A day to remember

by New Worker correspondent

Leslie Larkum and Yu Kwang Song

MILLIONS of Koreans celebrated the 66^th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea this week with parades, rallies and celebrations throughout the north of the divided peninsula. Down in the occupied south many others defied the puppet regime to hold their own events to mark 9^th September 1948 when the DPRK was established under the leadership of Kim Il Sung and the Workers’ Party of Korea.

            And last weekend British communists and supporters of the Korean revolution met for a joint meeting and social at the New Communist Party’s Centre in London to commemorate this important date in the calendar of the world communist movement.

NCP leader Andy Brooks welcomed everyone to the meeting called by the Friends of Korea committee and the Korean Friendship Association to hear openings from Lesley Larkum of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (ML), Yu Kwang Song from the DPRK embassy in London and KFA activists on the 9^th September and the Juché Idea.

But first of all comrades paused for a minutes silence for Eric Trevett, the NCP President who had passed away the day before after a long illness. Many paid tribute to his earnest efforts in support of the Korean revolution over the years. Eric made a number of trips to Democratic Korea over the years and met great leader Kim Il Sung three times in the early 1990s – a true friend of the Korean revolution to his last breath.

 The meeting opened with a short film on the sporting achievements of the DPRK over the years which was followed by openings by a number of Korean solidarity activists in London.

Lesley spoke about the significance of the establishment of the DPRK in 1948 and talked about what she saw with her own eyes when she visited Democratic Korea last year while KFA activists talked about the role of Juché in the revolutionary struggle against Japanese colonialism, US imperialism and the struggle to build a modern, socialist republic in north Korea.

Yu Kwang Song took up these points in his opening and during the discussion that flowed from the openings and that continued over drinks for the rest of the evening.

Korea's struggle for freedom

by New Worker correspondent

NEW COMMUNIST Party leader Andy Brooks joined in the discussion on Korea’s revolutionary struggle with other comrades and a representative of the DPR Korea embassy at a joint mini-seminar at the Party Centre last week.

             The meeting opened with a talk to commemorate the 54th anniversary of the start of the Songun revolutionary leadership and the 45th anniversary of the foundation of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front (AINDF) of south Korea. The discussion revolved around these two important themes – the military-first ideology that embodies the Juché idea and the underground resistance to the puppet regime and the US occupation in south Korea.

The AINDF was founded as the Revolutionary Party for Reunification on 25th August 1969. The south Korean puppet regime responded by resorting to terror to try and stifle the new revolutionary upsurge against the military dictatorship and the American occupation. Many cadres were arrested, tortured and jailed and some were murdered included two RPR leaders, Kim Jong-tae and Choi Young-do.

It was renamed the National Democratic Front of South Korea (NDFSK) in 1985 and it adopted its current form in 2005.

Comrades also spoke of great leader Kim Il Sung’s central role in leading the Korean people to victory over Japanese colonialism and US imperialism, Kim Jong Il’s leadership during the struggle to overcome imperialist blockade and a series of natural disasters and the new leadership of Kim Jong Un, who is following in their footsteps to build a modern, socialist society in the north of the divided Korean peninsula.

The seminar, organised by the Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK, the Juché Idea Study Group of England and the New Communist Party of Britain, was held on the 28th August in the Sid French Library in the Party’s London Centre.