Some Thoughts on DPRK -US relations 3 years after the June 12 summit -special article by Dr Dermot Hudson

It has been three years since the historic June 12th summit between the US and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea when the then US chief executive Trump met with the supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , respected Marshal KIM JONG UN  in Singapore . It was an amazing breakthrough for peace which most people thought would never happen . I, for one , thought that a summit between the leaders of the DPRK and US was impossible , almost unthinkable . In 2017 it looked like a war between the DPRK and the US was inevitable , not a question of if but of when . Yet the summit took place in Singapore and the danger of war was defused .

  However , it now seems like a very long time , as if it happened a decade ago .  This is because unfortunately  the US never implemented its side of the historic DPRK-US joint statement . Instead the US not only indulged in prevarication but continued with its anti-DPRK hostile policy which had basically existed since day one . It is true that the US scaled down some military exercises in south Korea but it did not get rid of them completely , nor did it withdraw its troops from south Korea nor end its  nuclear threat against the DPRK . Worse still the sanctions against People’s Korea continued and some new ones were imposed . The barrage of spiteful and malicious propaganda by the US media machine carried on without let-up .

  Now the regime has changed in the US and there is a new President in power , Sleepy Joe Biden . However, Biden looks unwilling and unable to carry forward the spirit of the June 12 joint statement , instead he appears committed to carrying on with the hostile policy against the DPRK . In fact he appears to be more hardline on the DPRK than his predecessor , Trump . Biden has used flowery words about diplomacy and ‘ the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula ‘  but at the same time  wants UN Security Council ( UNSC ) resolutions against the DPRK fully implemented . This in practice not only means continuing with the draconian sanctions against the DPRK but forcing the DPRK into unilateral and one-sided disarmament and the overthrow of the socialist system in the DPRK . Biden also talked about pursuing the anti-DPRK human rights campaign against the DPRK .

  So basically the DPRK-US joint statement of June 12 just remains a piece of paper .

  We need to defend People’s Korea more firmly than ever and campaign for the US to finally end its hostile policy against the DPRK by ending the sanctions and withdrawing its forces from south Korea .

Dr Dermot Hudson

Chairman KFA UK 

Chairman British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea.