VISIT TO THE LAND OF SONGUN
VISIT TO THE LAND OF SONGUN
AN ACCOUNT OF A VISIT
TO THE LAND OF SONGUN BETWEEN
BETWEEN JUNE 30th TO JULY 8Th 2009
BY SHAUN PICKFORD
After a gap of 13 years I returned to the DPRK. I went to Korea as the honoured guest of the Korean Association of Social Scientists. I managed eventually to get back to the homeland of the Juche Idea despite imperialist threats and sanctions aganist the DPRK over the so-called nuclear issue,undeterred by swine fever and bird flu and overcoming any financial obstacles. It felt like a beautiful dream to be in the fragrant flower garden of Socialist Korea once again.
Two months before my visit to north Korea, the DPRK launched the Kwangmyongsong No2 satellite and roughly about a month before my trip Peoples Korea conducted a second nuclear test.The DPRK due to its programme of building a prosperous, high-tech nation and constructing a powerful defence deterrent the imperialist media became extremely hysterical. There is no country on Earth which is more slandered, more maligned, where reality is so distorted by the corporate press empires of the plutocratic elite. Unfortunately this psychological offensive of imperialism against the DPRK has claimed many victims. A Lot of my relatives and acquaintances expressed their concern about my potential travel plans to north Korea.
With the kind assistance of the Korea Publications Export and Import Corporation staff I made a comfortable passage through the Chinese capital on to Pyongyang. At the final destination of Pyongyang I was met by my guide and interpreter from the Korean Association of Social Scientists. Driving towards central Pyongyang everything appeared to be stable and with no sense of paranoia,Pyongyang looked green and pleasant, even more so than last time.
On my first evening in Pyongyang I was entertained to a traditional Korean meal served by a waitress in a classic chima and turumagi. The meal consisted of Kimchi,hoe and sinsollo accompanied by insam and pyokhyang wine. My hosts from KASS made me feel at home and relaxed after travelling across oceans and continents to reach Songun Korea.
One of the places of historical importance I toured was the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum (Korean War). I was conducted around the displays by a smart young woman Korean Peoples Army Officer who spoke excellent English. At this museum the visitor can learn about the bitter history of US intervention in the affairs of the Korean peninsula since the 1860s. The United States has always had a greedy eye on Korea and her resources.
Looking around the Fatherland Liberation War Museum I saw conclusive evidence that it was the USA that planned and carried out the war of 1950-53 against the infant DPRK.The US imperialists committed the most terrible war crimes upon the Korean people.At the Korean War Museum there is a marvellous mock up of the battle of Taejon containing a panorama of the conflict.Taejon was the temporary capital of the puppet "republic" of Korea and was guarded by the so-called invincible US army 24th division. The units of the Korean Peoples Army encircled the city and destroyed this US army division on July 20th 1950. After 3 years of intense fighting the KPA led by KIM IL SUNG scored a crushing victory over the yankee aggressors and their puppets and satellite countries (including the UK) on July 27th 1953.
The US imperialists did not learn from their utter defeat in the Korean War. On January 23rd 1968 the US naval intelligence service "Pueblo" equipped with the state of the art technology sailed deep into DPRK waters off the coastal town of Wonsan. The KPA navy captured this US espionage ship intact.I was able to see all over the GER 2 Publeo on the river Taedong, which is a permanent reminder of the belligerence of US imperialism .I could see all the sophisticated devices which were used to collect data contained inside the cabin and hull of the ship.As recently as 2004 the Americans sent a torpedo full of microwave equipment into Korean waters.This captured torpedo is moored alongside with the Pubelo.
I was privileged to be the guest of the Pyongyang Mission of the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front of South Korea, the leading party in the fight for south Korean liberation. I inspected the exposition in the mission devoted to the struggle of the south Korean people for democracy and reunification throughout the decades and years. Zo In Min gave an in depth talk about the current situation in south Korea. It was very poignant that I was invited to the Pyongyang Mission of the AINDFSK on the 40th anniversary of this truly valiant organisation' s formation and of the martyrdom of peoples journalist and activist Kim Jong Tae (murdered by the Park Hung Hee regime in 1969). I am certain that the south Korean people will rise up aganist the Lee Myung Bak anti-national pro-US puppet regime with the AINDFSK playing a principal role in this effort and establish an anti-imperialist democracy in south Korea in the near future. I hope that attention is given to the terrible human rights record of the south Korean regime among democratic circles in Britain.
As the United States and its allies are manoeuvring to isolate and annihilate the DPRK currently. It is in this environment that Socialist Korea is building up its defence potential. The Korean Revolution has throughout its existence prioritised the need to protect itself from the imperialist and revisionist enemies. While the working class is the ruling class in the DPRK, it is the Korean Peoples Army which is the main force of the revolution. The Songun Politics have resulted in the perfection of the ulimate defence deterrent with the successful nuclear tests and missile launches. The Korean people guided by KIM JONG IL will prevail in any circumstances over any powerful adversaries.
Fifteen years ago on July 8th 1994 President KIM IL SUNG passed away. Going to the Manu Hill I observed hundreds of thousands of Koreans from all walks of life paying their respects to the shinning bronze statue of the President full of very deep sorrow. I was really honoured to have been able to put a bunch of flowers on behalf of the study group at the Grand Monument with a feeling of pure respect for KIM IL SUNG. KIM IL SUNG was not just a political Leader but the genuine father of the Korean People and the eternal sun of world revolution.Having seen Manyongdae, it is amazing that such a humble peasant's home would give rise to KIM IL SUNG, the Respected Leader of the Korean People.
I went on a pleasant excursion to the breathtakingly beautiful Mount Myohyangsan, one of the six famous Korean Mountains. Aswell as wonderful natural scenery, the Mt.Myohyang area contains the rarest treasures in the International Friendship Exhibition. The International Friendship Exhibition is designed in the classic Korean fashion but it was constructed in 1978. In the Friendship Exhibition holds many thousands of gifts from every country of the world to President KIM IL SUNG and to Chairman KIM JONG IL, these heartfelt gifts of reverence are from Presidents to Workers, from various governments, parties and national liberation fronts.Such revolutionary figures as J.V.Stalin. Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Nicolae Ceausecu and Hugo Chavez gave gifts to the Two Korean Leaders. I was very proud to see a few presents to KIM IL SUNG and to KIM JONG IL from the Juche Idea Study Group of Britain on display at the Exhibition. The World's Peoples appreciate the Historic role of KIM IL SUNG and of KIM JONG IL in creating and developing the Juche Idea and for making the DPRK the foremost anti-imperialist independent nation.
I never tire of visiting the Tower of the Juche Idea. It is invariably an attraction of significance for me as an adherent of the Juche Idea. The Tower of the Juche Idea symbolizes in concrete the ideology of man's liberation from natural fetters and from national and social oppression. The beacon of the Tower will shine brightly across the planet for making the 21st century a century of Independence. At the base of the Tower I could see various plaques from Juche Study Groups including from Britain, it demonstrates that the Juche Idea is a universal revolutionary ideology ready to be appiled to all countries in any conditions.
One gets the sense of the sheer dynamism of the Korean People in realizing the Juche Cause by viewing the Three Revolutions Exhibition. The 3 Revolutions are ideological, technical and cultural. With these revolutions the Korean people have become successful in reaching their socialist goals. In this exhibition were displayed items from such diverse areas as locomative production to the manufacture of PCs and Laptop Computers by the DPRK.Everywhere in Pyongyang and other places in the DPRK one encounters revolutionary posters extolling the population to smash production norms.I got the impression that were more posters around this time than during my last visit in 1996. The Korean people are gearing themselves into the 150 Day Output Offensive.Compared to the 1990s there were no power cuts, more high-tech being applied to everyday uses, more traffic on the streets and a notable increase in freight transport on the railway network ( which I could hear from my hotel room every evening).
The Korean people steered by KIM JONG IL have set themselves the target of building a Powerful and Prosperous Nation by the year 2012 - the centenary of the birth of KIM IL SUNG. There is a programme to modernize existing factories and plants, to update the rail system, to develop and apply high tech, to expand and diversify consumer production and to prospect new sources of power supply. The DPRK wants to overhall its magnesium mining for its own use and for export purposes. Already the results of this campaign to build a strong and rich independent socialist country are bearing fruit.
The DPRK's economy is an independent national economic unit based upon socialist planning. It is a self-reliant one, not dependent on the whims of the IMF, World Bank and mutli-national corporations for survival. As the capitalist countries (including Britain) are now in the grip of the worst ever crisis, the DPRK's economy expands on a directed foundation. Songun Korea's economic growth benefits the majority of the working people, the wealth of the nation does not go into the hands of the few as in imperialist nations.
One aspect of Korean Socialism which has consistently inspired me is the strategy of KIM IL SUNG and of KIM JONG IL to intellecutalize the whole of society. It is only in the DPRK where the age-old division between mental and physical labour is being broken down.On a visit to the Grand Peoples Study House in central Pyongyang I witnessed this process in action. The Grand Peoples Study House is a monumental structure devoted to the popular education of the working masses, the Study House has more than 600 rooms and has in its stock well over 30 million volumes on a vareity of subjects. I saw many ordinary working people of different professions using the facilities of the Study House, such as the lecture halls or the database or foreign language assimilation rooms. It is all free to use for everybody seven days a week. The Workers Party of Korea positively encourages the masses to study and improve themselves into assertive independent people.
Education is a vital key for personal and social evolution as an independent being. In Britain and other capitalist countries a decent education is reserved for the elite. For instance to have a university education one must pay out something in the region of £6000. The bulk of the working class children and adults in the UK are condemned to a lifetime of drudgery or unemployment, with a sense of profound intellectual inferiority drilled into them by the establishment. The offspring of bourgeoisie and of lazy aristocrats are given the sense that they are the innate rulers of the global empire at public (private) schools such as Eton and Harrow. In Socialist Korea all education is free, from primary to university level.
Korean style socialism brings out the and nurtures the best features of a human being. One of the worst crimes of the cosmopolitan bourgeoisie in western countries is the surrpessing of the intellectual and moral development of the working man and woman. The capitalists force down to the lowest possible denominator the consciousness level of the working masses with trash culture and with base consumerism. Working people in imperialist society do not have the opportunity to broaden their horizons, they become the robots of the trans-nationals. Culture in the DPRK is of the highest quality, national in form and socailist in content.Every citizen of the DPRK can have access to the arts and literature without discrimination and can participate in the creation of cultural values.
Even progressive people on occasions can be influenced subconsciously by the overwhelming strength of the capitalist media with their daily lies about north Korea. Travelling through the countryside of the DPRK I saw absolutely no poverty or starvation. I witnessed on my way to and from Mt.Myohyang and on my rail journey from Pyongyang to Beijing via Sinuiju an abundance of activity on the fields.All over in the countryside I could clearly see the people from the elderly to the youth being mobilized with red flags and slogans.The Korean people have been enaged in the initiative to rezoning and renovating the system of land alignment so as to make DPRK agriculture more efficient. KIM IL SUNG and KIM JONG IL dedicated their endeavours to solving the socialist rural question in a Juche manner, putting the countryside on a par with the city in terms of technology and ideology.
The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea has attained another achievement in its second Chollima march, that is the production of its fantastic new lager. I was lucky enough to have drank the newly-produced Taedonggang beer at a typical Pyongyang Pub full of locals.Taedonggang beer has a good clear taste to it and a good body. This new DPRK lager has been noted by international beverage connoisseurs to be one of the finest beers in the brewing arena today.This lager mainly comes in the form of bottles, I have not seen on draft yet. I believe the pub I dropped into with my Korean friends was somewhere near to Saesailim street in east Pyongyang.There were many Pyongyang citizens enjoying a well earned drink after a hard day's struggle to build a better Communist tomorrow for all. I noticed in this bar that there were intellectuals, party and state officials and manual and office workers all mixing together over a quiet pint of Taedonggang with without any formalities, this bears testament to the fact that the DPRK is the world's most egalitarian soceity.
I was treated to a day at the seaside at Nampo.The West Sea Barrage is a declaration of the Juche principle of Man's mastery of the forces of nature. Construction of the Barrage was completed by June 1986 after six years. The West Sea Barrage was builded without a single dollar,pound or yen from international organisations but by the courageous endeavours of the Korean people, most of all of the servicemen and servicewomen of the Korean Peoples Army. The West Sea Barrage has 3 locks and 36 sluices, prevents flooding and greatly contributes to the economic growth of South Hwanghae Province and South Pyongan Pronvince and to the rest of the DPRK. I managed to swim in the waters of the Korean West Sea near to a spot by the Barrage. This was the first time ever I have swam in the DPRK and I savoured the warm water of Korea's West Sea and it was good having a nice beach just for our party. Swimming in the West Sea proved to be the perfect way to relax after a week of an intense schedule. I can remember having a picnic with my Korean hosts on the costline and enjoying Taedong River Mullet and Kamhongno Whisky and not forgeting the bottles of Taedonggang.
Seeing the performance of the schoolchildren at the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren Palace was extremely stirring indeed. It put me in a revolutionary mood. This grand palace dedicated to the improvement of the Pyongyang schoolchildren is now celebrating its 20th anniversary, it was opened by President KIM IL SUNG in May 1989. The schoolchildren palace is available for varied after school and college activities and is free of charge to all children living in the DPRK. I came across a photograph of myself and Mr.Hudson taken on a tour of the palace in June 1996 displayed in the photo exhibition of foreign delegations visiting the Mangyongdae Palace throughout its existence.
Being accommodated at the Koryo Hotel in Changwang Street was tremendously magnificant. The staff of this Hotel were all very helpful and assisted me in everyway. Some of my fellow guests at the Koryo were from the St.Petersburg (Leningrad) Juche Idea Study Group, some were from an Korean Christan Reunification Organisation based in the United States, a Taekwon-Do delegation from Canada and a Chinese tourist party.
I had many discussions with distinguished DPRK academics on subjects such as the Juche Philosophy, Prospects for Korean Reunification and on the Origin and Application of Songun Politics. I gained a better understanding from these talks given by Korean Social Scientists about many complex issues, I can now comprehend totally the meaning and role of the Songun Idea and Politics in historical development.
During my 4th visit to the DPRK I had the chance to get re-acquainted with the reality of Peoples Korea. It was like meeting old friends and comrades again after a long absence. The DPRK in many ways seems to me not like a foreign country but going back to my true motherland. Studying the Juche Idea from literature, watching DPRK documentaries and feature films and viewing Korean Picture Albums are a good method of understanding the situation of Songun Korea,but nothing beats being in the territory of the DPRK itself. When I visited Korea in early July 2009 it added flesh and bone to the Juche Concepts which I have studied in the past. In other words I saw the translation of the Juche Idea into the actuality of the DPRK. So I would urge all adherents of the Juche Idea , indeed I advise all communists, socialists, democrats, peace-loving and progressive people to at least visit the DPRK once in their lifetime. In the interval of something like four weeks since leaving the DPRK, I have come to recognize the paradise like nature of Socialist Korea, British society appears to be more and more like a hell-type environment.
I will continue to work with other Juche followers and friends of Korea to promote the truth about the DPRK among British public opinion and work for solidarity with the Korean People within the Labour and Peace Movements in Britain. I hope that the cooperation between the Group for the Study of the Juche Idea of Britain and the Korean Association of Social Scientists will only increase in the future. Words cannot express my deep gratitude to KASS for making my recent visit to the DPRK possible. I am firmly convinced that the revolutionary and heroic Korean People will win an outstanding victory in their independent cause of constructing socialism and communism because the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea is guided by the Great Leader KIM JONG IL.