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Vol. 81/No. 19 May 15, 2017
(front page)
Washington, Beijing put squeeze on North Korea
BY TERRY EVANS
Washington is continuing to press for an alliance with Beijing as it
pursues its decades long efforts to force the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea to abandon its nuclear and long-range missile
programs. It is preparing a new round of punishing sanctions on the
DPRK, sanctions that hit working people the hardest.
Washington tries to paint North Korea as a pariah regime and the war
threat in the region. But it is the U.S. rulers who have an over 70-year
record of aggression and violence against the people of the Korean
Peninsula.
Washington invaded and occupied Korea at the end of World War II,
dividing it in half over the opposition of the vast majority of the
population North and South; led a devastating war against the people of
the North that ended in a stalemate; and to this day stations over
28,000 troops in the South, backed up by 49,000 in Japan.
North Korea attempted a ballistic missile test flight April 28, but the
launch failed.
Washington has a formidable arsenal of nuclear weapons worldwide,
capable of travelling thousands of miles, as well as one of its aircraft
carrier fighting groups in the region.
But contrary to the hysteria of much of the liberal media, this display
of U.S. firepower is not aimed at starting a military conflict, but is
just one component of Washington’s broader efforts aimed at getting
North Korea to back down. President Donald Trump is “doing everything
diplomatically, economically and militarily” to achieve Washington’s
goals, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said May 1.
Washington used the April 28 meeting of the United Nations Security
Council to increase the isolation of the DPRK. Since 2006, the U.N. has
maintained sanctions against North Korea. Washington needs China on
board if it is to tighten the noose further. Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson urged rigorous enforcement of existing sanctions and the
imposition of new penalties. He threatened to add U.S. sanctions on
companies and individuals that violate U.N. measures by trading with the
DPRK.
The U.S. rulers see North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons as an
obstacle to imposing their dictates across the region. Washington has an
estimated 6,800 nuclear weapons and the DPRK has 10.
As part of their discussions on joint measures against North Korea,
Beijing keeps pressing the U.S. to abandon the Terminal High Altitude
Aerial Defense radar and anti-missile system it has installed in South
Korea. The Pentagon announced the system was operational as of May 2.
Beijing sees the missile system as a spy station that violates Chinese
sovereignty. On April 28, Trump demanded that South Korea pay for the
system. Moon Jae-in, the leading candidate in South Korea’s upcoming
presidential election, says THAAD unnecessarily antagonizes China and if
elected he will review its installation.
In recent years Beijing has accelerated the construction of military
bases on islands across the South China Sea in the face of disputed
sovereignty claims made by Vietnam, the Philippines and a number of
other governments in the region. Trillions of dollars of world trade
passes through this sea.
Asked if the U.S. Navy would resume “freedom of navigation” patrols it
has conducted in these waters to counter China’s threat to Washington’s
domination of trade there — a key plum from the U.S. rulers’ victory in
World War II — a government official told Reuters the administration
would wait to see what backing it got from Beijing in pressing North Korea.
Beijing is relentlessly expanding its interests in other parts of Asia.
The Financial Times warned that the U.S. should not “cede its influence
over its unreliable ally [Pakistan] to Beijing.” China is constructing
railways, roads and pipelines from its western border to Pakistan’s
southern ports. With International Monetary Fund creditors breathing
heavily down their necks, the Pakistani rulers were able to stave off a
currency crisis last year with Chinese loans.
No power can challenge Washington’s dominant place in the imperialist
world order, but it is in decline and increasingly needs allies to
advance its interests. Washington remains determined to try and contain
China’s growing power, but needs its backing today to squeeze the North
Korean regime.
Related articles:
US hands off Korea! For nuclear free Pacific!
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