Progressive Youth League (“Republic of Korea”)
The storm of World War 3, ignited by imperialism, is sweeping from Eastern Europe through West Asia (the Middle East) to East Asia and the Western Pacific. The war in Ukraine, caused by NATO’s eastward expansion, broke out in February 2022; the war in West Asia and Palestine, provoked by Zionist oppression, erupted in October 2023; and in September through November and December, the fascist forces in the “Republic of Korea (ROK)” attempted to provoke war in East Asia and war in the “ROK.” In an effort to overcome political and economic crises and cling to global hegemony, the imperialist camp is advancing a “new Cold War” order by waging World War 3.
Fearing the post-World War 2 expansion of the socialist camp, the imperialists devised the “Cold War” strategy and temporarily claimed victory with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. They established a unipolar order propped up by NATO, the G7, and similar institutions. Facing inevitable collapse due to their internal contradictions, the imperialists have now launched a “new Cold War” strategy.
Under this strategy, the imperialist camp is demonizing the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), China, Russia, and the “axis of resistance” including Iran as a “new axis of aggressors,” seeking to craft a confrontation between the imperialist and the anti-imperialist camps. When the DPRK and China upheld a stance of “strategic patience” and refused to respond to provocations, the imperialist powers escalated their hostility by branding them as a “new axis of evil”—a deliberate extension of the 2002 Bush Doctrine, which had falsely labeled Iraq, the DPRK, and Iran as an “axis of evil” under the pretext of the so-called “war on terror.” For the imperialist camp, World War 3 is the essential precondition for shaping a new global bipolar-system between imperialism and anti-imperialism and for completing the demonization of the anti-imperialist front.
Avoiding direct confrontation with nuclear powers like the DPRK, China, and Russia, the imperialists are instead provoking proxy wars, manipulating Ukraine, the “ROK,” Taiwan, and the Philippines into launching regional conflicts. In West Asia, Zionist Israel has assumed the role of imperialist shock troops, invading Palestine and other “Axis of Resistance” countries while threatening to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities and deliberately inflaming war in the region.
NATO, the command center of the imperialist war in World War 3, has far exceeded its original North Atlantic scope and is now intensifying its aggression on a global scale. From 2022, as World War 3 began, NATO, already reached to the South Atlantic, rapidly extended its range to the Pacific. At its 2022 Madrid Summit, the imperialists invited the Indo-Pacific Four (IP4)—Japan, the “ROK,” Australia, and New Zealand—for the first time. By the 2023 Vilnius Summit and the 2024 Washington Summit, NATO had completed its political preparations for the “Pacificization of NATO.” From June to August 2024, it conducted extensive joint military exercises including “RIMPAC” with pro-US warmongering countries in the Western Pacific, completing its military preparations as well. In May 2025, the “ROK” confirmed its role in NATO’s Pacific expansion by participating in NATO’s cyberwar drill, “Locked Shields.”
Led by the USA, Japan, and the “ROK,” the imperialist forces have constructed a de facto “Asian NATO” and established a “war command for East Asia.” This “Asian version of NATO” was effectively launched at the Camp David Summit in August 2023 and was operationalized through the NATO-style multi-domain exercise “Freedom Edge” in June 2024.
In April, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, criticized military cooperation between Russia and China as well as Chinese military activity during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba, emphasizing the need to strengthen military cooperation with Japan. Meanwhile, on March 30, Japanese Defense Minister Nakatani met with US Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and mentioned the “one-theater” concept. The core of this concept is to strengthen military exercises by treating the US, Japan, the “ROK,” Australia, and the Philippines as a single battlefield. In essence, it represents a calculated blueprint for provoking war in East Asia and the Western Pacific.
NATO summits are war plotting sessions for the imperialist forces. Since 2022, they have become the staging ground for World War 3. Following the July 2024 NATO Washington Summit, war fronts intensified: the August invasion of Russia’s Kursk region, the September air strikes on Lebanon, the October drone incursion into Pyongyang, the November lifting of restrictions on long-range missiles targeting Russia, the December military coup in the “ROK,” and the fall of Syria’s Assad government. The war provocations across the fronts of Eastern Europe, West Asia, and East Asia appear to have been carried out in accordance with the Washington Summit agenda, as NATO’s war planning for World War 3.
The war in the “ROK” is the opening salvo of the East Asian front. For the warmongering imperialist forces, the war in East Asia is not an option, it is a necessity. The designated “D-Day” for this scheme spanned from September to November 2024. When the DPRK crushed repeated provocations, including drone attacks on Pyongyang, with “strategic patience,” the imperialists escalated further, manipulating their fascist puppets in the “ROK” to declare martial law and stage a pro-US fascist coup in December, aiming to spark a civil war. This plot was crushed by the people’s December uprising.
While the US and the “ROK” conducted 132 joint war exercises targeting the DPRK over the two decades from 2003 to 2022, the number surged dramatically following the outbreak of World War 3, reaching 123 exercises in 2023 and 134 in 2024. In the first half of 2025 alone, the number has already exceeded that of the same period in 2024 by ten additional drills. The imperialist drive for World War 3, including the war maneuvers in East Asia and the war provocations in the “ROK”, continues regardless of any regime change in the “ROK.”
We are confident that the anti-imperialist front will triumph in World War 3. History and the present moment confirm that the anti-imperialist camp possesses a just power strong enough to overcome imperialism. World War 2 began as a war between imperialist powers, but the world anti-fascist front transformed its character into a just war against fascism, and won. Likewise, the anti-imperialist camp is transforming World War 3, initiated by the imperialist camp to construct a “new Cold War,” into a turning point for realizing the just cause of global anti-imperialism and independence.
With the end of World War 2, which unfolded as an anti-fascist war, progressive humanity across the globe entered a great turning point in the revolution. The conclusion of World War 3, which was waged as an anti-imperialist war, will herald a new great turning point in the revolution—this is the future foretold by history.
Revolutionary forces around the world must launch a global anti-imperialist struggle in response to the imperialist drive toward world war. Just as the young resistance fighters of the Netherlands risked and gave their lives during World War 2, today’s anti-imperialist youth must stand at the forefront of the fight against imperialism in the situation of World War 3. The present moment demands from us a resolute and militant anti-imperialist struggle. We, the anti-imperialist youth, must carry forward the spirit of the resistance fighters who laid down their lives in the battle against fascism and imperialism.
The Kononovich brothers in Ukraine, imprisoned for standing up against the imperialist war drive, are exemplary figures whom anti-imperialist youth around the world must learn from. As World War 3 intensifies, young people must stand in firm solidarity with the Kononovich brothers and take the lead in advancing the world anti-imperialist struggle.
Since the founding of the Comintern in September 1919 and the establishment of the Young Communist International that November, communist youth around the world have carried out diverse struggles against imperialism and fascism, upheld principled debate, and actively put the Comintern’s revolutionary line into practice. The brave and clear-sighted anti-imperialist youth of each country must resolutely follow the path laid down by the revolutionary generations before them, advancing steadfastly along the road they forged.
The unity and struggle of youth are a source of deep fear for the fascist and imperialist forces. This is precisely why they have murdered and repressed countless young resistance fighters and why, to this day, they continue to suppress and divide youth movements around the world.
The youth crisis facing countries around the world is a direct product of imperialism and capitalism. In 2023, the number of unemployed youth globally reached 65 million. In oppressed and exploited countries, youth unemployment continues to climb, and even those with jobs are often forced to rely on unstable, irregular work. As young people increasingly suffer under the imperialist system, youth suicide rates are rising worldwide.
Under the conditions of World War 3, the youth crisis has grown even more severe. Imperialist powers are pushing youth into war, turning them into cannon fodder. Before and after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022, many European countries moved to instate conscription.
In the US imperialist colony of the “ROK,” conscripted youth soldiers were deployed under martial law and a military coup. These developments make clear that under the imperialist system, youth have no future to look forward to.
Young people—sensitive to truth, bold in spirit, and driven to act—have always waged fierce struggles against imperialism. Fearing the anti-imperialist struggle of this youth, the imperialist forces have viciously repressed youth movements while forcing young people to suffer under their system. The more youth turn away from anti-imperialist struggle, the more miserable reality becomes. The only way to break through is for youth around the world to rise up as historical and social actors through militant anti-imperialist struggle.
Since the outbreak of World War 3, the World Anti-imperialist Platform (hereinafter the Platform)—emphasizing the unity of the genuine communist and anti-imperialist forces all over the world—has advanced the world anti-imperialist struggle, waged an ideological struggle against revisionism, opportunism, and sectarianism, and worked to strengthen the international communist movement. As the vanguard of the Platform, the World Anti-Imperialist Youth Platform, launched in November 2023 in Athens, has stood at the forefront of these historic efforts and will continue to do so.
The leadership of the “Communist Party” of Greece (hereinafter KKE) is actively confusing the international communist movement and the international communist youth movement with pseudo-theories like the “Imperialist Pyramid.” The KKE is using youth as a front to inject ideological poison into the minds of healthy young people in various countries, and is unhesitatingly manipulating them to divide revolutionary parties in other countries. By distorting Marxism and Leninism, selectively quoting slogans while abandoning their revolutionary essence, the KKE leadership has created dangerous illusions and is driving youth activists into the service of imperialism. Confronting this sectarian opportunism within the KKE and its youth organization is a key ideological task for the anti-imperialist youth. To succeed, youth must study, practice, and train themselves under the scientific and revolutionary line of the Platform and the world’s genuine revolutionary organizations.
The youth struggle against the 2025 NATO Summit is of enormous significance. The Platform’s mobilization in Washington, DC, in July 2024 was already recorded as a historic struggle. The Platform’s protest against the NATO Summit in Washington, DC, led by youth at the forefront, was carried out as a decisive and victorious campaign. The Platform was the only organization to launch a focused and forceful attack on NATO’s war-planning summit. As the imperialist camp pushes forward with its plans for world war through NATO, the anti-imperialist forces must confront NATO head-on with fierce and determined struggle.
As the youth vanguard in this just fight, we must resolutely confront NATO’s push for World War 3 and support all anti-imperialist forces rising up against imperialism.
Let us raise high the banner of anti-imperialism and wage a vigorous struggle for the dismantling of NATO and for world peace. Let us fight with determination to bring forward the day of final victory.
Dismantle NATO, the command center of imperialist war!
Down with imperialism, the root cause of all war!
