People’s Democracy Party (South Korea)
We sincerely wish for peace. We never wish for war. All anti-imperialist forces worldwide, without exception, feel the same way. The world’s anti-imperialist forces are the true world peace forces, but unfortunately, reality is going against our wishes.
In 2022, the war in Ukraine entered full swing. It began with the Maidan coup in 2014, intensified with the war in Donbas for eight years, and finally began in earnest in February 2022 with Russia’s special military operation. The war in West Asia (war in the Middle East) started in October 2023 with Hamas’s “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, which erupted into the war in Palestine, intensified with the involvement of Hezbollah and Ansar Allah, and then entered full swing with Iran’s “True Promise” operation in April 2024.
The flames of World War 3, provoked by imperia-lism, are spreading from Eastern Europe to West Asia and are traveling towards East Asia. Just as no one can deny that the war in Ukraine triggered the war in West Asia, it is also true that the wars in Ukraine and West Asia are triggering the war in East Asia, specifically the wars in “the Republic of Korea (ROK)” and Taiwan. The wars in the “ROK” and Taiwan are inextricably and closely linked, with the outbreak of one automatically leading to the outbreak of the other. An agreement to this effect between the DPRK President Kim Il Sung and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1961 was supposedly reaffirmed by the DPRK Chairman Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019.
The Korean War in the 1950s was an anti-imperialist war, a national liberation war, and a reunification war from the DPRK’s point of view. Currently, the DPRK has declared that if the war in the “ROK” breaks out, it will be a “war of subjugation”. Chairman Kim Jong Un’s speech at the Supreme People’s Assembly on 15 January has given much weight to it to be called a “declaration of subjugation”. When we analyze his speech, “The war of subjugation” is an antifascist and anti-imperialist war and an internal war. This is because it defines the “ROK” as “a group of outsiders’ top-class stooges”, while calling it an “enemy state” and a “belligerent state”.
In contrast, the war in Taiwan will be an anti-imperialist war, a national liberation war, and a war for reunification. In terms of fascistization, the “ROK” and Taiwan are on different levels. China and Taiwan do not define each other as “primary enemies” and can freely come and go to one another.
However, both the DPRK and China have virtually shared the same view that the peaceful path is closed and that only the non-peaceful path remains to fulfill the strategic goal of territorial integrity. China still does not explicitly deny the peaceful path, but in practice, has seen it as unlikely since the election of hardline separatist Lai Ching-te as Taiwanese president in January and has been remarkably building up its military forces. The DPRK, through its January speech, proclaimed to delete the concept of “peaceful reunification” during the war of subjugation and to annihilate the “ROK” in the event of emergency. We should note that the prerequisite of “emergency” has been defined as “an invasion war against the North” but at the same time, has been abstracted and defined more comprehensively as “war provocation,” “armed conflict,” and “armed response.” There is no doubt that military tensions and hostilities between North and South Korea are now at their highest ever since the Korean War. In short, the likelihood of war in the “ROK” is at an all-time high. If the war in the “ROK” breaks out, the war in Taiwan will follow, and vice versa.
World War 3 began with the war in Ukraine in Eastern Europe, has escalated with the war in West Asia, and is likely to enter full swing with the wars in the “ROK” and Taiwan in East Asia. There is a lot of debate about whether we are in World War 3 or not, but when the Wars in East Asia break out, everything will be clear.
World War 3 is part of the “New Cold War”. The imperialist powers are plotting World War 3 under their “New Cold War” strategy. Immediately after World War 2, the imperialist powers adopted the “Cold War” strategy to deflect from their own political and economic crises and directly fought hot wars against the smaller anti-imperialist countries. However, now the “New Cold War” has begun alongside World War 3, and they are waging hot wars in the form of proxy warfare against the most powerful anti-imperialist countries.
In addition, while during the “Cold War,” socialist forces formed the leading force and national liberation forces formed the auxiliary force within the world anti-imperialist camp, during the “New Cold War”, the DPRK, the most steadfast socialist country, and China, a socialist country with Chinese characteristics, as well as Russia, which has a socialist heritage, form the leading force as nuclear missile superpowers, and other anti-imperialist forces, including the two billion Muslim forces, form the auxiliary force within the world anti-imperialist camp.
As of May 2024, Russia’s overwhelming predo-minance in the war in Ukraine and Zionism’s feeble performance in West Asia demonstrate the vulnerability of the imperialist camp. In particular, the imperialist camp’s logical contradiction between its anti-Russian and pro-Israeli propaganda has lost its pretext for war, which is eking with its manipulation. The world anti-war and peace force is a world anti-imperialist peace force in essence, as evidenced by the US university student protests.
It is the imperialist countries and their vassal countries that are experiencing political and economic crises, whether in terms of the approval ratings of those in power or terms of economic crisis and devastation of public welfare. It is also imperialism that is at a disadvantage in armed confrontation, as evidenced by the level of development and deployment of hypersonic missiles, which are considered an absolute weapon. Moreover, the imperialist camp is not as keen on winning the war as the anti-imperialist camp, and it has the decisive weakness of having to stick to proxy warfare with the disadvantage of expeditionary wars.
It is not only Zelensky in Ukraine and Netanyahu in Israel who are experiencing a severe political crisis as imperialist proxy ruling powers; Yoon Suk-yeol of the “ROK” and Kishida of Japan also are. In particular, Yoon’s clique is facing an impeachment crisis after losing the general election in April. Due to the worst economic crisis, a desperate devastation of people’s livelihood, unprecedented corruption, and outright incompetence, Yoon is on the brink of a precipice of withdrawal and imprisonment, resulting in his finding an exit of fascistization and war.
The problem is that with the defeat in the general election, the situation has become unfavorable for fascistization; Yoon Suk-yeol clique has no choice but to move further toward the path of war under the control of US imperialism. It means that US imperialism is pushing him into the same situation as Rhee Syngman’s clique of the “ROK”, which lost the election in 1950. In fact, following last year, this year has seen the most extensive dangerous war exercises against the North continually and simultaneously, involving the US and sometimes even Japan. The formation of the “Asian version of NATO” is expected to become apparent soon, with Yoon and Kishida attending the NATO summit in Washington in July. The Korean Peninsula has become a tinderbox.
The people of the “ROK” can no longer tolerate the Yoon Suk-yeol government. The reality of the eve of war beyond corruption, incompetence, and fascistization shows our people that if we do not immediately put an end to the Yoon government, the war in the “the ROK” will break out, which will cause untold misery. This is another reason why Yoon’s clique was harshly judged by the last general election and why the candlelight uprising demanding Yoon’s resignment is spreading and intensifying. Yesterday, the People’s Democracy Party vigorously carried out an antifascist and anti-imperialist demonstration here in Gwangju, the city famed for antifascist armed struggle, the city that loves democracy and peace, with the slogan of “Down with Yoon Suk-yeol!” along with the World Anti-imperialist Platform.
To implement the three major goals of the World Anti-imperialist Platform, the People’s Democracy Party is holding anti-imperialist peace demonstrations nationwide on the first Saturday of every month with the flag of the World Anti-imperialist Platform and is doing its best to play its role as the Platform’s organizer for the success of the World Anti-imperialist Platform’s congresses and meetings, which are being held with accelerating speed. Our party will keep the two main slogans of the World Anti-imperialist Platform, “Proletarians of the world, unite!” and “The people, united, will never be defeated” as scientific convictions and will unswervingly struggle to the end for the victory of our people and the people of the world, the victory of the world peace movement and the world anti-imperialist forces.
