KIM IL SUNG
Report at the Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the
Founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
September 8, 1988
(Extract)
3
Comrades,
Our people’s struggle to reunify the country is a sacred struggle to link
the national ties of blood, which have been cut off by the imperialists, and to
achieve the coordinated development and prosperity of our nation.
There is no internal necessity for Koreans, who have lived as a homogeneous
nation for thousands of years, to be bisected in our times. Our nation was
divided and has not been reunified entirely because of imperialist intervention
and obstructive moves. The struggle for national reunification is not an effort
to settle any contradiction between classes within our nation or antagonism
between systems; it is the cause of the whole nation for accomplishing its
liberation and realizing the independence of the Koreans.
In view of the basic character of the reunification question, our Party and
the Government of the Republic put forward the three principles of independence,
peaceful reunification and great national unity. The three principles of
national reunification are a most reasonable reunification programme; they
accord with the Korean people’s desire for independence and their fundamental
interests as well as with the trend of the times and the aspirations of people
throughout the world.
The realistic method of settling the question of national reunification on
the basis of the three principles is to establish a Democratic Federal Republic
of Koryo.
The DFRK is the most rational form of a unified state capable of achieving
national unity by regarding the common desire and interests of the nation as
basic and transcending ideas and systems. National reunification is for the good
of the entire Korean nation, not for any specific class or section of the
population. Therefore the interests of any particular class or section should be
subordinated to the common interests of the nation. In order to reunify the
country when different ideas and systems exist in the north and south of Korea,
it is necessary to form a unified state by federating the two autonomous
governments, leaving the two systems as they are on the principle of
coexistence, one refraining from conquering the other or one side refraining
from overwhelming the other. Establishing the DFRK is the only correct way of
settling the issue of reunification independently and peacefully by the united
effort of the whole nation in accordance with the common desire and will of the
nation.
In the future, too, we shall make every effort to reunify the country by
establishing the DFRK on the three principles of independence, peaceful
reunification and great national unity.
In order to achieve the independent and peaceful reunification of the
country, we ‘must fight against the US imperialists’ policy of subjugating south
Korea as their colony and against their scheme to create “two Koreas”.
The US imperialist policy towards Korea is an important part of its
Asian-Pacific strategy. Seizing south Korea, a zone of strategic importance, the
United States is attempting to put this aggressive strategy into effect by
forming an axis of the US, Japan and south Korea. Talk about national
reunification apart from the struggle against the US imperialists’ scheme to
make “two Koreas” and dominate south Korea forever is only deceitful, empty
talk.
The south Korean people, in the grip of untold hardships and misfortunes
under the US imperialists’ colonial domination and their stooges’ fascist rule,
have been fighting resolutely for national sovereignty and democratic freedom.
The Popular Uprising in April9 1960, the Kwangju Popular Uprising10 in 1980 and
the June Popular Resistance last year were heroic struggles that demonstrated
the strong spirit of independence and mettle of the Korean nation, never
yielding to any brutal enemy. These were historic events that took the
liberation struggle of the south Korean people onto a higher plane. Trained and
awakened in the flames of struggle, the south Korean people are directing the
spearhead of attack gradually to the US imperialists. Freeing themselves from
the worship and fear of the United States, they have raised high the banner of
anti-US independence, have overcome spontaneity and dispersiveness of struggle
and are developing a more organized mass struggle. This marks an important
turning point in the history of their liberation struggle. Today the south
Korean people are combining the struggle against fascism and for democracy and
the struggle for national reunification closely with the anti-US struggle for
independence, thereby advancing along the right path of national
liberation.
The youth and students are playing a hardcore and leading role in the south
Korean people’s struggle for independence, democracy and national reunification,
and their courageous struggle is developing still further with the passage of
time, attracting attention from people at home and abroad and receiving
encouragement from them.
Under the patronage of the US imperialists the south Korean authorities are
now craftily trying to deceive the people in the guise of democracy. However,
they are revealing nakedly their true colours as fascists by resorting to a
bloody repression of the just struggle of the young people and students. At a
time when the entire nation is fighting to hand down a reunified country to
posterity, they are brutally suppressing the innocent students and other young
people who have risen up under the banner of reunification. They must be cursed
and condemned as a gang of traitors to the nation by all Koreans.
The south Korean people must foil the enemy in his suppression and
stratagem and fight firmly united as one, thus discharging their honourable duty
in ending the colonial rule of the US imperialists in south Korea and
accelerating national reunification.
Removing the danger of war and easing tension in our country is a most
important matter and an indispensable condition at the moment for the peaceful
reunification of the country.
Having deployed a large number of aggressor troops and nuclear weapons in
south Korea, the United States is ceaselessly perpetrating provocative acts of
aggression against our Republic. Because of this, in our country military
confrontation is continuing and the danger of war increasing. Unless the danger
of war is removed and tension eased in our country, an atmosphere of trust
cannot be created between the north and the south and the question of national
reunification cannot be settled in a peaceful way.
If a guarantee for peace on the Korean peninsula is to be provided, it is
necessary to conclude a peace agreement between us and the United States, adopt
a nonaggression declaration between the north and the south, compel the US
troops and nuclear weapons to move out of south Korea and effect a phased and
drastic reduction of the armed forces of north and south.
Peace negotiations between Korea and the United States, which we have
already proposed, still remain unrealized, entirely because the United States
maintains its stand for permanent domination of south Korea. The United States
is afraid that it will no longer have any grounds for occupying south Korea if a
peace agreement is concluded and a nonaggression declaration is adopted. The
United States must approach the Korea-US negotiations with a sincere attitude to
settle the Korean question substantially in keeping with the trend of the
times.
A nation that rules and oppresses another nation cannot keep itself free.
The misguided policy of the government of the United States in occupying south
Korea and obstructing the reunification of the Korean nation is a great shame to
its own people. The US imperialists’ aggressive policy for world supremacy not
only imposes a heavy burden upon its people, but also is a source of dire
disaster. Honest-minded people of the United States and far-sighted, reasonable
politicians must naturally contemplate the grave consequences of the
imperialists’ aggressive policy and fight against their aggressive Korea policy
and the strategy for world supremacy.
In order to reunify the country independently and peacefully, dialogues and
negotiations between the north and the south must be developed.
A north-south dialogue can be successful only when both sides have a sound
stand and attitude towards the talks. These talks must be held on the basis of
the three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national
unity—the reunification programme common to the nation.
The north-south dialogue must always talk of reunification. Reunification
stands for the independence of the nation and a love for the country and nation,
whereas division stands for dependence on foreign forces and treachery to the
country and nation. It is impermissible to use the venue of talks as a means to
finalize and legalize division by following the foreign forces against the will
of the entire nation aspiring to reunification.
The dialogue between north and south must, first of all, find a solution to
the fundamental questions related to reunification. Avoiding discussion of the
political and military questions for creating basic preconditions for
reunification and giving prominence to matters of secondary importance must be
denounced as a scheme to obstruct reunification and keep the country divided by
deceiving public opinion at home and abroad and using delaying tactics.
The north-south dialogue must be a wide-ranging dialogue that represents
the desires and will of all the people in a democratic manner. The dialogue for
reunification must not be monopolized by the authorities or by any particular
party or group. The dialogue must be participated in widely by not only the
authorities of the north and the south, but also different parties, social
organizations, people from all walks of life and overseas compatriots. They
should actively promote different forms of bilateral and multilateral contacts
and negotiations.
As far as top-level talks between north and south are concerned, this is a
matter we have already proposed and our attitude towards it is clear. The
top-level talks must discuss and decide, first of all, adopting a nonaggression
declaration between north and south by which neither side is restrained or
guaranteed by anyone else as well as founding a federal government of the
unified state, leaving the two systems in north and south as they are, or
establishing a committee for peaceful reunification and the like for setting up
such a government. We welcome any who come to Pyongyang to meet us out of a
sincere desire to realize national reunification by solving these problems, but
if they wish to argue about keeping the country divided into “two Koreas”
forever, without the authority and ability to discuss and decide these
fundamental problems independently, they need not come to meet us. The point in
question is to ripen conditions for the holding of north-south top-level talks
and producing desired results. To this end, the south Korean authorities must
abandon their dependence on outside forces and join the entire nation in its
campaign for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country.
Great obstacles and difficulties still lie in the way to national
reunification. However, whether or not the country is reunified depends, in the
long run, on how our nation, the motive force of reunification, struggles. All
the Koreans in the north, south and abroad, rallied rock-firm on the principle
of great national unity, must make strenuous efforts to achieve the independent,
peaceful reunification of the country without fail.
No comments:
Post a Comment