During our recent visit to the DPRK,in October 2019 we discussed anti DPRK propaganda with our good friend Professor Kim Chang Gyong of the Korean Association of Social Scientists . We informed him of the efforts of south Korea-based US writer B R Myers to smear the great Juche idea , tarnish the DPRK's reputation and undermine support for the DPRK . Professor Kim was shocked to hear that Myers has peddled the myth that the Juche idea is based on 'racial nationalism' . Professor Kim urged us to counterattack Myers so I have written this essay which incorporates an earlier article.
9 years ago in 2010 Myers published the book " The Cleanest Race " . The book and other materials by Myers are used to attack the DPRK , it is really part and parcel of imperialism's psychological warfare against the DPRK , only of a most insidious kind that basically turns black into white .Myers teaches at a south Korean university and is a contributor to the reactionary imperialist press of the US. Basically Myers is on the payroll of the south Korean puppets and US imperialism.He is actually the son of a US army officer who was part of the US occupation forces in south Korea.
Myers's book claims that the DPRK is based on extreme racial nationalism and this is somehow rooted in Japanese fascism. This is a most profound insult to the DPRK and its supreme leadership. As everyone knows that the DPRK was born of the struggle to free the country from Japanese imperialism. Many anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters fell in the fight against Japanese fascism . Indeed the great leader President Kim Il Sung lost many family members in the struggle against Japanese imperialism and fascism, his father, mother, uncle, younger brother and cousin. How on earth could the DPRK be based on something that its founding father fought against so hard for 20 years? It does not stand to reason.
Japanese imperialism did a great deal of damage in Korea and was hated and rejected by all Korean people as the great leader president Kim Il Sung said
" the Japanese imperialist marauders harshly exploited and repressed the Korean people. They considered ours an "inferior nation", and allowed no Korean to participate in the management of factories, enterprises and state establishments.
The Japanese imperialists took under their wings only a handful of pro-Japanese elements and traitors to the nation who, divorced from the people, had become their faithful stooges.
They tried to destroy our national culture with its 5,000-year old history, and imposed upon our nation the Japanese language, Japanese customs, Japanese culture and the Japanese religion called "Shintoism", for the purpose of paralysing the national consciousness of the Korean people.
With the liberation of our country from Japanese imperialist rule in August 1945, the days of insult and slavery, the bitterness of which penetrated our nation to the bone, came to an end and the wide road to a new life was opened before the Korean people."
(KIM IL SUNG " The Political Situation in North Korea 21st April 1948)
It is quite inconceivable that the DPRK would be in any way influenced by an ideology that regarded Korean's as an inferior nation.
When Korea was liberated in 1945 as a result of the armed struggle led by the great leader President Kim Il Sung he stated that one of the main tasks confronting the Korean people was to eliminate all traces of Japanese imperialism
"At present, the Korean revolution is at a stage where it must sweep away the survivals of Japanese imperialism and feudalism and build a new, democratic society, that is, at the stage of anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution."
(KIM IL SUNG "On the Question of the National United Front" 22 December 1945).
Furthermore he stated 'that the general ideological mobilization campaign for nation building was a great ideological transformation to eliminate all degenerate and decadent customs and attitudes to life, a leftover from Japanese imperialism, fully develop the spirit and features, morality and fighting efficiency required of the workers of a new and democratic Korea, and create wholesome and vibrant national stamina. He instructed that this campaign be conducted by the methods of ideological struggle and ideological education in close combination with the people’s practical struggle to build the new country.'
(KIM IL SUNG CONDENSED BIOGRAPHY 2001)
In the DPRK all traces of Japanese rule were obliterated. Fascist organisations were actually prohibited by law in the DPRK in the 1940s . The 20-point Platform of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea announced by President KIM IL SUNG on the 23rd of March 1946 stated that the new government should 'strictly ban the activities of fascist ,anti-democratic parties and individuals '. It should be noted that in the US and south Korea (and indeed other imperialist countries) that fascist parties and organisations freely operate.
However in south Korea the US occupiers made the former collaborators of Japanese imperialism their collaborators and gave them high positions. One of them was Park Chung Hee the military fascist dictator of the 60s and 70s who was a lieutenant in the Japanese Army (his daughter Park Geun Hye was the chief executive of south Korea until removed from power in 2017). In south Korea laws such as the repressive "National Security Law" are modeled on the old Japanese colonial laws . It is south Korea which has been experienced several decades of fascist rule both civilian and military . Ironically this is where Mr Myers is teaching and receiving a salary (we wonder just how much he is paid by the south Korean puppets) from the south Korean authorities . South Korea has not one but several Hitler bars and restaurants , have these escaped the notice of Mr Myers.
Myer's argument is a clumsy and intellectual fraudulent one which actually equates 'nationalism' or chauvinism in imperialist countries with the anti-imperialist revolutionary nationalism of oppressed countries. Thus in the twisted world view of Mr Myers in which the victim is seen as the same as the aggressor.
In today's world it is actually US imperialism that represents a form of fascism or international dictatorship as it tries to impose its will on the world through its so-called "New World Order " and its "coca-cola-isation and "McDonald-isation " which tries to obliterate the culture and national identities of other countries. The US imperialists seek to 'globalise' the world and create a world state. The DPRK is one of the few countries to stand up to this and should be applauded.It can also be added that Myers is deeply hypocritical in trying to criticise and throw stones at the DPRK because his native US is a society where racism and discrimination are rampant , a society where black people are gunned down by the police.
The idea of Mr Myers on the DPRK being somehow rooted in Japanese fascism is also a modern form of the old Cold War myth created by the ideologists of the CIA that somehow communism and fascism are the same
Myers tries to tar the DPRK with the brush of chauvinism and" racial nationalism " (ie extreme racism ) .However the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL made it clear that this was not the case
" We should distinguish clearly between true nationalism that loves the nation and defends its interests and bourgeois nationalism that advocates the interests of the bourgeois class. Bourgeois nationalism reveals itself as national egoism, national exclusivism and big- power chauvinism in the relationship between countries and nations; it is reactionary in that it creates antagonism and disagreement between countries and nations, and checks the development of friendly relations between the various peoples of the world."
(KIM JONG IL "On Having a correct understanding of Nationalism" February 2002)
Moreover
"the excellence of our nation that we emphasise has nothing in common with with racism or national chauvinism.
We do not assert that Korean's biological constitution is more developed than those of other races. Defining the superiority of a nation according to biological or ethnic characteristics is the practice of reactionary bourgeois
'ethnology"
('KIM JONG IL "Let Us Highly Display the Korean-Nation First Spirit 28 December 1989)
and
"Reactionary racism and national chauvinism which were used by the imperialists as ideological instruments of aggression and domination have been rejected by progressive humanity.....our nation first idea which is thoroughly opposed to reactionary racism, national chauvinism and cosmopolitanism not only values the the good traits of different nations but also respects the independence of other nations"
(KIM JONG IL "Let Us Highly Display the Korean-Nation First Spirit 28 December 1989).
Earlier President KIM IL SUNG in a 1969 speech strongly condemned racism saying that " the imperialists make every effort to estrange the working class of the metropolitan countries from the people's of the colonies.They maneuver to poison the working class with stinking ideas of racism and national chauvinism "
(KIM IL SUNG Progressive Journalists of the Five Continents, Wield Your Powerful Revolutionary Pen and Sternly Condemn U.S. Imperialism.)
It was significant that these remarks were made a year after J. Enoch Powell's infamous 'rivers of blood ' speech in the the UK which saw an upswing in racism and a growth in far right and fascist organisations. It was also at this time the DPRK cultivated relations with the US Black Panther Party , an organisation fighting for the liberation of black people in the imperialist United States. Thus the DPRK has an impeccable anti-racist record.
Myers and other hack writers claim that the DPRK maintains racial purity . However the DPRK Law of Nationality of October 9th 1963 states that 'foreigners can acquire DPRK nationality by their request regardless of nationality and races '(Article 6 ) . The right of DPRK citizens to marry foreigners is protected by Article 7 of the DPRK Nationality Law which stipulates that DPRK citizenship is retained if someone is married to a non DPRK citizen. It is a myth that mixed marriages are forbidden in the DPRK and in fact some Japanese women married to DPRK citizens settled in the DPRK , some of them have been admitted to the Worker's Party of Korea , the ruling party of People's Korea. The famous US defector the late Joe Dresnok lived in the DPRK from the 1960s and was married to a DPRK citizen. The sons of Joe Dresnok actually serve in the Korean People's Army.
In 1945 President KIM IL SUNG told the Japanese communist leader Sanzō Nosaka that "And as for the Japanese people ,who wish to stay in north Korea ,we will provide them with jobs according to their wishes an aptitudes and take necessary measures for making their life stablized.This is humanitarian work that we have to do"
(KIM IL SUNG Complete Works Vol 1 p 415).
Given that Japan had committed severe crimes against the Korean people it would be quite understandable that Korean people would feel extreme animosity towards Japanese people and would want any Japanese person expelled from Korean soil . However President KIM IL SUNG let those Japanese who wanted to stay in the DPRK stay and even made sure they were given jobs. This is hardly racism . Moreover President KIM IL SUNG explained to Sanzo Nosaka that " The Korean people never regarded the Japanese people as their enemy.It is Japanese imperialism that they have been regarding as their enemy and fought against "
(KIM IL SUNG Complete Works Vol 1 p 415
The DPRK has a very proud internationalist record. It has assisted many liberation struggles throughout the world and given material assistance to some countries. Guided by the Juche idea , the DPRK has always been internationalist , it has supported revolutionary and anti-imperialist struggles in many countries such as Vietnam , Cuba, Angola and others . National liberation movements such as ZANU, ANC , SWAPO, MPLA and many others all received assistance from the DPRK,Many international events and conferences are held in the DPRK.Foreign guests to the DPRK always receive a warm welcome.This the reality of the DPRK .
Myers himself to my knowledge has never once set foot in the DPRK ( the same as many so-called "north Korea experts" such as Barbara Demick in the Western countries )let alone actually live there , so has no direct experience of the DPRK. All his views of the DPRK are supposition and conjecture In fact Myers's book draws heavily on DPRK novels and also DPRK comic books aimed at teenagers. Has anyone tried to do an analysis of US foreign policy or US society using "Superman " or "Batman " comics or maybe American fiction. Myers have never bothered to study the speeches and writings of President KIM IL SUNG , Chairman KIM JONG IL and respected Marshal KIM JONG UN or policy documents of the DPRK government.
Myers is basically both an apologist for US colonial rule in south Korea (and the division of Korea ) and a latter day cold warrior against People's Korea, part of the CIA's well paid academic army against Juche Korea .The book 'The Cleanest Race " is really sub-tabloid smears against People's Korea dressed up and marketed as 'academic research ' .
It is totally inconceivable that the Juche idea which aims at the liberation of people from oppression and exploitation should be in any way linked to racism and fascism. Juche advocates the full realisation of man's independence and creativity.It is the complete opposite to fascism which stipulates the subordination of the people to the interests of the ruling class.The Juche idea is a human centred idea which rejects all reactionary and anti-human ideas such as racism.
We hope that people will reject the nonsense of Myers and campaign more vigorously in support of People's Korea and the Juche idea.
(this article will be expanded and published as a book later)
Dr Dermot Hudson
Chairman Juche Idea Study Group of England
President Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK
Official Delegate Korean Friendship Association for the UK
https://juche007-anglo-peopleskoreafriendship.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-cleanest-race-academic.html
https://juche007-anglo-peopleskoreafriendship.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-cleanest-race-academic.html
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