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The President George W. Bush, has officially launched the U.S. into the deployment and construction of a global missile defence system, withdrawing the U.S. commitment to the principles that have governed the world's nuclear balance for 30 years, such as, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

The May 1 speech by the U.S. President will be recorded as the end of the arms control regime that has been in place on the basis of mutual commitment by the various powerful nations. It will also be marked as the beginning of a new Cold War and the start of a unilateral global arms race, which is expected to cost just the U.S. some 200 billion dollars. It signals the reign of arrogance and terror by the only remaining superpower.

The move by the fearful leader of the only global power will callously snip off the newly blossoming hopes for peace and reunification in the Korean peninsula. Korean people divided into south and north will become one of innumerable sacrificial lambs brought to the altar of U.S. ambitions.

President George W. Bush, in taking the world into a new era of nuclear menace, urged the world and unnerved allies to “re-think the unthinkable”, portraying the U.S. as a lonely global superpower besieged by a fear of the potential for random terror or blackmail by smaller nations.

The real intent and rational for the venture into “unthinkable” is simple. It will give the U.S. the unchallenged power, capability, and right to “first strike”.

“Global missile shield”, otherwise known as NMD-TMD, will enable the U.S. ? which has the most powerful and largest nuclear arsenal in the world ? to neutralise opponents’ missile, providing the U.S. the freedom and capability to strike first without fearing retaliation. The Bush NMD looms as the most powerful and singular offensive capacity that will simply discard the “balance of terror”, which had enabled the tenuous peace of the Cold War, as redundant.

All the procrastination about “consultation”, drawing in the interested countries, and taking the views of friends into account, in the wake of the historic announcement, is nothing more than a hegemonic blackmail to bow under the U.S. umbrella or to perish.

Aware of international criticism, President Bush has deleted “N” from the much talked about “NMD”, portraying his plan as a “Global Missile Shield” that will defend the allies, friends, and even the old foes ? if they are willing to “cooperate” with the U.S. design ? against “today’s most urgent threat” which is claimed to stem from a small number of missiles in the hands of “states for whom terror and blackmail are a way of life.”

This invitation and facilitation, however, is nothing more than an extortion to “share” in bearing the cost of building up the entire system and to make the weapon export more convenient ? and to be happy with the mercy of the super-bully.

President Bush tried to ameliorate the concern over his NMD plan by alluding to a likelihood of reduction in nuclear armoury to “the lowest possible number of nuclear weapons” consistent with the U.S. national security needs.

This belies the fact that the U.S. has failed to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) which together with the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty, signed in 1972), have helped to maintain stability between the superpowers.

While reduction in the global stockpile of nuclear weapons urgently needed, it should in no way be linked to the new hegemonic initiative to build global missile shield under the NMD-TMD plan. If this were the goal and the U.S. commitment real, the Bush Administration should seek ? by urging the Republican dominated Senate -- to ratify the START II accord, in which the U.S. has committed to reduce the number of strategic nuclear warheads from the current 7,200 to a level between 3,000 and 3,500.

The real intention, as clearly stated by Bush himself, is to “change the size, the composition, the character of [the U.S.] nuclear forces in a way that reflects the reality that the Cold War is over.” The reality he refers to is the unmatched possibility of the U.S. to dismiss all other “rivals” and “allies”, to be free of all multilateral and joint security arrangements, such as the ABM Treaty and the CTBT, which constrain the U.S.’s unilateral initiatives.

The Bush Administration must awaken to the real concerns of the people and the danger his plan will drive the world and its people into. If he continues to be blinded by hegemonic ambitions and arrogance, the U.S. will be met by unparalleled resistance of the people across the world.

Korean people will resist the new Bush war-mongering initiative and accelerate the peace and reunification process. We will step up the struggle to prevent the forced-purchase of weapons of mass destruction and the incorporation of the Korean peninsula into a playground of the President Bush’s arrogant hegemonic games.

Korean people will unite with all peace-loving people of the world to frustrate the militaristic adventures and the insecure mentality of hegemony-thriving Bush Administration to pave the way for real peace in the Korean peninsular and the world that have long been victims of superpower machinations.

May 2, 2001

Korean Committee Against NMD-TMD and for Peace

International Solidarity Team
Contact: Youngmi Yang (yang@pspd.org)
Cheong Wooksik (civil@peacekorea.org)
Yoon Youngmo (inter@kctu.org)