Prague, December 24, Juche 107 (2018) - In October this year, a book by Dermot Hudson entitled "Travels in the land of Juche Korea 1992-2017" was published in the UK, with the subtitle "Personal Recollections of visiting the Democratic People's Republic -travel notes and a bit of autobiographicalstuff '
Dermot Hudson is President of the Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK, Chairman of the Juche Idea Study Group of England the official delegate of the Korean Friendship (KFA) for the UK, and a member of the International Songun Study Policy Committee, as well as the Doctor of Social Political Sciences (RSDr. ), awarded in the DPRK in 2016. He was born in London and grew up in poverty, after his father's death's when he was 11 , he was brought up only by his mother. At the age of 14 he became a member of the the Young Communist League in 1975 and 5 years later of the Communist Party of Great Britain. In the beginning of the book, he describes his path to Korean socialism, whose support he found after disappointment with other concepts of socialism, especially Soviet and West European ("Eurocommunist") revisionism, which at that time prevailed in the working class movement in Britain.
Post-graduate had to be ended prematurely by Comrade Hudson because of a lack of finance, and in the light of the peak economic crisis and the austerity measures of M. Thatcher's anti-people government, he was unemployed or only part-time worked. Only in 1989 he was appointed a lower civil servant at the Valuation Office. In 1983 he came to the first publication from the DPRK, the "Korea" pictorial magazine (published in the same form today) and soon to the next. "The small amount of DPRK literature which pulsed with revolutionary energy. It was in fact a contrast to the exhausted, half-drunk, boring or indigestible material of the British left, "he says .
Under the impression of Korean literature, comrades from the Young Communist League founded the Juche Idea Study Group. In May 1992, he first visited DPRK at the invitation of the Korean Society of Social Scientists (KASS), and for two weeks he studied at the Juche Academy in Mangyondae District on the outskirts of Pyongyang as part of a large group of students from many countries around the world. The visit was complicated by the fact that Britain and the DPRK did not have diplomatic relations until 2000. On the other hand, it was still possible to travel directly by Air Koryo from (formerly east) Berlin to Pyongyang. After the abolition of this route (as a result of the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the increasing counter-revolutionary pressure), it was necessary to travel via Moscow, and after the cancellation of the line to Moscow, the most common transfer destination for travel to North Korea, Beijing.
To the country of real socialism
True socialism in Korea was exalted by Comrade Hudson, as well as a comparison with the harsh revisionist and capitalized Hungary he had visited in the late 1980s. Despite the allegations of backwardness of socialism, he had seen in Korea a number of computers that the schoolchildren had bravado to handle, even though it was not common in Britain at that time. About Korean schoolchildren writes: "Their energy and liveliness astounded me so different from apathetic, disobedient and decadent teenagers in Western countries."
In connection with his first trip to Korea, Dermot Hudson recalls the decline of eastern Berlin after the fall of the GDR, and in October 1993 he had the opportunity to see the tragedy of restored capitalism in Moscow. All the more he was respecting Korean socialism, a proud and brave counter-revolutionary storm, without the support of foreign countries, but not without the support of progressive foreign friends who came to Korea from many regions. Just like a year earlier, he now had the opportunity to travel to the countryside, now for the first time by train. In addition to the usual goals commonly visited by foreigners in the DPRK, he was then a guest at the headquarters of the General Trade Union Federation of Korea or in a single agricultural cooperative in Sunan with his own nursery, school and hospital, including the birth department. He also visited the Korean family in their apartment.
The trip of a two-member British delegation in June and July 1994 was via Beijing. The author does not deny his negative impressions of "market socialism" in China. A similar experience is reported by many other DPRK supporters travailing through China, including me.
Among the attractions of this visit were a tour of the south Korean revolution and reunification halls of the Korean Revolution Museum , guided by a south Korean revolutionary.
The journey of Dermot Hudson and Shaun Pickford to Korea in June 1996 was the first after the fall of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung , when the Western media was full of reports of "famine" and "mass starvation" in the DPRK. "There was absolutely no sign of any" famine "or food queue," he adds. Comrade Pickford had serious health problems during his visit after having consumed bad food in China, and after examination by the doctor of the Juche Idea Academy was taken to Namsan Hospital, whose third floor is reserved for the treatment of foreign revolutionaries. Here after two days of care in the best conditions he healed.
During a visit to the Supreme People's Assembly, British comrades learned about the fact that MPs in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are elected ordinary working people and there is no parasitic layer of "professional politicians." They also noticed that many buses run in the countryside, while there are no or only one week in the British countryside. (That would be of interest to the small-mined men from the former "eastern block", whose minds are Britain's "paradise on earth", right next to the USA ...)
At that time, Korean social scientists criticized China for establishing relations with the south Korean puppet regime in 1992, betraying proletarian internationalism, and Vietnam for its inclination to the West, although DPRK provided considerable help in the anti-imperialist struggle. They said that China was exerting pressure on Korea to follow its line of "reforms" and "opening up", but the Korean side refused to do so.
DPRK at the time faced an extremely difficult blockade, not only as a result of sanctions, but also because of Russia's and China's demand for payment in dollars. It was necessary to grow corn in unusual places, such as in the Namsan Hospital or the Juche Idea Academy But no one was starving or badly dressed. In connection with the second visit to the Sunan co-operative farm, the author notes that "agriculture and industry in the DPRK are governed very democratically, farmers choose the chairman of the cooperative, it is like choosing his boss, something unimaginable in the so-called" advanced democracies of the "West."
The British comrades held a symposium on social issues in Britain with academics from the Korean Social Sciences Association. Disappointment was the meeting with the then president of the Juche Idea Academy and the international secretary of the WPK Hwang Jang Yop, who had an ideologically insignificant impression and expressed his admiration for the Britain he had visited. In the spring of 1997, Hwang flew to south Korea through his Embassy in Beijing. Then it became clear that he had committed embezzlement and led decadent life. During his visit to London, he asked Mike Hicks, the then Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Britain , to bring him some girls from the infamous Soho district. In fact, he worked for at least two years before he left for the South Korean puppet intelligence service. He was a landowner's son, but he was given the privilege and nobility of the DPRK to gain important positions, which he paid for with the darkest betrayal. He became drunk in the wastebasket of south Korea's bankruptcy.
In the New Century
Another visit to People's Korea was made by comrade Hudson after a period of six years, he had been unable to travel due to family and financial reasons.April 2002. At the invitation of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries and the Korean Committee for Friendship with British People, he celebrated the 90th anniversary of the birth of the great leader comrade Kim Ir Sena . At that time he was a member of the Korean Friendship Associaiton (KFA), founded in November 2000. (In addition, he became a member of the New Communist Party Britain, from which he left in 1997 and returned to it in 2014.) At the National Day Meeting the sun saw the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il . "The respect of the people of the DPRK for their leaders is absolutely true, unprepared and certainly not directed or directed," he says .
Dermot Hudson spoke with other foreign delegates at the Chollima House of Culture , a meeting which eneded with Internationale. For the first time, he saw a mass cultural and gym performance "Arirang" at the 1st May Stadium. "I was even more convinced that chauvinism-based socialism would always be victorious. Only DPRK can organize such a big event, "he comments. "Arirang" has demonstrated a high level of unity, organization and discipline in the DPRK. "
During this visit, the author of the dental services of the People's Hospital of Eastern Pyongyang Friendship took advantage. The denture correction, which cost 1,000 pounds in London (almost CZK 29,000!), Was made only at a price of only $ 40 for a small piece of gold for the filling.
After another six years, the author did not get to Korea for family reasons. It did not happen until October 2008 at the invitation of the Korean Society of Social Scientists. To this visit, the author points out: "DPRK promotes education in revolutionary traditions and, unlike Khrushchev's modern revisionists, believes in respecting the predecessors of the revolution. It also maintains strong anti-imperialist education and classroom education. I saw the Sinchon Museum (a place where the US imperialists massacred 35,383 people), the captured ship "USS Pueblo", and in the wonderful Changwang Nursery School they told me they had room for class education against imperialists and class enemies as landowners and capitalists.
In spite of the continual lies of the reactionaries about the "famine", the harvest of rice, corn, apples, and tomatoes was in full swing, except for the record haul of fish in the West Sea. In Pyongyang, other cities, or in rural areas from Sariwon to Sinch, "there is again no sign of starvation, no beggars or homeless people, as we have in London . " There was a lot of food and drink at the picnic with the brewers and miners. "DPRK implements a people-oriented policy. Housing is free, basic food is sold at low prices. Education from the nursery to the university is free of charge. University students do not have to pay the tuition fees, but they get free uniforms and stay free on the dorms (as opposed to high rents for students in London). Healthcare is also free of charge. I underwent free treatment at the Namsan Hospital, which cost me £ 21 ($ 609). I have visited the magnificent Changwang Kindergarten, which has 10 floors and includes an indoor pool. Everything including meals (5 meals a day containing 120 grams of rice) is also free. "
"I got a chest infection on my way to the DPRK ... So I was placed in Namsan Hospital, where I was subjected to a general inspection, including an X-ray ... I got antibiotics and an inhaler."
Dermot Hudson met with many prominent representatives of the Korean Revolution as a secretary (later vice-chairman) of the Workers Party of Korea Comrade Kim Ki Nam, Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly Comrade Kim Yong Nam or Chief of the Pyongyang Mission of the Anti-imperialist National Democratic Front of Korea, Comrade Zo Il Min. The last one remarked, "I let him take a picture with him. The other members of the mission did not join because they have relatives in South Korea, which would mean repression against their families, which could be carried out by reactionary fascist south Korean authorities. "
Regarding the return to Britain via China, the author praises (for the second time) a very cheap rail link from Pyongyang to Beijing.
The Red Battalion continues
In 2012, comrades Dermot Hudson and Shaun Pickford participated in the World Congress on the Juche Idea on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung . At that time, after the death of the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il , the rumours of the DPRK's turn to capitalism spread. "My first impression of a re-visit to the DPRK after four years was that the socialist system was solid and that the red banner literally hovers high above the Pyongyang streets ... Pyongyang does not have capitalist advertising ... There are many shops and kiosks selling food and drink in the streets but owned state and cooperatives. "
"No sign of any hungry people ... People were well dressed. Now there is more choice of available clothing. The pants seem to be popular among the Koreans, but the idiot south Korean puppets claim that women in the DPRK are forbidden to wear trousers, and the Western imperialist media is repeating it. "
Student Kim Ir of Sen University said that "15. In April, her family gets duck ... sweets, biscuits and beer, all free. "The families are moving to new apartments on April 15th.
The World Congress of the Juche Idea was held in the People's Palace of Culture was attended by progressive people from all corners of the globe. "It was a hatred of Western media propaganda that DPRK is 'closed' and 'isolated'."
"Undoubtedly, the top was the Great Military Parade on April 15, the Sun's Day ... Dear General Kim Jong Un spoke. His voice was firm and decisive. His speech was very clear that there would be no deviation or temptation. "
The chapter on the visit in September 2012 mentions the extensive new housing construction and the renewal of older and new theme parks (accessible almost free of charge). It describes a second visit to the Arirang Festival and the Korean Army Army Museum. "I saw an exhibition of strategic rockets and missiles, and I thought it was a good reason for goodbye to the Yankees, goodbye to the South Korean puppets! USA can be destroyed by pressing the button! ... DPRK under the wise leadership of honorary marshal Kim Jong Un day, one day, it will fully show the power of songun and reunite the country by sweeping the hated American imperialists into the sea! "
"Korean people have a good emotional and cultural life. They are happier than people in capitalist countries and have a different view of life ... Korean people look happier than ordinary working people in the UK and the capitalist countries. "
A visit in July 2013 was held on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the victory in the Patriotic Liberation War. At this time, there was a marked increase in self-sufficiency, the emergence of new types of Korean goods. Comrade Hudson took part in the international peace march, watched the military parade, the third Arirang feast and other cultural events. He spoke at a mass gathering against the hostile US policy in Kaesong.
In October 2015, the author took part in the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers Party of Korea, its tenth visit to the Democatic People's Republic of Korea. Prior to this visit, he was thrown out of work for his activities in support of Korean socialism. A new Pyongyang airport terminal has been opened since the last visit. The biggest cultural event was a torchlight march of youth and a performance on a floating island on the Taedong River with 10,000 performers. Describes further country development and commented: "In London, some pedestrian underpasses are full of homeless, drunkards, drug addicts and degenerate criminal charges at night, but there is no such thing in Pyongyang. Indeed, DPRK is a highly moral society that does not know drug addiction nor does it have pornography and the so-called 'sex industry' as a capitalist country that distorts human values and destroys lives.
There were also no signs of police suppression of people or heavily armed police units patrolling the streets ... I have never seen a barbed wire fencein the DPRK country. "
Dream Fulfillment - Doctorate in DPRK
In April 2016, during a visit to Korea conducted by Comrade Hudson, accompanied by two other British participants, he was awarded a Doctoral Degree (Doctor of Social Political Sciences, RSDr.) In the Mansudae Assembly Hall after defending his work "In Defense of Songun" Military Matters Policing Policy) 15 professors in the newly-built Science and Technology Complex.
Among the interesting places visited on this occasion was the Pyongchon Revolutionary Site, where the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung in December 1948 tested the first Korean submachine gun, accompanied by the heroine of the anti-Japanese wary comrade Kim Jong Suk and the great leader of comrade Kim Jong Il . At this point, dear dear Marshal Kim ong Un, on December 6, 2015, announced that DPRK produced the first hydrogen self-sufficiency bomb.
Foreign visitors to less well-known localities such as the Jongsung Revolutionary Museum, the underground HQ of the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung during the Fatherland Liberation War.
Staying in Korea in September 2016 took place on the occasion of the International Seminar on the idea of anti-imperialism, independence and solidarity organized by the Korean Association of Social Scientists and the International Institute of Juche Idea. Again, the improvement of the people's standard of living was evident, as was the construction of a new Ryongmyong Street for 20,000 people. During the visit, DPRK conducted a nuclear test on 9 September 5, and Comrade Hudson was present at a ceremony on this occasion at the Ponghwa Theater. Also remarkable was the visit of a new Pyongyang High School for Orphans with a classroom for anti-imperialist class education or a new Museum of the Youth Movement.
The author remarks to many of the great cultural attractions he has visited: "... Recreational and cultural facilities are not a means of earning capitalist parasites but a means of enriching the cultural and emotional lives of the people." And concludes: "Being in the DPRK is like being in a dream. ... Countries without internal conflicts or contradictions ... I have become more committed to studying the idea of the chuck and the idea of songun and to make our work even better. "
Not frightened by threats
Celebrating the 105th anniversary of the birth of the great leader, April 2017, I also participated, so in this case I can compare with Comrade Hudson, although we had a common part of the program. The British delegation was three-member, as well as Czechoslovak, among some 90 delegates from around 20 countries. A description of the military parade and manifestations of the working writer ends with the words: "When the civilian show ended, dear marshal Kim Jong Un waved the audience. We were in enthusiastic applause. Dear Marshal waved us, his face was clear and happy, his smile was like the sun giving life to people. Indeed, dear marshal Kim Jong Un is the sun of the 21st century. "
Comrade Dermot Hudson spoke at a seminary at the People's Palace of Culture and at a gathering of the people of Korea to bring revenge to Sinchon, the first foreigner in history. (Sinchon can be imagined to be about 180 times the Lidice, but with a much more brutal assassination by the US imperialists and their leftists than the German Nazis did in Lidice.)
The Fourteenth visit of Comrade Hudson to Korea, as last described in this book (fortunately not the last total), took place in August 2017 on the occasion of the 5th International Festival to celebrate the great personalities born of Mount Paektu. The British delegation was three-member. The festival took place during a period of intense tension when "a scowling jester who occupies the position of the US president spoke of the unleashing of" fire and anger "against the people of Korea, followed by several sanctions by the UN Security Council (a corrupt and selling body fully controlled by US imperialism and superpowers) . "
"People in the DPRK were not shaken or intimidated by the threats of the US imperialists ... No other country in the world is so strong in an anti-imperialist spirit and revolutionary zeal! It was a big contrast with a neighboring country, China, where all sorts of capitalist waste are readily accepted, and the contrast with exhausted, overwhelmed bureaucratic, revisionist-led socialist countries in Europe that I visited in the 1980s. As long as the People's Republic of Korea is guided by the militant anti-imperialist idea of Juche and self-sufficiency, it can never collapse! "
The festival was attended by 300 delegates from around the world. The highlight of the program was the gathering at sunrise at the top of Paektu Mountain, the holy mountain of revolution and the cradle of the Korean nation, and the visit of the Paektusan secret camp, the birthplace of great general Kim Jong Il . Dermot Hudson spoke at the International Solidarity Assembly with the Korean people.
Dermot Hudson's book brings a lot of interesting insights from a country that "basically holds the red flag high in the world and maintains socialist principles, though others, like Soviet revisionists and the Chinese, have shamefully rejected them . " It also disputes the outrageous lies spread by hostile propaganda and doubters. The findings of Comrade Hudson of Korea and his assessment of Korean socialism are also of interest to Czech and Slovak readers, as well as many of our supporters in the DPRK have been excited about Korean socialism after disappointing the decline of the world revolutionary movement and the bitter fate of various revisionist concepts. Of the activists of the Czech and Slovak movement of friendship with folk Korea, no one has been in Korea since 1989 for so long as Comrade Hudson, but the impressions of all who have had the chance to visit the country of Juche completely agree with the very positive evaluation of author Comrade Hudson . Also, the responses to visits to Korea from other foreign friends we met are quite positive and enthusiastic. This confirms that Comrade Hudson writes about the paths to Korea sincerely and openly, quite differently from the bumps of tendency writers from the ranks of commercial tourists and self-styled "Koreanists," blinded by consumerism and individualism, and looking for shortcomings in the socially more developed country of the world.
Lukáš Vrobel,
First Vice-Chairman of Paktusan Czech-Korean Friendship Society
and the Czech Study Group and the realization of Juche Idea
http://www.kldr.info/2018/12/24/recenze-knihy-dermota-hudsona-cesty-do-koreje-zeme-cucche/
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