THE SUMMIT between North Korean President Kim Jong-un and US President Trump was cancelled by Trump on Thursday. It was US National Security Adviser John Bolton who threw the first spanner into the works. He said North Korea would follow a ‘Libyan model of nuclear disarmament’.
Trump was then asked about Bolton’s comments. The US president said: ‘The Libyan model isn’t a model that we have at all when we’re thinking of North Korea. The model, if you look at that model with Gadaffi, that was a total decimation. We went in there to beat him. Now that model would take place if we don’t make a deal, most likely. But if we make a deal, I think Kim Jong-un is going to be very, very happy.’ In 2003, Libya’s leader Colonel Muammar Gadaffi agreed to give up his country’s weapons of mass destruction. Then in 2011, imperialism attacked, arming, organising and funding Islamic terror groups. Gadaffi was captured and murdered.
US Vice President Mike Pence then threw an even bigger spanner into the works. He was asked about the Libyan model in an interview on Fox News on May 21. He said, ‘There was some talk about the Libyan model last week and you know, as the President made clear, that this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong-un doesn’t make a deal.’ When the interviewer noted that the comparison could be interpreted as a threat, Pence replied, ‘Well, I think it is more of a fact.’ In response, on Thursday morning, North Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Son Hui called Pence ‘ignorant and stupid’.
Nevertheless, North Korea demolished its nuclear test site the same day. At least three tunnels, as well as other structures, were exploded. Trump then sent a letter to North Korea cancelling the talks. It stated: ‘Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate at this time to have this long-planned meeting.’
Trump wrote further: ‘Someday, I very much look forward to meeting you … If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write.’ Trump wanted to have these talks with North Korea, as we can see from his letter. He is in favour of taking Korea off the top of the ‘enemies list’ in order to take on Iran, Syria and Hezbollah. He does not want a war on two fronts. Settling accounts with North Korea, Russia and China is to come later, after the Middle East has been burnt to a crisp!
The saboteurs are Bolton and Pence, and the US military officials who continued with the US military exercises, and do not want to give an inch to North Korea and China. In fact, North Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister said yesterday, ‘We again state to the US our willingness to sit face-to-face at any time in any form to resolve the problem.’
The above shows that the drive to war does not come from the North Koreans, it comes from American imperialism. It is the warmonger, along with the UK and the other imperialist powers, that are being driven to war by the worldwide economic crisis of capitalism, and are now all rearming at a frantic pace.
The question then arises: Should North Korea disarm? The position of the Workers Revolutionary Party is clear: No they should not. They have every right to have the ability to defend themselves and giving up their defences would leave them open to attack, and encourage the imperialists to attack others.
North Korea also has every right to have talks with the US, and to seek concessions from the imperialist powers. However, the crisis of capitalism cannot be resolved by talks and concessions.
The crocodile of US imperialism and its allies will never be satisfied. They will demand more and more. The world crisis of capitalism is not an issue that North Korea can deal with on its own. Only the working class of the world can resolve this crisis.
The North Koreans must appeal to the workers of the world to rise up against the enemy at home, against their own imperialist rulers, and overthrow them. The only way to end imperialist war is to put an end to imperialism itself. This is why the burning issue of the day is the building of the Fourth International to organise the victory of the world socialist revolution.
