editorial

The Day of International Peace (September 21) was set by reflecting the desire of the peoples in many countries to live in a peaceful environment free from domination and oppression and achieve continued development and lasting prosperity. But their aspirations have not yet been fulfilled.  

It is because the dominationist forces including the US have plunged the world into a vortex of endless wars.

Armed conflicts occurred 248 times in 153 regions of the world from the end of the Second World War to 2001 and 201 of them were started by the US. It also fostered countless armed conflicts and confrontation in all parts of the world such as supporting the proxy wars and delivering weapons and ammunition while instigating civil wars of other countries.

The US ambition for world hegemony is the root cause destroying the global peace.

In recent years alone the US-led dominationist forces have made persistent moves towards proxy war in an attempt to maintain its hegemonic position in the Middle East, Europe and other regions.

In Europe the US persists in a military offensive to weaken Russia by putting up the Ukrainian puppets. And in the Middle East it continues to incite Israel to confrontation with regional countries to push the whole region into a crucible of war. 

The focus of aggression of the US for world hegemony is the Asia-Pacific region. According to information available, the Eurasian continent comprising the Asia-Pacific is the region in which the US military interventions are most frequent in the world. Those countries, which suffered the largest numbers of humanitarian crises due to the wars started by the US, are also in the Asia-Pacific region. As the US and its following forces planning to maintain their hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region stick to the use of military power, the region has become one of the areas where the arms race and confrontation between camps are the tightest in the world and an unstable one where the danger of the outbreak of a nuclear war looms larger by the minute.

To build up the self-reliant military strength of a country is the way to defend its sovereignty and dignity and maintain peace.

The best way to repulse the aggressors who run wild depending on their tremendous military strength is to possess the military strength great enough to overwhelm the enemy. To continue to enhance its own strength is the only way to oppose the hegemony-seeking power policy of the dominationist forces and defend the sovereignty and peace of the country. 

The DPRK has firmly defended the dignity and peace of the country and people for over 70 years in the Korean peninsula in which a hair-trigger situation has constantly been created which could lead to an outbreak of nuclear war at any time and the danger of nuclear war has loomed larger with each passing day. It is because it steadily built up its self-defensive military capabilities both in quality and quantity to cope with the moves of the US and its following forces to provoke a war.

Peace is not granted by anyone and so it should be defended by the country’s own strength.