KIM JONG IL
THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S
REPUBLIC OF KOREA IS A JUCHE-ORIENTED
SOCIALIST STATE WITH
INVINCIBLE MIGHT
Discourse Published in Rodong Sinmun, Organ of the Central
Committee of
the Workers’ Party of Korea,
and Minju Joson, Organ of the DPRK
Government
September 5, Juche 97
(2008)
In this
historic period, when we are
entering a golden age of national
prosperity under the Songun-based
revolutionary leadership of the
Workers’ Party of Korea, we will be
greeting the 60th anniversary of the
founding of the Democratic People’s
Republic
of Korea,
the glorious country of Kim Il Sung.
The great
leader Comrade Kim Il Sung was the founder of the DPRK
and the father of socialist Korea,
and he is the eternal President of
State. The founding of the Republic
under his leadership brought about a
fundamental change in the shaping of
the destiny of our country and its
people.
Guided by his
Juche-oriented philosophy on State
building, and under his seasoned and
sophisticated leadership, our
Republic has been established and
developed as a genuine country of
the people, as a Juche-oriented
socialist country, the first of its
kind in history, and our people, who
were oppressed and maltreated for
centuries, have become able to
enjoy, in the embrace of the
Republic, the pride and happiness of
a genuine life in which they
exercise full rights as masters of
the State and society.
The mountains
and rivers, which are getting more
and more beautiful with each passing
day, the vast expanses of farmland,
the urban and rural areas, the
streets and villages, the defence
lines and frontline posts that have
been built up to be impregnable, and
the many factories, enterprises,
economic and cultural establishments
and monumental structures, all bear
the imprints of President Kim Il Sung’s great and
sacred leadership; and every aspect
of the most dignified, prestigious
and fulfilling life that our people
are enjoying generation after
generation, century after century,
is associated with his benevolent,
fatherly affection and solicitude.
As we greet
the 60th anniversary of the founding
of the Republic, our Party members,
service personnel and people
solemnly look back upon the great
revolutionary career and immortal
revolutionary exploits of President
Kim Il Sung, who devoted his whole life
to the country and the people, and
bestow on him the highest gratitude
and glory. The immortal exploits he
achieved for the country and the
people constitute the eternal
cornerstone of our country and
revolution and an unshakable
foundation on which to build a
great, prosperous and powerful
socialist country and carry forward
and accomplish the Juche
revolutionary cause.
By holding
President Kim Il Sung in high esteem as the Sun of
Juche, and developing his philosophy
on and exploits in State building,
our Party is opening up the road of
building a thriving country in the
Songun era, the road of fresh
victory for our revolution. Thanks
to our Party’s leadership and
advance in the Songun-based
revolution, our Republic has risen
as a Juche-oriented socialist State
with invincible political and
military might, demonstrating its
prestige and dignity. Our Party
members, service personnel and
people are now firmly determined to
glorify, in answer to the Party’s
call, this meaningful year as a year
of historic change that will be
recorded in the history of the
country and to accomplish, under the
banner of Songun, the successful
building of both a great, prosperous
and powerful socialist country and
the Juche revolutionary cause.
1
The 60-year
history of our Republic is a history
of great struggle and victory, a
history of great creation and
transformation, in which, braving
the tempest of the revolution under
the leadership of the great leader
and the great Party, the
independence and honor of the
country were defended and a thriving
socialist country was built.
Our Republic,
in the whole period of its history
from the first days when the
foundations for State building were
laid up to the present, when we are
building it up into a great,
prosperous and powerful socialist
country, has followed a road covered
with victory and glory, braving
unprecedented difficulties and
trials amid a sharp confrontation
with the imperialist forces of
aggression. Our struggle to build a
new country, a new society, has been
grim and arduous, as we have had to
overcome every manner of hardship.
However, our country blazed a trail
in accomplishing the cause of
anti-imperialist independence, the
cause of socialism, and created
historic miracles in this course,
thus accumulating great and
imperishable exploits and valuable
experiences. This is why the 60-year
history of our Republic has come to
shine with such brilliance and our
socialist country, Songun Korea,
to demonstrate such prestige and
dignity today as the citadel of
independence, the bulwark of
socialism.
The
anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle
the great leader organized and led
was a historic struggle that laid
the basis for the founding of our
Republic and ushered in the era of
socialist State building.
It was a
sacred, patriotic struggle to defeat
the Japanese imperialist aggressors,
who had occupied our country by
force of arms, and liberate the
country, and the fiercest of
revolutionary wars fought against
the heavily-armed Japanese
imperialist aggressor forces.
The great
leader led the 20-year bloody
struggle against Japanese
imperialism and crowned the
anti-Japanese war with victory, thus
accomplishing the historic cause of
national liberation. In the flames
of the anti-Japanese revolutionary
struggle he put forward the policy
of building a people’s government,
accumulated valuable experience in
this regard and created our glorious
revolutionary traditions, which are
the eternal wealth of the country
and the revolution.
The struggle
of our Party and people to build an
independent and sovereign State on
the land of our liberated country
was conducted in very complicated
and difficult circumstances and
conditions. Owing to the US
imperialists’ occupation of south Korea, the
country’s territory was divided into
two, and the imperialist and
reactionary forces at home and
abroad resorted to every manner of
vicious scheme to thwart our Party
and people in their efforts to build
a new country.
President Kim Il Sung established the people’s
power and regular revolutionary
armed forces that inherited the
traditions of the anti-Japanese
revolution and, by enlisting the
high patriotic enthusiasm of the
liberated people and all other
patriotic forces, laid solid
foundations for the building of an
independent and sovereign State
through democratic reforms in the
northern half of Korea, thus
frustrating the schemes of the
imperialist and reactionary forces.
On this
basis, he founded our Republic.
He wisely led
the work of strengthening the power
organs, developing the
people-oriented State and social
system of the Republic and bringing
its advantages and vitality into
full play in all areas of State
building.
The
Fatherland Liberation War against
the armed invasion of the US
imperialists was the first and
grimmest trial faced by our young
Republic; it was a fierce war that
would decide the fate of the country
and nation. The US
imperialists made desperate efforts
to crush our Republic in its cradle,
hurling into the war a huge force of
their own aggressor army and of
their 15 vassal
States,
as well as the latest military
hardware and other means of waging
war, only to suffer ignominious
defeat.
Under the
leadership of President Kim Il Sung, the ever-victorious and
iron-willed brilliant commander, our
soldiers and people turned out as
one in the just Fatherland
Liberation War and fought in a
self-sacrificing manner, giving a
full demonstration of their
unparalleled mass heroism at the
front and in the rear. Consequently,
they defeated the US
aggressor armed forces that had been
boasting of being the “mightiest” in
the world, defended the freedom and
independence of their country with
honor, encouraged the oppressed
peoples of the world in their
anti-imperialist national liberation
struggle, and made a great
contribution to safeguarding world
peace.
The historic
victory of our Republic in the
Fatherland Liberation War was a
clear testimony to its invincible
might, to the strength of our State
and social system, to the confidence
of our army and people in sure
victory, and to their indefatigable
fighting spirit. It also
demonstrated that no force can
conquer a people who have taken
their destiny in their own hands and
are united solidly behind their
party and leader. For its victory in
the war, in which it shattered the
myth of the US imperialists being
the “strongest” and inflicted a
crushing defeat on them for the
first time in the world history of
war, our Republic won a worldwide
reputation as a heroic country, its
army as a heroic army and its people
as a heroic people.
Not only did
our Korea,
the land
of Juche,
emerge victorious from the military
confrontation with the formidable
imperialist aggressor forces, but it
also worked miracles and made
innovations in the ensuing postwar
reconstruction, socialist revolution
and socialist construction. Starting
from scratch on the war debris, we
achieved epoch-making development in
the revolution and construction.
Under the
seasoned leadership of President Kim Il Sung, our country completed its
postwar reconstruction in a matter
of just a few years and carried out
the cooperative reorganization of
the rural economy and the socialist
transformation of private trade and
industry perfectly in the Korean
style and without any deviation. In
response to the call of the leader,
our people embarked on the grand
Chollima march in the spirit of
taking ten or a hundred steps when
others were taking one, thus effecting a great
revolutionary upsurge that was
unprecedented in socialist
construction. Through the gigantic
struggle to create and construct
socialism, our country, having been
backward for centuries, emerged as a
most advantageous and powerful
people-centered socialist country, a
socialist power, that is independent
in politics, self-supporting in the
economy and self-reliant in defence,
a country called Chollima Korea, a
model for socialist countries
throughout the world.
The Songun
era, a new era in the Juche
revolution, occupies a special
position in the history of our
country and revolution.
It is a great
era of the Juche revolutionary cause
in which the ideas, leadership and
cause of President Kim Il Sung are inherited and carried
forward, and it constitutes a new,
higher stage in the development of
our country and revolution.
Long ago our
Party put forward modeling the whole
society on the Juche idea as its
ultimate program, and it has
held fast to it as the basic line in
building the Party, the State and
the army, true to the noble idea of
President Kim Il Sung.
It
concentrated all its efforts on
building and developing the Party,
the State and the army as the Party
of the leader, as the State of the
leader, and as the army of the
leader, and on remolding man and
transforming society and nature as
required by the leader’s
revolutionary idea, the Juche idea,
thus laying strong foundations for
carrying out the cause of modeling
the whole society on the Juche idea.
In the 1990s
the situation took a sudden turn,
and grim trials and hardship, the
rigors of which were unprecedented
in history, were laid in the way of
our country and revolution. Taking
advantage of the collapse of
socialism in several countries, the
imperialists and reactionaries
clamored about the “end of
socialism,” directing the spearhead
of their attack against our
Republic, which was holding high as
ever the banner of socialism. Their
anti-DPRK, anti-socialist maneuvers
put the sovereignty and right to
existence of our country and nation
at jeopardy; our country was turned
into a theatre of the fiercest
confrontation between socialism and
imperialism and our people found themselves at a
crossroads, where remaining as an
independent people lay in one
direction and becoming colonial
slaves once again in the other.
To cope with
the prevailing situation, our Party
raised high the banner of Songun,
under which it frustrated every
scheme of the imperialists and
reactionaries against the DPRK and
socialism by dint of our invincible
political and military might, thus
safeguarding the sovereignty of the
country and nation and our style of
socialism with honor. It is a great
victory of international
significance for our small country
to have defended itself, its nation
and its socialism in single-handed
confrontation with the US-led
imperialist reactionaries. Our
country has, without firing a shot,
registered one victory after another
in its political and military
confrontation with the US
imperialists, facing down and
smashing the aggressive moves of an
enemy that had been behaving in a
high-handed and arbitrary manner in
every part of the world. These
achievements of our Songun-based
revolution are literally a miracle.
In spite of
the grim trials we have faced in the
struggle to defend socialism, we
have achieved tremendous development
in all spheres of politics, the
military, the economy and culture.
Thanks to the
Party’s Songun-based revolutionary
leadership, our country has occupied
the position of a
politico-ideological and military
power, paved the way for building a
great, prosperous and powerful
nation and brought about a fresh
turn in the revolution and
construction. Our Republic has now
secured a fundamental guarantee for
building a great, prosperous and
powerful socialist country and
accomplishing the revolutionary
cause of Juche, and it is stepping
up the general march of the Songun
revolution for building the country
into a socialist economic power.
Socialist
Korea, which is winning victories
and displaying its might by dint of
Songun, has become a beacon of hope
and a banner of victory for the
people of the world who aspire to
independence.
The 60-year
history traveled by the Republic
under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung and our Party, instills in
our people the deepest pride and
self-confidence and hardens their
faith in sure victory.
Our army and
people prize their Juche-oriented
socialist country more than their
own lives, love it infinitely and
are working more vigorously to
defend and add luster to it, their
motherland.
2
A great
leader and a great party build a
great nation.
If a leader
and a party are great, their
country, even though it may be small
and once backward, can become a
developed and dignified, powerful
one.
The greatness
of a leader and a party is precisely
the greatness of their ideology and
leadership. Our Republic has been
able to rise as a Juche-oriented
socialist State with invincible
might because it is guided by the
Juche idea that was authored by the
great leader and because it embodies
this idea fully in State building
and State activities under the
leadership of our Party.
The immortal
Juche idea is a man-centered outlook
on the world, and an ideology of
independence; it is a great guiding
ideology of our era that sheds
scientific light on the way of
championing and realizing the
independence of the masses and of
the country and nation. Our
Republic, which incorporates the
great Juche idea in its State
building and State activities, is a
people-centered socialist country in
which the people are regarded as
God, an independent socialist State
with a strong Juche character and
national identity, and an invincible
socialist power that prevails over
any enemy, however formidable, and
overcomes every manner of trial and
hardship by dint of Songun.
Our Republic
is a genuine people’s country, a
people-centered socialist State that
upholds the masses of the people as
the masters of the State and
society, and serves them.
Although the
masses of the people are the driving
force of social history, it is not
true to say that their position and
role are always identical in any
society or country. Never before in
history has there been a country
like our Republic that guarantees
the position and role of the masses
at the highest level by embodying
the doctrine “The people are my
God,” which was President Kim Il Sung’s dictum.
This
philosophy is permeated with the
noble love for the people that is
expressed in upholding the masses of
the people as the most valuable and
powerful beings in the world,
serving them faithfully and solving
everything by relying on them.
The dictum
“The people are my God” is our
Party’s fundamental principle in
State building and the basis of all
its lines and policies, as well as
the starting point of the activities
of the State.
Everything in
our Republic–the socialist system of
the State and society, the Socialist
Constitution and other State laws,
as well as all the lines, policies
and activities of the Party and the
State–is geared to defending and
ensuring the independent rights and
interests of the masses.
The basis of
socialism is the people. Our
politics, which regards the
interests of the people as the
foremost concern, is genuine
socialist politics and the politics
of infinite love for and trust in
the people, that is, noble,
benevolent politics.
Every line
and policy of our Party and the
government of our Republic reflects
the opinions and demands of the
masses and is successfully
implemented by their voluntary zeal
and struggle. In our country,
promoting the people’s well-being is
regarded as the supreme principle in
the activities of the Party and the
State, the slogan “We serve the
people!” is fully incorporated in
State activities, and the
infringement of the people’s
interests and lording it over them
by the abuse of authority and
bureaucratic behavior are never
tolerated.
Since the
masses of the people are regarded as
the most valuable beings, the State,
the army, the public security organ,
many monumental edifices and various
honorary titles are named after
“people,” and this is a powerful
symbol of the people-oriented
character of our State, our system
and our politics.
Our people,
who hold the position of masters of
the State and society in the embrace
of the people-centered socialist
country, are enjoying a worthwhile
and fulfilling life and performing
their responsibilities and roles as
such.
Each of them
takes part in the exercise of State
power and State administration with
equal rights and leads a valuable
political life in a particular
political organization. The State
bears responsibility for the
people’s livelihood; all the people
study to their hearts’ content,
promote their health and enjoy a
revolutionary cultural and
recreational life that is full of
optimism thanks to the systems of
free education and medical care and
various other people-oriented
policies.
Now our Party
and State, despite the strained
conditions in which everything is in
short supply, are concentrating all
their efforts on stabilizing and
improving the people’s livelihood,
with their primary attention focused
on it, and stepping up the building
of an economically powerful
socialist country so as to ensure in
the near future that our people live
a rich life with no reason for
envying anyone in the world. The
independent and creative life our
people are enjoying in the embrace
of the Republic is a genuine human
life, dignified, worthwhile and
happy, which is something unimaginable in
a capitalist society.
Our Party and
our Republic are the most
affectionate motherly party and
motherly country that lead the
people and take care of them with
love and trust, and their embrace
constitutes the cradle of the
genuine life and happiness of the
people.
For this
reason, our people have sacrificed
themselves in the defence of their
country, their motherland, and,
firmly united behind the Party,
waged a heroic struggle for its
prosperity, invariably trusting and
following our Party and the
government of the Republic both in
days of glory and in days of grim
trials.
The
single-hearted unity of the whole
society constitutes a priceless
achievement in State building that
could only be made by our socialist
country under the leadership of
President Kim Il Sung, who was endowed with love
for and trust in the people, and of
our Party, which faithfully carries
forward his ideas and will. This is
the proud face of our society, the
like of which cannot be witnessed
elsewhere in the world. Based on the
relations of revolutionary
comradeship, and the inseparable
blood ties by which the Party and
the leader boundlessly love and care
for the people and the latter
absolutely trust and loyally support
the former, the single-hearted unity
of the leader, the Party and the
masses was formed and has developed
despite the complicated and
difficult circumstances and
conditions, and the whole society
has become a great harmonious family
in which its members help and lead
one another forward.
Today our
single-hearted unity has been
further strengthened at a new height
of unity in which the entire Party,
the whole army and all the people
are joined together rock-solid,
centered on the revolutionary
leadership and based on one ideology
and faith, comradely love and
revolutionary obligation.
No force can
break its great unity. Our
single-hearted unity is the
fundamental guarantee of the
strength of the socialist system and
social stability in our country, the
inexhaustible source of the
invincible might of our socialist
motherland and the powerful driving
force of the victorious advance of
the revolution and the building of a
thriving nation.
The US
imperialists are most fearful of the
single-hearted unity of our entire
army and the people behind the great
Party, and resort to every
conceivable scheme to break it.
While persisting with their
aggressive military maneuvers, the US
imperialists and their acolytes try
to slander us under the signboard of
“human rights” and “democracy,” but
this is wild dream. The “defence of
human rights” and “democracy” the
imperialist reactionaries advocate
are nothing other than sophistry to
hide their intervention in and
hegemonic moves towards other
countries. It is preposterous to
slander our Republic, which is the
motherland of the people, and our
society that is united
single-heartedly, with such
far-fetched sophistry. It only
serves to trigger the unanimous
indignation of our people, and can
never be tolerated.
This country
of the great people, this
people-centered socialism of our own
style, which enjoys the absolute
support and trust and ardent love of
the masses, will forever add
brilliance to its noble image and
dignity, overcoming every manner of
trial.
Our Republic
is an independent socialist State
that absolutely maintains its Juche
character and thoroughly preserves
its national identity in its
development and activities.
The Juche
character and national identity are
the independence and lifeline of a
country, a nation and the masses of
the people. The struggle of the
masses for independence is waged
with the country and nation as a
unit, so the party, the government
and the masses of each country
should conduct the revolution and
construction independently and
creatively as masters.
It is only
when they hold fast to the Juche
character and national identity and
maintain the line of independence in
the revolution and construction that
they can defend the sovereignty of
the country and nation, guarantee
their independent development and
realize the independence of the
masses successfully.
Having put
forward such original ideas on the
Juche character, the national
identity and the line of
independence for the first time in
history, President Kim Il Sung blazed the trail for the
independent development of the
Korean revolution and guaranteed, by
dint of his iron faith and will and
seasoned leadership, that the
principle of Juche, the line of
independence, was maintained
consistently in the revolution and
construction.
True to his
idea of State building, our Party
and State regarded preserving the
Juche character, the national
identity and the line of
independence as the fundamental
principle in accomplishing the cause
of the masses’ independence, the
cause of socialism, and strictly
adhered to it, and thus built our
country into a highly dignified and
prestigious independent country, a
socialist State embodying noble love
for the people and nation.
We have
solved all the problems arising in
the building and activities of the
State and in the revolution and
construction by our own efforts and
in our own way on the principle of
self-reliance, in accordance with
our ideology and faith, our
determination and will and the
actual situation in our country, and
in line with the interests of our
revolution. By holding fast to the
principle of Juche, the principle of
independence, in all fields of
politics, the economy, military
affairs, culture and external
relations, we have resolutely
opposed great-power worship,
dogmatism and all other ideas
advocating dependence on outside
forces, and categorically rejected
any form of intervention and
pressure by the imperialist
reactionaries and other foreign
forces.
We are also
doing everything we choose and
decide in conformity with our own
ideology, demands and interests,
regardless of the existing theories
or formulas, and despite what others
may say.
Our Party
long ago put forward the slogan of
“Let us live our own way!”; this is
Juche, independence and self-reliance,
and herein lie our dignity, pride
and honor.
President Kim Il Sung, based on the Juche stand,
shed a fresh, scientific light on
the essence of the issue of the
nation and its position and role in
social development and, on the basis
of this, linked class character with
national identity, and the destiny
of socialism with that of the
nation; thus he made it possible to
preserve the national character in
the revolution and construction
while maintaining the class
character and to open up a vista for
achieving the prosperity of the
nation while advancing the socialist
cause.
Our Party and
State treasure and preserve the
nation’s identity in the revolution
and construction and in all fields
of social life in line with
President Kim Il Sung’s
Juche-oriented idea and theory on
the issue of the nation. Since a man
is a member of a class and at the
same time a member of a nation, he
embodies a national identity along
with a class character and
entertains national demands along
with class demands. If the national
identity and national demands are
neglected and suppressed, it will be
impossible to rally the broad
sections of the masses and other
patriotic forces, build a truly
independent and sovereign State, or
successfully carry out the cause of
the masses’ independence, the cause
of socialism.
Ours is a
proud nation with a time-honored
history of 5 000 years and a
brilliant culture. Reflected in our
people’s national identity are their
nation’s resourcefulness, talents,
firm character, patriotic spirit and
outstanding cultural traditions.
Our Party and
State have made valuing and
preserving the excellent and
beautiful traditions of our nation a
major policy, and have fully
implemented it.
While
preserving the excellent features of
our nation that have been handed
down throughout its history, we are
creating new excellent features of
the nation along with the advance of
the times and the revolution; on the
basis of this, we are educating the
people in the Korean-nation-first
spirit, the spirit that our leader,
our Party, our ideology and our
system are the best, and adding
brilliance to the greatness of our
nation.
The socialist
cause of Juche is a cause for
realizing the independence of the
working class and other working
masses and at the same time a cause
for guaranteeing the independence of
the country and nation and achieving
the nation’s prosperity.
Our Party and
State have, while stepping up
socialist construction, enriched the
excellent qualities of the nation
and added a new chapter of national
prosperity to history.
Because we
properly maintained the Juche
character and preserved the national
identity of the revolution and
construction under the leadership of
the great leader and the great
Party, no form of intervention or
pressure from the imperialist
reactionaries could cut any ice with
us, no modern revisionism or other
ideological trend towards
opportunism could make inroads into
our country, and our people have
been able to cherish a uniquely high
level of national pride,
self-confidence, consciousness of
national independence and
self-respect, and give fuller play
to the spirit of socialist
patriotism.
Our Republic,
which has developed under the banner
of the Juche idea, is demonstrating
its pride in being a people-centered
socialist country that fully
embodies class and revolutionary
principles, and at the same time, a
socialist State, independent,
self-supporting and self-reliant in
defence, strong in the Juche
character and national identity, and
the genuine motherland of the whole
nation. Our Juche-oriented socialist
motherland has stood firm amid the
worldwide great political
cataclysms, and will win victory
after victory by following the road
of development, the road of Juche,
as ever.
The
imperialist reactionaries are now
slandering our Republic, the
motherland of Juche, claiming that
it is “closed” and “isolated,” and
are making futile attempts to lead
us to “reform” and “openness.”
Our country
has never closed its doors, and it
maintains good relations with many
countries, home to billions of
people, around the world, based on
mutual respect. As for reform, we
reformed the outdated social system
in a revolutionary fashion decades
ago, and have been constantly
creating the new and renovating what
is old and backward. In actual fact,
the imperialists and reactionaries
are hostile towards our country and
are blockading it and trying to
isolate it.
The “reform”
and “openness” they are advocating
represent a move to destroy and put
down our style of socialism. Such
moves will only worsen their
relations with us and are doomed to
failure.
Our Republic
is an invincible socialist power
that demonstrates its dignity by
dint of Songun.
The history
of the revolutionary activities of
President Kim Il Sung and our Party is the history
of Songun-based revolutionary
leadership, and our country and
revolution have traveled a road
covered with victory and glory by
displaying their invincible might
under the banner of Songun.
President Kim Il Sung liberated the country by
dint of Songun and guaranteed its
sovereignty, independence,
prosperity and development by force
of arms. True to his Songun idea and
line, our Party has, since long ago,
grasped military affairs and Party
work as the key, and concentrated
its efforts on strengthening our
revolutionary armed forces
politically, ideologically,
militarily and technically, thus
laying a firm foundation for
developing its Songun-based
revolutionary leadership at a new,
higher stage.
The
Songun-based revolutionary line,
Songun politics, that our Party is
pursuing now, is a great
revolutionary line of our era, the
basic mode of socialist politics,
that gives top priority to military
affairs over all other affairs of
State, that safeguards the country,
the revolution and socialism by
strengthening the Korean People’s
Army to the maximum, and that builds
up the driving force of the
revolution and pushes ahead with
socialist construction with the army
as the core, as the main force. With
regard to the system of State
administration, we ensured that the
authority of the National Defence
Commission was strengthened and a
system was established whereby the
Commission guides and administers
defence affairs overall, so that all
work in the revolution and
construction was conducted strictly
on the principle of giving
precedence to military affairs.
Our Songun
politics, because it is rooted in
the Juche idea and fully embodies
and encompasses the Juche-oriented
principles, strategy and tactics of
the revolution and its methods and
art of leadership, is the
ever-victorious banner of our
country and revolution and an
all-powerful sword in the revolution
and construction.
The paramount
strength of a nation rests with its
military might. Our
anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle
is waged fiercely on all fronts of
politics, the military, the economy,
ideology and culture, and the main
front that decides the destiny of
the country and nation is the
anti-imperialist military front. The
confrontation with the imperialist
aggressive forces is, in essence, a
showdown of strength, and strength
alone can make sense in relations
with the imperialists. Without our
own strength, our own powerful
self-defensive military might, we
can neither win the fight against
the imperialists, nor defend the
Party and the State, nor guarantee
the safety of the people.
This is the
stark reality of today.
By dint of
its Songun-based revolutionary
leadership, Songun politics, our
Party has strengthened and developed
the Korean People’s Army as the army
of the Party and the leader, as the
invincible revolutionary armed
forces, both in name and in reality.
The
monolithic leadership system of the
Party, the command system of the
Supreme Commander and revolutionary
military traits have been firmly
established in the People’s Army,
and the entire army–from the Supreme
Commander down to the rank and
file–now forms an integral whole
based on revolutionary comradeship.
All the men and officers of the
People’s Army, cherishing an
unshakable ideology and faith,
constitute an invincible armed force
that has acquired a mastery of our
style of strategy and tactics and is
equipped with up-to-date military
hardware.
Our
Juche-oriented defence industry has
become able to produce every type of
powerful state-of-the-art weaponry
and military hardware and means, and
the spirit of giving importance to
military affairs has been
established throughout society, with
the result that the work of arming
all the people and fortifying the
whole country is proceeding at a higher
phase.
Thanks to the
Songun politics, our Republic has
frustrated all the challenges of the
imperialist reactionaries and all
their schemes to isolate and stifle
it, and demonstrated its invincible
military might to the world, and our
socialist country, Songun Korea,
has risen as a world-class military
power that no aggressor dares to
attack.
As a result
of the Songun-based revolutionary
leadership, Songun politics, of the
Party, the politico-ideological
position of our Republic has been
made rock-solid, and great progress
has been made on the economic and
cultural fronts. On the road of
Songun our army and people have
successfully achieved great
unity–oneness of ideology and work
style on the pattern of the
revolutionary spirit and the work
style of the soldiers–and the
politico-ideological might of the
country and the revolution has been
enhanced beyond any comparison.
Under the
Party’s Songun-based leadership the
army and the people have carried out
all their undertakings in socialist
construction in a revolutionary and
militant manner by forming an
integral whole, and have in this way
implemented grand projects to
transform the appearance of the
country, build numerous monumental
structures, develop science and
technology by leaps and bounds, and
usher in a new golden age of culture
and the arts of the Songun era.
Thanks to our
Songun-based policy of national
reunification and the concerted
efforts of the nation, the June 15
North-South Joint Declaration (2000)
and the October 4 Declaration (2007)
were adopted and made public, and
this opened up an epoch-making phase
in the reunification of the country.
The national
spirit for reunifying the country
independently has been raised to an
unprecedented height in the north,
the south and abroad, and the
movement for national reunification
is developing as a nationwide
movement under the banner of “by our
nation itself.”
Our Songun
politics, which stands against the
imperialists’ policies of invasion
and war and for the independence of
the country and nation, arouses
great sympathy among the progressive
peoples of the world and greatly
contributes to global peace and the
cause of mankind’s independence. Our
Songun politics and independent
foreign policy have made it possible
to raise the prestige and influence
of our Republic to an unprecedented
level in the international arena and
to develop its external relations
rapidly.
Under the
leadership of President Kim Il Sung and our Party the DPRK was
built and developed into a
Juche-oriented socialist State with
invincible might and achieved world
startling victories and changes by
overcoming every manner of
historical challenge. The glorious
country of Kim Il Sung, socialist Korea, that
shines with brilliance by dint of
Juche and Songun, is displaying its
might as a great socialist country,
and for this it is warmly loved and
held aloft by our people as their
great motherly country, is highly
regarded by all Koreans as the pride
and honor of the whole nation and as
the fortress of national
reunification, and is attracting the
attention and admiration of people
the world over.
3
Our Republic
has traveled a long, long
revolutionary path under the
unfurled banner of the Juche idea,
the banner of Songun, but our
revolution is yet to be
accomplished.
We must build
a great, prosperous and powerful
socialist country on this land and
realize the cause of national
reunification through the great
unity of the whole nation. We must
make proactive efforts, shoulder to
shoulder with all countries and
progressive peoples that aspire to
independence, to defend world peace
and accomplish the cause of human
independence.
To build a
great, prosperous and powerful
socialist country true to President
Kim Il Sung’s lifelong
wish is a sacred duty our Party and
State have assumed before the times
and the revolution. Under our
Party’s Songun-based revolutionary
leadership, the whole Party, the
entire army and all the people must,
with firm confidence in victory,
step up with vigor the general march
of the Songun-based revolution
towards building a great, prosperous
and powerful country.
We must,
first of all, build up the political
and ideological position of our
socialist country.
The might of
socialism is its political and
ideological might, and consolidating
the political and ideological
position of the socialist country is
essential for building a great,
prosperous and powerful country. In
keeping with the development of the
revolution and construction, we must
conduct ideological work proactively
so as to display to the maximum the
inexhaustible spiritual strength of
our soldiers and people and give
fuller play to the dignity of
socialist Korea
as a political and ideological
power.
We must
intensify education in the Juche
idea, the Songun idea, among cadres,
Party members and other working
people, so that they can work and
live in a revolutionary and militant
fashion as befits revolutionary
people of the new era of the
Juche-oriented revolution, the
Songun era.
We must give
them in-depth and effective class,
revolutionary, socialist and other
forms of education so as to ensure
that they are imbued with high class
and revolutionary awareness, a firm
conviction in socialism and the
spirit of socialist patriotism.
We must
consolidate the single-hearted unity
of the revolutionary ranks so that
it is like steel. The core of our
single-hearted unity is the
leadership of the revolution. All
cadres, Party members, soldiers and
people must defend the leadership of
the revolution politically and
ideologically even at the risk of
their lives, in the spirit of
performing death-defying deeds in
defence of the leader. All the men
and officers of the People’s Army
and all the people must be united
more solidly around our Party in
ideology and purpose, morality and
obligation, and loyally support its
ideas and leadership.
Single-hearted
unity is the great foundation of our
revolution, and public sentiment is
the great foundation of our
single-hearted unity. We must fully
understand the public sentiment and
work effectively with people so as
to constantly strengthen the
single-hearted unity of our
revolutionary ranks.
We must
remain vigilant against the enemy’s
attempts to shatter our political
and ideological position and
undermine our single-hearted unity,
and deal resolutely with them. We
must wage a strenuous struggle to
frustrate the maneuvers of the
imperialists and reactionaries to
infiltrate us ideologically and
culturally and wage a psychological
smear campaign against us, and we
must intensify the ideological
campaign in such a way as to prevent
every element of the bourgeois
ideology and way of life, however
insignificant, from infiltrating our
country.
We must
continue, under the banner of
Songun, to invest great efforts in
strengthening the country’s defence
capabilities. Its defence
capabilities represent the
sovereignty of Songun Korea,
its right to existence, and its
authority, dignity and destiny. It
is only by continually strengthening
our defence capabilities that we can
defend the security of the country
and people and provide the decisive
military guarantee for building a
great, prosperous and powerful
socialist country.
The People’s
Army is the main force of our
revolution and the core force of our
national defence. In our Songun
politics, military affairs are given
top priority and enhancing the
People’s Army is the key element.
What is most
important in strengthening the
People’s Army is thoroughly to
establish the monolithic leadership
system of the Supreme Commander, his
command system, in the army.
The entire
army must loyally support its
Supreme Commander’s ideas and
leadership, share its destiny with
him and move as one under his orders
and instructions.
We must
enhance the People’s Army’s
political, ideological, military and
technical preparedness. The People’s
Army must intensify the political
work of the Party so as to ensure
that all service personnel acquire
political and ideological traits
befitting the army of the Party and
the leader, the army of the Supreme
Commander, and it must give fuller
play to the traits of unity between
men and officers based on
revolutionary comradeship.
The soldiers
and the people must share life and
death on the road of Songun under
the leadership of the Party, and
consolidate their great unity. By
carrying out Party policy on
training, all service personnel must
train themselves into
a-match-for-a-hundred combatants who
are well versed in our particular
strategies, tactics and art of
warfare and who can skillfully apply
them in actual combat.
The armaments
and other equipment of the People’s
Army must be modernized constantly
based on the latest science and
technology.
The men and
officers of the People’s Army, fully
aware of the importance of the duty
they have assumed before the Party
and the revolution, the country and
the people, must make the defence
lines of the country impregnable and
play a vanguard role in socialist
construction.
An atmosphere
must be created in which military
affairs are given importance
throughout society, and then all the
people must learn military affairs
earnestly and the entire Party, the
whole country and all the people
must make thorough preparations to
cope with any emergency and, by
building ever-stronger defences, turn the
whole country into an impregnable
fortress.
We must build
our country into an economically
powerful State by stepping up
socialist economic construction.
Today
economic construction is at the
forefront in the building of a
great, prosperous and powerful
nation. Only by building our country
into a socialist economic power by
accelerating economic construction
can we further strengthen the
political and military might of
Songun Korea,
make it rich and strong and
radically improve the people’s
standard of living.
We have set
ourselves the ambitious goal of
opening the gate of a great,
prosperous and powerful country in
2012 when we will be celebrating the
100th anniversary of the birth of
President Kim Il Sung. If we are to achieve this
goal, we must bring about a new
revolutionary turn in socialist
economic construction, and thus
strengthen the country’s economic
might and solve once and for all the
problem of the people’s living. The
entire Party, the whole country and
all the people must turn out to
launch a general economic
construction offensive.
In order to
bring about a revolutionary turn in
economic construction, we must
thoroughly implement the line of
economic construction for the Songun
era put forward by the Party. As
demanded by this line, we must give
priority to the development of the
defence industry and develop light
industry and agriculture
simultaneously so as to effect a
drastic turn in improving the
people’s standard of living.
Giving
precedence to the vanguard sectors
of the national economy, the basic
industrial sectors, is the key to
developing the defence industry,
light industry and agriculture
quickly and simultaneously. We must
concentrate nationwide efforts on
these sectors so as to shore up the
power, coal-mining and metallurgical
industries and rail transport, and
thus open wide the road of advance
in building an economically powerful
country.
By carrying
out the Party’s line of attaching
importance to science and
technology, we must push forward the
frontiers of cutting-edge science
and technology and raise the
country’s science and technology to
a high level. All sectors of the
national economy must proactively
push ahead with the modernization of
factories and enterprises as
required in the IT age and based on
the latest science and technology.
We must
improve the management of the
socialist economy. In economic
management it is essential to
strictly observe socialist
principles, to apply the method of
collective management correctly, to
strengthen the central and
coordinated guidance of the State
and, on the basis of this, to give
full play to the creativity of the
lower units. We must enlist all
potential and all the latent
resources to the fullest and
effectively on the principle of
self-reliance and thus step up the
building of an economic power by
drawing on our own efforts,
technology and resources.
We must
comprehensively develop education,
the health service, art and
literature, and all other fields in
the building of socialist culture.
We must train revolutionary talents
in greater numbers and more
qualitatively and give full play to
the advantages of the
people-oriented public health system
by improving educational and public
health work, and also bring into
fuller bloom Juche-oriented art and
literature, the art and literature
of the Songun era.
We must, by
vigorously stepping up the general
march of the Songun revolution,
build a great, prosperous and
powerful socialist country on this
land and thus achieve a decisive
victory in carrying out the cause of
President Kim Il Sung, the socialist cause of
Juche.
Reunification
is the supreme task of the Korean
nation, and it brooks no further
delay. The Korean nation, which
continuously handed down its
tradition as a homogeneous nation
throughout history, has been divided
into north and south for over 60
years. We must reunify the country
at the earliest possible date, and
thus put an end to the tragic
history of national division and
pave the way for the coordinated
development and prosperity of the
country and nation.
The banners
that our nation must hold up in
achieving the independent
reunification of the country are the
June 15 North-South Joint
Declaration and October 4
Declaration.
These
declarations are declarations of
national independence and great
national unity and great programs
for national reunification. The
standpoint and attitude towards
these historic declarations
constitute a standard by which to
distinguish collaboration from
confrontation, reunification from
division between north and south.
Whoever earnestly desires national
reunification must support these
declarations and implement them
faithfully.
The basic
ideal of national reunification as
stated in the declarations is “by
our nation itself,” and this is, to
the core, the ideal of national
independence, the ideal of national
unity. All the compatriots in the
north, the south and abroad must
achieve national unity on the
principle of national independence
and frustrate all the maneuvers of
the anti-reunification forces and
accomplish the cause of national
reunification without fail through
the united efforts of the Korean
nation itself.
We must make
vigorous efforts to expand and
develop the country’s external
relations and realize global
independence.
The
government of our Republic must
conduct its external activities
briskly in accordance with the
ideals of independence, peace and
friendship and as required by the
changing situation, so as to
increase the number of supporters of
and sympathizers with our revolution
and create an international
environment that is favorable for
building a great, prosperous and
powerful socialist nation and
achieving national reunification. By
strengthening friendship and unity
with all countries and all
progressive peoples who aspire to
independence, we must wage a
vigorous struggle to frustrate the
war policy and hegemonic moves of
the imperialist aggressive forces,
defend peace and realize global
independence.
In order for
our Party and State to fulfill their
mission and duty before the times
and the revolution, it is important
to strengthen the government of the
Republic and enhance its role.
We must carry
out President Kim Il Sung’s ideas and
theories on State building and our
Party’s line of State building in
the Songun era, and thus
continuously develop the government
of the Republic.
The
government of the Republic, based on
the lines and policies of the Party,
must consolidate and develop our
State and social systems and
forcefully push ahead with all the
work of the revolution and
construction.
The people’s
government organs and their
officials must fulfill their
missions and responsibilities and
perform their duty as the servants
of the people by achieving further
improvement in their style and
method of work, as required by the
times and the developing revolution.
The Workers’
Party of Korea is the supreme
leading political organization in
our society, and its leadership is
the basic guarantee of all the
victories of the country and the
people. We must firmly establish the
monolithic leadership system across
the Party, further consolidate the
unity and cohesion of the Party,
build up its ranks organizationally
and ideologically, improve the
functions and role of its
organizations, and thus enhance its
organizing ability, fighting
capacity and might in every way
possible.
We must
ensure comprehensive leadership by
the Party over the revolution and
construction. We must establish the
Party’s monolithic leadership across
society so as to ensure that all
types of work in the revolution and
construction are conducted on the
basis of the lines and policies of
the Party and in accordance with the
ideas and intentions of the Party.
In particular, Party organizations
must give the people’s government
organs effective political guidance,
in other words, policy-based
guidance, and render them active
support in order to help them
fulfill their mission and duty.
Our Republic
is a great achievement of the Juche
revolution, and the government of
the Republic is a powerful weapon in
the revolution and construction. The
government of the Republic must step
up the revolution and construction
with greater vigor under our Party’s
Songun-based leadership, and thus
accomplish the cause of President Kim Il Sung, the revolutionary cause of
Juche.