The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.27           August 11, 1997 
 
 
Washington Continues Threats Against N. Korea  

BY FRANCISCO PICADO
NEW YORK - In response to severe food shortages faced by workers and peasants in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Washington has maintained a campaign of threats and insinuations of intervention, hoping to further isolate and destabilize this workers state. The food shortages have mounted after repeated floods over the last two years in north Korea. The June 26 Wall Street Journal ran an article titled "U.S. gears up for North Korean collapse," with the kicker "Pentagon prepares to lead international aid effort to keep region stable."

The article quotes Marine Maj. General Frank Libutti, senior U.S. military planner for Korea, saying, "While it's not always smart to talk about hypothetical situations, you have to be fat, dumb and blind to not know the North Koreans are suffering from a food and fuel problem."

Military planners have "juggled" three scenarios in recent months, the article says, "explosion into war, collapse or a `soft landing' resulting from some sort of negotiated reunification of the Korean Peninsula." The US military "remains prepared for the first scenario."

Referring to alleged plans by the Pentagon for U.S. military involvement in an expedition into north Korea, the article says, "Washington's top priority is to limit U.S. military ground involvement inside North Korea. Partly from fear of being seen as an imperial force, military plans call for any U.S. relief operation to be conducted for an international organization, most likely the United Nations."

On July 16, soldiers from U.S.-backed regime in south Korea exchanged fire with troops from the DPRK across the so- called Demilitarized Zone. The zone divides the Korean peninsula along the 38th parallel since the Korean people successfully resisted an invasion by U.S. troops under the UN flag 50 years ago. The Korean People's Liberation Army drove back the invaders, with the help of hundreds of thousands of volunteers from neighboring China, and fought them to a standstill. The war ended on July 27, 1953, with the Korean peninsula divided.

Subsequently, Washington's client regime in Seoul built a wall along the dividing line. The two governments remain in a formal state of war. Today, Washington maintains 37,000 troops in south Korea.

The U.S. government is also cynically exploiting the food shortages in the DPRK to pressure the north Korean government into making concessions to imperialist demands.

On July 14, Washington said it would double its food shipments to north Korea to 100,000 tons of grain, still a small fraction of what the north Korean government has requested. The announcement came after the government in Pyongyang, the north Korean capital, said it will participate in a meeting with the governments of the United States, China, and south Korea, scheduled for August 4 in New York. The meeting is supposed to set the timing, location, and agenda of future negotiations on a peace treaty between north and south Korea. Washington had been hampering food shipments to north Korea through the UN World Food Program, until Pyongyang agreed to join the four-party talks.

In a message to the Korean people, celebrating the 44th anniversary of their victorious resistance to Washington's 1950-53 war aimed at dominating the entire Korean peninsula, Socialist Workers Party national secretary Jack Barnes condemned the "bellicose moves by Washington and Seoul against the Korean people."

Revolutionaries in the United States, Barnes said, "will continue to demand the end of the use of food as a weapon by the imperialist powers and unconditional food deliveries to the DPRK to help alleviate the shortages following repeated natural disasters.... We pledge to join with other working people and youth to tell the truth about your struggle for unification of Korea and to demand the removal of all imperialist military forces from your country."  
 
 
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