KIM JONG IL
THE
SONGUN-BASED REVOLUTIONARY
LINE IS A
GREAT REVOLUTIONARY LINE
OF OUR ERA AND AN EVER-VICTORIOUS
BANNER OF OUR REVOLUTION
Talk
to the Senior Officials of the Central
Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea
January
29, Juche 92 (2003)
These days the Korean revolution,
guided by the Party, has been making a
victorious advance under the banner of
Songun.
Thanks to the Songun-based
politics pursued by our Party, the
revolutionary armed forces have been
incomparably strengthened, the defence line
of the homeland consolidated and a great
change effected in the revolution and
construction.
By dint of Songun politics we
have smashed the anti-DPRK, anti-socialist
machinations of the imperialists step by
step, defended the country and the
revolution and exalted the dignity and
prestige of socialist Korea
in the eyes of the world.
The Songun-based politics of our
Party is a politics the invincibility of
which has been verified through, severe
historical ordeals, and an all-powerful
sword for victory in the revolution. It is
an invariable conviction and will of our
Party to defend and carry forward by force
of arms the sacred revolutionary cause which
was pioneered and has won one victory after
another by force of arms. The whole Party,
the entire army and all the people must wage
a resolute struggle under the banner of
Songun and thus build a great, prosperous
and powerful socialist nation, achieve
national reunification and accomplish the
revolutionary cause of Juche.
Our Party’s Songun-based
revolutionary leadership, Songun-based
politics, is a revolutionary mode of
leadership and socialist mode of politics
that gives top priority to military affairs,
and defends the country, the revolution and
socialism and dynamically pushes ahead with
overall socialist construction by dint of
the revolutionary mettle and combat
capabilities of the People’s Army. The
underlying aspects of Songun politics are
that military affairs are of paramount
importance, that the army is the hardcore
and main force of the revolution, and that
the army must be strengthened in every way.
The essential characteristic of Songun
politics is that it safeguards the security
of the country and defends the revolutionary
gains by developing the People’s Army into
invincible revolutionary armed forces, and
that it builds up the driving force of the
revolution and deals with all affairs of
socialist construction in a revolutionary
and militant way with the People’s Army as
the hard core and main force.
The idea and line of giving
importance to force of arms and military
affairs, advanced and consistently
maintained by President Kim
Il Sung, constitute the
basis and starting point of our Party’s
Songun politics.
The struggle of the masses of the
people for the cause of independence, the
cause of socialism, is accompanied by
confrontation of power with imperialism and
all sorts of other counterrevolutionary
forces. Therefore, military affairs emerge
as a matter of key importance on which hangs
victory or failure in the revolution and the
rise or fall of a country or a nation. A
country or a nation can emerge victorious in
the revolution and defend the revolution,
and carve out its destiny independently only
when it has its own powerful revolutionary
armed forces.
It is the force of arms on which
hinge the victory of the revolutionary
cause, independence and sovereignty, and the
prosperity of a country or a nation. This is
the Juche-oriented principle of revolution
and the law of revolution, elucidated by
President Kim
Il Sung and whose soundness
has been verified by history.
President Kim
Il Sung organized an armed
unit first in the early period of his
revolutionary activities, achieved the
historic cause of national liberation by
force of arms, and founded the Party and the
State afterwards. In each period and at each
stage of the revolution after the
liberation, he always paid primary attention
to military affairs and constantly
strengthened the revolutionary armed forces,
and thus laid a solid military guarantee for
the victorious advance of the revolution and
construction.
Our Party’s Songun politics is a
powerful mode of politics of our era which
was created by inheriting President Kim
Il Sung’s idea and line of
attaching importance to arms and military
affairs in general, and by developing them
in depth as required by the changing
situation. By dint of Songun politics we
have been defending the President’s great
military thoughts and immortal exploits,
further exalting them on a new and higher
level, and opening a vista for the victory
of the Juche revolutionary cause. The new
era of Juche revolution is the Songun era
and it is a new and higher stage of our
revolution which is developing under the
banner of Songun.
The Songun revolutionary line,
Songun politics, is a scientific
revolutionary line and mode of statesmanship
that most accurately reflect the demands of
the times and the revolution.
Our Party started pursuing Songun
politics on the basis of its scientific
analysis of the international circumstances
of our revolution and of the rapidly
changing situation.
Entering the 1990s, socialism
collapsed in the former Soviet Union and the
Eastern European countries, giving rise to a
great change in the world political
structure and balance of forces. Although the imperialists’ mouthpieces and opportunists claimed that a
new era of “detente and peace’’ had arrived
following the “end of the Cold War,” the
world can never exist in peace so long as
imperialism remains rampant. By taking
advantage of the collapse of the global
socialist system, the reactionary
imperialist forces intensified their
offensive against the anti-imperialist
independent forces; in particular, the US
imperialists, who had emerged as the only
superpower in the world, were more tenacious
than ever in the pursuit of their policy of
aggression and war, in an attempt to realize
their ambition of world supremacy, wielding
the power of authority and arbitrariness in
the international arena and violently
encroaching upon the sovereignty of other
countries.
The reactionary imperialist
forces spearheaded their attack towards our
Republic, which is advancing constantly
under the banner of independence, the banner
of socialism. The US imperialists and their
followers pounced upon us in all directions,
stepping up their moves for military
aggression on an unprecedented scale to
destroy our Republic by means of force on
the one hand, and putting pressure to bear
upon us in all spheres of politics, the
economy, ideology, culture and diplomacy on
the other to squeeze us dry.
Due to their anti-DPRK
isolate-and-stifle schemes, the Korean
revolution came to face the severest trials
and hardships of its history; we had to bear
the full brunt of the offensive of the
imperialist aggressive forces, in direct
confrontation with the US imperialists.
The showdown between us and
imperialism is a confrontation of power; the
anti-imperialist military front constituted
the major front line, the first lifeline of
our revolution, on which the destiny of the
country, the nation and socialism would be
decided. We had to strengthen and rely on
the People’s Army by concentrating our
efforts on military affairs. In this way we
were able to save the destiny of the country
and the nation, and lead the revolution and
construction to victory. This is the reason
why we say the army means the Party, the
State and the people. Had we neglected
military affairs and failed to strengthen
the army, we might have perished already,
far from conducting the revolution and
construction.
Our anti-imperialist, anti-US
struggle is the grimmest war to defend the
country and a war in defence of socialism.
It was only the People’s Army, the
revolutionary armed forces, that could
perform its mission and role as the
standard-bearer of Songun politics. The
Songun politics of our Party embodies the
high spirit of annihilating the enemy at all
costs, and the unshakable conviction and
will to emerge victorious, on the part of
the People’s Army. It is entirely thanks to
the heroic efforts of the entire army and
the whole nation in single-hearted unity
with the People’s Army as its core under the
Party’s leadership that we could overcome
the difficulties in the way of revolution
and win great victories.
The practical experience of our
revolution has proved that Songun politics,
which gives precedence to military affairs
and regards the revolutionary armed forces
as the pivot, is the most powerful mode of
politics of our era and revolution. Songun
politics makes it possible to defeat any
enemy no matter how formidable, tide over
any hardships and trials, and guarantee the
victorious advance of the revolutionary
cause. The Songun revolutionary line, Songun
politics, is a strategic revolutionary line
and mode of politics that must be adhered to
constantly so long as imperialism exists on
the earth and its aggressive machinations
continue.
The Songun politics of our Party
is a unique socialist mode of politics that
gives a new scientific clarification and
solution to the issue of the main force of
the revolution.
On the basis of its deep analysis
of the development of the times and the
changed social and class relations, our
Party put forward, for the first time in the
history of the revolutionary movement, the
idea of “precedence of the army over the
working class,” giving prominence to the
People’s Army as the core unit and main
force of the revolution. The originality of
Songun politics and its invincibility lie in
the fact that it gives prominence to the
People’s Army as the core unit and main
force.
The preceding revolutionary
theories of Marxism viewed the working class
as the main force of the revolution. Having
analysed the social and class relations in
the Western capitalist countries in the
mid-19th
century, Marx identified the working class
as the most advanced and revolutionary class
entrusted with the mission of liquidating
the domination of capital and all sorts of
exploitation, and building socialism and
communism, and defined it as the leading
class and, the main force of the revolution.
This was the reflection of the reality of
capitalist society in those times. Later,
socialist revolutions emerged victorious in
several countries of the world, and
socialist construction got under way, with
the working class as the main force. As a
result, it had been recognized as an
unbreakable revolutionary formula in
carrying out the cause of socialism to
conduct the revolutionary struggle and
construction work with the working class as
the core and the main force.
However, Marx’s theories and
formulas, which had been set forth one and a
half centuries before, cannot accord with
the present reality. The times have advanced
further, witnessing a great change in social
atmosphere, class relations and the status
of the working class. With the development
of capitalism, especially with the rapid
development of science, and technology and
the arrival of the IT age, the living basis
of the working class has been changed and
work is being done on a more technological
and intellectual basis. The ranks of the
working class have been intellectualized and
the working masses engaged in technical,
intellectual and mental labour are quickly
outnumbering manual workers. Moreover, the
development of capitalism consolidates the
domination of monopoly capital and adds to
the prevalence of reactionary bourgeois
ideology and culture, which greatly acts to
control the class consciousness, awakening
and revolutionary assimilation of the
working class. The working class of the
present times cannot be identified with the
working class in the period of industrial
capitalism or proletarian revolution, in the
fight of either the situation of the times
or the actual reality of the labour, social
status and labour movement of the working
class. The changed situation and the reality
require a new ideology and theory, strategy
and tactics with which to awaken and rally
the broad sections of the masses who oppose
the domination of monopoly capital and the
aggression and war policy of imperialism,
train hard-core elements among them and
expand and strengthen the revolutionary
forces.
The limitations of Marxist
revolutionary theories were also manifested
in a socialist society where the working
masses, including the working class, have
become the masters of the State and society.
The preceding theories based on the
materialistic conception of history
considered that the revolution is completed
once the working class seizes power and
establishes socialist relations of
production. For this reason, they failed to
make a correct clarification of the
law-governed course of socialist
construction subsequent to victory in
revolution; in particular, they failed to
raise the issue of remoulding man, the
ideological revolution, in a socialist
society.
For the first time in history,
President Kim
Il Sung advanced the
outstanding idea that the course of building
socialism and communism is, in view of the
class relations, the process of modelling
the whole society on the working-class
pattern and gave scientific explanations of
the role of the working class, the
development of class relations and the law
governing the remoulding of man in a
socialist society.
Thanks to his original theory on
building socialism and under his wise
leadership, the working class and other
working masses have been transformed into
socialist workers in our country and they
all work and live basing themselves on the
collectivist principle under the socialist
system. Our Party has firmly equipped the
masses of the people with the Juche idea and
upgraded the process of transforming the
whole of society on the revolutionary and
working-class patterns by giving definite
precedence to the remoulding of man, the
ideological work, in the socialist cause.
Thus it has brought about a radical change
in the socio-economic lives and
politico-ideological traits of our people.
The Korean people are revolutionary and
boundlessly faithful to the Party and the
revolution since they have been educated and
trained in a revolutionary way in the
embrace of the socialist motherland under
the guidance of the Party and the leader.
These days the masses of the people, who are
solidly united behind the Party and the
leader with one mind and will, constitute a
powerful driving force of socialist
construction in our society.
Needless to say,
class differences still remain between the
working class and the cooperative farmers,
and the revolutionary and working-class
assimilation of intellectuals cannot be said
to have been completed. The working class is
as advanced a unit of our society as ever,
and has a higher sense of class
consciousness, collectivism and revolution
than other working masses. Furthermore, it
is still in charge of industry, the leading
sector of the national economy; especially
the workers in the key industries and
munitions industry play a very important
role in the revolution and construction.
That is why our Party treasures the working
class and always pays deep concern to
further revolutionizing it and enhancing its
role.
Applying Songun politics, our
Party has given prominence to the People’s
Army over the working class, prompted by a
new viewpoint and attitude towards the issue
of the main force of the revolution and the
role of a revolutionary army in the
revolution and construction.
The question of the main force of
the revolution is one of the fundamental
problems in strengthening the motive force
of the revolution and in developing the
revolutionary movement by enhancing its
role. Which class, stratum or social
collective becomes the main force of the
revolution is decided by its position and
role in the revolution and construction, its
sense of revolution, organizational
discipline, and combat capabilities.
The question of the main force of
the revolution cannot remain invariable in
any era, society or revolution, nor is it a
question that can be solved only on the
basis of class relations. Hence, regarding
the working class as the main force of the
revolution anytime and anywhere is an
expression of a dogmatic viewpoint toward
the preceding theories and is not correct in
principle either.
Unfettered by any established
theories or formulas, out Party strictly
rejected any expression of dogmatic attitude
to and revisionist distortion of the
preceding theories, and strengthened the
army and upgraded its role as required by
the development of the situation and the
revolution, thus leading the revolution and
construction to victory.
For our Party to give prominence
to the People’s Army as the main force of
the revolution is essential to the
accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of
Juche, in view of the position and role of
the People’s Army in our revolution at
present and in the light of its
revolutionary mettle and combat efficiency.
The People’s Army is
the revolutionary ranks that defend the
first lifeline of our revolution. It defends
the Party and the revolution, the country
and the people by force of arms and at the
cost of life in direct confrontation with
the strong imperialist enemy. On the
bayonets of the People’s Army hinge peace,
socialism and worthwhile and happy life of
our people.
This is the noble mission and the
heaviest yet most honourable revolutionary
task of the People’s Army, for which neither
the working class nor any other social group
can substitute.
The People’s Army is the most
revolutionary, militant and powerful
revolutionary group in our society. No group
is equal to the People's Army in terms of
the sense of revolution and organization and
combat efficiency.
Our People’s Army is unfailingly
loyal to the Party and the revolution and
very strong in ideology and faith, and it is
the most organized combat unit. It defends
the Party and the leader and carries out the
Party’s policies at all costs, and fights to
the death for the cause of the Party, the
cause of socialism. The men and officers of
the People’s Army, who defend the country
and the revolution by force of arms in the
van, love their country more dearly than
anyone else, are eager to defend socialism
and fight uncompromisingly against
imperialism and the class enemy with intense
hatred. The People’s Army is a revolutionary
unit that brims over with revolutionary
faith, iron will and militant spirit. It is
stronger than any other collective in the
sense of collectivism, organization,
discipline and unity.
The entire army is
single-heartedly united behind its Supreme
Commander, and moves as one under his
command and directive; it arranges all of
its soldiers’ routine life and activities as
required by military rules and discipline.
The collectivist principle and organization
and discipline have become the lifeblood and
requirements of the routine life of the
People’s Army.
The
high sense of revolution and organization of
the People’s Army is reflective of the
characteristics of the armed unit and the
mettle unique to the revolutionary army, and
constitutes a basic factor of upgrading the
combat efficiency of our army and improving
its politico-ideological might.
It is
not that any army that takes part in the
revolution or any socialist army acquires
the traits and qualities befitting a
revolutionary army and, moreover, can become
the main force of the revolution. The
working class or the army can become a
revolutionary class or revolutionary armed
forces and play an
important role in the revolution only when
it is awakened and organized under the
leadership of a revolutionary party. Apart
from the correct leadership of the party and
the leader, it is impossible to train any
hardcore unit of the revolution or to
awaken and rally the broad sections of the
masses around the revolutionary ranks.
Our People’s Army has grown up
into genuine revolutionary armed forces, an
invincible army to perform its honourable
mission and duty with credit as the hardcore
unit and main force of the revolution,
thanks to the leadership of President Kim
Il Sung and the great
Workers’ Party.
President Kim
Il Sung built our People’s
Army into a prototype of a revolutionary
army and laid eternal foundations for its
development by thoroughly applying the
principles and ways he had put forward for
the building of Juche-type revolutionary
armed forces. He built the People’s Army
into an army of the Party and the leader, a
genuine army of the people, and developed it
as an armed unit of ideology and faith,
possessed of all the politico-ideological
traits required of a revolutionary army.
Under his wise leadership an independent and
modern munitions industry was created and so
developed as to serve as the material and
technical foundations for the modernization of the entire army.
The imperishable exploit he performed for
the building of the armed forces is the most
valuable of his revolutionary achievements
and it is now proving its worth as the solid
foundation and priceless asset for our Party
to further strengthen the People’s Army and
pursue Songun politics.
On the basis of his great
achievements in army building, our Party
gave prominence to the People’s Army as the
standard-bearer and main force of
Songun-based revolution, and directed all
its efforts to upgrading it. Through the
continuous field inspections of the units of
the People’s Army, our Party always went
deep among the servicepersons and took care
of them with love and trust. It strengthened
the army through revolutionary education and
training by decisively intensifying Party
political work within the army and
unsparingly supplied everything necessary
for the army. The Party took revolutionary
measures to firmly equip the People’s Army
with our own unique strategy and tactics,
and radically improve its military and
technical preparedness as required by the
characteristics of modern warfare and tense
situations. Our Party’s energetic guidance
has given rise to a fresh turn in the
politico-ideological traits and fighting
spirit of the People’s Army, making its
combat efficiency and might better than ever
before. Being an army of the Party and the
leader and an army of the Supreme Commander,
in name and in reality, our People’s Army
has grown up to be revolutionary ranks of
loyalists full of the spirit of defending
the leadership of the revolution at all
costs, and the entire army from the Supreme
Commander to the rank and file has formed a
harmonious whole on the basis of
revolutionary comradeship. The Party’s
leadership over the army has its firm place
within the People’s Army, a revolutionary
and military spirit prevails in the entire
army, and the good traits of unity between
superiors and subordinates, between officers
and rank and file and between commanding
officers and political officers are
manifesting themselves to the full within
the army.
The noble politico-ideological
traits, revolutionary spirit and fighting
mettle of the People’s Army are expressed in
a concentrated way in the revolutionary
soldier spirit. The revolutionary soldier
spirit, which was created and has been given
full play within the People’s Army under the
leadership of the Party, is the lofty
revolutionary spirit of our army,
characterized mainly by a spirit of
defending the leader at the risk of one’s
life, a spirit of carrying out tasks at all
costs, and a heroic self-sacrificing spirit.
It is a death-defying spirit with which the
soldiers of the People’s Army fight for the
Party and the leader, for the country and
revolution at the cost of their youth and
lives; it is a revolutionary spirit of sure
victory, a spirit of confronting any enemy
no matter how formidable head-on and
breaking through any difficulties and
trials.
The revolutionary soldier spirit
of the People’s Army is a noble
revolutionary spirit symbolic and
representative of the great Songun era. And
it constitutes the most revolutionary and
militant ideological and spiritual weapon,
which makes it possible to create miracles
and perform meritorious deeds in the course
of the revolution and construction. In the
Songun era the working class, too, can
perform its class duty and mission only when
it is equipped with the revolutionary
soldier spirit, and all the other working
people can maintain and add luster to their
honour of being the masters of the State and
society, their honour of being the socialist
working masses, only when they learn from
the revolutionary soldier spirit. When the
entire army and all the people live and
struggle with the revolutionary soldier
spirit and fighting spirit, united
single-heartedly behind the Party, there
will be no enemy in the world strong enough
to resist us and no fortress we cannot
conquer.
Since our People’s Army is the
creator, personifier and pioneer of the
revolutionary soldier spirit representative
of the times and the most powerful combat
unit that defends the first lifeline of our
revolution, it is the standard-bearer,
hardcore unit and the main force of the
Songun revolution and, has been exalting the
honour to a high degree.
Songun politics, which gives
prominence to the People’s Army as its main
force, makes it possible to firmly maintain
and apply to the letter the fundamental
ideals and the basic principles of the
revolution. Socialism is the fundamental
ideal of our revolution to realize the
independence of the masses of the people,
and socialist society is a society which
embodies the class demands and aspirations
of the working class. Apart from the
intrinsic desire and class principle of the
working class, it is impossible to realize
the independence of the masses of the people
and complete the socialist cause. We are
striving to build a great, prosperous and
powerful socialist nation and reunify the
country in the midst of a severe class
struggle against the US
imperialists and other enemies. The complex
and grave situation of our revolution
demands that the edge of class struggle be
sharpened and the working-class principle,
the revolutionary principle, be maintained
more thoroughly in all spheres. Our Party
has upheld the banner of Songun in the acute
confrontation with imperialism. Our rifle is
the rifle of class, the rifle of revolution,
and it is the most powerful weapon for
anti-imperialist class struggle. The
revolutionary soldier spirit of the People’s
Army is the highest expression of class
consciousness and the revolutionary spirit
of the working class. Today our Party is
totally serious and uncompromising about its
demand for adherence to the class principle,
the revolutionary principle, in all spheres
of the revolution and construction and for
farther intensification of class education
and revolutionary education among the
soldiers and the people, as required by the
Songun era. When our army and people are
firmly equipped with a high level of class
consciousness and the revolutionary soldier
spirit in support of the Party’s
Songun-based leadership, the socialist class
position will be further cemented, and the
socialist cause will be defended and,
completed with victory under any
circumstances.
The Songun politics of our Party
is the most powerful and dignified politics
of independence which embodies the Juche
idea.
Independence is the life and soul
of a social being, the masses of the people,
a country and a nation. The man-centred
Juche idea is an idea of independence, and
all revolutionary struggles are ones for
independence. The Juche idea correctly
combines love for the masses of the people
with that for the country and the nation,
and the independence of the masses of the
people with that of the country and the
nation, and scientifically elucidates the
ways for its realization. The politics that
defends and realizes the independence of the
masses of the people, the country and the
nation on the basis of the fundamentals and
principles of the Juche idea is the most
revolutionary and scientific politics, and
it also constitutes genuine politics of love
for the country, the nation and the people.
Our Songun politics that relies
on the invincible revolutionary armed forces
is a principled and righteous politics of
anti-imperialist independence and politics
of love for the country, the nation and the
people, the politics which reliably defends
and guarantees the independent demands and
interests of the masses of the people, and
the sovereignty and dignity of the country
and the people from infringement by the
imperialist reactionaries. As self-defensive
revolutionary armed forces, our People’s
Army is defending by force of arms the
dignity of our Party and revolution, our
ideology and system and our country and
people, smashing the enemy’s war
provocations and safeguarding the security
and peace of the country. Thanks to Songun
politics we are conducting the revolution
and construction fair and square in our own
way and as suited to the reality of our
country and the interests of our revolution,
and according to our own ideology and faith,
holding up the banner of independence in
spite of such complicated and acute
situation as today. It is because we have
strong military power and an ever-victorious
strategy and tactics that we are firmly
maintaining the independent principles in
politics, resolutely rejecting all manner of
outside interference and pressure, and
pushing ahead with all our endeavours boldly
as we intend, unfettered by anything.
Thanks to Songun politics, our
independence remains firmly guaranteed and
our socialist motherland is demonstrating
its dignity and honour, authority and might
as a fortress of independence. Our Party’s
Songun politics is literally a politics for
the people and a politics geared to
defending and ensuring the independent
rights and fundamental interests of the
masses of the people. For this reason, the
entire people support it absolutely and
uphold it with loyalty. The unfurled banner
of Songun upheld by our Party has become a
great national banner inspiring the
consciousness of national independence,
self-respect and sense of national pride and
honour among the fellow countrymen in the
north, south and abroad, and opening up the
road to the national reunification and
prosperity.
Our Party’s Songun idea, Songun
politics, has proved its validity,
superiority and great vitality, and is
demonstrating them all the more with each
passing day in the practice and reality of
our revolution.
First of all, the military
position of our revolution has been
fortified impregnably under the Party’s
Songun-based leadership.
The military might of the country
constitutes the foremost rational power in
the struggle for independence and socialism
and against imperialism. If one defeats the
enemy on the military front one will emerge
victorious on all other fronts.
Our People’s Army has grown up to
be invincible revolutionary armed forces,
and our socialist motherland has emerged as
a military power in the international arena.
We have won one victory after another in the
fierce political and military showdown with
the imperialists, and defended the country,
the revolution and socialism from all manner
of aggressive machinations of the enemy.
The distinguished successes and
achievements we have made in the military
field are precisely the great victory of our
Party’s Songun-based leadership, Songun
politics, and clear manifestation of its
validity and might. The military position of
the revolution that has been cemented into
an impregnable fortress, with the People’s
Army as the core, thanks to our Party’s
Songun-based leadership serves as a basic
guarantee for the completion of the Juche
revolutionary cause.
Our revolutionary ranks have been
united more solidly than ever and the
single-hearted unity of our whole society
has been further strengthened in the Songun
era.
Today the People’s Army and the
people have forged a genuine comradely
relationship whereby they share weal and woe
on the road of Songun-based revolution under
the leadership of the Party, and the whole
society is brimming over with the beautiful
trait of unity between the army and the
people. The servicepersons are serving the
people with devotion while the latter are
taking loving care of the former as their
own flesh and blood, assisting them with all
sincerity, and devotedly learning from the
revolutionary soldier spirit and fighting
spirit of the People’s Army. As a result,
both the servicepersons and the people share
the same idea and fighting spirit. In the
Songun era the People’s Army is playing a
pivotal, vanguard role in all spheres of the
revolution and construction, while the
people are treasuring the former above all
else, and displaying the trait of supporting
and assisting the army, resulting in further
solidity of comradely unity between the army
and the people.
As a result of our Party’s
Songun-based leadership and politics of love
for the soldiers and the people, the
single-hearted unity of our society has been
upgraded to a single-hearted unity of the
whole Party, the whole army and the whole
nation based on one ideology and faith, and
comradely love and obligation. Furthermore,
the politico-ideological might of our
revolution has been further strengthened to
an incomparable degree.
The great viability of Songun
politics has been confirmed in the process
of socialist construction.
As the main force of the
revolution, the People’s Army stands in the
van in all spheres of socialist construction
and has been performing labour feats,
setting a shining example. The officers and
men of the People’s Army have erected
numerous monumental edifices and modern
factories through their heroic struggle in
full support of the Party’s idea and
policies, and made breakthroughs in the
difficult yet important sectors of the
national economy. They were the first to
overcome manifold hardships and trials and
created miracles and brought about
innovations in all spheres, thus inspiring
the working masses throughout the country to
a revolutionary upsurge.
Taking
their cue from the revolutionary soldier
spirit and the fighting spirit of the
People’s Army, the working class and other
working masses created the Kanggye spirit
and kindled the torch of Ranam, bringing
about a sweeping innovation in overall
socialist construction. By dint of Songun
politics relying on the People’s Army as the
main force, we were able to endure the
severest “Arduous March” and the forced
march, open up a road towards building a
great, prosperous and powerful socialist
nation and push forward with the revolution
and construction in a bold and positive way
despite the difficult situation. Our
experience shows that if all the officials
and the working people uphold the Party’s
Songun-based leadership and work as the
People’s Army does, it is possible to
conquer the fortress of cutting-edge science
and technology, build an economic power,
establish an assiduous manner in the
management of livelihood and a noble way of
cultural and emotional life throughout
society, and provide our people with
affluent lives in a short period of time.
Our Party’s Songun politics has
registered a turning-point in the cause of
national reunification, furthered the
international solidarity with our revolution
and radically expanded the external
relations of the country.
Songun politics, which is imbued
with the principle of national independence
and the spirit of love for the country and
the people, our policies for national
reunification based on it and our positive
efforts gave rise to the historic Pyongyang
summit, followed by the adoption of the June
15 North-South Joint Declaration, and the
further development of inter-Korean
relations of reconciliation and cooperation
in several sectors. The trend of struggle
against the US
and other foreign forces and for independent
national reunification is mounting to a
crescendo on an unprecedented scale in south
Korea.
Songun politics, which opposes
imperialist aggression and war policies and
defends the independence of the country and
the nation, is winning broad support among
public circles and the progressive peoples
of the world. It gives a blow to the aggressive forces of imperialism
and encouragement to the anti-imperialist
independent forces in the international
arena, stimulating the cause of making the
whole world independent.
Upholding the banner of Songun
under the leadership of the great Party, our
army and people have traversed a glorious
road of victory, pushing their way through
raging storms and creating miracles in
history. The Songun-based revolutionary line
of our Party is a great revolutionary line
of our era and an ever-victorious banner of
our revolution. In the Songun-based
revolution lie the building of a great,
prosperous and powerful nation, national
reunification and the victory of the
revolutionary cause of Juche. Now that the
situation is very complicated and tense at
home and abroad, we must hold the banner of
Songun higher. The whole Party, the entire
army and all the people must advance more
resolutely towards a new great victory of
our revolution in support of the Party’s
Songun-based leadership.
First of all, great efforts
should be directed continually at
strengthening the People’s Army. The might
of Songun politics is precisely the might of
the People’s Army; its superiority and might
can be given full play only when the
People’s Army is soundly prepared
politically and ideologically, militarily
and technically.
The Party’s leadership is the
lifeblood of the People’s Army. Our People’s
Army should be strengthened as the first
defender of the Party, as the revolutionary
armed unit that fights to the death in
support of the Party’s idea and leadership,
so that it can inherit and add luster to its
glorious history and tradition as the army of the Party and the
leader. The more complex and tenser the
situation is, the more efforts should be
made to intensify politico-ideological
education and military training within the
People’s Army so that all the servicepersons
trust and follow only our Party under any
circumstances and conditions, heighten their
revolutionary vigilance and maintain their
preparedness. The People’s Army should be
fully ready to mercilessly annihilate the
imperialist aggressors whenever and wherever
they attack.
The politico-ideological and
military positions of our .revolution must
be fortified rock-solid by firming up
single-hearted unity of the army and the
people. There is nothing to fear or
impossible to do when the army and the
people fight with single-hearted unity under
the Party’s leadership. The tradition of
army-people unity-both treasuring and loving
each other and sharing weal and woe-should
be given farther play in the Songun era.
It is important to establish a
sound habit, of attaching importance to
military affairs throughout society.
The work of consolidating the
defence capabilities of the country is an
undertaking shared by the entire Party, the
whole country and all the people. Our
officials and working masses must organize
and conduct all work on the principle of
giving precedence to military affairs, and
make energetic efforts to build up the
military might of the country, in addition,
the paramilitary forces must be strengthened
and the whole country turned into a solid
fortress.
It is imperative to expedite
overall economic construction while giving
precedence to the defence industry, as
required by the Songun era, so as to support
the Party’s Songun politics both materially
and technologically, and radically improve
the people’s living standards in a short
period of time.
All
the officials and working people must
cherish the validity and invincibility of
the Party’s Songun idea, Songun politics, as
their unshakable faith, work and live as
required by it at all times and strive to
make the whole society overflow with such
revolutionary mettle and militant spirit as
can be found only in the People’s Army.
Our
People’s Army and people have burnished the
new era of the Juche revolution as a great
Songun era under the leadership of the
Party. We will victoriously advance the
revolutionary cause of Juche and bring it to
completion under the banner of Songun.
All the officials, Party members
and other working people must become ardent
followers of the Songun idea and staunch
defenders and implementers of Songun
politics, and loyally uphold our Party’s
Songun-based revolutionary leadership.