The Great Leader of the Korean People

Kim Il Sung and Che Guevara

The Friends of Korea campaign recently 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 DPR Korea embassy in London who joined the panel via a Zoom link. This is Dermot Hudson’s contribution.

by Dermot Hudson

My presentation to the joint seminar on the importance of solidarity with People’s Korea will address the question of the DPR Korea’s internationalism and its role in the global struggle and at the same time recall the great exploits of President Kim Il Sung, who passed away 32 years ago on the 8th July 1994.
I was probably one of the last British visitors in the DPRK when Kim Il Sung was still physically with us. Our delegation departed the DPRK on the 2nd July 1994, only six days before Kim Il Sung passed away. All the time during our visit we felt Kim Il Sung’s presence as we saw him every night on TV giving guidance to co-operative farms and meeting foreign guests such as Ludo Martens, the then head of the Workers Party of Belgium, and a noted anti-revisionist writer.
Kim Il Sung was not only the founder of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and builder of the most durable socialist state but was also a great internationalist who fought not only for the Korean people but for the world revolution, for the liberation of all of humanity from exploitation and oppression. The DPRK actually punched above its weight in the international arena.
When I first came to know the DPRK in the 1980s and began to study the Juche idea, I found the internationalism of the DPRK to be a big eye-opener for me. I came to know of countries such as Equatorial Guinea which I never knew existed. Also that there were attempts to construct socialism in the People’s Republic of Benin, the People’s Republic of the Congo, the Popular Democratic Republic of Algeria, the Democratic Republic of Madagascar and the Revolutionary People’s Republic of Guinea. These countries had been scarcely mentioned if at all by the old Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the British left but reading publications of the DPRK there was news about them. The Democratic Republic of Madagascar actually hosted an international seminar on the Juche idea in 1976.
Throughout his life ,which spanned most of the 20th century Kim Il Sung gave unstinting support for peoples fighting for independence and met many different leaders and fighters from across the globe including very distinguished figures such as Stalin, Mao Zedong, Zhou En Lai, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al Assad, Salvador Allende, Norodom Sihanouk, Enver Hoxha, Erich Honecker ,Yasser Arafat, George Habash and many others. He even met our very own Harry Pollitt the famous British communist leader.
Right from the start Kim Il Sung stressed internationalism and fought, not just for the interests of the Korean people, but for the interests of the struggling peoples of the whole world ,whilst at the same time stressing independence and self-reliance. Juche does not mean rejecting internationalism – far from it.
As the leader of the Korean revolution pointed out "our adherence to the Juche Idea does not in any way mean that we have become chauvinistic. The Juche Idea we advocate does not conflict with internationalism. Instead it is designed to promote internationalism for it leads to the development of sciences and the building of the economy to suit our particular conditions and thus contributes to increasing the strength of our country and the might of the socialist camp as a whole”,
Kim Il Sung raised the slogan of "Defend the Soviet Union " during the anti-Japanese armed struggle. In 1929 he roused youth, students and other sections of the masses for the fight to defend the Soviet Union in order to hold in check the anti-Soviet machinations of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang government and the reactionary warlords who acted at the instigation of the Japanese imperialists. The great Korean communist leader later wrote in his autobiography With the Century that "our activities in connection with the Zhongdong
 railway incident represented an internationalist struggle to defend the Soviet Union politically. At that time we regarded the first socialist system established on Earth as a beacon of hope and considered it our solemn internationalist obligation as communists to fight in its defence".
 Later, in 1938 and 1939, Kim Il Sung led the anti-Japanese guerrillas to defend the Soviet Union, the first workers and peasants state against Japanese aggression.
 The anti-Japanese guerrillas fought shoulder to shoulder with their Chinese comrades against imperialism. After Korea was liberated in 1945 Kim Il Sung made sure that unstinting support was given to the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Chinese communists in their revolutionary war against the Kuomintang reactionaries. He sent his best fighters such as Kang Gon as well as troops and materials to assist in the Chinese PLA and allowed them to use the northern part of Korea as a rear base. 
During those heady days of the 1960s and 1970s Kim Il Sung ensured that the DPRK punched well above its weight, giving support to many liberation movements and newly independent states.
Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara visited the DPRK in 1960 and later said that the DPRK was the socialist country that he liked best. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 the DPRK stood by Cuba when the revisionists and big power chauvinists abandoned it. Kim Il Sung instructed the DPRK embassy staff and their families to arm themselves and fight to the end. The DPRK actually sent a KPA General to Cuba as its ambassador. DPRK students studying in Cuba also armed themselves ready to fight. The DPRK gave political and military assistance, while sending food and tractors as well as a group of technicians to help on the economic front. The DPRK also publicly supported the five-point demands of Premier Fidel Castro which included the US withdrawal from Guantanamo. The DPRK press denounced Nikita Khrushchev for his capitulation, defeatism and cowardice.
President Kim Il Sung called for international volunteers to be sent to Vietnam and sent the best pilots of the DPRK’s air force to Vietnam as well as tunnelling experts to help in the war against American aggression – plus material assistance as well. During the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War Kim Il Sung sent a squadron of Korean People’s Army warplanes to the United Arab Republic (as Egypt was then known) to help the Arabs in their fight against Zionist aggression.
Strong support was given to Palestine by the DPRK. People’s Korea established relations with Palestine on the 13th April 1966. There is a Palestinian embassy in the DPRK. Chairman Yasser Arafat visited the DPRK five times and George Habash, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also visited the DPRK.
Kim Il Sung said “the just cause of the Palestinian and other Arab people for the restoration of land lost to them and of all the legitimate rights of Palestine, including the establishment of an independent country, must be accomplished. The Israeli Zionists must abandon their policy of expansion and annexation and withdraw from all the occupied Arab land immediately.
The United States must stop giving the Israeli Zionists political and diplomatic support and military and economic aid, take their hands off the Middle East and discard their ambition for dominating this region”.
The Palestinian fight was not the only Arab struggle that Kim Il Sung and the DPR Korea supported. The DPRK maintained good relations with anti-imperialist and socialist oriented Arab states such as Libya, Syria, the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (south Yemen) and Iraq (until 1980). Another cause that the DPRK supported was that of the West Saharan people. The DPRK recognised the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic and established relations with Polisario when some other socialist countries did not. Kim Il Sung met with President Mohamed Abdel Aziz of the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic and Polisario front in April 1982.
There are three other examples of the DPRK’s internationalist assistance under the leadership of Kim Il Sung. Firstly the DPRK supported the Grenadian revolution led by Maurice Bishop. DPRK construction experts were sent to the small Caribbean island that took the socialist path and the DPRK gave a generous amount of military aid to the People's Revolutionary Government of Grenada including 1,000 rifles. In fact in per capita terms the DPRK gave more aid to Grenada than the USSR did.
Secondly, maybe the most dramatic example of the DPRK’s internationalist assistance was when DPRK special forces helped foil a coup, led by French mercenaries, in the People’s Republic of Benin in 1977.
 Lastly but not least the DPRK sent agricultural technicians and engineers to many third world countries such as Madagascar, Tanzania, Togo, Central Africa, Benin, Guinea, Egypt, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Ghana and the Seychelles. Agricultural institutes bearing the name of Kim Il Sung were established in Guinea and Tanzania. This was genuine assistance as opposed to the fake aid of the imperialists which aims only to corrupt and enslave newly independent countries.
 Thus the life of Kim Il Sung is associated with lofty and boundless internationalism. It is fitting to both remember this great leader of the Korean people and at the same time step up solidarity with People’s Korea.

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.

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!

The Korean war: the first defeat for American imperialism

 

A contribution to the Friends of Korea committee seminar held at the NCP Centre in July to commemorate the victory of the Korean people over US imperialism and its lackeys. 

by Dermot Hudson

July 27th  1953 was the day when the US imperialists finally admitted they could not militarily defeat the DPRK and signed the Korean Armistice Agreement which actually contained a clause stipulating the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the Korean peninsula. But the US reneged on this later. 
Mark Clark the commander of US forces in the war wrote “in carrying out the instructions of my government, I gained the unenviable distinction of being the first United States commander in history to sign an armistice without victory.” and US General Bradley admitted that it was  “the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy”. These were the confessions of US commanders that they were defeated in the Fatherland Liberation War.
The Fatherland Liberation War, known as the Korean war in the West, is sometimes referred to as the “Unknown War “. This is because the US was defeated and they wanted to cover up their defeat and also cover up the fact they provoked the war. The right-wing, anti-communist  US military historian, Bevin Alexander, who himself had been a US army officer during the Korean war, said it was ‘the first war we lost’. Max Hastings, another right-wing historian, wrote that “many American career officers were  dismayed by the precedent Korea established: the United States had failed to fight a war to a victorious conclusion”.  
However much the US tries to dress it up or downplay it, they suffered a total military disaster in Korea. The loss suffered by the US imperialists was nearly 2.3 times greater than what they had suffered in the four years of the Pacific War during World War II. Even according to the heavily doctored and downplayed statistics of the US military, the US lost more than 15 times as many troops in the three years of the war than in nearly 20 years of the Afghan war and nine times as many in 8 years of fighting in Iraq. 
   The great leader Kim Il Sung said “In this great struggle our people fought determinedly as one in mind under the correct leadership of the party and government and thereby withstood the harsh trials of war honourably and won a historic victory inflicting an ignominious defeat on US imperialism and its running dogs”.               
Some people attribute the Korean people’s victory to the internationalist assistance that was given to the DPRK from the People’s Republic of China and the former USSR believing that only big countries can make a difference or only big countries can solve problems. Of course, it needs to be stated that in fact, it was not just the big socialist countries that helped the DPRK but all the socialist countries. There was also a powerful solidarity movement with the DPRK waged in many countries including even the US. In fact, Italian-American congressman Vito Marcantonio, the sole member of the American Labour Party in Congress, voted against the war in the US Congress. In the UK the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Daily Worker opposed the war, as did some Labour MPs to their credit, like the famous Welsh MP S O Davies and Barking MP Tom Driberg.  But the so-called left Labour MP Michael Foot supported it. 
In the oppressed colonial countries, the revolutionary peoples intensified their anti-imperialist struggles. In particular, the revolutionary forces of Malaya and Thailand stepped up their armed struggle. However, the best internationalist aid and assistance have no effect unless the revolutionary forces of a given country unite and wage a powerful struggle. History knows many examples of revolutions that were given unstinting assistance but came to nothing because the internal revolutionary forces were not strong enough and the quality of leadership was lacking.
As Kim Il Sung pointed out  “Even small countries can defeat big enemy, once they establish Juche, unite the masses of the people and valiantly rise in battle despite sacrifice. This is a very plain truth of our times which has been borne out by actual life."
    During the Fatherland Liberation War, the Korean people fought in the spirit of self-reliance. During the first stage of the war the Korean People’s Army under the command of Kim Il Sung and entirely on its own liberated Seoul, the south Korean puppet capital on the third day of the war. The forces of the heroic KPA defeated the so-called "Invincible US 24th Division" on the 20th July 1950 at Taejon and took its commander General Dean prisoner. Dean was the first US general to be captured by an opposing side. Dean’s general’s pips and boots can be seen in the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang where you can also see a wonderful diorama of the battle of the Battle of Taejon. Within six weeks the KPA had liberated 90 per cent of the territory of south Korea and 92 per cent of the population. A truly amazing feat.
The US imperialists and reactionaries had made a big miscalculation and greatly underestimated the DPRK, the Korean People’s Army(KPA)  and the Juche-based military tactics of the Korean communist leader, Kim Il Sung, who accumulated vast and unrivalled experience in the 15-year-long anti-Japanese armed struggle.
    Kim Il Sung employed unique Juche-based tactics during the Fatherland Liberation War. Based on the Juche idea that people are the masters, he attached importance to the decisive role of people rather than weapons during the war. Basically, he believed that the outcome of war is simply not decided by weapons but by those who hold those weapons.
Kim Il Sung initiated an immediate counter-attack on the aggressors when they provoked the war on the morning of the 25th June 1950. He called a cabinet meeting where he made a speech titled  Let Us Wipe Out the Invaders by a Decisive Counter-Offensive and ordered the Korean People’s Army over to an immediate counter-offensive. Thus the KPA went over to an immediate counter-offensive pushing the south Korean puppets back. This was something unprecedented in the history of warfare! 
During the Second World War, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and France all fell to the invasion of Nazi Germany, seemingly powerless to resist let alone organise a counter-offensive. Even the Soviet Union in June 1941 was not able to go over to a counter-offensive immediately. By launching a counter-offensive quickly Kim Il Sung snatched away the advantage of surprise from the south Korean puppets and US imperialists.
The KPA under the command of Kim Il Sung also created other original tactics such as tunnel warfare. The DPRK later sent tunnelling advisors to Vietnam during their war against American aggression. An article by overseas Korean writer Han Ho Suk wrote that  “North Korea's expertise in digging tunnels for warfare was demonstrated during the Vietnam War. North Korea sent about 100 tunnel warfare experts to Vietnam to help dig the 250 km tunnels for the North Vietnamese and Viet Gong troops in South Vietnam. The tunnels were instrumental in the Vietnamese victory”. Also, there was the original idea of opening a second front behind enemy lines, the creation of aircraft hunting and tank hunting teams and guerrilla warfare.
Revolutionary peoples of the world praised the DPRK’s victory in the Fatherland Liberation War. The Organisation of Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America said “Under the superb leadership of Marshal Kim Il Sung and the People’s Army and the people of Korea who inherited the traditions of the glorious anti-Japanese armed struggle fought heroically and defeated US imperialism in defence of the liberty of the fatherland and the gains of the revolution, thereby making a great contribution to the anti-imperialist national liberation struggle of the peoples throughout the world and the struggle for peace in Asia and the world.” 
A Cuban Minister stated, “The firm position and confidence of the Korean people and their valour offer a model for the peoples of Vietnam, Cuba, the Congo and other countries of the world”.
Gaston Soumialot President of the supreme council of the Revolution of the Congo also wrote in 1968 "Marshal Kim Il Sung is widely known to the whole world as a gifted military strategist...The US imperialist aggressors who had been bragging about their so-called 'mightiness' in Korea scored a failure in Korea for the first time in their 114 wars of aggression”. And Field Marshal Costa Gomes, who had been president of Portugal after the 1974 ‘carnation revolution’ that ended the dictatorship, said that Kim Il Sung had thwarted all the plans that had been worked out by the US general and military policy makers.
During the Fatherland Liberation War the mask of ‘civilisation ‘ and ‘humanity‘ was torn off the US and there were exposed as mass murderers and aggressors who even used biological and chemical weapons against the Korean people. The Korean war showed that there can be no ‘peaceful co-existence between imperialism and socialism and that there must be an uncompromising struggle against imperialism.
Although the guns fell silent on the 27th July 1953, there was never a permanent or binding peace treaty and the US still has troops in south Korea and has dispatched a nuclear submarine to south Korea. If the US provokes a war the US will suffer a second and a third ‘July 27’ and the Korean people led by respected Kim Jong Un will win and reunify the country!
Glory to the Korean people and the KPA on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the victory in the great Fatherland Liberation War against the US imperialists!

Legendary Tales of the Korean War

A Friends of Korea committee seminar was held at the NCP Centre in London last month to commemorate the victory of the Korean people over US imperialism and its lackeys. Chaired by Andy Brooks the symposium heard papers from Michael Chant and Dermot Hudson and a video link contribution from Jong Gi Kim from the DPR Korea embassy in London. This is the contribution from Jong Gi Kim. 

In 1950 the Korean War, the fiercest war since the Second World War, broke out. At that time no one ever thought that the DPR Korea, founded two years before, could defeat the United States, which had been boasting of being the “strongest” in the world having won 110 wars since its founding. Across the  world the media called the war a confrontation between the rifle and the atom 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 multinational forces, which pounced on the country in the name of the United Nations, for the first time in the world.
After switching over to an immediate counter-offensive, the Korean People’s Army drove the enemy to the end of south Korea within a little over a month.
On the other hand, the United States hurled into the Korean front forces armed with the latest weapons – one-third of its ground force, one-fifth of its air force, most of its Pacific Fleet–as well as the troops of fifteen of its vassal states, as well as the south Korean puppet army and some remnants of the former Japanese army. The military budget during the war totalled $164 billion. This notwithstanding, the Americans sustained a loss nearly 2.3 times greater than that they had suffered in the four-year war in the Pacific and signed an armistice agreement.
By defeating the enemy, who were superior in terms of number of troops and technical equipment, by dint of their ideological and spiritual, strategic and tactical superiority, the Korean people defended the freedom and independence of their country and
defending global peace and security they frustrated the US attempt to dominate the world with the Korean peninsula as a springboard. 
General Mark Clark, commander of the US Far East Command who had signed the armistice agreement, said that the north Korean army was victorious thanks to the outstanding command of General Kim Il Sung, who had achieved great exploits in the resistance of many years against the Japanese army until the defeat of Japan in the Second World War.
Seventy years have elapsed since the ceasefire was achieved on the Korean peninsula. But the peninsula still remains as one of the hottest spots in the world.
After the armistice agreement was reached, the United States implemented none of the items of the agreement and tenaciously pursued a hostile policy against the DPRK, driving the situation on the peninsula to the brink of war. It deployed nukes in south Korea, imposing undisguised and direct nuclear threat on the DPRK.
Entering the 21st century, it has put the DPRK on the list of targets of its pre-emptive nuclear strike and stages nuclear war games every year in the areas near the country by mobilising large forces including its strategic nuclear assets.
A country without an effective self-defence capability will inevitably be at the mercy of external military threats and, worse still, be unable to safeguard the existence of its own and of its people. This is an immutable law shown by human history.
Over the past 70 years after the war, the DPRK had to overcome manifold difficulties in developing its economy and improving the living standards of its people because of the long-drawn-out military threat, sanctions and blockade.
The best option for the DPRK for both durable peace and further acceleration of building itself into a powerful socialist country was the line of simultaneously promoting economic construction and building up its nuclear forces.
The line of simultaneously promoting the two fronts was put forward at the March 2013 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.
True to the new strategic line, the defence scientists displayed their indomitable will in developing strategic weapon systems of their own style.
Within a few years the DPRK manufactured innovative versions of inter-continental ballistic missiles, thus making its military strength irreversible.
In April last a DPRK ballistic missile of the Hwasongpho-18 type made its appearance, demonstrating the level of development of the country’s strategic forces.
Display of military equipment at military parades held every year in the country is proof of its military strength which the others could not belittle.
With this, the DPRK could frustrate the machinations of the hostile forces, who
were trying to drag it into their arms race by aggravating the situation on the Korean peninsula.
This can be testified by the demonstration of the potential of the DPRK’s self-supporting economy, like setting up structures that reflect its people’s dreams and ideals and opening a new era of rural rejuvenation amidst severe difficulties like harsh sanctions, a global healthcare crisis and successive natural disasters.
In the present world, where confrontation of strength is the order of the day, the country’s sovereignty and dignity and genuine peace can be assured only by an overwhelming defence capability–this is the creed of Kim Jong Un, the President of the State Affairs of the DPRK.
In April last year in the speech at the military parade held in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army, Kim Jong Un said “we should continuously grow stronger; there is no satisfaction or accomplishment in cultivating strength for defending ourselves, and, whoever we confront, our military supremacy should be more secure”.
The 70-year-long post-war history of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in which it defended its sovereignty and dignity and the safety and happiness of its people, further highlights the meaning of the 70th anniversary of victory in the war in the 1950s.

People’s Korea’s Defence : guaranteeing the socialist system

A Friends of Korea committee seminar was held at the NCP Centre in London to commemorate on the anniversary of the passing of dear leader Kim Jong Il, who died on 17th December 2011. Chaired by Andy Brooks the symposium heard papers from Dermot Hudson and Michael Chant and video link contributions from supporters in London, the Midlands, the North and Scotland. This is the contribution from Dermot Hudson, the chair of the Korean Friendship Association.

Kim Jong Un

As we are gathered to remember comrade Kim Jong Il it is important for us to study the DPR Korea’s great achievements in the work of national defence . Indeed Kim Jong Il’s whole life was associated with the Songun (army first ) revolutionary leadership which began when he gave guidance to the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105th Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army.

    The issue of the DPRK’s successful defence upbuilding is one that has come into sharp focus . On the 15th December the Academy of Defence Science tested a high-thrust solid-fuel motor with a thrust of 140tf, the first of its kind in the country, at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground. This important test has provided a sure sci-tech guarantee for the development of another new-type strategic weapon system.
    This year has seen truly amazing and phenomenal advances in DPRK missile technology.The imperialists and their south Korean puppets have complained that the DPRK has carried out approximately 60 or so missile tests during the past year and have clamoured for more UN sanctions while imposing their own unilateral sanctions .

    On the 24th March the new type ICBM Hwasongpho-17 was tested.The missile, launched at Pyongyang International Airport, travelled up to a maximum altitude of 6 248.5 km and flew a distance of 1 090 km for 4,052s before accurately hitting the pre-set area in open waters of the East Sea of Korea. This was the first time for 5 years that the DPRK tested an ICBM , though tests of medium and short range missiles had been carried out in the intervening period .

    On the 18th November in the presence of Kim Jong Un, the general secretary of the Workers Party of Korea, the Hwasong Pho 17 ICBM was successfully tested at Pyongyang International Airport . The Hwasong Pho 17 reached a maximum altitude of 6,040.9 km and flew a distance of 999.2 km for 4,135s before accurately landing on the preset area in open waters of the East Sea of Korea.
    Kim Jong Un was accompanied by his daughter and his wife comrade Ri Sol Ju and comrade Kim Yo Jong , vice department director of the Central Committee of the WPK . The presence of the young daughter of the Korean leader symbolised the fact that the DPRK’s nukes guarantee the future of the DPRK’s children .
    The new type Hwasong-pho 17 ICBM has the ability to strike the US mainland . Thus it greatly strengthens and augments the DPRK's self-defensive potential .
    The DPRK’s ballistic missile tests fully reflect the will of the leadership of the Workers Party of Korea and the government of the DPRK to consistently bolster the national defence capacity of the DPRK in line with the decisions made by the 8th Congress of the Workers Party of Korea .    Earlier in 2022, on 6th January the Political Bureau of the WPK agreed to resume “temporarily suspended activities” meaning ICBM and nuclear tests , because ‘‘all the facts clearly prove once again that the hostile policy towards the DPRK will exist in the future as long as there is the hostile entity of U.S. imperialism.”.
    Unlike some countries both past and present , the DPRK saw through the nature of US imperialism. After all, it was US imperialism that had divided Korea in 1945 and had started the Korean war. The DPRK ‘s policy is absolutely correct . A few years ago, when there were the summits between the DPRK and US and also the DPRK and south Korea , some people said that the DPRK would unilaterally disarm itself and even open a McDonalds in Pyongyang. Nearly 5 years on , not a single nuke or ICBM has been dismantled by the DPRK and there is no McDonalds in Pyongyang and the DPRK is consolidating its national defence capabilities . Also the DPRK is raising militant anti-US slogans and intensifying anti-US imperialist education .
    It is worth mentioning Cuba here as this year also saw the 60th anniversary of Khruschov’s shameful capitulation during the Cuban Missile Crisis which saw the USSR kneel down before the US imperialists and agree to withdraw their missiles within 6 days and sell out Cuba by allowing UN inspections of Cuba. The DPRK’s independent and militant anti-imperialist stance contrasts with that of the former Soviet Union.
    The DPRK ‘s correct nuclear policy has now been fully enshrined in law and is a permanent state policy of the DPRK .On the 8th September this year the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly passed the historic law on On The State Policy On The Nuclear Forces which fully legalised the DPRK’s status as a nuclear power .
    The new law defines the mission of the DPRK nuclear forces as being “ to deter a war by making hostile forces have a clear understanding of the fact that the military confrontation with the DPRK brings about ruin and give up attempts at aggression and attack.”
    According to the new law the DPRK ‘s use of nuclear forces can only occur under certain situations , these are defined as follows:

 • ‘In case an attack by nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction was launched or drew near is judged’

• ‘In case a nuclear or non-nuclear attack by hostile forces on the state leadership and the command organisation of the state's nuclear forces was launched or drew near is judged’

• ‘In case a fatal military attack against important strategic objects of the state was launched or drew near is judged’

• ‘In case the need for operation for preventing the expansion and protraction of a war and taking the initiative in the war in contingency is inevitably raised.”

Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly pointed out that “The legalisation of the policy of the nuclear forces in accordance with the unanimous desire and iron will of all the people is of tremendous significance. With this, the position of our state as a nuclear nation has become irreversible.”
    Needless to say the enemies of People’s Korea such as the Americans and their south Korean puppets, as well as the vassal states of the US are not happy about this .
    Even CND has chimed in with the clamour of the US imperialists and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by saying that the DPRK’s Law on Nuclear Forces is a “very worrying development”. We answer this ‘criticism ‘ as follows:
    Firstly, the DPRK’S new law on nuclear forces does not make explicit reference to ‘first strikes’ or ‘pre-emptive strikes’,although it is implied that under certain very limited situations these may be carried out. There is no blank cheque for a pre-emptive nuclear strike by the DPRK but rather the DPRK’s nuclear weapons are a last resort and a deterrent .
    Secondly , the US has a nuclear first strike policy so why shouldn’t the DPRK have one ? Why do some people think the imperialists and big countries should have a monopoly on a nuclear first strike? Surely it is only fair that the DPRK should match the US policy of a nuclear first strike with its own?
    Thirdly , it is the US that first developed nuclear weapons and actually used them against a non-nuclear state when it bombed Hiroshima and Nagaski in 1945 . Moreover the US considered a nuclear first strike against the DPRK during the Korean war of 1950-1953 , during the “Pueblo Incident ‘ of 1968 and the Panmunjom incident of 1976 and other occasions . The US designated the DPRK a target of a US nuclear first strike in 2002. The US stationed 1,000 nuclear weapons in south Korea , at one point the number reached 1,700 . Supposedly the US withdrew these weapons in the 1990s , however the US refused to accept international inspections to confirm this and later stated it would ‘neither confirm nor deny ‘ the existence of its nuclear weapons in south Korea.
    Many believe that US nuclear weapons are still in south Korea . What is beyond all doubt is that the US and south Korea have on numerous occasions staged nuclear war exercises against the DPRK and US nuclear submarines and nuclear aircraft carriers have been in Korean waters as well US nuclear bombers overflying the Korean peninsula .
    Fourthly , Korea was divided by the US in 1945 and the DPRK was invaded by the US imperialists in 1950. At least 1.2 million civilians killed and the country completely devastated . The DPRK’s nuclear deterrent will ensure this does not happen again .
    Fifthly, is the DPRK supposed to fold its arms and just sit and wait to be invaded by the US imperialists .
    Sixth , the experience of the 1962 Caribbean crisis in which the USSR pulled its missiles out of Cuba and allowed UN inspections after only 6 days and without consulting the Cuban leadership shows that a small country cannot rely on a big country for its defence .Moreover recent events this year show that some big countries may not be such efficient allies as some may imagine . These countries have their own problems and internal contradictions so it would be unwise for the DPRK to rely on them.
    Seventh,the DPRK did all that it could to work towards a peaceful settlement of DPRK-US relations and issues on the Korean peninsula by holding two summits and one meeting with US president Trump as well as three Inter-Korean summits .It should be added that the DPRK carried out its first nuclear test 59 years after the US first introduced nuclear weapons into south Korea in violation of the Korean Armistice Agreement.
    In conclusion we would point out that the DPRK’s Law on the State Policy of Nuclear Forces is about defending the DPRK’s independence and territorial integrity as well as the socialist system of the DPRK . It is regrettably that some who style themselves as ‘progressives ‘ or ‘leftists ‘ share the desire of the imperialists for the dismantling of the socialist system of the DPRK or for ‘reforms ‘ and ‘opening up ‘.
    Bravo to People's Korea for declaring itself a permanent nuclear weapons state . The DPRK has rejected all attempts to disarm it and push it down a certain path . The DPRK also rejected so -called aid from south Korea which was conditional on the DPRK unilaterally disarming itself . The DPRK also rejected imperialist aid when the Covid 19 epidemic arose in the DPRK.
    The DPRK’ nuclear policy and its efforts to build up the national defence capabilities are its independent right to do so which no one from whatever quarter ;whether they are the imperialists or their fake left fellow travellers should try to interfere with. The great advances in the DPRK ‘s defence abilities which are surprising its enemies are a sure guarantee for the independence of the country that comrade Kim Jong Il worked hard all his life to safeguard and also guarantee the existence of the people-centred socialist system that is the legacy of comrade Kim Jong Il as well as the cradle of happiness for the Korean people.

Democratic Korea’s Line of March

1Korean solidarity campaigners held a seminar at the NCP Party Centre on 13th August to celebrate the 77th Anniversary of the Liberation of Korea on 15th August 1945. This is the contribution by Michael Chant, the Secretary of the Friends of Korea.

As Friends of Korea said in publicising this seminar, we aim to review the achievements of the DPRK in building Korean-style socialism, demonstrating the incomparable advances since the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 and the founding of the DPRK on September 9, 1948. The seminar underscores how liberation was an act of the Korean people themselves, which the US-led powers have sought in every way from that day to this to negate. The DPRK and the Korean people have never wavered from defending their right to be and their own path of development, striving for peace and for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.
    In the long line of march, which itself has its origins in the desire of the Korean people for dignity and independence, and a future based on the development of the Korean nation, giving rise to the legendary leader of the Korean people, Kim Il Sung, and the Down With Imperialism Union, can be seen the historical perspective, not only of the Korean people, but of peoples everywhere, striving for freedom from subjugation by big powers, particularly today that of US imperialism, and from tyranny, and attain genuine independence and control of one’s own future and destiny.
    Even before the surrender of Japan, announced on 15th August 1945, and formally signed on 2nd September, the US divided Korea by force around the 38th parallel with the aim of imposing their rule over the victorious Korean people who had contributed, second to none, to the Allied victory in the Second World War. The aim was to keep the Korean people divided and to turn the south of Korea into a US military fortress in order to wage war against China and the Soviet Union. Even though today the US state is unravelling, the US still views the Korean Peninsula as a means to attempt to dominate China and establish a bridgehead between China and Russia.
    Following the Japanese surrender, the US brutally suppressed and outlawed the Korean People’s Republic that had been proclaimed by the representatives of the whole Korean people on September 6, 1945, in Seoul. The US installed the US Military Government of Korea in the south which carried out a campaign of terror against the Korean people’s resistance to US dictate and occupation. Virulent anti-communist Syngman Rhee, who had spent most of his life in the US, was installed as the first President of the so-called Republic of Korea (ROK) in July 1948. The pro-US Rhee government continued to suppress the Korean people’s widespread resistance to US military occupation through extrajudicial killings, civilian massacres, mass incarcerations and other crimes, carried out with impunity.
    At this point, let us look at the tasks which were elaborated by Kim Il Sung immediately following liberation, as we are holding this seminar to celebrate the anniversary of August 15, 1945. They illustrate that mapping out a line of march, how to advance along it, where on this line of march the people’s forces are located – all this is crucial at each stage of nation-building, establishing and building a new society, and organising the people to defend their own interests, their well-being and strive for peace. In other words, it has never been, for the Korean people and their leadership, a matter of declaring that the socialist society is superior, and all that remains is implementation. This has been the experience of the international communist movement as a whole.
    The Works of Kim Il Sung reproduce no less than 30 speeches and reports that Kim Il Sung made between August 15 and December 31, 1945, laying the foundations of the new, democratic Korea and its line of march.
    To give just a very few examples, in the talk with political workers, titled Building of New Korea and Immediate Tasks of Communists, Kim Il Sung says, among many other guidelines based on an analysis of the situation, that “we should follow the course of liquidating the survivals of Japanese imperialism and feudalism and building a genuine democratic society. This is the very way demanded by the realities of our country and desired by the masses of people”. He urges the political workers, “You should explain and propagate our policy for nation-building unremittingly among the masses,” adding, “You should do this by rousing advanced elements to activity and setting in motion various mass media including newspapers, so that they, fully aware which is the right road for Korea to follow, forge ahead vigorously along this road.” After dealing with the tasks in founding and building a “revolutionary party of the working class”, Kim Il Sung emphasises, in relation to local government bodies, “Only when genuine people’s power is established can we use it as a weapon to smash to atoms all manoeuvres of the enemy, transform society on a democratic basis and achieve the victory of the revolution.”
    He continues, “In order to frustrate all the moves of the reactionaries, ensure success in nation-building and safeguard the security of the people reliably, the power of the broad masses should be marshalled and at the same time people’s security organisations should be formed.” And, “To carry out our historic cause of nation-building successfully at present, we should firmly unite the broad sections of the people.” Kim Il Sung was making this point when “some people have not yet shaken off the influence of the vile propaganda conducted by the Japanese imperialists against communism,” as he puts it.
    In a lecture given to students of the Pyongyang Worker-Peasant Political School, titled On Progressive Democracy, Kim Il Sung points out the importance of giving Korea the right orientation in the building of a new Korea and taking the road to progressive democracy. As he says, this is “a road that holds out the promise of grandeur and progress for the fatherland and eternal prosperity for the people”. Kim Il Sung points out six characteristic features of the democracy that the Korean people aspire to, a democracy, he says, which is “fundamentally different from that of Western capitalist countries, nor is it a slavish copy of that of a socialist country”. These features of the Korean people’s democracy, he says, are that it: is characterised by independence; is characterised by coalition; guarantees the masses of people freedom and equality; aims not only at independence and sovereignty, national unity and democratic freedom but also at the building of a prosperous country; aims at revolution as one of its major characteristic features; and, aims at peace.
    Very soon, in the north of Korea, the Korean people mobilised under the leadership of Kim Il Sung and following his guidance, were able to found the DPRK in 1948. They took control of their future and began to build a modern socialist society on the basis of self-reliance. President Kim Il Sung and the Workers’ Party of Korea, founded as the Communist Party of North Korea in 1945, also provided political and practical leadership to the Korean people’s aspiration for a reunified Korea.
    However, it was following the south Korean elections of May 29, 1950, when the Syngman Rhee government suffered a major electoral setback and the forces for reunification were gaining momentum, that the US imperialists provoked and launched the Korean War on June 25, 1950, to block the independent reunification of Korea.
    It is fitting to mention that it was on July 27, 1953, that the heroic forces of the Korean People’s Army, with the profound fraternal assistance of the forces of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, achieved victory by forcing the US imperialists and their allies to come north of the 38th parallel to sign the Armistice Agreement that ended the fighting in the Fatherland Liberation War. The signing of the Armistice Agreement also signalled the first military defeat of the US following the Second World War - a humiliation which has haunted the US imperialists ever since, and for which it has yet to forgive the DPRK and the Korean people.
    It should be mentioned that the people of the DPRK this year, on the anniversary of the historic date of July 27th , held a grand celebration in Pyongyang at which respected leader Kim Jong Un delivered an important speech.
    Victory Day, he explained “is not merely a celebration day for commemorating and looking back to the chapter of resistance in the heroic era. The day serves as a valuable and significant occasion for us to judge whether we can proudly say before the embodiment and witnesses of history, who brought about the greatest victory in the harshest and grimmest annals, that our current struggle is an inheritance of the great tradition and to renew confidence and courage, passion and mettle.”
    Kim Jong Un pointed out the significance of what has been achieved since then, saying, “Our Republic has firmly safeguarded socialism and built up formidable self-defensive strategic potentials in the fierce confrontation with the United States, which spanned nearly 70 years after the war.” Referring to the achievements since the historic defeat of the US imperialists, he said these are “even greater than the victory in the Fatherland Liberation War”.
    Speaking about the present era, where the US continues colluding with hostile elements in south Korea to block the Korean people’s striving for peaceful reunification and independence, Kim Jong Un sent a “serious warning to the south Korean conservative regime and its hawks that run amuck”, who think that based on military might the entire Korean Peninsula is theirs and who “stand in the van of implementing the US hostile policy towards the DPRK”. He said that if the south Korean regime and military think about confronting the DPRK militarily and that “they can neutralise or destroy some parts of our military forces pre-emptively by resorting to some special military means and methods, they are grossly mistaken!”. Such a dangerous attempt will be stopped and the aggressive forces destroyed, he stated.
    As Kim Il Sung had stated back in 1945, “The building of an independent and sovereign democratic state is in full accord with the specific realities of Korea and the will of our people. Only by building such a state can we make our country rich, strong, enlightened and bring prosperity to our nation.”
    It is clear that this line of march elaborated by President Kim Il Sung has been traversed since liberation by the people of the DPRK for 77 years, all the while - under his leadership, under the leadership of Kim Jong Il and now under the respected leadership of Kim Jong Un and the Workers’ Party of Korea - characterising and resolving the tasks and issues of nation-building and building Korean-style socialism at each juncture. Friends of Korea can only warmly endorse the words of Kim Jong Un in his characterisation of the incomparable achievements of the present era.
    The United States, with Britain in close alliance, is flailing about, seeking to order and divide the world. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is exemplary in confronting this world crisis, and its stand of internationalism also underpins its firm stand in promoting and safeguarding peace. The DPRK is not about to submit to the nuclear blackmail of the US. For its part, the US today is only concerned about the destruction of what it cannot control. It cannot be forgotten that the United States is the only country to have used nuclear weapons. This was a war crime of immense proportions. And the use of nuclear weapons was the option favoured by General MacArthur to obliterate the Korean resistance led by Kim Il Sung and to wipe out the Chinese volunteers who joined that resistance. They were not used, in part because the US military and presidency could not agree on also using nuclear weapons against China. Instead, the US carried out carpet bombing of civilians and infrastructure in Korea and used chemical and biological weapons.
    It is certain beyond any shadow of a doubt that the DPRK will continue to advance along the path of building a prosperous socialist country with the people’s rights and well-being at the centre of considerations. The future is in the hands of all the people, especially the youth, as shown by the ceremony in which the national flag of the DPRK was handed over to young people at a meeting of the youth and students with war veterans.

Salute the Heroic Korean People on 77 Years of Liberation!

Korea’s Road to Freedom (2)

Korean solidarity campaigners held a seminar at the NCP Party Centre on 13th August to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Korea and the outstanding achievements of the Korean communists who freed the country from Japanese colonialism and then beat back the American invaders and their lackeys during the Korean war. This is the contribution from Dermot Hudson, the Chair of the Korean Friendship Association (UK).

by Dermot Hudson


Before I refer to the anniversary of Korea’s liberation, I would like to mention two very significant things.
    Firstly, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK} has achieved victory over COVID‑19, which was eliminated in the DPRK 100 days after it broke out and 91 days after the DPRK switched over to a top-level emergency anti-epidemic system. The fatality rate was very low, probably the lowest in the world.
    This was a great victory that only People's Korea, guided by the great Juche Idea and led by the Workers Party of Korea (WPK) and respected Marshal Kim Jong Un, could achieve. To put things into context, so-called advanced countries such as Britain, the USA and Japan after over two years are still reporting cases of Covid. South Korea recorded 128,000 new cases and 58 deaths in the last day (at the time of writing), with over 21 million people in total infected.
    The DPRK's victory was achieved through self-reliance and without outside help. The DPRK correctly rejected the fake 'humanitarian aid' of imperialism and vaccines of the big capitalist pharmaceutical monopolies of the imperialist world who seek only profit. It was also because the WPK and the people's government took measures so quickly and resolutely. In the Western world some governments failed to act quickly against COVID‑19.
    As Kim Jong Un wisely pointed out: "In other words, the invaluable victory we have achieved is the victory of our Party's anti-epidemic policy, the victory of our state's crisis management strategy, the victory of our people's fortitude and single-hearted unity unique to them, the great victory brought about by the superiority of our style of socialist system." This is indeed true. The victory against Covid in People's Korea is due to the single-hearted unity of the people around the Party and the leader, and the superiority of the socialist system.
    We salute the victory of People's Korea in the anti-pandemic war and believe it to be a great example for the world.
    Secondly, a leading member of the WPK, Kim Yo Jong, made a significant speech in which she denounced the south Korean puppets for deliberately spreading COVID‑19 into the DPRK using balloons. This is a crime against humanity committed by the so-called defectors and south Korean puppets, for which they must pay. I think we have a duty in this country to expose this crime as widely as we can.
    In just under two days, the Korean people will mark the 77th anniversary of Korea’s liberation.
On 15th August 1945 Korea was liberated from the grim and oppressive fascist rule of Japanese imperialism thanks to the 20-year-long armed struggle conducted under the leadership of the great leader Kim Il Sung.
    The anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army led by Kim Il Sung had neither a state base nor rear to rely on. The armed struggle of the anti-Japanese guerrillas was a self-reliant one that embodied the Juche Idea and the Songun ‘Army First’ Idea. Kim Il Sung cast aside the idea of relying on big powers for salvation and instead conducted an independent struggle, based on Juche, against Japanese imperialism, fully relying on the masses of the people.
    The anti-Japanese armed struggle fully proved in practice the truth of Songun – that independence is achieved by the force of arms. During the anti-Japanese armed struggle the great leader generalissimo Kim Il Sung, adhering firmly to the line of Songun, rejected illusions of the national reformists and opportunists that independence could be achieved by peaceful means or by begging for it.
    Some people like to say that the liberation of Korea was due to the Soviet Union or the Soviet Union and China. They like to portray People’s Korea as a creation of another country. To this, two things can be said.
    Firstly, that the USSR only entered the war on the 9th August 1945, whereas the anti-Japanese armed struggle had been waged since 1930 when Kim Il Sung formed the Korean Revolutionary Army and later the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army.
    Secondly, as a friend of mine from KFA Greece said, how did the USSR and China succeed in their revolutions? It was because of the efforts of the people in those countries, so it is the same for Korea.
    The Juche-oriented guerrilla tactics of Kim Il Sung and the indomitable struggle of the Anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army (later the Korean People's Revolutionary Army) tore the guts out of Japanese imperialism, defeating the million-strong Kwantung army of Japanese imperialism, which was finally expelled from the land of Korea.
    The defeat of Japanese imperialism, one of the main forces and shock brigades of international fascism, made a great contribution to the victory of the worldwide anti-fascist forces. The victorious liberation struggle of the Korean people was an inspiration for the peoples of the colonial countries fighting for their independence and liberation. The 1968 World Cultural Congress in Havana adopted a document praising the anti-Japanese armed struggle waged under the leadership of Kim Il Sung.
    With the victory of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, the Korean people finally gained their emancipation from the cruel shackles of Japanese colonialism and greeted a new life of independence, a life of hope for the future.
    After liberation the agrarian reform that eliminated feudalism and landlordism and gave land to the peasants was carried out. Subsequently the laws on sexual equality that liberated women and the nationalisation of basic industries were also enacted.
    After liberation, under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, the people of Korea built a new, thriving country of independence under the banner of self-reliance, a country which even in the words of enemies has "undiluted sovereignty”.
    Today, People's Korea, the land of Juche, pulsates with independence and creativity under the leadership of respected comrade Kim Jong Un, who carries forward the great line of independence developed by Kim Il Sung.
    Can I also take this opportunity to denounce the hostile policy of the British government towards the DPRK.
    On 30th June 2022 the British government, including the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and the office of the Prime Minister, issued a lengthy document entitled UK-Republic of Korea bilateral framework for closer co-operation that is aimed at giving more British support to the south Korean puppet fascist regime and provoking the DPRK. A hidden agenda behind the document is regime change in People’s Korea.
    Britain has always played a reactionary and imperialistic role in Korea. In the 1900s Britain connived at Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea. Later, Britain sent troops to fight against the Korean people during the Korean War. Shamefully, British troops acted as cannon fodder and mercenaries for US imperialism and its destructive and barbaric war against the Korean people. After the Korean war Britain gave huge amounts of aid (from the taxes paid by British working people) to the south Korean puppets; and British Leyland, the then state-owned motor company, assisted the motor industry in south Korea.
    The bilateral framework document refers to south Korea as being a “free and open society”. Nothing could be further from the truth!
    South Korea is a despotic fascist regime that operates the “National Security Law”, which is based on old Japanese colonial laws and prohibits sympathy for the DPRK or communist or leftist activities. In the past, south Korea murdered the leaders of the Revolutionary Party for Reunification, the Strategic Liberation Party and the People’s Revolutionary Party. South Korea still has political prisoners, including several “long-term unconverted prisoners”. South Korea is dominated by the Jaebols (big capitalist corporations) and a society in which there is a big gap between the rich and poor, as typified by the film Parasite.
    The document refers to the “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation” of the DPRK, basically repeating a tired old mantra. Of course, lurking behind this is the hidden aim of overthrowing the socialist system in the DPRK and colonising the northern half of Korea. Moreover, it is taking issue with the DPRK’s legitimate right to self-defence and is a denial of the DPRK’s sovereignty.
    The document also refers to “human rights” and the DPRK “opening up” to the so-called “humanitarian aid” of imperialism. This is yet another ploy to create ‘regime change’ in the DPRK and overthrow the socialist system. The DPRK does not need any ‘humanitarian aid’ from south Korea or Britain or imperialism.
    There is also talk of upgrading the existing ‘Free Trade Agreement’ between Britain and south Korea. This will only result in more cheap, substandard south Korean goods being dumped in Britain. It will also mean some British monopoly capitalist firms exploiting cheap labour in south Korea.
    KFA UK rejects the UK-Republic of Korea bilateral framework for closer co-operation. It is both a mechanism for denying the sovereignty of the DPRK and overthrowing the socialist system of the DPRK, and at the same time propping up the totally reactionary, fascistic and decadent colonial regime in south Korea.
    KFA UK believes that Britain should break with old and discredited policies towards the Korean peninsula, and instead promote co-operation based on genuine friendship, mutual benefit and independence with the DPRK, the truly authentic state on the Korean peninsula.

Down with the south Korean puppet fascist regime!

Hands off People’s Korea!