KIM IL SUNG
LET US ACCOMPLISH THE CAUSE OF SOCIALISM
AND COMMUNISM UNDER THE REVOLUTIONARY
BANNER OF JUCHE
Report at the Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the
Founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
September 8, 1988
(Extract)
3
Comrades,
Our people’s struggle to reunify the country is a sacred
struggle to link the national ties of blood, which have been
cut off by the imperialists, and to achieve the coordinated
development and prosperity of our nation.
There is no internal necessity for Koreans, who have
lived as a homogeneous nation for thousands of years, to be
bisected in our times. Our nation was divided and has not
been reunified entirely because of imperialist intervention
and obstructive moves. The struggle for national
reunification is not an effort to settle any contradiction
between classes within our nation or antagonism between
systems; it is the cause of the whole nation for
accomplishing its liberation and realizing the independence
of the Koreans.
In view of the basic character of the reunification
question, our Party and the Government of the Republic put
forward the three principles of independence, peaceful
reunification and great national unity. The three principles
of national reunification are a most reasonable
reunification programme; they accord with the Korean
people’s desire for independence and their fundamental
interests as well as with the trend of the times and the
aspirations of people throughout the world.
The realistic method of settling the question of national
reunification on the basis of the three principles is to
establish a Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo.
The DFRK is the most rational form of a unified state
capable of achieving national unity by regarding the common
desire and interests of the nation as basic and transcending
ideas and systems. National reunification is for the good of
the entire Korean nation, not for any specific class or
section of the population. Therefore the interests of any
particular class or section should be subordinated to the
common interests of the nation. In order to reunify the
country when different ideas and systems exist in the north
and south of Korea, it is necessary to form a unified state
by federating the two autonomous governments, leaving the
two systems as they are on the principle of coexistence, one
refraining from conquering the other or one side refraining
from overwhelming the other. Establishing the DFRK is the
only correct way of settling the issue of reunification
independently and peacefully by the united effort of the
whole nation in accordance with the common desire and will
of the nation.
In the future, too, we shall make every effort to reunify
the country by establishing the DFRK on the three principles
of independence, peaceful reunification and great national
unity.
In order to achieve the independent and peaceful
reunification of the country, we ‘must fight against the US
imperialists’ policy of subjugating south Korea as their
colony and against their scheme to create “two Koreas”.
The US imperialist policy towards Korea is an important
part of its Asian-Pacific strategy. Seizing south Korea, a
zone of strategic importance, the United States is
attempting to put this aggressive strategy into effect by
forming an axis of the US, Japan and south Korea. Talk about
national reunification apart from the struggle against the
US imperialists’ scheme to make “two Koreas” and dominate
south Korea forever is only deceitful, empty talk.
The south Korean people, in the grip of untold hardships
and misfortunes under the US imperialists’ colonial
domination and their stooges’ fascist rule, have been
fighting resolutely for national sovereignty and democratic
freedom. The Popular Uprising in April9 1960, the Kwangju
Popular Uprising10 in 1980 and the June Popular Resistance
last year were heroic struggles that demonstrated the strong
spirit of independence and mettle of the Korean nation,
never yielding to any brutal enemy. These were historic
events that took the liberation struggle of the south Korean
people onto a higher plane. Trained and awakened in the
flames of struggle, the south Korean people are directing
the spearhead of attack gradually to the US imperialists.
Freeing themselves from the worship and fear of the United
States, they have raised high the banner of anti-US
independence, have overcome spontaneity and dispersiveness
of struggle and are developing a more organized mass
struggle. This marks an important turning point in the
history of their liberation struggle. Today the south Korean
people are combining the struggle against fascism and for
democracy and the struggle for national reunification
closely with the anti-US struggle for independence, thereby
advancing along the right path of national liberation.
The youth and students are playing a hardcore and leading
role in the south Korean people’s struggle for independence,
democracy and national reunification, and their courageous
struggle is developing still further with the passage of
time, attracting attention from people at home and abroad
and receiving encouragement from them.
Under the patronage of the US imperialists the south
Korean authorities are now craftily trying to deceive the
people in the guise of democracy. However, they are
revealing nakedly their true colours as fascists by
resorting to a bloody repression of the just struggle of the
young people and students. At a time when the entire nation
is fighting to hand down a reunified country to posterity,
they are brutally suppressing the innocent students and
other young people who have risen up under the banner of
reunification. They must be cursed and condemned as a gang
of traitors to the nation by all Koreans.
The south Korean people must foil the enemy in his
suppression and stratagem and fight firmly united as one,
thus discharging their honourable duty in ending the
colonial rule of the US imperialists in south Korea and
accelerating national reunification.
Removing the danger of war and easing tension in our
country is a most important matter and an indispensable
condition at the moment for the peaceful reunification of
the country.
Having deployed a large number of aggressor troops and
nuclear weapons in south Korea, the United States is
ceaselessly perpetrating provocative acts of aggression
against our Republic. Because of this, in our country
military confrontation is continuing and the danger of war
increasing. Unless the danger of war is removed and tension
eased in our country, an atmosphere of trust cannot be
created between the north and the south and the question of
national reunification cannot be settled in a peaceful way.
If a guarantee for peace on the Korean peninsula is to be
provided, it is necessary to conclude a peace agreement
between us and the United States, adopt a nonaggression
declaration between the north and the south, compel the US
troops and nuclear weapons to move out of south Korea and
effect a phased and drastic reduction of the armed forces of
north and south.
Peace negotiations between Korea and the United States,
which we have already proposed, still remain unrealized,
entirely because the United States maintains its stand for
permanent domination of south Korea. The United States is
afraid that it will no longer have any grounds for occupying
south Korea if a peace agreement is concluded and a
nonaggression declaration is adopted. The United States must
approach the Korea-US negotiations with a sincere attitude
to settle the Korean question substantially in keeping with
the trend of the times.
A nation that rules and oppresses another nation cannot
keep itself free. The misguided policy of the government of
the United States in occupying south Korea and obstructing
the reunification of the Korean nation is a great shame to
its own people. The US imperialists’ aggressive policy for
world supremacy not only imposes a heavy burden upon its
people, but also is a source of dire disaster. Honest-minded
people of the United States and far-sighted, reasonable
politicians must naturally contemplate the grave
consequences of the imperialists’ aggressive policy and
fight against their aggressive Korea policy and the strategy
for world supremacy.
In order to reunify the country independently and
peacefully, dialogues and negotiations between the north and
the south must be developed.
A north-south dialogue can be successful only when both
sides have a sound stand and attitude towards the talks.
These talks must be held on the basis of the three
principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great
national unity—the reunification programme common to the
nation.
The north-south dialogue must always talk of
reunification. Reunification stands for the independence of
the nation and a love for the country and nation, whereas
division stands for dependence on foreign forces and
treachery to the country and nation. It is impermissible to
use the venue of talks as a means to finalize and legalize
division by following the foreign forces against the will of
the entire nation aspiring to reunification.
The dialogue between north and south must, first of all,
find a solution to the fundamental questions related to
reunification. Avoiding discussion of the political and
military questions for creating basic preconditions for
reunification and giving prominence to matters of secondary
importance must be denounced as a scheme to obstruct
reunification and keep the country divided by deceiving
public opinion at home and abroad and using delaying
tactics.
The north-south dialogue must be a wide-ranging dialogue
that represents the desires and will of all the people in a
democratic manner. The dialogue for reunification must not
be monopolized by the authorities or by any particular party
or group. The dialogue must be participated in widely by not
only the authorities of the north and the south, but also
different parties, social organizations, people from all
walks of life and overseas compatriots. They should actively
promote different forms of bilateral and multilateral
contacts and negotiations.
As far as top-level talks between north and south are
concerned, this is a matter we have already proposed and our
attitude towards it is clear. The top-level talks must
discuss and decide, first of all, adopting a nonaggression
declaration between north and south by which neither side is
restrained or guaranteed by anyone else as well as founding
a federal government of the unified state, leaving the two
systems in north and south as they are, or establishing a
committee for peaceful reunification and the like for
setting up such a government. We welcome any who come to
Pyongyang to meet us out of a sincere desire to realize
national reunification by solving these problems, but if
they wish to argue about keeping the country divided into
“two Koreas” forever, without the authority and ability to
discuss and decide these fundamental problems independently,
they need not come to meet us. The point in question is to
ripen conditions for the holding of north-south top-level
talks and producing desired results. To this end, the south
Korean authorities must abandon their dependence on outside
forces and join the entire nation in its campaign for the
independent, peaceful reunification of the country.
Great obstacles and difficulties still lie in the way to
national reunification. However, whether or not the country
is reunified depends, in the long run, on how our nation,
the motive force of reunification, struggles. All the
Koreans in the north, south and abroad, rallied rock-firm on
the principle of great national unity, must make strenuous
efforts to achieve the independent, peaceful reunification
of the country without fail.
…