by International Action Center
Once again U.S. imperialism has chosen a holiday weekend time in the U.S., when workers are preoccupied, Congress is in recess, and any opposition or even questions are difficult to raise, to orchestrate a political and military crisis.
On Nov. 23, the government of South Korea mobilized 70,000 troops for a week of military maneuvers just off the border of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. The DPRK said that these military maneuvers simulated an invasion of the north. The military deployment was provocatively held right off the sea borderline between the north and the south. This is an area considered to be disputed territory.
We can not be caught off guard. We need to discuss what actions we can prepare to take if this U.S. manufactured crisis escalates.
New and more provocative military maneuvers are planned by the Pentagon against Korea this coming week from Monday Nov 29 to Friday, Dec 3.
Here in New York City we were immersed at the IAC in planning an action on Tuesday, Nov 30 at 5:00 pm at the Tree Lighting Ceremony at Rockefeller Center at 50th and 5th Ave with the slogan: "Take back our Trillions from the War Corporations. Bring all Troops Home! Jobs or Unemployment Benefits for all". This holiday event traditionally draws many tens of thousands of people.
Tuesday, Nov 30 is the date that more than 2 million workers in the U.S. will loose all extended jobless funding or unemployment benefits. They will be left totally destitute. So we were working with some of the workers loosing benefits on that day. So one proposal was to refocus with signs and flyers this action to include more prominently the U.S. threats against DPRK, the cost of sending nuclear powered aircraft carriers, destroyers, jet aircraft half way around the world while continuing to cut the most basic necessities here at home.
From the IAC want to urge antiwar, peace and justice and human rights activists, progressive forces to be on alert and actively considering what antiwar actions are possible and how we can widen the political response in the movement among friends and allies. It is important to consider how we can go out of our way to include this issue in all of the other events that we may be involved in, in the days ahead.
Due to the enormous weight of 3 generations of U.S. political propaganda and the isolation of the DPRK it is never an easy task to counter the Pentagon's threats against the people of Korea. But it is an essential task. It is important to remind the political movement of today that more than 3 million Koreans died in the U.S. war on Korea from 1950 to 1953 and that tens of thousands of troops of occupation continue in S Korea to this day.
Solidarity,
Sara Flounders
International Action Center
International Action Center - iacenter.org
STOP THE WAR PROVOCATIONS AND ATTACKS ON THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF KOREA NOW!
KNOW THE UNDISPUTED FACTS!
SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION to the Obama Administration and s. Korean Govt.
at http://www.iacenter.org/korea/stopattackondprk NOW!
PLAN PROTESTS IN THE DAYS AHEAD TO COUNTER THE GROWING WAR THREAT
Tell the Obama Administration and the south Korean Government you want the U.S./south Korean war maneuvers and provocations against the DPRK stopped immediately, the removal of south Korean and U.S. war ships including the U.S. aircraft carrier George Washington, an end to the U.S. sponsored sanctions against the DPRK, the signing of a peace treaty NOW to end the state of war that has existed since the Korean war, and the immediate withdrawal of the 30,000 U.S. troops that still occupy south Korea, so that the Korean people can freely decide their own destiny.
THESE ARE THE UNDISPUTED FACTS: On Nov. 23, the government of South Korea mobilized 70,000 troops for a week of military maneuvers just off the border of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. The DPRK said that these military maneuvers simulated an invasion of the north.
The military deployment was provocatively held right off the sea borderline between the north and the south. This is an area considered to be disputed territory.
On Nov 23, at 1:00 p.m., South Korean forces fired many shells into waters right off the DPRK. This is an area that the north has a longstanding claim to be within its territory. This claim had been accepted by prior south Korean governments.
An hour and a half later, the DPRK retaliated to what it saw as an attack on its territory by firing shells at the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong.
And now the U.S. has announced plans to send the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington and its battle group including war ships, destroyers and hundreds of fighter jets back into the area to participate in new war maneuver provocations.
It is urgent that all who stand for peace and justice make plans now for immediate protest actions in the days ahead.
The U.S. military has been involved in all the war maneuvers by South Korea, going back to the 1950-53 war, and has occupied South Korea since the end of World War II.
Why doesn’t the media ask why the U.S. was orchestrating a massive military deployment of troops, ships and aircraft right on the border of the DPRK?
The provocation here clearly comes from the U.S. government and the right-wing south Korean regime, not the DPRK. The regime of Lee Myung-bak has undone earlier moves that improved relations between the two halves of the Korean nation and has brought increased confrontation.
It can never be forgotten that U.S. imperialism waged a horrendous war against the Korean Revolution from 1950 to 1953, one that resulted in millions of deaths and total devastation of the Korean Peninsula.
For there to be peace on the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. should end its support of expansionist, right-wing forces in the south, sign a peace treaty with the north (a state of war still exists after 57 years!) and withdraw its troops so the Korean people can decide their own destiny.
Join us in the days ahead in taking to the streets to protest these U.S. war threats and sanctions that have created a powder keg in Asia. End the military occupation of South Korea! Sign a peace treaty and bring the troops home!
SIGN ONLINE AT http://www.iacenter.org/korea/stopattackondprk NOW!
SAMPLE PETITION TEXT:
To: President Barack Obama, President Lee Myung-bak, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
CC: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.N. member delegations, U.S. Congressional leaders, members of the media.
Stop the U.S./South Korean War maneuvers and provocations against the DPRK (north Korea) immediately!
Remove the south Korean and U.S. war ships! DO NOT SEND ADDITIONAL U.S WARSHIPS AND PLANES INCLUDING THE U.S. AIRCRAFT CARRIER GEORGE WASHINGTON!
End the U.S. sponsored sanctions against the DPRK!
Sign a peace treaty NOW to end the state of war that has existed for 57 years since the Korean war!
Withdraw all of the 30,000 U.S. troops that still occupy south Korea, so that the Korean people can freely decide their own destiny.
It is an undisputed fact that on Nov. 23, the government of South Korea mobilized 70,000 troops for a week of military maneuvers just off the border of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. The DPRK said that these military maneuvers simulated an invasion of the north.
On Nov 23, at 1:00 p.m., South Korean forces fired many shells into waters right off the DPRK. This is an area that the north has a longstanding claim to be within its territory. This claim had been accepted by prior south Korean governments.
An hour and a half later, the DPRK retaliated to what it saw as an attack on its territory by firing shells at the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong.
And now the U.S. has announced plans to send the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington and its battle group including war ships, destroyers and hundreds of fighter jets back into the area to participate in new war maneuver provocations.
The U.S. military has been involved in all the war maneuvers by South Korea, going back to the 1950-53 war, and has occupied South Korea since the end of World War II. AND THE WAR DANGER IS GROWING!
Clearly the military provocation is from the U.S. government and the south Korean government of President Lee Myung-bak.
For there to be peace on the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. must withdraw its troops so the Korean people can decide their own destiny.
Sincerely,
(Your signature appended here)
SIGN ONLINE AT http://www.iacenter.org/korea/stopattackondprk NOW!
About the IAC | Donate | IAC Books & Resources | Contact Us | Sign the Petition!
International Action Center
c/o Solidarity Center
55 W 17th St Suite 5C
New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646
iacenter@iacenter.org
www.iacenter.org
And:
Obama's Bush Doctrine in Korea
By Workers Action
A key reason that Obama was elected President was his promise to abandon the Bush doctrine of unilateral foreign policy, meaning that Obama would work with other countries toward a more cooperative, peaceful world. The threat of war in Korea exposes Obama -- yet again -- as a dangerous copycat of Bush's approach to global politics. ??A simple way for Obama to live up to his campaign promise would be to immediately agree to China's request to continue the six party talks over the Korean situation, involving North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China, and the U.S. The last such meeting was held at the end of Bush's term. Here is what Obama said about the six party talks on Veterans day while visiting Seoul:
Keywords:
"President Lee [right wing President of South Korea] and I have discussed this extensively and our belief is that there will be an appropriate time and place to re-enter into six-party talks, but we have to see a seriousness of purpose [concessions] by the North Koreans in order to spend the extraordinary time and energy that's involved in these talks. We're not interested in just going through the motions with the same result."
Obama thus uses the same Bush-like logic with North Korea as he does with Iran: The U.S. will not talk with Iran or Korea until they first give into extensive U.S. demands. Obama places the cart in front of the horse and acts shocked when the horse -- North Korea -- does not budge. Never mind that it would be absurd for North Korea to abandon its only real deterrent, nuclear weapons, after the U.S. invaded two non-nuclear nations.
Oddly, when it came to North Korea, Bush acted much more responsibly, i.e., multilaterally, than Obama; he attended the six party talks and took the threat of nuclear war seriously (while starting non-nuclear wars elsewhere). After naming North Korea part of the "axis of evil," Bush back-stepped and took North Korea off of the list of countries that are "state sponsors" of terrorism.
Obama on the other hand, began his Presidency with a "get tough" attitude on Korea, outgunning Bush from the right- wing. The first shots were fired when Obama pressured the U.N. to adopt harsher, provocative sanctions against North Korea. These are on top of the already strict, cold war-era sanctions that Obama refuses to remove, in the same way he maintains the embargo against Cuba that, in both countries, produces innumerable miseries.
On top of maintaining past conflicts, Obama's get-tough policy is producing the conditions for a potentially catastrophic war.
After employing the new sanctions, Obama agreed to large-scale war games with South Korea that both China and North Korea protested. During these war games, a highly sophisticated South Korean war ship sank, and a western-only investigatory team concluded that an unsophisticated North Korean submarine was the culprit, a claim disputed by Russia, China, and other prominent sources.
Recently, the U.S. blamed North Korea exclusively for the fighting that broke out during a South Korean-only war games. But the Associated Press told a different story:
"The skirmish began when Pyongyang [i.e. North Korea] warned the South to halt military drills in the area, according to South Korean officials. When Seoul [i.e. South Korea] refused and began firing artillery into disputed waters, albeit away from the North Korean shore, the North retaliated by bombarding the small island of Yeonpyeong, which houses South Korean military installations...." (November 23, 2010).
How did Obama respond to this crisis, which could very possibly evolve into a nuclear war? By ignoring the Chinese call for a resumption of the six party talks and by announcing that the giant U.S. aircraft carrier, George Washington, would come to the contentious area to participate in yet another U.S.-South Korea war games, the equivalent of pouring gasoline on a blazing fire.
War games are a direct provocation to the surrounding area, which includes China and North Korea. They are a show of force in a disputed area that China is claiming as its sphere of influence. The U.S. has no right to be in the region but floods the sea with warships all the same.
Obama has vowed to defend South Korea in case of war, while the assumption is that China would intervene if North Korea were under attack, a situation that could easily spiral out of control into nuclear conflagration.
The people of North and South Korea want to be united into a single country but are held hostage by larger forces outside of their country, while their situation is exploited by ruling political groups domestically.
If Obama were serious about his multilateralism, he would immediately remove all 29,000 U.S. troops from South Korea and re-join the six party talks with no conditions. North Korea has been vocal in wanting to repair relations with the U.S. Obama's current approach inevitably leads to a regional war, with China and the U.S. eager to jump in.
By Workers Action
www.workerscompass.org
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Spread Widely Please. General Joe
Comments
Hide the following 10 comments
Diddums General Joe
28.11.2010 16:00
Reality Inversion Watch
How odd
28.11.2010 16:54
But obviously I was wrong, it's all a diversionary tactic for the wicked zionists to attack their arab neighbours. Ooops, sorry I mean for the wicked yankee imperialists to take over north korea.
(won't it be rather expensive to invade and take over north korea? Cos North Korea has fucked its economy to such an extent that a takeover by the south will make the absorption of east germany by west germany seem like a bargain bin absorption)
Anyway, in the real world (you know the one the other side of the mirror you seem to inhabit) it seems plain to most rational human beings that the US is holding military manouevres with the south koreans in order to discourage an attack by the loony north -
These military exercises, by the way, were planned a long time ago, before the current crisis.
Strange Inverse Universe
@Diddums General Joe
28.11.2010 19:41
war and the KPA liberate the south he will face trial as a traitor to the Korean nation.
honest observer
honest observer - you're a lickspittle loon
28.11.2010 20:05
Time to beam up, mate
I bet you're the kind of tosser that would have called George Orwell a traitor to communism for exposing the truth about what the stalinists did to Republican Spain.
Strange Inverse Universe
kim jong dead...
28.11.2010 20:11
joe blogs
would not need to call Orwell a traitor
28.11.2010 21:26
MI5 agent and informer as well as formerly being in the British colonial police in Burma.
honest observer
reply to strange inverse universe etc
28.11.2010 22:02
Korea but to fan war hysteria.A situation has arisen when a war can start at any moment and indeed
there could be a slide into war irrespective of the individual subjective intentions of different leader.
Obviously the DPRK desires peace as a socialist country and Obama probably does not want another major war at this point nor does Lee Myung Bak nessecarily want a situation whereby a
war starts and the Korean Peoples Army win and liberate south Korea ending his fascist regime for
good.UK KFA has consistently pointed out that by holding such exercises there is even the possiblity of an accidental clash-what if a US warship strays into DPRK waters by mistake and is
fired upon......
As to diverting attention the US and other Western powers need a war or at least war hype to distract people from the debt and bailout crisis,the severe attacks on living standards and now the profoundly embarrasing wikileaks scandal.
In the DPRK there is no starvation and in fact food is supplied to people virtually free of charge and
so is housing,taxation was abolished in 1974.Students do not have to pay tuition fees for universities. The economy is surging ahead.A method of producing steel without coking coal has been perfected thus freeing the DPRK from dependence on imported coal.Juche vinalon-fibre produced from limestone has gone on stream and CNC technology is widely applied.Even the Americans were forced to concede that the nuclear power industry in the DPRK is more advanced than they ever thought.
The incident on Tuesday 23rd November arose because of US and south Korean exercises being
carried out despite warnings ,illegally actually on the DPRK's territory.The DPRK has never recognised the so called "northern limit line".This was arbitarily decided in 1953 by an American
general.To not relatiate against the exercises would have meant a de facto acceptance of the
"northern limit" and loss of DPRK sovereignity over that area.The south Koreans admit they
fired first,despite telephone warnings not to do so..Really it is like having someone in your
own back garden throwing stones who then says this does not matter as they did not aim the stones at the house only the garden.The DPRK exercised its legal right to self defence.
UK KFA and the Juche Idea Study Group of England call for a halt to the US imperialist
provocations against the DPRK and for the USS George Washington to be turned back home
and all US troops withdrawn immediately.
UK KFA
.
UK KFA and JISGE
Religious Nutjob
28.11.2010 22:31
Instead of a sky pixie to worship you have a north koran pixie in a military uniform to whom you pray.
Do you have a shrine in your bedroom to the glorious north korean leader? I appreciate he is misunderstood and is only "Rone-rey"
Strange Inverse Universe
Who Is Wholly to blame for the armed clash in the West sea of Korea
29.11.2010 07:26
Pyongyang, November 27 (KCNA) -- The true colors of the arch criminal who orchestrated the recent military clash is being brought into bolder relief with the passage of time.
No sooner had the Yonphyong incident occurred than the U.S. announced that it would stage joint naval exercises with the south Korean puppet forces with nuclear-powered carrier George Washington involved in the West Sea of Korea as if it had been waiting for it to happen before immediately sending the carrier to the sea.
This clearly indicates that the U.S. was the arch criminal who deliberately planned the incident and wire-pulled it behind the scene.
By orchestrating the "Cheonan" warship case the U.S. realized almost all what it had planned. It could maintain its military base in Okinawa though it had been pressurized to transfer it from there and massively beef up its forces in the areas around the Korean Peninsula.
What is left unfulfilled is the plan to bring the above-said nuclear carrier to the West Sea of Korea.
The U.S. instigated the south Korean puppet forces to perpetrate an armed provocation against the territorial waters of the DPRK side from Yonphyong Island and was contemplating bringing its nuclear-powered carrier to the West Sea, availing itself of the incident, though it was compelled to cancel its plan to do so three times after its announcement.
Right after the occurrence of the military clash, the U.S. spearheaded the racket for "denouncing" the incident in unison as "a unilateral provocation" even before probing the truth about it. This proves that the U.S. had carefully worked out the scenario for the provocation in advance.
The DPRK side warned several times against the enemy's plan for shelling in the sensitive areas around Yonphyong Island and sent a telephone notice on the morning of the very day the incident occurred as part of its superhuman efforts to prevent the clash to the last moment, but the south side preempted the firing of shells into the territorial waters of the DPRK side. The enemy side, however, has kept silent about all these facts.
Moreover, it is now working hard to dramatize "civilian casualties" as part of its propaganda campaign, creating the impression that the defenceless civilians were exposed to "indiscriminate shelling" all of a sudden from the DPRK side.
If that is true, it is very regrettable but the enemy should be held responsible for the incident as it took such inhuman action as creating "a human shield" by deploying civilians around artillery positions and inside military facilities before the launch of the provocation.
The fact that there were human casualties inside the military base clearly proves itself the ulterior intention of the enemy.
The U.S. regarded the death of innocent civilians as a common practice in the past in a bid to serve its military purposes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other parts of the world. This inhuman atrocity of the U.S. repeated itself on the Korean Peninsula this time.
While the incident occurred, the shells indiscriminately fired by the enemy dropped in the area close to civilian houses far from the artillery positions of the Korean People's Army.
All facts go to patently prove that it was attributable to the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK aimed to carry out its Asian strategy for domination that an unstable state of armistice has persisted and the military tension escalated periodically over the last nearly six decades.
The U.S. has so far obstructed the solution of any issues related to peace and stability while being keen only to keep the military tension on the Korean Peninsula.
Peace and stability can never settle on the peninsula but only instability will increase in the region near Korea and the rest of the world unless the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK is brought to an end.
The DPRK has so far restrained itself with the maximum patience. But the enemy encroached upon the inviolable territorial waters and land of the DPRK by firing live shells in the most sensitive disputed area despite its repeated warnings.
The counter-shelling of the DPRK was a resolute and proper retaliation against the reckless military provocation of the enemy.
If the U.S. brings its carrier to the West Sea of Korea at last, no one can predict the ensuing consequences.
UK KFA
Oppose British support for US imperialism and the south Korean puppets
29.11.2010 07:28
Hague's outburst represents British imperialism siding with the US imperialists and south
Korean puppets repeating the shameful history of 1950 when the UK sent mercenary troops to fight the young Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea suppressing its struggle for independence and reunification.
WE SAY HANDS OFF THE DPRK NOW
NO BRITISH SUPPORT FOR AMERICAN IMPERIALISM AND ITS SOUTH KOREAN
PUPPETS
.
Anti Imperialist Independence Association of Britain