For a good while now the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has been preforming missile tests in which they launch powerful rockets into the ocean, usually near Japan. Recently however, the American media has been in hysterics over the DPRK’s launching of a missile over Japan instead of nearby it. This act by the DPRK is likely part of the escalation of tensions between the DPRK and the United States along with it’s East Asian allies (Japan included), after the DPRK successfully developed nuclear weaponry which sparked back and forth threats between the tiny country and the fully developed long time nuclear power that is the United States. One of the highlights of this conflict was Trump’s ridiculous, jingoistic “Fire and Fury” comment that made literally no effort to disguise his chauvinistic, imperialist attitude. If one compares this to the DPRK’s cautious, ultra specific, and ultimately defensive “threats”, one can already clearly see the inherent imbalance in the potential conflict. It should already be clear that one tiny anti-imperialist country is not going to be able to fend off the world’s only superpower, and therefore the best case scenario for the Korean people of the North is to not get invaded by the United States in the first place. This is why I call on the whole of black activists in the United States to take a stand AGAINST war in the DPRK, and hold an attitude of solidarity towards our fellow people of color in the Global South. I will now proceed to address the specific reasons why this attitude is necessary.

1. The DPRK provided a great deal of support for the Black Liberation struggle in the U.S.

The struggle against imperialism and for socialism is a worldwide struggle that can not be won just with nationalism. Only a complete solidarity with the struggles of oppressed people worldwide can overcome the global imperialist system, and this was a belief that the Worker’s Party of Korea had in mind when it made close connections with the Black Panther Party. The DPRK considered the struggle for freedom fought by Black people in the United States to be analogous to its own struggle against U.S. imperialism, and therefore formed a tight knit relationship with the BPP, a leading black liberation organization at the time. In their book Black Against Empire, writers Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin Jr. describe one trip of the Panthers to the DPRK like so:

“The group arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea, on July 14, 1970, and was greeted at the airport by Kang Ryang Uk, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, and other dignitaries. The delegation traveled the country meeting with local officials to discuss ways that anti-imperialist movements in North Korea and the United States could help each other,” (319).

The Worker’s Party of Korea would also release statements declaring their firm allegiance with the Black Panther Party, the black liberation struggle, and the entire of the American anti-imperialist community. One such statement concluded with this declaration of solidarity:

“The Korean people send firm militant solidarity to the Black Panther Party of the U.S.A. and the American Negroes that have been shedding blood in their arduous but just struggle in the teeth of the brutal repression by the U.S. imperialists, the chieftain of world imperialism, the ring leader of world reaction and the common enemy of the world people, and they will give them active support and encouragement in the future too. The Black Panther Party of the U.S.A and the Negroes that are commanding the support and encouragement of the progressive American people and the revolutionary people of the whole world are bound to be crowned with a final victory in their just struggle.”

In addition to diplomatic support, the developments in national liberation related political theory made by the leading theoretician of the Korean revolution, Kim Il Sung were also very appealing to the Black Panthers. Eldridge Cleaver (before he transformed completely into a reactionary), had an especially huge affinity for Kim Il Sung’s theory known as Juche, liking it so much in fact, that he even wrote the preface to a collection of Kim Il Sung’s works! In his study about the relationship between the DPRK and the Black Panthers, Benjamin Young, a writer for the Asia-Pacific Journal, provides further details on Eldridge Cleaver’s attraction to Kim Il Sung’s thought.

“Eldridge Cleaver was particularly drawn to the North Korean leadership’s adaptation of Marxism-Leninism in the form of the Juche ideology (generally defined as self-reliance), the country’s economic success in the 1960s, and its opposition to U.S. imperialism around the world, a position honed in the Korean War.”

Often times, Black revolutionaries in the United States would prefer to read the works of third world Marxist-Leninist theorists of color (Kim Il Sung being a prominent thinker among this group), rather than European Marxists, because they could relate more to what these author’s had to say. In her Autobiography, Assata Shakur expresses such sentiment when she mentions Kim Il Sung among her preferred theoreticians.

“I preferred Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il Sung, Che or Fidel, but i ended up having to get into Marx and Lenin just to understand a lot of the speeches and stuff Huey Newton was putting out” (221).

As one can clearly see from what has been written here, there has been a very close connection between the struggle of the DPRK against imperialism across the ocean, and the black liberation struggle here at home. Because the DPRK was willing to offer help to us, we should return the favor.

2. Understanding the DPRK’s approach to socialism is key to understanding the nation’s great successes in battling imperialism and building an equitable society.

The economy of the DPRK is not actually anywhere as bad as many assume. Reports from South Korea’s central bank assert that the DPRK experienced rapid economic growth last year. The countries method of organization of production reflects socialist principles, and industry is democratically managed by representatives elected from various sections of the proletariat.

The DPRK’s state structure is also very democratic in nature. As one can easily see in the country’s constitution: democratically elected members of the various People’s Assemblies form the core of North Korea’s government .

So yes, the DPRK is a democratic, socialist, and prosperous society that deserves support from not only Black people who wish to build a society of our own like this, but for all who call themselves anti-imperialists right here in the “Belly of the Beast”.

3. U.S. Military invasion or change from the inside?

This article has already went on for a very long time, so without rushing, I will attempt to be brief in this segment. It is imperative for those who have previously supported the idea of war between the U.S. and the DPRK to recognize the fact that U.S. has already went to war with the DPRK before, and to look at the impact of the previous war on the North Korean people in order to get somewhat of an idea of what a second war would mean for them.

There are too many horrible atrocities committed by U.S. forces during the Korean war for all of them to be addressed here, so I will focus on what I found to be one of the most disturbing of them all. In his anti Korean War book, This Monstrous War, Wilfred G. Burchett describes the U.S. tactic of dropping insects on Korean villages:

“Chuk Dong is a village of two tiny hamlets, separated by a

hump-backed hill. At about 11 a.m. on March 9, a group of Volunteers

had seen a plane flying so low they thought it must have been

hit by anti-aircraft fire. It disappeared behind the hump-backed hill.

A patrol was sent to the other hamlet and found along a strip of land

about 200 yards long and 20 wide, in a direction corresponding to

the flight of the plane, hundreds of clumps of flies and mosquitoes,

swirling around on the ground in such a density that ‘if you put

your foot down,’ as the patrol leader expressed it, ‘you would kill a

hundred'” (239).

Why insects? Because the insects were infected beforehand with deadly diseases that could cause outbreaks of disease among the North Korean people. Burchett received confirmation of this from a captured U.S. Lieutenant who was able to describe America’s plan in detail.

“Other captured airmen helped fill in details. Lt. Floyd O’Neal’s

testimony was particularly interesting because having been trained

as a scientist, he absorbed much more of the preparatory germ warfare

lectures than the others. He was able to present a vivid and horrifying

picture of American scientists poring over their microscopes

and test-tubes, turning back the record of medical science to the

Middle Ages when the Black Death and cholera ravaged the populations

of Europe. He described in detail how these perverted men

worked to develop more virulent types of bacteria than those naturally

spread, of how they were developing bacteria – and insects to

carry them – which would flourish in cold, sub-zero climates where

diseases were formerly unknown” (243).

That’s right, the United States dropped insects on Korean villages as a way of utilizing biological warfare against the “communist threat”. For those who wonder why the DPRK harbors such hatred for the United States, that is one of the reasons why.

So obviously in the event of a war between the biggest empire in the world, and a small third world country, even if the DPRK somehow managed to win the war like Vietnam, or stave off the U.S. once more, the costs of the war for regular people in North Korea would be massive.

Once again, I call on the black activists of the United States to take a stand against U.S. invasion of the DPRK in a true display of anti-imperialism, just as the DPRK took a stand against the racist onslaughts that threatened us. We can, no we must answer Donald Trump’s war cries with a resounding:

HANDS OFF THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA!