In response to President Obama’s Feb. 12 announcement in his State of the Union address that about 34,000 troops will be pulled out of Afghanistan, the Afghan resistance responded on Feb. 13 saying that all foreign troops must leave the country.

According to a Feb. 12 report from the Korean Central News Agency, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted another successful nuclear test.

Speaking at a news conference on May 5, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, “The main effort in our strategic focus from a military perspective must now shift to Afghanistan.”

The U.S. should close down its bases and withdraw the troops from Korea. For more than 50 years, the U.S. has occupied southern Korea. It is time for that occupation to end.

(This article is based on observations and conversations with Korean movement activists during a one-month trip back to the homeland this past November.)

The Bush administration is bringing the Korean peninsula to the brink of war. U.S. threats against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the DPRK, or North Korea) and Washington’s withdrawal from the 1994 nuclear accords have led to a dramatic escalation of tensions. A growing tide of demonstrations against the presence of U.S. troops has rocked South Korea.

Sun Hyung Lee traveled to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (north Korea) as part of a peace delegation of eight Korean Americans from Oakland, Los Angeles and New York in June of 2004. At a time when the Bush administration is carrying out war preparations against north Korea, the interview provides some important insights into developments on the Korean peninsula.