Stephen Cho | Coordinator of the Korean International Forum
This text is an excerpted version of “War and Revolution,” prepared for presentation at the conference. The full text follows in the next section.
War is the eve of revolution.
The focal point of the current situation is World War 3, and the basic task of the revolutionary forces is anti-imperialist liberation. The strategic goal of the imperialist camp is to form a “New Cold War” system, while the strategic goal of the anti-imperialist camp is to achieve liberation.
The storm of World War 3, unleashed by imperialism, is sweeping from Eastern Europe through West Asia (the Middle East) to East Asia and the Western Pacific.
World War 3 is an anti-imperialist war. In this war, the world anti-imperialist front has been formed, paving the way for victory for the anti-imperialist camp.
Eastern Europe, West Asia (the Middle East), and East Asia constitute the three major theaters of World War 3. Russia, China, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) are nuclear and missile superpowers. Eastern Europe and East Asia are the strategic theaters where Russia confronts NATO, and the DPRK-China-Russia confronts the US, respectively. Among them, East Asia is the main theater of World War 3. Meanwhile, West Asia is a tactical battleground between the “Axis of Resistance,” including missile power Iran, and Israeli Zionist-imperialism.
The war in Ukraine began with the 2014 Maidan coup, intensified over the next eight years with the Donbass War, and then entered full swing with Russia’s Special Military Operation in 2022.
The war in Palestine in 2023 immediately escalated into a war in West Asia, with the “Axis of Resistance,” including Hezbollah, Yemen, and Iran, joining.
From September to November 2024, the “ROK” carried out local war provocations against the DPRK. If not for the DPRK’s “strategic patience,” the local war would have erupted, rapidly escalating into an all-out war. On December 3, 2024, a military coup took place in the “ROK.” Had it not been immediately overthrown by the people of the “ROK,” the fascistization of the “ROK” would have been completed, and followed by the war against the DPRK.
In order to escape the worst political and economic crisis in its history, imperialism is trying to form a “New Cold War” by triggering World War 3 and denouncing the DPRK, China, Russia, and the “Axis of Resistance,” including Iran, as the “New Axis of Aggressors.” Imperialism is mobilizing all its military, political, and economic capabilities to achieve its goal of forming the “New Cold War” framework, pushing proxy wars across three major theaters.
The “New Cold War” differs decisively from the “Cold War” in that it serves as the objective of a world war. The imperialist camp is actively pushing for the initiation of World War 3 in order to consolidate the “New Cold War” structure. The imperialist camp has neither the will nor the capacity to eliminate the existence of the DPRK, China and Russia. Rather, by labeling these countries as the “New Axis of Aggressors” and the “New Axis of Evil,” it is merely attempting to draw a line between the imperialist and anti-imperialist camps and to enforce a strategy of “new blockade.” The shift of this line can be expressed, in strategic terms, as a transition from the “Asia-Pacific Strategy” to the “Indo-Pacific Strategy,” and in geopolitical illustration, as a transformation from a “W-shaped” configuration that includes China to a “U-shaped” configuration that excludes China. In other words, the decisive difference between the two sides lies in China. After President Xi Jinping’s visit to the DPRK in 2019, China came to the decision to resolve the Hong Kong issue through police force, thereby affirming a policy shift from “keeping a low profile and biding time” (taoguang yanghui) to “peaceful rise” (heping quji). In the “Indo-Pacific Strategy”―a “new blockade” policy that draws a “U-shaped” line to encircle the anti-imperialist camp―war in East Asia is not optional, but inevitable. This is why the imperialist warmongering forces persistently provoke wars in the “ROK” and Taiwan for the war in East Asia.
The boundary between Europe and Asia changes according to the criteria applied. From this perspective, Eastern Europe can be regarded as Northwestern Asia, and Western Asia can more precisely be described as Southwestern Asia. The storm of world war is sweeping from Northwestern Asia through Southwestern and Southern Asia into East Asia. Given that the storm of world war is encircling Asia, it is a reasonable prediction that it will move beyond Southern Asia and advance toward East Asia.
The Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan is a localized war in South Asia. This war aligns with the imperialist camp’s Indo-Pacific strategy by fueling tensions between India and China, thereby contributing to pulling India away from the anti-imperialist bloc and drawing it into the imperialist bloc. In this context, the outbreak of the localized conflict between India and Pakistan has heightened tensions between India and China, further fueling the atmosphere of World War 3. After India was defeated in its initial attack on Pakistan, it launched a second strike targeting a nuclear facility. Immediately afterward, the Trump administration intervened decisively. The localized conflict between India and Pakistan always carries the risk of escalating into a nuclear war.
The national domination method of monopoly capital in the developed capitalist society is social democracy and fascism. Imperialism, as the outward expression of the monopoly capitalist system, represents its method of dominating other nations. Social democracy and fascism are interchangeable forms of rule, depending on conditions. World War 2 began as a conflict between imperialist powers with social democracy domestic systems and fascism domestic systems. It later transformed into an anti-fascist war when the fascist state launched an invasion of the socialist Soviet Union, prompting a tactical united front—anti-fascist front—between the Soviet Union and the imperialist powers of the US and Britain against fascism.
In World War 3, the imperialist camp is using neo-Nazis in Ukraine, Zionists in Israel, and collaborationist fascists in the “ROK” as shock troops in its proxy wars. The people of each country, along with Russia, the “Axis of Resistance”, including Hamas, and the DPRK, are not only carrying out anti-fascist struggles against these collaborators, but are also waging anti-imperialist struggles against the imperialist forces orchestrating behind them. Russia is engaged in an anti-imperialist, anti-neo-Nazi war; Hamas is waging an anti-Zionist, anti-imperialist war; and the “Axis of Resistance” as a whole, including Iran, is conducting an anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist war. The DPRK is preparing for an anti-fascist, anti-imperialist war. If the US imperialist intervenes in the DPRK’s war of “subjugation”—war of anti-fascist, anti-imperialist war—the war will escalate into a full-scale anti-imperialist, anti-fascist war, in which the DPRK’s primary enemy shifts from the “ROK” to the US.
The war in the “ROK” is a civil war on the Korean peninsula. Currently, fascist factions within the “ROK” are attempting to ignite a civil war within the “ROK.” When the local war against the DPRK is combined with the civil war within the “ROK,” it constitutes the war in the “ROK.”
Looking at the history of South Korea, there was a civil war in the South in 1948, a localized war against the DPRK in 1949, and the Korean War in 1950. The 1950 Korean War was an anti-imperialist, anti-fascist war, a national liberation war, and the fatherland liberation war.
The commonality among the ongoing war in Ukraine in Eastern Europe, the war in West Asia, the imminent war in the “ROK” and Taiwan in East Asia is that they are all fundamentally anti-imperialist wars. Although it may be distinguished by the characteristics and conditions of the three main battlefields, its fundamental commonality—anti-imperialist nature—remains unchanged.
The war in Palestine is an anti-Zionist, anti-imperialist war, and the war in the “ROK” is an anti-fascist, anti-imperialist war. Although “anti-Zionism” and “anti-fascism” are emphasized respectively, at the forefront, the essential nature of both conflicts remains fundamentally anti-imperialist. Ultimately, the imperialists stand behind both the Israeli Zionists and the “ROK” fascists. Without imperialism, these wars would neither have occurred nor, if they did, would they be easily won by the oppressed and exploited peoples and nations.
The anti-imperialist camp’s strategic acquisition objective is victory in World War 3—that is, the decisive defeat of the imperialist bloc. Its tactical acquisition objectives are victories in each of the three major theaters of war, which means the liberation of each respective front.
A world war period is a period of great upheaval. The anti-imperialist camp must first transform this upheaval into a great change—reversing the declining trajectory of the global situation that followed the imperialist victory in the previous “Cold War,” and turning it into a rising tide. This is comparable to how the period of upheaval in World War 2 became a period of great change following the Battle of Stalingrad. Once the decisive defeat of the imperialist bloc is confirmed, the period then transitions into a period of great upsurge. The great upsurge that followed World War 2 will be reproduced after the World War 3 period.
World War 3 involves three main theaters: Eastern Europe, East Asia, and West Asia. The Eastern European and East Asian theaters are strategic fronts, while West Asia constitutes a tactical front. Nevertheless, victory on each of these fronts remains a tactical acquisition objective.
The strategic strike target of the anti-imperialist camp is imperialism, while the tactical strike target is fascism. Imperialism is the root cause of the world war, and fascism is its servant.
The neo-Nazis in Ukraine, the Zionists in Israel, and the collaborationist fascists in the “ROK” all operate under the thorough control of imperialism, fulfilling the role of front-line assault forces in each theater to achieve imperialism’s strategic objectives.
Since World War 3 carries a strategic character, and its three major theaters carry a tactical one, imperialism—the main instigator of the World War 3—is the strategic strike target, while fascism—the front-line shock troops in each theater—is the tactical strike target.
The primary strategic strike target is US imperialism, while the secondary strategic strike targets are European imperialist powers and Japanese militarism.
The strategic strike target is imperialism. Above all, the US imperialism—is the head of the imperialist forces—is the main strike target, and the secondary strike target is the other imperialist powers.
The primary tactical strike targets are the Ukrainian neo-Nazis and the collaborationist fascists in the “ROK”, while the secondary tactical strike target is the Israeli Zionists. The battlefield in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, and the battlefield in East Asia, including the “ROK”, constitute strategic theaters in which nuclear and missile superpowers directly confront each other. Accordingly, the fascist forces that serve as imperialism’s shock troops in these theaters are treated as primary strike targets. The Israeli Zionists, from the perspective of a regional theater, are strategic strike targets and primary strike targets for the “Axis of Resistance,” including Iran. However, from the perspective of the global war, since West Asia is considered a tactical theater, the Israeli Zionists are regarded as tactical battlefield and tactical strike targets for the anti-imperialist camp.
The imperialist camp, while unleashed World War 3, and planning the war in Ukraine and West Asia, overlooked the logical contradiction between anti-Russian propaganda and pro-Israel propaganda. The imperialist propaganda that condemns Russia’s anti-fascist war—a just war—as an unjust war, while simultaneously defending the unjust war of Israeli Zionists and fascists, holds no credibility at all.
One of the essential strategic tasks to strengthen the anti-imperialist front and enhance its role is for the anti-imperialist camp to actively support Russia in the war in Ukraine and the “Axis of Resistance,” including Palestine and Iran, in the war in West Asia, while simultaneously promoting strategic solidarity between pro-Russian and pro-Palestinian forces on a global scale.
The leading capacity of the anti-imperialist camp is the “Three Countries and One Corps.” The three countries are the DPRK, China, and Russia—all nuclear missile superpowers and major powers. The “One Corps” refers to the “Axis of Resistance,” including Iran. The Three Countries and One Corps, as anti-imperialist armed forces, constitute the leading capacity, while the rest of the world anti-imperialist forces engaged in mass struggle form the auxiliary capacity. Anti-imperialist ruling forces in Latin America and the Sahel region of Africa possess the potential to carry out anti-imperialist armed struggle under certain circumstances. However, since they exist outside the three major theaters of World War 3 and are not currently involved in or facing imminent war, they are not considered part of the leading capacity.
The DPRK is the most thorough socialist state, China is a socialist country with its own characteristics, and Russia is the most important inheritor of the socialist legacy.
The collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip bear a strategic character in terms of the West Asian front as a regional battlefield, but from the perspective of the world war as a whole and global fronts, they remain tactical in nature.
Regarding the invasion of Kursk in Russia in August 2024 and the lifting of long-range missile restrictions against Russia in November 2024, the anti-imperialist forces of Russia and the DPRK joined forces to lead the Battle for Kursk to victory, and the astonishing power of Russia’s “Oreshnik” missile struck fear into the imperialist camp.
The provocations against the DPRK to wage local war led by fascists from September to November 2024 were frustrated by the DPRK’s “strategic patience,” grounded in overwhelming military power. Meanwhile, the pro-American military self-coup attempt in the “ROK” in December 2024 was thwarted by the heroic struggle of the people in the “ROK.”
From the perspective of the world war, the anti-imperialist camp dealt a military strike to the imperialist camp on the strategic front in Eastern Europe, and military as well as political strikes on the strategic front in East Asia, both naturally carrying strategic significance.
Russia recently marked the 80th anniversary of its victory in World War 2 with a triumph in the liberation battle of Kursk. The DPRK established its strongest-ever military alliance with Russia by signing the DPRK-Russia Treaty on June 19, 2024, and concretized this treaty by participating in the Kursk liberation battle. The DPRK troops’ participation in this battle shines as the highest example of strategic solidarity among the leading countries within the anti-imperialist camp.
The anti-imperialist front is a strategic united front, while the anti-fascist front is a tactical united front. For the anti-imperialist camp, non-warmongering forces in imperialism are targets for tactical cooperation.
A strategic united front can remain throughout the historical course of revolution and its successive developmental stages, whereas a tactical united front is only effective within a limited time frame. A typical example of the former is the national united front, while the latter is the anti-fascist democratic front. The anti-Japanese national united fronts in the DPRK and China evolved into governments which have been continuing in the process of socialist revolution and construction. The world anti-fascist front during World War 2, however, was dissolved after the war due to the imperialist camp’s “Cold War” strategy.
Tactical cooperation involves temporarily aligning actions to isolate and weaken a common enemy, while refraining from mutual attacks between the cooperating forces. By engaging in tactical cooperation, one can avoid situations where fighting between cooperating forces would ultimately benefit the common enemy. Since tactical cooperation is not a united front, meetings, agreements, or declarations are not necessary. In other words, those involved in tactical cooperation are neither subjects of solidarity nor subjects to shake hands with. Forming a tactical united front with the so-called “new right” that has roots in fascism, or aligning with them in solidarity, is a right-wing error and an error of rightist open-door policy.
When the imperialist camp is divided into warmongers and non-warmongers, as is the case today, it is important for the anti-imperialist camp to tactically cooperate with the non-warmongering forces within the imperialist camp. Denying this would be a left-wing error, an error of leftist closed-door policy.
The fundamental struggle form of anti-imperialist camp is the All-People’s War.
The imperialist camp is conducting military operations in the form of proxy wars, expeditionary wars, “non-nuclear hybrid wars,” and limited wars. In contrast, the anti-imperialist camp is commonly engaging in direct war, proximate wars, “nuclear hybrid wars,” and full-scale wars.
The imperialist camp’s hybrid warfare is a “non-nuclear hybrid war,” wherein the use of nuclear weapons is entirely excluded. In contrast, the anti-imperialist camp engages in a “nuclear hybrid war,” which includes the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
The use of tactical nuclear weapons by the DPRK, China, and Russia is limited to their own historic territories and is aimed at achieving long-standing goals of territorial integrity and the surgical elimination of fascist forces. Tactical nuclear weapons are employed to bring a swift end to war through an ultra-short-term campaign, precisely to prevent the prolonged duration of conventional warfare and the astronomical human and material losses it entails. They are a means used for just purposes—to minimize the consequences of war.
The USA—as the first and only country to have ever used nuclear weapons and one that has continuously wielded nuclear blackmail against non-nuclear states while now driving the world toward World War 3—has no right to condemn the DPRK, China, and Russia for resorting to tactical nuclear strikes as a justified act of defense.
The DPRK will never resume talks unless the agreements made during the 2018–19 summits with the US and the “ROK” are implemented first. It is no coincidence that the Trump administration has acknowledged the DPRK as a nuclear-armed state and is now moving to reduce USFK by 4,500 troops.
The reformist forces led by Lee Jae-myung, which won the early “ROK” presidential election on June 3, must also take concrete action by abolishing the National Security Act. USFK is an occupying and invading force, and the National Security Act is a fascist law. Their very existence proves that the “ROK” remains a US colony under fascist rule. The DPRK’s fundamental position appears to be that it will only enter into dialogue with the US and the “ROK” if and when USFK is withdrawn and the National Security Act is abolished.
To this end, the DPRK issued its “Declaration of ‘Subjugation’” during the policy address of the Supreme People’s Assembly in January 2024, and notably omitted the policy address entirely in January 2025.
Since the Trump administration took office in January 2025, the DPRK has suspended intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch drills targeting the US mainland, and has instead been concentrating on tactical nuclear strike drills aimed at the traitorous and fascist forces in the “ROK”—using short-range ballistic missiles, strategic cruise missiles, 600mm multiple rocket launchers, air-to-air missiles, and other platforms.
There is a so-called ‘theory’ that claims all capitalist societies are, by nature, imperialist societies. It is truly deplorable that this pseudo-theory—lacking even the barest scientific foundation to qualify as a theory—is being propagated under the name of the ‘Imperialist Pyramid’, thereby sowing confusion within the international communist movement.
This clearly illustrates how stagnant the international communist movement has become. The reason why Solidnet—a respected body within the international communist movement—has failed to carry out the mission demanded by the times, remaining mired in division and paralysis, lies precisely here.
The leadership of the KKE has committed a grave analytical error in understanding the current international situation by clinging to the absurd sophistry of the “Imperialist Pyramid” theory, labeling Russia as an imperialist state, and defining the war in Ukraine as an inter-imperialist conflict. It must also be emphasized that other political forces within the international communist movement—though they may not explicitly follow to the “Imperialist Pyramid” theory—nonetheless commit the same error by advancing similar analyses that obscure the true nature of the war in Ukraine, ultimately serving imperialist interests.
To confuse friend and foe is the gravest strategic mistake that communists must never commit. This was the essential error committed by Karl Kautsky during World War 1 and by Trotsky during World War 2. This is precisely why the KKE leadership’s “Imperialist Pyramid” theory evokes both Kautsky’s theory of “ultra-imperialism” and the ultra-left tendencies of Trotskyism.
In February 2022, the war in Ukraine erupted. Originating with the 2014 Maidan coup, the conflict escalated into full-scale war through Russia’s “special military operation,” marking the opening salvo of World War 3. Although World War 3 had begun, the international communist movement remained engulfed in severe confusion, unable to break free from the grip of the KKE leadership and its dogmatic adherence to the so-called “Imperialist Pyramid” theory.
As the KKE leadership defined the war in Ukraine as a conflict between imperialist powers, Solidnet experienced an unprecedented split and was compelled to issue two mutually opposing declarations at its meeting in Havana, Cuba, in October 2022.
In this context, communist forces aligned in revolutionary orientation gathered in Paris in October 2022 to hold the 1st International Anti-imperialist Conference, issuing the Paris Declaration. The day after the declaration was released, the World Anti-imperialist Platform (hereinafter the Platform) was founded, based on the political program it laid out.
Since then, the Platform has organized seven successive international anti-imperialist conferences: in Belgrade, Serbia (December 2022); Caracas, Venezuela (March 2023); Gwangju and Seoul, the “ROK” (May 2023); Athens, Greece (November 2023); Washington, USA (July 2024); and Dakar, Senegal (November 2024).
Alongside convening international conferences for the scientific analysis of the global situation and the formulation of revolutionary strategies, the Platform has vigorously carried out joint anti-imperialist struggles to implement them in practice. At each event, rallies and marches were held, and communist party members and anti-imperialist activists came together to discuss and disseminate the Platform’s scientific understanding of the present conjuncture and its revolutionary strategy and tactics.
The world anti-imperialist massive struggles are also being carried out on a regular monthly basis, led by the People’s Democracy Party of the “ROK” and other participating parties and organizations wherever possible.
Following the 2022 NATO summit held in Madrid, Spain, a new summit is now set to take place once again in Western Europe—in The Hague, Netherlands, in June 2025—as part of NATO’s drive to provoke and accelerate World War 3. In firm opposition to NATO’s expansion and war drive, the Platform continues to advance with unwavering determination and revolutionary clarity—until the day NATO is dismantled and world peace is achieved.
With over 80 political organizations all over the world signing the Paris Declaration, all the practical events, theoretical and propaganda work, event-based struggles, and everyday operations of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform are consistently oriented toward its three core objectives: to promote world anti-imperialist mass struggle, to intensify the ideological struggle against revisionism and opportunism, and the consolidate the international communist movement.
The Platform conducts its theoretical and practical activities under the banners of two central slogans: “Proletarians of all countries, unite!” and “The people united will never be defeated!”
The Platform’s most fundamental task is to establish a revolutionary strategy based on scientific analysis of the global situation. By analyzing the global conjuncture of World War 3 unleashed by imperialism and presenting a revolutionary anti-imperialist strategy, the Platform is at the forefront of the struggle to strengthen the anti-imperialist front and hasten the final victory of the anti-imperialist cause.
As the world anti-fascist front triumphed in World War 2, the world anti-imperialist front will surely win in World War 3. As reality shows, the anti-imperialist camp is overwhelming the imperialist camp in justification, capacity, and operations. The final victory of the people, advancing under the banners of anti-imperialism and revolution, is inevitable. Revolution is science. So is revolutionary victory.