Vol. 81/No. 47 December 18, 2017
Washington’s war games, sanctions hit at NKorea
Simulated B-1 bombing runs took place less than 100 miles from the South’s border with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The exercises come one week after the DPRK deployed its longest missile launch so far, North Korea’s third such test this year, covering 620 miles in a high arc before splashing down in the waters between Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
In addition to the military exercises, the Donald Trump administration stepped up its calls for more severe sanctions to be imposed against North Korea, including asking Beijing for more help in squeezing the people of the DPRK.
“All countries should sever diplomatic relations with North Korea and limit military, scientific, technical or commercial cooperation,” Nikki Haley, Washington’s ambassador to the U.N., told a special session of the Security Council called by Washington Nov. 29. “They must also cut off trade with the regime by stopping all imports and exports, and expel all North Korean workers.”
The Security Council has imposed eight rounds of sanctions on North Korea over the past decade, along with further steps taken by Washington and other imperialist governments. These actions impact working people there the hardest.
Despite war rhetoric from some in Washington, both President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson responded by saying increased pressure was aimed at forcing the DPRK to the bargaining table. “Diplomatic options remain viable and open,” Tillerson said.
A week before the missile launch, Trump redesignated North Korea as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” along with Tehran, Damascus and the government of Sudan. North Korean officials described this decision as “a serious provocation.”
The Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions against Pyongyang, targeting Chinese trading companies as well as North Korean companies and ships.
The U.S. rulers have had some success getting Beijing, which accounts for 92 percent of Pyongyang’s foreign trade, to press against DPRK leaders. The Chinese government has curbed its exports of North Korean coal, a chief source of hard currency for Pyongyang. Beijing’s trade with North Korea dropped by 20 percent in October.
The North Korean leadership views the war exercises as acts of aggression by Washington rooted in the decadeslong effort by the U.S. government to overthrow the DPRK and re-establish control over the entire peninsula.
With the agreement of Moscow, Washington seized southern Korea after the second imperialist world war, aiming to take control over all of Korea. After workers and farmers in the north won independence through revolutionary struggle, U.S. troops invaded in 1950. Through carpet bombing and widespread use of napalm, cities in the north were reduced to rubble and some 4 million people were killed during the war. Washington considered, but ultimately decided not to use, nuclear weapons.
The Korean people — backed by troops from China — fought Washington to a draw. A cease-fire was signed in 1953, but for the 64 years since the U.S. rulers have refused to sign a peace treaty with the DPRK.
Over the past 70 years the Socialist Workers Party has opposed Washington’s intervention in Korea and supports the struggle of the Korean people for reunification. The party calls for an immediate end to Washington’s economic and financial sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; for withdrawal of the more than 28,000 U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula, and U.S. planes and ships from Korea’s skies and waters; for a nuclear free Korean Peninsula and Pacific; and unilateral nuclear disarmament by Washington.
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