The Symbol of Peace
This month marks the 74th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, as it is called in the West, or the Great Fatherland Liberation War, as it is called by the Korean people whose heroic nation, in this cruel and bloody armed conflict, fought a courageous and determined struggle to repel foreign invaders who came to Korea from across the Pacific Ocean.
In June 1950 the United States-led imperialist allied forces invaded the less than two years old Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. During the war the aggressors killed millions of innocent Korean civilians and totally razed to the ground DPRK’s cities and villages. Many years later, Hungarian writer Tibor Meray, who had been a war correspondent in Korea, was talking during an interview for a British TV channel about the scale of US-inflicted destruction: “We traveled in moonlight, so my impression was that I am traveling on the moon, because there was only devastation”. He also said that everything which moved in the DPRK was a military target of the US forces, recalling that peasants in the fields were often machine gunned by American pilots who seemed to be amused to shoot the targets which moved.
Indeed, everything that moved and everything that stood on People’s Korea’s land was a target of the imperialist invaders. Korean hospitals, schools, dwelling houses and other buildings around the country were bombed into rubble by the US military. During 3 years-long war, the US dropped more bombs on Korea than all the bombs dropped on Europe during World War 2 on both sides and dropped more napalm on Koreans than it did later on Vietnamese. It also waged germ warfare and chemical warfare against them. Its hundreds of planes dropped all types of germ bombs over 169 areas of the DPRK in the period from January to March 1952. And it used chemical weapons prohibited by the international convention across the DPRK from February 1951 to July 1953.
The United States committed against the Korean people a genocide so horrific that it goes beyond human comprehension, but it couldn’t break their will, it couldn’t win a war against them.
Starting the war against the Korean people, US policymakers were probably convinced that conquering the DPRK was an easy task. After all new independent Korean state was so young and not well-armed and Koreans broke the chains of Japanese colonial oppression just shy of five years earlier. Could a country like theirs stand any chance in a confrontation with the world’s superpower, the US? But Americans were badly mistaken. The brave army and people of the DPRK, led by their great leader Kim Il Sung, a gifted strategist and brilliant commander, did the impossible, victoriously pushing the invader out of their land. The world saw an unprecedented miracle, the US was defeated for the first time in history.
Sadly, The US hasn’t learned anything from its defeat. It rejected DPRK’s appeals and efforts to ensure lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the region and has never stopped its constant military threats against the country. During the Korean War, it threatened the Korean people with nuclear weapon and it has never stopped it. For decades, the US military has tried to terrorize the DPRK, conducting extremely provocative war games on the country’s borders. It still does it today, even intensifying such behaviors. Constant deployment of the nuclear strategic assets in the Korean peninsula and organizing there all kind of aggressive military drills with the participation of special units, under war scenarios aimed at “end of regime”, “decapitation” and “occupation of Pyongyang” are only a few of the many examples of US’s reckless anti-DPRK actions.
More than 20 years ago, the Bush administration labelled several countries that didn’t agree to subordinate to the US’s whims as parts of the “axis of evil”. Among them was the DPRK, and among them was Iraq as well. Less than a year later the US invaded Iraq, trying to justify it with false accusations against the latter. The US declared the DPRK also as a target of so-called “preemptive nuclear strike”.
The infamous American politician John Bolton, when he held the post of the US ambassador to the UN, was once asked about US policy toward the DPRK and openly pointed to a book titled “The End of North Korea” saying, “That is our policy.” It’s one of many American politicians’ statements that clearly show what United States’ attitude toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is like. The imperialist superpower still can’t accept DPRK’s existence, the existence of the independent socialist state that never compromises on its sovereignty, always stands for justice, and prioritizes happiness and dignity of the Korean people instead of satisfying interests of foreign forces.
The extreme danger of the US’s brigandish attitude toward the DPRK is obvious as it extremely increases the risk of another war on the Korean Peninsula, which would mean an unimaginable tragedy, the death of many millions of innocent people, and could spread to the entire region or even potentially turn into a world war.
Fortunately, the DPRK – small yet amazingly strong and the most admirable country in the world – with its own efforts, in spite of any obstacles, created a reliable guarantee of preventing war. The country’s unwavering determination to protect its sovereignty and peace and to ensure that the Korean people will never again have to suffer and perish among the ruins of their cities and villages has yielded brilliant results. In other words, the DPRK has built a powerful nuclear deterrent force.
Chairman Kim Jong Il, the great successor to President Kim Il Sung, just as his predecessor, devoted all his life to the Korean people. And he performed immortal exploits to ensure their safety and happiness as he led the DPRK to become a nuclear weapons state.
Under the wise leadership of the respected Marshal Kim Jong Un, another peerlessly great man, the glorious efforts to bolster up the DPRK’s self-defensive nuclear deterrent has been brilliantly continued. The country conducted more underground nuclear tests, achieved complete success in the H-bomb test and many times successfully test fired nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, proving that the entire US mainland is now in their range.
In the past, the DPRK’s land was in the range of the US nuclear weapons, but not vice versa, however it is not the case anymore.
Today the DPRK is steadily advancing along its course of development as scheduled by itself, building a happy and civilized life for its people. At the same time the country is also a nuclear power fully capable to powerfully retaliate against the formidable imperialist enemy in the event of the latter’s aggression. This new balance of power provides a firm guarantee that the imperialists will never ever again dare to invade the DPRK. These are admirable and noble achievements for safeguarding the state’s sovereignty, the safety and interests of the Korean people. But also a great contribution to the common good of other nations, considering that a potential escalation of conflict on the Korean Peninsula could have a dire consequences for the region and other parts of the world. Protecting peace and stability benefit all of them.
The respected Marshal Kim Jong Un, the great leader of the Korean people, is working heart and soul to provide them with good living conditions, achieving brilliant results, in spite of imperialist sanctions and any difficulties. Under his outstanding leadership the DPRK is a country where people receive medical services free of charge at hospitals furnished with modern medical facilities, where children and youth are provided with high quality free education at all levels and free possibility to develop their passions and talents through extracurricular activities. A country where even housing is free and where the state keeps building beautiful and modern public facilities and dwelling buildings in cities and villages and realizing all kinds of other projects to give the people a happy and civilized life. The Marshal personally takes care of the people and with a bright smile on his face takes children into his arms while visiting various places and giving field guidance. It is very visible that he is the tender-hearted father of the people who genuinely loves them. Another indescribably priceless gift that he gave them is the further development of the reliable nuclear deterrent that protects their lives and beautiful dreams.
As the respected Marshal Kim Jong Un said, the arch-enemy of the DPRK’s nuclear forces is the war itself. It is impossible not to admit, that the laudable and responsible efforts of the country led by him effectively prevent the war from happening.
Can weapons be a symbol of peace? Yes, the DPRK’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles are a genuine symbol of peace.
Marta Grelak (Poland)
