Speech made by Dr Dermot Hudson to the meeting "KIM JONG IL and the struggle for socialism "

In  9 days , on the 17th  of December it will be 7 years since comrade KIM JONG IL , the general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea  , Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the  Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army passed away very suddenly on a railway train . I remember the cold, bleak December day in 2011. However , we are not hear to mourn but to celebrate the life of comrade KIM JONG IL , a life that was totally devoted to the victory of the Korean revolution and to defending independence . In commemorating the life of the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL we are not celebrating the life of one individual but the struggle of millions of Korean people for progress , prosperity and socialism . Moreover the struggle of the Korean people for independence, sovereignty is part of a worldwide struggle that is waged in many lands of the world such as Palestine, Venezuela  , Cuba and other countries . Indeed it can be said that just as Cuba is the outpost of socialism in the Western hemisphere, the DPRK is the outpost of socialism in the far East.
Visiting the DPRK this year in September and in 2017 we saw the actual train that comrade KIM JONG IL passed away on whilst giving on the spot guidance . The very same papers that he was working on and his glasses were on the desk as if he gone for a rest and was going to come back.  This was symbolic of the life of comrade KIM JONG IL , a man who worked  without let-up. He even worked on his holidays , there was no taking it easy for him.
  The great leader comrade KIM JONG IL was always directly involved in the building of socialism at an early age .As a student who took part in the reconstruction of Pyongyang. He joined the Workers Party of Korea on the 22nd of July 1961 and began work at the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea on the 19th of June 1964. Thus the five or so decades from the 1960s to his demise were intimately connected with the guidance of comrade KIM JONG IL to the building of socialism in Korea. Comrade KIM JONG IL’s gives both theoretical and practical guidance to the construction in People's Korea.
  Whilst at university in the 1960s comrade KIM JONG IL wrote the graduation thesis . The Place and Role of the County in the Building of Socialism which was published in March, 1964. In the thesis he stressed the need for the Party and state in a socialist society to eliminate the differences between town and country. The county would serve as a regional base of socialist rural construction. Thus at an early age comrade KIM JONG IL advanced  original theories of socialist construction based on the realities of Korea . Such theories were an application of the Juche idea had been  first  authored by President KIM IL  SUNG which teaches us that masses are the master of the revolution and construction in each country .
    Comrade KIM JONG IL always made sure that socialism in the DPRK was Juche-based, not the copy of another country. The habit of fawning on big powers (known as flunkeyism) and dogmatism did great harm to the international communist movement and socialist camp,. Some socialist countries in Europe blindly copied the the Soviet Union. It was said that in East Berlin when it rained in Moscow people carried umbrellas. Thus when modern revisionism appeared in the USSR, the East European socialist countries having no independence, having no Juche introduced modern revisionism. Later they copied the disastrous "glasnost” and "perestroika” bringing about the final frustration and disintegration of socialism in Eastern Europe. KIM JONG IL the successor to the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG fully implemented the Juche Idea and independent line of the Korean revolution                                     
 In the mid-1960s some socialist countries had deviated to the Right but some others had deviated to the Left. Both these extremes led to big losses in socialist construction. KIM JONG IL addressed officials of  the Science and Education Department of the  Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea on June 13, 1967 and put forward a unique line on the question of material incentives and the question of speed and equilibriums .It was thanks to comrade KIM JONG IL that the nonsense of revisionism which slowed down the building of socialism in some countries, even causing it to fall into the so-called "Era of stagnation”, was smashed During the 1970s comrade KIM JONG IL organised the "70 day battle speed " at a time when the capitalist world was suffering from recession, inflation, unemployment  and the revisionist countries had low economic growth. The growth is industrial output value in the DPRK actually hit 70 per cent, an unprecedented figure.
   The great leader comrade KIM JONG IL strongly believed in the independence and Juche character of socialism in the DPRK. On the 25th of December 1978 he put forward the slogan "Let Us Live Our Own Way ! " in order independently construct socialism on the basis of the Juche Idea. As he pointed out
"It is only when one displays a great revolutionary spirit of self-reliance that one can have faith in one's own strength, exploit the internal resources of one's country to the maximum and conduct the revolution and construction with success. Experience shows that only when one gives full play to the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance can one surmount every manner of difficulty and ordeal.”
       Later in 1997 comrade KIM JONG IL fully expounded the Juche character and national character of the Korean revolution in the work " On Preserving the Juche Character and National Character of the Revolution and Construction" which laid down fundamental principles for maintaining the Juche character and national character of the revolution and also explained the DPRK's history of building independent socialism and rejecting great power chauvinism.                         
Towards the of his life comrade KIM JONG IL paid great attention to building the independent national economy . He made sure that the production of Juche fibre (Vinalon) , Juche fertiliser and Juche steel were stepped up. He attended the rally for the re-opening of the February 8th Vinalon Complex (Vinalon is synthetic fibre made from limestone which is abundant in the DPRK) in 2010 and gave on-the-spot guidance to the complex several times. 
  Thus the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL throughout his years of guiding  the work of building socialism made sure that the socialism of the DPRK was a  unique , independent , Juche-based socialism. At the same time he also made sure that it was a socialism centred upon the popular masses, a people-orientated socialism. He said that he would make flowers bloom on rock if it is the wish of the people. He set an example through his own style of work. He travelled a distance that was the equivalent of going around the earth many times in order to give on-the spot-guidance .He visited places at the crack of dawn denying himself sleep, sometimes just sleeping in his car and taking meals of rice-balls.On one occasion he went down a deep mine . Comrade KIM JONG IL dressed in a plain and simple clothes like an ordinary worker,
    Some socialist countries became bureaucratic and their leaderships were remote, this eventually led to the frustration of socialism in these countries. It can be added that some people in capitalist countries placed hopes on reformist social democratic parties but not only did these parties not fundamentally change the social order but they created huge bureaucracies .Comrade KIM JONG IL was a determined opponent of bureaucracy . He said that" "The wielding of power and bureaucracy have nothing in common with the true nature of the working-class party. These are the method of government employed by the reactionary ruling class of the old society. The appearance of such a method in socialist society is mainly due to outmoded ideological remnants in the minds of officials. The work method and style peculiar to the working-class party which struggles for the interests of the people are the revolutionary method and popular style of work.”.
   This was a most trenchant and searing expose of the harmful and reactionary nature of bureaucracy.. Even in the days of the "arduous march" and "forced march " of the 1990s when everything was short and the country faced difficulties, comrade KIM JONG IL made sure that the children of nurseries and kindergartens were supplied with soya milk and 'bean milk vans' drove through the streets every day . Comrade KIM JONG IL made sure that despite the sanctions and blockades as well the natural disasters that the Korean people received the benefits of free education, free medical care and even free housing. There was no austerity or privatisation in People's Korea. This we  uphold the life of comrade KIM JONG IL  and the DPRK as it  is an inspiration to our struggles here .
 Although comrade KIM JONG IL passed away 7 years ago on that fateful December day , his legacy lives on and prospers in the form of Juche Korea led by respected Marshal KIM JONG UN  which defies the sanctions and blockades of the imperialists. The great leader comrade KIM JONG IL lives on in the hearts and minds of the Korean people and world progressive peoples.