KIM IL SUNG
ON OUR PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE FOR SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION
AND NATIONAL REUNIFICATION
Talk to a Delegation from the Communist Party of the United States of America
June 24, 1988
On behalf of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea I should like to warmly welcome the delegation from the Communist Party of the United States of America, headed by Comrade General Secretary, to our country.
I am grateful to you. Comrade General Secretary, for your detailed introduction of the political situation in the United States and of the activities of the US Communist Party as well as for your admirable speech in strong support of the struggle of our Party and our people for socialist construction and national reunification.
Our Party and people are now implementing two tasks: firstly, the complete victory of socialism through accelerating the building of socialism in the northern half of Korea and, secondly, the independent, peaceful reunification of our country as soon as possible through joint efforts with the south Korean people, who are fighting for independence, democracy and national reunification.
In accordance with the policy advanced by the Sixth Party Congress, we are now waging an energetic struggle to achieve the complete victory of socialism.
The Sixth Congress of our Party defined imbuing the whole of society with the Juche idea to be the general task of our revolution and set the attainment of the complete victory of socialism as the immediate fighting task in modelling the whole society on the Juche idea.
In order to build a communist society by transforming the whole of society in accordance with the Juche idea, we must capture two fortresses, in other words, the ideological fortress and the material fortress. We cannot build a communist society if we take only the material fortress. We must conquer the ideological fortress as well as the material fortress, and we must give priority to efforts to occupy the ideological fortress. Unless we remould all people along communist lines, we cannot seize the material fortress of communism either. However, this does not justify neglecting the work to take the material fortress. If people experience inconvenience in their daily life because of a shortage of goods owing to unsatisfactory work to scale the material fortress, they may not support socialist and communist society with all their heart, no matter how fully they are prepared ideologically.
The basic means of achieving the complete victory of socialism and building a communist society is to vigorously promote the three revolutions—ideological, technical and cultural. This is essential for succeeding in capturing both the ideological and material fortresses of communism. Our Party has defined the three revolutions as the basic content of the revolution that must be carried out in a socialist society, as the task of the uninterrupted revolution that must be carried out until communism is built, and is directing great efforts into effecting these revolutions.
Above all else, our Party is giving strong impetus to the ideological revolution.
The ideological revolution aims to turn all members of the society into communist-type people through reeducation. In other words, it works to revolutionize them and assimilate them into the working class.
To achieve the complete victory of socialism, it is extremely important to intensify educational work to remould people into revolutionary and working-class patterns. Only when ideological education is increased among people, will it be possible to establish in the whole of society the communist tone of working and living—one for all and all for one. If a working-class party neglects ideological education after it has carried out socialist revolution and established a socialist system, obsolete ideas lingering in the minds of people will grow. In the end, people will become degenerate ideologically and inclined to lead an easy life, disliking work. If this happens, opium addicts and drunken brawlers may appear, and, in consequence, it will be impossible to build a socialist and communist society successfully.
The revolutionary education of people must be further intensified as the revolution advances and life becomes prosperous. When people are in need, their enthusiasm to make revolution is high and they work in good faith. However, when they have no worries about food, clothing or housing, they will become contented, their revolutionary zeal may gradually cool and they may show no enthusiasm for their work.
Under the Japanese imperialist colonial rule in the past our people lived in extreme poverty. At that time they were slaves, exploited and oppressed not only by the Japanese imperialists, but also by the landlords and capitalists. However, at present our people all lead a good life. It cannot be said as yet that they enjoy a rich material life, but they are leading a happy life, with no worries about food, clothing and housing. In our country everyone is entitled to be supplied with provisions by the state from the moment he or she is . Our industrial and office workers are supplied with provisions by the state at nominal prices. The state buys rice from the peasants for 60 jon per kilogramme and supplies it to industrial and office workers for 8 jon. In fact, the money the state charges industrial and office workers for provisions hardly covers transport costs. In our country the people are provided with housing free of charge. The state builds housing not only for industrial and office workers, but also for coop erative farmers. All our people enjoy the benefits of free medical care. If anyone falls ill, he or she can undergo medical examination and get medicine gratis at a hospital. If necessary, one may receive hospital treatment. Universal eleven-year free and compulsory education is in effect in our country. In order to ensure that pupils and students have no difficulties in their studies, the state supplies school uniforms free of charge and sells school requisites at considerably cheaper prices than other goods. The state even provides scholarships to university and college students. Therefore, if we are to ensure that our people enjoy more prosperous and cultured lives, we must step up ideological education, so that they will work with great enthusiasm, displaying creativity and highly conscious of being masters of the revolution.
The most important thing in carrying out ideological revolution is to induce the members of society to strengthen their life in a revolutionary organization. In our country all members of society belong to a political organization and receive ideological training through their life in the organization. Schoolchildren lead their life in the Children’s Union, young people in the League of Socialist Working Youth, and Party members in the Party organization. Furthermore, workers lead their life in the trade unions, cooperative farmers in the Union of Agricultural Working People, and women in the Women’s Union.
In our country the entire Party, the whole nation and all the army study. Everyone raises his or her political and ideological level by belonging to a study and lecture network, according to his or her intellectual level and to the characteristics of his or her profession. In our country people study regularly, cadres in the study group for cadres and Party members and other working people in the study group for Party members and other working people. All people attend public lectures twice a month. In our country even the members of the Children’s Union, to say nothing of the cadres. Party members and other working people, arm themselves with the ideas and policies of our Party and receive communist education regularly.
We have achieved great success in revolutionizing people and assimilating them into the working class by pressing ahead with the ideological revolution, giving definite priority to it over all other work. Today the ideological and mental state of our people is very good.
We are also vigorously promoting the technical and cultural revolutions.
Our technical revolution aims at freeing the working people from difficult and arduous labour. We intend to free our working people, who have been emancipated from the exploitation and oppression of the imperialists, landlords and capitalists, even from difficult and backbreaking work.
In order to free the working people from difficult and arduous labour, in all sectors of the national economy outdated techniques must be replaced by new techniques, and mechanization, semiautomation, automation and robots must be introduced into work. In this sense the technical revolution is essentially a mechanical revolution. In the United States, a developed capitalist country, it will not be so difficult to lay the material foundation commensurate with a socialist society once the capitalists are overthrown and the people seize power. However, it is not at all easy for our country, which has taken over a backward colonial economy, to introduce mechanization, semiautomation, automation and robots into all production processes. To attain this in our country, we still have to do a lot of work, and this will require considerable time.
We are channelling great efforts into stepping up the rural technical revolution.
The basic task we have set forth for the rural technical revolution is to attain irrigation, electrification, mechanization and the use of chemicals in agriculture. Only when this is achieved, can agricultural production be increased and peasants freed from difficult work, working eight hours a day like workers. We have already accomplished the tasks of irrigation and electrification of agriculture. We are now working to complete comprehensive mechanization and the use of chemicals.
We are developing the socialist rural economy strictly in our own way. It is said that some socialist countries are effecting a system of individual responsibility for production or a household piecework system in rural areas. However, we are not doing so. We are steadily consolidating and developing a socialist cooperative economy in accordance with the policy set forth in Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country. I published these theses a long time ago. They clearly expound the principles and ways to develop agriculture in a socialist society. Our country, which is thoroughly implementing the socialist rural theses, raises good crops every year. We are not yet able to sell grain to other countries, but we have attained self-sufficiency in food. It is not easy to attain self-sufficiency in food for our country that has a small crop area in comparison with its population. Our real life clearly shows the validity and vitality of the Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country. Some socialist countries are said to be introducing reform and restructuring, but our country is not doing so. In the course of building socialism we have already reformed and restructured what was wrong. Therefore there is nothing more to be reformed and restructured.
We intend to turn cooperative ownership into all-people ownership and develop the cooperative farms into large socialist farms in future. Our country has been managing large socialist farms on a trial basis for a long time. We have provided sufficient modern farm machines to a state farm that has 8,000 hectares of arable land, enabling it to do all farm work with the help of machines. On that farm each worker is now cultivating 30 hectares of crops. This shows that in socialist countries turning farms into large state farms is an absolutely correct way of developing the agricultural productive forces and freeing the peasants from difficult and arduous labour.
Agriculture is developed in the United States and the level of mechanization is high. At present the United States produces a large amount of grain and exports some of it. According to publications, the developed state of agriculture in the US is attributable to large farms having been organized and crops raised on a scientific and technical basis. In the US the owners of large farms are agricultural capitalists, and the products of the farms are mostly owned by them. Therefore the agricultural labourers hired by the farms cannot display creativity. However, because the level of mechanization is high on these farms, they achieve a success in agricultural production that cannot be attained by a small-scale farm economy.
The large farms we intend to form in our country in future are fundamentally different in character from those of the United States. The owners of our large farms will be agricultural workers and the products of the farms will be entirely owned by them. For this reason the agricultural workers will display all their creative initiative for society and themselves. In future, when we develop our cooperative farms into large state farms, they will display incomparably great superiority and vitality than large capitalist farms.
We are now working to carry out the Third Seven-Year Plan for Development of the National Economy. This plan ends in 1993. By that time we shall annually produce 10 million tons of steel, 100,000 million kwh of electricity, 120 million tons of coal, 22 million tons of cement, 7.2 million tons of chemical fertilizers, 1,500 million metres of fabric, 1.7 million tons of nonferrous metals, 15 million tons of grain and 11 million tons of seafood. We shall also have reclaimed 300,000 hectares of tidal flats by that time. When all this is achieved, our country will rank among the developed countries.
Along with the ideological revolution, the cultural revolution aims at turning people into communist types. The cultural revolution is closely related to the ideological revolution. People can become genuine communist types when they have not only revolutionized themselves and assimilated themselves into the working class, but also attained a high cultural and intellectual level. Only when people have attained a high cultural and intellectual level, will they not commit misdemeanours and work more conscientiously. Only then will it be possible to successfully take the material fortress of communism.
Promoting the cultural revolution vigorously was particularly important for our country, which was a colony of Japanese imperialism for 36 years in the past. When we regained our fatherland by fighting the Japanese imperialists, there were a large number of illiterates in our country. However, as a result of our vigorous promotion of the cultural revolution, all the working people in our country have now received general secondary schooling and attained a high level of cultural and technical knowledge.
An important policy put forward by our Party in carrying out the cultural revolution is to raise the cultural and intellectual level of all the people to that of a college graduate. In other words, it is to assimilate the whole society into the intelligentsia.
There were not many intellectuals in our country in the past. Occupying our country and enforcing their colonial rule here for a long time, the Japanese imperialists prevented Koreans from receiving higher education. In the days of the Japanese imperialist, colonial rule Koreans had to change their names to Japanese names if they wanted to receive higher education. Even those who received higher education before liberation studied mainly law and literature instead of natural sciences, including engineering. In those days Koreans could not hold important posts even after graduating from university, but merely worked as scriveners or novelists. Nevertheless, at that time they could not write novels in praise of their country.
The greatest problem in building a new society after we liberated the country was the shortage of Korean technicians. The men of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army, who had fought the Japanese imperialists shoulder to shoulder with us, were good at making speeches and shooting, but they lacked technology. In those days the correct solution of the problem of the intellectuals was a very serious problem, affecting the success in building a new society. Although the main motive force of the revolution is the working class and the peasantry, we cannot succeed in the revolution and construction with the working class and peasants alone. In the revolutionary struggle and construction work the intellectuals play no less important a role than the workers and peasants. Therefore, when we were founding our Party, we defined the intellectuals as an important component along with the workers and peasants. The emblem of our Party has a hammer, a sickle and a writing brush, symbolizing the workers. peasants and working intellectuals that comprise the Party.
After we liberated the country, we sent letters to the intellectuals scattered in various parts of the country and ensured that they were brought to us. In those days intellectuals came to us from south Korea, too. Nevertheless, very few had scientific and technological knowledge. We regarded the small number of intellectuals as priceless assets. We did not take issue with the intellectuals, although they had been into rich families and received education at Japanese universities and colleges. We regarded them as “brood hens” for training our own cadres. The intellectuals who played the role of “brood hens” in those days have become doctors and academicians and are now working at universities, colleges and scientific research institutes. Their hair has turned grey. They have hatched a large number of “chicks”. We are now rich in intellectuals. We have a huge army of 1.3 million intellectuals. Our new intellectuals do not find it hard even if they sit up all night working.
When the three-year-long Fatherland Liberation War was over in our country, we had to build many houses. However, at that time there were very few people who were able to lay bricks properly, so we sent over 600 workers abroad to learn brick-laying skills. Now our officials are good at building houses. Because our technicians and workers are efficient at construction, other countries request us to build deluxe buildings such as theatres and hotels.
Today our people are firmly armed with the Juche idea of our Party and are stepping up the great project of socialist construction, fully confident of victory. Judging by their present fighting spirit, I believe that the task of achieving the complete victory of socialism will be accomplished before long in our country.
If you personally witness our people working for grand socialist construction during your visit to our country, you will have a better understanding of our country’s socialist construction.
At the same time as stepping up socialist construction in the northern half of Korea, we are working to reunify the country.
At the Sixth Congress of our Party we put forward a proposal for reunifying the country by founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo and a ten-point policy to be carried out by this republic.
The proposal for founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo is to reunify the country by forming a federal state, leaving the ideas and social systems existing in the north and south of Korea as they are. For a long time different ideas and social systems have existed in the north and south of our country. Therefore, if we are to reunify the country, no side should try to force its ideas and social system on the other side. The north should not try to force the socialist system on the south or to swallow it up, and the south should not try to force the capitalist system on the north or to invade it. If each side tries to force its ideas and social system on the other side, it will be impossible to reunify the country peacefully.
In the ten-point policy to be carried out by the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo we clarified that this republic should be a fully independent and sovereign state and a non-aligned nation that is not a satellite of any other nation and does not depend on any foreign forces. In the ten-point policy we also made it clear that we would leave the capital invested by other nations in south Korea prior to reunification of the country intact and continue to guarantee the concessions of these countries. Capital from not only the United States but also from many other countries, including Japan, France and West Germany, has made inroads into south Korea. Those who have invested capital in south Korea fear they will be deprived of it when our country is reunified.
It would be a good idea for you. Comrade General Secretary, to read the report to the Sixth Congress of our Party if you can find the time. If you read this report, you will clearly understand the stand of our Party with regard to national reunification, including the proposal to found the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo.
At present the general internal and external situation is changing in favour of our people’s struggle for national reunification.
The south Korean people are gradually gaining a correct understanding of our Republic and are getting rid of their idea of worshipping and kowtowing to the United States. With a view to concealing their crimes as stooges of the US imperialists, the south Korean reactionaries have conducted a lot of false propaganda against the northern half of Korea among the south Korean people, labelling us communists someone’s lackeys. However, now the south Korean people know well that we set store by independence more than anyone else and consistently follow an independent policy in our state activities. In the past they regarded the US imperialists as their “benefactors”, believing them to be their “liberators” and “helpers”. Nevertheless, seeing with their own eyes how the US imperialists have turned south Korea into an advance nuclear base for their aggression, occupying south Korea and pursuing a colonial enslavement policy there for a long time, they have gradually come to see the true colours of the United States. The south Korean people have come to realize that the US imperialists are not “liberators” but aggressors, not “helpers” but predators. They have also come to realize that it is none other than the US imperialists who obstruct the reunification of our country. They have come to realize all this not by hearing anyone else’s propaganda, but through their own protracted experience.
The south Korean youth and students have now turned out for national independence, social democracy and the reunification of the country. Their spirit is soaring. On June 10 this year they called for holding talks with their counterparts from the northern half of Korea in Panmunjom and rose up in the struggle to put this into effect. The south Korean reactionaries mobilized over 60,000 policemen to repress their struggle. We recorded on videotape the struggle of the south Korean youth and students. If you have some spare time, you will be able to see it.
The situation in south Korea is now developing favourably. However, we still must solve many problems if we are to drive the US imperialists out of south Korea and reunify our country.
There are also many international problems that must be resolved in order to settle the Korean question. Needless to say, the masters of Korea are the Korean people, and the Korean question must be solved by the efforts of the Korean people themselves in all circumstances. However, it is difficult to solve the Korean question in isolation from international relations, because it is closely connected with these relations. The US imperialists are holding on to south Korea as a military base in order to check and invade the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. They have deployed over 1,000 nuclear weapons in south Korea. If they intended to invade only the DPRK, three small nuclear bornbs would be sufficient. In deploying more than 1,000 nuclear weapons in south Korea, the US imperialists aim at checking and invading not only the DPRK, but also the Soviet Union, China and other socialist countries. For a speedy solution of the Korean question problems related to it must be resolved, and we must also get help from progressive people throughout the world.
At the Sixth Congress of our Party we made it clear that independence, friendship and peace represent the underlying theme of our Party’s foreign policy. In accordance with this theme, we are developing friendly and cooperative relations with the political parties, organizations and progressive people of various countries that advocate independence and love peace.
Our Party has been hoping for a long time to further develop its relations with the Communist Party of the United States of America. I think that developing these relations is important for both the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Communist Party of the United States of America, because US imperialism is the target of struggle not only of the US Communist Party but also of our Party. US imperialism is guilty of the division of our country; it is the sworn enemy of the Korean people, obstructing the reunification of our country. The Workers’ Party of Korea and the Communist Party of the United States of America must wage a dynamic joint struggle against US imperialism.
The Workers’ Party of Korea and the Communist Party of the United States of America can wage a joint struggle against the US imperialists’ armaments race and their manoeuvres for arms buildup. At present the Soviet Union is holding talks with the United States on the problem of reducing nuclear weapons and discontinuing their production. We support the discussion of the problem of nuclear disarmament at the USSR-US summit talks, for these talks benefit the peace and security of the world and the solution of the reunification question of our country. The arms drive must be stopped. The US government must agree to the proposal of the Soviet Union to reduce strategic offensive weapons by 50 per cent and must discontinue the production of nuclear weapons.
Now that the Soviet Union and the United States are holding talks on nuclear disarmament, we intend to fight more dynamically to have the nuclear weapons and the US troops withdrawn from south Korea and to reunify our country in a peaceful way.
I think that you and the Communist Party of the United States of America can do many things conducive to the struggle of our people for national reunification. If you give the American people, including the progressives, as well as our compatriots living in your country, full information of our Party’s policy for national reunification and of the south Korean people’s struggle for national independence, social democracy and national reunification, this will greatly contribute to the reunification of our country. It is said that more than 800,000 Koreans are residing in the United States. If they are given full information of our Party’s policy for national reunification, they will extend active support for our country’s reunification. We are not now working with our compatriots in the United States as efficiently as with those in Japan. We hope that the Communist Party of the United States of America will help us by exerting a positive influence on the Koreans residing in America, so that they will support our cause and commit themselves to the struggle for national reunification.
We also believe that you can help us in promoting talks between the DPRK and the United States.
We hope to hold talks between the DPRK and the United States or tripartite talks with the participation of the DPRK, the US and south Korea to replace the Korean Armistice Agreement with a peace agreement and adopt a nonaggression declaration between the DPRK and south Korea. However, the US government opposes tripartite talks because of its misunderstanding of us. The US government misunderstands us because it has heard only the south Korean reactionaries or the misguided words of some foreigners who have nothing to do with the Korean question. The south Korean reactionaries cannot convey the earnest desire of the Korean people to the US government. To improve relations between the DPRK and the United States, the US government’s misunderstanding of our country must be dispelled. To this end, we and the US government must have face-to-face talks. Unless both sides sit down together, the misunderstanding cannot be removed.
I hope you will strive to hew a channel for talks between the DPRK and the United States. We can have both open and closed talks with the US government. In any case we want to create an opportunity to tell the US government directly of our Party’s just stand for national reunification. We want to remove the distrust between the DPRK and the United States and ease tension in the Korean peninsula by all possible means.
I am extremely pleased to have the opportunity to talk with you today. I should like to meet you again and have more talks with you, but I cannot afford to do so, because I have to leave soon for a visit to Mongolia. I regret this. My visit to Mongolia will take about ten days. You plan to stay in our country for about one week, but it would seem advisable for you to stay here a week longer than scheduled and rest. If you do so, I shall be able to meet you again, have more talks with you and accompany you to inspect some places upon my return from Mongolia.
I hope you will spend joyful days during your stay in our country, relaxing and visiting various places.
