Report on Korean War (1)

Withdrawal of U.S. Hostile Policy towards DPRK - Indispensable Prerequisite for 

Peace and Stability on Korean Peninsula

- Institute for Disarmament and Peace of DPRK Foreign Ministry -

Pyongyang, June 25 (KCNA) -- 70 years have elapsed since the bursts of gunfire of war were heard on this land.

The Korean War forced by the United States inflicted painful scars and tremendous human and material losses upon the Korean people. Continuing into this moment is the suffering of national division whereby kinsfolk of the same blood are compelled to live apart.

As the Korean nation still suffers from the heartrending wounds of war, it is stronger than any other nation in respect of its cherished desire to live on a peaceful land without war, and has long persevered in its efforts to realize the desire, but in vain.

Its underlying cause is the sinister design, that is, the U.S. hostile policy towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The Institute for Disarmament and Peace, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK Thursday releases this paper with a view to lay bare before the whole world the truth behind the Korean War ignited by the U.S. in the 1950s of the last century and to reveal the aggressive and predatory nature of the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK, which imposes immeasurable misfortunes and pains on the entire Korean nation.
     
1. The Korean War was an inevitable product of the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK
    
The Korean War is a criminal war of aggression which was systematically prepared and provoked by the U.S. under thoroughgoing plans to stifle the DPRK by force of arms and hold in its hands the Asia and the rest of the world.

Even though the U.S. continues to fabricate all sorts of tricky information designed to cover up its aggressive crimes of having provoked the Korean War, the truth of history can neither be covered up nor obliterated.

Since more than one century ago, the U.S. adopted it as its state policy to invade and dominate Korea, a gateway to the Asian continent, and desperately pursued the hostile policy towards Korea for its implementation.

The U.S. ruling circles presented the "proposal on opening Korea" to the Congress in February 1845 and perpetrated a series of incidents such as intrusions of ship "General Sherman" in 1866, ship "Shenandoah" and ship "China" respectively in 1868, and large-scale armed invasion in 1871.

After signing the "Taft-Katsura Agreement" in 1905, the U.S. backed the occupation and colonial rule by Japan over Korea while systematically attempting to turn it into its eventual colony. By the end of the World War II, it perfected its plan to occupy our country.

In the letter sent in March 1951 to Joseph Martin, Senator of the U.S. Congress, MacArthur, the then Commander of the U.S. Forces in the Far East, wrote:
…
"If we lose this war to Communism in Asia, the fall of Europe is inevitable.

By conquering all of Korea we can cut into pieces the one and only supply line connecting Soviet Siberia and South …, and control the whole area between Vladivostok and Singapore. Nothing would then be beyond the reach of our power." (Herschel Meyer, "Modern History of America", p.148)

In a word, the U.S. regarded Korea as a "dagger" to cut off a "lump of meat" which meant Asia.

Korean War was badly needed for the American munition monopolies which had been too fattened by piles of money they had amassed during the World War II.

The economic crisis which had started in the U.S. from the end of 1948 became more acute by 1949.

The industrial production plummeted by 15 percent compared to the previous year, the prices nose-dived, and the investment in machinery and equipment reduced sharply, which resulted in the bankruptcy of over 4,600 companies and the increase of the unemployed to 6 million during the first half of year 1949 alone. 

The revenue of the monopolies shrunk from US$ 36.6 billion to US$ 28.4 billion during the period between September 1948 and March 1949.

Soon after the Korean War broke out, American publications headlined that "the business called Korea revived the economy" and "the outbreak of the Korean War exorcised the evil of recession that had been agonizing the American commerce since the end of the World War II." This fact speaks itself that a "special recipe", i.e. a war, was needed for the U.S. at that time in order to rid itself of the economic crisis.

This is how the U.S. chose, pursuant to its strategy for world hegemony, Korea as a "unique point of tangency between the American military system and the Asian mainland", an "ideological battleground", a "test ground" of showdown for realizing world domination, and also as the only way to get out of the economic crisis after the World War II.

The true aggressive colours of the U.S. who took the lead in preparing for the Korean War are also clearly revealed by working out the war scenario.

The plan of the U.S. to occupy Far East was divided into three phases: The first phase begins with the Korean War (A) and in the second phase the war is expanded into China (B) and in the final phase, Siberia is occupied (C). The start of operation was slated for 1949.

A Japanese magazine dated September 1964 disclosed the story behind the scene by citing a former colonel of the Imperial Japanese Army, who had been involved in this conspiracy for the war, as follows:

"The operation was divided into three phases. First, 10 divisions comprising the U.S. Army and south Korean Army are deployed along the 38th Parallel, and two operation zones, i.e. the east zone and the west zone are formed. The west front directly advances to Pyongyang and a landing operation at northern Pyongyang with the cooperation of the Navy and Air Forces is conducted in parallel with it. The east front chooses Yangdok as its left flank and ensures the connection between Pyongyang and Wonsan and its right flank will march directly towards Wonsan. Here again, a landing operation at northern Wonsan is conducted by a naval unit. These two fronts advance together up to River Amnok and break through the Sino-Korean border. This was the first phase of the operation and a detailed plan based on data provided by the former Japanese Army was worked out. Next, the operation enters the second phase the moment the Sino-Korean border is broken through, followed by participation of the Japanese army and the UN forces. This was the sequence."

With a thoroughgoing plan and concrete preparation, the U.S. at last ignited the Korean War by inciting the south Korean puppet army at 4 a.m., June 25, 1950.

On the eve of the war, Robert, the then head of the U.S. military advisory group in south Korea gabbled as follows: "We have chosen the 25th and this explains our prudence. It is Sunday. It's the Sabbath for both the United States and south Korea, Christian states. No one will believe we have started a war on Sunday. In short, it is to make people believe that we are not the first to open a war."

After the provocation of the Korean War, the U.S. manoeuvred cunningly to cover up its true colour as aggressors.

On June 25, the U.S. asked for convening the United Nations Security Council meeting, and forged the UNSC "resolution" 82 which designated the DPRK as "aggressor" and on July 7, it forged yet another UNSC "resolution" 84 which "recommended" to make the allied forces available to "a unified command under the U.S." and "asked" the U.S. to designate its commander and "authorized" the usage of UN flag.

The DPRK was thus termed a "provoker" of the war and the Fatherland Liberation War of the Korean people an "aggression", and the "UN forces" made an appearance as a belligerent party to the war.

The previous UN Secretary-Generals officially admitted that the "UN Command" is not a UN-controlled organ but purely a war tool of the U.S.

In June 1994, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the then UN Secretary-General, admitted that "the UNSC did not establish the 'Unified Command' as a subsidiary organ under its control and it became to be placed under the authority of the U.S." (June 24, 1994 Letter from the UN Secretary-General to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK)

In December 1998, Kofi A. Annan, the then UN Secretary-General, said that "none of my predecessors have granted any authorization to any State to make the use of the name of the UN" when he had referred to the forces and command dispatched by the U.S. into the Korean War. (December 21, 1998, Letter from the UN Secretary-General to the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK)

On July 27, 2004 and March 6, 2006, the UN spokesperson confirmed that the "'UN Command', despite its name, is not the army of UN, but a U.S.-led force."

It is not the UN but the U.S. which has the power to appoint the "UN commander." It is not the UN but the U.S. administration which has absolute power to decide on either reduction or increase of the U.S. forces in south Korea that are wearing the helmets of the "UN forces."

Despite all these facts, the UN flag is still brazenly hanging in Panmunjom, which is the shame on the part of the United Nations.

This fiercest war ended in the miraculous victory of the heroic Korean people who were under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung. Yet the human and material losses suffered by our nation were indeed tremendous.

The nefarious atrocities of massacre committed by the U.S. imperialists in particular cannot be detailed on this short paper.

The U.S. imperialists, who had wormed into Sinchon County in October 1950, committed all kinds of atrocities of massacre against 35,380-strong innocent residents, equivalent to 25% of the County's population, in 50-plus days. They burnt the innocent residents to death, drowned them in reservoir, shot to death, burnt them on the firewood, ripped apart the limbs of living persons and cut off the abdomens of pregnant women. These facts lay bare before the world that the U.S. imperialists are no less than wild beasts and bloodthirsty wolves in human shape.

According to an official statistics alone, the U.S. imperialists, during the Korean War, killed more than 1.23 million people in the northern half of Korea and more than 1.24 million people in south Korea, and attempted to eliminate our nation by mobilizing even the chemical and germ weapons.

In 1951, an investigation team of the Women's International Democratic Federation, which investigated the atrocities of the U.S. imperialists on the site, wrote in its report: "The massacres and tortures committed by the U.S. troops in the areas of their temporary occupation are more atrocious than those committed by Hitler Nazis in Europe."

Openly clamouring that they would "wipe out 78 cities and towns of north Korea from the map" and "leave nothing intact", the U.S., throughout the Korean War, dropped almost 600,000 tons of bombs and napalm on the northern half of Korea, which are 3.7 times the amount of bombs dropped on the Japanese mainland during the Pacific War.

Severely destroyed owing to the atrocities of the U.S. imperialists during the Korean War were 50,941 factories and enterprises, 28,632 buildings of schools at all levels, 4,534 buildings of medical facilities including hospitals and clinics, 579 buildings of scientific research institutions, 8,163 buildings of press and culture organs, 2,077,226 dwelling houses. Also 563,755 hectares of farming land got damaged, and the total reduced area of paddy and non-paddy fields amounted to 155,500 hectares.

When the war was over, there was nothing left but ashes, and the U.S. bragged that Korea would not recover even after 100 years.

All these facts eloquently show that the U.S. imperialists are the very provokers of the Korean War and the sworn enemy of the Korean people, and prove that peace will never settle on the Korean peninsula as long as the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK persists.