KOREA/NORTH KOREA

JEFF J. BROWN—It is no understatement to say that Korea’s détente this week is the greatest chance for peace, so far, in the 21stcentury. After living with a US contrived ceasefire for 65 years, the two halves of the artificially divided Korean people are finally promising to sign a full peace treaty by the end of this year and create steps towards reunification (https://www.nknews.org/2018/04/two-koreas-agree-to-end-armistice-agreement-sign-peace-treaty/).

The two leaders solemnly declared before the 80 million Korean people and the whole world that there will be no more war on the Korean Peninsula and thus a new era of peace has begun.

MOON OF ALABAMA—North Korea has a new leader who has proven that he can and will deliver what he promises. Under him North Korea’s nuclear program reached its desired stage and brought the U.S. to the negotiating table. But Kim Jong-un keeps his options open. The inner Korean summit today was not broadcast on North Korean TV making it easier for Kim to later disavow it. South Korea has a leader who is far from being a lame duck like his predecessors were at the time of their meetings with North Korean leaders. The conservatives and the U.S. aligned deep state in South Korea have been defeated in the million strong demonstrations in 2016. The current president Moon Jae-in is only at the beginning of his term and has a 75% approval rate in South Korea. His party has a strong lead over the opposition.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—The Democratic party has proven beyond all doubt that it has no interest in serving the American people and at this point exists only to protect the tiny empires of its leaders. There has been far more than enough time for it to have conducted a sincere autopsy of the 2016 catastrophe, do some serious soul searching, and make the necessary changes. The fact that it has not done so by now means that it will never do so.

PETER SYMONDS—Having strong-armed China into dramatically tightening the economic noose around its ally, Trump may well be calculating that he might be able to “flip” North Korea, transforming it from a US foe to an ally in Washington’s confrontation with China and Russia. In the rivalry for imperialist dominance in North East Asia, the Korean Peninsula, which borders both Russia and China, has always been critical strategically. The US-led Korean War of 1950–53, which cost millions of lives, was fought for domination of Korea. It was regarded in Washington as the precursor to a wider war against China, whose entry into the conflict dashed US hopes.