A massive military exercise involving the armed forces of the US and South Korea has been launched in the Korean Peninsula. These exercises are being conducted on land, sea and air. The target of these exercises is North Korea, also known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The exercises in March and April this year are one of the largest in many years.
This year, even the pretense that the military exercises are aimed at “defending South Korea” is being given up. Open declarations have been made that they are aimed at waging war against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), at occupying its capital Pyongyang, at overthrowing the government of the DPRK and carrying out regime change.
The US is using its nuclear strategic bombers, stealth fighters, and a Carrier Strike Group creating an extremely dangerous situation. The latest exercise simulated an all-out US invasion of the DPRK. According to reports, the US has organised to reinforce its military forces in the Korean peninsula with special warfare units of its allies such as Britain and Australia. The US has also staged a joint naval drill with Japan and South Korea.
The US has announced that the current war exercises will be stepped up to carry out the largest-ever “combined joint firepower annihilation drill” in June 2023.
Using its domination over the global media, US imperialism portrays the government of the DPRK as the source of war in the Korean Peninsula. It highlights the fact that North Korea possesses and tests nuclear weapons. It covers up the fact that US imperialism itself has one of the biggest stock of deadly nuclear weapons, capable of causing massive destruction over large parts of the world. It hides the fact that US has been threatening the DPRK with nothing short of nuclear annihilation for the past 70 years. Given this situation, North Korea has every right to develop its own nuclear arsenal to defend its land and people from US imperialism.
The Korean people have not forgotten the lessons of history. They liberated their country from the Japanese occupation forces at the end of the Second World War. However, US imperialism did not want the Korean people to determine their own destiny. It launched the Korean War in 1950. In this war, which lasted till 1953, the US imperialists and their allies committed untold crimes against the Korean people. Over three million people died and the country was partitioned, with the US militarily occupying South Korea and establishing a puppet regime there. The US still has an estimated 28,000 troops stationed on Korean soil. The division of the nation of Korea continues till today. Seventy years after the end of the Korean War, the US has refused to sign a peace treaty with the DPRK.
The Korean people, both from the North and South have been fighting for the peaceful reunification of their country. They are demanding an end to the military provocations organised by the US against North Korea. However, the US imperialists and their allies are opposed to the peaceful reunification of Korea. The reunification would make it difficult for US imperialism to justify the continued stationing of its armed forces in the Korean Peninsula. US imperialism wants to use its military bases in South Korea and Japan to target North Korea and encircle China from the East.
The escalating militarization of the Korean Peninsula by the US is part of its war preparations in Asia. Its aim is to ensure its unchallenged domination over the whole of Asia, and the whole world. It poses a grave threat to peace. The US imperialist war preparations in the Korean Peninsula, and throughout the world, must be opposed by all peace loving peoples.