Yet another anti-DPRK book by a Yankee author-a review of "See You Again in Pyongyang "

There is an unending deluge of anti-DPRK books being produced , indeed they are being turned out on an industrial scale(literally hundreds ) by the massive anti-DPRK propaganda machine of the West that is run by the US Central Intelligence Agency, the mega-corporations and the global elite . It is difficult for true friends of People's Korea to refute all these venomous propaganda ., However we are going to look at some of it and answer it . A friend of ours alerted to this book written by one Travis Jeppesen , This is a bit different to some of the rubbish turned out because Jeppesen has actually stayed in the DPRK . It is a fact that most anti-DPRK authors have never ever set foot in the DPRK , a bit like Orwell who had never visited the Soviet Union but wrote the anti-Soviet 'Animal Farm' and
'1984'. The nearest a lot of professional  DPRK bashers actually got to the DPRK was Seoul ..Jeppesen  actually visited the DPRK in 2012 and was a student on a foreign language course at a the Kim Hyong Jik university in 2016.However despite this  , See You Again in Pyongyang' is a ghastly , nasty and cynical piece of vile  anti- DPRK material.
 From what is known of Jeppesen he is a very cosmopolitan American travelling and living in a lot of countries .Obviously There does not seem to be too much biographical detail about him , the famed internet reference source the Wikipedia does not mention a date of birth , birthplace or educational details , Jeppesen appears to be yet another character who has parachuted in from nowhere to become a  'DPRK expert '.It should be added that Jeppesen's so-called ' expertise' on the DPRK is based on several visits .Jeppesen is part of a shadowy and cliquey cabal of so-called 'experts ' on the DPRK who are invariably wheeled out by the imperialist and bourgeois mainstream media to slander People's Korea and the great Juche idea.
 Significantly Jeppesen writes in the introduction to the book that "Comrade Kim Nam Ryong, for instance, is a composite of men I have encountered, befriended, or otherwise learned about, some current and others former residents of Pyongyang, and the Korean State Travel Company he works for is a fictional hybrid based on knowledge I have gleaned about the operations at several of the country’s state-owned tourism bureaus". An admission by Jeppesen that this is actually a less than factual account , that it includes elements of fiction .  Jeppesen has also based his book on accounts from defectors  who have time and time again been proved to be liars and whose accounts have been torn to shreds . Jeppesen's work is reminiscent of an earlier anti-DPRK book 'Nothing to Envy ' by one Barbara Demick was a fictionalised account based on anecdotes from defectors(a witty description could be a fictionalised account of fiction,double fiction).  Material from defectors is included in the bibliography as well as George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm . In fact Jeppesen used  Animal Farm as a reference point and quotes from it  Needless to say that Orwell was shown to be a later an MI6 informant and a nasty one at that , a real grass denouncing other writers to the security services . Orwell had also been a colonial policeman and an extreme anti-Irish racist who got into a massive personal feud with the Irish playwright Sean O Casey . So Jeppesen did not got to the DPRK with an open mind but with his head stuffed  full of George Orwell and other anti-communist writers , in other words with big preconceptions rather than going to the DPRK with an open mind.
  Jeppesen actually quotes from the awful 'Animal Farm' in the book making a direct comparison between the DPRK and Orwell's novel which was supposedly about the Soviet Union although Orwell never ever once set foot in the Soviet Union . Jeppesen makes the claim that everyone in the
DPRK is brought up to refer to ordinary US citizens as 'American bastards ' . A massive distortion of facts . Although the DPRK does indeed carry a most thoroughgoing anti-imperialist education and teaches people about the horrendous atrocities committed by the US imperialists but Korean people are taught to distinguish between the US imperialists ( ie the US state , monopolies , government , bureaucracy , military and intelligence services) and ordinary American people . President
Kim Il Sung told the US journalist Harrison E Salisbury that "we oppose the reactionary policies of the US government but we do not oppose the American people. We want to have many good friends in the United States " , a quote which sums up in a nutshell the attitude of the DPRK towards US citizens . When I was in the DPRK in 2008 my guides comrades Choe and Comrade Han of the Korean Association of Social Scientists said that not all Americans are bad , there are some progressive Americans . They spoke highly of the Workers' World Party of the US and the US Communist Party .
 Jeppesen writes  "I knew about the concentration camps, I knew about the systematic injustices perpetrated by the regime against the populace" but he never saw a single 'concentration camp' during his time in the DPRK , so how did he know about such things . The answer is obvious , from propaganda in the mainstream media and fairytale accounts from defectors . Basically Jeppesen is not really providing a first hand account of the DPRK but rehashing anti-DPRK propaganda and trying to make it look realistic throwing a bit of travelogue . A clever trick.
   Time does not allow for a detailed  and intense refutation of Jeppesen's lies but lets look at a few things . Firstly , Jeppesen speaks of 'the famine of the 1990s' . Suffice to say that a delegation of the Juche Idea Study Group of England was in the DPRK in 1996 and did not see any 'famine' . Yes there were food shortages and it was not a good time for Korean people but mass starvation did not occur . For those who like Jeppesen believe there was a famine , they should refer to the population statistics for the DPRK which show a modest growth for the period rather than a decline that would have occurred . Secondly, Jeppesen mixes old style anti-communist propaganda with post modern liberal propaganda . This results in Jeppesen trying to portray the DPRK as being both being a 'totalitarian
communist regime ' and a capitalist regime at the same time . Of course such a thing is nonsense , an impossibility . Jeppesen does not say when exactly capitalism was restored in the DPRK and cannot point to a counter-revolution which restored capitalism in the DPRK . In fact the DPRK actually executed the anti-party factionalist traitor in December 2013 for trying to restore capitalism . In fact  I have  been told several times  there is are no private companies or private ownership in the DPRK . This is stipulated in the  Socialist Constitution of the DPRK .Article 19  of the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK states that  "The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea relies on socialist relations of production and on the foundation of an independent national economy " and Article 20 says that
"In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea the means of production are owned by the State and social, cooperative organizations." . Maybe Jeppesen should have made a deep study of the DPRK Constitution and other materials from the DPRK before writing his book. Jeppesen just bangs on
about the 'dongju ' class and the elite . I have never heard anyone in the DPRK talk about the dongju class  . As for the 'elite' the DPRK is one of the most egalitarian societies in the world ,income differentials are low and officials take part in manual labour. It is ironic for Jeppesen to talk about an elite in the DPRK because Jeppesen is part of the US capitalist elite . It has been shown that only a very small percentage of Americans actually travel abroad and hold passports . Jeppesen with his lucrative publishing contracts from the corporate media is a very privileged person. Thirdly , Jeppesen repeats the CIA's postmodernist line on Juche dismissing it as a "ultra-nationalist ideology', this is criminal slander on the Juche idea which Jeppesen then compounds by repeating the ridiculous south Korean fairy story about the Juche Idea being created by a certain traitor . This is just rubbish. The Juche idea was first put forward by the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung  at the historic Kalun meeting in 1930 . Juche of course stresses independence , Juche recognises that independence is the life and soul of humans but this is not the same as saying  that a country should 'go it alone'. What Juche means is that a country should be totally independent , politically independent and reject subordination to others and dependence on others. This does not mean co-operation with others is rejected or that the Juche idea means turning one's back on internationalism , far from it . 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 other places. Fourthly , Jeppesen ludicrously claims that ' there were no communists in North Korea at the time of division.'
What ,what ,what  Mr Jeppesen , have you been at the wacky baccy again or something  ? What a silly statement  ! In fact underground units of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army , which included, led by great general Kim Il Sung  , were actually active in many areas of north Korea prior to liberation  and led armed uprisings in August 1945. The Communist Party of North Korea was founded in October 1945 and had 4,000 plus members, how on earth can Jeppesen say there were no communists in the north of Korea. Of course this nonsense does have a sinister and insidious purpose , namely to deny the legitimacy of the DPRK. Jeppesen's work is part of a propaganda operation by US imperialism and world imperialism to 'de legitimise ' the DPRK . Fifthly , some of the worst slander and vilification is reserved for the DPRK 's true friend and defenders ,the Korean Friendship Association. Jeppesen cites the anti DPRK , anti KFA propaganda film ' Friends of Kim ' made with CIA backing . Jeppesen, referring to our KFA president comrade Alejandro Cao De Benos  even writes " I’ve never met a North Korean who actually likes Alejandro or shows much appreciation for the work he does on behalf of their country"  !!! . What unbelievable tosh ! . How does Jeppesen account for the fact that that comrade Alejandro holds several medals from the DPRK , that DPRK films have been made about Alejandro .Other KFA Officials such as myself have also received medals. If KFA is so unimportant and insignificant why is the KFA Medal First Class displayed in the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun ? . In fact I was speaking to comrade Ryu Kyong Il director of thevEurope Department of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations in August 2017 and he said distinctly ' I will not tolerate anyone speaking ill of Alejandro' . Jeppesen's remarks are aimed at undermining the loyal friends of the DPRK and instead promoting those elements who want to bring capitalism into the DPRK.The purpose is to promote regime change by silencing the voice of real friends of the DPRK .

  Reading Jeppesen's book at times angry with the lies he tells and at other times could not but help laughing at the ridiculous things he said . Jeppesen has abused the hospitality and kindness of the Korean people showed to him by writing such a toxic , lying book .
   We recommend that people instead of reading fake accounts of the DPRK by the likes of Jeppesen, Demick and others , instead read the many books produced by UK KFA and the Juche Idea Study Group of England , join KFA and become active by attending our meetings and above all visit the DPRK yourselves  because seeing is believing.
Dr Dermot Hudson
Official Delegate Korean Friendship Association UK
Chairman Juche Idea Study Group of England
President Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK