From: SCIENCE@MITVMA.BITNET
Newsgroups: soc.culture.korean
Subject: A Maoist review of Korean tensions
Date: 28 Jul 92 01:16:59 GMT

Maoist view on North Korea

Maoist Internationalist Movement
PO Box 3576
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576

science@mitvma.mit.edu

Dialogue with North Korea: Report on a Seminar on "Tension
Reduction in Korea"

Written in early 1991.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC, 1989,
76pp. free

This is a collection of documents on the issue of Korean reunification.
Most of the pages are selected transcription of a dialogue of
Amerikan imperialists with officials from the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The Amerikan side is represented by the State Department, the CIA,
military officers, some scholars, bourgeois think tank representatives
and other intelligence officers. During the dialogue, the Amerikan
liberals contradict the Amerikan conservatives on finer points of how
to oppress Korea best.

The situation in Korea today is hard for Amerikans to relate to. Korea
is still fighting off colonial rule, Amerikan rule that is.

If the Amerikan South had had a civil war with the North and the
British landed troops to "protect" the South, that would be analogous
to what is happening in Korea to this day. As one might expect, some
U.S. citizens would oppose the regime in the South for upholding
slavery. Others would be outraged by the Southern regime's
traitorous relations with the British.

In Korea there is a communist movement dating back to at least the
1920s. There is also a strong movement opposing Japanese and then
U.S. colonialism.

The United States has 30,000 troops and thousands of nuclear
weapons stationed in southern Korea.

Still DPRK officials take a very moderate stance in regard to the U.S.
occupation. They report they are willing to reposition their troops
away from the southern part of Korea and cut the number of troops
in tandem with the fascist regime in the South, so that the two sides
end up with 100,000 troops or fewer.

What is interesting about the dialogue is that the U.S. imperialists
had used the Cold War as an excuse for 40 years to push for a
divided Korea. Now the imperialists use the end of the Cold War as
an excuse to dominate Korea. "AMERICAN: In view of your confidence
in early reunification I wonder how you account for the success of
the Republic of Korea in improving its relations with your traditional
allies -- not only the Soviet Union, where there have been very
important steps in economic cooperation, but also Czechoslovakia and

Hungary--the establishment of diplomatic relations--political
relations--even with the PRC. Don't you find your country runs the
risk of being outflanked by the South through its own initiatives...?"
(p. 25)

The DPRK retort is as revealing: "Our socialist neighbors have had the
opportunity to make clear to us. . . that they have supported and will
support the reunification of our country continuously. We trust them.
We trust their words." (Ibid.)

The DPRK is too kind to the Deng Xiaoping fascists and Gorbachev
capitalists.

The Amerikan side replied by implying the danger of Japan without
mentioning Japan. Amerika wants it to appear that the United States
is Korea's friend while Japan wants to keep its competitor Korea
divided. (p. 25-6)

In another exchange, the Amerikans laid it on thick with capitalist
triumph dogma: "It's pretty much conceded that the socialist
economies are in a state of collapse--that socialism doesn't work. The
Soviet Union, most of eastern Europe and China illustrate the
essential bankruptcy of socialist systems. . . . The real example for
your country is to be seen in the neighboring countries of the Pacific

Basin--Taiwan, Hong Kong, though special circumstances prevail
there, the ASEAN countries, notably Thailand, Indonesia, even to a
limited extent the Philippines and of course the ROK itself, which
offers great promise. . . . How do you conceive of succeeding by
maintaining what you call national independence while others
around you are abandoning a system that is essentially bankrupt?"
(p. 31)

This is a very popular argument not just among Amerikans in Korea.
It carries heavy weight with the Chinese masses, intellectuals in
particular. MIM will address the argument above in future essays.

In conclusion, one gathers from this book that the DPRK says, "'if we
are all going in the same direction, toward confederation, rather than
toward legitimizing two Koreas,'" "'you will find us very flexible.'" (p.
66) The DPRK has also given up on seeing students and labor launch
a revolution in the southern region. They say the economic
development of the southern region makes revolution impossible.
(Ibid.)

--mc5

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