LET US REALIZE THE COUNTRY’S REUNIFICATION INDEPENDENTLY
THROUGH THE UNITED EFFORT OF THE WHOLE NATION
KIM IL SUNG
Talk to the Overseas Compatriots Who Attended the Third Pan-National Rally
August 19, 1992
THROUGH THE UNITED EFFORT OF THE WHOLE NATION
KIM IL SUNG
Talk to the Overseas Compatriots Who Attended the Third Pan-National Rally
August 19, 1992
I am very pleased to meet you, overseas compatriots who have attended the Third Pan-National Rally for Peace and Reunification of the Country.
I highly praise and warmly congratulate you on the successful Third Pan-National Rally. Although no one from the south has participated in the rally, the Pan-National Rally was a historical event as it set up an important milestone in expanding and developing the national reunification movement to a higher stage.
You wished me and Comrade Kim Jong Il long life in good health, saying that you will reunify the country in the 1990s at any cost and have me and Comrade Kim Jong Il in the square of reunification. I am very grateful for this.
Reunifying the country is the supreme national task of our people, one that brooks no further delay. We must reunify the country as soon as possible and thereby fulfil the ardent desire of the whole nation. If the country is reunified, our people can enjoy a happy life envious of no one. Although its territory is not large, our country is bounded by sea on three sides, it has an abundance of underground resources, and its population is 70 million. This being the situation, if we develop the economy rapidly in the reunified country, it will immediately rank among the developed countries.
To all intents and purposes, national reunification must be achieved on the basis of the three principles—independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity. I advanced these principles in the early 1970s; we can reunify the country only when we rely on these principles.
To win the cause of national reunification, we should, first of all, hold fast to the principle of national independence.
It is impossible to reunify the country if we depend on foreign forces. At the moment some countries support the reunification of our country in words, but in actual fact they do not want our country to be reunified. They can do anything as they please in our country only when it is divided, so they prefer division, though not overtly, to the reunification of our country. Therefore, we should not attempt to reunify the country with the help of others.
As our experience shows, it is very important to solve every problem arising in the revolution and construction independently and in one’s own fashion. Over the past years we waged the war against US imperialism in our own way and also carried out socialist construction in our own way.
During the Fatherland Liberation War, those who had returned from the Soviet Union insisted on Soviet tactics of warfare and those from China advocated Chinese tactics. I told them that we must fight the enemy with the Korean-style tactics, not Soviet-style or Chinese-style. The Soviet tactics of retreating, giving up a large territory, and counterattacking—the tactics created during the Second World War—did not suit the conditions in our country, with its small territory. If we had retreated in the wrong way in the condition of our country, we could have lost the whole territory to the enemy. The Chinese style of tactics was a mobile one, fighting always on the move; it did not suit our country, either. So I made up my mind to fight the enemy by drawing on the Juche-orientated tactics suited to the actual situation of our country and, objecting to the insistence of the great-power worshippers and dogmatists, put forward the slogan “Don’t yield even an inch of land to the enemy.” In those days I told the commanding personnel of the People’s Army to fight as much as possible mountain warfare to suit the terrain of our country, saying that at meals the Soviet people use forks, Chinese people chopsticks and Korean people spoons, and likewise we should fight the enemy in our own fashion. The commanding personnel fully supported my tactics, saying it was quite reasonable.
In the days of the war, dogmatists bought quite a number of direct-firing guns from the Soviet Union , but they were not put into effective use. Howitzers were more necessary than direct-firing guns in our mountainous country. We could annihilate the enemy beyond the mountains only with howitzers.
Our victory won in the war is ascribable to the fact that we thoroughly opposed worship of great powers and dogmatism and fought with Juche-orientated tactics suited to the actual conditions of our country.
In the postwar days, too, we built socialism by our own efforts in accordance with the conditions of our country and without relying on others. At one point modern revisionists brought pressure to bear upon us that we enter the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), but we did not, saying that we would live our own way. We have been quite right to have solved all problems arising in socialist construction by our own efforts with the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude and without entering the CMEA. In recent years socialism has collapsed in the erstwhile Soviet Union and East European countries, but it is winning victory after victory in our country without the slightest vacillation. It is just because we have built socialism in our own way without depending on others. Had it depended on another country like the former socialist countries in Eastern Europe , our country would already have been ruined.
When I met some days ago the south Korean people who were on their visit to Pyongyang, I told them that we always solve all problems arising in the revolution and construction in our own way as required by the Juche idea.
Foreigners, too, recognize that we were right to have solved these problems by our own efforts as suited to the actual conditions of our country, holding aloft the banner of the Juche idea.
An American, who had been the US ambassador to Japan , once wrote an article on our country. He had studied our country for a long time. He wrote: President Kim Il Sung of north Korea waged a struggle under the banner of independence from his first days of revolution; during the Korean war in the early 1950s he solved all problems independently and in his own way; therefore it is useless to try to infuse any idea into north Korea; the south Korean authorities are clamouring for “reunification through absorbing the north”, but they might possibly be absorbed by the north.
We should thoroughly reject dependence on foreign forces and realize national reunification through our own efforts by maintaining the stand of national independence.
The basic guarantee for the self-determined and peaceful realization of national reunification is to achieve the great unity of the whole nation. Unity is the fundamental factor in all victories. If all Korean people in the north, south and abroad wage struggle, firmly united under the banner of great national unity, they will be able to realize national reunification in the 1990s by overcoming the present difficult situation.
In the course of leading the revolution and construction I have at all times given primary effort to achieving national unity. For nearly 70 years—from the day when I started revolutionary activities after organizing the Down-with-Imperialism Union in Huadian until today—I have done my best to realize the national united front and promoted the revolution and construction successfully by relying on the united effort of the nation.
In the period of revolutionary struggle to defeat Japanese imperialism and liberate the country, I put forward the line of the anti-Japanese national united front and made a positive effort for its realization.
Soon after organizing the anti-Japanese guerrilla army I, in command of its main unit, marched toward southern Manchuria to effect a united front with Ryang Se Bong’s unit of the Independence Army. Before leaving for southern Manchuria, I met my mother and told her that it was said Ryang Se Bong was commander of an Independence Army unit and I would go with my unit to southern Manchuria to form a united front with him. She said it was a good idea. To tell the truth, our people, if they were scattered here and there without realizing unity, could not defeat the heavily armed Japanese imperialists. Independence campaigners who were active abroad in those days, however, failed to achieve unity for this or that reason, and were separated from one another. I decided to form a united front first with Ryang Se Bong and on this basis with all the anti-Japanese forces. In Tonghua I met him and he gave us an enthusiastic welcome, an expression of his pleasure at meeting us. He had been on very intimate terms with my father. He had taken part in the funeral ceremony for my father. When I proposed the issue of the united front to him, he was at first interested. But, taken in by his staff officer’s plot to create dissension, he refused to join hands with us. The staff officer, a Japanese imperialists’ spy infiltrated into his unit, drove a wedge into our united front, telling Ryang Se Bong that the anti-Japanese guerrilla army was planning to win the soldiers of the Independence Army to its side and even one mistake would result in losing the whole unit. From his words and behaviour I saw that he was a spy of Japanese imperialism. But Ryang Se Bong, unaware of his true colour, accepted his words as true. Believing that, though he declined to join hands with us at that time, he would without fail join hands with us some time in the future, I left there and went to eastern Manchuria via Liuhe and Mengjiang.
The foundation of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland (ARF) marked a decisive turn in carrying out the line of the anti-Japanese national united front. I founded the ARF, an organized body of the anti-Japanese national united front, in Dongjiang in May 1936. I personally drafted its programme, rules and inaugural declaration. Its inaugural declaration was made public under the names of some patriotic figures and mine, and I signed it under the assumed name of Kim Tong Myong. As I was still young and my name was not widely known at that time, it was better for me to sign under an assumed name.
As the ARF was founded and its programme and declaration were circulated, many units of the Independence Army and anti-Japanese campaigners who had been scattered all around came to us. The unit of the Independence Army which had been commanded by Ryang Se Bong also came after the ARF was founded. After Ryang’s death, Kim Hwal Sok had been commander of the unit and, worshipping the Kuomintang of Jiang Jie-shi, he tried to establish contact with it. Informed of this, the Japanese imperialists infiltrated their spy into the unit by disguising him as an envoy of Jiang Jie-shi. Kim Hwal Sok took as true the spy’s words that Jiang Jie-shi would like to meet him and followed him. On their way they dropped in at a house and slept there. Awakened, he found that it was a police station of the Japanese imperialists. The Japanese imperialists put him to sleep by giving him a drugged drink and arrested him as soon as he woke up next morning. So he died an undeserved death at the hands of the Japanese imperialists. Choe Yun Gu succeeded him as commander of the unit and he came to us with the remaining soldiers.
In the days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle I also devoted great efforts to forming a united front with Chondoists. In those days there lived many believers in Chondoism in the areas where the anti-Japanese guerrillas were active. With a view to rallying Chondoists under the banner of anti-Japanese imperialism, I conducted active work with the people in the lower echelon of the Chondoist faith and at the same time promoted the work of educating those in the upper echelon and winning them over. Pak In Jin, head of Chondoism in South Hamgyong Province , was in charge of the Chondoists in Pukchong, Phungsan, Kapsan, Samsu and other counties of the province. We worked with him efficiently and admitted him into the ARF. We then rallied many Chondoists under his influence into an anti-Japanese force. Not only in South Hamgyong Province , but also in Pyoktong, Changsong and Uiju in North Phyongan Province there were many Chondoist believers. We inspired them to rise up in the anti-Japanese struggle, joining hands with us. Nearly all the believers in the Chondoist faith, except those in Choe Rin’s faction, joined hands with us in the days of Japanese imperialist colonial rule. Choe Rin claimed that the independence of Korea should be achieved by gaining autonomy with the assent of Japan . It was preposterous. Pak In Jin and other Chondoists of conscience opposed Choe’s “theory of independence”, saying that it was absurd, and gave active support to our armed struggle. Pak’s wife is still alive and she would be 93 years old this year. I once met the bereaved families of the anti-Japanese revolutionary martyrs; she was among them. She looked healthy for her age.
We could enjoy active support and encouragement from the broad sections of the masses in the days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle because we efficiently conducted united front work with people from all walks of life. They sent our guerrilla army food, clothing and many other goods, despite enemy oppression and surveillance. In those days it was not easy to aid the guerrillas. The Japanese imperialists built internment villages in the areas on the Tuman River and other places where the anti-Japanese guerrillas were active so as to prevent the people from aiding guerrillas. They forced peasants to report to them the crop yield every year and even confirmed it themselves, walking around fields carrying swords at their waists. But still the peasants sent provisions to the guerrillas behind their backs. They collected creepers from potato fields in autumn to make it look like they had harvested potatoes and told the guerrillas about it so that they could dig out potatoes. And they picked maize unhulled and kept it in store built in the mountains so that the guerrillas could carry it away. In case we failed to dig all the potatoes in those fields, we would leave them as they were and dig up frozen potatoes the next spring.
We could liberate the country as we rallied all the anti-Japanese patriotic forces under the banner of the national united front and fought against Japanese imperialism enjoying active support and encouragement from the broad sections of the masses.
After liberation I continued to channel great efforts to realize national unity.
At the speech I made at the rally held to congratulate my triumphal return after liberation, I, illuminating the road for the country to take, called on all people, who love their country, nation and democracy, to unite as one and make an active contribution to the building of the country—those with strength dedicating their strength, those with knowledge contributing their knowledge and those with money donating money. I promoted the building of a new democratic country by relying on the united effort of the people of all strata.
Along with this, I met with many personages, from all walks of life in south Korea , to prevent the country and nation from being divided and to reunify the country. After liberation Ryo Un Hyong, Ho Hon and many other figures visited us from south Korea . Ryo Un Hyong made great efforts to reunify the country before being assassinated by the enemy. He was the first to send me a letter from south Korea immediately after liberation. He visited Pyongyang on several occasions, and on one of those visits he said he would send his children to me and asked me to bring them up if it was not troublesome for me as he did not know what would happen to him on his return to south Korea . I said it would not be burdensome as his children were all grown up and advised him to send them to me. It seemed he predicted that something fateful would happen to him in south Korea . It was fortunate for him to have sent his two daughters to me. It is quite clear what would have happened to them if they had not come to me. Assassinated by the enemy, he failed to participate in the north-south joint conference.
The Joint Conference of the Representatives of the Political Parties and Social Organizations in North and South Korea was held in Pyongyang in April 1948, a pan-national meeting in which the representatives of the north and south gathered in one place for the first time after liberation and discussed measures to save the nation. Thanks to our active efforts, many representatives from south Korea took part in this conference. Representatives of nearly all political parties and public organizations in south Korea , except the political party of Syngman Rhee, attended this meeting, and among them were Kim Ku and Kim Kyu Sik. You must have learned this on your visit to the Ssuksom Revolutionary Historical Site where the United Front Tower is standing; after the joint conference ended I took Kim Ku and other figures from south Korea to Ssuk Islet and discussed with them the direction of future activities. That day I stressed once again the important matters discussed in the joint conference, including the matter of waging an active struggle to achieve national unity on their return to south Korea and the matter of checking and frustrating the “separate election” of Syngman Rhee. In defiance of objections from the whole nation, Syngman Rhee effected the “separate election” by force at the instigation of the US imperialists.
Although he was elected “president” with backing from foreign forces, he did not enjoy support from the people. During the “presidential” elections held in 1956, Jo Pong Am, leader of the Progressive Party, ran against Syngman Rhee. He obtained a few less votes than his opponent. At the first stage many more people casted their vote for him, but Syngman Rhee garnered a mass vote through deceptive and fraudulent means, thereby beating Jo by a small margin. If the “presidential” elections had been conducted in a fair way, Jo Pong Am would probably have been elected “president”. In view of many people having voted for him, it seems the Progressive Party enjoyed a great influence in south Korea . Jo Pong Am had originally been on intimate terms with Pak Hon Yong; as he broke up with him later, he became “Minister of Agriculture and Forestry” in the puppet government of Syngman Rhee. Because he conducted progresssive activities, Syngman Rhee arrested him and executed him on the false charge of maintaining contact with the north. Syngman Rhee arrested and executed all people who looked to be sympathizing with the north or keeping contact with it.
We achieved much success in the work of the national united front for national reunification until 1948, but afterwards no advance worth mentioning was made in this work. Meanwhile, we have made every possible effort to realize the great unity of the nation. For this purpose I have written many works and made many speeches. You, too, have made positive efforts for it in foreign lands. Nevertheless, the complete unity of our nation has not yet been achieved and the national division is continuing because of the separatist manoeuvres and fascist oppression committed by the US imperialists and their south Korean puppets.
We insist on independence, democracy and national reunification, while the south Korean puppets are following the road of subordination, fascism and division. Antagonism and struggle between the north and south is, in the final analysis, that between patriot and traitor, between the democratic force and the fascist force and between the reunification force and the separatist force.
The south Korean authorities have put south Korea entirely under the subjugation of the United States . The US and south Korean authorities are claiming that south Korea is an “independent state”. But how can one call south Korea , which moves under the baton of the United States without exercising sovereignty and independence, an independent state? The south Korean people, too, are of the opinion that south Korea is a complete colony of the United States and their “president” a puppet. As long as south Korea is under the subjugation of the United States , its next “president” will have no choice but to play a puppet, with the US pulling the strings. How pitiable it is that the south Korean authorities are acting under the baton of the US with no opinion of their own!
The south Korean authorities are opposed to making the society democratic and are attempting to maintain their “power” by resorting to fascist violence. In south Korea , the “National Security Law” and other evil fascist laws still remain in force and the south Korean authorities are oppressing patriotic people, including youth and students, by invoking the “National Security Law”.
Opposed to national reunification, they are actively following the US scheme to create “two Koreas ”. In view of their present conduct, it is clear that they are attempting to divide our country into two for ever. They think that they can crack down on the democratic movement in a fascist fashion and remain in power with the support of the US only when the country is divided.
They are dead set against compatriots from the north, south and abroad meeting together to talk about reunification. That the representatives from the south side failed to attend the Pan-National Rally this time is ascribable to the south Korean authorities’ fascist oppression. They mobilized tens of thousands of police and suppressed by force of arms the south-side representatives who were trying to go to the north to participate in this rally.
Nowadays they do not make any positive response to our proposals to hold a north-south joint conference and political consultative conference.
Recently the man in power in south Korea proposed holding “summit talks” to us. I replied: I do not object to such talks; if you want to meet me, bring with you new proposals for reunification; we have already put forward the proposal of reunifying the country through federation and, if you have a proposal better than that, bring it with you; if you have no fresh proposal, you can agree with our proposal of reunifying the country through federation; if the north-south summit talks are held, we should discuss any idea for reunification and it would be meaningless if we only sit face to face, drinking tea or eating noodles before parting. However, he has neither advanced any proposal for reunification nor supported our proposal. I was informed that he holds “summit talks” frequently on his visits to foreign countries, probably not for the benefit of the country and nation but to sell them.
It seems that the south Korean authorities do not agree with our proposal to reunify the country through federation because the US has not permitted them. The United States does not want our country’s reunification. It is desperately attempting to divide our country into two and demolish our socialist system by instigating the south Korean puppets. Being aware that their attempt to “reunify the country by absorbing the north” is impossible to be carried out, the enemy is now resorting to the tactics of isolating and suffocating us. The “policy towards the North” advocated by the south Korean authorities is aimed at creating “two Koreas” and ostracizing us internationally, and the great fuss raised by the United States on the alleged “nuclear issue” is, in the final analysis, aimed at crushing our Republic. Recently the United States picked a quarrel with us on the issue of nuclear inspection; when we insisted on inspecting the US nuclear bases in south Korea simultaneously, it was dumbfounded. To be candid, as we have already been inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the US nuclear bases in south Korea should now be inspected on the basis of impartiality. But, the United States , together with the south Korean authorities, has raised the issue of an “inspection of the same number of sites”. This is quite preposterous.
The United States is attempting to create “two Koreas ” and demolish our socialist system, but it is a wild daydream. Ours is a homogeneous nation with a long history and culture, and no one will ever divide it into two for ever. To mention our socialism, it is fundamentally different from that of the erstwhile Soviet Union and East European countries. Our socialism is centred on the popular masses. No matter how the US imperialists would manoeuvre to stifle us, our socialism will never collapse.
Over the past 50 years we have lived under the pressure and blockade of imperialists. This is why our people do not feel surprised or frightened when the US imperialists threaten and blackmail them with something like “economic sanctions”. Although socialism has collapsed in the former Soviet Union and East European countries, it does not mean we cannot live on.
We have food to eat, clothes to wear and the best socialist system in the world. Our people do not lead a particularly luxurious life when compared to others, but they enjoy a happy life free from worry about food, clothing, housing, medical treatment and education.
Our Party is now making efforts to fulfil our people’s centuries-old desire to live on rice and meat soup and in silk clothing and in tile-roofed houses. We are yet to provide our people with enough meat, but we are going to solve this problem.
If we carry out the Party’s agriculture-first policy and increase grain production, we can solve the meat problem; and if we bring about a revolution in light industry, we can produce commodity goods in adequate amounts. Then our people will be better-off than now and the advantages of our style of socialism will be demonstrated on a higher plane.
Peoples from many countries are now visiting our country, saying that the Korean style of socialism is the best. Last April alone many delegations, delegates and progressive figures from many countries visited our country to celebrate my 80th birthday. After seeing the realities of our country, they said that, if socialism is to be built, it should be built in the Korean style. At that time, scores of parties including communist parties and workers’ parties adopted in Pyongyang a declaration for safeguarding and advancing the cause of socialism, and signed it. The Pyongyang Declaration, a common fighting programme of revolutionary parties and progressive peoples of the world that aspire after socialism, is demonstrating its viability and correctness ever more graphically as the days go by. Only a few months have passed since the Pyongyang Declaration was adopted and made public, but the number of parties that signed it has now reached 131. This shows that socialism is still alive in the hearts of the people. Although socialism is experiencing temporary setbacks, it will certainly be revived and advance.
Ever-victorious is our style of socialism which embodies the great Juche idea. No one can provoke our socialism in which the leader, the Party and the masses are united single-heartedly and the whole society move as one. The United States thought that our country would soon go to ruin following the East European socialist countries, but it has apparently changed its mind a little recently on realizing the might of our single-hearted unity.
If all the Korean compatriots in the north, south and abroad unite firmly, they can frustrate the obstructive manoeuvres of separatists at home and abroad and achieve national reunification.
Many people in south Korea wish for the unity and reunification of the nation. Those who pursue national division number only a few. A few years ago, the Rev. Mun Ik Hwan, a democratic figure in south Korea , visited Pyongyang . When I met him, I asked him who numbered more in south Korea —those who want independence, democracy and national reunification or those who pursue subordination, fascism and division. He answered that the former composed the majority and the latter constituted a handful. Composing the latter group are only the small number of those in the ruling circle, a small section of the military authorities and some comprador capitalists. A tiny handful of these separatist forces have seized power in south Korea and are suppressing the progressive forces who aspire for independence, democracy and national reunification. The antagonism between these two sets of forces is growing acuter with the passage of time, and a fierce struggle is taking place between them. In this light it is important before anything else to define clearly, those who want the country’s reunification and those who pursue national division. As we sort rice, so we should discriminate between the reunification and separatist forces and further expand the reunification forces.
In order to realize the unity of the whole nation, we should actively promote dialogue between compatriots from the north, south and abroad and frequently organize meetings and other activities involving the whole nation.
It would be advisable to hold such meetings either in the form of a north-south joint conference or in the form of a joint conference or political consultative meeting involving all social sectors. As 40 years have passed since the last north-south joint conference, another joint conference, if organized, would bring about an important turn in realizing national unity.
The Pan-National Rally should be held regularly in the future. If the Pan-National Rally is to be a rally for realizing the great unity of the whole nation, not only representatives from the north and abroad but also those from the south should participate in it. Of course, a Pan-National Rally with only representatives from the north and abroad would play a certain role in realizing national unity, but unless it is also attended by representatives from the south, it cannot contribute greatly to that end. In the Pan-National Rally held this time a joint resolution was adopted by adding the documents sent by the south-side representatives, but making public a joint resolution agreed upon through documents is of no special significance. A rally conducted in this fashion may make a demonstration before the world but it will not exert a great influence on the people in south Korea . If the south-side representatives fail to attend, the significance and influence of the rally will grow weak. Only when the representatives of the north, south and abroad participate will it become a Pan-National Rally both in name and in reality. Therefore, the Pan-National Rally should be organized on the principle of the representatives from north, south and abroad taking part in it without fail.
If it is difficult to hold in the north a Pan-National Rally attended also by the south-side representatives, it could be held in a country such as Japan . It will be alright if the south-side representatives do not at first participate in the rally in great numbers. It would be good to allow 20 to 50 people from the south to attend at the beginning and then increase their number gradually. I think it would be best to hold the rally in a foreign country with the participation of a small number of representatives from the south and then move the venue of the rally to Pyongyang or Seoul , increasing the number of participants from the south side.
Korean compatriots in the north, south and abroad should firmly unite as one, transcending the differences in their positions, party affiliation, ideas, political views and religious belief.
I believe that you, our overseas compatriots, will wage an unremitting struggle to realize great national unity and so make a positive contribution to the fulfilment of the sacred cause of national reunification.
You have made a determination to fight strenuously to realize great national unity. It is good.
Please visit your homeland frequently in the future.
I highly praise and warmly congratulate you on the successful Third Pan-National Rally. Although no one from the south has participated in the rally, the Pan-National Rally was a historical event as it set up an important milestone in expanding and developing the national reunification movement to a higher stage.
You wished me and Comrade Kim Jong Il long life in good health, saying that you will reunify the country in the 1990s at any cost and have me and Comrade Kim Jong Il in the square of reunification. I am very grateful for this.
Reunifying the country is the supreme national task of our people, one that brooks no further delay. We must reunify the country as soon as possible and thereby fulfil the ardent desire of the whole nation. If the country is reunified, our people can enjoy a happy life envious of no one. Although its territory is not large, our country is bounded by sea on three sides, it has an abundance of underground resources, and its population is 70 million. This being the situation, if we develop the economy rapidly in the reunified country, it will immediately rank among the developed countries.
To all intents and purposes, national reunification must be achieved on the basis of the three principles—independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity. I advanced these principles in the early 1970s; we can reunify the country only when we rely on these principles.
To win the cause of national reunification, we should, first of all, hold fast to the principle of national independence.
It is impossible to reunify the country if we depend on foreign forces. At the moment some countries support the reunification of our country in words, but in actual fact they do not want our country to be reunified. They can do anything as they please in our country only when it is divided, so they prefer division, though not overtly, to the reunification of our country. Therefore, we should not attempt to reunify the country with the help of others.
As our experience shows, it is very important to solve every problem arising in the revolution and construction independently and in one’s own fashion. Over the past years we waged the war against US imperialism in our own way and also carried out socialist construction in our own way.
During the Fatherland Liberation War, those who had returned from the Soviet Union insisted on Soviet tactics of warfare and those from China advocated Chinese tactics. I told them that we must fight the enemy with the Korean-style tactics, not Soviet-style or Chinese-style. The Soviet tactics of retreating, giving up a large territory, and counterattacking—the tactics created during the Second World War—did not suit the conditions in our country, with its small territory. If we had retreated in the wrong way in the condition of our country, we could have lost the whole territory to the enemy. The Chinese style of tactics was a mobile one, fighting always on the move; it did not suit our country, either. So I made up my mind to fight the enemy by drawing on the Juche-orientated tactics suited to the actual situation of our country and, objecting to the insistence of the great-power worshippers and dogmatists, put forward the slogan “Don’t yield even an inch of land to the enemy.” In those days I told the commanding personnel of the People’s Army to fight as much as possible mountain warfare to suit the terrain of our country, saying that at meals the Soviet people use forks, Chinese people chopsticks and Korean people spoons, and likewise we should fight the enemy in our own fashion. The commanding personnel fully supported my tactics, saying it was quite reasonable.
In the days of the war, dogmatists bought quite a number of direct-firing guns from the Soviet Union , but they were not put into effective use. Howitzers were more necessary than direct-firing guns in our mountainous country. We could annihilate the enemy beyond the mountains only with howitzers.
Our victory won in the war is ascribable to the fact that we thoroughly opposed worship of great powers and dogmatism and fought with Juche-orientated tactics suited to the actual conditions of our country.
In the postwar days, too, we built socialism by our own efforts in accordance with the conditions of our country and without relying on others. At one point modern revisionists brought pressure to bear upon us that we enter the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), but we did not, saying that we would live our own way. We have been quite right to have solved all problems arising in socialist construction by our own efforts with the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude and without entering the CMEA. In recent years socialism has collapsed in the erstwhile Soviet Union and East European countries, but it is winning victory after victory in our country without the slightest vacillation. It is just because we have built socialism in our own way without depending on others. Had it depended on another country like the former socialist countries in Eastern Europe , our country would already have been ruined.
When I met some days ago the south Korean people who were on their visit to Pyongyang, I told them that we always solve all problems arising in the revolution and construction in our own way as required by the Juche idea.
Foreigners, too, recognize that we were right to have solved these problems by our own efforts as suited to the actual conditions of our country, holding aloft the banner of the Juche idea.
An American, who had been the US ambassador to Japan , once wrote an article on our country. He had studied our country for a long time. He wrote: President Kim Il Sung of north Korea waged a struggle under the banner of independence from his first days of revolution; during the Korean war in the early 1950s he solved all problems independently and in his own way; therefore it is useless to try to infuse any idea into north Korea; the south Korean authorities are clamouring for “reunification through absorbing the north”, but they might possibly be absorbed by the north.
We should thoroughly reject dependence on foreign forces and realize national reunification through our own efforts by maintaining the stand of national independence.
The basic guarantee for the self-determined and peaceful realization of national reunification is to achieve the great unity of the whole nation. Unity is the fundamental factor in all victories. If all Korean people in the north, south and abroad wage struggle, firmly united under the banner of great national unity, they will be able to realize national reunification in the 1990s by overcoming the present difficult situation.
In the course of leading the revolution and construction I have at all times given primary effort to achieving national unity. For nearly 70 years—from the day when I started revolutionary activities after organizing the Down-with-Imperialism Union in Huadian until today—I have done my best to realize the national united front and promoted the revolution and construction successfully by relying on the united effort of the nation.
In the period of revolutionary struggle to defeat Japanese imperialism and liberate the country, I put forward the line of the anti-Japanese national united front and made a positive effort for its realization.
Soon after organizing the anti-Japanese guerrilla army I, in command of its main unit, marched toward southern Manchuria to effect a united front with Ryang Se Bong’s unit of the Independence Army. Before leaving for southern Manchuria, I met my mother and told her that it was said Ryang Se Bong was commander of an Independence Army unit and I would go with my unit to southern Manchuria to form a united front with him. She said it was a good idea. To tell the truth, our people, if they were scattered here and there without realizing unity, could not defeat the heavily armed Japanese imperialists. Independence campaigners who were active abroad in those days, however, failed to achieve unity for this or that reason, and were separated from one another. I decided to form a united front first with Ryang Se Bong and on this basis with all the anti-Japanese forces. In Tonghua I met him and he gave us an enthusiastic welcome, an expression of his pleasure at meeting us. He had been on very intimate terms with my father. He had taken part in the funeral ceremony for my father. When I proposed the issue of the united front to him, he was at first interested. But, taken in by his staff officer’s plot to create dissension, he refused to join hands with us. The staff officer, a Japanese imperialists’ spy infiltrated into his unit, drove a wedge into our united front, telling Ryang Se Bong that the anti-Japanese guerrilla army was planning to win the soldiers of the Independence Army to its side and even one mistake would result in losing the whole unit. From his words and behaviour I saw that he was a spy of Japanese imperialism. But Ryang Se Bong, unaware of his true colour, accepted his words as true. Believing that, though he declined to join hands with us at that time, he would without fail join hands with us some time in the future, I left there and went to eastern Manchuria via Liuhe and Mengjiang.
The foundation of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland (ARF) marked a decisive turn in carrying out the line of the anti-Japanese national united front. I founded the ARF, an organized body of the anti-Japanese national united front, in Dongjiang in May 1936. I personally drafted its programme, rules and inaugural declaration. Its inaugural declaration was made public under the names of some patriotic figures and mine, and I signed it under the assumed name of Kim Tong Myong. As I was still young and my name was not widely known at that time, it was better for me to sign under an assumed name.
As the ARF was founded and its programme and declaration were circulated, many units of the Independence Army and anti-Japanese campaigners who had been scattered all around came to us. The unit of the Independence Army which had been commanded by Ryang Se Bong also came after the ARF was founded. After Ryang’s death, Kim Hwal Sok had been commander of the unit and, worshipping the Kuomintang of Jiang Jie-shi, he tried to establish contact with it. Informed of this, the Japanese imperialists infiltrated their spy into the unit by disguising him as an envoy of Jiang Jie-shi. Kim Hwal Sok took as true the spy’s words that Jiang Jie-shi would like to meet him and followed him. On their way they dropped in at a house and slept there. Awakened, he found that it was a police station of the Japanese imperialists. The Japanese imperialists put him to sleep by giving him a drugged drink and arrested him as soon as he woke up next morning. So he died an undeserved death at the hands of the Japanese imperialists. Choe Yun Gu succeeded him as commander of the unit and he came to us with the remaining soldiers.
In the days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle I also devoted great efforts to forming a united front with Chondoists. In those days there lived many believers in Chondoism in the areas where the anti-Japanese guerrillas were active. With a view to rallying Chondoists under the banner of anti-Japanese imperialism, I conducted active work with the people in the lower echelon of the Chondoist faith and at the same time promoted the work of educating those in the upper echelon and winning them over. Pak In Jin, head of Chondoism in South Hamgyong Province , was in charge of the Chondoists in Pukchong, Phungsan, Kapsan, Samsu and other counties of the province. We worked with him efficiently and admitted him into the ARF. We then rallied many Chondoists under his influence into an anti-Japanese force. Not only in South Hamgyong Province , but also in Pyoktong, Changsong and Uiju in North Phyongan Province there were many Chondoist believers. We inspired them to rise up in the anti-Japanese struggle, joining hands with us. Nearly all the believers in the Chondoist faith, except those in Choe Rin’s faction, joined hands with us in the days of Japanese imperialist colonial rule. Choe Rin claimed that the independence of Korea should be achieved by gaining autonomy with the assent of Japan . It was preposterous. Pak In Jin and other Chondoists of conscience opposed Choe’s “theory of independence”, saying that it was absurd, and gave active support to our armed struggle. Pak’s wife is still alive and she would be 93 years old this year. I once met the bereaved families of the anti-Japanese revolutionary martyrs; she was among them. She looked healthy for her age.
We could enjoy active support and encouragement from the broad sections of the masses in the days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle because we efficiently conducted united front work with people from all walks of life. They sent our guerrilla army food, clothing and many other goods, despite enemy oppression and surveillance. In those days it was not easy to aid the guerrillas. The Japanese imperialists built internment villages in the areas on the Tuman River and other places where the anti-Japanese guerrillas were active so as to prevent the people from aiding guerrillas. They forced peasants to report to them the crop yield every year and even confirmed it themselves, walking around fields carrying swords at their waists. But still the peasants sent provisions to the guerrillas behind their backs. They collected creepers from potato fields in autumn to make it look like they had harvested potatoes and told the guerrillas about it so that they could dig out potatoes. And they picked maize unhulled and kept it in store built in the mountains so that the guerrillas could carry it away. In case we failed to dig all the potatoes in those fields, we would leave them as they were and dig up frozen potatoes the next spring.
We could liberate the country as we rallied all the anti-Japanese patriotic forces under the banner of the national united front and fought against Japanese imperialism enjoying active support and encouragement from the broad sections of the masses.
After liberation I continued to channel great efforts to realize national unity.
At the speech I made at the rally held to congratulate my triumphal return after liberation, I, illuminating the road for the country to take, called on all people, who love their country, nation and democracy, to unite as one and make an active contribution to the building of the country—those with strength dedicating their strength, those with knowledge contributing their knowledge and those with money donating money. I promoted the building of a new democratic country by relying on the united effort of the people of all strata.
Along with this, I met with many personages, from all walks of life in south Korea , to prevent the country and nation from being divided and to reunify the country. After liberation Ryo Un Hyong, Ho Hon and many other figures visited us from south Korea . Ryo Un Hyong made great efforts to reunify the country before being assassinated by the enemy. He was the first to send me a letter from south Korea immediately after liberation. He visited Pyongyang on several occasions, and on one of those visits he said he would send his children to me and asked me to bring them up if it was not troublesome for me as he did not know what would happen to him on his return to south Korea . I said it would not be burdensome as his children were all grown up and advised him to send them to me. It seemed he predicted that something fateful would happen to him in south Korea . It was fortunate for him to have sent his two daughters to me. It is quite clear what would have happened to them if they had not come to me. Assassinated by the enemy, he failed to participate in the north-south joint conference.
The Joint Conference of the Representatives of the Political Parties and Social Organizations in North and South Korea was held in Pyongyang in April 1948, a pan-national meeting in which the representatives of the north and south gathered in one place for the first time after liberation and discussed measures to save the nation. Thanks to our active efforts, many representatives from south Korea took part in this conference. Representatives of nearly all political parties and public organizations in south Korea , except the political party of Syngman Rhee, attended this meeting, and among them were Kim Ku and Kim Kyu Sik. You must have learned this on your visit to the Ssuksom Revolutionary Historical Site where the United Front Tower is standing; after the joint conference ended I took Kim Ku and other figures from south Korea to Ssuk Islet and discussed with them the direction of future activities. That day I stressed once again the important matters discussed in the joint conference, including the matter of waging an active struggle to achieve national unity on their return to south Korea and the matter of checking and frustrating the “separate election” of Syngman Rhee. In defiance of objections from the whole nation, Syngman Rhee effected the “separate election” by force at the instigation of the US imperialists.
Although he was elected “president” with backing from foreign forces, he did not enjoy support from the people. During the “presidential” elections held in 1956, Jo Pong Am, leader of the Progressive Party, ran against Syngman Rhee. He obtained a few less votes than his opponent. At the first stage many more people casted their vote for him, but Syngman Rhee garnered a mass vote through deceptive and fraudulent means, thereby beating Jo by a small margin. If the “presidential” elections had been conducted in a fair way, Jo Pong Am would probably have been elected “president”. In view of many people having voted for him, it seems the Progressive Party enjoyed a great influence in south Korea . Jo Pong Am had originally been on intimate terms with Pak Hon Yong; as he broke up with him later, he became “Minister of Agriculture and Forestry” in the puppet government of Syngman Rhee. Because he conducted progresssive activities, Syngman Rhee arrested him and executed him on the false charge of maintaining contact with the north. Syngman Rhee arrested and executed all people who looked to be sympathizing with the north or keeping contact with it.
We achieved much success in the work of the national united front for national reunification until 1948, but afterwards no advance worth mentioning was made in this work. Meanwhile, we have made every possible effort to realize the great unity of the nation. For this purpose I have written many works and made many speeches. You, too, have made positive efforts for it in foreign lands. Nevertheless, the complete unity of our nation has not yet been achieved and the national division is continuing because of the separatist manoeuvres and fascist oppression committed by the US imperialists and their south Korean puppets.
We insist on independence, democracy and national reunification, while the south Korean puppets are following the road of subordination, fascism and division. Antagonism and struggle between the north and south is, in the final analysis, that between patriot and traitor, between the democratic force and the fascist force and between the reunification force and the separatist force.
The south Korean authorities have put south Korea entirely under the subjugation of the United States . The US and south Korean authorities are claiming that south Korea is an “independent state”. But how can one call south Korea , which moves under the baton of the United States without exercising sovereignty and independence, an independent state? The south Korean people, too, are of the opinion that south Korea is a complete colony of the United States and their “president” a puppet. As long as south Korea is under the subjugation of the United States , its next “president” will have no choice but to play a puppet, with the US pulling the strings. How pitiable it is that the south Korean authorities are acting under the baton of the US with no opinion of their own!
The south Korean authorities are opposed to making the society democratic and are attempting to maintain their “power” by resorting to fascist violence. In south Korea , the “National Security Law” and other evil fascist laws still remain in force and the south Korean authorities are oppressing patriotic people, including youth and students, by invoking the “National Security Law”.
Opposed to national reunification, they are actively following the US scheme to create “two Koreas ”. In view of their present conduct, it is clear that they are attempting to divide our country into two for ever. They think that they can crack down on the democratic movement in a fascist fashion and remain in power with the support of the US only when the country is divided.
They are dead set against compatriots from the north, south and abroad meeting together to talk about reunification. That the representatives from the south side failed to attend the Pan-National Rally this time is ascribable to the south Korean authorities’ fascist oppression. They mobilized tens of thousands of police and suppressed by force of arms the south-side representatives who were trying to go to the north to participate in this rally.
Nowadays they do not make any positive response to our proposals to hold a north-south joint conference and political consultative conference.
Recently the man in power in south Korea proposed holding “summit talks” to us. I replied: I do not object to such talks; if you want to meet me, bring with you new proposals for reunification; we have already put forward the proposal of reunifying the country through federation and, if you have a proposal better than that, bring it with you; if you have no fresh proposal, you can agree with our proposal of reunifying the country through federation; if the north-south summit talks are held, we should discuss any idea for reunification and it would be meaningless if we only sit face to face, drinking tea or eating noodles before parting. However, he has neither advanced any proposal for reunification nor supported our proposal. I was informed that he holds “summit talks” frequently on his visits to foreign countries, probably not for the benefit of the country and nation but to sell them.
It seems that the south Korean authorities do not agree with our proposal to reunify the country through federation because the US has not permitted them. The United States does not want our country’s reunification. It is desperately attempting to divide our country into two and demolish our socialist system by instigating the south Korean puppets. Being aware that their attempt to “reunify the country by absorbing the north” is impossible to be carried out, the enemy is now resorting to the tactics of isolating and suffocating us. The “policy towards the North” advocated by the south Korean authorities is aimed at creating “two Koreas” and ostracizing us internationally, and the great fuss raised by the United States on the alleged “nuclear issue” is, in the final analysis, aimed at crushing our Republic. Recently the United States picked a quarrel with us on the issue of nuclear inspection; when we insisted on inspecting the US nuclear bases in south Korea simultaneously, it was dumbfounded. To be candid, as we have already been inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the US nuclear bases in south Korea should now be inspected on the basis of impartiality. But, the United States , together with the south Korean authorities, has raised the issue of an “inspection of the same number of sites”. This is quite preposterous.
The United States is attempting to create “two Koreas ” and demolish our socialist system, but it is a wild daydream. Ours is a homogeneous nation with a long history and culture, and no one will ever divide it into two for ever. To mention our socialism, it is fundamentally different from that of the erstwhile Soviet Union and East European countries. Our socialism is centred on the popular masses. No matter how the US imperialists would manoeuvre to stifle us, our socialism will never collapse.
Over the past 50 years we have lived under the pressure and blockade of imperialists. This is why our people do not feel surprised or frightened when the US imperialists threaten and blackmail them with something like “economic sanctions”. Although socialism has collapsed in the former Soviet Union and East European countries, it does not mean we cannot live on.
We have food to eat, clothes to wear and the best socialist system in the world. Our people do not lead a particularly luxurious life when compared to others, but they enjoy a happy life free from worry about food, clothing, housing, medical treatment and education.
Our Party is now making efforts to fulfil our people’s centuries-old desire to live on rice and meat soup and in silk clothing and in tile-roofed houses. We are yet to provide our people with enough meat, but we are going to solve this problem.
If we carry out the Party’s agriculture-first policy and increase grain production, we can solve the meat problem; and if we bring about a revolution in light industry, we can produce commodity goods in adequate amounts. Then our people will be better-off than now and the advantages of our style of socialism will be demonstrated on a higher plane.
Peoples from many countries are now visiting our country, saying that the Korean style of socialism is the best. Last April alone many delegations, delegates and progressive figures from many countries visited our country to celebrate my 80th birthday. After seeing the realities of our country, they said that, if socialism is to be built, it should be built in the Korean style. At that time, scores of parties including communist parties and workers’ parties adopted in Pyongyang a declaration for safeguarding and advancing the cause of socialism, and signed it. The Pyongyang Declaration, a common fighting programme of revolutionary parties and progressive peoples of the world that aspire after socialism, is demonstrating its viability and correctness ever more graphically as the days go by. Only a few months have passed since the Pyongyang Declaration was adopted and made public, but the number of parties that signed it has now reached 131. This shows that socialism is still alive in the hearts of the people. Although socialism is experiencing temporary setbacks, it will certainly be revived and advance.
Ever-victorious is our style of socialism which embodies the great Juche idea. No one can provoke our socialism in which the leader, the Party and the masses are united single-heartedly and the whole society move as one. The United States thought that our country would soon go to ruin following the East European socialist countries, but it has apparently changed its mind a little recently on realizing the might of our single-hearted unity.
If all the Korean compatriots in the north, south and abroad unite firmly, they can frustrate the obstructive manoeuvres of separatists at home and abroad and achieve national reunification.
Many people in south Korea wish for the unity and reunification of the nation. Those who pursue national division number only a few. A few years ago, the Rev. Mun Ik Hwan, a democratic figure in south Korea , visited Pyongyang . When I met him, I asked him who numbered more in south Korea —those who want independence, democracy and national reunification or those who pursue subordination, fascism and division. He answered that the former composed the majority and the latter constituted a handful. Composing the latter group are only the small number of those in the ruling circle, a small section of the military authorities and some comprador capitalists. A tiny handful of these separatist forces have seized power in south Korea and are suppressing the progressive forces who aspire for independence, democracy and national reunification. The antagonism between these two sets of forces is growing acuter with the passage of time, and a fierce struggle is taking place between them. In this light it is important before anything else to define clearly, those who want the country’s reunification and those who pursue national division. As we sort rice, so we should discriminate between the reunification and separatist forces and further expand the reunification forces.
In order to realize the unity of the whole nation, we should actively promote dialogue between compatriots from the north, south and abroad and frequently organize meetings and other activities involving the whole nation.
It would be advisable to hold such meetings either in the form of a north-south joint conference or in the form of a joint conference or political consultative meeting involving all social sectors. As 40 years have passed since the last north-south joint conference, another joint conference, if organized, would bring about an important turn in realizing national unity.
The Pan-National Rally should be held regularly in the future. If the Pan-National Rally is to be a rally for realizing the great unity of the whole nation, not only representatives from the north and abroad but also those from the south should participate in it. Of course, a Pan-National Rally with only representatives from the north and abroad would play a certain role in realizing national unity, but unless it is also attended by representatives from the south, it cannot contribute greatly to that end. In the Pan-National Rally held this time a joint resolution was adopted by adding the documents sent by the south-side representatives, but making public a joint resolution agreed upon through documents is of no special significance. A rally conducted in this fashion may make a demonstration before the world but it will not exert a great influence on the people in south Korea . If the south-side representatives fail to attend, the significance and influence of the rally will grow weak. Only when the representatives of the north, south and abroad participate will it become a Pan-National Rally both in name and in reality. Therefore, the Pan-National Rally should be organized on the principle of the representatives from north, south and abroad taking part in it without fail.
If it is difficult to hold in the north a Pan-National Rally attended also by the south-side representatives, it could be held in a country such as Japan . It will be alright if the south-side representatives do not at first participate in the rally in great numbers. It would be good to allow 20 to 50 people from the south to attend at the beginning and then increase their number gradually. I think it would be best to hold the rally in a foreign country with the participation of a small number of representatives from the south and then move the venue of the rally to Pyongyang or Seoul , increasing the number of participants from the south side.
Korean compatriots in the north, south and abroad should firmly unite as one, transcending the differences in their positions, party affiliation, ideas, political views and religious belief.
I believe that you, our overseas compatriots, will wage an unremitting struggle to realize great national unity and so make a positive contribution to the fulfilment of the sacred cause of national reunification.
You have made a determination to fight strenuously to realize great national unity. It is good.
Please visit your homeland frequently in the future.
