Koreans rally against U.S. aggression

Some 100,000 people poured into Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, capital city of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, on June 25. This massive crowd in a country of only 22 million people gathered at a rally and commemoration entitled “June 25, The Day of Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism.” The event marked the anniversary of the day in 1950 when the U.S. started the war which killed millions of Korean people. (isria.com)

Photo: Korean Central News Agency

Revolutionary and anti-imperialist speeches were given by representatives of urban and agricultural workers, youth and student organizations. Pak Pyong Jong, vice-chair of the Pyongyang City People’s Committee, said that the people of North Korea must “wage a staunch struggle to protect the ideology, the system and cause of the DPRK and win a final victory in the confrontation with the U.S.” (Korean Central News Agency, June 25)

The New York Times reported that speakers at the rally referred to the recent testing of atomic weapons as a “nuclear deterrent,” meaning that having such weapons at its disposal for self-defense would protect the DPRK from attack by the U.S. (June 25)

Thousands of troops remain stationed on the border between north and south decades after the Korean War unofficially ended. Successive U.S. administrations have refused to sign a peace treaty.

Three days after the rally, BBC News reported that the DPRK’s economy is growing substantially despite the continued political and economic attacks from the U.S. and its allies. Agricultural production in the DPRK has increased 11 percent this year, giving the people greater nutritional sustainability in the face of brutal sanctions. (June 28)

Despite the attacks from the United States and world capitalism, the DPRK under the leadership of Kim Jong Il continues to resist the attempts to reinstate colonialism and imperialist oppression and fights to maintain its system of socialism and self-reliance.