On Friday, August 18th President Biden of the USA, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida met at Camp David, Maryland in the USA, to talk about concrete steps “toward maintaining regional peace and stability” in the Indo-Pacific Region, according to a statement by Anthony Blinken, the American Secretary of State. What they mean is that they discussed ways and means of weakening and attacking China and North Korea in every sphere, and related to that, discussed what to do about Russia and Ukraine.
The meeting, which they called a “summit,” follows several meetings between the Russian, Chinese and North Korean Ministers of Defence about the threat to their security and existence presented by the plots and actions of the American, Japanese and South Korean militarists who threaten war to secure complete domination of the world under American rule. For, as we know, the Japanese and South Koreans are not masters in their own house.
Japan and South Korea are treated by the United States as if they were colonial possessions, a status exemplified by the American military occupation of both countries since 1945 and the many US military bases maintained in them. In fact, in regards to Korea, the south can better be called the American Occupation Zone, instead of a country, which is it not. Whereas, in contrast, China, Russia and North Korea have thrown off the colonial yoke and are the advance guard, along with Cuba, Iran and other nations, of the world movement against colonialism in all its forms.
The Americans summoned their puppets and they dutifully obeyed. Rahm Emmanuel, the US ambassador to Japan, in an interview on the PBS News Hour programme on August 17, stated that the United States had arranged the meeting to ensure that South Korea and Japan merge their military, economic and foreign policies with the American war machine and American interests and make the necessary changes to their economies to “resist the rise of China.”
He stated that they will
“Issue the “Camp David Principles” which are stated to be the strengthening of security cooperation, increased and comprehensive, long-range military exercises, a new hotline to use during crises – as well as a commitment to consult each other on security issues of concern. A major element of the “principles” is that challenges to one country will be regarded as affecting the security of all three partners. This echoes the NATO Treaty and its Article 5. In other words, the United States will decide what security challenge exists and will give orders to the Koreans and Japanese to join US forces in repelling the “challenge.” China has rightly called the group a “mini-NATO.”
The three leaders set out these “principles” at the press conference, on Friday, following the summit. Biden, in response to a question, even denied the summit was directed at China as well as North Korea and Russia, but in further replying to the question it became clear that it was. He attempted to cover this with a blanket of platitudes about cooperation in health care, culture and technology, but the intent was clear. One of the elements they concentrated on was the creation of an “early warning system” when supplies of rare earth minerals for them are disrupted, so they can “coordinate a response.” This sounds to me like a plan to coordinate actions to seize rare earth minerals they cannot obtain legally and is clearly aimed at and is a threat against China.
And since we know that the very existence of China and North Korea, as independent socialist states, is anathema to the United States, this means the preparation for war. We can be sure that secret agreements will be made at the meeting on how to further the American strategy of confrontation with both North Korea and China.
The Trump effect is apparent in the meeting, as well, since the leaders of the three nations pledged that they will continue to meet annually in order to deepen the trilateral relationship so that it will endure even when political leadership changes or domestic attitudes shift. In other words, agreements will be signed making it impossible for a new American government, that is a possible Trump government, to change what Biden and his gang are planning; that this war policy will continue to develop despite any opposition from the people. Democracy on this issue does not exist.
This is they way it has been for decades but there had been hopes in Korea and Japan that the American domination could be weakened or rejected entirely as the United States weakens as an economic and military power. Those hopes will be dashed now. The Japanese and Korean leaders have thrown in their lot with American imperialism and have agreed to take part in not only a “Cold War” with China and Russia and North Korea, but to prepare for a hot war as well.
But can Biden pull this off? Can he smooth over the hatred and distrust that exist between the Koreans and the Japanese, who brutally occupied Korea for decades until 1945? They think so. The comprador leaders of Japan and South Korea believe so. But history cannot be forgotten, and both leaders are unpopular in their own countries. They run counter to the wishes of their people by insisting that China is their common “enemy” while brushing aside the historical conflict between Japan and Korea. However, there was no indication in the body language of the Japanese and Korean leaders that the history between them has been smoothed over. They never looked at each other as they spoke, though in answer to pointed questions on that issue, both spouted platitudes about “cooperation and shared interests.”
They also talked about the “rules-based order” that is the US-based order, as the ruling order, and then vowed to seize control of the Security Council in 2024 to take further action against Russia. They displayed their hypocrisy by attacking Russia for its actions in Ukraine but said nothing about the continuing American invasion and occupation of Syria or the occupation of their own countries or the aggression against Russia in Ukraine or against China. Nothing was said about the Japanese invasion and war against China from 1937 to 1945, a war in which millions of people were killed, and which will never leave the memories of the Chinese people. Nothing was said about the more than 3 million Koreans killed by the Americans in the war in Korea.
And we remember that the Americans used the surrendered Japanese forces to maintain control when they entered the south of Korea in 1945. Japanese officers were involved in the planning for the 1950 offensive against the north, with the greater objective being an invasion of Manchuria and into Siberia. The Americans did not expect the fierce resistance of the Koreans. Nor did they expect the resistance of the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army that entered the war after the Americans bombed China. By 1953, the Americans were defeated, a defeat that they never recovered from. Certainly, Korea never has. It remains occupied, an artificial puppet state, corrupt, anti-democratic, an enemy of the working people of Korea, unable to provide for the needs and well-being of its citizens.
As for Japan, its history, since the American occupation began in 1945, the year the Americans destroyed Tokyo with a rain of firebombs, and then Hiroshima and Nagasaki, using nuclear weapons, has been a sorry one. The Japanese have not been allowed to have an independent economic or foreign policy. After this summit, they will be even more under the thumb of the Americans. Japan does not even have a peace treaty with Russia ending that part of WWII, using a dispute about the Kirill Islands as the excuse. The Americans want the pot kept boiling.
Of course, the summit meeting between the three leaders, despite their rhetoric about “peace” and “international law” can be seen as part of the planning of the supreme war crime, the crime of aggression, and the meeting part of the conspiracy to commit aggression, a violation of the Nuremberg Principles and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Contradicting themselves, the three leaders all agreed to maintain support to Ukraine in the US war against Russia and referred several times to the “threat of North Korea,” which is threatened by them.
The agreements to be reached at the meeting are a violation of the UN Charter itself, for nations or groups of nations are not allowed to decide on military actions to “secure their interests,” in violation of the UN Charter. That is the role of the Security Council under Chapter VII of the Charter.
But this meeting also reveals something else, that the Americans are feeling weak and are desperately searching for support in their confrontation with China, with Russia, with the world that opposes them. They have always had military alliances, but with their failure in the war in Ukraine, with the revelation that their weapons are expensive but of little effect, with the waste of colossal amounts of money on a war they cannot win, with the downgrading of their debt, and internal economic, societal and political troubles, their irrational behaviour accelerates.
Anthony Blinken just before the summit, announced that the USA is willing to talk with North Korea about nuclear disarmament of the Korean peninsular, “without preconditions,” knowing that the North Koreans will laugh in his face. The Americans have played North Korea before on this issue. The North Koreans are certainly not going to disarm themselves in the face of the increased threat the Americans are presenting. The only conditions the North Koreans will accept for talks is for the Americans to rid themselves of their nuclear arsenal first and remove their forces from the south, so the country can be reunified. But, again, the Americans reveal their colonial attitude, their ineptitude and confusion with such stunts.
Who would have thought that the Americans, who claimed to be the best friends of Europe would attack their allies in Europe about which the Koreans and Japanese said nothing; for example, the sabotage of the NordStream Gas Pipeline, which has gutted the German economy, the several actions and insults to France, including the kick in the teeth the French received from the Americans when they sabotaged the French sale of submarines to Australia? Even the UK, which crowed about its “special relationship” with the USA, has been treated shabbily by the Americans.
We see the political reaction in Europe with the rise of political parties calling for a renunciation of the alliances with the United States, who reject its hegemony and its wars and its cultural propaganda. The governments of France, Germany and the UK are unlikely to last the next elections. The Europeans are tired of being bullied, blackmailed, and forced to waste money on American wars fought for American interests. No doubt the South Korean and Japanese people are tired of it too.
What will the Korean and Japanese people think when they have seen their leaders bowing and scraping before a man like Joe Biden? The North Koreans call Yoon and his clique what they are, “traitors,” because they betray the independence of their nations, their sovereignty, and the wellbeing of their peoples. The Japanese leadership deserves the same epithet. The Americans call this a summit of equals. But what we witnessed was just a meeting of puppets with the puppeteer.
Christopher Black is an international criminal lawyer based in Toronto. He is known for a number of high-profile war crimes cases and recently published his novel Beneath the Clouds. He writes essays on international law, politics and world events, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
