KIM IL SUNG ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS RAISED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE NEPAL JOURNALIST ASSOCIATION

                 KIM IL SUNG

ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS RAISED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE NEPAL JOURNALIST ASSOCIATION

November 29. 1990
(Extract)

Question: Efforts for achieving reunification of Korea are on and only recently high-level negotiations too were held. The DPRK right from the beginning has desired a quick accomplishment of this objective of peaceful national reunification without any foreign interference. Even the entire peace-loving people of the world too have been expressing their ardent hope for this reunification. Will Your Excel­lency shed some light on the solution of this issue?
Answer: Our Party and the Government of our Republic have consistently maintained the three principles of independence, peace­ful reunification and great national unity in their struggle for nation­al reunification.
These three principles represent the standpoint and will of our own nation with regard to the question of national reunification. The three principles of national reunification are the most reasonable programme for national reunification that accords with all Koreans’ desire for independence and their fundamental interests and also conforms with the trend of our times and the aspirations of the world progressive people.
The most realistic and reasonable way to reunify our country independently, peacefully and on the principle of great national unity is to join the north and the south and form a federal state.
The policy of the Government of our Republic on establishing the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo is to unite the north and the south into a single state, leaving the ideas and social systems in the north and south as they are, and putting into effect regional autonomy within the state, by which the north and the south exercise equal rights and perform equal duties. At present, different ideas and social systems actually exist in the north and the south of our coun­try. In these circumstances the only way to reunify the country fairly and peacefully without one conquering the other or one being con­quered by the other is to institute a federation which is based on one nation, one state, two systems and two governments.
At present, some people in south Korea assert the “unification of systems” by copying another country’s way of unification. It means extending one side’s social system to the other’s. In the condition of our country it is impossible to reunify the country by amalgamating systems. If the north or the south were to force its own ideology and social system on the other side and extend them to it, the country would never be reunified, and, worse still, conflicts and fratricide would inevitably take place between the north and the south. The “unification of systems” means, in the final analysis, rejecting national reunification. It is nothing but a camouflage for those who try to keep the country divided to cover their true colours.
Reunifying the country into one nation and one state leaving two systems and two governments in the north and the south of Korea as they are is not only a feasible reunification proposal, but also a just policy suited to the actual situation in our country. As it envisages our country developing as a neutral state after reunification, not as a satellite of any other nation, the proposal conforms with the desires of the peoples of our neighbouring countries and the peace-loving people around the world.
The foremost, pressing task in realizing national reunification is to ease the tension on the Korean peninsula and create a peaceful cli­mate for national reunification.
On both sides of the Military Demarcation Line between the north and the south of our country enormous armed forces are now confronted with each other. This is the cause of the constant tension on the Korean peninsula. Without easing the tension, it is impossible to remove misunderstanding and distrust between north and south, achieve national reconciliation and unity and solve the question of the country’s reunification peacefully. From a sincere desire to ease the tension on the Korean peninsula and ensure peace, the Govern­ment of our Republic maintains that a nonaggression declaration between north and south be adopted, that a peace agreement between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States be signed, and that the armed forces in north and south be reduced, by stage, each to the level lower than 100,000 troops. If our proposal is put into effect, it will be possible to put an end to the relations of confrontation and the state of armistice which have continued to date on the Korean peninsula, remove distrust and misunderstanding between north and south and create a decisively favourable climate for national reunification.
To develop dialogues is an important way to find a peaceful set­tlement of the question of the reunification of our country.
Because the reunification of the country is an important issue affecting the destiny of the whole nation, the dialogue for reunifica­tion must be a dialogue for all nation, a democratic representation of the will of the administrative authorities, political parties, social organizations and the people from all walks of life. The talks of high-level delegations, headed by the prime ministers, are now being held between north and south for the first time since the division of the nation. I think that it is a good thing which affords the prospects of improving north-south relations and of reunifying the country. In the future, too, we will make every effort to broaden and develop dialogues for reunification between north and south in various fields, particularly the north-south high-level talks.
The cause of reunification is a cause of the whole nation to achieve the independence of our nation, and the driving force of national reunification is the entire Korean nation. All our fellow countrymen in north, south and abroad unanimously desire the inde­pendent and peaceful reunification of the country and have coura­geously taken up the cause of national reunification under the banner of great national unity. Today, the trend of our nation towards reuni­fication has mounted higher than ever, and the movement for the reunification of the country is developing on to a new height. The progressive people of the world are giving strong support and encouragement to our people in their cause for the reunification of their country.
It is a historical inevitability that a nation which has been divided artificially by outside forces is reunified. No matter how those at home and abroad who wish to keep the country divided may scheme, they cannot check the unshakable will of the entire nation to reunify the country and the general trend of the times towards national reunification. We have an optimistic view of the prospects of national reunification. We are convinced that the hope and goal of our people to accomplish the cause of national reunification in the 1990s will be realized without fail.