Solidarity with the Korean people!

Andy Brooks, Michael Chant and Dermot Hudson

The Friends of Korea campaign held a hybrid seminar at the John Buckle Centre as part of the global month of solidarity with the Korean people against US imperialism that is held every year in July to mark  the outbreak of the Korean war. Chaired by Andy Brooks speakers included Michael Chant from the RCPB-ML, Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association and veteran Korean solidarity campaigner Keith Bennett as well as a diplomat from the DPRK embassy in London who joined the panel via a Zoom link. This is the contribution by Michael Chant, the Secretary of the Friends of Korea.

by Michael Chant

Solidarity is the affirmation of the bonds between peoples and their leaders in struggle. As such it is more than just a declaration; it is the expression of standing shoulder to shoulder in the struggle, in the cause of humanity for peace, justice and democracy. Today we are declaring the importance of solidarity with the DPR Korea, not only in today’s global conditions, but looking back, in this month of solidarity, and remembering the Korean War – that is the Fatherland Liberation War – and affirming the right of the people of the DPRK to sovereignty and independence, to choosing and building their own social system which favours the people.
It was on June 25th 1950, that the US imperialists, under the aegis of the United Nations, launched a brutal illegal war of aggression against the Korean people. The UN coalition, under the military command of the USA, involved troops from 16 other countries including Britain.
Today, when the US imperialists and their allies, particularly Britain, are rapidly militarising the Asia-Pacific and endangering the peoples of the region, it is more important than ever to recall the terrible tragedies visited upon the Korean people during the Korean War and to speak out, organise and ensure that the US, Britain and others do not wage another tragic war against the Korean people.
The USA and its allies falsely accuse the DPRK of being a terrorist state, a danger to peace, abuser of human rights and all sorts of slanders that in fact apply to themselves. South Korea remains under the dictate of the US which maintains some 28,000 troops and one of the largest arsenals of weapons including nuclear and chemical weapons, fighter planes, warships, submarines and other weapons in order to constantly threaten the DPRK and use the Korean Peninsula as a forward staging ground for US-led wars of aggression.
During the Korean War, the USA and its allies carried out massive bombing raids, massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians in the north and south of Korea, engaged in germ warfare and chemical warfare and bombed cities and infrastructure north of the 38th parallel, razing them to the ground. Civilians were buried alive, dismembered, burned to death and drowned. Many were forced to dig their own graves before being executed in the same manner that the Nazis massacred civilians, particularly those who resisted. Chinese and Korean prisoners of war were tortured and murdered on Koje Island and in other prisoner of war camps. By the time of the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement on July 27th 1953, some four million people, mostly civilians, had perished and countless others were wounded, and most of Korea had been destroyed.
Britain contributed the second-largest international force to the Korean War after the United States, deploying over 81,000 service personnel between 1950 and 1953. The British contribution was multi-faceted, spanning ground, naval, and air forces. Around 60,000 British combat troops—both regular soldiers and young National Service conscripts—saw heavy action. The Royal Navy provided nearly 50 ships and 17,000 sailors throughout the conflict. The RAF provided a wing of Sunderland flying boats based in Japan. Many British aircrews also flew alongside Commonwealth squadrons.
There was organised opposition to Britain’s involvement from the start. Anti-war demonstrations at Marble Arch and Connaught Place (part of the larger Trafalgar Square/Hyde Park convergence routes) highlighted the intensity of people’s opposition to the commencement of the war in 1950. For example, a communist Peace Demonstration took place at Marble Arch in 1950 condemning US imperialist aggression against the Korean people. Other demonstrations were held, with placards such as “Hands Off Korea”, “Refuse to Die for Yankee Bankers”, “Not a Man nor a Gun for the American War on Korea”, and “Stop USA Intervention in Korea”. A feature of the Marble Arch rallies was the prominent participation of women’s cooperative guilds and maternal peace groups. If the marches attempted to move from the Hyde Park towards Westminster or the US Embassy, police were deployed to block protesters from advancing and the police were frequently used to physically push crowds back into the Park. The police attacks resulted in regular arrests of activists for "obstruction" and "breach of the peace". Demonstrators, however, were able to routinely surround the US Embassy. Trafalgar Square also served as the location for demonstrations against the Korean War organised throughout the duration of the war by the British Peace Committee, with marches to Whitehall and Downing Street. Crowds of thousands demanded an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of British troops, and the recognition of the People's Republic of China at the United Nations.
The resignations of Aneurin Bevan and Harold Wilson in 1951 were tied to the Korean War. Grass-roots trade union bodies opposed the war. In the final year of the war, the TUC received over 60 formal letters from regional trades councils opposing the TUC leadership’s aligning with the government. Notable figures like eminent scientist Joseph Needham and writer and town-planner Monica Felton visited the north of Korea and China and publicised how the US military were using biological weapons against the Korean people. It is reported how the state actively damaged the reputations of high-profile opponents of the war, revoked their passports, or ensured they lost their employment. Monica Felton, who chaired the inaugural meeting in 1952 of the National Assembly of Women, was fired after her visit to the north of Korea from her job as Chairman of the Stevenage Development Corporation, expelled from the Labour Party and was threatened with prosecution for treason. Standard military censorship was amplified by British newspaper owners who deliberately suppressed the true extent of the war's devastation to ensure Britain "stuck with America".
The Korean Armistice Agreement was signed on July 27th 1953 in Panmunjom signifying the defeat of the United States. The USA has never been reconciled to this situation, and has never fully complied with the agreement, particularly that the two sides would sign a peace treaty as soon as possible which the USA has refused to do.
The American refusal to formalise the peace shows its true intent. The USA and south Korea, along with a remilitarising Japan, continue to carry out joint military exercises which involve other countries, including Britain.
Following the end of the Korean War Britain acted as a trusted ally of the US, refusing to support the DPRK’s integration into international bodies, and maintaining that the government in Seoul was the sole legitimate representative of the entire Korean peninsula. It was not until 2001 that Britain opened its embassy in Pyongyang, following the establishment of full diplomatic relations between Britain and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in December 2000. The DPRK embassy in London formally opened in 2003. Despite this, Britain has expanded its military involvement in joint war exercises with the United States around the Korean peninsula, exercises which are a dangerous, provocation that destabilises regional peace under the guise of maintaining regional stability. Deployments of the Royal Navy in the Indo-Pacific are continuing, documented examples occurring for example, in 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2025.
Given this record of participating in the war drills against the DPRK and the damage to bilateral relations this causes, it further seriously damages these relations that recently, on May 11th the British Foreign Office staged an extremely provocative act of including the Songdowon International Children's Camp in the DPRK in the recently-issued list of sanctions against Russia, announcing "sanctions measures" against Russia's "organisational activities" to "forcibly transfer" and "militarise" Ukrainian children.
It must be emphasised how provocative  this measure is, carried out as part of the British government’s moves to demonise Russia. It must be condemned by all justice-loving people, which, as a DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesperson has said, is a “malicious act of the British government which even targets the camp, a sacred base for education and the growth of children, to achieve its purpose of political machinations”.
This act can also be seen as a component of the serious provocations of the Trump administration and its allies against China and the DPRK which they call “undemocratic dictatorships” and threats to “Western civilisation” and the “free world”. It should be emphasised that it is in the context of these ongoing threats from the USA and its war-mongering allies, that the DPRK has built its own nuclear deterrent to maintain a state of equilibrium on the Korean peninsula and maintain peace regionally and on a global scale. The developing unity of the DPRK, China and Russia is also to be seen in this context.
On this 76th anniversary of the start of the Korean war, it is time once again to demand that the USA stop its threats and bullying of the DPRK, withdraw its 28,000 troops from south Korea, close all its military bases in and around south Korea, remove all its nuclear and chemical weapons from the Korean peninsula as well as promptly sign a peace treaty with the DPRK. This is the demand of the Korean people and peace and justice-loving peoples of the world including in Britain.
Friends of Korea also demands that the British government end its hostile actions against the DPRK, which are so damaging to the friendly relations between the peoples of Britain and the DPRK and globally. To restore friendly relations in the interests of peace and sovereignty, rather than exacerbate war-mongering and “war readiness” under the banner of “national security”, is the demand of the times.
Remember the Korean War! Solidarity with the DPRK!