Sunday 30 November 2008

Imperialists' Despicable Scheme to Lead DPRK to "Reform" and "Opening" Flailed

Imperialists' Despicable Scheme to Lead DPRK to "Reform" and "Opening" Flailed
Pyongyang, November 21 (KCNA) -- "Reform" and "opening" touted by the imperialists are a reactionary plot to block social progress and stem the trend of history and a sinister move to destabilize and undermine other countries under the signboard of "globalization" in a bid to attain their hegemonic purpose, says Rodong Sinmun Friday in a signed article.

The article says: The imperialists are using "reform" and "opening" as pretexts for political pressure, economic sanctions and blockade, while putting them up as preconditions. They have gone the lengths of crying out for "reform" and "opening" when dealing with humanitarian issues in a bid to make humanitarianism a plaything for their political bargaining.

What should not be overlooked is the pressure put by them upon the DPRK to accept "reform" and "opening" despite its firm adherence to the socialist principle.

They are groundlessly accusing the DPRK of opting for "isolation" and "closure", not "reform" and "opening". This is nothing but sheer sophism which can be uttered by those who distort reality and make profound confusion of right and wrong.

As far as reform is concerned, the DPRK transformed the old social system in a revolutionary manner decades ago and it has carried on a steady renovation drive to get rid of everything old and backward and create everything new.

As for opening, the DPRK has always kept its door open. The DPRK has boosted foreign relations since it identified independence, peace and friendship with the avowed basic idea of its foreign policy.

The imperialists are unilaterally admonishing and pressurizing other countries to opt for "reform" and "opening" while not transforming their outdated social system and unpopular system though they are vociferous about "reform" and "opening". What a brigandish behavior.

The ulterior aim sought by the imperialists and their followers in pressurizing the DPRK to opt for "reform" and "opening" is to bring down its socialist system and restore the capitalist system in it.

Their moves to destabilize and undermine Korean-style socialism centering on the popular masses through "reform" and "opening" will never work on the DPRK but are bound to go bust.

The people of all countries aspiring after independence should clearly see through the reactionary and dangerous nature of the imperialists' scenario to lead them to "reform" and "opening" and react to them with vigilance.

People Called upon Not to Harbor Illusion about Imperialism

People Called upon Not to Harbor Illusion about Imperialism
Pyongyang, November 15 (KCNA) -- Only when people bolster national power, weathering manifold difficulties by their own efforts, not harboring any illusion about imperialism, can they emerge victorious in the struggle against imperialism and exalt the dignity of their country and nation, says Rodong Sinmun Saturday in a signed article.

The U.S. and other imperialist forces are working hard to let other countries harbor illusion about them, after learning that they can not easily bring those countries to their knees with strength only although they have modern weapons and combat equipment, the article says, and goes on:

They are also craftily scheming to quell people's hatred against imperialism, anti-imperialist sentiment mounting in various regions of the world by creating illusion about it.

If one harbors illusion about imperialism, taken in by such scheme, this will entail miserable consequences.

Illusion about imperialism may become a factor of inviting a war.

The imperialists are leaving no means untried to appease and deceive anti-imperialist and independent countries. They absurdly claim that they will give "aid" and "economic cooperation" to those countries if they accept brigandish demands raised by them to force the countries to disarm themselves.

The historical lesson teaches that if one makes one-step concession in face of coercion and appeasement policy of the imperialists, one will be compelled to make ten and a hundred-step concessions and, finally, leave everything to the tender mercy of the imperialists.

The imperialists perpetrate military intervention and war without any hesitation if they are sure that anti-imperialist and independent countries are unable to counter them after those countries are disarmed. To harbor any illusion about imperialism is a suicidal act of inviting a war.

If one has illusion about imperialism, one can neither augment national power nor defend the dignity of the nation.

The imperialists' persistent pressure upon anti-imperialist and independent countries to accept the policy of "reform" and "opening" while showing off their money bag is aimed to completely neutralize their national power and reduce them to neo-colonies.

By doing so the imperialists seek to create illusion about them and put the whole world under their domination and control.

If one harbors illusion about imperialism, one will become an idiot and the country and the nation will meet ruin.

Tuesday 18 November 2008

IMPRESSIONS OF KOREA-Irina Malenko

Irina Malenko
IMPRESSIONS OF KOREA. INTRODUCTION
Translated from Spanish by Jenny James
(previously translated from the original Russian)
It's not easy to convey first impressions of a visit to the People's Democratic Republic of Korea, especially because little time and energy were left after each day's intensive cultural programme during my stay there. It's a long time since I had such a busy programme during a journey - I would have to go back to the times of the Soviet Union! At that time our travels were also undertaken with the objective of getting to know as much as possible of new and unknown parts of the country in the short time we stayed there, not in order to get drunk and end up groggy or spend all day lying around like modern “tourists” do in the capitalist world.
I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit this country. Not everyone has this honour.
When I was getting ready for the journey, I told a Russian acquaintance of mine that soon I would be going to Korea. "To the normal one, or to the North?" she asked me, doubtless thinking that her comment was very funny. But is it actually funny that our people are being taught not to think for themselves and just repeat in a servile parrot-like fashion everything that is translated for them from the Western press by our so-called journalists?
Perhaps it is not 'normal' that the streets should be clean?
That you can walk around them safely by day or night?
That at nighttime they are not filled with the shouting of drunks, and that people don't soil the doorways?
That people can be completely happy without bars, casinos and brothels?
Perhaps it is not 'normal' that everyone gets up happily in the morning and with a sense of their own dignity goes to work without the fear of ending up redundant because of some workforce 'restructuring'?
Perhaps it isn't normal that shops should sell only what people need for their daily lives, and not loads of gadgets specially designed to suck as much money as possible out of their pockets?
Perhaps it's abnormal that the children should do sports, music and drawing, that they should help the grown-ups instead of begging, cleaning the cars of the rich or hanging around in corners sniffing glue, taking drugs and delighting in their own degradation? Perhaps it's abnormal that the children, even the very youngest primary school kids, can go alone to school without any danger or risk from being taken away by paedophiles or run over by drunken Mercedes drivers?
Is it abnormal that on TV, there are no stupid games, adverts or sex with violence?
Or that there are no homeless people and that people are not indifferent to the fate of the others? Or that there is no fear that you won't be able to pay your bills on time? Or that in the shops they sell goods made in one's own country? And so on, endlessly.....
If people really think that everything described above is abnormal, then our whole society urgently needs to visit a psychiatrist.
And then there are those who yell to heaven that a society which has all that described above is deprived of some mythical 'freedom'. If all that isn't freedom, then what is? The right to have the chance to choose between things or people which in practice bear no substantial distinguishing features one from the other? What is there to be gained from this 'choice', either for oneself or for society in general? Does this result in there being fewer homeless people, fewer hungry people, fewer dead from drugs or alchoholism? Do the children get a better education? Does a better future await them? Are there more jobs? Fewer orphans relegated to orphanages or fewer old people left alone? I don't think so...
I am not a sentimental person, more on the hard side. But I was nearly in tears, literally, good, happy tears, at seeing what I saw in Pyongyang. Anyone who says this is a 'poor country' has not seen real poverty. If you want to see that, come deep into the heartlands of Russia, where old people mill around picking through the garbage. Or to countries which are members of the civilized European Union, like Bulgaria and Rumania. Or even to part of the part of the prosperous kingdom of Holland, the island of Curacao.
It's a long while since I felt as calm and relaxed as I did in DPRK. In the streets I see normal people, well dressed, modest, working, happy with their lives, people who like to laugh at a good joke and who live a rich cultural life which is not within reach of the majority of the population in Western countries, people who in no way resemble the fanatical robots the Western press describes them as.
And as for tourists who say they feel 'restricted in their freedom' or who find DPRK 'boring', well why don't they just go to any place like Spain or Turkey and get drunk till they're sick if that is the only thing they find entertaining, and not besmirch this beautiful country with their presence.
IMPRESSIONS OF DPR KOREA
Part 1: "We are not jealous of anyone."
Once you have crossed the frontier between China and DPRK, the countryside changes as if by magic: instead of craggy mountains covered in trees with grey smoky cities dotted amongst them, suddenly there appear through the train window bright green of fields of rice, carefully divided one from another by rows of potatoes and maize.

Korea is a mountainous country, so there isn't much land for agriculture, and one gets the impression that here, every possible bit of it is planted and cultivated, including the hill-slopes where they grow maize and various types of vegetables in terraces which are at times at such steep angles it is impossible to imagine how the farmers manage to climb up there. Obviously, tractors in such parts are useless. So the land is worked by hand with the help of oxen. In the fields there is literally not a single weed, not even in those furthest from the roadways. Perfect fields.
What terrible stories we are told nowadays in the bourgeois press about DPRK! There is no sense in repeating all of them, just open any paper: "In Pyongyang they forbid people to hang curtains in their windows so they can know what is going on in the houses," or "in North Korea, public executions are carried out just for using a mobile phone" (of course we are not told who is executed or where or when these executions are carried out, nor, naturally, the sources of such 'information'). Just as in earlier times, according to the same press, in the USSR we didn't have trade unions, women only went to work because their husbands couldn't feed them, and women and children were 'socialized' by the evil Bolsheviks...
From the first moment in DPRK, I did not get the feeling of being in an impoverished dictatorship of the godforsaken 'Axis of Evil', as the 'democratic' press would have us believe, but rather I got an impression of constant celebration!
It is exactly 30 years since I saw similar lines of trees with their whitened trunks along the roadsides. The trams and trolley-buses here are much newer and cleaner than those in my 'democratized' home town in Russia and there is not a single broken seat. No-one writes rude words on the walls, either in the native language or in English. Right up to the present day, it is possible to swim in the rivers and drink spring water (something that really surprised the Western Europeans in our group) and the tap-water in Pyongyang can be drunk without any need to boil it first.
Pyongyang is a very green city. It's like one big park. Along its streets are mainly willow and poplar trees. There is a lot of water: two rivers flow through the city, forming islands in the middle. And for the first time in my life I saw modern multicoloured buildings several storeys high which are really nice-looking, original and different one from another!
As I already said, people in the street are well- and neatly dressed, and with good taste. Actually, many of them wear rubber boots when it rains, but there's nothing surprising in this. No-one throws rubbish in the street and so no waste-bins are to be seen. That reminds me of a poster on the wall in one of the dining rooms in Soviet times: "Cleanliness comes, not from cleaning a lot, but from not getting things dirty in the first place!"
The first thing that agreeably surprised us in Pyongyang was the silence and tranquility of the night-time. In contrast, early in the morning, you awaken to the sound of the street sweepers keeping the roads clean. Pyongyang is perhaps the cleanest city in the world. And during the course of the day, you see here and there people, including schoolchildren, who help to keep the city clean. Certainly, this pertains not only in the capital, we saw the same thing in the provinces, and also in the villages. Children plant flowers along the roadways and soldiers work in the fields with oxen and ploughs. Can you imagine a more peaceful scene?
Here no-one walks around carrying dozens of bags (if something heavy has to be carried, it is carried on the back in a rucksack) The faces of the people are friendly and jovial. There is little traffic in the streets (we mustn't forget the problems this small country has with energy supply, abandoned to its fortune by its chief allies and friends, and still it is capable of surviving and continuing, not only maintaining its independence, but developing itself in spite of all adversity). Many people go by foot, or by bicycle, they engage in sports and physical work, and for this reason practically no-one suffers from obesity. I think of what things are like in this respect where I live now ... One out of every four children in Ireland is overweight. And as for the adults, now they show on TV the following advert: "Please move yourself, even for half an hour a day! That would be enough to maintain a healthy life-style..."
By the way, as regards electric energy, in DPRK they are very thrifty: wherever possible, normal light-bulbs have been substituted for others with low consumption,- something which in the West it is only being thought about introducing,- and wherever there is no need for light, it is turned out immediately.
Koreans go about their business in the streets without being in a hurry, and there is no overcrowding in the public transport. The shops are full of products, but there are no queues like in our countries. Here, people go calmly into the shops when they need something. The capitalist system in the so-called developed countries, because of the laws inherent to its functioning, tends to accustom people to buy things they don't need at all, so that shopping becomes a passtime, one of their favourite activities, people become real 'shopaholics' and, like with any drug addiction, they feel satisfaction only for a short period of time after the shopping expedition, and then feel the irresistible need to go and buy something new, and they think that after that purchase they will finally understand the purpose of life and calm down. It is a terrible illness which drags people into an endless whirlwind of debts, credits and loans, after which many people work only to pay off their debts... And how can a person be 'free' like that? In fact, they are tied hand and foot, precisely what the system required of them!
The Koreans of DPRK happily know nothing of this terrible illness. But the variety of products in the shops is sufficiently wide and no-one swells up with hunger, as happens in the 'democratic' African countries. We were in different regions of the country, including agricultural areas, in a region where, if one is to believe the Western press, there should be hunger and we could see with our own eyes that these 'horror stories' are of the same type as those concerning Iraqi 'weapons of mass destruction.'
We met on many occasions with natives of the country and it never once occurred to me that any of our guides would prevent us from communicating with any of them. Naturally, there are places in the country which cannot be shown to foreigners, this used to be the case with us too (in USSR) and now I understand that this was absolutely correct. There hangs permanently over DPRK the threat of intervention from the imperialist United States, and up till now a peace accord has still not been signed between the two countries after the brilliant victory of the Korean people in the 1950-1953 war. There is only an armistice. The US does not want to sign documents guaranteeing a firm peace.
Actually, there are a lot of soldiers on the streets of DPRK, but you soon get used to their presence - it's an integral part of the reality of this small proud country. Here there is no selling of military uniforms or of war decorations of fathers and grandfathers. And here, there could never happen what happened in Yugoslavia when the army came out unharmed from NATO bombing, and yet Kosovo was handed to the enemy without any resistance...
Of course, the people in the streets often stare at foreigners, particularly the children, who wave and smile, and the military patrols in the streets, with impeccable politeness, direct military salutes at you. They are certainly not used to foreigners. In one year, a total of just a few hundred foreign tourists visit North Korea. But the problem is not with Korea, but with Western propaganda. By chance I saw an email message sent from home to one of the Western tourists present in Pyongyang: "When we heard where you were, we were immediately worried."
This same tourist can now confirm that there wasn't the least reason to be worried (perhaps it could be that in her native country she would have to be worried, after returning from here). Moreover, here you can leave your things, including valuables, with no worry at all in the hotel, or even in the bus during excursions and you have a 100% guarantee that no-one will take anything. Where else can you imagine a situation like that in one of the European countries? And children leave their bags in school when they go home for dinner.
Our guides told us that the more people who visit their country, the better: "If you know anyone else interested in seeing our county, tell them to come. We will be very happy. Anyone who sees our country with their own eyes, without exception, no longer believes that we have aggressive intentions or in any of the other inventions of Western propaganda." And in fact, how could one believe in them, when you make a mental comparison between Korean soldiers who till the earth and work on the building sites of their country, with unruly Yankee soldiers or those of other NATO countries, torturers and executioners of the civilian population in other people's lands?
At times I felt for a while as if I were at home. And it wasn't because there are so many Russian cars and other means of transport and that the streets are wide like in Moscow, or that the uniform of Korean officers is reminiscent of the Soviet unifrom, that many high-rise buildings are similar to the Soviet ones (only that, in contrast to the latter, they are painted in different pretty colours), and that the cinemas, like formerly at home, are decorated with handpainted posters showing the heroes of the films. No, the main reason lay in the people, in their way of life.
Everything was immediately recognizable - the school and work excursions to museums, to the circus, the voluntary unpaid work on Saturdays, the lists of honour (which show photos, for example, of the most outstanding workers in some activity) ... things which are difficult to explain to someone from the West, but which for us, brought up in the USSR, seem as natural as breathing. Just that we had forgotten about them somewhat, but after 2-3 days in Pyongyang, memories come crowding back like an avalanche, so that you can almost smell the familiar smell of your childhood home. Feelings too rushed in, ones that in the 'free' world you had to suppress carefully and over a long period, simply in order to survive. For example, loving people. Or the desire simply to be useful to society. And faith in the best in people, a faith that we almost lost after being more than 15 years constantly subjected to a life in which man is, in effect, a wolf towards his fellow man, and you can expect any nasty trick from him.
I saw a country in which every day was like the 1st May celebrations in the Soviet Union.
No-one of course can say that the Koreans have an easy or worry-free life.
"Imagine what would happen in your country if, from one day to the next, you lost all your economic relations with Germany, Holland, France, Great Britain.... Our country found itself in this situation at the beginning of the 90s," said a DPRK diplomat to his Belgian audience on the day of solidarity with his country. In that same period, several natural catastrophes occurred, resulting in the loss of the harvests. But finally, the country recovered from it, in spite of all difficulties related, not only to all these factors, but also to the economic sanctions imposed by the US. And when you see, in the Korean exhibition of the Three Revolutions (similar to our Exhibition of Economic Advances in the USSR), their own vehicles, whose production is carried out inside the country, and the pavilion dedicated to the first artificial DPRK satellite (whose existence the US denies up until this day: "This can't exist, because it can never exist"), inevitably you are filled with wonder at the tenacity and value of this small country.
Here they don't sell for millions of dollars places in space ships, and they don't make business out of selling the historical documents of the country. Korean experts work for the benefit of their country. They are not forced to become prostitutes offering their services to the highest bidder, like our scientists, for whom the state itself plays the role of pimp.
Having no worries is not at all synonymous with happiness. As Leon Tolstoy said, 'tranquility is spiritually despicable'. 'Let me live in peace' is the favourite slogan of egotists and career merchants of all times and nations.
But that kind of tranquility and trust in tomorrow are two different things. The latter you can breathe in all Korean streets.
DPRK is, effectively, the Russia that we lost. But better, morally cleaner, more natural. It is possible that our country was like this in the 50s. Unfortunately, I only know of those years through the tales of my mother. I was unlucky, I was born later. And afterwards, for many of us, it suddenly seemed 'boring to build socialism', and in place of this, people began to think of white trousers of the latest style, of beautiful exotic girls and trips to Rio de Janeiro. With such unfortunate consequences for our country....
I realized when here that on the other side of the frontier, they simply don't understand DPRK, above all because of their own cynicism and lack of principles. They simply can't imagine that there are people in the world who really believe in a bright future and who work constantly to build it, because they themselves, although at one time they mouthed pretty words about communisim, were only pretending. Or else they can in no way imagine what socialism is, how it is possible to care for others and not live just for the satisfaction of one's own most basic needs (like the taxi driver in Dublin who put to me the question as to why the people in the Soviet Union bothered to study to be doctors or teachers if doctors and teachers had the same wage as the workers...). And naturally, these people judge others exclusively according to their own frame of reference...
When people in other countries that have been here return to their homes, they won't find many people to listen to their positive impressions. Instead, people will react in surprise: "Is it possible? How quickly North Korean propaganda stuck to you. My goodness, the dictatorship must be really strong there!"
But friends, what propaganda? Slogans are slogans, and nothing would influence me as much as what I see with my own eyes, like the fact that the vast majority of the population lives a decent life, are happy with it and work diligently for it. If they were forced to labour, they would not work like that!
Observing the Koreans - small people, quite delicate to look at,- who in the Saturday voluntary work teams form a human chain all along the road and dig ditches for electric cables over a distance of several kilometres and well into the night and often on public holidays don't take a rest but work in the rice fields, you will be forced to remember those lines of Tihonov: "If you made nails out of these people, you wouldn't find any stronger nails in the whole world!" They really do have a love relationship with work, if you still have the capacity to imagine what that means.
When you see Koreans working, you feel that each person knows exactly what their task is, without any boss standing over him, and consequently, he does it well. What a contrast with our communal work teams of the 70s in Russia when, for example, people wanted to do what was necessary as quickly as possible and your companions left the brooms in a pile and went into a corner to chat. "And what about you? It's not worth the effort ... Come with us!" ... The fruits of these and other actions are still being harvested today.
And what is more, Koreans live like one big family. "Oh, they only work like slaves, for them there's nothing else to life!" say our young men nowadays, dreaming that 'their money will work for them' just as all the con men promise them, and in their imagination, happiness is 'lying on a beach in the Bahamas.' "That's why you live in cages" as a character in the film Kindza-dza (1988) says ... By the way, in DPRK, I never saw one place with bars in the windows. Or barred doors, like in Russia. There is no need for them.
They have everything they want in life. There are theatres, museums, circuses, sports halls and swimming baths, cultural centres and recreational parks, and everything accessible to everyone. There was a girl in military uniform walking along a country pathway reading a good book as she went. There are children playing musical instruments, dancing and laughing (whilst in the 'civilized' town where I live, her contemporaries die of drug overdoses, steal cars or burn somebody.) And there are young people playing chess. And old people who rest with dignity on park benches without having to worry abut being robbed by monetary reforms. And lovers who walk along the piers, holding hands and looking at each other tenderly, instead of drinking tins of beer and afterwards falling down any old place amongst the bushes...
Look around! Look at the fetid, filthy rubbish dump we have turned our own marvellous, beloved, unique country into! All of us, and not only evil-doers like Berezovski (the best known Russian oligarch, at present hiding in Britain). It was us that allowed him and others of his ilk to get power! What have we turned ourselves into in the name of the disease called the 'New Thinking', in which there is nothing new, only the usual selfishness and avarice. Look how we have turned Russia into merchandise, converting her into one big flea market, an enormous second hand market. Is no-one sorrowing for her? Is it possible we have reached such a degree of lack of self-esteem?
A long time ago, when I was still at school, when I was reading a magazine called 'Korea today' in Russian, this phrase engraved itself on my memory: 'We are jealous of no-one!' At the time it seemed to me, to put it mildly, an exaggeration. But today I was able, with my own eyes, to see the truth of this sentence. In effect, the Koreans have no reason to be envious of anyone infected by the virus of the most abject servility. We should be envious of them.....


Pyongyang, July 2007
Translated by Jenny James

Friday 7 November 2008

[Brief on the South Korea -US Combined Forces Command (CFC)]

[Brief on the South Korea -US Combined Forces Command (CFC)]


On November 7, 1978 the US and south Korean authorities formed the south Korea-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) under the cloak of seeking the so-called “operational efficiency of defense of south Korea”.

As a result, the US army could constantly exercise the rights of operational command and control over the south Korean army.

Real powers including the post of the combined forces commander are under the hands of the US occupation army of south Korea and almost all units under their command are consisted of south Korean army.

The combined forces commander is granted all commanding rights including making operation plans and information management, and has the jurisdiction over the wide aspects of military command and administration such as the scale, internal formation, weaponry system, military structure of the south Korean army.

In a nutshell, the CFC is an implement shackling the south Korean army in the command and control of the US army, and a local aggression body to carry out the US strategy of military hegemony.

This year the CFC directly commanded the war drills codenamed “Key Resolve” and “Ulji Freedom Guardian” and many other aggressive rehearsals for preemptive attack and aerial espionage acts against the DPRK.

Consequently, an acute military tension persists and a touch-and-go situation prevails on the Korean Peninsula .

On the occasion of the 30th year of the formation of the CFC the south Korean people raise their voice higher denouncing the US criminal moves to gravely threaten peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and block the wishes of the Korean nation for independent reunification and peace and prosperity, demanding the disbandment of the CFC at once and the withdrawal of the US imperialist troops from south Korea.

Notwithstanding, the Defense minister and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, pro-US anti-north maniacs, called in the CFC and let loose a spate of reckless remarks such as strengthening the “military alliance” and “the US army is blood-tied fellow soldiers, and the south Korea-US combined defense system is the best model”.

And worse more, traitor Lee Myong-bak who puts up the strengthening of the south Korea-US alliance as the state policy stages the provocative “Hoguk” exercises against the DPRK from October 30 to November 8 in collusion with the US

Monday 3 November 2008

KIM JONG IL



Socialism is a Science



Treatise published in Rodong Sinmun, organ of

the Central Committee of the Workers’ party of Korea

(November 1, 1994)



1

Socialism is a science. Socialism has been frustrated in a number of countries, but scientific socialism is as alive as ever in the minds of the people. The imperialists and reactionaries are fussing about the "end of socialism", with regard to the events in some countries, which had been building socialism. The renegades of socialism try to justify their despicable betrayal, claiming that the ideal of socialism itself is invalid. However, the truth cannot be concealed or obliterated. The crumbling of socialism in various countries does not mean the failure of socialism as science but the bankruptcy of opportunism, which has corrupted socialism. Although socialism is temporarily experiencing a heart--rending setback because of opportunism, it will without fail be revived and win ultimate victory for its scientific accuracy and truth.

Socialism is the ideal and the revolutionary banner of the popular masses who are fighting for independence. The masses achieve their independence by means of socialism and communism.

The people's independence was ruthlessly trampled upon in the hostile class society. Where there is oppression, there will be resistance; where there is resistance, revolution will break out. The popular masses have vigorously struggled to win their independence for a long time. During this, class societies have changed and the struggle of the masses for independence has developed. However, the only changes brought about when hostile class societies were replaced, were in the forms of oppression of the popular masses' independence; the masses were not freed from social and political subordinat1on.

The failure to attain the masses' independence in hostile class societies was because all these societies were based on individualism. Individualism is the product of private ownership. Society, based on private ownership and its product, individualism, inevitably splits into hostile classes, produces class antagonism and social inequality, and is accompanied by the exploitation and oppression of the popular masses by a small ruling class. History shows that independence for the masses cannot be realized in a society based on individualism. A historical review of the development of human society proves that, in order to realize the masses' independence, a society based on individualism must be replaced by a society based on collectivism, by socialism and communism.

Capitalism has turned individualism into the unlimited greed of a handful of capitalists; it has precipitated antagonism in the society of individualism to the utmost. Meanwhile, the masses' struggle for independence has entered a new stage of development. Ours is an age of independence, when the popular masses have emerged as masters of their own destiny, as masters who dominate the word. This show that the transition of a society based on individualism to a society based on collectivism is an inevitable demand of historical development.

Collectivism is man's intrinsic need. People can exist and develop only when they work as a social collative. People can transform nature and society and meet their desire for independence, not as individuals, but only through collective cooperation among members of society. If people are to live in a social collective, they must meet both their collative and individual demands for independence. The collective demand for independence is the common requirement of members of society for the existence and development of the social collective. The individual need for independence is the need as an equal member of a social collective; it is the need, which should naturally be met through collective efforts in return for his contribution to society. The individual need for independence fundamentally differs from selfish greed, which ignores the collective and subordinates everything to the interests of an individual. Both the collective and individual needs for independence can be satisfied to the fullest only through collectivism. Individual demand divorced from collectivism becomes selfish greed. Such greed encroaches upon the demands of other members of the collective for independence, and hampers the unity and cooperation of the collective. Collectivism alone makes it possible to strengthen the unity and cooperation of the collective, to simulate the creative zeal of all collective members and to properly combine both the collective and individual demands for independence and thus fully meet them. Because working in a social collective is the mode of man's existence, and because man's demand for independence can be satisfied only through collectivism, society based on collectivism, socialist and communist society, is the most progressive society, which conforms with man's independent nature.

Certainly, collectivist principles are not fully applied in al1 spheres of social life immediately after the establishment of a social list system, because in socialist society the vestiges from the old society remain for some time. The survival in socialist society of the remnants of the outmoded society is a Passing phenomenon. With the development of socialism, these vestiges are gradually overcome and collectivist principles are implemented more fully in all areas of social life.

Although socialism is an inevitable stage of historical development and socialist society is the most progressive one, which conforms to man's independent nature, socialism will never be realized spontaneously. In order to realize socialism, we must prepare the revolutionary forces capable of doing this and evolve a correct method of struggle. Unless the revolutionary forces and the method of struggle are prepared, the desire for independence of the popular masses who aspire after socialism will remain a mere wish.

The idea of eliminating exploitation, oppression and social inequality, as well as the private ownership on which these are based, and of setting up an equal society based on public ownership, was put forward by utopian socialists a long time ago. However, the utopian socialists, despite their sympathy for the misery of the exploited working masses, failed to see them as the revolutionary force capable of burying the exploitative society and building a new society. They considered that enlightening people and appealing to the "good will" of the exploiter class could correct the irrational aspects of capitalist society. It is an unscientific illusion to expect "good will" from the exploiter class, whose nature is greed. The utopian socialists' expectation of "good will" from the exploiter class was their historical limitation.

The exploiter class and their stooges put forward the "theory of class cooperation" and tried to block the struggle of the exploited working masses against exploitation and oppression. Within the communist movement, reformists and revisionists demanded "class cooperation" and seriously harmed the revolutionary movement, Today, traitors to socialism are also clamoring for a return to capitalism, harboring illusions about capitalism and expecting "aid" and "cooperation" from the imperialists. History shows that to expect "good will" or "class cooperation" from the exploiter class is to make a mess of the revolution.

Marxism combined the demands of working people who aspire to socialism, with revolutionary forces and a revolutionary fighting method. Marxism made clear that contradictions existed between the productive forces and relations of production in capitalist society; that these contradictions could be resolved through the class struggle of the exploited working people against the exploiter class; and that the working class would take charge of and led this class struggle. Thanks to Marxism, the inevitability of the collapse of capitalism and the victory of socialism was proved, and the demands of exploited working people who aspire to socialism were linked with practical revolutionary forces and a revolutionary fighting method capable of meeting their demands' Socialism was thus coned from a utopian scheme into a science, and a revolutionary change took place in the history humanity's struggle for liberation.

However, the theory of socialism in the preceding age, based on a materialist outlook on history, was not free from historical limitations. This theory did not regard the social and historical movement as a movement of the motive force, as a movement which begins and develops on the initiative and through the roe of the popular masses, its motive force, but as a natural historical Process which changes and develops due to material and economic factors. According to the materialist outlook on history, the mere the predictive forces develop in a capitalist society, the more intensive the incompatible contradictions between the productive forces and relations of production and the antagonism between the exploiter class and the exploited class grow, the mere the working class and other revolutionary forces develop in strength and, accordingly, the more the revolution matures. Seeing material and economic factors as fundamental in the revolutionary struggle, the preceding theory of socialism failed to raise the task of strengthening the motive force of the revolution and enhancing its role as the basic way to cap out the revolution.

As for the influence exerted by the development of productive forces in capitalist society, we must no approach it from only one side. The development of the productive forces in capitalist society intensifies the bipolar differentiation, which results from the increasing imbalance between rich and poor. It sharpens class contradictions, while at the same time; it provides the monopolists with increasing possibilities to spend part of their high profits on soothing class contradictions. In addition, the development of the productive forces results in the expansion of the ranks of industrial workers by their incorporation of peasants and other high bourgeois classes, and also in an increased proportion of worker engaged in mental and technical labour in the productive sectors, as well as those in nonproductive sectors.

Of course, objective conditions have a great influence on the revolutionary struggle. But the decisive factor in the victory of the revolution lies not in objective conditions, but in how to strengthen the motive force of the revolution and how to raise its role. Whether in a developed capitalist country or an underdeveloped one, socialism can emerge victorious if the motive force of the revolution is strengthened and its role enhanced through efficient work. History shows that socialism first triumphed in relatively backward countries, not in the countries where capitalism had developed. The experience of our revolution, which has advanced under the banner of the Juche idea, shows that if we strengthen the motive force of the revolution and enhance its role, we can not only avail ourselves of the given objective conditions but also to unfavorable objective conditions into favorable ones and ensure the victory of the revolution by turning a misfortune into a blessing.

The limitations of the preceding theory based on the materialist outlook on history have been revealed more clearly in the course of socialist construction since the establishment of the socialist system.

In general, the more a society develops, the greater the role played by the popular masses, the driving force of social movement, becomes. This is because their independent consciousness and creative ability increase with the development of society. The role of the popular masses as the driving force of social movement is raised to an unprecedented level in socialist society. Socialist society develops thanks to the creative power of the popular masses, which are at with a high level of consciousness and are united as one. In socialist society, the transformation of man, his ideological remolding, becomes a more important and primary task than that of creating the material and economic conditions of socialism. Only when precedence is given to the transformation of man, will it be possible to strengthen the driving force of the revolution and increase its role, and thus build socialism successfully. If the ideological remolding of the popular masses is regarded as and of secondary importance and the work of strengthening the driving force of the revolution and enhancing its role is neglected in socialist society, while attaching decisive importance to the objective material and economic conditions and concentrating only on economic construction, the building of socialism as a whole cannot be carried out properly and economic construction itself cannot avoid stagnation. These practices were very apparent in some countries, which had been building socialism in the past. Taking advantage of this, the renegades of socialism carried out "reforms" and committed counterrevolutionary acts, destroying the socialist economic system itself.

In the past, the founders of Marxism evolved socialist theory by putting the main stress on material and economic conditions. This is to do with the fact that it was regarded as an important historical task to disprove the bourgeois reactionary theory, which consecrated capitalism and preached its "eternity", while maintaining mysticism and fatalism. But now, the renegades of socialism are advocating the material-is-almighty doctrine and the economy-is-almighty doctrine in order to restore capitalism, of which they harbor illusions.

Putting socialism on a new, scientific basis was regarded as a very urgent task, not only to overcome the historical limitations of the Preceding theory of socialism, but also to defend socialism against all kinds of opportunist distortions and imperialist attacks.

The great leader comrade Kim Il Sung, who created the Juche idea and, on this basis, evolved an original socialist theory, successfully solved the historical task of putting socialism on a new scientific basis. The respected Comrade Kim Il Sung discovered the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything. He explained a new law, which governs social movement, the movement of the motive force, and he thus put socialism on a new, scientific basis. The socialist and communist cause as clarified by the Juche idea is the cause of the popular masses for their complete independence. Socialism as scientifically systematized by the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung is man-centered socialism and socialism centered on the masses. Ours is socialism where the popular masses are the masters of everything, where everything serves them, and which is developing through there united efforts. The Juche-orientated theory of socialism scientifically clarified the essence of socialism and the law governing its development, by placing man at the center. On this basis, the theory explained that if the building of socialism is to succeed, a vigorous struggle must be waged to occupy the two fortresses of socialism and communism, the ideological and material fortresses, and that here, absolute Precedence must be given to the struggle to take the ideological fortress.

The scientific accuracy and truth of the Juche orientated theory of socialism have been proved by the practical experience of our revolution. Our people began to wage the struggle for socialism in the backward circumstances of a colonial semi-feudal society. They had to carry out the revolution and construction under unusually difficult circumstances. Despite this, our Party could successfully blaze the trail for socialism by constantly making its main task that of firmly uniting the popular masses around the Party and the leader, organizationally and ideologically, as required by the Juche idea, thus strengthening the driving force of the revolution and enhancing its role. Our Party is increasing the political and ideological might of our revolution in every possible way by giving definite priority to the transformation, of man, to ideological remolding, in all work in the building of socialism, while at the same time, strengthening our self reliant national economy and defense. As a result, it is vigorously advancing the revolution and construction without vacillation, even under the present comp1ex circumstances. Practical experience clearly shows that our socialism, the embodiment of the Juche idea, is the most scientific and viable socialism.

Sunday 2 November 2008

Introducing the KOREA PUBLICATIONS EXPORT IMPORT CORPORATION

The Korea Publications Export Import Corporation is the main commercial distributor of
books,CDs,DVDS,and VCDs from the Democratic Peoples Republic.Its Beijing office provides a fast efficient service and are always very helpful.

One of the latest DVDs being distributed by the KPEIC is "Answer of Korea".

Please see the KPEIC website for details of publications

http://www.korea-publ.com/english/index.php?lx=KP

Saturday 1 November 2008

Joint ASSPUK and JISGE statement condemning Hoguk

ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF SONGUN POLITICS UK

London 31st of October
The Association For the Study of Songun Politics and Juche Idea Study Group of
England today issued a joint statement condemning the aggressive and provocative "Hoguk" exercise to be staged by the US imperialist aggressor forces and the south Korean puppet fascist armed forces from Sunday 2nd of November.

Noting that this involves 8,000 marines,generally regarded as the advance strike force of US imperialism we vehemently denounce this exercise as a grave threat to peace both in Korea but also in the world.

As the content of the exercise involves landing operations this can only be a rehearsal for the advance party of an invasion of the DPRK and attempt at seizing control of the DPRK and stifling people centred Juche Socialism by force of arms.It constitutes the rounding off of preparations to invade the DPRK and destroy it

Such an exercise is reckless and foolhardy in the extreme as it could provoke a nuclear armed conflict.It can be surmised that the US imperialists have several aims,firstly,intimidation of the DPRK into making concessions,secondy to stifle socialism in the DPRK,thirdly to create a shocking incident to distract from the ever worsening US economic crisis and also bolster the US far right wing represented by McCain in the US l elections.

These exercises go against the idea of the 6 party talks and also the June 15 and October 4th declarations.The exercises prove that the US imperialists are not sincere about relaxing tension on the Korean peninsula,

The Lee Myong Bak clique of south Korea must stop acting as flunkeys and mercenaries
and canon fodder for US imperialism and give up the idea of fighting their fellow
compatriots

We call on the US imperialists and south Korean puppets to halt these exercises at
once !

We stand should to shoulder with Peoples Korea the land of Juche dignified with
Songun the true people centred socialist country.We call on world progressives and
Juche idea and Songun idea followers to campaign against the aggressive Hoguk
exercise
KOREA IS ONE!
YANKEES OUT!
DOWN WITH LEE MYONG BAK PUPPET REGIME !
signed
Dermot Hudson
Official Delegate KFA UK
Chairman Juche Idea Study Group of England
President ASSPUK

Juche Idea Praised by British Figure

Juche Idea Praised by British Figure
Pyongyang, October 17 (KCNA) -- Dermot Hudson, chairman of the British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea who is on a visit to the DPRK, was interviewed by KCNA at Pyongyang Koryo Hotel on October 14.

The immortal Juche idea fathered by President Kim Il Sung serves as a great guiding idea in the era of independence, he said, and went on:

The birth of the Juche idea marked an event that brought about a revolutionary turn in developing the progressive idea of humanity and realizing the cause of independence.

The Juche idea serves as eternal guidelines which should be held fast to not only by the Korean people but the world progressive people in the revolution and construction.

The DPRK has won only victories as a powerful country defying the U.S.-led imperialists' moves to put it under their control because it has solved all the problems in an independent and creative way strictly guided by the Juche idea.

All the successes achieved in the DPRK are a striking manifestation of the great vitality of the Juche idea.

The Songun politics pursued by leader Kim Jong Il is a new political mode for firmly defending the destiny of the country and the nation and socialism and successfully realizing the human cause of independence in the world in which the high-handed policy of the U.S. imperialists prevails, he said, adding that the Korean people are dynamically advancing along the road of socialism and independence holding aloft the banner of Juche, the banner of Songun true to the leadership of Kim Jong Il.

British Figure Visits Pyongyang Mission of AINDF


British Figure Visits Pyongyang Mission of AINDF
Pyongyang, October 14 (KCNA) -- Dermot Hudson, chairman of the British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea, visited the Pyongyang Mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front (AINDF) Tuesday.

Staff members of the mission including its Chief Jo Il Min greeted the guest and had a friendly talk with him.

Jo said that many organizations for studying the Songun politics came into being against the backdrop of the south Korean people's deepening reverence for General Secretary Kim Jong Il and diverse activities are under way to support and study the Songun politics and widely introduce it.

He referred to the vigorous struggle waged by the south Korean people to preserve and implement the historic June 15 joint declaration and the October 4 declaration.

Dermot Hudson expressed full support to the AINDF and the south Korean people in their just cause of achieving the independent and peaceful reunification of the country under the uplifted banner of "By our nation itself".

At the end of the talk the chairman watched a multi media "Struggle is not over" introducing the south Korean people's struggle against the U.S. and the "government".

UK KFA Statement condemning Hoguk Exercise

The UK Korean Friendship Association and the Society For Friendship with Korea today
issued a joint statement condemning the aggressive and provocative "Hoguk" exercise
to be staged by the US imperialist aggressor forces and the south Korean puppet fascist armed forces from Sunday 2nd of November.

Noting that this involves 8,000 marines,generally regarded as the advance strike force of US imperialism we vehemently denounce this exercise as a grave threat to peace both in Korea but also in the world.

As the content of the exercise involves landing operations this can only be a rehearsal for the advance party of an invasion of the DPRK and attempt at seizing control of the DPRK and stifling people centred Juche Socialism by force of arms.Such an exercise is reckless and foolhardy in the extreme as it could provoke a nuclear armed conflict.It can be surmised that the US imperialists have several aims,firstly,intimidation of the DPRK into making concessions,secondy to stifle socialism in the DPRK,thirdly to create a shocking incident to distract from the US economic crisis and also bolster the US far right wing represented by McCain in the US presidential election.

These exercises go against the idea of the 6 party talks and also the June 15 and October 4th declarations.The exercises prove that the US imperialists are not sincere about relaxing tension on the Korean peninsula

We call on the US imperialists and south Korean puppets to halt these exercises at
once !
KOREA IS ONE!
YANKEE OUT!
signed
Dermot Hudson
Official Delegate KFA UK
vice president SFK UK
vice chairman Co Ordinating Committee of Friends of Korea of the UK
Chairman Juche Idea Study Group of England
President ASSPUK