Veteran Statesman

Kim Jong Il, supreme leader of socialist Korea, is a veteran statesman whose political career spans over 50 years.

On August 25, 1960, he gave field guidance at the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army, which signifies the start of his Songun-based revolutionary leadership. As early as his days at Kim Il Sung University he made public many works including The Characteristics of Modern Imperialism and Its Aggressive Nature and The Status and Role of County in Socialist Construction, which are of importance in carrying out socialist construction and world revolution.

On June 19, 1964, he started to work at the Central Committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea. This occasioned a fundamental turn in the development of the Party. He has developed it into and invincible party and a veteran and experienced party which is finally united on the basis of the revolutionary ideas of President Kim Il Sung.

He was officially nominated as the heir to President Kim Il Sung in February 1974, in accordance with the unanimous desire and will of the entire Party membership and all the people.

He was appointed as the Supreme Commander of the KPA on December 24, 1991, and elected as the Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK on April 9. 1993 and the General Secretary of the WPK on October 8, 1997.

He has pursued the most successful politics without the slightest failures, setback and deviation while leading the Korean people for over half a century. This is unthinkable apart from his political philosophy.

His political philosophy is the Juche idea which is acknowledged by the international community as the guiding ideology of the cause of independence. He has enriched and developed the Juche idea authored by President Kim Il Sung, the gist of which is that the masters and driving force of the revolution and construction are the masses of the people, and thoroughly applied it to the revolution and construction.

He has solved all the problems arising in the revolution and construction by relying on the strength of the masses of the people and enlisting their ideology.

It is not money or a nuclear weapon that moves the world, but a great idea-this is an aphorism of his.

He has led socialist Korea along the road of victory, overcoming hardship of all descriptions by dint of the great Juche idea. In the end of the 20^th century when a quite a few people of the world vacillated ideologically following the crumbling of socialism in several countries, he made public many famous works including The Historical Lesson in Building Socialism and the General Line of Our Party, Abuses of Socialism are Intolerable, Socialism Is a Science and Giving Priority to Ideological Work Is Essential for Accomplishing Socialism, providing the truth and scientific accuracy of socialism and inevitability of its victory and thus instilling great confidence and courage in the progressive humankind.

Holding higher the banner of Songun, he has also fortified socialist Korea as an impregnable fortress that no imperialist enemy dare to invade.

Kim Jong Il has enforced a most unique political mode.

His benevolent politics of love and trust grips the hearts of all the people.

Regarding “The people are my God” as his political creed, he transformed the masses of the people from the object of politics into its masters. He has ensured that the WPK and power organs are always faithful to their role and duty as the servants of the people under the slogan of “We serve the people!”

He put forward the slogan “Let’s build a new society by dint of trust and love!”in his early days and applied the comradely love to politics, thus consolidating the single-hearted unity of the whole country in every aspect. Always on his field guidance tour at factories, farms, fishing villages and other parts of the country, he lends an ear to the people’s opinion and ensures that their will and desire are incorporated in policies and lines.

In the upheavals in the late 20^th century when the high-handedness and arbitrariness of eh imperialism were rampant, he keenly realized that the force of arms guarantees the sovereignty and dignity of a country and nation and the implementation of the cause of socialism, and pursued Songun politics, the characteristics of which is to defend the country and revolutionary and the people and push ahead with the cause of socialism as a whole with the People’s Army as the main force of the revolution. He formulated it as a basic political mode of socialism. He strengthened military capability of the country in all aspects by holding fast to the banner of Songun, with a result that a war was prevented in the Korean peninsula, the acute hot spot, and peace and security secured in Northeast Asia and the rest of the world.

His Songun politics put Korea onto the position of politico-ideological and military power and provided a springboard for building an economic giant.

At present Korea is vigorously building a thriving socialist country under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, an outstanding veteran statesman.

Ideological and Theoretical Wisdom and Innate Gifts

Leader Kim Jong Il of Korea is possessed of an unusal ideological and theoretical wisdom that is originated from his innate gifts.

Kim Jong Il is a man of keen observation and clairvoyance. The ability to observe and see through is essential to political leader who has assumed the mission to gain a scientific insight into the trends and demands of the times and laws governing historical development, and light the way the masses of the people should follow.

Kim Jong Il has attained great ideo-theoretical achievements, always gaining insight before anybody else into the pressing issues of the times by dint of his keen observance and clairvoyance and giving scientific solutions to them. For instance, he expounded original ideas and theories such as the theory of ideology that ideological consciousness decides everything and the theory of the motive force of the revolution that the masses of the people are the driving force of history and the leader, the party and the masses comprise a socio-political organism.

During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, when socialism collapsed in succession in the former Soviet Union and other East European countries, he saw through the fact that maintaining the Juche character and national identify in accomplishing the cause of independence of the masses is essential to the rise of fall of a nation, and clarified that this is a fundamental principle to be adhered to in carrying out the cause of socialism. In the mid-1990s Korea held aloft the banner of Songun-it was also attributable to his keen observation and clairvoyant power by which he quickly grasped the features of the development of the times and situation, which demanded strengthening of the military might ahead of others for defending sovereignty and dignity of the nation amidst the imperialists’ high-handedness and arbitrariness.

Accurate analysis and excellent judgment are also innate gifts of Kim Jong Il .

It is a fundamental question decisive of succession in an undertaking to compare, analyze, reason and colligate things and phenomena to make a correct judgment.

Kim Jong Il, who had acquired sharp judgment, irrefutable logic and deep theory from his childhood, gives a definite conclusion to whatever ideological and theoretical questions on the basis of scientific analysis, colligation and systemization of them.

In his days at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang from 1960 to 1964, he made an in-depth analysis of the significance and importance of a regional base in socialist construction, and presented a paper, The position and role of County in Socialist Construction. He scientifically proved in the paper that the county, a regional base in socialist rural construction, becomes a comprehensive unit that links town with village, imparts policies of the Party and the state to the countryside and directs and develops the political, economic, cultural and all other realms in rural areas, and that enhancing the role of county is of great significance in developing the socialist rural economy and pushing forward overall socialist construction.

There are many other examples for his brilliant analyzing ability and judgment. He reviewed and analyzed a-hundred-year-long history of the ideologies of the working class in all-round way, and formulated the revolutionary ideas of President Kim Il Sung into an integrated system of ideology, theory and method of Juche, thus successfully fulfilling the task of the era, and published a series of works that indicate the road ahead of socialism on the basis of analysis and review of the historical lessons drawn in socialist construction.

Leader Kim Jong Il is endowed with scientific foresight.

Scientific foresight is an attribute due to a political leader who should provide people with ideology, strategy and tactics.

One day in November 1987, explaining the development in the former Soviet Union, he said follows: The Soviet Union would be crushed by the wind of “perestroika,” two to three years would be enough to bring about something fatal if it goes on that way; flag of socialism would be pulled down and the wind of capitalism will soon blow; since the Soviet Union is multinational country, the interethnic relations would get complicated.

All his ideological and theoretical activities have been based on such a scientific foresight. He gave a definite scientific and theoretical solution to the historical necessity of socialism and the ways to build it up in his work Socialism Is a Science, proving that socialism as a science is sure to be victorious. In the end of the previous century, when Korea was undergoing the bitterest trials, he unfolded a grand blueprint for building a great, prosperous and powerful socialist country with his far-sighted unusual acumen, and clarified in detail the theoretical and practical problems arising in its implementation, inspiring the entire army and all the people to the great drive of building a thriving nation.

Eye-opening successes that are being made in Korea today in the efforts of breaking through the cutting edge, improving the people’s standard of living and building monumental structures showcase the scientific foresight intrinsic to leader Kim Jong Il.

THE DPRK FOREIGN MINISTRY

  Pyongyang, January 23 (KCNA) -- The DPRK Foreign Ministry Wednesday issued the following statement:
    The DPRK's successful launch of satellite Kwangmyongsong 3-2 in December last year fully demonstrated its space science and technology and its overall national power. This is a stark fact favored by the world and recognized even by hostile forces, including the United States.
    In the wake of desperate efforts on the part of the U.S. and its followers to block the victorious advance of the DPRK, they cooked up a "resolution" of the UN Security Council on Tuesday in wanton violation of the inviolable sovereignty of the DPRK.
    The U.S.-sponsored "resolution" is run through with hostile steps aiming at banning the DPRK's satellite launch for peaceful purposes and tightening "sanctions" against it to block its economic development and hamstring its effort for developing the economy and bolstering up defence capability.
    The above-said countries insist that the DPRK's satellite launch is problematic, asserting that "it uses ballistic missile technology" though they know better than any others about the fact that ballistic missile technology is the only means for launching satellite and they launch satellites more than any others. This is self-deception and the height of double-standards.
    The essence of the matter is the U.S. brigandish logic that a satellite launch for peaceful purposes by a country which the U.S. antagonizes should not be allowed because any carrier rocket launched by it can be converted into long-range ballistic missile threatening the U.S.
    The UNSC is a marionette of the U.S.
    The UNSC "resolutions" adopted under the pretext of the DPRK's satellite launches are products of its blind pursuance of the hostile policy of the U.S. seeking disarmament of the DPRK and collapse of its social system in violation of the universally accepted international law.
    Repeating wrongdoings without courage or responsibility to rectify them are despicable behaviors of cowards deceiving themselves and others. They are putting the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region at greater peril.
    The present situation clearly proves that the DPRK should counter the U.S. hostile policy with strength, not with words and that the road of independence and Songun chosen by the DPRK is entirely just.
    To cope with the prevailing situation, the DPRK Foreign Ministry declares as follows:
    First, the DPRK flatly rejects the unjust acts of the UNSC aimed at wantonly violating the sovereignty of the DPRK and depriving it of the right to launch satellites for peaceful purposes.
    The hostile forces are seriously mistaken if they think they can bring down the DPRK with sanctions and pressure, and such an attempt will always bring them a disgraceful defeat.
    The UNSC should apologize for its crime of seriously encroaching upon the independence of a sovereign state, following the U.S. policy hostile to the DPRK in disregard of the universally recognized international law, and repeal all the unreasonable "resolutions" at once.
    Second, the DPRK will continue to exercise its independent and legitimate right to launch satellites for peaceful purposes while abiding by the universally recognized international law on the use of space for peaceful purposes.
    Scientists and technicians of the DPRK will develop and launch many more application satellites, including communications satellite, and more powerful carrier rockets essential for building an economic giant in the same spirit and mettle as were displayed in successfully launching satellite Kwangmyongsong 3-2.
    The DPRK will continuously launch satellites for peaceful purposes to conquer space and become a world-level space power.
    Third, the DPRK drew a final conclusion that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is impossible unless the denuclearization of the world is realized as it has become clear now that the U.S. policy hostile to the DPRK remains unchanged.
    The September 19 joint statement adopted at the six-party talks on the principle of respect for sovereignty and equality has now become defunct and the prospect for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula has become gloomier, due to the U.S. hostile policy to the DPRK that has become evermore pronounced.
    There may be talks for peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the region in the future, but no talks for the denuclearization of the peninsula.
    Fourth, the DPRK will take steps for physical counteraction to bolster the military capabilities for self defence, including the nuclear deterrence, both qualitatively and quantitatively to cope with the evermore undisguised moves of the U.S. to apply sanctions and pressure against the DPRK.
    The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will reliably defend the security and sovereignty of the country and safeguard the regional peace and stability with the might of Songun. They are full of the steadfast will to take a bold step to root out the source of provocations the hostile forces seek to continue against the DPRK.
    No force on earth can block the progress of the great people proud of independence, powerful thanks to Songun politics and united closely on the basis of truth. -0-

 

 

 

Dissolution of the “UN Command” is the essential requirement in defending peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and

in the Asia-Pacific region.

Memorandum of the Foreign Ministry of the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

This year marks the 60^th year since the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed.

It is now 60 years since the gunfire of war stopped roaring, but the war not terminated legally. There remains a fragile ceasefire status of neither peace nor war on the Korean peninsula which has yet to build up a mechanism to ensure peace.     

The US has gone defiant against the DPRK Government in its consistent stand and effort to replace the Armistice Agreement with peace treaty and tries to maintain the ceasefire status. Lurking behind this background is the ghost of the cold war- i.e. “UN Command”.

This ghost, keeping pace with the recent US defense strategy, is coming back to life as a tool for an aggressive war that would bring a fierce flame to Asia-Pacific region, the greatest hotspot of the world.

The DPRK Foreign Ministry recognizes there is a need to bring attention of the international community to these moves of the US which would result in an extremely dangerous situation. 

1.

The US, according to its new defense strategy, is trying to transform the “UN Command” into a “multinational force command” which would serve as a matrix of the Asian version of NATO.

The ulterior motive of the new US defense strategy, released for the first time in January 2012, is to encircle and put a military curve on other big power in Asia so that the latter cannot grow to make a resistance to it. For this purpose, the US plans to concentrate 60% of its overseas-deployed forces to Asia-Pacific region in the next 10 years. At the same time, the US is stepping up its preparation to drag its bilateral allies in the region into a gradual concentration as a multilateral military alliance like NATO that moves under a unified command system.

It is a well-known fact that the US has since long kept its eye on forming a tripartite military alliance by combining the US-Japan and US-south Korea military alliances.

The US drew its “experience” of containing and collapsing the former Soviet Union and East European countries by relying on NATO during the Cold War time. Based on this, it is trying to set up a larger-scale collective military organization which would enable it to encircle its potential enemies in Asia-pacific region as well.

The US, in order to get round the stiff resistance from the countries concerned,   is trying to form a combined force instead of opting for a new one by playing tricks to revive the functions of the “UN Command”, which is nothing more than just the name.

The “UN Command”, fundamentally speaking, is a tool of war which was organized by the US for the purpose of deploying its satellite forces and exercising its control over them during the Korean War. After the ceasefire, the US continued to seize and exercise its right to operational command in south Korea through the “UN Command”. But, as the pressure is mounting at home and abroad in 1970s to dismantle the “UN Command” and withdraw its forces from south Korea, the US had no other alternative but to form the US-south Korea “Combined Forces Command” and transfer the right to operational command to it. Through this, it tried to legalize and perpetuate its occupation of south Korea by changing the nature of the US troops in south Korea from the “UN forces” to that of the forces dispatched by the “ROK-US Mutual Defense Treaty”.

Since then, the “UN Command” has become the nominal one with nothing more than a name.

Behind the recent attempts of the US to revive the functions of the “UN Command” lie its strategic self-interest to make south Korea as a forward base for the domination of Asia-Pacific region and hold fast to it as a cannon fodder for an aggressive war under changed situation.

As the sentiment ran high for independence against the US and the pressure was put to take over the commanding power from the US, the US had no other choice but to return the right to peacetime operational command to south Korean side in 1994. Furthermore, the thing is that it should hand over the right to wartime command by 2015. Accordingly, the US-south Korea “Combined Forces Command” which served as a tool for exercising the right to US operational command to south Korea should be dismantled.

This does not mean that the US is likely to easily give up its right to military command over south Korea, the strategic point in its strategy over the Asia-Pacific region.

It is none other than the revival of the “UN Command” that the US worked out as an “alternative” to seize and wield its actual command control over the south Korean armed forces.

The resolution of the UN Security Council (UNSC), which was railroaded for adoption by the US in 1950s, stipulates that all the forces provided to south Korea should be under the control of the “UN Command” under the US.   Together with this, the US moved further in depriving south Korean authorities of the right to operational command in the name of “UN Command” according to the July 1950 “Taejon Agreement”. Such being the case, if the “UN Command” is to revive its function now, that would be as good as reestablishing the US right to control over the south Korean puppet army.  

When the US began to discuss the issue of returning the right to wartime operational command with south Korea in March 2006, the US Commander in south Korea, at a hearing to the US Senate Armed Services Committee, made an assertion that the “UN Command” should increase its role and be turned into a “multinational force command” in such a way as to allow the member states of the “UN Command” to participate in its detailed activities, let alone the fact they are involved in mapping up of the wartime operational plans.

Following this, the US made its gradual move to increase the scale and frequency of the joint military drills in and around south Korea and saw to it that the operational players from the member states of the “UN Command” be involved in such drills, adapting them to the operational skills of the joint military drills led by the US.   

The US and south Korea held the 44^th annual security meeting in Washington in October 2012 and issued a joint statement “reaffirming that the ‘UN Command’ is indispensable for maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.”

This shows that the US had already forced the south Korean authorities to accept its scheme to revive the “UN Command”.

It is also on a step-by-step basis that preparations are under way to expand the operational sphere of the “UN Command” to the whole of Asia-Pacific region.

The US troops in south Korea, the mainstay of the “UN Command”, has already been afforded the “strategic flexibility” so that it could provide support in case of emergencies in other parts of East Asia. Recently, the plan is actively under review to revolve the deployment of the US marine forces to the Philippines and south Korea which are due to be present in Australia on a new basis. 

If any move is allowed to establish a collective military bloc in Asia-Pacific region, this would inevitably trigger off a countervailing force from other countries which are placed under the target of this bloc. If this is the case, it is par for the course that this region, too, would be plunged into a theater to take sides with as in Europe with the revival of the Cold War and increased danger of a nuclear war beyond any measure. Under this worst case of scenario, it is none other than south Korea that would suffer most.

The “UN Command” is primarily an unjust tool which only misused the name of the UN. All this bears no relation with the consensus of the UN member states. 

According to Article 27 of the UN Charter, the important decisions of the UNSC shall be made by an affirmative vote of more than seven member states (at that time) including the concurring votes of all five permanent member states. This means even if the US scraped the bottom of the barrel in collecting seven satellite states, it was not possible to make any decisions against the DPRK when one of the permanent member states did not agree on it.

The situation was that the former Soviet Union, which held its seat at the UNSC, was not attending the Council meetings from January 13, 1950 in protest against the exercise of the representative right in the UN by the Taiwanese authorities, not by the People’s Republic of China.

The US took this occasion as a momentum in instigating the traitor Syngman Rhee to launch out a preemptive all-out armed invasion against the DPRK. On that same day, the US did not lose the time in convening the meeting of the UNSC where it had adopted a resolution branding the DPRK as an “aggressor”.  ［UNSC Resolution 82(1950)］

The government of the Soviet Union responded to this by sending telegrams to the UNSC on June 29 and July 6, 1950. In those messages, it emphasized that those resolutions cannot go into effect as those were adopted by its permanent member states against the UN Charter without the consents of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, permanent members of the UNSC.

Despite this, the US convened the meeting on July 7 in the absence of the Soviet Union again. At that meeting, it cooked up a resolution allowing UN member states to dispatch forces to Korean War and place those forces under the control of  “ ‘the Unified Command’ under the authority of the US” and giving a free rein to that Command to “use the UN flag”. [UNSC Resolution 84(1950)]

The US submitted a report of this Command to the UNSC on July 25, 1950 where it had freely changed the name of the “Unified Command” into the “UN Command”.

  It was only on January 31, 1951 after the former Soviet Union, permanent member of the Council, returned to its meeting that the Council submitted an agenda and adopted the Resolution 90(1951) calling for the removal of the item “Complaint of Aggression upon the Republic of Korea” from the list of agendas of which the Council is seized. This complaint was made by the US when the Korean war broke out on June 25, 1950. In the ensuing time, the Korea question was no longer discussed.       

The UNSC adopted such a resolution even in the middle of the war. This, itself, is an admission of the fact that the UN made a mistake from the beginning by allowing it to be involved and misused in the Korean War.   

Even the successive Secretary-Generals of the UN made an official recognition of the fact that the “UN Command” is not a subsidiary organ of the UN, but absolutely a tool used by the US for the war.

In June 1994, the then UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali recognized  that “the UNSC did not establish the ‘Unified Command’ as a subsidiary organ under its control and that it became to be placed under the authority of the US.”(June 24, 1994 Letter from UN Secretary-General to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK)

In December 1998, the UN Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan made it clear that “none of my predecessors have granted any authorization to any State to make the use of the name of the UN” when he had referred to the forces and command dispatched by the US into the Korean War. (December 21, 1998, Letter from the UN Secretary-General to the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK)

On July 27, 2004 and March 6, 2006, the UN spokesperson confirmed that the “‘UN Command’, despite its name, is not the army of UN, but a US-led force”.

It is not the UN but the US which has the power to appoint the “UN forces commander”. It is not the UN but the US administration which has an absolute power to decide on reduction or enforcement of the US forces in south Korea that are under the helmets of the “UN forces”.

The UN changed its composition with the passage of the time. Given this, the “UN Command” is all the more a subsidiary organ of the US, which bears no relevance with the UN.

The UN today is no longer the forum of 1950s when the US had organized the “UN command” at its will. 

More than 20 years have passed since the DPRK became the legitimate member of the UN after joining it. China, together with the DPRK, sat face-to-face with the “UN forces” when it had given a joint signature to the Korean Armistice Agreement. It is in the lapse of 40 years after China came to exercise its representative right as a permanent member of the UNSC.  

Despite this prolonged time, the UN flag is still hanging and shows off in Panmunjom. This , a product of anachronism, is simply a shame to the UN.

The “UN Command” should be dismantled without any further delay if the UN really wants to regain its lost authority and impartiality.

3.

The “UN Command” is the refuse of the times, dissolution of which was already declared by the UN General Assembly.

The 30th session of the UN General Assembly held in November 1975 adopted two resolutions on the dissolution of the “UN Command”. The Resolution 3390 (xxx) B, initiated by the progressive member states of the UN, called for the immediate and unconditional dissolution of the “UN Command”. The US-sponsored Resolution 3390 (xxx) A stated that the “UN Command” may be dissolved on January 1, 1976 if the “alternative arrangements” for maintaining the Armistice Agreement are made.

This is how the US came up with the conditional theory of dismantling the “UN Command”. This is simply a despair counsel to avoid the voice of the broad international society calling for an immediate and unconditional dissolution of the “UN Command”. All this shows that even the US itself could not deny the illegal and anachronistic substance of the “UN Command”.

If we look at the composition of the then “UN Command”, it was no longer the multinational forces but the US Command which has only the US troops stationed in south Korea.

As soon as the Armistice Agreement was signed, member states of the UN who participated in the Korean War, withdrew their forces, to the exclusion only of the US. Afterwards, Luxemburg and Ethiopia removed their flags from the “UN Command” which they had left as a symbol. Even those countries that still have their own flags neither have their staff in the “UN Command” nor participate in its activities.

The US asserted that the dissolution of the “UN Command” would be possible only when another mechanism to maintain the Armistice is set up. But, the current ceasefire status is not maintained by the “UN Command” in practice.

In March 1991, the US made an unannounced decision of replacing the chief delegate to the “UN forces” at the Military Armistice Commission with the south Korean army general, a post so far occupied by the US army general. The US sought no prior consultations with the DPRK side in replacing the chief delegate to the “UN forces” with the army general of south Korea, which is not a party to the Armistice Agreement. This was a clear provocation of violating the Paragraph 61, Article V of the Armistice Agreement which stipulates that amendments and additions to this Armistice Agreement must be mutually agreed to by the commanders of the opposing sides.    

As the “UN forces” lost its delegation power, the Military Armistice Commission was virtually put in a state of paralysis. Eventually, the delegation of the Chinese People’s Volunteers, the member of the Korean-Chinese side of the Military Armistice Commission, withdrew in December 1994 and the DPRK side formed the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) to maintain the ceasefire on behalf of the former DPRK-Chinese side.

As time passed, the members of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) failed to maintain their positions of neutrality which they had at the time of signing the Armistice Agreement. With this, the NNSC could no longer carry out its functions.

This has led to the complete fall of the previous armistice mechanism and the “UN Command” was reduced to a scarecrow with no party left to deal with.

It was since then that all the issues related to the running of the ceasefire status are discussed and disposed of between the KPA and US military authority rather than between the DPRK-China and the “UN Forces”. 

Both sides of the DPRK and the US have made an effective control of the ceasefire status for decades of years and this reality proves that there is no longer any reason to withhold the dissolution of the “UN Command”.

Even from the viewpoint of replacing the Armistice Agreement with the peace treaty, the “UN Command” stands in the way as the legacy of the Cold War that would bring no good but only harm.

According to the Armistice Agreement, the issue of ensuring the lasting peace is to be negotiated only at a political conference at a level higher than that of military commanders. The actual political superior of the “UN Command”, a signatory to the Armistice Agreement, is not the UN but the US administration.

The DPRK government proposed to establish a new peace-making mechanism on the Korean Peninsula in April 1994. (April 28, 1994 Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK)

After that, the DPRK also proposed to make a provisional agreement between the DPRK and the US that could replace the current Armistice Agreement in order to prevent armed conflicts, remove the danger of war and peacefully maintain the ceasefire status until a full peace treaty is signed on the Korean Peninsula. (February 22, 1996 Statement by the Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK)

  The DPRK and US held several rounds of talks at the general-level in Panmunjom over the issue of putting in place a new armistice mechanism on the Korean Peninsula.

The issue of establishing the permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula was also discussed in the four-party talks between the DPRK and US which also saw the participation of China and south Korea. The DPRK and US held talks  in Washington in October 2000 where both sides confirmed that there were several ways, including the four-party talks, to put a formal end to the Korean war by easing tension and replacing the Armistice Agreement with a durable peace regime on the Korean peninsula(October 12, 2000 DPRK-US Joint Communiqué)

An agreement was reached in the North-South Summit in October 2007 to proceed with the declaration of the end of war by the leaders of three or four parties that are direct parties to the Korean question. (October 4, 2007 Declaration for Development of North-South Relations and Peace and Prosperity)

As the facts show, there were many discussions and agreements between the concerned parties on changing ceasefire status to a durable peace on the Korean Peninsula where we can find no mention of any method which presupposes the existence of the “UN Command”.

Despite that, the “UN Command” still exists today and, on top of that, it is trying to be revived as a tool of war to be used by multinational forces. This is an issue that can never be overlooked from the perspective of ensuring the security in Asia-Pacific region including the Korean Peninsula.

The US is claiming that DPRK’s effort to bolster its national defensive power is causing tension in the region. This is nothing but an imprudent trick to cover up the aggressive nature of its Asia-Pacific strategy.

Whether the US immediately dismantles the “UN Command” or not will serve as the acid stone in deciding whether the US will maintain or not its anti-DPRK hostile policy, whether it wants peace and stability or the revival of the Cold War in Asia-Pacific region. 

The DPRK would continue to strengthen its deterrence against all kinds of war, thereby actively contributing to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the rest of Asia until the US makes a right choice.

January 14, Juche 102(2013)

Pyongyang