World Affairs
Korean Peninsula must be Freed from US
Imperialist Politics of Domination
The Korean peninsula, once
again, is witnessing heightened
tensions and the situation is feared
reaching the brink of war. For the
last two months, the US President
Donald Trump and other leaders
are loudly declaring that they have
bid a goodbye to the “failed
approach” and the “strategic
patience” observed by the previous
US government towards the
Korean question and they have
resolved to pursue a tough line.
Where does the problem – the
source of tensions - lie?
The US imperialists have their
own version. They say that the
leaders of North Korea are
persisting in a nuclear and missile
programme in violation of all
directives, bans and admonitions
of the International Forums and
disregarding all advice and
warnings from big nuclear powers
such as US. North Korea’s massive
weapon programme poses dan-
gers the peace and stability in the
region and the possibility of North
Korea unleashing a war against
South Korea and Japan is quite
imminent.
The realities are otherwise.
The politics of intervention and
domination pursued by the US
imperialists in the Korean penin-
sula are at the root of all trouble
and tensions. In the post-Second
World
War period (1950-53), the US
imperialists had invaded Korea with
wild ambitions to colonise the entire
Korea. The Korean people in the
North as well as South valiantly
fought against this invasion. The
Chinese volunteers too had fought
shoulder to shoulder with the
Korean people in support and
solidarity with their cause. But the
war ended with a Treaty, which
May- 2017
temporarily divided Korea into
north and south providing for a
reunification of Korea later in a
voluntary and peaceful manner
without foreign intervention. Since
then, the South Korea continued
to be under the control of US. The
US continues to station a 28000-
strong military base in South Korea
on the plea of providing protection
to it. In reality, it reducedSouth
Korea into a US satellite. The
intervention of US and the
presence of its armed forces in
South Korea continue to be a big
impediment in the relations
between North and South Korean
people and their attempts for
unification. Not only this. The US
imperialists are engaged in all
sorts of conspiracies, machinations
and provocative actions to widen
the rift, inflame hostilities, tensions
and conflicts among the people of
both States in an attempt to
perpetuate their own stay in South
Korea and extend their control to
North Korea. The US imperialists
are also having a 40000- strong
military base in Japan. They are
pursuing a strategy of establishing
their domination over the entire
Asia-Pacific region and are using
South Korea and Japan as a tool
in their game. As the US
imperialists see China as a
potential foe in the region, they are
militarily preparing for a bigger
challenge. So the strategic aims
and designs of US for domination
had further aggravated the
problem. Inflaming the tensions in
the region had become a necessity
for it. The US imperialists are using
one pretext or other to dump their
arms in South Korea, build
sophisticated weapons systems
around North Korea and militarise
the entire Asia-Pacific region.
North Korea is preparing in its
own way to face the challenge
posed by the US and its allies. The
testing of nuclear arm and missiles
is only a part of it. It questions the
US intervention into the affairs of
Korea and the stationing of US
armed forces in South Korea and
Japan. It opposes the provocative
military exercises of US in combi-
nation with South Korea and Japan
and the military activities of US in
the entire Asia-Pacific region. The
US moves to install THAAD
(Terminal High Altitude Area
Defense)in South Korea became a
serious matter of concern for North
Korea. This anti-ballistic missile
system is most deadly as it is
having a range of 200 km and
capable of reaching an altitude of
150 km. It can shoot down the
ballistic missiles in the terminal
phase of their flight. The strategic
community even in US question the
efficacy of its so called left launch
cyber and electronic techniques
that are meant to intercept North
Korea’s missiles at a take off stage.
There is wide opposition in the
world to the installation of this
system. Moon Jae-in, the leader of
South
Korea’s
Opposition
Democratic Party has described
the THAAD as an act of hubris (an
arrogant pride) and opposed it. A
controversy arose in South Korea
on who would bear the costs of
THAAD and it subsided for the time
being on the assurance from US
that it will bear the costs. The
Democratic Peoples’ Republic of
(North) Korea is very much
disturbed by the move to install the
THAAD and it is contemplating on
the plans to make it ineffective and
effectively counter it.
A dangerous cycle of moves
and counter moves had set in the
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