[Student Committee Statement (Commentary) No. 9]
Defeat Imperialism That Destroys the Future of Youth and Students!
1. The war crisis in East Asia is intensifying with each passing day. According to reports on the 7th, Japan is moving forward with the construction of a Self-Defense Forces base and takeoff-and-landing facilities for U.S. aircraft carrier–based aircraft on Mageshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, located near Taiwan. Previously, Japan announced plans to deploy an air and electronic warfare unit and to expand its defense system at a missile base just 110 kilometers from Taiwan. From September to October, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force was dispatched to NATO joint air force exercises, and from November 7 to 28, airborne units participated in the NATO allied joint airborne exercise “Mangusta 25,” further strengthening military collusion with NATO.
Moreover, U.S. imperialism is turning the ‘Republic of Korea (ROK)’ into a forward operating base. The U.S.–ROK Joint Fact Sheet specifies an increase in defense spending to 3.5 percent of GDP and the purchase of U.S. military equipment worth 25 billion dollars by 2030. As the United States has “approved” the possession of nuclear-powered submarines by the ‘ROK,’ Japanese militarist forces are simultaneously breaking the Three Non-Nuclear Principles and reinforcing their militarist invasion capabilities. This represents an extremely acute and ongoing situation.
2. Predatory U.S. imperialism is destroying the future of youth and students. According to the U.S.–ROK Joint Fact Sheet, at least 350 billion dollars—500 trillion won—must be “paid as tribute” to the United States. Although an annual investment cap of 20 billion dollars is mentioned, this scale is beyond what the ‘ROK’ can bear. The current exchange rate has risen to 1,472 won per dollar, and the inflation rate has remained in the mid–2 percent range for two consecutive months. This bleak reality is directly striking youth and students. At present, 60.5 percent of fourth-year university students and graduates are classified as “passive job seekers,” and more than 50 percent report difficulties in finding employment. As of October this year, the “economically inactive population” has reached 2.58 million, of which 730,000 are in their twenties and thirties—an all-time high. The outflow of 500 trillion won will inevitably lead to the hollowing out of the ‘ROK’ ’s industrial base, pushing youth and students into a miserable reality in which they are forced to accept only low-quality jobs. Under the colonial plunder policies of imperialism, together with a traitorous government and comprador capital, youth and students are now having not only their right to development but even their right to survival thoroughly trampled upon.
3. The future lies in the path of struggle against imperialist plunder and aggressive maneuvers. Imperialist and fascist forces are viciously at work to eliminate the fundamental driving force for opening up the future by infiltrating pro-imperialist and fascist consciousness into youth and students who are politically and economically marginalized, socially isolated, and fragmented—thereby paralyzing their reason. Representative examples include fabricating the so-called “Yoon Suk-yeol Civil Defense Team” among those in their twenties and thirties in order to transform martial law and insurrection into civil war, and manipulating public opinion by posting “The Purge” posters and similar materials in far-right online communities to incite unrest.
Historically, youth and students have always stood on the front lines of fierce struggles against imperialism and fascism, dedicating everything for the nation and the people and forging their own destiny. We must boldly fight against imperialist forces that not only bring about war and destroy the economy but also seek to castrate the progressive spirit of youth and students. Our youth and students will rise up in total unity in a joint anti-imperialist and anti-fascist struggle, overthrow the imperialism of invasion and plunder, and hasten the arrival of a truly liberated world.
December 9, 2025
Student Committee of the People’s Democracy Party
