KIM IL SUNG
UNITY OF THE SOCIALIST CAMP AND THE NEW STAGE OF THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST MOVEMENT
Report to an Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea
December 5, 1957
(Extract)
Comrades,
The
radical change in the international situation cannot but reflect itself
in the situation of our country. It provides definitely favourable
conditions for the Korean people in their struggle to reunify the
country peacefully and build socialism.
Maintaining
peace in Korea and reunifying the country by peaceful means are, at the
present stage, the first and prime revolutionary tasks of the Korean
people. In order to fulfil these tasks our Party has been and is still
struggling to strengthen the democratic base by hastening the socialist
construction in the northern half and, at the same time, to unite all
patriotic forces in south Korea and urge them in the struggle against
imperialism and feudalism.
The
postwar situation in our country has become more favourable to the
Korean people. The current situation at home is characterized by a rapid
growth of the socialist force in the northern half of the Republic in
contrast with the frustration of the US imperialist colonial rule and
the daily sharpening contradictions between US imperialism and broad
sections of the people in south Korea.
The
people in the north under the leadership of our Party and the
Government of the Republic have achieved a great success in their
struggle for the postwar rehabilitation and development of the national
economy.
During
the Three-Year Plan period, industrial and agricultural production not
only recovered the prewar level but far exceeded it, and towns and
villages sprang up from the debris, taking on a new look.
Successful
implementation of the Three-Year Plan resulted not merely in the
recovery of the damaged productive forces, but in basically laying down
the foundations of an independent national economy and in a fundamental
change in the socio-economic basis of the country. Colonial lopsidedness
of industry was eliminated to a considerable degree and its technical
foundations strengthened. The socialist economic sector became
predominant in town and countryside as a result of the expansion and
consolidation of the socialist relations of production and particularly
due to the decisive victory in agricultural cooperativization.
Progress
in technical reconstruction and the establishment of the socialist
production relations are bringing about a fresh upswing in the
development of our national economy. Preliminary data show that the
total industrial output value this year is expected to increase by
nearly 40 per cent compared with the figure of last year, or 2.8 times
over the prewar level. The grain output this year is expected to exceed
3.2 million tons, which was unimaginable in the years of Japanese
imperialism. In addition, it is necessary to point out that this figure
will be obtained in extremely unfavourable weather conditions. The
standard of living of the people is improving and education and culture
are developing.
Socialism
has decisively won in our national economy and it is penetrating deeply
into all aspects of the lives of the working people.
The
tremendous success in socialist economic construction has brought a
radical change in the class relations and further consolidated our state
and social system. Political unity and solidarity of the masses, based
on the worker-peasant alliance, have been further cemented on new
socialist foundations. Political zeal of the entire people and their
enthusiasm for work have risen very high, and everyone is participating
in socialist construction with distinct prospects and firm confidence.
The
socialist revolution in the northern half of the Republic is winning.
The large-scale growth of socialist force in the north is a main factor
for changing the situation in our country in favour of the Korean
people. It constitutes the decisive force which is able to contain and
frustrate the enemy’s provocative scheme in Korea, and a powerful force
which is further inspiring the south Korean people’s struggle against US
imperialism and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique.
Today, south Korea is precipitating into an irretrievable crisis in all fields of political and economic lives.
On
account of the war policy of the US imperialists and the traitorous
Syngman Rhee clique and the US policy of colonial plunder, the south
Korean economy is going from bad to worse.
Its
national industry is heading to bankruptcy due to the flooding American
surplus commodities, exclusive control of raw materials and funds by
American monopoly capital and comprador capital and overtaxation. A
large number of medium and small enterprises have closed down, and
approximately 80 per cent of those which had survived till the beginning
of this year are in a state of layoff or are working shorter hours.
Agriculture,
the major source of plunder by the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique, has
declined critically. Cultivated land is decreasing year after year, and
grain production in 1956 was nearly 30 per cent less than in the last
year of Japanese imperialist rule.
Military
and police expenditure of the puppet regime in 1956 accounted for 65
per cent of its budget, the tax revenue from the people reached 86 per
cent of the total budgetary revenue. Financial deficiencies are quickly
increasing, currency inflating, and prices soaring sky-high.
Because
of economic decline and plunder the south Korean industrial labourers,
peasants and other working people are suffering from unemployment,
hunger and poverty. The south Korean people are denied even the
elementary freedoms. They are suffering from growing humiliation and
atrocities committed by the US aggressors, and everything that is
national and progressive in south Korea is being obliterated.
All this is the outcome of the 12 years of US colonial rule of south Korea.
There
is a sharp contradiction between the interests of US monopoly capital
and a handful of landlords and comprador capitalists who are ruling
south Korea on the one hand, and the workers, peasants, urban petty
bourgeoisie and broad sections of the population, including national
capitalists, on the other.
US
imperialist colonial rule has driven the south Korean people into a
cul-de-sac. They are realizing more clearly that they can only be
extricated from their unbearable hardships when US imperialist colonial
rule is abolished and the country is reunified peacefully.
Contradictions
are sharpening within the ruling circles of south Korea. Conflicts
between the Liberal Party and opposition parties are intensifying, and
the latter is becoming more and more discontent with the Syngman Rhee.
All
this shows that US imperialism and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique
have been isolated from the masses of people and that their ruling basis
is weakening. It also proves that there is a growing possibility to
form a united front of all patriotic forces including the workers,
peasants and other broad strata in south Korea.
The
US aggressors are making frantic efforts to hide the frustration of
their policy in south Korea and to get out of their current crisis.
They
are intensifying exploitation and oppression of the south Korean
people, while, at the same time, creating tensions again in Korea.
Recently, the US side unilaterally declared the abrogation of some
articles of the Armistice Agreement and are manoeuvring to bring new
types of weapons into south Korea and turn it into their atomic base.
But there is not a shadow of doubt that the result of this will be
contrary to their wishes.
The
situations in the two parts of Korea require that the entire people
should struggle more stubbornly for a peaceful reunification of the
country.
Maintenance
of peace in Korea and her peaceful reunification represent the
unanimous desire of the entire Korean people and are the vital issue for
our people. Achieving them will also be an important contribution to
the maintenance and consolidation of peace in Asia and the rest of the
world.
More
than once, our Party has made reasonable and feasible proposals for the
peaceful reunification of the country, and has been striving to make
them a reality.
Strict
observance of the Armistice Agreement is the first step to maintain
peace in Korea. The US side must, as soon as possible, stop all
violations of the Armistice Agreement including their provocations on
the Military Demarcation Line and their illegal importation of weapons.
The armistice must be converted into a durable peace.
The
occupation of south Korea by the US aggressor army is the main factor
which threatens peace in our country and is obstructing peaceful
reunification. As long as the US army remains stationed in south Korea
and their aggressive policy continues, we can neither hope for peace in
Korea, nor can we achieve peaceful reunification.
The
US aggressive troops should quit south Korea. We demand that all
foreign armed forces, including the Chinese People’s Volunteers,
withdraw from Korea.
Continuing
to clamour for a “march north”, the Syngman Rhee regime is keeping more
than 700,000 puppet army troops and making frenzied efforts to build up
arms by squeezing the south Korean people in every possible way.
We
hold on that the armies of the north and the south should be reduced to
100,000 or less respectively in order to ease the tension in Korea and
lighten the oppressive military burdens particularly imposed on the
south Korean people.
A
very abnormal state of affairs currently exists on both sides of the
Military Demarcation Line. We cannot tolerate the current situation
where the MDL is the barrier dividing the nation.
Why
should a people be denied free visits, free mail exchange, and still
less the right of goods exchange within their own country? This state of
affairs is beneficial to no Koreans; it is the root cause of our
national calamities.
The
artificial barrier between the north and the south must be pulled down
in the interests of the Korean nation, particularly the suffering south
Korean people. The people should have the freedom of mutual visits, mail
should be exchanged between the two parts on a regular basis, and
various goods traded.
If
this is impossible right now, an initial step should be taken to
realize goods exchange and mutual visits of north and south Korean
people by specifying some spots and routes in both parts of the country.
The way should be opened up for the south Korean people to use north
Korea’s abundant electricity, coal, cement, chemical fertilizer and many
other kinds of manufactured goods, and free fishing on a reciprocal
basis should be guaranteed in the waters of north and south Korea.
Opportunities
should be arranged for meetings and negotiations between north and
south Korean political parties, social organizations and individuals.
The political life should first be democratized and free activities of
all political parties and social organizations guaranteed in south
Korea.
We
will ensure conditions of free activities in north Korea for any
political parties, social organizations and individuals from south
Korea.
Settlement
of all these questions will accelerate the peaceful reunification of
the country and make it feasible. North-south general elections should
then be held on the basis of the democratic will of the Korean people,
free from any foreign intervention, to reunify the country peacefully.
The Korean question should be settled by the Korean people themselves in
accordance with their own will.
Rallying
all patriotic forces in the united front against the US imperialists
and the traitorous Syngman Rhee is of paramount importance in reunifying
the country peacefully. The struggle for peaceful reunification will be
more successful only when a united front is formed embracing the
workers, peasants, intellectuals, handicraftsmen, merchants,
non-comprador capitalists and other broad sections in south Korea with
the exception of the very small number of landlords and comprador
capitalists allied with the US imperialists. The formation of such a
united front is now being raised as an urgent issue in south Korea.
We
will unite and struggle jointly with all political parties, social
organizations, individuals and all strata who are opposed to US
imperialism and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique and support peaceful
national reunification. We will join hands with those who advocate
national independence and peaceful reunification, irrespective of their
past records.
That is our stand and policy for the peaceful reunification.
Comrades,
Without
struggle it would be impossible to maintain peace in Korea and reunify
the country peacefully. We must not just sit and wait, but fight for
these objectives.
We
will be able to achieve the peaceful reunification of the country if we
unite the socialist force in the northern half and all patriotic forces
in south Korea and mobilize them in the struggle against the US
imperialists and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique by firmly relying on
the support and encouragement of the peoples of the socialist camp and
the peace-loving forces of the world.
Our
important revolutionary task is to speed up socialist construction in
the northern half and thus strengthen the democratic base.
The
working people in the northern half of the Republic are currently
displaying a high degree of enthusiasm and creativity in their work in
order to implement the huge First Five-Year Plan. Successful
implementation of this plan will strengthen the economic foundations of
socialism in the north and at the same time basically solve the problem
of food, clothing and housing for the people and develop this backward
agrarian land into an independent industrial-agricultural country.
There
is not the slightest doubt that during the Five-Year Plan period the
northern half of the Republic will bring about great progress and
changes in all areas of political, economic and cultural lives. We have
all possibilities for the realization of this plan.
The
situation in the south, under US imperialist occupation, will no doubt
be further aggravated in the future. In south Korea the economy will get
worse, the people’s sufferings will increase, and the contradictions
between US imperialism and the people will sharpen. The US imperialist
policy of colonial plunder will bring no other results.
It is only too clear where the radical change in the balance of forces between the north and the south will lead to.
The
south Korean people will not fail to see this change. They will more
actively claim government for the people like that in the northern half
and launch a more stubborn struggle against the reactionary rule of the
US imperialists and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique. An arduous,
long-drawn-out struggle is needed for the Korean people to win peaceful
reunification. The enemies of revolution will not be able to check our
advance. The Korean people will certainly win an ultimate victory.
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