Defending Democratic Korea

By a New Worker correspondent

FRIENDS of Korea met at London’s historic Marx House last Saturday to celebrate the 68th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Kim Jong Il and take part in discussion on the current situation in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, led by a panel of speakers who have all visited north Korea many times.
The meeting was held under the title of “The Defence of the DPRK is a must” and that was the theme of speakers, who included New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks, Michael Chant of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), John McCleod of the Socialist Labour Party, Keith Bennett and Ella Rule (Communist Party of Great Britain-Marxist-Leninist) and Dermot Hudson from the United Kingdom Korean Friendship Association.
All paid tribute to Comrade Kim Jong Il, and his great leadership of the Korean people. A message of congratulations to Comrade Kim Jong Il was unanimously adopted with great enthusiasm by all present, expressing unbounded admiration, pledging that the progressive forces in Britain would always stand shoulder to shoulder with the Korean people in their struggles to build a powerful socialist country, against US imperialist aggression, and for the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula. The message also placed on record the demand of the British people that the United States sign a peace treaty with the DPRK, and that it remove all its troops from the peninsula and end all threats to the DPRK.
The panel and participants from the audience expressed unreserved support for the DPRK in defending its right to be, and explained how the DPRK was above all standing by its principles of maintaining its independence and building socialism. The panel explained at length aspects of the life of the people of the DPRK, and elaborated on the stand of Democratic Korea in regard to the Six-Party Talks, the striving of the DPRK to create the conditions for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, and its contribution to combating the aggressive and hostile stands of US imperialism and its allies. The meeting expressed contempt for the anti-communism, which is a relic of the Cold War. It pledged to redouble its efforts in earnest to combat the disinformation spread about the DPRK and build friendship with the Korean people and their leadership.
The questions, answers and discussion could have gone on much longer, as the scheduled time for the conclusion of the meeting came. Participants continued to discuss the exploits of the great leaders Comrade Kim Il Sung and Comrade Kim Jong Il, and pledged further to build the Friends of Korea as a powerful friendship organisation which unites all friends of Korea in Britain.