South Korea. The former equilibrium of imperialist domination of Asia by U.S. imperialism has been decisively broken. The overthrow of the whole structure of the Far East imperialistcolonialist system is now posed as a strategic fask of our anti-imperialist front of Asian liberation. The liberation struggle throughout East Asia against U.S. and Japanese imperialism and the neocolonialist regimes will have it final and genuine victory through the overthrow of the Imperialist-colonialist system in Far East Asia, The situation is favorable for the victory of the Asian revolution - with a socialist Asia as its ultimate forget. Within this framework, we pose the question of forming our ranks in international solidarity with the South Korean popular masses in their heroic struggle. 2 U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger expressed Just after the victory of the Indochinese revolution, his open dissatisfaction with Moscow and Peking, saying that the "détente" with the Soviet Union and China hod not succeeded in maintaining "regional stability. " This is an indication of the feeling of panic in the White House in the face of the final defeat in Indochina; this defeat immediately followed the failure of the Middle East "peace-keeping" work, the easily foreseeable crisis for the East Asian neocolonialist regimes, and the Portuguese political crisis, which threatens the NATO syslem. 24 korea: the weak link The main lines of U.S. counterrevolutionary strategy since the defeat in indochina are to maintain the relationship of détente with the Soviet Union and China (the relationship with the former being of the first priority) and to strengthen the alliance with the bourgeoisie of West Europe and Japan within the imperialist camp. The Vienna Conference of U.S. and Soviet foreign ministers (May 19) agreed to continue to improve their mutual relations. If has been reported that Kissinger wanted the Soviet Union not to take advantage of the weakened position of U.S. imperialism since its final defeat in Vietnam. In spite of the Vietnamese victory, U.S. President Ford is not changing his plans to visit China this year. On June 18 in a special speech to the "U.S.Japan Society" Kissinger emphasized the particular importance of U.S. -Japanese relations within the general context of world politics. He stated that the U.S. government was determined to keep the "peace and security" of the Korean peninsula as this was vital for Japan and the whole of Asia. Since the victory of the Indochinese revolution, the core of U.S. policy toward East Asia has been to strengthen its alliances with the Japanese bourgeoisie and to maintain the Far East imperialistcolonialist system of U.S. imperialism, Japanese imperialism, and the neocolonialist South Korean regime. U.S. Secretary of Defense Schlesinger has testified in the House of Representatives that the U.S. government considers Japan its absolute defense line; that the U.S. military bases in South Korea are being strengthened as a front line for the defense of Japan; that the U.S. military bases in the Philippines will be maintained. (It can be assumed that Indonesia is included in the "defense plan. ") While the U.S, ruling circles are still considering the new military strategy and system in East Asia, it is very clear that Woshington is determined to maintain the Far East imperialist-colonialist system. The Park regime has lost the last element of political stability.
The report below was presented by Masaru Yokoi, representative of the Korean Solidarity Youth Conference (Japan), to the Second Asian Youth Conference, which was held in Tokyo July 2-5, 1975. The conference, a follow-up to a similar conference held a year before (see INPRECOR, No.8, September 19, 1974), was attended by delegates from Japan, Sri Lanka, Korea, Malaya, Hong Kong, and Australia. The aim of the conference was to discuss the new situation in Asia created by the victory of the Indochinese revolution and to plan anti-imperialist solidarity actions for the coming year. Solidarity with the struggles of the South Korean masses was singled out as one of the central tasks of the anti-imperialist movement in Asia today. The conference concluded with a mass rally attended by about 1,000 people.
This is a real threat to the "security" of Japan. Therefore, U,S. imperialism tends to rely on its military "deterrent" more and more in Far East Asia. North Korean
Premier Kim II Sung's visit to Peking around the time of the fall of Phnom Penh accelerated this tendency of
U.S. imperialism. In spite of repeated statements of the determination to keep the "peace and security" in the
Korean peninsula, Schlesinger has made an open statement that the U.S. government is ready to resort to nuclear weapons in the event of a North Korean invasion of the South," The White House, too, has repeated this same threat against North Korea, In one sense, these provocative statements represent an effort by Washington to assure the Park regime of octive U.S. support in the event of extreme crisis, that is, to close the "credibility gap" between U.S. imperialism and the Park regime
(which is now talking about having its own nuclear weapons). On the other hand, they reflect the deepening crisis of the Park regime and the Far East imperialistcolonialist system. One example of this is the real possibility of the success of a United Nations resolution to abolish the UN military presence in South Korea in the
General Assembly this year.
The Korean peninsula is the focal point for U.S. and Japanese imperialism in defense of their Far East
Asian system after the victory in Indochina, With the
Park regime in extreme political crisis, maintaining the
"peace and security" in the Korean peninsula means nothing more than perpetuating the division of Korea into North and South. From the standpoint of the Far
East Asian popular masses, the question is how to achieve unification based upon the Korean workers and peasants.
The Korean question today is posed os an alternative:
a perpetuation of the division or the unification of the
North and South by the workers and peasants.
This question of the Korean situation will amost certainly become one of the focal points of world politics this autumn. One indication of this is that the UN General Assembly is to take up the Korean question. The result of the UN debate is easily foreseeable — the UN will resolve to dissolve the Command of the UN Army in South Korea. The U.S. government has veto power in the Security Council, but even the U.S. government cannot ignore the general trend. The disappearance of a party of the Korean cease-fire accord is sure to pose the question of the interrelationship between North and South Korea at the level of world politics. The U.S. government will make maximum efforts to perpetuate the division of Korea into North and South within the framework of the international relationship of détente among the U.S., Japan, the Soviet Union, and China. There is already talk about "cross-recognition" (U.S. and Japanese recognition of North Korea in exchange for Soviet and Chinese recognition of the South). But a key question is, How will it be possible to realize political stability for the Park regime? Political stability is indispensible for the integration of the Korean division into the system of détente. An explosion of a revolufionary crisis in South Korea will definitely threaten the very base of the international system itself in Korea. / The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, on the
Pother hand, is conducting energetic diplomatic efforts on this urgent question. North Korean Premier Kim Il Sung's visit to Peking and the Korean-Chinese joint statement are very significant. The premier's visit provided the first opportunity for direct talks between the two governments since Chinese Premier Chou En-lai visited North Korea in 1970. The North Korean delegation was composed of top members
KOREA of the party, government, and army. The visit to China indicated North Korean solidority with the Indochinese revolution and was intended to demonstrate the interrelafionship of North Korea with the revolution (even through the Chinese government). The advance of the Indochinese revolution, shown by the fall of Phnom Penh, objectively strengthened the international position of China and North Korea, It can be said that North Korea intends to utilize the increased international weight of China by establishing an active relationship with the Chinese government. There are two major features to the published Toint statement: First, the strong tone against Japanese militarism that had been clear of the time of Chou En-lai's visit to North Korea in 1970 did not appear at all in the current joint statement. A U.S.-Japanese joint statement issued in 1969 had contained an article saying that both governments were concerned with the "security" of South Korea. In 1970 there was the invasion of Cambodia by the Saigon puppet army and U.S. imperialism. But five years have passed since then. With the ping-pong diplomacy of 1971 and the "normalization" of relations with the U.S. and Japanese governments, Chinese foreign policy embarked on its present line, which fundamentally is to counter the Soviet Union in this region. Peking has made statements explicitly supporting the Japanese bourgeoisie in its campaign For "return of the northern territories" from the Soviet Union and has extended de facto recognition to the U.S. -Japanese Security Treaty. An important feature of the Korean-Chinese joint statement is that it strongly contradicts the fundamental tasks of the Korean masses: to struggle for the unification of Korea based upon the workers and peasants. The joint stotement clearly reflects the line of peaceful coexistence with the japanese bourgeoisie. Second, the Chinese government agreed with North Korean Premier Kim Il Sung's "three principles of autonomy, peace, and national cooperation for aufonomous and peaceful unification." "The unification of Korea must be realized on the basis of the principles and policy presented by Chairman Kim Il Sung." This is a reconfirmation of the Chinese position on the question since the 1972 joint statement of the North and South Korean governments. The North Korean premier has sought and received Chinese reconfirmation to support his government on the Korean question, including the demands to dissolve the UN army command in South Korea and get the U.S, army out of South Korea. On June 2, denying rumors of "North Korean invasion, " Kim Il Sung stated at a press conference that cooperation should be realized through a federated mutual relation, leaving aside the differences between both systems, in order to achieve the reunification of North and South. He also stated that the realization of this federated cooperation will be realizable only after democratic leaders have been elected through a free election in South Korea. Having reconfirmed Chinese support, the North Korean government is conducting energetic diplomatic efforts 26 in preparation for the coming UN General Assembly. The general line of their efforts falls within the framework of an international relationship of peaceful coexistence among the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union, and China. However, the crucial point is the problems that will be posed by a possible explosion of radical political and social struggles of the South Korean workers, peasants, and soldiers generated by the deepening crisis of the Park regime. The coming explosion of popular struggles, inevitably mobilizing the rank-and-file soldiers of the South Korean army, will pose the urgent task of overthrowing the whole anticommunist state system of the Republic of Korea, the fundamental characteristic of which is its politico-military and economic subjugation to U.S. and Japanese imperialism. A popular struggle for a workers and peasants government will immediately raise demands to abolish all the political, military, and economic subjugation to U.S, and Japanese imperialism, to liberate peasants from the exploitation of usurers, and to break up all the anticommunist military-police apparatuses, such as the KCIA (Korean Central Intelligence Agency) and the ormy. When the Park regime is broken by popular struggles, the advance of the workers and peasants political struggle for their own government will powerfully pose the question of overcoming the whole system of a divided Korea and of realizing national unification based on the struggles of the workers and peasants. The national unification of Korea is impossible without overthrowing the South Korean anticommunist regime of the imperialist puppet Park or without breaking up the Japanese neocolonialist domination of the South Korean economy. The workers and peasants struggle for the Korean unification must be carried out through their uncompromising fight against U.S. and Japanese imperialism. An explosion of the South Korean popular struggles will threaten the very basis of all attempts to maintain the Far East Asian network of détente.
• U.S. ond Japanese imperialism work to maintoin th
Far East Asian status quo. The focal point for thei attempts is Korea. Objectively, the governments of the Soviet Union and China stand for integrating the Korean question and resolving it within the framework of their Far East Asian Foreign policy. The central question for U.S. and Japanese imperialism is how this will be possible for the South Korean regime. The Park regime of anticommunism and anti-unification has strengthened its dictatorial police rule, The constitution has been revised according to the needs of the dictatorship. Park Chung Hee personalizes all these powers. The regime is a genuine military-police dictatorship. Under the pressure of heroic resistance by the South Korean mosses, the regime has no maneuvering room to take international considerations into account. The dictatorial nature of the regime has significantly deepened since the establishment of officiol relations between China and the United States and between China and Japan. The crisis of the Park regime has two basic
causes: a profound change in the international relationship of forces and the advance of the tenacious resistance struggle of the South Korean mosses. There are four major elements in the crisis of the Park regime: First, the change in the worldwide relationship of forces between revolution and counterrevolution has an expression in the change of U.S, counterrevolutionary strategy. The normalization of Sino-U.S, and Sino-Japanese foreign relations and the return of China to the UN have worked to change the former Korean relationship of forces represented by the 1948 UN resolution ("The Republic of Korea is the sole legal Government in Korea. "). This means that the South Korean regime has lost its international base for its anticommunism and anti-unification. Finding it impossible to take an international position independent of the politics of U.S. and Japanese imperialism, the Park regime was forced to readjust its policy to the new relationship of forces through the 1972 joint statement of the North and South, This revealed the serious decline of the South Korean international position. Second, Park's economic policy of intensive industrialization has been hit severely by the world economic recession. The policy of industrialization was expected to support the anticommunist and anti-unificationist stand of the regime domestically. The South Korean economy achieved significant growth (second only to the Japanese economy in Asia). But this economic growth was realized within the framework of a relatively stable expansion of the world capitalist economy. It is entirely dependent on the import of foreign capital, the expansion of the export industries, and severe cuts in the living standards of the toiling masses. Now that the world economy is undergoing a deep recession, the South Korean economy is in crisis. Third, the regime has not been able to develop any social base in South Korea itself. Such a base would allow the regime to offset the difficulties arising from the changes in the world political and economic situation. had never contributed to any qualitative improvement "wealth" was entirely absorbed by the 600, 000-strong army and the extremely corrupt bureducratic copitalists closely connected with the apparatus of the regime. The fact that the policy of industrialization had been carried out as a new colonial subordination to the Japanese capitalist economy has created a new socioeconomic base that deepens the traditional anti-Japanese consciousness of the toiling masses; that is, the dominant role of Japanese capital works against the Park regime in the consciousness of the masses. Fourth, because of the above, the regime has no choice but to resort entirely to repressive police rule against the struggles of the toiling masses. Dictatorial police rule has been hardened enormously, especially since 1972. This has fostered the development of tendencies composed of liberal critics of the regime, even among U.S. and Japanese bourgeois circles. Park's deadlyhard police rule has resulted in the regime's isolation in international politics. U.S. and Japanese imperialism cannot ignore this in their current purpose. The case of the kidnapping of Kim Dae Jun (a South Korean opposition figure) by the KCIA during his stay in Japan is revealing. The Japanese bourgeoisie was unable to give full support to the Park regime. Therefore, if is very clear that the Park regime faces severe difficulties. The regime is now making desperate efforts to establish a "national unity" and to normalize its relationship with the Japanese government. Park complains about the lack of credibility of U.S. imperialism and the supposed threat of invasion from the North. " The regime suppresses any expression of antiPark sentiment vic Emergency Decree No.9 and frame-up spy cases. The workers and peasants are forced to be organized by Park's war-time emergency measures - students' national defense bands and civil defense units, for example. All men between the ages of 18 and 50 who are not members of the army, the national reserve army, or the students' national defense bands must be organized into the civil defense units. Members of the units are forbidden to take part in any political activity. The regime wants a 100 percent police-ruled society. The pretext is the supposed "war danger from the North." But it is obvious that all these measures can never stabilize the Park regime. The maximal intensification of the police rule might have an effect in postponing the final explosion of the workers and peasants against the regime, but it is absolutely impossible to destroy the very root of the popular explosion. It is also clear that the regime has no prospect of alleviating the economic crisis. Among the U.S, and Japanese ruling circles there are currents that are preparing themselves for the coming explosion of the revolutionary crisis in South Korea. The Ford-Kissinger administration of U.S. imperialism has no alternative but to support the Park regime. However, because the deepening crisis of the Park regime poses the serious possibility of reducing all the attempts of U.S. and Japanese imperialism to a complete shambles, there is a definite possibility that U.S. and Japanese Imperialism will take preventive measures when the crisis develops beyond a certain point. They will do this because it is in their essential interest to defend their imperialist-colonialist system in Far East Asia and to perpetuate the division of Korea into North and South. Othe normalization of Korean relations with the Japa- Imperialism and its puppet Park are moving toward nese government. In August, Japanese Premier Miki is to visit the United States to discuss with Ford. Following this, the regular conference of Japanese and South Korean ministers is to be held. We will organize our campaign against Miki's visit to the United States and the regular conference of Japanese and South Korean ministers in Japan. We will continue to campaign for the release of all the South Korean political prisoners from the jails of Park's police-rule dictatorship. It is absolutely necessary for us to work consistently to mobilize the Japanese working class to overthrow the whole system of U.S. -Japanese-South Korean politicomilitary alliance and to support the South Korean toiling masses in their fight to overthrow the dictatorial regime of Park. The Korean struggle calls for Asia-wide solidarity, and we must respond to the call. I
SRI