On the 9th of November it was the 30 anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall . This is something celebrated by the US imperialists , reactionaries, fascists and liberals but is cursed by communists , socialists , progressives and anti-fascists. The US imperialist monopoly mega corporation , which brainwashes people and spies on them , used an image of a garden wall falling down with a couple embracing to celebrate the destruction of socialism in East Germany .
The fall of the Berlin Wall,which was described as ‘an anti-fascist protection barrier ‘ by the people of the former German Democratic Republic was symbolic of the reactionary counter-revolution that destroyed socialism in eastern Europe and created a new form of anti-communism and anti-socialism. The fall of the Berlin Wall was a disaster for the people of the former Geman Democratic Republic(GDR) , it brought about unemployment , price rises, poverty and homelessness . It also caused the revival of neo-nazi-ism in eastern Gemany , Germany as a whole and Europe in general .Some comparisons have been made between the situation on the Korean peninsula today and situation in Germany 30 years ago . Of course both Korea and Germany were divided countries and both the former German Democratic Republic and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea were socialist countries and of course the DPRK 30 years on is a socialist country . However , comparisons are misleading . In the 2nd World War Nazi Germany had been an aggressor nation and an imperialist country whereas Korea was a colony of Japanese imperialism .
Yes both the GDR in the past and today’s DPRK have socialist systems . The GDR for whatever faults it was a socialist state , a worker-farmer state and anti-fascist state on German soil .It guaranteed full employment for its citizens and most East Germans regret the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the GDR, Rather than unification , it was the annexation of the GDR by imperialist West Germany . Herein lies one crucial difference whereas West Germany (although it was occupied by American and British troops) was an imperialist country , a monopoly capitalist state, south Korea is a colony of US imperialism , a dependent neo-colonial regime .
There were big differences between the socialism of the old GDR and the DPRK. The DPRK's socialism is independent , Juche-based and not a copy of any other country. The DPRK does not have a single foreign soldier on its soil . It never joined the old Council For Mutual Economic Assistance(CMEA) or the Warsaw Pact. The GDR however was a member of both the CMEA and Warsaw Pact .It had Soviet troops on its soil .It was said that when it rained in Moscow , people in East Berlin carried umbrellas . The DPRK attached great emphasis to ideological work whereas the GDR did not and was flooded with Western imperialist culture and ideology , as were in fact many other European socialist countries .I traveled through the GDR in 1988 , of course it is hard and probably not fair to make a comparison with the DPRK based on only 6 hours in the GDR , however I noted the following :bored looking border guards, people wearing American-style clothing and a drunk on a railway station. The people of the DPRK by contrast are enthusiastic and militant .
The mainstream media does not like to talk about the Wall that divides Korea nor do they call for its demolition . This is because it was built by the south Korean puppets and US army back in 1979.It is 5-8 m high, 10-19 m wide at the bottom and 3-7 m wide on its top.It was built at a huge cost.
The wall severed 122 villages, 8 counties, 3 railways and more than 220 big or small roads and rivers and streams between the north and the south, to say nothing of mountains and plain areas.
Now it stands a grim symbol of Korea's division. It is a monument to the serious crime that has been inflicted on the Korean people by the US imperialists , the crime of dividing the homogeneous Korean nation with a history of 5,000 years It was built to keep Korea divided and to keep out any influence on south Korea from the DPRK . It is the height of hypocrisy for the imperialists to talk about the ‘fall of the Berlin Wall’ whilst keeping a wall to divide Korea .
The US imperialist ‘Washington Post ‘ wrote in a sanctimonious tone of the division “between the totalitarian North led by Kim Jong Un and the democratic, modern South.”. This is a grave slander on the supreme leadership of the DPRK and the Juche-based socialist system ! It prettifies the rotten , reactionary neo-colony in south Korea . South Korea is a colony of the modern type , which is occupied by US troops and even pays the US for the privilege of being occupied . In contrast the DPRK is sovereign and independent ,once described as a country with ‘undiluted sovereignty ’ . The DPRK does not pay money to another country to be occupied by their soldiers ! South Korea is not democratic but has endured many decades of fascist rule .Although a liberal is now in power in south Korea , the National Security Law which represses communist ,leftist and pro DPRK activities , is still in force . People are repressed for supporting Juche and reunification.
It is south Korea where people suffer poverty . In south Korea there are 7 million homeless households or 45 percent of the population have their existence seriously threatened. Those people who are unable to pay house rent live in a small room of 0.5-1 metres shanties, tents, containers and huts and even in caves. They number as many as 680 000 families. There ae 8.6 million semi-unemployed people such as temporary and daily workers who live on their meagre wages earned through daily or few months' work. More than half of university graduates become jobless right after their graduation.
The DPRK has a people-centred socialist system which not only guarantees the right to work but gives people virtually free housing , free medical care , free education , cheap food and low cost public transportation ( did you know that the cost of a ticket on the Seoul Metro is 30 times more than the Pyongyang Metro ! ) .
Visiting the DPRK recently we saw that Juche socialism is alive and well ! The DPRK is not the old GDR and is here to stay ! Reunification in Korea can only come about on the basis of independence and Juche .
Dr Dermot Hudson
Chairman Juche Idea Study Group of England
President Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK
Chairman UK Korean Friendship Association
Chairman British Solidarity Committee for Peace and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula
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