Honouring Kim Jong Il

by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity activists met online last Saturday to mark the 57th anniversary of the start of work of dear leader Kim Jong Il at the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK) in 1964, and also the 20th anniversary of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) UK.
    KFA members from all over Britain took part in the meeting, including the organisers of branches in Staffordshire, Scotland and the West of England. Observers from the Cambodian and Canadian KFAs also joined in the online conference.
    Congratulatory messages were received from KFA President Alejandro Cao De Benos, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Embassy in London, the DPRK Committee for Cultural Relations, the DPRK Committee for Friendship with Britain, the Pyongyang Mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front of south Korea, and KFA Singapore.
    The message from the Korean Committee for Friendship with Britain said: “This year is a very significant year which marks 20 years of history of KFA UK. For the past two decades, KFA UK has always been in the frontline of friendship and solidarity activities with DPRK and made great achievements. No words could match your efforts, we would just like to emphasise that we are grateful and appreciate your contributions highly.”
    KFA President Alejandro Cao De Benos stressed that: “KFA-UK is one of our most active branches in the world, from conferences to interviews, from pickets to the publication of People’s Korea Today, your pace and spirit is inspirational and unmatchable. Being a model, many newcomers will be assisted by KFA-UK for training and advice.”
    The DPRK London embassy said: “Our embassy highly appreciates that KFA of Britain has been struggling to strengthen the association and defend the rights and interest of working people since its foundation 20 years ago.”
    Dermot Hudson, the KFA-UK Chair, spoke about the 20th anniversary of the foundation of KFA-UK, stressing its role in taking “the struggle to defend People’s Korea to the streets and picketing the US embassy, south Korean puppet embassy, the BBC, Channel Four and the Ministry of Defence”, adding: “Of course it has never been easy, far from it. The establishment and the elite do not want to see the pro-active and energetic defence of the DPRK.”
    Speaking about the 57th anniversary of the start of work of the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il at the Central Committee of the WPK, Hudson said that Kim Jong Il’s starting work at the WPK Central Committee was an event of immense importance. His leadership enabled the WPK to hold up the Juche idea authored by President Kim Il Sung, the great leader of the Korean people and the founder of the WPK, as its immutable guiding ideology and guiding ideal, the Juche idea.
    It was reported that KFA-UK has grown on Facebook despite obstructions from Facebook that saw the main site and others banned for certain periods. Despite the COVID‑19 pandemic KFA-UK has been very active, holding many online events.
    A new KFA-UK Constitution was endorsed without dissension. The meeting included a short presentation by Dermot Hudson on the subject of the Korean war – the imperialist invasion, led by the USA, which was started by the south Korean puppets on the orders of their American masters.
     After an online toast to the 20th anniversary of KFA-UK was drunk, a message to DPRK Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un was adopted.

Korea's struggle for freedom

by New Worker correspondent

NEW COMMUNIST Party leader Andy Brooks joined in the discussion on Korea’s revolutionary struggle with other comrades and a representative of the DPR Korea embassy at a joint mini-seminar at the Party Centre last week.

             The meeting opened with a talk to commemorate the 54th anniversary of the start of the Songun revolutionary leadership and the 45th anniversary of the foundation of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front (AINDF) of south Korea. The discussion revolved around these two important themes – the military-first ideology that embodies the Juché idea and the underground resistance to the puppet regime and the US occupation in south Korea.

The AINDF was founded as the Revolutionary Party for Reunification on 25th August 1969. The south Korean puppet regime responded by resorting to terror to try and stifle the new revolutionary upsurge against the military dictatorship and the American occupation. Many cadres were arrested, tortured and jailed and some were murdered included two RPR leaders, Kim Jong-tae and Choi Young-do.

It was renamed the National Democratic Front of South Korea (NDFSK) in 1985 and it adopted its current form in 2005.

Comrades also spoke of great leader Kim Il Sung’s central role in leading the Korean people to victory over Japanese colonialism and US imperialism, Kim Jong Il’s leadership during the struggle to overcome imperialist blockade and a series of natural disasters and the new leadership of Kim Jong Un, who is following in their footsteps to build a modern, socialist society in the north of the divided Korean peninsula.

The seminar, organised by the Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK, the Juché Idea Study Group of England and the New Communist Party of Britain, was held on the 28th August in the Sid French Library in the Party’s London Centre.