The Escalation of World War 3 and the Strengthening of the World Anti-imperialist Front
People’s Democracy Party (‘Republic of Korea’)
The flames of World War 3, ignited by imperialism, are blowing from Ukraine through West Asia and toward East Asia. Having begun with the escalation of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, World War 3 deepened into a West Asian war centered on the war in Palestinian in October 2023.
The imperialist camp completed the “Pacificization of NATO” both politically and militarily through the July 2024 NATO Washington Summit and the series of military exercises―”RIMPAC,” “Freedom Edge,” and “Ulchi Freedom Shield”―conducted from June to August. This transformed NATO into the de facto command center for World War 3.
Subsequently, in the second half of 2024, they plotted an East Asian war centered on the war in the ‘Republic of Korea’ (ROK) to fully escalate World War 3. The pro-US fascist Yoon Suk-yeol provoked localized conflicts against the DPRK between September and November 2024 and launched a pro-US “self-coup” in December. Had it not been for the DPRK’s war deterrence and “strategic patience,” and the heroic resistance of the ‘ROK’ people, the war in the ‘ROK’ would have broken out and immediately expanded into a broader East Asian war.
The global situation also clearly demonstrated the maneuvers to intensify World War 3. A series of critical events occurred in rapid succession in 2024: the Ukrainian military’s invasion of Kursk in August, Israel’s bombing of Lebanon and the “pager explosions” in September, the lifting of missile range restrictions against Russia by the US and NATO in November, and the overthrow of the Assad government in Syria in December.
Donald Trump, who was elected on promises of “ending the Ukraine war” and “America First,” initiated a tariff war in 2025, followed by the commencement of a war centered on Iran in February 2026. Trump has cunningly manipulated his image as an “apostle of peace” while systematically planning an economic war in 2025 and a military war in 2026.
The West Asian war centered on Iran represents a strategic blunder and a military failure that deviates completely from the “Western Hemisphere-focused strategy” outlined in the NSS 2025 (December 2025) and NDS 2026 (January 2026). It is a rational analysis that the Trump forces invaded Iran to escape a political and economic crisis within the United States. The Trump faction was reeling from the Epstein Files scandal―noting that Epstein was deeply linked to Israel’s notorious intelligence agency, Mossad. The war in Iran is a war for Israel, and the United States stands to lose far more than it gains from this war
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The so-called US “Globalists” have cunningly induced and provoked proxy wars by putting forward the Ukrainian Neo-Nazis, Israeli Zionists, and ‘ROK’ pro-US fascist forces. Conversely, the so-called US “Chauvinists” have become war criminals of World War 3 alongside the Israeli Zionists by directly invading Iran. The Trump faction’s “exit strategy” is currently blocked by the “Zionist Deep State” and Zionist Israel, both of which seek to prolong the war with Iran. Zionist capital is implementing its war policy by manipulating both the Globalists and the Chauvinists as if they were two sides of a seesaw.
Zionist capital, including entities like BlackRock, is injecting massive amounts of capital into the three major economic projects of “Greater Israel”: the Levant gas fields, the Ben Gurion Canal, and the IMEC (India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor). It is no coincidence that Zionist capital is pursuing a transition from the “Jamaica System” of petrodollars to a so-called “Haifa System” of “gas-dollars,” while Israel attempts to turn Lebanon into a “second Gaza.” To seize hegemony over the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Israel has recognized Somaliland in Africa as a state and is seeking to transform it into a military base.
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To expand the West Asian war centered on Iran into an East Asian war centered on Taiwan is the military stratagem of the imperialist camp to bring World War 3 into full swing.
Militarist Japan has made the absurd claim that “a Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency” and has formalized the deployment of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to the war in Taiwan. Targeting the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and China, Japan is importing US-made Tomahawk missiles in bulk, extending the range of its domestic Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles, and building or expanding new missile bases. It has increased its military budget to 2% of GDP―matching NATO levels―while pushing for the export of lethal weapons and carrying out its transformation into a military logistics base. All of these actions are in direct violation of the “Exclusively Defense-Oriented Policy” of its “Peace Constitution.”
The ‘ROK’ is completely devolving into a military subcontractor and an advanced base for the imperialist aggressor forces. The pro-US reformist Lee Jae-myung administration, which took power after the impeachment and dismissal of the pro-US fascist Yoon Suk-yeol, has inherited the treacherous and bellicose US-‘ROK’ military alliance system established under Yoon. Since Lee took office, the ‘ROK’ has set its military spending at 2.5% of GDP, a level equivalent to NATO member states. In October 2025, it decided to introduce US nuclear-powered submarines, violating the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and intensifying the risk of an East Asian war. These nuclear submarines are clearly intended for US aggression against the DPRK and China. Since the second half of 2025, the US Forces Korea (USFK) has expanded its operational scope from the Korean Peninsula to the entire East Asian region, making its military intervention in a Taiwan war explicit. In other words, if an East Asian war centered on Taiwan breaks out, the ‘ROK’ will immediately become an advanced base for the US imperialist aggressor forces.
In March, Trump mentioned the ‘ROK’ and Japan, alongside European imperialists, for troop deployment to the Strait of Hormuz. In April, a delegation of NATO ambassadors visited the ‘ROK’ and Japan on a “war junket” to fully incorporate both countries into a multinational coalition force. As of the end of April, the ‘ROK’ has effectively decided on troop deployment. The ‘ROK’ is being pushed not only to serve as an advanced base for a Taiwan war but also to deploy troops to the West Asian war and serve as a NATO logistics base.
NATO is exerting strong pressure on the ‘ROK’ to join the PURL (Priority Ukraine Requirements List). The visit of NATO leadership to the ‘ROK’ was aimed at the NATO-standardization of the ‘ROK’ weapon systems, while their visit to Japan was to establish a new NATO liaison office in Japan. Currently, the ‘ROK’ is being transformed into an arsenal for imperialist aggressor forces, while Japan is being reinvented as the war command center for the Indo-Pacific region.
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China conducted a series of military exercises for three days each in December 2025 and January 2026, aimed at completing territorial integration with Taiwan within three days. On April 18, it also carried out joint naval and air force drills in the West Sea. Internally, China is reorganizing its military system, removing factions opposing the war in Taiwan, and strengthening its organizational and military capabilities.
In April, China invited Cheong Li-wun, the chairperson of the Kuomintang (KMT), to Beijing and dispatched Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Pyongyang. This is a political work ahead of the May 14-15 US-China summit to send two messages to the US: “The issue between China and Taiwan is an internal matter that can be resolved peacefully without US interference,” and “If a war in Taiwan breaks out, a war in the ‘ROK’ will automatically follow.”
The DPRK recently held sessions of the Party Congress and the Supreme People’s Assembly in succession, reaffirming its existing stance toward imperialist United States and its “primary enemy,” the ‘ROK,’ while strengthening its resolve for non-peaceful territorial integration. This is evident in the accelerated military training in preparation for a war in the ‘ROK,’ including the testing of various weapons such as ultra-precision, super-large multiple rocket launchers and new-type tanks following the outbreak of the war in Iran.
The war in Iran is decisively accelerating China’s determination to launch a war in Taiwan. Amid the war in Iran, once the commencement of a full-scale US ground war, total NATO intervention, and the massive relocation of US forces from the Western Pacific become evident, China will make the final decision on national reunification with Taiwan. In 1950, when the US was bogged down in the Korean War, China did not miss the opportunity to annex Tibet. In 2026, as the US sinks into the quagmire of the war in Iran, China will carry out the annexation of Taiwan-the “core interest of core interests.”
The outbreak of a war in Taiwan will be immediately followed by a war in the ‘ROK.’ Together, these two conflicts constitute the East Asian war, through which World War 3 will enter its full-scale phase.
The East Asian war will catalyze the expansion of the war in Ukraine into a broader war in Eastern Europe. Ultimately, the West Asian war centered on the Iran war will expand into an East Asian war centered on the Taiwan war and an Eastern European war centered on the Ukraine war. Once this happens, a Central American war centered on Venezuela will inevitably erupt. This will deal a fatal blow to the Trump administration’s “Fortification of Western Hemisphere” strategy.
The Trump administration announced a Western Hemisphere-focused strategy, but went beyond merely containing the Eastern Hemisphere and even went so far as to commit a fatal strategic error by initiating a war with Iran and falling into a quagmire. For the imperialist camp―which has failed to secure a victory in either Ukraine or the Palestinian―centered West Asian war-to wage wars in East Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central America following a West Asian war centered on Iran is a decisive blunder that will accelerate its self-destruction amidst multiple, simultaneous anti-imperialist wars.
While the political and military might and the strategic-tactical cooperation within the leading forces of the anti-imperialist camp such as the DPRK, China, Russia, and Iran continue to strengthen, the divisions and confrontations within the imperialist camp―between the US and Western Europe, and between Chauvinists and Globalists―are deepening daily. The United States is currently in a perilous state bordering on civil war, and the crisis of NATO’s dissolution is intensifying due to the “Greenland” issue. The war in Iran and the internal contradictions of the imperialist camp are gravely threatening the “Atlantic Alliance.”
During World War 2, the Soviet Union played a decisive role in crushing fascism by deepening the contradictions between imperialism and fascism through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, and forming an international anti-fascist front. In World War 3, the anti-imperialist camp must not only strengthen its own unity but also pursue tactical operations to accelerate the fragmentation of the imperialist camp.
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The fates of West Asia, East Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central America are linked with the fate of Africa as one. In particular, Kenya is a major stronghold for the imperialist aggressor forces to seize hegemony over the Red Sea and represents the western end of the “Indo-Pacific Strategy.” NATO defines Africa as its “Southern Front.” It is more vitally important than ever for progressive forces and the people to unite and struggle under the banners of militant Pan-Africanism and anti-imperialism to achieve self-determination, liberation, and peace, breaking free from the aggression, domination, and plunder of imperialism, the provocateur of World War 3.
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The significant conclusions from the historic Dakar International Conference and Colloquium―the combination of militant Pan-Africanism with anti-imperialism and internationalism, the struggle against imperialist monopoly capital, and support for resistance movements―are strategic tasks that must be consistently maintained in forming a broad anti-imperialist united front and driving the joint anti-imperialist struggle within Africa today.
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The anti-imperialist and anti-fascist struggle of the African people is a struggle for justice and a historic achievement to realize independence, self-determination, and peace in opposition to 600 years of imperialist domination and plunder. The fate of the African people is one with the fates of the people of Asia, Latin America, and the entire world. The African people are the masters of their own destiny and will carve out that destiny through their own strength.
Holding high the banners of “Workers of the World, Unite!” and “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”, we will struggle to the end in solidarity with the African people to achieve global independence, lasting peace, and people’s democracy. The final victory of the Kenyan and African people is certain.
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