KIM IL SUNG
ON
THE QUESTION OF THE NATIONAL UNITED
FRONT
Lecture
Delivered at a Political Forum Sponsored
by Democratic Youth Organizations
December
22, 1945
Today I would like to
explain why the national united front is
necessary for the revolution in our country
and how to form it.
To win victory in the
revolutionary struggle the revolutionary
forces must be formed properly on the basis
of a correct analysis of the prevailing
situation and the correlation of class
forces. The question of the united front is
one of important Marxist-Leninist strategic
and tactical questions in winning over the
masses and guaranteeing decisive superiority
for the revolutionary forces.
At present forming a solid
national united front in our country is a
very urgent task. Whether we form a strong
national united front or not is a serious
question of whether we can solidly rally the
revolutionary forces or not, of whether we
can thoroughly isolate the
counter-revolutionary forces or not;
accordingly, it is one of the vital
questions on which depends the victory of
our revolution. Therefore, we have laid much
stress on the question of the national
united front.
If we are to build a new,
democratic Korea
successfully by actively organizing and
mobilizing the efforts of the entire people
in the complicated internal and external
situation of today, we must correctly
understand the question of the national
united front. In particular, it is necessary
for us youth—young builders of the nation—to
understand it clearly.
1. THE CHARACTER OF OUR
REVOLUTION
To discuss the question of
the national united front we must first
analyse the character of our society, just
as in all other political questions. Only
then can we recognize clearly the necessity
and significance of the national united
front in our country and form it properly to
meet the demands of our revolution.
Then what sort of society is
the present Korean society?
Ours is a semi-feudal
society which has only just been freed from
the colonial yoke of Japanese imperialism,
that is, a society which still retains
considerable vestiges of Japanese
imperialism and feudalism.
As you all know, the
Japanese imperialists had occupied Korea
for nearly half a century and pursued
vicious colonial policies in our country.
The Japanese imperialist
aggressors ruled our people savagely through
a governor-general’s office in Korea
whose ruthlessness was without precedent in
world history. They created a ramified
network all over Korea
of various repressive apparatuses such as
the army, gendarmery and police and deprived
the Korean people of all fundamental rights
and freedoms and cruelly suppressed and
slaughtered them. Indeed, the Japanese
imperialists perpetrated monstrous fascist
oppression and a reign of terror all over Korea.
At the same time, they
seized all the key branches of the Korean
economy and plundered arbitrarily our
valuable natural resources and turned Korea into
Japan’s
supply base of raw materials, into its
commodity market. They checked the
development of Korea’s
national economy to the utmost and bled our
people white. Thus they kept our economy in
a very backward state and forced our people
to hover on the verge of starvation and
poverty.
Furthermore, with the
sinister aim of keeping the Korean people
for ever in colonial slavery, the Japanese
imperialists carried out a malicious policy
of obliterating our people’s national
consciousness. They attempted to stamp out
our long history and brilliant national
culture and made frenzied attempts to force
slave education upon the Korean people and
imbue them with the slavish idea of
submission.
As you see, the Japanese
imperialists pursued monstrous colonial
policies in all spheres of political,
economic and cultural life and grossly
retarded our country’s capitalistic
development. If they developed anything at
all in Korea,
it was only those things which were needed
to intensify their colonial rule and
plunder.
It is the character of
Japanese imperialism and its predatory
nature that is to blame for our country
having feudal productive relations today
highly developed capitalism but one which
had many vestiges of feudalism. Therefore,
Japanese imperialism could not develop
capitalism fully in Korea.
Especially, in order to maintain and
strengthen their colonial rule over Korea
the Japenese imperialists deliberately
worked hand in glove with the feudal forces
and preserved feudal relations in our
country. In the past, along with the
comprador capitalists, the landlords formed
a major social foothold in our country for
the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism.
The Japanese imperialists had hampered our
social development by preserving the
vestiges of the medieval feudal system and
utilizing them to intensify their colonial
rule and exploitation.
As a result of this kind of
colonial rule there are many vestiges of
Japanese imperialism and feudalism remaining
in our country. The remnants of Japanese
imperialist colonial rule are rooted deeply
in all fields of political, economic and
cultural life and even in our people’s
ideology and morality. The remnants of the
feudal system are functioning in all
spheres. Moreover, pro-Japanese forces
implanted by Japanese imperialism in the
past are still not eliminated along with
considerable forces of feudalism. Now, the
remnants of Japanese imperialism and
feudalism create a great obstacle to our
social development.
In analyzing the character
of Korean society we must bear in mind the
presence of the armed forces of US
imperialism in south Korea, one half of our
country. They have set up a military
government in south Korea,
and are obstructing the democratic advance
of the popular masses and promoting
pro-Japanese elements, traitors to the
nation and other reactionaries, the enemies
of our people.
We must base ourselves on
this actual situation of our society in
defining the character of the Korean
revolution.
At present, the Korean
revolution is at a stage where it must sweep
away the survivals of Japanese imperialism
and feudalism and build a new, democratic
society, that is, at the stage of
anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic
revolution.
The immediate targets of the
Korean revolution are the imperialist agents
including the remnant forces of Japanese
imperialism who are attempting to implant
the forces of imperialism again, as well as
their accomplices—the forces of feudalism.
Because of their common aims and interests
both these forces are supporting and backing
each other and are united closely. The
remnant forces of Japanese imperialism, and
other imperialist agents as well as the
feudal forces are opposed to our country’s
democratic progress and are resorting to
every possible means to steer Korea
along the road to anti-democracy. They
oppose the democratic forces and are banding
together the old, decadent reactionary
forces in an attempt to ignite a civil war
in our country, and, in alignment with
foreign forces of aggression, are trying to
make our people the colonial slaves of
imperialism again. Therefore, without
struggling actively to defeat both of these
reactionary forces we cannot build the
nation properly or establish an independent
and sovereign democratic country.
If we are to thoroughly
isolate the remnant forces of Japanese
imperialism and other imperialist lackeys
and feudal forces, and step up the struggle
against them and successfully carry out the
founding of the state, we must win over all
patriotic and democratic forces and build up
the revolutionary forces. It is precisely
for this reason that the question arises of
a national united front.
2. THE HISTORICAL
EXPERIENCE OF THE UNITED FRONT MOVEMENT
This is not the first time
the question of the united front has been
raised. It was raised a long time ago and
much experience has been accumulated since
then by the united front movement at home
and abroad.
In our country, the
anti-Japanese national united front movement
developed vigorously from the early 1930’s
under the leadership of genuine communists.
In the 1930’s, the Japanese
imperialists who had occupied Korea
repressed the Korean communist movement and
the national-liberation struggle more
harshly, while intensifying their aggression
on the continent. They were hell-bent on
stepping up their fascist oppression and
colonial plunder of the Korean people. This
increased our people’s anti-Japanese
sentiments. As a result, the anti-Japanese
struggle was intensified among the broad
masses of our people including the workers
and peasants. The prevailing situation
called for the close unity of the broad
popular masses and the development of the
anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle
onto a new, higher stage.
Basing themselves on this
objective demand, in the early 1930’s the
genuine Korean communists organized armed
forces and waged an anti-Japanese armed
struggle, at the same time carrying on a
dynamic struggle to form an anti-Japanese
national united front. Thus they united
broad sections of patriotic people opposed
to Japanese imperialism under the
anti-Japanese banner and actively organized
and mobilized them for the struggle against
Japan.
Particularly, in May 1936, we formed the
Association for the Restoration of the
Fatherland—an anti-Japanese national united
front organization. This was an epoch-making
event in developing the anti-Japanese
national united front movement to new
heights in our country. The ARF included the
workers and peasants, intellectuals, small
and medium tradesmen and manufacturers,
religious people, nationalists—the masses of
people of all strata who were opposed to Japan
and aspired for the liberation of the
country. By rallying around the ARF broad
sections of patriotic people, we could build
up the mass foundation of the anti-Japanese
armed struggle and intensify our armed
struggle, and could further expand and
develop the anti-Japanese
national-liberation struggle in our country
as a whole.
During the anti-Japanese
armed struggle we also materialized the
united front with the Chinese people. We
waged a powerful struggle against Japanese
imperialism, the common enemy of both the
Korean and Chinese peoples, by strengthening
our solidarity with the Chinese communists
and forming an anti-Japanese allied front
with Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units
that had been opposed to the communists.
Through this united front
movement carried out in the days of the
anti-Japanese armed struggle, we gained
valuable experience. This experience is a
precious asset for strengthening the
national united front today when we are
building a new country.
The united front movement
was carried out in other countries of Europe
and Asia,
too.
The peoples of Europe who love
peace and democracy have waged united front
movements ever since the days when the black
forces of fascism started menacing the
world. In 1933-35 the fascist Hitlerites
raised their heads in Germany and
at the same time Mussolini’s fascist
dictatorship was strengthened in Italy.
Many peoples of Europe
formed a united front in order to wage their
struggle successfully against the fascists
who were out to conquer the whole world and
enslave humanity. Not only in France and
Spain
but also in Germany
freedom- and peace-loving people and
organizations fought against fascism relying
on the united front.
The united front movement
developed in colonial and semi-colonial
countries as well as in capitalist
countries. The colonial and semi-colonial
peoples set up national united fronts to
counter the further intensification of the
aggressive activities of the imperialists
and their policy of colonization.
The national united front
aimed at opposing imperialist aggression
represents the whole nation. By invading
another country the imperialists not only
oppress and exploit its workers, peasants
and other working masses but also infringe
upon the interests of the rest of the
people, including non-comprador capitalists,
except a tiny handful of imperialist
lackeys. Therefore, the struggle against
imperialist aggression is joined by broad
masses of people of all strata. It is true
that the workers and peasants are the main
force in the anti-imperialist struggle; they
fight against the aggressors more staunchly
than any other class. However, not only
workers and peasants join in this struggle
but also the rest of the nation and, in due
course, the national united front is formed.
This is eloquently proved by
the experience of the anti-Japanese national
united front movement in our country; it is
also shown by the example of China.
When the Japanese
imperialists invaded China
the Chinese people were united across the
nation and struggled against the
colonization of their country. As Japanese
imperialism occupied northeast China and
stretched out its crooked hands of
aggression to the Chinese mainland, the
Communist Party of China proposed to the
Kuomintang that both parties put an end to
civil war immediately and form a united
front to wage an anti-Japanese struggle to
save the nation, advocating that the people
should be given freedom of speech and
association as well as arms. For a long
time, the recalcitrant reactionaries of the
Kuomintang had turned a deaf ear to this
proposal and continued to pursue a policy of
nonresistance. However, as broad sections of
the Chinese people, in response to the
Communist Party’s call, demanded that the
whole nation unite and launch an
anti-Japanese struggle to save the nation,
the reactionaries of the Kuomintang were
forced to accept the Communist proposal. As
a result, cooperation between the Communist
Party and Kuomintang was materialized in China
and the anti-Japanese national united front
came into being.
Internationally speaking,
the united front movement further expanded
and developed after the appeal made by the
Seventh Congress of the Communist
International held in 1935. At this congress
Comrade Dimitrov put forward the line of
forming an anti-fascist popular front; he
appealed to peace- and democracy-loving
people all over the world to step up the
joint struggle against the fascists, since
the menace of fascism was increasing. In
accordance with this line the anti-fascist
popular front movement developed on a
worldwide scale.
As you see, the united front
movement has been carried on extensively at
home and abroad for a long time.
3. THE IMMEDIATE TASK OF
THE KOREAN REVOLUTION AND THE NATIONAL
UNITED FRONT
As I have already mentioned,
at the present stage the Korean revolution
is an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal
democratic revolution. Our immediate task is
to strive to build a fully independent and
sovereign state which will be able to join
on an equal footing all countries of the
world which oppose the forces of aggression
and war and love peace and liberty,
completely eliminate the evil consequences
of Japanese imperialist colonial rule and
feudal remnants from all spheres of life and
achieve the country’s democratic
advancement.
This great task of
nation-building confronting us cannot be
accomplished by the efforts of any one
grouping or a few persons; it can be
fulfilled successfully only by correctly
organizing and mobilizing the efforts of the
broad masses. In order to organize and
mobilize their efforts, it is imperative to
unite all patriotic and democratic forces
firmly.
Uniting the broad masses is
a decisive guarantee for the victory of the
revolution. Unless we win over the masses
and guarantee the preponderance of the
revolutionary forces, we cannot repulse the
offensive of the counter-revolutionary
forces or achieve victory for the
revolution. If our revolution is to be
successful, we must first work properly to
win over the broad masses of people.
We should strive to rally
under the banner of democracy all people of
different strata who are opposed to the
imperialist agents including the remnant
forces of Japanese imperialism and the
feudal forces. Only by doing this, can we
set up a truly democratic state, sweep away
the survivals of Japanese imperialism and
feudalism and democratize society, and also
quickly build up the nation’s economy.
The Japanese imperialists
destroyed all our factories and enterprises
and devastated our agriculture. Therefore,
only ruined factories and enterprises and
barren soil are left in our country. Our
economy is in such a state that it is
impossible for a couple of persons to
rehabilitate and develop it; it is necessary
to mobilize the entire people. Those who
have strength must contribute their
strength, those with knowledge their
knowledge and those with money their money;
all the people must be activated to strive
to rehabilitate and develop the nation’s
economy and build a new, democratic Korea.
We are building our country
at present in an extremely complicated
situation. In south
Korea now, unlike in
north Korea,
pro-Japanese elements, traitors to the
nation and other reactionary forces are
assembled under the wing of US
imperialism, and they are making desperate
attempts to obstruct our people who have
risen to build a new, democratic Korea.
The pro-Japanese elements and traitors to
the nation remaining in north Korea,
too, are attempting to frustrate our
people’s cause of building the nation, in
alliance with the reactionaries in south
Korea.
Moreover, bogus revolutionaries who pretend
to be patriots and factionalists are trying
to divide the people and taking steps to
confuse them so that they will not be able
to know which road to take. This situation
urgently demands that we step up our
struggle to rally firmly around the national
united front all the patriotic, democratic
forces who are interested in the building of
a new, democratic Korea.
At present, all sections of
the people in our country are interested in
the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic
revolution. Only when this revolution is
carried out and an independent and sovereign
democratic state is built, can the people of
all strata be guaranteed genuine political
rights and democratic freedom and enjoy a
happy life.
In the past, under the
colonial rule of Japanese imperialism, all
Koreans except for a tiny handful of
pro-Japanese elements and traitors to the
nation suffered harsh colonial oppression
and exploitation. Not only the workers,
peasants, intellectuals, small tradesmen and
handicraftsmen, but even the non-comprador
capitalists suffered from the national
oppression and humiliation of the Japanese
imperialists while economically, they were
steadily bankrupted and ruined by Japanese
monopoly capital. In a word, the entire
people keenly felt through their own
experience how miserable it was to live in
colonial bondage to imperialism, unable to
have their own government.
For this reason, not only
the proletariat today but also all the rest
of the people including conscientious
non-comprador capitalists are opposed to the
pro-Japanese elements, traitors to the
nation and other reactionaries who try to
turn our country into an imperialist colony
again, and are demanding the building of an
independent and sovereign democratic state
in our country. Therefore, not only the
workers, peasants and the rest of the
working masses but also conscientious
non-comprador capitalists can take part in
the building of a new, democratic Korea.
This shows that it is
vitally necessary to form a solid national
united front in our country and that it is
possible to form this front from the broad
masses of all strata.
We must rally around the
national united front all the political
forces who love the country and the people
and desire the democratic development of the
nation.
There are various strata of
people in our country such as the workers,
peasants, intellectuals, religious people,
landlords and capitalists and all want to
have their own political organizations
representing the interests of their
respective classes and circles. So after
liberation different political parties and
social organizations were formed and more
will be formed in the future, too. In the
past. Koreans living abroad belonged to
various political organizations. Active
among them were those which represented the
interests of the workers, peasants and
intellectuals and those which represented
the interests of the landlords and
capitalists. Even today, after liberation,
there are political organizations in our
country for the working masses and for the
landlords and capitalists.
We must step up the work of
bringing the masses of different sections
into democratic mass organizations so as to
lay a firm foundation for the national
united front. In particular, youth workers
must strive to carry out our Party’s line of
organizing a Democratic Youth League, the
only youth organization, as soon as
possible, to unite all patriotic young
people. We must include patriotic people of
different strata in democratic mass
organizations and firmly unite around the
national united front the political parties
and social organizations which desire a
fully independent and sovereign democratic
state, thus they will all join efforts to
set up a new country.
If we are to organize a
solid national united front and rally broad
sections of patriotic people, we must first
strengthen the Communist Party.
The Communist Party has put
forward the only really correct political
line showing the road for our people to
take; it is a revolutionary party fighting
more staunchly than any other party for the
country’s democratic development and for the
freedom and happiness of the working class
and other working masses. Only by
strengthening the Communist Party and
elevating its leading role, can we rally our
democratic forces firmly and guide the
masses of people along the right road, and
successfully carry out the Korean
revolution.
In the past, our country had
no revolutionary working-class party capable
of leading the popular masses correctly. The
Communist Party of Korea was founded in 1925
but it was dissolved in 1928, owing to the
repression of Japanese imperialism and to
the cursed factional strife among the
sectarian elements. It is true that even
afterwards the communist movement did carry
on in our country and an uninterrupted
struggle was waged to found a Communist
Party, but it could not be founded until the
country’s liberation. Since there was no
revolutionary party of the working class,
the work of organizing the masses could not
be carried out under a unified party
leadership; the anti-Japanese struggles
waged in our country before had often taken
place spontaneously and, therefore, they
could not but suffer setbacks.
We must remember this bitter
lesson of the past. We should all of us help
actively in strengthening the Communist
Party, deeply conscious that without its
leadership we cannot build the country
properly or win victory for the Korean
revolution. Thus, we will, under the
Communist Party’s leadership, closely unite
all the patriotic and democratic forces
around the national united front and
actively organize and mobilize them for the
establishment of a new, democratic Korea.
4. TWO UNITED FRONTS
There are two united
fronts—the right and the wrong. One is the
united front advocated by true patriots who
love their country and people and the other
is the “united front” advocated by the
anti-popular, anti-democratic elements.
Then what sort of united
front should ours be?
At present some people
insist on indiscriminate unity without any
principle, on the plea that a united front
must be formed. This is not the true united
front we advocate. Ours must not and cannot
possibly be a united front uniting any
Koreans, whether they be pro-Japanese
elements or traitors to the nation.
We need a united front to
carry out the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal
democratic revolution and build an
independent and sovereign democratic state.
Nevertheless, they insist we should form a
united front with the remnant forces of
Japanese imperialism and the feudal forces.
This is absurd. How can we join the enemies
of the people? It is impermissible for us,
who are going to build a progressive new
society, to forgive even in the slightest
the remnant forces of Japanese imperialism
and the feudal forces and form a coalition
with them.
We must not include the
pro-Japanese elements, traitors to the
nation and other anti-popular,
anti-democratic elements in the united
front; we must fight resolutely against
them.
But what we must mind here
is to define correctly the pro-Japanese
elements and the traitors to the nation.
Those who betrayed the country and the
people by giving active help to the Japanese
imperialists in the past should be regarded
as pro-Japanese elements and traitors to the
nation. However, we must not brand people at
random as such. During the 36 years our
country remained the colony of Japanese
imperialism, some Koreans were employed at
Japanese institutions, but most of them had
to work under the Japanese imperialists in
order to earn a living or because they were
forced to, and adopted a passive attitude.
There were not many who, while working at
Japanese imperialist institutions, assisted
them in the repression and slaughter of our
people or worked consciously and actively to
carry out their colonial policies.
We must not suspect or leave
people in the cold for no reason; we must
work hard to win over as many of them as
possible.
At present there is a
certain difference in the social and
economic position and class interests of
various sections of the masses who can take
part in our anti-imperialist, anti-feudal
democratic revolution, and, accordingly, in
the work of nation-building, quite a few of
them have a different attitude and approach
from those of the working class and other
working masses. Particularly non-comprador
capitalists and some other circles, because
of their class limitations, are wavering,
instead of working enthusiastically for
nation-building. If, because of this, we
shun them and keep them at a distance, they
will go over to the enemy. We must include
in the united front all those who are not
the targets of our revolution, despite their
irresolute attitude and vacillation in
nation-building; we must work in unity with
them, overcoming through struggle the
negative practices that may be apparent
among them. Thus our united front will be a
nationwide organization which will knit
together closely all patriotic and
democratic forces.
Next, it is important to
understand clearly the mission of our united
front.
First of all, our united
front should become the one which opposes
imperialism, the country’s colonization and
the policy of aggression and war.
The imperialists are
engrossed in aggression and war and in every
possible manoeuvre to turn weak and small
nations into colonial slaves. Without
fighting against imperialism, colonialism,
and the policy of aggression and war, it is
impossible to achieve the country’s complete
independence or enable the people to enjoy a
free and happy life. Through their own
experience, our people understand this very
clearly.
In order to set up an
independent and sovereign democratic state,
we must completely smash the imperialists’
conspiratorial activities to hamper our
people’s cause of nation-building and
colonize our country again.
If we are to fight
imperialist moves successfully, we must
first intensify our struggle against their
lackeys. We must give no freedom to those
who support and defend imperialism,
colonialism, the policy of aggression and
war and to those agents of Japanese
imperialism who have implanted and are going
to implant the Japanese imperialist forces
in Korea;
we must resolutely fight against them.
Our united front must step
up the struggle against the conspiratorial
activities of the imperialists and their
lackeys, so as to contribute actively to the
complete independence of the country.
At the same time, ours
should be the united front which is
thoroughly opposed to the feudal relations
of production and the feudal methods of
exploitation.
In our countryside today
feudal relations of production are
maintained by the landlords. The feudal
system under which a tiny handful of people
harshly oppress and exploit the overwhelming
majority of our people is intolerable both
from the viewpoint of social development and
the nation. Unless the feudal relations of
production and the feudal methods of
exploitation are eliminated, we cannot give
the peasants and other working masses a
happy life, or achieve the advancement of
our society and the prosperity of the nation
or establish an independent and sovereign
democratic state.
Therefore, our united front
should wage a mighty struggle against the
forces of feudalism, to stamp out the
survivals of the feudal system.
However, the aim of our
united front should not be to set up a
capitalist system in Korea,
under the pretext of opposing the feudal
system. The capitalist system is a system
for a mere handful of privileged classes; it
is an anti-popular system that brings lack
of rights and poverty to the toiling masses.
At present certain people are manoeuvring to
set up a bourgeois government and establish
a capitalist system in our country. If a
capitalist system was set up in Korea,
our country could not prosper and develop;
further, it would turn into an imperialist
colony again and our people would be
destined to become a people without a
country of their own as before.
Today our people demand a
true people’s government, and want to build
a rich and strong, democratic Korea.
The new Korea
must not take the road to capitalism; it
must take the road to progressive democracy.
We must build a democratic society where the
broad masses of the people enjoy true
political rights and democratic freedoms and
lead a happy life. Our united front must
strive to build a democratic state which
conforms with our country’s specific
conditions and the will of the entire
people.
This is precisely what our
united front should be.
At this moment pro-Japanese
elements, traitors to the nation and
renegades of the revolution are trying to
deceive the popular masses so as to bring
them into their fold, and are working hard
to form a “united front” entirely different
from the united front we are advocating.
They are doing this in an endeavour to
realize their anti-popular aims and satisfy
their foul political ambitions.
There are the right and
wrong united fronts. The former is
progressive, designed to ensure the people’s
interests and the country’s prosperity and
progress while the latter is moribund and
reactionary, aimed at selling out the people
and obstructing the country’s advancement.
It is self-evident which united front our
popular masses want. The broad masses will
demand the progressive united front of
justice and, in the long run, will be united
around it.
We should form a solid
democratic national united front, the
progressive united front of justice, and
firmly rally all patriotic democratic
forces, thus expediting the building of a
new, democratic Korea.
We young people should have
a correct understanding of the united front
and make active efforts to form a solid
democratic national united front.