------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the March 20, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
EDITORIAL: HANDS OFF KOREA About the only "dissenters" allowed on recent televised discussions of the Bush administration war drive have been those who say the U.S. should be attacking North Korea instead of Iraq. No wonder so many people in this country have the impression that North Korea poses a danger to the United States. But in fact, it's the Pentagon that has waged bloody war and destruction in Korea, and not the other way around. It divided the country even before the 1950-53 Korean War and has maintained a huge military presence in the south ever since. Korea doesn't want war. The Korean people--north and south--want peace. They both want the U.S. to sign a peace treaty and lift its 37,000- troop military occupation of their country. Bush accuses the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north of creating a nuclear bomb, abrogating treaties and starving its own children. What cruel hypocrisy. Washington knows full well that the North Koreans desperately need energy for their economy. It was the U.S. that killed the 1994 North Korea-U.S. Framework Agreement, signed by Bill Clinton, that had stopped production on a North Korean reactor with the promise that the U.S. and South Korea would help North Korea build two reactors of a different design, and would provide oil shipments in the meantime. The reactors were never built and the oil shipments were constantly delayed. Meanwhile, South Korea has at least 14 functioning nuclear reactors. Then, in January 2002, Bush delivered his infamous "axis of evil" State of the Union address which amounted to a declaration of war against the DPRK. The 1994 treaty was in effect dead. So it came as no surprise to Washington when, months later, the North Koreans announced they would resume work on their original reactor. In recent weeks Washington has sent a spy plane to provoke the North Korean government. It has refused to hold talks about ending a nearly six-decade campaign to destroy the socialist government. The Pentagon has sent warships within striking distance and positioned 24 long-range bombers on alert for deployment to Guam. It is moving an aircraft carrier flotilla into the region. And it is dropping hints that it might bomb the reactor site at Yongbyon. This is why the new South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun, who was elected on a platform of normalizing relations with the north and ending the state of war still in force on the Korean peninsula, told U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld not to go through with his recent "threat" to withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea. Super-hawk Rumsfeld wasn't suddenly a dove. He was implying that he would get U.S. forces "out of harm's way" in order to be able to attack the north. The anti-war movement should be trying to figure out how to stop Washington's new plans for aggression. The DPRK, like any sovereign nation, has the right to determine its own social system and the right to defend itself against imperialist attack. The danger of war on the Korean peninsula comes from Washington, not Pyongyang. The millions marching against war around the world must raise their voices to demand: "U.S.--hands off Korea!" - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
