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Vol. 82/No. 1 January 1, 2018
(front page)
Washington, NKorea probe possible nuke negotiations
BY SETH GALINSKY
Recent developments and statements by government leaders in South Korea,
North Korea, the United States, Russia and China have all indicated that
despite their sharply counterposed views and national interests, they
are looking for ways to start negotiations to reach an agreement in
relation to North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons.
The South Korean government has proposed to Washington that they put off
joint military maneuvers that they have carried out annually for nearly
40 years until after the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in South Korea.
These games are scheduled to end March 18. Operation Foal Eagle, in
which tens of thousands of U.S. and Korean troops practice attacking the
North and “eliminating” its leadership, usually take place in February
or March.
This move comes among other signs that talks are possible.
“We know that North Korea wants above all to talk to the United States
about guarantees for its security,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when they met on the sidelines of the
Dec. 7 Vienna meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation
in Europe, according to Russian media reports. “We are ready to support
that, we are ready to take part in facilitating such negotiations.”
“We hope all relevant parties can take steps to alleviate tensions,”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told the press at the
meeting.
“We’re ready to talk anytime North Korea would like to talk,” Tillerson
told a Dec. 12 forum in Washington. He outlined three conditions — a
prior period of “quiet” in which the North Korean government does not
carry out any nuclear or missile tests; that Pyongyang tell Washington
it wants to negotiate; and that no North Korean tests take place during
the negotiation process.
Tillerson has said that Washington has held numerous informal
discussions with North Korean representatives since President Donald
Trump took office.
Tillerson rejected a proposal by Moscow and Beijing — which have both
carried out some of the U.N. sanctions against North Korea, but not to
the extent demanded by Washington — for a “freeze-for-freeze.” This
means that North Korea would suspend nuclear and missile tests, but not
get rid of its existing nukes, in exchange for a moratorium on U.S.
military maneuvers.
At the same time Washington has used the U.N. Security Council to ramp
up sanctions — and demanded that allies and rivals alike join in — to
try to get North Korea to accept U.S. dictates and abandon its nuclear
weapons and intercontinental missile program.
Tillerson told a Security Council meeting Dec. 15 that Pyongyang is “a
direct threat to our security and the security of the entire world.” Jan
Song Nam, North Korea’s U.N. ambassador replied. “The U.S. has now
stockpiled more than 4,000 nuclear warheads in its nuclear arsenals,”
and is the worldwide “leader in nuclear proliferation.” He argued that
North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is necessary in the face of U.S. threats.
After World War II, the Korean people rose up in a countrywide
revolutionary movement for independence. Washington — which had
thousands of troops occupying southern Korea — and Moscow divided Korea,
despite the desire of the Korean people for one, united, country. While
Koreans carried their revolution through in the north, the U.S.
government installed a bloody dictatorship in the south, which killed
thousands of workers, peasants and other opponents of imperialist
domination.
Washington, under the cover of the United Nations flag, bombed much of
the north into rubble during the 1950-53 Korean War, but was fought to a
standstill by Korean and Chinese soldiers. Washington to this day
refuses to sign a formal peace treaty with North Korea.
Since the 1940s, the Socialist Workers Party has championed the fight of
Korean workers and farmers for one, united, Korea, and demands that
Washington get out. The SWP also backs the demand for a nuclear-free
peninsula and a nuclear-free Asia.
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