If you support Palestine , then you should People’s Korea with No Ifs or Buts ! -special article by Dr Dermot Hudson

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Support for the Palestinian people is sweeping across Britain and other countries in Europe . Demonstrations in support of Palestine have attracted over 500,000 in Britain , a number not seen since the big demonstration against the Iraq War in 2003 . The Palestinian flag is everywhere.

People’s Korea , a socialist country and bastion of anti-imperialism should receive the support and solidarity that it deserves , the DPRK flag should be seen everywhere .

If you support Palestine, then you should support People’s Korea , it is as simple as that  .Why ? Some people ask . The answer is firstly , that People’s Korea is one of the few non-Arab countries along with Cuba and Venezuela not to have diplomatic relations with Israel  or recognise it . The former Soviet Union initially recognised Israel . Today some Arab countries such as Egypt ,Jordan, Mauritania ,Morocco , Oman ,Sudan and UAE have diplomatic relations with Israel . So the DPRK is doing better than many Arab countries .

People’s Korea established relations with Palestine on the 13th of April 1966 . There is a Palestinian embassy in the DPRK . Chairman Yasser Arafat visited the DPRK five times .

President KIM IL SUNG, the great leader of People’s Korea  said “ The just cause of the Palestinian and other Arab people for the restoration of land lost to them and of all the legitimate rights of Palestine, including the establishment of an independent country, must be accomplished. The Israeli Zionists must abandon their policy of expansion and annexation and withdraw from all the occupied Arab land immediately.

The United States must stop giving the Israeli Zionists political and diplomatic support and military and economic aid, take their hands off the Middle East and discard their ambition for dominating this region”

In recent weeks the DPRK has issued a number of statements in support of Palestine and has taken an uncompromising stand unlike others who have issued weak or ambiguous statements . On the 26th of October a DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesperson said of the Israeli bombing of a hospital in Gaza  “This is an unimaginable hideous war crime and unethical crime.”

Secondly , like Palestine, People's Korea is a state in the frontline against US and world imperialism and its puppets and faces unprecedented pressure and hostility from US imperialism . Like Gaza , People’s Korea is under blockade only from US imperialism rather than Israel . However , in other respects it is very different to Gaza and Palestine because People’s Korea practises self-reliance under the banner of the Juche idea so it can withstand the sanctions and blockades of the US imperialists indefinitely . People’s Korea  is a socialist country where people enjoy free healthcare, free education , free housing and low cost food and low cost public transport.

There is a lot that Palestine can learn from People’s Korea . If Palestine adopted Juche and adopted the Songun policy (army first ) it would be much stronger and able to resist the Israeli Zionists.

So if you support Palestine then you should support People’s Korea with No  Ifs or Buts !

Dr Dermot Hudson

Chairman Korean Friendship Association UK

Chairman British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea

President Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK 

Chairman British Solidarity Committee For Peace and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula .

hon secretary general International Central Committee For Songun Study