BY HILDA CUZCO
Washington and Tokyo signed an agreement August 16 to embark on a joint Theater Missile Defense project, with the Japanese government paying up to half the costs. This scheme to stretch a ring of missiles across the Pacific - from Japan to south Korea to Taiwan, is directed against the workers states in China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

To justify this step and others in its militarization drive, the Japanese government cites what it claims was the testing of a medium-range Taepodong missile by Pyongyang in August 1998. The north Korean government insists this was a satellite launching. To present the DPRK as the aggressor in the region, Tokyo has also been playing up allegations by U.S. officials that Pyongyang is planning a missile test soon.

This propaganda turns reality on its head. An August 10 statement issued by the DPRK government reviewed the history of Japanese imperialist aggression against the Korean people, including the occupation of the peninsula from 1905 through World War II. Today, "under the signboard of a `peace-loving state,' " Tokyo is making "the military, operational, legal, and ideological and moral preparations for direct participation in a war of aggression overseas."

Pyongyang maintains that the Korean people have the right to defend themselves from imperialist provocations. Washington - which waged a bloody 1950-53 war against the Korean people and has maintained the partition of the country ever since - still maintains some 40,000 troops based in south Korea and close to 50,000 in Japan. Even as Clinton administration officials raised a hue and cry over supposed weapons testing in north Korea in early August, U.S. troops were conducting joint military operations with south Korean forces right across the border. When Seoul's warships attacked a north Korean vessel June 15, killing all 17 crew members, Washington deployed an armada in the region, including two cruisers, electronic warfare aircraft, and antisubmarine aircraft. It also put U.S. marines in Okinawa, Japan, on alert. Seoul put 650,000 troops on alert as well.

Seoul has recently announced plans to build missiles that can reach north Korea. Under a 1979 agreement, south Korea must gain U.S. agreement to build missiles with a range of more than 112 miles. U.S. defense secretary William S. Cohen indicated that Washington would work with Seoul to overcome that limit. During a visit to Seoul last July, Cohen said Washington will mobilize "all available means" against a new north Korean missile launching, excluding military force.

The threat against the DPRK centers on cutting food and humanitarian assistance from Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul, at a time when north Koreans are just beginning to recover from four years of severe food shortages after floods and other disasters. Another round of natural disasters damaging new crops, and possible epidemics due to shortages of medicine, remain a danger. At least 200,000 people have migrated to China due to hunger, according to north Korean officials.

Meanwhile, in Seoul thousands of students rallied August 15 at Seoul National University, calling for a commemoration of the 54th anniversary of the liberation of Korea from Japan's colonial rule. Eight thousand police in riot gear, armed with teargas launchers and water cannon, attacked the demonstrators who were demanding the reunification of Korea. The students defended themselves, throwing rocks at the cops.

Earlier that week several hundred livestock farmers battled police who attacked their demonstration against plans of the government to abolish their organization. The cops attacked with batons, leaving 20 farmers injured.  
 
 
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