EDITORIAL
Koreans emphasize defense
Two delegations of U.S. lawmakers, including Tom Lantos, have been visiting
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Lantos, a right-wing Democrat from
California, co-sponsored a bill passed by Congress last year that imposes new
sanctions on the DPRK (North Korea).
For years the U.S. capitalist
establishment, which decimated Korea in a terrible war in the 1950s and has kept
over 30,000 troops in the southern half of that divided country ever since, has
tried to force the leaders in the north to give up their socialist system.
Imperialist strategists thought it would be easy once the Soviet Union
collapsed. Indeed, that and a series of natural disasters, plus the death of
Korea's legendary liberation leader, Kim Il Sung, created a period of severe
hardship for the DPRK in the 1990s.
At the time of the Korean War, the
imperialists were stunned by the heroic resistance of the Korean people and
their devotion to their revolutionary leaders. Over a million U.S. troops
employing tremendous firepower could not break their spirit. The war ended in a
stalemate--but the U.S. has never signed a peace treaty and refuses to even
discuss an end to its hostilities against the DPRK.
Whatever threats and
enticements the U.S. politicians are making now, the DPRK has made it clear that
it will never compromise its security. On New Year's Day, the three main
newspapers in Pyongyang, the north's capital, issued a joint editorial statement
that emphasized the country's determination to continue giving a priority to
defense while embarking on a scientific-technological revolution in agriculture
and industry.
The DPRK is preparing for a year full of significant
anniversaries: the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese imperial
rule as well as the formation of the DPRK's leading political force, the
Workers' Party of Korea; the fifth anniversary of the historic summit in
Pyongyang that issued the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration affirming the
desire of the entire Korean people for reunification.
The Koreans will
never forget their glorious history of resistance to foreign domination. The
antiwar movement here must not forget Korea and should do all it can to get U.S.
troops out of the south and end the perpetual war threat posed by Washington.
Reprinted from the Jan. 20, 2005, issue of Workers World newspaper
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