On the occasion of the April 15 national holiday of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists reaffirm our solidarity with the people and government of the DPRK in the face of threats to your national sovereignty by Washington, Tokyo, and other imperialist powers. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Koreans everywhere in the struggle to make a reality of the slogan, “Korea is one!”

In the latest acceleration of imperialist threats against the DPRK, the U.S. and Japanese governments have stepped up efforts to bolster their military offensive in the region by constructing a provocatively misnamed “missile defense shield” in Asian seas. Washington’s talk of “defending Japan” is camouflage for the U.S. rulers’ drive to achieve the ability to fire offensive missiles with impunity, protected by their “shield” from incoming missiles launched in self-defense. The DPRK is a primary target of the Aegis and Patriot ballistic missile systems the U.S. and Japanese armed forces are deploying this year. Washington has directly enlisted Australia in this deadly arms buildup in the Pacific and is providing advanced radar technology to the government of Taiwan, as well.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops last month carried out their annual joint military maneuvers with south Korean forces. This rehearsal of aggression against the DPRK involved not only the 37,000-plus U.S. forces trampling Korean sovereignty in the southern half of the peninsula but thousands of others as well.

The war moves of Washington, London, Paris, Ottawa, Canberra and other imperialist powers, carried out on the pretext of the “global war on terrorism,” are aimed not just at the DPRK and Iran, the remaining points of Bush’s infamous “axis of evil.” The superrich families of finance capital in North America, Europe, and the Pacific are also aiming to carry out widening dragnets, intensify domestic spying, impose compulsory fingerprinting, and roll back the rights of the accused and convicted. While the rulers’ initial moves often target the foreign-born and oppressed national minorities, these repressive measures endanger the rights of working people and the labor movement as a whole.

From the stepped-up U.S. military operations against residents of Baghdad, Fallujah, and other Iraqi cities; to Washington’s backing of capitalist forces in Venezuela organizing to oust the elected government; to the shanghaiing of Haiti’s elected president and dispatch of U.S. troops there, the imperialist predators are sending a message to all who resist their domination. But working people worldwide, including in the United States and Europe, continue to struggle for livable wages and job conditions, the right to till the soil, and the liberties needed to organize to fight for these goals and win.

The Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists pledge to continue our efforts to arm such working-class fighters, their toiling allies on the land, and young people inspired by their resistance with the facts about the struggles of the Korean people against imperialist aggression. We demand: No to all military threats and provocations! End the economic embargo! Normalize diplomatic relations with the DPRK! All U.S. troops out of Korea!  
 
 
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