ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RAISED BY THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS INSTITUTE OF ITALY -KIM IL SUNG

KIM IL SUNG

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RAISED BY

THE SECRETARY GENERAL OF

THE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

INSTITUTE OF ITALY

October 13, 1975

(Extract)

Now I shall pass on to the question of Korea’s reunification.

Reunifying our divided country is the greatest national aspiration of the entire Korean people and the most important revolutionary task for our Party and the Government of the Republic.

Our country’s reunification is essentially a question of taking back the territory and population stolen by the foreign imperialists and ensuring complete national sovereignty for the whole country.

The basic policy followed consistently by our Party and the Government of the Republic in the matter of national reunification is for the Korean people themselves to achieve this goal independently, free from any outside interference, and by peaceful means on democratic principles. In accordance with this basic policy our Party and the Government of the Republic have so far put forward many reasonable proposals for reunification and worked tirelessly for their realization.

However, because of the obstructive moves of the US imperialists and their stooges, our country has not yet been reunified and big obstacles and difficulties still lie in the way of national reunification.

Our country’s independent, peaceful reunification requires, first of all, that the guise of “UN forces” should be stripped from the US army occupying south Korea and that all of them be made to withdraw. The US imperialists’ occupation of south Korea and their aggressive policy constitute the chief obstacle to our country’s independent, peaceful reunification and the main factor endangering peace in Korea. The withdrawal of the US imperialist army of aggression alone will open up the way to the independent and peaceful solution of Korea’s reunification question.

For the country’s independent, peaceful reunification, the Armistice Agreement should be replaced by a peace agreement on condition that the US army is withdrawn from south Korea. Because it is simply an agreement to suspend hostilities, the Korean Armistice Agreement cannot guarantee a durable peace in our country. Therefore, by the conclusion of a peace agreement between the signatories to the Armistice Agreement—the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States—a guarantee should be provided for a lasting peace in Korea, and favourable conditions created for the peaceful solution of the Korean question.

If the United States wants peace in Korea and wishes the Korean issue to be solved peacefully, it should give up its “two Koreas” policy and its scheme to start another war, replace the Armistice Agreement by a peace agreement and withdraw from south Korea without delay.

Following the conclusion of a peace agreement between our country and the United States and the withdrawal of the US troops from south Korea, concrete measures should be adopted for the north and south of Korea to observe the principles of the North-South Joint Statement, to cut their armed forces drastically, prevent armed conflicts, and promise to refrain from resorting to arms against each other. In this way, genuine conditions would be created for removing the military confrontation and misunderstanding and mistrust between the north and the south and for achieving national unity and peaceful reunification.

It is a law of the development of history that the people’s rev­olutionary struggle for national independence will win and that imperial­ism will fall. No form of imperialism can occupy another country for ever and keep another nation permanently in colonial bondage. It is fruitless for the US imperialists to keep attempting to create “two Koreas” and make south Korea their permanent colony.

Thanks to the united struggle of all the people in north and south Korea and the pressure of people throughout the world, the US imperialists will soon be driven from south Korea and the schemes of external and internal partitionists to create “two Koreas” will be checked and frustrated and the historic cause of national reunification achieved without fail.