administration, however, clearly suggests that the US "landmark proposal" was nothing but a sham offer.

            In a word, the US proposal is, in its essence, in the same mode as forcing Libya to scrap its nuclear programme first, a mode veiled with the word "landmark". The US proposal does not reflect at all the principle of "words for words", "action for action" which the US had already promised to observe. Moreover, it says nothing of the US commitment to give up its hostile policy toward the DPRK, a stumbling block lying in the way of denuclearising the Korean peninsula, and specific ways to do so.

            In other words, the US only mentioned the phases whereby to meet its demands for disarming the DPRK and expressed its intention to discuss what it would do only after the DPRK has unilaterally completed the dismantling of its nuclear programme.

            The US is foolish enough to calculate that such a mode imposed upon Libya would be accepted by the DPRK, too.

            Moreover, high-ranking officials of the Bush administration are now asserting it is the avowed policy of the US not to give the DPRK any reward for the freeze of its nuclear facilities or for the dismantling of its nuclear programme.

            For the US to avoid direct reward for the DPRK's freeze of its nuclear facilities is little short of destroying the foundation for the settlement of the nuclear issue between the two countries.

            This would make it hard to expect any progress in seeking a negotiated solution to the nuclear issue and further cloud the prospect of denuclearising the Korean peninsula.

            All these facts prove once again that the DPRK was right in its judgment that the US remains unchanged in its present stand.

            The DPRK, therefore, considers the US "landmark proposal" to be little worthy to be discussed any longer.

            The goal to denuclearise the Korean peninsula can be achieved only when the US gives up in practice its more than half a century old hostile policy towards the DPRK. In response to the DPRK's clarification of its goal to denuclearise the peninsula, the US should commit itself to give up its hostile policy towards the former, lift the economic sanctions and blockade against it, de-list it as a" sponsor of terrorism" and directly take part in the 2 million kW energy compensation as the first phase measure to fulfil the commitment.

            Whether the US takes part in the project to make reward for the DPRK's nuclear freeze or not is the key to the settlement of the nuclear issue.

            It is a daydream for the US to contemplate forcing the DPRK to lay down arms first under the situation where both are in a state of armistice and at war technically.

            It is the most realistic and only way of finding a solution to the nuclear issue to seek a package solution based on the principle of simultaneous actions and build confidence between the DPRK and the US step by step through the realisation of the proposal of "reward for freeze", the first phase measure for its implementation.

US military aircraft conducted more than 1,200 espionage flights over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) from January to June this year, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on July 25.

            The United States used advanced espionage planes like U-2, RC-135, E-8C, E-3, RC-7B, RC-12, RF-4, P-3 and EP-3 in the reconnaissance for different missions, said the report. 

            At an average rate of more than six flights a day, the air reconnaissance indicated that the United States was making war preparations as it was shipping massive up-to-date military equipment into South Korea and relocating its troops in South Korea, said the KCNA. 

            The reconnaissance has proved that Washington is looking for a chance to launch pre-emptive attacks on the DPRK while stepping up its preparations for a war behind the curtain of the six-party talks, the report said.

            (People's Daily, July 26, 2004)

Rodong Sinmun on July 29 in a signed article denounces the US imperialists for their reckless attempt to mount a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the DPRK. The article says:

            The US bellicose forces have made preparations to invade the DPRK for the last several decades as evidenced by their massive beef-up of their aggressive forces in and around south Korea. Considering it as a major goal of their military strategy for overseas aggression to stifle the DPRK, they have focused all their efforts on achieving this goal. They are keen to ignite another Korean war under the pretext of "anti-terrorism".

            The US imperialists count on a pre-emptive nuclear attack in achieving the objective of their scenario for a war of aggression against the DPRK.

            This scenario has already been fashioned into a concrete shape. According to it, the development of special type smaller nukes is making rapid progress and a move to deploy them is being pushed forward. Having succeeded in developing missiles capable of super-high speed underground penetration the US imperialists are contemplating their deployment in south Korea before any other regions. It is their intention to ignite a nuclear war in Korea and with this as a precedent start the same war to invade other regions in the future. That is why the US is taking such pains to include other countries into its move to lay an international siege to the DPRK and apply collective sanctions against the DPRK.

            The US imperialists make the outbreak of a nuclear war in Korea an established fact on the basis of their calculation that they can use nukes in this region, unhindered, and their use will not have any impact on their mainland across oceans. If the US bellicose forces ignite a nuclear war in Korea at any cost, the US will not be safe from it, either. The Bush bellicose elements are well advised to drop such a daydream and stop the nuclear war racket.

The "Ministry of Unification" of south Korea posted on its Internet homepage a sheer lie. It claimed that nuclear scientist of the north Kim Kwang Bin, after becoming a turn-coat and running away from the north, testified to the fact that the north developed nukes by use of highly enriched uranium in top secrecy and hid in other places researchers of the existing institute no. 19, nuclear fuel rods and other major facilities while freezing the facilities in Nyongbyon in 1994. Kim Kwang Bin whom the ministry painted as the man who sought asylum in a third country is presently a researcher of merit active at a maritime radioactive research institution of the DPRK. This being a hard fact, the ministry talked sheer nonsense by saying that Kim, director of institute no. 38, is a defector.

            We make it clear that there are no such things as institutes nos. 38 and 19.

            The south Korean right-wing conservatives have more than once spread such disinformation. Last year they floated a rumour that scores of scientists of the north who were doing normal work in their field exiled themselves to other countries and included in those exiles even those who died long ago, only to draw public criticism and ridicule.

            Nevertheless, they are taking pains to spread such disinformation. This campaign is aimed at making the much-publicised "enriched uranium programme" sound plausible though it is a fiction in a bid to escalate international pressure on the north to drop its nuclear activities for a peaceful purpose and invent a pretext to attack it.

            What matters is that the dishonest forces of south Korea are conducting such a smear campaign under the manipulation of the United States in accordance with its scenario.

            It is widely known that persistently peddling the fiction of an "enriched uranium programme" in a bid to charge the DPRK with the nuclear development, the United States circulated a false rumour about the "transfer of nuclear technology" by a Pakistani scientist and even orchestrated a deceptive drama called "smuggling of uranium hexafluoride".

            It is intolerable that the US is persisting in such a ridiculous smear campaign, far from drawing a proper lesson from having created a complicated situation by dreaming up the fiction of "enriched uranium programme" and sparking a new nuclear crisis.

            All facts go to prove that the US and other bellicose elements remain unchanged in their moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK and their talk about "peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue" and "landmark proposal" is no more than a deceptive ruse.

            Taking into consideration the fact that the US floated a rumour about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction before unleashing the Iraqi war, the DPRK is left with no option but to heighten vigilance against their anti-DPRK moves and take strong countermeasures.

The International Liaison Committee for Reunification and Peace in Korea (CILRECO), the Eastern European Centre for the Support and Solidarity to the DPRK and the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Committee to Support the Reunification of Korea called for convening a world meeting for supporting the independent and peaceful reunification of Korea. Its Joint Appeal to all the international and regional, national organisations and bodies struggling to defend sovereignty, independence and right to national self-determination and wishing for world stability and peace was published in Paris on July 12. The appeal notes that the US policy of interfering in the internal affairs of the Korean nation, its military domination over south Korea and constant threat of aggression against the DPRK have reached an extremely dangerous line and are throwing a snag in the way of the affirmative progress on the Korean peninsula.

            The world progressive forces can never tolerate such hostile policy of the US against the DPRK, an independent and legitimate member nation of the United Nations, nor can they allow the US war policy threatening the Korean nation's right to existence and peace in Asia and the rest of the world, it says.

            It calls upon the representatives of international, regional and national organisations and bodies involved in the movement for the reunification and peace of Korea, champions for peace against war and media persons to positively support the initiative for convening a world meeting for supporting the independent and peaceful reunification of Korea and put forward more active proposals for the success of the meeting for strengthened solidarity with the Korean people and justice and peace in the world.

Also see the Supplement of TML Daily, the Daily On-Line Newspaper of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), August 10, 2004 - No.123.

• Thus Started the Tragic Division of Korea - Jong Ri Gun
• Nationwide Resistance Against the Japanese: The Final Campaign - Kim Il Sung