Echo of Victory

 Echo of Victory

On July 27, 1953, the Korean people burst out into cheers of jubilation over their historic victory in the war (1950-1953) against the United States which boasted of its being “the strongest in the world.” The cheers that day continue to reverberate to this day, along with successive victories they have won in the showdown with the latter.

 The Only Letter of Apology in History
 On January 23, 1968 the US armed spy ship Pueblo, which had intruded into the territorial waters of the DPRK, was captured by the Navy of the Korean People’s Army. The capture of a US ship in a foreign country was an event unseen in the history of the US. Immediately after that the US clamoured about “retaliation.” It dispatched a large-scale fleet of three aircraft carriers and others, and hundreds of airplanes around the Korean peninsula, threatening the DPRK that it would bomb its city, port or airfield unless it returns the ship and crew. The Korean peninsula was strained to the breaking point. At this juncture the DPRK answered, “retaliation for ‘retaliation’ and all-out war for ‘all-out war’!” The Korean army and people took up full combat positions, expressing their will to frustrate the aggressors at one sweep in case they dare attack.
The US had to surrender to the determined stand and indomitable spirit of the DPRK. Within two weeks after it had declared “retaliation” it withdrew its fleet deployed in the waters off Korea and suggested holding talks to Pyongyang. After the talks which lasted for eleven months the US signed a letter of apology in which it acknowledged its hostile acts of espionage, solemnly apologized for them and firmly assured prevention of any recurrence to the DPRK Government.
The then US President Lyndon Baines Johnson deplored that this was the only letter of apology in the history of the US.

Inevitable Consequences of the DPRK-US Confrontation
Far from drawing a lesson from the Pueblo incident, the US committed constant acts of military provocation against the DPRK by launching large-scale joint military exercises around the Korean peninsula. Each time, however, it failed to escape the merciless punishment of the Korean army and people. An incident occurred when a US spy aircraft EC-121 was shot down after having intruded into the territorial air of the DPRK in April 1969. Another incident occurred in August 1976 at Panmunjom along the Military Demarcation Line dividing Korea into the north and south, whenGIs committed provocations against guards of the KPA, but suffered a dreadful defeat again. In December 1994 a US helicopter which crossed the MDL was shot down, and in March 2003 a US reconnaissance plane RC-135 perpetrating aerial espionage near the territorial air of the DPRK made a tailspin frightened by the buzzing of KPA aircraft.
The DPRK-US issue over nuclear confrontation that has dragged on in the new century following the 1990s is another typical example. In 1993 the US instigated the International Atomic Energy Agency to force a “special inspection” upon Korea on the pretext of its suspicions concerning its nuclear development, and launched the Team Spirit joint military exercise to stifle it militarily. On March 8, 1993 the Order of the KPA Supreme Commander was issued on declaring a state of semi-war for the whole country and on following March 12 the DPRK Government made a statement on its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Dispirited by the unexpected hard-line response of the DPRK, the US was obliged to come to the negotiating table. As a result, the DPRK-US joint statement on settling the Korean nuclear issue in a peaceful way was announced on June 11, 1993, and the DPRK-USA Agreed Framework was made public on October 21, 1994 in which the US promised the provision of a light-water reactor and alternative energy to the DPRK.
Entering the 2000s, the Bush administration went back on the promises of the previous administration and adopted the threat of nuclear preemptive strike against the DPRK as a state policy, branding it as a “rouge state,” a “terror-sponsor state” and an “axis of evil.” In coping with this, the DPRK lifted the moratorium on its withdrawal from the NPT on January 10, 2003, clarified on February 10, 2005 that it would increase further the arsenals of nuclear weapons in order to strengthen the self-defensive nuclear deterrent and made the first underground nuclear test on October 9, 2006. Intimidated by the hard-line stance of the DPRK, the Bush administration signed a document to eliminate the DPRK from the list of “terror-sponsor states” towards the close of its term.
Indeed, the chronicles of DPRK-US confrontation record successive victories of the DPRK versus the US. The whole course of DPRK-US confrontation starting from the Korean war has proved that the acts of provocation of the US are followed by the stern punishment of the DPRK, leading to the former’s serious defeats by the latter. It can be said that the cheers of victory in the war have echoed out for nearly 60 years in the DPRK.
It is annoying that the US is still engrossed in the political and military provocation, far from abandoning futile attempts to stifle the DPRK by dint of “strength.” The US politicians must realize that their attempts will be followed by a new victory of the Korean people