There is no doubt that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or DPRK for short , or People’s Korea or Juche Korea is one of the most demonised countries in the world . In fact until the Russia -Ukraine war started and the imperialists turned on Russia , the DPRK was the No 1 most demonised country in the whole world with a massive propaganda machine working 24/7 against it . I am not here to discuss the rights and wrongs of the Ukraine war but the vilification of both Russia and the DPRK illustrates that any country asserting itself against the imperialist West , anyone country standing up for its rights and any country going its own way will face the wrath of the imperialists and an unending torrent of lies and slanders .
People’s Korea also faces demonization and vilification because is a genuine socialist country. Despite the raging winds of anti-socialism, the new wave of post-modernist anti-communism and the setbacks that have occurred, the DPRK is maintaining socialist principles. Moreover despite 60 years of sanctions and blockade plus natural disasters the DPRK is implementing popular welfare policies such as free education, free housing, free medical care without taking a penny from its citizens in tax.
Recently ‘ ‘The Guardian ‘ ‘ published an article and that also a ‘ health expert ‘ Dr John Campbell made a video which severely misrepresented, exaggerated and distorted the recent apparent outbreak of Covid 19 in the DPRK.
The ‘Guardian ‘ piece turns out to be a syndicated article from the French imperialist( yes France is imperialist , it has troops in many African countries ) news agency Agence France Presse (AFP ). The Asia-Pacific editor of Agence France Presse is none other than Oliver Hotham , the former chief editor of the CIA fake news and disinformation website ‘ NKNews ‘(more about them later ) . Hotham was responsible for a particularly vile and slanderous attack on KFA UK 3 years ago .Hotham was also responsible for harassing and illegally filming a KFA UK picket of the south Korean puppet embassy in 2013 and bringing a ‘defector ‘ to the picket thus putting the picketers at the rise of violence.
It is likely that Hotham is behind the AFP piece which the ‘Guardian ‘ reproduces .It is really lame that the ‘Guardian ‘ are copying and pasting syndicated articles from imperialist news agencies rather than actually reporting news .
Most mainstream media stories on the DPRK are usually copies of syndicated articles which in turn are copies of stories circulated by south Korea and the CIA .
The AFP article in the ‘Guardian ‘ uses south Korean sources and quotes an official of the south Korean Sejong Institute , an entity devoted to anti-DPRK propaganda .This was founded in the 1980s by the south Korean puppet regime .
Turning black into white the ‘Guardian ‘ ludicrously asserts that the DPRK has one of the ‘worst public health systems in the world ‘ . Nothing could be further from the truth . In the DPRK free medical care was introduced for factory and office workers in 1947 and in 1953 universal free medical care was introduced in the DPRK . Everyone receives free medical care . By the 1960s the DPRK had 16 doctors per 10,000 people , a very high level . By 2017 , according to the World Bank the DPRK had 3.7 Doctors per 1,000 people . This was higher than south Korea which had 2.4 doctors per 1,000 people ( of course medical care is not free in south Korea ) and the United States with 2.6 doctors per 1,000 . The World Bank also said that Number of hospital beds per 1,000 in the DPRK was 13.2 per 1,000 compared to 2.9 beds per 1,000 in the UK .So basically the DPRK has 4.55 times the number of hospital beds per 1,000 than the UK . How on earth can the DPRK have one of the ‘worst public health systems ‘ in the world? This is just a barefaced lie . We would add that people in the DPRK benefit from the section doctor system in which doctors actually go to visit people in their localities and workplaces .Ironically , it is the UK where it is often impossible to go and see a doctor in person , instead it is all dumbed down ‘online consultations ‘ and phone calls.
A video by Dr John Campbell who is a Youtuber ‘health expert’ and apparently no friend of socialist countries , follows a similar pattern to the ‘Guardian ‘ . Dr Campbell has never set foot in the DPRK even once. Campbell titles his video ‘Disaster in North Korea ‘ ( failing to use the correct title of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or People’s Korea). However ,whilst the outbreak of Omicron in the DPRK which was previously 100 per cent Covid free constitutes an upheaval and a matter of very grave concern , it should be remembered that the Omicron is a less serious form of Covid 19 . As was pointed out on the Yale medicine website ‘ The good news is that, so far, BA.2.12.1 does not appear to cause severe illness and death’.
The DPRK took timely and prompt measures once the Omicron variant was detected . How can it be a disaster in the DPRK when the number of deaths per day is less than a 100th of what it was in the UK . It should be noted that south Korea has 17 million Covid 19 cases and 23, 554 deaths from Covid 19 . Dr Campbell is clearly looking at the wrong part of Korea when talking about a disaster . !
Dr Campbell resorts to orientalist and racist rhetoric when he calls the population of the DPRK ‘naive ‘ . Ever since the global pandemic started 2 years ago the DPRK has carried out mass health education and warned people about the dangers of Covid 19 .
Campbell wrongly says that only 81,430 people had fully recovered as of the 16th of May but in fact the number of people who have recovered ( as of 15. 05. 2022 ) is 648 630.
Campbell for sources cites an American neo-con academic based in south Korea and also ‘defectors ‘ . Stories from ‘defectors ‘ have repeatedly been torn to shreds .
The fact of the matter is that the DPRK did more than any other country to prevent the inroads of Covid 19 into the country .It closed its borders and they stayed shut for over 2 years . Other countries failed to close their borders . The DPRK also took counter-pandemic measures such as mass disinfection .
Of course it is strange and curious as to how Covid 19 was able to enter the country with the borders closed. Maybe the DPRK will comment later as to how the virus found its way into the DPRK . However the possibility that in fact the US and south Korea deliberately spread the virus into the DPRK cannot be ruled out . Only a few weeks before the outbreak was reported in the DPRK , ‘defectors ‘ in south Korea claimed to have flown balloons containing anti -DPRK propaganda leaflets into the DPRK. Did the balloons also contain the virus ? . Germ warfare was used against the DPRK by the US in the 1950s.
Campbell blames the DPRK over the issue of vaccination but the Omicron variant in other countries spread among those who had been vaccinated , so it probably does not make much difference whether people in the DPRK were vaccinated or not . The DPRK correctly rejected the fake ‘humanitarian aid ‘ of imperialism aimed at destroying the socialist system , it rejected unsafe vaccines produced by ‘big pharma ‘ capitalist monopolies of the imperialist world .
Campbell resorts to old anti DPRK tropes about ‘malnutrition ‘ . If malnutrition is a factor in the spread of Covid 19 , how come developed countries like the US and UK have high rates of Covid 19 infection . In 2021 the Director of Research Institute for Nutrition Care of Children of DPRK pointed out that “ In our country nutrition care of children is deemed a top priority affair”.
Space does not permit us to deal with all the allegations and assertions of Campbell but would finally take issue with the claim that there is poor housing in the DPRK . This is a lie . In the past 10 years there has been massive housing construction in the DPRK with whole new streets and even cities built . Recently , 10,000 new flats were constructed in the Songhwa area of Pyongyang and another 10,000 are under construction in the Hwasong area of Pyongyang . Housing is virtually free of charge in the DPRK and there are no homeless people . How can anyone say that there is poor housing in the DPRK.
The above are typical of the lies about People’s Korea . The BBC consistently demonises and smears the DPRK by using clichés like “impoverished”, “totalitarian “ and “ isolated “ . Rather than being impoverished the DPRK has a rapidly growing economy, it is a people-oriented society and rather than being isolated has diplomatic relations with over a 100 countries including the UK !
In fact People’s Korea is a country that abolished taxation in 1974 and yet has free education , free health care and virtually free housing . People’s Korea is a society free from knife crime .
The torrent of falsehoods , myths and lies about the DPRK serve to demonise the DPRK and create an atmosphere in which a war against the DPRK could be justified . They are also part and parcel of the psychological warfare of US imperialism against the socialist system of the DPRK and the Juche Idea.
Let’s look at how some of this propaganda comes about. Much misinformation comes from the south Korean puppet propaganda machine which is then recycled by the Western mainstream or if you like bourgeois or imperialist media who in some cases print stories which they know are untrue. Then you have shadowy outfits and think tanks that are closely linked to the CIA and the south Korean National Intelligence Service. One example is NKNews , an internet based news service that in fact includes on its staff former US and south Korean army officers . The head and founder of NK New Chad O Carroll(who even looks like a CIA agent or a Mormon!) who worked for the CIA linked Marshall Fund .O Carroll is also linked to a shadowy NGO called the ‘House of the Rising Stars ‘. Indeed O Carroll is an international man of mystery , no one knows the true identity , he is variously described as Irish , American or British . O’Carroll in the past has used the name Tad Farrell .Another key figure in NKNews was Hamish McDonald who is now with the Royal United Services Institute and also was a researcher with the FCO . Join up the dots and you will see what is , as they say .
NKNews operates out of south Korea and is registered in a US tax haven in Delaware ,USA where in the past other CIA front companies were registered . NKNews has been shown to have received funding from the US Army Pacific Command and the US Department of Defence . It is important to expose NKNews because firstly , it is a major source of anti-DPRK propaganda , secondly , it brands itself as an ‘independent source ‘ so is used by the mainstream media to provide a fig leaf of ‘balance ‘ . I have come across people who even think that NKNews is an official DPRK website . We must always expose NKNews.
I am not going to list every anti-DPRK propaganda outfit or organisation as they are many and various , some such as a Singapore based NGO even claim they are helping the DPRK by trying to restore capitalism there ,the DPRK does not need that kind of help!
However I will just mention one more anti-DPRK outfit , which is known as LINK or Liberty in north Korea .This is actively trying to recruit in UK universities . On their website , it openly says that their revenue increased by 27% but expenditure increased by 49 % , a big gap ! . It is not hard to guess where the money for that shortfall is coming from ! The CIA and NIS , US multinationals and wealthy right wingers in capitalist countries. I would also call out a number of academics for spreading disinformation and falsehoods about the DPRK . One example is Professor Hazel Smith who years ago was a Trotskyite and a Labour councillor . Prof Smith herself has written a number of very anti-DPRK books such as “Hungry for Peace ” which slander the socialist system of the DPRK. She even on occasion attacked the Korean Friendship Association. She was also awarded a medal by the US.
For years many liberal academics were bribed by south Korea , sometimes given teaching jobs in south Korea and even south Korean wives or mistresses . Some UK universities have received funding from south Korea . This is the reason why the academic world is hostile to the DPRK .
How can you defend People’s Korea ? We in the UK Korean Friendship Association, which is part of the Korean Friendship Association with 17,000 members worldwide , are the most active, consistent and active defenders of People’s Korea in the UK . No ifs and buts , we do what is says on the tin and “Defend the D P R Korea “ whether it is on the internet, facebook , on the streets and even the BBC ! We do not make half-hearted statements. We do not tolerate two-faced fake friends of the DPRK in our ranks but wholeheartedly support the DPRK and its socialist system and its right to independence. We appeal to you to join us.
