On the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean Friendship Association of the UK -speech by Dr Dermot Hudson to KFA UK AGM

 The Korean Friendship Association of the UK is now 20 years old.

  One day in March 2001 I was surfing the internet in a library one day and came across the Korean Friendship Association website www.korea-dpr.com  . Looking at it, I felt excited and thrilled . Here was a no -nonsense website defending the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with a certain militancy , dynamism and vibrancy I had not seen before . I had been involved with different organisations for solidarity with the DPRK in the UK  since 1985 and had also founded the Juche Idea Study Group of England .  KFA seemed different to other DPRK friendship organisations as it put forward the slogan ‘ Defend the D P R Korea ‘ . It had lots of positive information about the DPRK on its website . It said that in the DPRK there is no poverty or unemployment and that the DPRK is a socialist paradise . So I decided to join . I soon began a correspondence with an enthusiastic and energetic Spanish man , Alejandro Cao De Benos . Soon I was appointed as Official Delegate of the Korean Friendship Association for the UK  . I set up KFA UK .

   Since then we have never looked back . We now have over 10,000 likes on Facebook and hundreds of people have registered on the internet as KFA members . KFA UK has hosted a total 3 KFA International meetings in 2002, 2003 and 2011 . We have sent delegations to KFA International meetings in 2009 , 2011 , 2014, 2015 , 2016 ,2017 , 2018 and 2019 as well as participating in the international online e seminar in November 2020 .  We have had many meetings and events in the UK . We have worked closely with the British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea and the Association for the Study of Songun Politics . We have held events in new formats such as the DPRK Poster Exhibitions that we held in  2018 and 2019 . We have established regional branches in Scotland , Staffordshire and the West of England .

  It was KFA UK who took the struggle to defend People’s Korea to the streets and picketed the US embassy , south Korean puppet embassy , the BBC, Channel Four and the Ministry of Defence .

   Of course it has never been easy , far from it . The establishment and the elite do not want to see pro-active and energetic organisations working to defend People’s Korea and spread the truth about People’s Korea .  We have faced not only hostility from obvious quarters such as the right wing and the establishment but also from some who identified themselves as ‘left wing ‘ . Some organisations that we expected support from and to throw their full weight behind us , have stood to one side or even been hostile . We have also had to face some really vile media attacks on KFA UK as well as the victimisation of our officials at the workplace .

    On the 20th anniversary of KFA UK I would like to pay tribute to our KFA UK officials , activists  , regional officials and regional branches who have been loyal to KFA and have worked hard for KFA .  At the end of 2019 and in 2020 , KFA UK came under attack in the media. . However, the Staffordshire KFA UK branch and the newly formed KFA UK West of England branch showed immense loyalty to KFA  in this trying period

  Lets celebrate the 20th anniversary of KFA UK by redoubling our efforts to build KFA UK and increase participation in KFA UK events.

Here’s to another 20 years of KFA UK !