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.