TRADITION IN DPRK-US RELATIONS

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States have been pitted against each other century after century. In the history of bilateral relations there is a notable tradition which continues generation after generation–The DPRK always wins and the United States always loses.

This tradition dates back to the early 1950s. On June 25, 1950 the United States, flexing its military muscles, unleashed a war against the DPRK. It was less than two years after the latter declared its founding on September 9, 1948. Mobilized in this aggressive war were more than two million troops on the US side, including mercenaries from its 15 vassal states, soldiers of the south Korean puppet army and the Japanese militarists. The three-year-long war ended leaving over 1 560 000 of them dead or wounded or held captive. The ignominious losses the United States sustained in the Korean war were nearly 2.3 times greater than those in its four-year-long Pacific war during the Second World War. This was the first defeat for the military power that had been boasting of winning victory in 110-odd wars ever since its founding.

Mark W. Clark, commander of the US Far East forces-cum-commander of the UN forces in Korea, who had been known for having wrested a surrender from Italy-based forces of fascist Germany and Mussolini’s army during the Second World War, signed the Korean Armistice Agreement and retorted: In carrying out the instructions of my government I gained the unenviable distinction of being the first United States Army Commander in history to sign an armistice agreement without victory. US President Eisenhower, in his radio speech made 59 minutes after the signature, described it “tragic and heartrending.”

The face-off between the two countries continued in the postwar years.

In January 1968 the US armed spy ship Pueblo was captured by the Korean sailors after intruding into their territorial waters. The United States warned of an immediate war by bringing a huge task force including a nuclear aircraft carrier around the Korean peninsula. The US politicians demanded that the DPRK submit an apology and release the vessel, noting that America would use nukes otherwise. The DPRK turned into a state of full combat readiness declaring that it would retaliate against the “retaliation” and return all-out war for the “all-out war.” Disheartened by this tough stand, the United States was compelled to apologize for its acts of espionage and hostility in front of the eyes of the world and sign a paper in which it assured no further intrusion into the DPRK’s territorial waters by its vessels. US President Johnson called it “the first apology in US history.”

In April 1969 the US spy aircraft EC-121 was shot down after flying into the DPRK’s airspace and in August 1976, the US soldiers were duly punished after provoking the Korean guards in the area along the Military Demarcation Line at Panmunjom. These incidents, along with several others, were all a disgrace to the United States.

As the 1990s began, the United States kicked up a fuss about the DPRK’s “nuclear issue.” Clamouring about “nuclear suspicion,” it inveigled the International Atomic Energy Agency into adopting a “special resolution” on inspection of the latter’s military sites and staged the Team Spirit joint military exercise on a larger scale than previously. The DPRK responded with the declaration of a state of semi-war by the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army and a statement of the Government on its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The United States had no option but to come to the negotiating table. At the end of the talks, the DPRK-USA Agreed Framework was made public, in which it pledged to make no more nuclear threat against its dialogue partner and seek peaceful settlement of the “nuclear issue.” US President Bill Clinton sent a letter of assurance in which he promised to ensure sincere implementation of the US commitments under the Agreed Framework.

At the outset of the new century the Bush administration dubbed the DPRK part of the “axis of evil” and threatened to launch a preemptive nuclear strike against it. The latter lifted the moratorium on its withdrawal from the NPT whose effectuation it had suspended at the time of the Clinton administration, and declared itself a nuclear state. Bush, having pursued a hard-line policy towards the DPRK during his two terms of office, was utterly taken aback by its harder-line approach and signed a paper on striking it from the “list of terrorist supporters.”

The DPRK is acknowledged as a country capable of manufacturing and launching artificial earth satellite, and by possessing nuclear capability, it put an end to the US’s decades-long unilateral nuclear threat against it. This signifies that the DPRK has emerged victorious in the protracted confrontation with the United States.

Given repeated failures to suffocate the DPRK by force, the Obama administration advocates “strategic patience” in a bid to make its rival abandon its nuclear programme, but it is no more than a last-ditch attempt.

Obama’s “waiting tactics” seems doomed to fail as his administration’s brain trust urges him to admit setback in his current policy and reopen negotiations with the DPRK.

Fully convinced that time and justice are on its side, the DPRK builds up its military strength to achieve final victory in the showdown with the United States.

The aforesaid tradition in bilateral relations will go on until the day of the DPRK’s triumph.