The Korean people want to live peacefully, more than anybody else. Our
country has experienced the horrors of war several times. It is not an
abstraction to us, not something played out on computer screens. Every Korean
family has been touched by war.
Today, when there is no longer a Soviet Union or an Eastern bloc of
socialist countries, the Cold War remains for Korea. The DPRK is its target.
South Korea is a colony of U.S. imperialism, and has been ever since U.S.
troops took over there after the defeat of Japan in World War II. They occupied
south Korea in 1945 on the pretext of disarming Japanese troops, but their real
aim was to take over all of Korea and turn it into a bridgehead for the
domination of Asia.
From 1910 to 1945, Korea was a colony of Japan. The U.S. drew heavily on
those who had collaborated with Japanese rule when it set up an occupation
government in the south. However, it was the resistance fighters against Japan
who formed the DPRK in the north.
For five years, the U.S. prepared for a war in Korea, which broke out on
June 25, 1950. From 1950 to 1953, the U.S. committed one-third of its ground
forces, one-fifth of its air force, and the greater part of its Pacific fleet
to the war. Together with troops from its satellite countries and the south
Korean army, which included remnants of the former Japanese Imperial Army, a
total of more than 2 million troops were thrown against the DPRK. The U.S. used
up 73 million tons of war materiel—11 times more than in the Pacific
war—and spent $165 billion, a huge sum in those days.
The DPRK was only two years old when the war started. It was mainly an
agricultural country with very limited material resources and armaments.
Nevertheless, contrary to all its expectations, the U.S. could not win the
war and sustained great losses. The fighting stopped in 1953 after an armistice
agreement, or ceasefire. A demilitarized zone between north and south was set
up. Below the DMZ, the U.S. kept more than 40,000 of its troops poised to
resume the war.
Since then, there has been no peace agreement between the two countries.
While the Koreans have tried many times to put peace talks on the agenda, the
U.S. has refused. This means the war could be resumed at any moment. Ever since
its founding in 1948, the DPRK has been exposed to the threat of a nuclear
attack by the United States.
The Korean people are very proud of our history of struggle against foreign
domination. We are proud of our independence and are determined to develop our
country according to our own wishes, on a socialist path, not in a direction
dictated to us from outside.
It is because of these never-ending threats of another war in Korea that the
DPRK is determined to develop our own nuclear defense. For this we are being
attacked as a “threat to world peace.” Such a charge is ridiculous.
Since the U.S. opened the era of nuclear testing in 1945, there have been 2,054
tests of nuclear weapons. All but a handful of these tests have been conducted
by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. Only two of the
2,054 tests have been carried out by the DPRK—and these are the only
tests to be taken before the Security Council for sanction.
This shows the high-handedness and unilateralism of the imperialists and the
strong powers against smaller nations. There is no justice. Small, weak nations
must obey the big powers.
But today no nation wants to be treated that way. In the United Nations, the
DPRK has put up a vigorous protest. We will do what we must to defend
ourselves, despite any sanctions.
