President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) was the founder of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Having embarked on the road of revolution
in his teens with an ambition to win back his lost
country, the President
liberated Korea on August 15, 1945 by
leading to victory the
15-year-long fierce armed struggle against the formidable Japanese imperialists, with neither state backing nor support from a regular army. The struggle was unprecedented in the history of the world’s national liberation struggle.
As a result, broad prospects for building an independent, sovereign state were opened for the country.
In the international political arena around that
time, American-style
“democracy” and Soviet-style democracy were regarded as
the political mainstream.
However, Kim Il Sung did not follow the
mainstream. In the past
the Korean people had been subjected to maltreatment and exploitation with no freedom and rights for a long time under the feudal system and the colonial rule by the Japanese
imperialists.
We should not follow the political trend, divorced from the people’s
interest and demands. The present stage of the Korean revolution is an
anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution. We must adopt progressive
democracy, which is neither Soviet-style democracy nor American-style
“democracy,” but instead suitable to the specific conditions of Korea. Only
after taking the road to progressive democracy will we be able to bring our
people genuine freedom and happiness and achieve full independence and sovereignty
for the country by closely uniting wide sections of patriotic and democratic
forces. This was his stand on building a country.
Based on the experience he had gained while building a people’s revolutionary government, which championed the people’s rights and freedom, in the guerrilla bases during the
anti-Japanese armed struggle, Kim Il Sung advanced the line of nation building suited
to the actual conditions of Korea and wisely led the struggle to realize
it. Under his leadership the law on the agrarian reform, labour law, law on sex equality and law
on the nationalization
of major industries were proclaimed and other democratic reforms were enforced. And a solid
foundation for building a nation was laid through democratic elections. He firmly rallied
the broad sections of people from all walks of life—workers, peasants
and intellectuals—and encouraged them to turn out as one in the effort to build a new Korea.
As a result, the DPRK, the first people’s
democratic state in the East, was founded on September 9, 1948. Kim Il
Sung was elected
head of state and premier of the Cabinet according to the
unanimous will of all the Korean people.
At a mass rally
of Pyongyang citizens held to celebrate the establishment of the DPRK
government, he said: From now on, as a full-fledged nation with a
government of their own our people will always be protected by this government
and have dignity, rights and honour as citizens of the DPRK.
The founding of the democratic, independent and sovereign state by Kim Il Sung made it possible for the DPRK to develop into a socialist state centred on the masses of the people, a powerful nation independent in politics, self-supporting in the economy and self-reliant in national defence.
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