--classstrugggle-flipmag CS Oct-2018 MKP | Page 17

World Affairs: Struggle of Korean People for Peace and Reunification June, 2018 Summit between the North Korean President Kim Jong-un and the US President Donald Trump was welcomed in the world as a definite move that turned the wheel of war back and set a peace process in motion in the Korean peninsula. The Summit has become possible because the North Korean leadership has combined best of its preparedness to defend itself with a timely seizure of an opportunity to try for peace by diplomatic means. The outcome of the summit, of course, was not clear in some respects. It contained the seeds of complications, controversies and even possibilities of breakdown. Yet, it gave some respite and time to focus the attempts on the peaceful means of solving the problems. In the months that followed, the North Korea’s leadership has moved to translate the understandings reached at the Summit into practice in letter and spirit. The problems before it are: i) De-nuclearisation of Korean peninsula. ii) Ending the 1953 Armistice signed between North Korea and US so that a state of war comes to an end between them. iii) Re-unification of Korea which was forcibly and against the will of Korean people divided by the in imperialist intervention and war of invasion. Iv) Ending the US intervention in the internal affairs of Korean peninsula and freeing the Indian Ocean and the Indo- Pacific region from the politics of domination. The North Korean leadership has taken definite steps to close down its nuclear facilities. It has openly declared to close its main October - 2018 nuclear complex and allow an international verification of its moves if the US too takes “corresponding measures”. The message here is, the US too must remove or destroy its nuclear weapons and installations from the Korean peninsula. However, we know that US and the media influenced by it are spreading the idea that the de-nuclearisation applies to North Korea alone. This is mischievous. This is an attitude of disarming North Korea while keeping the US armed with nuclear weapons in the Korean peninsula. It will create a serious hurdle in the restoration of peace in Korean peninsula. The US imperialists had militarily intervened in the affairs of Korea in 1950 and continued it for three years. This war of invasion ended with the signing of an Armistice in 1953. But as a consequence, Korea was divided into North and South Korea and South Korea was reduced virtually into a US satellite. US had set up a 28000 strong military base in South Korea and went on massively dumping modern weapons inside South Korea and in the Korean peninsula in the name of protecting South Korea from North Korea. So, ending the armistice, state of war together with the removal of US base in South Korea, US weapons and weapon systems from Korean peninsula is essential to bring peace and security in the Korean peninsula. This is an important demand of Korean people. The division of Korea in 1953 was totally unwarranted and forcibly imposed on the people by the US politics of intervention and domination. Division brought much agony, pain and loss to the Korean people on both sides. The urge for reunification is irrepressible among the people. So, the unification of Korea is inseparably linked with the restoration of peace and security in the entire Korean peninsula. The efforts on the part of regimes of North and South Koreas to create a favourable atmosphere for peace and dialogue are on for long. The Olympic peace diplomacy initiated by Kim Jong-un gave a new momentum to these efforts. Relations, interactions and dialogue had further developed between the two leaders after the June, 2018 Summit. There were mutual visits, dialogue and some agreements among them. The South Korean President Moon has visited the North Korea in the third week of September 2018. Moon and North Korean President Kim together with their life partners have visited Mount Paektu at 2744 meter peak – the birth place of Dangum, the legendary founder of first Korean kingdom. The two leaders agreed to open a permanent facility of family reunions, work towards linking the roads and rail and bid jointly for the 2032 Olympics. At a performance of North Korea’s “Mass Games “ propaganda display, Moon addressed the North Korean people and recollected how Korea had lived together for 5000 years. Speaking in a Joint Press Conference, the leaders promised to turn Korean peninsula into “a land of peace without nuclear weapons and nuclear threats.” Kim said that the North Korea was contd. on page 16 17