Commemorating the life of Kim Jong Il

Comrades Dermot Hudson, Andy Brooks, Michael Chant and Mun Myong Sin

By New Worker correspondent

FRIENDS of Korea met in London’s historic Marx House last Saturday to commemorate the life of Kim Jong Il, the Democratic Korean leader who sadly passed away in December. But this was no solemn occasion but a celebration of the life of a revolutionary devoted to the Workers Party of Korea and the democratic people’s republic that has been a red bastion in Asia since its foundation in 1948.

            New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the meeting, said it was fitting that we should recall the life and work of Kim Jong Il in the building where Britain’s first Marxists, like Harry Quelch, worked and provided Lenin with rooms to edit and print the underground Russian paper, Iskra, when the Bolshevik leader lived in exile in London.

            The event, organised by the Friends of Korea committee, began with a short documentary film about Mount Myohyang, a national park in Democratic Korea that Kim Jong Il personally helped to conserve for the Korean people. This was followed by contributions from two leading members of the friendship committee on the life of Kim Jong Il. Michael Chant from the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (ML) spoke about the Korean leader’s efforts in building the Korean communist movement over the decades while Dermot Hudson of the Korean Friendship Association opened on the development of the Juche idea and Songun politics under the direction of Kim Jong Il.

 Comrade Mun Myong Sin, a diplomat from the London embassy of the DPR Korea then joined the panel for a question and answer session which developed into a general discussion on life in Democratic Korea today.

The Co-ordinating Committee of Friends of Korea consists of the European Regional Society for the Study of the Juche Idea, UK Korean Friendship Association, New Communist Party of Britain, Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) and the Socialist Labour Party, and another meeting is planned for March.