Hundreds Gather for the Launch of US Out of Korea Campaign

As the US escalates war threats in Korea in preparation for a New Cold War against China in the Pacific, Nodutdol for Korean Community Development and progressive organizations across the country launch a new campaign against US aggression in Korea and beyond

NEW YORK, NY – On Saturday, July 27th, hundreds of community members, organizers, and advocates gathered at The People’s Forum to launch Nodutdol’s US Out of Korea Campaign, which seeks to build a mass movement against US imperialism and military occupation in Korea. Campaign launch events were also held in Oakland and Los Angeles, CA. 

The launch events introduced the following demands from the US Out of Korea campaign:

1. US Out of Korea: the full and permanent withdrawal of US troops and weapons systems from Korea; and the return of all Korean land, water, and airspace appropriated for the US military to the Korean people.
2. End the US-South Korea alliance: an end to all US-South Korea alliances, including the JAKUS trilateral security cooperation; as well as all US-South Korea joint command structures—the Combined Forces Command, and the UN Command.
3. End of all aggression against North Korea: an end to all US military exercises in Korea; and the lifting of all sanctions against North Korea
4. End of the war economy: divert US government spending from war, prisons, and policing; and into housing, education, healthcare, and climate justice for working people.

US military activity in Korea has sharply increased in recent years. In 2023 alone, US Forces Korea conducted 200 days of military exercises. In mid-August, the US and Republic of Korea (ROK) will hold nuclear war exercises in Korea as part of the annual Ulchi and Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military drills. This escalation in US military drills has inflamed tensions with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), leading to the DPRK’s announcement earlier this year that it would abandon peaceful reunification with the ROK.

For more than 70 years, the US has pursued a strategy of hostility in its dealings with the DPRK. This strategy has only prolonged the crisis in Korea to the detriment of the Korean people. The time has come for the US to abandon its strategy of hostility. Nodutdol’s US Out of Korea campaign seeks to achieve this by building a diverse movement against US imperialism in Korea and around the world, with Koreans in the diaspora playing a key role. 

Ju-Hyun Park, US Out of Korea Campaign Lead for Nodutdol stated: “We are just weeks away from the US conducting nuclear war exercises in Korea. These war drills do not keep Koreans safe—in fact, they are pushing the Korean Peninsula towards open warfare. For more than 70 years the US government has pursued a failed strategy of aggression against North Korea. Now, the US is escalating its aggression to try to turn Korea into a battlefield for the New Cold War. We are launching the US Out of Korea campaign to shed light on the US as the aggressor in Korea. As Koreans in the diaspora, we refuse to stand by as the US foments war in our homeland. We believe standing up to US imperialism in Korea is not just in our interests as Korean people, but in the interests of the majority of people in the US as well. It’s time to work together to stop US warmongering in Korea and around the world.” 

Echo Cho, organizer with the Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network, stated: “US military presence in South Korea is only prolonging the Korean War and fanning the flames of military aggression. This prevents us from achieving lasting peace in Korea and the Asia Pacific. We are in this struggle together as we seek to divest from militarism and forever wars and invest instead in our communities.” 

Nina, the Secretary General of BAYAN USA stated: “For decades, the United States has waged war against the peoples of Korea and the Philippines. Today, it has the audacity to pose as our supposed ‘saviors’ against countries the US views as its own enemies: China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Let us be clear: the US is the number one enemy of our people. It uses our countries as playgrounds for war, and our people as cannon fodder for those wars. As the Korean and Filipino peoples’ movements against US imperialism grow in our homelands, we too have a responsibility to grow the mass movement among our diasporas here. We say: US out of Korea, US out of the Philippines, US out of everywhere!”

Ibrahim Younes, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement stated: “The United States’ increased hawkishness and display of military force on the Korean peninsula is of grave concern to us as Palestinians and Arabs. The US has a track record of keeping nationalities politically fragmented and geographically isolated from one another to benefit their own geopolitical interests. This has been the case in Palestine for three generations, just as it has been on the Korean Peninsula. Nodutdol’s US Out of Korea campaign connects the dots that we need to be connecting right now as peoples across the globe affected by the long arm of U.S. empire and renewed attempts by NATO to meddle in and ultimately prevent the reunification and return to all of the land that is rightfully—and collectively—ours.”

Jacqueline Luqman, Mid-Atlantic Region and Washington DC City-Wide Alliance Coordinator for the Black Alliance for Peace said: “The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) works to oppose both militarized domestic state repression, as well as the U.S. state’s global policies of destabilization, subversion, and permanent war agenda. Through our founding campaign, US Out of Africa/Shut Down AFRICOM, and our recently launched our Zone of Peace campaign, BAP organizes to build region-wide coalitions to foster a network of popular-peoples’ struggles in order to challenge, confront, and finally rid our communities of imperialist warmongers. It is in accordance with our efforts to continue and expand this anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, anti-militarism, and pro-peace coalition-building work that BAP endorses and actively supports Nodutdol’s US Out Of Korea campaign. BAP is excited to continue this struggle against US imperialism through our support of liberation for the Korean people.”

Manolo de los Santos, Executive Director of The People’s Forum stated: “For over 70 years, the US government has maintained a colonial attitude towards Korea, placing its military bases on the peninsula and engaging in military exercises that threaten peace in the region, all with impunity. US out of Korea is not just a demand but a crucial necessity for the sovereignty and survival of the people of Korea and people across the world. The People’s Forum stands in full solidarity with all those who fight for liberation and fully endorse the demands of the US Out of Korea campaign.”

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