According to north Korea's Radio Pyongyang, a south Korean diplomat left March 25 for the north to discuss "the serious situation that has recently arisen before the people of the two sides and inter-Korean issues of mutual interest."

The move reflected the strong support among the peoples of Korea on both sides of the border for reunification of their country, despite Washington's escalating military threats against the north and the presence of 37,000 U.S. troops in the south, backed by warships and nuclear weapons.

At the same time a massive strike began April 2. More than 100,000 workers, including shipbuilders, auto workers, teachers, and taxi drivers affiliated with the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions took action to back the fight by 4,000 workers at the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. against government plans to privatize the utility. The power workers, who have been on strike since February 25, have stood up to government threats and police repression. So far, nine power union leaders are under arrest and 344 have been fired for organizing the strike.

The joint U.S.-south Korean "war games" that have just concluded were described by a BBC report as the biggest since the 1950–53 Korean war. The drill involved most of the U.S. troops in south Korea as well as other U.S. forces stationed in Japan and the U.S.-occupied island of Guam, as well as 650,000 south Korean soldiers. Among the many maneuvers was a landing drill near the southeastern industrial port of Pohang.

Over the past month Washington has named the north Korean government as one of the three "axis-of-evil" states along with Iran and Iraq, as well as one of the seven countries--together with China, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Russia, and Syria--to be targeted for possible use of nuclear weapons.

The Bush administration has also announced that it will refuse to certify that north Korea is meeting its commitments under a 1994 nuclear accord. Under this agreement Washington, together with Japan, south Korea, and some European nations promised to provide $4 billion for the construction of two nuclear reactors in north Korea in exchange for an agreement by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to not make use of an alleged stock of plutonium to meet its nuclear energy needs.

Both the north Korean government and news reports point out that it is the U.S. rulers and their allies who are not meeting their end of the bargain. The two reactors "were supposed to be completed by 2003 but concrete has not yet been poured into the foundations and completion is unlikely before 2008," noted the March 22 Financial Times. Pyongyang is seeking a power station from Russia as an alternative energy solution.

Despite the U.S. rulers' accusations around the nuclear accord, an unnamed senior official in the Bush administration made clear to the New York Times that "in refusing to make the certifications, Washington is not accusing North Korea of violating the agreement." In fact Bush even announced that in the interests of "national security" the certification required by Congress of north Korean compliance will be waived, which means the delivery of fuel and oil from the United States to north Korea will continue uninterrupted for the time being.

Tokyo is also taking a more hard-line stance toward north Korea. The Japanese rulers are threatening to cut off food aid to Pyongyang for what they allege is the kidnapping of 11 Japanese citizens over the past few years, who supposedly are now residing in north Korea.

Meanwhile a German doctor, Norbert Vollersten, is planning further "spontaneous" defections of north Koreans in a drive to portray the government in Pyongyang as a repressive dictatorship. Vollersten was behind what was made to appear in the international press as a storming of the Spanish embassy in Beijing by desperate north Koreans. The 25 were recruited for the operation by members of Vollersten's group "in north-east China and taken to Beijing, where they were disguised as South Korean tourists in designer clothes." A TV crew and photographers were lined up beforehand, hiding behind trees outside the Spanish compound, to record what the media would pitch as the group's "bolt for freedom."
 
 
Related article:
Background to Korean conflict today  
 
 
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