Stockholm 10/10 2020
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 75th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE WORKERS' PARTY OF KOREA
Today, the Workers’ Party of Korea celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding on October 10 1945, an event of great importance to the Korean people.
The Workers’ Party of Korea was founded by the Great Leader Kim Il Sung, who led the party and later came to be the founder of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the president of the republic.
Kim Il Sung was born in Mangyongdae, to the south of Pyongyang, on April 15th 1912. During this time, Korea was occupied by Japan, which exerted severe repression against its people and plundered the country for its resources. Kim Il Sung's grandparents were ardent patriots who in various ways participated in the struggle against foreign oppression and Japanese imperialism, and Kim Il Sung took an interest in politics early on.
By the age of 14 Kim Il Sung left his native home to join the anti-japanese struggle, which had its center in Manchuria. He made a promise not to return until Japan had suffered defeat. This was the beginning of two decades of guerilla warfare, and also the beginning of political and ideological organisational development.
During this time Kim Il Sung came into contact with marxism and he read important works of Marx and Lenin, and he initialised applications of the theories on the Korean situation.
The hatred and opposition to Japanese imperialism was overwhelming among the Korean people. But the resistance was divided among ideological- and organisational lines. On the 17th October 1926 Kim Il Sung founded the “Down-with-Imperialism Union”, with the goal of defeating Japan, and building socialism and communism in Korea. During the winter of the same year, he founded the youth organisation “New Day”, which spread anti-japanese propaganda and educated youth in anti-imperialist struggle.
The formation of the "Down-with-Imperialism" Union and the "New Day" were crucial to the struggle of the Korean people. By presenting a clear political program, not only for Korea's liberation from the Japanese but also for the construction of a future socialist state, a common vision was created. Starting from Marxism-Leninism, the movement was armed with a revolutionary theory of the liberation of the people.
These organizations became the basis on which the Korean Workers' Party and its youth unions were later founded. By organizing and arming the people materially and ideologically, the anti-Japanese struggle took a qualitative step and the people were welded together. In the struggle against Japanese imperialism, the Korean people won many great victories by developing the political theory in an independent and creative way based on the contemporary conditions. The Great Leader Kim Il Sung came to put his trust in the masses of the people and see the power of the people as the means and the condition for the liberation of Korea. In this way, a unique form of socialist theory was developed, shaped by the Korean experience - the Juche idea.
The Korean people defeated the Japanese occupation and after the victory they stood united around the Great Leader Kim Il Sung. However, the nation came to be divided into a northern and a southern part when the United States occupied southern Korea. In this situation, the Korean Workers' Party was formed.
The Workers’ Party of Korea was founded by Kim Il Sung on 10th of October 1945. The Korean Workers' Party was organized as a mass party of workers’, peasants, and working intellectuals- to unite them into a single political force. This can be seen in the party’s emblem: a hammer, a sickle and a paintbrush. From the beginning the goal of the Workers’ Party of Korea has been to realise the dream of the Korean people - a unified, free and independent socialist Korea. Among the first decisions made by the party was a sweeping agricultural reform, and the creation of a democratic political system in Korea.
During the Japanese occupation, the Koreans had been prevented from partaking in education and academia, and the country had been forced to supply raw materials to the industries in Japan. Because of this, it was seen as urgent to create the conditions for an independent development for Korea, and in 1946 the Kim Il Sung University was founded. Many schools followed, and many papers and magazines began publication.
US imperialism stood in the way of a united Korea and the border along the 38th parallel became permanent. During the korean war, 1950-1953, the Korean people went through harsh trials. The Korean leadership had decades long experience of guerilla warfare, and even though the US had a technological advantage it didn’t manage to defeat a unified Korean people. The war caused unimaginable devastation on the Korean Peninsula and huge civilian casualties as the United States bombed cities and villages indiscriminately from the air while massacres and abuses were carried out by soldiers on the ground. But the US terror did not succeed in cracking the Korean people, but welded it increasingly tightly together in its support for Kim Il Sung and the Korean Workers’ Party.
The armistice on July 27 1953 was a great victory against the United States, but the cost was high. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. The Korean Workers' Party took the lead in rebuilding the country, and at the Third Congress in 1956, the Great Leader Kim Il Sung was unanimously re-elected as party chairman. During the congress and subsequent meetings, plans were drawn up for a transformation of the country into a flourishing socialist state, and during the late 1950s, rapid industrialization began through the "Cholima" campaign.
Industrialization was followed by a sharp strengthening of the military in the 1960s to secure the country's independence and autonomy in a troubled and conflict-ridden world. In parallel with this reinforcement, the masses of the people, the Korean Workers' Party and the Korean People's Army became more and more ideologically linked.
This monolithic unity laid the foundation for the implementation of the three revolutions: the ideological, the technical and the cultural, which led to a period of prosperity in the 1970s. The ideological revolution aimed to further anchor and further develop the principles of the Jucheidén and thus release the creative power of the people. On this basis, the technical and cultural revolutions were built by solving problems in an independent and self-sufficient way based on the Jucheidén and the Korean experience.
During the difficult period that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the death of the Great Leader Kim Il Sung, General Kim Jong Il came to take over the leadership of the party. The new international situation increased the threat to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which led to the introduction of the Songun policy - the military first.
By putting the Korean People's Army at the center of the country's defense and construction, the deterrent military capability was strengthened while the army became an important part in mitigating the consequences of the disasters that befell the country. Several natural disasters with destroyed crops as a result caused the country's production to fall sharply. Without access to international trade due to sanctions and the collapse of the socialist bloc, there was a shortage of food, medicine and fuel.
The United States was convinced that the country was facing a collapse soon. But once again, the Korean Workers' Party showed its strength and ability to overcome major obstacles, and through an collective enormous effort, the country emerged from this difficult period.
The deterrent military capability that the Songun policy was intended to create was completed by the test of the country's first nuclear weapon in 2006. Through the development of nuclear weapons, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has made a future attack on the country an impossibility and guaranteed peace on the Korean Peninsula. This can be seen, among other things, in the changing attitudes of hostile countries, which increasingly realize that they need to negotiate with Korea.
Under Marshal Kim Jong Un's leadership, new goals have been set by the Korean Workers’ Party. At its congress in 2016, plans were presented for a modernization of the industry with the help of IT technology and science with the aim of building a flourishing socialist economy. At the same time, great progress has been made in the work towards a peaceful and independent reunification through the North-South summits held between Marshal Kim Jong Un and the president of south Korea.
The Korean people stand today, as before, united behind the Korean Workers’ Party and Marshal Kim Jong Un.
The Korean Workers' Party is the force that transformed the country from a war-torn ruin to a modern industrialized state with free health care and compulsory schooling where the needs and participation of the people form the basis of societal development. Through its 75-year history, the Korean Workers’ Party has demonstrated an unsurpassed ability to overcome obstacles and find solutions to ideological and practical problems in the construction of socialism in Korea. May the next 75 years of the party's history be as successful, and may the goal, to build a state by and for the Korean people, be crowned with a peaceful and independent reunification of Korea!
The Swedish Group for the study of the Juche Idea
No comments:
Post a Comment