Inside north Korea
Imperialist sabotage
of energy agreement only stiffens resolve
By
Brian Becker and Sharon Ayling
The
authors traveled to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea from Feb. 19 to
Feb. 26 in a Workers World Party delegation.
The
people in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) or north Korea are in
the midst of a severe power and energy shortage that is adversely affecting the
overall economic life of the
country.
The
energy shortage, mainly in electrical power, has caused major problems in
heating and lighting, railway transport and agricultural
production.
The
DPRK's energy crisis has a variety of causes. The single biggest reason,
however, has been the deliberate sabotage by the United States government of the
1994 Framework Agreement that the DPRK signed with the
U.S.
The
Framework Agreement stipulated that the DPRK would freeze the construction of a
nuclear power plant operated by a graphite-moderated reactor. The Clinton
administration nearly went to war to force the cancellation of the planned power
plant, which the administration asserted would have allowed the DPRK to also
produce weapons-grade plutonium necessary to build nuclear
weapons.
In
return for Korea freezing its nuclear power plant construction, the United
States was to take the lead in building in the DPRK two light-water reactors not
capable of producing nuclear weapons materials. These substitute nuclear power
plants were to be the alternative energy source for the country.
In
addition, the U.S. committed itself to shipping 500,000 tons of oil annually to
the DPRK until the light-water reactors were up and running. The U.S. also
pledged to ease and then end the economic sanctions on the DPRK that have been
in place for more than half a century against this small country with a
population of 20
million.
Clinton
double-cross
The
DPRK complied, but the United States has not lived up to its side of the
agreement.
In
fact, construction has not even started on the light-water reactors. Due to be
completed by 2003 according to the 1994 agreement, the substitute power plant
may not be operational until 2010 or even
later.
The
leaders of the DPRK are now waging a campaign to demand that the U.S. implement
its side of the 1994 agreement. They are also insisting that the U.S. pay
complete compensation for the damages and hardships imposed on the Korean people
by its refusal to abide by its signed
promises.
This
is the backdrop for upcoming high-level negotiations to be held in Washington in
March between the Clinton administration and a delegation from the
DPRK.
Imperialism's
miscalculation
DPRK
officials say they suspect that the Clinton administration is playing a
diplomatic game and never intends to fully implement the agreement. When the
U.S. government signed the 1994 agreement with the DPRK, it was evidently
convinced that the socialist government in the DPRK would fall within a few
years-well before the 2003 deadline to finish the light-water
reactors.
After
the governments in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were overthrown in
1989-1991, the DPRK was deprived of major trading partners. The Soviet Union had
been the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. It was a source
of oil and energy resources for the DPRK and Cuba on terms far more favorable
than those imposed by the imperialist oil
monopolies.
This
blow to the DPRK was worsened by four consecutive years of very bad weather,
including years of drought followed by torrential rains and floods. Further
complicating the picture was the unexpected death in 1995 of Kim Il Sung, who
was both the president of the DPRK and the founder and leading figure of the
Workers Party of Korea.
This
combination of factors plunged the DPRK into its most difficult period since the
Korean War of 1950-53, when U.S. bombers leveled every building above one story
in the
country.
Throughout
the first half of the 1990s, U.S. imperialism was gloating that the DPRK would
soon be overthrown. But to the amazement of the Clinton administration, the DPRK
has
endured.
The
Workers Party of Korea carried out a smooth transition in leadership. Kim Jong
Il became head of the party after the death of Kim Il Sung, the much revered
leader of the Korean revolution. There were no severe splits or cleavages inside
the Workers Party of Korea of the type that had prompted the collapse of
governments in the USSR and Eastern
Europe.
Instead
of rejecting socialism, the Workers Party of Korea announced its deep commitment
to socialism and the eventual transition to communism. Although it faced
devastating shortages and production declines, the course pursued by the DPRK
was entirely different from what had taken place in the former Soviet Union
during the 1990s, when millions of workers were summarily fired, laid off, and
deprived of housing and health care services after the Soviet government was
overthrown.
In
the DPRK, the workers and farmers are upheld as the masters of society. Without
glossing over the widespread material hardships imposed by the loss of the
Soviet bloc and U.S.-sponsored economic sanctions, the leadership of the DPRK
refuses to embrace the so-called miracle of the capitalist
market.
The
Clinton administration was hoping that north Korea would go the way of East
Germany, which was "peacefully" swallowed up by West German capitalism after the
ruling socialist party split into warring factions in
1989.
While
it did everything it could to intensify the economic problems caused by the
collapse of the USSR and other socialist countries, the U.S. was banking on
provoking a split inside the Workers Party of Korea, with one faction favoring
an accommodation with Western capitalism in return for trade and investment.
But
imperialism's wishes have been frustrated. Instead, the DPRK has maintained its
party unity and a militant determination to resist imperialism while defending
its sovereignty and
independence.
To
the great surprise of the United States, the DPRK, using its own technology,
succeeded in launching a satellite into orbit in 1998. The U.S. insisted at the
time that this was actually the launch of a medium-range missile capable of
delivering a nuclear payload. A veritable storm of protest was whipped up
against the DPRK that lasted for months in the United States and
Japan.
The
DPRK leaders in 1998 struck a defiant tone. They insisted that they had launched
a satellite, but pointedly noted that the rocket could also have launched a
missile and that U.S. imperialism was not the only country entitled to possess
advanced rocket technology and
weaponry.
Trying
to bully the DPRK had backfired. The hysteria against the DPRK subsided after a
few months and the U.S. quietly acknowledged that Pyongyang had indeed launched
a satellite and not a missile.
The
DPRK also denounced U.S. footdragging on the 1994 agreement and suggested it was
being forced to resume its earlier nuclear program. It was only then that the
United States announced it wanted to get the negotiations back on
track.
U.S.
must pay
compensation
If
the U.S. fails to move quickly to compensate Korea for its failure to implement
the 1994 agreement, the Korean peninsula may experience a new wave of tensions,
including the possibility of military
hostilities.
"Never
before in the history of Korea has there been such a power shortage as today,"
reported the KCNA, the official news agency of the DPRK, on Feb.
23.
"The
DPRK's freezing of nuclear-power based construction has brought an enormous loss
to it amounting to tens of billions of dollars. The light-water reactors will
probably not be finished by 2010, though the initial plan called for completion
by 2003," says the KCNA
statement.
At
the upcoming negotiations in Washington, the DPRK representatives will be
demanding U.S. compensation for its energy losses, the end of economic
sanctions, the immediate withdrawal of 40,000 U.S. troops from south Korea, and
the end of U.S.-South Korean military war maneuvers that constantly threaten the
DPRK.
U.S.
imperialism has made the destruction of the socialist government in north Korea
an ongoing priority. It is an integrated strategy combining war threats,
sanctions and subversion. Washington's decision to restart negotiations is a
result of the steadfastness and military strength of the DPRK and nothing more.
Negotiations are not a sign that the U.S. rulers have changed their objectives
in regard to Korea.
Progressive
people in the United States must join with the Korean people in demanding that
the U.S. government live up to the 1994 agreement. Certainly the U.S. should be
required to pay compensation for the hardships imposed by its double-dealing
refusal to provide a substitute power plant. Those who deprive people of food,
medicine and heat as part of a political war against socialism should be held
accountable.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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