The other day I had to travel into central London using the ‘Docklands Light Railway ‘ (DLR ) . I was about to sit down at the front of the train when a solitary member of DLR staff on the train warned me saying ‘ Now that is disgusting ‘ , I looked down in front of the seat and to both my surprise and horror that there was a big , fat piece of human excrement !!! Unbelievable! I thought but at the same time it was real . I went and sat down at the other end of the carriage . About a month earlier during the August bank holiday weekend I had gone on a short day trip and used a DLR train . On this occasion the stinking aroma of cannabis wafted through the train . I looked around , some girls who could have been more than 17 years of age were sprawled on the floor smoking drugs and also drinking vodka !. What a scene of total decadence !, Under capitalism people act like animals , like sub-humans .
I have in the course of the past 30 years visited People’s Korea some 18 times since 1992 . I have never seen human excrement on the Pyongyang Metro or people taking drugs or drinking Vodka . The DPRK is one of the cleanest countries in the world that I have been to . The streets are free from litter and very clean . Visiting the Korean Revolution Museum in 2018 I was amazed by how clean the area around is . In London you can see lots of litter on the streets , not just litter but sometimes grease from discarded cooking oil etc . The DPRK undoubtedly benefits from not having a McDonald’s which is a major source of litter as well as of unhealthy food.
Walking around the streets at night in the DPRK and going through pedestrian underpasses I did not see homeless people or beggars. There was also no sign of vandalism or graffiti .
There was no smell of drugs on the streets of Pyongyang or drug users sprawling across the streets. There was no one trying to sell drugs on the streets . In Britain drugs are supposedly illegal but often you can see drug dealing openly taking place on the streets . It is rumoured that the British police turn a blind eye to drug dealing . Back in 2015 I asked my guide Ms Ri , a student from Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies , about drug use in the DPRK because some dishonest elements had spread false stories about drug use being legal in the DPRK . ‘No ‘ she replied very firmly , adding that ‘this is a problem of the capitalist world ‘.
The crime rate in the DPRK is low , virtually non-existent . Indeed some observers such as the late Peruvian writer Genaro Carnero Checa and Russian communist leader Nina Andreeva said that there is no crime in the DPRK . I can remember once dropping some money on the floor of the dining room of the Juche Idea Academy and the next morning it was still there . Also when I left money in the pockets of my clothes that I sent for laundry , the money was returned to me .
In the DPRK young people are orderly . They take part in mass parades and demonstrations including amazing torchlight parades .Sometimes parades of a million young people take place but in capitalist countries such as the UK , the authorities would not risk putting such a large number of young people on the streets for fear of disorder and violence.
Also young people volunteer to do hard and difficult jobs . One young lady even adopted some orphan children and brought them up as her own children . . This would be unthinkable in a capitalist society .
In Western countries young people are regarded as a problem . Indeed the incident I witnessed on the DLR train is illustrative of problematic behaviour of youth in capitalist societies . In the DPRK you do not see young people getting drunk or acting in a rowdy and uncouth manner in public.In People’s Korea young people are regarded as the vanguard and shock brigade .
The DPRK is free from the decadence, chaos and extreme social alienation of the Western capitalist world which we now encounter on a daily basis. It has been said that under modern capitalism life is a ‘human jungle ‘. This assertion is basically true . However People’s Korea has reached a higher level of civilisation than the capitalist countries of the West . Some describe the DPRK as ‘one of the last remaining socialist countries ‘ or the ‘last outpost of socialism ‘ . Of course in a superficial sense this is true but it does not do justice to People’s Korea . Instead it can be said that People’s Korea is the beginning of a new world , a role model and standard bearer for the future of humanity .
We must defend People’s Korea from all attempts at ‘regime change ‘ and attempts to force it to ‘open up ‘ to the decadence of capitalism .
Dr Dermot Hudson
Chairman , Korean Friendship Association UK
Chairman British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea.
