Opinion

Korea sits in the eastern part of Asia between 43°00’33” and 33°06’45” North Latitude.

However, it is now divided into north and south with the 38th parallel as a boundary.

How then did the history of tragic territorial and national division begin?

Unilateral ‘assignment line’

The US imperialists had long since spotted the Korean peninsula as the main direction of their Asia strategy. They thought that if they occupied the Korean peninsula, they could advance into the continent with it as a springboard and, furthermore, dominate the whole world.

For this reason, they adopted it as their strategy to occupy Korea in place of the Japanese imperialists at the end of the Second World War. At the time Korea was under the Japanese military occupation (1905-1945). But the prevailing situation did not allow it. It would take scores of days for the US troops to enter Korea, as they were stationed in Okinawa 600 miles from Korea and the Philippines 1 500 to 2 000 miles away from it.

The Korean People’s Revolutionary Army launched the final offensive operation for national liberation on August 9 1945 and the Soviet army joined the anti-Japanese war, creating conditions to force the Japanese imperialists into their early surrender and liberate the whole of Korea at an early date. The US was confounded.

When it became clear that it could not occupy Korea single-handedly, the US finally discussed a practical solution to occupy even half of the Korean territory. The then US President, Truman, ordered US Army officers to draw an “assignment line” between the US and the Soviet Union to accept the surrender of the Japanese army in the proper area on the Korean peninsula.

In mid-August 1945, the three-department coordination committee of the US Department of State, Department of the Army and Department of the Navy set the 38th parallel on the Korean peninsula as a temporary “assignment line” between the Soviet Union and the United States for the acceptance of surrender and disarmament of the Japanese army, and it was announced as “General Order No. 1”.

As a result, the “assignment line” became the Military Demarcation Line which divided the Korean territory and the division line which split the nation into two.

38th parallel turns into frontline

After Korea’s liberation from Japanese military rule, the DPRK demanded the Soviet Union and the United States withdraw their troops from Korea in an effort to prevent the crisis of national division, reunify the country independently and build a democratic and independent sovereign state. Accordingly, the Soviet troops, who had been stationed in the areas north of the 38th parallel, were completely withdrawn after the establishment of the DPRK in the northern half of Korea on September 9 1948.

But the US, which occupied south Korea militarily in September 1945, set up lot of army posts in different places along the 38th parallel and saying that if the US forces withdrew, a “civil war” might break out in Korea, it instigated the south Korean puppets to commit armed provocations more than 5 150 times in the areas along the 38th parallel from 1947 to June 1950 in order to make such excuses.

With a view to occupying the DPRK and achieving world domination, the US imperialists started the Korean war on June 25 1950, but they were struck with horror by the indomitable struggle of the Korean people to defend the sovereignty and dignity of the country and the genuine new world of the people.

An armistice agreement was signed at Panmunjom on July 27 1953.

However, the US imperialists committed numerous military provocations including the “Panmunjom incident” in the areas along the 38th parallel after the war. In the late 1970s, they incited the south Korean puppets to build concrete walls in the about 250km section along the 38th parallel.

Ignition point of war  

The US has persistently increased the moves to ignite the fuse of a war against the DPRK in the areas along the Military Demarcation Line for decades.

Recently, it has reached an extremely reckless stage, assuming the character of NATO’s expansion to the East.

World media and military experts express serious concern over it, saying that the triangular military alliance the US, Japan and the south Korean puppets are forging is little short of an offensive war system built according to the US’ Indian-Pacific strategy, the Korean peninsula has become the forefront of the US new-Cold War strategy, the crisis on the Korean peninsula, the forefront of hostility and confrontation, cannot but worsen and the uneasy confrontation continues, under which it is not strange even if an armed conflict breaks out at any moment.

Against this backdrop, the US has deployed a super-large strategic nuclear submarine in the waters of the south Korean puppet area for the first time in over 40 years to push ahead with a nuclear war scenario targeting the DPRK at the practical stage.

If the United States attempts to use armed forces against the DPRK, they will have to face a crisis they have never imagined and experienced so far and the Korean people will surely prevent the security of our state from being endangered any more at any cost, no matter what sacrifice or price.

Gone are the days when the Korean peninsula had to swallow the pain of national division imposed by foreign forces and when the DPRK had to be only the target of the enemy.