KIM IL
SUNG
ON THE
THREE PRINCIPLES OF NATIONAL REUNIFICATION
Conversations with the South
Korean Delegates to the High-Level Political
Talks between North and South Korea
May 3 and November 3, 1972
(Excerpt)
1.
ON THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF NATIONAL
REUNIFICATION
I am glad to meet you
today.
I am highly delighted
and also deeply moved that we, fellow
countrymen, have met after a long separation
because of the division of the nation.
You say that you have
come to discuss the question of national
reunification in spite of everything. Your
action is very courageous and daring.
It is very gratifying
that the south Korean authorities have decided
to participate in north-south political talks
and have sent you to represent them. We warmly
welcome this step.
In my speech of
August 6 last year, I made it clear that we
are ready to make contact with all political
parties including the Democratic Republican
Party, social organizations and individuals of
south Korea at any time. A few days after my
speech, the south Korean side responded,
agreeing to hold north-south Red Cross talks.
Thus began the
preliminary talks between the Red Cross
organizations of the north and the south,
which led to the high-level north-south
political discussion.
The doors for
contacts and dialogues have now been opened
between the north and the south, which have
stood alienated from each other for a long
time and it has become possible for high-level
representatives to meet and exchange views
with an open mind. This is a tremendous step
towards the solution of the reunification
question.
At present the whole
nation desires the reunification of the
country. Today nothing is more urgent for the
Korean people than national reunification. If
we fail to reunify the country as soon as
possible and allow national division to
continue, our nation may become a plaything of
the great powers and be divided into two for
ever.
The most important
factor which characterizes a nation is the
community of language and culture. Even
people of the same descent cannot be regarded
as belonging to the same nation if they use
different spoken and written languages and
their cultures and customs differ. Now,
because our country has been divided for a
long time, the language, as well as the
culture and way of life, is already changing
in the north and the south. The longer the
division of the nation, the greater the
difference in the language and way of life
will be.
After liberation some
people in the northern half of the country
insisted that the Korean alphabet should be
reformed.
But I opposed it. If
we carry out an alphabet reform when the
country is not reunified, the Korean people
will be divided in two for ever. So I told the
linguists at the time that if ever al alphabet
reform was to be introduced it should be after
the reunification of the country, but never
before reunification. If either side were to
carry out an alphabet reform while the country
is divided, the north and the south would come
to use different letters. In that case, our
nation would be divided into two nations once
and for all.
We cannot tolerate
that the Korean nation should be split into
two for ever. We should reunify the country
as soon as possible and hand over a unified
country to posterity. If we end national
division and achieve reunification, our
country can become a powerful state with a
population of 50 million, a brilliant national
culture, and a powerful national economy,
which no one will dare provoke.
In order to reunify
the country, it is necessary to establish the
fundamental principles correctly, which can
provide the basis for the solution of the
reunification question. This is most
important. Only when there are fundamental
principles agreed upon by the north and the
south, can the two sides make joint efforts
for reunification and successfully solve all
problems concerning it.
I believe that our
reunification question should on all accounts
be settled independently without foreign
interference and peacefully on the principle
of promoting great national unity.
First, national
reunification should be achieved
independently without reliance on outside
forces and free from their interference.
Solving the
reunification question independently on the
principle of self-determination of the people
is the principled stand which has always been
maintained by the Government of our Republic.
If we depend on
outside forces we cannot solve this problem.
The question of Korean reunification is
entirely an internal affair of our country.
If we try to solve this internal affair by
relying on outside forces instead of settling
it on our own, it is shameful for our nation.
Some people are now
trying to solve the reunification problem with
guarantees afforded by big powers. This is a
great mistake. The imperialist powers do not
want to see our country reunified .By nature,
they like division and attempt to divide other
countries and peoples by all possible means,
because it is difficult to rule them when they
are united. Therefore, we should on no account
rely on the great powers in settling the
reunification question. If contacts are
established and talks are held within our
nation, we can remove distrust and
misunderstanding and achieve national unity
and reunification. Why then should we ask for
the help of great powers?
We should not
tolerate foreign interference affairs of Korea
under any circumstances. No foreign force has
the right to meddle in Korean affairs, and
while there is foreign interference the
question of national reunification cannot be
solved in keeping with the desire and
interests of our nation. The reunification of
the country should be achieved by the Korean
people themselves free from any foreign
interference.
You say that the
south Korean authorities are also opposed to
foreign interference and intend to settle the
question of national reunification
independently without US and Japanese
involvement, and pledge that you will never
become a stooge of the United States or
Japan. If this is true, it is excellent.
If we are to reject
foreign intervention and reunify the country
independently, we must categorically oppose
flunkeyism towards great powers.
I always tell our
officials that, if a man takes to flunkeyism,
he will become a fool; if a nation falls into
flunkeyism, the country will be ruined; and if
a party adopted flunkeyism, it will make a
mess of the revolution and construction. If a
man wants to be an independent being, he must
never adopt flunkeyism which means worshipping
others blindly.
As our country is
geographically located in the midst of big
countries, flunkeyism has played a great part
in the history of our people. It hampered the
advance of our people in building a new
society after liberation. So we have fought
tirelessly against it.
Let me take an
example from the days after liberation.
Immediately after liberation there were quite
a few people who had been affected with
flunkeyism even amongst those who called
themselves communists. In Seoul at that time,
a fellow, Pak Hon Yong by name, claimed that
he would make our country a member republic of
another country. This had a very bad influence
on the south Korean people and greatly
hindered the settlement of the reunification
question. On hearing his words, some people
were afraid that our country was going to be
subjugated again to a foreign country. In my
speech before the people, therefore, I said
that we would build a democratic society of a
Korean type, not a Soviet or American type, in
the interests of the Korean nation.
When we advanced the
policy of agricultural cooperativization in
the postwar years, a number of people tried to
discredit it. Some asked how we could
cooperativize agriculture when our industry
had been devastated, claiming that European
countries with developed industries had not
yet undertaken full-scale agricultural
cooperativization. Since flunkeyists used to
accept willingly what people from large
countries said, I refuted their argument with
the words of Lenin. Lenin had said that a
communal economy established by a simple
merger of peasants’ lands and farm implements
would be superior to a private economy. So I
said that our Party’s policy of agricultural
cooperativization was in accord with Leninism
and was to meet the requirement of our
particular situation. I asked them how it
could be that agricultural cooperativization
after industrialization was the only correct
way. In the end, they admitted that our view
was correct.
At that time, the
circumstances of our peasants, in fact, were
such that they were unable to survive unless
they united their efforts through
cooperativization. The war had devastated
agriculture, and the peasants were short of
draught cattle and farm implements. This was
also true of rich farmers. In this context, we
ensured that peasants organized cooperatives
on the principle of voluntary membership and
ran them by their united efforts. Basically,
we Koreans like to pool our efforts and help
one another. Traditionally, our people have
good customs. For instance, if a neighbour
has a wedding, the whole village offers the
family contributions and various other kinds
of aid, calling on them to congratulate them
and pass a pleasant time with them. In the
postwar years, there were not many modern farm
machines in our country. But we were able to
cooperativize agriculture rather smoothly in a
short time because life itself urgently
demanded it and the peasants supported the
cooperative policy actively.
In establishing
economic relations with other countries, we
have thoroughly rejected flunkeyist tendencies
and held fast to an independent stand.
We have not tolerated
any relations which could result in our
economic dependence on other countries. We
have established and developed economic
relations with them on the principle of
defending the national economy thoroughly, on
the principle of complete equality. In our
trade with developed socialist countries, we
have made sure that we give them raw materials
they need only when they give us those which
we need, and that we buy their machines only
on condition that they buy ours. If this
principle was not maintained in our economic
relations with developed countries when our
technology is not yet very highly developed,
we would have to keep supplying raw materials
to them and buying manufactured goods. This
would end in leaving only empty mountains
riddled with holes in our country. We cannot
hand down such mountains to our posterity, can
we?
We worked hard not to
be economically subordinated to another
country, that is, to be self-supporting in the
economy. If a people do not achieve economic
independence through the building of an
independent national economy, they cannot hope
to raise the external authority of their
country and to have a say in the international
arena. Since we have pursued an independent
policy in the sphere of economic construction
and built an independent national economy,
nobody dare apply pressure on us.
In the past the
worship of great powers was most obvious in
the field of literature and the arts, and we
waged a resolute fight against this.
Some of the writers
and artists worshipped European literature and
art and produced works which were neither to
the liking of the Koreans nor understandable
to them. Once there were poets who worshipped
Pushkin and musicians who adored Tchaikovsky.
In creating an opera, these people patterned
it on Italian ones. Flunkeyism was so rampant
that some artists drew foreign landscapes
instead of our beautiful mountains and
rivers. During the Fatherland Liberation War
I visited a hospital where I found a picture
of a Siberian landscape. It showed a bear
crawling about the snow-covered ground under a
large tree. So, I severely criticized the
people concerned. I told them, “There are
many renowned mountains such as Mts. Kumgang
and Myohyang. Why did you hang that kind of
picture instead of a beautiful Korean
landscape? What is the good of hanging such a
picture in educating our people?”
The Korean people
have a brilliant culture and have lived in the
beautiful land of three thousand ri for a long
time. They will live in our beautiful
homeland in the future, too.
They cannot live in
Siberia or in Europe. Therefore, our
literature and art should, on all accounts,
serve the education of our people in patriotic
spirit. Internationalism cannot exist apart
from patriotism. He who does not love his own
country cannot be true to internationalism.
Koreans do not like European artistic works.
They do not want to see artistic works which
are not to their liking. We do not need works
which Koreans do not like and which are not
congenial with their national feeling. That
is why I defined literature and art of
socialist realism as being national in form
and socialist in content.
We conducted the
struggle against flunkeyism by means of
ideological struggle, theoretical struggle to
root out flunkeyist ideas which remained in
the minds of people. Through many years of
struggle against flunkeyism, we were able to
eradicate it completely and hold fast to
independence in all spheres of the revolution
and construction.
In our attempts to
solve the question of national reunification,
we must strongly oppose the tendency of
flunkeyism to rely on foreigners, rather than
believing in the strength of our own nation.
We must reunify the country independently by
the united efforts of the Korean nation.
Secondly,
great national unity should be promoted by
transcending the differences in ideas,
ideals and systems.
The question of our
country’s reunification is not one of who
prevails over whom. It is one of attaining
the unity of a nation which has been divided
by an outside force and achieving national
sovereignty. In order to reunify the country,
therefore, it is essential to proceed from
endeavours to achieve unity between the north
and south and promote great national unity.
In order to promote
this, the north and the south must transcend
their ideas and systems and refrain from
pursuing hostile policies towards each other.
At present different
ideas and systems exist in the two parts of
our country. In this situation, the north and
the south should not try to impose their ideas
and systems upon each other. We do not intend
to impose the socialist system and communist
ideology on south Korea. Neither should the
south Korean authorities insist on
“reunification by prevailing over communism”
nor demand that we desist from communism. In
other words, they should discard their
“anti-communist” slogans.
The north and the
south should discard hostile policies which
obstruct unity, and combine their efforts to
find common ground. If each side does not
endeavour to find common ground but opposes
the other side and argues about things of the
past in an attempt to justify itself, the gap
between the two sides will grow wider and
wider and the reunification of the country
will be delayed still further. This would be
a grave crime against the country and the
nation.
In our opinion, it is
quite possible to find a common ground if the
north and the south work together, basing
themselves on a sincere desire for unity. We
have worked hard to discover this common
ground in order to hasten the country’s
reunification.
Recently, the south
Korean authorities have been talking about
“self-help”, “self-reliance” and
“self-defence”. We consider that it is
possible to find some common factors here. We
think that their “self-help”, “self-reliance”
and “self-defence” may have some points in
common with the independent policies of our
Party and the Government of the Republic. The
country’s reunification will be hastened if
the north and the south discover, one by one,
what common grounds exist between them and
achieve their unity on this basis.
In achieving the great
unity of the nation it is important to remove
misunderstanding and mistrust between north
and south.
Our country has been
divided for so long that there are a number of
points on which the north and the south differ
from each other and misunderstand and mistrust
each other. As long as the two sides
misunderstand and distrust each other, there
cannot be genuine national unity. A family
cannot be formed without deep trust between
husband and wife. Even in the case of husband
and wife, if they do not trust each other,
they cannot live together and, in the long
run, they will have to divorce. The north and
the south should strive to eliminate mutual
misunderstanding and mistrust.
To this end, the
authorities and many personages of the two
parts of the country should make frequent
contact with each other and hold dialogues in
good faith. If they get together and discuss
any matters frankly and seriously,
misunderstanding will be removed and mutual
trust will be deepened.
Through our dialogue
with you on this occasion, the
misunderstanding between the north and the
south has already been alleviated to a
considerable extent. The dialogue between the
north and the south should have been held
earlier.
We thought that the
south Korean authorities were going to be
lackeys of US imperialism and Japanese
militarism and sell out the country. But you
say that this will never be the case. You
also say that the south Korean authorities
will neither bring Japanese militarists into
south Korea again nor sell out the country as
the lackeys of the United States and Japan,
and request us over and over again to believe
it. So we can believe you and eliminate our
past distrust.
The south Korean
authorities say that they have had the
misconception that we are going to “invade the
south” and “communize” south Korea. But we
have no intention of doing these things. We
have declared on many occasions that we have
no intention of “invading the south”. We
reaffirm this to you today. As for
”communization”, we do not intend to
“communize” south Korea nor could it be
“communized” even if we tried to. Therefore,
I think that you can now dispel the
misunderstanding you have had because of the
alleged “invasion of the south” and
“communization”. If we remove our
misunderstanding and deepen trust through
contacts and dialogues in this way, we shall
be able to achieve great national unity
regardless of the differences in idea and
ideals, systems and religious beliefs.
Another important
factor in achieving great national unity is
that the north and the south should refrain
from abusing and slandering each other.
To achieve unity and
cooperation, both sides should respect each
other rather than resort to abuse and
slander. If they continue abusing and
slandering each other as they do now, the
north and the south will not get on close
terms but, instead, the gap will widen. That
is why they should first stop abusing and
slandering each other.
Achieving economic
cooperation between the north and the south is
also very important in attaining great
national unity.
The northern half of
the Republic is rich in natural resources and
has a developed heavy industry. South Korea
has some foundations of light industry from
the past. If the north and the south effect
economic cooperation and meet each other’s
needs, they will be better able to solve
immediate economic problems, and develop the
national economy rapidly by their own efforts
without introducing foreign capital. If the
national economy is developed through
north-south cooperation, our nation will be
better off than Japan or any other countries
that are said to be developed.
The north and the
south should advance jointly in external
relations, too. Only then will we be able to
demonstrate the unity of our nation.
We consider that the
north and the south will be able to promote
great national unity in spite of the
differences in their ideas and systems,
political views and religious beliefs, if they
all take a patriotic attitude and stand for
national reunification. At present, even those
countries and nations which have different
ideas and systems, are on friendly terms and
get along well together. And there is no
reason why the differences in ideas and
systems should prevent our nation, which is of
the same blood, from uniting and cooperating.
Whether one believes
in communism, nationalism or capitalism must
not bean obstacle to great national unity. We
are not opposed to the nationalists and
capitalists in south Korea. The majority of
the south Korean capitalists are national
capitalists. We have been pursuing a policy
of protecting national capitalists. For the
sake of national reunification, we will unite
and cooperate with the people of all
backgrounds in south Korea including
nationalists and national capitalists.
Thirdly,
national reunification should be achieved by
peaceful means without resorting to arms.
The north and the
south, one and the same nation, must not fight
against each other. We must reunify the
divided country peacefully without fail. If
peaceful reunification fails and another war
breaks out in Korea, our nation will suffer
catastrophes.
At present the great
powers of the world want to get on well with
one another, refraining from quarrelling.
Some time ago US President Nixon visited China
and said that it would be desirable to abstain
from quarrelling with each other and maintain
peace for the space of one generation. After
inspecting the Great Wall of China, he even
said that no barrier should divide the people
of the world. In the joint statement of
China, the United States published as a result
of Nixon’s visit to China, the United States
approved the five principles of peace which it
had so far refused to recognize. It is good
that the United States approved these
principles. Needless to say, we shall have to
wait and see how the Americans will put their
words into action. More often than not the
imperialists go back on their words. So there
is no knowing clearly if Nixon spoke sincerely
or not in China.
Commenting on Nixon’s
trip to China, our Rodong Sinmun wrote. “If
Nixon’s words uttered after inspecting the
Great Wall are serious, why does he not make
efforts to remove the Military Demarcation
Line which runs across the central part of our
country and to withdraw the US soldiers who
are swaggering about, wearing steel-helmets
with the inscribed “MP”?” I think this comment
is valid.
Nowadays, the big
powers of the world are trying to abstain from
quarrelling and get on harmoniously with one
another. Then why should one and the same
nation fall out with itself? As the same
nation, we must not quarrel among ourselves.
We must reunify the country by peaceful means.
If the country is to
be reunified peacefully without conflict
between the north and the south, it is
imperative, first of all, to reduce the armies
of both sides. On several occasions, I have
said in my open speeches that the armies of
the north and the south ought to be reduced
considerably.
Reduction of the
armies is the way to ease tension between the
two sides and to lessen the military burdens.
The present military burdens of the two sides
are very heavy.
We must work together
to remove the Military Demarcation Line which
divides our country into north and south.
The danger of war
cannot be removed in the present situation
when large armed forces of both sides confront
each other across the Military Demarcation
Line. In such a situation, if the commander
of a regiment or a division stationed in the
area along this demarcation line opens fire by
mistake at a place, both sides will begin to
exchange fire, and this could lead to war.
This is very dangerous.
If in the future the
north and the south give guarantees against
the use of armed forces between them through
sincere consultation, and put this into
practice, their military equipment and
personnel deployed in the areas on the
Military Demarcation Line will become
unnecessary and the line itself can be
eliminated.
At present, the north
and the south say their armies are for
self-defence. However, they should not
undertake “self-defence” against each other.
They must work together to defend themselves
against foreign invasion.
The defence of our
Republic is always meant to oppose foreign
aggression against our nation. We will never
tolerate the aggression of outside forces
against our country and people.
When the US
imperialists sent their armed spy ship Pueblo
into the territorial waters of our Republic,
the naval forces of our People’s Army captured
it. This was a legitimate self-defence
measure of our People’s Army whose mission is
to defend their country. But instead of
apologizing to us, the Americans threatened us
by bringing large forces including the
aircraft carrier Enterprise to the East Sea.
It was a flagrant infringement of and a grave
challenge to our nation’s sovereignty. We did
not yield to the Americans’ threat and
pressure. They attempted to start a war by
mobilizing large forces, so we made a firm
determination to fight against them. Seeing
that we did not succumb to their threat and
pressure, they desisted from starting a war
and fled. Had they unleashed war at that time
our nation would have gone through another war
and the authorities of the north and the south
could not have met and had a peaceful talk
like this one today.
If any foreigners
invade our land in the future, the north and
the south must unite and repulse the
invaders. When all the Korean people unite
their strength, they will certainly smash any
aggressor.
We must eliminate
military confrontation and ease tension
between the north and the south by our joint
efforts, so that we can prevent another war in
Korea and achieve the peaceful reunification
of the country.
Through the recent
talks we have found important common grounds
between the north and the south and reached an
agreement regarding the most important
problems.
The three principles
of realizing independent reunification without
outside interference, achieving great national
unity by transcending differences in ideas,
ideals and systems, and reunifying the divided
land by peaceful means without recourse to
armed force, are the starting point of and the
basis for the solution of our reunification
question.
You have agreed to
solve the reunification question on the three
principles, and you say the highest
authorities of south Korea will also agree.
So we can say we have reached complete
agreement on the three principles of national
reunification.
I am very pleased
that the three principles of national
reunification have been agreed upon between
the north and the south in our talks today.
The three principles
of national reunification upon which the north
and the south agreed through joint
consultation are absolutely fair principles
which will enable our nation to solve the
reunification question in conformity with its
aspirations and demand. We must reunify our
country on these three principles. You have
pledged that you will take them as the basis
for your future actions. If you do so, other
problems concerning the solution of the
reunification question can also be settled
successfully and our nation’s reunification
will be achieved at an early date.
Now that the basic
principles of reunification have been agreed
upon, we must find concrete ways of putting
them into effect to unite the whole nation and
reunify our country. We must always proceed
from the three principles in seeking concrete
ways for national reunification. When the
north and south consider the matter carefully
and sincerely consult each other on the basis
of the three principles of independence, great
national unity and peaceful reunification,
they will be able to find the successful path
towards reunification.
To find the
reasonable way towards the independent and
peaceful reunification of the country, we have
to develop further political consultations
between the north and the south and carry on
contacts and dialogues more actively.
I think that
political consultations have already begun
through the meetings and talks held on this
occasion between the high-ranking
representatives of the north and the south.
North-south political consultations having
been started, we must develop them so as to
bear good fruit.
You have come to
Pyongyang first, so I should like to send our
representatives to Seoul in return. I think
that if mutual trust increases and various
conditions mature in the process of frequent
visits of representatives from the north and
the south, summit talks will also become
possible.
In the future
representatives of the north and the south
must exchange frequent visits and hold a great
many talks.
The misunderstanding
and distrust created between the north and the
south during the nearly 30 year-long division
after liberation cannot be eliminated through
one or two contacts and dialogues. One or two
meetings and consultations will not be enough
to discover all the concrete ways for the
solution of the reunification question.
Through these talks we have solved fundamental
problems upon which the north and the south
misunderstood each other and have found
important common grounds, but many problems
are yet to be solved to reunify the country.
These problems can be solved only through
frequent contacts and sincere consultations
between representatives of both sides.
In the north-south
negotiations and consultations, the points of
mutual misunderstanding and all other problems
concerning national reunification must be
discussed. Any dissenting opinions must be
aired frankly for discussion. If they are
kept to oneself, the differences cannot be
solved. Any misunderstanding, however
insignificant, must be discussed openly and
settled promptly.
North-south
negotiations must proceed from the principle
of deepening mutual understanding, finding
common points and increasing their unity. Our
representatives and yours may advance
different views in seeking the path to
national reunification. So they may argue for
the justness of their own views. But the
arguments should always be intended for
finding common grounds and achieving unity and
reunification, not for division.
I think it reasonable
to organize and run a north-south joint
commission or the like in order to coordinate
north-south relations correctly and
successfully solve various problems regarding
the reunification of the country.
Coordinating work
should be conducted in practice by organizing
a joint commission. If only general talks are
held, great progress cannot be made in
bringing about national unity and
reunification.
The joint commission
can be co-chaired by persons in high authority
appointed respectively by the authorities of
the north and the south and be composed of the
necessary members. It takes only a little time
to fly between Pyongyang and Seoul. So the
commission can be run by you coming over to
Pyongyang and our people going to Seoul.
Once the joint
commission is formed, there will be many
problems to be settled by it. It should
quickly discuss and settle various problems
arising from the relations between north and
south, including the problem of one side
refraining from slandering the other side and
the problem of preventing military conflicts.
At the joint commission one side should not
force its will upon the other; problems raised
should be discussed seriously until mutual
understanding is reached to conform with the
purpose of unity.
A direct telephone
line may be installed between Pyongyang and
Seoul, by which to discuss problems at any
time. If even a minor problem which may hamper
national reunification or cause
misunderstanding between both sides arises, it
is necessary to deal with it at once by
telephone, talk it over and settle it
promptly.
The three principles
of national reunification agreed upon this
time between north and south serve as a
reunification programme to be put into effect
jointly by the entire Korean nation. I think
it a good idea to make these three principles
public, so that the entire Korean people and
the world’s people will know them.
The publication of the
three principles of national reunification is
good both for the education of our people and
for demonstrating the unity of the Korean
nation to the world. If we publish the
reunification programme agreed upon between
north and south, all compatriots at home and
abroad will have a consensus of opinion, being
aware that we are going to reunify the divided
country independently and peacefully on the
principle of great national unity, and all
sections of the people will derive great
encouragement from it. When we publish the
joint reunification programme of the nation,
the world’s people will know that the Korean
people are a great united people and the
foreign forces opposed to our country’s
reunification will clearly understand that
they will never be able to divide the Korean
nation permanently, however hard they may try.
As for when and how we
should publish the three principles of
national reunification, it had better be
discussed in the course of the forthcoming
dialogue. I think it will do to publish it
when an agreement is reached at another
meeting of the delegates of both sides after
the matter is taken up by the south Korean
authorities upon your return to Seoul.
Since you took the
trouble to come to Pyongyang, you should stay
another day and have talks with our officials.
Your visiting us is a
patriotic deed. Man should be a patriot, not
a quisling. Man should do things which are
beneficial to his country and people even if
he lives for only a day. Only such a life is
glorious and worthwhile.
We can say that the
current north-south talks were a success. I
hope that you will come to Pyongyang
frequently from now on.