President Kim Il Sung makes a speech at the Joint Conference of Representatives
of Political Parities and Public Organizations in North and South Korea
Great National Meeting
Representatives from 56 political parties and public organizations in the north and south of Korea met in Pyongyang in April 66 years ago.
Thanks to President Kim Il Sung’s energetic activities based on his noble love for the country, the historic conference achieved the unity of the whole nation under the banner of reunification and patriotism, transcending differences in political views and religion.
The Korean people, having lived as a homogeneous nation in the same land with a time-honored history of 5 000 years, were faced with the crisis of permanent national division in those days owing to the separate elections attempted by the US imperialists who occupied south Korea and their stooges.
At that critical moment Kim Il Sungput forward a proposal of holding north-south negotiations in the form of a consultative or joint meeting of the representatives from all political parties and public organizations in the north and the south of Korea and called upon all the patriotic and democratic forces to firmly unite to achieve the country’s reunification and independence.
At the Second Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea he advanced a policy of holding nationwide elections by the Korean people themselves and proposed to hold a joint conference in Pyongyang in April Juche 37 (1948).
His proposal for the north-south negotiations was enthusiastically welcomed and supported by many political parties, public organizations and individual personalities in south Korea.
Thanks to the energetic guidance of Kim Il Sung to prevent the division of the country and the nation by outside forces and build a reunified, democratic and sovereign state, the Joint Conference of Representatives of Political Parties and Public Organizations in North and South Korea was held for the first time in history from April 19 to 23, Juche 37 (1948) in the Moranbong Theater in Pyongyang.
In his report titled The Political Situation in North Korea, he said:
“Anyone who truly loves the country should categorically reject treacherous separate elections. In this nationwide struggle all people who are concerned about the fate of the country and the nation, must unite, irrespective of party affiliation, religious denomination and political view.
We must understand that if we fail to fight in unity and take measures of national salvation to repel US imperialist aggression at this grave, critical moment of national division, we shall be indelibly guilty in the eyes of the nation and of posterity.
We should exert all our efforts and wage a nationwide struggle to build a reunified, independent sovereign state and set up a unified government on democratic principles.”
Deeply moved by his speech, Kim Ku, head of the Independence Party of Korea, pledged to dedicate himself to sacred undertaking for the national unity and the country’s reunification under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, saying that the Korean nation should only follow the road indicated by him.
The Joint Conference was a great, historic meeting of the Korean nation which achieved great national unity by inspiring all the patriotic and democratic forces in the north and south of Korea to the struggle for the country’s reunification. The Korean people are still encouraged by the spirit of the conference and turn out in the sacred struggle for the country’s reunification.
