Happy New Year!

Travels in the land of Juche, 1992–2017

By John Marchant

Travels In The Land of Juche Korea, 1992–2017} by Dermot Hudson, 2018. Paperback 93pp.

The name of Dermot Hudson is familiar to both friends and foes of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), because Dermot is the foremost friend of the Korean people and the leading advocate of the Juche Idea in Britain.

Dermot Hudson has the unique distinction of having been the first ever Briton to have gained a doctorate from a DPRK academic body, the Korean Association of Social Scientists, in April 2016. In recent years he’s put forward the Dprk’s case and Korean solidarity issues in the media, such as the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire Show and the Daily Politics programme, as well featuring in the documentary This Is Not My Country.

Reading the prologue one gets a deep sense of the factors that led Dermot Hudson on to the path he has followed over the last four decades. His quest for a sound and precise ideological anchor took many years of trials, and led him eventually to follow the Juche Idea.

But this is essentially a travelogue. This short book ranges from 1992 to 2017, combining historic notes with personal anecdotes, which are often amusing. Going through the book, the reader will detect the onwards developments in the DPRK and the durability of Korean-style socialism. Dermot has had the privilege of travelling to the DPRK during the eras of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un, which makes this book even more interesting. Some quarters may find some of his comments in the book rather controversial but these are Dermot's own honest opinions on various subjects.

For those who have travelled to the DPRK in the past and to those people who have never been to Peoples Korea, Travels In The Land of Juche Korea is an ideal place to have a flavour of this remarkable East Asian Socialist Country. It is, indeed, recommended reading for friends and sympathisers of the Korean people, and it can be obtained by simply sending a donation to cover cost and postage to: UK KFA, PO Box 73, London SW11 2PQ.

Remembering Kim Jong Il

Ambassador Choe Il speaking

By New Worker correspondent 

Korean friendship activists met to hear speakers, that included the Democratic Korean (DPRK) ambassador, talk about the outstanding achievements of Korean leader Kim Jong Il at a meeting in central London last weekend Called by the Korean Friendship Association, the meeting was opened by Dermot Hudson who said that we are not here to mourn the life of the Kim Jong Il, who died at his post in December  2011, but to celebrate it as part of the struggle for socialism.

 DPRK London ambassador Choe Il spoke movingly about the immortal achievements that Kim performed for the defence and advance of the socialist cause . He said that Comrade Kim Jong Un had defended socialism in the most trying conditions against the winds of history through exemplary ideological and theorectical work . The ideas of Kim Jong Il constituted a militant banner of independence and socialism .

Solidarity with the Korean people

20th  International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties 

Statement of Solidarity of Communist and Workers' Parties in Support of the Just Cause of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Korean People for an Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea and for Peace and Security on the Korean Peninsula

We, participants in the 20th International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties held in Athens, Greece on November 23-25, 2018 express full support for and solidarity with the just cause of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Korean people for realizing an independent and peaceful reunification of Korea and maintaining peace and security on the Korean peninsula.

We welcome the new phase of peace and reconciliation being opened up on the Korean peninsula thanks to the proactive efforts of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Korean people, aimed at improving the inter-Korean relations, establishing a permanent peace regime on the Korean peninsula and terminating the U.S. hostile policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The just cause of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Korean people to defend the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and build a powerful socialist country constitutes an active contribution to the struggle of Communist and Workers' Parties to secure international justice and peace and victoriously advance the cause of socialism on the global scale.

We resolutely oppose and reject the imperialists' interference in the internal affairs of the Korean nation and their unjust policy of sanctions and pressure against the DPRK,and strongly demand that the U.S. withdraw its policy of hostility and military threats against the DPRK once and for all.

We hope that the international community will respond positively to the measures taken in good faith by the DPRK toward the ease of tension and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula and call upon all Communist and Workers' Parties and progressive organizations of the world to intensify the international solidarity movement for the just cause of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Korean people.

November 25th  2018 

Athens

Initiated by the Hungarian Workers’ Party

1. Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism
2. Communist Party of Argentina
3. Communist Party of Australia
4. Party of Labour of Austria
5. Communist Party of Azerbaijan
6. Communist Party of Bangladesh
7. Communist Party of Belarus
8. Brazilian Communist Party
9. Communist Party of Britain
10. New Communist Party of Britain
11. Communist Party of Bulgaria
12. Party of the Bulgarian Communists
13. Communist Party of Canada
14. Socialist Workers' Party of Croatia
15. Communist Party of Cuba
16. Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
17. Communist Party in Denmark
18. Communist Party of Denmark
19. Communist Party of Ecuador
20. Communist Party of Estonia
21. Communist Party of Macedonia
22. German Communist Party
23. Unified Communist Party of Georgia
24. Hungarian Workers' Party
25. Communist Party of India
26. The Worker's Party of Ireland
27. Communist Party of Israel
28. Communist Party (Italy)
29. Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan
30. Workers' Party of Korea
31. Party of the Communists of Kyrgyzstan
32. Socialist Party of Latvia
33. Lebanese Communist Party
34. Socialist Party, Lithuania
35. Communist Party of Luxembourg
36. Communist Party of Malta
37. Communist Party of Mexico
38. New Communist Party of Netherlands
39. Communist Party of Norway
40. Communist Party of Pakistan
41. Palestinian Communist Party
42. Palestinian People's Party
43. Paraguayan Communist Party
44. Portuguese Communist Party
45. Romanian Socialist Party
46. Communist Party of Soviet Union
47. Russian Communist Workers' Party ‐ Communist Party of Soviet Union (RCWP‐CPSU)
48. Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF)
49. UCP-CPSU
50. Communists of Serbia
51. New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
52. Communist Party of Slovakia
53. South African Communist Party
54. Communist Party of The Peoples of Spain
55. Communist Party of The Peoples of Spain
56. Communist Party of Sri Lanka                             
57. Communist Party of Swaziland
58. Communist Party of Turkey
59. Communist Party of Ukraine
60. Union of Communists of Ukraine
61. Communist Party USA
62. Communist Party of Venezuela

Korean Solidarity in Madrid

 by New Worker correspondent

 

Korean solidarity activists vowed to redouble their efforts in the coming year at an international conference in Madrid last weekend. A UK KFA delegation led by Dermot Hudson took part in the conference at the Democratic Korean embassy in the Spanish capital that was attended by Korean Friendship Association (KFA) delegates from all parts of Europe.

The 18^th KFA International Meeting was opened by Alejandro Cao De Benos, the president and founder of the friendship committee, who spoke about the diplomatic triumphs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), including the ground-breaking summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump and three other summits with the south Korean leader over the last year.

Future work will include preparations for a blockchain and crypto-currency conference to help the people’s government side-line imperialist sanctions, and a project to create a ‘virtual DPRK’ on the Web.

Down with the lying BBC!

By New Worker correspondent

outside BBC headquarters in London

 

Comrades were out last Saturday picketing Broadcasting House to condemn the ongoing demonisation of the DPR Korea in BBC reports. The picket, called by the Korean Friendship Association with the support of the NCP, called on the BBC to “stop lying about the DPRK and instead produce fair, accurate and objective material about People’s Korea”.

KFA Chair Dermot Hudson said the BBC has consistently lied about the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). On several occasions BBC reporters have used tricks and subterfuges to enter the DPRK to produce one-sided, biased reports that bear no resemblance to reality.

            Alejandro Cao De Benos, the president of the international KFA, sent a solidarity message to the protesters in which he said: “US imperialism, by utilising its money resources and puppet mass media like the BBC, is regularly organising campaigns of defamation and creating horror stories with the aim of creating fear and rejection of Korea among the general public. But the times of the US and British media empires’ monopoly for mind control are coming to an end. The rise of popular and alternative low cost media…is making more and more people question every sensationalist news coming from the mainstream press.

“As more and more fake news is being exposed, there is a new generation that will no longer swallow all this nonsense”. They are looking for genuine sources of information on Korea, he said. “That source is the KFA, and your work will become more important everyday”.