We celebrate the birth of President KIM IL SUNG , the founder of People’s Korea, both to increase solidarity with People’s Korea and because of the massive achievements that he made which are too numerous to mention in a short space of time. My short presentation will look at the practical achievements President KIM IL SUNG made in the building of Juche-based socialism.
To me, one of the greatest achievements of President KIM IL SUNG was he built a unique, Juche-based socialist country that was not a copy of another country and was quite different to any other socialist country. This is proved by the fact that the DPRK did not collapse when the USSR and other socialist countries fell in 1989 -1991 . Many people fail to realise that socialism in the DPRK was and is an independent , Juche-based socialism centred upon the people .
This year , 2023, will see in September the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) which President KIM IL SUNG led for several decades. The USSR never saw its 75th anniversary but the DPRK will celebrate its 75th anniversary magnificently. I think this fact speaks for itself and demonstrates the great leadership and theoretical abilities of President KIM IL SUNG .
President KIM IL SUNG who had fought the Japanese imperialists for more than 15 years and he led the first revolutionary organisations in Korea since he was a teenager , he was determined that Korea should be independent and that the new People’s Korea that rose like a phoenix on the ashes of the ruins of Japanese colonialism would not be anyone’s puppet and that Korea would never again be a colony. President KIM IL SUNG declared that ‘“The Korean revolution at the present stage is an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution. We must follow the road of progressive democracy which suits the Korean situation—neither Soviet democracy nor American ‘democracy’. The road of progressive democracy, this is the very line, the right road, for the Korean revolution at present”
People’s Korea did not follow the Soviet road .Instead of setting up Soviets ( councils of workers and soldiers) , people’s committees , new organs of popular power . Some people had wanted Korea to copy the Soviet model , some ultra leftists had wanted the instant dictatorship of the proletariat and immediate socialism . The Rightist opportunists wanted to introduce bourgeois democracy and some even wanted to restore feudalism in Korea. President KIM IL SUNG mapped a road of anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution .
A radical and thoroughgoing agrarian reform was carried within the timeframe of 20 days in March 1946.All land owned by absentee landlords or over 5 hectares in size was confiscated without compensation being paid to the former landlords and was distributed to the people free of charge . In some socialist countries, there was limited compensation for the former landlords and some charges for the redistributed land but in People’s Korea, there was not. Some neo-colonial countries failed miserably to carry out land reform in the interests of the ordinary people. Some former colonial countries adopted the ‘willing buyer , willing seller’ approach which left existing property relations intact.
In People’s Korea 1 million hectares of land possessed by the Japanese imperialists and their stooges and landlords were distributed to poor peasants and farmhands of 720 000 households free of charge.Feudalism and landlordism were destroyed in one go .
President KIM IL SUNG proposed the unique title the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the new state reflecting the nature of the new system centred on the popular masses and rejecting the assertions of the Right and Left opportunists.
After the Fatherland Liberation War ( known as the Korean War in the West ) President KIM IL SUNG guided the socialist transformation of production relations in a unique way that accorded with the realities of Korea . Flunkeyists (those who look up to and copy big powers ) and dogmatists opposed President KIM IL SUNG’s original and Juche-based idea of co-operativising agriculture before industrialization and mechanisation .However President KIM IL SUNG said that if was the demand of the people then it should be carried out and he led the movement for cooperativization. Cooperativization was completed in the DPRK by 1958. The DPRK had 100 per cent socially owned agriculture whereas some socialist countries either left agriculture mostly in private hands or did not reach 100 percent social ownership.
President KIM IL SUNG in 1955 made the historic speech ‘On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work’ which set out the road of Juche for People’s Korea. In opposition to the big power chauvinists President KIM IL SUNG put forward the line of building an independent national economy , in fact, this line has been a consistent line of the DPRK since Day One ..In the late 1950s the big power chauvinists and modern revisionists tried to subordinate the DPRK 's economy to their own by forcing the DPRK to join the old COMECON or CMEA . President KIM IL SUNG refused .The revisionists said that the DPRK should not develop heavy industry but instead should just produce minerals and agricultural produc and export them . Apparently Khrushcov , the arch revisionist and traitor , once offered to supply electricity to the DPRK but President KIM IL SUNG declined this saying that the revisionists would turn off the electricity if the DPRK expressed disagreement with them .The DPRK built an independent national economy with machine building at its core . Thanks to the Juche-based independent national economy the DPRK was able to rapidly industrialise and achieve phenomenal rates of growth for example 36 per cent in one year.In the late 1950s there was the Chollima movement , a movement of workers for mass innovation . It took its name from Chollima, a legendary flying horse that could fly at a great speed. This was initiated by President KIM IL SUNG himself who appealed directly to workers when the country faced challenges and difficulties created by the US imperialists , big power chauvinists and modern revisionists . The results were stunning;workers at the Kangson Steel Plant doubled turned out 120,000 tons of steel from a plant with a rated capacity of 60,000 tons thereby doubling production a year . Builders in Pyongyang created the Pyongyang speed which saw a flat constructed every 14 minutes.In the period between 1957 to 1960 industrial output growth was 19.1 percent per year.
An example of the DPRK’s self-reliance and a symbol of the independent national economy in the DPRK is Vinalon . This is fibre made from limestone . It means that the DPRK does not have to import cotton to make clothes . President KIM IL SUNG gave great encouragement to Dr Li the inventor of Vinalon.
In the late 1950s and early 1960, Some socialist countries either de-collectivised and adopted private agriculture or broke up the Motor Tractor Stations. However, in People’s Korea this did not happen and in his classic 1964 work ‘The Theses On the Socialist Rural Question In Our Country ‘ President KIM IL SUNG stressed working class leadership over agriculture and strengthening the relationship between state and cooperative property. It also put forward the long-term goal of converting cooperative property into all-people property. Whereas those socialist countries which had introduced revisionist and capitalist methods suffered great losses in agriculture and even had to import food from the imperialist countries, under the banner of the ‘The Theses On the Socialist Rural Question In Our Country’ the DPRK not only maintained self-sufficiency in food but reaped bumper harvests year after year and hit the target of 7 million tons of grain two years ahead of schedule in 1974. During the 1970s the DPRK was a major exporter of grain and also helped African countries such as Guinea and Tanzania develop agriculture.
President KIM IL SUNG ensured that socialism in the DPRK gave the people the maximum benefits. In 1974 taxation was abolished and prices were reduced by 30 per cent on average. People’s Korea first introduced free medical care for industrial workers in 1947 and introduced universal free health care in 1953. Health care in People’s Korea is totally free, there are no fees for medicines. Some socialist countries had fees for medicines. Education in the DPRK is also completely free with no fees or charges. Housing also was virtually free.
Today we remember President KIM IL SUNG for his great achievements in building an invincible, independent Juche-based socialism centred on the popular masses. Today his work is carried forward by dear respected Marshal KIM JONG UN who practises people-oriented policies.
Glory to President KIM IL SUNG on the 111th anniversary of his birth!
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