LET US
EMBODY THE REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE, SELF-SUSTENANCE AND
SELF-DEFENCE MORE THOROUGHLY IN ALL BRANCHES OF STATE ACTIVITY
Political
Programme of the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea Announced at the First Session of the Fourth Supreme People’s
Assembly of the DPRK
December 16, 1967
Comrade Deputies,
The elections of deputies to the Fourth Supreme People’s
Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have
successfully taken place, with a great new revolutionary devotion,
and the political and work enthusiasm of the entire people running
exceptionally high in all fields of socialist economic construction
and the augmentation of our defences, to carry out the decisions of
the historic Conference of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
All the citizens of our country took part in the
elections, as one man, with high patriotic zeal, thereby showing
their firm determination to defend the people’s power and the
revolutionary gains and further consolidate and develop them, carry
out the building of socialism in the northern half of the Republic
successfully, and accomplish the revolutionary cause of reunification
of the country whatever the cost.
The results of the elections clearly demonstrated our
people’s unreserved support for and profound trust in our Party and
the Government of the Republic and again showed the world the
monolithic political and ideological unity of all our people.
On behalf of the Central Committee of the Workers’
Party of Korea and the Government of the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea, I wish to extend my warm thanks to you deputies
who have been elected to this Supreme People’s Assembly and to all
the people of our country for trusting and authorizing us once again
to form the Cabinet of the Republic.
Comrades,
The elections of deputies to the Supreme People’s
Assembly have been held on four occasions in our country in the 19
years since the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea, a genuine people’s state, in accordance with the unanimous
will of the entire Korean people, and the Cabinet of the Republic has
been formed today for the fourth time.
During this period great strides have been made along
the road of social progress and civilization in our country, thanks
to the correct policies of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the
invincible vitality of the people’s power and to the heroic
struggle of our people, who, as masters of the state, have taken
their destiny into their own hands. In this land, where harsh
exploitation and oppression, centuries-old underdevelopment and
poverty once prevailed, an advanced, socialist system has now been
established under which all of us help each other, work together and
live happily; our country has become a socialist state with a strong
independent national economy and brilliant national culture.
Since the elections of
deputies to the Third Supreme People’s Assembly held in 1962, the
Cabinet of the Republic has exerted all its efforts to carry through
the decisions of the Fourth Congress of the Workers’ Party of
Korea, and has, especially, concentrated its efforts on the
implementation of our Party’s new revolutionary line of carrying
out economic construction in parallel with the building up of our
defences, which was set out at the Conference of the Workers’ Party
of Korea held in October 1966. As a result, tremendous successes have
been made in all political, economic, cultural and military fields
and the might of our country has been further increased.
The alliance of the workers and peasants on a socialist
basis has been further cemented, and the political and ideological
unity of all the people has become stronger than ever. Our people
have been tempered still more in the hard-fought struggle for
revolution and construction; through practical experience, they have
acquired boundless confidence in the Workers’ Party of Korea and
the Government of the Republic, around which they are firmly united.
Our people accept the policies and lines of our Party and the
Government of the Republic as their vital cause and devote all their
talents and energies to the struggle for the cause of the revolution
and for the prosperity and progress of the Republic. This rock-firm
unity and cohesion of our people is the solid foundation of our state
and social system and the source of our invincible might.
Our people are now in a position to enter the
international arena under the glorious banner of the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, equal in rights to the peoples of both
the large and small countries of the world, and the international
position of the Republic continues to rise.
The correct economic policy of our Party and the
Government of the Republic has brought about giant strides forward in
all fields of the national economy.
In 1966, industrial production was 1.4 times greater
than in 1962 and 41 times that of 1946, the year immediately after
liberation.
The foundations of the independent national economy of
the country have been further consolidated as a result of the
vigorous campaign organized and carried forward by the Government of
the Republic to implement the decisions of the Fourth Congress of the
Workers’ Party of Korea on the accomplishment of socialist
industrialization and the all-round promotion of the technical
revolution in every field of the national economy.
The foundations of our heavy industry, with the
machine-building industry as its core, have been further improved and
strengthened, and the production of diverse heavy industrial goods
has grown conspicuously. Our heavy industry is now showing still
greater strength and making a better contribution to the progress of
light industry and agriculture, as a solid base for increasing the
economic independence of the country and for accelerating the
technical reconstruction of our national economy.
Great progress has also been made in the field of light
industry. In our country the people’s consumer demands are met with
locally produced goods, although these are not yet abundant, and in
light industry firm foundations have been laid for producing diverse
high-quality consumer goods in larger quantities in future.
Our socialist agriculture has also made good headway.
The technical, cultural and ideological revolutions have been
promoted successfully in the countryside, the direction and
management of cooperative farms improved and assistance to the rural
areas further increased; the farmers’ political and work enthusiasm
has increased greatly. Our country was hit hard by repeated natural
disasters in recent years, but their effects were completely overcome
in all sectors of our agricultural production.
With the successful acceleration of socialist economic
construction and the rapid growth of production, the people’s
material and cultural standards of living have risen markedly.
The per-capita national income was 500 won in
1966, or a 1.2-fold increase as against 1962, and it is expected to
rise to 580 won this year.
The Government of the Republic increased the real
incomes of the workers, office employees and farmers considerably,
while also steadily accumulating development funds for expanded
production and allocating a large part of the national income to the
building up of defences to meet the present situation. In particular,
the Government of the Republic, in keeping with the line set forth in
the Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country,
introduced a series of radical measures for increasing the farmers’
income: total elimination of agricultural tax in kind, capital
construction in the rural areas with state investment, construction
of farmers’ homes at state expense, and so on.
Housing conditions for the working people improved
considerably as a result of extensive dwelling construction. During
the period from 1963 to 1966, homes with a total floor space of
10,210,000 square metres were built in towns and the country areas
for the working people.
Not only
were the basic problems of food, clothing and housing solved, but the
supply of commodities to the working people was generally improved.
In our country today the working people can buy whatever goods are
needed at uniform prices everywhere, not merely in towns but even in
remote mountain areas where merchandise was seldom seen before.
Further progress has also been made in education,
culture and public health.
In our country, thanks to the correct educational policy
of our Party and the Government of the Republic, 2,600,000 pupils and
students, or one-fourth of the population, are now studying free of
charge at more than 9,260 schools at all levels, including 98
institutes of higher learning. In particular, universal compulsory
nine-year technical education which has been introduced this year,
combining general education with polytechnic training, will make it
possible for us to raise all the coming generation as a reserve of
versatile builders of socialism and communism, reliable heirs to our
revolutionary cause, and further raise the technical and cultural
levels of all the working people. This will contribute greatly to the
further development of public education and the acceleration of the
technical and cultural revolutions in our country.
In 1966 the number of university graduates was 1.2 times
that of 1962, and that of the graduates from higher technical schools
and specialized secondary schools, 3.2 times the 1962 figure. At
present, over 425,700 engineers, assistant engineers and
specialists—2.3 times as many as in 1962—are working in all
fields of the national economy. Thanks to the wisdom and energy of
our technicians and specialists, all branches of our national economy
are managed and operated efficiently, and new, up-to-date factories
and enterprises are going up one after another in our country today.
This is one of the biggest successes achieved by our Party and the
Government of the Republic in the building of a new country.
The correct policy of our Party and the Government of
the Republic with regard to health services has enabled our working
people to enjoy greater benefits from the system of universal free
medical care. In the field of health services, the number of medical
workers has increased considerably, medical facilities have been
expanded and medical service for the working people has been further
improved over the past four years. As a result of these improved
public health services and the raising of the people’s living
standards as a whole, the mortality of the population dropped in 1966
to half that of the pre-liberation years, and the people’s average
life-span has been lengthened by 20 years. This is possible only
under the socialist system, where the masses are the true masters of
the country.
Large numbers of nurseries and kindergartens, run at
state and community expense, have been established in order to raise
and educate our children well and to provide women with suitable
conditions for social labour.
All this is a clear manifestation of the popular
policies of our Party and the Government of the Republic, the supreme
principle of whose activities is the promotion of the well-being of
the working people.
Our Party and the Government of the Republic have in
recent years directed special attention to strengthening the
country’s defence capabilities to counter the intensified
aggressive manoeuvres of the imperialists. The US imperialists
created the Caribbean crisis against the Republic of Cuba in 1962 and
later provoked the Gulf of Bac Bo incident against the Democratic
Republic of Viet Nam and embarked on a course of escalating the war
of aggression in South Viet Nam on a large scale. In the face of this
situation, our Party and Government put forward the line of carrying
out economic construction and the building up of our defences in
parallel, and introduced a number of important measures to increase
our defence capabilities while reorganizing the national economy. We
are thus fully able to repulse any hostile invasions and defend the
security of our country more effectively.
All these
successes scored in the revolutionary struggle and work of
construction in recent years proclaim the splendid victory of the
lines and policies of our Party and the Government of the Republic
which have creatively applied and developed the universal truth of
Marxism-Leninism in line with existing conditions in our country, the
clear manifestation of the indomitable vitality and great superiority
of the state and social system of our Republic, and the fulfilment of
the patriotic struggle and creative labour of our people, closely
united around our Party and Government.
We cannot rest content with the successes which have
already been achieved; our revolutionary cause has not yet been
completed. So that we can continue to advance the revolution and
construction of the country we still have much to do, and we must
keep on striving to overcome difficulties and hardships.
Basing itself strictly on the lines and policies of the
Workers’ Party of Korea, the General Staff of our revolution and
organizer of all the victories of the Korean people, the newly formed
Cabinet of the Republic will, in the future, as in the past, organize
and carry out all its work in the interests of the entire Korean
people, and it will fight steadfastly to accelerate socialist
construction in the northern half of the Republic and the
accomplishment of the sacred cause of liberating the south Korean
people and reunifying the country.
The Government of the Republic, bearing in mind the
general tasks of our revolution, will concentrate all its efforts on
carrying out the following immediate political, economic, cultural
and military tasks:
First.
The Government of the Republic will thoroughly implement the line of
independence, self-sustenance and self-defence to consolidate the
political Chajusong of the country, strengthen the foundations of an
independent national economy capable of ensuring the complete
reunification, independence and prosperity of our nation, and
increase the defence capabilities of the country so as to protect its
security on the basis of our own forces, by establishing our Party’s
idea of Juche in all fields.
Our Party’s idea of Juche represents the most correct
Marxist-Leninist idea of leadership for the successful accomplishment
of our revolution and construction and is the constant guiding
principle of the Government of the Republic in all its policies and
activities.
Only by
establishing firmly Juche can each country repudiate flunkeyism
towards great powers as well as dogmatism, and creatively apply the
universal truth of Marxism-Leninism and the experience of other
countries in line with its historical conditions and national
characteristics; always solve its own problems by itself on its own
responsibility, eliminating reliance on others through showing a
spirit of self-reliance; and, accordingly, carry on its revolutionary
cause and construction work with success.
Establishing Juehe is a matter of particular importance
for us in the light of our country’s geographical situation and
environment, the circumstances of its historical development and the
complex and arduous character of our revolution. The establishment of
Juche is a matter of key importance on which the success of our
revolution depends, a vital question which will determine the future
of our nation.
The Government of the Republic has been able to achieve
great victories and successes in the revolutionary struggle and
construction work, because it has persistently tried to solve all
problems independently, in conformity with the particular
requirements of our country and mainly through its own efforts,
consistently guided in its activities by the Juche idea of the
Workers’ Party of Korea and strictly maintaining the principles of
Marxism-Leninism.
As a result of our efforts to establish Juche in the
ideological field, the national pride of our workers and their sense
of independence have grown enormously, and they have acquired the
revolutionary characteristics of not following others blindly,
appraising foreign ideas critically instead of unreservedly copying
or accepting them without question; and striving to solve all
problems according to the conditions which exist in our country and
on the basis of their own wisdom and strength.
Thanks to the fact that our Party’s spirit of
independence, self-sustenance and self-defence is finding full
expression in all fields of national construction, the political
Chajusong of the Republic has been consolidated and the economic
independence and military power of our country have grown
considerably.
As a full-fledged, independent state, our country now
sets its own lines and policies independently and exercises complete
equality and sovereignty in its foreign relations.
Under the
leadership of our Party and the Government of the Republic, our
people have laid firm foundations for an independent national economy
in keeping with the revolutionary principle of self-reliance and have
thus eliminated the centuries-old backwardness and poverty, further
increased the economic might of the Republic and radically improved
their standard of living. The establishment of Juche in science and
culture has accelerated scientific and technological progress,
brought about a great change in the quality of education and in the
work of training cadres, and led to the blossoming and advancement of
a new, socialist national culture agreeable to the life and
sentiments of our people.
In the field of defence construction we have also
strengthened our capabilities to such an extent that we are in a
position to defend the security of our country and our socialist
gains strongly, on the basis of our own strength, even in the complex
situation existing today.
The great victories and successes we have attained in
our socialist revolution and construction over the past years are,
indeed, the brilliant consequence of the great vitality of our
Party’s idea of Juche and of our line of independence,
self-sustenance and self-defence—the embodiment of that idea in all
fields. We formulated our policies independently by creatively
applying the principles of Marxism-Leninism to the prevailing
conditions in Korea and enlisted the inexhaustible creative potential
of our industrious and talented people and our rich national
resources to carry out these policies. This has enabled us to build a
socialist state in a short time, which possesses political
independence, economic self-sustenance and national self-defence.
Our Party’s line of strengthening the political,
economic and military might of the country in every way with all our
efforts is the most correct way of expediting the victory of the
Korean revolution.
The Government of the Republic will continue to adhere
firmly to the principle of settling all the problems that arise in
revolution and construction independently, studying and analysing the
needs of Korea in strict accordance with the Juche idea of the
Workers’ Party of Korea.
All nations are equal and have the sacred right of
national self-determination, of deciding their own destinies for
themselves. A nation can secure independence and freedom and attain
happiness and prosperity only if it achieves complete political
self-determination and exercises its rights by keeping them firmly in
its own hands.
Under the leadership of our Party, the Government of the
Republic will follow its own course in formulating all our policies
for socialist construction in the fields of industry, agriculture,
education, literature and art, judicial administration, and so on, in
conformity with our conditions, and carry them out by its own
efforts. We must not act on the orders and instructions of others
but, on the basis of the interests of our revolution and
construction, settle all problems from the standpoint of Juche, using
our own judgment and making our own decisions. It is true that we
should unite with allies who are fighting for a common goal and learn
from their experience if it accords with the principles of
Marxism-Leninism and it is worth learning. But, even so, we must
always approach such experience critically, strenuously opposing any
tendency to accept foreign ideas indiscriminately or imitate them
unreservedly; we must not blindly copy what does not suit our actual
conditions.
In the struggle for our country’s reunification, too,
the Government of the Republic will always hold fast to its
independent position. We regard all attempts to effect the country’s
reunification by relying on outside forces as treacheries against the
country and the nation aimed at placing the whole of Korea in the
hands of foreign aggressors. The question of Korean reunification is
an internal affair of the Korean people, one which cannot be settled
by any outside forces. Ours is a wise and civilized nation, fully
capable of settling its national problems for itself. We consistently
hold that the question of reunifying our country must be settled
through the efforts of our people themselves, without interference
from any outside forces, under conditions where the aggressive army
of US imperialism is withdrawn from south Korea.
In the
sphere of foreign policy, too, we should continue to work to
establish political and economic relations with other countries on
the principles of complete equality and mutual respect. We must
always rely on our own judgment and conviction in fighting against
imperialism and Right and “Left” opportunism, in conformity with
our own conditions, and let no one violate or offend the rights and
dignity of our nation.
The Government of the Republic will faithfully continue
to carry out our Party’s line of building an independent national
economy by applying the principle of self-reliance to the full in the
economic sphere, while, at the same time, consolidating political
Chajusong.
Today we are confronted with the heavy task of carrying
on economic construction and the building up of our defences in
parallel so as to lay a firm material foundation for the prosperity
of the generations to come and establish a sound economic base which
will enable us to cope readily with the great revolutionary event of
the reunification of our country. All this can be achieved
successfully only if the principle of self-reliance, the line of
building an independent national economy, is adhered to consistently
and implemented more thoroughly.
Self-reliance is a completely revolutionary stand for a
people to accomplish the revolution in their country relying mainly
on their own forces; it is an independent stand of building up their
country through their own labour and with their own national
resources.
Only by firmly maintaining such a revolutionary stand
and revolutionary principle can we carry on the struggle without
abandoning revolutionary constancy, no matter what complex and
difficult situation may confront us, and ensure victory in the
revolutionary struggle and success in our work of construction,
bravely overcoming any difficulties and hardships which stand in the
way of our advance. If you lack the revolutionary spirit of
self-reliance, you may lose faith in your own strength, neglect
efforts to tap the inner resources of your country, grow indolent and
idle, and fall into a state of inactivity and conservatism.
Only when a nation builds an independent national
economy can it secure political independence, make its country rich,
strong and progressive and achieve national prosperity.
Economic independence is the material foundation for
political independence. A country which is economically dependent on
outside forces becomes a political satellite of other countries; an
economically subject nation cannot free itself from colonial slavery
politically.
Without building an independent national economy it is
impossible to establish material and technological foundations for
socialism, and build socialism and communism successfully.
To build socialism, it is essential to create a powerful
base of heavy industry with the machine-building industry as its
core, and, on this basis, equip light industry, agriculture,
transport and all other branches of the national economy with modern
techniques, thus laying the powerful material and technological
foundations for socialism—needed to improve the welfare of the
working people as a whole—as the laws of socialism require. As long
as national distinctions remain and states exist, these material and
technological foundations of socialism must be built by each national
state as a unit. Therefore, it can only be said that firm material
and technological foundations of socialism have been laid in each
country when it has built a comprehensive, independent national
economy diversified in its development, equipped with the latest
technology and run by its own national cadres, using its own natural
resources, raw materials and other supplies so that its domestic
products can fully meet the varied and ever-growing requirements of
economic and defence construction and the people’s consumption, for
heavy and light industrial goods and farm produce.
Only if the material and technological foundations of
socialism are established in this way within the boundaries of each
national state as a comprehensive, independent economic unit, can the
country’s natural resources be tapped and utilized to the fullest
extent and a high rate of growth in production be maintained together
with a correct and flexible balance between all branches of the
national economy. Moreover, only in this way is it possible to
develop science, technology and culture rapidly, steadily raise the
technological and cultural standards of the working people, and turn
them into people of a new type, developed in a comprehensive way.
The building of an independent national economy is also
the basic guarantee that nations can eliminate the economic
backwardness which constitutes the real basis of inequalities between
them, achieve national prosperity and build a socialist and communist
society successfully.
The building of socialism and
communism, as you know, requires the eradication of inequalities
between nations as well as of class distinctions.
Such inequalities, however, do not disappear immediately
when the socialist revolution triumphs in each country, nor do they
vanish through the amalgamation of nations in one way or another.
The era of capitalism is an era in which national
oppression prevails side by side with class exploitation, an era in
which the free development of the great majority of nations is held
back by a few nations and inequalities between nations exist. It is,
therefore, necessary for the nations liberated from capitalist
exploitation and oppression not only to become labouring socialist
nations but also to build highly developed, independent national
economies for their fullest free development and all-round growth.
Only by this means can all inequalities among nations be done away
with and all nations build socialism with success, and gradually
advance to communism.
All this testifies to the fact that the line of building
an independent national economy, consistently followed by our Party
and the Government of the Republic, is a thoroughly revolutionary
line of economic construction which conforms with the laws which
govern the building of socialism and communism.
We will apply the revolutionary principle of
self-reliance in building up our national defences as well, and thus
increase our country’s capabilities for self-defence still further.
Needless to say, the international unity of the
proletariat of all countries and the friendly alliance of the
socialist countries in the revolutionary struggle against imperialist
aggression and against the pressures of international capital are an
important guarantee for safeguarding the revolutionary gains which
have already been achieved and winning new victories. It is the
sacred internationalist duty of communists to do all that they can to
help and give support and encouragement to each other in the battle
against imperialism, their common enemy, and each country should
strive to strengthen this international solidarity in the struggle
against imperialist forces of aggression from without.
The decisive factor for victory in the struggle against
imperialist reaction, however, is the internal forces of the country
concerned. Although foreign support is important in a war against
foreign aggressors, to all intents and purposes it plays no more than
a secondary role. When the internal forces of a country are not
prepared, its revolutionary struggle cannot emerge victorious, no
matter how great its foreign support may be. If the communists pin
their hopes solely on foreign support and aid, without developing
their own revolutionary forces, they cannot be certain of defending
the security of their country and their revolutionary gains against
imperialist aggression.
The Government of the Republic will give substance to
our Party’s spirit of self-defence, thoroughly preparing our people
and soldiers for war, politically and ideologically; it will make
full preparations to defend our country, relying on the solid
foundations of the independent national economy which we have already
established and, at the same time, continue to increase our military
power.
In particular, by carrying out the decisions of the
Conference of the Workers’ Party of Korea in full, we shall
concentrate all our efforts on reorganizing the whole work of
building our socialist economy to fit the requirements of the present
situation and also on reinforcing our defence capabilities to meet
the undisguised aggressive actions by the enemy. In this way we shall
make ours an ever more solid, viable and independent economy to meet
the material needs of both the front line and the rear fully in case
of emergency, and we shall make our country’s military power
impregnable in order to repel the enemy by ourselves, no matter when
he might launch a surprise attack against us.
Establishing the Juche idea of the Workers’ Party of
Korea successfully in all fields, we shall build an ever richer,
stronger and mightier socialist state—independent in politics,
self-sustaining in the economy and self-reliant in national defence.
Second. In order to end the present misfortunes of
our people caused by the artificial division of our territory and
nation as soon as possible, liberate the people in south Korea and
reunify our country, the Government of the Republic will firmly equip
the people in the northern half of the Republic both morally and
materially to support the south Korean people in their sacred anti-US
struggle for national salvation and to deal readily with the great
revolutionary event.
Because of the occupation of south Korea by the US
imperialists, our country is still divided into north and south, and
the reunification of the country, the heartfelt desire of the nation,
has not yet been achieved although a new generation has grown up; and
our people have been suffering from the national partition for more
than 20 years. As time passes, the gulf between north and south Korea
is widening in all spheres—political, economic and cultural—and
the national community of our people, formed in the course of a long
period of history, is gradually being eroded. Territorial partition
and national division make it impossible to coordinate our efforts to
enlist and utilize our country’s wealth and national wisdom and
talents to promote the prosperity of the country and the welfare of
the people.
The division of Korea into north and south has caused
immeasurable misery and distress, particularly to the south Korean
people. South Korea today has been completely turned into a colony of
the US imperialists, into their aggressive military base. The
national industry of south Korea has been reduced to dependency on
foreign capital, and its agriculture is also in a serious state of
crisis. The national culture and the beautiful customs inherent in
the Korean people have been utterly trampled underfoot, and all kinds
of immorality and depravity prevail everywhere in south Korea. The
south Korean people are going hungry and are in rags, doubly and
triply exploited and oppressed, many of them roaming the streets in
quest of work and living in a state of constant anxiety with all
their hopes blighted. They are subjected to unbearable racial insults
and contempt, and even their right to existence is constantly
threatened by the US imperialist aggressors.
Where there are exploitation and oppression, there will
always be revolutionary struggle on the part of the people. Ever
since the first days of the occupation of the south by the US
imperialist aggressors, the south Korean people have been fighting
tenaciously against their policies of colonial enslavement and
military aggression. The October Popular Resistance Struggle in 1946,
the April Uprising in 1960 which toppled the puppet regime of Syngman
Rhee, and many other struggles carried on by the south Korean people
against the “south Korea-Japan talks” and for the abrogation of
the “south Korea-Japan agreements”, struck telling blows to the
colonial rule of US imperialism.
On every occasion, the US imperialists and their stooges
harshly repressed the people’s righteous patriotic struggle at
bayonet point. The policy of military fascist dictatorship pursued in
south Korea today has assumed unprecedented ferocity and barbarity
and has become a prototype of vicious fascist rule by the
imperialists over their colonies. The US imperialist aggressors and
their puppets, by enforcing many wicked fascist laws, greatly
increased their instruments of repression, and covered the whole of
south Korea with military, police, intelligence and special agent
networks, thereby turning it into a living hell of terrorism and
murder.
In south
Korea today the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi clique are
intensifying their fascist repression to the utmost limits.
Everywhere they are engaging in all kinds of frenzied attempts to
repress the south Korean people, who are fighting harder than ever
for the right to live, for democratic liberties and for the
reunification of their country. According to south Korean press
reports, this year alone ten or more divisions, including US
imperialist troops, the south Korean puppet army, police forces, and
reserve divisions, were mobilized to crush the armed groups of south
Korean revolutionaries in action and the mass revolutionary
struggles, breaking out one after another all over south Korea. A
total of more than six million US imperialist troops, south Korean
puppet troops and police took a direct part in the so-called
“mopping-up operations”. The US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi
clique cruelly suppressed the revolutionary organization formed
around Dr. Kim Dae Su, professor at Kyongbuk University, arresting
and imprisoning more than ten patriotic intellectuals, and last
autumn they arrested many young people in and around Pusan on charges
of involvement in the alleged “case of the People’s Revolutionary
Party”, Again, they recently used trumped-up charges in what they
called the “case of the operative group for the communization of
south Korea” in Seoul and also arrested and imprisoned many
university professors, other intellectuals and patriotic figures,
branding the Society for Comparative Studies on Nationalism— an
academic organization—as a “seditious organization”, and tried
the victims in a kangaroo court. They have thus committed the heinous
crime of demanding the death penalty or life imprisonment for many
innocent persons.
They are raising an ever louder “anti-communist” hue
and cry under the nonsensical allegation that all the fierce
revolutionary struggles of the patriotic people which are breaking
out all over south Korea today are the work of “spies” sent from
north Korea, and they are trying hard to take the minds of the south
Korean people off their troubles and to deceive the peoples of the
world.
But no amount of brutal repression and “anti-communist”
campaigning by the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique
can ever dampen the indomitable revolutionary fighting spirit of the
south Korean people or block their sweeping revolutionary advance.
Today broad sections of the south Korean people are carrying on an
intensive struggle in all fields, raising still higher the banner of
the anti-US resistance campaign for national salvation. A people can
win freedom and liberation only through their own struggle. When the
masses rise as one against their oppressors, they can destroy any
imperialist bulwark. If the workers and peasants, young people and
students, intellectuals and other broad sectors of the people in
south Korea unite firmly and come out courageously for the
revolutionary struggle, they will be able to inflict a crushing
defeat on the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi clique and
accomplish the cause of the south Korean revolution.
On behalf of all the people in the northern half of the
Republic, I send warm revolutionary greetings to the revolutionaries
and democratic figures, to all the patriotic people who are putting
up a valiant resistance in various parts of south Korea, underground,
in the mountains and even in prison.
All the people in the northern half of the Republic
carry the great responsibility of bringing the south Korean
revolution to a conclusion, giving active support to the struggle of
the south Korean people and matching their high fighting spirit.
As long as the US imperialists continue to occupy south
Korea and our country remains divided, the Korean people cannot live
in peace for even a moment and the people in south Korea cannot
extricate themselves from their present misery and pain. The
occupation of south Korea by US imperialism and its policy of
aggression are the source of all the misfortunes of our nation and
the main obstacle to the reunification of our country.
We cannot simply stand by and watch the miserable plight
of our south Korean compatriots and we cannot bequeath a divided
country to our children. As long as this wretched situation continues
in which the country and the nation are divided and our compatriots,
blood brothers and sisters, are subjected to all sorts of racial
insults and illtreatment by the foreign aggressors, no Korean
communist or conscientious Korean nationalist can say that he has
fulfilled his duty.
We must accomplish the south Korean revolution and
reunify the country in our generation and bequeath a unified country
to the new generation. We must prepare all what is necessary for the
reunification of our country as soon as possible.
The accomplishment of the great cause of liberating
south Korea and reunifying the country at the earliest possible date
depends not only on how the revolutionary organizations and
revolutionaries in south Korea expand and strengthen the
revolutionary forces and how they fight the enemy but also, to a
large extent, on how the people in the northern half of the Republic
prepare themselves to deal with the great revolutionary event.
The most important thing in completing the south Korean
revolution and hastening the reunification of the country is to
prepare all our people politically and ideologically and, at the same
time, create all the necessary material conditions.
We should
always give active material and moral support and encouragement to
the south Korean people in their anti-US, national salvation struggle
and consider the south Korean revolution and the reunification of the
country to be our first and foremost revolutionary task. We can not
allow ourselves to become complacent about the achievements wrought
in the northern half of the country and become lax and indolent. How
can we sit idly by at a time when the south Korean people, suffering
from hunger, are fighting at the cost of their blood? It is our lofty
national duty and the supreme task of the nation to force the US
imperialist aggressors out of our territory, liberate south Korea and
reunify our country by combining our strength with that of the south
Korean people.
The people in the northern half of the Republic should
always remember their brothers in the south and maintain their
revolutionary determination to liberate them at all costs; they
should be firmly prepared ideologically to be mobilized for a
decisive struggle to accomplish the cause of the reunification of the
country by joining forces with the south Korean people whenever
called upon to go to their aid as the people’s struggle surges
forward and the revolutionary situation matures in south Korea.
Meanwhile, socialist economic construction, the
principal guarantee for strengthening the material forces of our
revolutionary base, should be successfully carried on to consolidate
the economic foundations of our country still further, so that the
necessary material preparations can be made to support the
revolutionary struggle of the south Korean people and to deal with
the great revolutionary event of achieving the reunification of our
country.
The present situation requires us to conduct all our
work in a more enterprising, more revolutionary manner and
subordinate everything to the struggle to accomplish the south Korean
revolution by giving support to the south Korean people in their
fight and to reunify our country.
The northern half of the Republic is the revolutionary
base for accomplishing the great cause of nationwide liberation, and
its revolutionary forces are the most important motive power for the
Korean revolution as a whole. All the working people should fully
understand that, unless the revolutionary base of the northern half
of the Republic is built up and its revolutionary forces are
strengthened still more, it will be impossible to give positive
support to the south Korean revolution and achieve the reunification
of our country; they must continue to wage a tenacious struggle on
all fronts of socialist economic construction and produce and build
more, better and cheaper, with our existing manpower, equipment and
materials by discovering and using reserves and potentials to the
utmost. All officials and working people, as masters in their
country, should manage all aspects of economic life, both national
and individual, diligently, and make every effort not to waste a
single grain of rice, a single gramme of iron or a single drop of
gasoline.
Only when our country’s economic foundations are more
consolidated and the necessary material conditions are created in
sufficient quantities, can we cope with the great event in a state of
full preparedness, bring the superiority of the socialist system home
to the fighting people of south Korea and give powerful support to
their revolutionary struggle. Only then will it be possible to create
assets with which to put the devastated south Korean economy back on
its feet and rapidly improve the debased living conditions of the
people in the south, after the reunification of the country.
All our officials and working people must work like
masters and live frugally with great revolutionary zeal, in the lofty
spirit of supporting the south Korean people more effectively in
their anti-US, national salvation struggle and of expediting the
revolutionary cause of the reunification of the country. We must
never become complacent and lax nor countenance the slightest
laziness, immorality or luxury. We are making a revolution and we
should work and live in a revolutionary way, alert and ready at all
times.
In this way all our people will be prepared to cope with
the great revolutionary event of national reunification. We should
all be ready and willing to take part in the revolutionary struggle
whenever called upon to do so by the Party.
Third. The Government of the Republic, under the
leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea, will carry on a vigorous
campaign to revolutionize and working-classize the peasants,
intellectuals and all other members of society by further stepping up
the ideological and cultural revolutions and enhancing the leading
role of the working class.
By steadily strengthening the state’s functions of
proletarian dictatorship, we shall not only crush the hostile
elements which are infiltrating from outside with the aim of
disorganizing our revolutionary base and put down the resistance
offered by the remnants of the overthrown exploiter classes, but also
revolutionize and working-classize all members of society by
forcefully advancing the ideological and cultural revolutions.
To educate and remould the entire people and thereby
revolutionize and working-classize the whole of society is an
important task of the dictatorship of the proletariat in our society,
in which the exploiter classes have been liquidated and the socialist
system has triumphed. The process of building socialism and communism
is one of revolutionizing all the members of society—workers,
peasants and intellectuals—a process of doing away with all class
distinctions by remodelling the whole of society on the working-class
pattern.
In order to build socialism and communism, we must
develop our productive forces and eliminate the distinctions between
the working class and the peasantry in working conditions and forms
of ownership of the means of production, and step by step, we must
also eliminate disparities in ideological, moral, cultural and
technical standards between all members of society. To this end, the
ideological revolution has to be intensified so as to root out all
the remnants of outmoded bourgeois ideology which still exist in the
minds of the people, and firmly arm all our working people with the
revolutionary ideas of the working class, with the Marxist-Leninist
world outlook, so that they can fight devotedly, through good times
and bad, in the interests of the collective and the whole of society,
for our country and people; in addition, the cultural revolution must
be carried out at the same time, so as to bring them up to high
cultural and technical levels.
Today, more than ever before, the task of further
revolutionizing and working-classizing all members of
society—workers, peasants and intellectuals—urgently calls for
our attention. We should accelerate socialist construction further by
our own efforts under the difficult conditions facing the country,
now divided into north and south, and must force the US imperialist
aggressors, the chieftain of world reaction, out of our territory,
liberate south Korea and accomplish the revolutionary cause of
reunifying the country. This is a revolutionary task which requires a
very arduous and difficult, protracted and intense struggle. Only
when all the working people are revolutionized and working-classized
through the promotion of the ideological and cultural revolutions
will it be possible to bring their revolutionary enthusiasm and
creative initiative into full play and raise their technical and
cultural levels, and thus bravely overcome the difficulties which
arise in the course of progress, solve economic and technical
problems with credit and also successfully expedite the building of
socialism in the northern half of the Republic, complete the
revolution in south Korea and accomplish the revolutionary cause of
reunifying the country.
We must work strenuously to revolutionize and
working-classize all members of society by further raising the
leading role of the working class.
Our working class is young, and it needs a great deal of
revolutionary training. The ranks of the working class swelled
suddenly in our country as industry was given a large boost in a
short time following liberation. Our working class includes many
people who have never personally experienced exploitation and
oppression by the capitalists, as well as a considerable number of
former small traders and handicraftsmen who became workers after the
socialist transformation of production relations.
We must also improve the ideology, organization and
culture of the working class so as to turn it into a still more
revolutionary, progressive and cultured class and to enable it to
perform its historical mission of transforming the whole of society
and educating and remoulding all the working people well.
Revolutionizing
and working-classizing the peasantry, the most reliable ally of the
working class in the building of socialism and communism, is an
important guarantee of victory for our revolution. The Government of
the Republic, in keeping with the line set forth in the Theses on
the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country, should energetically
press forward the ideological and cultural revolutions in the
countryside and continue to strengthen the working class’s
political leadership and cultural influence among the peasantry. In
this way, the peasants must be thoroughly equipped with the
revolutionary ideas of the working class and their cultural level
must be brought up to that of the working class.
The revolutionization of the intellectuals occupies the
most important place in the working-classization of the whole of
society. We should eradicate all remnants of obsolete ideologies from
the minds of our intellectuals, arm them with communist ideas and so
lead them to become revolutionaries loyal to the Party, to the
working class, to the country and to the people.
The most important thing in revolutionizing and
working-classizing all the members of society through the ideological
revolution is to firmly arm the working people with the policies of
the Workers’ Party of Korea and thoroughly establish the Party’s
monolithic ideological system among them. We should explain and bring
the Party’s lines and policies home to the working people fully,
and make sure that they acquire a clear understanding of their
essentials and correctness. In this way, we should see to it that
they resist all unsound, counter-revolutionary ideological elements
vehemently—such as revisionism, “Left” opportunism, flunkeyism
to great powers, bourgeois ideas, feudal Confucian ideas,
factionalism, parochialism, and nepotism; that they think and act in
accord with the ideas of the Workers’ Party of Korea at all times
and places and advance confidently along the only path indicated by
the Party, without the slightest vacillation in any storm or stress.
We should improve our political and ideological work
among the masses so as to stimulate the class awakening of the
working people still further and lead them to fight uncompromisingly
against their class enemies.
The primary targets of our struggle in revolutionizing
people are individualism and egoism, a legacy from the exploiter
classes. We should tirelessly strive to cultivate among the working
people the collectivist spirit of placing the interests of the
organization and the collective above personal interests and helping
and leading each other forward and the lofty revolutionary spirit of
valuing political life, and we must train all the people to attain a
communist way of life, living and working in a revolutionary way.
The great vitality of the socialist system lies, above
all, in the fact that the working people, freed from exploitation and
oppression, show conscientious enthusiasm and creative initiative,
and work devotedly for their homeland, for the people and for their
own happiness as masters of their country and their future. In order
to bring this superiority into play and demonstrate the might of the
socialist system to the full, education in socialist patriotism
should be resolutely increased among the working people.
We must clearly show our working people the essential
nature and superiority of the socialist system and persuade them to
fight resolutely in defence of this system and fight for the
prosperity and development of their homeland and for the well-being
of our people. In particular, serious attention should be directed to
educating the working people to take loving care of everything we
have already created and to make more effective use of the valuable
assets we have already built up. All the working people should
clearly understand that all our wealth is for the prosperity and
progress of our country, for the happiness of our people and for
their own good and must adopt the attitude proper to masters with
regard to the economic life of the country, carry out their
revolutionary duties in an efficient, responsible way, and do their
utmost to benefit the country and the people. Everyone should
sincerely take part in collective labour to increase the wealth of
the country and the people and to manage it with care; system and
order should be established and revolutionary work discipline
voluntarily observed in all branches, in all units of work.
Education
in the revolutionary traditions is one of the most powerful means of
revolutionizing people. Experience has shown that education in the
revolutionary traditions has an incomparable influence in
revolutionizing those who have never personally undergone the ordeals
of revolutionary struggle and the younger generation which has never
experienced exploitation and oppression by landlords and capitalists.
We should improve training in the revolutionary traditions among the
working people so that everyone can model himself on the indomitable
lofty revolutionary spirit of the forerunners of our revolution and
their noble revolutionary traits.
At the same time as the ideological revolution, the
cultural revolution must also be energetically promoted.
Without the cultural revolution, the cultural and
technical levels of our working people cannot be raised, nor can the
ideological revolution be carried out successfully.
The habit of studying should be firmly established among
the working people so that everyone will use all his efforts to raise
his level of general knowledge, and so that everybody can master more
than one skill. We must also strive to build a large contingent of
steadfast, competent working-class intellectuals, able to skilfully
solve the problems arising in all areas of our revolution and
construction.
We must accelerate the ideological and cultural
revolutions and thus further revolutionize and working-classize
people so as to transform the whole country into one big Red family,
make the whole of society seethe with revolutionary enthusiasm and
ensure that all our working people make continuous improvements and
advance at the speed of Chollima, always ready and alert, working new
miracles and bringing about a great leap forward in revolutionary
struggle and in the work of construction.
Fourth.
The Government of the Republic will see to it that officials of me
state and economic bodies eliminate bureaucracy and establish a
revolutionary mass viewpoint so as to improve the functions and role
of the people’s power and mobilize the masses for revolution and
construction.
To carry out our huge tasks successfully at present, we
must enhance the functions and role of the people’s power as the
executor of the policies of the Workers’ Party of Korea and as a
powerful weapon for socialist construction; we must also improve the
guidance of the revolution and construction. This requires that the
officials of state and economic bodies maintain closer ties with the
popular masses, rid themselves of their bureaucratic style of work
and adopt the revolutionary mass viewpoint.
When the Party’s lines and policies are correct and
proper ways and means have been adopted for their execution, success
in carrying forward the revolutionary tasks depends entirely on the
method and style of work of those who directly organize and carry
them out, and on how they organize and mobilize the masses for the
work.
Our Party and the Government of the Republic have
constantly paid close attention to reorganizing the system of work in
the state and economic bodies and to improving the method and style
of work of their officials, in conformity with new circumstances and
conditions. As a result, great success has been achieved in this
respect. In particular, a great change has taken place in the
activities of state and economic bodies in the course of spreading
the experience of the guidance given at Chongsan-ri in February 1960.
However, our officials still fall short of the standards
required by our Party in their method and style of work, failing to
organize and mobilize the masses of the people skilfully so as to
give full play to their exalted revolutionary spirit in the
fulfilment of revolutionary tasks.
So that our people’s power can stoutly defend the
interests of people from all walks of life, rally them around itself
and bring their enthusiasm and activity into full play, the officials
of state and economic bodies have to make drastic changes in their
method and style of work.
All the officials of our state and economic bodies are
workers selected by the people; they are the servants of the people.
They should never forget that their job is to protect the interests
of the workers, peasants and the rest of the working people and serve
them; they should work heart and soul for the Party, the working
class and the people.
In order
to be faithful to the Party and the revolution and be true servants
of the people, our officials must have Party spirit, working-class
spirit and popular spirit, which should be manifested in their
practical work to implement our Party’s lines and policies and in
their practical activities on behalf of the workers, peasants and
other working people. Only those who carry our Party’s policies
through to completion can be considered revolutionaries who are
faithful to our Party and revolution, faithful to the working class
and the people. All our officials must become ardent defenders,
active propagandists and staunch executors of our Party’s policies.
They should study our Party’s policies in depth, and understand
their essential nature, adhere to them strictly in their work, weigh
all problems in terms of our Party’s policies and launch a prompt
and uncompromising attack against any practices which run counter to
the Party’s intentions. Our officials should be energetic in
explaining and spreading our Party’s policies among the masses and
strive persistently to carry them through correctly. The officials of
our state and economic bodies should carry out any work which is in
the interests of the people with devotion, no matter what
difficulties there may be.
In order to eliminate bureaucracy and establish the
revolutionary mass viewpoint, all our officials should acquire the
revolutionary work method of mixing widely amongst the masses,
consulting them and enlisting them in the fulfilment of the tasks in
hand. These officials must strictly follow the Chongsanri method, our
Party’s traditional revolutionary method of work, in their
activities.
First of all, political work should be given priority in
all matters so as to increase the political and ideological
preparedness of the masses constantly and encourage the masses of the
people to volunteer for revolutionary tasks. When undertaking a
revolutionary task, senior officials should, above all, explain the
Party’s aim with regard to the task correctly, bring it home to the
masses and see that they collectively discuss ways and means for the
implementation of the Party policy and persist in carrying it out
with a high degree of revolutionary enthusiasm.
In addition, more direct guidance must be given to
subsidiary organs, and the method of guidance must be radically
improved. The principal aim of guiding these organs is to help the
workers there correct their shortcomings quickly and obtain good
results in their work. Officials in state and economic bodies should
not just issue orders and directives when they visit these organs,
but should give practical assistance to their subordinates, teaching
them in a kindly way, cooperating with them in solving difficult
problems and helping them do their work well.
Officials of our state and economic bodies should not
only equip themselves with our Party’s revolutionary method of
work, but should have the popular trait of always being the first to
implement the laws, decisions and directives of the state, setting an
example by their own conduct in all that they do and being modest,
unassuming and courteous, thereby becoming models for the masses in
their actions. Only then will the people really trust and follow our
officials, and the bonds of kinship between the people’s power and
the masses will be further strengthened.
Work style is not a question of the professional ability
of the officials or of their personal character; rather it is a
manifestation of their ideology as expressed in their work. We should
intensify ideological education for our officials so that they can
rid themselves of their bureaucratic work style—the expression of
surviving obsolete ideologies—and acquire a truly popular work
style and the noble characteristics of infinite loyalty to the Party
and the revolution and of resolutely fighting for the interests of
our country and people.
While acquiring the class and mass point of view, these
officials should continually improve their technical and professional
levels. This is absolutely necessary if they are to do away with
their bureaucratic work style and fulfil their great responsibilities
to the Party, the state and the people. All these officials must
establish the revolutionary habit of studying to master economic
theory and technical expertise and the practical aspects of their
work.
All our state and economic officials must be
revolutionaries who thoroughly defend and implement our Party’s
lines and policies, and devote themselves to the struggle for the
interests of the people, becoming their sincere, faithful servants,
deeply loved and respected by the masses of the people.
Fifth. The Government of the Republic will
consolidate the foundations of the independent national economy of
the country, further improve the people’s standard of living and
fulfil the solemn duty of freeing the working people from tiring
labour by keeping the policy of the Workers’ Party of Korea for
socialist industrialization and by striving to carry out the
technical revolution in all fields of our national economy.
Following the basic course for the economic development
of our country in the present stage, as set by the Conference of the
Workers’ Party of Korea, we must put the main emphasis on making
effective use of the already established economic foundations through
their improvement and extension and on normalizing production in all
spheres, and at the same time, we must undertake new capital
construction on a large scale in order to increase the economic
foundations of our country further. In this way, the productive
forces of our country as a whole will be further developed, and
industrial production more than doubled, in a few years.
1. Industry
Giving priority to the electric power and mining
industries is the basic prerequisite for normalizing production in
all branches of industry and for further advancing our national
economy. We shall develop our power and mining industries rapidly to
satisfy the demands of our national economy for raw materials, fuel
and power.
In developing the power industry, we shall follow the
policy of combining the construction of hydroelectric power stations
and thermal power stations and of constructing large, medium and
small-scale power stations at the same time. Making use of the rich
water and coal resources of our country, we should accelerate the
construction of large-scale hydroelectric and thermal power plants
and build many medium and small-scale hydroelectric power stations
and factory thermal power stations everywhere, thus further
reinforcing the country’s power base. In this way, seasonal
fluctuations in power production caused by natural conditions should
be done away with entirely, and it should be possible to increase
production steadily in all branches of the national economy,
unhampered by a limited power supply.
In developing the mining industry, it is important to
adhere to three principles: give preference to geological prospecting
work, carry out the technical revolution and effectively promote
scientific research work.
The ranks of our prospectors should be increased and
their technical equipment augmented in order to develop preliminary
prospecting and, in particular, detailed and service prospecting
radically; and the tempo and efficiency of prospecting work has to be
stepped up through the comprehensive introduction of advanced
prospecting methods.
It is absolutely necessary that we promote the technical
revolution energetically in the mining industry, where much of the
work is more difficult and exhausting than in any other branch of the
national economy. In coal and ore mines, we should work hard to
introduce the mechanization and automation of drilling, hauling and
all other arduous, labour-consuming operations. We should also
introduce advanced mining methods extensively and, in particular,
undertake open-cast mining on a large scale.
Meanwhile, scientific research work has to be carried
out more efficiently in all sectors of the mining industry—surveys
of underground resources and studies on their proper exploitation,
research on the enhancement of the technical equipment and the
improvement of mining methods, studies on the comprehensive
processing of ore and so on.
We have to keep the mining industry well ahead of the
development of the processing industries and further consolidate our
country’s raw material and fuel bases by carrying through our
Party’s line.
The development of the metal industry—and particularly
the steel industry—is a major criterion of the level of
industrialization of a country and its economic power. In our
country, with its inexhaustible resources of iron ore, the steel
industry is one of our most promising industrial branches. We must
meet the steel requirement set in the Seven-Year Plan by
concentrating our efforts on developing ferrous metallurgy.
Our capacity for processing raw materials and products
will be augmented, auxiliary facilities will be improved and advanced
technical processes, including oxygen-blast blow, will be extensively
introduced in our existing iron and steel works to raise the
production capacity of our metallurgical installations as much as
possible. At the same time, reconstruction and expansion projects
will be carried out in our metallurgical plants, including the
building of new steel and rolling shops in the Kim Chaek Iron Works,
to expand and consolidate the bases of our country’s metal
industry.
With the development of technology, the demand for
higher-quality steel in greater varieties is rising steadily. We
should sharply increase the kinds of steel we produce, and develop
the production of alloy steels. Greater attention will be paid to
increasing the kinds and gauges of rolled steel and, in particular,
to developing the production of thin plate and cold-rolled products
and raising the output of second-stage processing.
An especially important task for this industry in the
present stage is to introduce the use of locally-produced fuel on a
large scale so as to consolidate the independence of this branch. In
order to develop our iron industry, using the anthracite coal which
abounds in our country, we should build the necessary material
foundations, and, at the same time, keep promoting scientific
research work for perfecting the reduced pellet process, the process
of continuous steel making from granulated iron, and so on.
Nonferrous metallurgy should be developed further in
order to produce greater quantities of various nonferrous metals and
rare metals. The proportion of finished products should be raised in
the production of nonferrous metals, through extensive rolling, and
work should be energetically carried forward to build up the base of
our light metal production.
The engineering industry is the core of heavy industry
and is the basis for the development of all branches of the national
economy and for technical progress. Without advancing the engineering
industry, we cannot hope for the development of our heavy and light
industries and agriculture, nor can we perform the tasks of easing
the strain on transport and increasing our defence capabilities
satisfactorily. It can be said that, in carrying out the task of
building up our economy and national defences in parallel set forth
at the Conference of the Workers’ Party of Korea, or m fulfilling
the Seven-Year Plan as a whole, everything depends, in the long run,
on the development of our engineering industry.
Our country has abundant sources of the ferrous and
nonferrous metals needed for the development of the engineering
industry and has solid metallurgical bases, as well. We should turn
these favourable conditions to good account and speed up the
development of our engineering industry, thus bringing about the
industrialization of the country and overall technical improvements
in our national economy through our own efforts.
The efficient and economical machinery and equipment
that are needed in the mining, metal, chemical, light and fishing
industries, in agriculture, transport and all other branches of the
national economy have to be produced in larger quantities by
expanding and fully equipping our existing machine plants as soon as
possible, building up many medium and small-sized machine factories
and promoting specialization and cooperation in production.
In view of the future needs of the development of our
national economy, the major equipment production bases for
manufacturing large excavators, heavy-duty trucks, large tractors,
large vessels, large machine tools, and so on, should be further
expanded and strengthened and solid production bases should be built
up for turning out high-speed precision machines, thereby raising our
engineering industry to a higher level.
The extensive use of chemistry in all fields of the
national economy is a major trend in the development of science and
technology in recent times and a powerful factor in accelerating the
development of the productive forces. By continuously directing great
efforts to the development of the chemical industry, we should
further expand and consolidate our raw material bases for light
industry, and promote the greater use of chemicals in agriculture in
order to increase production and lighten the toil of the farmers.
A firm foundation has been laid in our country for
developing the chemical industry with local raw materials. Following
from this, we ought to develop the inorganic and organic chemical
industries and create such new branches as petroleum processing and
synthetic rubber industries to develop and diversify the chemical
industry in our country even further.
In the chemical industry, the output
and quality of chemical fibres must be raised; new kinds of chemical
fibres should be manufactured and the production of vinyl chloride
and various other synthetic resins must be increased. As well as
nitrogen fertilizer, phosphorus and potassic fertilizer should be
produced using domestic raw materials, and weed killers and various
other agricultural chemicals should be produced and supplied in great
quantities. At the same time, we should increase our efforts to
produce the raw and other materials necessary for the
building-materials industry, synthetic chemicals and various other
new chemical products which are needed for the economic development
of the country and the improvement of our people’s standard of
living.
The huge task of capital construction facing us in the
parallel building up of our economy and national defences and in the
fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan, cannot be carried out successfully
without increasing the production of building materials.
In the building-materials industry, the production of
cement, metal and chemical building materials should be developed on
a large scale. In developing this industry, we shall implement the
Party’s line of improving and expanding the existing
building-materials factories and combining this with the construction
of new building-materials factories, and of simultaneously developing
our large-scale central building-materials industry and our medium
and small-scale, local building-materials industry.
In forestry, we must introduce the rotation cutting
method to increase timber production and, at the same time, raise the
rate of sawmill lumber output and the production of wood shavings and
fibreboard to use timber comprehensively and efficiently, thus easing
our country’s shortage of timber.
We should pay particular attention to the development of
light industry and achieve marked progress in the production of
consumer goods in a few years.
The central tasks of light industry are those of raising
the quality of consumer goods, increasing their variety and lowering
their production costs. We should raise the quality of consumer goods
to meet world standards as quickly as we can by increasing our
workers’ sense of responsibility in the field of light industry,
perfecting the production processes, strictly observing technical
procedure and standard operation regulations and raising the
technical knowledge and skills of the producers. We must improve the
quality of fabrics and increase their variety, and further develop
the production of consumer goods and foodstuffs. At the same time, we
have to produce greater quantities of different kinds of inexpensive
consumer goods by working hard to reduce production costs in light
industry.
For our country, bounded by the sea on three sides, the
efficient development and exploitation of marine resources is of
great importance in promoting the well-being of the people.
We must increase our catch of fish by improving the
material-technical foundations of the fishing industry, making wide
use of advanced fishing methods and developing inshore and deep-sea
fishing on a large scale. As well as increasing our catch, we must
also improve fish-processing drastically. We should work hard to
process all the fish we catch without any waste and raise the quality
of processed fish by eliminating backward methods and widely
introducing refrigeration, canning and other up-to-date methods of
fish processing.
In order to achieve a normalization of production and a
rapid advance of the national economy, the strain on transport must
first be eased.
We should continue to direct great efforts towards
developing transport—particularly railway transport. The
electrification of the railways must be tackled energetically and
largely completed within a few years, and diesel engines ought to be
introduced in some sections, to increase rail haulage capacity by a
considerable amount. The production of electric locomotives, goods
wagons and passenger coaches should be further expanded. Maximum use
must be made of the existing railway lines and, at the same time, new
lines have to be built, with a view to satisfying our fast-growing
demands for transport.
At the same time, river and ocean transport should be
improved and automotive transport should continue to be expanded and
developed.
2. Agriculture
In agriculture, all our efforts should be concentrated
on giving effect to the Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in
Our Country.
First of all, the
technical revolution has to be carried out in the countryside to ease
the labour of the farmers and increase agricultural production.
To expand and consolidate the successes already scored
in irrigation, we must improve and make more effective use of the
existing irrigation facilities and, at the same time, continue to
undertake irrigation construction, afforestation and water
conservation projects on a wide scale. Afforestation and water
conservation projects should be well executed after adequate surveys
have been made and designs worked out in detail.
For the speedy mechanization of agriculture, various
kinds of trailer implements and spare parts should be manufactured so
that sufficient supplies are made available, and repair and
maintenance work on farm machinery must be improved.
We should introduce the use of agricultural chemicals on
a wide scale, while continuing to work on irrigation and
mechanization in the country areas. A scientific system of
fertilizing must be established according to soil conditions and the
special characteristics of the crops in order to raise the
effectiveness of chemical fertilizer, and crops should be thoroughly
protected from all damage by blight and harmful insects through the
effective applications of agricultural chemicals. In particular, the
tendency to concentrate on nitrogen fertilizer alone should be
discarded, and we should produce phosphorous, potassic and
microelement fertilizers for ourselves and supply them in large
quantities to raise the per-unit-area yields markedly. At the same
time, weed killers and other highly effective agricultural chemicals
should be produced and applied in quantity.
Without electrification in the rural areas, it is
impossible to carry out irrigation and mechanization successfully or
modernize the farm villages. In accordance with the line of our Party
and the Government of the Republic for electrification, electricity
has already been installed in 98.2 per cent of all the rural ri and
86.1 per cent of all the farmhouses in our country. Only distant,
isolated houses in the mountain areas have yet to be supplied with
electricity. While concentrating the scattered farmhouses together as
much as possible, we must carry on with our programme to supply
electricity to all our villages and farmhouses within a few years.
In order to carry out the huge tasks of the technical
revolution in the countryside successfully, productive construction
should be undertaken on a large scale.
For this purpose, the size and direction of capital
investment should be correctly fixed according to the individual
needs of each farm village. In construction, designing should be done
ahead of other work, and its quality must be improved. Building work
should be done meticulously.
While productive construction is going ahead, many new
modern houses should be built and older ones rebuilt on modern lines
in country areas. In this way the straw-thatched houses, our rural
inheritance of backwardness and poverty through the ages, will be
completely eliminated in the next few years.
We must adopt all these economic and technical measures
for the speedy development of all sectors of agricultural
production—grain growing, cultivation of industrial crops and
vegetables and so on.
While giving priority to boosting grain output, great
attention should also be paid to the development of stockbreeding. A
great deal of hard work must be done to consolidate its existing
foundations and put stockbreeding on a modern basis so that our
backwardness in this field—a vestige of the past—can be
eliminated and the output of animal products be greatly increased.
The most important task in developing stockbreeding is to create
dependable fodder bases. To achieve this, double cropping should be
introduced extensively in rice paddies and dry fields and, in
addition, high-yield fodder crops should be widely cultivated and
mixed feed factories built in many places. Measures should be taken
to introduce a system of breeding high-quality pedigreed stock, and
the care of the animals must be improved so that the productivity of
our livestock can be raised and the production costs of animal
products systematically lowered.
In our country, nearly 80 per cent of whose area is
mountainous, large-scale fruit growing using the mountains is of
great importance for the development of the national economy and for
raising our people’s living standards.
We should set greater store by the
133,000-odd hectares of orchards and 100,000 hectares of chestnut
groves we already have, and take good care of them so that all of
them will be productive, thus markedly increasing the output of fruit
and chestnuts. Also, in keeping with the decision of the Pukchong
Enlarged Meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the
Workers’ Party of Korea, the work of planting orchards should be
continued, and the total area under fruit trees be increased to
200,000 hectares in the next few years in order to supply the people
with delicious fruit in greater quantity. Forceful measures should
also be taken for storing and processing the fruit as the output
increases from year to year.
3. The
people’s living conditions
Interest in promoting the people’s well-being is the
supreme principle governing the activities of the Government of the
Republic. Our battle to build socialism and communism is aimed, in
the final analysis, at fully satisfying the material and cultural
demands of all our people and providing them with a rich and cultured
life.
The source of the continuing increase in the well-being
of the working people lies in the systematic growth of the national
income.
The Government of the Republic will do everything
possible to increase the national income substantially, by rapidly
developing industry, agriculture and all other branches of the
national economy. At the same time, great attention will be given to
the proper distribution of the national income on the principle of
rationally adjusting the balance between accumulation and consumption
and raising the people’s standard of living markedly while ensuring
a high rate of expanded reproduction and the successful building up
of our defences.
In the future, we shall take the necessary measures to
raise the monetary payments and real incomes of the working people on
the basis of increased socialist production and labour productivity.
The Government of the Republic will make greater state
investments in various social and cultural services in order to
satisfy the demands of the entire working people more fully.
In particular, close attention will be paid to improving
trade and the public health services in order to raise the general
living standards of the people.
Commerce is the supply service of the working people in
our country and an important means of meeting their material and
cultural needs.
In the field of trade, greater quantities of foodstuffs,
clothes and various articles which make up cultural needs should be
supplied to the working people and, in particular, the sales of
winter goods should be greatly increased.
To improve commodity supply, commercial networks must be
properly distributed and further expanded, trading facilities have to
be modernized and commodities be distributed properly to meet the
demands of the different regions and social groups according to the
season of the year. Trade should be better organized and a better
service must be provided by greater efficiency in packaging and
delivery, night sales and sales made on the road.
The number of restaurants of various kinds ought to be
increased and the quality of public catering improved, offering
greater convenience to the working people in their everyday life.
Service establishments should be increased in number and so furnished
as to give better service to the working people. In this way,
conditions will be provided to make it possible for large numbers of
housewives to participate in social labour and thus working-classize
and revolutionize themselves.
In our system, nothing is more precious than the people.
We have to develop our public health services to protect the lives of
the people and promote the health of the working people.
In the
public health sector, more hospitals and clinics should be built and
many medical workers assigned to them, and our doctors’
qualifications should be raised considerably so as to continue
improving medical services for the working people. The policy on
preventive medicine must be firmly maintained and work in hygiene and
in the prevention of epidemics must be carried out regularly in urban
and rural areas. Attention should also be given to the development of
traditional Korean medicine as well as modern medicine, and to the
development of the theory of folk medicine. The production of
medicines should be improved so as to increase the variety of
synthetic pharmaceutical products and boost the production of
antibiotics.
4. Labour administration
The working masses are the makers of history. Socialism
and communism can be built only by the creative labour of the working
millions. The labour force is the most active and important factor in
production. Technology is developed by man, and machines are made and
operated by man. All the material and cultural wealth of the world,
precious and fine, is created by the labour of the working people.
We can say that whether or not we can build socialism
aild communism faster and better depends, in the long run, on how we
bring the creative ability and talents of the working people into
play, how we organize and use social labour and how speedily we raise
labour productivity.
The improvement of labour administration is a very
important task throughout the course of socialist construction.
It involves a problem of particular importance in our
country.
Under present conditions, where arable land is scarce,
intensive farming methods should be employed in order to keep
agriculture in step with our developing industry, and because of the
special characteristics of our agricultural production, it will take
a long time to complete the mechanization of agriculture. We do not,
therefore, have a large rural population which can be enlisted in
industry, as other countries do, even after the mechanization of
agriculture has been carried out.
Furthermore, because we have to continue with our high
level of economic construction while constantly increasing our
defence capabilities, in direct confrontation with the US
imperialists, the ringleader of world reaction, we must exercise
maximum economy in using the labour resources of our country and use
them sensibly if we are to successfully carry out the political and
military tasks which face us and continue accelerating our socialist
construction.
At present, the improvement in labour administration is
one of the most important ways to implement our Party’s line of
building up our economy and national defences in parallel and to
promote defence construction, while at the same time successfully
carrying out the gigantic tasks of the Seven-Year Plan.
It is of primary importance in improving labour
administration constantly to increase the politico-ideological
consciousness of the working masses and lead them to display their
labour enthusiasm and creative activity to the full in socialist
construction.
Work is not only the sacred duty of every citizen but
also the most honourable contribution to the good of the state and
society. Love of work is one of the most important traits of the new
man in socialist and communist society. We must cultivate respect for
and love of work among the working people, so that they will feel
repugnance for the idea of being idle or shying away from work as an
exploiter-class idea, and participate in collective labour with the
responsibility of masters, for the sake of the collective and
society, and for their own happiness.
The most important task in labour administration at
present is to ensure the full use of the 480-minute workday, doing
away with all wastage of labour.
In socialist production in which cooperative production
and the division of labour are highly developed and which grows
steadily on the basis of advanced techniques, the 480-minute workday
can be fully utilized only when each production unit and each worker
observes established discipline to the letter. We must understand
that the eight-hour workday is established by a state regulation
under the Labour Law, which no one is allowed to violate, and we must
strenuously combat any practices which lead to the slightest waste of
manpower or violation of work discipline, making the best possible
use of every minute and every second and doing our utmost to attain
maximum productivity within working hours.
Moreover,
to eliminate wastage of labour and ensure the full use of the
480-minute workday, fluctuations in production should be eliminated
and work stoppages be kept to a minimum by providing our working
people with good working conditions in factories and enterprises. In
all fields of our national economy, in all enterprises, the
production of raw and other materials and semi-finished goods should
be given priority over other work, and cooperative production should
be correctly organized so as to ensure that all the participating
units observe strict discipline in the fulfilment of contracts. To
ensure a regular supply of raw and other materials, detailed planning
should be carried out and a materials supply system must be
established according to which senior organs take responsibility for
delivering materials to the subordinate units, in keeping with the
Taean work system. In addition, top priority should be given to
technical preparations in all factories and enterprises.
Primary attention in labour administration must be given
to promoting the technical innovation movement. Technical innovations
are the most important factor in easing our present manpower shortage
and raising per-capita output rapidly. In all branches and all units,
awe of and inactivity towards technology should be done away with
completely and the technical innovation movement be extensively
promoted, so as to save every single man-day of work possible and
produce more with less expenditure of labour.
To improve labour administration, it is also important
to maintain a proper manpower balance between the productive and
nonproductive branches and between the basic and auxiliary sectors of
production within the productive branches and to allocate our working
people sensibly.
Under socialism, balanced distribution of all the
working people among the productive and nonproductive branches is of
great importance in expediting socialist construction and the
development of the national economy as a whole. The more working
people there are in the productive branches, the more goods will be
manufactured by heavy and light industry and agriculture—goods
which are needed for economic and defence construction and for the
people’s consumption—thus making it possible to raise output per
head of the population, steadily increase state accumulation and
promote the people’s well-being. In the distribution of manpower,
therefore, it is important to give priority to expanding the number
of employees in the productive branches while, at the same time,
fixing the number of workers in the nonproductive branches according
to the level of economic development. In future we must also continue
to adhere firmly to this principle in distributing the labour
resources of the country on a rational basis.
In order to do this, the proportion of manpower in the
indirectly productive branches should also be lowered and that in the
basic productive sectors, especially the directly productive
branches, should be resolutely raised.
Whilst this is being done, the officials in our labour
administration bodies should pay particular attention to allocating
manpower correctly, taking into account the sexes, ages, physical
conditions, and the technical skills of the working people, so that
all may make the greatest use of their abilities.
Implementing the socialist principle of distribution
correctly, while constantly raising the politico-ideological
consciousness of the masses, is an important factor in ensuring the
further development of socialist production. In socialism, the
development of the productive forces has not yet attained a level
where distribution can be carried out according to need; fundamental
differences remain between different kinds of labour, and the working
people have not yet completely eradicated the vestiges of outmoded
ideologies. Under these circumstances, it is only through the correct
implementation of the principle of distribution according to work
done that we can eliminate the outdated idea of trying to live off
the work of others, stimulate the working people’s enthusiasm to
raise production and raise their technical knowledge and skill, and
thus promote the development of the productive forces. The necessary
measures should be taken in all branches and units of the national
economy to distribute shares fairly, according to the quantity and
quality of work performed.
We must
act positively to improve manpower planning. This is the basis for
the rational organization and effective use of the labour force; good
manpower planning, therefore, is fundamental to the improvement of
labour administration. The senior officials in state and economic
bodies must improve their manpower planning so as to make the best
possible use of the manpower resources of the country, distribute the
labour force sensibly and raise labour productivity.
The Government of the Republic will further strengthen
the economic power of the country and its economic independence and
raise the people’s standard of living radically by carrying out all
these tasks of socialist economic construction in full.
Sixth.
The Government of the Republic, firmly following the Juche idea of
the Workers’ Party of Korea, will continue to work determinedly to
improve the development of the country’s science and technology and
build a socialist culture.
The fulfilment of the all-round technical revolution,
which is the most important central task for socialist economic
construction in our country at the present stage, urgently calls for
the thoroughgoing advancement of science and technology.
We must make a determined effort to conquer science and
make significant progress in this field, which will enable us to
carry out immediate technical reconstruction in all sectors of the
national economy.
The fundamental question in scientific research is to
keep developing science and technology in the direction required by
our Party and our revolution, holding fast to the Juche stand. Only
when Juche is firmly established in scientific research is it
possible to bring the creativity and talents of scientists into full
play so as to accelerate the progress of science and technology and
develop our economy more rapidly by relying on our country’s
resources and our own technology. Scientists and technicians should
concentrate their efforts on research work designed to promote
industrial production using domestic raw materials, look for those
raw materials which are scarce in our country and produce substitutes
for the ones we lack, and they must expedite the technical revolution
in keeping with prevailing conditions so as to relieve the working
people of arduous toil as soon as possible.
While solving for ourselves those scientific and
technical problems which are vital to us, we should also consider the
scientific and technological achievements and experiences of other
countries with a view to adapting them to the existing conditions of
economic development of our country.
The immediate task confronting our scientists and
technicians is to find solutions to the problems which arise in
connection with making the fullest use of our existing economic
foundations while, at the same time, constantly exploring those new
realms of science and technology which have a bearing on the future
tasks for the development of our national economy.
The rapid development of technology, particularly
mechanical engineering and electronics, is most important at present.
Unless we develop mechanical engineering, we cannot
carry out the task of building up-to-date factories or turning out
machinery and equipment of the latest types, the task of increasing
the capacities of our existing factories and equipment, or the task
of rapidly introducing the achievements of scientific research in our
national economy. We must concentrate our scientific forces on
developing mechanical engineering to set this branch of science on
its feet as soon as possible.
In view of the technical revolution and of the prospects
for the development of the national economy, it is a matter of
pressing urgency that we develop electronics. The importance of
electronics and its uses continue to grow, and its sphere of
application is constantly expanding as science and technology develop
and automation is introduced widely in all fields of the national
economy. We must intensify research in all branches of electronics.
Scientists and technicians should also pay close
attention to the development of chemistry, biology, agricultural
science, forestry and oceanography in order to tap and use the
natural resources of our country effectively and gain dominion over
nature successfully.
For great
success in scientific research, contact and cooperation should be
strengthened between scientists and scientific research
organizations, and creative collaboration promoted between scientists
and producers. Also, instead of taking up new ones at random, efforts
should be focussed on the solution of those problems which are urgent
and important for the national economy and those on which research
work has already been begun or has not yet been completed, thereby
solving one problem at a time by completing them in order.
To increase the development of our country’s science
and technology, the qualifications of those who are engaged in this
field must be determinedly raised. All our scientists and technicians
should study hard to become workers who have a good understanding of
scientific theory and a wealth of practical experience and are
familiar with the trends in the development of modern science and
technology, to become able workers who can skilfully solve scientific
and technical problems as they arise in practice.
We will see to it that scientific research centres are
improved and that better conditions are provided for successful
scientific research.
In the building of socialist culture, it is important to
make education available to all the working people and raise their
general cultural and technical standards to a higher level.
The most important task confronting us in this field is
to provide compulsory nine-year technical education. By carrying this
out efficiently, we ought to bring the training of our technical
personnel into step with the rapid pace of development of our
country’s productive forces and the technical revolution.
In addition to our regular full-time educational system,
our system of studying while working has to be developed further so
that all the working people will be provided with better conditions
for learning.
Success in the education of the younger generation and
the training of cadres depends largely on the role of the teachers
who are directly engaged in this work. Our teachers must acquire the
habit of studying and positively increase their knowledge of
political theory, and of their own subjects, so that the quality of
teaching and training can be improved. At the same time, the entire
state, all of society, must take an interest in consolidating the
material foundations of our educational establishments properly, so
as to improve education.
We must continue to work for the development of
socialist literature and art, upholding the literary and art policy
of the Party. Workers in this field must make a better contribution
to the working-classization and revolutionization of the whole of
society by creating many revolutionary works representing the
glorious anti-Japanese armed struggle, and the great present-day
struggle of our people, who are heirs to that tradition, and the
seething activity in our country today.
Seventh.
The Government of the Republic will do all in its power to increase
the defence capabilities of our country and build up the nationwide,
all-people defence system, so as to meet the prevailing situation.
One of the basic functions of a socialist state is to
keep increasing its defence capabilities while going ahead with
economic construction. The imperialists continue to perpetrate acts
of aggression and plunder and, as long as imperialism exists, the
threat of war will not disappear. Under these circumstances, we can
only protect the gains of the revolution against imperialist
aggression and preserve the security of our people by reinforcing our
defence power and being ready for action at all times.
Increasing our defence capabilities is an urgent task
for us, particularly in view of our present national situation—our
territory is divided and we are building socialism in direct
confrontation with the aggressive forces of US imperialism.
Since the first days of their occupation of south Korea,
the US imperialists have pursued the sinister aim of committing
aggression against the whole of Korea and Asia and have completely
converted south Korea into a military base for aggression. They have
stationed tens of thousands of their aggressor troops there and
maintain a huge puppet army of more than 600,000 men at all times.
In recent
years, the US imperialists have taken the course of intensifying
their war preparations in south Korea. To carry out their war policy
there, they are reinforcing the puppet armed forces and keep bringing
tactical nuclear weapons, guided missiles and other weapons of mass
destruction into south Korea, as well as military vessels, aircraft
and other combat equipment. They have set up a system of wartime
mobilization aimed at driving the innocent south Korean people into
an aggressive war and perpetrate frequent provocations against the
northern half of the Republic along the Military Demarcation Line, in
flagrant violation of the Armistice Agreement.
In an attempt to make better use of south Korea in their
Asian aggression, the US imperialists are planning to align the south
Korean puppets militarily with the Japanese and other reactionaries
in Asia and are working feverishly to establish a new military
alliance in Asia, using the “south Korea-Japan treaty” as bait.
They are trying to unleash another war in Korea, using south Korea as
an advanced base and the forces of Japanese militarism as “shock
troops”, and to mobilize the south Korean armed forces easily for
their war of aggression in Asia. The US imperialists have already
dragged south Korean puppet troops into the aggressive war against
Viet Nam, and the traitorous Pak Jung Hi clique sent more troops than
any other vassal country to the battlefields of South Viet Nam,
making them arrive first there.
The situation is becoming more strained and the danger
of war becomes ever greater in our country and throughout Asia.
The prevailing situation requires that we make our
country’s defences as strong as steel and that we make full
military preparations for any surprise attack by the enemy.
National defence means defending the socialist gains of
our people and our revolutionary base; it is the most sacred duty and
honourable task of all our people. The People’s Army should serve
the country and the people, and the entire people should love and aid
the People’s Army; our soldiers and the people should develop the
traditional spirit of unity between them, and, in case of emergency,
should unite in a body as true revolutionary comrades and fight with
single-hearted devotion, to safeguard our country and our socialist
gains, sharing life and death, joys and sorrows.
Our people and the men and officers of the People’s
Army must never be lulled into a pacifist mood but should remain ever
watchful and alert, maintaining the sharpest revolutionary vigilance,
and they should be ready to meet and fight the enemy bravely without
the slightest panic, no matter when he may launch a sneak-attack.
To make our defences invincible, the People’s Army
must follow the policy of turning the whole army into a cadre army
and making the whole army a modern army, and the people should
implement the policy of arming all our people and fortifying the
whole country, thoroughly, in keeping with the military line of the
Party.
We have to temper the ranks of the People’s Army
politically and ideologically, and train them in military technique
and prepare all the men and officers for the duties of higher-ranking
commanders, thereby further increasing its fighting efficiency and
enabling all our people to fight with the standing forces of the
People’s Army as the core in case of emergency.
The People’s Army has to be armed with up-to-date
weapons and other combat and technical equipment, and our military
science and technology should be rapidly improved to meet the demands
of modern warfare. Combat training should be intensified for all our
soldiers so that they will be completely familiar with their weapons
and will master modern military science and technology.
In this way, our People’s Army should be built up into
a revolutionary force with the indefatigable spirit of fighting
through fire and water for the Party, the working class, our country
and people, into an iron force each member of which is a match for a
hundred, fully capable of frustrating any reckless adventure the
enemy might undertake.
The arming of all our
people and the fortification of the entire country constitute the
most powerful defence system, based on the unshakable political and
ideological unity of all the people and on the solid foundations of
our country’s independent economy. We must arm the workers,
peasants and all other people so that they can intensify their
efforts in socialist construction while defending our country, with a
hammer or a sickle in one hand and a rifle in the other, and that, in
case of emergency, they may not only continue with production but
also fight well. At the same time, we should build impregnable
defence installations in all parts of the country and turn the whole
country into a fortress so that we can repel the enemy with one blow,
no matter when or where he may attack us.
All this is aimed at giving practical expression to our
Party’s line of self-defence in national defence. Only by doing so
can we crush the enemy’s constant subversive activities at every
step, and smash armed invasion in any form.
Eighth. The Government of the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea, while continuing to hold fast to the line of
building an independent national economy by enlisting its own
potentials and domestic resources to the fullest under the banner of
self-reliance, will also establish economic relations and develop
trade with other countries, based on the principles of proletarian
internationalism, complete equality and mutual benefit.
The development of an independent, comprehensive economy
in our country through our own efforts does not imply that we reject
international economic ties or that we produce everything we need for
ourselves. Each country differs from every other in its natural and
economic conditions, in the levels of development of its productive
forces and science and technology at a given stage, and, accordingly,
in the variety and quantity of raw materials and products which it
manufactures. Under these circumstances, each country should produce
the essentials and those products which are in great demand, and
obtain, through trade with foreign countries, those things for which
there is little demand or which are in short supply, or which cannot
be produced at home, on the principle of meeting each other’s
needs.
In developing our foreign trade we attach primary
importance to the world socialist market.
As is well known, the world socialist market came into
being as an economic consequence of the emergence of socialism beyond
the boundaries of a single country and its transformation into a
world system after World War II, when our country and a number of
others broke away from the capitalist system.
The formation of the world socialist market promoted
economic and technical exchanges between the socialist countries,
thereby making a great contribution to the development of the
national economy, the building of the material and technical
foundations of socialism and the improvement of the people’s living
conditions in each of those countries. This made it possible to
frustrate the sinister designs of the US-led imperialist powers of
the world to establish an economic blockade around the socialist
countries, impede their economic development and, further, strangle
the world socialist economic system.
The socialist market provides favourable conditions not
only for the socialist countries but also for the newly independent
states to meet each other’s needs for the development of their own
national economies. Unlike the capitalist market, in which the
economic law of taking monopolistic high profits through unequal
exchange and the plunder of backward countries holds sway, the
socialist market enables the newly independent states to sell their
surplus industrial goods and farm produce and purchase foreign
industrial equipment, raw materials and other supplies essential to
the development of their economies, on the principle of complete
equality and mutual benefit.
In this way, economically backward countries are no
longer held in bondage to the capitalist market, where they were
mercilessly robbed of their natural resources and the priceless
fruits of their people’s labour; now they can follow the path of
economic independence, casting off the economic yoke of imperialism.
The formation of the socialist market dealt a serious
blow to the imperialist monopolies and the multi-millionaires who had
held a stranglehold on the world economy through their vast market;
in particular, it completely shattered the expansionist policy of US
imperialism, the ringleader of modern imperialism, which had sought
to monopolize overseas markets, plunder the world of its raw material
resources at will and dominate the world; and it aggravated the
general economic crisis of the imperialist powers.
If all socialist countries, meeting
each other’s economic needs, consolidate and develop the socialist
market, the development of the national economy of each socialist
country will be further promoted and more favourable conditions will
be created for the economic independence of the newly independent
states. In addition, the capitalist market can be driven into an
unstable position and the general crisis of the world capitalist
economic system be aggravated even more.
Needless to say, consolidating and developing the
socialist market and strengthening and developing economic ties among
the socialist countries do not mean that the socialist countries
should not establish economic relations with capitalist countries.
We shall develop the relations of trade and commercial
exchange with all countries which have different social systems if
they respect our sovereignty and want to have economic ties with us.
The economic business relations of socialist countries with
capitalist countries, however, should always be of secondary
importance in foreign trade and should not be made the basis of their
economic relations with foreign countries. Our first concern should
be that of promoting economic and technical exchanges with the
fraternal countries and consolidating and developing the socialist
market.
In consolidating and developing the socialist market it
is most important that each fraternal country, on the basis of its
political interest in the victory of the common cause of building
socialism and communism against imperialism and colonialism, displays
the lofty spirit of proletarian internationalism and totally
renounces hidebound national selfishness in mutual economic
relations. The developed socialist countries, in particular, should
give more material assistance—with no political strings attached
and with no selfish motives behind it—to the economically backward
countries which aspire to socialism, against imperialism. In this
way, conditions should be created for these countries to be able not
only to frustrate the economic blockade of the imperialist powers
successfully but also to have fewer transactions with the capitalist
market, relying on the socialist market. In our foreign trade
relations, as in all else, we must never depart from our class stand
or neglect communist ethics and comradely obligation.
We will do everything possible to promote close economic
ties with the brother countries and consolidate and develop the world
socialist market for the victory of the common cause of building
socialism and communism, against imperialism, for the unity of
national and international interests in revolution and construction.
While developing economic ties with other socialist
countries on a preferential basis, the Government of the Republic
will endeavour to establish economic relations and develop commercial
exchanges with the newly independent states of Asia and Africa which
have broken the chains of imperialism and achieved political
independence, on the principle of complete equality and mutual
benefit.
The peoples of many newly independent states who have
gained political freedom are now faced with urgent tasks of
eradicating the aftereffects of the colonial rule of imperialism, of
building an independent national economy, and of improving their
living standards radically.
However, the imperialists are working to bring these
states under the yoke of neocolonialism, the old colonialism in a new
guise, in order to dominate the peoples of the liberated countries
again. The imperialists pursue a policy of enslaving other countries
economically by offering “aid” as bait and, further, of riding
roughshod over the sovereignty of those countries. The “European
Common Market”, the “integration of the world economy” and the
like, loudly advertised by the imperialist powers today, all pursue
the heinous, aggressive aims of strangling the economic independence
of the newly independent states and subordinating these countries to
their rule.
By developing economic relations with the newly
independent states on the principle of meeting each other’s needs
without any political or economic strings attached, we should
sincerely help them secure complete political and economic
independence from the imperialists and assist their peoples in
achieving national prosperity.
Ninth. The Government of the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea will actively fight to defend the interests and
national rights of all the Korean compatriots abroad.
In the past, as a result of the
occupation of Korea by the Japanese imperialists, large numbers of
our fellow countrymen left their homeland and wandered abroad. As a
people without a country, they were subjected to chauvinistic
discrimination and all kinds of humiliations, were deprived of all
their rights and suffered from extreme hardships in strange lands for
a long time.
Today, however, as proud overseas citizens of their
beloved fatherland, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, they
have boundless confidence and pride in their nation, and foresee
their happy future in the prosperity and development of the Republic.
The overseas citizens of Korea support all the policies of the
Republic and are working positively to perform their duties as
citizens of the Republic.
Our 600,000 Korean compatriots in Japan, solidly united
around the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Government of the
Republic, and guided by the General Association of Korean Residents
in Japan, are now fighting bravely for their democratic, national
rights against the unwarranted, chauvinistic persecution and contempt
to which they are subjected by the Japanese authorities; and they are
keeping up a staunch struggle for the reunification of their country
and the prosperity of the nation.
At present, there is a widespread movement among our
fellow countrymen in Japan to continue their repatriation. To return
to their homeland is a legitimate national right of the Korean
citizens in Japan, which no one is allowed to violate; there are
still large numbers of them who want to come back to the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, which is their homeland.
Nevertheless, the Japanese authorities have deliberately
placed obstacles in the way of the repatriation of the Korean
citizens in Japan and are taking measures to interrupt it, in gross
violation of international law, international practice and
humanitarian principles. This is proof that the Japanese government
is trampling on the democratic, national rights of the Korean
citizens in Japan and is openly defying impartial public opinion in
Japan and throughout the world.
The Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea and the entire Korean people resolutely denounce the
unjustified attempts of the Japanese authorities to frustrate the
repatriation of the Korean citizens in Japan.
The Government of the Republic maintains that Korean
citizens in Japan should be fully guaranteed freedom of travel to
their homeland and of democratic, national education and all other
democratic, national rights. We demand that the Japanese government
should treat and protect the Korean citizens in Japan as foreign
residents and cease all its acts of persecution and repression
against them immediately.
No repression and persecution by the Japanese
authorities can ever halt the just struggle of the Korean citizens in
Japan for their democratic, national rights and for the reunification
of their country. The constantly intensified persecution and
repression of the Korean citizens in Japan by the Japanese
authorities will only arouse still greater national indignation on
the part of all the Korean people, and, sooner or later, an end will
be put to this injustice.
The Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea considers it a sacred duty to protect our 600,000 Korean
compatriots in Japan and all other Korean citizens overseas, and
defend their national rights. We will continue to fight doggedly
against any unjustified acts of infringing on the national rights of
the Korean citizens overseas, humiliating and persecuting them, and
will always resolutely support and encourage our overseas compatriots
in their just struggle.
Tenth. Ever since the founding of the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, we have consistently affirmed that we
shall promote friendly relations with all countries which oppose
imperialist aggression, respect the freedom and independence of our
people and desire to establish diplomatic relations with our country
on an equal footing, and in future, we shall continue to hold fast to
this principle in our foreign policy.
The
foreign policy of the Government of the Republic is derived from the
nature of our state and social system free from all exploitation and
oppression, and reflects the noble aspiration of our people to ensure
peace, democracy, national independence and the victory of the common
cause of socialism. Our independent, principled foreign policy is
supported by an increasing number of countries in the world and has
consolidated the international position of our country as never
before.
Today our country maintains friendly relations with the
fraternal socialist nations and scores of other countries in the
world. Since 1962, alone, when the third Cabinet of the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea was formed, our country has established
diplomatic relations with many countries in Asia and Africa, and our
friendly relations with these countries are developing steadily.
Economic and cultural exchanges between our country and other
countries have also been further expanded and developed. Our country
now maintains trade and cultural relations with many countries.
Mutual exchanges are daily becoming more active between a large
number of peace-loving peoples of the world and our people, and our
friendly ties with them are expanding further. We have thus many
revolutionary comrades and friends in all parts of the world, and
international solidarity with our revolution continues to strengthen.
The Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea and the Korean people will continue to strengthen and develop
these relations of friendship with foreign countries and strive to
make more friends throughout the world.
The international situation confronting our revolution
is very complex and tense today.
The US-led imperialists continue to carry out invasions
and subversive activities against the socialist and newly independent
countries. They are brutally suppressing the liberation struggles of
the peoples of Asian, African and Latin-American countries, and
disturbing the peace and threatening the security of the peoples
throughout the world.
US imperialism is the chief enemy of peace, democracy,
national independence and socialism. It is disintegrating, but, far
from giving up its aggressive ambitions, it is revealing its
piratical nature more brazenly than ever.
The basic strategy of the US imperialists for aggression
against the socialist countries and the progressive countries of the
world at the present stage is to swallow up, one by one, mainly the
divided and small countries, while refraining from worsening their
relations with the large countries and avoiding confrontation with
them as far as possible. In this, the US imperialists are directing
their spearhead of aggression particularly against Viet Nam and other
Asian countries. These aggressive actions on the part of the US
imperialists aggravate tensions in our country and all other parts of
Asia to the utmost and seriously endanger peace throughout the world.
The most urgent task confronting the peoples of the
socialist countries and peace-loving peoples throughout the world
today is to check and frustrate the US imperialists’ policy of
aggression and war. There is no use in talking about any kind of
victory for the revolutionary cause or about world peace and the
progress of mankind without waging an anti-US struggle.
The attitude which the socialist countries take towards
US imperialism is the proof of whether they are really fighting for
the development of the international revolutionary movement at the
present time or not. Their attitude towards US imperialism is a
touchstone which distinguishes between the revolutionary position and
the opportunist position. The socialist countries should do away with
all deviations in the anti-US struggle and maintain an unswerving
revolutionary position against US imperialism.
To carry on a forceful campaign against US imperialism,
joint anti-US action must be achieved and an anti-US united front be
formed on an international scale. Division within the
anti-imperialist forces only benefits the imperialists headed by the
United States and harms the revolutionary peoples. All the socialist
countries and anti-imperialist forces the world over should form the
broadest possible anti-US united front, thoroughly isolate US
imperialism and strike a united blow against it in all areas and on
all fronts where US imperialism has stretched its tentacles of
aggression. Only by doing this is it possible to disperse and weaken
the forces of US imperialism to the maximum, destroy it everywhere
and successfully smash its global strategy of defeating the socialist
countries and other international revolutionary forces one by one.
The Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea and the Korean people will fight resolutely against the US-led
imperialist forces of aggression, and will continue to wage a
stubborn fight to drive the US imperialist aggressors out of south
Korea and accomplish the revolutionary cause of reunification of the
country.
The Government of the Republic and the Korean people,
regarding the strengthening of their solidarity with the
international revolutionary forces opposing US imperialism as an
important factor in the victory of the Korean revolution, will unite
with all the anti-imperialist, anti-US forces the world over and
support and encourage the struggles of all peoples against US
imperialism.
The primary task of the anti-imperialist, anti-US
struggle at present is to check and foil US imperialist aggression in
Viet Nam and support the Vietnamese people in every way in their just
war of resistance against US imperialism and for national salvation.
Viet Nam has now become the front where the anti-US
struggle is fiercest. A bitter war is being waged on the very soil of
indomitable Viet Nam between socialism and imperialism, between the
anti-imperialist, peace-loving forces of the world and the aggressive
forces of US imperialism. The Vietnamese people, bearing the brunt of
this struggle, are fighting valiantly not only to safeguard the
independence and freedom of their country, but also to defend
socialist countries and peace in Asia and the world. The heroic
Vietnamese people are inflicting repeated serious military and
political defeats on the US imperialist aggressors and are driving
them into a corner.
On behalf of the Government of the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea and all the Korean people, I should like to extend,
from this rostrum of the Supreme People’s Assembly, warmest
militant greetings to the Government of the Democratic Republic of
Viet Nam, the Central Committee of the South Viet Nam National Front
for Liberation and all the heroic people of North and South Viet Nam
who have risen as one in the just war of resistance against US
imperialism and for national salvation.
The Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea and the Korean people consider the US imperialist aggression
against Viet Nam to be an aggression against themselves and are doing
everything in their power to support the fraternal Vietnamese people.
The Government of the Republic and our people solemnly declare once
again that we are fully prepared to fight side by side with the
Vietnamese people whenever requested to do so by the Government of
the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. We fully support the position of
the Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam and the
political programme of the South Viet Nam National Front for
Liberation with regard to the solution of the Vietnamese question.
The socialist countries and the revolutionary peoples
throughout the world have a solemn internationalist duty to defend
the Cuban revolution and actively support and encourage the
revolutionary struggle of the Cuban people. The triumph of the Cuban
revolution and the existence of the Republic of Cuba struck a heavy
blow at the US imperialists and they have a great revolutionary
influence on the liberation struggles of the peoples of Latin America
and the oppressed peoples of the world. Today the Republic of Cuba
represents the hope and revolutionary future of the Latin-American
peoples.
This is why the US imperialists stop at nothing in their
nefarious attempts to stifle the Republic of Cuba and engage in
constant plots of aggression against it, whipping up reactionaries in
Latin America.
No manoeuvre on the part of US imperialism, however,
will be able to stop the heroic Cuban people, who are advancing
steadily in the forefront of the anti-imperialist struggle, bearing
aloft the banner of revolution.
The Korean people resolutely support the heroic Cuban
people in their struggle to protect their revolutionary gains and
build socialism under the difficult conditions of direct
confrontation with US imperialism in the Western Hemisphere, and
firmly denounce the US imperialists for their aggressions and all
other subversive activities against the Republic of Cuba. Our people
will, in the future, continue to exert every effort to strengthen
their militant solidarity with the fraternal Cuban people.
The
Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the
Korean people will endeavour to cement their solidarity with the
peoples of all the countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America who
are fighting for freedom and national independence, and will give
positive support to their liberation struggles. In particular, our
people will fight in close unity with all the Asian peoples to drive
the aggressive forces of US imperialism out of all parts of Asia. We
shall unite solidly with all the anti-imperialist forces in Asia,
including the democratic forces in Japan, and battle stoutly against
the revival of Japanese militarism, “shock troops” of the US
imperialists for Asian aggression, and its aggressive acts.
The Korean people express firm solidarity with the
working classes and labouring peoples of capitalist countries who are
fighting against capitalist exploitation and oppression, and for
their basic rights, for democracy and socialism, and offer warm
support and encouragement to their revolutionary struggles. We shall
always stand firm by the peoples of all countries fighting for peace,
national independence, democracy and social progress and shall work
unceasingly to strengthen our solidarity with them.
Despite the frenzied efforts of the imperialists, the
general international situation today continues to develop in favour
of the forces of peace and socialism. The ranks of the peoples
fighting against imperialism are growing ever more in Asia, Africa
and Latin America and throughout the world.
Imperialism and reactionaries of all shades will
eventually be destroyed, and the peoples who have risen in the
anti-imperialist struggle for the just cause of revolution will
certainly emerge victorious.
Holding high the banner of Marxism-Leninism and
proletarian internationalism and the revolutionary banner of the
anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle, the Government of the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea and the Korean people will, in the
future, as in the past, unite with the peoples of the socialist
countries, with the revolutionary peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin
America, and with all the progressive peoples of the world and fight
on determinedly for peace, democracy, national independence and the
triumph of the common cause of socialism.
Comrade deputies,
The Political Programme of the Government of the
Republic embodies our Party’s idea of Juche and its revolutionary
line of independence, self-sustenance and self-defence—a creative
application of Marxism-Leninism to conditions in Korea.
The attainment of this political programme will turn our
country into a richer, stronger and more advanced socialist nation,
independent in politics and self-sustaining in the economy and
self-reliant in national defence, and will ensure a still happier
life for our people. It will powerfully inspire and encourage the
south Korean people in their struggle against US imperialism and its
stooges and afford a firm guarantee for the reunification of our
country.
The Government of the Republic will carry out this
political programme faithfully and thereby advance revolution and
construction in our country further and fulfil the expectations which
all our people and you deputies have placed in it.
The entire people, upholding the policies of the Party
and the Government, should advance faster, overcoming all
difficulties with great uninterrupted revolutionary enthusiasm and
patriotic devotion. It is the revolutionary mettle of our heroic
people that they do not buckle under when faced with difficulties nor
rest on their laurels, but make a continuous advance and continuous
innovations for fresh victories. There will be a great new leap
forward in our revolutionary struggle and work of construction as all
our working people keep advancing dynamically with the speed of
Chollima in order to carry out the policies of the Party and the
Government.
No force on earth can stop the advance of our people,
who, with the seasoned Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Workers’
Party of Korea, hold power firmly in their hands. Our revolutionary
cause is a just one, and victory is on the side of the Korean people
who are fighting for justice.
Let us all march forward
bravely towards the final victory of our revolution and a bright
future of socialism and communism, united closely around the Workers’
Party of Korea and the Government of the Republic.
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