A day to remember

by New Worker correspondent

Leslie Larkum and Yu Kwang Song

MILLIONS of Koreans celebrated the 66^th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea this week with parades, rallies and celebrations throughout the north of the divided peninsula. Down in the occupied south many others defied the puppet regime to hold their own events to mark 9^th September 1948 when the DPRK was established under the leadership of Kim Il Sung and the Workers’ Party of Korea.

            And last weekend British communists and supporters of the Korean revolution met for a joint meeting and social at the New Communist Party’s Centre in London to commemorate this important date in the calendar of the world communist movement.

NCP leader Andy Brooks welcomed everyone to the meeting called by the Friends of Korea committee and the Korean Friendship Association to hear openings from Lesley Larkum of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (ML), Yu Kwang Song from the DPRK embassy in London and KFA activists on the 9^th September and the Juché Idea.

But first of all comrades paused for a minutes silence for Eric Trevett, the NCP President who had passed away the day before after a long illness. Many paid tribute to his earnest efforts in support of the Korean revolution over the years. Eric made a number of trips to Democratic Korea over the years and met great leader Kim Il Sung three times in the early 1990s – a true friend of the Korean revolution to his last breath.

 The meeting opened with a short film on the sporting achievements of the DPRK over the years which was followed by openings by a number of Korean solidarity activists in London.

Lesley spoke about the significance of the establishment of the DPRK in 1948 and talked about what she saw with her own eyes when she visited Democratic Korea last year while KFA activists talked about the role of Juché in the revolutionary struggle against Japanese colonialism, US imperialism and the struggle to build a modern, socialist republic in north Korea.

Yu Kwang Song took up these points in his opening and during the discussion that flowed from the openings and that continued over drinks for the rest of the evening.

Korea's struggle for freedom

by New Worker correspondent

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kim Jong Un pamphlet

LET US BRING ABOUT INNOVATIONS IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION UNDER THE UNFURLED BANNER OF THE SOCIALIST RURAL THESES


Supreme leader Kim Jong Un sent a letter to the participants in the National Conference of Subworkteam Leaders in the Agricultural Sector of 6th February, Juche 103 (2014).


Full text available £2.00 post free from:

NCP Lit
PO Box 73
London SW11 2PQ

Korea: A Glorious Victory

By New Worker correspondent

IN 1950 US imperialism launched a criminal attack on Democratic Korea. The Americans, backed by their Nato allies and their craven south Korean puppets spread death and destruction across the Korean peninsula but they were forced to sign a humiliating armistice on 27^th July 1953.

Every year the Korean people mark the anniversary of the defeat of US imperialism and its lackeys with solemn ceremonies, meetings and a great parade through Pyongyang. And last Saturday friends and comrades gathered in central London for their own commemoration of the Day of Victory in the Fatherland Liberation War and the Day of Songun.  

           Korean solidarity activists, members of the New Communist Party and progressive academics attended the meeting called by the Juché Idea Study Group and the Korean Friendship Association to see a DPR Korea documentary on the Korean War and hear openings on the struggle led by great leader Kim Il Sung to defeat the US aggressors from DPRK diplomats in London and members of Juché Idea Study Group.

The formal part of the meeting ended with Dr Goodacre, an accomplished linguist, demonstrating his talents by singing the Song of General Kim Il Sung in Korean to the general applause of the audience.

Eternal memory of Kim Il Sung

By New Worker

 correspondent

Michael Chant, Andy Brooks and  Hyon Hak Bong

KIM IL SUNG passed away on 8^th July 1994 and the 20^th anniversary of his death was marked by commemorations across the Korean peninsula and amongst the Korean overseas community all over the world. In Democratic Korea mass national commemorations in the capital, Pyongyang, were matched by similar events throughout the DPR Korea. In the occupied south patriotic and communist organisations held secret commemorations in defiance of the draconian laws of the puppet regime. And throughout the world communists gathered to remember the outstanding Korean communist revolutionary and thinker.

London was no exception and the commemorations started at the AGM of the UK Korean Friendship Association on Saturday 28th June. This was followed by

a meeting of remembrance to mark the anniversary of the passing of President Kim Il Sung on 5^th July at the John Buckle Centre in south London organised by the Friends of Korea committee. London DPRK ambassador Hyon Hak Bong paid tribute to great leader Kim Il Sung, whose life dedicated to the struggle of the Korean people spanned the 20^th century. This was followed by tributes from NCP leader Andy Brooks, RCPB (ML) general secretary Michael Chant, John Macleod of the SLP and John Rainsborough from the Korea Friendship Association.

            Finally on 8^th July Andy Brooks and Daphne Liddle from the NCP  Central Committee laid flowers at the commemorative table at the  formal ceremony at the DPRK embassy in London in memory of Kim Il Sung.

Democratic Korea – a beacon of progress

Michael Chant, Andy Brooks and Thae Yongho

By New Worker correspondent

FRIENDS of Korea met at the John Buckle Centre in south London on Monday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the commencement of Kim Jong Il’s work at the Central Committee of the WPK on 19th June 1964 and hear a top DPRK diplomat talk about the Korean leader’s revolutionary work in the service of the Korean people.

The meeting opened with the screening of a new documentary about the Korean People’s Army. NCP leader Andy Brooks then opened the formal part of the celebrations which started with talks from Thae Yongho from the London embassy of the DPRK and Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML).

Comrade Thae opened on the vital role of Kim Jong Il in developing Songun politics and the Juché idea, starting at a time when Khrushchov had not long made his 20th Congress attack on Stalin and communists throughout the world were in turmoil. Michael talked about Kim Jong Il’s immense contribution to the struggle and the building of a human-centred socialist society that shines like a red beacon of progress in Asia and throughout the world.

Great leader Kim Il Sung, who developed Korean-style socialism and the Juché Idea,

 said that working people could only become genuinely emancipated if they stood on their own feet. In the western world Juché is simply described as “self-reliance” but it is much more than that.

 Juché elevates the philosophical principles of Marxism-Leninism as well as its economic theories and focuses on the development of each individual worker, who can only be truly free as part of the collective will of the masses. Kim Jong Il followed in his footsteps to lead the Workers’ Party of Korea to further victories in overcoming the natural disasters that wracked the country in the 1990s, breaking the imperialist economic and diplomatic blockade and pioneering the scientific and technical advance that has guaranteed the defence of the modern people’s government in the north of the divided country.

And today young leader Kim Jong Un is following the footsteps of those who have gone before him to build a better tomorrow for the Korean people in the DPRK

            This sparked off a lively discussion amongst the other comrades about the meaning and relevance of the Juché idea in the modern era which naturally overflowed during the buffet which included Korean sushi and kimchi.

The meeting was organised by the Co-ordinating Committee of the Friends of Korea, which brings together all the major movements active in Korean friendship and solidarity work in Britain today.  It is chaired by Andy Brooks and the secretary is Michael Chant.

The Friends of Korea committee consists of the New Communist Party of Britain, Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (ML), Socialist Labour Party, European Regional Society for the Study of the Juché Idea and the UK Korean Friendship Association. The committee organises meetings throughout the year in London, which are publicised by the supporting movements and on the Friends of Korea blog.

The role of Kim Jong Il in building Juché theory

Thae Yongho addressing the meeting

by New Worker correspendent

THE JUCHÉ Idea Study group of England last Saturday gathered in north London to mark the 50^th anniversary of the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il starting work at the central committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. This was a great landmark in the Korean revolution.

The meeting was addressed by Comrade Thae Yongho from the embassy of the Democratic Republic of Korea who gave an account of the vital role of Kim Jong Il in developing Songun politics and the Juché idea starting at a time when Khrushchov had not long made his 20^th CPSU attack on Stalin and communists throughout the world were in turmoil.

The Juché path gave a way forward for communists to go forward on the basis of developing their own independent policies based on the realities of their own situation while respecting and maintaining good terms with others.

Comrade Theo Russell also addressed the meeting on behalf of the New Communist Party and spoke of the history of Juché and Kim Jong Il’s role in developing it.

There was discussion from the floor, including a discussion on the damaging effect of the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s and 70s, especially in the Third World where communists became engaged in fighting each other instead of working together to develop a path to socialism appropriate to their own concrete circumstances.