Asia is a region of immense diversity and multiple differences. Distinct religions, cultures, languages, levels of development, and economic systems, among others can be found within our region, as well as within our borders. But it is also one that shared the experience of colonialism during the early part of the past century, and that more recently has suffered through the IMF financial crisis in the late 90s . Both have marked our societies deeply, and the latter continues to affect the people of our region, as enforced structural adjustment programs continue and foreign debt problems remain unresolved in many countries. The financial crisis also showed us that none of us are insulated from the negative effects of globalization, especially from the avarice of transnational speculative capital.

It is in this context of neo-liberal globalization that economic growth and social progress needs to be considered. It is already evident that one cannot respond adequately to the many adverse effects of neo-liberal globalization at the domestic level, for the autonomy of national policies has been curbed substantially by the globalization of capital.

These struggles and by the people for defense of their livelihood and the calls for protection of the basic rights and the ecology, which should be given the utmost consideration when making political/economic decisions, have not been given the due attention that is essential to a democratic political entity. In this sense, the current direction of neo-liberal globalization, embodied in the WTO liberalization process and various regional free trade/investment treaties need to be fundamentally rethought and reevaluated. At the same time, the Democratic Labor Party is firmly committed to the belief that only when these struggles, and the demands of peoples across borders for a more decent, more humane, more egalitarian world can be articulated at the international level that we can effectively counter the forces that deter progress and open the way for a better Asia.

Asia is also one of the regions in which threats to the people’s security and the danger of war is highest. Despite vast inequalities, it has the highest concentration of military forces in the world and no system of multilateral cooperation in the region to stabilize relations between nation-states. Abject poverty coexists with enormous budgets allotted to military spending. We already know too well that poverty, underdevelopment, and exclusion from political representation breed violence and is always a potential threat to security, and that it is only with sustainable growth and equitable distribution of the wealth generated by growth that true regional security and peace can be attained. As our party programme states, “our peace goes beyond the absence of military force, it is an active peace that means the liberation from oppression, exploitation, and violence.”

We also must not pass over what is one of the most urgent security issues in the region, which is the North Korean unclear crisis. It is our position that the central reason that the crisis has escalated to the current level has been intransigence on the part of the U.S. in its negotiations with the North, and the uni-lateralism it has shown through the illegal, immoral, and unjust invasion of Iraq. Such uni-lateralism has been shown repeatedly in its foreign policy decisions:from the arms control field to the Kyoto Protocol. We have opposed the war in Iraq from the start and have actively struggled to stop the dispatch of Korean troops, and believe that the current relationship with the U.S. needs to be rethought and modified in order for peaceful reconciliation to take root on our peninsula. As long as the U.S. does not discontinue its policy of hostility and threats, as long as it does not reassure the North that there is not intent to use force, there will be no substantial progress in the negotiations. Instability in North Korea will continue. We thank the governments and parties relevant to 6 party process for their efforts up until now, and request that these efforts to change the policy of hostility by the U.S. be continued until the crisis is resolved. We look positively upon the discussions for an independent multi-lateral security framework in our region as a means to enhancing stability and for furthering disarmament. Our party policy already dictates that we start a process of “preceding disarmament,” where the South would take the lead in reducing arms to further peaceful unification with the North.

To turn to the last point about party building and development, it has been our experience that development that comes at the cost of workers and peasants, that are based on their exploitation and their exclusion is not only undesirable but can only be short-lived. The active participation of the working class, peasants, the urban poor, and other oppressed classes of society in the party building process is what has allowed the Democratic Labor Party to become the fastest growing party in Korea, and to expand the scope of participation and representation in the political institutions of our country.

Limits do exist to how much change we can bring about in today’s globalized world, and there are increasing areas where joint action is needed. That is why solidarity beyond borders is necessary in order to bring about changes that better the lives of the working masses, the poor, and the underprivileged. Too many people in Asia have suffered for long. Let the progressive forces come together and struggle together, to build a better Asia.