Speech on current situation on the current situation on the Korean peninsula by Dermot Hudson to the KFA Scotland meeting

Many people I am sure are wondering what is going to happen with the DPRK -US talks , the question of denuclearisation  and Korean reunification . Obviously this is a topic that raises many questions but time will not allow a detailed and in depth analysis of these questions . However I will just say a few things about this .
 As I think everyone knows  in less than two weeks it is the anniversary of the historic June 12th DPRK-US summit and joint statement . It is probably less well known to people that April 27th saw the 1st anniversary of the historic Panmunjom inter -Korean summit and joint declaration and that June 15th is the 19th anniversary of the first ever inter-Korean summit . All these anniversaries have deep significance .
    Without a doubt an incredible event that brought hope and expectation for peace and common prosperity not only to the people of the two countries, who had been most hostile to each other in the world, but also to the international community. Many people thought that a summit between the US and DPRK was totally impossible and that war between the US and the DPRK was only a matter of time .However on June 12th 2018, the summit between respected Marshal KIM JONG UN and President Trump was held , the first ever DPRK-US summit in world history .
   The DPRK supreme leader Marshal KIM JONG UN and the US president sat down together and talked .A joint statement was signed .The joint statement pledged to end the hostile relationship between the two countries and to build a permanent and durable peace mechanism on the Korean peninsula .
   The DPRK under the leadership of dear respected Marshal KIM JONG UN worked hard to implement the joint statement by returning remains of US troops who died during the Fatherland Liberation War .Also the DPRK has not conducted a nuclear test or an ICBM test since the summit .
  However, the US has not implemented its side of the agreement . It has persisted in enforcing sanctions against the DPRK , even trying to increase them in some fields. It has illegally seized the DPRK trading ship  the 'Wise Honest ' . The US has also staged military exercises in south Korea simply by changing the name and rebranding the exercises as Dong Maeng (Alliance) 19-1.These provocative military exercises were carried out in April with more planned for August .
  The 2nd DPRK-US summit in Hanoi , Vietnam  ending without an agreement and DPRK-US talks have come to a grinding halt, basically they have been ruptured . This is 100 per cent entirely due to the arrogant ,arbitrary and high-handed attitude displayed by the US side at the Hanoi summit.The US did not act in an honest way but instead attempted to force impossible demands on the DPRK.
  One way of looking at the Hanoi summit is like this ;  Marshal KIM JONG UN offered to shut down the Nyongbyon nuclear complex in exchange for the lifting of some sanctions. A reasonable proposition .Basically, the US was offered a slice of cake but the greedy Yanks wanted the whole cake , in fact the whole bakery !
  The DPRK did its best to implement the 12th June DPRK-US joint statement. As clarified by the answer of the spokesperson of the DPRK Foreign Ministry on the 24th of May , the DPRK " crucial and meaningful measures of a strategically decisive nature including the discontinuation of nuclear test and test-fire of intercontinental ballistic missile, and we also took a broadminded step towards the realization of the repatriation of the American POW/MIA remain".
   However the US response was not only to continue with its anti-DPRK hostile policy and evenly brazenly demanded the unilateral disarmament of the DPRK at the Hanoi summit.
  The DPRK through its foreign ministry spokesperson has said that "We hereby make it clear once again that the United States would not be able to move us even an inch with the device it is now weighing in its mind, and the further its mistrust and hostile acts towards the DPRK grow, the fiercer our reaction will be....Unless the United States puts aside the current method of calculation and comes forward with a new method of calculation, the DPRK-U.S. dialogue will never be resumed and by extension, the prospect for resolving the nuclear issue will be much gloomy".
  Thus it is the responsibility of the US to take genuine measures to restart the dialogue otherwise the process cannot move forward.If the peace and dialogue process collapses then the blame will lay with the US .
 It should be understood that what the term denuclearisation which appears in the text of the DPRK-US joint statement and the Panmunjom declaration is the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula not the one sided unilateral denuclearisation of the DPRK as demanded by the US . It should be remembered that is the US that is the author of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula . In violation of the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement , the US shipped nuclear weapons into south Korea in 1957 and at one point had 1,700 nuclear weapons in south Korea.Some US nuclear weapons remain in south Korea as the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons in south Korea has never been independently verified. Denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula means that the US should withdraw all its weapons in and around the Korean peninsula and completely and irreversibly end its nuclear threat to the DPRK , it is as simple as that . The DPRK will never the so-called “Libyan solution' touted by some in the US . In Libya Col Gadhafi scrapped Libya's very basic and infant nuclear programme and even handed over the equipment to the US . Seven years later the Colonel was dead , killed by a CIA lynch mob after the US and others had orchestrated regime change  in Libya . The DPRK also will not make the mistakes of some former socialist countries which are although big and powerful caved into imperialism on several occasions and allowed socialism to collapse without even a shot being fired in its defence.
 As to the question of reunification and south Korea , my colleague James Taylor will say a few words about the south Korean situation and the struggle of our friends the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic front of south Korea. I will say that some positive prospects for reunification and inter-Korean co-operation have been opened up thanks to the efforts and skill of respected Marshal KIM JONG UN who held not one but three inter-Korean summits with south Korea in the space of 6 months . Also there were changes in the south Korean situation notably the Candlelight protests against corruption  of 2016 and 2017 which caused the downfall of the old puppet fascist regime and its replacement with a more liberal regime orientated towards peace . Some people did not like KFA calling south Korea puppet or fascist but for south Korea is the creation of the US and even pays for the dubious privilege of being occupied by US troops . As to fascism , it should be pointed out that in south Korea you have the National Security Law which suppresses all leftist and pro DPRK activities . Past fascist regimes in south Korea have been allied to fascist organisations like the National Front in Britain , CEDADE in Spain and the MSI in Italy . The new regime in south Korea has taken big steps for peace and reunification but the National Security Law remains and US troops remain in south Korea.
  We believe that Korea should be reunified independently , this means US troops withdrawing from south Korea. Also the National Security Law should be abolished and the remnants of the old former fascist dictatorship , the so-called Liberty Korea Party should be dissolved .
 As to DPRK-US relations , we will campaign for the US to honestly and sincerely implement its side of the DPRK-US joint statement  which means lifting sanctions on the DPRK , ending the anti-DPRK hostile policy and not carrying out military exercises in south Korea.  A new mechanism for peace on the Korean peninsula should be established.