The U.S. empire’s narrative managers don’t want us to see the cracks that have been appearing in Washington’s occupation of Korea. They seek to hide the strains in the relations between Washington and Seoul, and to distract from the harrowing capitalist crisis that could bring the end of bourgeois rule over Korea’s southern half. They also don’t want us to see the sources of hope for peace and reunification which have been appearing, or the broader global power balance shifts that have made these developments possible. If we look at these realities, it becomes clear what actions we can take to further the weakening of imperial control over Korea, and thereby over the rest of the globe.
The USA’s official stance on the Republic of Korea is that it’s a beloved ally and partner, because that’s what needs to be true for the occupation of Korea to remain stable. Underneath the surface-level rhetoric, however, are growing anxieties within the U.S. foreign policy establishment over how reliable of an ally the ROK truly is. These worries were articulated by the Council on Foreign Relations analyst Scott Snyder, who this year summarized why the alliance between Washington and Seoul could fail: “The rise of exclusive nationalism guided by ‘America First’ or ‘Korea first’ leadership that places national self-interest above alliance-based cooperation on shared challenges represents a point of vulnerability for the relationship. Combined with deepening political polarization in both countries, the cohesion and resilience of the U.S.-South Korea alliance may come under threat.”
Though the ROK’s president Yoon Seok-yeol isn’t named here, it’s clear he’s one of these factors that’s making the empire concerned. With Seok-yeol, the imperialists have encountered a problem that’s common among hard-right leaders, which is that their brazenness and zealotry makes them act too independent. This leads the imperialists to get into conflicts with their own puppets. That’s what’s happening now; Juche’s different enemies are fighting amongst each other, which brings closer the outcome where Juche has come to govern all of Korea.
Seok-yeol isn’t even the most ideologically nationalistic politician, yet he’s been showing signs of putting the national interest over the hegemon’s interests. He’s refused to follow many of Washington’s most extreme plans for escalating with the DPRK, which alone is enough to make his government be seen by the U.S. with distrust. The U.S. government has arrested Sue Mi Terry, a former U.S. official who’s assisted in anti-DPRK activities, for supposedly acting as a foreign agent on the ROK’s behalf. You’d think Washington would have no problem with this, any more than it has a problem with U.S. officials having ties with the Zionist state or with Ukraine’s coup regime. Yet the ROK has suddenly come to be treated with the same suspicion as Russia or China, at least in this particular respect. This is because a rift has been happening between Washington and Seoul.
The U.S. will never make this rift public. Yet when we look closely, we can sense its impact on how Washington reacts to developments like Seok-yeol’s recent proposal for reunifying with the North. Over email, the U.S. State Department has told Voice of America that “We support President Yoon's aim to open a path for serious and sustained diplomacy with the DPRK…we are committed to working with allies and partners to promote human rights, accountability and access to information in the DPRK.” Which is a nothing statement; Washington has always preferred that whatever diplomacy happens between the ROK and the DPRK advances its anti-communist regime change goals. Washington’s fear is that this announcement by Seok-yeol could help catalyze a scenario where reunification happens, except the other way around, with the DPRK absorbing the south rather than the ROK absorbing the north.
It’s clear that Seok-yeol hasn’t made this address to the DPRK with the intention of fully ending the provocations against the DPRK; the ROK and the U.S. just carried out new war games where they simulated an invasion of the DPRK, and Seok-yeol included the usual “human rights” lies about the Seok-yeol in his reunification proposal. Yet here’s where that factor of unreliable far-right allies comes in. Because though the State Department will of course say it supports Seok-yeol’s proposal, it’s hard to believe that this was the State Department’s idea. For as anti-communist and reactionary as the contents of Seok-yeol’s statement are, that he made it is indicative of how the SOK now feels a need to become more independent from Washington. To pursue unification of the peninsula, even though Washington purely wants a focus on more escalations between the two states.
The ROK cannot survive in the long term. The ROK, amid its explosive industrial development and its headquartering of massive monopoly finance centers, has been trying to stave off the downfall of this system. The country’s growth has made it all the more vulnerable to collapse, both economic and demographic; it’s not exempt from the irrationality of the market that always exists under a profit-oriented economy, so its “economic miracle” is turning into its undoing.
Its declining birth rate has made for a workforce that’s shrinking, and that’s being forced to work ever longer hours so that it can keep this self-destructive machine running. South Korean capital is cannibalizing itself, sending social undesirables to work in island slave camps while making wage laborers often so alienated that they take their own lives. Amid this tragedy which capitalism has created for the land, the only two paths for it are to become a hollowed out U.S. military base, with an aging population that gets sacrificed while Washington continues its arms buildup; or to overthrow imperialism, and merge with the DPRK so that Juche socialism can rescue Korea’s southern half.
Seok-yeol hopes to pursue a third path, where the ROK becomes more independent from U.S. imperialism while expanding its own capital. But this isn’t truly viable, because as long as the land remains capitalist its crises will keep worsening. This reality that only socialism can save occupied Korea is what gives great potential to the communists in the ROK, however marginalized they are. On this year’s day of celebration for independence from Japan, the ROK-based People’s Democracy Party affirmed this hope:
True liberation has not yet arrived. We celebrated liberation 79 years ago today, but after the US military occupied the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula in September, they outlawed the People’s Committee, the self-governing body of our people, mercilessly suppressed anti-Japanese fighters and democratic figures, and carried out the division of our country. The pro-Japanese traitors of yesterday transformed into pro-American traitors and viciously suppressed anti-Japanese fighters and mercilessly suppressed our people’s righteous struggle. The pro-American and pro-Japanese factions who still hold power and shake it up today are now blindly following the US imperialist aggression forces’ strategy for World War III and running wild, trying to turn our land into a battlefield. True liberation can only be achieved by completely driving out foreign forces from this land and completely eliminating pro-Japanese and pro-American factions, and to do so, we must first overthrow the pro-Japanese and pro-American ringleader Yoon Seok-yeol. Our people will bring an end to the traitor and war-monger Yoon Seok-yeol through the anti-Yoon Seok-nill foreign power struggle, crush the imperialist aggression plots, and bring forward a new world of independence and liberation.
Seok-yeol is not a friend to communists, but his actions are giving us greater potential to defeat both him and the U.S. hegemon. Our government wants to keep its disputes with him hidden because if we see that these weaknesses in this inter-imperialist alliance exist, then the image of a unified post-war liberal international front will be ruined. Everyone will see that the different members of this grouping can have competing interests, and that U.S. foreign policy is based upon alliances of convenience. In their more quiet and internal discussions, the empire’s strategists are admitting how this reality threatens U.S. control over Korea. As well as how certain elements of the U.S. ruling class could undermine the war plans against the DPRK. When Snyder referred to the “America first” forces that could ruin the anti-DPRK alliance, he was talking about Trump, who plans to restart diplomacy with the DPRK if reelected.
Trump isn’t our friend either, but that’s somewhat besides the point. Trump and the political current he represents have potential to disrupt the empire’s escalation schemes for Korea. Which means that an important thing for anti-imperialists to do is refrain from promoting Trump derangement syndrome, while combating the Kamala Harris psyop. The dominant wing of our ruling class prefers for Harris to win, and is propagating the idea that Harris represents an alternative to fascism. In reality, Harris and the Democrats are the most effective vehicles for fascism at this moment; they’re the most invested in advancing this part of the third world war drive, and the repressive campaign that’s coming along with it.
A President Harris would do everything possible to pull the Seok-yeol government in the direction of escalations. Which isn’t going to work perfectly, as this government has made clear there’s a limit to how far it wants to take the provocations. But if the U.S. doesn’t reopen talks with the DPRK, then progress in all areas will be frustrated. And if diplomatic ties are reestablished, then the ROK will have further reason to disobey the U.S. war machine’s wishes.
The most important thing is that our united front against empire keeps working to weaken the hegemon in all respects, aiding in each part of the global resistance against Washington’s aggressions. In a summary of one of its recent writings, the PDP analyzes how this resistance is developing:
The editorial, “The Resistance Has Already Begun”, states, “If the Ukraine War triggered the West Asia (Middle East) War, the Ukraine War and the West Asia War are triggering the East Asia War. And the East Asia War will accelerate the expansion of the war in Eastern Europe and the West Asia War.” It also points out, “During World War II, the Soviet Union formed the World Anti-Fascist Front and led the war to victory.” It also emphasized, “In the anti-imperialist camp, the most thoroughgoing socialist country, North Korea, has become the most powerful nuclear missile power, occupying a key position and playing an important role.” It also emphasized, “The only way to prevent war is to end the Yoon Seok-yeol gang. It is time for our people to rise up in resistance as one.”
The thing that Seok-yeol is trying to do, where he’s making the ROK more of its own actor, is bringing closer the victory of Juche even though that’s the opposite of his intention. He’s made the ROK inconsistent in following U.S. directives for provoking the DPRK, while using his reunification plan to portray the ROK as capable of fighting communism independently. This is strengthening communism and anti-imperialism, opening up a divide between the U.S. and Korean elites during a time of intensifying class struggle. We communists in the USA, and the communists in occupied Korea, can win against our shared foes if we maneuver our conditions correctly. Their big task is to defeat Seok-yeol, while our big task is to defeat the USA’s imperialist dictatorship.
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