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Vol. 74/No. 4      February 1, 2010

 
N. Korea: Denuclearize,
reunify the peninsula
 
BY BEN JOYCE  
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) released a statement January 11 calling for the U.S. government to enter talks on establishing a peace treaty to formally put an end to the Korean War. Since Korean workers and peasants handed Washington its first military defeat, in 1953, the U.S. government has refused to sign a treaty, agreeing only to a cease-fire.

“The denuclearization of the peninsula is the goal of the policy consistently pursued by the Government of the Republic with a view to contributing to peace and security in Northeast Asia and the denuclearization of the world,” the North Korean statement said.

However, it continued, “If confidence is to be built between the DPRK and the United States, it is essential to conclude a peace treaty for terminating the state of war, a root cause of the hostile relations, to begin with.”

North Korea has long pursued an end to nuclear weapons on and around the peninsula. Washington maintains thousands of active nuclear warheads worldwide—some 5,400 according to 2007 estimates by the Federation of American Scientists—and has some 28,000 troops stationed in South Korea. It is under the threat of this force in the neighboring south by U.S. imperialism, as well as Washington’s refusal to formally end the war, that the North Korean government has maintained its right to develop a nuclear weapon.

The 1950-53 Korean War claimed more than 3 million lives before workers and peasants in the north drove out the U.S. invaders. In the course of the war, U.S.-led forces dropped more than 428,000 bombs on the capital city of Pyongyang alone with a population of 400,000.

The Korean peninsula has been divided since the victors of the second imperialist world war carved it up. Upon occupation of South Korea on Sept. 8, 1945, U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur declared, “The entire administrative power of the territory of Korea south of parallel 38 is under my jurisdiction. The population should unreservedly obey the orders issued over my signature. Those acting against the occupation or violating order and tranquility will be mercilessly and severely punished.”

On January 1 a joint editorial was issued by Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the Central Committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea; Josoninmingun, the newspaper of the Korean People’s Army; and Chongnyonjonwi, the organ of the Central Committee of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League. It calls for an “end to the hostile relationship between the DPRK and the USA,” and urges steps toward a denuclearized Korean peninsula. The editorial also calls for the reunification of the Korean peninsula and warns that those who oppose the reunification process “cannot break the desire and will of the fellow countrymen to achieve independent reunification.”  
 
 
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