On Saturday 24 September 2022, we hosted a webinar on the rising aggression of the US and its allies in the Pacific region. There were a number of excellent contributions dealing with issues including the Biden administration’s increased support for Taiwanese separatism; Western power projection in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits; the hysteria surrounding China’s security agreement with the Solomon Islands; the AUKUS nuclear pact; and developments in Korea and Japan. The event stream and the individual speeches are embedded below, and can be viewed directly on our YouTube channel.
Category: Korea
Xi Jinping sends message to Kim Jong Un on DPRK National Day
September 9 this year marks the 74th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), China’s socialist neighbor. Marking this occasion, Chinese leader Xi Jinping addressed a warm message to his DPRK counterpart Kim Jong Un. As a good comrade, good neighbor and good friend, Xi expressed China’s support for the further development of the DPRK’s socialist cause, noting that China-DPRK friendship has won great public support.
The below report was first carried on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
On September 9, 2022, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un on the 74th anniversary of DPRK National Day.
Xi Jinping pointed out that for the past 74 years, the DPRK people have closely united around the WPK and forged ahead to obtain great achievements in the socialist cause. In recent years, under the guidance of the guidelines and policies made at the 8th WPK Congress, the DPRK people have continuously made new achievements in economic development and improvement of livelihood, and succeeded in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. We are wholeheartedly happy with it as a good comrade, good neighbor and good friend. I believe that under the leadership of Comrade Chairman and the WPK, the brotherly DPRK people will surely promote the socialist cause of the DPRK to achieve new development at a new level.
Xi Jinping pointed out that China and the DPRK are linked by mountains and rivers, and the traditional friendship is long-standing and steadfast. Comrade Chairman and I have reached a series of important consensus on planning the blueprint for the development of relations between the two parties and between the two countries and enriching the connotation of the China-DPRK friendship in this era. The China-DPRK friendship has won great public support, the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries have continuously been advanced, and the two sides have supported each other on issues of major concern, demonstrating the vitality of the traditional China-DPRK friendship.
Xi Jinping emphasized that changes unseen in a century are accelerating, and the world is entering a new period of turbulence and transformation. The Chinese side is ready to work with the DPRK side to maintain strategic communication, strengthen coordination and cooperation, and jointly uphold, consolidate, and develop China-DPRK relations, to bring more benefits to the two countries and the two peoples, and make contributions to peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and the world.
The DPRK affirms its strong solidarity with China
Over the last month, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has strongly affirmed its militant alliance and strong solidarity with its socialist neighbour, the People’s Republic of China, on a number of occasions.
Following Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which was followed by an equally provocative jaunt to south Korea, besides a statement from the DPRK Foreign Ministry, the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) sent a letter on August 9 to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in which the US Speaker’s visit was slammed as “an unpardonable political provocation aimed to defame the authority of the CPC and disturb the successful holding of its 20th Congress.”
The letter noted that the Asia-Pacific strategy developed by the United States since the 1950s had now been revised as an Indo-Pacific strategy, “with the main aim of checking the growth and development of socialist China and its cause of national reunification at present”, adding that, “the US has applied such stereotyped method most intensively and despicably in the moves to isolate and stifle socialism of the DPRK and China.” The WPK further stressed that the vicious anti-China moves of the US would never “break the steadfast will of 1.4 billion Chinese people to accomplish the complete reunification of the country.”
Previously, on August 1, the 95th anniversary of the founding of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), DPRK Defence Minister Ri Yong Gil greeted his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, noting that the armies of the DPRK and China, which had fought shoulder-to-shoulder in wars against both Japanese and US imperialism, were now “reliably guaranteeing the cause of socialism with arms,” adding that the Korean People’s Army, “would closely wage strategic and tactic coordinated operations with the CPLA in order to jointly guard peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world.”
Meanwhile, on July 28, the day after the Korean people celebrate their victory in the Fatherland Liberation War against US imperialism, top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un visited the Friendship Tower to honour and pay tribute to the martyrs of the Chinese People’s Volunteers, who had sacrificed their lives in the joint struggle waged on Korean soil. The Friendship Tower is located in a prestigious spot in the centre of the Korean capital Pyongyang, directly opposite the Chinese Embassy. Kim Jong Un stressed that, “the DPRK-China friendship, sealed in blood and further cemented in all sorts of trying ordeals of history, would be carried forward and developed generation after generation along with the dynamic advance of the socialist cause.”
The following reports were originally carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
C.C., WPK Sends Solidarity Letter to C.C., CPC
The Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) sent a solidarity letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on August 9 in connection with the issue of Taiwan.
The WPK Central Committee said in the letter that the public junket to Taiwan, made by an incumbent U.S. high-ranking official despite China’s strong protest and solemn warning and the universal opposition of the international community, was a serious infringement on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and an unpardonable political provocation aimed to defame the authority of the CPC and disturb the successful holding of its 20th Congress.
Noting that the Asia-Pacific security strategy, raised by the U.S. since the 1950s, has been revised as the “India-Pacific strategy” and enforced with the main aim of checking the growth and development of socialist China and its cause of national reunification at present, the letter said that it is the U.S. inveterate method of executing its policy to fabricate the root cause and mislead the international opinion before realizing its strategic scheme on the plea of controlling it and that the U.S. has applied such stereotyped method most intensively and despicably in the moves to isolate and stifle socialism of the DPRK and China.
The WPK Central Committee bitterly denounces the U.S. shameless provocation as a grave challenge to the socialist cause of China, ruthless interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state and a serious threat to regional peace and stability, it said.
In the letter, the WPK Central Committee expressed full support and solidarity with all the strong, just and legitimate steps taken by the CPC and the Chinese government to resolutely repulse the U.S. arbitrariness, safeguard the territorial integrity of the state and achieve the reunification cause of the Chinese nation.
The letter stressed that any reckless and vicious anti-China offensive by the U.S. and its vassal forces would never impair the authority of the CPC, which has opened up a turning point in exploring and developing the destiny of the Chinese nation and performed great historic feats, nor break the steadfast will of 1.4 billion Chinese people to accomplish the complete reunification of the country.
Saying that the WPK Central Committee will as ever fully support the just stand and all the determinations of the CPC over the Taiwanese issue and always be with the Chinese comrades on the road for its realization, the letter expressed the conviction that the CPC would successfully hold its 20th Congress, to serve as an important milestone in a new historic journey for the great prosperity of the Chinese nation, under the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping.
DPRK Minister of National Defence Sends Greetings to His Chinese Counterpart
Ri Yong Gil, minister of National Defence of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, sent a message of greeting to Wei Fenghe, state councilor and minister of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China, on the occasion of the 95th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
The message congratulated the CPLA on winning the victory of the revolution, safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state and making excellent achievements in the struggle for building a modernized army under the leadership of the Communist Party of China with Xi Jinping as its core for the past 95 years.
Noting that the armies of the DPRK and the PRC, which fought shoulder to shoulder in the anti-Japanese and anti-U.S. wars, are reliably guaranteeing the cause of socialism with arms, the message stressed that the Korean People’s Army would closely wage strategic and tactic coordinated operations with the CPLA in order to jointly guard peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world.
Meanwhile, a congratulatory floral basket in the name of the DPRK Ministry of National Defence was conveyed to the Ministry of National Defense of the PRC.
Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Visits Friendship Tower
Kim Jong Un , general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, visited the Friendship Tower on Thursday on the occasion of the great war victory day.
He was accompanied by Jo Yong Won, Pak Jong Chon, Ri Pyong Chol, Ri Il Hwan, Ri Yong Gil, Jong Kyong Thaek, Ri Thae Sop, Kim Song Nam, Ri Son Gwon and Choe Son Hui.
A wreath in the name of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un was laid at the tower amid the playing of the wreath-laying music.
Also laid there were wreaths in the names of the WPK Central Committee and the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK.
Written on the ribbons of the wreaths were the letters “Martyrs of the Chinese People’s Volunteers will always be alive”.
Kim Jong Un paid high tribute to the martyrs of the Chinese People’s Volunteers (CPV) who unsparingly shed their valuable blood in the same trenches for repulsing the imperialist aggression for the sake of the common cause.
There was a march past of the guard of honor of the Korean People’s Army.
Kim Jong Un went round the Friendship Tower together with cadres accompanied.
He stressed that the brilliant combat merits and feats of the CPV officers and men, obviously recorded in the history of the great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War, would be immortal and that the DPRK-China friendship, sealed in blood and further cemented in all sorts of trying ordeals of history, would be carried forward and developed generation after generation along with the dynamic advance of the socialist cause.
With RIMPAC, South Korea expands its military footprint
In this article, part of the Feminist Peace Initiative’s joint campaign with Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) against the militarization of the Asia-Pacific region, coinciding with the annual US-led RIMPAC exercises and originally published by FPIF, leading South Korean peace activist Choi Sung-hee notes that after the US, South Korea is the second largest participant in this year’s war games.
She notes that: “When RIMPAC began, the NATO summit meeting also started in Madrid. It is the first time that a South Korean president joined the NATO summit meeting. Yoon Suk-yeol, elected as the new South Korean president on May 9, has talked dangerously about the possibility of a ROK-US-Japan military alliance, which even other conservative presidents had abstained from openly talking about because of the past imperial-colony relationship between Japan and Korea. Already a NATO partner country, South Korea will likely increase its involvement in the US-led domination game against ‘enemy forces.’ Under the previous president Moon Jae-in, South Korea became the first Asian country to join the NATO cyber defense group. South Korean participation in RIMPAC risks inflaming military tension against China in the Pacific.”
“The current South Korean government”, she notes, “is strengthening trilateral coordination with the United States and Japan to put pressure on North Korea and contain China. But it would be in Seoul’s interest to reduce tensions in the region, not exacerbate them. China is the number one trading partner of South Korea, so it makes no sense for Seoul to participate in the anti-China efforts of the United States. Improving relations with North Korea—for instance by formalizing the end of the Korean War with a peace treaty—would also help to remove one of the key drivers of conflict in the region.”
On June 22, 2022, 20 civic groups held a “No RIMPAC!” press conference in front of the Jeju Naval Base in Gangjeong Village, Jeju Island, South Korea. Beginning with the words “Aloha ʻĀina,” the press conference expressed solidarity with the people and all living beings in and off Hawai’i and southern California. It also demanded “peace practice, not war drills” and closure of the Jeju Naval Base.
In Hawaiian, “Aloha ʻĀina” means love and care of the land and sea. Many friends from Hawai’i have visited Gangjeong in solidarity for peace during the last few years. One of them was Pua’ena, who urgently appealed to people in Jeju not to let the warships in Jeju head for Hawai’i during the current RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) exercises, the biggest U.S.-led multinational maritime war drill, which is held every two years.
Continue reading With RIMPAC, South Korea expands its military footprint
Steady development of relations between socialist neighbors, China and DPRK
July 11 marked the 61st anniversary of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance. Signed in Beijing by Premier Zhou Enlai and President Kim Il Sung, the treaty is still in force. It is China’s only formal alliance with any country.
Marking the occasion the leading newspapers of the Communist Party of China and the Workers’ Party of Korea, Renmin Ribao (People’s Daily) and Rodong Sinmum (Workers’ Daily) both carried authoritative articles.
According to People’s Daily: “The China-DPRK friendship, personally provided by the leaders of elder generation of the two countries in the struggle against the imperialists’ aggression, is a precious wealth common to both sides.
“China, as a good comrade and neighbor, will as ever continue to support the DPRK developing the economy, improving the people’s living standard and accelerating socialist construction. And it heartily wishes the fraternal Korean people greater successes on the road of achieving the prosperity of the country and creating happiness.
“No matter how the international and regional situation may change, invariable are the firm stand of the Chinese party and government to reliably defend the China-DPRK relations and consolidate and develop them on good terms, the Chinese people’s feelings of friendship toward the Korean people and the support of China to socialist Korea.”
Roding Sinmun noted that the treaty had served as “a motive force accelerating the struggle of the Korean and Chinese peoples for socialism” and continued:
“Our people sincerely hope that everything will go well in China and successes will be registered in socialist construction of China.
“We will as ever extend full support and solidarity to all the measures taken by the Chinese party and government to defend the core interests of the country, preserve the development of the state and defend the life and security of the people, and will always be with the Chinese people on the road of further developing the bilateral relations of friendship with socialism as the core.”
The following reports were originally carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Chinese Paper on China-DPRK Friendship
The Chinese People’s Daily carried its commentator’s article on July 11, the 61st anniversary of the conclusion of the DPRK-China Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance.
Continue reading Steady development of relations between socialist neighbors, China and DPRK
Book: Immortal history of DPRK-PRC friendship
Marking the 110th birth anniversary of Comrade Kim Il Sung, the founding leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), which fell on April 15 2022, the DPRK’s Foreign Languages Publishing House has released a special commemorative book, ‘Immortal History of DPRK-PRC Friendship’, depicting his contribution to building and strengthening the special relations of friendship and solidarity between the two neighbouring socialist countries. President Kim Il Sung was a true internationalist, something that found concentrated expression in his lifelong friendship and collaboration with the communists and people of China. Noting in its preamble that this dates right from the beginning of the President’s long revolutionary career in the 1920s, the book depicts Kim Il Sung’s many visits to the People’s Republic from 1953 to the 1990s and his meetings with such Chinese leaders as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Song Qingling, Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Hu Yaobang, Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Deng Yingchao and others, as well as visits to industrial, agricultural, scenic, cultural and revolutionary sites in many parts of China. In a photo from the 10th anniversary celebrations of the People’s Republic in 1959, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Kim Il Sung are also joined by the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh. The visits to the DPRK by many Chinese leaders including Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Hua Guofeng, Deng Yingchao, Hu Yaobang, Yang Shangkun, Li Xiannian and Jiang Zemin are also depicted. In all, with many rare photographs, the book constitutes a valuable record and historical depiction of proletarian internationalism.
China-Korea friendship from one century into the next
February 16 marked the 80th birthday of Kim Jong Il, the late leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Marking this occasion, the DPRK published a special commemorative photo album depicting his contributions to strengthening and developing the traditional friendly relations between the two socialist nations of China and Korea. The contents of this significant historical record were subsequently reproduced in video format. We are pleased to make it available here. It vividly depicts the great importance that Kim Jong Il attached to the relationship with China until the end of his life.
Zhao Lijian: China stands with the DPRK against sanctions and intimidation
The DPRK has long faced external threats to its security, which is the crux of the Korean Peninsula issue. To fundamentally solve the Korean Peninsula issue, the DPRK’s legitimate security concerns should be addressed. Otherwise, it’s like solving one problem only to find another cropping up. If the US truly cares about the well-being of the Korean people, it should stop pressuring the DPRK with sanctions. Instead, it should face up to the denuclearization measures already taken by the DPRK, respond to its legitimate and reasonable concerns and take measures to ease sanctions on the DPRK.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s Regular Press Conference on February 9, 2022
Film review: The Battle at Lake Changjin
The following review was written by Friends of Socialist China co-editor Keith Bennett.
The Battle at Lake Changjin, directed by Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark and Dante Lam, premiered at the Beijing International Film Festival on 21 September 2021 and was released in China on 30 September. As part of its international distribution, it has been showing at selected cinemas in Britain, Ireland, the USA and Canada since 19 November and in Australia since 2 December. With a budget of some US$200 million, it is the most expensive Chinese film ever made. However, the acclaim with which it has been received has also made it the highest grossing film of 2021, the highest grossing film in Chinese history and the highest grossing non-English language film.
At just two minutes under three hours in length, the film is a revolutionary epic, with the main action centred around the Changjin Lake area of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the bitterly cold winter of 1950, shortly after the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army (CPVA) had entered the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. Confronted with the harshest natural and climatic conditions, forced to survive on starvation rations, and faced with an enemy that was better trained, better equipped, better fed, better armed and with complete mastery of the skies, the Chinese troops “fearing neither hardship nor death”, to use the well-known Chinese expression, continue to forge ahead in the most courageous and ingenious of ways. Armed with the element of surprise, and although making the ultimate sacrifice, by successfully blowing up the Shuimen Bridge, they score the most decisive victory ultimately ensuring the achievement of China’s objectives in the war.
Continue reading Film review: The Battle at Lake Changjin
Remembering Mao Anying, son of Mao Zedong who died fighting US imperialism in Korea
The following article by Xia Yuansheng – president of the Hunan Provincial CPC Historical Figures Research Association – recalls the heroic sacrifice of Mao Anying (eldest son of Mao Zedong), who died on the frontlines of resistance against US imperialism and in solidarity with the Korean people. This episode forms part of a tremendously important history of militant anti-imperialist solidarity and enduring bonds of friendship between China and the DPRK.
The article was published in Chinese in 2010. It is included in the most recent issue of Dongsheng Chinese Voices, to mark the 71st anniversary of Mao Anying’s death (25 November 1950). Chinese Voices provides a valuable weekly newsletter containing a selection of articles by key Chinese thinkers.
On 25 June 1950, the Korean War broke out. On the third day, the United States imperialists announced armed assistance to south Korea and at the same time ordered its Seventh Fleet to sail into the Taiwan Strait, blatantly interfering in China’s internal affairs, and on 15 September the United States landed at Inchon and soon crossed the “38th parallel”, blatantly burning the war to the border of China and North Korea and the Yalu River, directly threatening the security and peace-building of new China. Faced with the most severe test of foreign war, political and military struggle, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, at the request of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the will of the Chinese people, decided to send troops to resist the U.S. and aid the DPRK. on October 18, Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, issued the order “Resist the U.S. and aid the DPRK, protect the country”. On October 18, Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, issued an order “to defend the interests of the Korean people, the Chinese people and the peoples of the East by transforming the Northeast Frontier Defense Army into the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army and marching to the territory of Korea at once to fight with the Korean comrades against the invaders and to strive for a glorious victory”. On October 25, the first battle was won, opening the prelude to the war against the U.S. and Korea, so the Chinese people have always taken this day as the anniversary of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army’s departure for North Korea.
Continue reading Remembering Mao Anying, son of Mao Zedong who died fighting US imperialism in KoreaWebinar: Korea’s Struggle for Independence, Peace and Reunification
We are pleased to be co-sponsoring this International Manifesto Group webinar about Korea.
Date: Sunday 21 November 2021
Time: 11am EST, 8am PST, 4pm GMT, 5pm CET
Location: Zoom and YouTube
Registration: Eventbrite
We take a look beneath and behind western stereotypes of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – as totalitarian, autarkic, economically bankrupt, led by a dynasty and a cult, and a nuclear bad-boy – to probe the realities, old and new, by addressing key questions including the ongoing Korean War; the nature and motivations of the Workers’ Party of Korea governments; the reasons for its nuclear arsenal; the need to end sanctions; the history and present of the US nuclear threat in East Asia; and the path to national reunification, to which the Korean people, whether in the north, south or diaspora, remain committed.
Speakers include:
- Dr Kiyul Chung (Visiting Professor, Tsinghua University)
- KJ Noh (Peace activist and expert on the geopolitics of Asia)
- Xiangyu (Political commentator and Chinese hip-hop artist)
- Sara Flounders (United National Antiwar Coalition, peace activist and author)
- Derek R Ford (Assistant professor, DePauw University)
- Dr Hugh Goodacre (Teaching Fellow, University College London)
- Keith Bennett (Co-editor, Friends of Socialist China)
- Chair: Radhika Desai (Professor, University of Manitoba; Convenor of the International Manifesto Group)
