Peace Now! US troops out of Korea!

By New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity activists stood outside the new and heavily guarded American embassy in London last weekend calling for peace on the Korean peninsula and the withdrawal of all US troops from south Korea. Called by the Korean Friendship Association  (KFA), the picket was supported by New Communist Party members in London, including Theo Russell from the Central Committee, together with comrades from the Italian Communist Party and supporters of the British Posadist movement.

KFA Chair Dermot Hudson took the mike to call for the scrapping of the provocative military exercises that US imperialism intends to hold in south Korea next month, which, he said, were “an unwarranted challenge to the developing peace process on the Korean peninsula.”

This was the first KFA picket outside the new US embassy in Vauxhall. It certainly won’t be the last!

Made in North Korea

By Dermot Hudson

The gentrified area just north of Kings Cross, with its trendy shops and coffee bars, is not the sort of place where you would expect to find an exhibition of socialist realist art from a revolutionary anti-imperialist country. Yet the House of Illustration in London’s Granary Square (an area redeveloped from old railway land) is hosting an exhibition of graphic art from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) that ranges from posters to canned food labels.

      The exhibition was arranged by tour operator and film maker Nick Bonner as part of an effort to promote his book Made in North Korea. Needless to say, commercial and business considerations were reflected in the fact that an admission fee of a minimum of £7.50 was charged and there was merchandise such as the book itself,  priced at £24 (well out of reach of many low-income supporters of People’s Korea), along with the Comrade Kim Goes Flying DVD. This is the only joint British–DPRK film ever made and is about a girl miner who aspires to be trapeze artist, and was priced at £15.

There are those who question the motives of people such as Bonner. Some believe that they have a ‘reform’ and ‘opening up’ agenda for the DPRK – basically trying to undermine its socialist system by subtle means, acting as a form of ‘soft power‘ for imperialism.

The exhibition had a range of art and products from the DPRK. Many of them were quite familiar to people such as myself, who has visited the country 14 times. They include posters and things such as notebooks, badges, pens and other souvenir items you very easily find in gift shops when you visit the DPRK. Bizarrely, even Air Koryo sick bags had been included!

The DPRK is very famous for its poster art, and pride of place was given in the exhibition to posters encouraging workers and farmers to increase production, for improvements in health care and many other things. The militant anti-US posters were not to be seen in the exhibition however, probably a deliberate omission. Moreover, the explanatory notices for the exhibition omit any mention of the Juche Idea, the DPRK’s guiding ideology, and the Songun (Army first) idea. Also, clichés such as “state run” had seeped into the explanations, plus one or two questionable assertions about the DPRK that probably reflect wishful thinking on the part of the organisers.

Despite his long involvement with the DPRK, Bonner does not appear to have any understanding of Juche and the Juche-based socialism of Korean style, so makes reference to the DPRK “copying” Soviet and Chinese art. In fact President Kim Il Sung argued strongly for Juche in art as well as all other fields of society. Copying Soviet and Chinese styles were regarded negatively as flunkeyism towards big powers.

I would suggest that those who want to learn more about People’s Korea start off by joining the Korean Friendship Association (KFA); basic membership is free of charge

Olympic games

The courageous initiative by Democratic Korean leader Kim Jong Un that led to the creation of a united Korean sports team at the Winter Olympics currently taking place in south Korea has had an immediate impact on the Korean peninsula. The overwhelming response of the south Korean public to the joint team competing under the blue and white banner of the Korean Unification Flag has been matched by an easing of tension across the armistice line which, hopefully, will lead to a positive response to Democratic Korean peace proposals by the south Korean authorities.

    The high-level DPRK delegation that took part in the opening ceremonies in Pyeongchang, that included north Korea’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam and Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of the DPRK leader, held talks with the south Korean leadership during their stay. South Korean president Moon Jae In has been invited to meet Kim Jong Un in the north firing speculation that this may take place on the 15th August, the day the Korean peninsula was liberated from the Japanese army in 1945 that is now a public holiday in both Koreas.

US imperialism did it best to spoil the Olympic spirit at the games through the presence of US Vice-President Mike Pence. Pence and his wife refused to stand up for the combined Korean team's entrance at the games' opening ceremony. At a reception for delegation leaders, Pence arrived late and stayed for just five minutes after pointedly ignoring the north Korean representatives. Now he claims he was ready to meet the north Korean delegation but they cried off at the last minute. No one believes him just as no one can trust the word of his master Donald Trump.

    It is clear that left to their own devices the south Koreans are ready to respond realistically and positively to DPRK peace proposals. It is equally clear that the real threat to peace on the Korean peninsula comes from US imperialism. The DPRK has had no choice but to develop its nuclear energy programme and its own independent nuclear deterrent. The DPRK threatens no one. Its enemies are close by. An American nuclear armada is stationed off the Korean coast and thousands of US troops are in south Korea and Japan. The US wants to perpetuate the division of Korea and ultimately to extinguish socialism in the Korean peninsula. We must stand by the DPRK and condemn all imperialist threats and   manoeuvres.