by New Worker correspondent
 |
| Michael Chant speaks |
Comrades gathered at the Marx Memorial
Library on 1st July in solidarity with Democratic Korea at a meeting organised
by the Friends of Korea committee. Their main priority was to assess the
prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula in the wake of the historic
Singapore summit between Democratic Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US president
Donald Trump.
Michael
Chant of the RCPB(ML) opened the meeting, saying that the new relations between
the USA and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) were most welcome
and “have vindicated the stand of the DPRK in maintaining the peace, and show
the strength of the nationhood of the Korean people”.
Up
to now “the default position has been the use of violence by the USA and NATO
in attempting to control the world and establish hegemony,” based on “nuclear
blackmail, that only some must have nuclear weapons.”
Chant
expressed the hope “that the 65th anniversary of the Armistice Agreement on
July 27 1953 might be the occasion for the signing of a peace treaty!”.
Dermot
Hudson, representing the Korean Friendship Association (KFA), said that he had
been told by Alejandro Cao de Benós, president of the KFA, that US diplomats
had approached DPRK embassies in many countries “begging for talks”, after 12
rounds of US sanctions, including those on second countries, “had achieved
nothing and become a joke”.
But
he warned that there were many enemies of the peace talks in the USA and danger
that the USA could well introduce new demands to the talks, such as ending the
DPRK’s civil nuclear power programme. Calling for a stepping up of actions in
Britain to defend Democratic Korea and the Juche system, Hudson called the
Singapore summit “a great victory for Democratic Korea and the astute tactics
of Marshal Kim Jong Un”.
Theo
Russell from the New Communist Party (NCP) pointed out that the current peace
process had begun with Kim Jong Un’s call for the DPRK to take part in the
Winter Olympics, where exchanges took place leading to the inter-Korean
summits.
He
said that in the past the USA had achieved peace deals with the Soviet Union,
Vietnam and Cuba, the cancellation of the Iran agreement showed Trump’s
unreliability and that he is a maverick, and that clear divisions within US
ruling class meant that there was a strong chance of failure to agree a deal.
But
he added that “everyone in this room would dearly love to see an agreement
establishing peaceful relations between the USA and DPRK, and all the positive
developments coming out of that for the people of Korea”.
Speaking
for the Socialist Labour Party (SLP), John Tyrell said he was proud that
through the efforts of a few people SLP members understand the need to support
the DPRK and for the re-unification of Korea.
He
said that the DPRK had learned the lessons of countries like Libya and Iraq,
which were crushed after agreeing to disarm, but that if genuine peace and
equal relations could be established between the DPRK and the USA it would be a
major step for world peace.
The
meeting ended by adopting a message of congratulations to Kim Jong Un, to the
people of the DPRK and to the whole Korean people, on the historic successes
achieved in safeguarding peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.
