Following up on a meeting on April 27 between Moon Jae-in, president of the Republic of [South] Korea and Kim Jong-un, president of the Democratic People’s Republic of [North] Korea, U.S. President Trump met with North Korean President Kim Jong-un in Singapore on Tuesday June 12.  Out of that meeting came tentative commitments that, if followed through, would represent a substantial advance of the cause of peace on the Korean Peninsula and East Asia.  As such, it would be hugely beneficial, also, to the working class and people of our own country.

The Communist Party USA is, of course, perfectly aware of the nature of Mr. Trump and his government. Both his domestic and his foreign policies are characterized by their extreme reactionary nature.  On foreign policy, he has withdrawn the United States from the Paris climate agreement and from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran.  His decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is highly provocative, and makes completely clear that under his administration the United States has firmly allied itself with the most reactionary segment of Israeli politics.  Trump has also backed away from many of the advances achieved under Obama in the matter of relations between the U.S. and Cuba.  The United States under Trump continues to support a Saudi led military intervention in Yemen that has cost thousands of innocent lives.  And Trump and his allies continue to back some of the most reactionary and corrupt regimes around the world. 

Nevertheless, an agreement among the two Koreas and the United States that would result in a an end to the 68 year old Korean war through a formal peace treaty, the reduction of tensions, the removal of all nuclear weapons from in and around the Korean Peninsula, and the withdrawal of U.S. troops would be a major step forward for Koreans and the rest of us.  The risk of war would be averted, damaging sanctions imposed on the North would be lifted, the longed for promise of Korean unification would be a bit closer, and a reduction of armaments would free up badly needed public funds in all three countries for the meeting of the civilian populations’ domestic needs of both Koreas and the United States.  What was communicated by Trump and Kim after the Singapore meeting was very general and vague, but it is a step in the right direction, which the Communist Party USA can only regard as positive.

We note that in our own country many politicians of both Trump’s own Republican Party and the opposition Democratic Party have denounced the Singapore agreement, as have most of the corporate controlled press and media.  This attitude is unhelpful and wrong, and bespeaks a profound lack of understanding of the Korea situation and the elements which led up to Singapore.  Things ignored by those who denounce the deal include history of the Korean War and the destruction that was wrought by U.S. bombing in that conflict, the failure of the United States in the past to honor previous agreements, and the valuable diplomatic work on the part of the People’s Republic of China and South Korean President Moon which made this tentative breakthrough possible.   China has been working for a long time for the stabilization of the Korea situation and the reduction of tensions.  Moon came to power when South Korean voters rejected the previous ultra-right government in their country which had been a major obstacle to improvements of the situation in the past.

It is the view of the Communist Party USA that, rather than condemning the agreement, all should exert pressure on the Trump administration to make sure that his government finalizes what was started in Singapore and then carries out whatever the United States commits to do as part of the final version.  There is a real danger that the most hawkish reactionary elements within the U.S. government will sabotage any further progress; these include Secretary of State Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton and other civilian and military officials, plus the armaments industry and other major capitalist sectors.  Pompeo and Bolton have already made provocative and inflammatory statements about the Korea situation.Nor can we expect consistency on the part of Trump himself.  Note that in spite of this possible progress on Korea, Trump has been trying to scuttle the Iran nuclear agreement. Workers and progressive sectors in the United States should be wary of these things.

This is the way to best serve the interests of the working classes and peoples of both Koreas, the United States and the world.  The people of our country desire world peace and an end to the threat of nuclear war, and the only way to satisfy this longing is through peaceful negotiations, not jacking up tensions.

Finally, we note that a group offifteen Democratic Party Representatives in the U.S. Congress have bucked the tendency to blindly reject this tentative agreement, and have put out a letter in support of the negotiations.  This is a more constructive approach.