THE SIGNED Joint Statement of US President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, issued from the Singapore Summit yesterday morning, commits Trump ‘to provide security guarantees to the DPRK,’ while Kim Jong-un reaffirmed his ‘firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.’
There is even a hint of one government for the Peninsula, with the statement asserting: ‘The United States and DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.’ The statement continues: ‘Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
‘The United States and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.’ Over 30,000 US soldiers were killed in the Korean war!
In addition, at Trump’s press conference the US leader revealed that there would be no more US military exercises around the Korean Peninsula. The statement continues: ‘The United States and the DPRK commit to hold follow-on negotiations, led by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and a relevant high-level DPRK official, at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes of the US-DPRK summit.’
Trump bending over backwards to make a deal with North Korea contrasts starkly with his conduct towards Iran, where he has ripped up a negotiated deal that kept Iran from producing a nuclear weapon, and where the US has threatened sanctions against its onetime allies, now in a G6 set-up that signed the Iran deal – as did the US – and now refuse to break it off, and thus face the US sanctions.
In fact, on Monday night Iran cautioned North Korea about the two faces of US imperialism. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif referred to Trump as the ‘habitual Deal-Breaker-in-Chief’ and advised North Korea that: ‘It should know that the US has a history of quitting treaties and violating their commitments, before it trusts Washington.’
Zarif pointed out: ‘In 2015, the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the US, UK, France, China and Russia – were joined by Germany and Iran in agreeing to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.’ This is better known as the Iran nuclear deal, which allowed inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to audit Iran’s nuclear facilities and ensure compliance with uranium enrichment restrictions in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
Tehran was found to be compliant by the likes of US Defence Secretary James Mattis and the IAEA. Nevertheless, the US, under Trump, has smashed up the deal. Not only that, it is backing an Israeli/Saudi-led alliance to make war on Iran and achieve regime change.
It has taken provocative steps to achieve such an alliance, moving its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv to secure Israel’s complete support for a regional war to crush Iran, and strike a body-blow to the backers of the Iran nuclear deal, i.e. the G6 states with whom the US is engaged in a trade war.
Trump has also been courting Russia, saying that it should not have been kicked out of the G8.
However, not even the US can take on the entire planet at the same time. This is why Trump has temporarily changed his tune in relation to North Korea.
His policy is to make war on Iran, and persevere with attempts to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula, and even encourage trade relations between South Korea, Japan and North Korea, to seek to draw North Korea into their orbit by softening it up with investment. Trump intends to attack Iran in the period ahead, and then turn on North Korea, whose nuclear defences will have been lowered making regime change possible.
The US is waging a worldwide struggle. The working class of the world must respond in the same way, by building the Fourth International in every country and mobilising the working class to overthrow capitalism throughout crisis-ridden Europe and the Americas. The only real way to defend North Korea and Iran is to complete the world socialist revolution.