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| Comrades Dermot Hudson, Andy Brooks, Michael Chant and Mun Myong Sin |
By New Worker correspondent
FRIENDS of Korea
met in London’s historic Marx House
last Saturday to commemorate the life of Kim Jong Il, the Democratic Korean
leader who sadly passed away in December. But this was no solemn occasion but a
celebration of the life of a revolutionary devoted to the Workers Party of
Korea and the democratic people’s republic that has been a red bastion in Asia
since its foundation in 1948.
New
Communist Party leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the meeting, said it was
fitting that we should recall the life and work of Kim Jong Il in the building
where Britain’s first Marxists, like Harry Quelch, worked and provided Lenin
with rooms to edit and print the underground Russian paper, Iskra, when the Bolshevik leader lived
in exile in London.
The
event, organised by the Friends of Korea committee, began with a short
documentary film about Mount Myohyang,
a national park in Democratic Korea that Kim Jong Il personally helped to
conserve for the Korean people. This was followed by contributions from two
leading members of the friendship committee on the life of Kim Jong Il. Michael
Chant from the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (ML) spoke about the
Korean leader’s efforts in building the Korean communist movement over the
decades while Dermot Hudson of the Korean
Friendship Association opened on the development of the Juche idea and Songun
politics under the direction of Kim Jong Il.
Comrade Mun Myong Sin, a diplomat from the London
embassy of the DPR Korea then joined the panel for a question and answer
session which developed into a general discussion on life in Democratic Korea
today.
The
Co-ordinating Committee of Friends of Korea consists of the European Regional Society
for the Study of the Juche Idea, UK Korean Friendship Association, New
Communist Party of Britain, Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain
(Marxist-Leninist) and the Socialist Labour Party, and another meeting is
planned for March.
