People’s Democracy Party (“Republic of Korea”)
World War 3 is, in name and reality, an anti-imperialist war. Whereas World War 2 began as an inter-imperialist war and later transformed into an anti-fascist war, World War 3 will be consistently an anti-imperialist war from beginning to end. Against the imperialist camp that provoked World War 3, socialist countries, non-socialist anti-imperialist countries, and anti-imperialist forces within imperialist and colonial countries are forming a broad world anti-imperialist front.
The modern imperialist forces centered on the US-NATO are trying to manipulate the “New Cold War” system by accusing the war-engaged Russia and Iran and the pre-war Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and China of being the “new axis of the aggressors” in order to escape the unprecedented political and economic crisis. They are trying to repeat the “Cold War” strategy that followed World War 2, this time alongside World War 3, as a “New Cold War” strategy, but the anti-imperialist camp—centered on the nuclear and missile superpowers of the DPRK, China, and Russia—already holds a clear superiority in terms of justification, forces, and operations. This is being proven in reality.
The complete defeat of the NATO and neo-Nazi forces in Ukraine is imminent. On the battlefield in West Asia, the imperialist camp won a tactical victory by overthrowing the anti-US regime in Syria last December, but the strategic landscape of the world war has not changed at all. They are facing fierce resistance from the “Axis of Resistance,” including Iran and other anti-Zionist, anti-US armed forces. While the military and political unity of the anti-imperialist camp, including the DPRK, China, Russia, and Iran, is getting stronger, the contradictions between the belligerents and non-belligerents in the imperialist camp are intensifying with the emergence of Trump, who has advocated for “withdrawing from NATO” and “ending the war in Ukraine.” It is reasonable to predict that imperialism will suffer a decisive blow in World War 3.
In forecasting the developments of World War 3, it is crucial to focus on East Asia and the Western Pacific. This is because the storm of World War 3, instigated by imperialist forces, is sweeping from Eastern Europe through West Asia (the Middle East) and toward East Asia and the Western Pacific. Although the belligerent imperialist forces may attempt actions such as the destruction of nuclear plants in Eastern Europe or strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in West Asia in order to prevent the non-belligerent imperialist forces from hindering the progress of World War 3, it is far more likely that they will initiate a war in East Asia through the war in the “Republic of Korea (ROK)” which has been building up since last year.
The imperialist forces completed the establishment of the “Northeast Asian version of NATO” between the US, Japan, and the “ROK” at the Camp David Summit in August 2023, and operationalized it through the multi-domain joint military exercise “Freedom Edge” in July 2024. Meanwhile, through the Washington NATO Summit in July 2024 and a series of multinational joint military exercises involving warmongering Pacific nations and NATO members from June to August 2024, they finalized and implemented the “Pacificization of NATO.” Notably, US imperialist invaders integrated the Japanese Self-Defense Forces’ Joint Operations Command and the US Forces Japan’s Unified Command, deploying missiles within the USFJ targeting the DPRK and China. In doing so, they have positioned Japanese militarist forces as the vanguard of the war in East Asia. Additionally, they have organized pro-US fascist forces in the “ROK” targeting the DPRK, and pro-US belligerent forces in the Philippines targeting China, thereby completing the battle array in preparation for the outbreak of war in East Asia.
The war in the “ROK” is the signal fire for the war in East Asia, and the civil war within the “ROK” is the fuse of the war in the “ROK.” The imperialist forces, after igniting the war in Ukraine in February 2022 and the war in Palestine and West Asia in October 2023, sought to trigger a war in the “ROK” in October 2024. In particular, to render the outbreak of World War 3 an irreversible trend, they provoked it more frequently, more intensely, and more recklessly. Within the sequence of events—including the attempted assassination of Trump in July 2024, the Ukrainian army’s invasion of Kursk in Russia in August, the concentrated attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon in September, the fabrication of the “DPRK troop deployment to Ukraine” rumors in October, the US’s lifting of restrictions on long-range missiles in November, and the overthrow of the anti-US regime in Syria in December—the pro-US fascist clique led by Yoon Suk-yeol in the “ROK” launched a local war provocation against the DPRK, including drone attacks on Pyongyang in October, followed by the declaration of emergency martial law in December. They also prepared a false flag operation in the “ROK,” aimed at carrying out a massacre of more than 100,000 people. It is evident that the US imperialist forces are behind the ongoing pro-US self-coup attempt and the political turmoil driven by an insurrection in the “ROK”.
The current situation in the “ROK” is a perilous one, where the crisis is escalating from insurrection to civil war. For the ringleaders and perpetrators of insurrection, who, under the “ROK” criminal law, cannot avoid the death penalty or the severest punishments, civil war is a matter of life and death. Although Yoon Suk-yeol was dismissed on April 4, the insurrection cliques are still wrecking the state affairs, firmly holding key posts in the state’s institutions of violence such as the military, prosecution, and police. The masterminds of the insurrection, who plotted the self-fabricated provocations in the “ROK,” are still scheming shocking incidents, and the far-right reactionary mobs are plotting bloody clashes and riots. If a second martial law and live-fire order occur, whether due to clashes and riots—or through fabricated provocations in the “ROK” or local wars against the DPRK—civil war will inevitably erupt. And if a local war is added to the civil war, it immediately becomes the war in the “ROK”. In short, civil war is the only lifeline for the insurrection cliques at the brink of death, and the war in the “ROK” is the most desperate move of the belligerent imperialist forces, who are striving to ignite World War 3 and the war in East Asia, and the optimal card to overpower the non-belligerent imperialist forces. The power to save the “ROK” from this life-and-death crisis lies solely in the people and the nation. This has already been proven in practice: the DPRK’s “strategic patience” crushed the provocation scheme of a local war in October last year, and the pro-US puppet coup attempt in December was shattered by the “ROK” people’s December Uprising.
Today, amid the fierce confrontation against imperialism, our primary task and historic mission is to strengthen the anti-imperialist front. There is no other reason why the world anti-imperialist front—which inherits and develops the world anti-fascist front that achieved victory in World War 2—must be fortified and why the peoples of the world must rise up in the anti-imperialist joint action. Justice and victory are on the side of the anti-imperialist camp. Let us vigorously march forward toward the day of global independence, true peace, and genuine democracy!
