Migrant groups in South Korea: ‘No to war of aggression in the Korean Peninsula’

The following statement was jointly signed by the Federation of Filipino Workers Association in Korea, the Southern Tagalog Organization, the Association of Filipino Workers and the Osan Migrant Center on April 1st.  The groups say that they are responding to “the intensifying tremors of war of aggression in the Korean Peninsula between the United States of America, Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).”  The International Migrant Alliance helped release the statement.  

We are individuals and migrant workers’ organizations in South Korea who are greatly alarmed and concerned on the possibility of eruption of war of aggression in the Korean Peninsula. We, in the strongest terms, oppose and resist any attempt from the contending countries and states to start a direct armed confrontation and the use of both conventional and high tech war armaments including nuclear weapons to achieve their political-military and economic ends.

The provocations through the Joint US-ROK military exercises should be stopped now. The DPRK responses to the provocations, as we understand them, are all on the defensive, for since the Armistice of 1953, the US-ROK joint military exercises have always intended to overthrow the government of the DPRK.

We recall that on March 11, 2013, the Joint U.S.-ROK began its annual “Key Resolve” and “Foal Eagle” war games. These, and the “Ulchi” games that took place in August 2012, rehearse invasions of North Korea for several months each year. Far from creating security in the region as those governments claim they do, these games deliberately provoke and stir up animosity towards the DPRK, extend the state of civil war, and promote war as a solution to a conflict instigated and perpetuated by U.S. imperialism with the support of other imperialist countries.

This heightened tension has reached an alarming level and people are anticipating at any time war will break out, but it seems that the ROK and the diplomatic communities in Seoul are just waiting to evacuate their nationals and remain silent over the critical situation in the Korean Peninsula.

Very recently, on the first day of April, the advanced, radar-evading F-22 Raptors were deployed to Osan Air Base — the main U.S. Air Force base in the ROK — from Japan to support ongoing bilateral exercises, the U.S. military command in the ROK said in a statement that [urged] the DPRK to restrain itself.

On March 28, the U.S. flew two radar-evading B-2 Spirit bombers on practice runs over the ROK. They flew from the U.S. and back in what appeared to be the first exercise of its kind, designed to show America’s ability to conduct long-range, precision strikes “quickly and at will,” the U.S. military said. Upon knowing of this, Kim Jung Un, leader of the DPRK, responded swiftly by signing the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the Korean People’s Army, ordering them to be on standby for fire so that they may at any time strike the U.S. mainland, its military bases in the operational theatres in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in the ROK, media sources have disclosed.

Since coming into power in 2009, the ruling Senuri/Grand National Party, U.S.- subservient government of the ROK has been undoing all the progress to reunify the peninsula and bring about peace worked out by the previous liberal governments, by churches, NGOs and communities. Continuous war games in recent years have caused an escalation of tensions. They have caused the DPRK to hold underground nuclear tests. This year, in fact, the persistent engagement in war exercises has prompted the DPRK to renounce the July 1953 Armistice Agreement and stand ready to make a counterattack at any time as of March 11. The situation today is therefore extremely volatile.

THEREFORE:

We call on the governments of the sending migrant workers and the Republic of Korea as sovereign states to make a resolute resolve and appropriate actions to stop the war games and de-escalate the tensions in the Korean Peninsula.

We call on the government of the United States of America (USA), President Barack Obama, the Congress and Senate to act upon new foreign policies that are based on lasting justice and peace and prevent the U.S. political-military institutions in pursuing military solutions to problems around the world, but rather put the basic humanity of peoples and nations as the top priority.

We support a just and peaceful resolution of the present crisis in the Korean Peninsula by ending the Korean War once and for all with a peace treaty, removing of the United States military from the region, and reunification through dialogue and political process.

We call on all justice- and peace-loving members of the global community to raise their voices against the war of aggression of the United States and other imperialist countries and to support all efforts and actions to evolve a new, just and peaceful world.