The Western Pacific War – PlatformNews

Stephen Cho | Coordinator of the Korean International Forum

The storm of World War III, unleashed by imperialism, attacks the Western Pacific through Eastern Europe and Western Asia (Middle East). In World War III, one front, the anti-imperialist front, was formed on three representative theaters, which are in the Eastern European theater, including Ukraine; in the Western Asian theater, including Palestine; and in the East Asian theater, including the “ROK” and Taiwan. However, the East Asian theater is expanded to the Western Pacific theater. By adding Australia and New Zealand to East Asia, the Western Pacific is created.

Today, the Eastern Theater of Asia is not limited to the “Republic of Korea (ROK)” and Taiwan. The US never hides the plan that if war breaks out in the “ROK” or Taiwan, the US will escalate it into the East Asian War and, by extension, the Western Pacific War. They would expand the theater to include the “First Island Group,” centered on Japan and connected to the Philippines via Taiwan, and the “Second Island Group,” stretching from Japan to Papua New Guinea via Guam, and eventually to Australia and New Zealand beyond the “Second Island Group.”

During the talks between the U.S. and Japanese foreign and defense ministers on July 28, it was decided to establish the Joint Operations Command of Japan’s Ground, Maritime, and Air Self-Defense Forces Joint Operations Command and a unified command within the U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ) by early next year. This means that in the near future, the Japanese “Self-Defense Forces” (JSDF) that are not capable of waging war will become the Japanese army that is capable of waging war, and the operational command authority of the USFJ will be transferred from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to the USFJ. In other words, the possibility of war has increased in East Asia, including Northeast Asia and, by extension, the Western Pacific. The 55,000-strong USFJ is the main force of the U.S. military in the Indo-Pacific.

“(Northeast) Asian NATO” including the US, Japan and the “ROK” led by the US was manipulated into agreeing to the NATO way of “Principle of Collective Defense” at the Camp David Summit in August 2023, practiced real-time missile warning system data sharing in December, and conducted war games called “Freedom Edge” which is the NATO way of multi-domain joint military exercise this June. With the Philippines joining instead of India, which did not attend the NATO summit in Washington, the “SQUAD” of the US, Japan, Australia and the Philippines was formed, so there has been intense war exercises against China in Philippine waters. There is also “AUKUS” of the US, Britain and Australia.

“RIMPAC 2024”, more extensive than the Cold War, was carried out on the largest scale, with 40 ships, three submarines, 150 aircraft and 25,000 troops from 29 participating countries. NATO member states participated in the “Pacific Skies” exercise, with Australia, in the Pacific region, such as Australia from mid-June to mid-August. Germany also participated in the joint air exercises held in Japan, which was one of the “Pacific Skies”. That is, under the umbrella of NATO, Germany and Japan, all of which were war criminal countries during World War II, as well as fascist states, carry out joint military exercises.

The US has adopted the “Nuclear Posture Review,” “Washington Declaration,” “Nuclear Consultative Group,” and “Guidelines on Nuclear Strategy Planning and Operation,” and is putting the nuclear confrontation policy against the DPRK into practice. Compared with 2022, the frequency of sightings of US nuclear submarines has increased sevenfold, and the frequency of sightings of fighters and bombers has increased fourfold in the Korean Peninsula and surrounding waters in 2023. In addition, nuclear aircraft carriers are still deployed, and advanced US military equipment such as F-35 stealth fighters and SM-6 ship-to-air interceptor missiles are being brought in on a large scale. As for the “Ulchi Freedom Shield,” which will be held from August 19 to 29, the outdoor maneuver training will be carried out 48 times, which is ten times more than last year, and the brigade-level exercises will be carried out 17 times, which is four times more than last year, and have evolved into provocative war exercises such as “Occupation of Pyongyang” and “Decapitation Operation.”

On July 28, the US-Japan-“ROK” Defense Ministers’ Meeting signed the “Memorandum of Cooperation on the Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework” and agreed to regularly and systematically carry out the multi-domain trilateral exercises, meetings between the three defense ministers, and meetings between the three chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Yoon Suk-yeol administration of the “ROK” approved the historical distortion regarding the Japanese invasion and the sophistry on Dokdo’s sovereignty by the Japanese Kishida government. It also accepted Japan’s possession of the “enemy base strike capability” and the purchase of American Tomahawk missiles. These facts showed that it was a pro-US and pro-Japanese traitor, as well as a fascist warmonger. US imperialism has completed its task of organizing the fascist “ROK” under Japanese militarism, and the Japanese militaristic gangs are raving about their ambition of a re-invasion by conducting joint military exercises with the “ROK”, the Philippines and other countries.

Several exercises are currently being hastily conducted to invade other countries, led by the US. First, let us list the imperialist military exercises directly related to “ROK” from June to August this summer: The US Air Force RC-135W reconnaissance aircraft “Rivet Joint” flew a reconnaissance flight over the West Sea on June 4, the US strategic bomber B1B was mobilized for joint air exercises with South Korea on June 5, the US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft “Rivet Joint” carried out a reconnaissance flight on June 6, loudspeaker broadcasts against North Korea were resumed on June 9, the heavily armed US military aircraft “Ghostrider” was deployed to participate in special warfare exercises on June 12, the US Air Force RC-135S reconnaissance aircraft “Cobra Ball” flew over the East Sea on June 14, the Theodore Roosevelt Nuclear Carrier Strike Group entered the operational base in Busan on June 22, “ROK” resumed live-fire artillery exercises near the northwestern maritime border in seven years on June 26 June, the US-Japan-“ROK” Multi-Domain Joint Exercise “Freedom Edge” with the participation of Roosevelt nuclear aircraft carrier from June 27 to 29, “ROK” resumed front-line artillery fire exercises for the first time in six years on July 2, during the “RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific exercise)”, “ROK” conducted SM2 anti-ship missile launch exercises on July 9, US-“ROK” special operations air descent exercises from July 15 to 31, US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft “Rivet Joint” flew over the Korean Peninsula from July 17 to 18, daily propaganda broadcasts against North Korea from July 19, US-“ROK” integrated firepower exercises from July 22 to August 3, US-“ROK” held joint air exercises from July 23 to August 8, US-“ROK” CNI (Conventional-Nuclear Integration)-TTX (Naval Integration Tabletop Exercise “Iron Mace 2024” from July 30 to August 1, US and “ROK” Marines held joint maritime exercises in Pohang, South Korea from August 12, US and “ROK” held crisis management exercises which were preparatory exercises for the US-“ROK” Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) from August 13 to 16, US-“ROK” conducted the Ulchi Freedom Shield from August 19 to 29, etc.

Next, we can list notable exercises in other countries: the annual joint exercise of the US and the Philippines “Marine Aviation Support Activity 2024” from June 3 to 21; the first participation of the Japan Self-Defense Forces in the multinational field exercise “Valiant Shield” of the US, France, Japan and Canada from June 7 to 18; two live-fire exercises of the US and the Philippines on June 15; the “Maritime Cooperative Activity” of the US, Canada, Japan and the Philippines on June 17; the joint air exercise “Pacific Skies” of France, Germany, Spain and Japan from mid-June to mid-August; the “RIMPAC” exercise organized by the US Third Fleet, in which 25,000 troops from 29 countries and nine NATO member states participated from June 27 to August 1; an entry of the USS Blue Ridge of the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet into the port of Cam Rahn in central Vietnam on July 8; the multinational joint air exercise “Pitch Black” hosted by Australia, involving 140 aircraft and 4,000 troops from 20 countries from July 12 to August 2; the bilateral search and rescue operation of the US and Philippine Coast Guards in the South China Sea on July 16; the joint live-fire exercise of the US, UK, Australia and the Philippines “Predator’s Run” in northern Australia from July 17 to August 8; the joint air exercise of the US, Japan and France “Pegase 24” hosted by France on July 19; the joint air exercise of France, Germany, Spain and Japan in mainland Japan from July 19 to 25; a deployment of the US B1B strategic bomber in the airspace between Japan and the “ROK” as the joint war exercise of the US and Japan on August 2; the first bilateral maritime exercise between the Philippine Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone on August 2; and the joint US-Canada-Australia-Philippines maritime exercise near the Philippines on August 7-8.

The 2024 NATO summit, held in Washington from July 9 to 11, made Japan, the “ROK”, Australia and New Zealand its important partners and called them “IP4”. They are practically NATO members. They even participated in the multinational joint maritime exercise “RIMPAC 2024”, held from June 26 to August 2 this year. It is no coincidence that Yoon Suk-yeol of the “ROK” visited the US Indo-Pacific Command in Honolulu on July 9, where the “RIMPAC” exercise was underway, to make a puppet speech as the US wished, in the presence of US military generals and that he participated in the 2024 NATO summit just before it started. It can be said that the “pacification of NATO” was completed with the NATO summit process in which Japan and the “ROK” have been steadily participating, from the summits in Madrid, Spain, in 2022, through Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2023, to Washington, USA, in 2024, and with the “RIMPAC 2024”, which this year saw the participation of the largest number of NATO members ever and the conduct of multinational and multi-domain joint military exercises.

In late August, the US-ROK joint war exercise “Ulchi Freedom Shield” reflected a scenario of a “nuclear operation” that included a preemptive nuclear strike on the DPRK. The Korean Peninsula is already in a state of “low-intensity war” and US imperialism and its war puppet Yoon Suk-yeol want to provoke a war in the “ROK” at all costs. The war in the “ROK” will be the war in East Asia and even the war in the Western Pacific.