April 9, 2001
No More Star Wars
The Campaign Against NMD-TMD
of the Formation and Launching of
the Korean Committee against NMD-TMD and for Peace
Today, We solemnly announce the formation and the launching of the Korean Committee against NMD-TMD and for Peace.
The world, today, is poised to catapult into an intensified military confrontation, unmatched since the height of the (thought-to-have-ended) Cold War, due to the adventurist pursuit of the National Missile Defense and Theater Missile Defense (NMD-TMD, also known as BMD) deployment plan by the U.S. Bush Administration.
The initiative of the U.S. government, which has the most powerful and greatest number of offensive weapons, to deploy the NMD-TMD system, is nothing more than a design to secure hegemonic monopoly in first-strike capacity and right. It is because of this that China and Russia have declared that they would build up their Nuclear and Missile potential. If this situation goes on, the world will face a new arms race for developing genocidal weapons.
The U.S. is in a great hurry to build and rush the NMD-TMD System, using as an excuse that she is defending herself and her allies against missile attacks from "rouge states", among which it includes North Korea. This means that the U.S. would obtain supremacy in the 21st century by taking overwhelming global power and monopolizing the military potential of Space. Furthermore, as the world knows, it will guarantee the U.S. munitions industries unlimited profits.
In particular, the Bush Administration is justifying this project by fabricating or overstating North Korea's military threat because of its negative attitude toward North Korea. Now it is also creating new security tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Moreover, the U.S. is forcibly demanding that South Korea should support the NMD system and participate in the TMD system. The U.S. wants South Korea to buy American-made military weapon which need astronomical amounts of money. This Cold-War attitude of Bush is causing a new arms race and new tensions on the Korean Peninsula, at a time when the two Koreas are trying to greet a new era of peaceful settlement and cooperation.
The NMD-TMD plan cannot exist together with the peace and re-unification of the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. is attempting to make a Cold-war order in East Asia by compelling participation in the project and also by considering North Korea as an enemy. It is making the military confrontation on the peninsula more serious.
The Bush administration should stop its NMD-TMD plan, which may trigger a lethal arms race and threaten humanity already experiencing the pain of starvation, poverty, disease, and environmental pollution. It will divide the world into two parts and make a new cold-war era.
The "Korean Committee against NMD-TMD and for Peace" is starting its fight to prevent the project with the desire for world peace and for Korean reunification. We emphasize again that the NMD-TMD plan is nothing but a U.S. ploy to maintain and strengthen its hegemony in the world.
We declare that we will undertake all necessary efforts to stop the NMD-TMD plan.
We call on all peace-loving people and social and peace movement groups in Korea and all over the world to join in this movement regardless of differences in ideologies, political views, and regions.
Let us unite in stopping the NMD-TMD plan, mobilizing the power and wisdom of all peace-loving people, and pave the way for peace and reunification of Korea and world peace.
Open Letter to the U.S. President Mr. George W. Bush
"We are quite satisfied with just One Episode of the Star Wars"
We looked on with grave apprehension when you stood before the White House as the leader who would take the U.S. into the twenty-first century, in which she would have to bear heavy responsibility for peace and prosperity in the World. We cannot but confess our growing fear in witnessing our initial apprehension become reality with the passing of each day. Here, we would like to draw your attention to just one of the many concerns we have.
We remember: The "Star Wars" project of President Ronald Reagan, whom you hold in deep respect, ended in senseless waste of vast valuable resources which could have been used to enhance the welfare of the people all over the world, rather than defending the life and wealth of the American people or the people of the world.
We remember: Your predecessor, former President Bill Clinton, drove the people of the world into a greater insecurity by his insistence on building a "missile defense system" even in the first year of the Decade of Culture of Peace declared by the United Nations.
We may end up remembering you, Mr. President, as the person who created a cataclysmic threat against peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the world with your unnerving pursuit of a more powerful and more all embracing missile defense system.
Mr. President, you may want to say to us that "it is the right of the United States of America to defend itself and its allies". You may harbour deep disappointment towards the Korean people who, instead of expressing gratitude and encouragement for your efforts, declare their apprehension. Mr. President, we believe you have to answer our suspicion and apprehension before asserting your rights.
Mr. President, you and your Administration pointed to north Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) as the central reason for your ballistic missile defense system. The military spending of north Korea, however, is less than one-hundredth of that of your government. North Korea is not known to possess nuclear weapons and inter-continental ballistic missiles. She has complied with the agreements to freeze its nuclear weapons development and has lived up to its pledges to suspend test launching of missiles. Furthermore, north Korea has repeatedly expressed her willingness to abandon the development of medium-to-long range missiles that your Administration is concerned with, if the U.S. government addresses the issues of security guarantees and normalisation of relations between the two countries with sincerity and good will.
What is the rationale for stubbornly pushing ahead with the plan to build a ballistic missile defense system -- which the U.S. government had promised to discard even at the height of the Cold War -- against north Korea? What is the reason for postponing the resumption of negotiations with north Korea? Are you afraid that the "evaporation" of the carefully erected "north Korean threat", by removing the often repeated excuse, may send your "Star Wars" plan to the dust bin of history. May it be the case that you are waiting and hoping for some other excuse to arise while you try to steer away from resuming the negotiations with north Korea?
It is widely believed that the National Missile Defense and Theatre Missile Defense (known together as Ballistic Missile Defense) is actually aimed at China while north Korea is used as a convenient scapegoat. The recent attitude of your Administration to Russia, the arch-enemy during the Cold War, and to China who you describe as a "strategic rival", seems to give credence to this belief and suspicion.
Even if you come true with your intentions, our apprehension and opposition to your NMD-TMD (BMD) plan will remain unchanged. We are painfully aware that true reunification and peace in Korea is only possible within the context of genuine security and peace in East Asia and the world as a whole.
You may wish to believe that U.S. economic and technological supremacy can bring NMD and TMD, which dreams of hitting a flying bullet with another bullet, into reality. The truth, however, is that however powerful a shield may be, it is bound to be penetrated -- and it only requires that it be done just once. It will not be just missiles which will undermine your dream-shield. The billions of dollars and scientific-technological capacity -- which should be better used for enhancing the quality of life of the American people and the people of the world -- wasted in a meaningless and destructive arms race will jeopardise the morality and legitimacy of your Administration, and undermine the security right in the very the homes of the people. Your Administration will be making an enormous mistake if you believe this is in America's national interest.
There is only one way to cleanse all the suspicions and apprehension. The first step lies in a public declaration to the American people and the people of the world to abandon the misplaced and misconceived ventures for NMD and TMD. Your Administration can lead the way by dismantling all offensive weapons, including nuclear weapons, in response to the aspiration of the people of the world for peace. Mr. President, then, you will be remembered by all people of the world in the same breath as the word "peace".
The choice, Mr. President, is yours. On the one hand, you and your Administration will be faced with a powerful resistance from the world's people if you continue to pursue the development and deployment of NMD-TMD, coerce allies to partake in this madness, and compel them to redirect the national resources necessary for the welfare of the people to the purchase of the weapons that make up the system. On the other hand, you can participate and lead the way in nurturing world peace and common welfare by ending the adventurous NMD-TMD plan.
Lastly, we would like to convey to you our resolute determination. If you and your Administration insist on venturing into "Star Wars" -- on the flimsy excuse of a north Korean threat -- despite the opposition of the forces of conscience within your own country and the peoples of the world, we, the Korean people, will link arms with all the peace-loving people across the world, to lay your mindless NMD-TMD plan to rest.
Open Letter to the Political Leaders
The historic summit meeting between the leaders of south and north Korea in June 2000, and the deepening and widening atmosphere of reconciliation nurtured over the last one year, gave the Korean people a renewed confidence that the national division and the Cold War can be at last brought to an end, and forge forward to open a new era of peace and reunification.
However, a new unexpected barrier is being erected before the people just when we are gearing up to launch an earnest and concerted effort to push ahead with the recent achievement and move towards to fundamentally dismantle the structures and legacies of the division and the Cold War. We are faced with a critical challenge.
The obstacle stems from the insistent and accelerated measures of the U.S. Bush Administration for NMD-TMD deployment. Furthermore, the U.S. government of President George W. Bush, in the short time since its inauguration, has demonstrated its hesitancy toward the Korean peninsula peace process rooted in its lack of willingness to improve relations with north Korea. The latter stance is maintained in order to secure a pretext for its NMD-TMD project.
While the NMD-TMD deployment so strongly embraced by the Bush Administration is rooted in the U.S. strategy for consolidation of its own global position against its global rivals -- in itself a dangerous initiative -- it implicates and impacts the Korean peninsula in many fundamental and critical ways to the detriment of the aspirations of the Korean people.
The NMD-TMD deployment plan of the Bush Administration is rekindling the global Cold War which was the original structural cause of the national division and war on the Korean peninsula. The Bush Administration continues point to the missile threat from north Korea as one of the key pretext for the NMD-TMD deployment. It is aggravating the relations between north Korea and the U.S. and between south and north Korea. As a result, it may cause the entrenchment of the current situation of division and structural tension by hardening the positions of the neighbouring and related countries.
The NMD-TMD deployment is triggering intense arms race in the world, and in particular in East Asia which has yet to eradicate the vestiges, legacies, and structures of the Cold War. The Korean peninsula is yet again on the verge of renewed arms race spiral.
The changing situation triggered by the Bush Administration's pursuit of NMD-TMD deployment calls on the political leaders of south and north Korea to take up common efforts.
First, we call on President Kim Dae Jung of south Korea: the south Korean government must declare a clear position on the NMD-TMD deployment plan being undertaken by the Bush Administration.
The south Korean government, while stating that it would not participate in the TMD programme, is planning to purchase and acquire the weaponry and armaments, such as, Patriot PAC-3, Aegis destroyer flotilla, early warning jet plane, which are the critical components of the TMD programme.
The actions of the government to acquire develop such a capacity central to the TMD programme belies its statement that it would not participate in the TMD programme. It can only be described as attempt to deceive the people.
The Korean Ministry of Defense explains the recent weaponry purchase as a part of its effort to "develop an independent and autonomous missile defense system on the basis of our own financial resources". This is nothing more than less-than-ingenuous double-talk. An effective missile defense requires an integrated system of anti-missile missiles (AMMs), high-performance satellites system, ground radar bases, and a command-control-communication system. However, under the current joint Korea-U.S. defense system, the critical functions of data collection and processing, command and control are in the U.S.'s hands.
The accumulation of TMD-related weaponry by the Korean government can only be seen as being a first step towards integration into the U.S.-led missile defense network. This would aggravate the current military dependence of south Korea to the U.S.
Furthermore, the recent adjustment by the Bush Administration to erect a global missile defense system ("Ballistic Missile Defense" - BMD), which integrates the NMD programme and the TMD programme, necessitates the south Korean government which has addressed the NMD-TMD deployment as separable, and separate projects.
The only way for the government of south Korea to avoid being swept and integrated into the project pursued by the Bush Administration, we believe, lies in proclaiming its categorical intention not to participate in any kind of ballistic missile defense system, and in cancelling the programme of building up weapons integral to the ballistic missile defense project.
We want to express our most serious concerns and non-comprehension over the decision and plan of the government of south Korea to proceed with the large-scale purchase of arms costing over 10 trillion won, in disregard of the worsening impoverishment and economic hardship the people currently face, and in disregard of the dramatic and continuing improvement in the relationship between south and north Korea. We call on the government of south Korea to be more assertive and independent (as a self-respecting government) vis-à-vis the U.S. in defining and pursuing the policies and actions that are vital to the people of the country.
As you are well aware, President Kim Dae Jung, it is crucial to channel the ongoing peace process between north and south Korea into an irreversible mainstream current. This requires a concerted effort this year to reduce military tension, consolidation of confidence building measures, and mutual arms reduction.
It is our strong conviction that we have to cut down military spending, including weaponry purchase, and use the valuable resources to address the serious concerns of people, such as, unemployment, poverty, illness, and environmental destruction. The concerted effort to enhance and consolidate social and human security should be the foremost and central priority of the government, especially as this forms the central foundation of any kind of security. We call on the President to halt the planned purchase and build up of new military weaponry which would jeopardise and have severe adverse effect on the peace and reunification process which is in its initial stages.
Next, we would like to address our concerns to the north Korean leader, Chairman Kim Jong Il. The recent slowdown of the momentum in the peace process between south and north Korea is causing alarm among the people who have given sustenance to the aspiration for peace and reunification.
We are aware of the existence of numerous areas of concern, within and without, such as the hardline and obstinate stance of the Bush Administration, that constrain the decision and action of your government.
However, as you are well aware, there is no other alternative for the people of Korea but the realisation of peace and reunification through reconciliation and cooperation.
We firmly believe that the second summit meeting between the leaders of south and north Korea will provide a vital breakthrough and contribution towards peace, not only on the Korean peninsula, but in East Asia, and the world as a whole. We call you to proceed with speed for the successful convocation of the second summit meeting.
The conspicuous progress towards permanent peace on the Korean peninsula on the basis of consolidated reconciliation and cooperation between south and north Korea will debunk the Bush Administration's plans and arguments for the NMD-TMD deployment. This will, in turn, contribute to the cementing of enhanced and permanent support and cooperation of the international community towards the Korean peninsula peace process.
The realisation of peace and reunification on the Korean peninsula -- where now-defunct Cold War still rages on -- has greater significance than just the accomplishment of the long overdue national destiny. It would mean the first successful endeavour in the world history in realising reunification through dialogue and consensus process. It would mean the eradication of the Cold War powers which are ever conspiring to reassert themselves by making one side its sacrificial lamb. The reconciliation, cooperation, peace, and reunification in the Korean peninsula will, therefore, make landmark contribution to the advancement of the common good of the whole humanity.
We call on the political leaders of south and north Korea to embrace the historical significance and the challenge of the moment with all your hearts, wisdom, and energy, and empower the people to realise their just aspiration.
Publicise and raise awareness that the NMD-TMD deployment
plan:
through research studies, publications,
symposia and conferences, and publicity materials.
Organise and consolidate opposition and resistance
through:
Build broad-based international resistance
Activities
a. Research studies
The Committee shall undertake and promote a coordinated research and publication, involving the participating organizations, in the following main areas in order to create better understanding:
b. Workshops
The Committee will organize a series of workshops for activists and leaders of the various civil society organizations and public to develop a better understanding of the issues and to develop an effective strategy of action.
c. Awareness-raising and publicity work
- pamphlets
- leaflets
- paid newspaper announcements
- public declaration
- website
- internet campaign
- street publicity campaigns
- activities to reach out to and involve citizens
- fora and conferences for public
- education programmes
d. Public hearing
The Committee will organize a series public hearing,
- parliamentarians
- the Ministry of Defense
- discussion/debate programmes organized by television network
e. Signature-collection campaign
The Committee will organize, at appropriate period, a signature collection campaign to present the signatures to:
f. Public assembly and demonstration
- monthly street campaign
- The Blue House, Ministry of Defence
- The U.S. Embassy in Korea, U.S. Armed Forces in Korea
- Involving all participating organisations
- Mobilizing broadest possible participation
- To coincide with the fourth testing of NMD-TMD (late May), anniversary of June 15 Joint Declaration, July 27, or Liberation Day (August 15)
g. International Solidarity Action
- Leeds, U.K. (May 4-6, 2001)
h. International Peace Conference
The Committee will organize an international conference to highlight international action against NMD-TMD, to advance peace movement in East Asia, and contribute to world peace.
- August 10, to coordinate with the August 15 activities, or
- Mid-October, to coincide with U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to south Korea
- International conference will include various symposia, cultural activities, and
- Mass public street rally, and possibly
- International joint activity
Contact person: Mr. Jung Wook-sik
Civil Network for a Peaceful Korea
Tel: +82-2-708-4983 / Fax: +82-2-708-4982
E-mail: civil@peacekorea.org
[These four documents translated by the KCTU may differ (slightly) from others which were made available at the time of the press conference on April 9.]