President Trump has threatened the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK/North Korea) with “fire and fury like the world has never seen” — a new nuclear war aimed at annihilating the DPRK. At a rally at Powell and Market in San Francisco on August 15, demonstrators chanted, "North and South are one Korea" and called for an end to US military provocation in North East Asia. Ieumsae, a Korean pungmul drum group, performed throughout.

One of the speakers at the rally, Paul Liem of HOBAK (Hella Organized Bay Area Koreans), promoted an agreement called “freeze for freeze.” In this scenario the United States and South Korea would reduce the military threat to the North by ceasing the annual war games that are scheduled to be held next week. In exchange for that, the North would agree to freeze its missile and nuclear program.

Christine Hong, Associate Professor specializing in critical Pacific Rim studies at the University of California Santa Cruz, said that because there was never a signed peace treaty at the end of the Korean War in 1953, the US/South Korea military exercises are an act of war in the eyes of the DPRK. She said the United States should negotiate in good faith with North Korea, South Korea and China to replace the 1953 Armistice Agreement with a peace agreement, and finally end the Korean War.

On August 28, in response to the United States and South Korean war games, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has launched an unarmed missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean.

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