MAJOR OBSTACLE TO KOREA’S REUNIFICATION

Seven decades have passed since Korea was divided into the north and the south. It is a tragedy that Korea, a homogeneous nation which had lived for 5 000 years in one territory with the same blood and one culture, has been suffering national division for such a long period.

What then is the obstacle in the way of Korea’s reunification? In short, it is the US.  In August 1945 when Japan was defeated in the Second World War the US drew a line along the 38^th parallel across the Korean peninsula to artificially divide it into two. Upset by the aspiration of the Korean people to establish an independent, democratic and unified government, the US enforced separate elections in the south of Korea in 1948 to divide the country permanently.

In June 1950, it egged the south Korean army on to ignite a war against the DPRK, bringing the Korean peninsula into the holocaust of fratricidal war. In the early 1960s when the tendency towards the reunification in alliance with the north gained momentum in south Korea under the slogan, “Let’s go to the north, come to the south, let’s meet at Panmunjom!” the US instigated military rogue Park Chung Hee to stage the May 16 military coup, putting a spoke in the wheel of the reunification movement of the north and south.

John Allen Dulles, former director of the Central Information Agency, openly said that the most successful of the overseas operations of the CIA during his tenure was the military coup in south Korea.

In the 1970s when the July 4 Joint Statement on achieving national reunification on the principle of independence, peace and great national unity was signed between the north and the south the US came out with the theory of “simultaneous entry into the UN by the north and south of Korea,” clamouring about “two Koreas.”

In the 1980s when the north and south started dialogue through various channels and exchanged art troupes and home-visiting groups, it advocated the “cross recognition” of the north and south and staged the north-targeted Team Spirit joint military drills.

In the 1990s when the Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression, Cooperation and Exchange was adopted between the north and south, it kicked up a racket of the north’s nuclear crisis, hindering the development of inter-Korean relations and the reunification movement.

In the 2000s the north and south held two rounds of historic summit meeting for the first time in the history of Korea’s division and adopted the June 15 Joint Declaration with the ideal of By Our Nation Itself as its gist, and the October 4 Declaration as its action programme. At that time, too, the US pressurized the south Korean authorities to sabotage their implementation.

Whenever a sign of improved relations was shown between the north and south, the Americans would deteriorate the situation on the Korean peninsula and cast a chill over their improvement by waging frenzied war rehearsals.

The US-south Korean joint war exercises have reached the extreme in the new century. Due to their largest-scale military drills waged throughout last year and skirmishes in the West Sea of Korea, all the scheduled dialogues and exchanges for the reunion of separated families and high-level talks have been suspended.

At the outset of this year the DPRK set forth bold and audacious proposals to open up a broad avenue to the independent reunification in this year of the 70^th anniversary of Korea’s liberation and has taken sincere measures to this end. The US, however, pursues outrageous confrontation policy, driving inter-Korean relations into an irrecoverable catastrophe.

Typical examples are the large-scale Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military drills the US has forcibly waged in defiance of the strong protest and denunciation by the international community.

The drills aimed at the removal of the DPRK’s leadership and “occupation of Pyongyang” through sudden preemptive strikes, involved huge forces including the US ground, naval and air force strike groups, several hundred thousand south Korean troops and the US-led combined force, and latest military hardware. This has created grave challenge to north-south relations in Korea which was overflowing with aspiration after reunification at the start of this year.

It stands to no reason to talk about reunification and dialogue where gunfire is rampant.

Whenever the inter-Korean relationship has shown a sign of improvement, the US would act in this way. It is not accidental that the south Korean media branded the US as a wirepuller of the inter-Korean relations that would go astray whenever they seemed to be improving. The 70-year-long history of national division clearly shows that the improvement of inter-Korean relations and all the reunification processes have been hindered by the US interference.

The issue of Korea’s reunification is not limited to the region, but is directly related to the world peace and security. That’s why Korea’s peaceful reunification must be achieved at an early date and the US must stop its moves against it at once.