KIM IL
SUNG
LET US ACHIEVE
THE GREAT UNITY OF OUR NATION
Talk
to the Senior Officials of the Committee for
the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland
and
the
Members of the North Side’s Headquarters of
the Pan-National Alliance
for the Country’s Reunification
August 1, 1991
The Pan-National Rally for the
Peace and Reunification of the Fatherland was
held last year on the occasion of the 45th
anniversary of national liberation, and this
year the second Pan-National Rally is to be
held on August 15, too. I think it is a good
thing that the Pan-National Rally and the
various joint national festivals for
reunification are held on the memorable
occasion of the anniversary of national
liberation. We must work hard to make the
forthcoming events a success and a major
occasion for achieving great national unity
and hastening the reunification of the
country.
Achieving
the reunification of our country means linking
the nation’s severed blood vessels, bringing
about national harmony and gaining national
independence across the country. In other
words, it concerns the fate of our
fellow-countrymen; it is a matter vital to our
nation.
As is
well known, our country was divided not
because of contradictions within our nation;
its division was imposed upon it exclusively
by foreign forces. After the end of the Second
World War the Korean question was dealt with
to suit the interests of the great powers,
contrary to our nation’s desire and will to be
independent, and the United States occupied
south Korea. As a result, Korea
was divided into north and south. It is
because of continued interference and
obstruction by foreign forces that Korea
has not yet achieved her reunification.
In the
half a century since our country was divided
not a day has passed without our nation’s
misfortunes and sufferings weighing on my
mind, and without my thinking how the country
can be reunified. We must not leave the task
of national reunification to the younger
generation. We must reunify the country in our
lifetime. National reunification is the
supreme desire of the Korean people and there
is no more pressing task for them than to
reunify their country.
The
reunification of our country must be achieved
independently and in a peaceful way, and this
calls on us
to achieve the great unity of the whole
nation. The realization of the independent and
peaceful reunification of the country is
inconceivable without great national unity.
Great national unity is a fundamental
precondition for the achievement of the
independent and peaceful reunification of our
country, as well as the most essential aspect
of it. The first and foremost task in
achieving national reunification is to achieve
the great unity of our nation.
Whatever
movement we may join, we can emerge victorious
only when we strengthen the driving force and
increase its role. This is an essential
revolutionary truth which has been our
philosophy and faith throughout the long
revolutionary struggle.
The
driving force for national reunification is
the entire Korean nation. The reunification of
the country is our nation’s cause of
independence, and it can be achieved by the
efforts of our nation alone. Every Korean
person is responsible for national
reunification and must bear his or her
responsibility and play his or her allotted
role in the struggle to reunify the country.
If our nation, as the driving force for
national reunification, is to fulfil its responsibility and role, it
must be united firmly as one. The strength of
the driving force is precisely the strength of
its unity. The decisive guarantee for the
independent and peaceful reunification of the
country lies in the achievement of the unity
of the whole nation and in strengthening the
driving force for reunification.
All the
Korean people must unite closely under the
banner of great national unity, in the spirit
of patriotism and national independence.
A
nation is a solid community which has been
formed and developed historically, and it is
a unit of social life. Historically, people
have lived with their country and nation as a
unit and have shaped their destiny through a
combined effort. The question of a nation
essentially means the question of achieving
and defending its independence. Independence
is the lifeblood of the people as well as of
their country and nation. If a man is deprived
of his independence, he is as good as dead;
likewise, if a nation is deprived of its
independence, its existence and development
is inconceivable.
It is
only when the independence of a country and a
nation is achieved that the independence of
individuals can be realized; no one can escape
the fate of slavery if his country and nation
is enslaved, for the life of an individual as
a member of the nation exists in the life of
his or her country and nation. It is precisely
for this reason that, although a nation
consists of different classes and strata,
people love their country, value their
nation’s independence and fight in unity for
the independence of their country and nation.
People love their fatherland and value the
independence of their nation. These feelings
are common to every member of a nation.
Originally,
nationalism came about as a progressive idea
promoting national interests. Under the
banner of nationalism, the newly-emergent
bourgeoisie took the lead in the nationalist
movement, yet nationalism could not be
regarded as an ideology of the capitalist
class from the outset. During the period of
the bourgeois nationalist movement against
feudalism the interests of the popular masses
were basically identical with those of the
newly-emergent bourgeoisie and, accordingly,
nationalism reflected the common interests of
the nation. Subsequently, as capitalism
developed and the bourgeoisie became the
reactionary ruling class, nationalism was
reduced to the ideological means for the
capitalist class to defend its interests.
Bourgeois nationalism conflicts with genuine
nationalism which truly promotes the interests
of the nation. For idlers, who may be called
the parasites of the nation, to pose as
nationalists is nothing but a deception. Only
he who does some work, mental or physical,
which is beneficial to the nation, can be a
genuine nationalist.
In our
country, the land of a homogeneous nation,
genuine nationalism means precisely
patriotism. Our nation, which has inherited
the same blood generation after generation and
built up a brilliant national culture with
the same language on the same territory, is a
nation with a strong spirit of patriotism and
independence. Our people have always loved
their fatherland ardently and fought strongly
to defend the independence of their country
and nation. This is a proud tradition of our
nation.
My
father put forward the idea of Jiwon (aim high—Tr.) and educated me in
patriotism and in the spirit of national
independence. So I set out on the road of
struggle with a resolution to dedicate my
whole life to saving the country and nation.
My revolutionary activities began with the
struggle for national liberation and in the
course of the struggle to establish the
identity of the nation, the identity of the revolution, I have evolved the Juche idea, the
guiding idea of our revolution. I have been
fighting all my life for the independence,
sovereignty and prosperity of our nation, for
the independence of the masses of the people.
I am fighting for the independence not only of
our people but also of people throughout the
world, and for the abolition of exploitation
and oppression of man by man not only in our
country but also throughout the world. Just as
it is inconceivable for a person who does not
love his parents and brothers to love his
country and nation, so it is unthinkable for
a person who is indifferent to the destiny of
his nation to be loyal to the world
revolution. As I always say, only a genuine
patriot can be a true internationalist who is
loyal to the world revolution. I can say that,
in this sense, I am a communist and patriot as
well as an internationalist.
At the
present stage of historical development, when
the destiny of the popular masses is being
shaped with the country and nation as the
basic unit, the whole nation must firmly
establish the identity of the nation and fight
in unity for its common interests and
prosperity. We must not only achieve national
reunification on the basis of great national
unity but also, after the country is
reunified, build an ideal society by relying
on the united efforts of the entire nation so
that all the people enjoy equally unbounded
happiness on this land.
A
nation must regard its independence as its
lifeblood, advocate and realize its
independence by united effort and achieve its
common prosperity. I can say that this is our
Juche view on the nation.
We have
firmly adhered to the principle of always
believing in and relying on the combined
strength of the people both in the struggle
against imperialism and in the struggle for
the building of socialism. We have always
given top priority to national interests and
relied on the combined strength of the people
in the struggle. We can say that this is the
secret of the victory we have achieved in the
revolution and construction.
We
emerged victorious from the anti-Japanese
revolutionary struggle for national liberation
because the guerrillas and the people forged
ties of kinship and all the anti-Japanese
patriotic forces fought in close unity. During
the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle we
brought together patriotic people from all
walks of life into the anti-Japanese national
united front and fought Japanese imperialism
with the united strength of the nation. The
Association for the Restoration of the
Fatherland, formed in 1936, was an
anti-Japanese national united front comprising
broad sections of patriotic people who opposed
Japanese imperialism and aspired to national
independence. This association united all the
anti-Japanese patriotic forces from all walks
of life including communists, nationalists,
workers, peasants, intellectuals, young people
and students, as well as conscientious
national capitalists and religious men. We
established the tradition of national unity in
the course of waging the anti-Japanese
revolutionary struggle, relying on the
broad-based anti-Japanese national united
front.
In the
struggle to build a new society after national
liberation, too, we channelled our efforts firstly into achieving
great national unity. In the speech I
addressed to the people after national
liberation, I called upon all the people who
loved their country and nation and democracy
to unite as one and make a positive
contribution to nation-building, those with
strength giving their strength, those with
knowledge contributing their knowledge and
those with money offering their money. We have
pushed forward dynamically with the building
of a democratic new state and with socialist
construction, relying on the combined strength
of all the people. Our socialist construction
aims at enabling all our people to lead happy
and worthwhile lives in a society free from
exploitation and oppression. The socialist
society we are building is socialism centred on the popular masses. Socialism centred on the popular masses means a
genuine society for the people where all the
people are the masters of the country and
everything in society serves the popular
masses. We need not build socialism which does
not serve the popular masses, and we cannot
build socialism centred on the popular masses without
uniting the popular masses.
The aim
of the reunification of our nation is to
realize the independence of our nation, to
achieve the common development and prosperity
of the nation and to ensure that all the
Korean people lead happy and worthy lives in
one reunified land. It is natural, therefore, that all the people
should combine their will and rally as one in
the struggle for national reunification, and
this is fully possible.
The
Joint Conference of the Representatives of
Political Parties and Social Organizations of
North and South
Korea was held in Pyongyang
in 1948. We called this conference to discuss
the pressing save-the-nation measures and
national reunification. The conference was
attended by representatives of almost all the
political parties and social organizations of
south Korea, except Syngman Rhee’s party. Kim Ku, the leader of the
“Korean Independence Party”, too, attended the
conference. In pre-liberation years when he
was in the “Provisional Government in Shanghai”
Kim Ku had regarded communists as his enemies.
But he attended the conference having accepted
our just proposal to meet and have a
heart-to-heart discussion on important
questions concerning the destiny of the nation
as members of the same nation, and he
eventually took the road of alliance and
coalition with us communists. He had no clear
idea of what a genuine communist was, but he
was a patriot. He made a fine speech at the
north-south joint conference and after his
return to south Korea he fought for national unity
and reunification before being assassinated
by the Yankees and their stooges. The historic
April north-south joint conference served as
clear proof that despite differences in
ideologies and ideals, political views and
religious beliefs all people can unite in the
struggle for the common cause of the nation.
If the
whole nation fights in concert, drawing on the
traditions and experience of national unity
built up in the course of the struggle to
realize our nation’s independence, we shall
not fail to achieve national reunification,
the supreme task of the nation.
The
concert and unity of the whole nation means
the national reunification we desire. What is most important in national
reunification is not the procedures or
methods but the achievement of the genuine
harmony and unity of the whole nation. If all
Korean people in the north, south and overseas
unite their minds and, on this basis, attain
great national unity the most important
problem in achieving national reunification
will have been solved and then other problems
can be resolved easily.
In
recent years signal progress has been made in
our efforts to bring about national unity.
Last year, after the August 15 Pan-National
Rally, the Pan-National Reunification Concert
was held; also the north-south reunification
football matches and art festival took place.
This year the north and the south formed
unified teams and participated jointly in the
World Table Tennis Championships and the World
Youth Football Championship. This was a result
of our people’s desire for reunification that
was stronger than ever before and the
intensified trend towards national concert and
unity. This delighted all the brethren in the
north, south and abroad and led them to gain
national pride and confidence. If the minds of
all our compatriots are united as one, the
great unity of the whole nation will be
achieved and the country reunified. It is in
this sense, I think, that the Rev. Mun Ik Hwan in south Korea said that our nation had
been reunified now, that the reunification was
in the perfect tense.
It is
also for the sake of genuine national concert
and reunification that we have advanced
proposals on national reunification through
confederation based on one nation, one state,
two systems and two governments. Since there exist two different ideologies and
systems in the north and south of our country,
the confederation formula is the only way to
achieve national harmony and reunification. In
the light of the situation prevailing in our
country it is wrong for either side to attempt
to attain reunification by conquering the
other. An ideology and system should be chosen
by the people themselves of their own accord,
not through coercion from outsiders. If one
side were to try to impose its ideology and
system on the other, it would be impossible to
realize national reunification; it would
rather aggravate the confrontation within our
nation and cause further national calamity.
The ideological and institutional differences
within our nation should be gradually overcome
not by coercive methods but by strengthening
national unity based on the common interests
of the nation. The most essential interests of
our nation lie in the nation’s reunification
free from any foreign domination and
interference. In spite of the ideological and
institutional differences within our nation
we, as a single people, can bring about
reunification and work together for the common
prosperity of the nation.
Whether
they are in the north, south or abroad,
whether they are workers, farmers,
intellectuals, young people, students,
politicians, businessmen, religious men, or
soldiers, Koreans must all unite and strive to
achieve the reunification of their country,
the common cause of the nation. Just as our
people did in the days of building a new
country, compatriots from all strata in the
north, south and abroad must join hands in the
cause of national reunification; those who
have strength should contribute their
strength, those who have knowledge their
knowledge and those who have money their
money.
The
workers, farmers and intellectuals form the
major force of the nation. If they cooperate
and unite, while maintaining their own
characteristics, they can form a mighty,
independent driving force of the nation and
achieve reunification. Workers and farmers
should join hands with intellectuals, while
intellectuals should cast in their lot with
workers and farmers and thereby fulfil their role as the motive force in
the struggle for the country’s reunification.
It is unfair to underestimate the role of
intellectuals or to adopt a narrow-minded
attitude towards them. When founding the
Party, we defined intellectuals, along with
workers and farmers, as one of its
components. Our Party’s emblem consists of a
hammer, a sickle and a writing brush. These
symbolize the workers, farmers, and
intellectuals who make up our Party. When we
began to build a new society immediately after
liberation, we did not leave out the
intellectuals, arguing that they had served
Japanese imperialism. We believed in their
patriotism and spirit of national independence
and generously brought them to our side. We
regarded the intellectuals scattered across
the country as the nation’s treasure and
searched for them one by one. We positively
encouraged them to play an important role in
the building of a new country. Our
intellectuals trusted and followed our Party
and have thrown in their lot with it. They
dedicated all their efforts and talents to the
building of the new democratic Korea.
They also fought courageously in the
Fatherland Liberation War against US
imperialist aggression, and after the war they
worked for socialist revolution and
construction.
Today
the south Korean intellectuals, too, are
fighting well for the reunification of the
country. The young people and students of south Korea are ardently patriotic and
have a strong spirit of independence against
the US.
They are playing a central, leading role in
the struggle to make south Korean society independent and
democratic and to reunify the nation. The south Korean young people and students
who are struggling heroically, dedicating
their precious youth without hesitation for
independence, democracy and national
reunification are the pride of our nation.
In
addition to the workers, peasants and
intellectuals, there are many people in south Korea from different backgrounds
who live in different conditions. We must not
neglect them. We must achieve national unity
on the principle of welcoming everyone without
hesitation, who is not a traitor to the
nation.
It is
very important to have a correct understanding
of religions and to work properly with
religious believers. People believe in a
religion because they take their sufferings
and misfortunes in this world as predestined,
and they yearn for happiness in the next
world. Therefore, we cannot call them bad.
What is bad is the anti-popular politics
that misleads people about the situation and
reactionary rulers who misuse religions,
making them an instrument for paralysing the people’s consciousness of
independence and ensuring that the people obey
their rule. Progressive religious believers
wish the people to love one another and live
in harmony. The south Korean men of religion are
opposed to the foreign invaders who keep our
nation artificially divided and who suppress
the champions of reunification at the point
of the bayonet. We must be highly appreciative
of the devoted struggle of the south Korean men of religion for
national reunification and unite with them.
It is
mortifying that in south Korea young people, the sons and
daughters of the nation, serve in the “ROK
army” under the command of Americans who use
it as a tool for their neo-colonialist
domination and for the implementation of their
policy of keeping our nation divided. We must
awaken the officers and men of the “ROK army”
to the anti-national and anti-popular nature
of the imperialists and their minions so that
they stand firmly by their own nation and
people and cooperate with their parents and
brothers in the struggle for independence,
democracy and national reunification.
As I
always say, reunification means patriotism and
division means treason. Those Koreans who
desire national reunification and strive for
it are patriots, whereas those who are opposed
to reunification and accept division in
league with foreign forces are traitors. By
this criterion we must unite with all those
who support reunification and advance with
them in the same ranks. Even one who may have
once been opposed to reunification and have
committed crimes against the country and the
nation, if he repents of his mistake and takes
part in the struggle for patriotism and
reunification, must be allowed to start with a
clean slate and join hands with us.
There
are many people who once led a dishonourable life in the eyes of the nation but
have broken with their past and taken the
patriotic road of national unity and national
reunification. Mr. Choe Tok Sin was one of them. As you all
know, he served as a corps commander of the
“ROK army” and “foreign minister” in south Korea. While he was pursuing the
road of pro-US, anti-communism at important
military and political posts, he gradually
began to feel disillusioned about the
traitorous and anti-reunification acts of the
ruling authorities and took refuge in a
foreign country with the aim of living an
honest life for the nation. While in exile he
engaged in patriotic activities for bringing
about the independence and democracy of south Korean society and reunifying the
country. He became clearly aware of which was
the patriotic way to follow during many visits
to the homeland. He was moved by the fact that
our Republic, which is independent,
self-sufficient and self-reliant in defence, is displaying the pride and
dignity of the Korean nation. He also
sympathized with our consistent, just policy
of embracing and joining hands with all those
who love their country and nation, regardless
of differences in political views, ideas and
religions without asking about their past, and
the policy of great national unity. He said he
had found a paradise on Earth in the homeland,
the land of bliss which he, as a nationalist
and Chondoist, had aspired to and sought all his
life. With a determination to dedicate the
rest of his life to the just cause of the
country and the nation, he applied for
permanent residence in the homeland. Although
he had opposed us in the past, we positively
supported his decision and agreed to join
hands with him for the sake of great national
unity and the reunification of the country
since he was resolved to break with the past
and make a fresh start for the sake of the
country and the nation. After being taken into
the embrace of the homeland, he worked with
devotion to the last moment of his life as the
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Chondoist Chongu Party and the Vice-Chairman of the
Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of
the Fatherland; he did so for the prosperity
and development of the country, for great
national unity and for the country’s
reunification. He passed away, failing to see
the day of national reunification to which he
had looked forward. But in his last years he
joined the ranks of the national reunification
movement and marched forward with his fellow
countrymen. As a result, he came to enjoy
immortality as a patriotic martyr who is held
in affection by the people, and who helped his
compatriots at home and abroad to understand
the real meaning of national concert and great
unity.
For the
realization of great national unity
compatriots from all social strata in the
north, south and abroad must place their
common national interests above all else and
subordinate everything to national
reunification, transcending differences in
ideas, social systems and religious beliefs.
We must regard this as a fundamental principle
in achieving great national unity and firmly
adhere to this principle.
Our
national community which has been formed and
consolidated over a history of five thousand
years is greater than transient differences
in social systems, ideals and ideologies which
have come about owing to national division;
the common national desire to achieve
reunification as a homogeneous nation is
incomparably more important than the interests
of individual social classes and social
strata. Although the defence of the ideals and ideologies of
individual classes and strata and the
realization of their interests are important,
it is even more important to realize the
common cause of the nation. Classes and strata
form part of the nation. Therefore, no class
and no stratum can realize its own interests
apart from the common national interests. Only
when there is a nation can there be classes,
and only when national interests are
guaranteed can the interests of the classes be
ensured.
Today
when the independence of our nation is being
trampled upon by foreign forces, no class or
stratum, if it belongs to the Korean nation,
should hamper the achievement of national
reunification, the common cause of our
nation, by putting its interests to the fore.
There should be no practice of placing class
interests ahead of national interests, or of
setting the struggle to satisfy class demands
against the struggle for national
reunification, swayed by minor interests and
prejudices. Moreover, for fellow countrymen to
reject or repress one another on the strength
of government authority because of differences
in political views, isms and assertions or for
them to be hostile to one another because of
differences in ideas and social systems—these
are fundamentally contrary to the principle
of great national unity jointly agreed upon
between north and south, and such acts are
intolerable for the nation. Our people will
never be able to achieve their reunification
if the two sides reject and are hostile
towards each other, putting differences to the
fore instead of uniting on their common ground
as a single nation.
If the
great unity of the nation is to be achieved,
contacts and visits should be widely
encouraged among the fellow countrymen in the
north, south and abroad and dialogue be
promoted actively among them.
If the
whole nation is to act in concert and pool its
strength for the common purpose, an atmosphere
of understanding and confidence should be
created within the nation. Because our country
has been divided and the north and the south
have been alienated from each other for a long
time, some people misunderstand their fellow
countrymen, believing them to be their enemy,
and some people hesitate to go hand in hand
with their fellow countrymen because of a lack
of confidence, although they wish to see
national unity. In order to remove such
misunderstanding and distrust within the
nation and realize national concert and unity,
it is necessary to encourage free visits,
contacts and talks.
What is
important in realizing free travel and contact
and wide-ranging dialogue is to pull down the
barrier of division and remove all political
and legal obstacles to it. We have already
made proposals for removing the barrier of
division, ensuring free travel and opening all
doors between north and south and have been
making untiring efforts to realize them. The
point in question is that the south Korean authorities should pull
down the barrier of division and remove all
obstacles that hamper free travel, contact and
dialogue among the fellow countrymen in the
north, south and abroad. Today the “National
Security Law” of south Korea is a major obstacle to free
travel, contact and dialogue between north and
south. In south Korea those who have been to the
north or who have discussed reunification in
foreign lands with people from the north are
punished under the “National Security Law”.
The Rev. Mun Ik Hwan, who is over 70, a young girl
student Rim Su Gyong and other visitors to the north,
as well as a large number of those working for
reunification, are currently imprisoned under
this law. If this wicked law is not repealed,
there can be neither free travel and contact
nor free dialogue between north and south.
That is why the “National Security Law” must
be abolished as soon as possible.
In
order to achieve great national unity we must
strengthen nationwide solidarity in the
struggle for national reunification.
Great
national unity cannot be achieved only by
words. It can be achieved and consolidated in
the course of developing joint action by
uniting minds and efforts in the struggle to
reunify the country. All political parties,
organizations and compatriots from all walks
of life in the north, south and abroad must
support one another and take concerted action
in the struggle for the country’s
reunification.
The
cardinal task here is to check and frustrate
the schemes of the forces which are opposed to
reunification and working to keep the nation
divided for ever and provoke another war. In
order to isolate and weaken these forces and
defeat their divisive moves, the compatriots
in the north, south and abroad must develop an
active joint struggle in various forms. The
tens of thousands of US troops and more than
1,000 nuclear weapons of various types
deployed in south Korea are the root cause of
tension on the Korean peninsula and pose the
threat of a nuclear war. We must have the US troops and
nuclear weapons withdrawn from south Korea as soon as possible and thus
remove the danger of a nuclear war that
threatens the existence of our nation; thus
we shall provide a firm guarantee for peace on
the Korean peninsula. All our compatriots in
the north, south and abroad must launch a
nationwide struggle to compel the US to
withdraw its troops and nuclear weapons from
south Korea and make the Korean
peninsula a nuclear-free, peace zone.
In
order to achieve great national unity all the
political parties, organizations and
compatriots of all strata in the north, south
and abroad that are struggling for the
reunification of the country must ally
themselves with one another organizationally.
It is
only when all our compatriots who adhere to
the patriotic cause of reunification are
organized into an allied force that solid
national unity can be achieved and unity of
action and unanimity ensured in the struggle
for the country’s reunification.
For the
organized unity of the whole nation, there
must be an organization that can ensure the
voluntary association of our compatriots of
all strata in the north, south and abroad. I
believe that the Pan-National Alliance for the
Country’s Reunification which was inaugurated
in accordance with the decision of the
Pan-National Rally last year can be such an
organization. The Pan-National Alliance for
the Country’s Reunification was formed through
the joint efforts of the patriotic
organizations and public figures of all strata
in the north, south and abroad that aspire to
the independent and peaceful reunification of
the country. It is a patriotic organization
for reunification, whose mission is to reunify
the country on the three principles of
independence, peaceful reunification and great
national unity, and which represents the
common will of Koreans in the north, south
and overseas. It has the important duty and
responsibility of achieving great national
unity and hastening the reunification of the
country. It will have to work hard, conducting
a variety of activities, to expand and
strengthen its ranks steadily among our
compatriots and to hasten national
reunification.
Many
obstacles and difficulties still lie in the
way of the reunification of our country, but
we are looking forward with confidence to the
bright future of national reunification.
Our
nation’s move towards reunification is now
stronger than ever before. Our compatriots in
the north, south and abroad are working hard
with a firm determination to reunify the
country without fail in the 1990s. Nobody can
break our people’s will to reunify their
country, and no force can ever check our
nation’s strong move towards national
reunification. Through the united efforts of
the whole nation, our people will overcome the
obstacles and difficulties in their way to
national reunification and reunify their
country, come what may.
Once
the country is reunified, our nation will be a
dignified and strong nation and our country
will emerge on the world stage as an
independent and sovereign country with more
than seventy million people, a brilliant
national culture and a powerful economy. Our
nation is industrious and resourceful, and our
country is a beautiful land of three thousand
ri in which it is good to live. When
the whole nation is united as one, and when
the country is reunified, there will be
nothing for us to fear or envy. Our people
will proudly display the resourcefulness and
greatness of the Korean nation and nobody will
dare to encroach upon our sovereignty. If the
whole nation combines its efforts and talents
and develops the economy and culture after the
country’s reunification, our country will be
more prosperous and civilized, and it will
make a more effective contribution to the
common cause of the people in Asia and the
rest of the world for peace and prosperity.
For the
Korean people to devote themselves to national
reunification is most honourable and worthwhile. Those who have
contributed to the noble cause of national
reunification will be held in love and respect
by the nation and will be highly appreciated
by the reunified nation.
I
believe that you comrades, who are at the
forefront of the struggle for national
reunification, will carry out the honourable duty entrusted to you by the
country and the nation.