US threatens to North Korea
Background notes

At the conclusion of the war in the Pacific in 1945 and the withdrawal 
of Japanese forces from China, the Korean Peninsular and Manchuria, the 
Korean Peninsular was divided into North and South at the 38th parallel. 
Soviet troops occupied North Korea and US forces occupied the South. The 
Soviet forces were soon withdrawn from the North, but the US forces did not 
withdraw from the South.

In 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was formed in the 
northern zone just three years after the defeat of Japan. One year later, 
in 1949, the Chinese revolution was also victorious and the People's 
Republic of China was founded. These revolutionary developments were never 
accepted by the US and other imperialist powers.

In 1950, the United States, with the participation of the South Korean 
puppet Syngman Rhee, launched the Korean War. The US aim was to destroy the 
people's government of the North and to roll on to attack and overthrow the 
Chinese revolution as well.

General MacArthur, the commander of the US forces at the time, called for 
the nuclear bombing of China but was over-ruled by US President Truman.

The US and the South Korean puppet armies were finally defeated by the 
heroic struggle of the Korean people with the assistance of Chinese forces. 
An Armistice Agreement was signed on July 27, 1953 which, however, left 
Korea still divided at the 38th parallel into North Korea (Democratic 
People 's Republic of Korea) and South Korea (Republic of Korea).

US forces have remained in South Korea ever since. Today, more than 30,000 
US forces patrol the demarcation zone at the 38th parallel and occupy bases 
within South Korea, all threatening North Korea.

Successive US governments have not given up their objective of overthrowing 
the socialist government of North Korea and this has been intensified by 
the warmongering Bush administration. It branded North Korea as one of the 
three "axis of evil" nations. Iraq and Iran are the other two.

In the same way that the US whipped up its phony campaign about "weapons of 
mass destruction" and "regime change" against Iraq, there is an equally 
phony campaign underway against the DPRK on the question of an alleged 
"nuclear threat". US leaders are also demanding "regime change", meaning 
that the socialist system should be destroyed and US economic, military and 
political domination imposed.

The US campaign has been given urgency by the election of a new President 
to lead the government of South Korea who supports reconciliation between 
North and South Korea.

The government of the DPRK has made repeated proposals for reunification on 
the basis of "one nation, two systems", meaning that a united nation should 
retain the socialist system in the north and the capitalist system in the 
south.

Support for reunification has been steadily gaining ground among the people 
of South Korea and this was reflected in the conclusion of a North-South 
Accord in June 2000.

A number of steps have been taken towards the implementation of this 
Accord, including the exchange of separated family members between the two 
states, the commencement of trade and a project to reopen a North-South 
railway.

The further the North-South reunification process progressed and the 
stronger the demand among South Koreans for the withdrawal of US troops 
became, the more threats from the Bush administration.

Successive US governments have fiercely opposed reunification. A reunited 
and independent Korea would destroy any argument that the US has for its 
continued military occupation of the South.

It is on this background that the "nuclear crisis" has been whipped up and 
every effort made to create fear among Korea's neighbours.

The DPRK is accused of withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation 
Treaty (NPT) and breaching an agreement made with the US in 1994 not to 
proceed with the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

However, no mention is made of the fact that the 1994 agreement provided 
that the US would supply light-water nuclear reactors to replace the DPRK's 
graphite gas nuclear reactors and would furnish the DPRK with oil fuel 
while the light-water reactors were built.

These reactors, promised by the US, have not been built and last year, the 
US cancelled its supply of oil for the purpose of generating electricity. 
It was this violation of the 1994 treaty that led to the restarting of the 
existing nuclear power generators to provide electric power to North Korean 
industries.

Now, the US leaders are talking about a "pre-emptive strike", the 
imposition of sanctions and "regime change" and have wheeled the issue into 
the UN Security Council in an effort to force other countries to put 
pressure on the DPRK to comply with US demands.

In recent negotiations which involved the DPRK, China and the US, the DPRK 
once again made proposals to the effect that the DPRK would not continue 
with any nuclear weapons program provided the US officially accepted the 
sovereign right of the DPRK to maintain its social system and that the US 
enter into a non-aggression treaty with the DPRK.

These simple proposals would remove the threat of war from the Korean 
Peninsular but, so far, the US side is continuing to voice its threats of 
pre-emptive strike and regime change.