Posted by By Val Reynoso
In September 2018, South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived in Pyongyang for his third summit with Kim Jong-un in hopes of declaring an end of the Korean war, which although not a legally binding treaty, could assist in the removal of the US troops still occupying South Korea, when the US was responsible for the partition of the Koreas in 1948 to begin with.
U.S. troops have occupied south Korea since 1945; 28,500 are still there. There are 38 U.S. military installations in south Korea, plus one militarized golf course. As the two leaders moved to their cars in Pyongyang, crowds of DPRK citizens waved “Korea is one” flags that displayed a reunited Korean peninsula. The 1950-53 war has never been formally ended with a peace treaty. Instead, it was halted with a truce after three years of combat between American-led United Nations forces defending the South and the Communist troops of the DPRK and China.
That leaves the divided Korean Peninsula still technically at war, although fighting ended 65 years ago. Mr. Moon’s government says that such a declaration will encourage the DPRK to denuclearize by lessening its fear of the American intentions. Mr. Kim, for his part, said he was willing to denuclearize during President Trump’s first term — but only if Washington takes “simultaneous” reciprocal actions, starting with an end-of-war declaration, according to South Korean envoys who met recently with Mr. Kim.
Kim has the correct line, as DPRK has not bombed any other country ever, whereas the US has bombed dozens of countries throughout the decades in its imperialist wars, resulting in millions of casualties with the bulk of them being non-white women and children. During the Korean War of the early 1950s, the US killed 20% of the entire Korean population, as admitted by Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War.
Val Reynoso is a Politics and Human Rights undergrad, journalist and Marxist-Leninist activist.
The Forge News 