
North Korea and the American Radical Left
A collection of documents on North Korea's ties to groups associated with the American radical left, including the Black Panther Party, in the 1960s and 1970s. The documents were obtained from the personal papers of Eldridge Cleaver, a leading member of the Black Panther Party who visited North Korea twice, held by the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, Texas A&M University, and the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. For additional context, see the 2013 essay by Benjamin Young "'Our Common Struggle against Our Common Enemy': North Korea and the American Radical Left." See also the Digital Archive collection: North Korean Public Diplomacy.
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1970
Revolutionary New Year's Greetings to the 40 Million Heroic Korean People
Eldridge Cleaver applauds the North Koreans for being the beacons of the anti-imperialist revolution and praises Kim Il Sung's leadership against U.S. imperialism and Japanese colonialism. According to Cleaver, the Black Panther Party supports and join hands with the North Koreans against fascism, imperialism, and the ruling class. Cleaver also criticizes South Korea for being a puppet state of U.S. imperialism.
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1970
Welcoming Message to Eldridge Cleaver, Kathleen Cleaver, and Robert Scheer upon their Arrival in North Korea
The speaker thanks the Black Panther Party for supporting North Korea's efforts to achieve independence without the influence of US and Japanese imperialist forces and expresses North Korea's hope for solidarity against imperialism. The speaker argues that Korean unification can only be achieved by the Korean people themselves.
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1970
Statement from the US Peoples' Anti-Imperialist Delegation to Korea
Eldridge Cleaver praises Kim Il Sung and the Korean people as models of the anti-imperialist struggle and suggests that US imperialism has been crumbling since its "defeat" in the Korean War. Cleaver praises North Korean economic development in heavy industry and light industry and in agriculture which serves the purpose of liberating the people. Suggesting that the Korean peninsula can only be unified by the Koreans themselves, Cleaver indicates his support for North Korea's efforts to unify Korea against US imperialism, warning that the US imperialists that they will suffer a heavier loss if they provoke another war.
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September 09, 1971
Message to Kim Il Sung from Eldridge Cleaver
Eldridge Cleaver sends a message to Kim Il Sung celebrating the twenty-third anniversary of the founding of DPRK. Cleaver praises the Juche principle and the Korean revolution for national independence against the Japanese fascists and US imperialists. Koreans are described as the prime mover of the international revolutionary movement and as having built a powerful independent socialist country. Cleaver praises North Korea's efforts in reaching out to the southern hemisphere that is suffering from US neo-colonialism.