Seventy-nine Years under the Banner of Great National Unity

Great national unity is the way for the nation to survive and prosper---this is a firm faith and will etched deep in the minds of the Korean people in the course of the historical development.

President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) put forward the idea of great national unity for the first time and implemented it in practice. Already in the first days when he set about the road of armed struggle to free Korea from the Japanese imperialists, who had militarily occupied it (1905-1945), he stood firm in his Juche-oriented stand that independence of the country and the prosperity of the nation should be achieved by the efforts of the nation and its united strength. Based on this stand, he advanced the idea of forming the anti-Japanese national united front and wisely led its implementation.

At the Nanhutou Conference held between late February and early March in 1936, the meeting that opened up a fresh turning-point in the Korean revolution, Kim Il Sung put forward the policy of further expanding and developing the anti-Japanese national united front movement on a nationwide scale, and of establishing a standing body of the united front. While channeling great efforts into working out the drafts of the program, rules and inaugural declaration of the united front body, he paid great efforts to correcting some people’s dogmatic view and narrow-minded attitude toward the propertied class, which proved to be the biggest obstacle to forming the united front body.

Under his energetic guidance the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland (ARF), the first national united front organization of the Korean people, was formed on May 5, 1936, and the Ten-Point Program of the ARF was made public.

The ARF struck its organizational roots in Manchuria of China, deep into the homeland and even Japan and other countries, thus expanding and developing it in a short period of time into a nationwide organization with a membership of hundreds of thousands.

The formation of the ARF and its activities created valuable tradition of the great national unity of Korea. By dint of this tradition, the Korean people turned out as one in the building of a new society in the complicated situation after Korea’s liberation (August 15, 1945)-those with strength dedicating strength, those with money offering money, and those with knowledge devoting knowledge-and successfully carried out the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution. In the Korean War (1950-1953) unleashed by the United States, they emerged victorious by dint of the united strength of the army and the people.

After the war, the broad sections of the masses of the people rose up and established a socialist power independent, self-sufficient and self-defensive. The reunification movement of the Korean people was waged dynamically under the banners of the three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity, and the Ten-Point Program of the Great Unity of the Whole Nation for the Reunification of the Country. All the credit goes to Kim Il Sung who consistently adhered to the ideals of independence and unity, and brilliantly implemented it.

The idea of great national unity put forward by President Kim Il Sung was carried forward by Chairman Kim Jong Il.

It is the unshakable determination and will of Kim Jong Il to hold fast to and inherit the President’s idea, achievements, experience and tradition of the great national unity, thereby realizing the country’s reunification on the strength of the great national unity.

He made public in April 1998 the work Let Us Reunify the Country Independently and Peacefully through the Great Unity of the Entire Nation, in which he clarified that the idea of great national unity, the ten-point program of the great unity of the whole nation which had been advanced by the President, and the valuable experience and the brilliant results the President had gained, were the solid foundation for great national unity and national reunification.

Thanks to his great and courageous determination, the historic inter-Korean summit meeting was held in June 2000, the first of its kind since Korea’s division, and the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration was adopted there, a solemn promise of settling the national reunification issue by the concerted efforts of the Korean nation itself.

Another summit meeting in October 2007 produced the October 4 Declaration, the action program of the June 15 Joint Declaration ushering in a brighter vista for Korea’s reunification.

Now the cause of Korea’s reunification, the lifelong desire of the President and the Chairman, is being successfully carried out by the DPRK supreme leader Kim Jong Un who is identical with President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il.

He said in his speech at the military parade celebrating the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung that he would join hands with anyone who sincerely wishes the reunification of the country and peace and prosperity of the nation, and make responsible and persevering efforts to realize the historic cause of the country’s reunification.

The 79-year-long course since the ARF formation clearly testifies to the truth that unity is the only way for the nation to carve out its destiny and to grow prosperous.