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Korea: U.S. Blocks Reunification

By VVAW

For nearly 3,000 years the Korean people have shared a common language, culture and history. Theirs is one of the oldest nations on earth. Yet today Korea is divided into two separate sections. This divisions makes no more sense than dividing northern and southern Indiana into two separate nations. Nonetheless, it is divided and the responsibility rests, not with Korea, but with the US government.

Korea has a long history of struggle for freedom and self-determination. As a colony of Japan from 1910-1945, Korean patriots led a long struggle for liberation. With the impending defeat of Japan at the end of WWII, these liberation forces organized themselves into people's committees, democratically elected bodies formed to govern their country. When Japan capitulated in 1945, Allied forces were sent to Korea to oversee the surrender of Japanese troops there. This was organized with the USSR taking charge of the surrender in the section of Korea north of the 38th parallel, and the US the section to the south.

In the north, the people's committees established themselves as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, (the DPRK). The US had other plans for the south. Instead of recognizing the Korean people's right to independence and self-determination, the US set up a military government and began running things. Through manipulation of the United Nations, the US then set up fraudulent elections in the south, supposedly aimed at 'reunifying' Korea. As a result of these 'elections' a US-controlled government, the Republic of Korea, (the ROK), was set up under dictator Syngman Rhee. Twenty-nine years later, the 'temporary' force sent to Korea by the US is still there. Today there are over 45,000 US troops stationed on over 50 US bases scattered over the south of Korea, enforcing the artificial division of Korea.

This forced division of Korea is a national tragedy. Just about all Korean families have relatives on opposite sides of the 38th parallel. It was this same outside interference that forced the Korean people to fight so valiantly against US aggression during the Korean War of 1950-53. Today with the object lessons we've learned in Vietnam, we can see that the Korean War was identical to what happened in Indochina a few years later.

Since the Korean War, the two sections of Korea have developed in radically different ways. The DPRK, has transformed itself into a highly industrialized socialist society. Its people enjoy free education, free medical care, modern housing and full employment... all this in just 20 years after 97% of north Korea was totally destroyed by the war. The leader of the DPRK, President Kim Il Sung, has said that by 1976, the DPRK will have a higher standard of living than Western Europe. Under their concept of 'Juche', or self-reliance and independence, the people of the DPRK have achieved what is perhaps the fastest rate of economic growth in the history of the world, now ranking third in all of Asia behind only Japan and China!

The ROK on the other hand has correctly been called the 'Kingdom of Poverty.' Illiteracy, starvation and disease are the lot of millions of south Koreans. Day laborers in Seoul earn as little as 35 cents a day, while the economy runs at a loss of over $1 billion a year. Politically, the ROK is openly fascist. It has a US paid military budget of $200 million a year, the 4th largest standing army in the world and a secret police force of 350,000. Not content with this, the present dictator of the ROK, Pak Jung Hi, declared martial law in Dec. of 1971! The massive demonstrations and unrest of the past months of the south indicate how much the Korean people hat the Pak dictatorship.

The US is determined to maintain its military and economic position in Asia. Lying between China, Japan and the USSR, Korea is crucial to the success of this policy. Without a stronghold in Korea, particularly in the face of the US defeat in Indochina, the US position in Asia would be strategically weakened.

The division of Korea is a threat to international peace and security. Despite this, the US has no intentions of leaving and actually maintains the tension. Just as the US government must support dictatorial regimes in Saigon, Phnom Penh, Manila, Rio, Santiago, Athens and elsewhere to maintain its interests, so to it must support the Pak dictatorship.

The only real solution for a lasting peace in Korea is for the US to totally withdraw its troops and end all aid to the Pak regime. Korea can only be peacefully reunited under the principle of self-determination. The DPRK has consistently sought a peaceful solution to the problem as evidenced by their Five-Point Program for reunification. This states that reunification would be achieved by: 1) eliminating military tensions; 2) setting up communications and political and cultural interchange; 3) holding a national congress of Korean people; 4) setting up a confederation under the name of a single country; and 5) preventing Korea from being permanently divided and avoiding being seated in the UN as two nations. It is our duty as peace-loving Americans to support these points and work for the peaceful reunification of Korea.

US OUT OF KOREA !
END ALL AID TO PAK !
SELF-DETERMINATION FOR KOREA !
SUPPORT REUNIFICATION !