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Vol. 81/No. 11 March 20, 2017
Washington, Seoul – and Beijing – press NKorea
BY SETH GALINSKY
Some 3,600 U.S. troops and 300,000 South Korean soldiers are involved in
annual “Foal Eagle” military maneuvers that began on the peninsula March
1. These maneuvers will include “Key Resolve” computer-simulations
practicing “preemptive strikes” and “decapitation exercises targeting
the North Korean leadership,” according to South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo
newspaper.
The military exercises are “saber-rattling” aimed at the people and
government of North Korea, a March 2 statement by military officials in
the North said. They come on top of steps by Washington to install an
advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, anti-missile
battery in South Korea.
The latest moves are also designed to push the Chinese government, the
main trading partner of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, to
join efforts to tighten pressure on Pyongyang.
Stars and Stripes reported Feb. 28 that the U.S. Army has sent more than
100 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles to arrive in time for the
war games. The vehicles, permanently assigned to 8th Army units, could
be used in any attempt to cross the heavily mined DMZ zone between North
and South.
Korea is the only unresolved national division imposed by the
imperialist victors coming out of World War II. Some 70 years ago,
Washington divided the country in two, with the collaboration of the
Stalinist regime in Moscow, and then carried out a brutal war of
aggression there. Some 3 million Korean civilians, half a million North
Korean soldiers, hundreds of thousands of Chinese volunteers, and
100,000 South Korean and United Nations-sponsored soldiers, including
54,000 from the U.S., were killed. Entire towns and villages were
leveled by U.S. carpet bombing.
Although an armistice was signed in 1953, to this day Washington refuses
to sign a peace treaty with the DPRK. The two countries are technically
still at war.
The United Nations Security Council and Washington stepped up their
threats against the North after Pyongyang test-launched ballistic
missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons on Oct. 19, 2016, and again
Feb. 11.
The Wall Street Journal reported a leaked White House internal
memorandum saying the new Donald Trump administration should consider
the option of a military strike if Pyongyang moves toward testing an
intercontinental ballistic missile.
On Feb. 18 the Chinese Commerce department announced it was suspending
all imports of coal from North Korea, the country’s main source of hard
currency. Coal is the North’s largest export — sales to China brought in
an estimated $1.2 billion last year — and the country faces a widespread
trade embargo from the capitalist world.
“This country, styling itself a big power, is dancing to the tune of the
U.S.,” Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency said, referring to China
without mentioning it by name, “while defending its mean behavior with
such excuses that it was meant not to have a negative impact on the
people living in the DPRK but to check its nuclear program.”
The Chinese action came in the wake of accusations by the Malaysian
government that North Korea was responsible for the death of Kim Jong
Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Nam
died after he appeared to be poisoned by two women at the airport there
Feb. 13. The North Korean government says charges that they were
involved are a slander.
Poking a finger at both Washington and Beijing, North Korea on March 5
launched four more ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan. The
launching — in the first week of the Foal Eagle war games — also
coincided with the opening of China’s National People’s Congress in
Beijing.
Both Beijing and the DPRK oppose installation of the THAAD battery in
South Korea. While Washington and Seoul say the anti-missile battery is
being deployed to defend South Korea from attack by the North, its radar
capacity would allow it to keep track of activity in China.
Beijing took retaliatory measures against South Korean businesses,
including banning Chinese tour groups from visiting South Korea
beginning March 15. South Korea’s largest export partner is China and
some 8 million Chinese tourists visited South Korea last year.
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