Monday 27 November 2017

Opening Speech of Shaun Pickford of Staffordshire KFA to the UK KFA Staffordshire and north Midlands Regional Meeting 25.11.2017

I wish to welcome everyone who has come along to this meeting of the Staffordshire Branch of the UK KFA. The Korean Friendship Association since its foundation in the year 2000, has expanded both its membership and its influence internationally, The KFA in Britain has grown in terms of its internet and practical activities, the UK KFA now have branches in many parts of the country. Our organisation the Korean Friendship Association is a broad based one, encompassing members of various political parties and people who are non-affiliated. We have within our ranks Trade Unionists, Peace Campaigners, and persons who are interested in travel and culture.

I along with David Munoz and Dermot Hudson was privileged to have visited the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in April of this year. I saw a country which was progressing on the socialist path, looking after all its citizens. At that time, the DPRK was being threatened by the first of many ultimatums issued by Donald Trump, but the Korean people were never intimidated or browbeaten by these threats, to carry on the work of building a thriving socialist country. Indeed the highlight of the visit was the April 15th military and parade marking the 105 birth anniversary of President KIM IL SUNG, where I saw the DPRK Leader Marshal KIM JONG UN on the reviewing platform.

Over the past year, the Trump Administration has brought the situation in Korea and the world to the brink of nuclear war. The DPRK has proposed a peaceful solution to the current crisis, only to have been met with more warmongering from the US side. North Korea wants peace and peaceful reunification, but will never surrender its independence, sovereignty and national dignity to nobody. The United States has stationed in south Korea 40,000 troops and around a thousand nuclear warheads, that is why the DPRK has been forced to develop its own nuclear deterrent. Solidarity has never been so vital as now with the just cause of the Korean people, that is to overcome the flood of lies and disinformation about the DPRK propagated by the Western Media.

Stoke On Trent, where this meeting is held today, has many proud proletarian traditions, a city where the mass democratic movement of Chartism flourish and where Fanny Deakin led the Hands Off Russia Movement, a city in which the workers in the mining and ceramic industries fought for their rights. Back in 2003, the UK KFA held a successful gathering in the city hosted by the Workers' Educational Association and I trust that this meeting will prove to be as equally as productive. On a pedantic note, the meeting is not being held in one of the six towns, however the event is staged in the City of Stoke On Trent as entirety.

Can I now introduce Dermot Hudson. Dermot has been to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea 14 times in total and has visited many cities and provinces in Peoples Korea. In 2016, Dermot Hudson was awarded a Doctorate in Juche Philosophy by the Korean Association of Social Scientists. Dermot has authored many books on the DPRK and on the Juche Idea, including "The Great Succession" and "In Defence of Peoples Korea". Dermot Hudson has made several television appearances promoting the DPRK and explaining the Korean situation on such programmes as the "Victoria Derbyshire Show" and "The Daily Politics", plus he was interviewed by a local travel writer on YouTube in May 2016.

No comments: