Los Angeles protest: ‘Peace in Korea now!’

Even as thousands of U.S. soldiers, sailors, Marines and Air Force members are engaging in war “games” off the coast of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, many people in the United States are demanding that Washington stop its aggressive actions against the northern half of Korea.

To underscore this sentiment, the International Action Center in Los Angeles was joined by members of Minjok Tongshin, the Korean Immigrant Workers Alliance and other Korea solidarity organizations on March 14 in a lunch-time picket at the U.S. Armed Forces Recruiting Center on Hollywood Boulevard. Their demands included “Peace on the Korean Peninsula now” and a call for Washington to sign a peace treaty with the DPRK.

Korea has been divided for more than half a century. The U.S. led a three-year war against the DPRK in 1950-53, but finally had to abandon its goal of destroying the socialist government in the north after being fought to a standstill. However, both Democratic and Republican administrations have ever since refused to negotiate a peace treaty with the north. Only a precarious armistice agreement has been in place.

Reacting to continued U.S. belligerence and sanctions, the DPRK recently said it would no longer recognize the armistice, and warned that it was prepared to act if the U.S. and its south Korean puppets violated its territory.