US-Japan-South Korea Alliance Threatens Peace in Asia

After the Biden-Yoon Summit and Nuclear Deal

Can there be peace in Korea when the US is in a cold war with China? South Korea’s military is not only controlled by the US but also subordinated to a trilateral US-Japan-South Korea military alliance against China. The United States, under its new Cold War against China, not only imposes sanctions against the North but hobbles the economy of the South by raising the cost of its crucial trade relations with China.

South Korea’s far-right president Yoon has systematically capitulated to Washington’s anti-China agenda against the wishes of the majority of South Koreans, and at great cost and risk to the nation and Northeast Asia. The recent Washington Declaration taunts South Korean national interest and public opinion by forcing the nation into the front lines of Washington’s aggressive militaristic push into East Asia, increasing the threat of global war and thereby making this a matter not only for Koreans, but also for the American public.

Through an in-depth analysis of the recent US-ROK summit, Dr. Simone Chun and Mr. Francis Daehoon Lee, two specialists, will argue how the US peace movement must seriously critique US imperial policy, and join its forces with the South Korean public as they campaign to regain their sovereignty and independence and envision common security in Northeast Asia.

Dr. Simone Chun is a researcher and activist focusing on US foreign policy in the Korean Peninsula. She serves on the advisory board for CodePink and the board of directors of the Korea Policy Institute. She writes for Counterpunch, Responsible Statecraft, Truthout on topics related to the emerging Cold War in East Asia, and this month organized a JNC TV-sponsored webinar with Noam Chomsky on Korea’s sovereignty and the quest for peace in the Asia Pacific.

Mr. Francis Daehoon Lee is the director of TEPI (Trans-Education for Peace Institute of PEACEMOMO), based in Seoul, and an advisor for international cooperation to National Human Rights Commission of ROK. He has been a research professor of peace studies at SungKongHoe University (Korea), visiting professor for peace studies at Ritsumeikan University (Japan), and a visiting professor at the International University of Japan. He was a founder and chief coordinator for People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and the executive director of ARENA (Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives, Asia-wide).

Sponsored by the New England Korea Peace Campaign and Massachusetts Peace Action.  Register to attend.