More than seventy years have passed since the United States occupied south Korea militarily. 

It can be said that the history of the division of the Korean nation started on September 8, 1945, when the US troops landed on the southern part of Korea.

Aggressor in the guise of “liberator”

Following the defeat of Japan, the US troops landed in south Korea in the guise of “liberator.”

At that time Japan already declared an unconditional surrender and abandoned arms. So there was no need for the US to disarm the Japanese army.

Moreover, Korea was not an enemy state to the Allies. Korea, which had fought against Japan in the first half of 20th century, was a country that should be made independent of Japan, an enemy state. 

It is none other than the US that inveigled the Allies into bisecting Korea, which was not a vanquished country. In other words, Korea fell prey to the US’s dominionist interest and was divided into the north and the south after the end of the Second World War.

The US, availing itself of the prevailing situation just before the end of the Second World War, suggested the partition occupation plan with a view to occupying even half of the peninsula. 

John Gunther, a writer of the biography of MacArthur, commander of the US Far Eastern Army, wrote: The US must take a prompt measure to prevent the Soviet army from advancing southward and occupying the whole of Korea; so, the US had to draw a line somewhere in the Korean peninsula.

Finally, the US drew a line at the 38th parallel of the north latitude and designated it as a temporary partition line between the Soviet Union and the US for accepting the surrender of the Japanese army and disarming it. Because of this line, numerous villages were divided into two and many railways and roads were severed.

As a proactive measure to prevent the eternal division of the country north Korea withdrew all the Soviet troops and demanded that the US pull out its troops from south Korea.

However, the US, while maintaining and strengthening its military presence in south Korea, closely watched for a chance to invade north Korea. Finally, it egged the south Korean puppet army on to unleash the Korean war on June 25, 1950. The 3-year-long Korean war inflicted immeasurable suffering on the Korean nation.  

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Deceitful theory of “peace-keeping role”

From the first days of its occupation of south Korea, the US was very vocal about deterring provocation, containing, and maintaining peace. But the theory of deterrence of provocation is paradoxical. 

History and realities vividly prove that the US has persistently resorted to military provocations against north Korea. The typical examples are the Pueblo incident, EC-121 incident, Panmunjom incident, and US army’s helicopter incident.

In the days of the Cold War, the US advertised that its troops stationed in south Korea were contributing to maintaining peace as a deterrent force to prevent southward incursion of the Soviet Union.

However, the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union negated its justification for its military presence in south Korea. 

Then, why does the US refuse to abandon south Korea for over 70 years?

Is it for peace-keeping as it has much advocated? It is not true. 

What it wants is to swallow up the whole of Korea and realize its strategy to dominate Asia with south Korea as the launching pad. The southeast Asia security strategy of the US is, in essence, an aggressive strategy for maintaining the Cold War structure to contain the DPRK, China, and Russia through a military alliance with Japan and South Korea.

To this end, the US came up with the theory of “threat from north Korea” to maintain its military presence in south Korea, as the theory of “threat from the Soviet Union” could not hold water any longer.

The US stages one war game after another in the Korean peninsula and its surroundings, bringing the situation there to the brink of war to the apprehension of the international community. 

Major obstacle to Korea’s reunification

The US does not want inter-Korean relations to be improved and Korea to be reunified. It is because, then, the justification for its presence in south Korea will cut any ice no longer.

For this reason, the US has constantly interfered with the issue of Korea’s reunification to perpetuate its division and instigate the showdown between the north and the south.

When the June 15 Joint Declaration was adopted at the first-ever summit between the north and south of Korea in June 2000, followed by the October 4 Declaration in October 2007, bringing about a tremendous change in the reunification movement of the Korean nation, the US was hellbent on putting a spoke in the wheel. In particular, it tightly bound south Korea in military alliance and waged frantic north-targeted nuclear war drills, thereby laying a fateful obstacle to the positively-developing reunification movement of Korea.

It was not a secret to everybody that there stands the US behind the south Korean authorities who grew more reckless in their moves against north Korea.

The international community has become more convinced that the US is the major obstacle in the way of Korea’s reunification, to say nothing of peace and security in the Korean peninsula and the rest of northeast Asia.

If the US troops are withdrawn from south Korea the danger of war will be removed, the tension eased and environment favourable for peace and security created in the region of northeast Asia. And a turning point will also be brought about in realizing the long-cherished aspiration and desire of the Korean nation to advance along the road of reconciliation, cooperation and independent reunification on the principle of By Our Nation Itself.