UNITY OF THE SOCIALIST CAMP AND THE NEW STAGE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST MOVEMENT KIM IL SUNG

KIM IL SUNG

UNITY OF THE SOCIALIST CAMP AND THE NEW STAGE OF THE    

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST MOVEMENT

Report to an Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea

December 5, 1957

(Extract)

Comrades,

The radical change in the international situation cannot but reflect itself in the situation of our country. It provides definitely favourable conditions for the Korean people in their struggle to reunify the country peacefully and build socialism.

Maintaining peace in Korea and reunifying the country by peaceful means are, at the present stage, the first and prime revolutionary tasks of the Korean people. In order to fulfil these tasks our Party has been and is still struggling to strengthen the democratic base by hastening the socialist construction in the northern half and, at the same time, to unite all patriotic forces in south Korea and urge them in the struggle against imperialism and feudalism.

The postwar situation in our country has become more favourable to the Korean people. The current situation at home is characterized by a rapid growth of the socialist force in the northern half of the Republic in contrast with the frustration of the US imperialist colonial rule and the daily sharpening contradictions between US imperialism and broad sections of the people in south Korea.

The people in the north under the leadership of our Party and the Government of the Republic have achieved a great success in their struggle for the postwar rehabilitation and development of the national economy.

During the Three-Year Plan period, industrial and agricultural production not only recovered the prewar level but far exceeded it, and towns and villages sprang up from the debris, taking on a new look.

Successful implementation of the Three-Year Plan resulted not merely in the recovery of the damaged productive forces, but in basically laying down the foundations of an independent national economy and in a fundamental change in the socio-economic basis of the country. Colonial lopsidedness of industry was eliminated to a considerable degree and its technical foundations strengthened. The socialist economic sector became predominant in town and countryside as a result of the expansion and consolidation of the socialist relations of production and particularly due to the decisive victory in agricultural cooperativization.

Progress in technical reconstruction and the establishment of the socialist production relations are bringing about a fresh upswing in the development of our national economy. Preliminary data show that the total industrial output value this year is expected to increase by nearly 40 per cent compared with the figure of last year, or 2.8 times over the prewar level. The grain output this year is expected to exceed 3.2 million tons, which was unimaginable in the years of Japanese imperialism. In addition, it is necessary to point out that this figure will be obtained in extremely unfavourable weather conditions. The standard of living of the people is improving and education and culture are developing.

Socialism has decisively won in our national economy and it is penetrating deeply into all aspects of the lives of the working people.

The tremendous success in socialist economic construction has brought a radical change in the class relations and further consolidated our state and social system. Political unity and solidarity of the masses, based on the worker-peasant alliance, have been further cemented on new socialist foundations. Political zeal of the entire people and their enthusiasm for work have risen very high, and everyone is participating in socialist construction with distinct prospects and firm confidence.

The socialist revolution in the northern half of the Republic is winning. The large-scale growth of socialist force in the north is a main factor for changing the situation in our country in favour of the Korean people. It constitutes the decisive force which is able to contain and frustrate the enemy’s provocative scheme in Korea, and a powerful force which is further inspiring the south Korean people’s struggle against US imperialism and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique.

Today, south Korea is precipitating into an irretrievable crisis in all fields of political and economic lives.

On account of the war policy of the US imperialists and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique and the US policy of colonial plunder, the south Korean economy is going from bad to worse.

Its national industry is heading to bankruptcy due to the flooding American surplus commodities, exclusive control of raw materials and funds by American monopoly capital and comprador capital and overtaxation. A large number of medium and small enterprises have closed down, and approximately 80 per cent of those which had survived till the beginning of this year are in a state of layoff or are working shorter hours.

Agriculture, the major source of plunder by the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique, has declined critically. Cultivated land is decreasing year after year, and grain production in 1956 was nearly 30 per cent less than in the last year of Japanese imperialist rule.

Military and police expenditure of the puppet regime in 1956 accounted for 65 per cent of its budget, the tax revenue from the people reached 86 per cent of the total budgetary revenue. Financial deficiencies are quickly increasing, currency inflating, and prices soaring sky-high.

Because of economic decline and plunder the south Korean industrial labourers, peasants and other working people are suffering from un­employment, hunger and poverty. The south Korean people are denied even the elementary freedoms. They are suffering from growing humili­ation and atrocities committed by the US aggressors, and everything that is national and progressive in south Korea is being obliterated.

All this is the outcome of the 12 years of US colonial rule of south Korea.

There is a sharp contradiction between the interests of US monopoly capital and a handful of landlords and comprador capitalists who are ruling south Korea on the one hand, and the workers, peasants, urban petty bourgeoisie and broad sections of the population, including national capitalists, on the other.

US imperialist colonial rule has driven the south Korean people into a cul-de-sac. They are realizing more clearly that they can only be extricated from their unbearable hardships when US imperialist colonial rule is abolished and the country is reunified peacefully.

Contradictions are sharpening within the ruling circles of south Korea. Conflicts between the Liberal Party and opposition parties are intensifying, and the latter is becoming more and more discontent with the Syngman Rhee.

All this shows that US imperialism and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique have been isolated from the masses of people and that their ruling basis is weakening. It also proves that there is a growing possibility to form a united front of all patriotic forces including the workers, peasants and other broad strata in south Korea.

The US aggressors are making frantic efforts to hide the frustration of their policy in south Korea and to get out of their current crisis.

They are intensifying exploitation and oppression of the south Korean people, while, at the same time, creating tensions again in Korea. Recently, the US side unilaterally declared the abrogation of some articles of the Armistice Agreement and are manoeuvring to bring new types of weapons into south Korea and turn it into their atomic base. But there is not a shadow of doubt that the result of this will be contrary to their wishes.

The situations in the two parts of Korea require that the entire people should struggle more stubbornly for a peaceful reunification of the country.

Maintenance of peace in Korea and her peaceful reunification represent the unanimous desire of the entire Korean people and are the vital issue for our people. Achieving them will also be an important contribution to the maintenance and consolidation of peace in Asia and the rest of the world.

More than once, our Party has made reasonable and feasible proposals for the peaceful reunification of the country, and has been striving to make them a reality.

Strict observance of the Armistice Agreement is the first step to maintain peace in Korea. The US side must, as soon as possible, stop all violations of the Armistice Agreement including their provocations on the Military Demarcation Line and their illegal importation of weapons. The armistice must be converted into a durable peace.

The occupation of south Korea by the US aggressor army is the main factor which threatens peace in our country and is obstructing peaceful reunification. As long as the US army remains stationed in south Korea and their aggressive policy continues, we can neither hope for peace in Korea, nor can we achieve peaceful reunification.

The US aggressive troops should quit south Korea. We demand that all foreign armed forces, including the Chinese People’s Volunteers, withdraw from Korea.

Continuing to clamour for a “march north”, the Syngman Rhee regime is keeping more than 700,000 puppet army troops and making frenzied efforts to build up arms by squeezing the south Korean people in every possible way.

We hold on that the armies of the north and the south should be reduced to 100,000 or less respectively in order to ease the tension in Korea and lighten the oppressive military burdens particularly imposed on the south Korean people.

A very abnormal state of affairs currently exists on both sides of the Military Demarcation Line. We cannot tolerate the current situation where the MDL is the barrier dividing the nation.

Why should a people be denied free visits, free mail exchange, and still less the right of goods exchange within their own country? This state of affairs is beneficial to no Koreans; it is the root cause of our national calamities.

The artificial barrier between the north and the south must be pulled down in the interests of the Korean nation, particularly the suffering south Korean people. The people should have the freedom of mutual visits, mail should be exchanged between the two parts on a regular basis, and various goods traded.

If this is impossible right now, an initial step should be taken to realize goods exchange and mutual visits of north and south Korean people by specifying some spots and routes in both parts of the country. The way should be opened up for the south Korean people to use north Korea’s abundant electricity, coal, cement, chemical fertilizer and many other kinds of manufactured goods, and free fishing on a reciprocal basis should be guaranteed in the waters of north and south Korea.

Opportunities should be arranged for meetings and negotiations between north and south Korean political parties, social organizations and individuals. The political life should first be democratized and free activities of all political parties and social organizations guaranteed in south Korea.

We will ensure conditions of free activities in north Korea for any political parties, social organizations and individuals from south Korea.

Settlement of all these questions will accelerate the peaceful reunifi­cation of the country and make it feasible. North-south general elections should then be held on the basis of the democratic will of the Korean people, free from any foreign intervention, to reunify the country peacefully. The Korean question should be settled by the Korean people themselves in accordance with their own will.

Rallying all patriotic forces in the united front against the US imperialists and the traitorous Syngman Rhee is of paramount importance in reunifying the country peacefully. The struggle for peaceful reunification will be more successful only when a united front is formed embracing the workers, peasants, intellectuals, handicraftsmen, mer­chants, non-comprador capitalists and other broad sections in south Korea with the exception of the very small number of landlords and comprador capitalists allied with the US imperialists. The formation of such a united front is now being raised as an urgent issue in south Korea.

We will unite and struggle jointly with all political parties, social organizations, individuals and all strata who are opposed to US imperi­alism and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique and support peaceful national reunification. We will join hands with those who advocate national independence and peaceful reunification, irrespective of their past records.

That is our stand and policy for the peaceful reunification.

Comrades,

Without struggle it would be impossible to maintain peace in Korea and reunify the country peacefully. We must not just sit and wait, but fight for these objectives.

We will be able to achieve the peaceful reunification of the country if we unite the socialist force in the northern half and all patriotic forces in south Korea and mobilize them in the struggle against the US imperialists and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique by firmly relying on the support and encouragement of the peoples of the socialist camp and the peace-loving forces of the world.

Our important revolutionary task is to speed up socialist construc­tion in the northern half and thus strengthen the democratic base.

The working people in the northern half of the Republic are currently displaying a high degree of enthusiasm and creativity in their work in order to implement the huge First Five-Year Plan. Successful implemen­tation of this plan will strengthen the economic foundations of socialism in the north and at the same time basically solve the problem of food, clothing and housing for the people and develop this backward agrarian land into an independent industrial-agricultural country.

There is not the slightest doubt that during the Five-Year Plan period the northern half of the Republic will bring about great progress and changes in all areas of political, economic and cultural lives. We have all possibilities for the realization of this plan.

The situation in the south, under US imperialist occupation, will no doubt be further aggravated in the future. In south Korea the economy will get worse, the people’s sufferings will increase, and the contradictions between US imperialism and the people will sharpen. The US imperialist policy of colonial plunder will bring no other results.

It is only too clear where the radical change in the balance of forces between the north and the south will lead to.

The south Korean people will not fail to see this change. They will more actively claim government for the people like that in the northern half and launch a more stubborn struggle against the reactionary rule of the US imperialists and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique. An arduous, long-drawn-out struggle is needed for the Korean people to win peaceful reunification. The enemies of revolution will not be able to check our advance. The Korean people will certainly win an ultimate victory.