KIM IL SUNG
THE DPRK REPRESENTS GENUINE
PEOPLE’S POWER AND
IS A BANNER OF THE
UNITY AND SOLIDARITY OF THE MASSES
A Speech at a Banquet to Celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the
Foundation of the DPRK
September 9, 1983
Dear comrades,
Esteemed foreign guests,
Today
we are holding grand celebrations for the 35th anniversary of the foundation of
the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea, with feelings
of great national pride and amidst the warm wishes of the world’s people, at a
time when the whole country is boiling with high revolutionary enthusiasm.
On
the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK, the
glorious motherland of our people, allow me to offer my heartfelt
congratulations to our heroic working class, cooperative farmers, valiant
officers and men of the People’s Army and the People’s Security Forces,
working intellectuals and all the rest of the people who, under the unfurled
banner of the Juche idea, have struggled with complete devotion for the
prosperity and development of the country and for the victory of our
revolution.
I
would like also to extend militant greetings to the patriots, young people,
students and all the other people in south Korea who, in the face of the harsh
repression and persecution by the US imperialists and their stooges, are
fighting courageously for national sovereignty, democracy and the reunification
of the country, under the slogan of independence against America
and democracy against fascism.
On
this significant national holiday my warm greetings go also to the 700,000
Koreans in Japan
and to all our other overseas compatriots who, with a sense of honour and
pride in being citizens of the Republic, are struggling vigorously for the
prosperity and progress of the nation and the independent and peaceful
reunification of the country.
On
the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK,
high-ranking leaders, party and government delegations, delegates from
friendship organizations and prominent figures from many lands have come to our
country with feelings of deep friendship and are warmly congratulating our
people. Allow me to express a warm welcome and my deep gratitude to the members
of delegations from various countries and to all our foreign guests for coming
to our country to join us in celebrating our national holiday.
Comrades,
The
DPRK is our great revolutionary achievement.
Through
a long and arduous revolutionary struggle the genuine communists and patriots
of Korea achieved the
historic cause of national liberation and established the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in their freed country.
With
the establishment of the Republic our people, for the first time in their
history, became a dignified people able independently to hew out their destiny
as the true masters of the state and society, and our country appeared in the
international arena with pride as a fully-fledged independent and sovereign
state.
For
the last 35 years the DPRK has followed a proud path resplendent with
victories and glories and made tremendous achievements which will go down in
our nation’s history.
Under
the correct leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea the Government of the
Republic carried out the socialist revolution and set up in our country the
most superior of socialist systems free from exploitation and oppression and,
by forcefully stepping up socialist construction, converted our country into a
powerful socialist state with a solid independent national economy, brilliant
national culture and self-reliant defence.
The
DPRK is a cradle of happiness for our people.
Today,
in the embrace of the Republic, our people are fully guaranteed all political
rights and freedoms and enjoy blissful material and cultural lives. Under the
socialist system of the Republic the workers, farmers and all the rest of the
people participate freely in state and social activities enjoying equal rights
and they all live happily without any worries or cares. From the very moment of
their birth all our people without exception are guaranteed by the state and
society the right to adequate food, clothing and housing and, thanks to
universal compulsory free education and free medical care in our country, they
have the full opportunity to learn and receive medical treatment without paying
a penny. Our people’s material and cultural standards have now reached a very
high level, and the communist ideal is already blossoming into reality in
different spheres here.
We
are justified in taking great pride in the fact that, under the banner of the
Republic, we have, in the past 35 years, brought about the greatest
transformation of the century that is without precedent in our nation’s history
and built up the independent socialist country, the people’s land of bliss,
that we see in our beautiful country today.
The
DPRK represents genuine people’s power and is a banner of the unity and
solidarity of the masses.
The
Government of the Republic has served the people faithfully, regarding the
protection of their interests as the basic principle guiding its activities.
It has carried out all its policies to meet the will and demands of the people
and has striven to guarantee a happy life for them. For its devoted service to
them the Government of the Republic enjoys the unreserved support and
confidence of all the Korean people today.
Our
people have always loved the Republic dearly and actively supported and
defended it; they have devoted their all to the struggle for the Republic.
Through their own experience our people have become fully convinced that the
state power of the Republic represents genuine people’s power fighting for the
interests of the popular masses and that only when the Republic is firmly
safeguarded and constantly strengthened and developed can they enjoy a happy
life and eternal prosperity. Today our people entrust their destiny entirely to
our Party and the Government of the Republic and are solidly united with one
idea and will around them.
The
state power of the Republic serves the people and the people support the
Republic, the Party, the Government and the people are inseparably united with
one idea and purpose. This is the source of our invincibility and the sure
guarantee for all our victories.
The
DPRK is now enjoying great prosperity.
The
political, economic and military might of our Republic is greater than ever
before and the socialist construction of the country is progressing at a rapid
pace. The whole country is now seething with the gigantic labour efforts of the
working people to attain the ten long-term objectives of socialist economic
construction put forward by our Party at its Sixth Congress. All the working
people are working hard to reclaim 300,000 hectares of tideland, construct the
Nampho Barrage (now the West Sea Barrage—Tr.) and complete other challenging
nature-harnessing projects to renew the nation’s look; in all the spheres of
the national economy they are undertaking large-scale construction works to
expand production capacity on a huge scale and conducting a powerful
mass campaign to increase output radically.
In full support of the decision of
the historic Hamhung Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee, the
builders of Komdok, displaying boundless loyalty to the Party and the
revolution, miraculously completed in only one year the enormous project to
create an ore-dressing capacity of 10 million tons. With the construction of
the huge ore-dressing plant at the Komdok General Mining Enterprise, one of the
nation’s leading centres for producing nonferrous minerals, a breakthrough was
made for hitting the production target of 1.5 million tons of nonferrous
metals and radical changes were brought about in many fields of economic
construction.
Thanks
to the correct leadership of our Party and the Government of the Republic and
the heroic struggle of the working people, the “speed of the 80s”, an amazing
new speed of socialist construction, is being created everywhere in the country
and clear prospects have been opened up before us now for the successful
achievement of the ten long-term goals of socialist economic construction.
On
this auspicious national holiday, I would like to extend my warm thanks to the
heroic builders of Komdok who were forerunners in the effort to create the
“speed of the 80s” and to all the rest of the working people throughout the
country who are performing brilliant labour feats on every front of socialist
construction.
We
should continue to accelerate socialist construction without ever slackening
our present high rate and so increase the might of the Republic and achieve the
eternal prosperity of the nation.
The
Government of the Republic should hold the Juche idea as its invariable guiding
principle and firmly adhere to independent and creative stands in state
activities; it should also dynamically conduct the ideological, technical and
cultural revolutions to hasten the complete victory of socialism and
accomplish the historic cause of modelling the whole society on the Juche
idea.
The
most important task facing us for the present in socialist economic
construction to model the whole society on the Juche idea is to fulfil the
Second Seven-Year Plan and reach the ten long-term objectives of socialist
economic construction for the 1980s.
It is only when these objectives,
proposed at the Sixth Party Congress, have been attained that we will be able
to consolidate the material and technical foundations of the country and
radically improve the people’s material and cultural standards, and thus open
up a broad avenue for the complete victory of socialism.
In
reaching these ten long-term objectives we should give priority to the efforts
to provide enough food and clothing, the most important and urgent problems in
the life of the people.
Our
Party and the Government of the Republic are strongly resolved to enforce a
communist policy first with regard to these matters. We should forcefully push
ahead with the magnificent projects to transform nature, including the
reclamation of 300,000 hectares of tideland, implement the decision of the
Seventh Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee to attain the
annual production goals of 15 million tons of grain and 1,500 million metres of
fabrics ahead of schedule, and exert great efforts to develop the fishing
industry to hit the target of 5 million tons of marine products annually.
By
doing so we will be able to meet in full the people’s great demands for food
and clothing at the earliest possible date.
In
order decisively to reinforce the material and technical foundations of socialism
and rapidly to develop all the branches of the national economy, fresh
innovations should be made in the key industries.
The
key industries, such as the mining, power and metal industries, must
significantly increase production capacity at existing factories and
enterprises, modernize equipment and build many more factories and enterprises,
so as to reach the production goals set for coal, electric power, steel,
nonferrous metals, cement and chemical fertilizers.
The
effort to reach the ten long-term objectives of socialist economic
construction is an honourable and worthwhile struggle to reach new heights of
socialist construction by stepping up economic construction at an extremely
high speed.
All
Party members and working people should arm themselves with the Juche idea and
give full play to the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and strenuous
effort, continue the vigorous struggle to create the “speed of the 80s”, and so
bring about a fresh upswing on all fronts of socialist construction.
To
match the high spirits of the working people, all leading officials should be
bold in planning operations for economic construction and command them
skilfully, and meticulously organize economic work so that the tremendous tasks
of economic construction can be carried out satisfactorily.
Strengthening
the state power of the Republic, a powerful weapon of the revolution and
construction, and enhancing its function and role is an important guarantee for
the accomplishment of the cause of modelling the whole society on the Juche
idea.
The
Government of the Republic should apply the Juche idea to the letter in state
activities, properly implement democracy, continue to improve the work method
and style of government officials, and so fulfil its mission and role as a
weapon of the revolution and the servant of the people. All the people should
ardently love and positively defend the state power of the Republic and fight
devotedly to strengthen and develop it.
Comrades,
The
DPRK was founded by the general will of the north and south Korean people; it
is a political power that fights for the interests of the entire Korean nation.
In
the 35 years since its foundation, our Republic has struggled energetically for
the prosperity and progress of the nation and the reunification of the country.
But we have as yet failed to achieve reunification, the long-cherished desire
of the nation, because of the colonial enslavement policy of the US imperialists occupying south Korea and
their manoeuvres to divide the nation. The US
imperialists have trampled upon the sacred right of our people to
self-determination and made south
Korea their colony and a military base of
aggression. They persist in their scheme to perpetuate the division of our
country by fabricating “two Koreas”.
Preventing
the permanent partition of the nation and reunifying the country is the most
urgent, the noble and the supreme task facing the Government of our Republic
and all the Korean people.
Our country must be reunified on
the three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great
national unity set out in the historic North-South Joint Statement, principles
which reflect the unanimous will and desire of the Korean people.
In
order to achieve national reunification in an independent and peaceful way, it
is necessary to put an end to the military occupation of south Korea by US
imperialism and its colonial rule, realize the independence of Korean nation
and ease the tension being created in our country by the activities of the US
imperialists and their stooges to unleash another war. It is also necessary to
end the fascist policy of repressing the south Korean people and the
anti-communist rackets aimed at antagonizing people of the same blood, and to
make south Korean society democratic, so that practical conditions will be
created for national reconciliation and unity.
The
most reasonable way to reunify the country on the three principles of
independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity is to form a
Confederation of the north and south.
At
its Sixth Congress the Workers’ Party of Korea made the historic proposal to
reunify the country by establishing the Democratic Confederal Republic of
Koryo, a confederal state covering the whole territory of Korea.
This proposal envisages the north and south retaining their ideologies and
systems as they are and, on this basis, establishing a supreme national
confederal assembly and a confederal standing committee, its permanent body, in
which both sides are represented on an equal footing and under which they
exercise regional autonomy.
It
would be reasonable that, as the unified government of the con-federal state,
the supreme national confederal assembly and the con-federal standing committee
elect their respective co-chairmen, one from the north and one from the south,
who will run these bodies alternately.
We
firmly believe that the proposal to establish the Democratic Confederal
Republic of Koryo is a most fair and realistic one which can bring about
national reunification in an independent and peaceful way in the present
situation in our country and, therefore, we maintain that Korea must be
reunified according to this proposal as early as practicable.
If
national reunification is achieved through the establishment of the Democratic
Confederal Republic of Koryo, our people will realize their earnest desire for
national reunion, achieve the coordinated development of the country and the
prosperity of the nation, and demonstrate externally their dignity and grandeur
as a single, unified nation.
All
the Korean people aspire for reunification and the DPRK Government will do all
it can to achieve the genuine unity of the entire Korean nation and set up the
Democratic Confederal Republic of Koryo.
Comrades,
The
DPRK is an independent and peace-loving non-aligned country.
The
DPRK Government has invariably pursued an independent and peace-loving foreign
policy and has striven to strengthen friendship and solidarity among the
world’s progressive people who advocate independence. Today our Republic, as a
dignified, independent and sovereign state, is making an active contribution in
the international arena to humanity’s noble common cause of making the whole
world independent and has numerous supporters and close friends in every continent
and all parts of the world. Never, indeed, in our nation’s history of 5,000
years has our country exalted the dignity and honour of the Korean nation
before the whole world, enjoying such high international authority and great
influence, as today. This is a source of great pride and honour for our people.
Our
people’s revolutionary cause is advancing with the active support and
encouragement of the world’s progressive people. I would like to take this
opportunity to offer my warm thanks and greetings to the governments, political
parties and social organizations of the socialist, non-aligned and many other
countries, and to the international democratic organizations, world
organizations and the progressive people throughout the world that actively
support and encourage our people in their struggle for socialist construction
and national reunification.
A
fierce struggle is now going on in the international arena between the
anti-imperialist forces of independence and the forces of imperialism and
domination, and in this struggle the desire of the world’s people to advance
along the road to independence is growing with each passing day. The situation
in the world is extremely strained and complicated due to the US and other
imperialists’ moves for aggression and war, but the march of history is
continuing vigorously towards independence.
Realizing
global independence is the common aspiration and noble fighting
task of the world’s progressive people.
The peoples of all countries
should join the powerful stream of the times towards independence and against
imperialism, strongly combat imperialism and domination, reject all forms of
foreign interference, and hold fast to their independence. In this way they
will realize independence throughout the world.
An
important task at the moment in the struggle for global independence is for
the non-aligned and all other developing countries to effect South-South
cooperation to achieve their economic self-reliance and consolidate their
national independence.
The
developing countries can completely throw off the shackles of neocolonialism
and consolidate their national independence only when they have built strong
independent national economies. In order to build such economies they should
conduct exchange and cooperate with each other on the principle of collective
self-reliance. The imperialists and the developed Western countries will not
present them with a new international economic order or self-reliant economies
on a plate. The developing countries should not expect favours of others and
pin their hopes on the so-called “South-North cooperation”; they should believe
in their own strength and strive to realize South-South cooperation. If they
realize South-South cooperation successfully in accordance with the noble idea
of independence and the principle of mutual aid, they will be able to build
independent national economies by their own efforts, become rich, strong and
developed and bring prosperity to their peoples.
As
in the past, so also in the future, the DPRK will, under the banner of
independence, friendship and peace, strive to oppose imperialism, defend world
peace and security and promote friendly and cooperative relations among the
peoples of the socialist, non-aligned and all other countries in the world.
The
Government of the Republic strongly supports the Asian, African, Latin-American
and all other peoples who fight against the imperialists’ aggressive and
war-like actions and for peace, national independence and the building of new
societies, and expresses its firm solidarity with the working classes and
peoples in the capitalist countries battling against oppression and
exploitation by capital.
The
Government of the Republic and the Korean people will continue to fight
staunchly for global independence in close unity with the people of the world
who advocate independence.
The
35 years of the DPRK is a history of great change and creation, a proud
history of victory.
Our
Republic has a brighter future before it, and all our people are alive with renewed
fighting spirit and firm confidence. Our people will always be victorious in
their struggle for a just cause under the correct leadership of the Workers’
Party of Korea.
Let
all of us march forward boldly towards the prosperity and development of the DPRK
and the final triumph of our revolution, under the unfurled revolutionary
banner of the Juche idea, closely united behind the Party Central Committee and
the Government of the Republic.
Comrades
and friends,
Availing
myself of the opportunity presented by this significant occasion when the 35th
anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK is being celebrated, I propose a
toast:
To
the independent and peaceful reunification of the country and the lasting
prosperity of our Republic,
To
the health of the esteemed high-ranking leaders, the members of party and
government delegations and all the guests from various countries visiting us to
congratulate us on our national holiday, as well as the diplomatic envoys here,
To the health of our revolutionary
veterans and leading officials who have fought with complete devotion for the
independence and sovereignty of the country and the happiness of the people,
To the health of our heroic
working class, cooperative farmers and working intellectuals, who are
distinguishing themselves on all fronts of socialist construction,
To the health of the valiant
officers and men of our People’s Army and People’s Security Forces and the
public security personnel, who are firmly safeguarding the security of the
Republic and our revolutionary achievements,
To the health of the members of
the congratulatory group from the Revolutionary Party for Reunification who are
with us here now to celebrate our national holiday, and of all other south
Korean revolutionaries and patriots,
To the health of the members
of the congratulatory group of the Koreans in Japan and many other
congratulatory groups of overseas Koreans who are on a visit to their socialist
homeland, and of all our fellow countrymen abroad, and
To the health of all our comrades and friends present
here.