| A seminar was held at the John Buckle Centre in south London to celebrate the 66th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) on October 10. The seminar at the London HQ of the RCPB (ML), called by the Friends of Korea co-ordinating committee, heard contributions from Korean solidarity activists on the achievements of the WPK and its great leaders Kim Il Song and Kim Jong Il, over the years. It was chaired by Dermot Hudson of the UK Korea Friendship Association and the discussion began with contributions from Michael Chant of the RCPB (ML), NCP general secretary Andy Brooks and DPR Korea London diplomat Mun Myong Sin on the importance and relevance of the Korean revolutionary experience to the world communist movement in the 21st century. The WPK was organized by the finest sons and daughters of the Korean people to guarantee that they would have a revolutionary political party to mobilize and lead the Korean people towards building an independent, sovereign socialist Korea. The WPK was born in the period when the Korean people were actively involved in the fight to reunify their divided country through their own efforts. The country had been divided by the U.S. immediately following the end of the Second World War, which occupied and imposed its brutal dictatorship in south Korea -- taking up where the Japanese militarists had left-off. The U.S. imperialists had in mind to use south Korea as a military launching pad for wars of aggression against China and the Soviet Union in the Cold War period, in its bid for world domination. The WPK faced its most severe test when the U.S. launched a war of aggression against the Korean people in June 1950 under the flag of the United Nations in order to maintain a divided Korea by force and to thwart the Korean independence and reunification movement. It was the leadership of the WPK, led by Kim Il Sung, which mobilized the entire Korean nation in the "Fatherland Liberation War" against the U.S.-led UN aggressors (including Canada) and defeated them. This despite the latter having more troops and weapons and using carpet bombing, illegal biological and chemical weapons and carrying out a large number of military massacres of civilians to terrorize the Korean people into submission. Almost four million Korean people, mostly civilians, were killed in that holocaust. The secret of the success of the WPK then as now is that its outlook, tactics and system are based on the Korean nation's own thought material and experience in waging struggle against foreign aggressors, most recently the Japanese colonialists and U.S. imperialists. This thought material is crystallized in the Juche idea put forward by Kim Il Sung, which is the guiding people-centred ideology of the DPRK which holds that the people are the motive and driving force of revolution and construction in all spheres. It is the people that are the masters of their own destiny and the work of the WPK is to make the Korean people conscious and to organize them to fulfil the goals of their nation-building project in the Juche spirit of releasing their creativity and relying on their own efforts. By imbuing the whole Party with the Juche outlook, rallying the Korean people around their Party and using the military as the main buttress of the Korean revolution by implementing the Songun (army-first) leadership of Comrade Kim Jong Il, the WPK has successfully led the people of the DPRK in making great strides in all spheres of socialist construction and development. This has meant raising the standard of living of the people, defending their independence and sovereignty against Anglo-American imperialism, thus contributing to peace on the Korean peninsula, while at the same time providing leadership to the Korean people's drive for peaceful, independent reunification. At the historic Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea held in Pyongyang on September 28, 2010, decisions were taken by the WPK to be in step with the current situation nationally and internationally. Since then, the WPK under the leadership of Comrade Kim Jong Il, has led the army and the people of the DPRK in achieving many successes in all spheres. In terms of economic production, this has meant putting the national economy on a modern footing and improving the people's standard of living. Several steel mills have increased production and a large fish farm for sturgeon and trout has been completed and brought into operation. Several hundred kilometres of canals and road have been built and new tidelands reclaimed. The Taedonggang Combined Fruit Farm and Kosan Fruit Farms have been expanded, new mines have been constructed and new housing stock has been built in Pyongyang and other cities. As well, new works in theatre and music have been produced. In 2012, the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung, father of socialist Korea and founder of the WPK will be celebrated. With the leadership of Kim Jong Il and the people's dedication to the socialist nation-building project, the DPRK led by the WPK will mark this auspicious anniversary by affirming itself as a thriving socialist nation, part of an unbroken string of victories since the founding of the Party to the present, made possible by the defeat of the Japanese imperialists and all other foreign interlopers. Message of Congratulations Adopted at the Seminar organised by Friends of Korea, October 6, 2011 (Juche 100) London, England To Comrade Kim Jong Il General Secretary, Workers’ Party of KoreaPyongyang Dear Comrade Kim Jong Il This Seminar convened to celebrate the 66th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers’ Party of Korea conveys to you its warmest and most fraternal greetings. It also wishes you the very best for your continued successes on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of your election as the General Secretary of the Party, and on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the formation of the Down-with-Imperialism Union by the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung. The DPRK has the inviolable right to defend its sovereignty and independence, and develop the human and material resources to do so. It is the US military presence which has been a threat to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula for more than 60 years, since the division of the nation following the Second World War. The aspiration and task taken up for solution by the Korean people, under your leadership and that of the Workers’ Party of Korea, is to reunify and denuclearise the Korean Peninsula under the banner of “By our nation itself”, which reflects the united will of the Korean people. Korea Is One! These are difficult times for the world’s peoples, but the continued defence by the DPRK of its sovereignty, and its refusal to conciliate with the arrogant bullying of US imperialism, is a very great contribution to the people’s struggles. Our hearts go with you every step of the way in your great work. The work of progressive people in Britain, in this regard, is to counter the slanders and disinformation spread about the DPRK, and to unite everyone in solidarity and friendship. US imperialism, closely supported by the British government, is escalating military tension on the Korean Peninsula, and our struggles here are also to hit at this Anglo-American chauvinism and trouble-making. The Workers’ Party of Korea under your leadership is the sure weapon to defend the achievements of the Korean people and to thwart all the plans of Anglo-US imperialism to stifle and wipe out the beacon of the DPRK. May we wish you on this occasion good health and long life, and assure you that we stand shoulder to shoulder with you in our common cause of building a new world, the world of peace, independence and socialism. With warmest fraternal regards Seminar organised by the Co-ordinating Committee of Friends of Korea |