Kim Jong Il remembered

  Millions of Koreans and millions of communists all over the world recalled the outstanding achievements of dear leader Kim Jong Il at commemorations to mark the 4th anniversary of his passing on 17th December 2011. The British Committee to Remember Comrade Kim Jong Il was established on 7th November by members of the New Communist Party of Britain, the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), the British Association for the Study of Songun Policy and the British Friends of Korea. Andy Brooks, general secretary of the of the New Communist Party of Britain, was elected chair of the remembrance committee to co-ordinate cultural and political work in memory of Kim Jong Il from 8th December to 20th December.

     Friends of Korea held a memorial meeting on 11th December of the John Buckle Centre in London to  remember the contributions of Kim Jong Il, who devoted his life to serving the Korean people, leading the DPRK on the path where the people are the masters of their own destiny. 

     Speakers included Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML), Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association and Hyon Hak Bong, the London Ambassador of the DPR Korea.

Kim Jong Il always with us

By Andy Brooks

Our Party joined millions of Koreans and millions of communists all over the world last week in recalling the outstanding achievements of dear leader Kim Jong Il on the occasion of the 4th anniversary of his passing.

Four years have passed since the loss of dear leader Kim Jong Il, who dedicated his life to the revolutionary movement that was founded by Kim Il Sung, and the young militants around him, to fight the Japanese colonialists and build a modern communist party that would lead the Korean workers and peasants to a new life under socialism. Building a guerrilla army that took on the might of the Japanese Empire, great leader Kim Il Sung mobilised the masses in a struggle that ended in victory in 1945 and the establishment of a people’s government in the north of the country.

The Workers’ Party of Korea, with Kim Il Sung at the helm, led the battle for land reform, education and socialist construction in the 1950s and 1960s, and then pushed forward on the engineering, technical and scientific fronts to build a modern socialist republic where every individual worker is master of his or her own life. The DPRK stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the peoples of the Third World struggling to break the chains of colonialism, and gave technical and economic aid to their new republics to defend their freedom and independence.

From an early age Kim Jong Il worked side by side with Kim Il Sung, and when Kim Il Sung passed away Kim Jong Il told the Korean people and the world that they could “expect no change from him”.

 Under his leadership the Workers’ Party of Korea won even more great victories. Natural disasters were overcome. Imperialist diplomatic isolation was broken and the intrigues of US imperialism were exposed. Scientists in Democratic Korea mastered the secrets of the atom to guarantee the DPRK’s defence and energy needs, and now Korean rockets reach for the stars.

The tragedy of Korea is that it has been divided since the Second World War and that division is entirely due to the United States, which has propped up a puppet regime in south Korea to maintain American imperialism’s military, strategic and economic dominance of north-east Asia and the Pacific Rim.

A monstrous concrete wall divides Korea. Tens of thousands of American troops remain are stationed in the south, backed by a US nuclear armada that threatens the DPRK and its neighbours. The communist movement is outlawed in the south and contacts with the north are tightly controlled by the repressive regime.

The Democratic Korean government has worked tirelessly to end the partition of the country. It has called on the United States to normalise relations with the DPRK. A proposal for the re-unification of Korea based on the principle of “one country – two systems” – similar to the one that led to the peaceful return of Hong Kong and Macau to the People’s Republic of China – remains on the table.

Democratic Korea threatens no one, but the imperialist campaign to demonise and isolate the people’s government continues as a smokescreen to cover US plans to dominate the entire Pacific basin.

Following in Kim Il Sung’s footsteps, Kim Jong Il led the Workers Party of Korea into the 21st century to build a strong and prosperous democratic republic. Kim Jong Il was a leading Marxist thinker who made an important contribution to modern communist theory, as well as an astute statesman who led the Korean people through thick and thin to overcome natural disasters, imperialist blockade and diplomatic isolation.

Kim Jong Il made an immense contribution to Marxist-Leninist theory and ideology. In his 1982 work On the Juché Idea, Kim Jong Il brought together and systematised the Juché theory; his 1994 thesis Socialism is a Science affirmed that socialism would eventually become the economic system of the entire world because it is the only form of society in which people can be truly free.

            Kim Jong Il worked tirelessly to ease tension on the Korean peninsula to pave the way towards the peaceful reunification of Korea whilst at the same time ensuring the DPRK’s defence against the threats and provocations of US imperialism and its lackeys.

On 15th June 2000 Chairman Kim Jong Il of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and President Kim Dae Jung of south Korea signed the historic North–South Joint Declaration.  This was an historic landmark in the struggle of the Korean people to reunify their homeland that had forcibly been divided by the US imperialists following World War Two. The Declaration opened up a new era for independence, peace, reconciliation and reunification on the Korean peninsula until the US-sponsored anti-national, anti-communist and retrogressive Lee Myung Bak clique in the south began to sabotage its spirit and principles.

But US imperialism cannot forgive the DPRK for being the first country following the Second World War to defeat it on the battlefield, setting an example for all people fighting for independence and self-determination. Its revenge seeking against the DPRK continues unabated to this day.

The intrigues of the US and their south Korean lackeys are becoming increasingly dangerous as they work together to try to isolate the DPRK and the movement for national reunification. This includes jailing peace campaigners like Ro Su Hui under the fascist National Security Law, and carrying out endless provocations such as the joint US–south Korean military exercises aimed at invading the DPRK and bringing the Korean peninsula ever closer to a cataclysmic nuclear war.

 The DPRK has had no alternative but to develop a nuclear deterrent to defend its socialist system. At the same time it has pledged that it will never be the first to use nuclear weapons, and it has also vowed never to threaten the use of nuclear weapons nor allow

the transfer of nuclear technology to other countries.

Kim Jong Il was a great leader of the Korean people who devoted his entire life to serving the Korean people in the cause of building a human-centred society, a cause that is one espoused by the democratic and anti-imperialist forces the world over.

We believe that the will of the Korean masses, expressed in concrete terms

by their vanguard party, the Workers’ Party of Korea now led by Kim Jong Un, and following in the footsteps of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, will overcome all obstacles to fulfil the revolutionary tasks that faced the Korean people when they began their long march to socialism in the struggle against Japanese imperialism.

Eyewitness Korea!

Dermot Hudson, John Cooper and Thae Yongho

By New Worker correspondent

  

Comrades and friends braved the cold weather in London on Saturday 21st November to hear an eye-witness report of life in Democratic Korea and demonstrate their solidarity with the bright red bastion of socialism in Asia. Dermot Hudson, who took part in the celebrations in October to mark the 70^th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers’ Party of Korea, talked about the massive parade and pageant that he saw in the capital, Pyongyang, as well as the immense achievements of the Korean people who are constantly threatened by US imperialism and their south Korean puppets.

            He also talked about the day-to-day life of the people in the land of Juché where everyone has a job and no-one is homeless and where there is none of the drunkenness and drug-taking that sadly so typifies life in London and the other centres of the imperialist world. “It was a great visit and I was very disappointed to leave to go back to the capitalist world where everything seems so depressing and miserable,” he said. A view echoed by the other speakers that included Thae Yongho from the London embassy of the DPRK, NCP leader Andy Brooks and Sean Pickford from the Juché Idea Study Group of England.

            This was followed by a lively discussion and a buffet but not before saying farewell to John Cooper, a long-standing supporter of the DPRK, who is moving to Scotland this week. John, who took part in the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang in 1989, was presented with box of shortbread by Dermot Hudson on behalf of the KFA along

Democratic Korea in the struggle for freedom and independence

By Alex Meads

THE DEMOCRATIC People’s Republic of Korea, under the leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea, has always considered foreign relations an important policy area for the promotion of anti-imperialism and the cultivation of friendly relations between nations. The WPK has worked tirelessly to achieve cordial relations between all socialist countries since the inception of the DPRK. The WPK believes that independence, peace, and solidarity are the basic ideals of the foreign policy of the DPRK.

The party believes that the state should establish diplomatic as well as political, economic and cultural relations with all friendly countries, on principles of complete equality, independence, mutual respect, non-interference in each other’s affairs, and mutual benefit. The DPRK has long expressed solidarity with those nations who are fighting shoulder to shoulder with the DPRK against US Imperialism. 

With Cuba

One such example is relations between the DPRK and Cuba. The relationship between these two socialist countries is based on the spirit of proletarian internationalism. Cuba established diplomatic relations with the DPRK on the 2nd of August 1960.

There is a deep relationship between the Cuban and Korean revolutions and a friendship between the leaders of the two revolutions as significantly Ché Guevara and Fidel Castro have both visited the DPRK. Cuba was deeply inspired by the example of the Korean revolution and its armed struggle. In 1968 the World Cultural Congress in Havana adopted the document: The anti-Japanese armed struggle of the Korean People organised and waged under the personal guidance of comrade Kim Il Sung.

Fidel Castro was greatly inspired by the robust independence of the Korean revolution and he said: “The influence of the Korean revolution upon the peoples in Latin America and in other regions is beyond estimate.” Comrade Kim Il Sung recognised the importance of the Cuban revolution as it meant a breach had been made in the imperialist system in the western hemisphere.

Kim Il Sung confers a decoration to Fidel in Pyongyang

Cuba had carried out a revolution and was building socialism in the so called backyard of the US. Therefore a strong militant friendship developed between Cuba and the DPRK. This militant revolutionary fraternal friendship can be seen in the DPRK’s actions as well as its words.

In 1962 the US imperialists provoked the Caribbean crisis and because the threat of war was imminent many foreign embassies withdrew from Cuba but comrade Kim Il Sung instructed the DPRK Embassy staff and their families to arm themselves and fight to the end. DPRK students studying in Cuba did likewise and the DPRK sent military aid to Cuba. The DPRK also publicly supported the five-point demands of Fidel Castro, which included the US withdrawal from Guantanamo.

            Later in 1986 the DPRK supplied Cuba with 100,000 automatic rifles at cost price. The DPRK has also expressed anti- imperialist socialist solidarity through words. The great leader comrade Kim Il Sung wrote a special article for Tricontinental magazine on the 8^th October 1968 one year after the death of Ché Guevara in battle praising his immortal revolutionary exploits. The DPRK always marks 8^th October – the day Ché died and the DPRK produces posters and stamps of Ché. Also in Cuba today there is the Kim Il Sung Special Economic School, which indicates that the Korean people will always stand together with the Cuban people in the struggle against US imperialism. 

Helping Vietnam

The DPRK has always provided both material and ideological support to oppressed peoples fighting a war of national liberation against imperialism. One such example is the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War the DPRK provided substantial economic and military aid to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and Vietnamese students received education for free in the DPRK. As a result of a decision of the WPK in October 1966, in early 1967 the DPRK sent a fighter squadron to North Vietnam to back up the North Vietnamese 921st and 923rd fighter squadrons defending Hanoi.

Kim Il Sung with Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi in 1964

They stayed through 1968 and 200 pilots were reported to have served. In addition at least two anti-aircraft artillery regiments were sent as well. The DPRK also sent weapons, ammunition and two million sets of uniforms to their comrades in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

But it is not just in Asia that the DPRK has provided comradely support to friendly nations in their struggles against imperialism. For example in October 1980, Kim Il-sung and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe signed an agreement for an exchange of soldiers. Following this agreement 106 North Korean soldiers arrived in Zimbabwe to train a brigade of soldiers that became known as the Fifth Brigade. 

In Egypt

In Pyongyang there is museum gallery dedicated to the DPRK pilots who flew to defend Egypt during the Arab-Israeli war of October 1973. It’s a story well-known in the Arab world but perhaps not so well-known in the West and it began when Egypt, then the United Arab Republic, established diplomatic relations with the DPRK in 1963. Egypt at that time was led by President Gamal Abdel Nasser who championed Arab unity, the Palestinian cause and the non-aligned movement while leading his country along the path of socialist orientation.

            But Egypt was soon to suffer an immense setback. Israel launched a surprise attack on her Arab neighbours in June 1967. Within a week the Israelis had seized the West Bank from Jordan, Syria’s Golan Heights and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The Suez Canal became a fortified ditch after the ceasefire which soon erupted into static warfare known as the “War of Attrition”. Nasser accepted a new ceasefire in 1970 believing that US imperialism and the Zionists would abide by UN resolutions calling for a complete Israeli withdrawal from all the occupied territories. But nothing happened. Nasser died that year and he was succeeded by Anwar Sadat who continued the fruitless task of seeking a peaceful settlement while, at the same time, rebuilding the Egyptian armed forces.

            Egypt relied on Soviet arms and Soviet military advisers who applied defence in depth to deter Israeli war-planes that had regularly bombed Cairo and the highly populated Nile Delta during the War of Attrition. But though the Soviet Union had re-equipped the Egyptian air-force Egypt lacked experienced pilots with combat experience.

            Sadat spent 1971, what he called the “Year of Decision”, trying to reach a settlement of the Middle East conflict but Egypt and the other Arab states including Syria were persistently rebuffed by the Israelis who had no intention of returning the Arab lands they seized in 1967, let alone recognising the legitimate rights of the Palestinians they expelled and oppressed. Egypt waited another year. But when it became clear to Sadat and the Syrians that US imperialism had no intention of putting any pressure on the Zionist entity and was, in fact, encouraging the Zionists in their aggression, they resolved to counter-attack.

            The plan was for a limited push over the Suez Canal by Egyptian forces while Syria would strike back into the Golan Heights. The Soviets had helped establish missile blocks to cover Cairo and other densely populated areas. But Israel was armed to the teeth by the Americans and its air-force was reckoned to be the strongest in the Middle East. The new Soviet missiles, if fired in volleys, could hit the Israelis. But could the Egyptian air force deal with the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom all-weather fighter-bombers the Americans had given the Israelis?  Sadat and his air-force commander Husni Mubarak thought not, so they turned to Democratic Korea for help.

Great leader Kim Il Sung immediately agreed to the Egyptian request. His pilots, who all flew Soviet planes, needed combat experience and Egypt needed skilled fighter pilots. Egypt would supply the planes from its own squadrons and the DPRK would supply the men.

            The Korean People’s Air Force squadrons arrived in secret in 1972 disguised as engineers and mechanics. They flew Egyptian MiGs under Egyptian air-force colours. They brought their own air-controllers because all their commands were in Korean and they brought their own admin workers, even their own cooks. Their commander liaised directly with Husni Mubarak.

            In October 1973 Egypt and Syria paid the Zionists back in their own coin by launching a surprise attack that sent the Israelis reeling from the Suez Canal and the Golan Heights. On the Arab street they say the Korean squadron also knocked out an Israeli air-base in the occupied Sinai peninsula on the first day of the war. Some say the Koreans downed at least two Israeli warplanes. The operational details remain secret to this day. What is undeniable is that over 100 Israeli warplanes were shot-down over Egypt and Syria and that the Korean People’s Air Force squadron was in action defending Egyptian towns and military bases throughout the three-week war and never lost a plane.

There can be equally no doubt that the Democratic Korean contribution was significant in the overall effort to drive the Israelis back in October 1973. Though Sadat would turn to US imperialism and betray the Arab cause by signing a surrender peace at Camp David, Egyptian-DPRK relations went from strength to strength despite American protests.

In 1981 Sadat sent six Scud missiles, supplied to Egypt but not to the DPRK by the Soviet Union, to Democratic Korea in appreciation of the efforts of the Korean People’s Air Force. Korean engineers took the Scuds apart and gained valuable technical information, which helped jump start North Korea's missile development projects.

Anwar Sadat was assassinated by Islamic fundamentalists in 1981 and he was succeeded by Husni Mubarak. Though the new Egyptian president remained in the American camp he refused to break with Democratic Korea. The Americans wanted Egypt to establish relations with the puppet regime in Seoul but Mubarak refused.

The Egyptian leader told Kim Il Sung that he would “not to establish diplomatic relations with south Korea as long as he (Kim Il Sung) lived”. Mubarak kept his word only establishing relations with south Korea in 1995, a year after Kim Il Sung died, at a time when the DPRK’s own efforts to engage the south Korean authorities were beginning to meet a positive response.

With the non-aligned movement

The US and its puppet allies would have us believe that the DPRK is isolated and without international support. But this is not true; the DPRK has cordial relations with many countries including Indonesia. This relationship begins during the 1960s when the struggle between imperialism and anti-imperialism became very intense. The great leader President Kim Il Sung did all he could to promote the struggle of the newly independent countries against imperialism for independence.

In April 1965 the great leader President Kim Il Sung, accompanied by comrade Kim Jong Il paid an official visit to Indonesia in April 1965 in order to strengthen friendship, unity and solidarity with the developing countries. The visit was part of the celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of the historic Bandung conference which established the Non-Aligned Movement of third world countries. Although the imperialist forces had President Sukarno removed from power friendly relations have continued between the DPRK and Indonesia

The DPRK also maintains friendly diplomatic ties with Malaysia. In an effort to boost tourism between the two countries the DPRK announced that Malaysians will not require a visa to visit the DPRK and Air Koryo has regular flights to Kuala Lumpur. Recently, Malaysia's Bernama News Agency reported that the two countries will enhance cooperation in information-related areas.

The WPK has even pursued good relations with countries that many believe are firmly within the US sphere of influence, such as Singapore. In fact Singapore and the DPRK have extremely good relations. Many Singaporean companies have opened up businesses in Pyongyang and Singapore is also the DPRK’s 4th biggest trade partner. 

United action by all anti-imperialist forces

The DPRK has good relations with those big powers who oppose the US’s aggressive foreign policy, such as China and Russia. But the great leader President Kim Il Sung realised that the Korean revolution could only advance if the state fought against flunkeyism and big power chauvinism. This policy can be seen during the Sino-Soviet split. As the ideological conflict between China and the Soviet Union grew more aggressive Kim Il Sung emphasised: “We should establish our self-reliance more firmly.”

Syrian leader Hafez al Assad with Kim Il Sung

That was why he so extensively promoted the Chollima Campaign and also emphasised that an independent line was necessary in building the economy and culture. It is a testament to the Juché based foreign policy pursued by Kim Il Sung that the DPRK maintained friendly relations with both China and the Soviet Union during this period. Unlike other communist parties the WPK has not collapsed into revisionism. This is because it refused to follow the ideological positions of big powers and instead pursued an independent line based on the harmony of the party and people. This Juché-based foreign policy is a contributing factor why the DPRK is one of only a few workers’ states left in the world. The WPK’s stance of pursuing an independent ideological line but with a keen willingness to work with other anti-imperialist forces can be seen in the non-aligned movement.  

Kim Il Sung saw it necessary for a united action by all anti-imperialist forces. This lead to the DPRK joining the non-aligned movement in August 1975 at the non-aligned foreign ministers conference held in Lima, Peru. The non-aligned movement was formed by a grouping of developing countries who desired to be free themselves from the systems of alliances, blocs and pacts which were concocted by the imperialists during the cold war.

The DPRK capital Pyongyang became a venue for non-aligned meetings and summits and Kim Il Sung promoted bilateral and multilateral relations with the non-aligned countries. Kim Il Sung stressed the necessity of making the whole world independent and achieving unity within the ranks of the anti-imperialist forces on a global scale. This lead to the DPRK concluding 11 treaties with non-aligned countries such as The Central African Republic, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Togo, Angola, Libya, Ethiopia and Democratic Yemen between 1978 and 1984.

The DPRK also has had a proud tradition of promoting international cooperation throughout the decades. The DPRK has helped to train agro-technicians from many developing countries. Korean technical staff have worked in a number of African and Asian countries at a low cost to their host nation. At Kim Il Sung’s recommendation agricultural centres were set up in Tanzania and Guinea for Korean and African agro-scientists to conduct joint research projects.

The WPK’s Juché based foreign policy has meant that the DPRK is a country fully independent from the dictates of the trans-national corporations, the IMF and the World Bank. The DPRK is a model of total independence which is attracting the attention and aspirations of the developing world. Songun Politics proves to those who are fighting imperialism and colonialism that is possible to resist and win in the struggle for independence. The work of the DPRK in promoting anti-imperialist unity has provided a guide to those parties and movements, countries and peoples seeking their genuine national and social liberation from neo-colonialism and globalism.