This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement that temporarily stopped the heavy fighting in the Korean War of 1950-53. North Koreans want an official end to the lingering war with a peace treaty, but the United States refuses to talk about it until the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) first abandons its nuclear weapons. North Korea’s response to this hard-line position of the U.S. is that they cannot disarm themselves first when the nuclear superpower is still waging war against North Korea through increasing economic sanctions, nuclear threats, US-Republic of Korea (ROK, South Korea) joint war drills, and regime change moves.
North Korea has become more upset recently, when the US imposed additional unilateral/multilateral sanctions on the DPRK’s space agency and trading companies, in the aftermath of the DPRK’s successful launching of an earth-observation satellite in December 2012. The U. S. then falsely accused DPRK that the launch was a ballistic missile test and imposed another UN sanction on North Korea. In reaction, DPRK conducted its third underground nuclear test in February 2013. The U.S., in turn, imposed another harsh UN sanction on North Korea. Furthermore, the US staged a massive, two-month long, combined military drill with ROK (South Korea) against DPRK, starting on March 1. Some 200,000 ROK troops and 10,000 new US troops from abroad are involved in this costly, dangerous war game. In response, DPRK put its military forces on a high alert and began its own military drill. Thus, the tragic Korean War continues on in a vicious circle of satellite launches, sanctions, nuclear tests, sanctions, and war drills.
This year’s US-ROK joint war game stands out particularly because of its emphasis on showing off many of the US strategic assets that can deliver nuclear bombs to North Korea, including B-52s, B-2 stealth bombers, and nuclear attack submarine USS Cheyenne. Bringing in all these new weapons and troops into Korea is a clear violation of the Korean War Armistice Agreement (Paragraph 13C & D), and thus it is not surprising that North Korea declared again that it will be no longer bound by the Armistice in view of the U.S. violation. With each side blaming the other side of “provocations,” tensions are very high on the Korean Peninsula at this time.
In order to raise our voices for permanent peace in Korea, we have taken several initiatives this year so far.
- We produced a short, educational video called End the Korean War Now! in February. It can be seen on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxCDLDkyAUw). A link to the video is also on the KPC page of the VFP web site. So far, about 700 people watched it.
- We worked with the VFP board to issue a VFP statement on the current crisis in Korea in mid-April, which was sent out to the media, attracting coverage of our statement in the U.S. publications. (See e.g.
http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/15843-veterans-for-peace-time-to-finally-end-korean-war) - We are endorsing the “Ending the Korean War” conference in LA, May 8-10.
It is co-sponsored by UCLA Center for Korean Studies, Korea Policy Institute, the United Methodist Women, the Alliance of Scholars Concerned about Korea, and the National Campaign to End the Korean War. Further info is available at http://www.international.ucla.edu/korea/events/showevent.asp?eventid=10000 - We are also working on a special event in Washington, D.C., July 26-27, in observation of the 60th anniversary of the KW Armistice, along with our affiliate, the National Campaign to End the Korean War
(www.endthekoreanwar.org). Further info will be emailed to VFP members in the future.
In addition, we would like to ask the following measures from our members and local chapters.
a) Watch our new video and promote it to your friends and at local events.
b) Write a letter to editor of your local papers, commenting on the 60th anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement. Urge an official end to the lingering, costly war with a peace treaty.
c) Join in the July event in DC or organize a local peace vigil for ending the Korean War on July 27, the Korean Armistice Day.
d) Endorse or adopt the KPC project as a VFP chapter or local peace group’s project.
e) Make a donation for the KPC project. You may make the donation on the KPC site or mail a check, made payable to the VFP, to the national office with a notation of KPC project in the memo section.
60 years of uneasy state of war is too painful and costly for both Korean and American people.
Let’s move from the armistice to a peace treaty this year!
Thanks,
John Kim
Coordinator, VFP-Korea Peace Campaign (KPC)
our-work/vfp-national-projects/korea-peace-campaign/
kpc@veteransforpeace.org