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PREVENTING WAR AND PRESERVING PEACE ARE THE BURNING TASKS OF MANKIND

KIM IL SUNG
 PREVENTING WAR AND PRESERVING PEACE ARE THE BURNING TASKS OF MANKIND
Speech at a Banquet Given in Honour of the Participants in the Pyongyang International Conference
for Denuclearization and Peace on the Korean Peninsula
September 6, 1986
Esteemed delegates, Comrades and friends,
At this time when it is the burning task of mankind to prevent a new world war, a thermonuclear war, and preserve peace, an interna­tional conference for denuclearization and peace on the Korean peninsula is being held in Pyongyang, the capital of our country, as an expression of the common aspiration and desire of the Korean people and peace-loving people throughout the world.
I am very pleased to see this conference being held in our country in the International Year of Peace, and I should like to express my warm welcome to you, the delegates to the conference, who have come with a high sense of duty to the cause of world peace and with feelings of firm solidarity with our people.
Easing tensions and removing the danger of nuclear war on the Korean peninsula are burning questions that await solution in the international political arena.
The present situation on the Korean peninsula is very tense, and the danger of nuclear war is growing with every passing day. Armed soldiers in the north and the south of our country are aiming their guns at each other from both sides of the Military Demarcation Line. To the south of this line there are more than 40,000 US troops equipped with nuclear weapons and nearly one million south Korean soldiers. They are prepared to attack the north at any minute.
US nuclear warheads are constantly levelled at Pyongyang, where you are now holding a conference. It is precisely here that the delegates, champions of peace and preeminent figures from many countries, are meeting in behalf of denuclearization and peace; this fact arouses a keen awareness of the danger of nuclear war and the need to fight for peace and stresses the great importance of this meeting. This Pyongyang international conference, which is attract­ing attention from the world’s public, will be a severe blow to the imperialist nuclear maniacs and warlike elements. It will give the Korean people and peace lovers throughout the world great strength and inspiration in their struggle for peace.
The tension and the danger of nuclear war on the Korean penin­sula are the direct products of the United States’ Korean policy and Asian strategy.
The aim of the United States with regard to Korea is to maintain its domination over south Korea as its colony by keeping Korea divided forever through the creation of “two Koreas” and, with south Korea as its stepping-stone, to invade the northern half of Korea, the socialist countries in Asia and, further, the whole of the Asian conti­nent.
In order to achieve their aggressive aims the US imperialists are strengthening their aggressive armed forces, including nuclear weapons, on a large scale in south Korea and making frantic efforts to provoke another war. As you well know, the United States has introduced into the small land of south Korea a vast number of nuclear weapons, a number four times greater than it has in the NATO area in terms of density of nuclear deployment. Not satisfied with this, the United States is going to ship more new types of nucle­ar and chemical weapons into south Korea in the future and build scores of special nuclear armouries there. The US imperialists are growing more enthusiastic about their manoeuvres to provoke a nuclear war from south Korea. Because of this, not a day passes without the rumble of gunfire and the air is thick with fumes of gun­powder in south Korea.
The US imperialists are more blatantly conspiring to form a tri­partite military alliance among the United States, Japan and south Korea for the purpose of drawing Japanese militarists into imple­menting their aggressive Asian strategy. This shows that the United States’ actions for aggression and war in the Far East are progressing at a more dangerous stage as the days go by.
In view of the aggressive policy of the United States, our Party and the Government of our Republic are working hard to ease the tension and preserve peace on the Korean peninsula and to settle the Korean question by peaceful means.
Holding fast to the basic policy of achieving national reunifica­tion in an independent and peaceful way true to our heavy responsi­bility to the Korean nation and with a noble sense of duty to the cause of world peace, we have put forward many reasonable and constructive proposals for peace and made most sincere efforts to put them into effect.
Our fair and reasonable peace proposals, including the proposal for tripartite talks to replace the Korean Armistice Agreement with a peace agreement and adopt a nonaggression declaration between the north and the south, have already been widely publicized to the peo­ple of the world. This year alone we made an important proposal for talks between military authorities to remove the tension and military confrontation on the Korean peninsula and, through a statement by the Government of our Republic, also made a positive peace propos­al to convert the Korean peninsula to a nuclear-free peace zone.
But none of our peace proposals has been put into effect so far, and the situation on the Korean peninsula is becoming more and more acute. This is entirely because the United States and the south Korean authorities do not want detente and peace, but are continuing to pursue the policy of aggression and war, So long as the United States’ Korean policy and Asian strategy remain unchanged and so long as US troops are stationed in south Korea, resorting to manoeuvres for aggression, it is impossible to guarantee lasting peace on the Korean peninsula and settle the ques­tion of the reunification of our country. If we are to ease the tension and guarantee peace on the Korean peninsula and settle Korea’s reunification question in a peaceful way, we must get all the nuclear arms and the US troops withdrawn from south Korea.
The issue of keeping peace and security on the Korean peninsula is directly related to the question of preserving peace and security in the world, and without peace and security on the Korean peninsula, world peace and security are unthinkable.
Because south Korea has become a forward nuclear base, the largest of its kind in the Far East, and because the acute situation continues on the Korean peninsula, war may break out at any minute in our country. If war breaks out in Korea, it can immediately devel­op into a global nuclear war. Therefore, the present situation on the Korean peninsula can only be a grave threat not only to our people, but to our neighbours and people in the rest of the world.
Today peace-loving governments and peoples of many countries are watching and showing deep concern for the critical situation on the Korean peninsula and giving active support and encouragement to our people in their struggle to prevent war, preserve peace and achieve the independent and peaceful reunification of the country.
If the US troops are compelled to withdraw from south Korea and a nuclear-free peace zone is established on the Korean peninsula by the joint struggle of our people and progressive people throughout the world, one of the most dangerous sources of nuclear war in the world will be removed and great progress will be made in preserving peace in Asia and the world.
On behalf of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Government of our Republic, I take advantage of this opportunity to express my deep thanks to the fraternal socialist countries, non-aligned countries, and all the other progressive countries and peace-loving people in the world for their positive support and encouragement for our people’s struggle for peace on the Kore­an peninsula and the peaceful reunification of the country and for their active support for and solidarity with our proposal to convert the Korean peninsula into a nuclear-free peace zone.
Delegates,
Dominating the world by force is an immutable world strategy of US imperialism. Its strategy for world domination is now all the more dangerous because of the adventurous attempt of the US rulers to carry it out through nuclear superiority.
With the evil aim of gaining a nuclear advantage, the US imperi­alists are now increasing nuclear armament, accelerating the large-scale development, renewal, production and deployment of nuclear weapons, and stepping up their acts of aggression against progres­sive countries in all parts of the world. In particular, they are trying to extend the nuclear arms race to outer space by putting forward an adventurous “Star Wars” programme. They are producing binary chemical weapons, new mass destruction weapons, in an attempt to deploy them in many parts of the world.
Because of their war policy and stratagems to increase nuclear weapons, the black cloud of nuclear war is now hanging heavily over the world and mankind is being threatened with this war. Unless nuclear war is prevented, humankind will have to suffer irre­trievable calamities and holocaust. Nuclear war, which threatens the existence and civilization of humanity, must be prevented in every possible way, and peace must be preserved.
In order to prevent another world war, a thermonuclear war, and preserve peace, we must develop a powerful worldwide struggle to check the imperialists’ nuclear arms race and their plans for a nucle­ar war.
The imperialists are subservient to the strong and violent toward the weak. If people who love peace and justice throughout the world are closely united, they can be invincible and, by their united efforts, frustrate the imperialists’ plans for a nuclear war and defend peace.
By forming a broad united front and spiritedly carrying on the anti-war, anti-nuclear peace movement, all the peace-loving people of the world can check the imperialists’ reckless manoeuvres to build up nuclear arms and militarize outer space, bring about com­plete nuclear disarmament and frustrate their plans for aggression and war, which are daily becoming more blatant.
As long as nuclear weapons exist on our planet, the danger of nuclear war will not disappear and mankind cannot be free from constant nuclear threat. Therefore, the testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons must be banned, existing weapons of different kinds reduced and, further, all nuclear weapons abol­ished. This is the only way mankind can free itself once and for all from the danger of nuclear holocaust and maintain lasting world peace.
At present, the call for denuclearization and peace is ringing out loudly from Asia, Europe and many other parts of the world, and the anti-war, anti-nuclear peace movement is developing strongly.
The Communist Party and Government of the Soviet Union made positive peace proposals to ban nuclear tests, reduce nuclear arma­ments, prevent the militarization of outer space and abolish all nuclear and chemical weapons by the end of this century. Recently, they also took a step on their own initiative to extend the period of the unilateral freezing of nuclear tests to January 1, 1987. This clear­ly shows the responsible attitude and peace-loving foreign policy of the Communist Party and Government of the Soviet Union to remove the danger of nuclear war and defend world peace and secu­rity.
We firmly support the peace proposals of the Soviet Union to preserve universal peace and security and extend solidarity to the Soviet people in their struggle to implement them.
Establishing nuclear-free peace zones and expanding them are important ways to bring about nuclear arms’ reduction, prevent nuclear war and defend peace.
We fully support the socialist countries and peoples in Europe and the Balkans in their struggle to create nuclear-free peace zones on the Balkan Peninsula and in many parts of Europe and express our firm solidarity with them in the struggle.
We also strongly support the peace-loving people of the world in their struggle to establish nuclear-free peace zones in different parts of the world, including Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean.
Our people love peace, and working for peace is a consistent for­eign policy of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Government of the Republic. Our Party and Government will, in future as well, res­olutely fight to prevent nuclear war and preserve peace in firm unity with the peoples of socialist countries, non-aligned countries and all peace-loving people throughout the world, under the unfurled banner of independence, friendship and peace.
In the hope that the Pyongyang International Conference for Denuclearization and Peace on the Korean Peninsula will proceed satisfactorily and achieve excellent results and that you delegates will win a new victory in your future efforts for peace against impe­rialism, I should like to propose a toast:
To militant friendship and solidarity between the Korean people and the peoples of socialist countries, non-aligned countries and other peace-loving people the world over,
To denuclearization and peace on the Korean peninsula,
To world peace and the prosperity of mankind,
To the health of all the delegates, representatives of international organizations and all the other foreign guests taking part in the con­ference, and
To the health of all the comrades and friends present here.

THE DPRK REPRESENTS GENUINE PEOPLE’S POWER AND IS A BANNER OF THE UNITY AND SOLIDARITY OF THE MASSES

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.