SPEECH –REMEMEMBERING A GREAT LEADER AND A GREAT SUPREME COMMANDER-speech by Dr Dermot Hudson to the meeting of the ASSPUK,JISGE and UK KFA 9th of December 2017

On Sunday 17^th of December it will 6 years since the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL passed away and on the 24^th of December it will be 26 years comrade KIM JONG IL was appointed as the supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army , so I intend to say a bit about these two anniversaries .

 The passing away of the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL  was an event that caused immense and  heart rending sorrow amongst the Korean people as well as the progressive people of the world. The media in the imperialist countries were stunned by the scenes of mass mourning and could not understand. Of course they could never understand the deep ties of loyalty and affection between the leader and the people in the DPRK .

In fact comrade KIM JONG IL was on his way to give on- the spot guidance to sectors of the national economy when he passed away . He was not an armchair leader. Despite being 69 years of age he continued to give on the spot guidance come rain or shine visiting everywhere  , military units, factories , farms etc . There was no taking it easy for him or going on holiday but continuous hard work,hard work for the people.  I have visited the Palace of the Sun where the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL rests . Here you can see the train that he used for on the spot guidance . You can see his desk ,with his glasses folded on it as he had just gone for a rest and was planning to come back.

 When we visited the DPRK in April this year  we had the privilege of visiting the Migok Co-Operative  Farm just outside Sariwon city . Here we were able to go into the farmhouse that  comrade KIM JONG IL visited in 2006.It was not special, it was a typical DPRK farm house , basically 2 up 2 down  house . It is inconceivable for imagine a Western politician such as Theresa May  visiting the home of an ordinary rural worker or farmer . All his life comrade KIM JONG IL was  a true people’s leader working for the people.

 I am not going to deal with the great ideological and theoretical exploits of the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL  as we have other meetings and you can also read about them in the many excellent biographies  both online and in hardcopy but I would just mention the work “On the Juche Idea “ which systematised the Juche Idea and on “On the Art of the Cinema “.

Comrade KIM JONG IL was a great military commander having started his Songun(army first) revolutionary leadership on the 25^th of August 1960 , becoming the supreme commander of the KPA in December 1991 amidst the frustration of the socialist camp.

        One thing that  sticks out in my memory is the following episode. The early and mid 1990s following the collapse of the USSR were a sombre period for many .One cold ,drab wintry morning in December 1994 . I woke up  and turned the radio to listen to the news on BBC Radio 4 . The announcer suddenly said  'anti-aircraft gunners in north Korea say they have shot down a US helicopter ' .A wave of excitement surged through me .I put on a cassette tape of the song  "No Motherland Without You " which was the theme song of the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL . The refrain of the song is

"Without you, there would be no us!

Without you, there would be no motherland!"

       We later learnt that one US pilot had been killed and the other had been captured by the Korean People's Army ! .Why did I feel such a surge of excitement and optimism over this incident ?  Because it was another great victory over US imperialism. It showed that the DPRK was taking a real hard-line against US imperialism when others had given into US imperialism , compromising with and basically giving up the heady anti-US,anti-imperialist struggle . In fact it was a sorely needed victory over US imperialism because the world revolutionary and progressive people had seen defeat after defeat and retreat in the late 80s and early 90s. This victory had not come from a great power in which some had foolishly placed their hopes in , I remember encountering many so-called revolutionaries who believed that only a big country could successfully carry out the revolution but this victory came from a small country , People's Korea, the Korea of Juche and Songun !.

 At the time it was a few months after the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG had passed away , many worried what course Korea would take . The imperialists and big powers wanted to try and force People's Korea to take the road  of 'reform ' and 'opening up ' , the road of capitalism .All kinds of pressure was put on the DPRK to abandon the revolutionary road of Juche . Some so-called 'friends ' of the DPRK whispered in people's ears that the DPRK must 'reform' and 'open up' . Ugly and pernicious rumours were spread that the DPRK was 'opening up' and the imperialists rubbed their hands.

   However the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL had declared 'Expect No Change from me ' !

When I heard the news of the US helicopter, I knew that the DPRK was sticking firmly to the road of anti-imperialism . It had not changed its policies .This was still the same country that had single-handedly captured the Yankee spy ship 'Pueblo' , had shot down the EC121  spy and triumphed over the stupid Yankees in the Panmunjom Incident in 1976 .

. Comrade KIM JONG IL built the KPA up to a most solid invincible revolutionary armed force , carrying forward the revolutionary idea of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG on Juche army building .He made sure that the KPA and Korean people took a super hardline against US imperialism and world imperialism. For example in March 1993 the US imperialists brought forward the so-called 'nuclear issue ' and demanded the so-called special inspection of military bases in the DPRK. At the same they carried out the massive ' Team Spirit' military exercise which they had suspended the year before . Some leaders would have panicked , some would have given in but comrade KIM JONG IL , a great brilliant commander of Songun instead gave the supreme commander's order 0034 to declare the semi-war state on March 8, 1993 and saw to it that the government statement that the DPRK would withdraw from the NPT was published on March 12, 1993. Thus twin blows that hit the US imperialists very hard had been delivered. This shook the imperialists rigid and left them impotent with rage! .

   During the 20 year long period of his Supreme Commandership the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL delivered one blow after another to the despised US imperialists such as the first DPRK nuclear test in October 2006 and the second nuclear test in 2009 . When Iraq , Afghanistan ,Yugoslavia and other countries were torn asunder by the rapacious and greedy US led imperialists , People's Korea fully maintained its independence, its security and dignity .

  Let us remember the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL as the great brilliant commander of Songun , the commander of independence  !