Down with oppression in south Korea!

Andy Brooks with other comrades at the picket

by New Worker correspondent

DESPITE sub-zero temperatures and a bit of snow Korean solidarity activists picketed the south Korean puppet embassy in London last week to denounce the suppression of a leading opposition party and the arrest of pro-reunification activists.

New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks joined comrades and friends from the Korean Friendship Association to protest at the banning of the Unified Progressive Party and demand the release of Ro Su Hui, the jailed veteran peace campaigner, and other south Korean political prisoners.

Dermot Hudson of the KFA opened the picket by condemning the repression of fascist puppet Park Geun Hye regime, which is dragging south Korea back to the era of the Yushin fascist dictatorship of her father Park Chung Hee. General Park came to power in a military coup in 1961 and ruled with an iron fist until he was assassinated by the head of his own intelligence service during a power struggle in 1979.

Dermot took the microphone to denounce the dissolution of the Unified Progressive Party in south Korea, which is the third largest party in south Korea with elected representatives and a 100,000 members.

Picketers took turns in reading statements supporting the campaign while others gave out a new KFA info leaflet during the two-hour picket. One passer-by joined the KFA on the spot – showing activism and campaigning works.

 The picketers, fortified by hot soup, coffee and a little drop of Scotch, ended their protest at 5.30, vowing to return in the near future if the prisoners are not released.

The UK Korean Friendship Association (KFA) regularly 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 London.