As we all know the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL passed away on the 17th of December 2011 . Comrade KIM JONG IL had been the Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK since 1993 and general secretary of the Workers Party of Korea from 1997 until his demise .Comrade KIM JONG IL’s leadership of the DPRK spanned several decades and his revolutionary activities started in his childhood when he was born in the guerilla camp on Mt Paektu on the 16th February 1942 .
In paying tribute to comrade KIM JONG IL it is difficult to know where to start and where to finish because his achievements were so great and so varied . Tonight I will focus on the work done by comrade KIM JONG Il to improve living standards and also his guidance to culture. .
When comrade KIM JONG IL passed away at 8.30 on the cold wintry morning on the 17th of December he was on a train and was travelling to give on the spot guidance to key economic sectors with the aim of improving living standards. The train that comrade KIM JONG IL passed away on is displayed in the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun (where President KIM IL SUNG and Chairman KIM JONG IL lay in state ) and is preserved as it was the day Chairman KIM JONG IL passed away.
From his early days comrade KIM JONG IL was a true people’s leader . He participated in the construction of a road in Pyongyang and later worked at Lathe No 26 at the Pyongyang Textile Machinery Factory . He always paid attention to the people’s living standards . In 1964 on the 18th of March he published the work “The Status and Role of the County in Socialist Construction”. This work postulated the line of building the county as the base for socialist rural construction and to assist in improving living standards. Earlier in 1962 Chairman KIM JONG IL had visited Changsong and Sakju counties to learn about conditions .
During the period that comrade KIM JONG IL worked at the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea from 1964 comrade KIM JONG IL visited factories , mines (such as the Komdok mine ) , farms , villages and residential areas with a view to improving living standards . Speaking to senior officials of the Workers Party of Korea on February 16th (which by the way is his birthday ) 1984 ,comrade KIM JONG IL said “A continuous improvement in the standard of living of the people is essential if we are to bring the superiority of the socialist system into full play .
Our socialist system is the most superior in the world and under it the popular masses are the masters of everything and everything in society serves the popular masses “
From his early days to the end of his life comrade KIM JONG IL visited more than 14 290 units across the country, travelling the long distance of 669 844 kilometres equivalent to going round the earth 17 times. Even in the last year of his life Chairman KIM JONG IL continued with an intense pace of field guidance despite health problems and warnings from his doctors .
Comrade KIM JONG IL encouraged and led the building of new streets in Pyongyang such as Changgwang Street during 1980s
Even at the height of the ‘arduous march ‘ in 1990s when the DPRK was hit by consecutive natural disasters and the collapse of the world socialist market in the early 1990s, comrade KIM JONG IL took a measure to ensure that children were supplied with soya milk. The sight of soya milk vans driving along the streets became a familiar one.
Measures were taken one by one to alleviate the food shortage issue. In 1997 Chairman KIM JONG IL said that the entire army and all people must be mobilized for effective farming that year by all means, so as to solve the food problem decisively and bring the “Arduous March” to a successful conclusion. The People’s Army, he said, should give active, large-scale support to farming that year, organizing support to the countryside down to the last detail. Land rezoning was carried out on a massive so as to eliminate any residual vestiges of feudal landownership, making it impossible to restore capitalism in the DPRK countryside and boosting production by allowing the more widespread use of machinery.
In 2010 the February 8th Vinalon Complex was recommissioned and put back into operation vinalon being known as the Juche fibre (which is made from limestone, a true example of self-reliance). The KPA also built the Huichon Power station, and the Taedonggang Fruit Farm and renovated the Kosan Fruit Farm.
From January to December 2011, Chairman KIM JONG IL gave endless field guidance to units of the Korean People's Army, industrial establishments, construction sites, cooperative farms, fruit farms, livestock farms, fish farms, scientific research institutes, literary art creation and dissemination bases, commercial service centres, pleasure parks, etc. In particular, he visited South Hamgyong Province which takes an important share in the country's economic development 9 times . Under the guidance of comrade KIM JONG IL Mansudae Street was built.
On the 15th of December 2011 , just two days before he died comrade KIM JONG IL visited the newly opened Kwangbok Supermarket .
Comrade KIM JONG IL is also well known for his contribution to the work of developing culture in the DPRK . For many years he worked closely with the film industry of the DPRK as well as other cultural sectors such as music ,opera , dance and art . In 1973 he produced the classic treatise “On the Art of the Cinema “ which is an internationally acclaimed work .On the Art of the Cinema comprises eight basic chapters—Life and Literature, Directing for the Cinema, Actor and Character, Camera and Image, Screen Art and Fine Art, Scenes and Music, Art and Creative Endeavour and Guiding the Creative Process. These are further subdivided into 47 sections under different subtitles such as Literature Is a Humanics, The Seed Is the Core of a Literary Work, Originality Is the Essence of Creation, The Director Is the Commander of the Creative Group, The Actor Is the Face of the Film and A Film without Music Is Incomplete.
Films such as the classic anti-American film “The Family of Choi Hak Sins “ and the multi-part film “Nation and Destiny “ were associated with the guidance of comrade KIM JONG IL .
Comrade KIM JONG IL encouraged the formation of modern style popular music bands in the DPRK such as the “Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble “ and the Wangjaesan Light Music Band. Later under his guidance the Unhasu Orchestra and Samjiyon band were created .
The infiltration of degenerate imperialist ideology and culture , which caused the collapse of other socialist countries was strongly rejected by comrade KIM JONG IL who instead arguing for the build of a truly Juche-oriented socialist culture in the DPRK .Damning the coca cola culture of US imperialism he wrote “It is important to educate the third and fourth generations of the revolution effectively, because they have experienced neither trials nor suffering . We must get them to drink the syrup made from the blueberries of Mt Paektu , not Coca Cola. In other words , we must imbue them thoroughly with the revolutionary ideology of our Party so that they are not swayed in the slightest by the wind of bourgeois liberalisation”
The work of comrade KIM JONG IL in improving the living standards of the people and in building socialist Juche culture lives on today in the DPRK . We recall the great achievements he made in this fields.
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