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