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