Opposing war and violence on the Korean Peninsula and around the world, in the name of all people who wish for peace and democracy, we assert the following:
1. We condemn the hypocrisy of the United Nations’ sanctions against North Korea and the real threat posed by the United States’ nuclear hegemony.
The majority of UN Security Council members including the U.S. have carried out fearful and deadly nuclear tests and have thousands of nuclear weapons. To present, the U.S. has carried out 1,127 nuclear tests, of which 217 were ground tests. The USSR carried out 969 tests, France 210, the U.K and China, 45 each.
The sanctions imposed by UN resolution 1718 are based on a double standard which holds that the actions of the “great powers” are legitimate while those of other countries are not. Moreover, while Israel, which is under the U.S.'s protection, carried out a nuclear test in 1979 and has hundreds of nuclear missiles, the U.S. has never insisted on sanctions against it.
All these facts demonstrate that the UN sanctions resolution against North Korea is explicitly hypocritical and is only a device for reinforcing the great powers' nuclear hegemony. Indeed, it is these states who are the principal promoters of world-wide nuclear proliferation
2. We oppose all measures to strengthen sanctions against North Korea based on the UN resolution.
Economic sanctions might be called a 'silent air strike'. It is a fact that economic sanctions, which have become rapidly more prevalent after the Cold War, have caused more casualties than Weapons of Mass Destruction. For example, in Iraq, tens of thousands of people, most of whom were children, died from economic sanctions, which were imposed from 1991 to 2001.
It is clear that economic sanctions, which strike indiscriminately, are in fact an attack against civilians and use human suffering and starvation as weapons of war. We must oppose all economic sanctions that target everyday people. All economic sanctions imposed by imperialist countries, not only those targeting North Korea, but also those targeting the Middle East, Latin America and other countries around the world, should be stopped immediately.
3. We call for an immediate end to the exceedingly dangerous confrontation between the U.S. and North Korea and oppose nuclear armament throughout East Asia and the Pacific Rim, most especially the armament of U.S.
The possession of nuclear weapons, the ultimate goal of which is the indiscriminate extermination of life, is never justifiable. Further, the possession of nuclear weapons itself induces war and gives rise to cold war-like posturing and fanatical militarism.
Every attempt to further stimulate nuclear competition in East Asia on the ground of responding to North Korea's nuclear test must be stopped. We must send a clear message that nuclear armament is not justified or acceptable to all the powers in East Asia who are currently raising their voices about militarization, including conservative forces in South Korea, militaristic powers in Japan and warlike powers in China and Taiwan.
4. We must eliminate all potential causes of war from South Korea.
In the face of rapidly rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula it is South Korea who should be first to eliminate the factors pointing to war. Currently, the policies of South Korea’s Roh administration are objectively increasing the risk of war.
The Roh administration actively supports the U.S.'s attempt to increase its capacity to carry out war by accepting the U.S. plan for Strategic Flexibility and allowing the repositioning of U.S forces in South Korea and the U.S. base expansion in Pyeong-Taek.
The Roh government is using the transfer of wartime operational control from the U.S. as grounds to increases weapons build-up tremendously.
It is therefore moving forward with the plan to introduce the AEGIS warship and PAC-3 missile as part of Missile Defense(MD) System.
We assert the necessity of arms reduction in Korea, the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the dissolution of Korea-U.S warlike military alliance. We not only oppose South Korea’s participation in the Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation Security Initiative(PSI), which is currently inducing armed conflict with North Korea, but the whole initiative in its entirety.
We must use our heartfelt desire for peace and collective strength to end the U.S. war- threat and nuclear armament in East Asia.
- End the nuclear confrontation on the Korean Peninsula!
- No to the U.S.’s imperialistic nuclear hegemony!
- No to UN sanctions against North Korea! No to PSI!
- Withdraw the U.S forces from Korea! Dissolve the Korea-U.S. war alliance!
- Abolish Strategic Flexibility! Stop the expansion of the U.S base in Pyeong-Taek!
October 25, 2006
PSSP (People's Solidarity for Social Progress)