KIM IL SUNG
ON THE KOREAN PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE TO APPLY THE JUCHE IDEA
Talks to the Delegation of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance of Peru
June 30 and July 1 and 5, 1983
I
would like to give a warm welcome to the delegation of the
American Popular Revolutionary Alliance of Peru on a visit to our
country.
Allow me to express my gratitude to you for taking the trouble to cover a long distance to visit our country.
We
are meeting you today for the first time, but we feel as if we
were meeting old friends for our similar political views and
attitudes that are long standing.
I
am very happy to meet you, Comrade General Secretary Alan, and
other leading cadres of your Party like this and avail myself of
this opportunity to acquaint myself with you and establish favourable relations of friendship between our two Parties.
This meeting of ours will be an important occasion in promoting the relationship between our two Parties favourably and increasing intimacy between the leaders of our two Parties.
Let
me reiterate a warm welcome to your visit to our country on
behalf of our Party Central Committee, the entire Korean people
and on my own.
I am grateful to you, Comrade General Secretary Alan, for having said so many kind words for us.
Comrade
General Secretary, you said that the masses of the people are
the masters of their destiny and makers of history and,
therefore, it is none other than the Latin-American people who
are the masters of the struggle to achieve the liberation and
independence of Latin America and also the masters of the
struggle for the unity of this continent. I consider that such
view and conviction of yours are excellent. I fully support your
viewpoint.
The
masses of the people are the masters of their destiny and
makers of history. History is made and society develops through
the role played by the masses. They can prevail over any
imperialism and build a new society to meet their aspirations and
demands in any adversity.
From
the very first days of the revolution to this date we have
always relied firmly on the strength of the masses in our
struggle, strongly convinced that if we depend on them in our
activities, we can solve any problems arising in the revolution and
construction.
We
relied on the strength of the masses in our armed struggle
against Japanese imperialism in the past; we relied on it in
repulsing the US imperialist invasion of our Republic after
liberation; we relied on it in postwar reconstruction. During the
Fatherland Liberation War, American imperialists reduced our
country to ashes. After the war they clamoured
that Korea would not be able to rise again even in 100 years.
However, we grappled with postwar reconstruction, convinced that
we would rise again even on the ashes as long as we had
territory, the people, the people’s government and. the Party
leading the people. Despite the US imperialist clamours,
our country completely healed its war wounds only in a few
years, and in less than 20 years after the war it rose up as a
mighty socialist power. It is thanks to the great strength of the
people that our country rose so quickly on the ruins left over by the
war.
If
the masses bring their creative ability and wisdom into full
play, deeply conscious that they are the masters of the
revolution and construction, there is nothing impossible for
them to do. This is a priceless truth we obtained while guiding
the revolutionary struggle and the work of construction.
If you insist on me letting you know our humble experience, I will do so.
I am hugely delighted to meet such wonderful comrades-in-arms as you who have common views and ideas with us.
I
would like to offer my warm thanks to you, comrade head of the
delegation, and other guests for expressing wholehearted
agreement to the Juche idea and actively supporting our people’s
struggle for the triumph of this idea.
Comrade
head of the delegation, you have just now pointed out that one
cannot develop one’s country independently if one depends upon
imperialists and capitalists. You have grasped a highly
important matter.
At
present the rulers of some countries are so affected by
flunkey-ism and fear of technology that they do not believe in
the strength of their peoples, the strength of their nations, but
pin hopes only on developed countries. They cannot build
independent new societies that way.
A
few years ago a delegation from a certain Asian country visited
our country. I met them after they had visited a number of places
in our country. The head of the delegation said that in his
country even tiny factories were run by foreigners, but here in
Korea all the factories, great or small, were run by the Koreans
themselves; and he added that this was quite mysterious. So I
told him to the following effect: The Asian people are talented
and diligent by nature; still today the handicrafts made by
Asians are much better than those made by Europeans, which shows
the excellent ability of the Asian people; Asians became backward in
recent centuries because they failed to carry out the industrial
revolution; in the past the feudal systems which had suppressed
social progress were so strong in Asian countries that they failed
to carry out the industrial revolution while European countries
were making it; if the Asians are to catch up with the countries
which have already carried it out, they must first discard the
tendency to rely on others, instead of believing in their own
strength and the strength of their nations.
If one draws on one’s people’s strength properly, one can do anything without the help of others.
In
our country we made even electric locomotives on our own by
means of drawing on the strength of the people. When we were
going to make our first electric locomotive, a European
ambassador to our country claimed that Korea would not be able
to make it, and suggested that we had better buy the electric
locomotives produced by his country. But we decided to make them
by our own efforts. At the time I assigned young technicians with the
task of designing an electric locomotive and encouraged them and
solved all problems they raised. Finally we succeeded in producing
electric locomotives on our own. In our country the
electrification of the railways was stepped up in a big way by
using the electric locomotives of our own make.
We constructed all modernistic buildings such as this Kumsusan
Assembly Hall by our own efforts by enlisting the strength of
the people. At present our people’s architectural skill is very
high. They developed it while building many things anew on the
debris after the war.
Our
experience shows that if one is to develop one’s country by
one’s own efforts without relying on others, one must fast train
many native cadres.
Immediately
after liberation our country was very short of its own cadres as
a consequence of Japanese imperialist colonial rule. There were
only dozens of university graduates, and most of them had
specialized in law or literature; there were few who had
graduated from technological colleges. The Japanese had not
imparted techniques to the Koreans. As a consequence, there were few
people who were capable of managing and operating industry after
liberation.
We
proposed the training of our own cadres as a top priority task
in the construction of a new society and exerted great efforts
for this task.
In an endeavour
to train our own cadres we set up a university before anything
else in the teeth of every hardship. When we were trying to do
this immediately following liberation, some people asked how we
could build a university without any asset. We did not waver in the
least, however. We brought in teachers and intellectuals from all
over the country, some of the intellectuals even from the
southern half of Korea . Meanwhile, our peasants had done
their first farming on the land distributed to them and donated
some of the rice to the state, which we used as funds to erect the
buildings of the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School and the university. This Mangyongdae
Revolutionary School is an institution to give education to the
sons and daughters of the comrades who died while carrying out
revolutionary activities with us.
After
the establishment of the university we opened several more
universities. Even during the Fatherland Liberation War when the
country was hard pressed, we carried on the training of Korean
cadres.
Thanks
to our Party’s correct educational policy, our country has more
than 180 institutes of higher learning today although there was
none before; the number of technicians and specialists has now
grown into 1,200,000, whereas there were only dozens of them
right after liberation.
Intellectuals
play an important role in the revolutionary struggle and the
work of construction. Since we have a huge army of 1,200,000
intellectuals, we can do anything once we decide to.
You asked how we authored the Juche idea and formulated it theoretically. I will explain it briefly.
Embarking
on the revolutionary struggle I regarded the masses as masters
of the revolution and expounded an idea that we should carry out
the revolutionary struggle by our own efforts, relying on the
masses. Guided by this idea we relied on the masses in the more
than 20 years of hard-fought battles against Japanese
imperialists, in the building of a new country after liberation and in
the three-year Fatherland Liberation War against the aggressors
of US imperialism, in the postwar reconstruction and also
in the socialist revolution. Through different stages of the
protracted revolutionary struggle we had the correctness of the
Juche idea tried and tested.
Our
efforts to author the Juche idea and apply it to the Korean
revolution were coupled with the struggle against flunkeyism.
Flunkeyism has long historical roots in our country.
Geographically,
ours is a peninsula country situated between large countries. It
is surrounded by China , the Soviet Union and Japan .
Across the ocean is the United States which is hostile to
us.
The
Koreans are a sagacious nation with a long history. Our country
had a long developed culture, it was advanced in everything. You
would understand this well if you should go to our history
museum. Our country has beautiful mountains and rivers and
abounds in natural resources. Therefore, the great countries adjacent to
us had long had a covetous eye on it and tried to draw it under
their influence. The US , too, had long tried to swallow
Korea and spread Christianity here.
Historically speaking, many flunkeyists emerged out of the feudal rulers towards the end of the Ri dynasty, the last feudal state in Korea . At the time the flunkeyists were divided into pro-Qing ( China under the Qing dynasty—Tr.), pro-Russian and pro-Japanese factions. The pro-Qing faction, with the Qing’s backing, tried to introduce the Qing’s
ideology and culture into our country, and the pro-Russian
faction tried to draw in the forces of Russia with Russian
support and the pro-Japanese faction the forces of Japan with
Japanese backing. Originally, Japan developed under the impact
of our culture. But, as Japan quickly developed through the
industrial revolution, there appeared among our people the tendency to
look up to Japan and seek Japanese backing.
While
other countries were making the industrial revolutions, our
feudal rulers were engrossed in factional strife under the
manipulation of great powers, and would not develop their
country. At the time there were reformists2
in our country, too, who attempted to carry out bourgeois
reforms and the industrial revolution, but failed under the
suppression of the feudal rulers. Hence, our country could not
develop and became backward; at the time our people began to have an
inimical habit of unreservedly regarding everything done by the
great countries, as good and fine.
After all, our country was ruined because of the flunkeyists.
In 1910 it became a complete colony of Japan and was under the
colonial rule of Japanese imperialists for 36 long years. After
their occupation of Korea , these imperialists pursued a
vicious colonial policy towards her. But the Korean people did
not yield to them.
The
Korean people rose in resistance to their colonial rule and
struggled to liberate the nation. But factions appeared in the
ranks of the anti-Japanese struggle and harmed greatly the
national-liberation struggle.
Nationalists
divided themselves in different groups and got engrossed in
bickering, turning to big powers, instead of thinking of
struggling by drawing on the forces of the popular masses. Some
of them tried to achieve Korea’s independence with the backing of
China, others with the help of the Soviet Union, and still
others who had been to Japan for study harboured
illusions about Japan and hoped her to make a “present” of
Korean independence. Some people agreed to Wilson ’s
“doctrine of self-determination of nations” and worshipped it.
The
communists who professed an anti-Japanese national-liberation
struggle, too, split into various groups and engrossed themselves
in factional strife, without trying to conduct the revolution by
relying on the masses of the people. Each of these factions
declared itself to be the “orthodox party”, visiting the
Communist International to gain recognition. A revolution is an
undertaking which should be done of one’s own accord, not with the
recognition of somebody else. Why did they travel about to get
recognition when they could naturally have won the recognition of
the Communist International if they had made a successful
revolution for their own country?
Viewing
critically this situation of the nationalist movement and the
initial communist movement in our country, I keenly felt that the
struggle should be waged on the strength of our own people and
that our own problems should be solved on our own responsibility.
My father, too, had much revolutionary influence on me
conceiving this idea.
My
father was one of the forerunners of the anti-Japanese
national-liberation movement in our country. In the autumn of
1917 there occurred the sensational “case of 105” in which 105
persons who had been struggling for national liberation in our country
were arrested at a time by the Japanese imperialist police. Most
of these arrested people were members of the Korean National
Association. My father, the organizer of the Korean National
Association was also arrested at the time and spent more than a
year in prison. Although he was physically weak when he was
released from the prison, he resumed the national-liberation
movement. While he was continuing the struggle against the
Japanese imperialists, he was arrested again by their police, but he
ran away during his escort. He passed away in 1926 when I was 14
years old because of the aftereffects of the torture he had
undergone in prison and of the frostbite at the time of his
escape from the escorting police.
My
father thought that it would be impossible to win national
independence if the anti-Japanese national-liberation movement
suffered factional strife and that national independence could
be achieved only by uniting the masses of the people and fighting
on their strength. He was opposed to factions in this movement
and asserted unity.
After
my father’s death I entered a school run by the Korean
nationalists in northeast China . I studied there, but I did not
like the content of nationalist education given by the school.
Originally, this school was set up under the guidance of my
father to train the cadres for an independence army.
I made up my mind to pave a new road of revolutionary struggle and formed the Down-with-Imperialism Union ( DIU )3
with the patriotic youths of the school and started the
revolutionary struggle. Later, the members of the DIU played a
hard-core role in the struggle against Japanese imperialism.
After
the formation of the DIU , I organized the Anti-Imperialist Youth
League, the Young Communist League of Korea and many other
communist youth organizations.
When
I started the revolutionary struggle, some of my comrades
advised me to go to Moscow and study at the university run by
the Communist International. They asked this because they wanted
me to give good leadership to the revolutionary movement after a
greater deal of study, but I declined. I did not go to Moscow ,
thinking that it would be better to learn while struggling among
the people than studying at Moscow . Our people, not people at
Moscow or Shanghai , were my teachers.
In
1932 we organized an army against Japanese imperialism, but we
had no experience in an armed struggle at the time. Nevertheless,
we launched an armed struggle, acquiring and enriching our
experience through the struggle. In the struggle the armed ranks
grew, and the revolutionaries and young patriots became closely united.
My comrades respected me and I loved them. The soldiers of the
Korean People’s Revolutionary Army treasured and loved one
another in this way, waging an arduous armed struggle against the
Japanese imperialists for 15 long years.
We
did not receive foreign aid in our fight against the Japanese
imperialists. Even if we wanted some aid in the procurement of
weapons, there was no one to turn to for such aid. We armed
ourselves by capturing weapons from the Japanese imperialists and
fought the enemy with the support of the people.
The
Japanese imperialists launched intensive “punitive operations”
with a large force of one million troops in an attempt to wipe
out the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army, while at the same
time manoeuvring
in every possible way to starve the KPRA men. The enemy set up
“concentration villages” and forbade the people’s free exit from
the walled “villages” in order to prevent the people from
approaching the KPRA units. The enemy locked up even the
provisions within the walls and controlled their exit. But the people
sent provisions to the KPRA units in various ways. In autumn
farmers removed the vines from their potato fields pretending to
harvest the potatoes and then informed these units of the fields,
telling them to harvest the potatoes. The farmers also hid their
harvested maize in woods and told the units to take it away.
Support for our People’s Revolutionary Army came not only from
workers and farmers but also from all sections of the patriotic
people including intellectuals.
During
the anti-Japanese armed struggle, I put up the slogan, “As fish
cannot live without water, so the guerrillas cannot live without
the people,” and got the KPRA fighters to have kindred relations
with people. The KPRA could win victory in the long struggle
against Japanese imperialism because it had close bonds with the
people and enjoyed their active support.
Through
the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle we came to know well
how great the people’s strength was and became convinced that
the revolutionary struggle would win when it was carried on by
believing in their strength and relying on it.
After
the liberation of our country in 1945 we lost no time in
tackling with the work to found the Party. We formed the Central
Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea in
October 1945 and proclaimed the founding of the Party to the
world. Later we set the policy of developing the Communist Party into
a mass party of the working people to meet the needs of the
prevailing situation and the revolutionary development in the
country, and put this policy into effect in a short time.
Right
after liberation, there were not many qualified communists in
our country; the working class was still young and people had no
correct understanding of communism. The Japanese imperialists had
long conducted a misleading propaganda against communism among
our people, so quite a few of them took communists for stooges of
the Soviet Union .
Under
these circumstances, if the Party was to take deep roots among
the broad masses of working people, it was necessary to develop
the Communist Party into a mass party by widely admitting to it
not only qualified communists and advanced elements of the
working class but also the fine elements of the peasantry and the
working intellectuals. Thus in 1946, we developed the Communist
Party into the Workers’ Party to embrace all the advanced members
of the working masses. Since then our Party has steadily
developed as a united party of the working masses.
The
emblem of our Party is inscribed with a hammer, a sickle and a
brush, which stand for the workers, peasants and working
intellectuals making up the Party.
In
the Fatherland Liberation War, we felt even more keenly the need
to hold fast to the banner of the Juche idea against dogmatism
and flunkeyism.
After
liberation we sent many students to foreign countries to build a
new Korea and called back home quite a few Koreans who had been
active abroad. Flunkeyism and dogmatism found expression among
them. Those who had studied abroad as well as those who had
returned home from abroad preferred foreign things to ours,
trying to copy foreign things mechanically. When fighting the
enemy during the war, they proposed to apply foreign methods,
without taking into consideration the specific situation of our
country. We were opposed to such a tendency. At the time of the
Second World War, hundreds of tanks were employed at a time to
attack the enemy in wide plains of Europe , but such a tactic did not
conform to our country’s terrains. Our country had not many
tanks, and even if we had had many, we could not have used many
of them at a time to attack the enemy in our terrain conditions.
Our country has few plains but many mountains.
As
the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army at the time, I
stressed that we had to fight by Korean tactics to conform with
our terrains, instead of employing foreign tactics. We developed
the guerrilla tactics created in the anti-Japanese armed struggle
to meet the needs of a regular war and worked out various new
tactics suitable for our specific situation.
I would like to cite an example to illustrate the seriousness of dogmatism and flunkeyism during the wartime.
Once
I visited a rest centre of the People’s Army during the war and
there I saw a picture of a bear crawling in the Siberian forest
covered with white snow. Of course, that picture was fine. But
it was of little value in educating People’s Army soldiers. I
told the officials who accompanied me: The picture will not have a
good influence on People’s Army soldiers in their rest centre,
although the matter would be different if it was on international art
exhibition. We are not fighting in a foreign land; we are fighting
a bloody war just in our land against the US
imperialists. So we must hang up even a piece of picture necessary
for imbuing People’s Army soldiers with love for their native land
and for each tree and each plant of grass in the country. What is
the use of hanging up a picture of bear crawling through the
Siberian forest? Our country has beautiful seas and scenic Mts. Kumgang and Myohyang; then isn’t it good for the soldiers’ education if we put up pictures of beautiful scenery of our country?
The
Koreans will have to live in Korea and not in a far-off
foreign country even after communism has emerged victorious throughout
the world. It is important, therefore, to educate the people to
love always their country. It was particularly urgent to imbue
the people and soldiers with ardent love for the country in the
days of the Fatherland Liberation War.
On
my return from the rest centre I stressed the importance of
equipping all Party members and people firmly with our Party’s
revolutionary ideas and the patriotic spirit.
In
the Fatherland Liberation War our Party repudiated dogmatism and
flunkeyism and educated the entire people and People’s Army
soldiers in patriotism and worked out various tactics suitable
for our conditions, which enabled us to defeat the US
imperialists equipped with modern arms, with our backward ones.
The
necessity of opposing flunkeyism and establishing Juche in our
country posed as a more urgent problem in the postwar period.
Therefore, I made a speech to Party propagandists and agitators
in 1955 on thoroughly establishing Juche in ideological work. At
that time, I told them that of course we should not become
narrow-minded nationalists but we should not forget our country and
nation and that in drawing a picture we should do for the benefit of
our people and in singing a piece of song we should sing one
they like. From then on we put a strong emphasis on the question
of establishing Juche.
After
the war we established Juche in all domains of the revolution
and construction and did everything in our own way. As for the cooperativization
of private fanning, too, we did it not in a foreign way but in
our own way, to suit the actual conditions in our country. As a
result, our agricultural cooperative movement was carried out
quickly and smoothly.
When we cooperativized
agriculture I told the officials: We should learn from good
foreign experience, but chew it and see whether or not it suits
the specific situation of our country and the interests of our
revolution; if it is acceptable to our “stomach” we should
swallow it, but if not, we should spit it out. Even afterwards, we
stressed that of things foreign we should accept those which our
people demand and should not those which they do not demand and
that even in case of adopting them we should not adopt them
mechanically but assimilate them to suit the actual conditions
of our country. We have always educated our officials and working
people in the Juche idea in this way.
As
we established Juche and did all work in our own way in the
past, everything went off satisfactorily in our country.
Still
today we resolve all problems in our own way, on the basis of
the Juche idea. We develop industry in the Juche-oriented way and
carry out construction in the Juche-oriented way. We are also
developing agriculture in the Juche-oriented way to suit the
specific situation of our country.
Many
of our agricultural specialists studied abroad in the past. But
we made sure that they did not apply the farming methods they had
acquired to the reality of our country as they were, because
there were differences between the actual conditions of our
farming areas and those of other countries. The foreign farming methods
they studied do not suit our specific situation. If we introduce
the farming methods which do not fit in with our situation we
cannot farm well.
Once
our universities of agriculture taught students with the text
books used at foreign agricultural universities which were
translated into Korean. But, today we teach our students with new
textbooks written to meet the requirements of the Juche farming
method.
If
you see the performances by our artists you will realize that we
sing songs in our own way and also develop operas in our own
way.
True,
the world has many fine musical works such as Tchaikovsky’s.
But, however fine they may be, foreign pieces do not well suit
the feelings of our people. Our people like the art national in
form and socialist in content. We oppose both the tendencies to
ignore our own things and copy foreign things mechanically and restore
the obsolete things of the past as they are. We adhere to the
principle of developing literature and art national in form and
socialist in content.
In
a word, Juche industry, Juche agriculture, Juche construction
and Juche literature and art are quickly developing in our
country today.
If we are guided by the Juche idea, everything goes off well.
Comrade
head of the delegation, you said that the Juche idea is not a
mechanical copy of Marxism but its creative development which
suits the reality of today. I think you are right.
In
fact, we did not apply Marxism to our reality as it is. If one
applies it mechanically, one cannot win the revolutionary
struggle.
Marx
advanced his revolutionary theories on the basis of the
analysis of capitalist society while working in developed
capitalist countries like Germany and England . He considered
that revolution would break out continuously in the major
capitalist countries of Europe and predicted that communism would
triumph soon on a worldwide scale. But there is not a single
country where communism has been realized, though over a century
has passed since Marx and Engels made public The Communist Manifesto. Capitalism still remains in England .
Capitalists are very cunning. They leave no stone unturned to maintain their position. They rear labour
aristocrats among the working class and put them up to
disorganize the ranks of the working-class movement. Here lies
one of the major reasons why revolution does not break out in the
developed capitalist countries now.
We
should not consider that once the ranks of the working class
increase, a revolution will break out of itself, nor should we
consider that we can make revolution only with the working class.
In former colonial and semi-colonial countries which did not go
through the normal stage of capitalist development, workers are not
so many, whereas the peasants and handicraftsmen form the
overwhelming majority of the population. In these countries the
revolution can emerge victorious when even the peasants and
handicraftsmen are organized.
Shortly
after liberation the workers were not so many and the peasantry
occupied 80 per cent of our nation’s population. Therefore, we
regarded the peasantry as the motive power of our revolution like
the workers and rallied them behind the Party. In some countries
intellectuals were not regarded as part of the motive power of
the revolution, because they belonged to the propertied classes. But
we recognized their important role in the revolutionary struggle
and rallied them around the Party. Once the anti-Party
factionalists opposed our Party’s policy with regard to
intellectuals. However, we shattered their moves and carried out
this policy.
We
rallied workers, peasants, working intellectuals and
handicraftsmen and carried out the revolutionary struggle and
the work of construction. Our brilliant achievements in the
revolution and construction substantiate the correctness of our
Party’s policy.
Marx’s
works do not specify the method of the revolution for each
country. Communists in each country should use their own brains
to seek the means and ways for accomplishing the revolution to
meet the interests of their people and the actual conditions of
their country. The party of a country knows well about the
national reality. You know better than anybody else about the Peruvian
revolution, and we about the Korean revolution. As for the
theoretical and practical problems arising in the revolution and
construction of each country, its party can offer the correctest conclusion.
There
can be no immutable formula in making revolution. There are
formulas in mathematics, but not in making revolution. If there
is any formula that must be observed in revolution, it is that
one should think everything with one’s own brains and deal with
it by one’s own efforts. There can be no other formula. We reached this
conclusion through our protracted revolutionary struggle.
He
who takes a dogmatic attitude towards Marxism and foreign
experience is not a genuine Marxist. He is a bogus Marxist.
In
the past, there were sham Marxists in our country, too. They set
foot on Korean soil but kept their heads in foreign countries.
Such
people may try hard to profess themselves to be Marxists, but
they are mere phrasemongers. They are fond of fooling people with
revolutionary words. In the past, whenever they made speeches,
the phony Marxists in our country used many words people could
not understand, such as “hegemony”, “proletariat” and
“intelligentsia”, pretending to know much. So I severely criticized
them.
People neither listen to such empty talks of bogus communists nor follow them.
You
say that you are now organizing the masses in keeping with the
specific conditions of Peru . If you do so, everything will go
well. I think you are right in doing so.
Now, on the policies pursued by our Party today and the situation of our country.
Our
Party has so far been guided by the Juche idea in its struggle,
and won great victories in the revolution and construction. The
Juche idea has now become the firm faith of our people.
Proceeding from this reality of our country, we set out the task of modelling the whole of society on the Juche idea at the Sixth Party Congress.
Modelling
the whole society on the Juche idea means building a communist
society by maintaining this idea as a guideline and applying it.
In
order to build communism we must thoroughly transform men and
society as required by the Juche idea and capture both the
ideological and material fortresses of communism. By capturing
the material fortress alone we cannot build communist society. It
is men who build socialism and communism. Therefore, without remoulding
their ideological consciousness through a vigorous struggle to
capture the ideological fortress, we cannot take the material
fortress, either. Likewise, when we conduct economic construction
well to seize the material fortress we can successfully capture
the ideological fortress, too. That is why we adhere firmly to the
principle of occupying both the ideological and material fortresses in
the building of communism.
In
order to capture these fortresses we must carry out the
ideological, technical and cultural revolutions. Only when we
push forward these three revolutions and occupy the two
fortresses, can we build communism.
The most important of the three revolutions is the ideological revolution.
The ideological revolution is a revolution to educate and remould
all people to be communists. We should not exclude those people
with bad social backgrounds in the ideological revolution.
Attaining the goal of communism advanced by Marx and Engels
is no easy job. Communist society is a developed society where
all people work according to their ability and receive
distribution according to their needs. To build communist society
we must educate and remould not only people with good social backgrounds but all the rest of members of society into communist men.
To turn people communist we must revolutionize and working-classize them.
When
people are hard pressed they have high revolutionary zeal and
work well. But when they are well-off their revolutionary zeal
cools off gradually and they do not work hard. Therefore, to make
them continue with the revolutionary struggle well we must
vigorously endeavour to revolutionize and working-classize them.
To revolutionize and working-classize
people we must arm them firmly with independent ideological
consciousness and the collectivist spirit of working and living,
one for all and all for one. Thus we will get all members of
society, whether engaged in mental or physical labour, to work honestly for the country and the people.
In
the past period our Party has intensified the education of the
working people in the Juche idea and collectivism. The result is
that today all our working people clearly understand their duties
and work in good faith for the country and the people, for
society and collective.
To revolutionize and working-classize all members of society it is important to have them lead their lives in definite organizations.
Organizational life is a powerful means for the ideological remoulding
of people. Through their organizational lives people enhance
their collectivist spirit and sense of discipline, strengthen
solidarity and acquire consciousness of fulfilling their
revolutionary duties. Therefore, only through intensified
organizational life can we revolutionize and working-classize people.
We
must also get women to take part in organizational life. It is
difficult for husbands to educate their wives. But their
organizations can educate women well. If women do not stay at
home but go out into the world, work and participate in
organizational life, they will have opportunities to be criticized and
educated there, so as to be revolutionized and working-classized.
If women get educated through organizational life, they respect
their husbands more deeply and manage their homes more
meticulously and, in the end, their families become more
harmonious.
Organizational life is essential to school children, too.
Once
I visited a primary school. I asked a 9 year-old pupil if she
had been criticized while leading Children’s Union organizational
life. She said that she had been criticized at a CU meeting for
having failed to sharpen her pencils at home and write down well
what her teacher said. I asked her how she had felt when she was
criticized by her classmates. She replied that she had felt very
bad. She said that she feared the criticism at the CU
organization more than that of her teacher and that from then on she had
never failed to sharpen many pencils at home for her classwork
at school. That day I talked with another pupil. She said that
she had been bad at mathematics but got good marks with the help
of her CU organization. The organization had assigned the task of
helping her to two pupils good at mathematics.
In
our country today all members of society lead organizational
lives in definite bodies; Children’s Union members in their CU
organizations, members of the League of Socialist Working Youth
in their LSWY organizations, trade union members in their trade
union organizations, Women’s Union members in their WU
organizations, members of the Union of Agricultural Working People in
their UAWP organizations and Party members in their Party
organizations.
In this way, we step up the revolutionization and working-classization
of the whole society by way of constantly educating all its
members and intensifying organizational lives among them.
Also important in the three revolutions is the technical revolution.
This revolution is, in plain terms, a revolution to free from back-breaking labour
working people who have been liberated from the oppression of
capitalists and landlords, and develop the productive forces to
steadily promote the people’s material welfare.
The
main goal of the rural technical revolution is to eliminate the
distinctions between agricultural and industrial labour and make the farmers work eight hours a day like workers. It is important to free peasants from arduous labour.
We are carrying out the rural technical revolution forcefully to
eliminate the distinctions between agricultural and industrial labour and thus enable all the peasants to work eight hours, study eight hours and rest eight hours a day.
We
are also actively introducing mechanization and automation in
production processes so as to eliminate heat-affected and harmful
work and facilitate transport, loading and unloading and other
exhausting work.
The
technical revolution is a revolutionary task to be carried out
over a long period of time. We intend to eliminate the difference
of mental and physical work by thoroughly carrying out the
technical revolution.
The cultural revolution is an important component of the three revolutions.
Only
when people possess rich cultural and intellectual attainments,
can they work better and become more courteous and virtuous.
We
have so far directed much effort to the carrying out of the
cultural revolution and registered signal successes in all
fields of cultural development. In our country 3.5 million
children are now growing at nurseries and kindergartens and those
studying at schools of all levels from primary school to university
total 5 millions. If all these children and students are put
together, their number reaches 8.5 millions. This accounts for
one half of our population. In our country many people study
under a study-while-working system, along with those learning in
regular schools. So people of many countries of the world call
our country a “land of education”.
Our
country has 1.2 million technicians and specialists, or one out
of every seven of the total working population. This is a very
high ratio by world standards.
Our
people’s cultural and intellectual level is now very high. They
can judge merits and demerits in foreign culture. As their
cultural level is high, neither drunkard nor thief is to be found
in our country.
Our
Party’s important policy in the cultural revolution today is to
raise the cultural and intellectual attainments of all our people
to those of the university graduate, that is, to intellectualize
the whole of society. The intellectualization of the whole
society is an essential requisite for eliminating the
distinctions between mental and physical labour.
I published the Theses on Socialist Education
in 1977. If we intellectualize the whole of society by fully
putting into effect the theses, our country will develop still
more rapidly.
You
asked about our educational system. In our country there is a
study-while-working system along with the regular educational
system. The study-while-working system includes university-level
and junior factory colleges. These university-level factory
colleges are in large factories and enterprises. The workers go
there to study after the day’s work.
They
differ little from regular universities. Every day working
people go there and study for four hours after working at their
factories for eight hours.
Graduates
of these factory colleges obtain qualifications for engineer.
Their level is as high as that of regular university graduates.
The level of graduates of factory colleges in large machine or
chemical factories is very high, because they studied, while
having practical training directly at production sites.
Today in our country economic construction is well forward.
The
Sixth Congress of our Party put forward the ten long-term
objectives of socialist economic construction for the 1980s. At
the end of the 80s we will turn out 100,000 million kwh
of electricity, 120 million tons of coal, 15 million tons of
steel, 1.5 million tons of nonferrous metals, 20 million tons of
cement, 7 million tons of chemical fertilizers, 1,500 million metres of fabrics, 5 million tons of seafoods
and 15 million tons of grain in a year and reclaim 300,000
hectares of tideland within the next 10 years. When these
objectives are reached, our country will rank well among the
advanced countries of the world in economic progress.
We
have ample conditions for attaining these long-term objectives.
We have the firm foundations of the independent national
economy. Our independent national economy has tremendous
potentialities. If we had no solid economic foundations we would
dare not think of setting such high long-term objectives.
Since
the Sixth Party Congress we have taken one measure after another
at plenary meetings of the Party Central Committee to carry out
these long-term tasks.
We
first discussed great transformations of nature to reclaim
tideland and acquire new land at a plenary meeting of the Party
Central Committee and are working energetically to reclaim
300.000 hectares of tideland.
Our
country lacks in arable land. Out of our total cultivated area
only 1.5 million hectares, excluding the orchards, industrial
crop areas and slope fields in highlands, is capable of raising
crops safely at the moment. Last year we yielded 9.5 million tons
of grain on this cultivated land of 1.5 million hectares.
Today
our per-hectare crop yield has reached a very high level. Our
per-hectare rice yield is the highest in the world. We produce
7.2 tons of rice per hectare. When the farming method is improved
in future the yield will be still higher.
If
we are to increase the grain output remarkably, we should
steadily improve our farming method, at the same time as
expanding the acreage of the arable land. That is why we decided
to reclaim 300,000 hectares of tideland. This will enlarge the
cultivated land as much and alter the map of our country.
The
land acquired through the reclamation of tideland is very
fertile. We will be able to gather in even ten tons of rice from
each hectare of the paddy fields reclaimed. The ten tons per
hectare will make it possible to produce 3,000,000 tons of rice
on 300,000 hectares of tideland. If tideland is developed into paddy
fields, it will be convenient to mechanize farming.
It will be no big problem to reclaim 300,000 hectares of tideland in our country.
At
the moment we reclaim tideland by building dams on the zero
line, and if we build them further out where the depth is 2 to 3 metres,
we will reclaim 500,000-600,000 hectares of tideland, instead of
300,000 hectares. At present a certain country walls off the sea
at the depth of 80 metres to acquire new land and, in comparison with this, it is nothing to do it at the depth of 2 to 3 metres.
We are going to reclaim 300,000 hectares of tideland at the
first stage and more in the future, after having accumulated
experience.
What
is important in utilizing the reclaimed tideland for farming is
to solve the water problem. To this end we are building the Nampho Barrage.
The Nampho
Barrage is colossal in scale. Perhaps, there is no such a large
barrage in the world. I was told that not long ago the diplomatic
corps in our country visited the construction site of the Nampho
Barrage. They were amazed to see it, saying that such a large
barrage can be built in Korea and nowhere else. It will stop the
seawater going up the Taedong
River and keep its lower reaches filled with water, which will
be sent to the rice fields of the tideland. The construction of
the Nampho Barrage will be completed in 1985.
We have already built two barrages on the Taedong River , one being the Mirim Barrage and the other the Ponghwa Barrage. And now we are constructing another two barrages further up the Ponghwa Barrage. When these five barrages are all completed, large ships will sail up and down the Taedong River .
At the Hamhung
Plenary Meeting of our Party Central Committee held in August
last year, we discussed the problem of attaining the goal of 1.5
million tons of nonferrous metals. In an eager response to the
decision of the plenary meeting our working people are now
striving hard to hit this goal.
South Hamgyong and Ryanggang Provinces play an important role in attaining the goal. Recently we built in South Hamgyong
Province a new plant capable of dressing 10 million tons of
nonferrous metal ores. This is one of the world’s largest
ore-dressing plants. We built it for ourselves in a matter of one
year. We are trying it out now, and it works well. We are going to
put it into commission on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the
founding of the Republic. Construction of such a large, modern
ore-dressing plant in a single year is a demonstration of the
enormous capabilities of our working class and the might of our
industry.
Nonferrous
metals are our important source of foreign currency. We plan to
increase the output of lead, zinc, copper, gold, silver and other
nonferrous metals in the future to meet their domestic demands
and export the surplus to earn foreign currency.
The
Seventh Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Central Committee of our
Party held some time ago discussed the problem of attaining the
production goals of 1,500 million metres of fabrics and of chemicals.
From
now on we will make great efforts to hit the target of chemicals
in accordance with the decision of this meeting.
What is important in attaining this goal is to increase fibre production. If we are to produce 1.500 million metres of fabrics, we need 270,000 tons of fibres.
But our country with a limited area of cultivated land cannot
afford to plant cotton in a big way, so we have to solve the fibre problem by an industrial method.
For the solution of this problem we are developing the vinalon industry.
Vinalon is an excellent chemical fibre
invented in our country. It is tougher than cotton wool.
Principal raw materials for it are limestone and anthracite, both
of which are abundant in our country. Limestone and anthracite
are very useful and valuable resources. These are our treasures,
so to speak.
The doctor who invented vinalon in our country is working now as director of the Hamhung
branch of the Academy of Sciences . Originally a south
Korean, he went to Japan before liberation, where he made
researches in vinalon,
and returned to south Korea after liberation. Meanwhile,
the Seoul “regime” in south Korea , an instrument of the
United States , did not want to develop national industry,
engrossed in introducing American capital. The inventor of vinalon brought the matter of developing the vinalon
industry to the south Korean puppet authorities more than once,
but the puppet government turned down his suggestion. Through
the agency of democrats in south Korea he sent to us a letter
saying that he would come over to our Republic, to serve the
country and the people because the government of our Republic
was patriotic, whereas the south Korean “regime” was a puppet
regime. So we brought him and his family. Even under the
difficult circumstances of war we provided him with all possible
conditions for successful researches. We offered him the
necessary research funds, bought him laboratory equipment and, after the
war, built even a pilot plant for him. Drawing on the success in
his researches in vinalon, we built a large, modern vinalon factory in Hamhung.
In our country there is a vinalon
factory with the capacity of 50,000 tons, and we are now
planning to build a bigger one with the capacity of 100,000 tons.
Our country has a factory which produces fibre
from reed. Its production capacity at the moment is 10,000 tons
but we intend to increase it to 20,000 tons in the future.
If we produce 270,000 tons of fibres at some time in the future, we will be able to attain the goal of 1,500 million metres of fabrics without difficulty. This much amount will mean 83 metres of cloth for everyone in our country. This is a very high level.
We
plan to build a synthetic rubber factory with a capacity of tens
of thousands of tons on the basis of the achievements in our
scientists’ researches. We are consuming as much rubber every
year. In our country rubber is used mainly to make conveyer
belts, motorcar tires and various packings.
We intend to construct a synthetic rubber factory with that
capacity at first and, if successful, to increase it.
We are also planning to build another process of manufacturing tens of thousands of tons of vinyl chloride.
From
next year we will build a new chemical fertilizer factory with a
capacity of several hundred thousand tons in keeping with the
decision of the Seventh Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Central
Committee of our Party. We intend to construct this factory,
too, with our own efforts and techniques. It is not very
difficult to build a chemical fertilizer factory. Synthesis towers,
compressors and pipes are needed for its construction. We imported
compressors before because we could not produce them, but now we
are making them as well as synthesis towers by ourselves.
Therefore, we can easily build it by our own efforts.
We are struggling to hit the target of 15 million tons of steel, and its prospects are bright.
We
will make more vigorous efforts from next year to raise the
steel output to a 10 million-ton level at the first stage. We can
do it. Our country has large deposits of iron ores. Moreover,
recently our scientists invented the method of manufacturing
iron with domestic fuel.
We
have so far produced iron with imported coking coal. If we were
to continue to rely on coking coal alone, we would not be able to
develop the iron industry on a large scale. So I emphasized time
and again to our scientists the need to study the method of
turning out iron with domestic fuel. At first they did not get down to
the research work, saying that it would be impossible to produce
iron with our own fuel. So I told them: the iron industry used
coking coal as fuel because it had been developed first in those
countries abounding in coking coal, but if our country with no
deposits of coking coal had been the first to develop the iron
industry by the industrial revolution, it would not have used
coking coal in iron production; the method of using coking coal
as fuel cannot be the only way to produce iron; and if the researches
in the Juche-oriented method of iron production were to succeed, we
must first wipe out flunkeyism. After that, our scientists
displayed their creativity and thus invented the method of
turning out iron by using the fuel which is inexhaustible in our
country. Now we can say that we have definite prospects for
attaining the goal of 15 million tons of steel.
The
iron production method worked out by our scientists is superior
to that of using coking coal. Producing iron with domestic fuel
can reduce the production cost much lower than the cost of using
imported coking coal. Science is something mysterious when one is
ignorant of it, but not when one is familiar with it.
Our
cement industry is also in a good situation. Since our country
abounds in good-quality raw materials for cement, we will be
quite able to hit the target of 20 million tons of cement.
You
asked me about the sizes of our cement factories. There are many
large, modern ones as well as many small ones in our country.
The former alone produces several million tons of quality cement
every year, and a large amount of it is exported. Cement turned
out by small factories in local areas is used in the localities. A
certain county is producing cement by itself to build rural modern
houses. It is no problem to build cement factories in our
country.
I
hear that this year fish is not caught well in Peru , affected
by abnormal weather, but our country is now landing large
quantities of sardines. Because of the warm current, large shoals
of fish which like the warm water are gathering in our waters.
We land millions of tons of fish every year, and prospects are bright for the development of fisheries, too.
Considering
the present general situation in our country, I think, the ten
long-term objectives for socialist economic construction will be
attained for sure within the set time. Perhaps, nearly all the
objectives will be achieved by 1988.
We
plan to reach basically the major ones of the objectives by 1985
and hold the Seventh Congress of our Party in 1986.
You
asked me if we in Korea , too, are affected by the
capitalist economic crisis. Our country is immune to this crisis. I
think perhaps ours is the only country in the world which is not
affected by it. There has never been a price rise in our country.
It is constant and stable today just as it was ten years ago.
If
the repercussions of the capitalist economic crisis have ever
been felt at all in this part of the world, it was only when the
prices of machines and equipment went up in consequence of the
rise in the world price of oil, for our country imported some
machines and equipment. But that was not a big problem.
Since
we import oil from foreign countries, we are advancing in the
direction of developing industries which depend on domestic raw
materials, instead of those using much oil.
A certain country imports oil to produce chemical fibres
and plastic goods and operate power stations, too. It is true
that the construction of an oil power station would require less
money and time. In the past when oil was cheap, some of our
officials, too, suggested for the construction of oil power
stations. But I did not agree to the proposal. If we had built oil power
stations in our country which cannot produce oil and failed to
import it for some reasons, we would have suspended the
operation of many factories and enterprises. Therefore, I
objected the idea of building oil power stations.
We
ensured that the power industry was developed by using water
resources and coal abundant in our country, rather than oil. That
is why the power output in our country is not affected by the
world oil price, no matter how high it is.
We
worked to base our industry on Juche, with the result that our
national economy continues to make a stable growth, unaffected by
the worldwide economic upheavals.
You
said you would like to learn from our experience in farming. Our
country is now at its highest farming season. Rice-transplanting
is already over and weeding is now under way. In our country
this year’s promise of the crops is fine as a whole. Both rice
and maize have grown well. As we completed irrigation a long time ago
in our country, we can safely do farming without suffering damage
even from a long spell of drought.
Our country cultivates rice and maize on a large scale.
Maize
is a good, high-yield crop. The method of cultivating maize may
be different from country to country because of the differences
in their natural and geographical conditions. It may be planted
in humus-cake nurseries before it is bedded out or directly sown
in the fields, according to the specific conditions of a country.
We
do not plant maize directly. If we were to sow it directly, we
would have to plant an early-ripening strain in view of the
climate in our country. This would mean low per-hectare yields.
So we cultivate maize by planting it in humus-cake nurseries
before transplanting. Maize seedlings grown in humus cakes bear good
fruit and are highly productive.
The
humus-cake method of raising maize seedlings may appear to
require more manpower than the direct sowing, but this is not
really the case. The former requires weeding once or twice less
than the latter, so it does not need much more manpower.
If maize farming is to be successful, the first filial generation should be sown, the number of plants per phyong
increased, a suitable amount of fertilizers applied, and the
maize fields irrigated. This crop requires plenty of fertilizers
and water. Usually it needs 60 to 65 per cent of the moisture of
the field, but in the earing
season it demands 80 to 85 per cent. Only when plenty of
moisture is ensured during the development of ears can they grow
larger.
I
was not a specialist in agriculture or industry at the outset.
But I had to learn farming and industry in order to guide
socialist construction. Without knowledge one cannot guide
others. The people always require correct leadership. Only when this
requirement is met, can the people create new things without letup.
Since they trusted me and elected me President, I should work
faithfully for them and strive to guide them in a correct
way.
You
talk a lot about my frequent on-the-spot guidance. Well, if one
is to guide people correctly, one should go into reality. If one
coops oneself up in one’s office, divorced from reality, one may
fall into subjectivism and bureaucracy. These are a harmful style
of work that should be warned against, among others, within a
ruling party. Subjectivism is a source that gives rise to
bureaucracy.
I
always strongly warn our officials that subjectivism and
bureaucracy are most dangerous in guiding the revolution and
construction.
If
one wants to avoid falling into subjectivism, one should go
among the popular masses including workers, farmers and
intellectuals and listen to their voices. Only then can one map
out a policy to meet the demands of the people, and also find out
many things.
When
I waged the anti-Japanese armed struggle I used to go down to
KPRA units and listen to the soldiers’ voices; after liberation,
too, I would often go to factories and farming and fishing
villages to hear the voices of people in all walks of life; and I
do so still now.
Now, I would like to touch on the south Korean situation and the reunification question of our country.
South Korea
is not an independent state, it is a complete colony of the
United States . It is a lie that Americans say south Korea
is an independent state. The United States has occupied
south Korea for 38 years by force of arms and lords it
over.
The
United States is now keeping over 40,000 troops of its own in
south Korea and holds all commanding powers over the south Korean
puppet army. The US imperialists call their army in south
Korea and the south Korean puppet troops the “Korea-US
Combined Forces”, whose commander is an American. It is also
Americans who dismiss and appoint the south Korean “president”. If the
man who holds the “presidency” of the puppet regime is not to
their liking, the US imperialists kill him to be
replaced by another.
To
camouflage their forces stationed in south Korea the US
imperialists formerly called them the “UN forces”. As a result
of the dynamic struggle the Korean people and the world’s
progressive people waged to take the “UN forces’” helmets off
the US occupation forces in south Korea and drive them out, a
resolution was adopted a few years ago at the UN General Assembly
to dissolve the “UN forces” command in south Korea and withdraw
all foreign troops from there. Nevertheless, the United States is
working to continue its military occupation of south Korea under
the pretext of the fictitious “threat of southward invasion”
from the north. The US Congress is clamouring
that there is a danger of “southward invasion” because the
military forces of north Korea are stronger than those of south
Korea . But this is a lie to mislead the people around the
world.
We
have already made it clear more than once that we will not
“invade the south”. As you have seen on your current visit to our
country, we have built a great deal and are still continuing to
build. We do not want to get these buildings destroyed in war.
Our people want peace, not war.
The
comparison of military strength in the north and the south of
Korea enables you to see clearly that we will not “invade the
south”. At the moment in south Korea there are stationed
more than 40,000 American troops plus 700,000 south Korean puppet
troops, and there are more than 1,000 nuclear weapons deployed.
However, the numerical strength of our People’s Army is but one
half of that of the south Korean puppet army. As for military
equipment, the US troops in south Korea and the south Korean
puppet army are armed with up-to-date American weapons, whereas
our People’s Army is equipped with arms of our own make.
All the facts testify that the American authorities’ clamours about the “threat of aggression from the north” are totally unfounded, they are a sheer lie.
The US imperialists do not want Korea ’s reunification. They are manoeuvring
to divide Korea into two just as Germany is divided into east
and west, and are launching a propaganda campaign to justify
their scheme. But there is no reason why our country should
remain divided into “two Koreas”.
Politically,
the Korean question differs in nature from that of Germany.
Germany is a vanquished nation in World War II which she had
provoked. But our country is neither a provoker of a war of
aggression nor a vanquished country. Korea had been a colony of
Japanese imperialism till the end of the Second World War and in
the meantime the Korean people had waged a forceful national-liberation
struggle against Japan. Even after the reunification Korea will
not invade other countries or menace the surrounding nations. No
nation will be threatened by one Korea. Neither China nor the
Soviet Union nor Japan will be threatened by our country.
From
the historical viewpoint, too, there is no ground to justify our
country’s division into “two Koreas”. The Koreans are a single
nation of the same blood who have lived on the same land, sharing
the same culture and using the same language for several
thousand years. Therefore, the Korean nation must by no means be
divided into two.
At
the Sixth Party Congress we put forward a new proposal for
national reunification in order to frustrate the US imperialist
scheme for “two Koreas” and to reunify the country as soon as
possible.
The new proposal is intended to reunify the country by founding a Confederal
Republic through the establishment of a unified national
government on condition that the social systems existing in the
north and the south of Korea are left as they are, a government
in which the two sides are represented on an equal footing and
under which they exercise regional autonomy respectively with equal
rights and duties.
Advancing at the Sixth Party Congress the proposal for establishing the Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo
and the ten-point policy to be pursued by the unified state, we
explicitly said that the DCRK should be a neutral state. In other
words, we clarified that the DCRK should become not a satellite
of any country but a completely independent and sovereign state, a
non-aligned nation which will not rely on any external forces.
That our country will not be a satellite of any country after its
reunification means that it will neither be a satellite of China and
the Soviet Union nor that of the United States and Japan. It is
most advisable for our country surrounded by great countries to
become a neutral state after its reunification.
More
than 20 years have passed since we put forward the proposal for
accelerating national reunification through the establishment of a
north-south Confederation and it is nearly three years since we
set forth a new proposal to reunify the country by founding the
DCRK at the Sixth Party Congress. But our country is not yet
reunified.
We
must check the division of our country into “two Koreas” by all
means and achieve national reunification. Should we fail and hand
down the divided country to posterity, we would be committing a
crime against history and the generations to come.
What
is important in reunifying our country is to replace the
Armistice Agreement with a peace agreement and force the US
imperialists to withdraw from south Korea. If the Americans
conclude a peace agreement with us and withdraw from south Korea,
the Korean people will be able to reunify the country peacefully by
their own efforts. Therefore, we have proposed to the United States
more than once that negotiations be held to replace the Armistice
Agreement with a peace agreement. The US authorities, however,
have not yet accepted our proposal for negotiations.
The
US imperialists keep working to partition our country into “two
Koreas”, but of no avail. All the Korean people are vigorously
struggling to check and frustrate the “two Koreas” schemes of US
imperialists and achieve national reunification.
The
Revolutionary Party for Reunification and democratic parties,
university students and other young people, workers, peasants and
democrats in south Korea all desire the peaceful reunification
of the country and actively support our proposal for national
reunification. The only opponents of national reunification are
those who lead the military fascist dictatorial regime in south Korea.
They are pro-American stooges trained by US imperialists.
At
present south Korean people are being awakened gradually.
Democrats and other south Koreans want to lead independent lives
free from the US imperialist yoke and oppose the fascist
repression of the puppet government. In particular, with the Juche idea
being disseminated widely among youth and students and other
south Korean people, their consciousness of national independence
and anti-US sentiment are mounting rapidly.
In
the past south Korean youth and students took a wrong view of
our Republic because of false American propaganda, but they have
now realized that our Republic holds fast to independence and
that only the Government of the Republic is a genuine people’s
power which serves the whole of the Korean nation.
Youth
and students and other south Korean people are not opposed to
our Republic, but struggling against the United States and the
military fascist regime in south Korea. Whenever the south
Korean people turn out in the anti-US, anti-fascist struggle,
the Americans repress them. It is none other than the Americans that
suppressed the large-scale mass uprising which flared up in Kwangju in May 1980. At that time, Wickham,
the commander of the “Korea-US Combined Forces”, got the south
Korean puppet army to repress brutally the patriotic people and
youth and students who rose in revolt.
In
spite of the severe repression by the US imperialists and their
lackeys, the struggle of the youth, students and other south
Koreans keeps blazing up fiercely. Of late, the south Korean
youth and students’ struggle takes place almost every day. If
south Korean people are more awakened in the future, the US imperialists
and their lackeys will hardly stand.
The
active support and encouragement of the friends and progressive
people the world over is of great significance in accomplishing
our people’s cause of national reunification. The World
Conference of Journalists against Imperialism and for Friendship
and Peace is going on now in Pyongyang and the participants in
the meeting are unanimously supporting the reunification of
Korea.
We
will fight on vigorously to reunify the divided country in
accordance with the new policy on national reunification advanced
at the Sixth Party Congress.
Of
course, it will take us some time to realize Korea’s
reunification, since the US imperialists occupy south Korea and
tenaciously work to create “two Koreas”. But the entire Korean
people in the north and the south are intensifying their struggle
daily for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country and
the world’s progressive people are conducting a more vigorous
struggle to check and frustrate the US moves towards “two Koreas”.
Our people are sure to accomplish the cause of national
reunification, positively supported and encouraged by the world’s
people.
Next, I would like to dwell on the international situation.
Today the international situation is very complex.
At
present capitalist countries, particularly the developed
capitalist countries, are undergoing serious economic crises,
including those of fuel and raw materials. The economic crisis in
the US, Japan and the developed European countries has lasted
for a long time. Because of the serious economic crisis
unemployment is increasing and the people are getting worse off in the
capitalist countries. It is said that now in the US there are a
great many unemployed. It is said that in Japan, too, prices
continue to rise and the army of unemployed is on the increase.
History
shows that whenever capitalist countries were in an economic
crisis, scrambles occurred on a worldwide scale and a global war
broke out. The outbreak of both the First and Second World Wars
was due to the economic crisis in the capitalist countries.
Whenever imperialists undergo an economic crisis, they try to
find a way out in an aggressive war.
Now,
America’s Reagan government follows the policy of confrontation
which aggravates the international tensions in order to get out
of the serious, chronic economic crisis. Owing to the imperialist
manoeuvres,
the international situation is getting extremely tense, peace
and security are being wrecked in many parts of the world, and
the danger of a new world war is growing as the days go by. This
danger exists in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia and Southern
Africa. But today’s situation is different from that when the
First or Second World War broke out.
After
the Second World War many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin
America freed themselves from imperialist colonial rule and
realized national independence. There are many countries which
attained their national independence, liberating themselves from
the colonial rule of either Britain, France, Italy, the
Netherlands or Portugal. This is precisely the difference between the
international situations at the time of the outbreak of the
Second World War and at present.
As I have said, the present international situation urgently demands the realization of global independence.
To
put it in easy terms, global independence means that all
countries of the world advance thoroughly on the road of
independence, without being subjugated or enslaved to any great
powers or dominationist
forces. Under the present circumstances there can be many
difficulties in making the whole world independent. But only
when the whole world is independent, can a new global war be
prevented. Great powers do not want to fight among themselves.
Even if a war breaks out among them, such a war will be lukewarm
and will not last long, if every country adheres to independence
by refusing to move under the baton of imperialists and big powers or
take anybody’s side. If they find no countries following them,
the big powers will have to fight among themselves and give up
fighting when they are worn out.
What
is important in achieving global independence is to realize the
independence in Europe where are concentrated developed
countries.
At
present, a vigorous anti-war, anti-nuclear peace movement is
under way in Europe to oppose the production and deployment of
neutron weapons and nuclear war. It is also interesting to note
that in recent years Socialist Parties and Social Democratic
Parties have come into power one after another in many European
countries including France.
I
met cadres of Socialist Parties and Social Democratic Parties
from many European countries who visited our country and told
them about the problem of making Europe independent. They all
recognized the urgent necessity of European independence.
After
taking power Socialist Parties and Social Democratic Parties in
many European countries have held views different from America’s
on a series of international questions and do not blindly follow
the US policy. It is quite welcome.
We
hope to see a completely independent Europe. In other words, we
hope the European countries will pursue independent policies
against war, instead of seeking a war policy in the wake of great
powers.
It
would be more welcome if the capitalist countries in Europe,
while implementing independent policies, respond to the demands
of the developing countries, the third world countries, for the
establishment of a new international economic order. The
European capitalist countries would easily tide over the present
economic crisis and give a great help to the developing and third
world countries in their efforts to build independent national
economies, if they strove to establish a new fair international
economic order together with the latter.
Another
important thing in achieving global independence is to realize
the independence of the third world countries.
The
voice for independence is now ringing even more strongly from
among the newly-emerging peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin
America. I have met state leaders and many other people from a
number of Asian and African countries, who all want to take the
road of independence.
You
must be well acquainted with the Latin-American situation. It
seems to me that since the Falkland incident anti-US sentiments
have mounted in many Latin-American countries and their tendency
to independence has increased. We hope all Latin-American
countries to advance independently. If they get independent, the US will
be finally isolated in that part of the world. A Korean saying
has it that a general without an army is no general. This means
that one cannot be a general by himself. The US would be quite
powerless, if it goes alone.
In
order to advance along the road of independence, the third world
countries should build self-reliant national economies by
carrying out the economic revolution.
They
would not be able to safeguard their political independence
already won unless they built self-supporting national economies
and attained economic independence. A country which failed to
attain economic independence cannot, in fact, be regarded as a
full-fledged independent and sovereign country, though it has its
president and parliament. If shackled to great countries economically
because of failure to achieve economic emancipation and
independence, it would be subordinated to those countries
politically, too, and lose its say on the international arena. A
country shackled to great countries economically has no
alternative but to follow their dictates. Otherwise, it would
receive their pressure in one way or another.
At
present quite a few third world countries have no economic
potential enough to guarantee their political independence. This
is the biggest problem. We consider that only when they build
independent national economies and achieve economic independence,
will the third world countries be able to free their peoples from the
backwardness, poverty, hunger and diseases left over by
imperialists and safeguard the political independence they have
already won.
The
most important problem the third world countries must solve
immediately in attaining economic independence is to develop
agriculture so as to be self-sufficient in food.
You
have said that many Latin-American countries import most of
necessary foods from the US and that they should begin with
solving agricultural problems in order to throw off the US
economic shackles. You are right there. At present the US is
deliberately pursuing the policy of preventing the Latin-American
countries’ investments in agricultural development and of
forcing them to buy American cereals.
Only
when they develop agriculture and solve the food problem, will
the third world countries be able to put an end to their economic
subjugation to imperialists and extricate their peoples from
hunger and poverty.
A
few years ago an African President visited our country. He asked
me how to free people from hunger and poverty. I informed him of
our experience in fully solving the food problem by developing
agriculture under the slogan that rice is socialism.
The
developing countries, the third world countries, should realize
the South-South cooperation in order to achieve economic
independence through the building of independent national
economies.
The
third world countries should not pin their hopes on
imperialists and developed countries but should join hands to
seek means of living. Imperialists will never make a gift of
economic emancipation to the third world countries.
Developing
countries have demanded the establishment of a new international
economic order, but developed countries have refused to comply.
Several
years ago the North-South Summit Conference of 22 Countries was
held in Cancun, Mexico. The conference could achieve no success
because of the unjustified attitude taken by the developed
capitalist countries which try to maintain the unfair old
international economic order. The summit conferences of
non-aligned states have had repeated discussions on establishing a new
international economic order. However, the declarations adopted
at the conferences remain declarations and few measures have
been implemented.
In
his lifetime Tito visited our country at his advanced age of 85.
At that time, I talked with him on the problem of strengthening
and developing the non-aligned movement, and I said: developed
countries will not make a gift of a new international economic
order to developing countries; therefore, exchange and
cooperation should be developed among non-aligned countries; then the
developed countries might comply with developing countries’ demand
for a new international economic order.
At
the Seventh Summit Conference of Non-aligned Countries held in
New Delhi some time ago, the head of our delegation asserted that
non-aligned countries should take initiative to adopt practical
steps for convening a South-South summit conference to conduct
the South-South cooperation briskly. We will continue to strive
for this cooperation.
We
believe the South-South cooperation will be quite possible.
Generally speaking, it is decades since the third world countries
achieved national independence, and they have been building a
new society. So each of them has more than one or two useful
techniques and experiences and has laid definite economic
foundations. If they strengthen economic cooperation and exchange the
good experiences and techniques among themselves relying on the
economic foundations already laid, they will be able to develop
their economies quickly even without the help of developed
countries.
Developing
countries and third world countries will first be able to
realize exchange and cooperation in the agricultural sphere.
Agricultural
development does not require very high techniques. If third
world countries interchange their techniques among themselves,
they can solve many problems in developing agriculture.
At
the moment the US and other developed capitalist countries sell
the first filial generation of maize to developing countries at
high prices. If the latter effect exchange among themselves, they
may not have to buy the expensive seeds from the former. Our
country produces and plants such seeds and we can impart this
technique to other countries. If developing countries exchange and
cooperate in the field of agriculture in this way, they will be able
to develop agriculture and be self-sufficient in food.
The
third world countries can also cooperate with each other in the
industrial field. In this field I think it necessary that we
should strengthen cooperation starting from light industry which
is of vital importance in raising the people’s living standard.
In the fishing industry, too, the third world countries can
cooperate and exchange.
It
is not bad to exchange technicians among these countries. At
present, if they want to invite a technician from a developed
capitalist country, they must pay him more than 1,000 dollars a
month, provide him with a nice dwelling and car and grant him a
leave every year. But if they exchange their technicians, they need pay a
person only 100-200 dollars a month and just provide him with
meals.
At
present, groups of our agricultural technicians and specialists
are in Guinea, Tanzania and other African countries, rendering
help in agriculture and the training of agro-technical personnel.
All of them ask for nothing more than the same board as given
the peoples of the host countries.
It
is good for the third world countries to exchange technical
specifications among themselves. If they want to buy blueprints
for irrigation projects or machines from developed capitalist
countries, they will have to pay much money. But, if they
exchange these technical specifications among themselves, they need
not pay much money.
The
third world countries can cooperate with each other not only in
the economic field but also in the educational field. They can
jointly build schools, share experiences in educational methods
and cooperate in the training of native cadres.
In
the field of health these countries can also exchange various
techniques such as pharmaceutical techniques and experience. When
cooperation and exchange are realized in this field, the peoples
in these countries can be free from diseases sooner.
In
our country, by embodying the Juche idea, we have realized
independence in politics and achieved self-reliance in the
economy and also in national defence.
Our experience shows that in order to build a completely
independent and sovereign state, it is very important to build
self-reliant defence capabilities, at the same time as realizing political independence and achieving economic self-reliance.
It is also necessary for the third world countries to cooperate with each other in building self-reliant defences.
At
present, the price of weapons is set arbitrarily by the seller.
Developed countries are making a lot of money through sales of
weapons. When the US and some other developed countries are asked
by small countries for weapons, they do not comply with the
latter’s requests promptly. In case they sell, they get
exorbitant prices. But they vociferate as if they are granting them a
great favour.
When the third world countries join efforts to produce weapons
for themselves, they need not take off their hats to bow down to
developed countries, while paying masses of gold for the
weapons.
We
have developed the munitions industry and produced a
considerable amount of weapons needed to defend the country. Our
experience tells that small countries can manufacture weapons
for themselves to increase their defence capabilities.
Not
only our country but other countries have experience in the
manufacture of weapons. There are many third world countries
which have this experience. If they cooperate with each other,
they will make necessary conventional weapons with credit, if not
sophisticated ones requiring high techniques. When the whole
world is made independent, sophisticated weapons will become
useless.
We will always help the third world peoples in their struggle towards independence.
This much about the general situation in our country and the international situation.
The
visit to our country of your Party delegation headed by you,
Comrade General Secretary, will contribute greatly to bringing
the relations between our two Parties closer and promoting the
friendly relations between the two peoples.
I
am convinced that your Party under the leadership of you Comrade
General Secretary will emerge victorious in the struggle to
build Peru into an independent people’s country.
I
am very happy to have such fine comrades-in-arms like you in the
Latin-American country of Peru . Let us join hands firmly
as comrades, comrades-in-arms and friends, and fight together for the
sake of the two peoples and all the oppressed people throughout
the world, for the prevention of another world war and for global
independence.
I hope that our two Parties will have closer relations and more mutual visits.
I wish you to visit our country again.
