KIM IL
SUNG
THE DPRK REPRESENTS GENUINE
PEOPLE’S POWER AND
IS A BANNER
OF THE UNITY AND
SOLIDARITY OF THE MASSES
A Speech at a Banquet
to Celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the
Foundation of the DPRK
September 9, 1983
Dear
comrades,
Esteemed foreign
guests,
Today we are holding
grand celebrations for the 35th anniversary of
the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea,
with feelings of great national pride and
amidst the warm wishes of the world’s people,
at a time when the whole country is boiling
with high revolutionary enthusiasm.
On the occasion of the
35th anniversary of the foundation of the
DPRK, the glorious motherland of our people,
allow me to offer my heartfelt congratulations
to our heroic working class, cooperative
farmers, valiant officers and men of the
People’s Army and the People’s Security
Forces, working intellectuals and all the rest
of the people who, under the unfurled banner
of the Juche idea, have struggled with
complete devotion for the prosperity and
development of the country and for the victory
of our revolution.
I would like also to
extend militant greetings to the patriots,
young people, students and all the other
people in south Korea who, in the face of the
harsh repression and persecution by the US
imperialists and their stooges, are fighting
courageously for national sovereignty,
democracy and the reunification of the
country, under the slogan of independence
against America and democracy against fascism.
On this significant
national holiday my warm greetings go also to
the 700,000 Koreans in Japan
and to all our other overseas compatriots
who, with a sense of honour and pride in being
citizens of the Republic, are struggling
vigorously for the prosperity and progress of
the nation and the independent and peaceful
reunification of the country.
On the occasion of the
35th anniversary of the foundation of the
DPRK, high-ranking leaders, party and
government delegations, delegates from
friendship organizations and prominent figures
from many lands have come to our country with
feelings of deep friendship and are warmly
congratulating our people. Allow me to express
a warm welcome and my deep gratitude to the
members of delegations from various countries
and to all our foreign guests for coming to
our country to join us in celebrating our
national holiday.
Comrades,
The DPRK is our great
revolutionary achievement.
Through a long and
arduous revolutionary struggle the genuine
communists and patriots of Korea
achieved the historic cause of national
liberation and established the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea
in their freed country.
With the establishment
of the Republic our people, for the first time
in their history, became a dignified people
able independently to hew out their destiny as
the true masters of the state and society, and
our country appeared in the international
arena with pride as a fully-fledged
independent and sovereign state.
For the last 35 years
the DPRK has followed a proud path
resplendent with victories and glories and
made tremendous achievements which will go
down in our nation’s history.
Under the correct
leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea the
Government of the Republic carried out the
socialist revolution and set up in our country
the most superior of socialist systems free
from exploitation and oppression and, by
forcefully stepping up socialist construction,
converted our country into a powerful
socialist state with a solid independent
national economy, brilliant national culture
and self-reliant defence.
The DPRK is a cradle of
happiness for our people.
Today, in the embrace
of the Republic, our people are fully
guaranteed all political rights and freedoms
and enjoy blissful material and cultural
lives. Under the socialist system of the
Republic the workers, farmers and all the rest
of the people participate freely in state and
social activities enjoying equal rights and
they all live happily without any worries or
cares. From the very moment of their birth all
our people without exception are guaranteed by
the state and society the right to adequate
food, clothing and housing and, thanks to
universal compulsory free education and free
medical care in our country, they have the
full opportunity to learn and receive medical
treatment without paying a penny. Our people’s
material and cultural standards have now
reached a very high level, and the communist
ideal is already blossoming into reality in
different spheres here.
We are justified in
taking great pride in the fact that, under the
banner of the Republic, we have, in the past
35 years, brought about the greatest
transformation of the century that is without
precedent in our nation’s history and built up
the independent socialist country, the
people’s land of bliss, that we see in our
beautiful country today.
The DPRK represents
genuine people’s power and is a banner of the
unity and solidarity of the masses.
The Government of the
Republic has served the people faithfully,
regarding the protection of their interests as
the basic principle guiding its activities.
It has carried out all its policies to meet
the will and demands of the people and has
striven to guarantee a happy life for them.
For its devoted service to them the Government
of the Republic enjoys the unreserved support
and confidence of all the Korean people today.
Our people have always
loved the Republic dearly and actively
supported and defended it; they have devoted
their all to the struggle for the Republic.
Through their own experience our people have
become fully convinced that the state power of
the Republic represents genuine people’s power
fighting for the interests of the popular
masses and that only when the Republic is
firmly safeguarded and constantly strengthened
and developed can they enjoy a happy life and
eternal prosperity. Today our people entrust
their destiny entirely to our Party and the
Government of the Republic and are solidly
united with one idea and will around them.
The state power of the
Republic serves the people and the people
support the Republic, the Party, the
Government and the people are inseparably
united with one idea and purpose. This is the
source of our invincibility and the sure
guarantee for all our victories.
The DPRK is now
enjoying great prosperity.
The political, economic
and military might of our Republic is greater
than ever before and the socialist
construction of the country is progressing at
a rapid pace. The whole country is now
seething with the gigantic labour efforts of
the working people to attain the ten long-term
objectives of socialist economic construction
put forward by our Party at its Sixth
Congress. All the working people are working
hard to reclaim 300,000 hectares of tideland,
construct the Nampho Barrage (now the West Sea
Barrage—Tr.) and complete other challenging
nature-harnessing projects to renew the
nation’s look; in all the spheres of the
national economy they are undertaking
large-scale construction works to expand
production capacity on a huge scale and
conducting a powerful mass campaign to
increase output radically.
In full support of the decision of
the historic Hamhung Plenary Meeting of the
Party Central Committee, the builders of
Komdok, displaying boundless loyalty to the
Party and the revolution, miraculously
completed in only one year the enormous
project to create an ore-dressing capacity of
10 million tons. With the construction of the
huge ore-dressing plant at the Komdok General
Mining Enterprise, one of the nation’s leading
centres for producing nonferrous minerals, a
breakthrough was made for hitting the
production target of 1.5 million tons of
nonferrous metals and radical changes were
brought about in many fields of economic
construction.
Thanks to the correct
leadership of our Party and the Government of
the Republic and the heroic struggle of the
working people, the “speed of the 80s”, an
amazing new speed of socialist construction,
is being created everywhere in the country and
clear prospects have been opened up before us
now for the successful achievement of the ten
long-term goals of socialist economic
construction.
On this auspicious
national holiday, I would like to extend my
warm thanks to the heroic builders of Komdok
who were forerunners in the effort to create
the “speed of the 80s” and to all the rest of
the working people throughout the country who
are performing brilliant labour feats on every
front of socialist construction.
We should continue to
accelerate socialist construction without ever
slackening our present high rate and so
increase the might of the Republic and achieve
the eternal prosperity of the nation.
The Government of the
Republic should hold the Juche idea as its
invariable guiding principle and firmly adhere
to independent and creative stands in state
activities; it should also dynamically conduct
the ideological, technical and cultural
revolutions to hasten the complete victory of
socialism and accomplish the historic cause of
modelling the whole society on the Juche
idea.
The most important task
facing us for the present in socialist
economic construction to model the whole
society on the Juche idea is to fulfil the
Second Seven-Year Plan and reach the ten
long-term objectives of socialist economic
construction for the 1980s.
It is only when these objectives,
proposed at the Sixth Party Congress, have
been attained that we will be able to
consolidate the material and technical
foundations of the country and radically
improve the people’s material and cultural
standards, and thus open up a broad avenue for
the complete victory of socialism.
In reaching these ten
long-term objectives we should give priority
to the efforts to provide enough food and
clothing, the most important and urgent
problems in the life of the people.
Our Party and the
Government of the Republic are strongly
resolved to enforce a communist policy first
with regard to these matters. We should
forcefully push ahead with the magnificent
projects to transform nature, including the
reclamation of 300,000 hectares of tideland,
implement the decision of the Seventh Plenary
Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee
to attain the annual production goals of 15
million tons of grain and 1,500 million metres
of fabrics ahead of schedule, and exert great
efforts to develop the fishing industry to hit
the target of 5 million tons of marine
products annually.
By doing so we will be
able to meet in full the people’s great
demands for food and clothing at the earliest
possible date.
In order decisively to
reinforce the material and technical
foundations of socialism and rapidly to
develop all the branches of the national
economy, fresh innovations should be made in
the key industries.
The key industries,
such as the mining, power and metal
industries, must significantly increase
production capacity at existing factories and
enterprises, modernize equipment and build
many more factories and enterprises, so as to
reach the production goals set for coal,
electric power, steel, nonferrous metals,
cement and chemical fertilizers.
The effort to reach the
ten long-term objectives of socialist
economic construction is an honourable and
worthwhile struggle to reach new heights of
socialist construction by stepping up economic
construction at an extremely high speed.
All Party members and
working people should arm themselves with the
Juche idea and give full play to the
revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and
strenuous effort, continue the vigorous
struggle to create the “speed of the 80s”, and
so bring about a fresh upswing on all fronts
of socialist construction.
To match the high
spirits of the working people, all leading
officials should be bold in planning
operations for economic construction and
command them skilfully, and meticulously
organize economic work so that the tremendous
tasks of economic construction can be carried
out satisfactorily.
Strengthening the state
power of the Republic, a powerful weapon of
the revolution and construction, and enhancing
its function and role is an important
guarantee for the accomplishment of the cause
of modelling the whole society on the Juche
idea.
The Government of the
Republic should apply the Juche idea to the
letter in state activities, properly implement
democracy, continue to improve the work method
and style of government officials, and so
fulfil its mission and role as a weapon of the
revolution and the servant of the people. All
the people should ardently love and positively
defend the state power of the Republic and
fight devotedly to strengthen and develop it.
Comrades,
The DPRK was founded by
the general will of the north and south Korean
people; it is a political power that fights
for the interests of the entire Korean nation.
In the 35 years since
its foundation, our Republic has struggled
energetically for the prosperity and progress
of the nation and the reunification of the
country. But we have as yet failed to achieve
reunification, the long-cherished desire of
the nation, because of the colonial
enslavement policy of the US
imperialists occupying south Korea
and their manoeuvres to divide the nation. The
US
imperialists have trampled upon the sacred
right of our people to self-determination and
made south Korea
their colony and a military base of
aggression. They persist in their scheme to
perpetuate the division of our country by
fabricating “two Koreas”.
Preventing the
permanent partition of the nation and
reunifying the country is the most urgent, the
noble and the supreme task facing the
Government of our Republic and all the Korean
people.
Our country must be reunified on
the three principles of independence,
peaceful reunification and great national
unity set out in the historic North-South
Joint Statement, principles which reflect the
unanimous will and desire of the Korean
people.
In order to achieve
national reunification in an independent and
peaceful way, it is necessary to put an end to
the military occupation of south Korea by US
imperialism and its colonial rule, realize the
independence of Korean nation and ease the
tension being created in our country by the
activities of the US imperialists and their
stooges to unleash another war. It is also
necessary to end the fascist policy of
repressing the south Korean people and the
anti-communist rackets aimed at antagonizing
people of the same blood, and to make south
Korean society democratic, so that practical
conditions will be created for national
reconciliation and unity.
The most reasonable way
to reunify the country on the three
principles of independence, peaceful
reunification and great national unity is to
form a Confederation of the north and south.
At its Sixth Congress
the Workers’ Party of Korea made the historic
proposal to reunify the country by
establishing the Democratic Confederal
Republic of Koryo, a confederal state covering
the whole territory of Korea.
This proposal envisages the north and south
retaining their ideologies and systems as
they are and, on this basis, establishing a
supreme national confederal assembly and a
confederal standing committee, its permanent
body, in which both sides are represented on
an equal footing and under which they exercise
regional autonomy.
It would be reasonable
that, as the unified government of the
con-federal state, the supreme national
confederal assembly and the con-federal
standing committee elect their respective
co-chairmen, one from the north and one from
the south, who will run these bodies
alternately.
We firmly believe that
the proposal to establish the Democratic
Confederal Republic of Koryo is a most fair
and realistic one which can bring about
national reunification in an independent and
peaceful way in the present situation in our
country and, therefore, we maintain that Korea
must be reunified according to this proposal
as early as practicable.
If national
reunification is achieved through the
establishment of the Democratic Confederal
Republic of Koryo, our people will realize
their earnest desire for national reunion,
achieve the coordinated development of the
country and the prosperity of the nation, and
demonstrate externally their dignity and
grandeur as a single, unified nation.
All the Korean people
aspire for reunification and the DPRK
Government will do all it can to achieve the
genuine unity of the entire Korean nation and
set up the Democratic Confederal Republic of
Koryo.
Comrades,
The DPRK is an
independent and peace-loving non-aligned
country.
The DPRK Government has
invariably pursued an independent and
peace-loving foreign policy and has striven to
strengthen friendship and solidarity among
the world’s progressive people who advocate
independence. Today our Republic, as a
dignified, independent and sovereign state, is
making an active contribution in the
international arena to humanity’s noble
common cause of making the whole world
independent and has numerous supporters and
close friends in every continent and all parts
of the world. Never, indeed, in our nation’s
history of 5,000 years has our country exalted
the dignity and honour of the Korean nation
before the whole world, enjoying such high
international authority and great influence,
as today. This is a source of great pride and
honour for our people.
Our people’s
revolutionary cause is advancing with the
active support and encouragement of the
world’s progressive people. I would like to
take this opportunity to offer my warm thanks
and greetings to the governments, political
parties and social organizations of the
socialist, non-aligned and many other
countries, and to the international
democratic organizations, world organizations
and the progressive people throughout the
world that actively support and encourage our
people in their struggle for socialist
construction and national reunification.
A fierce struggle is
now going on in the international arena
between the anti-imperialist forces of
independence and the forces of imperialism and
domination, and in this struggle the desire of
the world’s people to advance along the road
to independence is growing with each passing
day. The situation in the world is extremely
strained and complicated due to the US
and other imperialists’ moves for aggression
and war, but the march of history is
continuing vigorously towards independence.
Realizing global
independence is the common aspiration and
noble fighting task of the world’s progressive
people.
The peoples of all countries should
join the powerful stream of the times towards
independence and against imperialism, strongly
combat imperialism and domination, reject all
forms of foreign interference, and hold fast
to their independence. In this way they will
realize independence throughout the world.
An important task at
the moment in the struggle for global
independence is for the non-aligned and all
other developing countries to effect
South-South cooperation to achieve their
economic self-reliance and consolidate their
national independence.
The developing
countries can completely throw off the
shackles of neocolonialism and consolidate
their national independence only when they
have built strong independent national
economies. In order to build such economies
they should conduct exchange and cooperate
with each other on the principle of collective
self-reliance. The imperialists and the
developed Western countries will not present
them with a new international economic order
or self-reliant economies on a plate. The
developing countries should not expect favours
of others and pin their hopes on the so-called
“South-North cooperation”; they should believe
in their own strength and strive to realize
South-South cooperation. If they realize
South-South cooperation successfully in
accordance with the noble idea of independence
and the principle of mutual aid, they will be
able to build independent national economies
by their own efforts, become rich, strong and
developed and bring prosperity to their
peoples.
As in the past, so also
in the future, the DPRK will, under the
banner of independence, friendship and peace,
strive to oppose imperialism, defend world
peace and security and promote friendly and
cooperative relations among the peoples of the
socialist, non-aligned and all other countries
in the world.
The Government of the
Republic strongly supports the Asian, African,
Latin-American and all other peoples who fight
against the imperialists’ aggressive and
war-like actions and for peace, national
independence and the building of new
societies, and expresses its firm solidarity
with the working classes and peoples in the
capitalist countries battling against
oppression and exploitation by capital.
The Government of the
Republic and the Korean people will continue
to fight staunchly for global independence in
close unity with the people of the world who
advocate independence.
The 35 years of the
DPRK is a history of great change and
creation, a proud history of victory.
Our Republic has a
brighter future before it, and all our people
are alive with renewed fighting spirit and
firm confidence. Our people will always be
victorious in their struggle for a just cause
under the correct leadership of the Workers’
Party of Korea.
Let all of us march
forward boldly towards the prosperity and
development of the DPRK and the final triumph
of our revolution, under the unfurled
revolutionary banner of the Juche idea,
closely united behind the Party Central
Committee and the Government of the Republic.
Comrades and friends,
Availing myself of the
opportunity presented by this significant
occasion when the 35th anniversary of the
foundation of the DPRK is being celebrated, I
propose a toast:
To the independent and
peaceful reunification of the country and the
lasting prosperity of our Republic,
To the health of the
esteemed high-ranking leaders, the members of
party and government delegations and all the
guests from various countries visiting us to
congratulate us on our national holiday, as
well as the diplomatic envoys here,
To the health of our revolutionary
veterans and leading officials who have fought
with complete devotion for the independence
and sovereignty of the country and the
happiness of the people,
To the health of our heroic working
class, cooperative farmers and working
intellectuals, who are distinguishing
themselves on all fronts of socialist
construction,
To the health of the valiant
officers and men of our People’s Army and
People’s Security Forces and the public
security personnel, who are firmly
safeguarding the security of the Republic and
our revolutionary achievements,
To the health of the members of the
congratulatory group from the Revolutionary
Party for Reunification who are with us here
now to celebrate our national holiday, and of
all other south Korean revolutionaries and
patriots,
To the health of the
members of the congratulatory group of the
Koreans in Japan and many other congratulatory
groups of overseas Koreans who are on a visit
to their socialist homeland, and of all our
fellow countrymen abroad, and
To the health of all
our comrades and friends present here.