. Ideology-First Principle

The revolutionary idea of the great comrade Kim Jong Un establishes the ideology-first principle as a revolutionary principle to be consistently maintained in revolution and construction, based on the ideological theory of Juche, whose legitimacy and power have been confirmed throughout the entire course of the Korean revolution.

The esteemed comrade Kim Jong Un said:

"The lifeline of the revolution is protected by ideology, and the revolution advances through the power of ideology."

The ideology-first principle is the revolutionary principle of taking ideology as the most important weapon in revolution and construction, and of resolving all problems through the methods of prioritising ideology, ideological transformation and ideological mobilisation. In other words, it is the revolutionary principle of resolving all problems not through economism, vulgar materialism or technicism, but through the method of giving priority to ideological work, of educating and transforming people, and mobilising the ideological spiritual power of the popular masses.

Maintaining the ideology-first principle is a precondition for the existence and strengthening of the ruling socialist party, and the fundamental guarantee for realising political leadership over revolution and construction.

For the ruling socialist party, which assumes responsibility for the destiny of the people and carries out the revolution, the only weapon is ideology. Without ideology, a revolutionary party cannot be born nor exist, and there can be no party work or revolutionary struggle without ideological work.

Ideology is the most powerful weapon of revolution and construction. The history of the ideological battles of our Party, which has recorded 80 years of history in power with victories and glories, transforming countless trials that determine the victory or defeat, advance or retreat of the revolution into periods of great upsurge through powerful ideological offensives, wielding ideology as its only weapon, confirms this.

Maintaining the ideology-first principle is a requirement of the revolutionary practice of the new era.

Today, our revolution has transitioned to a new stage of completing the great cause of building a prosperous and militarily strong country by our own strength, opening a path never before trodden. On the other hand, a generational change has occurred in the revolutionary ranks, and the state of people's consciousness and the social environment have also changed significantly. Whilst the primacy of the popular masses has been transformed into the style of the Party and the country, and the era of the primacy of our State has unfolded, raising the loyalty, pride and patriotic enthusiasm of the people, a series of negative phenomena have also appeared. The ideological and cultural infiltration manoeuvres of hostile forces are being carried out more cunningly and maliciously than ever before.

To suppress the reactionary ideological offensive of hostile forces, firmly strengthen revolutionary and class positions, and vigorously promote revolution and construction with the power of ideology, we must consistently wield the ideology-first principle.

The important thing in maintaining the ideology-first principle is, first of all, to firmly wield the principle of prioritising ideology in revolution and construction.

The driving force of the revolution's advance is not objective factors or economic-material factors, but subjective factors, the ideological spiritual power of the popular masses. How objective and economic-material factors are prepared and how they function depends on what ideology people have and how they act.

If we are limited by objective factors and justify ourselves with economic-material factors, we cannot think of the active and proactive role of the subject, and we arrive at the conclusion that we cannot carry out revolution and construction unless unfavourable external factors are removed.

Sitting and waiting for all conditions to ripen, or seeing that people's ideological consciousness will automatically change when economic-material factors are prepared, is the same as not carrying out the revolution.

The ruling socialist party and the State must see and approach all problems that arise in revolution and construction from the standpoint of prioritising ideology, give decisive significance to ideological factors, and resolve them on the basis of the principle of giving priority to ideological and political work in all labours.

To maintain the principle of prioritising ideology, we must, first, correctly combine practical administrative work and technical-economic work, giving priority to ideological and political work.

We must, furthermore, reject economism, vulgar materialism and the ideology of "art for art's sake", and analyse, evaluate and resolve all problems on the basis of the principle of prioritising ideology and the precedence of ideological work.

The important thing in maintaining the ideology-first principle is, next, to take the work of ideological transformation as the central task of the ruling socialist party and the State.

The work of ideological transformation is, in essence, the work of ideological education to form all members of society as true revolutionaries and communists. In other words, it is the work of ideological education that leads all members of society to overcome individualism and egoism and to possess the ideological spiritual aspect of communist human beings.

The work of ideological transformation and ideological education is a serious revolution in the ideological field to liquidate once and for all the remnants of old and reactionary ideologies, including capitalist ideology, in the domain of people's ideological consciousness, and to arm all members of society with communist ideology, and it is the basic form of class struggle that occurs in socialist society.

The ruling socialist party and the State must take the work of ideological transformation and ideological education as central work to form all members of society as communist human beings, in accordance with the requirements of revolutionary practice where generational change is occurring in the revolutionary ranks, the conditions and environment of struggle are severe, and socialist construction transitions to a higher stage.

The important task of the ideological education work of our Party in the current period is, firstly, to unify the entire Party and the entire society with the revolutionary idea of the Party Central Committee.

It is also to strengthen educational work to firmly unite all the people around the Party and solidly prepare them as strong in conviction and will.

The important thing in maintaining the ideology-first principle is, next, to resolve all problems that arise in revolution and construction by the method of mobilising people's ideology.

Mobilising people's ideology means carrying out agitation and propaganda work offensively so that the masses rise consciously and actively in the battles of implementing the Party's idea and defending its policies, and demonstrate high revolutionary enthusiasm and creativity.

The best strategy for promoting socialist construction lies in fully unleashing the ideological spiritual power of the popular masses, who are the subject of social development. People who are conscious of their historical and spiritual mission and ideologically awakened and stimulated are never shaken by the general trend and do not surrender in the face of any difficulties.

The ruling socialist party and the State must take agitation and propaganda work as a central task, continuously improve and strengthen it, and resolve all problems that arise in revolution and construction by mobilising the spiritual power and creativity of the masses.

The important problem in improving and strengthening agitation and propaganda work in the current period is, firstly, to continuously innovate the forms and methods of agitation and propaganda.

We must be completely on guard against the phenomenon of merely making up numbers and quantities in agitation and propaganda work, and conduct each case with the urgent questions that the masses want to know, in such a way that they can sympathise and believe, based on reason and reality, in a realistic and persuasive manner, to maximise the penetrative power and influence of ideology and the effectiveness of ideological work.

Furthermore, it is to demonstrate to the maximum the power of the forces and means of agitation and propaganda.

The revolutionary ideology-first principle for resolving all problems that arise in revolution and construction through the methods of prioritising ideology, ideological transformation and ideological mobilisation, proclaimed by the revolutionary idea of the great comrade Kim Jong Un, will powerfully demonstrate its legitimacy and invincible power as the revolutionary philosophy and revolutionary principle of our Party today, tomorrow and always.