Stephen Cho | Coordinator of the Korean International Forum
Speech at the debate organized by the Communist Party of Belgium in the Fête de l’Humanité on September 15, 2024
The current world situation is, in short, a world war. There have been two world wars, the first and second, so this time is the third. To put it metaphorically, the storm of World War 3 is blowing from Eastern Europe through West Asia (Middle East) to the Western Pacific. This war is caused by imperialism, like all wars since the 20th century. Imperialism systematically promotes wars to deflect its own political and economic crises, for the high monopoly profits of monopoly capital, for the militarization of the economy, and for the interests of the military-industrial complex. Consequently, the people are uniting in solidarity on a global scale, not just on a national scale.
The current state of the war in Eastern Europe is not limited to Ukraine, as reported in the media, but is on the verge of expansion following the Ukrainian attack on Kursk in Russia. Russia cannot tolerate the attack on its country by NATO, including the US, which is behind Ukraine. The war in West Asia is not just moving from the fourth to the fifth round but is moving toward ending the zionist occupation of Palestine since 1948. This is a common goal of not only Hamas but also the “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Iran. It is because the war in West Asia is being fought in conjunction with World War 3.
Ukraine’s attack on Kursk is a major threat to Russia because Kursk has a gas valve from Russia to pro-Russian countries in Eastern Europe, Slovakia and Hungary, as well as to Germany, Austria, and Italy in Western Europe, and there is one of the four Russian nuclear power plants there. Ukraine carried out reckless and dangerous drone attacks against nuclear power plants in Zaporizhia and Kursk, which is extremely provocative to Russia. Furthermore, if the US and others allow Ukraine to attack Russia without restrictions with missiles provided by them, Russia has no choice but to make a serious decision. NATO, including the US, is constantly provoking Russia.
This is also true in West Asia. Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, in April, and even its attacks on Beirut, Lebanon, and Tehran, Iran, in July, killing Hezbollah’s military commander and Hamas’ political leader, respectively, are provocations and aggressions that Hezbollah and Iran will never tolerate. Iran is playing a waiting game as strategic patience, but its decisive retaliatory strike is inevitable. The “Axis of Resistance” is united, and its counterattack continues unabated.
In East Asia, the “Republic of Korea (ROK)” and Taiwan are the most dangerous. If Japan and the Philippines are added, it will be the war in East Asia, and when Australia and New Zealand join, we will have the Western Pacific war. Japan has the strongest military alliance in Asia with the US and the “ROK” and is the center of both the “first island chain” connecting Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines and the “second island chain” connecting Japan, Guam, and Papua New Guinea. In short, Japan is the starting point, common point, and center of the US plan for the Western Pacific war.
The US is trying to provoke the war in the “ROK” with Japan as its stronghold and immediately escalate it to the war in East Asia, which Taiwan and the Philippines would join, and then to the Western Pacific war with Australia and New Zealand included. This is exactly the “Second Pacific War,” a replay of the Pacific War during World War 2. At that time, Japan, which was in the fascist camp, waged war against the US, which was in the anti-fascist camp, while now the US, which belongs to the imperialist camp, is trying to wage war against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), China, and Russia, which are in the anti-imperialist camp.
The Washington NATO Summit in July 2024 declared the de facto “Pacificization of NATO” with having IP4 countries (Japan, the “ROK,” Australia, and New Zealand) as its partners, and from June to August this summer, with the RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific Exercise) as its peak, NATO held its largest and most provocative military exercises and war games in history, including “Freedom Edge,” “Pitch Black,” “Pacific Skies,” “Pacific Dragon,” and “Ulchi Freedom Shield” exercises aimed at the DPRK, China, and Russia. In other words, the “Pacificization of NATO” is not just organized but is in the stage of full-scale realization through practical exercises. Imperialism had “Atlanticized” NATO, expanding it from the North Atlantic to the South Atlantic, and now completed its “Pacificization”. Ten percent of NATO’s approximate 750 bases are in Latin America, mostly on the Pacific side, from Mexico to Chile.
At the end of July, the defense and foreign ministers of the US and Japan gathered in Japan to make the Japan “Self-Defense Forces (SDF)” a war-capable Japanese army and to transfer the operational command authority from the Indo-Pacific Command to the US Forces Japan (USFJ). In other words, the USFJ and the Japan “SDF” completed a command system that allows them to wage war on their own at any time. This means that the subordinate military alliance system has already been established to complete the “Pacificization of NATO” with the already formed “AUKUS” of the US, UK, and Australia, while the US, Japan, and the “ROK” virtually formed the “East Asian NATO” at Camp David in August last year, and the US, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines formed the “SQUAD” this year. In other words, the imperialist forces, including the US, have already systematically and strategically prepared to expand the war not only to Northeast Asia, but also to East Asia and the Western Pacific.
For the US, Japan is the “invincible aircraft carrier” and the central base in the Western Pacific, while the “ROK” provides the “storm troops” and the base for advance. Unlike the wars in Ukraine and West Asia, in the East Asia and Western Pacific, the moment the war in the “ROK” erupts, the wars in Northeast Asia, East Asia and the Western Pacific will be triggered almost simultaneously. This fearful battlefield, where even tactical nuclear weapons may be mobilized, will be the arena for largest battle between anti-imperialist military and imperialist military forces and will decide the fate of World War 3.
That is why Yoon Suk-yeol of the “ROK” shows violence and belligerence as a fascist and a pro-US puppet, surpassing Zelensky of Ukraine and Netanyahu of Israel. Yoon fascist power has gone berserk in its fascist witch hunt so-called “anti-state forces” by simultaneously raiding and searching the People’s Democracy Party and the Democratic party, which are respectively the leftmost and the rightmost except for the right-wing fascist party in the political spectrum of the “ROK,” on the same day in last August. The scheme to provoke a local war and then use it as an excuse to impose “martial law” has already been exposed by the public remark of the leader of the main opposition party, which has a majority in the National Assembly. In the “ROK,” all political forces, except for the far-right fascist forces, are engaged in a common struggle to end the Yoon Suk-yeol fascist government.
With Yoon’s government having formed the “Northeast Asian NATO” with the US Biden and Japanese Kishida governments last year and practiced it this year, the recent fascist crackdown in the “ROK” is the signal for the “martial law on the pretext of war” and the most obvious sign that war in the “ROK” is on the horizon. Again, the “ROK” is in a situation where it would be little wonder if the war exploded tomorrow. The communist and anti-imperialist forces worldwide should be alert and not overlook the political and military significance of the war in the “ROK” as a trigger and a detonator in the war in East Asia and the Western Pacific.
The reason why the imperialist powers are launching a world war is because their economic and political crises are unprecedentedly serious and there is no way to overcome them except war. The downward spiral manifested by repeated economic depressions is reaching an extreme after the 2008 global financial crisis in the US and the pandemic, and the deceptive left and right two-party system designed to hide the polarization of the rich and poor is no longer working. The awakening of the world’s people is accelerating under the situation of world war. The imperialist powers are deluded thinking that they can win as they did in the Cold War system by denouncing the anti-imperialist camp as a “new axis of aggressors” and creating the “New Cold War” system as a last resort to extend their lives and buy time.
However, the anti-imperialist camp is taking the initiative in the confrontation with the imperialist camp because it has a just pretext, overwhelming forces, and superior operations. The imperialist camp is being pushed into a corner in every aspect of its pretext, forces, and operations in this world war, which stems from its fundamental vulnerability and inability to escape its own general and acute crises. It is no coincidence that the imperialist powers are losing against Russia and the “Axis of Resistance” in Eastern Europe and West Asia, respectively, which are the battlefields of ongoing wars among the three major battlefields of World War 3. The imperialist forces are trying to reverse the situation by making the Western Pacific War the main battlefield of World War 3, but their humiliating defeat is inevitable.
Just as the antifascist camp won the antifascist war, World War 2, the anti-imperialist camp will be the final winner in the anti-imperialist war, World War 3. The banner of justice of anti-fascism, liberation, and reunification is on the side of the anti-imperialist camp. Russia, China, and the DPRK, the leading countries in the anti-imperialist camp, are all armed with nuclear missiles. The DPRK, the most steadfast socialist country, China, a socialist country with Chinese characteristics, and Russia, a country that has a socialist heritage, have not only an anti-imperialist line but also socialism in common.
The 2 billion Muslims, including the “Axis of Resistance,” such as Iran, colonized and semi-colonized countries, and developing countries, are joining the anti-imperialist camp, as evidenced by the increasing number of countries joining BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The conflict between the G7 and NATO, the imperialist tools, on the one side, and BRICS and the SCO, the collectives of the anti-imperialist camp, on the other side, is deepening the political and economic crisis of imperialism.
Specifically, if Saudi Arabia, an Arab leading power, decisively turns its back on the US and turns to BRICS, the US petrodollar system will collapse, and the US economy, which has been printing almost unlimited amounts of dollars and suffering from astronomical national debt, will be plunged into hyperinflation on par with Germany . The US is trying to change its “Asia-Pacific Strategy” to the “Indo-Pacific Strategy” to isolate China and attract India, but the deceptive nature of its “de-risking” has already been exposed, and India, a founding member of the BRICS and a member of the SCO, chose a summit with Russia instead of participating in the Washington NATO Summit. The “Quad” is ineffective and the “Indian Oceanization of NATO” has failed.
The imperialist camp has made proxy, expeditionary, localized and hybrid warfare the doctrine of its military operations, which is a proof that it recognizes the limit of its forces’ ability to overwhelm the anti-imperialist camp, and that the monopoly capitalists who enjoy the greatest wealth and benefits are afraid of suicidal mutually assured destruction (MAD). There is no doubt that the anti-imperialist camp which is firmly committed to the cause of justice recognized by humanity and the times, and which will desperately fight near its mainland by all means necessary, will be victorious. The anti-imperialist forces, including the communist forces, do not want war and are doing their best to prevent it, exerting their strategic patience to the limit. However, if the fatal imperialist provocation makes war unavoidable, we will crush the imperialist war of aggression with an all-people’s resistance in which the entire army and people fight as one, just as the antifascist camp did during World War 2, and make it a decisive opportunity for the great change and great upheaval in the revolutionary direction of permanent peace, global independence, and a society where the people become its masters.
Launched in Paris in October, 2022, the World Anti-imperialist Platform (the Platform) announced the Paris Declaration based on the scientific analysis of the current international situation and the revolutionary strategies of the communist forces and has been striving with communist political forces worldwide to realize the three major goals; the world anti-imperialist struggles, the ideological battle against opportunist, and the strengthening of the communist movement.
The Platform held various international events, including the anti-imperialist international conference, and mass struggles in Paris, France, in October; in Belgrade, Serbia, in December, 2022; in Caracas, Venezuela, in March; in Gwangju and Seoul, the “ROK,” in May; in Athens, Greece, in November, 2023; and in Washington, US, in July, 2024. Currently, it is preparing for events and struggles in Dakar, Senegal, in October.
The logical contradiction between the imperialist camp’s anti-Russian and pro-Israeli propaganda is pushing itself to the brink in a fight that already had no convincing pretext. The Platform is now actively working to enhance the leadership role of the communist forces in solidarity with the pro-Russian and pro-Palestinian peoples.
The Platform, holding high its two main banners “Workers of the World, Unite!” and “The People, United, Will Never Be Defeated!” is moving forward unwaveringly on the path of peace, independence, liberation and revolution together with communist and anti-imperialist forces around the world. The people are the masters of their own destiny and history only moves in this direction. As history has proven, science and truth must triumph. Unity is the people’s best weapon. The united people and united anti-imperialist camp will certainly win.