Speech from People’s Democracy Party (“Republic of Korea”) for the 1st Session “NATO Expansion and the Balkans” of the International Colloquium in Belgrade on June 29
The “Pacificization of NATO” was politically completed through the Vilnius Summit in July 2023 and NATO Washington Summit in July 2024. Militarily, it was consolidated through multinational joint military exercises in the Pacific—including RIMPAC—conducted from June to August of the same year, with NATO member states and pro-US militarist countries in the Western Pacific.
Alongside the “Pacificization of NATO,” the imperialist camp has also advanced the creation of a “Northeast Asian version of NATO.” This trilateral military framework between the US, Japan, and the “ROK” was initiated through the Camp David Declaration in August 2023, deepened in December 2023 with the establishment of a real-time missile warning information-sharing system targeting the DPRK, and was fully operationalized through the “Freedom Edge” joint military exercise in June 2024. The Camp David Declaration includes a NATO-style collective defense principle, and Freedom Edge, as a multi-domain operation drill, has been widely recognized as a NATO-style military exercise. The imperialist camp has used NATO as a spearhead for war in Eastern Europe and aggression against Russia, while manipulating Ukrainian neo-Nazis as proxy forces in the war against Russia. Likewise, Japanese militarist forces are being mobilized as a shock force for war in East Asia and aggression against the DPRK and China, while fascist forces in the “ROK” are being positioned as puppets for a war in the “ROK.” The reasons behind localized military provocations against the DPRK from September to November last year, followed by martial law and a pro-US self-coup in December—are fundamentally the same.
In summary, the storm of World War 3, unleashed by imperialism, is sweeping from Eastern Europe through West Asia (the Middle East) to East Asia and the Western Pacific. After Eastern Europe and Western Asia, East Asia emerged as the third theater of war — the final and most extensive.
In order to make World War 3 an irreversible reality, the imperialist warmongering forces are provoking wars more frequently, more aggressively, and more recklessly. In 2024, a series of escalating events unfolded: the attempted assassination of Trump in July, the Ukrainian military’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August, a concentrated attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon in September, speculation in October about DPRK troop deployment to Ukraine, the US lifting restrictions on long-range missiles targeting Russia in November, and in December, the attempted overthrow of Syria’s anti-US government. Amid this turmoil, plans were set in motion for a civil war, limited war, or even full-scale war in the “ROK.”
If it hadn’t been for the DPRK’s “strategic patience” and the “ROK” people’s December uprising, a war in the “ROK” would have broken out with 100% certainty. Although the emergence of a reformist administration in the “ROK” gives the appearance of eased tensions, the fact remains that the threat of reckless war provocations will never cease, as a war in the “ROK” is the imperialist warmongers’ top gambit, who are desperate for World War 3 and the East Asian front. In the first half of this year, US-“ROK” joint military exercises targeting the DPRK have already surpassed the record set during the same period last year. On top of that, Japan has joined, conducting fierce multi-domain invasion drills against the DPRK—across air, land, sea, underwater, space, and cyberspace.
The imperialist warmongers are driving the push for World War 3 with unstoppable momentum by carrying out a bold strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities—a sharply escalating situation is ongoing. The Ukrainian neo-Nazi forces, having been repelled at Kursk, relentlessly continue to attack Russian energy infrastructure, threatening the Russian mainland. The Balkans are by no means free from the escalating war in Eastern Europe, which is being carried out under NATO’s leadership. Meanwhile, openly propagated anti-China propaganda alleging an “October invasion of Taiwan” is fueling a growing crisis at this other critical hotspot in East Asia, Taiwan. If war breaks out in Taiwan, a conflict in the “ROK” will almost certainly erupt simultaneously. Historically, this is confirmed under the 1961 Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance between China and the DPRK.
Just as the imperialist camp managed to deflect the worst political and economic crisis created after World War 2 through the Cold War, they now seek to escape the current full-scale crisis by establishing a “New Cold War” system through World War 3. In response, the anti-imperialist camp aims to turn World War 3 into an anti-imperialist war and use it as an opportunity to advance the revolution. In such a sharply intensified situation, the anti-imperialist camp must mobilize every possible means to secure victory. This is why attention is focused on the deepening contradictions between the warmongering and non-warmongering factions within the imperialist camp. For the anti-imperialist camp, the non-warmongering imperialists are a tactical cooperation target. If the unity of the anti-imperialist camp is their strategy, then the division within the imperialist camp is its tactic. During World War 2, which unfolded as an anti-fascist war, the socialist Soviet Union formed a tactical anti-fascist front with anti-fascist states within imperialism such as the US and the UK. However, in World War 3, which would unfold as an anti-imperialist war, it is impossible to form even a tactical anti-imperialist front with the non-warmongering faction of imperialism. This is because, despite their non-warmongering nature, they are still imperialists.
Nonetheless, tactical cooperation is possible as a tactical measure to promote divisions within imperialism.
Imperialism is destined to collapse under the weight of its own accelerating and deepening contradictions—contradictions that are historical, structural, and multidimensional. The contradictions between imperialism and socialism, between imperialism and national liberation states, between imperialism and colonized peoples, between monopoly capital and the masses within imperialist societies, between imperialist powers themselves, and between warmongering and non-warmongering factions within the imperialist camp—all of these overlapping and irreconcilable contradictions ensure the inevitable downfall of imperialism.
The anti-imperialist camp is led by three nuclear and missile superpowers: the DPRK, the most thoroughly socialist country; China, a socialist state with Chinese characteristics; and Russia, a nation with a socialist legacy. Together, they form the core fighting force of the anti-imperialist camp. When joined by the “Axis of Resistance,” including Iran—missile power—these forces constitute the four leading forces of the anti-imperialist front.
The top priority task of the revolutionary forces in the “ROK” is to rouse the people of the “ROK” into an anti-fascist, anti-imperialist struggle. The civil war—currently the most explosive fuse of a war in the “ROK”—is the only remaining lifeline for the dying forces of insurrection, fascism, and reaction. For the imperialist warmongers desperate to ignite World War 3 and war in East Asia, a war in the “ROK” is not a choice, but a necessity—and the most effective card to overpower the non-warmongering faction within the imperialist camp. The moment US imperialist forces invade the Korean Peninsula, the anti-fascist and anti-imperialist uprising will escalate into a full-scale anti-imperialist, anti-fascist uprising.
As proven by both history and present reality, the victory of the anti-imperialist camp—armed with overwhelming superiority in justification, capacity, and operation—is a matter of science, while the defeat of the imperialist camp—plagued by deepening division and decline—is inevitable. The final victory of the world’s people, united firmly under the banner of anti-imperialism and the just cause, and waging an unyielding struggle, is certain. The day of liberation and revolution is not far off for the peoples of the Balkans and the Korean Peninsula.
