BY NAOMI CRAINE
Talks between officials of the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the south Korean government are
slated to take place in Beijing April 11. This is the first
meeting between representatives of Pyongyang and Seoul in
nearly four years.
The talks are at the initiative of the north Korean government. The regime in Seoul at first tried to move the site to the village of Panmunjom along the misnamed "Demilitarized Zone," where U.S. and south Korean troops enforce the partition of the Korean peninsula, but eventually backed down and agreed to meet in the Chinese capital.
Issues to be addressed in the talks include the DPRK's request for international assistance in the face of severe food shortages. A series of natural disasters, including two years of flooding followed by a drought, has had a devastating impact on agriculture in the north. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization stated in early March that north Korean food reserves were close to exhaustion, and international aid would be needed until this fall's harvest, confirming reports from DPRK agencies.
Since the food crisis began, Washington and Seoul have openly worked to undermine the DPRK's request for assistance.
South Korean officials assert that their main aim in the talks will be to push for measures to reunite the millions of families who have been separated for more than 50 years - since the 1945 forced division of Korea leading into the U.S.-led war against the Korean people in 1950-53. Although Seoul tries to place the blame for this continued division on the DPRK, it is the south Korean government that maintains laws banning any unauthorized contact by Koreans from the south with those in the north. Seoul has jailed many supporters of Korean reunification for such contacts, even when they took place in third countries.
Last month, projected talks involving Washington, the two governments on the Korean peninsula, and Beijing were scrapped because of the U.S. government's refusal to place discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Korea on the agenda, as requested by the DPRK. Washington maintains a force of 37,000 soldiers and massive weaponry in south Korea and the surrounding waters.
As part of a series of new armaments purchases, the Seoul regime has just ordered two tactical trainers from the U.S. arms maker Raytheon Systems Co. These are to be used in training officers for commanding naval warfare.
A commentary in the March 27 issue of Rodong Sinmun, the paper of the Workers Party of Korea, noted that U.S. defense department and military officials have repeatedly announced their intent to keep the U.S. troops in south Korea. "What the United States seeks in this is to maintain its military prerogative of supreme command and colonial domination over south Korea for an indefinite period, start a military adventure against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and thus realize its Korea strategy with strength," the paper stated. "Reinforcing its armed forces in south Korea, the U.S. recently reorganized its Eighth Army, the nucleus of the forces, into a field army system....
"As long as the U.S. continues war moves against the DPRK, leaving its troops in south Korea, the abnormal hostile relations between the DPRK and the United States cannot be removed."