Thursday 30 March 2017

Defending the DPRK in Belgravia!

KFA Chair Dermot Hudson and Andy Brooks with other comrades
 by New Worker correspondent
NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other Korean solidarity activists outside the Malaysian embassy in London’s Belgrave Square last week to demand an end to the hostile actions of the Malaysian government against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
 The picket, called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA), gave out leaflets pointing out that a DPRK citizen called Kim Chol collapsed and died in Kuala Lumpur airport on the 13th February. The Malaysian authorities initially said that this was due to a heart attack. Subsequently the Malaysian authorities, in violation of international law:
         Carried out an autopsy without the permission of the DPRK and without the presence of the DPRK side;
         Refused a request for a joint investigation;
         Refused to hand over the remains of the dead man;
         Spread false accusations and allegations, and wrongfully arrested a DPRK citizen
It is claimed that VX nerve agent was used to kill the man – but clearly it would be impossible to use VX Nerve agent at the airport without killing scores of other people and rendering the terminal unusable for years if not decades to come. The two women arrested are not from the DPRK and are not even ethnic Koreans. They had, however, visited south Korea several times in the past.
            The KFA calls on Malaysia to return the body of the dead DPRK citizen to the DPRK and ends its campaign of false allegations, lies and slanders against the DPRK.

Thursday 23 March 2017

Defending the DPRK at LSE

leafleting outside the hall
by New Worker correspondent
Korean solidarity activists were outside the London School of Economics (LSE) last weekend to leaflet a seminar that purported to “provide a platform for detailed discussions on various aspects of North Korea, from North Korean society to the prospects for, and challenges of, Korean unification”. What they mean by ‘unification’ is really south Korea absorbing the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). So basically this was a regime change conference organised by those hostile to the socialist system of the DPRK and the Juche Idea.
Last Saturday Korea Friendship Association (KFA) Chair Dermot Hudson and NCP leader Andy Brooks joined student supporters of the Korean revolution putting the record straight with KFA leaflets and presenting the other side of the story in face-to-face discussion with participants entering and leaving the building. 
The conference was, in fact, simply a propaganda forum organised by the south Korean puppet regime and sponsored by the Doosan Group, a south Korean manufacturing and construction conglomerate that employs 41,400 workers in 38 countries. The speakers were drawn from the usual circle of pro-imperialist academics and journalists, along with a number of south Korean diplomats and former ministers. Needless to say, no DPRK representative or representative of the KFA was asked to attend the conference.

Friday 10 March 2017

Trump trumped in Grosvenor Square!

 
Korea is One!
By New Worker correspondent
Solidarity activists returned to the US embassy in London on Saturday to demand the end to the American war-games in south Korea that are ratcheting up tension on the Korean peninsula. NCP leader Andy Brooks joined comrades at the protest organised by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) to call for a halt to the annual Foal Eagle and Key Resolve military exercises that are rehearsal for a full-scale invasion of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). And although KFA pickets rarely attract the mainstream media, this one had come to the notice of a Daily Star reporter who interviewed KFA Chair Dermot Hudson and filed a report that appeared on his paper’s online edition.
       
Dermot Hudson and Andy Brooks on the line
    
Dermot Hudson said: “Last year’s exercises, involving 300,000 south Korean fascist puppet troops and around 17,000 US imperialist aggressor troops backed by warships and warplanes were described as the largest ever. However this year's exercises will be bigger than the year before. They also involve the presence of troops from vassal states of the US. The US navy is sending the aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, and its strike group of two guided-missile destroyers and a guided-missile cruiser, to join the Foal Eagle drills. The US Marine Corps is dispatching sophisticated F-35B stealth fighters from Japan to the Korean Peninsula for the first time. Also nuclear submarines and nuclear strategic bombers will be deployed.”
The KFA holds protest pickets outside the centre of US imperialism in London throughout the year without incident. This time we were told by the police that a pro-Trump demonstration would be held outside the embassy mid-way through ours that could lead to clashes. As it happened only three people turned up to support the new US President – a cranky woman draped in the Stars and Stripes, a known fascist and a student who insisted he was only an observer and not there to support the billionaire property developer.