US out of Korea!

 

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other Korean solidarity activists outside the US embassy in London on Friday 20th June to mark the anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War and call for an end to the American occupation of south Korea.
The Friday evening protest was called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) whose chair, Dermot Hudson, said “we are here today in front of the US Embassy , the embassy of the American empire , the empire of evil, because on the 25th June it will be the 75th  anniversary of the provocation of the Korean War by the US imperialists and their puppets .The Korean War never really ended because no peace treaty was ever concluded only an armistice”. Dermot Hudson also said that the US imperialists wanted to invade the DPR Korea not only to destroy the socialist system but  also to seize the valuable rare earth deposits of the DPRK .
A message of support was received from KFA Germany which was read out . In part the message said “ Until this day 30,000 US-soldiers occupy the southern part of the Korean peninsula. Until today the US have nuclear weapons stationed in South Korea and they still continue their aggressive military manoeuvres against the DPRK. That is why it is so important to show solidarity with socialist Korea and openly fight against the US-aggression. Your picket here in front of the US embassy in London today is an important part in the fight against the US imperialist aggression”.

US out of Korea!

by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity activists were outside the US embassy in London on Saturday to demand an end to the American occupation of south Korea. London comrades, including NCP leader Andy Brooks, joined in the protest called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) in solidarity with the DPR Korea and all the Korean people campaigning to end the imperialist partition of their country. 
US imperialism and its south Korean lackeys attempted to invade Democratic Korea on 25th June 1950. Millions died in the war that ended with an armistice in 1953. But Korea remains partitioned with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) ringed by the nuclear arsenals of US imperialism and facing tens of thousands of American troops based in the south of the divided peninsula.
Every year the anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War is marked by the start of the month of solidarity with the Korean people. In Britain, and throughout the rest of the world, Korean solidarity campaigners meet to demand an end to the American occupation of south Korea and the reunification of the country that has been divided since the end of the Korean War.
“We are here today picketing the US embassy because a few days ago, on Tuesday 25th June, it was the 74th anniversary of the provocation of the Korean War which is known as the Fatherland Liberation War in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” said Dermot Hudson, the Chairman of the KFA. 
“The war was not a war between Koreans but between a small country, the DPRK, and the American empire. Indeed it was a war against Korea, against the Korean people.
“The US imperialists, the ringleader of world imperialism and international reactionaries, provoked a war in Korea on the 25th June 1950 by instigating their south Korean puppets to attack the young DPR Korea. The US imperialists were hungry for profits and conquest. The US imperialists fought an unjust, aggressive war against the Korean people. The US imperialists launched a war of conquest against the DPRK , a war to destroy the Juche-based people's democratic system in the DPRK as well as to destroy socialism in Asia and the world.
“We are here to defend the right of the DPRK to exist, to defend its independence, it is time to take a real stand and defend People's Korea from the threat of US aggression. The US is quite openly threatening the DPRK with annihilation, with being "eliminated" from the face of the globe.
“All the time, the US, even as we stand here, the US imperialists are planning regime change in People’s Korea and to overthrow the socialist system”.

Eyewitness Korea

Alan Bolon and Dermot Hudson

by New Worker correspondent

The DPR Korea is marching along the road to socialism. That was the message of Dermot Hudson who has recently returned from a visit to north Korea and that was the main theme of his talk at a Korean Friendship Association (KFA) meeting in the central London last weekend.
Andy Brooks and Michael Chant, the leaders of the NCP and the RCPB (ML), were in the audience that included other KFA members in London and a guest from KFA Poland. The meeting was also livestreamed on the internet which attracted participation throughout the world.
Dermot Hudson said that the people’s government is carrying out massive construction work in the capital, Pyongyang and that he saw the newly built Hwasong Street neighbourhood that is about the same size as a London borough or a small city. He said that the DPR Korea is carrying out massive housing construction not under ideal conditions but under the pressure of sanctions and military threats. But there are no homeless or beggars in the DPRK – unlike other Asian countries under the thumb of imperialism.
Dermot also spoke about his recent trip to Germany at the invitation of KFA Germany – taking part in a May Day march in Kassel, visiting the DPRK embassy in Berlin as well as the Volkskammer restaurant and the Ernst Thalmann Memorial Centre in Hamburg that reflects on Germany's communist history.
The meeting also heard Alan Bolon from the West of England branch of the KFA give a talk on the Juche Idea using a flip chart with diagrams to illustrate different aspects of the ideology that is the foundation of Korean-style socialism.

Kim Il Sung: A hero to remember

Dermot Hudson and Andy Brooks

By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other Korean solidarity campaigners at a meeting in central London last weekend to mark the 112th anniversary of the birth of the great Korean leader, Kim Il Sung and celebrate the successes of Korean-style socialism.
Dermot Hudson, the chair of the Korean Friendship Association that called the meeting,  praised Kim Il Sung, the leader of the Korean communist movement that drove out the Japanese colonialists and established a people’s government after the defeat of Japan in the Second World War. The revolutionary path charted by Kim Il Sung led to the establishment of a people’s republic based on the Juche Idea and Korean-style socialism is now being followed by Kim Jong Un, he said.
Juche-based socialism is not a copy of another country but the essence of the experience of generations of Korean revolutionaries. “In today’s People’s Korea there is free health care, free education , virtually free housing , low cost food and no individual taxation. There aren’t any homeless people , beggars or drug addicts in People’s Korea”.
Andy Brooks recalled his first visit to the DPRK and his meeting with President Kim Il Sung as part of a NCP delegation in 1990. He said how impressed the delegation of the New Communist Party was with the development of the DPRK which surpassed their expectations.
The general secretary of the NCP spoke about the victories of Kim Il Sung, who led the Workers’ Party of Korea until his death in 1994, and the outstanding achievements of those who’ve followed in his footsteps. While the people’s government strives for the peaceful re-unification of the Korea peninsula it has to prepare for whatever the American imperialists, who occupy the south, will do next whatever the outcome of the American presidential election in November  We can expect nothing from Biden, a senile old man who barely knows what day it is. Biden is just a pawn of the “deep state” – the most venal and aggressive elements within the American ruling class. But ultimately so is Donald Trump.
Trump did his best meeting Kim Jong Un twice for talks to try to ease tension on the Korean peninsula but he was constantly thwarted by the hidden hand of the American Establishment in Washington.
A lively Q & A session followed with questions about travel to the DPRK, the nature of internal class enemies in the DPRK and the issue of the DPRK’s relations with neighbouring countries and the meeting closed with the adoption of a solidarity message to Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Yoon not welcome here!

By New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined Korean solidarity campaigners protesting outside the south Korean embassy in London on Tuesday. Called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) the picketers were protesting at the presence of puppet south Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol who landed in Britain on Monday for talks with the British government.
Addressing the picket KFA Chairman Dermot Hudson said “Yoon is a cringeworthy puppet of the US who even sang the song American Pie to the senile US President 'Sleepy Joe' Biden!
“South Korea itself is not a real country but a puppet regime created by US bayonets in 1945 .Since the 1940s south Korea has been ruled by successive fascist dictators such as Syngham Rhee , Park Chung Hee , Chun Do Hwan and now Yoon Suk Yeol. Many massacres were carried out such as the Jeju Island massacre (1948) which saw the deaths of 70,000 or 80,000 , the Bodo League massacre 1950 in which 200,000 people were killed and the Kwangju massacre of 1980 which saw 5,000 people slaughtered.
“Today , south Korea has the longest working hours in the world and and one of the highest suicide rates . This is the grim reality of the so-called 'human rights paradise' praised by the Western mainstream media”.

Stepping stones to socialism

Dermot Hudson and Andy Brooks

by New Worker correspondent

Friends of Korea met in London last weekend to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 2nd September 1948. NCP leader Andy Brooks and Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML) were there along with other veteran campaigners and supporters of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) event at the Marchmont Centre in Bloomsbury on Saturday.
Opening the meeting KFA UK Chair Dermot Hudson said that “from the first day of its foundation, the DPRK has advanced along the road of Juche, the road of self-reliance, independence and socialism. Juche Korea was not a copy of another country but a unique and original state”.
DPRK diplomat Kim Song Gi  brought greetings from DPRK’s London embassy and told the audience that under the leadership of  Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il the DPRK travelled the road of struggle, never giving up even though the moves of the hostile forces continue to this day. And today, led by Kim Jong Un, the Korean people march confidently into the future. 
Other speakers included Jef Bossyut of the Belgium KFA and Jeremy Bieringer (KFA Germany) while  Alejandro Cao De Benos joined us live on video link from Spain. The fact that the DPRK has withstood the test of time, disasters, sanctions and imperialist threats for 75 years, is evidence of the invincible validity of its system and the full support of the korean people in its future”. Alejandro, the  international president of the Korean Friendship Association cannot travel abroad as his passport was confiscated by the Spanish authorities some seven years ago. But they haven’t, as yet,  barred him from the social media.
Christer Lundgren, the Chair of the Swedish-Korean Friendship Association, also joined us on Zoom saying “during its 75 years of existence the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has had extremely challenging difficulties to overcome, including the fierce Fatherland Liberation War, the postwar reconstruction and industrialization, continuous war threats and extreme economic difficulties caused by the imperialists’ manoeuvres to isolate and stifle People’s Korea as well as by the collapse of some other socialist countries”.
This hybrid meeting, spanned half the world. It was a first for the KFA. It certainly won’t be the last. 

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.

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 n apparatus of news, well-financed think tanks, universities, mass media, intelligence agencies"

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.

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.

Korea’s road to freedom

by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity campaigners returned to the Sid French library at the NCP Party Centre last weekend for a seminar that focused on the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Korea and the outstanding achievements of the Korean communists who freed the country from Japanese colonialism and then went on to lead the people’s government that beat back the American invaders and their lackeys during the Korean war.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the Friends of Korea event, welcomed everyone to the meeting and then introduced the two main speakers – Michael Chant, the secretary of the Committee and Dermot Hudson, the Chair of the Korean Friendship Association.
    They both highlighted the immense achievements of the Workers Party of Korea over the past 70-odd years. Michael Chant stressed that the liberation of Korea on 15th August 1945 was not the gift of the Americans who claim that it was all down to their atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but an act of the Korean people themselves who took up arms under the leadership of Kim Il Sung in the 1930s in the long march to end the brutal Japanese occupation.
    And as Dermot Hudson said “the defeat of Japanese imperialism, one of the main forces and shock brigade of international fascism , by the partisans of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army led by the great leader Kim Il Sung made a great contribution to the victory of the worldwide anti-fascist forces”. This sparked off a deeper look at Korean-style socialism.
    Kim Il Sung not only grasped Marxism-Leninism but he applied it to the concrete conditions of the Korean people. He knew that once the masses realised their own strength they would become unstoppable. He knew that serving the people was the be-all and end-all for Korean communists and for the Workers’ Party of Korea that he launched in 1945. He developed Korean-style socialism and the Juché idea – which 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.
    In the Western world Juché is often described as “self-reliance” but it is much more than that. Kim Il Sung said that working people could only become genuinely emancipated if they stood on their own feet. But the Juché idea doesn’t negate proletarian internationalism. The Soviet Union, People’s China and the people’s democracies of eastern Europe all closed ranks behind DPR Korea during the Korean war and likewise Democratic Korea has given concrete support to Egypt, Syria, Zimbabwe and many other Third World countries struggling against neo-colonialism.
    The seminar reviewed the achievements of the DPRK in building Korean-style socialism, demonstrating the incomparable advances since the liberation of Korea from Japanese
colonial rule in 1945 and the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 9th September 1948. Following the foot-steps of Kim Il Sung and his successor Kim Jong Il the Workers Party of Korea with Kim Jong Un at the helm continues to defend the Korean people’s own path of development, striving for peace and for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

For peace on the Korean peninsula

the seminar 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 seminar to 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 event, welcomed everyone to the meeting which was the first public event at the Centre since the lockdowns began in 2020. Most of them had visited Democratic Korea and all were supporters of the Friends of Korea committee that has been campaigning for the peaceful re-unification of the Korean peninsula for over 20 years.
    This was stressed by Michael Chant, the secretary of the Committee, who emphasised the importance of taking a stand in support of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s right to exist and choose its own path of development, striving for peace and for the reunification of the Korean peninsula, and, as he said, “supporting the just stands of the DPRK internationally at this crucial time in the face of hostility from the United States and other big powers, including Britain”.
    Though the imperialists have toned down their hate campaign their hostility still remains. “At the moment the imperialist mainstream media have tended to take the DPRK out of the news “ Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association said “although the hostile propaganda against the DPRK continues. Recently , the DPRK tested missiles which would have once led to hysterical headlines in the imperialist media for days on end. But this time it did not do so . This is because the imperialists have experienced a policy failure on the Korean peninsula ; military pressure and threats have not worked, sanctions have not worked and engagement such as Trump’s ‘big deal ‘ have not worked. The imperialist media does not like to talk about failure only success”.
    Others shared their own views on the Korean issue including Keith Bennett, a veteran Korean solidarity campaigner, who helped draw up the Friends of Korea founding statement many years ago and everyone agreed on the need to redouble our efforts in the coming year.
    The Co-ordinating Committee of the Friends of Korea is an umbrella organisation which brings together all the major movements active in Korean friendship and solidarity work in Britain today. It includes the NCP and the RCPB (ML), the Socialist Labour Party and the Korean Friendship Association. The Committee 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 blog.