SPEECH ON THE WORK ON SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION IN THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA AND THE SOUTH KOREAN REVOLUTION by Dermot Hudson

The great leader President KIM IL SUNG speaking to the Ali Archam Academy of Social Sciences made a powerful analytical speech on the experience of the Korean people in socialist construction and how to reunify Korea . The work I think serves as very good introduction to the Juche Idea and Korea’s experience in building socialism . The speech made to Indonesian communists and anti-imperialists . I think this fact alone demolishes the slanders of some ultra-leftists who claimed that the DPRK did not support the struggle of the Indonesian communists against the reactionary Rightists .

The work basically sums up the entire historical experience of Korean-style socialism . The speech was made at a time when little was known the experience of the DPRK in constructing socialism , however progressive and revolutionary people throughout especially the third world wanted to know more about the DPRK's experience and about the Juche Idea so that they could learn from it . The visit to Indonesia in April 1965 provided an excellent opportunity to do this. In this speech the great leader President KIM IL SUNG answers the challenge to explain in depth the experience of the Korean people in constructing socialism and the Juche Idea in a masterly way . The work is divided into 5 sections with the following headings, 'ON THE COURSE OF PROGRESS OF SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION IN THE NORTHERN HALF OF THE REPUBLIC: ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SOCIALIST SYSTEM:ON THE ECONOMIC CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIALISM;ON THE QUESTIONS OF ESTABLISHING JUCHE FIRMLY AND OF IMPLEMENTING THE MASS LINE and ON THE SOUTH KOREAN REVOLUTION.

In his introduction the great leader President KIM IL SUNG says

“Since liberation, north and south Korea have traversed diametrically different roads. North Korea, where the people took power into their hands, has vigorously proceeded along the road of national independence and progress, while south Korea under the domination of the US imperialists has again taken the road of colonial slavery and reaction. We have freed one half of the country, where we are building a new life. But the other half is still occupied by foreign imperialist aggressive forces, and the national-liberation revolution on a nationwide scale is still unfinished”

I think this is very true today as you have the independent Korea of Juche. Peoples Korea in the northern half of the country which is pursuing the road of socialism and independence whereas in the south there is the puppet regime where the people are the colonial slaves , slaves of the big capitalist corporations of the US and other Western countries. Independence needs to be extended to south Korea.

President KIM IL SUNG also in the introduction explained the interrelationship between the issue of socialist construction and Korea's reunification saying that

“We have energetically promoted the socialist revolution and socialist construction in the northern half of the Republic, rejecting the erroneous view that north Korea should wait until south Korea is liberated and should not advance the revolution further because south Korea is under US imperialist occupation and our country is not reunified. Meanwhile, we are resolutely against any tendency to forget the revolution in south Korea and the task of reunifying the country while thinking exclusively of socialist construction in the north and being satisfied with its achieve­ments. We have always adhered to the principled stand with which to steadily consolidate north Korea politically, economically and militarily, regarding it as the base for the Korean revolution, and, at the same time, to endeavour to accomplish the south Korean revolution by helping the people in their revolutionary struggle, to bring about national reunifi­cation and to complete the revolution to the end throughout the country

I think the above quotation fully demonstrates the idea that the northern half of Korea is the base of the Korean revolution , the base for reunification and that the two struggles are not isolated from each other.

In the first part of the work President KIM IL SUNG gives an historical overview of the progress of socialist construction in the DPRK. The situation of the DPRK was very different to other countries. Korea which had emerged from several decades of Japanese colonial rule had to first complete the task of the revolution against feudalism and imperialism before it could think of the socialist revolution. The Korean people had to combat the backwardness of feudalism . The revolutionary tasks were made even difficult by the three long war against the aggressive US imperialists and the immense destruction this caused . Here the words of the great leader President KIM IL SUNG can be quoted to illustrate the severity of the problems

“The war damage in our country was indescribably devastating. The US imperialists had dropped an average of 18 bombs on every square kilometre of north Korea, thus reducing our towns and villages to heaps of rubble. Industry, agriculture, railway transport and all other branches of the national economy were completely destroyed and so were educational, cultural and public health establishments. The people had lost practically all their homes”

                Thus the Korean people now had to construct socialism with bare hands. President KIM IL SUNG put forward the line of giving priority to heavy industry whilst simultaneously developing agriculture and light industry . Just to complicate things anti-party factionalists opposed this line . Things came to a head in 1956 as President KIM IL SUNG says “As everyone knows, the period of 1956-57 was the time when modern revisionism raised its head on a wide scale in the international communist movement and the world imperialists and international reactionaries, taking advantage of it, unleashed an extensive “anti-communist” cam­paign. In our country at that time the US imperialists entrenched in south Korea and their lackeys kept pace with the international “anti-communist” campaign and stepped up their reactionary offensive against the northern half of the Republic as never before. The anti-Party revisionist elements within the Party also attacked it, taking advantage of the complex situation and backed by outside forces. The anti-Party elements and their supporters abroad—revisionists and great-power chauvinists—joined forces in opposition to our Party and engaged in conspiracies to overthrow the leadership of our Party and Government.

President KIM IL SUNG a far sighted leader realised that rather than relying on outside forces that they should rely on the popular masses, the working class and appealed to the workers to work harder to build socialism. The building of socialism shot forward an incredible rate :Industrial output rose 40-50 per cent a year, and in agriculture bumper harvests were reaped year after year.

                In the section on the establishment of the socialist system President KIM IL SUNG explains how the Korean people took a unique Juche-oriented path to socialist transformation . Firstly , agriculture was fully co-operativised . This took place at a fast pace of about 4-5 years. Again factionalists tried their best to create roadblocks as President KIM IL SUNG explained

“Foreign revisionists and great-power chauvinists and their followers—the anti-Party factionalists in our country—were also very critical of our Party’s policy on agricultural cooperativization. They alleged that agricultural cooperativization was impossible in a situation in which socialist industrialization had not yet been carried out and modern farm machinery were not available. They also alleged that the tempo of agricultural cooperativization was too fast. They did not know anything about the specific realities of our country and did not bother to understand them either.\

Thus Korea smashed the dogma that collectivisation cannot be possible without mechanization first. The socialist transformation of the remaining private industry in towns and cities was carried out as well . So by 1958 an advanced socialist system free from exploitation and oppression was firmly established in the northern half of our country. This opened a broad avenue for the rapid development of the country’s productive forces and the radical improve­ment of the people’s material and cultural life. The triumph of the socialist system also created the socio-economic conditions for the political and moral unity of the entire people based on the worker-peasant alliance led by the working class.

                 Turning to the issue of the economic construction of socialism President KIM IL SUNG explained how this was a key task for a ruling party in a socialist country. The DPRK upheld the line of building an independent economy with heavy industry at its core despite the attempts of some to subordinate the DPRK's economy to their own. The results were truly phenomenal :The annual rate of growth of industrial production in the ten postwar years from 1954 to 1963 averaged 34.8 per cent. The DPRK's industrial output in 1964 was about 11 times that of the prewar year, 1949 and more than 13 times that of the pre-liberation year, 1944. I think we should always bear these achievements in mind when hearing the slanders of the bourgeois and imperialist media against the DPRK.

Undoubtedly the key part of this work, the core part of it is the section that deals with the Juche Idea and the mass line. President KIM IL SUNG explained Juche at the time as follows

To establish Juche means holding fast to the principle of solving for Oneself all problems of the revolution and construction in conformity with the existing conditions in one’s country, and mainly by one’s own efforts. This is a realistic and creative stand which opposes dogmatism and applies the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism and the experience of the international revolutionary movement to one’s country in conformity with its historical conditions and national peculiarities. This represents an independent stand of doing away with the spirit of relying on others, of displaying the spirit of self-reliance and solving one’s own problems on one’s own responsibility under all circumstances.

I think the explanation speaks for itself . President KIM IL SUNG also pointed out that the struggle to establish Juche was actually closely related to the struggle to oppose revisionism in the international communist and revolutionary movement .

In 1955, therefore, our Party set forth the definite policy of establishing Juche, and has been persistently waging an energetic ide­ological struggle to carry it through ever since. The year 1955 marked a turning point in our Party’s consistent struggle against dogmatism. It was also at that time, in fact, that we started our fight against modern revisionism which had emerged within the socialist camp. Our struggle against dogmatism was thus linked with the conflict against modern revisionism.

Juche does not mean autarky nor the total rejection of any kind of international co-operation or aid . In the speech President KIM IL SUNG acknowledges that during the period following the end of the Korean war the DPRK received internationalist aid from the socialist camp of 550 dollars. However the decisive factor is always one's own efforts . If no effort is made by the internal forces any aid however generous becomes totally useless.

President KIM IL SUNG gives a well rounded defination of Juche in the economic field.;We by no means oppose economic cooperation between states or advocate building socialism in isolation. What we do reject is the great-power chauvinist tendency to check the independent and comprehensive development of the economy of other countries and, furthermore, to subordinate their economy to one’s own on the pretext of “economic cooperation” and “international division of labour”. We consider that mutual cooperation should be based on the building of an independent national economy in each country, and that this alone makes possible the steady expansion and development of economic cooperation between states on the principles of complete equality and mutual benefit.
Today our country is developing its economy by relying mainly on its own technology, its own resources and on the efforts of its own cadres and people; it is meeting the domestic needs for heavy and light industrial goods and agricultural produce mainly with its own products.

     In the final section of the work on the south Korean revolution the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG exposes the colonial nature of south Korea saying that

The south Korean “regime”, since it is a puppet regime installed by he US imperialists by force of arms, is nothing but a docile instrument for executing the instructions of its US overlords....The US imperialists need south Korea for more than just a market for their surplus goods and a supply base for strategic resources. They also need it as the logistical base for the occupation of the whole of Korea, as a bridgehead for hostile activities against the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China and for aggression on the Asian continent, and, further, as an important strategic point for world domination.

The great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG gives an in depth analysis of the exploitation of south Korea by the US imperialists . Time does not permit me to detail this so I recommend that you read the work for yourselves.

In his concluding remarks comrade KIM IL SUNG notes that for the victory of the Korean revolution solidarity with the world people's fighting imperialism must be strengthened. He ended the speech on the following note

The anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist struggle of the communists and people of Indonesia is conducive to this common struggle of the Asian peoples.

The Korean people attach great value on their ties and solidarity with the communists and people of Indonesia, and actively support their revolutionary struggle.

Holding high the banner of revolution, the communists and peoples of our two countries will always fight in close unity against the aggressive forces of US-led imperialism, for national independence, socialism and peace.

This is a most excellent speech which I feel has withstood the winds of time . I think it both explains the Juche Idea and the DPRK within the international context as well as the success in building people-centred socialism.

Thank you for listening.

Dermot Hudson Chairman of Juche Idea Study Group of England and President of the Association For the Study of Songun Politics UK.

11.04.2015