Nick G.VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
Nick G.
US imperialism will not achieve its goal of making North Korea bow to its threats.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has faced aggression from US imperialism time and again, has steadfastly defended its independence and sovereignty and defiantly kept to its preferred model of socialism.
Despite running as an isolationist, Donald Trump has used his first 100 days in office to demonstrate what “making America great again” is all about.
It is all about using force and violence, or the threat of force and violence, in pursuit of “full spectrum domination”, the military perspective embraced by the US since 2004, and defined by the US Department of “Defence” as “The cumulative effect of dominance in the air, land, maritime, and space domains and information environment, which includes cyberspace, that permits the conduct of joint operations without effective opposition or prohibitive interference.”
It is almost as childish as chanting “I’m the king of the castle, and you’re the dirty rascal” except that real consequences flow from what is obviously not a child’s play scenario.
To date, Trump has thrown missiles into Syria, dropped the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) on Afghanistan, and threatened North Korea with a preemptive military strike.
Imperialism cannot accept other nations’ sovereignty
Common to each of these three provocations is an arrogant refusal to recognise the sovereignty of independent nations.
In the case of Syria, the missile attack follows a commitment of US ground troops inside Syria under the pretext of fighting ISIS.
In the case of Afghanistan, only limited military advantage was evident with some 90 terrorists taken out. What was achieved instead was a test run of US imperialism’s biggest non-nuclear weapon and a public display of its willingness to throw it around in other people’s countries.
Hamid Karzai, Afghan President from 2004 to 2014 and formerly a key ally of the US, condemned the dropping of the MOAB, said the US should stop using Afghanistan as a "testing ground" and re-engage with Afghans towards a peaceful solution.
"This was an inhuman act, a brutal act against an innocent country, against innocent people, against our land, against our sovereignty, against our soil and against our future," Karzai said in Kabul.
"A bomb of that magnitude has consequences for the environment, for our lives, for our plants, for our water, for our soil - this is poison."
US threatens to take out North Korea
Emboldened by its actions in Syria and Afghanistan, US imperialism sent nuclear submarines and an aircraft carrier strike force towards the Korean peninsula, threatening pre-emptive action designed to eliminate the "supreme headquarters of the north" and "strike its nuclear and missile bases."
The DPRK called US imperialism’s bluff, holding a massive military parade and conducting a new missile test. Within days, US rhetoric changed claiming that it did not want to bring the North Koreans to their knees, but only to their senses. It claimed that it had abandoned “strategic patience” and would impose “maximum pressure” by stronger sanctions whilst reserving the right to go to war at any time.
THAAD deployment brought forward
Contradictions abound throughout the universe and in every aspect of life on Earth. The contradictions between China and the US have been exacerbated by US imperialist aggression. China was relatively silent on the MOAB incident, and abstained in a vote on Syria at the UN Security Council. It initially adopted its version of a “middle way” in relation to the US-DPRK standoff, warning that US provocations would destabilise the security of East Asia whilst condemning the DPRK’s nuclear missile program as equally provocative and a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
However, the temperature in Beijing rose when the US brought forward its deployment of the THAAD missile defence system last Wednesday, April 25, moving six military vehicles containing parts of the system onto a disused golf course about 250 kilometres south of the South Korean capital Seoul.
Whatever pretext the US may make about using THAAD to counter North Korean missile attacks, it reaches well into China and also Russia thus undermining the ability of those countries to use missiles in their own defense.
Zhao Xiaozhuo, director of the Center of China-US Defense Relations Studies of the PLA's Academy of Military Science, said the deployment of the THAAD system has moved a step toward substantially shattering the strategic balance among major powers in Northeast Asia.
A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Yang Yujun said on Thursday that China will conduct "combat-oriented live-fire drills" and test new weapons to counter the THAAD deployment.
The same day, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China has drawn a red line for the U.S., North Korea, and South Korea, that war on the Korean Peninsula is not allowed and that all consequences would be borne by the relevant countries should war break out.
Contradictions sharpening
With contradictions sharpening between China and the US, Trump entered the fray and, from South Korea’s point of view, made the provocative remark that the South should pay for the THAAD system.
Trump said the THAAD missile system would cost about $1 billion and questioned why the United States was paying for it. Most of the profit will go to Lockheed Martin Corp, the prime contractor for THAAD.
"I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. It's a billion-dollar system," Trump said. "It's phenomenal, shoots missiles right out of the sky."
Trump’s demand has only served to heighten contradictions between the US imperialists and their erstwhile South Korean allies.
Asked about the remarks, South Korea's defense ministry said in a statement there is no change to the existing agreement that Seoul provides land for the deployment while Washington shoulders the cost of installing and operating the system.
Others in South Korea denounced the deployment as a pre-emptive strike against South Korean elections to be held on 9 May given that front-runner Moon Jae-in has called for deployment to be delayed until after the next administration is in place and can review the decision.
Moon’s promise to review South Korea's decision to host the anti-missile battery reflects a deep anti-war and growing anti-US sentiment in the South. On the same day that the THAAD vehicles entered the golf course at Seongju, local residents in their hundreds came out in protest. So scared were the authorities that they mobilised over 2000 riot police to control and intimidate the locals.
Protesters carried signs reading, "No THAAD, No War" and "Hey, U.S.! Are you friends or occupying troops?" Kim Jong-kyung, co-head of a group of villagers protesting the THAAD deployment, told Reuters that more than ten people had been injured in clashes with police and some had suffered broken bones.
DPRK stands firm
On April 26 the Korean Central News Agency carries a statement of resolute defiance of US imperialist pressure.
“The ferocious provocation of the U.S. to drive the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of war is just an extension and vivid manifestation of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK to stifle it at any cost as it is a socialist fortress standing guard at the outpost for preserving global peace,” it said.
Reviewing the events of the past week, it added “But the U.S. is utterly misjudging the DPRK, being so arrogant. Such threats as "maximum pressure" touted by the Trump administration may work on others but can never work on socialist Korea in which the army and people, single-mindedly united around the headquarters of the revolution and socialism, have formed a destiny-sharing community to remain true to the leadership of the great Party.”
“The DPRK is a peace-loving socialist state,” it added. “It sets store by peace and loves peace more than anyone else but it neither fears a war nor is to avoid it.
“Its army and people will not rule out any crucial option to defend socialism representing their life and to preserve peace on the Korean peninsula and in the region.”
We are living in the end times for the imperialist system. But it will not disappear quietly or peacefully. It will go to the extremes of barbarity and cruelty to keep itself in power.
The threat of war is real. The greatest possible efforts for peace and against imperialist war provocations are called for.