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.
