UK KFA refutes the smears and slanders of the "Independent"

UK KOREAN FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION

On January 22nd the "Independent " newspaper carried an article "His dear leader: Meet North Korea's secret weapon - an IT consultant from Spain" about the Korean Friendship Association , Alejandro Cao De Benos the KFA president and the international KFA meeting hosted by UK KFA. The article is full of smears, lies and inaccuracies. The writer of the article had promised to let KFA see a draft of the article but this never happened.
The DPRK itself is subjected to all the old tired burnt out discredited propaganda cliches , "totalitarian"(what does that mean when its at home ?) "paranoid" "isolated" The Independent journalist needs to know that far from being isolated the DPRK has diplomatic relations with more than a 100 countries and good relations with neighbouring countries such as Russia and China which the late great leader comrade Kim Jong Il visited last year. As to paranoia the DPRK needs to be ever vigilant against provocations from the US which keeps 30,000 troops and 1000 nuclear weapons and also the south Korean puppets plus Japan which is remiltarising itself and has designs on the Korean peninsula. The old porky about 'famine' is also repeated, even though numerous eye-witness know this is not true and that members of KFA and the JISGE and ASSPUK who have been to the DPRK and seen the reality of the DPRK can testify to the falsity of this (see the book "Behind the Mirror of Lies-The Truth About the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ).
The writer of the article seems to not know his way around London as he described the meeting as being held in 'Camden,north London ' when in fact it was held in central London. The article claims that only 20 people attended the meeting but in fact there were more than that. The proceedings of the meeting distorted by just quoting part of Alejandro's speech . n fact there were many questions and wide-ranging discussions on numerous subjects such as housing in the DPRK, the evironment, foreign trade, the nuclear issue, religion and spirituality .
The "Independent " also falsely claimed "Though many in the audience wore militaristic attire", actually no one in the audience was in militaristic clothes. Only 2 people wore 'Kim Il Sung suits' which are civilian clothing in the DPRK .
The writer also tried to equate KFA with " – medieval role players, American Civil War re-enacters, Japanese anime obsessives – the KFA's members seem not completely at home in their own world, seeking instead a deeper affinity with a distant, idealised time or place". In fact KFA members are drawn with all walks of life and have jobs and families . Our membership includes councillors, charity workers, teachers etc.
Un-named sources are used to make claims about KFA trips to the DPRK . This reminded one of much of the reporting on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe during the cold war which used to repeat wild allegations from un-named "diplomatic sources" , of course this really meant spies .
The worst venom in the article in reserved for Alejandro himself . Much of this is not worthy of discussion and has been said before. It included rather pathetic attempts at amateur psychology . Such things did not hold water in either criminal and civil law.
The "Independent " has shown itself not be independent , it is just like the rest of the imperialist media and represents corporate interests, independent of what exactly ? Independent of good journalism and accuracy !
UK KFA will fight on to tell the truth about the DPRK and will ignore the
lying media.
UK KFA