Seven decades have passed since
Korea was divided into the north and the south.
It is a tragedy that Korea, a
homogeneous nation which had lived for 5 000 years in one territory
with the same blood and one culture, has been suffering national
division for such a long period.
What then is the obstacle in the
way of Korea’s reunification? In short, it is the US.
In August 1945 when Japan was
defeated in the Second World War the US drew a line along the 38th
parallel across the Korean peninsula to artificially divide it into
two.
Upset by the aspiration of the
Korean people to establish an independent, democratic and unified
government, the US enforced separate elections in the south of Korea
in 1948 to divide the country permanently.
In June 1950, it egged the south
Korean army on to ignite a war against the DPRK, bringing the Korean
peninsula into the holocaust of fratricidal war.
In the early 1960s when the
tendency towards the reunification in alliance with the north gained
momentum in south Korea under the slogan, “Let’s go to the north,
come to the south, let’s meet at Panmunjom!” the US instigated
military rogue Park Chung Hee to stage the May 16 military coup,
putting a spoke in the wheel of the reunification movement of the
north and south.
John Allen Dulles, former
director of the Central Information Agency, openly said that the most
successful of the overseas operations of the CIA during his tenure
was the military coup in south Korea.
In the 1970s when the July 4
Joint Statement on achieving national reunification on the principle
of independence, peace and great national unity was signed between
the north and the south the US came out with the theory of
“simultaneous entry into the UN by the north and south of Korea,”
clamouring about “two Koreas.”
In the 1980s when the north and
south started dialogue through various channels and exchanged art
troupes and home-visiting groups, it advocated the “cross
recognition” of the north and south and staged the north-targeted
Team Spirit joint military drills.
In the 1990s when the Agreement
on Reconciliation, Nonaggression, Cooperation and Exchange was
adopted between the north and south, it kicked up a racket of the
north’s nuclear crisis, hindering the development of inter-Korean
relations and the reunification movement.
In the 2000s the north and south
held two rounds of historic summit meeting for the first time in the
history of Korea’s division and adopted the June 15 Joint
Declaration with the ideal of By Our Nation Itself as its gist, and
the October 4 Declaration as its action programme. At that time, too,
the US pressurized the south Korean authorities to sabotage their
implementation.
Whenever a sign of improved
relations was shown between the north and south, the Americans would
deteriorate the situation on the Korean peninsula and cast a chill
over their improvement by waging frenzied war rehearsals.
The US-south Korean joint war
exercises have reached the extreme in the new century.
Due to their largest-scale
military drills waged throughout last year and skirmishes in the West
Sea of Korea, all the scheduled dialogues and exchanges for the
reunion of separated families and high-level talks have been
suspended.
At the outset of this year the
DPRK set forth bold and audacious proposals to open up a broad avenue
to the independent reunification in this year of the 70th
anniversary of Korea’s liberation and has taken sincere measures to
this end. The US, however, pursues outrageous confrontation policy,
driving inter-Korean relations into an irrecoverable catastrophe.
Typical examples are the
large-scale Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military drills the US
has forcibly waged in defiance of the strong protest and denunciation
by the international community.
The drills aimed at the removal
of the DPRK’s leadership and “occupation of Pyongyang” through
sudden preemptive strikes, involved huge forces including the US
ground, naval and air force strike groups, several hundred thousand
south Korean troops and the US-led combined force, and latest
military hardware. This has created grave challenge to north-south
relations in Korea which was overflowing with aspiration after
reunification at the start of this year.
It stands to no reason to talk
about reunification and dialogue where gunfire is rampant.
Whenever the inter-Korean
relationship has shown a sign of improvement, the US would act in
this way.
It is not accidental that the
south Korean media branded the US as a wirepuller of the inter-Korean
relations that would go astray whenever they seemed to be improving.
The 70-year-long history of
national division clearly shows that the improvement of inter-Korean
relations and all the reunification processes have been hindered by
the US interference.
The issue of Korea’s
reunification is not limited to the region, but is directly related
to the world peace and security.
That’s why Korea’s peaceful
reunification must be achieved at an early date and the US must stop
its moves against it at once.
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