STATEMENT ON THE MONTH OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE KOREAN PEOPLE

STATEMENT ON THE MONTH OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE KOREAN PEOPLE

STAFFORDSHIRE REGIONAL BRANCH OF THE KOREAN FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION (UK)

For 67 years running, a burning issue in international politics has not been resolved over these proceeding decades. That is the question of the continued division of the Korean peninsula by the United States and its allies. Over a period of six decades, Korean families and communities have been split up. A whole nation has been devastated by a cruel and unjust division caused by outside forces.

Korea was divided after the liberation of the country on August 15th 1945 along the 38 parallel by the superpowers, a line of division which was arbitrarily drawn.While the Soviet forces withdrew the north of Korea in 1948, the US military remained in the south. The United States concocted a client regime in Seoul,thus formalizing the division of Korea.

On June 25th 1950 the United States and south Korea launched a pre-emptive strike upon the newly-established Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea,thus starting the Korean war (June 25th 1950-July 27th 1953). The three-year long Korean war (Fatherland Liberation War) inflicted terrible death and destruction upon the people of Korea by the United States. At the height of the Korean conflict the US armed forces massacred 35,383 Korean civilians in Sinchon county and the US conducted chemical and germ warfare in Korea. The United States and its satellites were defeated by the army and people of Democratic Korea on July 27th,1953, the socialist David overcame the imperialist Goliath.

The same bellicose stance as was adopted sixty years ago by US imperialism, is now continued by the war hawks of Washington and Seoul. Li Myong Bak is still under the illusion that the south Korean regime will prevail in any conflict with the north. South Korea and the United States are straining tensions on the Korean peninsula to boiling point,with large scale military exercises such as "Key Resolve/Foal Eagle" and with various campaigns of isolating and stifling the DPRK under the pretext of the "nuclear issue".The United States has 40,000 combat ready troops stationed in south Korea and about 1,000 nuclear weapons aimed at the north. All these actions of the Obama Administration and the Li Myong Bak group are creating an environment of aggression around the Korean peninsula and perpetuating the division of Korea.

The DPRK has always sought a solution to the problem of Korean reunification, from the April 1948 north-south political parties joint conference, to the historic north-south declaration of June 6Th 2000 to the proposals for peace and reunification made in January 2011. President Kim IL Sung and Chairman Kim Jong IL of the DPRK have had the principle that the question of Korea's reunification can only be settled by the Korean people themselves, the principle of "By-Our-Nation Itself" Uriminzokkiri. The DPRK has consistently put forward concrete proposals for Korea's peace and reunification, such as the proposal for the conversion of the Korean peninsula into nuclear free zone,the suggestion for the establishment of the Democratic Con federal Republic of Koryo and the recent moves for dialogue made by the north to the south side.

All sectors of the Korean people, whether in the north,in the south or overseas urgently demand the reunification of the Korean peninsula.Left to the desire of the Korean population, Korea would have been peacefully and democratically reunified long ago. The tragedy of Korea's division is being prolonged by the United States and by south Korea's ruling elite. As demonstrated by the June 6th 2000 north-south agreement, the will and determination for reunification is present among the Korean people.Li Myoung Bak,south Korea's executive, has reversed this positive process and pushed the Korean situation back to the bleak days of the security-orientated rule of the 1970s and 1980s. But no amount of suppression, can extinguish the will of the south Korean people for unity with their compatriots in the north. The heroic spirit of the Kwangju Uprising lives on in the hearts and minds of the south Korean people.

We, the members of the Staffordshire Regional Committee of the Korean Friendship Association (UK) call upon every progressive, anti-imperialist and peace activist in Britain to focus their attention on the Korean peninsula and the threat of potential conflict occurring in Korea. The Staffordshire KFA wants to draw the notice of the anti-war movement to the true root of tension and aggression on the Korean peninsula, that is the United States and not be miss led by a Iraq war style fabrication. We urge all progressives to apply pressure on the British Government not be become involved in any scheme aimed at the peaceful Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. The Korean people have the fundamental right to the peaceful and independent reunification of Korea,to live free from foreign imperialist interference and intervention.

KOREA IS ONE !!

US, OUT OF KOREA!!

Issued by the Staffordshire Regional Committee of the Korean Friendship Association (UK)

28.06.2011