ON THE OCCASION OF THE FOUNDING OF THE KOREAN PEOPLE’S ARMY-KIM IL SUNG
OUR PEOPLE’S ARMY IS AN ARMY OF THE WORKING CLASS,-KIM IL SUNG-KIM IL SUNG
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 70 FOUNDING ANNIVERSARY OF THE KOREAN PEOPLE'S ARMY -KIM JONG
Book 'SONGUN POLITICS IN KOREA'
31st of January Juche 112 (2023).
As we approach the 81st anniversary of the birth of the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL on snow-swept Mt Paekdu on the 16th of February, The Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK, the British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea, the Korean Friendship Association of the UK and the British Solidarity Committee for Peace and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula and UK Preparatory Committee for the Day of the Shining Star have drawn up a reading list to help people understand better why we mark this event
Four-time World Judo Champion
Kye Sun Hui, famous judo player of the DPRK, became a national sports star several years after she started judo.
Kye achieved her Olympic gold medal by defeating a renowned Japanese player, a world champion, in the 48-kg class of the women’s judo event at the 26th Olympic Games in 1996.
Afterwards she placed first in the 52-kg class of the women’s event at the world judo championships held in 2001.
All the Korean people still vividly remember the girl in tears, looking up at the flag of the DPRK being hoisted.
Not resting on her laurels, she redoubled her efforts. She earned three world championships (2003, 2005, and 2007) in the women’s 57-kg class, and won consecutive victories in the international tournaments, thus bringing honour to the country.
With her playing career adorned as a celebrity judoist, Kye is now devoting herself to training judoists at the Moranbong Sports Club for which she played in her youth.
After a year of her coaching, many of her trainees began to distinguish themselves at national tournaments. Among them is Jo Son Hyang, who won a gold medal at the 2015 Asian junior and juvenile judo championships.
Whenever she receives congratulations upon the successes her trainees have achieved, Kye looks back on her past.
During her days at the juvenile sports school she trained judo under the guidance of her instructor, and after retiring from playing she studied at the Korea University of Physical Education.
In high appreciation for her merits, the country awarded her Kim Il Sung Prize, Labour Hero and People’s Athlete.
To repay the trust and care of the country Kye sheds her sweat in the training of players, never leaving the training ground and taking off the costume.
So, people find it hard to tell her, the chief coach, and her trainees apart.
To win gold medal is her unchanged ambition.
Whenever new difficult movements of artistic gymnastics are performed at games, the International Gymnastic Federation deliberates and decides on every movement concerned and names it after a gymnast who performed it for the first time.
Among those movements recorded in the Federation are the "Ri Se Gwang Movement" and "Ri Se Gwang Movement No. 2".
"World-class movement debuted", "Highly risky and exciting movement", "Remarkably high level" and so on--these are the comments of the world press and experts on the successful results of Ri Se Gwang from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea who perfectly performed peculiar and highly difficult movements at the International Gymnastics Championships held in 2012 and 2014.
At the Fifth Asian Gymnastics Championships held in China, Ri Se Gwang wonderfully performed the backward double somersault with knee bend and 360-degree turn, which had been tried by no gymnast in the world in the men's vaulting horse event, taking the first place to the admiration of the experts and spectators.
The International Gymnastic Federation named the high-level technical movement "Ri Se Gwang Movement", which was performed through a chain of smart and fast movements raging from the start-run to somersault and landing.
Ri Se Gwang did not rest content with it but trained harder. Two years later, he perfectly performed another new technical movement in the men's vaulting horse event of the 45th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships.
He performed the forward double somersault with pike and 180-degree turn, shaking the world gymnastic circles once again. The International Gymnastic Federation registered it as "Ri Se Gwang Movement No. 2".
In bitter denunciation of police repression
South Korean workers held a press conference to sharply criticize the crackdown on laborers by the police, a stooge of the Yoon regime. The police, as a henchman of the Yoon regime, is poking its nose into labor-management relations to dismantle the trade unions, it is running around the working sites like headless chickens to make one-sided investigation, the workers noted. We will stoutly resist to the end against anti-labor and anti-trade union policy of the Yoon regime in solidarity with labor and civic organizations and the political parties, the police should stop repression of trade unions including the construction workers' union and the cargo transportation solidarity at once, they strongly demanded. Meanwhile, a construction workers' trade union of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions held an oath-taking meeting in denunciation of the Yoon regime. The Yoon group declared that it would launch a war against the construction trade union by exercising all administrative means and the director of the National Police Agency declared that he would root out illegal act of the construction workplaces. They renewed their resolve to wage an obstinate action against the suppression of the Yoon clique to the end.
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The appearance of the DPRK in which people are masters of the country is undergoing radical changes as time passes.
Especially, new dwelling houses have been built to bring about a dramatic change in the countryside of the DPRK thanks to new program for socialist rural construction.
Moreover, such modern yet wonderful dwelling houses are distributed gratis to agricultural workers in the DPRK.
The DPRK is, indeed, a dreamland for the people, in which everything serves the people.
Modern dwellings with rural characteristics and convenient to peasants' life took their shapes in the rural area last year
Campaign against Yoon Suk-yeol seen through photos
 Pointing accusing fingers at effigy of Yoon
  In denunciation of Yoon Yoon, step down from the presidency!
 Let us dethrone Yoon to deter a war!
 In demand of Yoon's resignation
 In demand of reformation of retrogressive labor law
 Artists denouncing Yoon's crackdown
 In condemnation of Yoon clique kowtowing to Japan
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ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF SONGUN POLITICS UK
email juche007@yahoo.co.uk
London 30th January Juche 112(2023)
The Association For the Study of Songun Politics UK(ASSPUK), the British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea(BGSJI), the Korean Friendship Association of UK ( KFA UK) and the British Solidarity Committee for Peace and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula issued the following statement supporting the press statement made by Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of U.S. Affairs of the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday 29th of January ;
Following the statement issued by comrade Kim Yo Jong on the 27th of January which denounced the US decision to supply MBTs to Ukraine said it would continue to fan the flames of war in Ukraine by supplying more weapons to Ukraine. As the statement of comrade Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of U.S. Affairs of the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK observes 'it is an extension of the illogical, deformed and gangster-like way of thinking of the U.S'
The US imperialists also slandered the DPRK and repeated the discredited story that the DPRK is supplying weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine. This is complete nonsense. There is absolutely no evidence for the accusation that the DPRK is supplying weapons to Russian forces in Ukraine.It is just fake news created by the US propaganda machine.
The US is warned by director general comrade Kwon Jong Gun not to spread false 'self-made ' rumours about the DPRK or it will face undesirable results.
We support the statement of comrade Kwon Jong Gun and call for the US to stop slandering the DPRK and also to stop denying the DPRK's right to self-defence.
ASSPUK
BGSJI
KFA UK
BSCPRKP
NATO Secretary General's Trip Instigates Creation of Asian Version of NATO
Pyongyang, January 30 (KCNA) -- Kim Tong Myong, a researcher of the Society for International Politics Study in the DPRK, released an article titled "Is the trip of the secretary general of NATO aimed to instigate the creation of the Asian version of NATO?" on Jan. 29, which said:
It was reported that the secretary general of NATO embarked upon his trip to south Korea and Japan.
The high-ranking chief of the military organization which turned Ukraine into a theatre of proxy war is flying into the Asia-Pacific region of the eastern hemisphere across the sea and land, which is not even part of its operational sphere. This fact itself gives rise to concern.
It is well known that NATO has long made persistent attempts to expand its sphere of influence limited to European defense to the Asia-Pacific region, which rose to be the strategic center of the world.
NATO stages bilateral and multilateral joint military exercises under various titles by introducing armed forces of its member states including aircraft carriers and fighters under the pretext of opposing the so-called "change of status quo by force". It is also mulling extending its influence to the Asia-Pacific region in the way of expanding and strengthening cooperation with such exclusive security allies as AUKUS, Quad and Five Eyes.
In particular, NATO has put unprecedented spurs to the strengthening of bilateral relations with south Korea and Japan in recent years, regarding them as a key link in realizing its ambition for hegemony.
This is proved by the fact that the chairman of the military committee of NATO visited south Korea and Japan respectively in April and June last year to discuss closer partnership and military cooperation and, at the end of June, south Korea and Japan participated in the NATO summit in Madrid of Spain for the first time ever.
Meanwhile, in May last year the Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence under NATO registered south Korea as its full member and in October a delegation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly was dispatched to south Korea to discuss the strengthening of bilateral cooperation.
South Korea signed a huge sales contract for arms including heavy tanks, self-propelled guns and fighters valued at tens of billions of U.S. dollars with Poland, a member state of NATO, and Japan agreed to jointly develop the next generation fighters with Britain and Italy. This clearly proves to what extent the NATO's sinister intention to use south Korea and Japan for expanding its influence has reached.
NATO, which specified Russia as the "greatest and direct threat" and China as a "systematic challenge" in its new "strategic concept" last year, is now openly stretching its long arm to south Korea and Japan. Its aim is quite clear.
It is the general orientation sought by the U.S.-led NATO to cook up Asian version NATO serving the maintenance of its hegemonic position and order in collusion with its vassal forces.
It is quite natural that over the recent worrying moves of NATO, countries in the region have warned that NATO seeks to apply the method of collective confrontation in Asia-Pacific, which had already been used in Europe, and south Korea and Japan should not introduce NATO forces into the Asia-Pacific region.
It is as clear as noonday that the secretary general of NATO flying to south Korea and Japan, at the time when the Ukrainian crisis has entered a new critical stage with the U.S. and Western decision on supplying tanks, will shore up the "theory of threat from China" to emphasize again the need to build Asian version of NATO and put pressure on them for their passive military support to Ukraine.
It is a matter of time that the military hardware of south Korea and Japan flowing into NATO are seen in the Ukrainian battlefield.
South Korea and Japan trying to attend to their own business by inviting unbidden guests to the region should be well aware that they are getting closer to the extreme security crisis, far from defusing security uneasiness.
It will be nothing good if NATO, a synonym for war and confrontation, puts its military boots on the region.
The trip of the NATO secretary general to south Korea and Japan is a prelude to confrontation and war as it brings the dark clouds of a "new Cold War" to the Asia-Pacific region.
Regional countries and the international community should remain highly vigilant against the frequent footsteps of NATO toward Asia-Pacific. -0-
www.kcna.kp (Juche112.1.30.)
Pyongyang, January 29 (KCNA) -- Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of U.S. Affairs of the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK issued the following press statement on Sunday:
As regards the press statement of Kim Yo Jong, vice-department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea which denounced the U.S. decision on supplying MBTs to Ukraine, a spokesperson for the National Security Council of the White House on Jan. 27 said that the U.S. would continue to provide Ukraine with that it needs to defend itself from Russia's "brutal war of choice" against Ukraine.
It is an absurd and sheer sophism as it is an extension of the illogical, deformed and gangster-like way of thinking of the U.S., which frequently introduces nuclear strike means into the Korean peninsula under the pretext of providing "extended deterrence" against "provocation" of someone.
Had the U.S. not infringed upon the just security interests of Russia and accelerated the eastward advance of NATO step by step, the present situation of Ukraine would not have been created.
The U.S. is working hard to supply such offensive weapons as MBTs to Ukraine at any cost in disregard of the just concern and criticism of the international community. This is an unethical crime aimed at keeping the international situation unstable.
The U.S. again talked about the groundless rumor of "arms dealing between the DPRK and Russia", in a foolish attempt to justify its offer of weapons to Ukraine.
It is an illegal act to call into question the legitimate right to national defence of a sovereign state. Moreover, trying to tarnish the image of the DPRK by fabricating a non-existent thing is a grave provocation that can never be allowed and that can not but trigger its reaction.
We clearly warn the U.S. once again on this occasion.
The U.S. should be mindful that it will face a really undesirable result if it persists in spreading the self-made rumor against the DPRK. -0-
Spectacular sights are now being unfolded in the fishing stations in the east coastal areas of the DPRK.
As large shoals of fish swarm into the East Sea of Korea by the end of October every year, all the fishing stations in North and South Hamgyong and Kangwon provinces launch intensive fishing campaigns.
True to the intention of the Workers’ Party of Korea which regards the fishing as one of the three main points of the thrust in solving food problem of the people, the fishing units occupy several fishing grounds and increase fish catching.
Fishing stations of the Korean People’s Army engage in fishing activities by scientifically analyzing the temperatures and flow of the water and the amounts of migrating fish and thus correctly predicting fishing conditions and selecting fishing grounds.
All of them wage dynamic socialist emulation drives among fishing stations, fishing fleets and individual vessels by actively employing advanced fishing methods and small-scale fishing.
As a result, fishing vessels that have returned with huge hauls of fish increase in number, and the May 27 Fishing Station has overfulfilled the winter fishing assignments by over 70 per cent.
Many other fishing stations across the country resound with loud whistles of vessels with full loads.
Cascades of fishes that fill the unloading grounds are moved to cold storage facilities via the processing grounds, and then supplied to the people all across the country. And the fragrance of sea permeates the everyday life of the people
ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF SONGUN POLITICS UK
email juche007@yahoo.co.uk
London 28th January Juche 112(2023)
The Association For the Study of Songun Politics UK(ASSPUK), the British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea(BGSJI), the Korean Friendship Association of UK ( KFA UK) and the British Solidarity Committee for Peace and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula issued the following statement supporting the press statement of comrade Kim Yo Jong, vice department director of the Central Committee(CC) of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK ) made on the 27th of January concerning the US decision to supply battle tanks to the Ukrainian puppet fascist regime ;
Recently, the US imperialists announced their decision to send Abrams Main Battle Tanks to Ukraine for use in the proxy war of the US against the Russian Federation. This move will further fan the flames of war in Europe. In her statement comrade Kim Yo Jong takes aim at the US for " escalating the war situation by providing Ukraine with military hardware for ground offensive " and strongly denounces it. The US by arming the Ukrainian neo-nazi puppet fascist regime is intensifying the conflict in Ukraine and creating the danger of the conflict boiling into a world war.
Comrade Kim Yo Jong's words "The world would be brighter, safer and calmer now if it were not for the U.S" strike a chord and represent not just the voice of the DPRK but the voice of the world's progressive people . If the US do not exist the world would be a peaceful, calmer place in which countries could live in harmony with each other .
Comrade Kim Yo Jong in her statement expresses her conviction that the US and its puppets will only face defeat in Ukraine, not victory.
We applaud the statement of comrade Kim Yo Jong which shows that the DPRK has a strong anti-imperialist stand.
ASSPUK
BGSJi
KFA UK
BSCPRKP
ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF SONGUN POLITICS UK
email juche007@yahoo.co.uk
London 28th of January Juche 111(2023)
The Association for the Study of Songun Politics UK and the British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea issued the following joint statement on the 20th anniversary of the publication of the work
“The Songun-based Revolutionary Line Is a Great Revolutionary Line of Our Era and an Ever-Victorious Banner of Our Revolution." by the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL;
On the 29th of January 2003, shortly after the DPRK had announced its withdrawal from the unjust and one-sided “Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty “, the great leader comrade KIM JONG ILpublished the work “ The Songun-based Revolutionary Line Is a Great Revolutionary Line of Our Era and an Ever-Victorious Banner of Our Revolution."This work gives a comprehensive overview of the Songun idea and its application as Songun politics. In the work of the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL, the glorious history of the Korean revolution that was started and has triumphed under the banner of Songun comprehensively deals with the essence, features, validity and vitality of the Songun politics of the Workers' Party of Korea and theoretical and practical issues concerning the politics.
The work serves as an encyclopedic document giving perfect answers to the issues arising in the struggle to achieve the independence of the popular masses and precious ideological and theoretical guidelines to be always held fast to in building a thriving nation and accomplishing the revolutionary cause of Juche.
The work clarifies many important questions concerning the building of socialism in the contemporary epoch .
Songun is the treasured sword for defending the independence of People's Korea and safeguarding Juche-based socialism. Moreover in the years since the publication of “ The Songun-based Revolutionary Line Is a Great Revolutionary Line of Our Era and an Ever-Victorious Banner of Our Revolution,” Songun politics is recognised by the world revolutionary as the revolutionary anti-imperialist politics of the 21st century. The publication of the work dealt a heavy blow to those opportunist and revisionist forces advocating compromise with imperialism and capitulation.
Reading the work afresh we are convinced of the genius and clarity of the great leader generalissimo
KIM JONG IL
Although 20 years have elapsed since the publication of "“The Songun-based Revolutionary Line Is a Great Revolutionary Line of Our Era and an Ever-Victorious Banner of Our Revolution" , the work remains as valuable and correct as ever and gives a correct understanding of Songun politics and the Songun idea.
ASSPUK
BGSJI
The mainstream media such as the far-right conservative 'Daily Telegraph ", the liberal 'Guardian " and the supposedly 'anti-imperialist " Al Jazeera ( in reality pro-imperialist and owned by Quatari feudal bourgeoisie) have carried a story that Pyongyang and possibly the whole DPRK are on a 5-day lockdown due to an unspecified 'respiratory illness '.
KFA UK has conducted its own investigation and fact-checking . At present all DPRK media sites have been blocked in a number of Western countries such as the UK, US, Germany, Italy and Iceland ( this fact in itself is suspect and points to a dirty tricks operation by the Western MSM and Western intelligence services ). However, before DPRK media sources went down there was no report of a lockdown order being issued by either the DPRK Cabinet, Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea(WPK), the Central Military Commission of the WPK, KPA Supreme Command or DPRK Public Health Ministry. All reports this week from Pyongyang indicate life going on normally.
The so-called 'news ' about the alleged lockdown did not come from the DPRK itself but from the notorious CIA and south Korean National Intelligence Service-controlled 'news agency ' NKNews which is based in fascist puppet south Korea and registered as a company in the US tax haven of Delaware.
NKNews claim that they have seen a DPRK government document ordering the lockdown but how would they have access to such a document because supposedly the DPRK is a 'secretive ' and 'closed country '? Let us suppose that the document is against all odds genuine, there is the possibility that it could have been mistranslated or misinterpreted by NKNews. It is probable that the document is a forgery either by NKNews themselves or by the CIA or NIS. Apparently, there are numerous forged DPRK documents circulating in south Korea.
It is an old Cold War propaganda trick against socialist countries for Western intelligence agencies and their pet journalists to flourish supposedly 'top secret ' documents that prove what they want them to prove. This tactic has now been reinvented by the likes of NKNews and a few others for use in the unrelenting and vile anti-DPRK propaganda war.
Of course, we do not completely rule out the possibility of some kind of lockdown or more likely DPRK citizens staying indoors due to the extreme cold weather that has hit the DPRK.
However, until the DPRK media confirm it (if at all ) it is safe to assume that this is fake news created by NKNews is being spread like manure by the running dogs of the mainstream media. Please share this post widely
Pyongyang, January 27 (KCNA) -- The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, in his report at the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, ardently called upon the workers, scientists and technicians in core sectors for the successful development of the national economy to overcome the difficulties facing the revolution by their own efforts, holding high the fighting spirit and banner of the 1960s and 70s once again.
The 1960s and 70s are the era when the Korean people had dynamically paved the road of advance for socialist construction their own way and by their own efforts under the leadership of the great Party. This is the precious memory of the Korean people.
In retrospect, all the miracles and changes made by the Korean people in the era were the proud fruition of independence in politics, self-sustenance in the economy and self-reliance in national defence. They made a miracle of completing within 14 years the industrialization, carried out by others century after century, and raised the fierce flames of grand socialist construction in the spirit of Chollima with speed campaign. This is the fruition of the might of self-reliance, their own efforts.
The workers of Kangson worked a miracle of producing 120 000 tons of rolled steel at the blooming mill with a capacity of 60 000 tons in 1957, bearing in their mind the trust shown by President Kim Il Sung. In the 1960s, they produced rolled steel 7.5 times more than the rated capacity, thus amazing the world again.
Thanks to the devoted efforts of the agricultural workers who turned out in the drive to expand the irrigated area to one million hectares in hearty response to the Party's call, many reservoirs, pumping stations and other irrigation facilities were put into operation within six months. As a result, waterways extending tens of thousands of ri (10 ri equal to 4kms) were newly built in the countryside, and grain production increased by 16 percent in 1967 as against the previous year and 111 percent in 1968 as compared with 1967 despite flooding and drought.
In the 1970s, the workers of Ryongsong manufactured 20-meter lathe and 18-meter turning lathe, contributing to the development of the independent industry of the country. In the field of railway transport, a new record of overhaul was made by a locomotive engineer in his 30s.
The DPRK's gross industrial output value increased 3.5 times in the four years 1957-1960 and its industrial output grew at a high rate of 15.9 percent annually in 1970-1979.
Today the Korean people are working hard to become performers of miracles and feats in the grandiose creation struggle for the overall development of socialist construction in the same spirit and mettle displayed by the preceding generations. -0-
www.kcna.kp (Juche112.1.27.)
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Pyongyang, January 27 (KCNA) -- Kim Yo Jong, vice-department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, issued the following press statement on Friday:
The U.S., which has exposed the whole continent of Europe to the grave danger of war and caused big and small concerns, is now further crossing the red line.
It has made a "special contribution" to instigating the unstable world crisis to be continued by providing Ukraine with a large amount of military hardware. It recently made public that it would supply its MBT to Ukraine, only to make clearer its confrontation stand against Russia.
Lurking behind this is the U.S. sinister intention to realize its hegemonic aim by further expanding the proxy war for destroying Russia.
The world would be brighter, safer and calmer now, if it were not for the U.S.
The U.S. is the arch criminal which poses serious threat and challenge to the strategic security of Russia and pushes the regional situation to the present grave phase.
I express serious concern over the U.S. escalating the war situation by providing Ukraine with military hardware for ground offensive, and strongly denounce it.
The U.S. and other Western countries are wrecking the global peace and the regional security while handing military hardware running into astronomical sum of money over to Ukraine in total disregard of Russia's concern about security. Therefore, they have neither right nor justification to slander sovereign states' exercise of the right to self-defense.
The U.S. is mulling mobilizing the military potentials of its top-class stooges on the anti-Russian front, to say nothing of those of the Western countries.
The Ukrainian battlefield is by no means a desert in the Middle East where the U.S. MBTs went on the rampage 20 years ago.
I do not doubt that any military hardware the U.S. and the West boast of will be burnt into pieces in the face of the indomitable fighting spirit and might of the heroic Russian army and people.
No matter how desperately the imperialist allied forces may try, they will never weaken the heroic stamina of the Russian army and people with high patriotism, stubbornness and strong mental power.
We will always stand in the same trench with the service personnel and people of Russia who have turned out in the struggle to defend the dignity and honor of the state and the sovereignty and security of the country. -0-
www.kcna.kp (Juche112.1.27.)
Report to KFA UK Annual General Meeting 2023
Alan Bolon KFA UK Organizational Secretary
and Chairman of West of England Branch KFA UK
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Welcome everyone to our KFA UK AGM 2023, I would like to present my report on my activities as KFA UK Organizational Secretary with additional duties as Security Officer, and the Chairman of the KFA UK 'West Of England Branch'
Firstly, as to KFA UK 'West Of England Branch' at the moment on the Facebook page, there are 262 followers we and reached 232 likes. The page is running well and every day is posting a few new things. My activities as a Chairman remain to update the Facebook page with news and re-posting from the main KFA UK page. During the period covered by the report, I have noticed a lot of problems and troubles created by hostile Facebook for us by blocking or making purposes to access the pages in other ways. Luckily, all these problems and attacks have been overcome and the site is still running.
KFA UK's 'West Of England Branch' has had in its area in Taunton, two Seminars with Dr Dermot Hudson and also in London. Also, my activities focused to updates the KFA UK 'West Of England Branch' Online Library, which is enriched almost every month with new books, sent to us from KPEA or other friendly organisations from DPRK.
During the period covered by AGM, and under my activities as a KFA UK Organizational Secretary, I undertook work on the organizational and administrative consolidation of KFA UK into an organization operating on the basis of the strong administrative foundations as written Constitution. The KFA UK 'Constitution' has been written by me and later approved. This KFA UK 'Constitution', in my opinion, was necessary as an indispensable document, that every association should have in order to regulate its rights and duties for its members and not only. Due to the needs of time as our organization, has been and still is under attack by hostile forces, I have designed the KFA UK 'Security and Safety System' and become taken additional duties as a KFA UK Security Officer. I have started investigations with several procedures, these investigations have been initiated on several security matters and unfortunately, due to many other more urgent duties, further progress has been temporarily suspended. Further work according to the procedures of this system can be restored at any time, but it requires a lot of time. the best solution would be to assign the function of the security officer to another trusted person who, having become familiar with the procedures of the systems, would only deal with this matter and the security results would be greater.
In my organizational work for KFA UK, I also prepared KFA UK's Internal Funds Policy' which, after approval and amendments, was implemented and is in force now.
During the years 2021 - 2023, I created a new monthly journal 'Peoples Korea Today' and became the Main Graphic Editor of this magazine, submitted several articles there and work in the editing process every month. With pleasure, I would like to say, that at the moment we released 25 issues of 'Peoples Korea Today' and this magazine is running still and stayed as a permanent KFA UK press with formal notice in 'KFA UK Constitution'. However, I was very often under time pressure and lack of time, so that is why some of the
PKT issues have not been published on time. I continued and will continue to assemble work o monthly 'PKT', because I know how important this magazine is, and how big a role it plays in KFA UK activities. 'PKT' remains an important vehicle for communicating our activities, reaching a growing audience of KFA UK members. I strongly encourage all KFA UK members and not only, as 'PKT' publishing articles from all over the world, to consider submitting an article, that's why I invented already two literary competitions for 'PKT' readers. I also did graphic and design work for meetings and other events in our organization.
During the period covered by AGM, I tried in my multiple positions to act responsibly for our association, and together with Dr Dermot Hudson we continued our work in mutual cooperation, with no personal problems or arguments, and I think all my work and achievements for KFA UK, would be not done if I not received so much support and helps from Dr Dermot Hudson, for which I express my sincere thanks and am very grateful to him.I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at the KFA UK and it’s been exciting to see the growing strength and significance of KFA UK over these years.
The essence of my efforts is and always will be our purpose, which is profoundly rooted in our constitutional 'Motto': 'Defends People's Korea with no ifs and no buts' even 24 / 7.
I would like to thank you for trusting me as KFA UK Organizational Secretary. At the annual meeting this year, if those gathered at the meeting express their positive opinion about my work, express the will to remain in the function of KFA UK Organizational Secretary and the Chairman of KFA UK 'West of England Branch' , I would like to ensure. I wish to be even better and look forward to continuing to engage with such a vibrant, multidisciplinary and with durability as much as I can.
You may be aware, and I hope you are, that following the last AGM we have carried out further consultation on how we take forward the development of KFA UK and I fully consider to this matter now and in future as well.
If the gremial of the AGM allows me to stay as a KFA UK Secretary and Chairman of the KFA UK 'West of England Branch', I would be very grateful for feedback on what I am doing well, and where I can improve. If you have any comments or suggestions, I would be delighted to hear them and I stay open to criticism and promise to use self - criticisms to myself as a true communist should behave.
Thank you for listening.
Report of Work of KFA UK by KFA UK Chairman.
Greetings to all those participating in this Annual General Meeting(AGM) of the Korean Friendship Association of the UK(KFA UK), I am happy to be with you all today.
Originally we used to hold our AGM in June to coincide with the anniversary of the June 15 inter-Korean declaration. However, it was felt that holding the AGM should be held separately from DPRK anniversaries so more time can be spent on KFA UK business also it is a good idea to hold the AGM at the beginning in order to plan ahead for the coming year.
The past year has been an active, productive and positive one for KFA UK. During the course of the year have maintained a high level of activity. We organised one real-life national meeting and 3 real-life regional and local meetings. We organised 3 pickets including two at the BBC and one at the US embassy. We have held many online meetings including several that have been jointly hosted with other KFA branches such as KFA Greece. We have had monthly KFA UK Literary and Poetry evenings.
We were asked by the DPRK Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries to organise an international online seminar for the 74th anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK in September. We held a two-session online event with a big participation.
A 2 member delegation participated in the KFA International Meeting in Tarragona, Spain. It was the first time since 2017 that we sent more than 1 person to a KFA International meeting.
We also participated in the international online seminar organised by KFA International for the 110th anniversary of the birth of the great leader President KIM IL SUNG.
Thanks to the efforts of comrade Alan Bolon, our KFA UK organisation secretary and editor of “People’s Korea Today ‘, we have published every month our pdf format magazine’“People’s Korea Today”
Steps have been taken to revive KFA Scotland which has been dormant for nearly 3 years and also a new KFA UK South of England branch with its own Facebook page was set up.
We took the initiative of contacting every single person who had registered for KFA UK on an individual basis. As a result, we reestablished contact with some members that we lost contact with and have gained members for our Whatsapp Group and Telegram Channel.
We now have 12910 followers on Facebook and 6,861 Followers on Twitter. This is great but we need more and more importantly, but we need to change passive support on social media into active support on the ground.
Although our social media work has been successful we have also encountered difficulties created by censorship and repression by the reactionary authorities. We started having problems with Facebook back in 2020 when the page was arbitrarily labelled ‘ North Korea-controlled state media ‘ and some postings later got banned as ‘spam ‘ by Facebook in the autumn of 2020. This year we have seen a massive intensification of attacks by Facebook which have included the following; restricting the KFA UK main Facebook page for 59 days and also banning pictures from the DPRK from the page. I also had my personal Facebook account restricted. Mysteriously other KFA UK officials, activists and members experienced having access to their accounts blocked as well as access to regional KFA Facebook pages. In an extreme case, a member of Staffordshire KFA had his account taken offline completely and had to create a new profile. On Twitter, there have so far been fewer problems although the KFA UK Twitter account has been banned in south Korea and my personal account juche0071 has been banned in both south Korea and Germany. We also experienced orchestrated trolling on both Facebook and Twitter but particularly on Facebook.
Our response to the problems caused by Facebook has been to create a KFA UK Telegram channel which now has 90 subscribers but we need to expand it considerably. We have also got a VK.com account and have ventured onto Discord.
On the media front, I gave an interview with freelance journalist Peter Guest and part of the interview was included in an article in GQ magazine. I had two online video interviews with the Flame of Liberation youtube channel and an interview with KFAUSA. On the negative side, I had a very hostile interview with a Podcast run by a right-wing middle-class ex-pat brat in China.
Whilst it has been a great year for KFA UK it would foolish to ignore shortcomings in our work and we should be self-critical. However, criticism always needs to be constructive and we should avoid negativity and cynicism. I would our main shortcoming is a lack of active involvement and an attitude of passive support instead of pro-active support. There are too few people doing active work. We have tended to hold online meetings rather than real-life meetings but there again in some cases, we had no choice due to national rail strikes.
In my other presentation on the way forward, I will address the shortcomings mentioned above. Overall it has been a positive year and there is a sound basis to build on. I thank KFA UK members for their efforts and support, in particular, I thank comrade Alan Bolon our KFA UK organisation secretary for his hard and persevering work which is a great example.
Let us build on the success of 2022 and go forward to new heights in 2023!
