On the importance of anti-U.S. struggle
Tvrtko Balić
Dear friends, dear comrades,
We mark here, today, as friends of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, anti-U.S. joint struggle. No doubt there are many people outside of this forum who would ask us why we would do that. Why do we oppose the United States? What did it ever do to us?
Whether it did anything to me personally, that is a matter of debate. But there is certainly no doubt that it did unimaginable harm to Korea. In Europe, US imperialism is a matter of debate. In Korea it is a matter of bitter memory and long lasting damage. The country is still divided by the consequences of U.S. imperialism and maintained by it.
The country is divided. Why is it divided? Why did it become divided? It is for no other reason than to serve foreign interests. Germany was divided after World War 2 as well. But Germany lost the war. On the pacific theatre Japan lost the war. Fair enough, I suppose, the Soviets didn’t manage to land troops there before the war was over. But keeping Japan as its puppet wasn’t enough for the U.S., imperialism is by its nature greedy, it always wants more. And this is just one stage of capitalism with its constant need to expand. Korea did not lose the war. It was an oppressed colony of Japan and with Japan’s defeat it won the war. But turning the once mighty Japanese empire into its vassal was not enough for the U.S., it tried to absorb as much of its territory as possible. And so Korea became divided. Two governments became established in the peninsula, each claiming legitimacy and ignoring each other’s elections. Our enemies will say that the two governments are the same, representing different foreign interests. To see beyond this absurdity it is enough to look at who was heading them. Young Kim Il Sung formed the Down-with-Imperialism Union already in his early teens. He led the working people of Korea into a popular revolt. Who was on the American side? Syngman Rhee. This was an upper class man who started his career fighting for the feudal government that the Japanese overthrew before switching his allegiances, always being ready to negotiate with the oppressor, first Japan, the US. Many people in power in the south used to actually serve in the Japanese military, gaining their education there, including Park Chung Hee. As the puppet state in the state lost popularity, the US just switched these puppets that it picked up where Japan had left them. The “Republic of Korea” was straight up a fascist dictatorship. And it was a fascist dictatorship of the worst kind, one set by foreigners to suppress the people’s struggle. To this day there are more than 28000 American troops in the puppet ROK. How many Soviet troops were there in the DPRK after the war? How many Chinese troops are there now? The answer in both cases is that there are none. This is another proof that the situation in two Korean states is not in any way comparable. And this is just glossing over the horrific reality of the Korean War in which the DPRK became the most bombed country in history. 635000 tons of bombs were dropped on it, more than in the entire pacific theatre. Its building were leveled and its people suffered monstrous treatment from the ground troops.
So Korea suffered two horrible wars and to this day it has half of its territory under disguised foreign occupation. How could it not be anti-U.S.?
And remember, this experience isn’t unique to Korea. In Asia the U.S. similarly divided China and as the colonies of European powers gained their independence and the global south moved towards Marxism, the U.S. did everything in its power to establish its puppets. This is masked as defending liberty, but how authoritarian or not other countries were was of no concern to the U.S. as long as they signed trade deals which favoured the U.S. and global capitalism.
Is it wonder that in such conditions Korea would formulate its own kind of socialism as Juche? As self-reliance? It is not, and the light of Juche shined as role model for progressive people all over the world in their struggle to establish their own version of socialism.
Juche is often described as the development of Marxism adapting it to the conditions of anti-imperial struggle in the Cold War.
The Cold War is over. A lot has changed in the world and new developments are welcome. Nations around the world continued to suffer due to U.S. interference. Examples are too many to count and I am sure I need not mention them. Everyone hears about them on the news. And many also live this sad reality. It is fitting that this forum is organized by the Arab Committee for Friendship and Solidarity with the Korean People. The Arab people have suffered a great deal. May they establish friendship with the Korean people and achieve similar victories! May African countries recently rising up again against foreign influence achieve their of Juche! May the old alliance of the DPRK and the PRC live on and may the new alliance with Russia strike fear into the hearts of America and all its vassal forces!
Great things are happening in the world today! The least we can do is cheer on the DPRK and say: Manse!
