Stephen Cho | Coordinator of the Korean International Forum
The essence of the December 3 martial law in the “Republic of Korea (ROK)” is the self-coup by the pro-US fascist group.
The coup, orchestrated and supported by imperialist America, was carried out alongside war preparations against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). However, when the DPRK’s “strategic patience” prevented the escalation of a localized war, the coup was declared without meeting the martial law condition of a “wartime” situation. Consequently, it ultimately failed due to mass anti-government protests involving millions, the National Assembly’s resolution to lift martial law, and the impeachment that suspended the president’s authority. Among the newly revealed facts, some are particularly significant as they are closely linked to the unfolding dynamics of World War 3.
On December 31, 2024, the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Insurrection Investigation revealed that President Yoon had directly commanded the Drone Operations Command through the National Security Office and carried out drone attacks on Pyongyang on October 3, 9, and 10. The attacks at that time were not mere military provocations in terms of their purpose, scale, and method; rather, they were at a level aimed at triggering an actual war. In other words, a war in the “ROK” nearly broke out in October 2024. Had the DPRK not taken the highly unusual stance of remaining unresponsive and maintaining its position of “strategic patience,” the war would have erupted at that moment.
Had the war in the “ROK” erupted at that moment, it would have marked the war in the “ROK” of October 2024, following the war in Ukraine of February 2022 and the war in Palestine of October 2023. These three regions—Eastern Europe, West Asia (the Middle East), and East Asia—are volatile flashpoints where regional conflicts could escalate into full-scale wars. This reality demonstrates that imperialist forces have designated these three areas as the primary battlefields of World War 3, systematically expanding the war theater from Eastern Europe to West Asia and finally to East Asia.
The war in the “ROK” is the trigger for the East Asian war. If the war in the “ROK” breaks out, the war in Taiwan will inevitably follow. If Japan and the Philippines join, it escalates into a broader East Asian war, and if Australia and New Zealand added, it extends into a Western Pacific war. Just as Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine in Eastern Europe and Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel in West Asia have been known, the world has now come to recognize Yoon Suk-yeol in the “ROK” as a fascist maniac and warmonger in East Asia. Like Zelensky and Netanyahu, Yoon is also backed by imperialist forces.
The US imperialist conducted 132 joint US-“ROK” war exercises against the DPRK over 20-year period from 2003 to 2022. However, this number surged to 123 exercises in just one year in 2023, and in the first ten months of 2024 alone, a ‘new record’ was set with 130 exercises. In other words, since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022, and especially from 2023—the year when the war in Palestine broke out—until 2024, the US has engaged in an utterly frenzied onslaught of war exercises against the DPRK.
In August 2023, at the Camp David Summit, the leaders of the US, Japan, and the “ROK” effectively formed a “Northeast Asian NATO.” Later, in July 2024, at the NATO Summit in Washington, they essentially declared the “Pacificization of NATO.” In March, June, and August 2024, the US and its allies conducted the largest-ever war exercises against the DPRK under the names “Freedom Shield”, “Freedom Edge”, and “Ulchi Freedom Shield.” Then, from June to August, they carried out continuous and overlapping military exercises across the Pacific in the air, sea, and land, effectively implementing the “Pacificization of NATO” in reality.
Following this organizational structuring and combat readiness development, a series of major escalations took place: the Kursk invasion against Russia in East Asia in August; concentrated offensive against Hezbollah in West Asia in September; and drone attacks on Pyongyang in East Asia in October. Furthermore, after Trump’s presidential election victory, the pattern of escalation continued: in November, the lifting of restriction on long-range missile strikes against Russia in Eastern Europe; on December 3, a military coup in the “ROK” in East Asia; and on December 8, the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria in West Asia. The three battlefields are closely interconnected, with clear signs that they are being systematically executed as part of an imperialist strategy of World War 3.
The US imperialists’ war preparations against the DPRK and the military coup preparations by Yoon Suk-yeol’s fascist forces in the “ROK” followed an identical process. In reality, Yoon’s fascist clique made the provocation of a local war against the DPRK the primary impetus behind the coup preparations in the “ROK”. To this end, from September to November 2024, they relentlessly escalated provocations, including drone attacks, rocket launches, and artillery shelling. By mid-December 2024, it was further revealed that Yoon’s fascist forces had used the authority of the Minister of National Defense to mobilize the Headquarters Intelligence Detachment (HID), a counterintelligence unit against the DPRK under the Intelligence Command, to carry out false flag operations, staging fake attacks on air force base in Cheongju and Daegu, as well as on the THAAD base in Seongju.
Yoon Suk-yeol’s fascist cliques organized a press conference in the National Assembly by the “Anti-Communist Youth Corps” and, by putting such extreme right-wing reactionaries ahead, instigated and manipulated the “January 19 Riot” —the first of its kind, where they stormed the court, destroyed its building, and attempted arson. The “January 19 Riot” is a clear sign that the situation in the “ROK” is shifting from insurrection to civil war. The history of the “ROK” shows that in 1948, a civil war broke out within the country due to the pro-US fascist forces, followed by localized conflicts with the DPRK in 1949, and finally, in 1950, the Korean War erupted. The present situation in the “ROK” is fundamentally no different from that time.
After the failure of the December 3 Coup, the fascist and reactionary forces in the “ROK” are facing inevitable harsh penalties, such as the death sentence, or their end as political forces. Civil war is the only way out for the fascist and reactionary forces on the brink of death. Civil war progresses through stages of bloodshed, riots, and gunfire, and we are already at the stage of riots. If the civil war within the “ROK” merges with the localized conflict with the DPRK, it will become the war in the “ROK.” The war in the “ROK” is a scheme of imperialism desperate for World War 3 and war in East Asia.
The overwhelming strength of our great people and nation, who already thwarted the December 3 Coup, will prevent civil war and the war in the “ROK,” preserving peace. It will also hasten the realization of a new world of people’s democracy and national independence through anti-fascist and anti-imperialist uprisings. As proven by its theoretical and practical activities so far, the People’s Democracy Party will valiantly fulfill its historical mission as the locomotive of the anti-fascist and anti-imperialist uprising.
