KIM IL SUNG
LET US
FURTHER STRENGTHEN THE SOCIALIST SYSTEM OF
OUR COUNTRY
Speech
Made at the First Session of the Fifth
Supreme People’s Assembly
of the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
December 25, 1972
Comrade
Deputies,
Elections
to the Fifth Supreme People’s Assembly of
the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
were held successfully at a time when all of
our people were making a great new
revolutionary advance on all fronts of
socialist construction, upholding the
decision of the historic Fifth Congress of
the Workers’ Party of Korea, and when the
whole nation was seething with a burning
desire for independent, peaceful
reunification.
All
our citizens, with great pride and a sense
of honour as citizens of the DPRK,
participated in the elections and expressed
their unreserved support for and profound
trust in our Party and the Government of the
Republic. These elections strengthened our
revolutionary power still more,
consolidating the revolutionary base of the
northern half of the Republic.
On
behalf of the Central Committee of the
Workers’ Party of Korea and the Government
of the Republic, I should like to express
warm thanks to all the people for their
unreserved support for and deep trust in our
Party and the Government of the Republic as
manifested in the recent elections.
Comrades,
twenty-four years have passed since the
Korean people embarked on the creation of a
new society and a new life under the banner
of the Republic, with a genuine people’s
Constitution, the first of its kind in their
history. In this period our people, under
the wise leadership of the Workers’ Party of
Korea, have made great achievements in the
socialist revolution and in the building of
socialism. During these years there has been
a truly great transformation in this country
and epoch-making changes have taken place in
the political, economic and cultural spheres
of our people’s life.
Our
situation today urgently demands the
establishment of a new Socialist
Constitution to give legal force to the
tremendous achievements of our people in the
socialist revolution and the building of
socialism and to lay down the principles of
the political, economic and cultural
features of socialist society. Therefore, we
formed a Commission for the Drafting of the
Socialist Constitution of the DPRK and have
prepared a draft Socialist Constitution. The
draft Socialist Constitution of the DPRK was
discussed at a plenary meeting of the
Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of
Korea and considered by the Central
Committee of the Democratic Front for the
Reunification of the Fatherland before it
was submitted to the Supreme People’s
Assembly.
The
adoption of the Socialist Constitution of
the DPRK at the current session of the
Supreme People’s Assembly will be a historic
event in our people’s revolutionary struggle
and work of construction.
THE
STRUGGLE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC
FOR THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION AND BUILDING
OF SOCIALISM
Comrades,
The socialist revolution is the most
complete social transformation in the
history of mankind for the abolition of the
exploitation of man by man once and for all
and for opening up a new path of social
progress.
If
the working class and the Marxist-Leninist
party that fight to liberate the masses of
the people from exploitation and oppression
and ensure them a happy life are to fulfil
their historic mission, they must lead the
people in carrying out the socialist
revolution. Only when the people who have
extricated themselves from the colonial
enslavement of imperialism take the road to
socialism, can they be completely liberated
from class exploitation and national
oppression, and enjoy a free and happy life
and achieve their country’s sovereignty and
independence and national prosperity.
In
our country the socialist revolution began
after the carrying out of the
anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic
revolution in the northern half of the
Republic following liberation. It is a
logical process of revolutionary development
that the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal,
democratic revolution led by the working
class changes to the socialist revolution.
After
the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal,
democratic revolution had been carried out,
our country had a socialist economic sector
consisting mainly of the state-run economy,
alongside a small-commodity sector
consisting of the individual peasant economy
in the country areas and an urban handicraft
economy, and a capitalist economic sector of
capitalist trade and manufacturing in towns
and the rich peasant economy in rural areas.
As
long as the capitalist and small-commodity
sectors were left intact, it was impossible
to eradicate the sources of exploitation and
poverty completely and free the productive
forces of society entirely from the shackles
of old production relations, and develop the
nation’s economy as a whole speedily and in
a planned way. Therefore, in order to free
our people completely from all sorts of
exploitation and oppression and develop the
country’s productive forces rapidly, we had
to carry out the socialist revolution upon
the completion of the democratic revolution.
Furthermore,
we had to do this in order to strengthen the
unity and solidarity of all the people based
on the worker-peasant alliance on a new
socialist foundation, wipe out the
strongholds of the reactionaries and the
breeding ground of old ideas, and augment
the political basis of the revolution.
Our
people thus entered the period of transition
to socialism immediately following the
democratic revolution. However, in the days
of peaceful construction our socialist
revolution was only partially started; it
was still in the preparatory stage. Because
of the war forced on us by the US
imperialists, the socialist transformation
in the northern half of the Republic had to
be interrupted temporarily, and our
socialist revolution could virtually start
only after the war.
Postwar
socio-economic conditions in the northern
half of the Republic urgently demanded the
full-scale acceleration of the socialist
revolution.
The
war badly damaged the material and
technological foundations of agriculture and
brought extreme poverty not only to the poor
peasants but also to the middle and rich
peasants. After the war our country areas
were very short of draught cattle, farm
implements and manpower, and there was also
an acute shortage of food and clothing.
Since agriculture had been so severely
damaged, the continuation of the individual
peasant economy would have made it
impossible to restore the productive forces
of agriculture speedily and solve the
postwar food problem, which had become very
serious. Unless the devastated productive
forces of agriculture were rapidly restored
and the food problem solved promptly, there
was the danger that the development of
industry and the national economy in general
would be held back and that a serious
disparity would arise between industry,
which was then being reconstructed and
developed quickly in a planned way, and
agriculture, which was being rehabilitated
slowly. In addition, if the small peasant
economy had been left intact, we would not
have been able to improve the living
conditions of our impoverished peasants
rapidly and, in particular, to solve the
problem of the poor peasants whose number
had increased during the war. In short, the
limitations of the individual peasant
economy in our country manifested themselves
most strikingly in the postwar years and we
could not allow this situation to exist any
longer. The only way to overcome these
difficulties was to go over to a cooperative
form of agriculture.
The
war also greatly depleted individual trade
and manufacturing in the towns. The
capitalist traders and manufacturers
suffered such severe losses that they were
reduced to straitened circumstances just as
the handicraftsmen and small merchants were.
After the war the entrepreneurs and
merchants were unable to recover their
previous economic positions or eke out a
living by themselves. The only way out for
these impoverished entrepreneurs and
merchants was to work collectively, pooling
their efforts and funds with the assistance
of the state, that is, to take the socialist
path. It was not only the demand of our
revolution but also an objective necessity
arising from the conditions facing the
capitalist traders and manufacturers, that
they had to be led to follow the road to
socialism after the war.
The
full-scale acceleration of the socialist
revolution after the war was also necessary
in order to strengthen the revolutionary
base of the northern half of the Republic.
Only by continuing to accelerate the
revolution in the north was it possible to
turn it into a strong base to eventually
guarantee national reunification and the
nationwide victory of the revolution.
Therefore, the continued and vigorous
acceleration of the revolution in the north
was not only needed for the revolutionary
development of the north itself but it was
also essential for the advancement of the
Korean revolution as a whole.
On
the basis of a scientific analysis of the
revolutionary situation created in our
country after the war, our Party considered
the postwar period the most appropriate
stage for the socialist revolution, and in
its April 1955 Theses, set forth the policy
of stepping up the socialist revolution full
scale.
The
most important thing in transforming the old
production relations in town and country and
establishing the unchallenged supremacy of
socialist production relations is the
cooperativization of the individual peasant
economy.
In
the light of the specific postwar situation
in our country our Party and the Government
of the Republic advanced a policy to
transform the economic forms along socialist
lines prior to the technological reform of
agriculture, and enterprizingly launched an
agricultural cooperative movement.
Since
the socialist transformation of agriculture
was urgently demanded by the revolution
after the war, we could not postpone
agricultural cooperativization simply
because the economy had been damaged and our
technological development was still at a low
level. The decisive condition for
agricultural cooperativization does not lie
in whether agriculture is equipped with
modern technology but in whether this step
is a vital demand of the peasants
themselves, whether the revolutionary forces
are prepared to carry it out. As
Marxism-Leninism teaches us, even a
collective economy which merely pools the
peasants’ land and farm implements can
achieve an improvement in the economy which
would, otherwise, be impossible in the
individual small peasant economy, and, at
the same time, can raise the productivity of
labour several times over. Thus, our Party
waged a struggle to transform economic forms
first in order to meet the urgent need of
social development, instead of waiting until
industrialization was carried out. As a
result, we were able to restore and develop
the productive forces of agriculture, which
had been severely damaged by the war,
rapidly, and to press ahead with the
technical revolution in the country areas in
step with industrial development.
In
guiding the agricultural cooperative
movement, our Party and the Government of
the Republic strictly observed the voluntary
principle, Our Party categorically rejected
coercive methods in this movement and
adopted a number of correct policies to
persuade the peasants to join the
cooperative economy voluntarily.
An
object lesson in the cooperative movement is
the best way of persuading the peasants
engaged in centuries-old methods of
individual farming to join cooperative
farming voluntarily. We intensified the
ideological education of the peasants, and
at the same time, established a pilot stage
and worked to show them the advantages of
the cooperative economy by practical
example.
Taking
into consideration the fact that the land
remained the private property of the
peasants and that their property status and
ideological awareness varied, we laid down
three forms of agricultural cooperative
economy and encouraged the peasants to
choose the form they considered most
appropriate for them. In pooling the
peasants’ means of production, we saw to it
that according to their desire, draught
cattle and farm implements were pooled or
were left under private ownership for a
certain period while being used
collectively, and when they were pooled, due
compensation was made without fail. These
measures taken by our Party helped the
peasants of different levels to accept the
policy of cooperativization readily and made
it possible to prevent some deviations
which, otherwise, might have appeared in the
course of the cooperative movement.
In
drawing the peasants of various levels into
cooperative farming according to the
voluntary principle, our Party followed the
class policy of relying firmly on the poor
peasants, strengthening the alliance with
the middle peasants, and restricting and
gradually reforming the rich peasants.
Our
Party first organized a few agricultural
cooperatives in each county on a trial basis
with the poor peasants and the hard core of
people in the rural areas who had most
actively supported agricultural
cooperativization, consolidated them and,
on this basis, developed the cooperative
movement. Meanwhile, the poor peasants were
encouraged to play the leading role in all
the agricultural cooperatives. It also made
sure that cooperatives were not organized
exclusively with well-to-do peasants and
that the rich peasants were not allowed to
influence the work of the agricultural
cooperatives. At the same time, it strictly
guarded against the tendency to force the
middle peasants into the cooperative economy
or infringe upon their interests and so
weaken the alliance with them, and
demonstrated the superiority of the
cooperative economy to the middle peasants
through competition between individual and
cooperative farming. As for the rich
peasants, we did not expropriate and
eliminate them but encouraged them to join
cooperatives voluntarily, restricting their
ability to exploit others.
Throughout
the period of the agricultural cooperative
movement our Party and the Government of the
Republic persistently carried out
organizational and political work amongst
the peasants, and, relying on socialist
industry, gave enormous material and
technical assistance in diverse forms to the
agricultural cooperatives and helped them in
terms of manpower. This guidance and
assistance played a decisive role, both in
shoring up the weak agricultural
cooperatives organized with poor peasants in
the early stage to show their advantages
over the individual economy, and in
consolidating the cooperative economic
system politically and economically.
Thanks
to these intelligent and creative policies
of our Party and the Government of the
Republic, our agricultural cooperative
movement proceeded quite smoothly and was
successfully completed in only four or five
years.
To
establish the unchallenged dominance of
socialist production relations in town and
country, it is necessary to carry out a
socialist reorganization of individual trade
and manufacturing as well as agricultural
cooperativization.
In
the early days of the transition period, our
Party began to set up handicraft
cooperatives on a trial basis, and in the
postwar period, pressed ahead with this
programme, carrying it out successfully in a
short period.
In
the socialist reorganization of individual
trade and manufacturing, our Party and the
Government of the Republic devoted
particular attention to the transformation
of capitalist trade and manufacturing.
Taking into account their characteristic
features in our country, our Party adopted
the line of reforming the capitalist traders
and manufacturers along socialist lines,
instead of expropriating them.
The
national capitalists in a colonial,
semi-feudal society, although inconsistent,
have some revolutionary spirit and are
keenly interested in the anti-imperialist,
anti-feudal, democratic revolution. In the
light of these capitalists’ characteristics,
we won them over to the side of the
revolution and carried out the
national-liberation struggle and the
democratic revolution with their
participation. From the beginning our policy
with regard to the national capitalists was
not only to carry out the anti-imperialist,
anti-feudal, democratic revolution with
them, but also to take them along with us to
a socialist, communist society. Therefore,
we could not expropriate the entrepreneurs
and traders in the stage of socialist
revolution just because the capitalist
traders and manufacturers were the targets
of the revolution. Moreover, we had no need
to expropriate them because capitalist trade
and manufacturing were totally destroyed in
the war and the entrepreneurs and traders
supported the Party’s line of socialist
revolution. And they had nothing, so we
could not expropriate them.
Therefore,
our Party adopted the line of transforming
capitalist trade and manufacturing along
socialist lines and ensured that capitalist
traders and manufacturers were drawn into
various forms of cooperative economy in
strict observance of the voluntary principle
as all requisite conditions for this were
ripe after the war.
We
first strengthened producers’ cooperatives,
formed of handicraftsmen, and then
gradually drew entrepreneurs into the
cooperative economy; we organized marketing
cooperatives or production-and-marketing
cooperatives with individual traders and
progressively increased the proportion of
production in those cooperatives so as to
reorganize them into cooperatives entirely
engaged in production. Under the Party’s
wise guidance, our socialist transformation
of capitalist trade and manufacturing
progressed at a very high speed and was
completed in 1958 at almost the same time as
agricultural cooperativization.
With
the successful accomplishment of the
historic task of the socialist
transformation of the old production
relations in town and country, an advanced
socialist system free from exploitation and
oppression was established in the northern
half of our country. The victory of the
socialist system in the north opened up a
broad path for the further promotion of
socialist construction and the radical
improvement of the people’s material and
cultural welfare.
Comrades,
our Party and the Government of the Republic
pressed ahead with the struggle for
socialist construction relying on the
triumphant socialist system.
In
socialist construction our Party held fast
to the principle of carrying on
energetically both the work of laying the
material and technological foundations for
socialism and the work of educating and
reforming people along communist lines, that
is, the struggles to seize the material and
ideological fortresses for the building of
communism.
Socialist
economic construction is one of the most
important revolutionary tasks facing the
working-class party and state. It is only
when socialist economic construction is
carried out successfully that it is possible
to attain a high level of development of the
productive forces commensurate with a
socialist society, to improve the people’s
material and cultural standards
systematically, and to secure the political
independence and Chajusong of the country.
Our
people’s struggle for socialist economic
construction went through three stages—the
stage of postwar reconstruction, the stage
of laying the basis of industrialization and
the stage of completing industrialization.
At every stage of socialist economic
construction our Party and the Government of
the Republic set forth correct lines and
policies which suited our specific
conditions and organized and mobilized all
the Party members and the working people for
a powerful struggle for their
implementation.
Over
the whole period of socialist economic
construction our Party has consistently
adhered to the basic line of socialist
economic construction on giving priority to
the growth of heavy industry at the same
time as developing light industry and
agriculture.
This
basic line is a correct line built on an
accurate analysis of the requirements of the
law of our postwar economic development and
our actual potential. It is also a creative
application of the Marxist-Leninist theory
on extended reproduction in conformity with
our specific conditions; it is a correct
line which renders it possible to guarantee
the balance between different branches of
the national economy and attain a high rate
of production growth.
In
implementing this line our Party and the
Government of the Republic gave priority to
the creation of heavy industry with the
machine industry at its core.
Our
Party’s line in the building of heavy
industry was to create our own solid bases
which would be able to produce most of the
raw materials, fuel, power, machines and
equipment needed for the development of the
national economy by relying on the rich
natural resources and sources of raw
materials in our country. In order to build
solid heavy industry bases we rebuilt and
expanded the existing factories in this
field and, at the same time, built new
industrial branches and a number of
factories and other enterprises. In building
heavy industry, we ensured that this
industry was not built as an end in itself,
but to serve the development of light
industry and agriculture and the improvement
of the people’s living standards more
effectively. This policy of our Party has
enabled us to build a powerful heavy
industry of our own with a comparatively
small capital investment, thereby developing
light industry and agriculture rapidly.
Today
we have a powerful heavy industry with all
its key branches, and its capacity has
increased considerably. Our machine
industry, in particular, has made rapid
progress. It has reached such a level that
it is now able to produce different kinds of
large, precision machines and complete sets
of equipment for modern factories.
Our
Party and the Government of the Republic
have devoted considerable effort to the
growth of light industry as well.
In
this regard, our Party pursued a policy of
simultaneously developing large-scale,
centrally-run industries as well as medium-
and small-scale local industries. Our Party
and the Government of the Republic ensured
that large, modern factories of the
centrally-run light industry were
established, and at the same time, that many
local industry factories were set up by
using local reserves extensively and that
the technological reconstruction of local
industry was increased.
The
policy of developing central and local
industries simultaneously has helped to
increase the production of consumer goods
rapidly, with no major capital investment
from the state, and to guarantee a high rate
of development of the national economy as a
whole by concentrating state funds on heavy
and central light industries. The growth of
local industry has also made it possible to
purchase and process, in season, farm
produce and the peasants’ sideline products
raising their living standards rapidly and
improving the supply of consumer goods for
urban dwellers as well.
As a
result of the successful implementation of
our Party’s policy in the development of
light industry, large, modern factories of
central light industry and thousands of
local factories have now come into being,
and their technological equipment has been
improved to a marked extent. Our light
industry has now grown into a firm base for
the production of a variety of consumer
goods, capable of meeting the working
people’s needs.
The
rational distribution of the productive
forces is of great importance for the
further development of the national economy
as a whole and for carrying out the
long-term programme of socialist and
communist construction successfully.
In
distributing the country’s productive
forces, our Party and the Government of the
Republic followed the principle of bringing
factories and other enterprises closer to
the sources of raw materials and the
consumer areas, of guaranteeing the balanced
development of different branches of the
national economy and all regions of the
country, and rapidly narrowing the
difference between town and country. In
rebuilding the national economy after the
war, we, in accordance with this principle,
located new factories and enterprises in
different areas, while rebuilding many
factories and enterprises where they already
existed in order to guarantee the speeding
up of rehabilitation and to save funds. As a
result, new industrial towns came into being
all over the country, the integrated bases
for industrial production were built in
localities and the previous defects and
irrationalities in the distribution of
industries were completely eliminated.
The
rational distribution of industries enabled
us to use our nation’s natural resources and
manpower effectively to speed up socialist
economic construction and develop all the
areas of the country equally. It also helped
to consolidate the worker-peasant alliance
by strengthening the political, economic and
cultural ties between the working class and
the peasantry, to eliminate the backwardness
of the countryside and drastically reduce
the difference between town and country, and
class differences between the workers and
peasants, by increasing the assistance of
industry to agriculture and the support of
towns for the rural areas. Moreover, it
prevented excessive concentration of
factories and population in a few cities as
well as environmental pollution, which is a
great social problem in capitalist countries
today.
One
of the main tasks in socialist economic
construction is that of developing
agriculture rapidly. Our Party and the
Government of the Republic strove to
consolidate the material and technological
foundations of agriculture and increase its
production while cooperativizing the
individual peasant economy. In particular,
we gave top priority to the ideological
revolution in the countryside, in accordance
with our Party’s programme of socialist
rural construction. Theses on the Socialist
Rural Question in Our Country, and, at the
same time, vigorously carried out the
technical and cultural revolutions.
Irrigation
was a primary task in the technical
revolution in our country areas. In the
years that followed the armistice the
Government of the Republic implemented many
irrigation projects in step with the
agricultural cooperative movement and, with
the completion of cooper-ativization, pushed
ahead with the irrigation programme in a
nationwide movement. In our country the
irrigation of paddy fields has now been
completed and a large portion of non-paddy
fields has been irrigated, and drainage
projects have been completed in our major
rice-producing areas. Thus our peasants’
centuries-old desire to farm free from the
threat of drought and floods has been met.
The
Government of the Republic ensured that many
medium and small power stations were built
in addition to large ones and thus
successfully completed the task of rural
electrification. Every ri in this country
now has electricity and every farmhouse has
electric light. In the country areas,
electricity is used extensively not only for
the cultural home lives of the peasants but
also as a source of power for machines and
heat in agricultural production.
The
Government of the Republic has also devoted
a great deal of effort to developing
mechanization and encouraging the use of
chemicals in agriculture. Our Party and the
Government of the Republic have guaranteed
that tractors, lorries and various kinds of
efficient farm machines, chemical
fertilizers and agricultural chemicals were
produced in large quantities for the country
areas. As a result, the level of
mechanization and the use of chemicals in
agriculture has risen greatly and our
peasants are gradually being freed from hard
and backbreatdng work.
Agricultural
production has increased rapidly with the
progress of the rural technical revolution.
Our rural areas, where poverty and ignorance
prevailed in the past, have now become rich
modern socialist communities.
Training
our own cadres was a matter of vital
importance in this country which was once a
backward colony. Immediately following
liberation, our nation had very few cadres,
and this was a serious drawback in running
the state and building our economy and
culture. Therefore, our Party and the
Government of the Republic devoted great
efforts to the training of our own cadres
and, in particular, took steps to train a
large army of technicians capable of
carrying out socialist construction which
was proceeding on a large scale after the
war. We developed a regular system of higher
education as well as various programmes
offering higher education for those who were
already working, and firmly established
comprehensive cadre-training bases in the
localities. Consequently, our country now
has a large army of some 500,000 technicians
and specialists. They are managing state and
economic organizations and cultural
institutions, and modern factories,
enterprises and cooperative farms very well.
Our
people’s struggle for the socialist
revolution and the building of socialism was
carried on under the very difficult
conditions of the enemy’s constant hostile
actions. In order to defend the country and
the people and protect the gains of the
revolution in the face of the enemy’s
aggression, our Party and the Government of
the Republic paid great attention to
increasing our defence capabilities
throughout the whole course of the
revolution and construction work. In
particular, we advanced the new line of
carrying on economic and defence
construction simultaneously in the light of
the intensified aggressive actions of the US
imperialists. We reorganized the whole work
of socialist construction in a revolutionary
way and paid more attention to building up
our defence capabilities. In order to
perfect our national defence we diverted a
large amount of manpower and material
resources to this purpose, even though this
to a certain extent proved detrimental to
economic construction, and organized and
mobilized all the people to implement the
Party’s military line. As a result, our
People’s Army has now become an invincible
revolutionary armed force; all our people
have been armed and the whole country has
been fortified. We can confidently say that
we have defence capabilities which are
powerful enough to repulse invasion by any
and all enemies, defend our country and
people, and protect our revolutionary gains.
Educating
and transforming people along communist
lines is one of the most important tasks of
socialist and communist construction.
Man
is the master of nature and society and the
main factor that decides everything. The
popular masses are the masters of a
socialist society, and they are also the
ones who are able to promote the revolution
and construction work. Therefore, if we are
to build socialism and communism, we must
not only lay the country’s firm material and
technological foundations, but also educate
and reform people, the masters of society,
along communist lines and bring their
creative wisdom and revolutionary enthusiasm
into full play.
Our
Party and the Government of the Republic
advanced a correct line and policy to
educate and reform the people at every stage
of the revolution and construction, and
worked hard to implement this. In the period
of socialist revolution we strove to turn
all members of society into socialist
working people through a close linking of
the transformation of economic forms with
the reformation of people. After the triumph
of the socialist system, we pressed ahead
with the re-education of the people along
communist lines, on the basis of the line of
revolutionizing and working-classizing the
whole of society.
In
educating and reforming people, our Party
and the Government of the Republic have
always kept to the principle of raising the
ideological preparedness, the sense of
organization and the cultural level of the
working class and of educating and reforming
the peasants and intellectuals on the
working-class model.
We
increased the class awareness of the
workers, first of all, by strengthening
political and ideological work amongst them,
constantly tempered them in actual
production and carried out a strong campaign
for the organizational and ideological
consolidation of the ranks of the working
class. This greatly increased the vanguard
role of the working class in the revolution
and construction, and strengthened their
revolutionary influence on the working
people. Our working class has now become the
most advanced and revolutionary class which,
instead of working for a few pence, works
with complete devotion for the prosperity
and progress of the country and the freedom
and happiness of the people. It is
discharging its duties admirably as the
leading class of the Korean revolution.
Our
Party and the Government of the Republic
also paid great attention to educating and
reforming the peasantry, one of the main
forces of the revolution. By intensifying
the working-class guidance and assistance to
the country areas we have accelerated the
technical and cultural revolutions there and
have, at the same time, pressed ahead with
the ideological revolution. As a result, the
peasants’ level of ideological consciousness
has risen markedly and they have adopted a
revolutionary and communist way of life. As
reliable builders of socialism our peasants
are today working faithfully for society and
the collective, and are striving to supply
more food to the workers and all other
working people and to produce sufficient raw
materials for light industry.
The
working class which has assumed power must
build up the ranks of the intellectuals.
This is essential for the rapid development
of science and technology, literature and
art and for the successful building of
socialism and communism. In the whole course
of the revolution and construction, our
Party and the Government of the Republic
have perseveringly carried on the education
of intellectuals and, in particular,
directed great efforts to the education and
reformation of old intellectuals. With the
implementation of the Party’s policy on the
education and reformation of our
intellectuals, they have become transformed
into socialist working intellectuals and are
confidently advancing along the road
indicated by the Party. Our intellectuals
are not working for fame or glory, but for
the Party and the revolution, for the
country and the people with all their
knowledge and talents, and are fighting
vigorously side by side with the workers and
peasants in the same revolutionary ranks to
consolidate and develop our socialist
system.
The
education and reformation of the working
people are tasks designed to eliminate all
outdated ideas which remain in their minds
and overcome their old habits and arm them
with the revolutionary ideas of the working
class, communist ideology. Our Party and the
Government of the Republic, therefore, have
conducted the work of educating and
reforming people by means of explanation and
persuasion with the main emphasis on
ideological education. We intensified the
education of the working people in Party
policy and, at the same time, patiently
carried on communist education with class
education as its main content, so that all
the working people have been firmly armed
with the advanced revolutionary ideas of
the working class, communist ideology.
Strengthening
revolutionary organizational life is one of
the important ways to educate and reform
people along communist lines. Our Party and
the Government of the Republic have paid
particular attention to encouraging all the
working people to take an active part in
organizational life, observe organizational
discipline voluntarily and conduct their
lives under the guidance and supervision of
their organizations. In particular, we have
carried on the ideological struggle by the
method of criticism and have tempered the
working people in a revolutionary spirit
through the ideological struggle.
Our
Party and the Government of the Republic
closely combined practical activities with
the work of educating and reforming people
through the Chollima Workteam Movement’s,
and guaranteed that tills work became the
work of the masses themselves.
With
the successful progress of the education and
reformation of the working people in a
communist way, a great change has taken
place in the political and ideological life
of our people and our revolutionary ranks
have been strengthened and developed into an
invincible force.
Under
our Party’s wise guidance the Government of
the Republic has achieved great successes in
the revolutionary struggle and work of
construction in the past years. It has
established the most advanced socialist
system in this land where exploitation and
oppression prevailed before, and converted
our backward colonial agrarian country in a
very short time into a socialist power with
its solid independent national economy and
enormous defence capacities. It has brought
about a brilliant flowering and development
of science and culture and achieved great
success also in the work of revolutionizing
and workmg-classizmg the whole of society.
We have won great victories in the socialist
revolution and building of socialism and
risen to a new peak which lies on our way to
socialism and communism.
2.
THE SUPERIORITY OF OUR SOCIALIST SYSTEM
Comrades,
The outstanding success achieved in all
spheres of politics, economy and culture
since the triumph of our socialist
revolution is graphic evidence of the
superiority and indestructible vitality of
our socialist system.
Our
socialist system is the most advanced social
system where the working masses are masters
of everything and where everything in
society serves the working masses.
The
working masses transform nature and society
and make history, The creative labour and
struggle of the working masses produce all
the material riches of society and bring
about social change and progress. That is
why the working masses should become masters
of society and enjoy all its material
wealth.
The
working masses are not, however, masters of
their society in every society. People’s
position in society is determined by whether
or not they hold state power and the means
of production in their hands. Only those who
have both can be the masters of society.
In an
exploiting society, the toiling masses are
not the masters of society but victims of
exploitation and oppression, suffering all
kinds of humiliations and insults to their
dignity, because they hold no state power
and own no means of production. In a
capitalist society where money is
everything, even the dignity of a man is
determined by the amount of money he has;
poor people are treated like commodities.
Only in a socialist society can
the working masses enjoy an independent and
creative life as real masters of society.
Today all our government policies are geared
to the interests and happiness of the
workers, peasants and other working people;
all the wealth of society is dedicated to
the promotion of their welfare. In our
society the working masses are valued highly
and they and their rights are respected. In
this country, especially, the rising
generation who represent the future of
society are treasured more than anyone else;
every effort is made to bring them up to be
happy, free from the social evils inherent
in an exploiting society.
The
fact that the working masses in a socialist
society are the masters of society and that
they and their rights are respected to the
utmost is explained precisely by their being
masters of state power and the means of
production. This is the basis of all the
advantages and indestructible vitality of
the socialist system.
Our
socialist system is a genuinely democratic
system which guarantees in practice the
political rights and liberties of the
workers, peasants and other working people.
Regardless
of sex, occupation, property status,
education and party affiliation, all our
working people have the right to elect and
to be elected and are guaranteed all rights
to and freedom of social and political
activities such as speech, the press,
assembly and demonstration. The workers,
peasants and other working people, who were
formerly held in bondage without any rights,
now participate directly in state
administration and politics as masters of
state power and conduct free social and
political activities as members of political
parties and social organizations. Our
working people today enjoy a dignified and
fruitful life with genuine political rights
and liberties under the socialist system.
By
contrast, in a capitalist society where
state power is in the hands of the small
minority of exploiting classes, the working
masses have no political rights or freedoms.
The working people do not even have the most
elementary right and freedom to express
their political views, to say nothing of the
right to participate in state power; they
only have the obligation to obey the
exploiting classes. The so-called
“liberties” and “rights” loudly advertised
by capitalists are confined exclusively to
the rulers and exploiting classes to oppress
and exploit the masses of the people; the
“democracy” they advocate is nothing but a
means of camouflage to cover up the
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
The
superiority of our socialist system also
lies in the fact that the state takes full
responsibility for the material and cultural
well-being of the workers, peasants and
other working people.
Providing
an equally prosperous life for the people
and systematically improving their material
and cultural standards is one of the
intrinsic characteristics of the socialist
system. In a socialist society the state
serves the interests of the people and is
responsible for ensuring the material and
cultural well-being of the working people,
whereas the state in an exploiting society
serves as a tool of oppression and
exploitation against the workers and
peasants.
Today
everyone of working age in our country is
provided with a job by the state, according
to his ability and aptitude, and is rewarded
according to the quantity and quality of
work done. The working people also benefit
from labour protection, an eight-hour
workday, paid holidays, and accommodation at
holiday homes and sanatoria; they are
provided with safe working conditions and
adequate leisure time. In particular, the
working mothers enjoy tremendous benefits
from the state. Besides providing jobs for
all who can work, our state also assumes
responsibility for those who cannot work
because of old age, injuries arising from
work or ill health, and for old people and
children who have no other means of support.
Therefore, in our country no one roams about
searching for work or resorts to begging;
all our people, young and old, are leading a
happy life under the care of the state and
society.
All
our working people are provided with
adequate food, clothing and housing by the
state. Everyone in this land is given the
right to be fed the moment he is born; all
children and students, from those in creches
and kindergartens to students in colleges
and universities, are supplied with clothing
by the state. The state provides our workers
and office employees with good living
quarters, and the peasants also live in
modern houses built by the state.
Universal free medical care has
also been introduced in this country, so
that all working people are free from
worries about this. There are medical
institutions and medical workers in both
urban and rural areas, wherever people work
and live. Through the section doctor system,
an advanced system of medical services, the
state looks after the health of the working
people in a responsible way. Our mortality
rate has now been reduced by half, and the
average life span of the people increased by
26 years, compared with the pre-liberation
years. Our people’s age-old desire to
eradicate all sorts of diseases has been
realized only under our sodal system.
Everyone
in this country is provided with adequate
conditions for education and development.
All our students, from primary school
children to university students, now receive
free education, and preschool children are
growing up happily in creches and
kindergartens at state and public expense.
In particular, with the introduction of
universal compulsory ten-year education
which gives ten years of schooling, plus one
year of compulsory preschool training, our
younger generation are receiving eleven
years of excellent general education
provided by the state. This is virtually an
eleven-year compulsory education, which
means that the most advanced compulsory
education in the world is given in this
country.
The
socialist state also offers opportunities of
learning for the adults who were previously
deprived of the right to study in the
exploiting society and left far behind in
terms of social culture. All our working
people are learning to the best of their
ability in accordance with their desire and
aptitude, in working people’s middle
schools, factory higher technical schools,
factory colleges and other educational
institutions where they study while on the
job. Indeed, our country is a “land of
education”, a “land of learning”, where
everyone studies at the expense of the
state.
Although
they do not live in luxury like the
landlords and capitalists, all our people
are now living an equally good life and
studying according to their wishes, without
having to worry about work, food, clothing
and housing. This clearly shows that our
socialist system is a system truly for the
workers, farmers and all the other people.
The
socialist system is the best social system,
not only providing the people with a happy
life today but also promising them a
brighter future. Since all the fruits of
labour in socialist society are used for
social progress and for improving the
welfare of the working people, increasing
social wealth brings the people ever greater
abundance and an ever higher level of
cultural life.
However,
in a capitalist society the handful of
exploiters grow richer with each passing
day, whereas the working people making up
the overwhelming majority of the population
become more and more impoverished and
miserable. A capitalist society is a society
where “the rich get ever richer and the poor
get ever poorer,” the gulf between the
exploiting and the exploited classes growing
daily; it is a living hell where the working
masses are impoverished and starved.
All
these facts make us take great pride in our
socialist system, a people’s social system
which is truly for the workers, peasants and
working intellectuals.
In
our country the economy, culture, science
and technology are making steady rapid
progress. This is one of the great
advantages of our socialist system.
A
socialist society provides every opportunity
and possibility for the rapid and continuous
development of the economy. In this society
a planned and balanced economic development
is guaranteed by the state through a planned
mobilization and use of all the nation’s
manpower and material resources and through
a coordinated control and guidance of
production, distribution, accumulation and
consumption. In this society the working
people also display a high degree of
revolutionary enthusiasm and creative
initiative in their productive activities,
since they work for their society and
collective and for their own welfare as
masters of the country.
As
the functions of the state as an economic
organizer increase and the ideological
consciousness of the working people grows in
our country, the economy develops steadily
at a high rate. Our industrial production
grew at a high rate—an annual average of
19.1 per cent—throughout the period of
industrialization from 1957 to 1970, and the
difficult and complex task of socialist
industrialization was creditably
accomplished in a very short time, in only
14 years.
In a
socialist society literature and art flower
brilliantly. The socialist system has placed
not only state power and the means of
production but also literature and art in
the hands of the people, and thus opened up
a highway for the development of literature
and art and made them true literature and
art which serve the working masses.
Today
broad sections of our working people are
taking an active part in literary and
artistic activities and enjoy them to their
hearts’ content. Because of their popular
and revolutionary character our literature
and art are developed into full bloom,
enjoying the boundless affection of the
people.
It is
one of the essential advantages of the
socialist system that the
politico-ideological unity of the popular
masses is strengthened and the relationship
of comradely cooperation between the working
people develops day by day.
The
elimination of the exploiting classes and
all kinds of exploiting systems has
fundamentally changed the position and
social status of the workers, peasants and
working intellectuals. The establishment of
the socialist system has made all our people
socialist working people and wrought a
radical change in their mental and moral
qualities. Because of their common
socio-economic status and their common goals
and interests, our working class,
cooperative farmers and working
intellectuals are firmly united politically
and ideologically and cooperate closely with
each other as comrades.
In a
capitalist society which is built on rabid
selfishness and where the law of the jungle
prevails, fraud and swindling are rampant
and people are antagonistic and hostile to
each other, and it is a common practice for
them to sacrifice others for their own fame
and career, comfort and pleasure. In our
society, however, all its members are imbued
with true comradeship, respecting, trusting
and cooperating with each other on the
principle of collectivism. Our working
people are fully displaying the fine
communist spirit of moving ahead together,
the informed teaching theless informed and
the advanced leading the less advanced
forward.
Today
our society has been turned into a great,
harmonious Red family where all the people
are dosely united as a political force; in
this great family everyone is working and
living filled with revolutionary enthusiasm
and optimism. All the people are united
politically and ideologically and working
with revolutionary zeal. This is precisely
the basis of the solidity of our society and
the source of our indestructible strength.
Our
socialist system is displaying its
superiority and unbreakable vitality more
fully with every passing day.
Through
their own experience our people are
convinced that only the socialist system can
guarantee genuine liberties and rights to
the working masses and provide them with a
most bountiful and happy life; they regard
it as the greatest honour and pleasure to
live and make revolution under this system.
The people in the northern half of the
Republic will not surrender to anyone our
socialist system which they themselves have
chosen and whose superiority and great
vitality have been unequivocally proved, and
they are all aglow with a determination to
fight on staunchly to consolidate and
develop this system.
3.
THE MAIN CONTENT OF THE SOCIALIST
CONSTITUTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC
OF KOREA
Comrades,
The current session of the Supreme People’s
Assembly is going to adopt the Socialist
Constitution of the DPRK with a view to
consolidating the socialist system
established in the northern half of the
Republic and intensifying the struggle for
the complete victory of socialism.
The
new Socialist Constitution correctly
reflects the achievements made in the
socialist revolution and in building
socialism in our country, defines the
principles to be followed in governing
activities in the political, economic and
cultural fields in a socialist society and
the basic rights and duties of citizens, and
stipulates the composition and functions of
the state organs and the principles of their
activities. Its purpose is to give legal
protection to the socialist system and the
dictatorship of the proletariat established
in the northern half of the Republic and to
serve the revolutionary cause of the working
class.
The
Socialist Constitution of the DPRK
legislatively affirms the political
victories and successes attained by our
people in the revolutionary struggle in
past years and defines the character and
functions of our state and the principles of
its activity to meet the needs of our
revolutionary development.
It
proclaims the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea
an independent socialist state. In our
country the socialist system has been
established, the political and ideological
unity of the entire people resting on the
worker-peasant alliance led by the working
class strengthened with this system as its
basis and the historic task of socialist
industrialization creditably accomplished.
As a result, the Government of the Republic
has been strengthened and developed into a
socialist power on a new socialist basis and
a firm political foundation.
The
sovereignty of the DPRK belongs to the
workers, peasants, soldiers and working
intellectuals. The Supreme People’s Assembly
and local people’s assemblies at all levels
are composed of deputies representing the
workers, peasants, soldiers and working
intellectuals, and they manage and operate
the state organs. Our state is a genuine
state of the workers and peasants in which
the working masses are the masters of the
country and all the people exercise power.
Therefore, our state regards it as its
supreme duty to protect the interests of the
workers, peasants, soldiers and working
intellectuals freed from exploitation and
oppression for ever.
The
Government of our Republic which has
inherited the glorious revolutionary
traditions of our people is guided in its
activity by the Juche idea which is a
creative application of Marxism-Leninism in
the conditions of our country, and strives
to execute the lines and policies of the
Workers’ Party of Korea.
It is
the fundamental revolutionary task of the
Government of the Republic to attain the
complete victory of socialism in the
northern half of the Republic, expel foreign
forces on a nationwide scale and achieve the
reunification and independence of the
country on a democratic basis. For the
successful implementation of this task we
must, first of all, strengthen the function
and role of our Government to intensify the
struggle against the hostile elements at
home and abroad who are opposed to our
socialist system, and accelerate the
ideological revolution to revolutionize and
working-classize all the members of society.
The
Socialist Constitution makes it clear that
in its activities the Government of our
Republic must always carry through the class
and mass lines, give priority to political
work, work with people in all matters as
required by the Chongsanri spirit and
Chongsanri method to rouse the voluntary
enthusiasm of the masses, and persistently
keep up the Chollima Movement, our Party’s
general line in socialist construction, thus
pressing ahead with communist education and
the reformation of the working people and
economic construction.
It
also clearly stipulates the duties of the
armed forces of the DPRK and the national
defence policy based on the principle of
self-defence as well as the foreign policy
of the Republic based on the principles of
complete equality and Chajusong,
Marxism-Leninism and proletarian
internationalism.
The
Socialist Constitution of the DPRK legally
affirms the achievements attained by our
people in the building of an independent
national economy and clarifies the
principles governing our socio-economic
life.
The
socialist ownership of the means of
production is the economic foundation of the
DPRK. All the economic activities of our
state and the socio-economic life of the
working people are thoroughly based on the
principles of socialism, and the nation’s
economy is steadily developing at a very
high rate, on the basis of the socialist
relations of production which have held
undivided sway in town and country. The
economic power of the DPRK is firmly
guaranteed by the great superiority of
socialist production relations and the solid
foundations of an independent national
economy.
Labour is one of the most
important elements which form the basis of
socio-economic life in a socialist society.
The Socialist Constitution gives a clear
definition of the character of labour, the
principles governing the working life of the
working people and the socialist principle
of distribution in our society.
Socialism
and communism can only be built by the
creative labour of the working millions. It
is a solemn duty and the greatest honour of
the working people in a socialist society to
love work and participate conscientiously in
the communal labour for the building of
socialism and communism. All our working
people take part in labour, and work for the
sake of their country and people and for
their own welfare, displaying voluntary
enthusiasm and creativity.
The
fruits of labour in our country are
allocated entirely for national prosperity
and progress and the promotion of the
well-being of the working people. It is an
immutable socialist principle that all the
working people work according to their
ability and take their share according to
the quantity and quality of work done. Our
state regards the steady improvement of the
people’s material and cultural life as its
primary duty, as the supreme principle
guiding its activities.
The
Socialist Constitution stipulates the
socialist form of economic management and
the principle of state guidance of the
economy in our country.
The
Taean work system, under which the economy
is managed in a scientific and rational way
on the basis of the collective strength of
the producer masses, and the new system of
agricultural guidance, under which
agriculture is directed by industrial
methods, are the best socialist forms of
economic management, whose superiority has
been clearly proved in practice. In
addition, unified and detailed planning
constitute the socialist system and method
of planning, which make it possible to
tighten the discipline of democratic
centralism in economic management and ensure
a high rate of growth in production and the
balanced development of the national
economy. The decisive guarantee for the
successful building of the socialist economy
is to give full rein to the superiority of
the socialist economic management systems
created by our Party and guide and manage
the economy to meet the requirements of
these systems.
The
Socialist Constitution also sets forth the
economic tasks of laying firmer material and
technological foundations of socialism,
emancipating the working people once and for
all from heavy labour, gradually turning
cooperative property into all-people’s
property and eliminating the differences
between town and country and the class
distinction between workers and peasants.
The
Socialist Constitution of the DPRK, on the
basis of the shining achievements made by
our people in the development of culture,
makes clear the direction to be taken in
carrying out the cultural revolution
thoroughly and accelerating the building of
a socialist national culture, as well as the
principles which must be observed by the
state in this sphere, The basic aim of the
cultural revolution in a socialist society
is to train all the working people to be
competent builders of socialism and
communism with a profound knowledge of
nature and society and a high level of
technology, and make our culture a true
people’s revolutionary culture which serves
the socialist working people. To attain this
aim of the cultural revolution, we must
resolutely combat cultural infiltration by
imperialism and any tendency to return to
the past and rapidly develop education,
science, literature and art and all other
domains of socialist cultural construction
on a sound basis.
The
Socialist Constitution specifically explains
the state’s educational policy of carrying
through the principles of socialist
education and combining general education
closely with technical education, and
education with productive labour, as well as
vital people’s education programmes such as
the introduction of compulsory ten-year
education for all our young people under
working age. The Constitution also
elucidates our state’s revolutionary
policies for developing science, literature
and art, physical culture and sports and the
public health service.
The
Socialist Constitution of the DPRK
explicitly provides for the basic rights and
duties of citizens in keeping with the
intrinsic nature of a socialist society. In
this country where there is no exploitation
or oppression and where social and
individual interests are in full accord, the
citizens’ rights and duties are based on the
collectivist principle of “One for all and
all for one”. The basic rights of citizens
laid down in the Socialist Constitution are
legal confirmation of the democratic rights
and liberties enjoyed by our people in their
daily social life. The duties of citizens as
stipulated in the Constitution are
honourable duties which must be fulfilled by
the people, as the masters of their country,
in consolidating and developing the
socialist system and in making their
homeland richer and stronger.
The
Socialist Constitution of the DPRK contains
new provisions concerning the composition
and functions of the state organs, and the
principles of their activity to suit the
existing conditions of revolutionary
development.
The
new state structure instituted under the
Socialist Constitution will allow the
workers, peasants, soldiers and working
intellectuals to take a more active part in
state affairs and state administration and
enable state organs to serve the people’s
interests better and push ahead more
vigorously with the revolutionary struggle
and work of construction by improving their
functions and role.
Our
organs of power are composed of
representatives of the workers, peasants,
soldiers and working intellectuals; they
protect the interests of the working people
and fight for the people’s freedom and
welfare. The new state structure is built in
such a way that the activities of
administrative bodies are always supervised
and controlled by the popular masses. Under
the new state structure, unlike the old one,
the people’s committees are separated from
administrative bodies, and the former which
are composed of representatives of the
workers, peasants, soldiers and working
intellectuals are to perform the function of
exercising day-to-day supervision and
control over the latter’s activities, so
that officials of the administrative bodies
will be able to do away with bureaucracy in
their work and serve the people better.
The
Socialist Constitution defines the
principles of democratic centralism as the
basic principle of organization and activity
for all state organs. Democratic centralism
in their organization and activity makes it
possible for them to carry out Party lines
and policies in a coordinated way throughout
the country and organize and mobilize the
entire population for the work of building
socialism and communism. Since they are
based on democratic centralism, the organs
of people’s power are able to perform their
functions and role satisfactorily as a
powerful tool for the building of socialism
and communism.
The
Socialist Constitution of the DPRK is a most
popular constitution for the benefit of the
workers, peasants, soldiers and working
intellectuals. The new Constitution fully
reflects their will and desire and
thoroughly defends the working people’s
interests. The new Constitution also gives
all the people genuine freedoms and rights
in all spheres of social life and legally
guarantees all conditions to make them
viable.
The
Socialist Constitution of the DPRK is a most
revolutionary constitution. Unlike those
constitutions which refer mainly to the
state structure, our Socialist Constitution,
which lays down all the principles governing
the political, economic and cultural
activities in a socialist. society, will
serve as a sharp weapon of the proletarian
dictatorship to protect the policy of our
Party and the Government of the Republic and
firmly defend the gains of the socialist
revolution, as a powerful means for giving a
strong impetus to socialist economic
construction and for revolutionizing and
working-classizing the whole of society by
intensifying the ideological and cultural
revolutions and establishing a socialist way
of life.
With
the institution of the Socialist
Constitution, the Government of the Republic
will have a new weapon of the proletarian
dictatorship and our people will be provided
with a dependable legal guarantee in the
struggle to achieve the complete victory of
socialism and the independent, peaceful
reunification of the country. The coming
into force of the Socialist Constitution in
the northern half of the Republic will
greatly encourage the people in south Korea
who are fighting for the democ-ratization of
society and the country’s independent,
peaceful reunification.
With
the Socialist Constitution coming into force
a change will take place in the political,
economic and cultural life of our people and
they will advance with redoubled strength
along the path of socialism and communism,
deeply convinced of the justness of their
cause.
4.
OUR TASKS IN THE CONSOLIDATION AND
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIALIST SYSTEM
Comrades,
The Government of the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea
and our people are confronted today with the
historic task of consolidating and
developing the socialist system and
attaining the complete victory of socialism,
by promoting the revolutionary struggle and
construction unflaggingly, on the basis of
the brilliant achievements gained in
building a new society.
In
order to achieve the complete victory of
socialism we must eliminate the differences
between towns and the country areas and the
class distinction between the workers and
the peasants, reinforce the material and
technical foundations of socialism, markedly
improve the material and cultural standards
of the people, smash the insidious schemes
of hostile classes and do away with the
corrosive influence of old ideas once and
for all.
The
struggle for the complete victory of
socialism is a battle for the final
liquidation of the vestiges of the old
society from all spheres of social life; it
is a battle to transform society on the
pattern of the working class in all realms
of the economy and culture, ideology and
morality. To attain the complete victory of
socialism, therefore, the working-class
party and state must press ahead with the
fight to occupy two fortresses, the material
and the ideological, on the way to the
building of communism. We must continue to
promote the technical, cultural and
ideological revolutions to consolidate the
socialist system and achieve the complete
victory of socialism.
The
basic goal of the technical revolution at
the present stage is to carry out
successfully its three major tasks as set
out at the Fifth Congress of the Workers’
Party of Korea.
These
three tasks which aim to narrow the
disparity between heavy and light labour and
between agricultural and industrial labour
considerably and to free women from the
heavy burden of household chores, are an
honourable undertaking to guarantee the
complete victory of socialism; they are a
strategic task facing us in socialist
construction after socialist
industrialization. To fulfil these three
major tasks is the basic way to release the
working people from arduous labour, provide
them fully with equal working conditions and
speed up the technological reconstruction
of the national economy and the development
of the productive forces. Furthermore, only
when these tasks are carried out, will it be
possible to succeed in solving the questions
of raising the technical and cultural
standards of the working people, reforming
their ideological consciousness and
eliminating the difference between town and
country and the class distinction between
workers and peasants.
Holding
the three major tasks of the technical
revolution set forth by the Party as the
paramount question in socialist economic
construction at present, the Government of
the Republic will strive for their
successful implementation.
In
order to reduce the distinction between
heavy and light labour and eliminate work in
excessive heat or under other harmful
conditions, we must raise the general level
of mechanization, semi-automation and
full-scale automation where these work
conditions exist. We must also introduce the
comprehensive mechanization of agriculture
and the greater use of chemicals on a wide
scale to reduce the difference between
agricultural and industrial labour. At the
same time, in order to free our women from
the heavy burden of household drudgery, we
must provide them with adequate conditions
to do kitchen and other household work
quickly and easily. In order to reach these
three major targets a vigorous mass movement
for technological innovation must be started
in all fields of the national economy,
bringing about a new advance in production.
We
must first make an effort to develop the
machine industry and bring about an
improvement in this branch.
The technical revolution is
essentially a mechanical revolution.
Machinery is the determining factor in
alleviating people’s arduous labour, and the
productive forces are also developed by the
improvement of machinery. The successful
carrying out of the three major tasks of the
technical revolution depends, in the final
analysis, on whether or not various kinds of
modern machinery and equipment are produced
satisfactorily through the rapid development
of the machine industry.
To
advance the machine industry, priority must
be given to increasing the production of
machine tools rapidly and steadily. True to
the Party’s call, the heroic workers in this
industry have recently brought about an
innovation in the production of machine
tools and admirably attained the production
goal of 30,000 units per annum, thus opening
up bright prospects for the victorious
implementation of the three major tasks of
the technical revolution. Workers in the
machine industry, not resting content with
this victory, must work hard to continue
increasing the production of machine tools
while consolidating the success already
achieved and, in particular, must work hard
to increase the variety and improve the
quality.
A
rapid increase in the production of tractors
and lorries is urgently needed for the
fulfilment of the three major tasks of the
technical revolution and this is one of the
most important tasks confronting the machine
industry. To carry out the comprehensive
mechanization of agriculture successfully,
our Party advanced a policy of providing 6-7
tractors and one lorry for every 100
hectares of fields in the near future. So
that this policy can be thoroughly
implemented, the tractor- and
lorry-manufacturing centres must be expanded
and consolidated and a new innovation be
effected in their production. If this is
done, we should attain an annual production
level of 30,000 tractors and 15,000-30,000
lorries in a year or two.
An
important task now lacing the machine
industry is to increase the production of
heavy machines and especially-ordered plant.
We must expand and consolidate the
heavy-machine production centres to
manufacture greater quantities of universal
drilling machines, large bulldozers and
excavators and various other kinds of heavy
machines needed for the extractive
industries and large projects to harness
nature, as well as large ships, and
improvements must be made in the production
of especially-ordered plant.
In
order to introduce semi-automation and
complete automation extensively in all
fields of the national economy we must
develop the electronics and automation
industries rapidly. Different kinds of
automation components, gauges and
instruments must be mass-produced by making
the best use of the existing foundation of
the electronics and automation industries
and, at the same time, many small and medium
branch factories must be developed to
produce automation parts, gauges and
instruments.
In
order to develop the machine industry
quickly and fully guarantee huge
construction work we must increase the
production of different kinds of iron and
steel materials and nonferrous metals
significantly by concentrating on the
improvement of the metal industry. Projects
now under way to reconstruct and enlarge the
Kim Chaek Iron Works, the Kangson Steel
Plant and other metallurgical plants on
up-to-date lines must be completed quickly
to bring about a radical growth of
production and, at the same time, we must
work hard to build another large modern
metallurgical base. In addition, the
production of various nonferrous metals must
be drastically increased through the
consolidation of their production centres
and the maximum use of the production
capacities of the smelters.
To
give priority to the extractive and power
industries is an important guarantee for the
successful fulfilment of the three major
tasks of the technical revolution and for
swift progress in all realms of the national
economy. In the extractive industries,
geological prospecting must always be given
priority and the level of mechanization and
automation at coal and ore mines must be
raised determinedly through a dynamic
technical innovation movement and, as a
result, new innovations will be made in
production. In the power industry,
production should be raised to the maximum
by taking good care of the equipment of the
existing power stations and, simultaneously,
the construction of new projects must be
speeded up to hasten their commissioning.
An important task of the chemical
industry is to expand and consolidate the
raw material base for light industry and
steadily augment the production of chemical
fertilizers and agricultural chemicals
needed for the technical revolution in
country areas. The workers in the chemical
industry have already scored great
achievements in the fight to fulfil the
Six-Year Plan. In particular, the production
of vinalon and vinyl chloride this year has
already exceeded the level envisaged for the
end of the Six-Year Plan. In the chemical
industry we must work, from now onwards, to
make better use of the existing production
capacities and, at the same time, strive to
create up-to-date chemical industrial
centres. We must also normalize the
production of ammonia through gasification
and markedly raise the proportion of
phosphatic and microelement fertilizers in
the production of chemical fertilizers. In
addition, we have to build up the
paper-making centres to supply sufficient
paper needed for both universal compulsory
ten-year education and the cultural
revolution.
We
must carry out enormous construction work
for the successful implementation of the
three major tasks of the technical
revolution and for further progress in the
national economy. In capital construction we
have to concentrate our efforts on major
projects which are of primary significance
in national economic development and the
improvement of the people’s living
conditions, in accordance with our Party’s
policy of concentrated construction, and
thus hasten their commissioning as much as
we can.
We
must make every effort to develop the
building-materials and timber industries, so
that the demands for different construction
materials are fully met.
The
rapid development of light industry is
extremely important in radically improving
the people’s living standards and freeing
women from the heavy burden of household
chores. The Government of the Republic must
pay particular attention to the development
of the textile and garment industries and,
in particular, strive to modernize the daily
necessities and food-processing industries.
In order to streamline these latter, the
machine industry must produce large
quantities of different single-purpose
machines. We must modernize the daily
necessities and food-processing industries
as soon as possible through a mass campaign
for one machine to make another and for one
factory to build another, and thus bring
about a great change in the production of
consumer goods and food.
The
main task in narrowing the differences
between agricultural and industrial labour
and freeing the peasants from arduous work
is to effect the overall, comprehensive
mechanization of agriculture. In farming, we
have to raise the level of mechanization
radically and concentrate our efforts
particularly on the introduction of
mechanization in intermediary areas, in
keeping with the rapid growth in the
production of tractors and lorries. We must
carry out the comprehensive mechanization of
agriculture successfully; this can be done
by making maximum use of tractors through
the enlargement of tractor repair bases and
tractor implement production centres and the
extensive levelling and realigning of
fields. In addition, we must increase the
use of agricultural chemicals and widely
introduce advanced methods of farming and so
bring about a fresh advance in agricultural
production.
Transport
plays a vital part in carrying out the three
major tasks of the technical revolution. In
this branch we must continue to speed up
railway electrification and press ahead with
the construction of new railway lines and
harbours, so that the material and technical
transport base is further strengthened. We
must also improve the organization of
transport and mechanize loading and
unloading operations. In this way, we shall
be able to carry the rapidly increasing
goods traffic.
The
Government of the Republic must continue
with the simultaneous development of the
cultural and technical revolution, The
urgent task facing us today in the
development of culture is to train large
numbers of technical personnel to meet the
demands of socialist construction, and raise
the working people’s general cultural level
and technical skills to a considerable
extent.
We
must improve the work of universities and
colleges, build more universities and
improve the work of night schools and
correspondence courses. By doing this we
must determinedly carry out the decision of
our Party’s Fifth Congress on increasing the
number of technicians and specialists to
more than a million in the next few years.
If we
are to raise the working people’s cultural
level and technical skills we must achieve
universal compulsory ten-year education of a
high quality. In order to guarantee this
fully the Government of the Republic must
provide all the necessary material
conditions and improve teachers’ training to
produce large numbers of good teachers. In
the field of education, we must apply the
principles of socialist education
thoroughly, so as to train all our students
to be dependable builders of socialism and
communism, firmly armed with our Party’s
revolutionary ideology and equipped with
ample knowledge, high morality and strong
bodies.
In
order to raise the general cultural and
technical levels of the working people, we
must continue to develop the part-time
educational system which includes the
working people’s middle school, factory
higher technical school and other schools,
thus enrolling all the working people in
some educational establishments, so that
they can study on a regular basis.
In
this way, we shall ensure that all working
people attain the level of a senior middle
school graduate and master more than one
technical skill.
The
Government of the Republic must pursue the
ideological revolution vigorously and so
achieve the revolutionization and
working-dassization of the whole of society
in accordance with the Party’s consistent
policy.
In
revolutionizing and working-classizing the
whole of society it is most important to
equip the working people firmly with our
Party’s monolithic idea, the Juche idea. Our
Party’s Juche idea is the only correct
ideological guide to the successful carrying
out of the Korean revolution. It is only
when the working people are firmly armed
with this idea that they can have a genuine
revolutionary world outlook and worthily
discharge the tasks assigned to them in the
revolution and construction. We must
intensify the education of the working
people in our Party policies and the
revolutionary traditions so as to arm them
firmly with our Party’s monolithic idea, the
Juche idea, thereby training all of them to
be true Red fighters of the Party, communist
revolutionaries, who adhere to revolutionary
principles under any adversity and carry
through the Party’s lines and policies.
We
have to intensify communist education, with
class education as its main content, among
the working people, while arming them with
the Juche idea, so that all of them are
firmly armed with working-class
consciousness and collectivism, ardently
cherish our socialist system and work
devotedly for its consolidation and
development.
Steady
improvement of the material and cultural
standards of the people is the supreme
principle governing all activities of the
Government of the Republic. As in the past,
the Government of the Republic will continue
to make every effort to raise the people’s
material and cultural standards.
We
must firmly adhere to the principle of
ensuring equal improvement of all the
working people’s living conditions while
systematically promoting the people’s
welfare. The Government of the Republic
must, in particular, endeavour to eliminate
differences between the living standards of
the workers and the peasants, and between
the living conditions of the urban and the
rural population, while improving the lives
of the people as a whole, in accordance with
the policy set forth at the Fifth Congress
of our Party.
We
must strengthen the organs of power and
improve their functions and role in order to
implement the revolutionary tasks
confronting us at present and consolidate
and develop the socialist system
successfully.
To
strengthen the government of the workers and
peasants, which isa powerful weapon of the
revolution and construction, is an important
guarantee for winning the complete victory
of socialism and accomplishing the historic
cause of the working class. We must make
untiring efforts to strengthen the organs of
power at all levels and improve their
functions and role in the revolution and
construction.
The
organs of power from top to bottom must
radically increase their role as defenders
of the political rights and interests of the
workers, peasants and other working people
and as masters responsible for their lives.
They must strive to champion the working
people’s political rights in every way,
protect their lives and property and see to
it that the people all live well. The organs
of power at all levels must manage commerce,
town administration, education, public
health services and production and
construction which are directly related to
the people’s life, and strengthen their
leadership over them to provide better
living conditions for the people. They must
protect and take good care of state and
communal property and fight resolutely
against its misappropriation and waste.
For
our Government to be a genuine government of
the workers and peasants which serves the
interests of the revolution and the people
faithfully, we must ensure that the
monolithic ideological system of the Party
is thoroughly established, above all,
amongst the officials of the government
bodies. The government officials at all
levels must arm themselves more firmly with
our Party’s monolithic ideology, always base
all their activities strictly on the Party’s
lines and policies, and defend and carry
them through to the end under whatever
difficult conditions. At the same time, they
must constantly improve their method and
style of work. Bureaucratism is one of the
major defects that may often manifest itself
in the method and style of work after the
seizure of power by the working class. The
government officials’ bureaucratism stems
from subjectivism as well as from the
mistaken idea of equating their posts with
old-time government offices. It alienates
the Party from the masses and makes it
impossible to carry out revolutionary tasks
successfully. We must completely do away
with the bureaucratic work method of the
officials of government bodies and strictly
adhere to the Chongsanri method which is our
Party’s revolutionary method of work.
The
Government of the Republic must continue to
work hard to increase the nation’s defence
capabilities.
Since
we are building socialism in direct
confrontation with US
imperialism, the ringleader of world
imperialism, we must not neglect the work of
increasing the nation’s defence capabilities
for even a moment. The Government of the
Republic must always exercise vigilance
against the war policy and hostile actions
of the imperialists and augment the nation’s
defence capabilities in every way in
accordance with the revolutionary principle
of self-defence. We must continue to
implement the Party’s military line
thoroughly, the main content of which is to
turn the entire army into an army of cadres,
modernize it, arm all the people and fortify
the whole country, and make the nation’s
defences impregnable so as to crush, at
once, any aggressive acts of the
imperialists and firmly defend the security
of the country and the people and our
socialist gains.
In
order to consolidate and develop the
socialist system and hasten the final
victory of our revolution, we must
strengthen our solidarity with the
revolutionary forces of the world while
increasing our own revolutionary forces.
The
principle consistently followed by the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
in its foreign policy is to develop
friendship and cooperation with all
countries which are friendly towards our
country, on the principles of equality and
mutual benefit. In the future, too, we shall
continue to maintain this principle in our
foreign policy.
The
Government of the Republic will do its best
to achieve the unity and cohesion of the
socialist countries and promote friendship
and cooperation with them on the principles
of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian
internationalism.
It
will work to expand and strengthen its
diplomatic relations with the Asian, African
and Latin-American countries which are
fighting for freedom and national
independence and to establish and promote
friendly relations with more countries. We
will also endeavour to establish diplomatic
as well as political, economic and cultural
relations, on the five principles of
peaceful coexistence, with those capitalist
countries which wish to have good relations
with our country and which pursue unbiased
policies which show no aggression against
the north and south of the Korean peninsula.
The
consistent policy followed by the Government
of the Republic in its external activities
is to fight against the US-led imperialists’
policy of aggression and war and for world
peace and security.
The
US-led imperialists are still craftily
pursuing their policy of aggression and war
under the ostensible slogans of “peace” and
“negotiations”. Holding aloft the
revolutionary banner of anti-imperialist,
anti-US struggle, we shall fight on
resolutely to check and frustrate the
imperialists’ policy of aggression and war
and defend the peace of the world.
Furthermore, we shall give active support
and encouragement to the fight of all
peoples of the world against imperialism and
work hard to strengthen solidarity with all
the anti-imperialist forces.
The
Government of the DPRK and the Korean people
will always stand firmly on the side of the
peoples who are fighting for peace and
democracy, national independence and
socialism.
In
the recent past the Korean citizens in Japan
have achieved tremendous successes in their
battle to defend their democratic, national
rights, facilitate the independent, peaceful
reunification of the homeland and strengthen
international solidarity with the Japanese
people and other progressive peoples of the
world.
In
the future, too, they should continue to
fight resolutely to develop national
education and achieve the right to return
home and visit their country, united closely
around Chongryon (the General Association of
Korean Residents in Japan), under the
unfurled banner of the Juche idea. They
should also make an active contribution to
hastening the country’s reunification, the
supreme national task of our people,
upholding our Party’s policy of independent,
peaceful reunification, and strengthen
internationalist friendship with the
Japanese people and other peoples of the
world.
The
Government of the DPRK regards it as its
solemn duty to protect our nationals in Japan
and all other Korean citizens abroad. The
Government of the Republic will continue to
fight staunchly against all unjustified acts
of infringement on the interests and
national rights of our overseas citizens,
and do all it can to support and encourage
their just struggle.
Comrade
Deputies, Our people have achieved great
victories and successes in the struggle for
the socialist revolution and socialist
construction under the wise leadership of
the Workers’ Party of Korea, courageously
overcoming many difficulties and harsh
trials. All these brilliant victories and
achievements testify to the correctness and
indestructible vitality of our Party’s Juche
idea and demonstrate our people’s
inexhaustible might.
Our
people are faced today with the important
task of achieving the complete victory of
socialism in the northern half of the
Republic and the independent, peaceful
reunification of the country by promoting
the revolution and construction. In order to
carry out this task, we must continue our
vigorous struggle with unabated energy and
devotion, and advance more quickly,
overcoming all difficulties.
We
must thoroughly embody the new Socialist
Constitution, which we are going to adopt
here, in all fields of state and social
life, and press ahead more determinedly with
the revolution and construction. All our
citizens must observe the Socialist
Constitution voluntarily and thus bring
about a great change in the revolutionary
struggle and work of construction.
Our
revolutionary cause is a just one, and
victory is definitely ours.
No
force can block the way of the Korean people
who are marching forward under our Party’s
leadership, with state power firmly in their
hands.
Let
us all unite closely around the Party
Central Committee and the Government of the
Republic and advance valiantly towards the
bright future of socialism and communism,
holding high the banner of Marxism-Leninism,
the revolutionary banner of the Juche idea.