A Great Korean revolutionary recalled

by New Worker correspondent

Hyon Hak Bong and Michael Chant

COMRADES and friends met at the John Buckle Centre in south London on Saturday to mark the 22nd anniversary of the passing of the Great Leader President Kim Il Sung on 8^th July 1994.  The guest of honour at the seminar, called by the Friends of Korea committee, was Hyon Hak Bong the  ambassador at the embassy of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in London and other speakers included Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML), Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association and New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks.

             After questions and discussion the meeting ended with a film on Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s four years of victory informal discussion continued over drinks and Korean food. The Co-ordinating Committee of the Friends of Korea 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 committee organises meetings throughout the year, which are publicised by the supporting movements and on the Friends of Korea website.

Korea is One!

by New Worker correspondent

Andy Brooks on the picket

Korean solidarity activists picketed the London embassy of US imperialism last weekend to mark the 66^th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. On 25^th 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(UN), were beaten to a standstill and were forced to sign an armistice in 1953 and to promise to hold free elections in south Korea to lead to the reunification of the country. Sixty six 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.

            Called by the UK Korean Friendship Association (KFA) the picket on Saturday 25^th June was supported by NCP leader Andy Brooks and  central committee members Daphne Liddle and Theo Russell, along with other KFA members in London and the south-east. KFA Chair Dermot Hudson  addressed the picket, saying that they were here to mark the start of the Month of anti-imperialist solidarity with the DPRK and the 66th anniversary of the start of the provocation of the Korean War by the US imperialists, and that they were there to demand the withdrawal of US troops and bases from south Korea . He also said: “It is 66 years since the US imperialists started the Korean War, or Fatherland Liberation War, but the crimes committed by the US imperialists are still fresh in the minds of the Korean people and world’s progressive people.”

“The US imperialists tried to exterminate the Korean people by carrying out the war that they long planned,” Hudson said. “History will curse forever the US imperialists as the sub-human savages and criminals, as well as an enemy of humanity and progress. Indeed US imperialism is the ringleader of aggression and war, as well as the biggest violator of human rights in the world, which has exported military coups and fascism to many lands”.

  Messages from KFA Denmark, KFA Singapore and KFA Spain expressed support for the picket, and denounced the US imperialists for provoking the Korean War and occupying south Korea.

The picketers chanted slogans throughout the afternoon in Grosvenor Square calling for the end of sanctions against the DPRK, the end of the American occupation of south Korea and the end of the partition of the Korean peninsula.

 Hudson said: “On the occasion of the Month of Solidarity with the Korean people we extend our fervent support to the Korean people, led by dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un, in the struggle to secure the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the US imperialist aggression forces from the south of Korea. The US imperialists must renounce their hostile policy towards the DPRK."

Korean solidarity in action

Dermot Hudson and Thae Yong Ho

by New Worker correspondent

Comrades and friends met to discuss future Korean solidarity work at the AGM of the Korean Friendship Association held in central London last weekend. UK KFA chair Dermot Hudson opened the discussion which focused the anniversary of the north-south June 15^th Declaration and the start of Kim Jong Il’s work at the Workers Party of Korea and preparations for the annual Month of Solidarity with the Korean People which starts on the anniversary of the imperialist attack on the DPR Korea on 25^th June 1950.

               A report of work was given which outlined the KFA's activities and achievements over the past year while Thae Yong Ho from the DPR Korea’s London embassy covered many aspects of life in Juche Korea during the always-popular question and answer session that followed.

            Dermot Hudson was returned to the helm of the KFA unopposed. Two other activists stepped down this year and their vacancies were filled by David Munoz, who  was elected Organisation Secretary and Daniel Braggins, voted in as Communications Secretary.

A solidarity letter to dear respected leader Chairman Kim Jong Un was adopted together with solidarity greetings to the DPRK government and the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front (AINDF) –  the underground resistance to the fascist regime in south Korea.

Free the Korean waitresses!

Andy Brooks, Dermot Hudson and other comrades at the picket

by New Worker correspondent

 

New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks joined other comrades outside the south Korean embassy in London last week to demand the release of 12 young north Korean waitresses working in China who were tricked into flying to south Korea in April. They are now being held, against their will, by the puppet regime. The DPR Korea Red Cross has asked that they be sent back or at least allowed to meet their parents and families either at the Panmunjom armistice line crossing point centre or in  Seoul, the south Korean capital. This has been rejected by the puppet regime which is holding the waitresses in detention while claiming that they are “defectors”.

            The picket was called by the Korean Friendship Association and the NCP to draw attention to the latest human rights abuses of the Seoul regime that is propped up by American bayonets and oversees the exploitation of south Korea on behalf of US imperialism.

            KFA Chair Dermot Hudson said the abductions were “another horrendous and vile crime by the south Korean fascist puppets whose mere existence is a blight on humanity! The south Korean puppets are spreading all sorts of dirty lies to cover up their massive crime”.

Eyewitness Korea!

David, Dermot and Thae Yong Ho

 by New Worker

 correspondent

  

  Friends of the Korean people met at the Chadswell Centre in central London on Saturday 21st May to hear report-backs from two comrades who have recently returned from Democratic Korea and to express their solidarity with the Workers Party of Korea which has just successfully concluded its 7^th Congress.

            The meeting, called by the Korean Friendship Association, heard Dermot Hudson and David Munoz speak about their visit to the DPR Korea in April, and heard a report from Thae Yong Ho from the DPRK embassy in London.  A friend of the DPRK from Sweden addressed the meeting about the Pyongyang International Film Festival and the Wonsan Air Festival and many others joined in the general discussion that followed.  New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks took part in the meeting together with a number of comrades from London and East Anglia along with Prof Harish Gupta, the head of the Asian Regional Institute of the Juche Idea.

            The meeting denounced the lies and slanders of the BBC against the DPRK and the vile and poisonous attacks on Dermot Hudson, the KFA and the Juche Idea Study Group by sectarians and dogmatists on the “Red Youth” website. Future action including a picket of US imperialism’s London embassy in June was discussed before the meeting concluded with informal discussion over refreshments.

The UK Korean Friendship Association (KFA) organises solidarity meetings and protest pickets in London throughout the year. The KFA also works side by side with the Friends of Korea committee which also holds regular events in the capital.

The Day of the Sun in London

Chris Coleman (RCPB-ML) adding his tribute

 by New Worker correspondent

FRIENDS and supporters of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) were invited to the DPRK’s embassy last Friday evening, 15th April, to mark Korea’s Day of the Sun, which coincides with the birthday of Kim Il Sung 100 years ago.

Many of those attending brought flowers to lay in front of a portrait of Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il.

The DPRK ambassador Hyon Hak Bong made a brief speech outlining the life and achievements of Kim Il Sung, who began his revolutionary work against the Japanese occupation of Korea at just 14 years old.

Kim Il Sung went on to lead the Korean people to two great victories against foreign invaders: first the Japanese and then the United States in the 1950–53 war.

Invited guests then added their tributes to the Great Leader and his role in forging the Juche philosophy, uniting the communist movement when it was split between the Beijing and Moscow camps.

And then, after the revisionist Soviet leadership collapsed and communist parties all around the world were collapsing, Kim Il Sung and the Workers’ Party of Korea pulled the global communist movement back together at a conference in Pyongyang and gave communists confidence to fight on – now stronger because the revisionists had departed.

The New Communist Party was represented by Daphne Liddle who delivered flowers, respect and congratulations to the Workers’ Party of Korea.

Comrades mark Kim Il Sung anniversary

by New Worker correspondent

Comrade Thae holding up the New Worker!

AT THE HEIGHT of the Cold War NATO forces staged an intimidating war exercise along the length of the border between eastern and western Europe involving 120,000 troops from assorted NATO countries.

This year NATO forces, along with Japanese and south Korean troops, staged an aggressive war exercise, including practising the use of  nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, in the much smaller space of the south of the Korean peninsula involving 300,000 troops.

The exercise included goals entitled: “behead the leader” and involved practising invasive beach landings. And they wonder why the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been motivated to develop its own nuclear weapons!

This information was delivered by Comrade Thae Yongho, a representative of the DPRK embassy in London, to a meeting of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) and the Juche Idea Study Group of England in central London on Saturday 2nd April  to celebrate the 104th anniversary of Korean revolutionary leader Kim Il Sung and the DPRK Day of the Sun.

Dermot Hudson outlined the life of Kim Il Sung and the contributions he made to communist unity throughout the world, especially at a time when there was an ideological war between Moscow and Beijing that led to sectarian divisions and even violence between the different factions throughout communist parties across the world.

Kim Il Sung, and his son and successor Kim Jong Il, developed the Juche idea, which is based on the principle that human society is the master of its own destiny; that communist parties in different countries should work out their own path to socialism according to their circumstances; that they should respect each other but not rely on each other for protection nor to set out what political line they should take. Each party and its membership must be responsible for its political line and actions.

They went on to develop the Songun, or Army First, policy, which does not mean a military dictatorship but that the army should be engaged in civil construction and other work, creating a better standard of living for the people and creating a long-lasting bond between the people and the army.

And so the country has raised itself up and, despite United States imposed sanctions and natural disasters like flooding, has steadily raised the standard of living so that people in the DPRK now enjoy a life well balanced between work and leisure that their grandparents could hardly have dreamed of – where there is respect and affection between the generations, guaranteed housing, free healthcare and education. and a life with much less stress and anxiety than in our society.

Other speeches were made by Sean Pickford, Nick Shakespeare, Alex Meads and Daniel Braggins, and there was a film shown of DPRK defence exercises.