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Vol. 71/No. 40      October 29, 2007

 
North, south Korea agree to pursue peace treaty
 
BY OLYMPIA NEWTON  
The presidents of north and south Korea agreed October 4 to pursue a peace treaty ending the Korean War. The move comes a few weeks after U.S. president George Bush indicated that Washington may be willing to sign such a treaty if north Korea abandons its nuclear program.

South Korea’s Unification Minister Lee Jae Joung called the move something “our people yearn for.” After the talks between Roh Moo Hyun, president of south Korea, and Kim Jong Il, president of north Korea, Seoul sent special envoys to the United States, Japan, China, and Russia. The governments of those countries are part of multilateral talks aimed at pressuring the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to abandon its nuclear program.

Washington invaded Korea in 1950 under the banner of the United Nations. Korean soldiers and Chinese volunteers fought the U.S. troops to a stalemate in 1953, but Washington has refused to sign a peace treaty ever since. The U.S. rulers were forced to accept an armistice agreement dividing Korea at the 38th parallel.

The agreement registered the defeat of Washington’s aim of dominating the entire Korean peninsula and eventually pushing into China, where a revolution in 1949 overthrew the rule of landlords and capitalists. To this day, Washington keeps about 30,000 troops on the Korean peninsula to maintain the division of that country and has warships in the surrounding waters.

Pyongyang has repeatedly pressed for a peace treaty. Washington has used diplomatic relations, food, and fuel as bargaining chips to try to force north Korea to accede to U.S. demands and dismantle its nuclear facilities.

The U.S. government has branded the DPRK a “state sponsor of terrorism.” After the DPRK successfully tested a nuclear bomb a year ago, Washington tightened already-existing sanctions and froze north Korean funds in banks abroad.

At a September 7 press conference in Sydney, Australia, Roh pressed Bush to state for the record Washington’s position on signing a peace treaty. Sentiment for the unification of Korea is overwhelming among working people on both sides of the 38th parallel.

“[I]t’s up to Kim Jong Il as to whether or not we’re able to sign a peace treaty to end the Korean war,” said Bush. “He’s got to get rid of his weapons in a verifiable fashion.” The U.S. holds the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, and continues to be the only government to have used nuclear weapons since it incinerated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Pyongyang shut down its sole nuclear reactor in July. Washington sent a team of “experts” to north Korea October 9 to begin disabling it. The U.S. government has said it will “begin the process” of removing Pyongyang from its list of “state sponsors of terrorism” and lift some sanctions.  
 
 
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