BAYAN Welcomes Meeting of US President Donald Trump and DPRK Leader Kim-Jong Un
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) welcomes the meeting of US President Donald Trump and DPRK Leader Kim-Jong Un in a Summit to be held today, June 12, in Singapore. The world hopes that the Summit will aid in efforts to end the long drawn-out conflict between North and South Korea. Bayan supports all positive moves to achieve the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.
Earlier in April 2018, a Summit was held between the leaders of North and South Korea, which led to the signing of an agreement to “reconnect blood relations, to cooperate to eliminate military tensions, and to establish a permanent and solid peace.”
Trump’s agenda for the summit is to call on the DPRK to dismantle its nuclear program.
On the other hand, DPRK leader Kim has hinted that the DPRK is willing to do so, provided that the whole Korean peninsula be denuclearized; meaning, that the US withdraws its 28,500 US troops and military bases in South Korea, and to end provocative US war exercises. Both Japan and South Korea have been under the nuclear umbrella of the US.
As an exercise of sovereignty, the DPRK had developed and tested its nuclear weapons to defend itself against US aggression. In the world today, the US has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons of mass destruction. It has operationally deployed 2,126 strategic nuclear warheads out of approximately 5,200 active warheads in its total nuclear weapons stockpiles. The US has a total of 9,200 warheads.
Lest it be forgotten, the US invaded North Korea from1950–1953 in a war that resulted in the death of approximately 600,000 civilians and 400,000 soldiers and the destruction of the towns and cities.
The leader of the DPRK at that time — Kim Il Sung — wanted to unify the whole Korean Peninsula after it was divided by a group of nations allied with the US. The US intervened because it wanted to contain the advance of socialism in the region. Bayan supports the efforts of the DPRK and the Korean people in their decades-long effort to end their conflict and to bring about peaceful reunification. We support the call and demand of the DPRK and the Korean people for the removal of US troops and weapons in South Korea. We wish for the success of the Summit and look forward to great advances in the Korean people’s cause of just and lasting peace. ###
