Kim Jong Il – an outstanding Korean leader!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other Korean solidarity campaigners in south London last weekend to look at the development of the DPR Korea’s nuclear deterrent and  the other outstanding achievements of Kim Jong Il when he was at the helm. Achievements spelt out in a paper sent by the DPRK embassy in London which said that “the US went successively to war with Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan and went on to place the DPRK on the list of ‘targets of pre-emptive nuclear strike’ and make it a policy to use nuclear weapons and deal a pre-emptive strike to the country, while intensifying military threats to it with huge armed forces. But no war broke out in the Korean peninsula because Chairman Kim Jong Il (1942-2011) frustrated the US' attempts at aggression by strengthening the country's defence capabilities in every way”.
The Korean Friendship Association (KFA) meeting at a community centre just a stone’s throw from Brixton station brought a number of seasoned campaigners together while a hundred more from this country and all over the world watched the proceedings on YouTube. 
Dermot Hudson, the KFA chair, opened on the theme of why the DPRK was right to have a nuclear deterrent which was taken up by other speakers which included Andy Brooks and Theo Russell from the NCP as well as Ly Kimlong of the KFA Cambodia, who is currently studying in the United Kingdom.
Dermot said that Kim Jong Il stands in history as a strong figure who faithfully upheld and creatively developed Juche-based socialism – the great idea first pioneered by President Kim Il Sung. Juche is not just an abstract theory; it is a people-centred philosophy that places political independence, economic self-reliance and self-defensive national security at the heart of state-building. Under Kim Jong Il's leadership, Juche was transformed into a powerful guiding force capable of defending socialism in one of the most hostile geopolitical environments in the world.
Closely linked to Juche is the historic role of the Korean People's Army (KPA). The KPA is not merely a military force; it is the pillar of the revolution, a defender of the Korean people and a symbol of national sovereignty. Through decades of confrontation, war threats and military encirclement, the KPA has stood firm ensuring that the DPRK remains unconquered and respected.
The KFA chair also denounced the American and south Korean puppet regime moves to "denuclearise " the DPRK pointing out that “recent developments and ongoing events have proved the DPRK's stance on nuclear weapons to be a 100 per cent and a 1,000 per cent correct”.

Remembering the Korean people’s victory

Dermot Hudson and Song Gi Kim

by New Worker correspondent

London comrades returned to the Chadswell centre in central London last weekend to mark the outbreak of the Korean war. The war began with an American attack on the people’s government in north Korea on 25th June 1950. It ended with the Americans signing a humiliating armistice on 27th July 1953.

    Chaired by Dermot Hudson speakers, including Theo Russell from the NCP, spoke about the Korean people’s heroic fight against the US imperialists and their lackeys during the war and their efforts to reconstruct their shattered country after the guns fell silent.
Though the American terror bombers had left north Korea in ruins, the masses rallied round the call of Kim Il Sung and the Workers’ Party of Korea to rebuild their shattered country and lead the drive for a modern, independent socialist republic in the free part of the Korean peninsula.
    Song Gi Kim, a representative from the Democratic Korean (DPRK) embassy in London pointed out that "in 1950 the Korean war, the fiercest war since the Second World War, broke out. At that time no one ever thought that the DPRK, founded two years before, would defeat the United States, which had been boasting of being the "strongest" in the world with a history of victory in 110 wars since its founding.
    “As the world media described, the war was a confrontation between the rifle and the atomic bomb. But the result of the war turned out to be the opposite. The DPRK, a small country in the East, created a miracle by defeating the multi-national forces, which pounced upon a country in the name of the United Nations for the first time in the world."
Dermot Hudson, in his speech, said that the great Korean communist leader, Kim Il Sung “not only humbled the pride of the arrogant US imperialists but smashed the reactionary bourgeois military theory that advocates the omnipotence of weapons over humans.
    “The US imperialists not only lost huge amounts of manpower and materials but also suffered irretrievable political and moral defeats. It was a great victory for the Korean people and opened up a new era of anti-US, anti-imperialist struggle. Indeed Korea was the war before Vietnam!"
    And Theo Russell pointed out that the US "cannot admit responsibility for aggression against DPRK in 1950 because US still dreams of occupying the north... thus entire might of US and Western systems of thought manipulation is mobilised to maintain the lie. And this includes an apparatus of news, well-financed think tanks, universities, mass media, intelligence agencies"

Honouring a great Korean revolutionary

Dermot Hudson and Theo Russell

By New Worker correspondent

Kim Il Sung was born on 15th April 1912 and his birthday has long been celebrated as the Day of the Sun in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and by everyone who stands by the DPRK. And on that day last week solidarity activists gathered at the Cock Tavern in London to recall the outstanding achievements of the leader of the Korean revolution.
    Speakers included Dermot Hudson, the chair of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) that organised the meeting and NCP national organiser, Theo Russell. The Democratic Korean embassy in London sent a tribute that was read out at the meeting and messages were received from Korean friendship groups in Germany, Poland and Switzerland.
    In his tribute Dermot Hudson praised the successful test firing of the Democratic Korean ballistic missile as a great victory for Juche and self-reliance – the Korean-style socialism pioneered by Kim Il Sung that is followed by his successors in the people’s republic today.
    Kim Il Sung was a great anti-imperialist revolutionary who turned the DPRK into a fortress of militant anti-imperialism and totally opposed the line of compromise with imperialism. His life from beginning to end was one of principled and constant struggle against imperialism and for independence’.
    Theo Russell praised the life of Kim Il Sung as that of a great revolutionary . He said that the achievements of the DPRK are great and are due to the Juche philosophy authored by the great leader of the Korean people who worked tirelessly throughout his life for the communist cause.
    Shaun Pickford, the head of Staffordshire KFA focused on the international dimension of the DPRK and the Juche Idea. The first Juche idea study group was formed in Mali , West Africa and since then many international seminars on the Juche Idea have followed.
    This was followed by a general discussion on Juche and life in the DPRK and ended with the traditional refreshments and informal chat amongst friends of Korea old and new.

Solidarity with Korea in London

 by New Worker correspondent

London comrades returned to the Chadswell Centre in Euston to celebrate the 76th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK) at a meeting called by the Korean Friendship Association last weekend. Chaired by Dermot Hudson, the meeting heard a variety of speakers, including NCP London Organiser Theo Russell, talk about the achievements of the Korean revolution over the years.
    Dermot Hudson pointed out that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is the only country in the world without a single death or indeed a single case of COVID‑19, and Theo Russell drew attention to the role played by the WPK in rallying the socialist and communist forces after the counter-revolutionary wave that swept away the Soviet Union and the people’s democracies of eastern Europe.
    The DPRK Embassy in London sent a paper to the meeting that stressed the leadership of the WPK general secretary Kim Jong Un and the role of the WPK in raising living standards, which was followed by a general discussion about the current situation and future solidarity work.