Some Remarks on the DPRK’s fight against revisionism by Dr Dermot Hudson made to the Online Seminar ‘ People’s Korea and anti-revisionism ‘ 04.02.2023

Some Remarks on the DPRK’s fight against revisionism by Dr Dermot Hudson made to the Online Seminar ‘ People’s Korea and anti-revisionism ‘ 04.02.2023

In a paper presented at the 2019 north European seminar on the Juche Idea comrade  Mikhail Vikulin of the Moscow Juche Idea Study Group argued that “The fight of the Workers’ Party of Korea against Khrushchev’s revisionism is an important stage in the development of Juche idea’ and also pointed that ‘, comrade Kim Il Sung remained principled. He became one of the few leaders of the socialist countries who did not participate in the «struggle against the cult of Stalin’s personality». In his speech, he did not say a word about Joseph Stalin.”

 Indeed People’s Korea and the Workers Party Party of Korea always strongly opposed modern revisionism but from an independent position. President KIM IL SUNG said that  “In 1955, therefore, our Party set forth the definite policy of establishing Juche, and has been persistently urging an energetic ideological struggle to carry it through ever since. The year 1955 marked a turning point in our Party's consistent struggle against dogmatism. It was also at that time, in fact, that we started our struggle against modern revisionism that had emerged within the socialist camp. Our struggle against dogmatism was thus linked up with the struggle against modern revisionism".

Comrade KIM IL SUNG   in the early 1960s said that :

"The imperialists and their servants, the revisionists, are now spreading revisionism in opposition to Marxism-Leninism and the communist movement. . . . It has made and is making inroads into our country too, and the anti-Party groups have exported it for their own ends. . . . To reject our Party's leadership means precisely to deny the revolution and capitulate to capitalism. Therefore it is necessary not only to fight against the revisionists who reject Party leadership but also to relentlessly combat all the unsettling elements that provide good soil for revisionism".

 ( KIM IL SUNG' On Juche in Our Revolution', p. 213-14).

Speaking to soldiers of the 109th Army of the KPA on the 25th of  August 1960, Comrade  KIM IL SUNG defined revisionism in this way ;

"Revisionists refashion Marxism-Leninism. They laud themselves as cleverer Marxist-Leninists than Marx or Lenin. Certain countries have this tendency. Some people insist we must peacefully co-exist with the Yankees. How can we do so without opposing US imperialism?"

 (KIM IL SUNG 'On Juche in Our Revolution', p. 225).

In 1966 he stated that ‘"Modern revisionism revises Marxism-Leninism and emasculates its revolutionary quintessence under the pretext of a 'changed situation' and 'creative development'. It rejects class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat; it preaches class collaboration and gives up fighting imperialism. Moreover, modern revisionism spread illusions about imperialism and in every way obstructed the revolutionary struggle of the peoples for social and national liberation".

(KIM IL SUNG' On Juche in Our Revolution, Volume 1: p. 531).

The DPRK press published articles such as ‘ Let Us Defend the Socialist Camp' and ‘ Hold high the revolutionary banner of national liberation’ which criticized modern revisionism.

Naturally, the revisionists in the Soviet Union and elsewhere were not happy with the independent anti-revisionist stand of the DPRK and the Workers’ Party of Korea. In August  1956 the Soviet revisionists and big power chauvinists tried to overthrow the leadership of the  Workers Party of Korea headed by the great leader President KIM IL SUNG. The WPK purged itself of revisionists.

 In 1962  the USSR imposed their own de-facto sanctions against the DPRK by cutting off economic and military cooperation with the DPRK.

 In January 1963 the fraternal delegate of the Workers Party of Korea to the 6th Congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany was prevented from addressing the congress.

The Bangladeshi author M Jahangir Khan in his book ‘ Global Farmy Songun Internationale ‘ recounts how the USSR disapproved of the Asian Economic Seminar held in Pyongyang, DPRK in 1964  prompting  ‘Pravda ‘, the daily paper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to attack the DPRK publicly mentioning it by name in August. In September 1964 the WPK daily paper  Rodong Sinmun responded to the attack in Pravda saying “ Why is Pravda so malignant and angry at the success of the Pyongyang economic seminar? It is because Pravda  is displeased with the resolute anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist struggle of the Asian and African people, the spirit of self-reliance surging among them and the ever-strengthening militant unity of the people of the regions. However, the truth cannot be covered. The slander will remain long as slander ‘. (  Ever Lighting Beacon  p30 in Global Farmy Songun Internationale by M Jahangir Khan ).

In the 1970s the Soviet revisionists put economic pressure on the DPRK  Some sources claim that the USSR drastically increased the price of crude oil sold to the DPRK. In order to counter the pressure of the revisionists, comrade KIM JONG IL put forward the militant revolutionary slogan ‘ Let Us Live Our Own Way  ‘ in December 1978. The DPRK increased self-reliance.

  With the onset of the counter-revolutionary perestroika in the USSR, the Soviet revisionists again increased economic pressure on the DPRK.  President KIM IL SUNG responded by saying in January 1987  "Modern revisionism which has appeared in the international communist movement is also creating a lot of difficulties for our revolution. On the pretext of 'reforming' and 'reorganising' socialism, modern revisionists are following the road to capitalism and abandoning internationalist principles. It is, therefore, difficult for us to expect from them cooperation based on internationalism in the building of socialism. What is worse, they are applying economic pressure on us because we do not follow their wrong, revisionist policy”.

  One by one the revisionist countries betrayed the DPRK by recognising the south Korean fascist puppet regime. The first to do so was Hungary. The DPRK denounced this as an ‘intolerable act of betrayal ‘ ‘. Later Poland and Yugoslavia established relations with the south Korean puppets. In 1990 the traitor Gorbachov met the south Korean puppet dictator Roh Tae Woo. In September  1990 the Soviet revisionists recognised south Korea. The DPRK ‘s ‘Rodong Sinmun ‘ on the 5th of October 1990 published an article titled ‘Diplomatic relations bought and sold with dollars”  which stated  ‘When the establishment of ‘diplomatic relations’ with south Korea by the Soviet Union is viewed from another angle, no matter what their subjective intentions may be, it, in the final analysis, cannot be construed otherwise than openly joining the United States in its basic strategy aimed at freezing the division of Korea into ‘two Koreas,’ isolating us internationally and guiding us to ‘opening’ and thus overthrowing the socialist system in our country’

Thus the DPRK always maintained independence and Juche in its relations with the USSR and the East European socialist countries. It pursued a line of uniting while struggling and struggling while uniting.