> Their orientation is "left in form, right in essence." Yours too.
>
> lp
Tankie.
Chuck, AWL is left Shactmanite/libertarian socialist.
------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 13, 1998 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- Elections in DPRK New People's Assembly stengthens socialist path By Brian Becker Amajor election took place July 26 in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The people voted for candidates to serve in the 10th Supreme People’s Assembly. They elected 687 deputies from factories and workplaces, collective and state farms, military units and geographic areas. Under the constitution of socialist north Korea, the Supreme People’s Assembly is the body authorized to elect the president of the country, revise the constitution, supervise the budget and personnel movements, and formulate the government’s program. It also selects the prime minister, foreign minister and other high government officials within a month after new deputies are elected. Korean Workers Party General Secretary Kim Jong Il was elected as a deputy from a military constituency in Pyongyang. Kim had been named supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army in December 1991, and general secretary of the Workers Party of Korea in October 1997. Kim Jong Il succeeded President Kim Il Sung—who was both the leader of the Korean Workers Party and head of state until he died from a heart attack on July 8, 1994. It is expected that the newly elected SPA will choose Kim Jong Il as the next president of the DPRK in early September. Important issues in the election The election of the 10th SPA is a major event in north Korea. The DPRK constitution stipulates that parliamentary elections should take place every five years, but this is the first election since 1990. During these years the socialist DPRK has been hit with a series of formidable problems. In 1989 and 1990, the governments of its major trading partners in Eastern Europe were replaced by U.S.-supported counter- revolutionary regimes. A similar counter-revolutionary process led by Boris Yeltsin and other pro-capitalist forces led to the destruction of the Soviet Union. The loss of trade led to severe economic problems in the DPRK, as it did for socialist Cuba in the early 1990s. The DPRK also faced a string of natural disasters over four consecutive years—1994 to 1997. First there were two years of massive floods. Then came a year of drought. Finally, a 26-foot-high tidal wave ravaged northern Korea around harvest time in the fall of 1997. The DPRK had to manage with these huge problems at the very time that the country lost its most important leader, Kim Il Sung. Kim had led the party and its military wing since the 1930s, during the guerrilla war against Japanese occupation. He had led the republic since its founding after World War II. During the 1990s, when other socialist countries have been broken up and their governments replaced by capitalist counter- revolution, the new DPRK leadership has maintained continuity while promoting the socialist path. This alone is a testament to the maturity and determination of the new leadership grouping and the support it enjoys from workers and peasants inside the DPRK. Korean representatives explain that the election of a new Supreme People’s Assembly shows that the revolutionary leadership has weathered this test and consolidated its authority—and will proceed to defend the social conquests of north Korea’s socialist revolution. Korea needs a peace treaty The election of the SPA came one day before the 45th anniversary of the arm istice agreement on July 27, 1953, that ended open military hostilities during the Korean War. But even today, despite the DPRK’s demands, the U.S. government refuses to sign a peace treaty that would formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War. Washington refuses to sign the peace treaty because without a peace treaty the war is technically still on. This provides a pretext for the Pentagon to station nearly 40,000 U.S. troops in south Korea and maintain a large nuclear presence on the Korean peninsula. The military occupation allows Washington to be the real power inside south Korea while constantly threatening north Korea with so-called war games, mock invasions and simulated bombing runs. The Pentagon’s goal with this policy of military intimidation is to force the DPRK—a relatively small and still developing country—to divert important economic resources into military defense. Every penny the DPRK is forced to spend on military defense is one less penny for consumer goods, civilian industry, agriculture and the other elements needed to develop a socialist economy. Ronald Reagan used a similar strategy against the USSR in the 1980s when he poured $2 trillion into Pentagon spending, the biggest military outlay ever when there was no major war. While ratcheting up military pressure against north Korea, Washington continues its course of economic sanctions. The DPRK has now suffered economic sanctions for nearly a half century—longer than any other country. When the USSR existed, the DPRK could challenge sanctions by developing trade with socialist countries. Even though China still carries on trade with the DPRK, the loss of the Soviet Union makes the imperialist-mandated economic sanctions much more damaging. Despite all this pressure, the DPRK has made impressive gains for the working class. It is time for anti-war and progressive forces inside the United States to build a campaign demanding that Washington sign a peace treaty with the DPRK and lift the sanctions against this country. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY,NY 10011; via e-mail: ww at workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info at workers.org. Web: http://www.workers.org)
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