Peoples Seek Alternatives to War Preparations in East Asia
Korean People Oppose U.S.-Republic of Korea Military Drills
Press conference and
picket in Seoul, March 7, 2023, calls for end to U.S.- ROK military
exercises
The U.S. and the Republic of Korea (ROK) conducted the Freedom Shield joint military exercises in south Korean territory from March 13 to 23. This was the largest U.S.-ROK military exercise in five years.
The people of the Korean Peninsula, in both north and south, firmly expressed their opposition to these war exercises which threaten peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and endanger all their lives. Besides the people and the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) speaking with one voice against these war exercises, their compatriots in the Republic of Korea (ROK) also held regular vigils and protests in Seoul as well as in other regions, such as Jeju Island, calling for an end to all U.S.-ROK military exercises.
To criminalize and muzzle the peace movement in the south, the pro-U.S. anti-communist government of President Yoon Suk-yeol has been using the National Security Law imposed by the U.S. on the ROK in 1948 to arrest and imprison anti-war activists and anyone who expresses sympathy with the DPRK. Despite this repression, workers, teachers, students and others have stood together denouncing the Yoon government and calling for the end of these military exercises and for the U.S. to take their troops and weapons and get out of Korea.
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March
4, 2023 action calls for end to Korean War. The U.S. has caused -- and continues to inflict -- suffering on the Korean people for more than 70 years. It was the U.S. that unilaterally divided Korea into two, depriving the Korean people of their right to independence and self-determination after the Second War, and has since kept Korea divided by force. This includes launching the Korean War (1950-53), in an attempt to take over the entire Korean Peninsula to use as a beachhead for war and aggression against China and Russia during the Cold War.
Canada played an ignoble role by participating in this war in which four million Koreans died, where the U.S. used biological and chemical warfare against civilians and in which the DPRK was extensively carpet bombed. For 70 years the U.S. has refused to sign a peace treaty with the DPRK to replace the Korean Armistice Agreement of July 27, 1953 and formally end the Korean War and normalize relations. As part of its Indo-Pacific strategy to check China and Russia and dominate the countries and peoples of the Indo-Pacific today, the U.S. imperialists under the Biden administration maintain 28,500 troops in the Republic of Korea, have 15 U.S. military bases for which the south Koreans are made to pay and countless strategic nuclear and other weapons, and it carries out joint-military exercises against the DPRK, aggravating an already tense atmosphere on the Korean Peninsula.
The DPRK government issued a statement on February 17, stating it will be concentrating all its efforts on "implementing its own development plans and keeping peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region." It also pointed out that it would refrain from any military actions except the regularly scheduled exercises to maintain its sovereignty and independence. This includes regularly testing its missiles systems.
The U.S. meanwhile has announced plans to stage another joint naval drill in the East Sea of Korea in the beginning of April with the involvement of the U.S.-Japan-south Korea three-party naval forces, including the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Nimitz.
Neither the U.S. nor its allies, including Canada, have any business carrying out military adventures around the Korean Peninsula. As Canadians, we have to make amends for Canada's illegal participation in the Korean War by standing with the DPRK and the Korean people calling for an end to all U.S.-led joint military exercises targeting the DPRK. This is part of our work to organize for an anti-war government in Canada and make Canada a Zone for Peace.
Canada's "Operation NEON," aimed at enforcing U.S.-engineered unjust sanctions against the DPRK, must be ended. The DPRK has the right to be and the Korean people have the right to self-determination and peace and a re-unified Korea of their own making.
(With files from United States Forces Korea, Government of Canada, KCNA, Hankyoreh)
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 5 - March 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/MS53051.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca