My presentation to the joint seminar on the importance of solidarity with the DPRK will address the question of the DPRK’s internationalism and its role in the global struggle and at the same time recall the great exploits of President KIM IL SUNG , the founder and eternal President KIM IL SUNG who passed away 32 years ago on the 8th of July 1994 , the anniversary of which is in 4 days time.
I was probably one of the last British visitors in the DPRK when President KIM IL SUNG was still physically with us . Our delegation departed the DPRK on the 2nd of July 1994 , only 6 days before President KIM IL SUNG passed away . All the time during our visit we felt President KIM IL SUNG’s presence as we saw him every night on TV giving guidance to co-operative farms and meeting foreign guests such as Ludo Martens the then head of the Workers Party of Belgium and a noted anti-revisionist writer.
President KIM IL SUNG not only the founder of the DPRK and builder of the most durable socialist state but was also a great internationalist who fought not only for the Korean people but for the world revolution , for the liberation of all of humanity from exploitation and oppression. The DPRK actually punched above its weight in the international arena .
When I first became came to know the DPRK in the 1980s and began to study the Juche idea , I found the internationalism of the DPRK to be a big eye opener for me . I came to know of countries such as Equatorial Guinea which I never knew existed .Also that there were attempts to construct socialism in the People’s Republic of Benin , the People’s Republic of the Congo , the Popular Democratic Republic of Algeria , the Democratic Republic of Madagascar and the Revolutionary People’s Republic of Guinea . These countries had been scarcely mentioned if at all by the old Communist Party of Great Britain and the British left but reading publications of the DPRK there was news about them . The Democratic Republic of Madagascar actually hosted an international seminar on the Juche idea in 1976.
Throughout his life ,which spanned most of the 20th century President KIM IL SUNG gave unstinting support for peoples fighting for independence and met many different leaders and fighters from across the globe including very distinguished figures such as Stalin, MaoZedong , Zhou En Lai,Che Guevara , Fidel Castro , Col Gadhafi, Hafez Al Assad , Salvador Allende, Norodom Sihanouk, Enver Hoxha , Erich Honecker ,Yasser Arafat , George Habash and many others . He even met our very own Harry Pollitt the famous British communist leader.
Right from the start President KIM IL SUNG always stressed internationalism and fought for not just for the interests of the Korean people but for the interests of the struggling peoples of the whole world ,whilst at the same time stressing independence and self-reliance. Juche does not mean rejecting internationalism , far from it . As President KIM IL SUNG pointed out "Our adherence to the Juche Idea does not in any way mean that we have become chauvinistic .The Juche Idea we advocate does not conflict with internationalism . Instead it is designed to promote internationalism for it leads to the development of sciences and the building of the economy to suit our particular conditions and thus contributes to increasing the strength of our country and the might of the socialist camp as a whole "
President KIM IL SUNG put up the slogan of "Defend the Soviet Union " during the anti-Japanese armed struggle . In 1929 he roused youth, students and other sections of the masses for the fight to defend the Soviet Union in order to hold in check the anti-Soviet machinations of the Kuomintang government and the reactionary warlords who acted at the instigation of the Japanese imperialists. President KIM IL SUNG later wrote in his autobiography "With the Century " that "Our activities in connection with the Zhongdong railway incident represented an internationalist struggle to defend the Soviet Union politically. At that time we regarded the first socialist system established on Earth as a beacon of hope and considered it our solemn internationalist obligation as communists to fight in its defence"
Later in 1938 and 1939 President KIM IL SUNG led the anti-Japanese guerrillas to defend the Soviet Union , the first workers and peasants state against Japanese aggression.
The Anti-Japanese guerrillas fought shoulder with their Chinese comrades after imperialism . After Korea was liberated in 1945 President KIM IL SUNG made sure that unstinting support was given to the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Chinese communists in their revolutionary war against the KMT reactionaries .He sent his best fighters such as Kang Gon as well as troops and materials to assist in the Chinese PLA and allowed them to use the northern part of Korea as a rear base.
During those heady days of the 1960s and 1970s President KIM IL SUNG ensured that the DPRK punched well above its weight , giving support to many liberation movements and newly independent states .
Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara visited the DPRK in 1960 and later said that the DPRK was the socialist country that he liked best .
During the Caribbean Crisis also known as the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 the DPRK stood by Cuba when the revisionists and big power chauvinists abandoned it.t comrade KIM IL SUNG instructed the Embassy staff and their families to arm themselves and fight to the end. The DPRK actually sent a KPA General to Cuba as its ambassador. DPRK students studying in Cuba also armed themselves ready to fight.The DPRK gave political and military assistance, while sending food and tractors as well as a group of authoritative technicians.. The DPRK also publicly supported the 5 -point demands of Premier Fidel Castro which included the US withdrawal from Guantanamo. The DPRK press denounced Khrushov for his capitulationism and cowardice.
President KIM IL SUNG called for international volunteers to be sent to Vietnam and sent the best pilot of the air force of the Korean People's Army to Vietnam as well as tunnelling experts plus material assistance as well. During the 1973 October War between the United Arab Republic and the Israeli Zionists , a squadron of KPA pilots was sent to assist the Arab people in their fight against Zionist aggression .
Strong support was given to Palestine by the DPRK People’s Korea established relations with Palestine on the 13th of April 1966 . There is a Palestinian embassy in the DPRK . Chairman Yasser Arafat visited the DPRK five times .George Habash the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine visited the DPRK .
President KIM IL SUNG, said “ The just cause of the Palestinian and other Arab people for the restoration of land lost to them and of all the legitimate rights of Palestine, including the establishment of an independent country, must be accomplished. The Israeli Zionists must abandon their policy of expansion and annexation and withdraw from all the occupied Arab land immediately.
The United States must stop giving the Israeli Zionists political and diplomatic support and military and economic aid, take their hands off the Middle East and discard their ambition for dominating this region”
The Palestinian struggle was not the only Middle Eastern struggle that President KIM IL SUNG and the DPRK supported . The DPRK maintained good relations with anti-imperialist and socialist oriented Arab states such as Libya , Syria , the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (south Yemen ) and Iraq (until 1980). One cause that the DPRK supported was that of the West Saharan people . The DPRK recognised the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic and established relations with Polisario when some other socialist countries did not . President KIM IL SUNG met with President Mohamed Abdel Aziz of the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic and Polisario front in April 1982.
There are three other examples of the DPRK’s internationalist assistance under the leadership of President KIM IL SUNG. Firstly the DPRK supported the Grenadian revolution led by Maurice Bishop .DPRK construction experts were sent to Grenada and the DPRK gave a generous amount of military aid to the People's Revolutionary Government of Grenada including 1,000 automatic rifles .In fact in per capita terms the DPRK gave more aid to Grenada than the USSR did.
Secondly , maybe the most dramatic example of the DPRK’s internationalist assistance was when DPRK special forces help foil a coup d etat by French mercenaries in the People’s Republic of Benin in 1977.
Lastly but not least the DPRK sent agricultural technicians and engineers to many third world countries such as Madagascar , Tanzania , Togo, Central Africa, Benin ,Guinea, Egypt , Rwanda , Burkina Faso, Ghana and the Seychelles . Agricultural institutes bearing the name of KIM IL SUNG were established in Guinea and Tanzania . This was genuine aid as opposed to the fake aid of the imperialists which aims only to corrupt and enslave newly independent countries .
Thus the life of President KIM IL SUNG is associated lofty and boundless internationalism. It is fitting both remember President KIM IL SUNG and at the same time step up solidarity with People’s Korea.
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