Letter Sent to the Presidents of the Republic of Korea and the United States on the Occasion of the Korean-US Summit Conference

June 16, 2009

The Korean-US summit conference will be opened in Washington DC on June 16. The agenda will include adopting an announcement about the "joint vision for the future ROK-US alliance", the North Korean nuclear problem, the question of a renewed dispatch of ROK troops to Afghanistan, etc.

This summit conference, by means of reinforcing the aggressive ROK-US alliance, will increase the ROK's subordination to the US even more and make our nation's sacrifice and burden even heavier.

Accordingly, below we clarify our position in opposition to this kind of ROK-US summit conference.

Cancel the adoption of the "announcement of the joint vision for the future ROK-US alliance" which seeks to make permanent the aggressive ROK-US alliance!

It has been arranged that at this summit conference between the two countries, they will adopt the announcement of the "joint vision for the future ROK-US alliance". This goes beyond the security of the ROK-US alliance; it extends into all spheres of life - politics, the economy, society, culture, everywhere; the essence of it is that it will be developed into a global alliance that is supposed to contribute to stability and peace, not only on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia, but throughout the entire world.

The ROK and the US, as a way of justifying efficient cooperation in addressing global issues such as international terror, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, etc., are intensifying their mutual assistance in operations such as the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions or the Proliferation Security Initiative, and hastening the implementation of the ROK-US Free Trade Agreement.

This is related to the forward expansion of the ROK-US alliance. The ROK and the US are enlarging the sphere of their alliance in all aspects. This expansion of the geographical scope to include the entire world is a violation of the ROK-US Mutual Defense Treaty, which limits US troops' sphere of operations to defense against aggression from North Korea. The enlargement of the ROK-US alliance into a global alliance means that the ROK government is perpetuating its subordinate position, blindly obeying the US's demand that the alliance's resources be mobilized and that the US's declining hegemony be maintained.

As a result of this, our nation's people must offer land and bear the costs of providing the US with military bases and training areas, buy weapons made in the US, assist in wars of aggression, and bear the burden of all kinds of sacrifices and expenses because of that.

The ROK and the US intend to convert the ROK-US alliance into a global and permanent alliance. Burwell Bell, while acting as the USFK commander, said that he hoped that the US troops would be stationed in Korea even after a Korean peninsula peace agreement is concluded, and last July, Timothy Keating, the US Pacific commander, explained that while the USFK are stationed here permanently, the US troops would participate in humanitarian aid or disaster relief operations and the like.

This shows clearly that the US intends to continue the stationing of the USFK and the ROK-US alliance permanently. The "joint vision for the future ROK-US alliance", which aims to perpetuate the aggressive ROK-US alliance, goes against the trend of our time, which is to establish a structure of peace and security for the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia by means of the withdrawal of foreign military forces, the abolition of the military alliance, and achieving peace and disarmament. In particular, stipulating "extended deterrence" in the "joint vision for the future ROK-US alliance", runs counter to the 9.19 joint statement which declares the goal of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Accordingly, we are resolutely opposed to the adoption of the "announcement of the joint vision for the future ROK-US alliance", which endangers peace on the Korean peninsula and world peace, and imposes on us all kinds of sacrifices and burdens. This new alliance will certainly place obstacles in the way of the current trend toward stable peace. We demand categorically that it be abandoned.

Stop the sanctions and pressure against North Korea and enter into dialogue with North Korea immediately!

Although North Korea asserted its right as a sovereign nation to launch a satellite, the US led the UN Security Council to pass resolution no. 1874, which imposes an embargo on the import or export of weapons, authorizes the inspection of cargo, imposes economic sanctions, etc. The day immediately following this, the 13th, North Korea issued an official statement declaring that it would proceed with the weaponization of plutonium and enrichment of uranium, and would regard any blockade of the North as equivalent to an act of war.

The Korean peninsula nuclear problem cannot be resolved by sanctions and confrontation. Not even the omnidirectional blockade policy followed by the US Bush administration, which pushed military unilateralism to an extreme, could make North Korea submit. More stringent sanctions imposed by the US would certainly provoke North Korea into taking stronger counter-measures.

Such sanctions and pressure will not solve the problem. On the contrary, they will only make the situation worse. If the US sincerely desires to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, we demand that it abandon its hostile policy toward North Korea, which is the original cause of the North Korean nuclear problem. In addition, we urge the US to enter into negotiations with the North, to conclude a peace agreement that will simultaneously resolve the questions of the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the US's hostile policy toward the North, and to establish amicable relations between North Korea and the US.

We also urge the Lee Myeong Bak government, that took the lead in imposing sanctions against the North, to give up its confrontational attitude and start to create the conditions for the purpose of direct North Korean-US dialogue.

Stop the redeployment of ROK troops that increases support for the occupation of Afghanistan and for aggressive war!

Walter Sharp, the USFK commander, declared in connection with the ROK's support for the Afghanistan war that “the Republic of Korea is ... working very closely with our forces in Afghanistan, with NATO forces that are there in order to be able to determine what is the best contribution, whether its money, forces, or materials."

This shows that with reference to Afghanistan, they are considering not only noncombatant support, such as expanding the scope of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT), but even the dispatch of ROK military forces. The ROK government's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan endangers the lives and the national sovereignty of the Afghan people. Furthermore, it violates the ROK Constitution, which disavows aggressive war (article 5, paragraph 1) and violates the ROK-US Mutual Defense Treaty (articles 2, 3), which authorizes operations only on the Korean peninsula, and is applicable only on occasion of the armed aggression from outside.

Not only does this violate the ROK Constitution and the Mutual Defense Treaty; but it also breaks the ROK government's promise to the nation. After the tragic suicides of Sgt. Yoon Jang Ho and a member of the Saemmul Community Church, the ROK government promised that the ROK troops would be immediately evacuated from Afghanistan.

We hereby strongly urge the Obama administration to cancel its demand for the redeployment of ROK military forces to Afghanistan, which constitutes a typical instance of the aggressive ROK-US alliance. We also urge the Lee Myeong Bak government not to give any further support to this war of aggression.

2009. 6. 16.

Village People's Committee Against the Expansion of the Mugeonri Military Training Field; Support Committee for Prisoners of Conscience; Central Council for National Sovereignty and Reunification; Minkahyup Human Rights Group; Korean Council for Democratic Martyr; Korean Confederation of Trade Unions; Southern Headquarters of the Pan-Korean People's Alliance for Reunification; Korean Catholic Federation for Justice; Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea

Participants of the 117th Joint Monthly Anti-US Rally