Speech on the 101st Anniversary of the birth of Madame KIM JONG SUK -made to meeting of JISGE 08.12.2018 by Dermot Hudson

Today I am going to tell you about the life of a great Korean woman revolutionary, Madame KIM JONG SUK who was born 101 years on the 24th of December. I think this has particular relevance because recently, there was an outcry in the mainstream about the treatment of women in the DPRK, as usual it was not based on facts but third hand reports and ignorant assumptions . I say ignorant because it fails to mention the fact that the DPRK upholds a women leader and venerates her memory. In fact the DPRK was probably the only Asian country apart from Sri Lanka to have a statue of a women leader .
The sculpture of Madame KIM JONG SUK has pride of place in the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery at Mt Taesong in Pyongyang, this cemetery is the final resting place for the revolutionaries who fought for Korea’s independence against the Japanese. In her hometown of Hoeryong there is a statue of KIM JONG SUK .  A textile mill , a kindergarten  and a county in the DPRK are named after her.
Madame KIM JONG SUK was born into a poor peasant family in Hoeryong in the far northern part of Korea. She and her family had to endure the extremely harsh exploitation , oppression and slavery of not only the Japanese imperialists who had colonized Korea but also the greedy landlords and capitalists . KIM JONG SUK was forced to turn a mill for a landlord because of a debt, in other words slavery .                 
    KIM JONG SUK became very quickly aware of the contradictions of society as well the harsh , oppressive rule of the Japanese imperialists so she joined a revolutionary organisation at the early age of 14 in September 1931. She had soon distinguished herself as a brilliant political worker . She made a deep impression on people .The veteran long term unconverted prisoner Ri In Mo recalls meeting her in the 1930s not knowing who she was . In September 1935 KIM JONG SUK was admitted to the Korean People's Revolutionary Army (KPRA) commanded by the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG . She quickly distinguished herself as an iron-willed adroit guerrilla fighter, particularly as a crackshot . She defended the life of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG on several occasions.                             

   More importantly she defended the revolutionary ideology of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG and his policies . Because of its arduous and complex nature the Korean revolution was not without traitors and renegades. Some rightist capitulationists tried to undermine the guerrilla bases and spread defeatism. They even arrested loyal revolutionary comrades as 'spies'. KIM JONG SUK had strong class consciousness and believed totally in the Juche-based revolutionary line of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG  so she waged a struggle to smash the counter-revolutionary opportunists.
  Madame KIM JONG SUK bought up her son,  comrade KIM JONG IL , the future leader of the DPRK, to be a strong revolutionary and leader.
    After liberation  Madame KIM JONG SUK without stopping for a rest , threw herself into the work of building a new democratic Korea after its liberation from the long dark rule of Japanese imperialism. In particular she paid attention to the questions of women's liberation and was the founder of the Korean Democratic Women's Union . She opposed bourgeois feminism and instead put forward a Juche-based , proletarian , socialist feminism .This came from her unshakable class stand and belief in the Juche Idea of the great leader President KIM IL SUNG  In the West bourgeois feminism has proved to be highly divisive , setting women against men .
  Thanks to the ideas of KIM JONG SUK  and the Juche-based socialist system women in the DPRK enjoy real equality . Many measures have been put in place to practically guarantee women's equality in society . The DPRK does not have pornography or the capitalist 'sex industry'  or Western sexual culture which reduces women to pieces of meat . Today in the DPRK women are strong , independent minded , and revolutionary . This is the legacy of Madame KIM JONG SUK.
    The life and achievements of Madame KIM JONG SUK are indeed very great so that the Korean people and revolutionary peoples of the  world study and uphold them .  In some countries organisations bearing her name   have been formed such as the Peru group for the study of the revolutionary activities of Kim Jong Suk and the Kim Jong Suk Women's Union of Russia .
    Visiting the International Friendship Exhibition at Mt Myohyang  in August and April of this year we saw the waxwork statue of Madame KIM JONG SUK which looked very lifelike . Looking at the statue I recalled the great exploits of Madame KIM JONG SUK , Mother of Korea, heroine of the anti-Japanese revolutionary , indomitable communist revolutionary fighter and the pioneer of Juche-based , socialist women's liberation.