Two days after the conclusions of the historic summit talks in Pyongyang, peasants, workers, and students protested against the U.S. military presence in the south, defying vicious assaults by riot police. The talks help demonstrate that Seoul and its imperialist overlords in Washington have been unable to either crush or ignore the popular demand for Korean unification.

The occupation of Korea by tens of thousands of heavily armed imperialist troops, backed up by nuclear weapons, is a violation of Korean sovereignty and the right of the Korean people to determine their own future. The U.S. rulers have neither forgotten nor forgiven the defeat they were dealt by the Korean people and workers and peasants from China, nor have they ever backed off their offensive stance. The Pyongyang government is right to warn of the "danger of war" the troops represent.

The U.S. military presence is also aimed at workers and peasants in the south. That's what Korean president Kim Dae Jung means when he says the troops help ensure "stability." Working people and students of town and country--with the labor movement often taking the lead--have become more confident and organized through a succession of major struggles, even in the face of systematic repression. In recent years they forced an end to decades of military dictatorship, won union organization in wide sections of industry, and have kept the question of national unification on the agenda. South Korean president Kim Dae Jung retains his popular base in part because of his past role as an opponent of the dictatorship and his present stance in favor of talks.

The south Korean rulers can no longer justify the troops and their repressive laws by their former refrain of the "red menace." After the talks, which generated a swell of interest in north Korean society among working people in the south, they are less able than ever to demonize the Pyongyang government and the workers and peasants of the north.

Despite Washington's and Seoul's fervent hopes, and their use of food as a weapon, the north Korean government did not collapse under the impact of the severe crisis of the early 1990s.

These political shifts in Korea show how the U.S. imperialists did not emerge victorious from the Cold War, with greater political strength and authority. On the contrary--they are weakened and face sharpening conflicts and resistance around the world. The stakes in joining the fight of the Korean people to remove the imperialist forces and reunify their country are immense. Workers and farmers in the United States and around the world should identify with that fight, reach out to it in solidarity, and celebrate each step forward that is taken.  
 
 
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