Kim Il Sung Remembered

By a New Worker correspondent



A successful seminar was held last week at the John Buckle Centre in London to mark the 98th anniversary of the birth of the great Korean revolutionary leader Kim Il Sung, organised by the Friends of Korea (FOK). In Democratic Korea this is celebrated at the Sun’s Day and all over the world friends of Korea held events last week to join with the Korean people in remembering their great son.
Workers Weekly editor Michael Chant and Dermot Hudson from the UK Korea Friendship Association presented short papers to kick off the discussion on the life and times of Kim Il Sung at the RCPB (ML) headquarters in London which kicked off a lively discussion for the rest of the evening.
Many in the room including the chair, Ella Rule (CPGB (ML), and the two opening speakers, had visited Democratic Korea over the years. NCP leader Andy Brooks and Chris Coleman of the RCPB (ML) talked about Kim Il Sung’s immense contribution to national liberation and the world communist movement while Jang Song Chol from the DPR Korea embassy in London told the seminar of his country’s current struggle to defend its independence and socialist way of life. Comrade Jang said that after the counter-revolutions in 1990 the DPRK’s enemies predicted its collapse in 3 or 4 years, yet the country went on to launch two satellites and carry out two nuclear tests. Jang said that the new Obama administration in the United States appeared to be friendly, suggesting “work with us, you don’t need nuclear weapons”; yet the new US “nuclear posture” announced last week singled out the DPRK and Iran for nuclear weapons targeting.
“A wolf is a wolf,” said Jang. “You can’t disguise it as a lamb”.
Everyone agreed with that and with a letter of greetings and congratulations to mark the Sun’s Day that was sent to DPRK leader Kim Jong Il.

London friends send solidarity message on Sun's Day

CO-ORDINATING COMMITTEE OF FRIENDS OF KOREA
c/o 170 Wandsworth Road, London SW8 2LA.


April 8th 2010 (Juche 99)

Kim Jong Il
General Secretary, Workers’ Party of Korea
Chairman, DPRK National Defence Commission
Pyongyang
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea



Dear Comrade Kim Jong Il,

On the auspicious occasion of Sun’s Day, celebrating the 98th anniversary of the day of the birth of the great leader President Kim Il Sung on April 15, we would like to convey to you and to the Korean people heartfelt greetings and congratulations. President Kim Il Sung was a great leader respected by progressive people throughout the world. He is cherished and loved as someone who dedicated his entire life and all his energies to the people’s cause. He was a revolutionary who welded the mass and revolutionary movements in Korea into an indivisible whole.

April 25th also marks the 78th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army. Since its founding by Comrade Kim Il Sung during the anti-Japanese war and under his leadership, the KPA has played a heroic role to ensure the success of the national liberation of Korea and of the socialist nation-building project.

Comrade Kim Jong Il, April 9th also marks the 17th anniversary of your election as Chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission. Under your wise leadership and Songun policy, the Korean people are achieving unprecedented victories in strengthening the social system of their choice, and defending the DPRK’s independence against all the hostile threats of the imperialist powers. In so doing, the Korean people are inspired by your will and desire to serve humanity by building a strong and powerful nation, which is an indispensable and decisive force in the context of the people’s struggles worldwide to bring an end to war and aggression. We see today in your work to guarantee the Korean people’s unity and courageous defence of their homeland against the imperialists, the living legacy of Comrade Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary leadership.

We denounce all the provocations of the US imperialists and their instrument, the hostile regime in south Korea, to attempt to bring down the socialist system in the DPRK by force of arms and reverse the advances made to achieve national reunification. We reiterate our support of the struggle of the Korean people to achieve the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and a lasting peace based on justice. Despite the setbacks caused by reaction and retrogression, we are sure that the unanimous wish of the Korean people to peacefully reunify their homeland will come to fruition in the not-too-distant future. The Korean people who are responding to the necessities of the time, rising as one in a new revolutionary upsurge to build a prosperous nation under the Songun-based leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea, are an inspiration to all the world’s progressive forces.

Dear Comrade Kim Jong Il, we wish you on this occasion the best of health and a long life. We stand shoulder to shoulder with you and the Korean people in our common cause of independence, socialism and a future fit for humanity.

adopted at the meeting celebrating the Day of the Sun, 2010
John Buckle Centre, London
Thursday, April 8th 2010