KIM IL
                            SUNG
LET US REALIZE THE
                            COUNTRY’S REUNIFICATION INDEPENDENTLY 
THROUGH THE UNITED
                            EFFORT OF THE WHOLE NATION
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 cast 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 progressive
                          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
                          confederation 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
                          confederation; 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 confederation
                          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 moves
                          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.