50th Anniversary of the
Korean War:
The Crimes of the Imperialists Must
Not Be Repeated
Fifty years ago today, on June 25, 1950, the South
Korean army under the direct command of the Military Advisory Group of the US
imperialists, launched an unprovoked attack against North Korea.
This fact is proven by history, as are the crimes against
humanity committed in the first instance by US imperialism during the course of
the Korean War until its defeat in 1953, the first of its kind in its history.
The US was forced to sign an armistice agreement on July 27, 1953. The British
Labour government of the time also has to answer for its crimes in unreservedly
backing US imperialism right from the start, and sending troops to Korea to
fight under the US command. It is also a fact proven by history that the troops
under the so-called "UN Command" were in fact used as aggressor
troops at the behest of US imperialism.
In this issue of Workers’ Weekly we print the
Memorandum of the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
of May 30, 2000. This memorandum by careful review of the facts underlines the
guilt of US imperialism conclusively, and by implication that too of the
British government, which, as ever, was its ardent champion. Books written by
independent critics, such as The Labour Government, 1945-51 by the
eminent lawyer D.N. Pritt, also conclusively attest to the fact that the Korean
war was begun when South Korea attacked North Korea, with American aid and
equipment, after South Korea had been seeking to attack for years, and was set
into motion when the time was ripe by US imperialism. When the decision was
purported to be made by the United Nations to intervene in the war, on the
ground that the North had attacked the South, the UN had no evidence whatsoever
before it, and its decision was null and void, since of the five permanent
members of the Council, one, the USSR, did not concur, being absent because of
a boycott. The decision of the US to enter the war was in fact carried out
before the UN made its "decision".
US imperialism prosecuted the war, as part of its crusade
to wipe out "communism", with complete brutality and disregard for
all human life. In its criminal behaviour, it rivalled anything which was
carried out by Hitler’s armies. The war ended in a humiliating military
defeat for US imperialism, which lost 33,629 men killed in action, apart from
those who died in captivity.
The Labour government plunged headlong in support of US
imperialism. In July and August 1950, the government decided to increase
military expenditure to £3.6 billion over three years, and in January 1951
a massive rearmament package of £4.7 billion was announced, and with it a
plan to freeze NHS expenditure at the figure for 1950-1 by cutting spending on
hospitals and saving £20 million by charging for false teeth and
spectacles. At the outbreak of the war, the Labour government sent naval and
air troops, and later combat troops. Completely turning truth on its head and
calling the victim the aggressor, Ernest Bevin at the Labour Party conference
in October 1950 proclaimed: "We blamed the Conservatives for knowing
Hitler was on the move and not making adequate preparations … because they
would not go in for collective security … We are in office now, and shall
we refuse to do what we called upon others to do which would have prevented the
1939 war if they had only done it."
The criminal aggression by US imperialism and the British
government, and the full-scale disinformation which accompanied it, are not
confined to the pages of history, but are fully in operation today. There is
yet no peace between North and South Korea, because of US imperialism and the
puppet regimes in South Korea, and the country still remains divided by a
concrete wall put into place by the US, running from one coast to the other of
the peninsula. The crusade of US imperialism and the British government has
metamorphosed into the campaign against "rogue" states, of which they
number the DPRK one, their provocations continue, not to mention their wanton
bombing of Yugoslavia, Iraq and other interventions armed and otherwise. It is
the Anglo-American imperialists who are the Hitlerites, and are set on
dominating the globe.
This being the case, the "Third Way" and
"Progressive Governance" must be unmasked as taking the world closer
to the brink of a third world war, as did the aggression against North Korea.
The crimes of the imperialists must not be repeated ad infinitum, and it is up
to the world’s people, including the British working class, to rise up and
under the banner of the rights of the workers and the rights of the
world’s peoples, take the matter into their own hands and settle scores
with the imperialist bourgeoisie.
