KIM JONG IL
Let Us Carry Out the Great Leader Comrade
Kim Il Sung’s Instructions for National Reunification
August 4, 1997
Our people will soon greet the 52nd anniversary of the liberation of our country, the historic event, by which the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung opened the way to a new life for our nation.
On this occasion our people look back with warm hearts upon the tireless efforts and the great achievements the respected leader made for the reunification of our country for half a century ever since the day of national liberation.
The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung strongly desired and worked hard all his life for the reunification of our country. He was unhappy more about the national sufferings caused by national division than about anything else, and took all the pains and put his heart and soul into the cause for national reunification till the last moment of his life in order to hand down a reunified country to posterity.
To reunify the country in accordance with the noble idea of respected Comrade Kim Il Sung is the revolutionary duty and moral obligation of our Party and our people. It is a sacred national task devolving upon our generation. No matter what kind of difficulties and obstacles may stand in the way of national reunification, we must carry out the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung’s instructions for national reunification and fulfill the responsibility and duty our generation has assumed before the country and nation.
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The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung is the sun of our nation and the lodestar of national reunification. He devoted all his life to the country and nation and made imperishable achievements in the cause of national reunification. By his preeminent ideas and leadership he pioneered the cause of national reunification, guided it victoriously, laid solid foundations to realize it, and opened the bright prospects for the reunification of the country.
The question of national reunification arose as a result of the division of the country by foreign forces at the end of the Second World War. The history of half a century since the division of the country into north and south is a history of an acute struggle between the two conflicting lines of reunification and division, patriotism and treachery, and a history of the victory of patriotic forces that aspire after national reunification.
Ever since the division of the country, the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung regarded national reunification as the supreme task of our nation, consistently maintained the line of one Korea , the line of reunification, wisely led the struggle to reunify the country and strengthened and developed the reunification movement into a nationwide movement.
The line of national reunification proposed and invariable maintained by the great leader is a line of thorough national independence for the complete sovereignty and independence of the country and nation and a truly patriotic line for the development of the country to be reunified and for national prosperity. The question of the reunification of our country is a question of putting an end to the foreign domination and intervention of south Korea , establishing national sovereignty throughout the country, linking again the blood ties of the divided nation, and realizing unity as one nation. If our nation, which has lived as a homogeneous nation in the same land for thousands of years, remains divided by foreign forces, it will be impossible to avoid national misfortune and calamities and free itself from foreign domination and subjugation. Reunification is the only correct way to establish the complete sovereignty of the country and nation, brighten the nation’s dignity and honour, and achieve the prosperity of the country and nation. The line of reunification enjoys unreserved support from all the Korean people because it reflects the fundamental interests and demand and unanimous wish and aspiration of our nation.
In the complex and difficult situation in which the US imperialists’ occupation of south Korea and the manoeuvres of divisive forces at home and abroad against reunification were continuing, respected Comrade Kim Il Sung maintained the line of reunification firmly and consistently and led the reunification movement on his initiative. While strengthening the northern half of Korea into a bulwark for national reunification, the great leader ensured that the people in the northern half gave active support and encouragement to the south Korean people in their patriotic struggle for independence, democracy and national reunification without forgetting them even for a moment. He thwarted the challenge and the manoeuvres of the divisive forces at home and abroad against reunification at every step and developed the reunification movement steadily. It was our leader who developed the nationwide struggle to frustrate the manoeuvres of the flunkeyist and treacherous forces to keep the country divided by convening the historic joint conference of the representatives of political parties and public organizations from north and south Korea in the grim days when “separate elections and a separate government” were being cooked up in the name of the UN in south Korea immediately after liberation; it was our leader who roused all the Korean people to the struggle to check and thwart the manoeuvres of the divisive elements for “two Korea” at a time when a sharp antagonism and struggle was going on between two lines, one for one Korea and the other for “two Koreas”, in our country; it was also our leader who opened the way to dialogue and negotiations between north and south which had been totally out of contact, ensured success in adopting the north-south joint statement and agreements and opened a new phase in the movement to reunify the country. The great leader, who had immeasurably noble love for the country and nation, passed not a day without being concerned over the question of national reunification, nor did he take a single day’s rest in peace.
Comrade Kim Il Sung worked energetically to strengthen international support for and solidarity with the movement for national reunification. Thanks to his strenuous external activities, the validity of our Party’s line of national reunification was widely known to political, public and press circles in various countries, international concern for the question of Korea’s reunification increased, and the world progressive people’s support for and solidarity with the movement for our country’s reunification grew stronger.
Thanks to the great meritorious service rendered by the respected leader Comrade Kim Il Sung who adhered to the line of national reunification and devoted all his efforts to the reunification of the country, the reunification movement continued to develop, sweeping away the obstructive moves of the divisive forces, and became an indestructible force. The ardent desire of the nation for the reunification of the country is growing higher with each passing day, and all the Koreans in the north, south and abroad have turned out for the movement to reunify the country. The development of the reunification movement into a powerful nationwide movement as we see today and its advance in the midst of worldwide interest and support and encouragement from the progressive people prove a brilliant victory of the line of reunification over the line of division.
The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung set forth the three charters for national reunification which clarified the fundamental principles and methods of national reunification, and provided the guideline that must be maintained in accomplishing the cause of national reunification.
The three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity are the cornerstones for national reunification which manifested the fundamental standpoint and fundamental way of solving the problem of national reunification by the efforts of the nation and in keeping with its will and interests. The three principles of national reunification are the great common programme of the nation which the north and south confirmed in their July 4 joint statement and proclaimed solemnly to the public at home and abroad.
The ten-point programme of the great unity of the whole nation for the reunification of the country is a political programme to strengthen the motive force of national reunification by achieving the unity of the entire nation. This programme clearly shows the objective and the ideological basis of great national unity and its principles and methods in an all-round way.
The plan of establishing the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo is a blueprint that shows the full picture of the state to be reunified and the method of its realization. It indicates the basic method of reunifying the country most reasonably and smoothly on the basis of tolerating the ideas and systems of the north and the south.
The three principles of national reunification, the ten-point programme of the great unity of the whole nation and the plan of establishing the DFRK constitute the three charters for national reunification by which Comrade Kim Il Sung elaborated the basic principles and methods of national reunification into an integral system on the basis of his great Juche idea and his valuable experience of the struggle to reunify the country. The three charters of national reunification are permeated with the spirit of national independence regarding national sovereignty and dignity as lifeblood and embody his noble love for the country and nation for reunifying the country peacefully by achieving north-south reconciliation and the great unity of the entire nation. The three charters clarify the fairest and most reasonable and rational way of reunifying the country at the earliest date in keeping with the real conditions in our country where different ideas and systems exist in its north and south for a long time and in accordance with the entire nation’s aspirations to reunification.
Because the great leader provided the three charters of national reunification, our nation is in a position to develop the struggle for national reunification with the clear objective, direction, confidence and courage and to realize its cherished desire for its reunification successfully by its united effort. The three charters of national reunification are, indeed, the banner of national reunification as well as the justest and most realistic fighting program for reunifying the country independently and peacefully.
The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung rallied the entire nation under the banner of great national unity, prepared the driving force of national reunification and strengthened it further.
Our nation is the motive force of reunifying the country, and its strength lies in great national unity. When our own force of reunification is prepared, the victory of the cause of national reunification is assured.
Regarding patriotism and the spirit of national independence as the basis of national unity, Comrade Kim Il Sung made it the principle of great national unity to subordinate everything to the cause of national reunification, transcending the differences in thoughts, ideas, political views and religion, and led all the people aspiring after reunification, regardless of their past records, to the way for reunification and patriotism with great generosity and magnanimity. He put forward the slogan for national unity, “Those with strength, devote their strength; those with knowledge, offer their knowledge; and those with money, contribute their money!” and encouraged the Korean people from all walks of life to help towards the cause of national reunification, with the mind of loving the country and the nation. His thoughts and ideas of great national unity and his noble love for humanity and the nation were the source of strength that encouraged the Korean compatriots from all sections to set out courageously on the road of national unity and national reunification.
Comrade Kim Il Sung attached great importance to forming the all-nation united front and energetically led the work of uniting the reunification forces in the north, south and abroad. Basing himself on the experience of the anti-Japanese national united front during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, he put forward the policy of forming the great national united front for the country’s reunification and wisely guided the struggle to implement it. As a result, a great advance was made in the work for organizing the compatriots in the north, south and abroad under the banner of national reunification. When the movement for the reunification of the country developed into a movement involving all the nation and their ardent desire for national reunification soared as never before, a Pan-National Rally representing the Koreans in the north, south and abroad was held and the National Alliance for the Country’s Reunification representing the reunification will of the entire nation was born. The formation of the National Alliance for the Country’s Reunification is an important success achieved in strengthening the motive force of the country’s reunification and developing the reunification movement onto a higher stage.
Today the motive force of reunification, the patriotic cause, is expanded and strengthened on a national scale involving the north, south and abroad and cemented more firmly; it is advancing vigorously towards the independent and peaceful reunification of the country, overwhelming the flunkeyist, treacherous, divisive forces.
The exploits which the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung accomplished on the road of the country’s reunification is the priceless heritage for our people and nation and a solid foundation on which to reunify the country. His lifelong efforts dedicated to the country and nation and his great services to the noble cause of national reunification and independence will shine for ever in the history of our country.