KIM IL SUNG
LET US
ACHIEVE THE GREAT UNITY OF OUR NATION
Talk
to the Senior Officials of the Committee
for the Peaceful Reunification of the
Fatherland and
the
Members of the North Side’s Headquarters of
the Pan-National Alliance
for the Country’s Reunification
August 1, 1991
The Pan-National Rally for the
Peace and Reunification of the Fatherland
was held last year on the occasion of the
45th anniversary of national liberation, and
this year the second Pan-National Rally is
to be held on August 15, too. I think it is
a good thing that the Pan-National Rally and
the various joint national festivals for
reunification are held on the memorable
occasion of the anniversary of national
liberation. We must work hard to make the
forthcoming events a success and a major
occasion for achieving great national unity
and hastening the reunification of the
country.
Achieving
the reunification of our country means
linking the nation’s severed blood vessels,
bringing about national harmony and gaining
national independence across the country. In
other words, it concerns the fate of our
fellow-countrymen; it is a matter vital to
our nation.
As is
well known, our country was divided not
because of contradictions within our
nation; its division was imposed upon it
exclusively by foreign forces. After the
end of the Second World War the Korean
question was dealt with to suit the
interests of the great powers, contrary to
our nation’s desire and will to be
independent, and the United States occupied
south Korea. As a result, Korea
was divided into north and south. It is
because of continued interference and
obstruction by foreign forces that Korea
has not yet achieved her reunification.
In
the half a century since our country was
divided not a day has passed without our
nation’s misfortunes and sufferings weighing
on my mind, and without my thinking how the
country can be reunified. We must not leave
the task of national reunification to the
younger generation. We must reunify the
country in our lifetime. National
reunification is the supreme desire of the
Korean people and there is no more pressing
task for them than to reunify their country.
The
reunification of our country must be
achieved independently and in a peaceful
way, and this
calls on
us to achieve the great unity of the whole
nation. The realization of the independent
and peaceful reunification of the country is
inconceivable without great national unity.
Great national unity is a fundamental
precondition for the achievement of the
independent and peaceful reunification of
our country, as well as the most essential
aspect of it. The first and foremost task
in achieving national reunification is to
achieve the great unity of our nation.
Whatever
movement we may join, we can emerge
victorious only when we strengthen the
driving force and increase its role. This is
an essential revolutionary truth which has
been our philosophy and faith throughout the
long revolutionary struggle.
The
driving force for national reunification is
the entire Korean nation. The reunification
of the country is our nation’s cause of
independence, and it can be achieved by the
efforts of our nation alone. Every Korean
person is responsible for national
reunification and must bear his or her
responsibility and play his or her allotted
role in the struggle to reunify the country.
If our nation, as the driving force for
national reunification, is to fulfil its responsibility and role, it
must be united firmly as one. The strength
of the driving force is precisely the
strength of its unity. The decisive
guarantee for the independent and peaceful
reunification of the country lies in the
achievement of the unity of the whole nation
and in strengthening the driving force for
reunification.
All
the Korean people must unite closely under
the banner of great national unity, in the
spirit of patriotism and national
independence.
A
nation is a solid community which has been
formed and developed historically, and it
is a unit of social life. Historically,
people have lived with their country and
nation as a unit and have shaped their
destiny through a combined effort. The
question of a nation essentially means the
question of achieving and defending its
independence. Independence
is the lifeblood of the people as well as of
their country and nation. If a man is
deprived of his independence, he is as good
as dead; likewise, if a nation is deprived
of its independence, its existence and
development is inconceivable.
It is
only when the independence of a country and
a nation is achieved that the independence
of individuals can be realized; no one can
escape the fate of slavery if his country
and nation is enslaved, for the life of an
individual as a member of the nation exists
in the life of his or her country and
nation. It is precisely for this reason
that, although a nation consists of
different classes and strata, people love
their country, value their nation’s
independence and fight in unity for the
independence of their country and nation.
People love their fatherland and value the
independence of their nation. These feelings
are common to every member of a nation.
Originally,
nationalism came about as a progressive idea
promoting national interests. Under the
banner of nationalism, the newly-emergent
bourgeoisie took the lead in the nationalist
movement, yet nationalism could not be
regarded as an ideology of the capitalist
class from the outset. During the period of
the bourgeois nationalist movement against
feudalism the interests of the popular
masses were basically identical with those
of the newly-emergent bourgeoisie and,
accordingly, nationalism reflected the
common interests of the nation.
Subsequently, as capitalism developed and
the bourgeoisie became the reactionary
ruling class, nationalism was reduced to the
ideological means for the capitalist class
to defend its interests. Bourgeois
nationalism conflicts with genuine
nationalism which truly promotes the
interests of the nation. For idlers, who may
be called the parasites of the nation, to
pose as nationalists is nothing but a
deception. Only he who does some work,
mental or physical, which is beneficial to
the nation, can be a genuine nationalist.
In
our country, the land of a homogeneous
nation, genuine nationalism means precisely
patriotism. Our nation, which has inherited
the same blood generation after generation
and built up a brilliant national culture
with the same language on the same
territory, is a nation with a strong spirit
of patriotism and independence. Our people
have always loved their fatherland ardently
and fought strongly to defend the
independence of their country and nation.
This is a proud tradition of our nation.
My
father put forward the idea of Jiwon (aim high—Tr.) and educated me
in patriotism and in the spirit of national
independence. So I set out on the road of
struggle with a resolution to dedicate my
whole life to saving the country and nation.
My revolutionary activities began with the
struggle for national liberation and in the
course of the struggle to establish the
identity of the nation, the identity of the
revolution, I have evolved the Juche idea,
the guiding idea of our revolution. I have
been fighting all my life for the
independence, sovereignty and prosperity of
our nation, for the independence of the
masses of the people. I am fighting for the
independence not only of our people but also
of people throughout the world, and for the
abolition of exploitation and oppression of
man by man not only in our country but also
throughout the world. Just as it is
inconceivable for a person who does not love
his parents and brothers to love his
country and nation, so it is unthinkable
for a person who is indifferent to the
destiny of his nation to be loyal to the
world revolution. As I always say, only a
genuine patriot can be a true
internationalist who is loyal to the world
revolution. I can say that, in this sense, I
am a communist and patriot as well as an
internationalist.
At
the present stage of historical development,
when the destiny of the popular masses is
being shaped with the country and nation as
the basic unit, the whole nation must firmly
establish the identity of the nation and
fight in unity for its common interests and
prosperity. We must not only achieve
national reunification on the basis of great
national unity but also, after the country
is reunified, build an ideal society by
relying on the united efforts of the entire
nation so that all the people enjoy equally
unbounded happiness on this land.
A
nation must regard its independence as its
lifeblood, advocate and realize its
independence by united effort and achieve
its common prosperity. I can say that this
is our Juche view on the nation.
We
have firmly adhered to the principle of
always believing in and relying on the
combined strength of the people both in the
struggle against imperialism and in the
struggle for the building of socialism. We
have always given top priority to national
interests and relied on the combined
strength of the people in the struggle. We
can say that this is the secret of the
victory we have achieved in the revolution
and construction.
We
emerged victorious from the anti-Japanese
revolutionary struggle for national
liberation because the guerrillas and the
people forged ties of kinship and all the
anti-Japanese patriotic forces fought in
close unity. During the anti-Japanese
revolutionary struggle we brought together
patriotic people from all walks of life into
the anti-Japanese national united front and
fought Japanese imperialism with the united
strength of the nation. The Association for
the Restoration of the Fatherland, formed in
1936, was an anti-Japanese national united
front comprising broad sections of patriotic
people who opposed Japanese imperialism and
aspired to national independence. This
association united all the anti-Japanese
patriotic forces from all walks of life
including communists, nationalists, workers,
peasants, intellectuals, young people and
students, as well as conscientious national
capitalists and religious men. We
established the tradition of national unity
in the course of waging the anti-Japanese
revolutionary struggle, relying on the
broad-based anti-Japanese national united
front.
In
the struggle to build a new society after
national liberation, too, we channelled our efforts firstly into
achieving great national unity. In the
speech I addressed to the people after
national liberation, I called upon all the
people who loved their country and nation
and democracy to unite as one and make a
positive contribution to nation-building,
those with strength giving their strength,
those with knowledge contributing their
knowledge and those with money offering
their money. We have pushed forward
dynamically with the building of a
democratic new state and with socialist
construction, relying on the combined
strength of all the people. Our socialist
construction aims at enabling all our
people to lead happy and worthwhile lives
in a society free from exploitation and
oppression. The socialist society we are
building is socialism centred on the popular masses. Socialism
centred on the popular masses means a
genuine society for the people where all the
people are the masters of the country and
everything in society serves the popular
masses. We need not build socialism which
does not serve the popular masses, and we
cannot build socialism centred on the popular masses without
uniting the popular masses.
The
aim of the reunification of our nation is to
realize the independence of our nation, to
achieve the common development and
prosperity of the nation and to ensure that
all the Korean people lead happy and worthy
lives in one reunified land. It is natural, therefore, that all the people
should combine their will and rally as one
in the struggle for national reunification,
and this is fully possible.
The
Joint Conference of the Representatives of
Political Parties and Social Organizations
of North and South
Korea was held in Pyongyang
in 1948. We called this conference to
discuss the pressing save-the-nation
measures and national reunification. The
conference was attended by representatives
of almost all the political parties and
social organizations of south Korea, except Syngman Rhee’s party. Kim Ku, the leader of the
“Korean Independence Party”, too, attended
the conference. In pre-liberation years when
he was in the “Provisional Government in Shanghai”
Kim Ku had regarded communists as his
enemies. But he attended the conference
having accepted our just proposal to meet
and have a heart-to-heart discussion on
important questions concerning the destiny
of the nation as members of the same nation,
and he eventually took the road of alliance
and coalition with us communists. He had no
clear idea of what a genuine communist was,
but he was a patriot. He made a fine speech
at the north-south joint conference and
after his return to south Korea he fought for national
unity and reunification before being
assassinated by the Yankees and their
stooges. The historic April north-south
joint conference served as clear proof that
despite differences in ideologies and
ideals, political views and religious
beliefs all people can unite in the
struggle for the common cause of the nation.
If
the whole nation fights in concert, drawing
on the traditions and experience of national
unity built up in the course of the struggle
to realize our nation’s independence, we
shall not fail to achieve national
reunification, the supreme task of the
nation.
The
concert and unity of the whole nation means
the national reunification we desire. What is most important in national
reunification is not the procedures or
methods but the achievement of the genuine
harmony and unity of the whole nation. If
all Korean people in the north, south and
overseas unite their minds and, on this
basis, attain great national unity the most
important problem in achieving national
reunification will have been solved and then
other problems can be resolved easily.
In
recent years signal progress has been made
in our efforts to bring about national
unity. Last year, after the August 15
Pan-National Rally, the Pan-National
Reunification Concert was held; also the
north-south reunification football matches
and art festival took place. This year the
north and the south formed unified teams and
participated jointly in the World Table
Tennis Championships and the World Youth
Football Championship. This was a result of
our people’s desire for reunification that
was stronger than ever before and the
intensified trend towards national concert
and unity. This delighted all the brethren
in the north, south and abroad and led them
to gain national pride and confidence. If
the minds of all our compatriots are united
as one, the great unity of the whole nation
will be achieved and the country reunified.
It is in this sense, I think, that the Rev.
Mun Ik Hwan in south Korea said that our nation had
been reunified now, that the reunification
was in the perfect tense.
It is
also for the sake of genuine national
concert and reunification that we have
advanced proposals on national reunification
through confederation based on one nation,
one state, two systems and two governments.
Since there exist two different ideologies and
systems in the north and south of our
country, the confederation formula is the
only way to achieve national harmony and
reunification. In the light of the situation
prevailing in our country it is wrong for
either side to attempt to attain
reunification by conquering the other. An
ideology and system should be chosen by the
people themselves of their own accord, not
through coercion from outsiders. If one side
were to try to impose its ideology and
system on the other, it would be impossible
to realize national reunification; it would
rather aggravate the confrontation within
our nation and cause further national
calamity. The ideological and institutional
differences within our nation should be
gradually overcome not by coercive methods
but by strengthening national unity based on
the common interests of the nation. The most
essential interests of our nation lie in the
nation’s reunification free from any foreign
domination and interference. In spite of the
ideological and institutional differences
within our nation we, as a single people,
can bring about reunification and work
together for the common prosperity of the
nation.
Whether
they are in the north, south or abroad,
whether they are workers, farmers,
intellectuals, young people, students,
politicians, businessmen, religious men, or
soldiers, Koreans must all unite and strive
to achieve the reunification of their
country, the common cause of the nation.
Just as our people did in the days of
building a new country, compatriots from all
strata in the north, south and abroad must
join hands in the cause of national
reunification; those who have strength
should contribute their strength, those who
have knowledge their knowledge and those who
have money their money.
The
workers, farmers and intellectuals form the
major force of the nation. If they cooperate
and unite, while maintaining their own
characteristics, they can form a mighty,
independent driving force of the nation and
achieve reunification. Workers and farmers
should join hands with intellectuals, while
intellectuals should cast in their lot with
workers and farmers and thereby fulfil their role as the motive force
in the struggle for the country’s
reunification. It is unfair to underestimate
the role of intellectuals or to adopt a
narrow-minded attitude towards them. When
founding the Party, we defined
intellectuals, along with workers and
farmers, as one of its components. Our
Party’s emblem consists of a hammer, a
sickle and a writing brush. These symbolize
the workers, farmers, and intellectuals who
make up our Party. When we began to build a
new society immediately after liberation, we
did not leave out the intellectuals, arguing
that they had served Japanese imperialism.
We believed in their patriotism and spirit
of national independence and generously
brought them to our side. We regarded the
intellectuals scattered across the country
as the nation’s treasure and searched for
them one by one. We positively encouraged
them to play an important role in the
building of a new country. Our intellectuals
trusted and followed our Party and have
thrown in their lot with it. They dedicated
all their efforts and talents to the
building of the new democratic Korea.
They also fought courageously in the
Fatherland Liberation War against US
imperialist aggression, and after the war
they worked for socialist revolution and
construction.
Today
the south Korean intellectuals, too, are
fighting well for the reunification of the
country. The young people and students of south Korea are ardently patriotic and
have a strong spirit of independence
against the US.
They are playing a central, leading role in
the struggle to make south Korean society independent and
democratic and to reunify the nation. The south Korean young people and students
who are struggling heroically, dedicating
their precious youth without hesitation for
independence, democracy and national
reunification are the pride of our nation.
In
addition to the workers, peasants and
intellectuals, there are many people in south Korea from different backgrounds
who live in different conditions. We must
not neglect them. We must achieve national
unity on the principle of welcoming everyone
without hesitation, who is not a traitor to
the nation.
It is
very important to have a correct
understanding of religions and to work
properly with religious believers. People
believe in a religion because they take
their sufferings and misfortunes in this
world as predestined, and they yearn for
happiness in the next world. Therefore, we
cannot call them bad. What is bad is the anti-popular politics
that misleads people about the situation and
reactionary rulers who misuse religions,
making them an instrument for paralysing the people’s consciousness of
independence and ensuring that the people
obey their rule. Progressive religious
believers wish the people to love one
another and live in harmony. The south Korean men of religion are
opposed to the foreign invaders who keep our
nation artificially divided and who suppress
the champions of reunification at the point
of the bayonet. We must be highly
appreciative of the devoted struggle of the
south Korean men of religion for
national reunification and unite with them.
It is
mortifying that in south Korea young people, the sons and
daughters of the nation, serve in the “ROK
army” under the command of Americans who
use it as a tool for their neo-colonialist
domination and for the implementation of
their policy of keeping our nation divided.
We must awaken the officers and men of the
“ROK army” to the anti-national and
anti-popular nature of the imperialists and
their minions so that they stand firmly by
their own nation and people and cooperate
with their parents and brothers in the
struggle for independence, democracy and
national reunification.
As I
always say, reunification means patriotism
and division means treason. Those Koreans
who desire national reunification and strive
for it are patriots, whereas those who are
opposed to reunification and accept
division in league with foreign forces are
traitors. By this criterion we must unite
with all those who support reunification and
advance with them in the same ranks. Even
one who may have once been opposed to
reunification and have committed crimes
against the country and the nation, if he
repents of his mistake and takes part in the
struggle for patriotism and reunification,
must be allowed to start with a clean slate
and join hands with us.
There
are many people who once led a dishonourable life in the eyes of the nation
but have broken with their past and taken
the patriotic road of national unity and
national reunification. Mr. Choe Tok Sin was one of them. As you all
know, he served as a corps commander of the
“ROK army” and “foreign minister” in south Korea. While he was pursuing the
road of pro-US, anti-communism at important
military and political posts, he gradually
began to feel disillusioned about the
traitorous and anti-reunification acts of
the ruling authorities and took refuge in a
foreign country with the aim of living an
honest life for the nation. While in exile
he engaged in patriotic activities for
bringing about the independence and
democracy of south Korean society and reunifying
the country. He became clearly aware of
which was the patriotic way to follow during
many visits to the homeland. He was moved by
the fact that our Republic, which is
independent, self-sufficient and
self-reliant in defence, is displaying the pride and
dignity of the Korean nation. He also
sympathized with our consistent, just
policy of embracing and joining hands with
all those who love their country and nation,
regardless of differences in political
views, ideas and religions without asking
about their past, and the policy of great
national unity. He said he had found a
paradise on Earth in the homeland, the land
of bliss which he, as a nationalist and Chondoist, had aspired to and sought all
his life. With a determination to dedicate
the rest of his life to the just cause of
the country and the nation, he applied for
permanent residence in the homeland.
Although he had opposed us in the past, we
positively supported his decision and agreed
to join hands with him for the sake of great
national unity and the reunification of the
country since he was resolved to break with
the past and make a fresh start for the sake
of the country and the nation. After being
taken into the embrace of the homeland, he
worked with devotion to the last moment of
his life as the Chairman of the Central
Committee of the Chondoist Chongu Party and the Vice-Chairman of
the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification
of the Fatherland; he did so for the
prosperity and development of the country,
for great national unity and for the
country’s reunification. He passed away,
failing to see the day of national
reunification to which he had looked
forward. But in his last years he joined the
ranks of the national reunification movement
and marched forward with his fellow
countrymen. As a result, he came to enjoy
immortality as a patriotic martyr who is
held in affection by the people, and who
helped his compatriots at home and abroad to
understand the real meaning of national
concert and great unity.
For
the realization of great national unity
compatriots from all social strata in the
north, south and abroad must place their
common national interests above all else and
subordinate everything to national
reunification, transcending differences in
ideas, social systems and religious
beliefs. We must regard this as a
fundamental principle in achieving great
national unity and firmly adhere to this
principle.
Our
national community which has been formed and
consolidated over a history of five
thousand years is greater than transient
differences in social systems, ideals and
ideologies which have come about owing to
national division; the common national
desire to achieve reunification as a
homogeneous nation is incomparably more
important than the interests of individual
social classes and social strata. Although
the defence of the ideals and ideologies of
individual classes and strata and the
realization of their interests are
important, it is even more important to
realize the common cause of the nation.
Classes and strata form part of the nation.
Therefore, no class and no stratum can
realize its own interests apart from the
common national interests. Only when there
is a nation can there be classes, and only
when national interests are guaranteed can
the interests of the classes be ensured.
Today
when the independence of our nation is being
trampled upon by foreign forces, no class or
stratum, if it belongs to the Korean nation,
should hamper the achievement of national
reunification, the common cause of our
nation, by putting its interests to the
fore. There should be no practice of placing
class interests ahead of national interests,
or of setting the struggle to satisfy class
demands against the struggle for national
reunification, swayed by minor interests and
prejudices. Moreover, for fellow countrymen
to reject or repress one another on the
strength of government authority because of
differences in political views, isms and
assertions or for them to be hostile to one
another because of differences in ideas and
social systems—these are fundamentally
contrary to the principle of great national
unity jointly agreed upon between north and
south, and such acts are intolerable for
the nation. Our people will never be able to
achieve their reunification if the two sides
reject and are hostile towards each other,
putting differences to the fore instead of
uniting on their common ground as a single
nation.
If
the great unity of the nation is to be
achieved, contacts and visits should be
widely encouraged among the fellow
countrymen in the north, south and abroad
and dialogue be promoted actively among
them.
If
the whole nation is to act in concert and
pool its strength for the common purpose, an
atmosphere of understanding and confidence
should be created within the nation. Because
our country has been divided and the north
and the south have been alienated from each
other for a long time, some people
misunderstand their fellow countrymen,
believing them to be their enemy, and some
people hesitate to go hand in hand with
their fellow countrymen because of a lack of
confidence, although they wish to see
national unity. In order to remove such
misunderstanding and distrust within the
nation and realize national concert and
unity, it is necessary to encourage free
visits, contacts and talks.
What
is important in realizing free travel and
contact and wide-ranging dialogue is to pull
down the barrier of division and remove all
political and legal obstacles to it. We have
already made proposals for removing the
barrier of division, ensuring free travel
and opening all doors between north and
south and have been making untiring efforts
to realize them. The point in question is
that the south Korean authorities should pull
down the barrier of division and remove all
obstacles that hamper free travel, contact
and dialogue among the fellow countrymen in
the north, south and abroad. Today the
“National Security Law” of south Korea is a major obstacle to
free travel, contact and dialogue between
north and south. In south Korea those who have been to the
north or who have discussed reunification in
foreign lands with people from the north are
punished under the “National Security Law”.
The Rev. Mun Ik Hwan, who is over 70, a young
girl student Rim Su Gyong and other visitors to the
north, as well as a large number of those
working for reunification, are currently
imprisoned under this law. If this wicked
law is not repealed, there can be neither
free travel and contact nor free dialogue
between north and south. That is why the
“National Security Law” must be abolished as
soon as possible.
In
order to achieve great national unity we
must strengthen nationwide solidarity in the
struggle for national reunification.
Great
national unity cannot be achieved only by
words. It can be achieved and consolidated
in the course of developing joint action by
uniting minds and efforts in the struggle to
reunify the country. All political parties,
organizations and compatriots from all walks
of life in the north, south and abroad must
support one another and take concerted
action in the struggle for the country’s
reunification.
The
cardinal task here is to check and frustrate
the schemes of the forces which are opposed
to reunification and working to keep the
nation divided for ever and provoke another
war. In order to isolate and weaken these
forces and defeat their divisive moves, the
compatriots in the north, south and abroad
must develop an active joint struggle in
various forms. The tens of thousands of US
troops and more than 1,000 nuclear weapons
of various types deployed in south Korea are the root cause of
tension on the Korean peninsula and pose the
threat of a nuclear war. We must have the US troops
and nuclear weapons withdrawn from south Korea as soon as possible and
thus remove the danger of a nuclear war that
threatens the existence of our nation; thus
we shall provide a firm guarantee for peace
on the Korean peninsula. All our compatriots
in the north, south and abroad must launch a
nationwide struggle to compel the US to
withdraw its troops and nuclear weapons
from south Korea and make the Korean
peninsula a nuclear-free, peace zone.
In
order to achieve great national unity all
the political parties, organizations and
compatriots of all strata in the north,
south and abroad that are struggling for the
reunification of the country must ally
themselves with one another
organizationally.
It is
only when all our compatriots who adhere to
the patriotic cause of reunification are
organized into an allied force that solid
national unity can be achieved and unity of
action and unanimity ensured in the struggle
for the country’s reunification.
For
the organized unity of the whole nation,
there must be an organization that can
ensure the voluntary association of our
compatriots of all strata in the north,
south and abroad. I believe that the
Pan-National Alliance for the Country’s
Reunification which was inaugurated in
accordance with the decision of the
Pan-National Rally last year can be such an
organization. The Pan-National Alliance for
the Country’s Reunification was formed
through the joint efforts of the patriotic
organizations and public figures of all
strata in the north, south and abroad that
aspire to the independent and peaceful
reunification of the country. It is a
patriotic organization for reunification,
whose mission is to reunify the country on
the three principles of independence,
peaceful reunification and great national
unity, and which represents the common will
of Koreans in the north, south and
overseas. It has the important duty and
responsibility of achieving great national
unity and hastening the reunification of the
country. It will have to work hard,
conducting a variety of activities, to
expand and strengthen its ranks steadily
among our compatriots and to hasten national
reunification.
Many
obstacles and difficulties still lie in the
way of the reunification of our country,
but we are looking forward with confidence
to the bright future of national
reunification.
Our
nation’s move towards reunification is now
stronger than ever before. Our compatriots
in the north, south and abroad are working
hard with a firm determination to reunify
the country without fail in the 1990s.
Nobody can break our people’s will to
reunify their country, and no force can ever
check our nation’s strong move towards
national reunification. Through the united
efforts of the whole nation, our people will
overcome the obstacles and difficulties in
their way to national reunification and
reunify their country, come what may.
Once
the country is reunified, our nation will be
a dignified and strong nation and our
country will emerge on the world stage as an
independent and sovereign country with more
than seventy million people, a brilliant
national culture and a powerful economy. Our
nation is industrious and resourceful, and
our country is a beautiful land of three
thousand ri in which it is good to live.
When the whole nation is united as one, and
when the country is reunified, there will be
nothing for us to fear or envy. Our people
will proudly display the resourcefulness and
greatness of the Korean nation and nobody
will dare to encroach upon our sovereignty.
If the whole nation combines its efforts
and talents and develops the economy and
culture after the country’s reunification,
our country will be more prosperous and
civilized, and it will make a more effective
contribution to the common cause of the
people in Asia and the rest of the world for
peace and prosperity.
For
the Korean people to devote themselves to
national reunification is most honourable and worthwhile. Those who have
contributed to the noble cause of national
reunification will be held in love and
respect by the nation and will be highly
appreciated by the reunified nation.
I
believe that you comrades, who are at the
forefront of the struggle for national
reunification, will carry out the honourable duty entrusted to you by the
country and the nation.