Asia News on Aug. 14 quoted a speaker at an August demonstration who said, “Conservative forces of Yoon Suk Yeol and those in the U.S. are frantically conducting aggressive war drills in sky, land and sea and are about to start large military exercises aimed at the invasion of North Korea. We must stamp out this behavior of anti-reunification forces.”
Thanks for posting this. I believe that quote comes from someone in the National Teachers Union, they can be seen speaking (with English voiceover) in the video in this Press TV video.
Another worker in that video says: “We not only oppose the war exercises, but we want the U.S. Forces Korea, which is actually controlling and interfering with the Korean peninsula to leave this land. We believe that only then will the eighty million Koreans from both north and south be able to live peacefully.”
Also, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has a “Central Unification Vanguard” Here is a video they made a few months ago, where they went to some US military area and put up a bunch of “Yankee Go Home” signs, here is another one of them having a rally. Note that the National Security Law forces people to be somewhat vague in how they express their stance on the reunification issue and they may risk jail time depending on what they say about it or about DPRK.
This article is in Korean but it makes the observation that “Some analysts say that the number of missiles and shells that have recently fallen on the Korean Peninsula is greater than that of Ukraine, which is at war, during the same period.” (In references to the various military exercises undertaken since Yoon became president earlier this year plus DPRK’s responses to those provocations; the article provides a long list/timeline of the back and forth that has been going on).
I think people are especially upset by Yoon’s aggressive policy toward DPRK (and his bootlicking policy toward the US) because under the previous president some de-escalating agreements and gestures were made that seemed to be going on a good direction (at least in terms of reducing the provocations somewhat). But Yoon, who is unpopular for numerous reasons, has ramped up the provocation tactics and gone directly against agreements to suspend military exercises (the previous president was not perfect about that either as he was a liberal after all, but he was less brashly aggressive in comparison to Yoon). There are lots of protests against his administration lately, and signs that say “End the US-ROK-Japan military alliance” “Suspend military exercises immediately” “Stop practicing for war” are a common sight among the various other grievances people are expressing.
What is the context of the “Roman salute” they were doing in some parts? Is it to call the US fascists? I support their civil disobedience and cause. Just don’t speak Korean and want to make sure I understand without just guessing.
Re-unification will only ever happen (peacefully at least) if the US is made to leave and stop doing everything to keep divisions being built upon. More and more South Koreans are seeing how they are being oppressed by the ruling elites/families in the hyper-capitalist systems. They (and the Japanese being another close example) in this case aren’t bothering to have families or kids because costs, time, and the ever expanding invasion of their lives by corporate greed (the US and other “first world” nations are seeing similar of course). Some are giving into the defeatism of all efforts to stop it as being pointless. But a growing number of all ages are seeing through the lies and doing whatever small things they can to take back their lives and the lives of others. The masses of Korea should be the ones to decide how re-unification should happen.
We need more and more nations and their masses to demand an end to US imposed sanctions. Along with its ever constant stationing of military and other elements of the Military Industrial Complex that require constant fear to keep feeding their greed.
Yes, good points. In regard to the US military presence in ROK (as well as the official US operational control of ROK’s military in war time), people have of course been opposing it for a long time, and one of the workers’ parties of ROK has made a statement saying that the withdrawal of US troops is the main struggle of the left in south Korea, as every other issue on the peninsula is basically contingent on getting US presence out of Korea. The views of the general public are more mixed and more infused with anti-communism/lacking class consciousness, as one would expect. For example on that video there are comments saying “Why is a labor union opposing the US-ROK exercises? lol” “What does a labor union have to do with the military?” etc.
At this stage, the left of south Korea generally demands the withdrawal of US presence to give ROK sovereignty, and the repeal of the National Security Law which criminalizes certain left political positions and statements. In terms of reunification of Korea, there are a variety of opinions about how to do that, some of which are more about peace than unification. Reunification on DPRK’s terms is of course considered a far-left position and afaik it is illegal to advocate for. Peaceful coexistence of both nations is a popular position held even by some liberals. The 6.15 declaration signed by ROK and DPRK’s leaders in 2000 is a document people commonly point to as a guideline for their vision of the future of Korea. The big points in it are that the issue must be solved by Koreans themselves, not by outside powers, and that either a confederation (proposed by ROK) or a “loose form of federation” (proposed by DPRK) are the options they should peacefully work toward, and begin by promoting economic, cultural, etc. cooperation and exchanges (which they did do a little bit of in 2018 but several setbacks have occurred since then).
I’m actually not sure why they use the Roman salute. It may be to make a statement, but it may also just be the salute they are using. At most protests I usually see people using a bent arm and fist rather than Roman salute. I’ll keep an eye out for any reason of why they use it. Also, to shed more light on their position, the song playing in the background while they do that has lyrics saying let’s wipe out US imperialism all over the world, the end of the US empire is not far away, the enemy of the whole world is the US imperialist, etc. (Lyrics)
Thank you so much for your response and the information! I hadn’t ever heard about the “6.15 Declaration” before, and I will need to learn more about/read it. The lyrics are true and I stand with them from inside the empire and as an internationalist. The idea of either a confederation or a federation between the DPRK and ROK sounds like a really good starting point for standing together against just allowing the US to be the self appointed decider of what will and won’t happen or is allowed.
Please do reply or DM me if you happen to find out any additional info about the salute stuff (if you do and happen to think about it of course). They may mean everything against fascism, but it could be bad “optics” for the movement with regards to making the whole conversation about it and not the purpose they are fighting. Especially given the growing and open fascists giving it in Europe and in the US these days.
