By Dermot Hudson
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| Li Zhansu, the head of China's parliament and Kim Jong Un at the parade |
A
Korean Friendship Association (KFA) delegation joined thousands of others from
all over the world visiting Juche Korea in September for the 70th anniversary
of the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Despite
the bourgeois media continually harping on about the DPRK being isolated,
Pyongyang was packed full of foreign visitors that included the famous French
actor Gerard Depardieu and former East German Premier Hans Modrow.
Our five-strong delegation landed in
Pyongyang on 4th September. We were driven into Pyongyang on a small
bus together with a Swedish delegation. Through the window I saw green lush
fields. Before our visit the imperialist media was full of lies about drought,
‘crop failure’, 'famine’ and 'mass starvation', but it looked like an abundant
harvest to me. During the visit we saw no homeless people on the streets, no
beggars, no drug addicts or alcoholics or gang violence – so unlike London of
today.
Our delegation visited the Korean
Revolution Museum , Fatherland Liberation Museum, the Kumsusan Palace of the
Sun, several factories, the Pyongyang Teacher training college, the Tower of
the Juche Idea, the Pyongyang Metro, the Mangyondae Children's Palace and many
other places. It was good for the first-time visitors on the delegation to see
the captured US spy ship the {Pueblo} and the magnificent Pyongyang Metro,
which is truly a great sight to behold. We attended the 'Prosperous Country'
mass games, and also the joint concert given by the State Merited Chorus and
the Samijyon Orchestra, as well the grand military parade, civilian mass
demonstration and torchlight procession.
We witnessed first hand the single-hearted
unity of the Korean people around the leader, the Workers’ Party and the Juche
idea by seeing the military and civilian parade, the torch light parade and the
mass games. There is no doubt that the imperialists are trying to destroy this
unity but have failed to do. Their sanctions have failed and the DPRK is in
very good shape with well stocked shops.
At the Ryuwon Footwear Factory we learnt
that it had already hit its target for the yearly plan in August, as have over
a 1,000 factories and units in the DPRK. We also visited two other factories.
What impressed us was that the factories we visited were remarkably clean,
spotless in fact, unlike factories in Britain that would be full of dirt and
grease. Each factory had a revolutionary history room as well as a room for
studying ideology, plus excellent welfare facilities for the workers including
swimming pools and sports courts. You would never see that in a capitalist
country.
Despite the sanctions and blockade, the
DPRK is investing heavily in science and technology. We were amazed by the
Pyongyang Teacher Training College, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Here they were using the latest technology and applying it to teaching. There
was even virtual reality, something which I could not imagine being applied to
teaching. I even had a short conversation with a virtual pupil.
We participated in the international
Seminar on the Juche Idea and the short study course of the Korean Association
of Social Scientists (KASS). There was plenty of emphasis on self-reliance and
self-development, and no talk of
‘reform’ or ‘opening up’. Indeed, we were given an excellent lecture by
video which explained that the history of the Korean revolution is the history
of self-development. Similarly, one of the papers presented to the
International Seminar on the Juche idea was about the independent national
economy.
At the Korean Revolution Museum, which had
been renovated and I had not visited for 10 years, the guide explained how the
DPRK has an independent national economy and a self-reliant munitions industry.
We learnt in detail about the struggle to found the DPRK and in particular
about the extremely radical land reform, in which land was given to the toiling
farmers free of charge with no compensation being paid to the landlords.
At the Korean Revolution Museum and
Fatherland Liberation War Museum we learnt that the DPRK consistently maintains
the anti-imperialist line. In discussions with Korean comrades were told that
the DPRK will keep the nuclear deterrent as long the US nuclear threat and
hostile policy against the DPRK continue to exist.
The grand military parade and the
torchlight parade were truly fantastic, totally out of this world, it’s always
great to see a DPRK military parade. We were impressed by the incredible
discipline and precision shown by the Korean People’s Army troops. It was great
to see the tanks of the Korean People’s Army thundering by with the flags of
the DPRK, the Workers' Party of Korea and the Supreme Commander proudly
fluttering on them.
Seeing the civilian mass demonstration
after the military parade, we saw slogans such as "Forward along the road
of socialism", "Lets us live our own way" and "Long live
the revolutionary spirit of Mt Paektu", which implicitly rejected ‘reform’
and ‘opening up’, and were basically anti-revisionist and rejected big power
chauvinism. Generally the emphasis in the DPRK is on ideology and this was
evidenced in a number of ways, such as teams vigorously waving and swirling red
flags to encourage people to hit higher production targets.
There were so many high points of the trip
that it is difficult to write about them all. I think most in the delegation
agree that the biggest highlight was actually seeing Korean leader Kim John Un
at the parade and during the mass games.
One very special highlight was to ride on
a trolley bus to the Arch of Triumph. It was no ordinary trolley bus but a
1960s trolley bus that had actually been used by the great leader Kim Il Sung and dear leader Kim Jong Il in
the 1960s. This was a rare privilege indeed. In London trams were scrapped in
1952 and trolley buses went the same way in the 1960s, but People's Korea still
uses them.
It had long been my secret dream to ride a
DPRK trolley bus or tram. I remember my mother saying that the trolley bus is
the best way to travel, it’s sad that she is no longer alive so I could tell
her I had been on a trolley bus!
As we walked along the streets to the
trolley bus we saw red flags flying on the construction sites. Comrade Pak, a
senior cadre of KASS, said: “'Now you will travel like a Pyongyang
citizen." The ride was very smooth, just like my mother said it was.
Public transport fares in Pyongyang are incredibly low, about 2p or 3p for a
bus journey or Metro trip.
We were able to visit the Pyongyang
Mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front (AINDF) of south
Korea, the vanguard of the south Korean revolution and patriotic
anti-imperialist resistance organisation. We were shown a video about Korean
reunification and the north–south summit. I was happy to be presented with a
pot of sweet Korean honey by the AINDF comrades.
We also briefly met comrades of the Korean
Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, and members of the
Korean Friendship Association who were staying in the DPRK.
Juche Korea is a paradise and it makes you
feel younger being there. We would have liked to stayed on for a few more weeks
and we were, naturally, sad to return to Britain after such a wonderful visit.
