Stephen Cho | Coordinator of the Korean International Forum
This article is in response to an interview requested by the comrades of the Café Marxiste on February 21, 2025
Q1: What is your analysis of the current world situation?
(If we do not scientifically analyze the political situation, we cannot establish a revolutionary strategy. A revolutionary force must examine the current situation from a historical and structural point of view and clarify the objectives, means and methods of the revolution…).
The storm of World War 3 caused by imperialism is blowing from Eastern Europe towards Western Asia (Middle East), then towards Eastern Asia and the Western Pacific. As part of the strategy of a “new cold war”, imperialism is trying to maintain its world hegemony and to emerge from its political and economic crisis by regulating the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea), China, Russia and Iran as the “new axis of aggressors” through World War 3. Marxists should analyze the national and world situation from a historical and structural point of view, based on dialectical materialism, historical materialism, political economy and scientific revolutionary theory. On this basis, they should be able to establish strategies and tactics for the revolution and define objectives, means and methods of the revolution. The fundamental concepts of the scientific analysis of the current world situation are “World War 3,” which began with the war in Ukraine; the “three battlefields” in Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and Eastern Asia; and the “proxy war” in which imperialism manipulates and directs local fascist forces. The central term of the revolutionary strategy based on this analysis of the situation is the strategy of the world anti-imperialist front, which is an innovation inherited from the strategy of the world anti-fascist front during World War 2. The world anti-imperialist strategy has concrete content regarding the objectives, means, and methods of the struggle, namely the “causes,” “capabilities,” and “operations” of the world anti-imperialist camp.
Q2: What is the nature of the war in Ukraine?
(Theory of “inter-imperialist war” VS “theory of liberation and preventive war”. Theory of “Russian imperialism” VS “theory of Russian capitalism”. Same mistake regarding China, which is supposedly imperialist).
Everything contains two dialectical sides. From the imperialist and fascist point of view, in particular from the point of view of the imperialism represented by NATO, the US, the EU and the fascist authorities in Kiev, the war in Ukraine is essentially an imperialist war, and more specifically an anti-Russian war, a fascist war and a war of injustice. Conversely, from an anti-imperialist and anti-fascist point of view, and more specifically from Russia’s point of view, the war in Ukraine is essentially an anti-imperialist war, and more specifically, a war against NATO, an anti-fascist war, and a just war. It is, therefore, wrong to define Russia as an imperialist country and to consider it an inter-imperialist war. Although there is monopoly capital in Russian society, it has social characteristics that cannot be defined as imperialist, and these predominate. For example, Russia exports resources rather than capital, and it is far from the imperialist method of invasion and plunder, which consists of military occupation, political domination, and economic exploitation. Furthermore, as a country with a socialist heritage and a long socialist history, it has a strong anti-imperialist stance, allying itself with and supporting anti-imperialist countries, as can be seen in Syria, West Asia, and the Sahel in Africa. Some communist parties that consider Russia to be an imperialist country also defend the so-called “imperialist pyramid” theory, which considers China and its socialism with Chinese characteristics, and even the DPRK, a staunch socialist country, to be imperialist countries. This pseudo-theory is a revisionist theory that surpasses Kautsky’s theory of “ultra-imperialism” just before World War 1. It is a typical opportunist and sectarian theory that divides the international communist movement and serves imperialist forces. Like all revisionist-opportunist theories, this “theory” uses concepts and logic that are unscientific and is full of contradictions, so that it is increasingly rejected by the solid communist forces and is dying.
Q3: What role did the fascist coup d’état on Maidan in 2014 play in triggering this war?
(The war in Ukraine began with the Maidan coup in 2014, an operation born of Zbigniew Brezinski’s “Grand Chessboard” strategy and a new episode of the “color revolutions” orchestrated under U.S. control. The conflict worsened over the next eight years with the massacre of 14,000 people in the Donbass, before entering fully into Russia’s special military operation in 2022).
Although different opinions remain on the start of World War 3, the anti-imperialist camp generally believes that it is the war in Ukraine. We believe that World War 3 began in February 2022 with the war in Ukraine, escalated in October 2023 with the war in Palestine, and will be in full swing with the conflicts in East Asia and the Western Pacific. The war in Ukraine began with the Maidan coup in 2014, then escalated over the next eight years with the Donbass war, before becoming a full-scale war with Russia’s “special military operation” in 2022. The Maidan coup d’état is a typical and most successful “color revolution” and putsch orchestrated by imperialism. For this coup d’état, imperialism has long supported the notorious pro-Nazi imperialist fascist Stepan Bandera in Ukraine, who escaped the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal. The brutality of the fascist clique, controlled and supported by imperialism, is one of total barbarism, as evidenced by the massacre of 14,000 people in Odessa in 2014 and in the Donbass over the next eight years. It is of the same nature as the massacres of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan in the “Republic of Korea” (“ROK,” South Korea), of Suharto in Indonesia, and of the military dictatorship of Pinochet in Chile. Imperialism has used fascist forces as an assault force to establish a colonial system or sometimes as an assault force in war. Just as the Korean War of 1950 broke out after the establishment of the fascist regime in the “ROK,” the war in Ukraine of 2022 broke out after the establishment of the fascist regime in Ukraine following the Maidan coup. Although it appears to be a fascist war caused by the fascist clique, it should be considered an imperialist war in the sense that it is essentially controlled and supported by imperialism. Imperialism has focused on linking France and Germany in Western Europe with Poland and Ukraine in Eastern Europe to implement Zbigniew Brzezinski’s infamous “Grand Chessboard” strategy, and ultimately, thanks to the Maidan coup and the Donbass war, it was able to launch the war in Ukraine in earnest in 2022. The imperialist stratagem of defining Russia as a “new aggressor”, exhausting its military and economic power, and building a system of “new cold war” is facing the biggest crisis in its history, due to Russia’s strong anti-imperialist struggle and the anti-imperialist alliance with the DPRK, China, and Iran.
Q4: You say that the war in Ukraine is the beginning of World War 3 and you fear that open conflicts will soon break out in South Korea or Taiwan. Who wants to provoke this World War 3 and why? What are the structural and economic causes of this march to war by the Euro-Atlantic imperialist camp?
(The Atlanticist bloc―USA/EU/Japan (+ Israel/Australia, etc.―under US domination to maintain its hegemony)
The storm of World War 3 caused by imperialism is blowing from Eastern Europe to East Asia and the Western Pacific, passing through Western Asia (Middle East). Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and Eastern Asia are the three battlefields of this war, and the wars in Ukraine, Palestine, and the “ROK” are the catalysts in each area. Having incited the war in Ukraine, imperialism is pushing for the expansion of conflicts in Eastern Europe, including Poland, Romania, and the three Baltic States. After having induced and provoked the war in Palestine, it is also pushing for the expansion of conflicts in Western Asia, particularly in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and especially Iran. If we consider that this situation corresponds to the case of Germany and Italy during World War 2, the war in Eastern Asia and the Western Pacific would then correspond to Japan at that time. Imperialism defined them as an “axis”, and today, it is Russia, Iran, the DPRK, and China that constitute a “new axis of aggressors” in its eyes. This means that imperialism has never hidden its plans for war against the DPRK and China in East Asia, and has, in fact, been pursuing this strategy for a long time. The reason why imperialism is pushing for World War 3, a war on three battlefields, is that its political and economic crisis has reached a record level and it is no longer able to maintain its global hegemony. The DPRK – the fiercely staunch socialist country – and China with its socialism with Chinese characteristics, as well as Russia with a socialist heritage and an “axis of resistance” including Iran are forming an anti-imperialist camp under the anti-imperialist banner, and the economic, political and military alliance of the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is constantly strengthening and expanding. Above all, the political and economic crisis of the G7, centered on the United States and Western Europe, is worsening by the day, the UN Security Council is virtually paralyzed, and NATO is gripped by the fear of collapse. The imperialists’ belief that only a major world war can resolve this crisis is embodied in the strategy of the “new cold war” and the promotion of “World War 3”. In other words, As it cannot maintain its world hegemony, it has launched a final challenge to create a new system of “new cold war” that will dominate the rest of the imperialist camp, that is to say, the imperialist countries and their stooges, other than the anti-imperialist camp that it denounces as the new “axis of aggression,” to achieve final victory thanks to the power of capital and propaganda, just as in the old “cold war” system. After waging wars in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, imperialism is trying to seriously engage in World War 3 by finally launching a decisive war in Eastern Asia and the Western Pacific.
Q5: In this context of a new world war, what are the forces at play and what is at stake in the “Republic of Korea”?
(The characteristics, the possibility and the prospect of a war in the “Republic of Korea”.)
As we know, World War 1 was an inter-imperialist war, and World War 2 was a world anti-fascist war. World War 3 is a world anti-imperialist war. World War means a full-scale war between blocs on a global scale, and the two main camps in the World War 3 are those of imperialism and anti-imperialism. The four main forces of the anti-imperialist camp are the socialist countries of the DPRK and China, Russia with a socialist heritage, and the “axis of resistance” formed by Iran and other countries. The imperialist camp is led by US imperialism, accompanied by European and Japanese imperialism, as well as Israeli Zionism. World War 3 will take place on three battlefields: Eastern Europe and Western Asia, where confrontations have already begun, and East Asia and Western Pacific, where conflicts are imminent. Like Ukraine and Palestine, respectively, in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, the “ROK” will act as a detonator in East Asia. If war breaks out in the “ROK,” it will simultaneously break out in Taiwan, and if Japan and the Philippines join in, it will escalate into a war throughout East Asia; if Australia and New Zealand join in, it will then become a war throughout the Western Pacific. The DPRK and China agreed in a treaty of friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance signed in 1961 that they would automatically join any anti-imperialist war anywhere, and this was reaffirmed during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pyongyang in 2019. At the US-Japan-”ROK” summit in Camp David in August 2023, imperialism has practically formed the “Northeast Asian version of NATO”. With this as a core, they have, in fact, already realized the “Asian version of NATO”, which includes the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand, and which extends to Western and Central Asia. Although the name of the organization has not been announced, the three countries of the US-Japan-“ROK” are conducting joint invasion war exercises, and “SQUAD” of the US, the UK, Japan, and the Philippines, and “AUKUS” of the US, the UK, and Australia have been formed and are fiercely carrying out joint invasion war exercises. In particular, after the declaration of “Pacificization of NATO” at the NATO Washington Summit in July 2024, joint multi-domain invasion war exercises such as “Rimpac (Pacific Rim Exercise)”, “Freedom Edge” and “Ulchi Freedom Shield” were conducted repeatedly and intensively between June and August 2024. After creating these organizations and conducting these war exercises, NATO manipulated and supported the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk in Russia in August 2024. Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, under the control and support of the US, in September 2024, as well as the drone attack on Pyongyang, also under control and with the support of the US, in October of the same year, were carried out. If the DPRK had not shown “strategic patience”, the war in the “ROK” would have broken out in October 2024.
The presumption that a war in the “ROK” in October 2024 had already been written into the imperialist calendar—just like the war in Ukraine in February 2022 and the war in Palestine in October 2023—has now been confirmed in practice. After the failure of US imperialism and the pro-imperialist fascist clique of the “ROK” to launch a conflict with the DPRK in October 2024, they are attempting to relaunch a war against the DPRK, the war in the “ROK”, after completing the fascistization of the “ROK” through the imposition of martial law and the coup d’état of December 3, 2024. Although the coup failed due to the popular uprising, the insurgents still controlled the state’s apparatus of violence and aimed for a second coup under a second martial law, provoking and launching provocations to trigger the war in the “ROK” through a civil war.
Q6: Why was the World Anti-Imperialist Platform created? What are the three main goals of the Platform?
(1. promoting the global anti-imperialist mass struggle; 2. waging the ideological struggle against opportunism; 3. strengthening the international communist movement.)
The World Anti-Imperialist Platform (the Platform) was launched in Paris on October 22, 2022, by communist and anti-imperialist forces from various countries. These forces declared that they could no longer remain silent in the face of attacks on the international communist movement—attacks stemming from the revisionist, opportunist, and sectarian practices of the Communist Party of Greece, as well as from the so-called “imperialist pyramid” theory, which labels Russia, China, the DPRK, and Iran as imperialist powers. The Platform published the historic Paris Declaration, in which it affirmed its three goals: to strengthen the world anti-imperialist struggle, to intensify ideological battles against revisionism and opportunism, and to consolidate the international communist movement. To this end, starting in Paris, France, in October 2022, we have vigorously promoted conferences, colloquium, anti-imperialist rallies, marches, and meetings with workers, peasants, youth, and women in Belgrade, Serbia, in December 2022; in Caracas, Venezuela, in March 2023; in Gwangju and Seoul, the “ROK,” in May 2023; in Athens, Greece, in November 2023; in Washington, USA, in July 2024; and in Dakar, Senegal, in October 2024. We have also organized various meetings, seminars, and debates in Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Russia, Taiwan, Chile, Kenya, and Guinea-Bissau, and invited a revolutionary Korean musical theater troupe to tour Western and Eastern Europe. The Platform also conducts activities on social media, including YouTube, publishing a monthly theoretical journal called “Platform” and launching the website “Platform News”. All these activities aim to achieve the three goals above. As the launch of the Platform from France shows, the PRCF, a leading French revolutionary political organization, plays an important role as a founding member of the Platform.
Q7: Why and how to promote the anti-imperialist struggle? How to mobilize workers in the anti-imperialist struggle as a priority?
(This is the most important objective of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform. Strengthening the world anti-imperialist struggle means strengthening these struggles in one’s own country while coordinating them with other anti-imperialist struggles around the world. The anti-imperialist struggle within each country and the anti-imperialist struggle at the global level are part of a dialectical relationship between the national and the international.)
In the context of World War 3, the anti-imperialist struggle is being waged in two main areas: armed struggle and people’s struggle. The former is being waged mainly by anti-imperialist countries in power, as well as by the “axis of resistance” of Russia and Iran, and potentially by the DPRK and China. People’s struggle is a basic method of struggle for communist and anti-imperialist forces in all other countries. The anti-imperialist camp is naturally and fundamentally opposed to war and terrorism. It is the imperialists who wage wars and provoke acts of terrorism, and the anti-imperialist camp is compelled to retaliate in self-defense. The World Anti-Imperialist Platform is opposed to war and terrorism. Based on mass struggle and ideological struggle, it mainly carries out propaganda projects such as international conferences, colloquiums, lectures, and publications, as well as mass struggles such as popular rallies and marches. The members of the Platform are mostly revolutionary political organizations in their respective countries and are closely linked to revolutionary popular organizations such as trade unions, peasant organizations, student associations, and women’s associations. The Platform launched the World Anti-Imperialist Youth Platform in Greece in November 2023 and has conducted various propaganda campaigns, as well as rallies and demonstrations in Washington and New York in July 2024. In the future, we will form a global organization of workers, peasants, and women, which we will strengthen and expand, thus developing the mass organizing capacity of the Platform. We are convinced that by establishing and propagating the scientific line, by organizing, uniting and building solidarity, and by fighting unwaveringly in practice, the Platform will be strengthened and the three goals will be achieved more quickly.
Q8: Why and how should the ideological struggle be intensified?
(The targets of the ideological war are revisionism, opportunism and sectarianism.)
As you know, the history of the international communist movement is marked by the ideological struggle against opportunism. The theoretical and ideological achievements of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin are above all the fruit of this ideological battle. On the basis of the great historical experience of ideological struggle, the World Anti-Imperialist Platform has established the ideological struggle against sectarian opportunist forces as one of its three main goals, which are dividing the international communist movement and benefiting the imperialist powers. More specifically, we are very concerned that the Communist Party of Greece, the de facto organizer of Solidnet, is dividing the international communist movement by defining the war in Ukraine as an inter-imperialist war and Russia, China, and the DPRK as imperialist countries, and even preaching the “imperialist pyramid” theory. The Communist Party of Greece’s revisionist history began in the 1950s, when it followed Khrushchev’s revisionist line and expelled Níkos Zachariádis, a committed communist and prominent revolutionary general secretary, and intensified in the 2000s, when it supported Gorbachev’s policies of “Perestroika” and “Glasnost”. It is an open secret that the Communist Party of Greece has divided many communist parties and communist youth organizations around the world, including the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE), and has even dissolved the European Communist Initiative, which played a central role in the European communist movement. Solidnet’s inability to adopt a unified position on the nature of the war in Ukraine in 2022 and its weak position on the war in Palestine in 2023 can also be explained by the ideological problems of revisionism, opportunism, and sectarianism, including the Communist Party of Greece’s “imperialist pyramid” theory. It is no coincidence that the problems of revisionism, opportunism, and sectarianism became more pronounced during the severe trials of the World War 1 and 2, and that the same problems essentially arose during the greatest crisis of World War 3. As Marx said, the harder a flint is struck, the brighter it shines, and the Platform’s ideological struggle against revisionism, opportunism, and sectarianism will only grow in intensity as the situation surrounding World War 3 worsens.
Q9: Why and how should international communist forces be consolidated? Is the objective to rebuild a new communist international?
(Just as the relationship between a party and a united front can be compared to the relationship between the vanguard and the transmission belts in a country, the international communist forces and the world anti-imperialist forces must build the relationship between the locomotive and the wagons of this “train” of struggle on a global scale, metaphorically speaking. In other words, the international communist forces must further develop their role within the world anti-imperialist movement as a vanguard capable of putting forward the correct line and powerfully organizing and mobilizing the people. While the anti-imperialist struggle aims for maximum force against the main enemy, the communist movement aims to build a vanguard for the struggles of the masses, not only against imperialism, but also for socialism, which is the only real solution to the problems facing humanity.)
Historical experience shows that it is useless and impossible for international communist forces to act in unity, with a single leadership, as the Comintern did in the past, since today, revolution and construction are carried out in each country on the basis of a nation-state. However, it is necessary and possible for communist forces to unite in solidarity, as anti-communist forces do. Over the past two years, the energetic and active work of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform has proven that it is necessary and possible to unite not only the communist forces of each country but also the anti-imperialist forces. In the current situation of World War 3 and the world anti-imperialist war, in which the anti-imperialist and imperialist camps are opposed and a major global war is being waged, communist and anti-imperialist forces must strategically unite and show solidarity under the anti-imperialist banner. First of all, the political organizations must unite and be in solidarity, and then the mass organizations of the workers, peasants, youth, and women, which are closely linked to them, must do the same. If the political organization is the locomotive of a revolution, the mass organizations at all levels are the wagons. Stalin’s theory of the transmission belt remains important on an organizational and practical level. The Platform’s three main goals are the world anti-imperialist struggle, the ideological battle against opportunism and the strengthening of the international communist movement. In short, the most important and fundamental goal is the victory of the world anti-imperialist bloc in World War 3, a feat of justice.
Q10: What do you think the election of Donald Trump will change in the anti-imperialist struggle?
Donald Trump is a “non-warring imperialist”. In the early and mid-20th century, this was the position of the social democrats, but today these forces promote war-provoking policies. On the contrary, we are seeing an astonishing phenomenon: sometimes mixed forces of republicans, conservatives, the far right, and fascists oppose a war. The division within the imperialist camp—between pro-war imperialist forces and those opposing them—is deepening due to political actors such as Trump. The contradictions within the imperialist camp carry the tactical importance for the anti-imperialist camp. As we know, the anti-imperialist camp has always had as its strategic goal the unity of its own camp and, as its tactical goal, the division of the imperialist camp. Trump’s rise to power is clearly bad news for the belligerent imperialist forces. It is no coincidence that a sniper’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear just after the NATO summit in Washington in July last year. Before Trump’s election, there was the invasion of Kursk by NATO-backed Ukrainian forces in Eastern Europe in August, an Israeli strike on Hezbollah in Lebanon in September, and the “ROK”’s drone attack on Pyongyang in October. After Trump’s election, there was the lifting of restrictions on long-range missiles against Russia in Ukraine in November, the imposition of martial law and a coup d’état in the “ROK” in December, as well as the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. The imperialist belligerents cannot afford to let Trump get his hands on their imperialist war policy and back out of the “World War 3 highway”. This is why imperialist war provocations have become more frequent, harsh, and forceful since Trump’s election. The anti-imperialist camp must advance the broad solidarity between anti-imperialist forces, including unity between world anti-imperialist states, and vigorously lead the world global anti-imperialist struggle while not failing to take tactical measures to deepen divisions within the imperialist camp in precise moment.