Wednesday 15 February 2017

KIM JONG IL ,GREAT LEADER WITH TOWERING PRESTIGE AMONGST THE KOREAN AND WORLD PEOPLE-Speech by Dr Dermot Hudson to the meeting of the ASSPUK,JISGE and UK KFA on February 11th 2017




Comrades and friends,
The 75th anniversary of the birth of the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL is joyously celebrated by the Korean people and world progressive people. This reflects the towering prestige of comrade KIM JONG IL amongst the world progressive people.
  I remember walking around both the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun and the International Friendship Exhibition in Mt Myohyang and been awe inspired by the depth of respect for comrade KIM JONG IL amongst the world people. In the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun there were numerous medals, diplomas ,degrees , awards and certificates from different countries ,even one from a US university that you would not expect to see for obvious reasons . In the International Friendship Exhibition I saw an honorary membership card of the All Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks that had been awarded to comrade KIM JONG IL. Some may ask what is so remarkable about an honorary membership card from a small Russian Communist party ? However it is significant because in the past the old Communist Party of the Soviet Union of the USSR, gripped by great power chauvinism looked down on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Workers’ Party of Korea as the DPRK was a small country  and derided the Juche Idea . However the award of the membership card by the AUCPB showed that Soviet communists now respected the DPRK and indeed looked up to it.  This is because the DPRK became known as the citadel of world socialism after the collapse of socialism in the USSR and this is very much associated with the leadership of generalissimo KIM JONG IL . The hostile forces ,chiefly  the US imperialists predicted the collapse of People’s Korea and the end of Juche socialism but comrade KIM JONG IL skilfully led the Korean people through the difficult period of the “arduous march “ when the DPRK faced unprecedented natural disasters , the disappearance of the world socialist market and the sanctions of the imperialists. He turned the situation around and put the DPRK on the launchpad to becoming   a thriving socialist nation.
Basically Great comrade KIM JONG IL developed the great Juche idea,which had been authored by the great leader President KIM IL SUNG and made People's Korea into a socialist military giant that every day defies the US . Churchill is believed to said of Stalin , “He had found Russia working with wooden ploughs and leaving it equipped with atomic piles.” Well it can be said of comrade KIM JONG IL that he found a Korea with rifles and artillery and left is with atomic weapons and long range missiles.
   It is not the purpose of this paper to describe the life and revolutionary activities of the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL , this has already been done by our secretary general Shaun Pickford  at our December  and I would also refer the audience to the many excellent biographies published by the DPRK. Comrade KIM JONG IL was a great leader amongst great leaders. His achievements were great and varied . Indeed his leadership spanned several decades since he began his Songun revolutionary leadership on the 25th of August 1960 at the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su no 105 Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army . KIM JONG IL was a remarkable leader, a genius who not only guided military affairs but also guided culture and wrote the classic treatise  “On the Art of the Cinema” . However today we will look at two of comrade KIM JONG IL’s most enduring achievements, namely the development of the Juche Idea and the administration of Songun politics .
   The Juche Idea had been enunciated by the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG at the historic Kalun meeting in June 1930. Later President KIM IL SUNG made the historic speech “On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche In Our Ideological Work  “ in December 1955.  President KIM IL SUNG gave definitions of the Juche idea in many of his works particularly answers to foreign journalists such as the Japanese daily the “Mainchi Shimbun “ and the Japanese magazine “Sekai “ . However no one had given an indepth and all round systematisation of the Juche idea. I remember on a visit to the DPRK in the autumn of 1993 discussing  the works and activities of comrade KIM JONG IL with a  researcher from the Korean  Juche Idea Academy  . The researcher told me that the greatest feat of  the dear leader comrade KIM JONG IL as he was known then  was to systematise the Juche idea of President KIM IL SUNG  and for this reason it was only just and correct that he should succeed President KIM IL SUNG.
  The great leader comrade KIM JONG IL systematised the Juche Idea  in his classic treatise “ON THE JUCHE IDEA” which a was presented to the  National Seminar on the Juche Idea  in the DPRK on March 31st  1982(it will be the 35th anniversary of the publication of this work in some 6 weeks from now) which was held to mark the 70th birthday of the great leader President KIM IL SUNG. Juche is all too often simplified and then dismissed by the Western media as meaning self-reliance .However such an approach does not do justice to the Juche idea . Of course in terms of day to day policies the Juche idea is expressed through self-sufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in national defence. However these ignoramuses of the imperialist media are too thick to understand the whole basis of the Juche Idea and the profound philosophical system around it . In the work “ON THE JUCHE IDEA “ leader  comrade KIM JONG IL  expounds both the philosophical principle of the  Juche idea as well as the socio-historical principle of the Juche Idea. Comrade KIM JONG IL defined the philosophical principle of Juche thus “The Juche idea is a new philosophical thought which centres on man. As the leader said, the Juche idea is based on the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything. The Juche idea raised the fundamental question of philosophy by regarding man as the main factor, and elucidated the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything.
That man is the master of everything means that he is the master of the world and of his own destiny; that man decides everything means that he plays the decisive role in transforming the world and in shaping his destiny.”
KIM JONG IL for the first time in the history of philosophy defined man as having independence, creativity and consciousness. Of course this does not mean that man is born naturally with these attributes, these come about only when man is part of a social collective.
 The publication of the work “ON THE JUCHE IDEA “ took the world by storm. It was acclaimed by the world’s progressive people. 90 countries carried its full text or summary, and it was circulated in pamphlet form in 144 countries. Seminars and lecture meetings on the work were widely held in many countries.It was praised as  “a Communist Manifesto  in the 80s of the 20th Century “ ,  “ a basic textbook for realisation of people’s independence “ and “the first philosophical  work to give an explicit answer to the question of human emancipation “ Indeed I would point that the publication of “ON THE JUCHE IDEA “ in 1982 was a shining light in what was a very bleak and unpromising decade , the decade of Thatcher ,Reagan , Gorbachov and Lech Walesa in which the progressive forces of the world say many setbacks and reverses ,
 Comrade KIM JONG IL went on to author other important works on the Juche Idea such as “ Let Us Advance under the Banner of Marxism-Leninism and the Juche Idea  “, “On Some Problems in Education in the Juche Idea “ ,  “On Establishing the Juche Outlook on the Revolution “ and “The Juche Philosophy is an Original Revolutionary Philosophy “ . In these works he further explained the Juche Idea .
The Juche Idea was not an academic theory nor something created in smoke-filled beerhalls but a practical and revolutionary philosophy , a guide to action. Under the leadership of President KIM IL SUNG and the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL the DPRK was built up as a state independent in politics , self-sufficient in the economy  and self-reliant in defence . Under the leadership of comrade KIM JONG IL the Korean people stuck firmly to the road of Juche and successfully resisted all attempts of the imperialists , reactionaries , big power chauvinists and revisionists to derail  Juche-based socialism in the DPRK. It is thanks to Juche  that the DPRK which is sandwiched between big powers and is faced with the constant threat of US imperialism and Japanese militarism has been able to maintain and uphold independence. Thanks to Juche the DPRK can ,to use a Yorkshire expression, say what it likes and like what it says . It can do what it wants without reading the face of  others.
  Juche is underpinned by Songun politics and the Songun (military first ) idea which is also associated with the thinking and leadership of comrade KIM JONG IL who began his Songun revolutionary leadership on the 25th of August 1960 when he gave on-the spot-guidance  to the historic Seoul Ryu Kyong Su no 105 Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army . The Songun idea was first pioneered by the great leader President  KIM IL SUNG .  Comrade KIM JONG IL developed it further.

  On the 1st of January 1995 comrade KIM JONG IL visiting the Takabasol army post and declared that  the DPRK was at the crossroads , they faced a choice of being slaves of imperialism or defending independence .To defend independence the DPRK must administer Songun politics. Comrade KIM JONG IL declared that he would administer Songun politics with iron determination
 Comrade KIM JONG IL  authored works such as  OUR PARTY’S SONGUN POLITICS IS A POWERFUL POLITICAL MODE OF SOCIALISM” in July 2001 and   ““The Songun-based Revolutionary Line Is a Great Revolutionary Line of Our Era and an Ever-Victorious Banner of Our Revolution “ which provided an in depth explanation of Songun politics and an elaboration of its essence. Comrade KIM JONG IL explained that “Our Party’s Songun politics is a unique political mode of socialism in which the idea of giving priority to arms, military affairs, is brilliantly applied.” First, he pointed out that the army is precisely the party, the state and the people and reviewed the history of the revolutionary activities of President Kim Il Sung who had pioneered and developed the Korean revolution by force of arms.
As the history of the revolutionary struggle of the working class shows,victory in a revolution is unthinkable apart from strengthening the revolutionary armed forces. Because the  revolutionary struggle is accompanied by showdown with counterrevolutionary forces, one can emerge victorious in a revolution and defend the revolution only when one relies on powerful revolutionary armed forces.  Comrade KIM JONG IL clarified this truth thus
The struggle of the masses of the people for the cause of independence, the cause of socialism, is accompanied by confrontation of power with imperialism and all sorts of other counterrevolutionary forces. Therefore, military affairs emerge as a matter of key importance on which hangs victory or failure in the revolution and the rise or fall of a country or nation. A country or a nation can emerge victorious in the revolution and defend the revolution, and carve out its destiny independently only when it has its own powerful revolutionary armed forces.
It is the force of arms on which hinge the victory of the revolutionary cause, independence and sovereignty, and the prosperity of a country or a nation. This is the Juche-oriented principle of revolution and the law of revolution, elucidated by President Kim Il Sung and whose soundness has been verified by history.”
This  is the basic principle of Songun as defined by comrade KIM JONG IL . The Songun Idea embodies the Juche Idea  Moreover the comrade KIM JONG IL also stressed that Songun is linked to anti-imperialism and class struggle saying that “The complex and grave situation of our revolution demands that the edge of class struggle be sharpened and the working-class principle, the revolutionary principle, be maintained more thoroughly in all spheres. Our Party has upheld the banner of Songun in the acute confrontation with imperialism. Our rifle is the rifle of class, the rifle of revolution, and it is the most powerful weapon for anti-imperialist class struggle.
There is no doubt that the administration of Songun politics by the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL reliably defended the Korean revolution and People’s Korea from the threat of aggression by the US imperialists.  The DPRK under the leadership of Generalissimo KIM JONG IL faced down the US imperialists over the nuclear issue. It is now admitted by the US that it failed in its objective of denuclearising the DPRK.
Songun politics has had international repercussions. The Songun politics encourages the struggle of the people over the world, with great attraction. Organizations whose purpose is the study and dissemination of Songun politics are being founded. For instance, there is the UK Association for the Study of Songun Politics, the US Songun Study Group, the Ukrainian Treasured Sword of Songun Association, the Ugandan Songun Study Association, the Bangladesh Songun Policy Study Group and many other groups and associations throughout the world.  A Songun Internet Group that promotes Songun on the Internet has existed since 2003. There is also a Songun politics Facebook page
Thus as we approach the significant 75th anniversary of the birth of the great leader generalissimo KIM JONG IL  we recall his great exploits in developing the Juche Idea and the Songun Idea . To conclude the best way to mark the birth anniversary  of the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL is to more actively disseminate the Juche Idea and Songun Idea and defend People’s Korea .

GLORY TO THE MEMORY OF THE GREAT LEADER COMRADE KIM JONG IL!
LONG LIVE DEAR RESPECTED MARSHAL KIM JONG UN !
LONG LIVE THE JUCHE IDEA !
LONG LIVE THE SONGUN IDEA !
LONG LIVE PEOPLES’ KOREA !

   FURTHER READING
GREAT LEADER KIM JONG IL by Tak Jin, Kim Gang Il, Pak Hong Je
ON THE JUCHE IDEA –KIM JONG IL

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