Showing posts with label Kim Jong Un. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kim Jong Un. Show all posts

Tuesday, 4 August 2026

The steadfast stand of the Korean people

Kim Il Sung's victory rally in 1945
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 of 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 Keith Bennett’s contribution.


by Keith Bennett

Given the events in the world at present, with changes unseen in a century unfolding at an accelerating pace, it is surely both necessary and appropriate to address the importance of solidarity with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and its people in this situation. 
This in turn cannot be separated from the role played by the DPR Korea in the world. Not simply how the world situation impacts upon the DPRK but at least as importantly how the DPRK, its stands and its internal and external activities, impact upon the world situation.
The DPRK is not a bystander, observer or victim of events in today’s world. From its quantative and qualitative development of its independent, self-defensive nuclear deterrent to its principled support for the special military operation of the Russian Federation, the DPRK is a conscious maker of history, playing a role far greater than its small geographical size or population would reasonably suggest.
For my own remarks, I want to touch on two aspects of the importance of the DPRK’s stand, role and history as a socialist country in today’s international situation and the relationship of this to the anti-imperialist struggle that unites the overwhelming majority of humanity, irrespective of ideology, system, political view or religious belief, but in which the insights provided by scientific socialism are indispensable for the achievement of final victory.
The last time we organised an event such as this by Friends of Korea, in November 2025 – and how quickly the time passes – I had recently returned from the magnificent celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang and we were able to discuss the high-level participation there from China, Vietnam, Laos and Russia, as well as from progressive Latin America. 
Earlier this week, Kim Jong Un, the General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and President of the State Affairs of the DPRK, wrote to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, congratulating him on the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. 
Kim Jong Un wrote “it is the steadfast stand of our Party and government to steadily develop the DPRK-China friendly relations with long and historical roots and with socialism as their core.
“The recent Pyongyang summit was a historic occasion of deepening the comradely friendship and trust between us and reconfirming the unshakable will to more dynamically promote socialist construction in the two countries and their traditional friendly relations”.
The concept of these relations having socialism as their core is one that Kim Jong Un has repeatedly stressed over recent years and he goes on to refer to socialism as “the common cause of the two parties” and the DPRK-China friendly and cooperative relations, as “the common wealth of the peoples of the two countries”.
The reference to the “recent Pyongyang summit” refers to the visit last month by Xi Jinping, his first in seven years and his first foreign trip in 2026.
For his part, writing in Rodong Sinmun, the Korean Daily Worker and the central organ of the Workers’ Party of Korea, on the day he arrived in Pyongyang, Xi Jinping observed that “the shared socialist ideal is the defining character of China-DPRK relations. The Communist Party of China and the Workers’ Party of Korea are both Marxist ruling parties, and China and the DPRK are fellow travellers on the socialist road”.
Putting this into its historical context, he notes that “the older generation of leaders of China and the DPRK knew one another intimately and were as close as can be… the traditional friendship of shared destiny is the deep foundation of China-DPRK relations. In the turbulent years of fighting for national independence and national liberation, the people of China and the DPRK shared weal and woe, depended on each other in life and death, and forged a great fighting friendship with their blood. In the development of each country’s socialist cause, the two peoples have stood shoulder to shoulder, sharing comforts and hardships, vividly embodying the comradely friendship of mutual trust, solidarity, and mutual aid”.
Looking to the future, he adds “we must hold firm to the path and be unchanged in our resolve, support each other in walking the socialist road that suits our own national conditions, and firmly safeguard the political security of both countries. We must uphold and strengthen the Party’s overall leadership, expand exchanges and cooperation between the two parties, deepen the exchange and mutual learning of experience in governing the party and the country, and lead the socialist cause of the two countries to keep moving from one victory to the next”
In its own editorial that day, June 8th 2026, Rodong Sinmun wrote: “The DPRK-China relations are the invincible friendly relations closely united with comradely friendship and bloody ties in the protracted struggle to oppose foreign aggressors and build socialism.
“True to the intention of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung, the Korean revolutionaries helped the Chinese revolution with blood in the arduous anti-Japanese struggle. The Chinese people, too, regarded the Korean revolutionaries fighting for the national liberation as their own flesh and blood and rendered material and moral assistance to the Korean people in their struggle.
“The brilliant victories won by the Chinese people in the arduous revolutionary civil war and by the Korean people in the fierce Fatherland Liberation War would have been unthinkable without the fraternal friendship and class ties which have been steadily carried forward and consolidated between the revolutionaries, service personnel and peoples of the two countries”.
And it concludes: “We will, in the future, too, join hands with the Chinese comrades on the road of advancing the socialist cause and defending peace and security in the region and the rest of the world”.
The Korean Central News Agency, reporting on the talks between the two leaders that day, quotes Comrade Kim Jong Un as affirming that “the WPK and the DPRK government will as ever maintain the DPRK-China friendship as the most important top-priority strategic work and do their utmost to strengthen the bilateral relations into a model of the relationship between socialist states and into an invariably special, genuine and solid strategic relationship and that this is our immutable choice and will”.
As can be seen above, the comradely relationship with socialism as the core has a long tradition created by the previous generations of leaders. And it is in that spirit, as well as for many other reasons, that today we also especially remember Comrade Kim Il Sung, as we approach the anniversary of his passing on July 8th 1994. It scarcely seems possible that already 32 years have gone by. 
Not only did he fight all his days to safeguard and consolidate the unity and solidarity of the socialist countries on the basis of revolutionary principles, he analysed the relationship between the internal and external tasks of the revolution, the role of the socialist countries in the struggle against imperialism, the difficulties arising, and how to deal with them and overcome them, with remarkable insight and extraordinary prescience.
Today, for all those who stand against imperialism and in favour of socialism, there can be few things of greater importance than the defence of the Cuban revolution, with the Trump administration, like its tool the Zionist entity in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere, perpetrating genocidal acts of aggression, in the case of Cuba in the form of a siege that plumbs the depths of medievalism and recalls the Nazi siege of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War. 
This year has also seen the 95th anniversary of the birth of Army General Raul Castro, the 98th birthday of Ernesto Che Guevara and next month will see the 100th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Fidel Castro.
In 1968, Kim Il Sung wrote a profound and far-seeing article on the first anniversary of the death in combat of Che Guevara. It is an article that has lost none of its relevance and importance with the passage of years.
Assessing the world historic importance of the Cuban revolution, he writes: “The triumph of the Cuban Revolution is the first victory of the socialist revolution in Latin America and a continuation of the Great October Revolution in Latin America. With the Cuban Revolution emerging victorious, the red banner of socialism now flies high over Latin America which was regarded as a hereditary estate of US imperialism only until recently, and the socialist camp has extended to the Western Hemisphere and grown in strength a great deal”.
The significance of this is therefore that the “consolidation of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution is not only an important problem which decides the life and death, the rise and fall of the Cuban people but also a key problem which sways the destinies of the general development of the Latin American revolution”.
He goes on to state that “the countries whose proletariat has grasped power in the encirclement of international capitalism are not free from the danger of imperialist aggression and restoration of capitalism during the entire historical period of revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism. The overthrown exploiting classes always attempt to recover their lost positions and foreign imperialists incessantly engage in armed invasion and intrigues and manoeuvres for political and ideological subversion.
“The US imperialists and the reactionaries of Latin America deeply hate and fear the very existence of the Republic of Cuba and are manoeuvring stubbornly and maliciously to stifle it. They are working hard to get rid of the Cuban Revolution so as to drive out the ‘spectre’ of Communism haunting the Western Hemisphere and check the liberation struggle of the peoples which envelops Latin America like a prairie fire. While scheming to strangle Cuba by directly mobilising their armed forces, the US imperialists are instigating the reactionary Latin American regimes of dictatorship under their domination and subjugation to bring political and economic pressure to bear upon Cuba in order to suffocate her with the policy of blockade”.
Far from losing any of its relevance, does this not describe the situation in 2026 with even greater poignancy and accuracy than it does that of 1968.
Kim Il Sung goes on to explain that “revolutions should take place consecutively in the majority of countries of the world, in several adjacent countries at the least, to replace imperialist encirclement with socialist encirclement, the barriers of imperialism that surround a socialist country should be torn down to open the path of turning the dictatorship of the proletariat into a world-wide system and an end should be put to the isolation of the socialist fortress of one country… only then will it be possible to prevent completely armed intervention by the imperialists and their attempt to restore capitalism and say that the ultimate victory of socialism has been secured”.
The reference to “several adjacent countries at the least” highlights an important difference between the situation facing Cuba and that of the socialist countries in East Asia, whose main historical experience, sometimes difficult countervailing periods notwithstanding, has been characterised by strong and sometimes decisive mutual support and solidarity. 
In Kim Il Sung’s view “the Cuban Revolution is an organic part of the world revolution and, particularly, constitutes the decisive link in the chain of the revolution in Latin America. To defend the Cuban Revolution and to consolidate and follow up its victories is not only the duty of the Cuban people but also the internationalist obligation of the oppressed peoples of Latin America and all the revolutionary peoples of the world. Just as the defence of the gains of the October Revolution in Russia which made the first breach in the world capitalist system was an important question decisive of the fate of the development of the world revolution, so the defence of the gains of the Cuban Revolution which made the first breach in the colonial system of US imperialism in Latin America is an important question decisive of the fate of the Latin American revolution”.
How true this is. For more than six decades, socialist Cuba has been the beacon of hope of the Latin American people. If it were to fall, not only would the Cuban people be plunged into an abyss of suffering, misery and humiliation; the people’s struggle throughout Latin America would suffer its greatest ever setback.
That is why Kim Il Sung explained “it is of great importance for the defence of the Cuban Revolution to advance the revolutionary movement in those Latin American countries neighbouring on Cuba… if the revolution emerges victorious in some other Latin American countries, Cuba will get out of the encircling ring of imperialism with which she is confronted on all sides, there will be opened up a favourable phase in the revolutions of Cuba and Latin America, and the world revolution will be stepped up still more.”
This is in fact a huge part of the importance of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, as well as the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, led by Hugo Chavez and, after his untimely death, by Nicolas Maduro. The success of the revolution in Venezuela, the first new, conscious attempt to build and consolidate socialism in a systematic and all-round way since the counter-revolutions in the former Soviet Union and the European socialist countries, not only transformed the lives of the Venezuelan people, it began that crucial process identified by Kim Il Sung of replacing imperialist encirclement with socialist encirclement, of putting an end to the isolation of the socialist fortress of one country, of consolidating and following up the victories of the Cuban revolution as the important question decisive of the fate of the Latin American revolution.
That is why every step taken by US imperialism in the Latin American region, particularly since the coming to power of the Trump-Rubio regime – from the overt support and encouragement of the most reactionary forces of Milei in Argentina and Bolsonaro in Brazil, the destabilisation and overthrow of the socialist-oriented government in Bolivia, the lawfare coup in Peru, the threats against Mexico, and so on, and above all the outrageous kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and First Combatant Cilla Flores, and the attempt to turn their proud revolutionary country into a US protectorate, have at their heart US imperialism’s overriding goal of toppling the Cuban revolution – of finally extirpating that spectre which has haunted them since 1959. The stakes could scarcely be higher.
Kim Il Sung wrote, in words that were unmistakably echoed by Kim Jong Un in his speeches to the ninth party congress and the session of the Supreme People’s Assembly earlier this year, that “if there ever is imperialism which is not aggressive, it is no longer imperialism. Imperialism will not change its aggressive nature before it dies. That is why one should dispel all illusions about imperialism and fight it out. Only when a principled stand is maintained against imperialism and a staunch anti-imperialist struggle intensified, can the oppressed nations win freedom and independence and the liberated peoples check imperialist aggression, consolidate national independence and achieve prosperity for their countries and nations”.
This is the legacy and lesson that Kim Il Sung left us. This is the stand taken by the DPRK that enables it to stand firm in the face of all pressures, aggression and threats. This is why it is important to stand by the DPRK, to introduce, explain and defend its stand and to learn from its experience and that of all the socialist countries in whatever we are able to do in the cause of anti-imperialism, independence and socialism.


Thursday, 21 September 2023

KIM AND PUTIN MEET IN RUSSIA

 by New Worker correspondent

Democratic Korean leader Kim Jong Un held top-level talks with Vladimir Putin in Siberia last week. The DPR Korea leader travelled by train to meet Putin at the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Russian Far East after touring rocket assembly and launch facilities at the spaceport. This is Kim’s first trip abroad in four years and his second trip to the Russia Federation. Kim last visited Russia in 2019.

At the space centre the leaders were taken on a tour of the Soyuz-2 space rocket launch facility and briefed on the progress in the assembly of a new Angara booster. They visited the installation and test facility, where one of the technical rooms was completely modernised for the assembly of the Angara rocket.
    Opened in 2016 the total area of the Vostochny (Eastern) space complex covers about 30 kilometres of land that includes a 28-metres-high launch structure, a command post, oxygen, as well as nitrogen and naphthyl technological units, and water storage tanks.
    The refuelling of launch vehicle tanks takes place from stationary oxygen, nitrogen, kerosene, and naphthyl units. The decision to run the filling hoses underground was made for safety reasons.
The Soyuz-2 command post building can withstand the impact of falling component stages of the launch vehicle, and the facility’s massive walls and ceiling are designed to protect personnel from a potential accident.
    Though Soyuz rockets are also launched at Plesetsk in Russia’s Far North and the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan the lifting capacity of the rocket to low orbits is nine tons if the booster is launched from the Vostochny spaceport. Soyuz-2 is a family of three-stage medium-class launch vehicles, developed and produced by the Progress missile space centre based in the Russian city of Samara.
    “I’m very glad to see you,” Putin told his guest, noting that this year marks 75 years of diplomatic relations with the Kremlin as well as north Korea's 75th founding anniversary and the 70 years since the armistice that ended the Korean war.
    "Your current visit is taking place in a truly comradely and friendly atmosphere," Putin said adding that Russia and the DPRK act in the name of peace, stability and prosperity in the region.
    "Our relations were founded during Korea’s struggle for freedom in 1945, when Soviet and Korean soldiers crushed Japanese militarists shoulder to shoulder. Even today we strive to strengthen the bonds of friendship and good neighbourliness. We act for the sake of peace, stability and prosperity of our common region," Putin said.
    Kim thanked his hosts and the Russian people for their very warm welcome saying "we felt the sincerity of our Russian friends from the moment we entered Russian territory,..our friendship has deep roots, and the very first priority for our country now is relations with Russia”.
    The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea believes that Russia is fighting a sacred fight for its sovereignty and security and the DPRK supports every decision Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government makes, the north Korean leader said during talks with his Russian counterpart.
"Now, Russia is fighting a sacred fight to protect its state sovereignty and security while combating hegemonic forces that oppose Russia,..we want to further develop ties [with Russia] Kim said adding that Democratic Korea would always be together with Russia in the fight against "imperialism”.
    When asked about cooperation with Democratic Korea in space, Vladimir Putin said that this is the very reason why they came to the Vostochny Cosmodrome. "The north Korean leadership is interested in rocket construction, they are also trying to develop space technologies," Putin said though there was “no particular hurry” to discuss these issues.
    Earlier Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the two leaders would discuss bilateral cooperation and "sensitive" issues, which he stressed "should not become the subject of any public disclosure or announcement".

Wednesday, 30 June 2021

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.

Monday, 4 May 2020

US pressure repulsed!


Kim Jong Un opening a factory on May Day

By our Asian affairs correspondent

US imperialism stepped up its destabilising efforts in Asia last week, spreading baseless rumours about the health of Democratic Korean leader Kim Jong Un and launching new provocations against People’s China around the Xisha islands in the South China Sea. Some believe that the war lobby, the cross party ‘deep state’ that represents the most aggressive sections of the US ruling class, is using the Trump administration’s disarray over the coronavirus crisis to pursue their old Cold War plan for total US hegemony on both sides of the Pacific.
In Washington, President Trump dismissed reports that Kim Jong Un was gravely ill as “fake news”. He said he could not “tell you exactly” the status of Kim’s health, though he did have a “very good idea” about his condition. “But I can’t talk about it now,” Trump said. “I just wish him well.”
The Democratic Korean leader’s reported absence at the 15th April birthday celebrations of the great Korean communist leader Kim Il Sung fired speculation in south Korea that Kim Jong Un had contracted COVID-19 or had suffered a crippling heart attack. But all these bogus stories clearly came from reactionary circles within south Korean intelligence who ultimately report to the US army of occupation and the CIA.
This week Kim Jong Un opened a fertiser factory on May Day and sent a message of gratitude to workers building tourist facilities in the coastal town of Wonsan. He’s also sent greetings to Syrian President Bashar Assad, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
South Korean intelligence has a long track-record of spreading lies and disinformation about the north. In 1986 they claimed that Kim Il Sung had been shot dead. A few hours later Kim Il Sung was publicly seen at Pyongyang airport greeting a Mongolian delegation.
Meanwhile, the Chinese navy drove a US warship out of Chinese territorial waters off the Xisha islands, telling them they’d be better off focusing on dealing with COVID-19 prevention and control at home rather than destabilising regional security and peace overseas. A similar illegal incursion in Chinese waters off the Xisha islands happened in March, which was denounced in Beijing as hegemonic behaviour.
Chinese war-planes and naval forces followed the US guided missile destroyer USS {Barry} when it trespassed into China's territorial waters off the Xisha Islands on Tuesday, said Colonel Li Huamin. They followed and monitored its course, identified the ship, warned and expelled it, Li said.
The USA’s provocative actions seriously violated international law and related norms, seriously violated Chinese sovereignty and security interests, and intentionally increased regional security risks, Li said.
“We urge the US side to focus on the epidemic prevention and control on its homeland, contribute more to the international fight against the pandemic and immediately stop military actions against regional security, peace and stability,” Li said.
Chinese troops will resolutely fulfil their duty, safeguard national sovereignty and security as well as peace and stability in the South China Sea, Li said.
A Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the media that the USA was eager to show that it still had the military capability even amidst multiple COVID-19 outbreaks inside its military, but this has further exposed the USA’s own fear that it is losing presence in the region.
China was ready to defend itself against US military provocations even in its prime, and expelling a destroyer is a warning to the USA, showing the Chinese military is capable of and determined in safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity, the expert said.

Sunday, 23 June 2019


Raptuous welcome for President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang last Thursday

Xi Jinping meets Kim Jong Un at Pyongyang International Airport last week

Friday, 8 March 2019

No Big Deal


 None of us should be surprised at the collapse of the summit talks between Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump in Hanoi last week. Over the past few months the Trump camp had given the impression that they were going to seriously respond to the Democratic Korean call for an end to sanctions and the state of war that still exists between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). But at the end of the day the chief American war-lord was unwilling, or possibly unable, to put anything on the table to match the Korean side’s reasonable and balanced stance towards peace and security on the Korean peninsula.
            In Vietnam Trump told the media that the DPRK was asking for too much. “It was about the sanctions,” he said. “They were willing to denuke a large portion of the areas that we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that. Sometimes you have to walk and this was just one of those times”. Now he’s blaming his Democrat foes in Congress for undermining his position during the talks with the DPRK leader.
 Others, however, will maintain that Trump has become a prisoner of the most reactionary and aggressive elements of the US ruling class. He has surrounded himself with aides who represent the “war party” that some Americans call the “deep state” that cuts across all party, regional or religious divides to serve the interests of the big corporations and finance houses of American imperialism.
            The Americans had missed “an opportunity that comes once in a thousand years” said Choe Son Hui, the deputy foreign minister of the DPRK. What happens next depends entirely on the Americans.
Trump, a property speculator who claims to be a brilliant negotiator, has hinted that he still wants to talk to Kim Jong Un. Whether he will depends on what the Americans are willing to put on the table next time round.
            Trump bitterly resents the fact that Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people” and even more absurdly for “reaching out to the Muslim world”.
This rubbishy prize has been the preserve, with a few honourable exceptions, of retired Western politicians and prominent agents of imperialism. The anti-communist Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov won it in 1975.  The reactionary Polish union leader Lech Walesa was rewarded for his counter-revolutionary campaign in 1983.  Gorbachov was similarly rewarded for his treachery in 1990.
 Needless to say the Dalai Lama is on the list of winners together with Henry Kissinger, who was jointly given the prize with the chief north Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho in 1973 for negotiating the Vietnamese peace accord. Comrade Le, the only communist ever to get this accolade, took the principled stand and declined the prize on the grounds that the war in Vietnam was still raging.
            Shinzo Abe, the Japanese premier, has nominated Trump for the gong on the basis of his master’s supposed efforts for peace on the Korean peninsula. Well Trump will have to try harder if he still wants the glory he believes the medal will bring him.