North and South Korea

After sidling into mealy-mouthed defence of Al Qaeda and its allies in Mali (9 February), Socialist Worker of 23 February attempts a sort-of-defence of the North Korean regime. SW says that North Korea's nuclear weapons tests have "nothing to do with anti-imperialism or socialism". However, it declares the North Korean government not to blame for those tests. All the blame lies with the US and its allies. SW says that North Korea is "a nuclear bogeyman created by the US". SW cannot mean to say that North Korea really has no nuclear weapons (i.e. the story that it has them has been manufactured...

The LabourStart website has launched a campaign to support Kim Jungam, the president of the Korean Government Employees' Union, who is on hunger strike outside government offices in Seoul. LabourStart write: The President of the Korean Government Employees' Union (KGEU), Kim Jungnam, launched a hunger strike in the streets of Seoul outside the offices of the Presidential transition committee on 15 January. He is protesting the sacking of 137 workers, among them the union president and general secretary, who are being punished for their union activities. They are accused of being leaders of an...

The week leading up to May Day is commemorated each year around the world as “North Korea Freedom Week”, though you’d hardly know that if you were active in the British labour movement. British unions pride themselves on their solidarity campaigns in support of workers in Palestine, Colombia, Venezuela and Cuba, but never speak out in defence of those workers who live in North Korea, a country that is effectively a giant prison. This year, there was a commemoration in the House of Commons and three North Korean refugees spoke, as well as someone from Amnesty International (AI). Several people...

On 17 December 2011, the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was announced to the world. As with the death of any major political figure, the world turned to examination of his “legacy”. But the only legacy left in the wake of the demise of the “Dear Leader” was one of a horrifying human rights record, widespread poverty, and what amounts to one of the most (if not the most) repressive political regimes in the world. A Human Rights Watch report from 2004 described Kim Jong Il as ruling “with an iron fist and a bizarre cult of personality” in which “virtually every aspect of political...

China’s people and its media have defied state censorship to condemn the government’s development drive, which is coming with a terrible cost. After a high-speed rail crash on 24 July which killed 39 people, questions are being asked about the real motivations behind projects such as the high-speed railway and the Jiaozhou Bay sea-bridge, which opened in late June 2011 despite fears that it was not safe. In the immediate aftermath of the rail crash, the Chinese government appeared unwilling to respond to questions about the incident and attempted to prevent the national media from probing too...

According to Asian news agencies, small scale demonstrations have sprung up in parts of North Korea. Although the details of these protests are not clear and there is little suggestion that they amount to a determination to fight for immediate regime change, they are potentially highly signficant. The lack of food, electricity and basic utilities are the most likely reason for the demonstrations. Challenging the regime directly is too dangerous, and most North Koreans simply don’t have enough knowledge on the possible “alternatives”. It is also unlikely that these protests have been directly...

On Dec. 3 of last year, the prosecutor in the Seoul Central District Court demanded prison terms of 5-7 years for Oh sei-chull and other members (Yang Hyo-seok, Yang Joon-seok, Choi Young-ik, Park Joon-seon, Jeong Won-hyung, and Oh Min-gyu) of the Socialist Workers’ Alliance of Korea (SWLK), a revolutionary socialist group. These activists in the Korean working-class movement were indicted under South Korea’s notorious National Security Law (passed in 1948 and theoretically still stipulating the death penalty for “pro-North” activities). The eight militants of the SWLK, who as...

By the entrance to the British Museum’s Korea gallery is a case displaying a stone dagger dating from 1000-300 BC and a collection of stone arrow heads from 6000-2000 BC. Next to these artefacts is a razor dating from the Koryo Dynasty of the 12th-13th century. The razor, used by Buddhist monks to shave their heads, was forged in the closing years of the Koryos — a ruling line from which the name “Korea” is derived. Contrast the social, economic and technological dynamism of the besieged Koryo Dynasty — where the world’s first moveable metal type was developed — with the decrepit, kitsch...

The North Korean regime has taken a significant step in ensuring that power will be handed down to Kim Jong-il’s 28-year-old son, Kim Jong-sun. This is no reason to rejoice. For 57 years the northern half of the Korean Peninsular has been under the grip of one of the worlds most terrifying and totalitarian dictatorships and shows no signs of letting up. Life inside the DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea) is truly horrific. Our only genuine understanding of the regimes nature is sourced from citizens that have defected by fleeing across the Yalu River into China, and then onto South...

Zanon victory; US union recognition law setback; Korean occupation ends; Chilean miners' strike Zanon victory Workers at the occupied Zanon ceramics factory in Neuqen, Argentina, have won a major legal victory. The provincial parliament has voted 26 to 9 to accept that the factory is expropriated and handed over to the workers’ co-operative to manage legally and indefinitely. The workers of the Zanon factory in Argentina occupied the factory in 2001, following a boss’s lock-out, and have run it since then under workers’ control. The workers renamed the factory FASINPAT (Factory without a Boss)...