In this short video, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korean Ambassador and extraordinary plenipotentiary to the UK, Hyon Hak Bong, thanks British workers for their solidarity and support during this time of heightened tension on the Korean peninsula.
The cause of the tension, he explains, is not the North Korean people or government, but the provocative and aggressive stance of the USA, which has threatened the DPRK with nuclear attack since the 1950s, and has again stepped up its aggression in the vain hope of bullying the North Korean state to give up its newly acquired nuclear deterrent.
Ambassador Bong explains that his country’s stance is one of peace, and defense against the unbelievably aggressive stance of the USA, that since murdering 4 million Koreans in the genocidal war it waged between 1950 – 53, has staged relentless military hostilities to subvert the sovereignty and security of the tiny North Korean nation, culminating in its current exercises involving more than 200,000 military personnel and simulated nuclear attack on major cities in the DPRK using B2 stealth and B52 nuclear bombers as well as F22 stealth fighters.
The DPRK is unbowed and will never submit to this outrageous and provocative action of US imperialists and its puppets, the right wing south korean regime. It has the support of the peace loving peoples of the world, who understand that the only language the US understand is the logic of force.
Hands off Korea!
No to US Nuclear warmongering!
Korea is one!
We publish here the “Special Statement of the Government, Political Parties and Organizations of the DPRK”.
“The moves of the U.S. imperialists to violate the sovereignty of the DPRK and encroach upon its supreme interests have entered an extremely grave phase. Under this situation, the dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un, brilliant commander of Mt. Paektu, convened an urgent operation meeting on the performance of duty of the Strategic Rocket Force of the Korean People’s Army for firepower strike and finally examined and ratified a plan for firepower strike.
The important decision made by him is the declaration of a do-or-die battle to provide an epochal occasion for putting an end to the history of the long-standing showdown with the U.S. and opening a new era. It is also a last warning of justice served to the U.S., south Korean puppet group and other anti-reunification hostile forces. The decision reflects the strong will of the army and people of the DPRK to annihilate the enemies.
Now the heroic service personnel and all other people of the DPRK are full of surging anger at the U.S. imperialists’ reckless war provocation moves, and the strong will to turn out as one in the death-defying battle with the enemies and achieve a final victory of the great war for national reunification, true to the important decision made by Kim Jong Un.
The Supreme Command of the KPA in its recent statement solemnly declared at home and abroad the will of the army and people of the DPRK to take decisive military counteraction to defend the sovereignty of the country and the dignity of its supreme leadership, as regards the war moves of the U.S. and south Korean puppets that have reached the most extreme phase.
Not content with letting B-52 make sorties into the sky over south Korea in succession despite the repeated warnings of the DPRK, the U.S. made B-2A stealth strategic bomber and other ultra-modern strategic strike means fly from the U.S. mainland to south Korea to stage a bombing drill targeting the DPRK. This is an unpardonable and heinous provocation and an open challenge.
By taking advantage of the U.S. reckless campaign for a nuclear war against the DPRK, the south Korean puppets vociferated about “preemptive attack”and “strong counteraction”and even “strike at the commanding forces”, openly revealing the attempt to destroy monuments symbolic of the dignity of the DPRK’s supreme leadership.
This clearly shows that the U.S. brigandish ambition for aggression and the puppets’ attempt to invade the DPRK have gone beyond the limit and their threats have entered the reckless phase of an actual war from the phase of threat and blackmail.
The prevailing grim situation more clearly proves that the Supreme Command of the KPA was just when it made the judgment and decision to decisively settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists and south Korean puppets by dint of the arms of Songun, because time when words could work has passed.
Now they are openly claiming that the B-2A stealth strategic bombers’ drill of dropping nuclear bombs was “not to irritate the north”but for “defense”. The U.S. also says the drill is “to defend the interests of its ally”. However, it is nothing but a lame pretext to cover up its aggressive nature, evade the denunciation at home and abroad and escape from the DPRK’s retaliatory blows.
The era when the U.S. resorted to the policy of strength by brandishing nuclear weapons has gone.
It is the resolute answer of the DPRK and its steadfast stand to counter the nuclear blackmail of the U.S. imperialists with merciless nuclear attack and their war of aggression with just all-out war.
They should clearly know that in the era of Marshal Kim Jong Un, the greatest-ever commander, all things are different from what they used to be in the past.
The hostile forces will clearly realize the iron will, matchless grit and extraordinary
mettle of the brilliant commander of Mt. Paektu to the effect that the earth cannot exist without Songun Korea.
Time has come to stage a do-or-die final battle.
The government, political parties and organizations of the DPRK solemnly declare as follows reflecting the final decision made by Kim Jong Un at the operation meeting of the KPA Supreme Command and the unanimous will of all service personnel and people of the DPRK who are waiting for a final order from him.
1.From this moment, the north-south relations will be put at the state of war and all the issues arousing between the north and the south will be dealt with according to the wartime regulations.The state of neither peace nor war has ended on the Korean Peninsula.Now that the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK have entered into an actual military action, the inter-Korean relations have naturally entered the state of war. Accordingly, the DPRK will immediately punish any slightest provocation hurting its dignity and sovereignty with resolute and merciless physical actions without any prior notice.
2.If the U.S. and the south Korean puppet group perpetrate a military provocation for igniting a war against the DPRK in any area including the five islands in the West Sea of Korea or in the area along the Military Demarcation Line, it will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war.
It is evident that any military conflict on the Korean Peninsula is bound to lead to an all-out war, a nuclear war now that even U.S. nuclear strategic bombers in its military bases in the Pacific including Hawaii and Guam and in its mainland are flying into the sky above south Korea to participate in the madcap DPRK-targeted nuclear war moves.
The first strike of the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will blow up the U.S. mainland and its bases for aggression in the Pacific operational theaters including Hawaii and Guam and reduce not only its military bases in south Korea but the puppets’ ruling institutions including Chongwadae and military bases to ashes at once, to say nothing of the aggressors and the provokers.
3.The DPRK will never miss the golden chance to win a final victory in a great war for national reunification. This war will not be a three-day-war but it will be a blitz war through which the KPA will occupy all areas of south Korea including Jeju Island at one strike, not giving the U.S. and the south Korean warmongers time to come to their senses, and a three-dimensional war to be fought in the air, land and seas and on the front line and in the rear. This sacred war of justice will be a nation-wide, all-people resistance involving all Koreans in the north and the south and overseas in which the traitors to the nation including heinous confrontation maniacs, warmongers and human scum will be mercilessly swept away. No force on earth can break the will of the service personnel and people of the DPRK all out in the just great war for national reunification and of all other Koreans and overpower their might. Holding in high esteem the peerlessly great men of Mt. Paektu, the Korean people will give vent to the pent-up grudge and realize their cherished desire and thus bring a bright day of national reunification and build the best power on this land without fail.”
The situation on the Korean Peninsula is currently very tense, and even a small incident may lead to a full-scale war even if none of the parties want it. And the US should better try to normalize relations, anti-war activist Brian Becker told RT.
The activist from the ANSWER Coalition believes the North Korean nuclear program is purely defensive, and following US sanctions on the country, compares the American policies on the peninsula with those in Iraq and Libya – not the road to peace, but to an invasion.
RT: Prior to the sanctions being announced, North Korea threatened to use a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the US. How likely is that to happen?
Brian Becker: No, it’s not likely to happen. North Koreans realize that the US, with 3,000 operational and 7,000 nuclear weapons overall, would, as Colin Powell said in 1995 when he was threatening North Korea, turn their country into a charcoal briquette. In other words, the overwhelming power of the American nuclear machine is great indeed. But I think we have to step back and see what’s really going on because the North Koreans realize that the United States’ strategy with the right-wing government in South Korea in pressuring China, North Korea’s traditional ally, to go along with the program because I think China fears, after the Asia pivot, that there’s growing danger of an actual war in the Pacific to isolate North Korea.
But what has North Korea done? North Korea has carried out a nuclear test, the third. But they’re responding to the major, massive US military exercises that are conducted in a way to stage a mock invasion and bombing of their country – the country that was indeed invaded. Twenty years ago – in fact, exactly 20 years ago – the US strategic command said, “We’re reorienting US hydrogen bombs away from the Soviet Union” – this was after the demise of the USSR – and are now targeting North Korea. And that’s when the DPRK withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty and began building with earnestness its own nuclear capacity.
RT: And is this nuclear capacity though a threat to the region as well as other parts of the world? The anti-missile system in Eastern Europe is being described as defensive action against North Korea – is it really a threat?
BB: Well it’s not a threat in the sense I spoke about a moment ago, the US has such a preponderance of force. But the North Koreans, interestingly in February, just a month ago, said the lesson of the Libyan and the Iraq invasion that happened 10 years ago when the US either invaded or bombed governments that were targeted, that both of those governments had agreed to disarm, had abandoned any weapons of mass destruction, and the North Korean interpretation of that is, if you disarm, the US will say, “Thank you, let’s have peace”, but the US will say, “Thank you, now we can prepare more aggressively for an invasion or a bombing campaign.”
North Korea is determined not to let that happen, and that’s how they view the development of their nuclear arsenal – it’s strictly defensive, it’s not a threat.
RT: The US has threatened even tougher measures if these newest sanctions fail to stop Pyongyang from more nuclear tests. What else can they do short of military action?
BB: I think the economic sanctions are having a very big impact. The US is now basically depriving North Korea of access to international banking. They’re doing it to Korea, and they hope if they can break China, they will do it to Korea what they did to Iraq as a precursor to regime change. Again, I think what needs to happen is that the US needs to stop threatening North Korea. It needs to sign a peace treaty, which it refuses to do, and actually end the Korean War, rather than just armistice, which was on July 26, 1953, 60 years ago. They need to lift the sanctions, and they need to normalize relations. That almost happened in the last eight days of the Clinton administration, it was the beginning of a thaw, the US could go by that road, but it seems that the Obama administration is acting a lot like George W. Bush.
RT: As you say, the dialogue is the only way forward. But there’s been a lot of rhetoric and military action to get Iran over its perceived nuclear threat. We’re not actually seeing the same sort of rhetoric over North Korea, are we?
BB: I actually think that the Korean Peninsula is so hot, so tense, it’s the most heavily-militarized part of the world. Even though none of the countries, none of the parties want a full-scale war, any small incident in the Korean Peninsula could lead to both sides stepping on the escalation ladder. That’s how wars start, even when there’s no intention for war. The need now is to reduce tensions, and the onus for that is not on North Korea which is not threatening the US, it’s the US that should stop carrying out war games simulating the invasion and bombing of North Korea and lift sanctions.
RT: China has actually cooperated with the US, and the UN over this latest round of sanctions. That’s an interesting move, is it not?
BB: I think it’s a clear result of China pursuing an appeasement foreign policy with the US after the Obama administration announced the pivot of Asia. It’s gonna be in the Pacific waters. The US is militarizing its presence in the Pacific, China is very worried that the Korean Peninsula could become a spark causing a larger conflagration right on its own boundaries. So they’re upset with North Korea, but North Korea isn’t listening to China, they’re not thinking mainly about China, they’re thinking, “How do we avoid being collapsed, either by economic sanctions, or military pressure, or combination of both?” I actually think that the Korean Peninsula is so hot, so tense, it’s the most heavily-militarized part of the world. Even though none of the countries, none of the parties want a full-scale war, any small incident in the Korean Peninsula could lead to both sides stepping on the escalation ladder. That’s how wars start, even when there’s no intention for war. The need now is to reduce tensions, and the onus for that is not on North Korea which is not threatening the US, it’s the US that should stop carrying out war games simulating the invasion and bombing of North Korea and lift sanctions.
Red Youth enjoys excellent relations with our comrades organised in the Kim il Sung Socialist Youth League, in the same way that the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) enjoys warm relations with the Korean Workers Party. As part of our ongoing solidarity work, we’ll keep trying to publish The Pyongyang Times and Korean Today, here online at redyouth.org.
Download the latest edition of the Pyongyang Times here 02 PT.
We publish here a number of important documents and materials relating to Korea and the life of Comrade Kim Jong Il as our way of marking the anniversary of his death last year.
Pyongyang, December 18 (KCNA) — A floral basket was sent to the statues of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il on Mansu Hill from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) on the occasion of the first anniversary of demise of Kim Jong Il.
The floral basket was laid before the statues on Tuesday.”
Pyongyang, December 19 (KCNA) — A detailed gist of leader Kim Jong Il’s work “Abuses of Socialism Are Intolerable” was carried by the No. 4 issue of the Swedish magazine “Korean Information”.
The magazine in its preface said that General Secretary Kim Jong Il in his work published on March 1, 1993 scientifically proved that the imperialists and reactionaries’ accusation that socialism is “totalitarian,” “barracks-like” and “administrative and commanding” is sheer sophism and clarified the scientific accuracy of socialism, inevitability of its victory and ways for dynamically advancing the cause of socialism.”
Join party members and friends from around the world in celebrating two important anniversaries in the revolutionary calendar:
— the Korean victory in the Fatherland Liberation War
— the storming of the Moncada Barracks in Cuba
Honoured guests and speakers will include:
— representatives from the north Korean, Cuban and Venezuelan embassies
— delegates recently returned from both Korea and Cuba
Come and be inspired as we celebrate two historic achievements of the international working-class movement, and learn about the reality of building socialism under imperialist blockade today. In June 2012 our comrades, at the invitation of the Communist Party of Cuba toured the island, visiting Co=operative farms and hospitals, speaking with those who are leading the Party in its daily struggle against imperialism. Come along and here what they saw,
Touring a newly created Co-op farm in Cuba, June 2012Mural at a school for the disabled in Havana, Cuba – June 2012
Plus cultural performances, tasty barbecue and a decent curry too – all in the company of good comrades.
– Day school on Marxism and Scottish nationalism –
CPGB-ML comrades and supporters will be meeting for a day school focusing on the Marxist definition of a nation and how Marxists apply this understanding to arrive at a correct policy on any particular national struggle. This understanding is vital if we are to make sense of the various liberation struggles going on around the world, and should also help comrades formulate their attitude towards the question of Scottish independence.
The day will be held in two parts, with an introduction to the question given by Harpal Brar during the morning session followed by workshop discussion groups in the afternoon.
Please contact us if you are planning to attend both events and need accommodation over the weekend:
— rango@cpgb-ml.org
