Down with the puppet regime!

by New Worker correspondent 

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined London comrades protesting outside the south Korean embassy in London last weekend. The picket called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) was to protest against the forthcoming war exercises and the current wave of repression unleashed in south Korea against the people by the US puppet regime. KFA Chair Dermot Hudson in his address exposed the fascist and repressive nature of south Korea citing the recent raid on the HQ of the south Korean Confederation of Trade Unions as well as arrests of leftist and progressive activists . He stressed that south Korea is a puppet regime with no legitimacy , a creation of the US imperialists and that south Korea is simply the occupied southern half of the DPRK.

People’s Korea’s Defence : guaranteeing the socialist system

A Friends of Korea committee seminar was held at the NCP Centre in London to commemorate on the anniversary of the passing of dear leader Kim Jong Il, who died on 17th December 2011. Chaired by Andy Brooks the symposium heard papers from Dermot Hudson and Michael Chant and video link contributions from supporters in London, the Midlands, the North and Scotland. This is the contribution from Dermot Hudson, the chair of the Korean Friendship Association.

Kim Jong Un

As we are gathered to remember comrade Kim Jong Il it is important for us to study the DPR Korea’s great achievements in the work of national defence . Indeed Kim Jong Il’s whole life was associated with the Songun (army first ) revolutionary leadership which began when he gave guidance to the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105th Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army.

    The issue of the DPRK’s successful defence upbuilding is one that has come into sharp focus . On the 15th December the Academy of Defence Science tested a high-thrust solid-fuel motor with a thrust of 140tf, the first of its kind in the country, at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground. This important test has provided a sure sci-tech guarantee for the development of another new-type strategic weapon system.
    This year has seen truly amazing and phenomenal advances in DPRK missile technology.The imperialists and their south Korean puppets have complained that the DPRK has carried out approximately 60 or so missile tests during the past year and have clamoured for more UN sanctions while imposing their own unilateral sanctions .

    On the 24th March the new type ICBM Hwasongpho-17 was tested.The missile, launched at Pyongyang International Airport, travelled up to a maximum altitude of 6 248.5 km and flew a distance of 1 090 km for 4,052s before accurately hitting the pre-set area in open waters of the East Sea of Korea. This was the first time for 5 years that the DPRK tested an ICBM , though tests of medium and short range missiles had been carried out in the intervening period .

    On the 18th November in the presence of Kim Jong Un, the general secretary of the Workers Party of Korea, the Hwasong Pho 17 ICBM was successfully tested at Pyongyang International Airport . The Hwasong Pho 17 reached a maximum altitude of 6,040.9 km and flew a distance of 999.2 km for 4,135s before accurately landing on the preset area in open waters of the East Sea of Korea.
    Kim Jong Un was accompanied by his daughter and his wife comrade Ri Sol Ju and comrade Kim Yo Jong , vice department director of the Central Committee of the WPK . The presence of the young daughter of the Korean leader symbolised the fact that the DPRK’s nukes guarantee the future of the DPRK’s children .
    The new type Hwasong-pho 17 ICBM has the ability to strike the US mainland . Thus it greatly strengthens and augments the DPRK's self-defensive potential .
    The DPRK’s ballistic missile tests fully reflect the will of the leadership of the Workers Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK to consistently bolster the national defence capacity of the DPRK in line with the decisions made by the 8th Congress of the Workers Party of Korea .    Earlier in 2022, on 6th January the Political Bureau of the WPK agreed to resume “temporarily suspended activities” meaning ICBM and nuclear tests , because ‘‘all the facts clearly prove once again that the hostile policy towards the DPRK will exist in the future as long as there is the hostile entity of U.S. imperialism.”.
    Unlike some countries both past and present , the DPRK saw through the nature of US imperialism. After all, it was US imperialism that had divided Korea in 1945 and had started the Korean war. The DPRK ‘s policy is absolutely correct . A few years ago, when there were the summits between the DPRK and US and also the DPRK and south Korea , some people said that the DPRK would unilaterally disarm itself and even open a McDonalds in Pyongyang. Nearly 5 years on , not a single nuke or ICBM has been dismantled by the DPRK and there is no McDonalds in Pyongyang and the DPRK is consolidating its national defence capabilities . Also the DPRK is raising militant anti-US slogans and intensifying anti-US imperialist education .
    It is worth mentioning Cuba here as this year also saw the 60th anniversary of Khruschov’s shameful capitulation during the Cuban Missile Crisis which saw the USSR kneel down before the US imperialists and agree to withdraw their missiles within 6 days and sell out Cuba by allowing UN inspections of Cuba. The DPRK’s independent and militant anti-imperialist stance contrasts with that of the former Soviet Union.
    The DPRK ‘s correct nuclear policy has now been fully enshrined in law and is a permanent state policy of the DPRK .On the 8th September this year the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly passed the historic law on On The State Policy On The Nuclear Forces which fully legalised the DPRK’s status as a nuclear power .
    The new law defines the mission of the DPRK nuclear forces as being “ to deter a war by making hostile forces have a clear understanding of the fact that the military confrontation with the DPRK brings about ruin and give up attempts at aggression and attack.”
    According to the new law the DPRK ‘s use of nuclear forces can only occur under certain situations , these are defined as follows:

 • ‘In case an attack by nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction was launched or drew near is judged’

• ‘In case a nuclear or non-nuclear attack by hostile forces on the state leadership and the command organisation of the state's nuclear forces was launched or drew near is judged’

• ‘In case a fatal military attack against important strategic objects of the state was launched or drew near is judged’

• ‘In case the need for operation for preventing the expansion and protraction of a war and taking the initiative in the war in contingency is inevitably raised.”

Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly pointed out that “The legalisation of the policy of the nuclear forces in accordance with the unanimous desire and iron will of all the people is of tremendous significance. With this, the position of our state as a nuclear nation has become irreversible.”
    Needless to say the enemies of People’s Korea such as the Americans and their south Korean puppets, as well as the vassal states of the US are not happy about this .
    Even CND has chimed in with the clamour of the US imperialists and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by saying that the DPRK’s Law on Nuclear Forces is a “very worrying development”. We answer this ‘criticism ‘ as follows:
    Firstly, the DPRK’S new law on nuclear forces does not make explicit reference to ‘first strikes’ or ‘pre-emptive strikes’,although it is implied that under certain very limited situations these may be carried out. There is no blank cheque for a pre-emptive nuclear strike by the DPRK but rather the DPRK’s nuclear weapons are a last resort and a deterrent .
    Secondly , the US has a nuclear first strike policy so why shouldn’t the DPRK have one ? Why do some people think the imperialists and big countries should have a monopoly on a nuclear first strike? Surely it is only fair that the DPRK should match the US policy of a nuclear first strike with its own?
    Thirdly , it is the US that first developed nuclear weapons and actually used them against a non-nuclear state when it bombed Hiroshima and Nagaski in 1945 . Moreover the US considered a nuclear first strike against the DPRK during the Korean war of 1950-1953 , during the “Pueblo Incident ‘ of 1968 and the Panmunjom incident of 1976 and other occasions . The US designated the DPRK a target of a US nuclear first strike in 2002. The US stationed 1,000 nuclear weapons in south Korea , at one point the number reached 1,700 . Supposedly the US withdrew these weapons in the 1990s , however the US refused to accept international inspections to confirm this and later stated it would ‘neither confirm nor deny ‘ the existence of its nuclear weapons in south Korea.
    Many believe that US nuclear weapons are still in south Korea . What is beyond all doubt is that the US and south Korea have on numerous occasions staged nuclear war exercises against the DPRK and US nuclear submarines and nuclear aircraft carriers have been in Korean waters as well US nuclear bombers overflying the Korean peninsula .
    Fourthly , Korea was divided by the US in 1945 and the DPRK was invaded by the US imperialists in 1950. At least 1.2 million civilians killed and the country completely devastated . The DPRK’s nuclear deterrent will ensure this does not happen again .
    Fifthly, is the DPRK supposed to fold its arms and just sit and wait to be invaded by the US imperialists .
    Sixth , the experience of the 1962 Caribbean crisis in which the USSR pulled its missiles out of Cuba and allowed UN inspections after only 6 days and without consulting the Cuban leadership shows that a small country cannot rely on a big country for its defence .Moreover recent events this year show that some big countries may not be such efficient allies as some may imagine . These countries have their own problems and internal contradictions so it would be unwise for the DPRK to rely on them.
    Seventh,the DPRK did all that it could to work towards a peaceful settlement of DPRK-US relations and issues on the Korean peninsula by holding two summits and one meeting with US president Trump as well as three Inter-Korean summits .It should be added that the DPRK carried out its first nuclear test 59 years after the US first introduced nuclear weapons into south Korea in violation of the Korean Armistice Agreement.
    In conclusion we would point out that the DPRK’s Law on the State Policy of Nuclear Forces is about defending the DPRK’s independence and territorial integrity as well as the socialist system of the DPRK . It is regrettably that some who style themselves as ‘progressives ‘ or ‘leftists ‘ share the desire of the imperialists for the dismantling of the socialist system of the DPRK or for ‘reforms ‘ and ‘opening up ‘.
    Bravo to People's Korea for declaring itself a permanent nuclear weapons state . The DPRK has rejected all attempts to disarm it and push it down a certain path . The DPRK also rejected so -called aid from south Korea which was conditional on the DPRK unilaterally disarming itself . The DPRK also rejected imperialist aid when the Covid 19 epidemic arose in the DPRK.
    The DPRK’ nuclear policy and its efforts to build up the national defence capabilities are its independent right to do so which no one from whatever quarter ;whether they are the imperialists or their fake left fellow travellers should try to interfere with. The great advances in the DPRK ‘s defence abilities which are surprising its enemies are a sure guarantee for the independence of the country that comrade Kim Jong Il worked hard all his life to safeguard and also guarantee the existence of the people-centred socialist system that is the legacy of comrade Kim Jong Il as well as the cradle of happiness for the Korean people.

Korean friends rally in Spain

Alejandro gives delegates a tour

by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity activists from all round the world gathered in Spain for the annual international meeting of the Korean Friendship Association in November. A British delegation headed by Dermot Hudson, the chair of the UK KFA, joined delegates from many other countries for the conference in the historic city of Tarragona in the autonomous region of Catalonia that kicked off on 12th November, the anniversary of the foundation of the KFA in 2000.
    KFA officials and members from Britain, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the USA took part in the meeting as well a delegation of the Russian based International Solidarity Group with the DPRK. The meeting was nearly double the size of the KFA International meeting in Barcelona last year and several times the size of some previous meetings.
    Opening the meeting Alejandro Cao De Benos , the KFA President, said that the CIA, FBI, Interpol and MI6 could not defeat him and KFA. The FBI had tried to frame Alejandro on false charges but this had failed. But still cannot travel abroad due to the fascist Spanish authorities, the grandchildren and great grandchildren of the Spanish fascist dictator Franco, confiscating his passport. Alejandro's lawyers are fighting for the restoration of his passport and his right to travel.
    A message of greetings to the meeting from the DPRK Embassy in Spain was read out by comrade Alejandro Dermot Hudson, chairman of KFA UK read out the message from the Korea -Europe Cultural Exchange Promotion Agency of the DPR Korea which praised the work of KFA noting that KFA are the true friends of the DPRK and are expanding their ranks all the time.
    A message was also received from comrade Park Soo Churl the head of the Pyongyang Mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front of south Korea which said in part that "Today the DPRK enjoys the greatest heyday demonstrating its prestige as a powerful country throughout the world thanks to the outstanding leaders.
    The 80 years-long history of the DPRK reflects the dignity of a party that reaches the highest level, national strength that is displayed throughout the world and the rosy future of a nation is guaranteed only when a nation is led by a great leader he said.
    The central theme of the meeting was the leadership of Kim Jong Un. In his keynote address Alejandro stressed that former socialist countries collapsed because they had failed to create a correct leadership system but the DPRK created an excellent leadership system. Today the DPRK is forging ahead under the leadership of Kim Jong Un. The progress in the DPRK is in sharp contrast to the corrupt and declining capitalist world .
    Or as Dermot Hudson pointed out in his speech "the DPRK was able to defeat Covid 19 within 3 months and basically by relying on its own resources as it rejected the fake humanitarian aid of world imperialism and the south Korean puppets . No other country has done this. In some countries Covid 19 still prevails after nearly three years since its first outbreak".
    The conference concluded with a commitment to redouble the work to build solidarity and friendship with the Korean people. And the next day Alejandro, who said that he had once declined an offer of a post in the Catalan regional government, took the delegates on a guided tour of old Tarragona including the famous Roman amphitheatre .

Picketing Broadcasting House!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other Korean solidarity activists protesting against the BBC bias at a picket outside Broadcasting House in central London on Saturday. The Korean Friendship Association (KFA) had called the protest to highlight the appalling bias of the BBC in its coverage of news from Korea that invariably reflects the lies of the American lie-machine and those of its south Korean puppets.
    Discussions were held with passers-by and the media during the 90-minute protest that also called on people to stop funding the state broadcasting network by cancelling their BBC licence fees.
    Dermot Hudson, KFA chair, said: “Recently there was an incident in the West Sea of Korea in which a south Korean puppet warship intruded into the territorial waters of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) basically invading the DPRK and violating its sovereignty but the BBC falsely reported that the DPRK had infiltrated south Korean waters and fired at south Korea…
    “The BBC not only pumps out false propaganda against the DPRK but it is also a regime change agency. We should never forget the role of the BBC World Service in the past in undermining and destroying socialism in the USSR and former socialist countries. Now the BBC is trying to do the same with the DPRK and beaming its lies into the country. We must defend People's Korea from regime change, from all attempts to force 'reform' or 'opening-up' on People's Korea.
    “We, the Korean Friendship Association of the UK, believe in defending People's Korea with No Ifs or Buts.
    “We believe the BBC should stop lying about the DPRK and instead produce fair, accurate and objective material about People's Korea.
    “We say don't pay your licence fee because if you do you are funding the BBC's lies about People's Korea."

Democratic Korea’s Line of March

1Korean solidarity campaigners held a seminar at the NCP Party Centre on 13th August to celebrate the 77th Anniversary of the Liberation of Korea on 15th August 1945. This is the contribution by Michael Chant, the Secretary of the Friends of Korea.

As Friends of Korea said in publicising this seminar, we aim to review the achievements of the DPRK in building Korean-style socialism, demonstrating the incomparable advances since the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 and the founding of the DPRK on September 9, 1948. The seminar underscores how liberation was an act of the Korean people themselves, which the US-led powers have sought in every way from that day to this to negate. The DPRK and the Korean people have never wavered from defending their right to be and their own path of development, striving for peace and for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.
    In the long line of march, which itself has its origins in the desire of the Korean people for dignity and independence, and a future based on the development of the Korean nation, giving rise to the legendary leader of the Korean people, Kim Il Sung, and the Down With Imperialism Union, can be seen the historical perspective, not only of the Korean people, but of peoples everywhere, striving for freedom from subjugation by big powers, particularly today that of US imperialism, and from tyranny, and attain genuine independence and control of one’s own future and destiny.
    Even before the surrender of Japan, announced on 15th August 1945, and formally signed on 2nd September, the US divided Korea by force around the 38th parallel with the aim of imposing their rule over the victorious Korean people who had contributed, second to none, to the Allied victory in the Second World War. The aim was to keep the Korean people divided and to turn the south of Korea into a US military fortress in order to wage war against China and the Soviet Union. Even though today the US state is unravelling, the US still views the Korean Peninsula as a means to attempt to dominate China and establish a bridgehead between China and Russia.
    Following the Japanese surrender, the US brutally suppressed and outlawed the Korean People’s Republic that had been proclaimed by the representatives of the whole Korean people on September 6, 1945, in Seoul. The US installed the US Military Government of Korea in the south which carried out a campaign of terror against the Korean people’s resistance to US dictate and occupation. Virulent anti-communist Syngman Rhee, who had spent most of his life in the US, was installed as the first President of the so-called Republic of Korea (ROK) in July 1948. The pro-US Rhee government continued to suppress the Korean people’s widespread resistance to US military occupation through extrajudicial killings, civilian massacres, mass incarcerations and other crimes, carried out with impunity.
    At this point, let us look at the tasks which were elaborated by Kim Il Sung immediately following liberation, as we are holding this seminar to celebrate the anniversary of August 15, 1945. They illustrate that mapping out a line of march, how to advance along it, where on this line of march the people’s forces are located – all this is crucial at each stage of nation-building, establishing and building a new society, and organising the people to defend their own interests, their well-being and strive for peace. In other words, it has never been, for the Korean people and their leadership, a matter of declaring that the socialist society is superior, and all that remains is implementation. This has been the experience of the international communist movement as a whole.
    The Works of Kim Il Sung reproduce no less than 30 speeches and reports that Kim Il Sung made between August 15 and December 31, 1945, laying the foundations of the new, democratic Korea and its line of march.
    To give just a very few examples, in the talk with political workers, titled Building of New Korea and Immediate Tasks of Communists, Kim Il Sung says, among many other guidelines based on an analysis of the situation, that “we should follow the course of liquidating the survivals of Japanese imperialism and feudalism and building a genuine democratic society. This is the very way demanded by the realities of our country and desired by the masses of people”. He urges the political workers, “You should explain and propagate our policy for nation-building unremittingly among the masses,” adding, “You should do this by rousing advanced elements to activity and setting in motion various mass media including newspapers, so that they, fully aware which is the right road for Korea to follow, forge ahead vigorously along this road.” After dealing with the tasks in founding and building a “revolutionary party of the working class”, Kim Il Sung emphasises, in relation to local government bodies, “Only when genuine people’s power is established can we use it as a weapon to smash to atoms all manoeuvres of the enemy, transform society on a democratic basis and achieve the victory of the revolution.”
    He continues, “In order to frustrate all the moves of the reactionaries, ensure success in nation-building and safeguard the security of the people reliably, the power of the broad masses should be marshalled and at the same time people’s security organisations should be formed.” And, “To carry out our historic cause of nation-building successfully at present, we should firmly unite the broad sections of the people.” Kim Il Sung was making this point when “some people have not yet shaken off the influence of the vile propaganda conducted by the Japanese imperialists against communism,” as he puts it.
    In a lecture given to students of the Pyongyang Worker-Peasant Political School, titled On Progressive Democracy, Kim Il Sung points out the importance of giving Korea the right orientation in the building of a new Korea and taking the road to progressive democracy. As he says, this is “a road that holds out the promise of grandeur and progress for the fatherland and eternal prosperity for the people”. Kim Il Sung points out six characteristic features of the democracy that the Korean people aspire to, a democracy, he says, which is “fundamentally different from that of Western capitalist countries, nor is it a slavish copy of that of a socialist country”. These features of the Korean people’s democracy, he says, are that it: is characterised by independence; is characterised by coalition; guarantees the masses of people freedom and equality; aims not only at independence and sovereignty, national unity and democratic freedom but also at the building of a prosperous country; aims at revolution as one of its major characteristic features; and, aims at peace.
    Very soon, in the north of Korea, the Korean people mobilised under the leadership of Kim Il Sung and following his guidance, were able to found the DPRK in 1948. They took control of their future and began to build a modern socialist society on the basis of self-reliance. President Kim Il Sung and the Workers’ Party of Korea, founded as the Communist Party of North Korea in 1945, also provided political and practical leadership to the Korean people’s aspiration for a reunified Korea.
    However, it was following the south Korean elections of May 29, 1950, when the Syngman Rhee government suffered a major electoral setback and the forces for reunification were gaining momentum, that the US imperialists provoked and launched the Korean War on June 25, 1950, to block the independent reunification of Korea.
    It is fitting to mention that it was on July 27, 1953, that the heroic forces of the Korean People’s Army, with the profound fraternal assistance of the forces of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, achieved victory by forcing the US imperialists and their allies to come north of the 38th parallel to sign the Armistice Agreement that ended the fighting in the Fatherland Liberation War. The signing of the Armistice Agreement also signalled the first military defeat of the US following the Second World War - a humiliation which has haunted the US imperialists ever since, and for which it has yet to forgive the DPRK and the Korean people.
    It should be mentioned that the people of the DPRK this year, on the anniversary of the historic date of July 27th , held a grand celebration in Pyongyang at which respected leader Kim Jong Un delivered an important speech.
    Victory Day, he explained “is not merely a celebration day for commemorating and looking back to the chapter of resistance in the heroic era. The day serves as a valuable and significant occasion for us to judge whether we can proudly say before the embodiment and witnesses of history, who brought about the greatest victory in the harshest and grimmest annals, that our current struggle is an inheritance of the great tradition and to renew confidence and courage, passion and mettle.”
    Kim Jong Un pointed out the significance of what has been achieved since then, saying, “Our Republic has firmly safeguarded socialism and built up formidable self-defensive strategic potentials in the fierce confrontation with the United States, which spanned nearly 70 years after the war.” Referring to the achievements since the historic defeat of the US imperialists, he said these are “even greater than the victory in the Fatherland Liberation War”.
    Speaking about the present era, where the US continues colluding with hostile elements in south Korea to block the Korean people’s striving for peaceful reunification and independence, Kim Jong Un sent a “serious warning to the south Korean conservative regime and its hawks that run amuck”, who think that based on military might the entire Korean Peninsula is theirs and who “stand in the van of implementing the US hostile policy towards the DPRK”. He said that if the south Korean regime and military think about confronting the DPRK militarily and that “they can neutralise or destroy some parts of our military forces pre-emptively by resorting to some special military means and methods, they are grossly mistaken!”. Such a dangerous attempt will be stopped and the aggressive forces destroyed, he stated.
    As Kim Il Sung had stated back in 1945, “The building of an independent and sovereign democratic state is in full accord with the specific realities of Korea and the will of our people. Only by building such a state can we make our country rich, strong, enlightened and bring prosperity to our nation.”
    It is clear that this line of march elaborated by President Kim Il Sung has been traversed since liberation by the people of the DPRK for 77 years, all the while - under his leadership, under the leadership of Kim Jong Il and now under the respected leadership of Kim Jong Un and the Workers’ Party of Korea - characterising and resolving the tasks and issues of nation-building and building Korean-style socialism at each juncture. Friends of Korea can only warmly endorse the words of Kim Jong Un in his characterisation of the incomparable achievements of the present era.
    The United States, with Britain in close alliance, is flailing about, seeking to order and divide the world. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is exemplary in confronting this world crisis, and its stand of internationalism also underpins its firm stand in promoting and safeguarding peace. The DPRK is not about to submit to the nuclear blackmail of the US. For its part, the US today is only concerned about the destruction of what it cannot control. It cannot be forgotten that the United States is the only country to have used nuclear weapons. This was a war crime of immense proportions. And the use of nuclear weapons was the option favoured by General MacArthur to obliterate the Korean resistance led by Kim Il Sung and to wipe out the Chinese volunteers who joined that resistance. They were not used, in part because the US military and presidency could not agree on also using nuclear weapons against China. Instead, the US carried out carpet bombing of civilians and infrastructure in Korea and used chemical and biological weapons.
    It is certain beyond any shadow of a doubt that the DPRK will continue to advance along the path of building a prosperous socialist country with the people’s rights and well-being at the centre of considerations. The future is in the hands of all the people, especially the youth, as shown by the ceremony in which the national flag of the DPRK was handed over to young people at a meeting of the youth and students with war veterans.

Salute the Heroic Korean People on 77 Years of Liberation!

Korea’s Road to Freedom (2)

Korean solidarity campaigners held a seminar at the NCP Party Centre on 13th August to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Korea and the outstanding achievements of the Korean communists who freed the country from Japanese colonialism and then beat back the American invaders and their lackeys during the Korean war. This is the contribution from Dermot Hudson, the Chair of the Korean Friendship Association (UK).

by Dermot Hudson


Before I refer to the anniversary of Korea’s liberation, I would like to mention two very significant things.
    Firstly, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK} has achieved victory over COVID‑19, which was eliminated in the DPRK 100 days after it broke out and 91 days after the DPRK switched over to a top-level emergency anti-epidemic system. The fatality rate was very low, probably the lowest in the world.
    This was a great victory that only People's Korea, guided by the great Juche Idea and led by the Workers Party of Korea (WPK) and respected Marshal Kim Jong Un, could achieve. To put things into context, so-called advanced countries such as Britain, the USA and Japan after over two years are still reporting cases of Covid. South Korea recorded 128,000 new cases and 58 deaths in the last day (at the time of writing), with over 21 million people in total infected.
    The DPRK's victory was achieved through self-reliance and without outside help. The DPRK correctly rejected the fake 'humanitarian aid' of imperialism and vaccines of the big capitalist pharmaceutical monopolies of the imperialist world who seek only profit. It was also because the WPK and the people's government took measures so quickly and resolutely. In the Western world some governments failed to act quickly against COVID‑19.
    As Kim Jong Un wisely pointed out: "In other words, the invaluable victory we have achieved is the victory of our Party's anti-epidemic policy, the victory of our state's crisis management strategy, the victory of our people's fortitude and single-hearted unity unique to them, the great victory brought about by the superiority of our style of socialist system." This is indeed true. The victory against Covid in People's Korea is due to the single-hearted unity of the people around the Party and the leader, and the superiority of the socialist system.
    We salute the victory of People's Korea in the anti-pandemic war and believe it to be a great example for the world.
    Secondly, a leading member of the WPK, Kim Yo Jong, made a significant speech in which she denounced the south Korean puppets for deliberately spreading COVID‑19 into the DPRK using balloons. This is a crime against humanity committed by the so-called defectors and south Korean puppets, for which they must pay. I think we have a duty in this country to expose this crime as widely as we can.
    In just under two days, the Korean people will mark the 77th anniversary of Korea’s liberation.
On 15th August 1945 Korea was liberated from the grim and oppressive fascist rule of Japanese imperialism thanks to the 20-year-long armed struggle conducted under the leadership of the great leader Kim Il Sung.
    The anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army led by Kim Il Sung had neither a state base nor rear to rely on. The armed struggle of the anti-Japanese guerrillas was a self-reliant one that embodied the Juche Idea and the Songun ‘Army First’ Idea. Kim Il Sung cast aside the idea of relying on big powers for salvation and instead conducted an independent struggle, based on Juche, against Japanese imperialism, fully relying on the masses of the people.
    The anti-Japanese armed struggle fully proved in practice the truth of Songun – that independence is achieved by the force of arms. During the anti-Japanese armed struggle the great leader generalissimo Kim Il Sung, adhering firmly to the line of Songun, rejected illusions of the national reformists and opportunists that independence could be achieved by peaceful means or by begging for it.
    Some people like to say that the liberation of Korea was due to the Soviet Union or the Soviet Union and China. They like to portray People’s Korea as a creation of another country. To this, two things can be said.
    Firstly, that the USSR only entered the war on the 9th August 1945, whereas the anti-Japanese armed struggle had been waged since 1930 when Kim Il Sung formed the Korean Revolutionary Army and later the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army.
    Secondly, as a friend of mine from KFA Greece said, how did the USSR and China succeed in their revolutions? It was because of the efforts of the people in those countries, so it is the same for Korea.
    The Juche-oriented guerrilla tactics of Kim Il Sung and the indomitable struggle of the Anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army (later the Korean People's Revolutionary Army) tore the guts out of Japanese imperialism, defeating the million-strong Kwantung army of Japanese imperialism, which was finally expelled from the land of Korea.
    The defeat of Japanese imperialism, one of the main forces and shock brigades of international fascism, made a great contribution to the victory of the worldwide anti-fascist forces. The victorious liberation struggle of the Korean people was an inspiration for the peoples of the colonial countries fighting for their independence and liberation. The 1968 World Cultural Congress in Havana adopted a document praising the anti-Japanese armed struggle waged under the leadership of Kim Il Sung.
    With the victory of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, the Korean people finally gained their emancipation from the cruel shackles of Japanese colonialism and greeted a new life of independence, a life of hope for the future.
    After liberation the agrarian reform that eliminated feudalism and landlordism and gave land to the peasants was carried out. Subsequently the laws on sexual equality that liberated women and the nationalisation of basic industries were also enacted.
    After liberation, under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, the people of Korea built a new, thriving country of independence under the banner of self-reliance, a country which even in the words of enemies has "undiluted sovereignty”.
    Today, People's Korea, the land of Juche, pulsates with independence and creativity under the leadership of respected comrade Kim Jong Un, who carries forward the great line of independence developed by Kim Il Sung.
    Can I also take this opportunity to denounce the hostile policy of the British government towards the DPRK.
    On 30th June 2022 the British government, including the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and the office of the Prime Minister, issued a lengthy document entitled UK-Republic of Korea bilateral framework for closer co-operation that is aimed at giving more British support to the south Korean puppet fascist regime and provoking the DPRK. A hidden agenda behind the document is regime change in People’s Korea.
    Britain has always played a reactionary and imperialistic role in Korea. In the 1900s Britain connived at Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea. Later, Britain sent troops to fight against the Korean people during the Korean War. Shamefully, British troops acted as cannon fodder and mercenaries for US imperialism and its destructive and barbaric war against the Korean people. After the Korean war Britain gave huge amounts of aid (from the taxes paid by British working people) to the south Korean puppets; and British Leyland, the then state-owned motor company, assisted the motor industry in south Korea.
    The bilateral framework document refers to south Korea as being a “free and open society”. Nothing could be further from the truth!
    South Korea is a despotic fascist regime that operates the “National Security Law”, which is based on old Japanese colonial laws and prohibits sympathy for the DPRK or communist or leftist activities. In the past, south Korea murdered the leaders of the Revolutionary Party for Reunification, the Strategic Liberation Party and the People’s Revolutionary Party. South Korea still has political prisoners, including several “long-term unconverted prisoners”. South Korea is dominated by the Jaebols (big capitalist corporations) and a society in which there is a big gap between the rich and poor, as typified by the film Parasite.
    The document refers to the “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation” of the DPRK, basically repeating a tired old mantra. Of course, lurking behind this is the hidden aim of overthrowing the socialist system in the DPRK and colonising the northern half of Korea. Moreover, it is taking issue with the DPRK’s legitimate right to self-defence and is a denial of the DPRK’s sovereignty.
    The document also refers to “human rights” and the DPRK “opening up” to the so-called “humanitarian aid” of imperialism. This is yet another ploy to create ‘regime change’ in the DPRK and overthrow the socialist system. The DPRK does not need any ‘humanitarian aid’ from south Korea or Britain or imperialism.
    There is also talk of upgrading the existing ‘Free Trade Agreement’ between Britain and south Korea. This will only result in more cheap, substandard south Korean goods being dumped in Britain. It will also mean some British monopoly capitalist firms exploiting cheap labour in south Korea.
    KFA UK rejects the UK-Republic of Korea bilateral framework for closer co-operation. It is both a mechanism for denying the sovereignty of the DPRK and overthrowing the socialist system of the DPRK, and at the same time propping up the totally reactionary, fascistic and decadent colonial regime in south Korea.
    KFA UK believes that Britain should break with old and discredited policies towards the Korean peninsula, and instead promote co-operation based on genuine friendship, mutual benefit and independence with the DPRK, the truly authentic state on the Korean peninsula.

Down with the south Korean puppet fascist regime!

Hands off People’s Korea!

Korea’s road to freedom (1)

by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity campaigners returned to the Sid French library at the NCP Party Centre last weekend for a seminar that focused on the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Korea and the outstanding achievements of the Korean communists who freed the country from Japanese colonialism and then went on to lead the people’s government that beat back the American invaders and their lackeys during the Korean war.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the Friends of Korea event, welcomed everyone to the meeting and then introduced the two main speakers – Michael Chant, the secretary of the Committee and Dermot Hudson, the Chair of the Korean Friendship Association.
    They both highlighted the immense achievements of the Workers Party of Korea over the past 70-odd years. Michael Chant stressed that the liberation of Korea on 15th August 1945 was not the gift of the Americans who claim that it was all down to their atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but an act of the Korean people themselves who took up arms under the leadership of Kim Il Sung in the 1930s in the long march to end the brutal Japanese occupation.
    And as Dermot Hudson said “the defeat of Japanese imperialism, one of the main forces and shock brigade of international fascism , by the partisans of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army led by the great leader Kim Il Sung made a great contribution to the victory of the worldwide anti-fascist forces”. This sparked off a deeper look at Korean-style socialism.
    Kim Il Sung not only grasped Marxism-Leninism but he applied it to the concrete conditions of the Korean people. He knew that once the masses realised their own strength they would become unstoppable. He knew that serving the people was the be-all and end-all for Korean communists and for the Workers’ Party of Korea that he launched in 1945. He developed Korean-style socialism and the Juché idea – which elevates the philosophical principles of Marxism-Leninism as well as its economic theories and focuses on the development of each individual worker, who can only be truly free as part of the collective will of the masses.
    In the Western world Juché is often described as “self-reliance” but it is much more than that. Kim Il Sung said that working people could only become genuinely emancipated if they stood on their own feet. But the Juché idea doesn’t negate proletarian internationalism. The Soviet Union, People’s China and the people’s democracies of eastern Europe all closed ranks behind DPR Korea during the Korean war and likewise Democratic Korea has given concrete support to Egypt, Syria, Zimbabwe and many other Third World countries struggling against neo-colonialism.
    The seminar reviewed the achievements of the DPRK in building Korean-style socialism, demonstrating the incomparable advances since the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 and the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 9th September 1948. Following the foot-steps of Kim Il Sung and his successor Kim Jong Il the Workers Party of Korea with Kim Jong Un at the helm continues to defend the Korean people’s own path of development, striving for peace and for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.