DPRK Defends Its Sovereignty

Interference of Western powers the real cause of crisis in the two Koreas.

By JD Benjamin - BASICS #14 (June / July 2009)

The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) successfully tested a second nuclear device in an underground detonation last month, following shortly after a test of a ballistic missile in April. The U.S. has responded by attempting to whip up anti-DPRK sentiment and demanding the right to board North Korean cargo ships sailing in international waters.

The interference of the imperialist powers has repeatedly destabilized the Korean region. After WWII, Korean desires to decide the future of their country, without outside interference, were brushed aside. American troops occupied the southern region and reinstated many of the former Japanese colonial rulers to power and created a U.S. puppet government - a move widely hated by the Korean people. When the Koreans in the north attempted to retake their country from the puppet regime the imperialists (including Canada) invaded and killed between 1.5 and 3 million civilians in the ensuing Korean War. To this day, the U.S. still has 28,500 military troops in South Korea and 50,000 in Japan, has repeatedly interfered in the internal affairs of the two Koreas and continues to threaten North Korea with military annihilation.

Refusing to surrender their sovereignty, the North Koreans have been forced to increase their defensive capabilities, including the testing of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. This is not an unreasonable move, given the recent actions of the same imperialists that claim to be defending "the peace and security of the world" as Obama said in a recent press conference. After all, it was not the DPRK that invaded and occupied Afghanistan and Iraq, killing more than a million civilians in the process. It was not the DPRK that dropped nuclear bombs on the civilian cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII. If the United States wants to get rid of nuclear weapons, they should look first to their own arsenal of 9,400 warheads - enough bombs to end all life on Earth several times over. They should also look at their ally, Israel, who is known to possess nuclear weapons and is actively threatening their neighbours. The DPRK has invaded no one and deserves the same right to peaceful coexistence and non-interference as any other country.