DPRK-Cuban Relations -special article by Dr Dermot Hudson

                                                     

                                            

  Comrade Fidel Castro Ruz was the outstanding leader of the Cuban people and a prominent political activist who made distinguished contributions to accomplishing the cause of independence against imperialism, the cause of socialism and justice, as he honorably defended the sovereignty and dignity of the country, established the socialist system where the people became the genuine masters for the first time in the Western Hemisphere and devoted all his life to the prosperity of the country and the happiness of the people"
                                                      KIM JONG UN
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea set a three day mourning period when comrade Fidel Castro passed away. Dear respected Marshal KIM JONG UN himself not only sent a condolence message but visited the Cuban Embassy in person to pay respects. Other senior party and government officials visited the Cuban embassy to pay respects .
   The closeness of the Korean and Cuban revolutions which is ignored often by so called progressives.Some like to dwell on the big geographical distance between the two countries and the differences in cultures and things like the fact the DPRK produces rice whereas Cuba produces sugar.Others have a mistaken perception as to what the Cuban revolution is about.
 There is a deep relationship between the two revolutions and a friendship between the leaders of the two revolutions as significantly Che Guevara,Fidel Castro and Osvaldo Dorrictos have all visited the DPRK.
                     

    To this day the DPRK maintains the closest ties with Cuba. After the 7th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea(WPK) in May  WPK  vice-Chairman Kim Yong Chol visited Cuba to brief Cuban leaders on the 7th Congress of the WPK. In June 2013 the chief of general staff of the Korean People's Army paid a visit to Cuba .
    One reactionary American writer Joseph S Bermudez despite the maligant rubbish he turned out managed to notice some very close parallels between the Korean and Cuban revolutions.Firstly he noticed that both commandante Fidel Castro and the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG  were both 33 years old when their respective revolutions triumphed.Comrade KIM IL SUNG was probably the youngest leader in the socialist camp in 1945 and indeed so was Fidel Castro in 1959.Bermudez also noted that both revolutions had truimphed as a result of armed struggle rather than  strikes,petitions,demonstrations etc.
   To make a much deeper and wider analysis than a reactionary like Bermudez,both revolutions had advanced independently as a reflection and an embodiment of the will of the popular masses in their own countries.
    Both revolutions had to it out themselves without external support.The Korean revolutionaries under the leadership of comrade KIM IL SUNG formed the Anti Japanese Peoples Guerilla Army and captured weapons from the Japanese aggressors.The Cuban revolutionaries under Fidel Castro captured US made weapons from the reactionaries,Fidel later declared that the Cuban revolution had not been imported from somewhere.
   Cuba was deeply inspired by the example of the Korean revolution and its armed struggle.In 1968 the World Cultural Congress in Havana adopted the document “The Anti Japanese Armed Struggle of the Korean People Organised and Waged Under the personal guidance of comrade Kim Il Sung”.Fidel was greatly inspired by the robust independence of the Korean revolution was moved him to say ‘The influence of the Korean revolution upon the peoples in Latin America and in other regions is beyond estimate”
   Just as the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG  had to fight against factionalists and worshippers of great powers and also revisionists,Fidel also had to fight against dogmatists in the old style Cuban Communist party leadership which opposed the Cuban revolution.
    Cuba established diplomatic relations with the DPRK on the 2nd of August 1960.The great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG said
‘Now Cuba has become an island of revolution and her armed people have thrown off the colonial yoke’
 Comrade KIM IL SUNG recognised the importance of the Cuban revolution as it meant a breach had been made in the imperialist system in the Western hemisphere.Cuba had carried out a revolution and was building socialism in the so called backyard of the US.
   A strong militant friendship developed between Cuba and the DPRK.The WPK spoke of Cuba as the Western outpost of the socialism whereas the DPRK was the far eastern outpost of socialism.So another parallel could be seen and of course Cuba was a beacon for Latin America whereas the DPRK was a beacon for Asia.
   The militant revolutionary fraternal friendship sealed by deeds as well as words.In 1962 the US Imperialist provoked the Caribbean crisis,and in one of the more shabbier and shameful acts of his rule the revisionist Khruschov betrayed Cuba.Because of the threat of war was imminent many foreign embassies withdrew from Cuba but comrade KIM IL SUNG instructed the Embassy staff and their families to arm themselves and fight to the end. The DPRK actually sent a KPA General to  Cuba as its ambassador. DPRK students studying in Cuba also armed themselves ready to fight.The DPRK gave political and military assistance, while sending food and  tractors as well as a group of authoritative technicians.. The DPRK also publicly supported the 5 -point demands of Premier Fidel Castro which included the US withdrawal from Guantanamo. The DPRK press denounced Khrushov for his capitulationism and cowardice.
  Later in 1986 the DPRK supplied Cuba with 100,000 automatic rifles at cost price , this was at a time when the Soviet revisionists in the grip of Gorbachov's perestroika were in the processs of ending their military assistance to Cuba.
  Significantly one of the first Cuban leaders to visit the DPRK was the immortal Major Ernesto Che Guevara who visited the DPRK on the 2nd of December 1960.Che praised the DPRK as the socialist country he liked best(and indeed some vile reactionaries castigated Che for this and some friends of Cuba ignore this remark).Che was clearly influenced by the DPRK’s model of development because for the period he was in charge of the Cuban economy he tried to create a self reliant economy with heavy industry at is core,very similar to the DPRK.
   Che’s death in Boliva was recognised as a big loss not only to the Cuban people but also the world revolutionary people and the Korean people.The great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG  wrote a special article for “Tricontinental” magazine on the 8th of October 1968 one year after the death of Major Guevara in battle.He said “The revolutionary activities of Che Guevara made a tremendous contribution to further consolidating the truimph of the Cuban revolution and stepping up the advancement of the Latin American revolution as a whole..........
The truimph of the Cuban revolution is the first victory of the Socialist revolution in Latin America and a continuination of the Great October revolution in Latin America....

Che Guevara is not with us now.But the blood he shed will never be wasted.His name and everlasting revolutionary exploits he performed will go down in the history of the liberation struggle of mankind and his lofty revolutionary spirit will be immortal.There will appear thousands,tens of thousands of Che Guevaras on the scene of decisive battle.In this work comrade Kim Il Sung said that the dictatorship of the proletariat should become a worldwide system.
   The DPRK always marks October 8th the day Che died..Also earlier this year on the 17th June a meeting was held in Pyongyang to mark the 80th anniversary of the birth of Che Guevara.KCNA said that Che Guevara was “an indomitable revolutionary fighter who dedicated his all to the freedom and liberation of the oppressed people under the uplifted banner of anti imperialist,anti US struggle”.The DPRK produces posters and stamps of Che.
    As well the DPRK honouring and revering Cuban revolutionary leaders,the Cuban leadership holds the DPRK revolutionary leaders in high esteem.
Comrade Fidel Castro on his 1986 visit to the DPRK praised the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung as the ‘wise guide of the Korean revolution’,years earlier Fidel said of comrade Kim Il Sung
“Comrade Kim Il Sung is one of the most distinguished,outstanding and heroic socialist leaders of the present world.His history is one of the most beautiful histories of a revolutionary serving the cause of socialism”  Recently in May comrade Raul Castro Ruz  said "Kim Jong Un is identical to

Kim Il Sung, the founder of the WPK, and his writing style clearly proves that he is full of wisdom and enthusiasm."

                     

  

  The DPRK-Cuba relationship is sealed by ties of blood. As long as Cuba remains on the road of socialism and militant anti-imperialism  the strong friendship between Cuba and the DPRK developed by the great leader comade KIM IL SUNG and comrade Fidel Castro Ruz will be invincible , unbreakable and eternal.
Dr Dermot Hudson
ASSPUK
JISGE
UK KFA
Member of International Committee For the Study of Songun Politics