The overwhelming majority of Koreans in both North and South Korea are longing for peace and, eventually, a reunification of the Korean nation. Because of US occupation of Korea by troops and nuclear weapons, the people of both countries live with the constant anxiety of another devastating war on their soil. They are demanding peace and their leaders are beginning to meet that demand. A poll in early May showed that 75% of South Koreans said that they trust Kim Jong Un. Meanwhile the US war machine insist upon their “maximum pressure” strategy on North Korea and has continued to hold massive military exercises which simulate an invasion of North Korea. While Koreans organize for peace, the US recklessly continues to sabotage their efforts. For a real lasting peace in Korea, the US must withdraw its military forces and warships from the Korean Peninsula.
Korean Unity at the Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang took a special political significance for the Korean people. The games opened up space for dialogue between the governments of North and South Korea on the topic of peace, space that would be hard to imagine a year ago. They even went as far as having their respective athletes march under a unified flag at the opening ceremony. This represents the deep desire of Koreans across the peninsula for peace and reunification. The U.S. government, however, made it clear that they were actively sabotaging the dialogue. They want to keep the South Korean government on a very short leash and disapprove of any independent moves on their part. And as long as the South Korean government refuses to act independently of the U.S. war-machine, which only wants to increase tensions, there will not be peace in Korea.
Trump Threatens World With Nuclear War
DISMANTLE U.S. NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARSENAL
By Dylan Borne
It’s very clear that everyone in Korea wants peace. On January 2nd, North Korea offered an olive branch to the South: they asked to attend the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. South Korea accepted and responded with its own offer—diplomatic talks— which the North accepted. To many Koreans, peace and reunification might be possible.
Yet the United States government, controlled by its capitalist ruling class, continues to press for war. Korea sits on trillions of dollars’ worth of mineral wealth and tens of millions of laborers. The rich that run the US see them like they see their workers— as possible resources. And the US government is stopping at nothing to wage war to take those resources. That’s why:
- It’s the US, not North or South Korea, that split the country by imposing the 38th parallel in 1945 (a divide and conquer approach)
- It’s the US that continues to occupy the peninsula with almost 30,000 troops and forced the South to give the US permission in their constitution (Koreans can’t even call their country their own!)
- It’s the US that continues to make nuclear threats (Trump screaming “my nuclear button is bigger!”)
The corporate media has no right to make North Koreans look like they’re the ones that are war-crazy. Nor does it have a right to make it look like the South supports the US government. The US has over 4,600 nuclear weapons and North Korea has no more than 20. Koreans in the South have been protesting every part of the US military occupation for decades. North Korea pledged that it would never strike first in nuclear war, and it even promised it would stop testing weapons if only the US stopped conducting military drills. But the US refuses when Koreans on both sides ask for peace.
The ruling class in the US wants war for the same reason that it wants to raise our rents and lower our wages: money and wealth. Every bullet, rifle, tank, missile, and warship commissioned by the US military adds to arms contractors’ profits. That’s not even counting all the looting US corporations could do after a war. And our taxes pay for it all. Meanwhile, the rich line their pockets, workers still live from paycheck to paycheck, and the government’s so focused on war that it hasn’t done a thing for our roads or schools.
The Workers Group stands in solidarity with the people of Korea, both for their sake and so we can see money being spent on workers at home.
Let’s see schools built before the next bomb.
Former and Present Racist Occupiers Unite to Threaten N. Korea
by Gavrielle Gemma
President Trump met with his right-wing counterpart in Japan, Prime Minister Abe, on the first leg of a trip set up to threaten N. Korea, challenge China and forge a new imperialist alliance. Calling Japan a “Warrior Nation”, Trump urged Abe to quickly militarize Japan and promised to sell Japan weapons of every kind.
Japan had brutally occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945 when the U.S. took over after Japan’s defeat in World War II. Their military dictatorship of Korea involved shooting down and imprisoning thousands of worker and farmers fighting for independence and banning the Korean language, schools, newspapers and religion. By 1935, they “owned” half of all farmland stolen from Korean peasants and forced 5 million Koreans into the Japanese army to do all the dirty work for their imperialist army, even being used as military medical experiments in Japan. Over 200, 000 Korean women were kidnapped and forced into sexual and domestic slavery. After Japan lost out to the imperialist U.S., it was banned from developing a military. But now the Trump/Wall ST. /Pentagon Junta is urging them to massively militarize.
Japan threatening N. Korea is no different than if the U.S. had a press conference with a European colonizer in Africa to threaten to directly reoccupy the countries that had liberated themselves from colonialism. On the Korean peninsula, only N. Korea has liberated itself. South Korea has remained a colony of the U.S. with 40,000 troops, many bases and aircraft carriers and nuclear weapons. The U.S. has supported all the S. Korean dictatorships and corporations that impoverish the Korean working class. South Koreans Protest U.S THAAD missile systems and occupation. No War – Peace
Japan kidnapped 200,000 Korean girls and women called “comfort women” into forced sex slavery for Japanese troops. Others were forced in domestic slavery for Japan’s rulers. Koreans before and after WWII were abused and brutally discriminated against in Japan.