Oppose Military Exercises
Targeting DPRK
U.S., Korean and International Organizations Call for Suspension of U.S.-ROK Joint Exercises
August 5, 2019. Protest outside U.S. Embassy in
Seoul, Korea.
On January 27, a statement endorsed by 110 U.S.,
197 south Korean,
and 80 international civil society organizations
was sent to U.S. President
Biden calling on the U.S. to suspend all
annual combined military exercises with the
Republic of Korea (ROK) in order to restart
diplomacy with the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea (DPRK).
 This initiative was
organized by U.S. and south Korean peace
groups, including: Korea Peace Campaign of
Veterans for Peace; Korea
Peace Network; Korea Peace Now!
Grassroots Network; Peace Treaty Now; Women Cross
DMZ; Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom; Civil Peace
Forum; Korean Women's Movement
for Peace; and South Korean Committee on June 15th
Joint Declaration.
Spokesperson Colonel Ann Wright of the Korea
Peace Campaign of
Veterans for Peace organization said, "These war
drills are expensive,
provocative, and consistently provoke north
Korea to take military actions in response. If the
United States' goal
is to reduce tensions, not increase them, then
suspending these
military exercises will be an important step
forward."
Hyun Lee of Women Cross DMZ and Korea Peace Now
said, "The majority
of citizens on the Korean Peninsula want peace
talks, not war drills
and military confrontation. It's their
lives that are at risk from the possibility of
military exercises
leading to mistakes and accidents that may cause
disastrous military
confrontation."
The organizers are calling on individuals to sign
onto the statement
and in so doing, join with many others from the
U.S., south Korea and
around the world working to promote peace
on the Korean Peninsula.
Statement
We, the undersigned civil society organizations
in the United
States, south Korea, and around the world, call on
President Biden to
suspend the annual U.S.-south Korea (ROK)
combined military exercises. Suspending these
costly and highly
provocative war exercises will be a crucial step
toward re-starting
genuine diplomacy with north Korea (DPRK). It will
remove a formidable obstacle to a peaceful
resolution of the ongoing
70-year-old Korean War and allow all parties to
focus on other
intractable global issues facing our nations
today, such
as creating a nuclear weapons-free world and
resolving the current
COVID-19 pandemic.
 In the mid-1950s,
just after the Korean War, the U.S. and ROK began
combined military exercises in south Korea that
prepare for war with north Korea. In the 1970s the
drills
developed into large-scale exercises that mobilize
considerable
weapons, equipment and the deployment of U.S.
troops stationed in both south Korea as well as
U.S. bases outside the
Korean Peninsula. Since the 2000s they have been
based on operation
plans that reportedly include pre-emptive strikes
and "decapitation
measures" against the north Korean leadership. Due
to their scale and provocative nature, the annual
U.S.-ROK combined
exercises have long been a trigger point for
heightened military and
political tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
For years these combined military exercises have
involved the use of
B-2 bombers (which are designed to drop nuclear
bombs), nuclear-powered
aircraft carriers and submarines, as well
as the firing of long-range artillery and other
weapons. They not only
increased tensions on the Korean Peninsula, they
have cost U.S.
taxpayers billions of dollars and have caused
irreparable harm to local residents and the
environment in south Korea.
At a time when the world is facing urgent
humanitarian,
environmental, and economic crises, these military
exercises divert
critically needed resources away from our capacity
to
provide true human security such as health care, a
sustainable
environment, and other priorities. Furthermore,
they heighten
geopolitical tensions and risk re-igniting a hot
war on the Korean
Peninsula, which would have catastrophic
consequences for millions of
people.
We want peace talks, not war drills and military
confrontation. We
urge the Biden Administration to resolve the root
cause of the conflict
between the United States and north Korea --
the unresolved Korean War -- which has driven a
dangerous arms race,
harmed the most vulnerable people through
punishing sanctions, and
enforced the tragic separation of hundreds of
thousands of Korean families. Continuing to rely
on isolation,
pressure, and threats to force north Korea's
unilateral
denuclearization is a recipe for failure.
Suspending the combined military exercises will
be a major
confidence-building measure toward renewing
diplomacy to resolve the
longstanding 70-year-old conflict with north Korea
and, ultimately, achieve permanent peace and
denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula.
Signed by 387 U.S., south Korean and
international organizations.
To sign the statement click
here. For statement in Korean click here.
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 5 - February 21, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/MS51052.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
