Despite the unanimous opposition of all the fellow countrymen the US imperialists and the Lee Myong-bak warlike forces staged the ever largest joint landing drills at the coast of Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, on November 6.

Mobilized to the drills were some 10,000-strong troops of the 31^st expedition mobile unit of the US Marines and the 1^st division and the landing-support forces of the south Korean marines, and 27 warships, 30-odd assault helicopters and aircrafts, 70-odd armored vehicles for landing and other huge forces.

The landing drills of that day were conducted frenziedly under the surveillance of the commander of the US occupation troops of south Korea and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of south Korea.

That day members of the civic organizations including the Solidarity for Progress in South Korea, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the People for Peace and Reunification, and the South Headquarters of the National Alliance for the Country’s Reunification staged a struggle against the drills.

They denounced that the current landing drills staging in accordance with the “OPLAN 5027” for preemptive attacks on the DPRK aimed to drastically enhance the capabilities of command and control of the “south Korea-US Combined Naval Corps Command” which was formed last February, and held that the drills in an unprecedented large-scale are rash moves to heighten the military tension and showdown on the Korean Peninsula, urging the stop of them at once.

Meanwhile, 38 political parties and civic, youth and students organizations in south Korea including the Solidarity for Realizing the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration and the South Korean Federation of University Student Councils made public a joint statement in denunciation of the aggressive landing drills of the belligerent forces.

The statement pointed out that the severity of the above-said drills lies in the fact that they are staged under the “OPLAN 5027” which gets more concretized in its aggressive nature. It stressed that if the US and the Lee Myong-bak clique earnestly wish the denuclearization and peace of the Korean Peninsula they should halt at once the large-scale combined landing drills.

On November 3, various civic organizations called a press conference in front of the US Embassy in Seoul and demanded the stop of the dangerous war exercise against the DPRK.

Those who play with fire are bound to die thereby.

The AINDF and the south Korean people will deal a shameful defeat and death to the US imperialists and the Lee Myong-bak clique who pursue confrontation and war through the untiring struggle against the US and war.

 

 

 

In south Korea the people’s living is getting worse owing to the anti-people and treacherous economic policy of the Lee Myong-bak regime and the daily-aggravating economic crisis.

- Income reduces and prices skyrocket

While the monthly income of the people continuously shrinks due to the economic crisis, in particular, the income of the lower income brackets fell to the minimum so that they were reduced to the poor.

In the meantime, affected by the sharp rise of prices of the international raw materials including oil, in last July the consumer prices rose 5.9% more than that of the same period of the last year, recording the highest level since the foreign exchange crisis in 1998, and the prices of daily commodities including foodstuff jumped to 7.1%.

As a result, people complain that they hardly eke out for the awful rise of consumer prices and the present living is bitterer than that of the period of the IMF trusteeship.

- Tax burden records the highest

The tax burden for a citizen in south Korea this year increased by 510, 000 won more than last year to reach 4.22 million won.

The household debt increased to 38.41 million won as of late March, the highest record in history.

- Tuition fees of university are largest in the world and various diseases widespread

 Tuition fees of national and public universities run by the puppet regime or local administrations amount to 10 million won and private universities to 20 million won, increasing 10% more than that of last year, the highest figure in the world.

With the rampant diseases throughout south Korea due to the economic hardships and deteriorating living environment, meningitis patients, for example, increased by 2090 from January to July this year only or two folds of the average number of the last five years.

There are 101 tuberculosis patients among the 20s, 284 patients among the over 70s for every 100, 000 population, so that south Korea is stigmatized as a “country coughing in tuberculosis”.

- Millions reduced to the unemployed

Now the unemployed are 3.37 million, more than 14 % of the labor force.

Among them the completely unemployed who could not work even an hour a week amounted to 800, 000 and the university-graduate unemployed are more than 2.57 million.

In addition to that, if 3.25 million daily-workers and part-timers are included, the actual figure of the unemployed is as many as 6.62 million.

- Sorts of social evils prevail

Due to the living difficulties atrocious crimes including kidnapping, murder and robbery recorded 449, 000 cases in 2006 and 461, 000 cases last year with 10, 000 case-increase every year.

Those who give up any optimism and commit suicide disappointed by the difficulties of job-seeking and livelihood, and various diseases, get more numerous every year. According to a recent report from the puppet police agency the suicides rapidly increased to 13 400 persons last year from 12 900 in 2006.

So, south Korea is now branded in the world as a “kingdom of crime” and a “republic of suicide”.

Though the Lee Myong-bak clique is now busy presenting the so-called “measures for people's livelihood” and “promise of ameliorating the quality of life” in a bid to calm down the complaints and anti-government sentiment of the people, it can never appease the infuriated people.