Tuesday, 15 August 2023

The Korean War and its Relevance Today

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

On July 27, 1953, the heroic forces of the Korean People’s Army and Chinese People’s Volunteer Army achieved victory in the Korean War 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 Korean War. This was a victory not only for the Korean people, but for peace-loving humanity. 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 DPR Korea and the Korean people. From Britain, there were 81,084 men and women who served in the conflict, including 1,108 British servicemen who were killed in action. This is also a crime for which Britain must be held responsible.
    As we said in the invitation to participate in this seminar, on June 25, 1950, the US imperialists, under the aegis of the United Nations, had launched a brutal illegal war of aggression against the Korean nation. Since July 27, 1953, the US has done everything possible to maintain its military presence on the Korean Peninsula and keep the Korean War going. But the resistance of the DPRK continues, as the Korean people proudly demonstrate their mettle and build their own future.
    The Victory Day is not simply a celebration day for commemorating and looking back to a chapter of resistance in a previous era. The day also serves as a reminder that the US imperialists and their appeasers are stepping up war preparations in the Asia Pacific, and that the terrible tragedies visited upon the Korean people during the Korean War must never again be permitted. The significance of that war is taking on new meaning today as the US imperialists beat the drums of war to attempt to justify a nuclear catastrophe that threatens the very survival of the Korean people and the peoples of the world. But it further serves as a reminder that it is the people who are the makers of history and that they themselves must prevail against war.
    This year, on the 70th anniversary of July 27 1953, the people of the DPRK held activities to celebrate the victory, together with a delegation from the People’s Republic of China which took part in the events and a military delegation from the Russian Federation which also paid a congratulatory visit to the DPRK on the occasion.
    On July 25, leader Kim Jong Un had visited the Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery, paying high tribute to the martyrs who defended the sovereignty and security of the country and people at great cost. Kim Jong Un said that they provided the precious ideological and moral heritage and tradition of victory as a steadfast cornerstone for the DPRK. He made the important point that the victory of July 27, 1953, is of significance to all humanity. This is the case since it inflicted such a disgraceful defeat on US imperialism, but also played its part in preventing a new world war at that time.
    On visiting the martyrs' cemetery of the Chinese People’s Volunteers, Kim Jong Un further elaborated on the significance of the DPRK’s victory in the war, saying that it was a hard fought just war not only to defend the dignity, honour and sovereignty of Korea and its people but also essential to defend world peace and security. It was, he said, an acute political and military confrontation with the imperialist forces which was waged on behalf of the peace-loving forces and progressive humankind. That great victory continues to show its vitality today.
    The US had intervened in Korea based on the reactionary Cold War policy of the “containment of communism”. From the Japanese colonial era through the Second World War, the outstanding resistance and guerrilla warfare carried out in Korea under the leadership of Kim Il Sung and other communists brought great prestige to communism throughout Korea for its ability to mobilise and organise the people to defend themselves.
    Even before the surrender of Japan, the US divided Korea by force at 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 beachhead in order to wage war against China and the Soviet Union.
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. A 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.
    Meanwhile in the north, the Korean people, under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, were able to establish the Workers’ Party of Korea and 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 also provided political and practical leadership to the Korean people’s aspiration for a reunified Korea. It was following the ROK 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 launched the Korean War on June 25, 1950, to block the independent reunification of Korea.
    In the Korean War, the people of the DPRK, led by Kim Il Sung, were organised by the Workers’ Party of Korea and mobilised to support the Korean People’s Army. The newly established People’s Republic of China sent troops in the form of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army to support the Korean people after US forces approached China’s eastern border with the DPRK. They ardently defended the Korean people in this war of aggression carried out by the US imperialists and 15 allied countries, including Britain, under the fig leaf of the UN flag.
    The armistice talks began on July 10, 1951. However, the US refused to agree to a ceasefire as a condition of talks and also refused to abide by the Geneva Convention regarding the repatriation of prisoners. During the two-year period of negotiations, the US and its allies employed all sorts of delaying tactics in the hope of achieving an outright military victory. They massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians in the north and south of Korea, with many buried alive, dismembered, burned to death or drowned. They carried out such war crimes as germ and chemical warfare, the bombing of infrastructure including dams and irrigation canals to flood the grain fields and starve the people, the carpet bombing of civilian targets, and the massive use of napalm — all to terrorise the Korean people into submission. An estimated 4.6 million Koreans, mostly civilians, perished during the war.
    However, a US victory was not to be. The Korean people, led by Kim Il Sung and the Korean People’s Army, with the help of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, defeated the troops of the US and the other aggressor nations. The US was forced to come to the north to sign the Armistice Agreement in Panmunjom. It was a bitter pill to swallow — being defeated for the first time in the 20th century and by a small Asian nation at that.
    In the spirit of revenge-seeking and stubbornly following its own geopolitical interests, the US has refused ever since to sign a peace treaty to end the Korean War, as stipulated by the terms of the Armistice Agreement, despite the repeated invitations by the DPRK to do so.
    Item 60, Article IV of the Armistice Agreement states: “In order to insure the peaceful settlement of the Korean question, the military Commanders of both sides hereby recommend to the governments of the countries concerned on both sides that, within three (3) months after the Armistice Agreement is signed and becomes effective, a political conference of a higher level of both sides be held by representatives appointed respectively to settle through negotiation the questions of the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Korea, the peaceful settlement of the Korean question, etc.”

ongoing imperialist aggression

Since July 27 1953, the US has done everything possible to maintain its military presence in Korea and keep the Korean War going. On October 1, 1953, it concluded the US-South Korea Mutual Defence Treaty, which has since become the basis of the continued US military presence in south Korea that is opposed by the vast majority of the Korean people. It is also the basis by which the US/south Korean forces carry out their Key Resolve/Foal Eagle and many other joint military exercises, which now include Britain, as well as Japan, Australia, and others, and are aimed at invading the DPRK and imposing regime change.
    The US continues to rebuff all attempts at normalising DPRK-US relations, including diplomatic resolutions to such issues as the DPRK’s use of nuclear energy and the development of its nuclear deterrent capability, while at the same time it maintains and expands its own nuclear weapons in the south. The US has also increased economic and political sanctions against the DPRK, another form of warfare, as it is doing against other countries that affirm their right to be and refuse to submit to US dictate. The Biden administration continues the disinformation about “human rights violations” in the DPRK in a feeble attempt to divert from its own human rights abuses at home and abroad.
    The British government for its part maintains its hostility to the DPRK, following the lead of the US. On the anniversary of the Armistice Agreement, it shamelessly referred to the US and British aggression as a “war for freedom”. Today the government also follows the US in promoting the so-called “rules-based international order”, in which it is not international law which prevails but “rules” which are made by and serve the interests of US imperialism. Britain also follows the US in terming its marauding in the Indo-Pacific region as “enhancing security”, which the government defines as “shifting greater resource to the region and developing nations’ ability to police and protect their waters”.
    The British government further shamelessly states: “Two Royal Navy Offshore Patrol Vessels are deployed to the Indo-Pacific on a permanent basis, and in their first year of operation succeeded in enforcing UN sanctions against North Korea, […]. The UK’s Carrier Strike Group will return to the Indo-Pacific in 2025, representing our commitment to exercise the best capabilities our Armed Forces have to offer alongside partners in the region.”
    However, as time goes on, the US imperialists and their allies are increasingly isolated in terms of relations with the DPRK. The DPRK’s principled stand in defence of its sovereignty and right to self-determination, and its consistent defence of the Korean nation’s honour continue to win the support of all humanity who can clearly see who is the aggressor on the Korean Peninsula.
    The aim of the US remains the same today as it was at the end of the Second World War — to occupy the entire Korean Peninsula as a launching pad for its takeover of Asia and then the world. And the US justification for doing so remains as bankrupt as ever. All the attempts of the US to realise its domination of the region — its occupation of the Korean Peninsula with almost 30,000 troops and its military bases, the ongoing attempts to sabotage the Korean people’s movement for national reunification, and its engineering of puppet regimes in the south — have failed to silence the resolve of the 70 million Koreans who are united in their aspiration for the peaceful, independent reunification of their homeland, free of US imperialist interference.

the anti-war movement

The criminal role of the US imperialists in Korea, from 1945 to the present, has been exposed for the whole world to see, and the resolute struggle of the Korean people for peace and justice, independence and reunification stands as an example for all the peoples of the world aspiring for peace. It is the task that Friends of Korea and all friendship organisations have taken up to tell the truth about the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and patiently explain the contribution that the DPRK is making to peace and stability to the region and its wider implications.
    The first demand of the Korean people and all peace- and justice-loving people around the world is that the US signs a peace treaty with the DPRK to replace the Armistice Agreement and end the Korean War. This would be a major step to stabilise the political situation on the Korean Peninsula and ease tensions. To date the US has violated all the terms of the Armistice Agreement since the time it was signed and has constantly rebuffed efforts by the DPRK to normalise relations between the two countries. The DPRK knows first-hand the perfidy and subterfuge of the US imperialists and refuses to participate in “empty talks” that do not advance peace on the Korean Peninsula.
    For the people in Britain, it is crucial that the demand be made that Britain make amends for its role in the crimes perpetrated against the Korean people during the Korean War. Further, Britain must immediately end its participation in the illegal naval embargo against the DPRK, which is part of the US-led sanctions regime and an act of war and a crime against the peace, the most serious war crime under international law. Friends of Korea will itself do its work to hold the US responsible for its crimes on the Korean Peninsula before, during and since the Korean War and demand that it sign a peace treaty with the DPRK to end the Korean War. For the people, this is a matter of contributing to making sure that another Korean War does not break out and providing every support to the Korean people’s drive to reunify their divided country. It is also a contribution to ensuring peace around the world.
    One of the crucial issues about which confusion is spread is that of the danger of nuclear war. Using the nuclear threat as an instrument of negotiations – agree with our terms or else – was a practice introduced by the US at the time of the criminal bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. This practice was first heroically rejected by the Korean people in the 1950-1953 Korean War. Subsequently the heroic Vietnamese people did the same in the context of their War of National Liberation.
    The US, together with Britain, are intent on raising hysteria on the nuclear issue to a fever pitch in order to prevent humankind from thinking, from actually assessing the conditions and what these conditions reveal, and so prevent people uniting in favour of peace. The hysteria and disinformation is an attempt to block discussion on what can be done to turn things around in favour of the peoples. To open a path to progress and end the retrogression which the imperialists are pushing onto the peoples of the world, it is crucial to broaden discussions amongst ourselves so as to not permit the campaign of disinformation to be effective.
    The conditions given rise to after World War II ended with the collapse of the former Soviet Union. That ended the domination of two superpowers and an equilibrium between them based on nuclear deterrence. The so-called unipolar world which they tried to bring into being, with the US as self-declared indispensable nation, also no longer exists.
    The Korean War is an example of seeing where justice prevails. Furthermore, it can be seen that the present defensive measures being taken by the DPRK, far from being the threat to peace that is being claimed by the US, Britain and others, is a defence against the danger of war, a danger comes from the criminal striving of the US for world domination.
    The world that the people aspire to is in the grasp of the people’s forces working to make it happen. It can be said that fighting for an anti-war government at home will also be a contribution to ensuring peace on the Korean Peninsula and vice versa. Friends of Korea will certainly continue its work in favour of support and friendship with the DPRK. This is not a narrow aim, but is a component part of bringing into being a world where peace prevails, and countries can follow their path of independence, security and sovereignty without the interference of US imperialism, together with Britain and other big powers.

US Troops Out of Korea!
US Sign a Peace Treaty with the DPRK Now!
No to the Warmongering of Britain!
Unite in Favour of Peace and Independence!

Tuesday, 8 August 2023

For peace on the Korean peninsula

in the Sid French library
by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity campaigners met at the NCP’s Party Centre in London last weekend for a hybrid seminar to celebrate the victory of the Korean people over US imperialism and its lackeys in the Korean war and discuss the prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula and the way forward for the solidarity campaign in Britain.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the Friends of Korea (FoK) event, welcomed everyone to the meeting, at the Sid French library or by video link, to hear key-note openings from FoK secretary Michael Chant and Dermot Hudson of the Korean Friendship Association and an online contribution from Song Gi Kim from the Democratic Korean embassy in London. This was followed by contributions from everyone in the room and from many of the online participants across the country.
    The Korean war ended on 27th July 1953 with an armistice that promised free elections to end the partition of the Korean peninsula. But the Americans never kept their word and the country remains divided between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the north and a puppet regime in the south that is propped up by tens of thousands of US troops and an American nuclear armada off the coast.
    The US has done everything possible to maintain its military presence on the Korean peninsula. But the resistance of the DPRK continues, as the Korean people proudly demonstrate their mettle and build their own future.
    Victory Day is not simply a celebration for commemorating and looking back to a chapter of resistance in a previous era. The day also serves as a reminder that the US imperialists and their lackeys are stepping up war preparations in the Asia Pacific rim, and that the terrible tragedies visited upon the Korean people during the Korean War must never again be permitted. The significance of that war is taking on new meaning today as the US imperialists beat the drums of war to attempt to justify a nuclear catastrophe that threatens the very survival of the Korean people and the peoples of the world. But it further serves as a reminder that it is the people who are the makers of history and that they themselves must prevail against war.


Wednesday, 2 August 2023

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"


Sunday, 2 July 2023

US out of Korea!

By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined a Korean solidarity protest picket outside the American embassy in London last Saturday to mark 73rd anniversary of the Korean war and to call for the end of the American occupation of south Korea.
    On 25th June 1950 the US imperialists and their south Korean puppets launched an attack on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that devastated the entire peninsula. The Americans and their lackeys, flying the false flag of the United Nations, were beaten to a standstill and were forced to sign an armistice in 1953. They promised to hold free elections in south Korea to lead to the reunification of the country. Seventy years later the Americans still occupy south Korea, propping up a puppet regime that rejects all DPRK proposals to ease tension on the divided peninsula.
    Dermot Hudson, the chair of the Korean Friendship Association that called the protest, said that US imperialism had not abandoned its dreams of conquest. “This year reactionary warmonger Biden threatened People's Korea with nuclear annihilation saying it would be the 'end of whatever regime'. The US imperialists and south Korean puppets are stepping up their war moves plus the US is openly deploying strategic nuclear assets,” Dermot said. “The US and south Korea have this year carried out massive war exercises that were suspended by Trump . US troops and nuclear assets should be withdrawn from south Korea and a permanent peace treaty signed”.
Messages of support were received from KFA Germany, KFA Switzerland, the International Central Committee for Songun Study, the Bangladesh Songun Politics Study Group and the People's Korea Initiative of Poland.

Saturday, 3 June 2023

Korean solidarity in Liverpool

by New Worker correspondent

The Korean Friendship Association of the UK took the fight to defend People’s Korea  to Merseyside by holding a vibrant afternoon meeting on Saturday 20th May at the Casa Bar in the heart of Liverpool’s university district.
Peter Hendy from the Liverpool NCP introduced the meeting saying that “the propaganda offensive against the DPRK remains unabated. To justify US military aggression against the DPRK the propaganda offensive remains relentless and continues unabated. For over six decades the DPRK has been subjected to US military intimidation, provocations, threats and extensive sanctions to politically isolate and destroy the DPRK economy. The US warmongers would like to destroy the DPRK”.
KFA UK Chairman Dermot Hudson addressed the meeting on the subject of the US threat to People’s Korea  pointing out that “In fact, the danger of war and threat to People’s Korea has increased greatly and taken a sinister turn. It is probably at its highest since the end of the Korean War or Fatherland Liberation War in 1953” . He denounced the recent US-south Korea summit and the so-called ‘Washington Declaration ‘ He also drew attention to the participation of British Royal Marines in recent military exercises in south Korea.
“The struggle to defend People’s Korea and expose the aggressive role of the US on the Korean peninsula is also part of the struggle for world peace and for anti-imperialist independence.
“KFA UK demands that all ongoing and planned military exercises by the US and south Korea in south Korea and the surrounding region should be cancelled . US troops should be withdrawn from south Korea along with any US nuclear weapons.
    "Dermot concluded by saying “We in the Korean Friendship Association of the UK(KFA UK) believe in defending People’s Korea , Korea of Juche with No Ifs or Buts . The DPRK is the most independent country in the world and has a unique socialist system . The DPRK is a country that abolished taxation yet has free healthcare , free education and even free housing".
The Casa Club was born during the epic struggle of the Liverpool dockers who were sacked when they refused to cross a picket line in the 1990s. The dockers’ struggle began in September 1995 and ended in a one-sided settlement in February 1998. But some of the dockers, who had been paid £130,000 for writing a drama about the dispute for Channel Four, used the money to buy a building to set up a communal hub, not-for-profit bar and an advice centre. It is now a charitable trust that welcomes labour movement use of its rooms and facilities.

Sunday, 21 May 2023

DPR Korea: A true people’s health system

medical students in Pyongyang
by Dermot Hudson

The socialist healthcare system of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has a long history.
    On the 1st January 2023, it was 70 years since the DPRK introduced universal, free medical care. On the 1st January 1953, it was introduced in the DPRK according to the provisions of DPRK cabinet decree No 203 “On Enforcing Free Medical Care System for the People”, which had been adopted some weeks earlier on the 13th November 1952 under the guidance of President Kim Il Sung. Prior to that, free medical care for industrial and office workers based on insurance had been introduced in 1946 (two years before the NHS was created in the UK).
    The DPRK’s health service was not created under ideal conditions of peace but in the flames of war when the country was being pulverised by the carpet bombing of the aggressive US imperialists. Moreover, at the time the DPRK was not a rich or prosperous country, it was a new country which had emerged from the ruins of Japanese colonial rule.
    From the 1st January 1953 all medical care in the DPRK became completely free at the point of need for all. This includes doctor's visits, hospital treatment, convalescence and medicines. Even dentistry is included and also fares to hospital are paid. There are no hidden fees such as car parking charges or charges to watch TV in hospitals. Further legalisation by the DPRK in 1960 and 1980 legally buttressed free healthcare.
    The DPRK has the unique section doctor system, whereby doctors from a local clinic take charge of the surrounding area and visit people in their homes to give up check-ups and medical advice. Usually a local DPRK doctor looks after 130 households. This is a big contrast to the present NHS GP system, under which it is often impossible to see a doctor and only telephone or online consultations are possible. In the DPRK they say “Go to the doctor before you are ill”.
    Special priority is given to mothers who give birth to many children, the DPRK has many triplets. Concern for the health of women is something taken very seriously. There is the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, which has over 1,000 beds. In recent years the Breast Tumour Institute of the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital was constructed.
    The DPRK has a dense network of medical establishments such as general hospitals, specialised hospitals, hospitals or clinics, from the highest down to the lowest unit of administration such as ri and dong. Factories have their own medical staff and even their own hospitals.
    According to data, there are as many as 9 000 public health agencies. The DPRK has witnessed the increase of hygienic and anti-epidemic bodies by 38 times, of hospitals by 53.8 times, and of doctors and pharmacists by 322 times during the period from 1946–2006.
    Already in the 1970s it ranked in the advanced countries in terms of the number of doctors, medical facilities and beds for every 1 000 people. According the World Health Organisation (WHO), in 2010 the DPRK had 143 hospital beds per 10,000 of population. This compares with 24.6 per 10,000 in the UK in 2019, 28.7 per 10,000 for the USA in 2017, and 124.8 per 10,000 for south Korea in 2018. The DPRK is way ahead of other countries.
    In 2010 the then director of the WHO Dr Margaret Chan said of the DPRK: “They have something which most other developing countries would envy.”
    In recent years the DPRK constructed new state of the art hospitals such the Okryu Children’s Hospital, the Ryugyong Ophthalmic hospital and many others. In the DPRK, hospitals are linked together by an advanced telemedicine system.
    A delegation of the British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea and the Korean Friendship Association of the UK was able to visit the Okryu Children’s Hospital that was completed in 2013. It has a total of 32,000 square metres of floor space, making it quite large – larger than many UK hospitals. We were only able to see a small part of the hospital as there was not enough time, however, what we saw was most impressive. The hospital was positively ornate, with marble floors and pillars. The hospital was decorated in light colours that gave a warm and cheerful atmosphere to the place. In the UK hospitals are usually regarded with fear and apprehension, but this hospital seemed such a welcoming place. We saw rooms for rehabilitating disabled children. There was a school within the hospital so that children do not miss schooling when they are in the hospital. We also saw a telemedicine room. Here the hospital is linked to other children's hospitals in the country so that doctors in different hospitals can consult with each other instantly.
    I also visited the Ryugyong Ophthalmic Hospital in February 2019. This was opened in 2016 and took only seven months to construct. It has eight floors with 100 inpatient beds. The hospital offers both inpatient and outpatient treatment. There is one doctor per room. The hospital was spotlessly clean.
    The DPRK’s healthcare system is self-reliant and operated with 100 per cent DPRK resources and labour, no foreign doctors or nurses work in DPRK hospitals. The DPRK medical care system showed its resilience when COVID‑19 struck the country in May 2022. The healthcare system was assisted by the Korean People’s Army (KPA), who were mobilised to help. The COVID‑19 epidemic was overcome within 91 days and the fatality rate was minimal. This was achieved without the dubious so-called ‘aid’ of the imperialist countries and south Korea.
    The universal, free medical care system of the DPRK is a true product of the people-oriented system, the socialist system and the popular policies of the Workers Party of Korea.



Saturday, 22 April 2023

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.