KIM IL SUNG CONDENSED BIOGRAPHY
ON PUBLISHING THE CONDENSED BIOGRAPHY
OF KIM IL SUNG
The revolutionary career of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the eternal President of the Democratic People’ Republic of Korea and the father of socialist Korea, was a noble life of a gifted ideologist and theoretician, an outstanding politician, an unexcelled military strategist, an exemplar of leadership and a benevolent father of the people, a life that flowed together with the current of the 20th century.
Having embarked on the road of the revolution in his teens, Kim Il Sung led the unprecedentedly difficult and complicated Korean revolution to a brilliant victory until he was in his eighties, achieving the liberation of the country, building a most beneficial, people-centred socialism in Korea and rendering distinguished service to the development of the world revolution.
For the immortal exploits he performed for the times and history in his effort to consummate the revolutionary cause of Juche and the cause of global independence, he will always live in the hearts of mankind as the sun of Juche.
In order to further exalt and hand down to posterity the brilliant revolutionary life and immortal revolutionary exploits of Kim Il Sung, a peerless great man and genius of the revolution and construction, the Party History Institute of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea publishes this book by supplementing the previous edition.
July Juche 90 (2001)
CONTENTS
1. April 1912-DESEMBER 1931
2. DESEMBER 1931-FEBRUARY 1936
3. FEBRUARY 1936-AUGUST 1940
4. AUGUST 1940-AUGUST 1945
5. AUGUST 1945-FEBRURY 1947
6. FEBRURY 1947-JUNE 1950
7. JUNE 1950-JULY 1953
8. JULY 1953-DESEMBER 1960
9. JANUARY 1961-NOVEMBER 1970
10. NOVEMBER 1970-OCTOBER 1980
11. OCTOBER 1980 - DESEMBER 1989
12. JANUARY 1990-JULY 1994
1
APRIL 1912-DECEMBER 1931
Kim Il Sung was born in Mangyongdae, Pyongyang City, on April 15, Juche1(1912)1
All the members of Kim Il Sung’s family were revolutionaries who fought valorously for the sovereignty and independence of the country, and for the freedom and happiness of the people.
Kim Ung U, his great-grandfather, was a patriot who stood in the van of the fight to sink the General Sherman, an armed marauding US merchant vessel, in 1866.
Kim Po Hyon, his grandfather, and Ri Po Ik, his grandmother, backed all their sons and grandsons, whom they had offered to the revolutionary struggle, and fought, remaining faithful to their national principles and unyielding to the cruet repression and persecution of the Japanese imperialists.
Kim Hyong Jik (July 10, 1894-June 5, 1926), his father, was an outstanding leader of the anti-Japanese national liberation movement in Korea who devoted his whole life to the liberation of the country and to the freedom and emancipation of the people.
He held the idea of Jiwow (Aim High-Tr.) as his motto and launched out on the path of revolution in his early days. On March 23, 1917 he formed the Korean National Association, an anti-Japanese underground revolutionary organization, which was the largest of its kind in scale and had the firmest anti-imperialist independent stand, as well as having a strong mass foundation among all the organizations formed by Korean patriots at home and abroad in those days and led it.
Kim Hyong Jik played the role of a pioneer in switching the anti-Japanese national liberation movement of the Korean people from a nation1alist movement to a communist movement, to meet the requirements of the changing situation in the wake of the March First Popular Uprising in 1919.
Kang Pan Sok (April 21, 1892-July 31, 1932), his mother, was a prominent leader of the Korean communist women’s movement who devoted her whole life to the struggle for the victory of the Korean revolution and for the social emancipation of women.
Kim Hyong Gwon, his uncle, and Kim Chol Ju, his younger brother, were also ardent communist revolutionary fighters who fought staunchly in the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle in their early days. Moreover, Kang Ton Uk, his maternal grandfather, and Kang Jin Sok, his maternal uncle, were also ardent patriots and indefatigable anti-Japanese fighters.
Kim Il Sung’s family members regarded love of their country, nation and people as the family tradition. They considered it to be their family philosophy that one could not live without humanity even though one could live without money.
Working as tenant farmers from generation to generation, his family eked out a scant living, but they had an ardent sense of patriotism, a strong appreciation of justice and a lofty human spirit. Therefore, they enjoyed respect from other people as “a poor but honest family with absolute faithfulness to a just cause”.
His father named him Song Ju, hoping that he would become the pillar of the country.
From his childhood Kim Il Sung had striking features and was endowed with unusual intelligence and a spirit of inquiry, great magnanimity, strong will, a lively nature, clear judgement and exceptional memory.
He was growing up when Korea was going through the bitterest period of its national suffering, with its people having been reduced to colonial slaves, deprived of their country at the hands of the Japanese imperialists.
Kim Il Sung acquired the traits and qualities of a great revolutionary thanks to the revolutionary influence of his parents, his tireless study and inquiry, and his witnessing and experience of contradictory social phenomena, as well as in the practical struggle against the Japanese imperialists.
Kim Il Sung spent his childhood in Mangyongdae and Ponghwa-ri.
In those days he heard from his parents about his country, with its beautiful mountains and limpid rivers, and the resourceful and brave Korean nation with a long history of 5,000 years and a brilliant culture, about the Korean people and the renowned patriotic generals who had fought daunt-lessly against the feudal ruling circles and foreign invaders, as well as about the history of Korea’s ruin and about the brutal colonial rule of the Japanese imperialists and their chauvinistic arrogance, and the harsh exploitation inflicted by the landowners and capitalists. In the course of this, he cultivated love for his country and nation.
In the autumn of 1917 he witnessed the dignified attitude of his father who awed the Japanese imperialists even while he was arrested by them in Ponghwa-ri, Kangdong County, on a charge of being involved with the Korean National Association; and he saw the fortitude of his mother, who fearlessly resisted the Japanese policemen who brutally raided and searched their house. Then, in the summer of the next year, when he had gone to Pyongyang prison to meet his father, he saw the strong demeanor of his father, who did not abandon his revolutionary mettle, firmly enduring the atrocious torture of the Japanese imperialist aggressors. This hardened his hatred against the predatory Japanese imperialists as well as his indomitable revolutionary spirit.
The nationwide March First Popular Uprising, which broke out in 1919, was an important turning point which infused the indomitable will of the Korean people and the image of their resourcefulness deep in the young heart of Kim Il Sung.
Young as he was, he went with the demonstrators from Mangyongdae to the Pothong Gate. Seeing the brutalities of the Japanese imperialists, who killed empty-handed demonstrators in cold blood with bayonets, as well as the dignified spirit of the masses, who encountered them without yielding to them in the least, he keenly felt that the Japanese imperialist aggressors were the sworn enemy of the Korean people and that the strength of the masses was inexhaustible.
After his father was released from prison, Kim Il Sung spent his boyhood moving frequently to various areas of Korea and China with his parents, who were engaged in revolutionary activities.
In the autumn of 1919 he left Mangyongdae, his native village, for Junggang, with his parents. After staying there for some time, he crossed the Amnok River to Linjiang, China. After studying Chinese for over half a year there, he entered Linjiang Primary School in the spring of 1920. In the summer of the next year he moved to Badaogou, Changbai County, and was enrolled in a four-year Chinese primary school.
Kim Il Sung gained a good command of Chinese because he had learned it at an early age and studied at a Chinese school, thanks to his father’s farsightedness. This made a great contribution to his waging a joint anti-Japanese struggle with the Chinese people later on.
Having graduated from Badaogou Primary School with honours at the beginning of 1923, Kim Il Sung returned to his homeland upholding the lofty idea of his father that, in order to make revolution, he should know the actual situation in his own country well.
He left Badaogou on March 16, and crossed Mt. Oga via Wolthan. Then he walked to Kaechon, passing through Hwaphyong, Huksu, Kanggye, Songgan, Jonchon, Koin, Chongun, Huichon, Hyangsan and Kujang. He took a train at Kaechon and arrived in Mangyongdae, his native place, on March 29. The journey of 250 miles he made from Badaogou to Mangyongdae was a “250-mile journey of learning” which enabled him to learn about his homeland and his fellow countrymen.
After returning to his homeland, Kim Il Sung stayed in his mother’s maiden home in Chilgol and studied hard in the fifth year of Changdok School (a six-year private school). In those days he bitterly experienced the reality of his homeland, ruthlessly trampled upon by the Japanese imperialist aggressors. In the course of this, he came to warmly appreciate the unbreakable will of the Korean people for independence, and was convinced that it was quite possible to win back the country through the efforts of the Koreans themselves if they were organized and mobilized well. In particular, witnessing the atrocities of the Japanese imperialists, who were exercising a brutal military occupation rule over Korea behind the mask of a crafty “civil government”, he clearly realized that they were the most heinous stiflers of the Korean people as well as vicious exploiters and plunderers. He was convinced even more firmly that the Korean nation would be able to drive out the Japanese imperialists and win the independence of their country only through struggle.
In January 1925 Kim Il Sung heard the news that his father had been arrested again by the Japanese imperialists, and resolutely left Mangyongdae to start on his “250-mile journey for national liberation”, arriving at Phophyong in 13 days.
Crossing the Amnok River, he firmly resolved not to return until Korea had won its independence.
Recalling those days, Kim Il Sung said:
“I crossed the Amnok River when I was 13, firmly determined not to return before Korea became independent. Young as I was, I could not repress my sorrow as I sang the Song of the Amnok River written by someone, and wondered when I would be able to tread this land again, when I would return to this land where I had grown up and where there were our forefathers’ graves.”
Having crossed the Amnok River, Kim Il Sung went to Fusong via Badaogou and Linjiang. His father, who had escaped while being escorted by Japanese policemen, was staying there.
At the beginning of April 1925 he was enrolled in Fusong Senior Primary School No. 1, and graduated with top honours early in spring the next year.
In his primary school days he was absorbed in his study and rendered active help to his father in his revolutionary activities. At the same time, he avidly read revolutionary books, such as The Biography of Lenin, The Fundamentals of Socialism and The Revolutionary History of Russia and Lenin, as well as of the renowned patriotic generals of Korea and of famous people in other parts of the world. In the course of this he developed a critical eye for social phenomena and revolutionary struggle as well as a faculty for independent thinking and a spirit of serious inquiry.
The lofty aim and unusually great ambition, extensive knowledge and high level of political awareness, great magnanimity and generosity possessed by
Kim Il Sung caused young students and other people to respect and follow him.
In his teens Kim Il Sung had already grown up into a revolutionary who personified the firm spirit of anti-imperialist independence and the steadfast standpoint of the working class, as well as scientific farsightedness, unusual wisdom, distinguished leadership ability and noble virtue.
Kim Hyong Jik passed away on June 5, 1926. Despite the great grief he felt upon the loss of his father, Kim Il Sung drew great strength from the valuable inheritance left by him-the concept of Aim High, preparedness for the three contingencies2, (death from hunger, from a beating and from cold), the gaining of comrades, and two pistols. He was firmly resolved to give his all to the struggle to liberate the country at any cost, true to the will of his father.
Around this time the June 10th Independence Movement3 took place, led by the early communists who had recently appeared in the arena of struggle following the March First 1919 Popular Uprising. This mass anti-Japanese demonstration ended in a failure, unable to overcome the ruthless suppression unleashed by the Japanese imperialists because of the machinations of the factionalists.
From the repeated failures of the anti-Japanese movement,
Kim Il Sung drew a stronger ideological determination to defeat the Japanese imperialists and win back the country at all costs.
He was admitted to Hwasong Uisuk School in Huadian, China, in June 1926 through the good offices of his father’s friends, who were keen to carry out his father’s death-bed injunctions and his mother’s wish to give him secondary education as well as his own aspiration to continue his studies at a higher level.
Hwasong Uisuk School was a two-year military and political school belonging to Jongui-bu4. The school was founded at the beginning of 1925 with a view to training cadres for the Independence Army.
Kim Il Sung’s admission to Hwasong Uisuk School conformed with his idea to win the independence of the country through an armed struggle.
After he entered the school, he analyzed and judged all phenomena with an unusually perspicacious eye and approached them in a critical way. Education given at this school involved only nationalist ideas and the outdated military training from the days of old Korea. Kim Il Sung was extremely disappointed with the ideological backwardness of the school. The school authorities rejected progressive ideas for no good reason, exalting the concept of nationalism alone. The limitations of Hwasong Uisuk School clearly showed those of the nationalist movement itself.
Kim Il Sung could see the whole aspect of the nationalist movement through Hwasong Uisuk School.
His expectations of Hwasong Uisuk School gradually withered.
He realized more keenly that the country’s independence could not be won by employing the old method used by the champions of the nationalist movement, and made a firm resolve to open up the path to national liberation by employing a new method. He carried out energetic activities to find the answer.
He avidly read The Communist Manifesto and other Marxist-Leninist classics in order to seek a new path for the Korean revolution.
He closely studied, in connection with the actual situation in Korea, the principles of the revolution contained in the Marxist-Leninist classics. In the course of this, he persistently studied such problems as how to regain the country’s independence, whom to define as the enemy and with whom to join hands in the struggle to liberate the country, and what should be the course of the building of socialism and communism following the country’s independence.
He considered that, in order to open up a new path for the Korean revolution, it was necessary to train genuine communists of the new generation unaffected by sycophancy and factionalism. So he spread communist ideas among the students of Hwasong Uisuk School and united, one by one, revolutionary comrades who could share the same ideal as well as life and death.
As a genuine path for the Korean revolution was being explored and a hardcore force was being prepared, Kim Il Sung channelled great efforts into the work of forming a revolutionary vanguard organization of a new type.
He convened a meeting at the end of September 1926, at which he clarified the need to form such an organization. Then he emphasized the need to unite a larger number of comrades, and gave detailed assignments to the participants in the meeting.
After going through such a period of preparation Kim Il Sung convened a preliminary meeting for the formation of a revolutionary organization on October 10, 1926, and submitted for discussion the name of the organization, its character, its fighting programme, and its rules and regulations, and proclaimed the formation of the Down-with-Imperialism Union (DIU) on October 17.
In his historic report Let Us Overthrow Imperialism, delivered at the inaugural meeting of the DIU, Kim Il Sung analyzed in full the historic experience and lessons of the anti-Japanese struggle, and put forward the fighting programme of the organization.
He said:
“The mission of the Down-with-Imperialism Union is, as its name suggests, to overthrow imperialism. Therefore, its programme should set as its immediate task the defeat of Japanese imperialism, the sworn enemy of the Korean people, and the achievement of the liberation and independence of Korea, and as its final objective the building of socialism and communism in Korea and, further, the destruction of imperialism everywhere and the building of communism throughout the world.”
Kim Il Sung said that, in order to carry out the programme of the DIU properly, its members should be closely united in ideology and will and that, at the same time, the organization should be expanded and consolidated with reliable young men firmly resolved to devote their all to the struggle against Japanese imperialism, and that its members should work in accordance with strict rules and regulations of organizational life.
At the meeting Kim Il Sung was acclaimed as the head of the DIU, in accordance with the unanimous will of the participants.
The Down-with-Imperialism Union formed by Kim Il Sung was a vanguard organization to lead the Juche revolutionary cause to victory and a genuine communist revolutionary organization, the first of its kind in Korea.
With the formation of the DIU, a vanguard organization of the revolution had appeared, a fighting programme was adopted, and leadership over the masses of the people had been realized. This means the start of the revolutionary activity of
Kim Il Sung.
Following this occasion the Korean revolution entered a new era, in which it was to advance on the principle of independence. It became the starting point of the struggle to found a party of a new type, a revolutionary party of the Juche type in Korea.
At the time Kim Il Sung formed the DIU and took the lead in the revolution, a genuine beginning was made for the Korean revolution, and the glorious revolutionary cause of Juche started.
Kim Il Sung left Hwasong Uisuk School after half a year of study, in order to carry out his revolutionary activities on a full-scale basis and moved the arena of his revolutionary activity to Jilin, a political centre where many Korean anti-Japanese champions for independence and communists in Manchuria gathered. Jilin also had the advantage of being a transportation hub.
He stopped at Fusong before going to Jilin. There he formed the Saenal Children’s Union, the first communist children’s organization in Korea, in December 1926. He helped his mother Kang Pan Sok in her revolutionary activity of forming the Anti-Japanese Women’s Association, the first revolutionary women’s mass organization in Korea.
Kim Il Sung was admitted to the second-year class of the Jilin Yuwen Middle School in mid-January 1927.
Being a private school established by the newly-emerging public circles in the city, this school was comparatively progressive.
Kim Il Sung was more absorbed in the study of progressive ideas than in that of the subjects taught at the school, in order to search for the theory, strategy and tactics of the Korean revolution.
Availing himself of his favourable situation of being the chief librarian of the school, he read many Marxist-Leninist classics, such as The Communist Manifesto, Capital, The State and Revolution, and Wage Labour and Capital, and books expounding on them. He closely studied, in connection with the specific situation in Korea, those problems which had been clarified by preceding theory.
In the course of this, he came to have the viewpoint that one should approach Marxism-Leninism not as a dogma but as a practical weapon, and search for the truth not in abstract theory but in the practice of the Korean revolution.
In addition to political books, he avidly read many revolutionary novels, such as Mother and The Iron Flood, as well as other progressive literary works reflecting the actual life of those days. While reading, he enhanced his revolutionary awareness and working-class consciousness; witnessing unfair social phenomena, he hated the classes and society of exploiters and was more firmly resolved to transform the world. Moreover, he shaped revolutionary thought and theory on art and literature and acquired great creative ability, writing drama scripts and songs, and composing music.
In his days in Jilin Kim Il Sung made his revolutionary outlook on the world unshakable, and built the framework of an independent revolutionary idea on the basis of the accumulation and experience gained in the course of his revolutionary activity.
He pressed ahead with the work of training communists of the new generation equipped with progressive ideas, in order to carry out the Korean revolution successfully. To this end, he stepped up his work of spreading Marxism-Leninism among young people and students.
He organized a secret reading circle first at Yuwen Middle School with like-minded students. Then he rapidly spread it to various schools in Jilin and frequently organized readers’ meetings, seminars, lecture meetings and oratorical contests to raise the ideological level of the students steadily, and united them in an organization.
In April 1927 he formed the Association of Korean Children in Jilin, a legal organization comprising Korean children in the city. In May that year he reorganized the Ryogil Association of Korean Students in Jilin, a legal organization of Korean students in the city backed by Korean nationalists, into the Ryugil Association of Korean Students in Jilin, turning it into a revolutionary body, from a purely friendship one.
The news of the rapid growth of the revolutionary force comprising young people and students of the new generation in and around Jilin spread to a wide area, with the result that a large number of young people got together in Jilin to receive the guidance of Kim Il Sung.
Kim Il Sung educated them to admit them to the DIU and, at the same time, spread this organization to various schools in Jilin.
As many branches of the DIU were formed and anti-Japanese sentiments mounted among the broad masses of youth and students, he reorganized the DIU into the Anti-Imperialist Youth League (AIYL), a more mass-based organization, on August 27, 1927. In subsequent days, the AIYL struck roots deep in all places where there were Korean youths, not to mention various schools and rural areas around Jilin.
Now that mass organizations had rapidly increased in number, and many fine communists of the new generation had grown up, it was necessary to form a new vanguard organization in order to develop the youth movement further.
Kim Il Sung, with deep insight into the situation of the youth movement and the requirements of the developing revolution, founded the Young Communist League of Korea (YCLK) on August 28, 1927.
The YCLK was not merely a youth organization; being a vanguard of the communists of the new generation entrusted with the mission of blazing the trail for the Korean revolution, it was a revolutionary vanguard building and leading mass organizations from all walks of life.
The YCLK played a great role in accelerating the organization of young people, training hardcore members and preparing the motive force of the Korean revolution. The forming of the YCLK gave a strong impetus to the activities of young communists to found a party of a new type and played a pivotal role in expediting its cause.
While working as head of the YCLK, Kim Il Sung also conducted the work of the young communist league along Chinese channels, thereby exercising a great influence among Chinese youths and students, too.
Extending the arena of his revolutionary activity to a wide area, he mingled closely with the people.
It was during the winter vacation of 1927 that he started to mingle with the people in real earnest under the motto “Go among the People!” in order to revolutionize the broad masses, regarding the people as his teacher and as the main motive force promoting the revolution.
When mixing with the people, he worked with them along the lines of awakening them with education in patriotism, revolutionary education, anti-imperialist education and class education as the main direction of effort, and uniting them in various kinds of mass organizations.
He worked hard to form mass organizations of different sectors of society comprising youths and other people from all walks of life.
On December 20, 1927 he organized the Paeksan Youth League, a mass-based anti-Japanese youth organization embracing young people in the neighbourhood of Mt. Paektu, with those in the area of Fusong as the hard core.
In May 1928 he went to Jiaohe and formed the Jiaohe branch of the Anti-Imperialist Youth League with progressive, hardcore youths of the Ryosin Youth Association, which was under the influence of the Korean nationalists. He transformed the Ryosin Youth Association and the Lafa Youth Association in a revolutionary way by enhancing their role, built up a genuine communist force with progressive young people within the “General Federation of Korean Youth in East Manchuria” and united great numbers of anti-Japanese youths in a revolutionary organization by drawing them over from under the influence of the factionalists.
Regarding the winning over of the peasants as the key to the victory of the revolution, he went among them and made enthusiastic efforts to organize and revolutionize them. Thus he formed in Xinantun the Peasants’ Union, the first revolutionary peasants’ organization in Korea, on March 10, 1928. Moreover, on the basis of stimulating the class awakening of the working class in Jilin, he organized a revolutionary anti-Japanese trade union on August 25, 1928.
While forming revolutionary organizations and spreading them within Manchuria and various places in Korea, he worked hard to awaken the masses in various ways.
In particular, taking into deep consideration the role and importance of art and literature in the revolutionary struggle, he personally created a large number of art and literary works, including such classical revolutionary plays as An Jung Gun -Shoots Ito Hirobumi, Blood at an Internation Conference, A Letter from a Daughter; the song and dance shows Prides of Thirteen Provinces and Unity Pole; and a revolutionary song, Song of Korea. He formed a cultural propaganda troupe with schoolchildren and, taking advantage of the holidays, travelled to many places to carry on brisk activities among the people to awaken them in a revolutionary way.
He was arrested by reactionary policemen while directing art performances in and around Fusong in January 1928. He was released thanks to the active struggle of the local people conducted under the guidance of Kang Pan Sok.
Paying profound attention to the education of the masses through revolutionary media, a powerful ideological weapon of the revolutionary struggle, he published Saenal, the first revolutionary newspaper in Korea, in Fusong on January 15, 1928. In the summer of the following year he wrote a textbook titled Peasant’ Reader in Kalun, and educated people in revolutionary consciousness.
He set up evening schools in different places and remodelled schools in a revolutionary way, turning them into bases of mass education. Moreover, he worked hard to awaken the masses through lectures, explanatory talks, story-telling sessions, and the like.
At the same time as he brought youth and students as well as other broad sections of the people to revolutionary awareness and united them in revolutionary bodies, he organized and mobilized them, on the basis of scientific strategy and tactics, for the practical struggle against the Japanese imperialists and reactionary warlords.
In the summer of 1928 he organized and directed a student strike at the Yuwen Middle School in Jilin.
As the Yuwen Middle School in Jilin became more and more revolutionized as time went on, the Japanese imperialists and reactionary warlords instigated reactionary teachers and right-wing students to infringe upon the democratic order established at the school, bringing pressure to bear upon progressive teachers and suppressing the activities of progressive students. Kim Il Sung realized that unless the machinations of the enemy were smashed, it would be impossible to carry out either the pursuit of learning or the youth movement, free from any worries.
Kim Il Sung roused the members of the YCL and the AIYL to raise such demands as the improvement of the treatment of students, the provision of lessons in subjects requested by them, and an end to pressure upon progressive teachers and the principal. He also instigated them to energetically carry out propaganda among the students. At the same time, he skillfully organized and directed a variety of struggles, such as boycotting classes, holding meetings and distributing handbills, written appeals and protests. Besides, he ensured that other schools made scrupulous preparations to join a strike in response to this.
Afraid that the students’ strike might spread to the whole city, the warlord authorities were compelled to accept the demands of the students.
The victorious students’ strike delivered a heavy blow to the reactionary warlords, who were in collusion with the Japanese imperialists, inspired the students and other young people with a conviction of victory and a new fighting spirit, and tempered them further through practical struggle.
With a view to checking and frustrating the scheme of the Japanese imperialists to advance further into the Chinese mainland, and to rousing the masses of the people more powerfully for the anti-Japanese struggle, Kim Il Sung organized and led, in October and November 1928, an expanded and active anti-Japanese struggle against the Jilin-Hoeryong railway project of the Japanese imperialists, as well as a boycott of Japanese goods.
In early October that year he convened a meeting of cadres of the YCLK and the AIYL, at which he explained the aggressive nature of the Jilin-Hoeryong railway project of the Japanese imperialists and the infiltration of Japanese goods as well as the purpose and significance of the struggle against them, and put forward specific fighting slogans, direction of action and methods of struggle. Then he formed demonstration squads and appointed their leaders.
When full preparations for a demonstration had been made, with the opening ceremony of the Jilin-Dunhua railway just ahead, each school in Jilin held a meeting simultaneously at which they issued a letter of protest against the Jilin-Hoeryong railway project. Then the students turned out in a demonstration.
Standing in the van of their ranks, Kim Il Sung powerfully encouraged the demonstration.
Thousands of youths and students, their spirits high, loudly shouted anti-Japanese slogans, and broad sections of the people enthusiastically joined them. Alarmed by the demonstration, the Japanese imperialists were compelled to postpone the opening ceremony of the Jilin-Dunhua railway for an indefinite period. The anti-Japanese struggle that had started in Jilin spread to the whole of Manchuria. As the demonstrations mounted and spread to wider areas, Kim Il Sung led the masses in the struggle to boycott Japanese goods ceaselessly.
The victory of the 40-odd day struggle to oppose the Jilin-Hoeryong railway project and boycott Japanese goods, a struggle which was led by Kim Il Sung, dealt a severe blow to the Japanese imperialist aggressors who had been plotting to realize their wild designs to invade Manchuria and to the Chinese reactionary warlords who were in collusion with them. Through this struggle, Kim Il Sung was convinced more firmly than ever that the strength of the masses was inexhaustible and that they would display invincible strength if they were organized and mobilized properly.
This incident marked a historic moment when the anti-Japanese mass struggle developed to a new stage under the guidance of Kim Il Sung.
In the autumn of 1929 Kim Il Sung roused youth, students and other sections of the masses for the fight to defend the Soviet Union in order to hold in check the anti-Soviet machinations of the Kuomintang government and the reactionary warlords who had provoked the “East China Railway incident”5 at the instigation of the Japanese imperialists.
In the course of this struggle the communists from among the new generation were further seasoned.
In order to unite the broad anti-Japanese forces, Kim Il Sung developed a strong momentum for smashing the machinations of the bourgeois nationalists and factionalists.
He refuted ideologically and theoretically the reliance of the bourgeois nationalists on foreign forces and their national nihilism, as well as the misguided Right and Left sophistries of the factionalists. At the same time, in order to neutralize the influence of the noxious reactionary ideas spread by them, he ensured that active propaganda work was conducted among the youth, students and other sections of the masses by means of lectures, art performances, discussions and publications, to give them a clear understanding of the reactionary nature and harm of the misguided “isms and doctrines”.
While the leaders of the Jongui-bu, Sinmin-bu6 and Chamui-bu7, which were nationalist organizations, idled away their time in the scramble for higher positions over the problem of merging these bodies, Kim Il Sung met the leaders and reasoned with them in earnest about their mistakes. He created the revolutionary drama Three Pretenders, which satirized them, and showed it to them. This drama was instrumental in getting them to combine the three organizations to form the Kukmin-bu8, even though it was only for form’s sake.
In the summer of 1928 Kim Il Sung saw to it that the divisive machinations of the factionalists who sought to hold “hegemony” over the youth movement by forming a “General Federation of Korean Youth in China” were checked and frustrated. In the autumn of the following year, when the Kukmin-bu held a meeting of the General Federation of Korean Youth in South Manchuria and attempted to get the youth organizations of Koreans in and around Manchuria under its control, he personally took part in the meeting in the capacity of representative of the Paeksan Youth League and dealt a blow to the divisive scheme of the nationalists. Afterwards, he personally wrote a letter of protest exposing the Kukmin-bu’s brutal massacre of progressive youth and made it public. As a result, the terrorists of the Kukmin-bu were denounced by the masses of the people, and the people’s trust in and expectations of Kim Il Sung increased still further.
Through the practical struggle the communists of the new generation and members of the revolutionary organizations keenly realized that they had to receive the wise guidance of an outstanding leader without fail if they were to emerge victorious from the revolution.
Holding Kim Il Sung in high esteem and following him, Kim Hyok, Cha Kwang Su and other communists of the new generation, together with other people, started to call him Han Pyol (Han meaning “one” and Pyol meaning “star”). They did this to express their hope that he would become the guiding star of the Korean revolution brightly shining over the three thousand-ri land, rising high in the sky of Korea which had been darkened by the tragedy of national ruin. And they created the immortal revolutionary paean -Star of Korea9, which sang the praises of
Kim Il Sung.
Kim Il Sung’s days at Yuwen Middle School in Jilin, when he formed and expanded the YCL and the AIYL and sowed the seeds of the revolution in various places, closely mixing with the workers, peasants and other sections of the people and going beyond the limits of the students, were the highest stage in the development of the youth movement conducted by him.
Exploring a new path for the Korean revolution independently,
Kim Il Sung created the immortal Juche idea through his energetic ideological and theoretical activities.
Creating a new guiding ideology for the revolution was raised as a particularly important and urgent problem in Korea due to the peculiarities of its historic development and the complex and arduous character of the revolution.
Kim Il Sung repeatedly contemplated and studied in order to create the guiding ideology for the revolution, regarding as his ideological and mental resources Kim Hyong Jik’s lofty idea Aim High, his spirit of winning independence by the efforts of the Koreans themselves, his own idea that “People are God” which he had made the maxim of his life and struggle from his childhood as well as the idea and spirit of loving the country, the nation and his fellow men.
He made a close study of the working-class revolutionary ideas and theories of the preceding period and the experience of the international communist movement in connection with the practice of the Korean revolution. In this course he was firmly convinced that the existing ideas and theories and the experience of other countries could not give correct answers to all the problems raised by the Korean revolution, and that these problems must be solved in an original way on the responsibility of the Korean people themselves in conformity with their own actual conditions proceeding from their desire and the specific situation in Korea.
The period which Kim Il Sung spent in prison was an important historic phase in the evolution of the Juche idea.
In the autumn of 1929 he was arrested by Chinese reactionary policemen and served a prison term in Jilin prison until early the following May.
Even in prison he did not discontinue his revolutionary activities for a moment. In the course of comprehensively analyzing and reviewing the experiences and lessons of the national liberation struggle and communist movement in Korea and the experience of the revolutionary movement in other countries, he discovered the truth of the revolution, which served as the starting point of the Juche idea.
Kim Il Sung said:
“I analyzed the situations of the nationalist and communist movements in our country and decided that the revolution should not be conducted in that way. I believed that the revolution in my country would emerge victorious only when it was undertaken on our own responsibility and by the efforts of our own people, and that all the problems arising in the revolution must be solved independently and creatively. This was the starting-point of the Juche idea, as it is known nowadays.”
The fatal defect of the independence fighters surviving from the preceding generation was that they were isolated from the masses of the people because they did not believe in their strength and averted their eyes from them. Another drawback was that they were extremely engrossed in factional strife, flunkeyism and dogmatism.
Kim Il Sung keenly analyzed this essential shortcoming of the preceding-generation campaigners for independence and, in the course of this, he became convinced that the masters of the revolution were the masses of the people, that the revolutionary struggle could emerge victorious only when they were educated, organized and mobilized, that the revolution should be carried out on the strength of one’s own people and on one’s own responsibility instead of conducting it after obtaining someone else’s recognition or under someone else’s instructions, and that all problems arising in the revolution should be solved independently and creatively to meet one’s own situation.
Kim Il Sung not only discovered the truth which served as the starting-point of the Juche idea, but also decided upon the Juche-oriented line and fighting policies of the Korean revolution.
At the historic Kalun Meeting he clarified the principles of the Juche idea he had evolved while serving time in Jilin prison. Later, while leading the revolutionary struggle and construction work, he continued to develop the Juche idea in depth in the course of providing new solutions to the problems raised by the revolutionary practice.
After he was set free from prison, thanks to his active efforts to be released,
Kim Il Sung abandoned his studies at the Yuwen Middle School and became a full-time revolutionary.
He left Jilin for Dunhua, an area favorable for establishing contact with the various counties of eastern Manchuria. There he put the revolutionary organizations in order and restructured them. At the same time, he convened a meeting of the hardcore members of the Young Communist League and Anti-Imperialist Youth League at Sidaohuanggou, at which he explained the Juche-oriented revolutionary line, and the strategy and tactics he had worked out in prison. He continued to mull over and delve into these matters to bring them to perfection.
Kim Il Sung called a meeting of the leading personnel of the YCL and AIYL at Kalun from June 30 to July 2, 1930, and clarified the path of the Korean revolution.
In his historic report The path of the Korea Revolution made at the meeting, he made an overall analysis of the prevailing situation and the historic lesson of the preceding movement, and elucidated the principles of the Juche idea in an original way.
Kim Il Sung said:
“The masters of the revolutionary struggle are the masses of the people, and only when they are organized and mobilized can they win the revolutionary struggle.”
He said that one should mix with the masses of the people and organize and mobilize them in order to lead the revolution to victory, and that one must solve all problems arising in the revolution independently on one’s own responsibility and to meet one’s particular situation. He emphasized the need to maintain a firm stand and attitude that the masters of the Korean revolution were the Korean people and that the Korean revolution should always be carried out by the efforts of the Koreans themselves to suit the Korean situation.
Kim Il Sung defined the character and main task of the Korean revolution on the principles of the Juche idea.
He said:
“The main task of the Korean revolution ... is to overthrow the Japanese imperialists and win independence for Korea, and, at the same time, to liquidate feudal relations and introduce democracy.”
“In view of the main task of the Korean revolution, its character at the present stage is anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic.”
The concept of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution elucidated by Kim Il Sung for the first time in history was a social revolution of a new type essentially distinguished from a bourgeois-democratic or a socialist revolution. It was a revolution which had to be carried out as a matter of priority for people in colonies and semi-colonies to win independence.
Kim Il Sung defined the motive power of an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution as the broad anti-imperialist forces involving workers, peasants, youth and students, intellectuals, petty-bourgeoisie, conscientious national capitalists and religious persons, and that the target of the revolution was the Japanese imperialists and the landlords, capitalists, pro-Japanese elements and traitors to the nation who were in collusion with them.
He taught that, in order to lead the Korean revolution to victory, it was necessary, first of all, to overthrow the Japanese imperialists and the reactionary forces who were hand in glove with them, and win national liberation and independence. In addition, he said that a people’s government defending the interests of the masses of the people must be established and that, even after carrying out an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution, the revolution should be continued, so as to build socialism and communism. Furthermore, the world revolution should be carried out.
Kim Il Sung clarified in full the strategic and tactical problems for the fulfillment of the main task of the Korean revolution.
He set forth the line of anti-Japanese armed struggle. He made it clear that, in view of the historic experiences and lessons of the anti-Japanese struggle in Korea and the law-governed requirement of the national liberation struggle in colonies, violent actions of the masses should be developed into an organized armed struggle. He taught that, as an immediate task, the Korean Revolutionary Army, a revolutionary armed organization, should be formed with young communists to accumulate a variety of experiences for an armed struggle.
Kim Il Sung put forward the line of the formation of an anti-Japanese national united front.
He said that, in order to defeat the Japanese imperialists and liberate the whole nation with the efforts of the Koreans themselves, it was necessary to firmly unite, under the anti-Japanese banner, all the forces having anti-Japanese sentiments, including religious persons and conscientious national capitalists, not to mention workers and peasants.
He set forth the policy of founding a revolutionary party independently.
He pointed out the need to draw a serious lesson from the dissolution of the Korean Communist Party and wage a struggle to found a new party on a sound basis. He said that a new revolutionary party must be founded without fail by the efforts of the Koreans themselves and that, to this end, the basic organizations of the party must be formed first after making full preparations, and steadily expanded and strengthened, instead of proclaiming the party centre without any preparations. He further explained that the preparations for the founding of a party should be closely combined with the struggle against the Japanese imperialists.
The kernel of the historic report made by Kim Il Sung is the Juche idea.
The Kalun Meeting was a historic event which proclaimed the creation of the Juche idea and the Juche-oriented revolutionary line.
With the Kalun Meeting as a momentum, the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle and communist movement in Korea entered a new path along which they were waged according to the Juche idea, an absolutely scientific and revolutionary guiding ideology, and the Juche-oriented revolutionary line.
Following the Kalun Meeting, Kim Il Sung put his primary efforts into the work of founding a new type of party.
The work for forming a new type of party organization was accompanied by a struggle to overcome a variety of obstacles and difficulties.
The factionalists remaining in the communist ranks in those days continued to engage in factional strife, launching a campaign to reconstruct the dissolved Korean Communist Party at home and abroad; in addition to this, the principle of one party for one country laid down by the Comintern made some people have a concept that it was impossible for Korean communists to found their own party in Manchuria.
In view of this situation, Kim Il Sung concluded that it would not run counter to the principle of one party for one country if a Korean party did not exist together with the Chinese party through the organization of a separate party centre. So he decided to found a new-type party with the communists of the new generation as the masters instead of retying on the old generation, by forming basic party organizations first and expanding and strengthening them instead of proclaiming the party centre.
On July 3, 1930 he convened in Kalun a meeting for the formation of a party organization. At the meeting he sponsored the admission of the leading personnel of the YCL and the AIYL to the party, and solemnly proclaimed the formation of the party organization.
In his historic speech On the Formation of the Party Organization delivered at the meeting, Kim Il Sung reclarified the Juche-oriented policy for the building of a party organization, and put forward the position and mission of the newly formed first party organization as well as the task facing the members of the party organization.
Kim Il Sung saw to it that the first party organization was named the Society for Rallying Comrades. That name embodied the high aim and will of Kim Il Sung who had taken the first step in the revolution by winning over comrades, and who was determined to develop the revolution in depth and achieve its final victory by continually discovering and rallying those comrades who were prepared to share their fate with him.
Kim Il Sung said:
“The first party organization-the Society for Rallying Comrades-was the embryo and seed of our Party; it was an organization with the importance of a parent body in forming and expanding the basic organizations of the party.”
With the formation of the first party organization, young communists and other people were able to press ahead more strongly with the preparations for the founding of a party and with the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle under the unified guidance of a genuine vanguard organization of the revolution.
Kim Il Sung founded the magazine Bolshevik to play the role of the ideological organ of the first party organization.
Following these steps, Kim Il Sung organized the Korean Revolutionary Army (KRA) in Guyushu, Yitong County, on July 6, 1930, as the first step in preparations for an armed struggle.
Kim Il Sung made a historic speech The Mission and Main Task of the Korean Revolutionary Army at the meeting of Party and YCL cadres held for the formation of this army.
He said that the mission and main task of the KRA was, through active political activities and military operations, to train a hard core for an armed struggle, procure weapons needed for this struggle, accumulate military experience and firmly unite the broad masses of the people to make full preparations for an organized anti-Japanese armed struggle.
The KRA was the first armed organization of the Korean communists guided by the great Juche idea and a political and paramilitary organization to make preparations for an anti-Japanese armed struggle.
Kim Il Sung organized the ranks of the KRA into several corps, appointed their heads and gave weapons to the men.
He dispatched small groups of the KRA to various parts of Manchuria such as Changbai and Fusong and to many areas of Korea to carry out vigorous political activities and military operations, such as rallying the broad masses of the people around the revolutionary organizations by educating them, sweeping away the Japanese imperialist aggressor troops and reactionary policemen, eliminating secret agents and stooges, and procuring weapons. Moreover, he ensured that the finest young people tempered in the revolutionary organizations were admitted to the KRA and patriotic young people of worker and peasant origin within the Independence Army were drawn into the revolutionary army through re-education. Further, he made sure that an advanced course was opened at the Samgwang School in Guyushu, and systematically trained politically and militarily competent commanding personnel. He organized short military and political training courses, and tempered the hard core of the revolutionary armed force.
Kim Il Sung pushed ahead with the work of laying the mass foundation for an armed struggle.
He travelled to different areas of Manchuria such as Dunhua, Kalun, Jilin, Hailong, Jiaohe, Harbin, Yanji and Wangqing where the evil consequences of the May 30 Uprising and the August 1 Uprising were serious, disguising himself several times even in a single day. There he restored and expanded the wrecked revolutionary organizations.
Once Kim Il Sung faced a critical situation, being pursued by the enemy, during his underground activities. At that time a fighter for independence turned his back on him abandoning his sense of duty and friendship as an old acquaintance for fear of future troubles. Contrary to the contemptible behaviour of this man, a nameless country woman of Jiaohe helped him by displaying a spirit of self-sacrifice. From her righteous act he felt more keenly the revolutionary philosophy that the revolutionaries should always trust and rely on the people.
In those days Kim Il Sung had contact with the Comintern through its liaison office in Harbin and through the officials sent by it from such areas as Jiajiatun and Wujiazi.
The Comintern expressed full support for the Juche-oriented revolutionary line put forward by Kim Il Sung at the Kalun Meeting as well as for the principles of independence and creativity which constitute the lifeblood of the Korean revolution. Moreover, pinning great hope on him, it entrusted him with the work of the Chief Secretary of the YCL in the Jidong area10 and advised him several times to go to Moscow and study at the Communist University administered by it. Nevertheless, he said that his teacher was the masses of the people and that he would study the theory and method of the Korean revolution among them. So, instead of going to Moscow for study, he went among the people in eastern Manchuria adjacent to Korea and those in northern Korea and carried out energetic revolutionary activities, sharing weal and woe with them.
In the autumn of 1930 Kim Il Sung went to eastern Manchuria and restored and consolidated the ruined revolutionary organizations in Dalazi, Helong County, and Shixian district, Wangqing County. At the same time, he saw to it that new basic party organizations were formed in various areas with YCL members tempered and tested in the struggle and hard cores of worker and peasant origin, and that revolutionary organization districts were set up in different counties along the Tuman River.
At the end of September 1930, Kim Il Sung came to the Onsong area of Korea and set forth the policy of building the areas of northern Korea along the Tuman River as the strategic base of the revolution. On October 1, he convened on Turu Peak, Onsong County, a meeting for the formation of a party organization and formed a party organization with the leading activists of the revolutionary organizations in this area.
The formation of a party organization in the Onsong area was a breakthrough in laying the foundation for party building in Korea, and a turning point in powerfully promoting the anti-Japanese struggle of the people at home.
Kim Il Sung paid great attention to the revolutionization of the rural communities, regarding the peasant masses, who comprised the overwhelming majority of the Korean population, along with the working class, as the main revolutionary force.
He sent men of the KRA to various rural areas. Moreover, from October of 1930 to the beginning of the next year he worked in Wujiazi, Huaide County, and built this area into an example of rural revolutionization.
Wujiazi, which the nationalists had tried to transform into an “ideal village”, was the last bulwark of the nationalist forces in central Manchuria.
Kim Il Sung first went among the bigoted influential people of the village and led them to get rid of their outdated way of thinking through tireless explanation and educative influence. Then he reformed the mass organizations under nationalist influence in a revolutionary way. He got everyone, not just the youth, to lead a political life in a certain organization- young people in the Anti-Imperialist Youth League, old people in the Peasants’ Union, women in the Women’s Association and children in the Children’s Expeditionary Corps. Moreover, he had the village council, a local autonomous administrative organ, reformed into a revolutionary autonomous committee. He also saw to it that the content of the education given at the local Samsong School was made revolutionary and that free education was put into effect. Moreover, he saw to it that a night school was set up, and young and middle-aged people, including women, were given education. Furthermore, he oversaw the publication of the magazine Nongu, an organ of the Peasants’ Union. He also created and put on the stage the revolutionary opera The Flower Girl, and produced other literary and artistic works. In addition, he made sure that revolutionary songs such as The Song of the Red Flag and Revolutionary Song were disseminated widely. In this way he awakened the class consciousness of the masses and roused them to engage vigorously in the anti-Japanese struggle.
Thanks to Kim Il Sung’s skilful political work among the masses, Wujiazi was turned into a revolutionary village, and its experience was widely publicized, with the result that various areas of central Manchuria were built as reliable bases for the activities of the KRA, and the mass foundation of the armed struggle was expanded still further.
Kim Il Sung’s comrades and other people who felt his greatness more fully in those days entrusted their destiny entirely to him. They thought they could not compare him, such a great and noble man who would lead Korea in the future, merely to a morning star, and so expressed their earnest wish to connect his esteemed name with the sun that gives light and heat to the whole world and gives life to all things.
Pyon Tae U and other influential people in Wujiazi who represented the preceding generation, and such young communists as Choe Il Chon renamed him Kim Il Sung (a homonym for IL Sung meaning “one star”, and meaning “the sun to come”), reflecting the desire of all the people that he would become the sun that would save the nation as well as their revolutionary faith and strong will to hold him in high esteem for ever as the great leader of the nation.
In view of the tense situation at this time when the invasion of Manchuria by the Japanese imperialists was imminent, Kim Il Sung convened a meeting of the commanders of the KRA and heads of the revolutionary organizations in Wujiazi in December 1930 in order to sum up their revolutionary activities in central Manchuria and adopt measures for speeding up the preparations for an armed struggle.
In his historic speech Let Us Further Expand and Develop the Revolutionary Movement to Meet the Requirement of the Prevailing Situation delivered at the meeting, he reviewed the success and experience gained in the struggle to implement the Juche-oriented revolutionary line after the Kalun Meeting, and set forth the task of shifting the main arena of struggle to eastern Manchuria and making thoroughgoing preparations there for waging an out-and-out armed struggle against the Japanese imperialists.
The Wujiazi Meeting was of great importance in making great strides in the Korean revolution-in bringing it to the stage of armed struggle. This meeting confirmed once again the determination of Kim Il Sung to switch from the youth and student movement and underground movement in the rural areas to the stage of armed struggle in the form of launching a decisive offensive against the enemy; it also made clear the direct way to the great anti-Japanese war.
Following the Wujiazi Meeting, Kim Il Sung shifted the centre of his revolutionary activities to eastern Manchuria.
Eastern Manchuria was not only directly adjacent to Korea naturally and topographically, but the overwhelming majority of its population was composed of Koreans and its good class composition offered favourable conditions for waging an armed struggle. Leaving for eastern Manchuria, Kim Il Sung put forward, as the goal of the first stage of this work, the two tasks of reviewing the evil consequences of the May 30 Uprising and setting forth a correct organizational line capable of uniting the broad masses as one political force and arming the communists of the new generation with this line.
On his way to eastern Manchuria he was again arrested by reactionary warlords, and served a term of about 20 days in Changchun prison. He was set free thanks to the strong protest of local people who were allied with the communists.
After he arrived in eastern Manchuria, Kim Il Sung organized a short course for the men of the KRA and the hardcore members of the revolutionary organizations in Dunhua in March 1931. In the short course he clarified the task and way for stepping up the preparations for an anti-Japanese armed struggle on a full-scale as well as the measures needed for providing unified guidance to the basic party organizations and uniting the revolutionary masses organizationally. Following this, he guided the work of the revolutionary organizations in Antu, Yanji, Helong and Wangqing counties and in the areas of Jongsong and Onsong in Korea.
With a view to stepping up the preparations for armed struggle,
Kim Il Sung channelled great efforts into building strong revolutionary forces.
He convened a meeting of political workers and heads of underground revolutionary organizations in Kongsudok, Phunggyedong, Phunggok Sub-county, Jongsong County in May 1931. At the meeting he set forth the task of building an armed force for organizing and waging an armed struggle, uniting the broad masses of the people as one political force and making the mountainous areas along the Tuman River the centre of armed struggle.
The Kongsudok Meeting was a turning point in building strong Juche-oriented revolutionary forces for organizing and waging the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
On the basis of a full understanding of the situation in Jiandao and in the areas along the Tuman River in Korea, Kim Il Sung called a meeting of Party and YCL cadres (the Spring Mingyuegou Meeting) at Mingyuegou, Yanji County, in mid-May 1931.
At the meeting he delivered a historic speech, titled Let Us Repudiate the “Left” Adventurist Line and Follow the Revolutionary Organizational Line. In this speech he explained the essence of the May 30 Uprising and the cause of its failure, analyzed and reviewed its evil consequences and lessons, and elucidated the revolutionary organizational line of uniting the whole nation as one political force by firmly rallying the main masses of the revolution and closely banding together the anti-Japanese forces from all walks of life, as well as the task for implementing this line.
The revolutionary organizational line advanced by Kim Il Sung became the guiding principle to be adhered to by the Korean communists in preparing strong revolutionary forces for organizing and waging the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
Following the meeting, Kim Il Sung concentrated his efforts on the Antu area, which had favourable conditions for his making preparations for organizing and waging the anti-Japanese armed struggle. He organized the party committee of Xiaoshahe District, Antu County, in mid-June 1 93 1 and sent political workers to various areas to form basic party organizations. Moreover, he ensured that YCL organizations were expanded and that such anti-Japanese mass organizations as the Peasants’ Association, the Anti-Imperialist League, the Revolutionary Mutual Aid Society and the Children’s Expeditionary Corps were formed.
On the basis of the success and the experience he gained in the area of Antu, he visited such areas as Helong, Yanji and Wangqing in the summer and early autumn of the same year, and united the activists who had been dispersed after the May 30 Uprising, thus expanding the revolutionary network to wide areas of eastern Manchuria.
Drawing on the success achieved in the struggle to follow the revolutionary organizational line, Kim Il Sung set forth the policy of waging a powerful harvest season struggle in various districts of Jiandao with revolutionary organizations to train the revolutionary people further amid a mass struggle and saw that various rural communities in eastern Manchuria launched a harvest season struggle simultaneously in the autumn of 1931.
Under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, the harvest season struggle developed into a large-scale and organized violent struggle involving over 100,000 peasants in eastern Manchuria, dealing a heavy Mow to the Japanese imperialist aggressors and reactionary landowners and awakening and tempering the broad anti-Japanese masses still further in the practical struggle.
The Japanese imperialist aggressors provoked the “Manchurian incident” on September 18, 1931, and started an armed invasion of Manchuria. In view of this, Kim Il Sung pointed out that starting organized armed struggle was an urgent task which brooked no further delay, at a meeting of Party and YCL leading members held in Dunhua toward the end of September, at the meeting of the heads of the revolutionary organizations in Songjiang district, Antu, and at the meeting of political workers and heads of underground revolutionary organizations held in Kwangmyong Village, Jongsong County, in October of the same year. At the same time, he set forth the task of stepping up the preparations for armed struggle on a full scale. The meeting held in Kwangmyong Village was a clarion call for the revolutionaries and the masses of the people in the homeland to prepare for armed struggle.
Kim Il Sung devoted immense energy to contemplation and study for choosing the main form and method of armed struggle.
He read a variety of books on military science, such as Sun-tzu’s Art of War, Three Warring Kingdom, the Military Books of the Easter Country and Instructions on Military Science. He also made a close study of the struggle of distinguished partisan leaders of foreign countries, and of a variety of combat methods employed by famous generals of the Righteous Volunteers’ Army of Korea and of the Imjin Patriotic War. In the course of this, he became firmly convinced that it was necessary to wage flexible and highly mobile guerrilla warfare in order to win a victory in the fight against the numerically and technically superior Japanese imperialist aggressor army.
As a result of the fact that the political and military preparations for an anti-Japanese armed struggle had been made under the wise leadership of Kim Il Sung, the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle in Korea was able at last to develop to the stage of organized armed struggle.
2
DECEMBER 1931-FEBRUARY 1936
Kim Il Sung convened a meeting of Party and YCL cadres at Mingyuegou (the Winter Mingyuegou Meeting) in Yanji County, on December 16, 1931, to set forth the strategic and tactical policy of immediately organizing and waging an armed struggle against the Japanese, in order to meet the new situation created as a result of Japanese occupation of Manchuria.
Following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the ensuing general retreat of the Chinese Northeast Army”, the ruling system of the warlords was paralysed, and chaos prevailed in Manchuria owing to the failure of the Japanese imperialists to establish their new ruling system there as yet. The people’s anti-Japanese struggle mounted with each passing day, developing into a violent form.
In this period, all the conditions and possibilities for waging an armed struggle in an organized way matured.
Kim Il Sung, taking this time as a golden opportunity for launching an armed struggle against the Japanese, on the basis of his scientific analysis of the critical situation and the favorable aspects of armed struggle, delivered at the meeting a historic speech, titled On Organizing and Waging an Armed Struggle against Japanese Imperialism, in which he put forward a strategic and tactical policy of immediately organizing and waging an anti-Japanese armed struggle.
In his speech, he said that all the anti-Japanese patriotic forces should be mobilized for an armed struggle to liberate the country, calling upon the entire nation to come out for armed struggle against the Japanese-those with weapons offering weapons, those with money donating money and those with strength contributing strength.
Based on his thoroughgoing analysis of the characteristics of liberation struggle in colonies and the advantages of guerrilla warfare, Kim Il Sung defined the guerrilla warfare, previously considered to be merely a means of helping regular warfare, as the basic form of armed struggle.
Guerrilla warfare was an advantageous method of armed struggle by which one could deal heavy political and military blows to the enemy while preserving one’s own forces, and defeat the numerically or technically superior enemy even with small forces, and a popular war that presupposed active involvement of the entire people. It was only when armed struggle was organized and waged by this method that it would be possible to defeat the Japanese invaders finally by relying on the positive support and encouragement of the masses of the people and the favorable natural and topographical conditions, even without support from either a state or a regular army.
This strategic policy of launching an armed struggle with guerrilla warfare as the basic form was a most positive and flexible policy as the representation of the prime requirements of the developing Korean revolution, a Juche-oriented, original policy that made it possible to accomplish national liberation by dint of the united efforts of the whole Korean nation.
Kim Il Sung pointed out in full the tasks to be tackled in waging an armed struggle in the form of guerrilla warfare and the ways to carry them out.
He first set forth the task of forming the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army (AJPGA), a standing revolutionary army.
To this end, he said, it was necessary to organize a guerrilla army with a core of fine young communists tempered in the crucible of underground revolutionary struggle, and admit into it progressive workers and peasants as well as the patriotic youth tested in actual revolutionary struggle to reinforce its ranks continuously and fully ensure the leadership of the communists in the guerrilla army. Regarding the matter of obtaining weapons, one of the two elements of the armed forces, as a key to success in armed struggle, he emphasized the need to arm oneself by wresting weapons from the enemy and make them by oneself, under the slogans, “Weapons are our life and soul: Oppose armed force with armed force!”
Next, he put forward the task of establishing guerrilla bases.
Setting up guerrilla bases was indispensable to reinforcing the guerrilla ranks and carrying on guerrilla warfare over a long period of time even in the midst of encirclement by a mighty enemy and, at the same time, protecting the revolutionary masses from the enemy’s indiscriminate slaughter.
In particular, the guerrilla bases were urgently needed to serve as solid military and supply bases, as the strategic centre of the revolution.
It was necessary, he said, to establish a guerrilla zone, a base in the form of a liberated area, in the revolutionized rural communities and the mountainous regions along the Tuman River favorable for the purpose, and transform the rural areas in the vicinity on revolutionary lines so that they would be in fact as good as guerrilla zones, though under the enemy’s rule in form.
Further, he set forth the task of laying a mass foundation for armed struggle.
Guerrilla warfare is, in essence, a popular war which presupposes the active involvement of the people. Only when a guerrilla army has laid a solid mass foundation and fought in close ties of kinship with the masses of the people can the Korean people defeat the Japanese imperialists and win the final victory by themselves.
In order to lay a solid mass foundation for armed struggle, he said, it was necessary to rally the broad masses of the people around various revolutionary organizations and intensify revolutionary education among them. He also emphasized that it was imperative to strengthen the militant training, and the fostering and expansion of the revolutionary forces through revolutionary practice.
He then set forth the task of forming the anti-Japanese united front of the Korean and Chinese peoples, emphasizing that a most pressing task was to form an allied front with the Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units.
Lastly, he said that in order to carry out the tasks to be tackled in organizing and waging an anti-Japanese armed struggle, it was necessary to form Party organizations in every region and step up YCL activities, and, particularly, to enhance the vanguard role of the Party organizations.
This historic speech was an immortal document that contributed greatly to raising the Korean anti-Japanese national liberation movement to a new and higher stage, and developing and enriching the working-class revolutionary theories on revolutionary warfare and the building of revolutionary armed forces.
The Winter Mingyuegou Meeting marked the beginning of the armed struggle against the Japanese. With this meeting as a landmark, an anti-Japanese war was formally proclaimed under the slogan “Oppose armed force with armed force, and resist counterrevolutionary violence with revolutionary violence!” and the anti-Japanese national liberation movement in Korea was developed to a new stage of armed struggle.
Following this meeting, Kim H Sung made energetic efforts to found the AJPGA, that would become the main force in the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
As a part of his efforts to implement the policy advanced at this meeting, he organized a short course in late December 1931 for the hardcore members of the Party and YCL organizations, the crew of the KRA and the political operatives, before sending them out to the wide areas along the Tuman River. He went to Antu, an area with favorable conditions in all respects for organizing and launching guerrilla warfare, giving unified guidance to the work of founding the AJPGA.
He called a meeting of the heads of the revolutionary organizations and of paramilitary organizations in the area of Songgang, Antu, in early January 1932, and another meeting of the leading members of the Party and YCL organizations in Xiaoshahe, Antu County, in late January of the same year, at which he instructed that the preparations for the founding of the AJPGA should be stepped up.
He paid primary attention to the work of forming armed units.
He ensured that the armed units were made up of the young communists tempered and fostered by the KRA and Party and YCL organizations, as the backbone, and those trained in the crucible of revolutionary practice such as the harvest season struggle, as well as the patriotic young people who were willing to enlist and were recommended by paramilitary organizations such as the Red Guards, Children’s Vanguard and Workers’ Pickets.
He first organized a small guerrilla group in Xiaoshahe, Antu County, in March 1932, with Ri Yong Bae, Kim Chol and other young communists he had trained personally, as its backbone.
While working to build armed units, he carried on a vigorous struggle to obtain weapons.
The two pistols he had inherited from his father became the foundation of the arsenal of the revolutionary armed forces.
As there was no state arms supply base nor money with which to purchase weapons, he ensured that the KRA members, revolutionary organizations and all the revolutionary masses made efforts to capture weapons from the enemy or make them for themselves.
At the same time as stepping up the preparations for the building of a standing revolutionary army, he paid great attention to the work of taking control of the rural areas along the Tuman River to lay a mass foundation for the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
He went to live in Fuerhe Village, a vantage point in the activities of guerrilla army, for about one and half months, disguised as a farmhand, during which time he transformed the village which had been said to be a “den of reactionaries”, on revolutionary lines. He spread his experience elsewhere. In the spring of 1932, he roused more than 100,000 peasants in different parts of eastern Manchuria to a large-scale spring crisis struggle, dealing a heavy blow to the Japanese imperialists and reactionary landlords; he tempered the small guerrilla groups and revolutionary organizations and brought the masses to a higher sense of revolution through the struggle.
As a result of his energetic activities, the internal forces necessary for the founding of the AJPGA were built up.
Further, he channelled great efforts into forming an allied front with the Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units.
In those days the Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units, duped by the Japanese imperialists’ false propaganda and schemes to alienate different nationalities, were hostile to the Korean communists and Koreans in general, for no particular reason, indiscriminately capturing and killing young people coming to enlist in the armed units.
It became impossible to either found a guerrilla army or make its activities legal, unless their hostile acts were checked and an allied front was formed with them.
At a meeting of the heads of revolutionary organizations held in Xiaoshahe, Antu County, in April 1932, Kim Il Sung took positive measures for forming an allied front with the Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units. At the risk of his life, he held negotiations with Commander Yu of a Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese unit in Antu and, with his flawless, logical arguments and magnanimity, persuaded Yu to join a common front against the Japanese. In order to consolidate the allied front with the Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units, he formed a special detachment and an anti-Japanese soldiers’ committee within the Chinese units, and got them to actively work on these units.
Drawing on the full preparations for founding the AJPGA and waging an armed struggle, he formed the AJPGA, made up of more than 100 young people, on the plateau at Tuqidian, Mutiaotun, Xiaoshahe, Antu County, on April 25, 1932, and proclaimed its founding.
The AJPGA was formed with Cha Kwang Su, Pak Hun, Kim Il Ryong and other vanguard fighters recommended by the revolutionary organizations in several counties, including Antu, in both eastern and southern Manchuria, as well as progressive immigrants from Korea. It was guided by the principle that it would conduct political and military activities in the area of Mt. Paektu and in the wide areas of the border along the Amnok and Tuman Rivers.
Kim Il Sung was appointed commander-cum-political commissar of the AJPGA.
At the ceremony to found the AJPGA, he delivered a historic speech, titled On the Occasion of Founding the Anti- Japanese people’s Guerrilla Army, in which he pointed out the character and mission of the AJPGA.
He said:
“The AJPGA is made up of workers, peasants and young patriots who oppose the Japanese imperialists and their stooges and love their country and people. It is a revolutionary armed force which will dedicate itself to protecting the interests of the people.
“The aim and mission of the people’s guerrilla army is to overthrow the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism in Korea, and bring national independence and social emancipation to the Korean people.”
The AJPGA was a genuinely Juche-type revolutionary army guided by the immortal Juche idea.
It was not merely a combat force fighting Japanese imperialism with arms, but a political force that educated the masses and mobilized them for the revolutionary struggle. It was also a proletarian internationalist revolutionary army.
In his speech, he set forth comprehensively the tasks to be carried out in launching a full-scale armed struggle against the Japanese-building up the strength of the AJPGA and promoting the construction of guerrilla zones, forming an anti-Japanese united front with the Chinese people, particularly an allied front with the Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units, and strengthening the ties of kinship with the masses of the people.
As a result, the Korean people’s long-cherished historical desire to have their own army could be satisfied to the full, and the anti-Japanese national liberation movement developed vigorously with armed struggle as its mainstream.
In Wangqing, Yanji, Helong, Hunchun and other regions in eastern, southern and northern Manchuria guerrilla units were formed one after another by hardcore young communists dispatched by Kim Il Sung.
Kim Il Sung called a meeting of the AJPGA commanding officers and the leading cadres of the Party and YCL organizations in May 1932 in Xiaoshahe. There he set forth the task of reinforcing and strengthening the AJPGA and pushing forward the work of establishing the guerrilla zones forcefully. He also proposed the policy of making an expedition to southern Manchuria.
While stepping up the preparations for the expeditionary campaign in real earnest, he organized and commanded the first battle of the AJPGA. This involved ambushing an enemy convoy in Xiaoyingziling, Antu County, in May of the same year. This battle ended in victory for the AJPGA, inspiring the guerrillas with confidence in victory.
Prior to the expedition to southern Manchuria, Kim Il Sung, carrying on his back a sack of foxtail millet obtained for him by his comrades, dropped in at his house for a little while. His mother was critically ill and the household affairs were in an awful state.
But his mother, placing the destiny of the country and revolution over her own health, told him time and again that if he, as a revolutionary, worried over his own household affairs, he would never succeed in his cause. Bearing her instructions deep in his mind, he resumed the long journey of revolution.
He set out on the expedition to southern Manchuria-which started in early June and ended in late August, 1932-with a view to expanding and strengthening the ranks of the fledgling AJPGA and building up all the anti-Japanese armed forces, as was pointed out by the policy decision of the Xiaoshahe Meeting.
The expeditionary force encountered a company of the Japanese army on the Fusong-Antu border. The newly-founded AJPGA annihilated the company by applying flexible guerrilla tactics. This battle was of great significance in the history of the anti-Japanese armed struggle in that it smashed the myth of the “invincible” Japanese army for the first time.
The expeditionary force reached Tonghua, where Kim Il Sung met Ryang Se Bong and other commanders and members of the Independence Army and explained to them the Juche-oriented line on the Korean revolution and the genuine road to anti-Japanese national salvation. He also called on them to join the anti-Japanese united front and inspired them to carry on their fight against the Japanese imperialists to the last.
On the return journey, from Sanyuanpu through Gushanzi, Liuhe, Hailong, Mengjiang to Antu, he carried on vigorous activities to assimilate the masses to the revolutionaries, restore the wrecked revolutionary organizations, and expand the ranks of the guerrilla army, and improve its armaments.
With the objective of the southern Manchurian expedition attained, he returned to Liangjiangkou, Antu County, in late August 1932, leading the main force of the AJPGA, that had been expanded and strengthened.
At a meeting held in Liangjiangkou in September that year, he reviewed the work of the previous half a year since the founding of the AJPGA and set forth the policy of removing the guerrilla base to the Wangqing area, further consolidating the allied front with the Chinese anti-Japanese units, giving proper guidance to guerrilla warfare in the areas of eastern Manchuria, and propelling the establishment of revolutionary guerrilla zones.
During his stay in Liangjiangkou to make preparations for an expedition to northern Manchuria, he organized and commanded attacks on the Dunhua and Emu county towns in joint operations with Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units, dealing a heavy blow to the enemy and greatly encouraging the soldiers of the Chinese units.
While he was on the march to southern Manchuria, his mother Kang Pan Sok passed away, to his great mental pain and sorrow.
Upon his return to Liangjiangkou, Kim Il Sung was so busy with the work that he could not drop in at his house, which was just a day’s walk away. At the earnest pleading of his comrades, he went to Xiaoshahe, only to receive the devastating news of his mother’s death.
He went to his mother’s grave, where he stored her last words deep in his mind, controlling his tears of surging sorrow. He then put his two younger brothers in the custody of a member of an underground organization, and left his home. Later, his younger brother Kim Chol Ju came to his unit, asking to be admitted into the guerrilla army, but Kim Il Sung sent Mm back. This was his last meeting with his brother, because Kim Chol Ju later fell in action while fighting against the Japanese imperialists.
In October the same year, Kim Il Sung took leave of Liangjiangkou at the head of the main unit of the AJPGA, and went to Luozigou, where the Chinese anti Japanese units were concentrated, by way of Dunhua, Emu and Wangqing.
In December that year, he convened a meeting of the anti-Japanese soldiers’ committee in Luozigou to take measures for strengthening the anti Japanese allied front, as the units of the Chinese National Salvation Army were about to renounce their resistance and attempting to run away. Then he met the commanding officers of the Chinese anti-Japanese units and appealed to them to rise up in the anti-Japanese national-salvation resistance struggle. However, the main unit of the Chinese anti-Japanese force, frightened by the huge numbers of the Japanese army surrounding them, fled to China proper via the Soviet Union. The guerrilla army came to be surrounded on all sides. It was now at a crossroads-either to give up or to rise up resolutely in do-or-die resistance. The situation was critical, indeed.
Inspired by his awareness that if his efforts should be frustrated, Korea could never rise again, and driven by his high sense of responsibility for the Korean revolution, Kim Il Sung rose to the occasion resolutely.
He led his unit to tide over this critical time on the heights of Luozigou, with the help of an old man named Ma, and organized military and political studies for his soldiers.
In February 1933 he led the guerrilla unit that had been trained and developed into stalwart fighters during the southern and northern Manchurian expeditions, as well as through military and political studies, via Yaoyinggou to Macun, Xiaowangqing, where he set up the Headquarters of the revolution.
After founding the AJPGA, he pushed ahead with the work of establishing guerrilla bases along the Tuman River.
True to the policy which had already been put forward at the Mingyuegou and Xiaoshahe meetings, he saw to it that the guerrilla zones, semiguerrilla zones and centres of activity were established in the wide areas along the Tuman River, areas favourable for the establishment of guerrilla bases.
He paid primary attention to establishing a guerrilla zone, a base in the form of & liberated area, free from the enemy’s rule and under the full control of the guerrilla army.
He sent out skilled activists to various areas in Jiandao for revolutionary transformation of the rural communities there, as a part of the first-stage undertaking to establish the guerrilla zones. Not until the guerrilla zones were established did the rural communities that had been transformed along revolutionary lines serve as the temporary centres on which the AJPGA could establish a foothold to carry out its activities, as the foundation for the establishment of the guerrilla zones.
Meanwhile, he made the AJPGA fight many battles to keep the enemy in check militarily, secure the area for the establishment of the guerrilla zones and bring the revolutionary masses there.
Under his guidance the first guerrilla zone was established in Xiaoshahe Antu County, at the end of May 1932. Following this, the process of establishment of the guerrilla zones gained speed in all the counties in eastern Manchuria.
As a result of the indefatigable efforts and bloody struggle of the Korean communists to implement the policy put forward by Kim Il Sung, many guerrilla zones were established in the wide areas along the Tuman River, including Niufudong, Wangougou, Hailangou, Shirengou, Sandaowan, Xiaowangqing’ Gayahe, Yulangcun, Dahuanggou and Yantonglazi from the summer of 1932 to early the next year.
Kim Il Sung ensured that a vigorous struggle was launched in the guerrilla zones to eliminate the “Leftist” soviet line and establish the people’s revolutionary governments by fully implementing the line of building the people’s power. By that time, it was a commonplace in the international communist movement to establish “soviet” governments according to “soviet” policy advanced by the Comintern. The “Leftist” opportunists, factionalists and sycophants towards great powers, in imitation of the practice of setting up Soviets, established in the guerrilla zones in eastern Manchuria “soviet” governments that did not suit the specific situation of the guerrilla zones and of Korea; they declared the abolition of private property as a whole under the ultra-”Leftist” slogan of immediate accomplishment of socialism, and applied the effectuation of collective life, collective labour and collective distribution. Owing to the “Leftist” soviet policy, there arose great unrest and confusion among the people in the guerrilla zones, and many of the inhabitants fled the zones, complaining about the “soviet” policy.
Upon his return from the expeditions to southern and northern Manchuria, Kim Il Sung became familiar with the situation and convened a meeting of the leading and hardcore members of the Party and YCL organizations in Macun, Wangqing County, in late February 1933. At this and other meetings held on several occasions, he laid bare and criticized the “Leftist” nature of the “soviet” policy, and explained that the governments to be established in the guerrilla zones should be people’s revolutionary governments based on the worker-peasant alliance led by the working class and relying on the united front of the broad anti-Japanese forces.
The line of the people’s revolutionary government put forward by Kim Il Sung for the first time in history, being a concrete embodiment of the Juche-oriented line on the building of people’s power put forward at the Kalun Meeting, as suited to the specific situation of the guerrilla zones, was an original line on the building of power that illuminated for the people a scientific way for the building of revolutionary power to meet a new historical situation in which the composition of the motive force of the Korean revolution grew wider than ever before.
He met the advocates of the “soviet” policy and convinced them by his logical arguments, saw to it that the Party organizations in the guerrilla zones discussed the measures to implement the line on the people’s revolutionary government, and personally went to various guerrilla zones to explain the advantages of the people’s revolutionary government.
In March 1933 he called a meeting at Sishuiping in the Gayahe guerrilla zone, to establish the exemplary Wangqing people’s revolutionary government No. 5. At the meeting he made a historic speech, titled The People’s Revolutionary Government Is Truly A PeoPle’s Government, in which he pointed out the ways to immediately establish a people’s revolutionary government in each guerrilla zone, and strengthen and develop it, and the policies to be pursued by it.
In his historic talks with an emissary from the Comintern in Macun, and in Sishuiping, Xiaowangqing County, in April 1933, he referred to the fallacy of the “Leftist” line promoting “soviet”, and explained to him the validity of the Juche-oriented line of the people’s revolutionary government. He also pointed out the principled standpoint with regard to the problems to be dealt with at the moment and in the future in the Korean revolution, including matter arising in the international communist movement, the relationship between the Korean communists and the Chinese Communist Party, and the building of a party in Korea.
The inspector expressed his unqualified support for Kim Il Sung’s Juche-oriented line and attitude towards the Korean revolution.
In the summer of that year an important meeting was held to discuss the change in the political line.
At this meeting, Kim Il Sung proposed the line of the people’s revolutionary government, and explained once again the policy to be pursued by it. The meeting passed a decision on reshaping the “soviet” governments in the guerrilla zones into people’s revolutionary governments and combatting the evil consequences of the “Leftist” soviet line in all the guerrilla zones. The establishment of the people’s revolutionary government in Gayahe and the meeting that adopted the changed line, led to the emergence of a people’s revolutionary government in every district of the revolutionary organization in eastern Manchuria, and also in every village, till the end of the summer that year.
The people’s revolutionary government envisioned by Kim Il Sung and put into practice was a most popular and democratic government that embraced not only the workers, peasants and the masses of the soldiers but also the youth and students, intellectuals, conscientious capitalists, religious people and other broad anti-Japanese forces, and represented their interests. It became the prototype of the people’s government to be set up in liberated Korea, for it suited the character of the Korean revolution.
Kim Il Sung saw to it that the people’s revolutionary governments ensured genuine political freedom and democratic rights for the inhabitants of the guerrilla zones, exercised strict dictatorship against the pro-Japanese, comprador capitalists, and traitors to the nation, and pursued democratic reforms and policies in the social, economic and cultural spheres.
He ensured that the guerrilla zones confiscated the land owned by the Japanese imperialists, pro-Japanese landlords and traitors to the nation, without any payment, distributed the land to the peasants without compensation, and confiscated all the industrial property of the Japanese imperialists and the venal capitalists. At the same time, he encouraged the conscientious national capitalists to pursue their businesses, and enforced an eight-hour working day and minimum wages system so that the inhabitants could live stable lives. He also made the zones grant women equal rights with men, and enforce free education at the Children’s Corps (CC) schools and free medical care for all the population at the hospitals in the guerrilla zone.
As a result, a new socio-economic relationship and revolutionary order were established in the guerrilla zones; the population could lead free and comfortable lives to their hearts’ content, enjoying political rights and freedom, free from colonial and feudal exploitation and oppression.
In parallel with the establishment of the guerrilla zones, he pushed ahead with the building of the semi-guerrilla zones in the vicinity of the guerrilla zone.
A semi-guerrilla zone was an area which was under the enemy’s rule on the surface, but which was in fact controlled and guided by the guerrilla army and the revolutionary organization.
He gave a strong push to the establishment of the semi-guerrilla zones from the spring of 1933, while launching a struggle against the advocates of only guerrilla zones-”Left” opportunists and factionalists with a servile attitude towards great powers.
He dispatched to the wide areas in the vicinity of the guerrilla zones many political operatives, whose mission it was to form revolutionary organizations, transform the masses along revolutionary lines, take control of the basic units of the enemy’s ruling machinery, and actively support the activities of both the guerrilla army and the revolutionary organizations. He also saw to it that some areas within the guerrilla zones, areas which were unfavorable in terms of their defence, were transformed into semi-guerrilla zones. Consequently, semi-guerrilla zones came to be established in Luozigou, Zhuanjiaolou, Liangshuiquanzi and other wide areas in Wangqing, Yanji, Hunchun, Antu, and Helong, as well as in the area of six towns in Korea, including Onsong and Hoeryong. The semi-guerrilla zones served as reliable satellites protecting the army and the population, the people’s power and democratic measures pursued in the guerrilla zones.
He also saw to it that in the big cities under the enemy’s rule, military strategic points and the areas along the railways were set up many centres for the activities of the guerrillas. These centres were made up of underground revolutionary organizations and liaison offices and in the form of mobile and temporary guerrilla bases.
The centres, too, served as the eyes and ears of the guerrilla army, rendering a great contribution to the latter’s military and political activities.
With the establishment of the guerrilla zones in the wide areas along the Tuman River, the operational centre and strong military, strategic and supply bases of the AJPGA were created, and the Korean revolution as a whole, centring on the anti-Japanese armed struggle, could be developed more forcefully.
While establishing and consolidating the guerrilla zones on the banks of the Tuman River, he directed great attention to the work of extending and developing the armed struggle into the homeland.
From the early days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, he set as a fundamental requirement for maintaining the Juche character of the Korean revolution, and as a strategic task, the extension and development of the armed struggle into the homeland.
In March 1933 he led a unit of the guerrilla army into the Onsong area, in the face of the obstructive moves of the “Left” chauvinists and factionalists with a servile attitude toward great powers, who opposed the advance of the AJPGA into the homeland.
He called a meeting of the heads of the underground revolutionary organizations and political operatives in the area of Onsong, on Mt. Wangjae. At the meeting he delivered a historic speech, titled To Spread and Develop the Armed Struggle into the Homeland, in which he put forward the policy of spreading and developing the anti-Japanese armed struggle into the homeland.
In order to extend and develop the armed struggle into the homeland, he said, it was imperative to create more semi-guerrilla zones and consolidate them in wide areas of the homeland, adjacent to the guerrilla zones that had already been established on the banks of the Tuman River, and unite the entire nation firmly as a single political force in the struggle against the Japanese. He also said that the armed struggle should be spread and developed into the homeland and, at the same time, combined closely with the mass struggle. In addition, he said, various forms of anti-Japanese struggle should be organized and launched, and the supply work in support of the guerrilla army and the population of the guerrilla zones rendered on a full-scale basis.
Referring to the need to found the Party, the general staff of the revolution, to successfully carry out the difficult and challenging revolutionary tasks, he emphasized that organizational and ideological preparations for the founding of the Party should be made in a substantial way.
The advance into the Onsong area by the guerrilla army under
Kim Il Sung’s command and the meeting on Mt. Wangjae presided over by him were a prelude to extending and developing the anti-Japanese armed struggle into the homeland, and marked a new, historical turning-point in the development of the national liberation struggle.
In late March and late May 1933, he went to Ryuda Islet in Kyongwon (the present Saeppyol) County and Sinhung Village in Jongsong County, where he held meetings of the heads of the underground revolutionary organizations and political operatives to take concrete measures for the implementation of the policy set forth at the meeting on Mt. Wangjae.
The brisk advance of the AJPGA into the homeland and the vigorous organizational and political work done by many a number of political operatives among the people, all conducted according to the policy put forward by Kim Il Sung, gave rise to further support for and encouragement of the AJPGA and guerrilla zones, and mounting mass struggle of various forms against Japanese colonial rule, in the homeland.
He pushed ahead with the work of rapidly expanding and strengthening the ranks of the AJPGA as a large revolutionary armed force, with a view to successfully frustrating the ever-more-frantic “punitive” offensives of the enemy against the guerrilla zones and developing the scope of armed struggle.
He saw to it that the activists of the paramilitary and other revolutionary organizations within the guerrilla zones, who had been trained and fostered in their respective organizations, and the young people in the areas under the enemy’s rule, who had been tested in the process of practical struggle, were admitted into the guerrilla army in large numbers to reinforce its ranks, and that the guerrilla army was strengthened all the more politically and militarily.
In April and November, 1933, he published Guerrilla Action and Guerrilla Manual, respectively, pamphlets that concisely codified all the principles and methods of the guerrilla activities.
Guerrilla Action and Guerrilla Manual provided prototypes for the building of the Korean revolutionary armed forces and for the establishment and development of the Juche-based tactics. They also served as the guideline and tactical manual, respectively, for all military activities of the guerrilla army.
He ensured that ultra-democracy in the army was overcome in time, for the purpose of establishing a strict command system and iron discipline and order within the anti Japanese guerrilla army.
The ultra-democracy that made its appearance in the early days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle was a “Leftist” ideological tendency that advocated absolute equality for every soldier, irrespective of rank, in the command and administration of the army, that is, excessive equalitarianism in all aspects of military activity, having a serious impact on the military operations of the guerrilla army.
At the meeting of the commanders and political commissars of the guer-riHa units in eastern Manchuria convened in Shiliping, Wangqing County, he analyzed and criticized the harmful effects of ultra-democracy in the army, and instructed that the main factors in the command of a guerrilla unit were the authority of its commander and the establishment of rigid centralized discipline and order, and that the method of administration should be to give priority to political work. He also stressed that distinctions between a superior and a subordinate in a unit should be clear and absolute, the orders issued by a superior be carried out unswervingly, and the unit be commanded and managed in accordance with the principle of individual responsibility on a basis of democracy.
His instructions enlightened the commanders and soldiers of the guerrilla army. In the subsequent trials of repeated battle, ultra democracy was eliminated from the army once and for all.
In order to establish the command system of the AJPGA, he organized a battalion in early 1933 to command the rapidly-growing companies in each county of eastern Manchuria, and then a regiment at the end of the same year as the battalions increased in number.
The guerrilla units in each county increased in strength into a force greater in number than a regiment, and the areas of their military activity and the scope of their movement expanded further. The new situation urgently required the establishment of a corresponding command system that was fully capable of bringing all the guerrilla units, active individually in their respective counties, under a unified command.
With his deep insight into the prevailing military and political situation and the demands of the natural course of development of the AJPGA itself, he called a meeting of the military and political cadres of the AJPGA in Macun, Wangqing County, in March 1934, at which he took a historical measure to reorganize the AJPGA into the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army (KPRA).
While reorganizing the AJPGA into the KPRA, he formed within the KPRA divisions, regiments, companies, platoons and squads systematically-a system of regular armed forces-on the principle of tripartite military organization.
This step meant not merely a change of name or technical restructuring. It meant development into a new stage of army building, for it improved the command system of the guerrilla army and strengthened its ranks both in quantity and in quality.
He made energetic efforts to achieve an allied front with the Chinese anti-Japanese units in an all-round way.
In those days, the upper crust of the Chinese anti-Japanese units had again become hostile towards the Korean communists, due to the vicious tricks of the Japanese imperialists attempting to drive a wedge between the two nationalities, and the counterrevolutionary attempts of the chauvinists and factionalists harbouring servility towards great powers. With regard to this serious situation, he called a meeting of the heads of the revolutionary organizations on the banks of the Tuman River and the commanding officers of the guerrilla army in Macun in the Xiaowangqing guerrilla zone, in May 1933, at which he took positive measures for the improvement of relations with the Chinese anti-Japanese units. In June of the same year, at the risk of his life, he held negotiations with Wu Yi-Cheng, the forward area commander of the Chinese National Salvation Army’- in Luozigou. At the negotiations, he persuaded Wu to join the anti-Japanese allied front, and agreed with him to establish the Joint Anti-Japanese Army Coordination Commission, a standing body made up of representatives of both the guerrilla army and the Chinese units. He ensured that this body worked to its full capacity.
He consolidated and developed the anti-Japanese allied front by organizing and commanding the battle of the Dongning county town and other battles, in cooperation with the Chinese units in September 1933.
He saw to it that an all-people defence system was established in the guerrilla zones by arming the whole population and fortifying the zones.
He ensured that the Anti-Japanese Self-Defence Corps, Young Volunteers, Children’s Vanguard, and other paramilitary organizations were formed with the young people and children in the guerrilla zones, and intensified military training for them. He also saw to it that weapons were made by the guerrillas themselves by displaying the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance.
Some people had once asked the Soviet Union to construct a hand-grenade factory in a guerrilla zone. But the Soviet Union sent no reply to the request. It was at this time that Kim Il Sung resolved firmly to do everything by means of self-reliance.
Saying that once a person was determined, nothing was impossible, he made every guerrilla base set up an arsenal on its own to make pistols, rifles, bullets, gunpowder, Yanji bombs and wooden guns with hand tools, by displaying the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance. He also ensured that various defence structures were set up in all parts of the guerrilla zones, a closely combined emergency call system and evacuation arrangements made, and a reconnaissance and warning system formed involving all the people to detect the enemy’s movements.
The all-people defence system established in the guerrilla zones was a most powerful defence system by which the guerrilla zones could defend themselves without fail from any armed attacks of the enemy.
Kim Il Sung organized and led the struggle in defence of the guerrilla zones to victory by relying on this solid all-people defence system.
As the guerrilla zones were established, the Japanese imperialists pursued economic blockades against these zones, while at the same time launching “scorched-earth operations” on a full scale, perpetrating indiscriminate massacres, incendiarism and plunder, in an attempt to eliminate the zones right from the start.
The Japanese imperialists committed about 1,500 men to the spring “punitive” offensive against the Xiaowangqing guerrilla zone, where the Headquarters of the Korean revolution was located, under cover of artillery and aircraft, in spring 1933.
Taking the initiative all the time, Kim Il Sung employed elusive tactics-ambush, enticement and surprise attack-by taking advantage of the solid defence positions, thus dealing a telling blow to the enemy.
The guerrilla army and all of the population of the guerrilla zone, irrespective of age or sex, fought heroically at the risk of their lives, by displaying an unparalleled spirit of sacrifice and an indomitable fighting spirit, and so frustrated the repeated offensives of the enemy and defended the Xiaowangqing guerrilla zone to the end. Greatly encouraged by the victory in the battle to defend the Xiaowangqing guerrilla zone, the defenders in Yanji, Helong and Hunchun firmly defended their guerrilla zones by displaying mass heroism.
As the Japanese imperialists embarked on another “punitive” offensive against the guerrilla zone with the mobilization of 5,000 troops, together with aircraft, from the autumn of 1933, Kim Il Sung put forward a strategic and tactical policy of combining the defence of the guerrilla zones with harassment operations in the enemy’s rear, and called for all-out resistance in defence of the guerrilla zones, himself leading a guerrilla group into enemy’s rear, attacking Liangshuiquanzi, Xinnangou, Beifengwudong and Daduchuan. Confused at a terrible defeat in his “punitive” operations and the successive blows he sustained in his rear, the enemy raised his siege of the guerrilla zone and retreated to the position from which he had started.
Following their defeat in the winter “punitive” offensive, much-advertised as the final “mopping-up” operations, the Japanese imperialists pursued a new “punitive” plan-siege operations-that is, combining the tactics of “step-by-step occupation” and political and economic blockade by establishing internment villages and collective culpability systems, from the spring of 1934.
In order to frustrate the enemy’s “siege” operations, Kim Il Sung moved the Headquarters of the revolution to the Yaoyinggou guerrilla zone in mid-March 1934, and got the KPRA to launch its spring offensive on its own initiative, crushing the enemy’s operations from the outset.
He called a meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRA at Dahuangwai, Wangqing County, in June 1934, at which he set forth the policy of following up the spring offensive with a summer offensive, and organized and commanded the battle at Luozigou and many other battles one after another, dealing a fatal blow to the enemy’s “siege” operations.
In order to counter the enemy’s new “long-term special security campaign”, he convened a meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRA in the Yaoyinggou guerrilla zone in August 1934, at which he pointed out that the KPRA should launch brisk harassment operations in the enemy’s rear to finally smash the Japanese “siege” operations.
While working to defend the guerrilla zones securely and, on this basis, expand and develop the anti-Japanese armed struggle, he pushed forward the building of Party organizations.
While forming the basic Party organizations and expanding them steadily, he channelled great efforts into improving and strengthening the system of guidance to them.
He first formed Party organizations at all levels within the AJPGA, the leading force of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, and established a unified system of Party organizational leadership.
He formed a Party group in each platoon, a cell in each company, and then, with the rapid expansion of the guerrilla ranks resulting in the formation of battalions, a Party committee in each battalion. With the reorganization of the battalions into regiments, he formed a Party committee in each regiment.
As a result, the work of building the Party organizations that had been proceeding only on a regional basis, developed in scope, and the laying of organizational and ideological foundations for the founding of the Party proceeded with the guerrilla army as the centre.
He ensured that in all the guerrilla zones the work of screening the Party members and registering them all again was conducted and, at the same time, the seasoned members of the revolutionary organizations were admitted into the Party organizations, and a Party cell and its subordinates, Party groups, were formed in every village. He also concerned himself with the improvement or formation of the regional Party committees of the revolutionary organizations. He moved the county Party committees from the enemy-ruled areas to the guerrilla zones, and restructured them so that they could provide guidance to the Party organizations in both the guerrilla zones and the enemy-ruled areas.
In particular, with deep interest in the work of expanding the Party organizations in the homeland and establishing the system of Party organizational leadership over them, he formed many such bodies in the areas of northern Korea, organizing the Onsong regional Party committee, a regional Party leadership body, in February 1934. The formation of the Onsong regional Party committee was of great importance as it provided an organizational centre for rapidly expanding the Party organizations not only in the Onsong area but also deep into the homeland.
With the building of Party organizations proceeding on a full scale, the establishment of a unified Party leadership body posed itself as an urgent requirement.
While reorganizing the AJPGA into the KPRA, Kim Il Sung put forward the policy of forming the KPRA Party committee as a unified Party leadership body.
The Headquarters of the revolution was then located within the army and had to lead the revolutionary movement as a whole, constantly moving here and there without any fixed position in any regional area. Given the prevailing situation, therefore, the new policy was a revolutionary policy that would make it possible for this committee to fully ensure unified guidance to the Party organizations within the guerrilla army and in the local areas, and give the Party leadership over the revolutionary movement in Korea as a whole.
On May 31, 1934, Kim Il Sung convened a meeting of the representatives of the KPRA Party organizations in Dahuangwai, at which he proclaimed the formation of the KPRA Party committee.
The KPRA Party committee was a powerful Party leadership body of the Korean communists, firmly guided by, and working to realize, the Juche idea, the revolutionary idea of Kim Il Sung; it was a unified Party leadership body, the highest leadership body, taking full control over and guiding the Party organizations at all levels within the KPRA and in the local areas.
With the KPRA Party committee formed and its leadership role enhanced under Kim Il Sung’s wise leadership, the anti-Japanese armed struggle, the preparations for the founding of the Party, the building of mass organizations, and the united-front movement gathered great momentum, and the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle as a whole gained ground for greater strength and development.
At the same time as training many hardcore elements that would make up the organizational backbone for the founding of the Party, in the crucible of armed struggle, he exerted great efforts particularly to oppose factionalism and servility towards great powers, and ensure the unity of the revolutionary ranks in ideology and will, and guarantee its purity.
With a view to inspiring the guerrillas and the members of the Party and other revolutionary organizations to vigorously engage in anti-factionalist struggle, he published a treatise, titled Let Us Wipe Out Factionalism and Strengthen the Unity and Cohesion of the Revolutionary Rank, in May 1933.
In this treatise, he laid bare the ideological origin of factionalism, the harm it does and the way it works, and set out tasks for eliminating factionalism and strengthening the unity and cohesion of the revolutionary ranks.
This historic treatise of his served as the guiding principle to be adhered to firmly by the communists in eliminating factionalism organizationally and ideologically, and strengthening the unity and cohesion of the revolutionary ranks.
As a result of the fierce struggle launched by the Party and other revolutionary organizations to eliminate factionalism, the factionalists became estranged from the masses, and cohesion in ideology and will and unity in action within the revolutionary ranks united behind Kim Il Sung was able to be achieved.
He pressed on with the work of expanding and strengthening the mass organizations, side by side with the building of the Party organizations.
He paid primary attention to the work of the YCL.
In his historic speech, titled On the Tasks for Improving the Work of the Young Communist League, delivered at a meeting of YCL workers held in Wangqing, in March 1933, he referred to the “Leftist” tendency of a closed-door attitude and the “Rightist” deviations in the YCL work in the guerrilla zones, and set out tasks for improving the work of the YCL.
He ensured that the YCL workers improved their methods and style of work, and that the YCL work had a great influence on the masses of young people. As a result, the YCL was strengthened organizationally and ideologically, and its role enhanced, so that the young people could take the lead in the implementation of the immediate tasks-political, economic, and military-facing the guerrilla zone.
Showing keen interest in work with the young people in the enemy-held areas, he dispatched to wide areas of eastern Manchuria and the homeland the YCL cadres whose mission it was to train young people in the crucible of practical struggle and admit them into the organizations to bring them up as vanguard fighters.
Kim Il Sung set the Children’s Corps as a component of the “Alliance of Three Generations”, along with the Party and the YCL. In his talk with the chiefs of the CC in Xiaobeigou, Wangqing County, in June 1933, titled Let Us Bring Up the Members of the Children’s Corps as the Strong Reserves of the Revolution, he instructed that the CC members should be trained to be genuine communist revolutionaries and dependable reserves of the Korean revolution. He showed his parental care and concern for the studies and lives of the CC members.
He dispatched in all directions the political operatives entrusted with the duty of expanding the Labor Unions, Peasants’ Associations and Women’s Associations, forming united-front mass organizations such as Anti-Japanese Associations, Anti-Imperialist Unions and Revolutionary Mutual Aid Societies, and rallying around these organizations all the people opposed to the Japanese.
Thus, mass organizations were expanded and strengthened, and the broad masses from all walks of life rallied around them, with the result that the internal force of the revolution was built up and the mass base for armed struggle developed solidly.
He decided to make the first northern Manchurian expedition to disperse and weaken the enemy concentrated for the purpose of “punitive” operations against the guerrilla zones in eastern Manchuria, and to satisfy the request of the communists in northern Manchuria for assistance in their struggle.
In late October 1934, he led the expeditionary corps bravely through raging blizzards and over the rugged Laoyeling mountains to northern Manchuria, where he met Zhou Bao-zhong, commander of an anti-Japanese armed unit of the Chinese communists.
This meeting occasioned the KPRA to embark on the road of joint struggle with the guerrilla units led by the Chinese communists on a full scale.
In every part of northern Manchuria, Kim Il Sung led the KPRA to launch brisk military activities to drive the main force of the Japanese army and the Japanese Jingan army stationed in Ningan to the point of annihilation, and turned the relations with the Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units from hostility to alliance, thus safeguarding the legitimate activities of the Ningan guerrilla army and building up its ranks.
He organized a KPRA mouth-organ concert group, which gave performances, winning over the Ningan people, who had been influenced for a long time by the vicious Japanese anti-communist propaganda and the factional strife of the early communists. As a result, many villages were transformed along revolutionary lines by means of brisk political work in various forms and by various methods. Moreover, all over northern Manchuria, which had been inhospitable to revolution in the past, the Party ranks and other revolutionary organizations such as the YCL, Women’s Associations and CC, expanded rapidly.
After the fulfillment of the military and political tasks to be tackled by the expeditionary force, Kim Il Sung led the force to set out on its return journey in late January 1935.
While marching at the head of the ranks of the expeditionary force that was forging ahead through a snowstorm in the Tianqiaoling mountains and fighting frequent battles, he caught a chill and lost consciousness.
He had a high fever, his temperature fluctuating around 40 degrees. Yet, gathering his indomitable will power, he composed a revolutionary song, Song of the Anti-Japanes War, to inspire his dog-tired soldiers. Company Commander Han Hung Gwon and other guerrillas, old man Kim of the Tianqiaoling timber mill and old man Jo Thaek Ju and his family in the Dawaizi valley, and other people protected him from the besieging enemy and did their utmost to nurse him back to health.
Kim Il Sung launched a disciplined struggle to overcome the “Leftist” deviations revealed in the anti-”Minsaengdan” struggle13 and preserve the Juche character and national character of the Korean revolution.
From the early days when the anti-”Minsaengdan” struggle was proceeding in an ultra-”Leftist” manner, he clarified the principles to be adhered to and the methods to be applied in the campaign. Shouldering the destiny of the Korean revolution, he implemented them resolutely.
He saw to it that the “Minsaengdan” suspects were dealt with prudently on the basis of adequate evidence and scientific materials. The handful of dyed-in-the-wool “Minsaengdan” plotters were punished, white those who had been dragged into the “Minsaengdan” through ignorance were re-educated and won over to the side of the revolution, on the principle of strengthening the unity and cohesion of the revolutionary ranks and uniting ail the anti-Japanese elements to build up the revolutionary forces to the maximum. He ensured that the campaign was conducted in close combination with anti-factionalist struggle, as well as with the practical struggle.
On several occasions, he explained the actual “Minsaengdan” case and corrected what had been dealt with wrongfully, saving many of those who had been suffering all manner of maltreatment and pains on unreasonable charges.
His disciplined struggle dealt a heavy blow to the “Leftist” divisive moves of the chauvinists, factionalists and sycophants towards great powers; however, when he left for the expedition to northern Manchuria, the ultra-”Leftist” tendency in the campaign gained momentum.
Consequently, many people were executed on false charges of being “counterrevolutionaries” or “enemy spies”, while unrest and terror prevailed again in the guerrilla zones.
Upon his return from the first northern Manchurian expedition,
Kim Il Sung, still in impaired health, took part in the meeting of the Party and the YCL cadres held in Dahuangwai from February 24 to March 3, 1935, at which he resolutely refuted singlehanded the arguments of the “Leftist” chauvinists who had been leading the anti-”Minsaengdan” campaign in an ultra-”Leftist” manner.
In his historic speech made at the meeting, titled It Is a Right to Independence for Korean Communists to Fight for the Korean Revolution, he refuted ideologically and theoretically, on the basis of scientific materials, the preposterous sophism of the “Leftist” chauvinists that insisted, without any evidence, that 70 per cent of the Koreans in eastern Manchuria and 80 to 90 per cent of the Korean revolutionaries were “Minsaengdan” members or suspects, and that the guerrilla zones were “Minsaengdan” training centres.
He scathingly denounced the crimes of the “Leftist” chauvinists who had been abusing the anti-”Minsaengdan” campaign to pursue their narrow-minded chauvinistic aims and wicked factionalist ambitions. He asserted that it was self-evident that if heterogeneous elements occupied 80 per cent of something, then that thing would change into something else. He condemned the national chauvinistic and unscientific argument that the Koreans, being of the minority nation, were not in a position to lead the majority nation, and that, worse still, the Korean revolutionaries could not become cadres, for they were given to factional strife, were vacillating and liable to turn reactionary. He emphasized that loyalty to the revolution and qualifications be the criterion for the selection of cadres. Explaining the inadequacy of the argument that the Korean communists active in China should not raise the slogan of their national liberation, and exposing the argument to be one aimed at dissuading the Korean communists from fighting for the Korean revolution, he maintained a Juche-oriented attitude towards the Korean revolution.
The attendants at the meeting, including the Chinese communists, expressed their support for and agreement with his principled and logical assertion.
The polemics at the Dahuangwai meeting constituted a great ideological campaign launched by Kim Il Sung to defend and maintain the Juche-oriented line on the Korean revolution, under the fully unfurled banner of independence. This meeting resulted in many people being acquitted of the unreasonable charge of being “Minsaengdan” members or suspects, and those who had already been executed on false charges related to the “Minsaengdan” incident having their political integrity restored. Following the meeting, the antagonism, distrust and terror that had prevailed in the revolutionary ranks were dispelled and the ranks united once more.
With this meeting as the watershed, the Korean people admired
Kim Il Sung all the more as the sun of the Korean nation and as a peerless patriot.
At the Yaoyinggou meeting that was held as a follow-up to the Dahuangwai meeting, he again exposed and criticized the “Leftist” tendency revealed in the anti-”Minsaengdan” campaign, and pointed out concrete ways for overcoming it.
Furthermore, he decided to present a number of key points of the arguments raised at the Dahuangwai and Yaoyinggou meetings to the Comintern.
As a result of his principled and self-sacrificing campaign to overcome the “Leftist” deviations arising out of the anti-”Minsaengdan” struggle during and after these meetings, the Korean revolution was able to tide over its crisis, and the Korean anti-Japanese national liberation movement was able to advance more forcefully.
While launching a struggle to sweep away the “Leftist” deviations revealed in the anti-”Minsaengdan” campaign, he organized and commanded the battles at Tianqiaoling and Tangshuihezi, Wangqing County, and other battles, winning victories every time, in March 1935, and ensured that aggressive operations to disintegrate the enemy forces were carried out to create confusion among them and sap their combat efficiency, in order to deal a final crushing blow to the Japanese “siege” operations.
Consequently, the “siege” operations pursued by the Japanese imperialists ended in total failure.
Kim Il Sung organized and led the struggle to dissolve the guerrilla zones and expand and develop the armed struggle into wider areas.
With the turn of 1935, the problems besetting the basic mission and duty of the guerrilla zones established on the banks of the Tuman River, that is, the matter of preserving and fostering the revolutionary forces and the matter of laying political, military, and material foundations for extended development of the armed struggle, were resolved successfully. In the meantime, the Japanese imperialists became more frantic in their “punitive”, starving out and blockading operations, aimed at isolating and stifling the guerrilla army and the population of the guerrilla zones. They surrounded the guerrilla zones with several rings with the mobilization of regular armed forces tens of thousands strong. Given the situation, if the guerrilla army limited itself to the defence of the limited guerrilla zones, it was in danger of being thrown onto the defensive and becoming unable to preserve the revolutionary forces which had been fostered over several years.
At the Yaoyinggou meeting, held in late March 1935, Kim Il Sung put forth a strategic policy of relinquishing the guerrilla zones and advancing into wider areas, to meet the prevailing situation and in accordance with the revolutionary tasks.
This was a revolutionary policy that would ensure the expansion and development of the anti-Japanese armed struggle to a new stage.
The Yaoyinggou meeting marked a turning-point for the KPRA to switch over from the strategic defence of the guerrilla bases in the form of liberated areas established on the Tuman River, to a new stage of strategic offensive.
At the same time as leading the work to frustrate the enemy’s military blockade and ideological offensive, Kim Il Sung ensured that organizational and political work with regard to the dissolution of the guerrilla zones was conducted forcefully among the population, and necessary measures taken to the minutest detail for the evacuation of the people.
As a result, the dissolution of the guerrilla zones, which started in May 1935 drew to a successful end in early November of the same year, when the last guerrilla zone in Chechangzi went out of existence.
Following the dissolution of the guerrilla zones, Kim Il Sung dispatched the KPRA units to the area along the border with Korea and the wide areas in southern and northern Manchuria.
Prior to the second expedition to northern Manchuria, he organized and commanded the battles at Laoheishan and at Taipinggou in mid-June 1935, letting the KPRA display its might, and making full preparations for the expedition.
In a speech delivered to the commanding officers and other members of the north Manchurian expeditionary force of the KPRA in Taipinggou, Wangqing County, in late June of the same year, titled Let Us Sow the Seeds of the Revolution over a Wide Area ,he put forth the tasks of exerting a revolutionary influence over the inhabitants of northern Manchuria and launching the armed struggle bravely in northern Manchuria in active support of the anti-Japanese armed units there.
He left Taipinggou and crossed the Laoyeling Mountains at the head of the expeditionary force, to reach northern Manchuria. From late June 1935 to February 1936, he led the force, moving over vast areas of northern Manchuria, including Ningan County and Emu County, and striking crushing blows at the enemy one after another all the while, by employing a variety of strategies and tactics.
He mixed closely with the people of northern Manchuria, and conducted vigorous political work among them in various ways, he himself playing a reed organ and singing a Chinese folk song, Song of Su Wu, thus inspiring them to turn out actively for the anti-Japanese struggle.
In this period, the Comintern appointed him political commissar of the joint headquarters it had organized for cooperation between the 2nd and 5th Corps of the Anti-Japanese Allied Army (AJAA), and commander of the Weihe unit. Working in this capacity, he made a great contribution to developing the anti-Japanese joint struggle of the Korean and Chinese peoples.
The militant alliance with the Chinese communists that had been formed on his initiative during the first northern Manchurian expedition was further consolidated and developed through the second expedition to northern Manchuria.
The other KPRA units that had advanced into the wide areas according to the policy he had set forth at the Yaoyinggou meeting, carried out brisk political and military activities in all parts, dealing heavy blows to the enemy.
As he spurred the military and political activities of the KPRA in wide areas, the anti-Japanese national liberation movement centring on the anti-Japanese armed struggle entered a new phase of development.
3
FEBRUARY 1936-AUGUST 1940
In the second half of the 1930s Kim Il Sung organized and led the struggle to bring about a great upsurge on a nationwide scale in the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle centred on the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
Under his wise leadership, in the first half of the 1930s a considerable number of communists were tempered in the crucible of arduous struggle and the KPRA expanded in ranks and strength to become a powerful armed force fully seasoned politically and ideologically and with rich combat experience. The revolutionary ranks had been solidly united through the struggle against factionalism, sycophancy towards great powers and “Leftist” chauvinists. Moreover, a strong mass base for armed struggle and the founding of the Party had been provided, and the anti-Japanese united front with the Chinese people had been consolidated.
The situation, both internal and external, was developing in favour of the Korean people’s anti-Japanese struggle.
On the basis of his scientific analysis of the subjective and objective conditions of the revolution, Kim Il Sung called a conference of the military and political cadres of the KPRA at Nanhutou, Ningan County, from February 27 to March 3, 1936, in order to put forward a strategic and tactical policy aimed at developing the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle onto a new and higher stage from the Juche-oriented standpoint.
The conference announced that the Comintern had approved of and supported Kim Il Sung’s correct attitude that it was an inviolable, sacred right of the Korean communists to take full responsibility for carrying out the Korean revolution, and that the “Leftist” errors had been committed in the course of the anti-”Minsaengdan” campaign.
At the conference, Kim Il Sung delivered a historic report, titled The Tasks of Communists in the Strengthening and Development of the Anti-Japanese National Liberation Struggle, which set out a strategic task facing the Korean communists.
He said:
“In this favourable situation the Korean communists are faced with the important task of further developing the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle by building up the revolutionary forces of our people and mobilizing all their efforts.”
To this end, he put forward concrete policies.
Firstly, he set forth the policy of moving the main force of the KPRA, the pivotal force of the Korean revolution, to the Korean border areas and gradually extending the theatre of activity to the homeland.
This was a most correct policy for building up the internal forces of the Korean revolution and ensuring the defeat of the Japanese imperialists by the Koreans themselves, by mobilizing every effort of the entire nation.
In order for the KPRA to advance to the border areas and into the homeland to organize and wage the struggle against the Japanese, he said, it was imperative to establish a new form of guerrilla base in the border area around Mt. Paektu, an area particularly favourable for the purpose. Referring to the need for the KPRA to advance to the border areas and into the homeland to launch a positive armed struggle, he emphasized that a major immediate task was to expand and strengthen the ranks of the anti-Japanese army, particularly, the main force of the KPRA.
Stating that the advance of the KPRA to the border areas should not weaken the joint struggle with the Chinese anti-Japanese armed units,
Kim Il Sung said that all the KPRA units should continue to wage their armed struggle in cooperation with the Chinese communists, under the name of the Anti-Japanese Allied Army.
Next, he put forward the policy of further expanding and developing the anti-Japanese national united front movement on a nationwide scale.
Referring to the need to establish a standing body of the united front to develop this movement to a new stage, he emphasized that the movement should be organized and pushed forward in close relationship with the anti-Japanese armed struggle. He also instructed that it was necessary to disband the YCLK and form an Anti-Japanese Youth League of Korea (AJYLK), a mass youth organization, in its place.
Further, he set forth the policy of vigorously accelerating the preparations for the founding of the Party on a nationwide scale.
To this end, he emphasized that it was necessary to expand the Party organizations in all the KPRA units and the Korean settlements, particularly, into the homeland, and establish a unified organizational leadership system from the KPRA Party committee to local Party organizations, and to increase the Party membership markedly among the workers and poor and hired peasants, so as to build up the organizational backbone for founding the Party. Basic Party organizations should be formed first, he said, within the revolutionary organizations in various places. He added that a fierce struggle should be launched against factionalism and opportunism, the unity of thought and action of the revolutionary ranks should be fully guaranteed on the basis of the Juche-oriented revolutionary line, and the broad masses of the people from all strata should be united, to lay a solid mass foundation for Party founding.
This historic report delivered by Kim Il Sung served as a fighting banner that illuminated the way for bringing about a great upsurge on a nationwide scale in the anti-Japanese national liberation movement centring on the armed struggle to meet the requirements of the prevailing situation and of the developing revolution. It was also a Juche-oriented action programme that signposted the way to hasten the historic cause of national liberation by the Koreans themselves.
The Nanhutou Conference, organized and presided over by
Kim Il Sung, was an occasion when the Korean communists fully established Juche in the history of the Korean communist movement and the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle.
With the conference at Nanhutou as a turning-point, the Korean revolution could set up a new landmark, a new stage of its development, advancing under the banner of Juche.
In order to take practical measures for the implementation of the policy put forward at the Nanhutou Conference, Kim Il Sung convened a meeting of the KPRA military and political cadres in Mihunzhen, Antu County, in March 1936.
At the meeting he reorganized the KPRA units, increasing them from two divisions to three divisions and one independent brigade, and allocated an area for each unit’s activities.
The new main-force division to be formed was to operate in the border area along the Amnok River, centring on Mt. Paektu.
The meeting also debated the organization of a preparatory committee to found the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland (ARF).
Kim Il Sung paid special attention to the formation of a new division, aimed at expanding and strengthening the main force of the KPRA, considering it to be a top-priority matter essential for implementing the Juche-oriented line of the Korean revolution.
He dispatched most of the members of the expeditionary force that had participated in the northern Manchurian expedition to the Chinese guerrilla units, before advancing into Maanshan to organize a new division that would constitute the main force of the KPRA.
At Maanshan there were about 100 “Minsaengdan” suspects excluded from the combat force, and CC members who had been given the cold shoulder on charges of being related to “Minsaengdan” case.
Kim Il Sung met all of the “Minsaengdan” suspects, and declared that the charge against them was unfounded and thus invalid. He personally burned the documents held as “evidence” of their involvement with “Minsaengdan”. He then admitted them all into the new division to be organized.
In April 1936, he put together a new division, the main force of the KPRA, with the former “Minsaengdan” suspects as its backbone, and with the small armed units that had come to enlist after hearing the news that the “Minsaengdan” suspects had all been admitted into the new division, as well as with patriotic-minded young people who had come to enlist in the KPRA. He also organized a women’s company, the first of its kind in the history of army-building in Korea. He provided the CC members in Maanshan with new clothes by spending the 20 yuan, he had treasured and kept as an inheritance from his mother. Later, he organized a children’s company with the CC members in Maanshan and the children who had come from west Jiandao, to train them all as a reserve force of the Korean revolution.
The birth of the new division that would constitute the main force of the KPRA was a historical event of great significance in the development of army-building in Korea and of the Korean revolution as a whole.
Kim Il Sung made the KPRA units organize and wage the anti-Japanese armed struggle in cooperation with the Chinese communists under the name of the AJAA, as dictated by the policy put forward at the Nanhutou Conference, so as to promote the development of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle of both the Korean and Chinese peoples.
The AJAA was an alliance of various anti-Japanese guerrilla units active in Northeast China, involving the KPRA and the Chinese guerrilla units led by the Chinese Communist Party, as well as the Chinese anti-Japanese units under the command of the Chinese National Salvation Army.
The Comintern had suggested that the Korean communists and the KPRA organize the Korean army separate from the AJAA, to act independently, insisting that for the Koreans to make the Korean revolution was not contrary to the principle of “one party for one country”.
Now that the identity of the KPRA was guaranteed within the allied army and that the Chinese were desirous of alliance with the KPRA,
Kim Il Sung saw to it that the KPRA units, while waging a joint struggle with the Chinese anti-Japanese armed units, worked under the name of the KPRA in the homeland and in the Korean settlements in Northeast China, and under the name of AJAA in the Chinese villages.
His making the KPRA wage the anti-Japanese armed struggle in cooperation with the Chinese communists was a most correct policy that made it possible to properly combine the national and international interests, and further intensify the armed struggle of both the Korean and Chinese peoples against their common enemy, Japanese imperialism, by their united efforts. It was a shining example of the formation of the international anti-imperialist united front working under the banner of proletarian internationalism.
Kim Il Sung channelled great efforts into founding the ARF to develop the anti-Japanese national united front movement to a new stage.
In late March 1936, he organized a preparatory committee for the founding of the ARF, with the exemplary commanders of the KPRA and distinguished representatives of patriotic organizations. At the same time, he dispatched to the homeland and all parts of Manchuria small armed units and many political operatives, whose mission it was to carry out brisk organizational and political activities to found the ARF.
Throughout the course of the march from Nanhutou to Donggang, a journey beset with challenges, including incessant trekking and fighting, he personally worked out the drafts of the programme and rules of the ARF and its inaugural declaration.
Kim Il Sung convened the inaugural meeting of the ARF in Donggang, Fusong County, from May 1 to 15, 1936.
At this meeting he delivered a historic report, titled Let Us Further Expand and Develop the Ant-Japanes National United From Movement and Bring about a New Upsurge in the Korean Revolution as a Whole, in which he pointed out the necessity and significance of the founding of the ARF and its character, and the main content of its programme. He also set out the tasks to be tackled in uniting the entire nation into a single political force under the banner of the ARF, and the principles to be adhered to in the anti-Japanese national united front movement, as well as the ways for their implementation.
At the meeting he also made public the Ten-Point Programme of the ARF and its Inaugural Declaration and Rules.
In the Ten-Point Programme of the ARF he defined the basic tasks to be implemented in the spheres of politics, the economy and social culture at the stage of anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution, and pointed out the basic principles of an independent external policy.
The programme called for the establishment of a genuine people’s revolutionary government in Korea after the crushing of Japanese imperialism, the formation of a revolutionary armed force to fight for the independence of Korea, the nationalization of industries, agrarian reform and an eight-hour workday, equality of the sexes, free compulsory education and other democratic policies.
This was an original revolutionary programme that correctly reflected the principal demands of the working class and the interests of the people of all walks of life at the stage of anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution, and effected an organic combination of the task of national liberation and that of democratic social revolution. It was a declaration of an all-people resistance that called for the build-up of the motive force of the revolution and appealed to the entire Korean nation to achieve its national liberation by the general mobilization of their efforts.
In the Inaugural Declaration of the ARF, Kim Il Sung proclaimed the formation of the ARF and referred to the need to form ARF organizations in all parts of the area occupied by the Japanese invaders as soon as possible; he called on the whole nation to rise up under the banner of the Ten-Point Programme of the ARF.
In the Rules of the ARF, he defined the title of the united front body, its fighting objective and the ways for its realization, its membership qualifications and the procedure of admission, its organizational form and structure, the duties and rights of its members, its organizational discipline and the tasks of its members.
The meeting unanimously adopted the Ten-Point Programme of the ARF, its Inaugural Declaration and Rules.
Kim Il Sung was elected president of the ARF, in accordance with the unanimous will of the whole Korean people.
On May 5,1936 he proclaimed the founding of the ARF.
The meeting decided to issue Samil Wolgan as the organ of the ARF.
The ARF was the first steady anti-Japanese national united front organization in Korea, an organization guided by a single programme and rules and under a unitary organizational system. It was a mass organization and a powerful underground revolutionary organization, working to fully ensure the leadership of the leader and the Party over the patriotic forces all over the country.
The founding of the ARF was the fruition of the Juche-oriented line of the anti-Japanese national united front put forward by Kim Il Sung, solemnly declaring once again the will of the Korean people to wage the struggle against the Japanese more vigorously on their own initiative and marking a historic occasion that gave rise to a new upsurge in the Korean revolution as a whole, centring on the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
Kim Il Sung pushed forward the work of establishing the guerrilla bases on Mt. Paektu, in order to develop and extend the anti-Japanese armed struggle into the homeland.
He said:
“Following the Nanhutou Conference we have redoubled our efforts to secure a strategic area which is to play an important role in developing and extending the armed struggle into the homeland and in bringing about progress in our revolutionary movement.”
As a natural fortress advantageous for defence by the KPRA, the area around Mt. Paektu was an ideal military stronghold that could serve as an operational base for the KPRA.
From a loftier point of view, Mt. Paektu, long regarded as the ancestral mountain of the Korean race, is the symbol of Korea. Fittingly, it was the place in which the Korean anti-Japanese revolution originated. The inhabitants on and around Mt. Paektu cherished a burning hatred for the Japanese, thus making up a sound mass base for the revolution.
In order to create favourable conditions for the establishment of the Paektusan base, Kim Il Sung organized and led many battles to victory from June to August 1936, including the battles of Laoling, Xinancha and Xigang, and the attack on the Fusong county town. Meanwhile, he conducted brisk political activities among the people of Daying and Manjiang.
When he was working in the Fusong area, he met Zhang Wei-hua, his long-time Chinese revolutionary comrade-in-arms and an internationalist fighter, who was engaged in underground work as the head of a Party group in Fusong. Kim Il Sung encouraged him to fight to the end for the common cause of both the Korean and Chinese peoples.
Zhang Wei-hua sent great quantities of aid goods to the KPRA. When he was arrested, he heroically committed suicide to keep secret the location of the Headquarters of the Korean revolution, where Kim Il Sung was working.
After subduing the enemy in the Fusong area, Kim Il Sung led the KPRA units to the area along the Amnok River, where he fought many battles, big and small, one after another in Dadeshui, Xiaodeshui, Donggang in Shiwudaogou, Longchuanli in Shisandaogou, Erzhongdian in Ershidaogou and in other areas, so dealing a heavy military blow to the enemy and holding the area of Changbai County under the KPRA’s full control.
On the basis of having subdued the enemy politically and militarily, he pushed ahead with the work to establish the base on Mt. Paektu.
He set the building of secret camps as a priority task, and channeled his efforts first of all into the establishment of the secret camp that would become the central leadership base of the Korean revolution.
He dispatched to the homeland excellent military and political cadres, including Kim Ju Hyon, Ri Tong Hak and Kim Un Sin, whose mission it was to fix the positions of the secret camps on Mt. Paektu. In late September 1936 he personally came to Sobaeksu Valley in Samjiyon County, at the head of some members of the main force of the KPRA, to guide the work of building the Paektusan Secret Camp, where the Headquarters would be located.
In those days the secret camp established in Sobaeksu Valley was called “Paektusan Secret Camp No. 1”. It is now called “Paektusan Secret Camp” or “Paektu Secret Camp”.
From its establishment in Sobaeksu Valley, the Paektusan Secret Camp became the centre of the Korean revolution, a central leadership base.
The Paektusan Secret Camp was the strategic base and at the same time the Headquarters of the Korean revolution. It was Kim Il Sung’s key operational base, centre of activity and rear base.
To ensure the utmost safety and secrecy of the Paektusan Secret Camp, only some backbone units, including the Headquarters Staff and the Guard Unit, were allowed to stay in the camp, while the entry to the camp was severely restricted.
The Paektusan Secret Camp in Sobaeksu Valley was the core of the network of the secret camps on Mt. Paektu.
Parts of the network of the Paektusan Secret Camp were the secret camps on Saja Hill, Mt. Kom, Mt. Sono, Mt. Kanbaek, Mudu Hill, Soyonji Hill and others, that were established as the satellite camps in the homeland, and the camps in Heixiazigou, Diyangxi, Erdaogang, Hengshan, Lim-ingshui, Fuhoushui and Qingfeng, and those in the area of Fusong, established as satellite camps in west Jiandao.
The secret camps established in the area of Mt. Paektu carried out different missions and duties. Some were used only as secret barracks in the true sense of the word, while others were used as sewing unit’s work places, arms repair shops or hospitals, serving as secret camps in the rear. Some others served as rendezvous sites or sleeping quarters for the liaison officers.
While pushing ahead with the work of forming the network of secret camps, Kim Il Sung dispatched political operatives to assimilate the people to the revolutionaries, and form Party and other revolutionary organizations, so that the settled areas around Mt. Paektu could be turned into revolutionized areas under the full control of the KPRA, though superficially within the jurisdiction of the enemy.
Consequently, a new form of base, the Paektusan Base, was established in a wide area, including both the area on and around Mt. Paektu and the forests along the Amnok River in the homeland, as well as the area covering Changbai, Fusong, Linjiang and Mengjiang Counties.
The Paektusan Base was in the form of a semi-guerrilla zone, composed of the network of the KPRA’s secret camps established in the deep forests around Mt. Paektu and of the network of underground revolutionary organizations that had struck roots deep into the population of the surrounding areas-an impregnable revolutionary fortress invisible to the enemy.
After the establishment of the Paektusan Base, Kim Il Sung sent out small units and political operatives of the KPRA to the homeland to set up various forms of secret bases serving as secret camps or rendezvous points in the forests, favourable for military and political activity, and expand them.
The secret bases established in the homeland served as regional leadership centres, coordinating in an appropriate way the armed struggle and the work of building Party organizations, the ARF movement and the anti-Japanese mass struggle, as well as the preparations for an all-people resistance. The bases, in other words, coordinated all the activities being carried out within their respective regions, under the unified leadership of the revolutionary Headquarters situated in the Paektusan Secret Camp. They also played a role as the operational bases, bases of activity and supply bases of the KPRA units.
Kim Il Sung organized and led the work to expand the Party and ARF organizations on a nationwide scale, and to ensure monolithic leadership for the anti-Japanese armed struggle and the revolutionary movement in the homeland.
The strategic task to be tackled in effecting an upsurge in the Korean revolution by relying on the Paektusan Base was to establish in the homeland a reliable operational, secret base that could serve as the centre of unitary leadership to both the armed struggle and political struggle on the one hand and, at the same time, expand the network of the Party and ARF organizations in the homeland, so that powerful political and military forces were built up and the monolithic leadership of Kim Il Sung ensured over the anti-Japanese armed struggle and the revolutionary movement in the homeland.
In order to build up strong political forces in the homeland,
Kim Il Sung ensured that Party organizations were expanded nationwide and the unified system of organizational leadership over them established.
In keeping with the formation of a new main-force division of the KPRA and its reinforcement, he readjusted and improved the Party organizations within the KPRA units, built up the Party committee of the KPRA, and established a regular system of organizational leadership for the Party organizations at all levels.
In March 1936 he formed the Party Working Committee in eastern Manchuria, a regional Party leadership organ, for the purpose of controlling and guiding the building of Party organizations and promoting the activities of the existing Party organizations in a unified manner, even at the time when the main force of the KPRA was preparing to advance into the border areas along the Amnok River.
With a view to giving unified guidance to the building of Party organizations and the preparations for Party founding in the homeland, he put forward the policy of establishing the Homeland Party Working Committee (HPWC) at the Donggang Meeting held in May 1936. He sent a letter to the communists in the homeland in December the same year, and summoned Pak Tal, who had been active in the homeland, to the secret camp to assign him to the task of building Party organizations in the homeland and explain to him the ways for its implementation.
He called a meeting of the Party committee of the KPRA at the end of December 1936, at which he pointed out the need for and significance of forming a leadership organ, i.e., the HPWC, capable of taking control of and guiding the building of Party organizations in the homeland in a unified way, its mission and duty, as well as the regulations and principles of its activities. The meeting accordingly organized the HPWC.
The HPWC was a regional Party leadership body entrusted with the responsibility for unified leadership of the revolutionary struggle and the building of Party organizations in the homeland, under the leadership of the Party committee of the KPRA.
Considering Changbai to be a strategic military stronghold, taking into consideration the need to fix the centre of revolutionary activity at the Paektusan Secret Camp and turn west Jiandao into another springboard for giving a stronger push to the development of the revolution in the homeland and Manchuria and strengthen relations with the Party organizations in the homeland, Kim Il Sung organized the Party committee in Changbai County and its subordinate district Party committees and Party groups, at the Hengshan Secret Camp in February 1937. This committee was headed by Kwon Yong Byok.
The Party committee in Changbai County, being a backbone Party organization that was the first to gain access to and implement the policies and tasks set by Kim Il Sung, played an important role in realizing his leadership over the Party organizations in Manchuria and the homeland.
In an effort to improve the functions and role of the HPWC, and step up guidance for the building of Party organizations and the revolutionary movement in the homeland, Kim Il Sung convened the second session of the HPWC at the secret camp on Mt. Kom in late May 1937.
At the meeting he delivered an important speech, titled On Expanding and Strengthening the Party Organization in the Homeland, in which he emphatically referred to the need to admit into Party and various revolutionary organizations the active communists dispersed in the homeland and establish a proper Party organizational leadership system in line with the requirements of the then situation, when the Party organizations were expanding.
In the summer and autumn of 1937 Kim Il Sung dispatched to the north-em areas of Korea the Northern Korea Political Operatives Team, with the mission of helping the work of the HPWC.
In this period, Kim Jong Suk, a communist revolutionary, carried out her underground political activities in and around the Taoquanli and Sinpha areas. She visited various areas, such as Phungsan, Rangnim, Pujon, Sinhung, Pukchong, Riwon, Tanchon and Hochon, working energetically to expedite the building of Party organizations and at the same time form revolutionary organizations in various parts, rallying the communists and the broad anti-Japanese masses firmly around
Kim Il Sung.
As another measure for the building of Party organizations in the homeland, in late May 1937 Kim Il Sung organized the Homeland Party Group, headed by Pak Tal and composed of communists trained and tested in the crucible of practical struggle. The Homeland Party Group played a role both as a basic Party organization and as the parent body in the building of Party organizations in the homeland.
He turned the areas of Kapsan and Samsu into training centres for the building of Party organizations in the homeland and fostered excellent organizational workers there. The hardcore workers produced by these training centres were dispatched to other counties and provinces to lay the foundations for the building of Party organizations.
As a result of the energetic activities of the political workers dispatched by Kim Il Sung and of the HPWC, Party organizations were expanded quickly in the wide areas of the homeland.
The building of Party organizations proceeded briskly and on a nationwide scale under Kim Il Sung’s wise leadership, with the result that the communists who had been active in a dispersed manner were united organizationally and the Party leadership system was established to ensure that the Party exercised leadership over the Korean revolution as a whole.
The policies and tasks set by Kim Il Sung were transmitted or imparted to western and northern parts of Jiandao and the homeland, mostly through the Party committee in Changbai County, the HPWC and the Party committee in eastern Manchuria. The results of their implementation were also reported to the Party committee of the KPRA through these channels.
With the establishment of a regular Party leadership system from the KPRA Party committee, the highest leadership body, to the cell, the basic unit, Kim Il Sung’s monolithic leadership was fully realized over the Korean revolution as a whole, though the Party Central Committee was not proclaimed as yet, and an epoch-making turn was effected in the work to lay organizational and ideological foundations for the founding of the Party.
In parallel with the building of Party organizations, Kim Il Sung pushed forward the building of ARF organizations on a nationwide scale.
At the Donggang Meeting, at the session of the KPRA Party committee held in September 1936, and at the meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRA and political operatives held at the Heixiazigou Secret Camp, Changbai County, in October 1936, at which he delivered a speech, titled Let Us Quickly Expand the Organizations of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland, and on several other occasions, he pointed out concrete tasks arising in the work to quickly expand the ARF organizations, and the ways for their implementation.
He emphasized that the ARF organizations should be formed in the Changbai area along the Amnok River, in the homeland and in the wide areas of Manchuria where many Koreans were living, that a rigid system of guidance for them be established, and that the broad masses of the people be rallied firmly around the organizations subordinate to the ARF.
In order to expand and strengthen the ARF organizations, he saw to it that all the officers and men of the KPRA’s main force were admitted into the ARF immediately after its inauguration, so that they could become propagandists and organizers in uniting the entire nation behind the anti-Japanese national united front and that the political operatives selected from the revolutionary army could play a leading role in the building of the ARF organizations.
The tireless efforts of the political operatives he dispatched resulted in the formation of the first ARF chapter in Xinxingcun, Changbai County, followed by several other ARF chapters and their subordinate branches. Moreover, district ARF committees were formed in Shanggangqu, Zhonggangqu and Xiagangqu, and the Changbai County ARF Committee was organized, with Ri Je Sun as its head, in early 1937.
In January 1937, Kim Il Sung reorganized the Kapsan Working Committee into the Korean National Liberation Union (KNLU), a subordinate organization of the ARF in the homeland, in order to push ahead with the building of the ARF organizations vigorously there. The KNLU became a forward base for extending the ARF organizations deep into the homeland, with scores of subordinate ARF organizations at its disposal.
The organizational network of the ARF spread over the whole of Korea, covering cities and industrial centres, rural areas and fishing villages. It rapidly spread over eastern Manchuria, too, including many Korean settlements scattered all over Manchuria. Subordinate organizations of the ARF were even formed in parts of Japan as well.
Kim Il Sung ensured that the ARF organizations admitted people from all walks of life who opposed the Japanese, including workers and peasants, as well as youth and students, intellectuals, members of the petty bourgeoisie, conscientious national capitalists and religious people.
Particularly, in an effort to unite the progressive Chondoists behind the ARF organizations, he met the representatives of the Chondoist religion in the homeland in November 1936 at a secret camp, and explained to them the objective of the ARF movement, calling on them to take an active part in it. In the spring of 1937, the Phungsan chapter of the ARF was formed, involving Chondoists of Phungsan County, followed by the emergence of the ARF chapters in Kapsan, Samsu, Hyesan and Changbai, with staunch Chondoists as their backbones and involving a large number of other Chon-do followers.
As the ARF organizations spread quickly, Kim Il Sung established a system of unified leadership over them and, at the same time, put tried and trusted regional members of the Party organizations in the leading positions of the ARF organizations at all levels so that the Party guidance of the ARF organizations was stepped up and the ARF organizations at all levels, under the leadership of their respective Party organizations, were enabled to successfully fulfil their mission and role of uniting the patriotic forces of all walks of life and vigorously mobilizing them for the victory in the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
As a result of the all-out promotion of the building of the ARF organizations on a nationwide scale, the ARF was enlarged and developed into a pan-national organization with the membership of hundreds of thousands of people, and the communists and the broad masses of the people united firmly behind Kim Il Sung.
Kim Il Sung organized and commanded the operations to thrust into the homeland in large numbers by relying on the Paektusan Base.
In the mid-1930s the Japanese imperialists were stepping up their economic plunder and colonial fascist rule of the Korean people as a part of preparation for their invasion of the continent, while making frantic attempts to obliterate the national character of the Korean people, claiming that Korea and Japan were “one” and that their people were of the “same descent”. Meanwhile, they were tightening up the security of the border areas in northern Korea against the homeland advance by the KPRA on the one hand, and launching large-scale “punitive” operations against the KPRA by mobilizing huge armed forces on the other.
With a view to striking heavier blows at the Japanese imperialist aggressors and inspiring the people with confidence in the goal of liberation of the country, Kim Il Sung decided to conduct operations to thrust into the homeland in large numbers.
From November 1936 to February 1937 he commanded a series of battles in the area of Changbai County, thus frustrating the enemy’s winter “punitive” offensive. And as the lead-off operations aimed to disperse the
enemy’s forces concentrated in the Changbai area and to make a breakthrough in the tight guard lines on the border areas, he led the main force of the KPRA in March 1937 on an arduous expedition towards Fusong, in the opposite direction to the homeland advance.
With favourable conditions for the homeward advance created, he convened a meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRA in Xigang, Fusong County, in March 1937. At the meeting he made a historic speech, titled Let Us Inspire the People with Hopes of National Liberation by Advancing with Large Forces into the Homeland, in which he put forward the policy of thrusting into the homeland in large numbers. He said that by advancing into the homeland in great strength to deliver a blow to the Japanese imperialist aggressors and set the enemy’s bulwark ablaze, the KPRA would clearly demonstrate to the people that it was on the move and going from victory to victory in the sacred struggle for national liberation, and would make it known to them that so long as the KPRA existed Korea would win its independence for certain.
Advancing in large numbers into the homeland was a revolutionary policy aimed at inspiring the Korean people, who had been groaning under the cruel rule of the Japanese imperialists, with the hope of national liberation, rousing them energetically to combat the Japanese and quickly spreading the flames of anti-Japanese armed struggle deep into the homeland.
At the meeting he explained the operations plan of deploying the KPRA units in three directions as part of the plan for advancing into the homeland, and assigned each unit its duty and the direction and area of its activity.
He saw to it that the main force that was to advance toward Hyesan under his command, underwent military and political training at the Dong-gang Secret Camp for about a month, making full politico-military preparations for advance into the homeland.
In May 1937 he immersed himself in building up the ranks and carrying out various propaganda activities, as part of the preparations for homeward advance, on the plateau at Diyangxi. Later, he familiarized himself more concretely with the situation in the homeland, finishing up the preparations for operations to advance there.
As a unit that had thrust into the Musan area faced the danger of encirclement by the enemy, he led the main force ahead of schedule through the enemy’s tight guard positions on the border into the homeland across the Amnok River.
On June 4, 1937, Kim Il Sung organized and commanded the historic Battle of Pochonbo.
With a shot he himself fired as the signal, the KPRA soldiers attacked and destroyed the police substation, sub-county office and other organs of Japanese repressive rule at a stroke, and liberated Pochonbo. They posted up in the street the Proclamation and Ten-point Programme of the ARF worked out by Kim Il Sung, and distributed various handbills and appeals, carrying out brisk political propaganda activities.
To the local people, who cheered enthusiastically, Kim Il Sung delivered a historic speech, titled Let Us Fight on Staunchly for the Liberation of the Fatherland, in which he inspired them with confidence in sure victory and called on them all to turn out in the sacred war against the Japanese.
The significance of the Battle of Pochonbo was not in the fact that some Japanese had been killed; it was significant in that it demonstrated that the Korean nation was not dead but alive, and that it convinced the Korean people that if they fought against the Japanese imperialists they could win.
The fact that a large force of the KPRA advanced into the homeland in proud array to sweep away the enemy’s ruling machinery in a sub-county was a historic event by which the colonial ruling system of the Japanese imperialists was shaken to its very foundations and the light of national liberation blazed before the Korean people.
As a follow-up to the victory in the Battle of Pochonbo, the main force of the KPRA annihilated a horde of enemy troops on Mt. Kouyushui.
Kim Il Sung withdrew the KPRA unit to Diyangxi, where he held a grand joint celebration of the army and the people. The expeditionary units that had advanced in three directions gathered at this historic assembly that showed the whole world that great political unity existed between the army and the people.
Following their defeat at Pochonbo, the Japanese imperialists hurled a huge force, including its 74th Regiment in Hamhung under the 19th Division of the Japanese army stationed in Korea, the puppet Manchukuo army and police, in pursuit of the KPRA. On June 30, Kim Il Sung organized and commanded the Battle of Jiansanfeng, in which 1,500 enemy soldiers died and which made a fiasco of the enemy’s “punitive” scheme.
The Battle of Jiansanfeng followed up the victories in the battle on Mt. Kouyushui and in the Battle of Pochonbo, crowning them with another victory; it was a historic battle of great importance in bringing the anti-Japanese revolution to its zenith after the KPRA’s advance into the area around Mt. Paektu.
The victory in the operations organized and commanded by
Kim Il Sung to thrust into the homeland demonstrated the invincible might of the KPRA to the whole world, and dealt a heavy political and military blow to the Japanese imperialist aggressors.
Upon the news of the Battle of Pochonbo, all the Korean people in the homeland and abroad came to admire and follow Kim Il Sung all the more, holding him up as the “lodestar of national liberation”, “sun of the nation”, “great military strategist”, “legendary hero” and “iron-willed brilliant commander”.
In order to meet the new situation occasioned by the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War provoked by the Japanese imperialists in July 1937, Kim Il Sung organized and led the efforts to extend the armed struggle deep into the homeland and combine armed operations with national resistance, so as to strike heavier blows at the enemy.
At the meeting of the commanding officers of the KPRA’s main force held at the Paektusan Secret Camp in mid-July 1937 and at the meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRA at Caoshuitan, Changbai County, in early August of the same year, in which he delivered a speech, titled Let Us Launch Operations to Harass the Enemy from the Rear Intensively to Cope with the Outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Kim Il Sung set forth the strategic policy of launching extensive operations by the KPRA units to harass the enemy from the rear in the wide areas along the Amnok and Tuman Rivers, intensifying the anti-Japanese, anti-war struggle in the homeland, and stepping up the preparations for all-people resistance, to bring about a new upswing in the Korean revolution as a whole.
In mid-August 1937 he called a meeting of the officers and men of the KPRA, at which he explained the strategic tasks facing the KPRA to implement the decision adopted at the meetings held at the Paektusan Secret Camp and at Caoshuitan. He also organized extensive military operations to strike and harass the Japanese from the rear.
He directed the KPRA’s military activities towards the border areas and deep into the homeland, and made the KPRA units strike the enemy hard from the rear along the Amnok and in southern Manchuria, thus delivering heavy blows to the Japanese imperialist aggressors.
In September 1937 Kim Il Sung issued Appeal to Compatriots throughout Korea, as a part of his efforts to intensify the people’s anti-Japanese, anti-war struggle in the homeland and step up the preparations for an all-people resistance. The September Appeal was an appeal for all-people resistance, serving as a militant banner in arousing all the Korean compatriots from all walks of life to participate in the great sacred nationwide war for national liberation.
Kim Il Sung took charge of building secret bases that could serve as the military strongholds of the national resistance forces in big mountain ranges of strategic importance, including the Rangnim Range. In late September 1937, he went to the secret base in Sinhung, at the head of a group of the main force of the KPRA, with a view to stepping up guidance for the revolutionary movement in the homeland as a whole and making a breakthrough in the preparations for all-people resistance.
He called a meeting of the political operatives of the KPRA and the heads of the underground revolutionary organizations on Mt. Sambat, Phungsang-ri, Kaphyong Sub-county, Sinhung County, where he made an important speech, titled For Bringing about a Greater Upswing in the Revolutionary Struggle in the Homeland. In his speech he said that strenuous efforts should be channelled into building and expanding the Party, ARF and other anti-Japanese mass organizations mainly along the east coast, including Hungnam, Hamhung and Wonsan, where munitions industries were concentrated, and emphasized that especially the Labour Unions and Peasant Unions should be built up as revolutionary mass organizations. He also referred to the need to organize and launch an extensive anti-Japanese resistance struggle throughout the homeland.
Following the meeting on Mt. Sambat, he dispatched to all parts of the homeland, including the east coast areas, small units and political operatives of the KPRA, whose mission it was to build up the Party and ARF organizations and form such para-military organizations as workers’ shock brigades and militia corps, so as to foster all-people resistance forces quickly and ceaselessly wage all sorts of anti-Japanese struggles in all parts of the homeland.
He made an effort to transform the existing Labour Unions and Peasant Unions, which still retained various weak points and limitations from previous days, along revolutionary lines and organize new, revolutionary Labour Unions and Peasant Unions in various regions. His efforts were also geared to forming Party organizations within the Labour Unions and Peasant Unions so that Party organizational leadership was available to the latter systematically.
As a result, both the labour movement and peasant movement in Korea came to be geared to the anti-Japanese armed struggle organized and led by Kim Il Sung, thus being transformed into revolutionary mass movements.
With a view to preparing the officers and men of the KPRA and the patriotic-minded people more thoroughly, both politically and ideologically, to cope with the complicated situation that ensued from the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War and meet the requirements of the developing revolution, Kim Il Sung published a treatise, titled The Tasks of Korean Communists, in Sogwang, organ of the KPRA, in November 1937.
In his presentation, he explained once again the character and tasks of the Korean revolution, and set out the immediate tasks of the Korean communists for the successful carrying out of the Korean revolution.
Kim Il Sung said:
“Only when they maintain a firm independent position in the revolutionary struggle can they formulate revolutionary lines and policies corresponding to the actual conditions in their country, safeguard and implement them thoroughly and fight to the last for their country’s revolution no matter what the difficulties and hardships.”
He continued to assert that the masters of the Korean revolution were the Korean people, including the Korean communists and, therefore, the Korean communists should wage the revolutionary struggle as dictated by their own conviction, build up the internal revolutionary forces and, on this basis, lead the Korean revolution to victory.
This classic work of his served as an ideal textbook for equipping the officers and men of the KPRA and the people at large thoroughly with Juche-oriented revolutionary guidelines, for it was an important document that set out the Juche-based attitude to be adhered to and the strategy and tactics to be pursued by the Korean communists, and the immediate tasks and duties facing them in their struggle.
While making the KPRA units and the Party and ARF organizations in various places study The Tasks of Korean Communists, Kim Il Sung organized and guided an intensive course of winter military and political training for the KPRA at the Matanggou Secret Camp, Mengjiang County, from late November 1937 to late March the following year.
He put forth such slogans as Studying Is Also a Battle and Studying Is the Primary Task of a Revolutionary, and led all the officers and men of the KPRA to study in a revolutionary manner. During the military and political training, the political study course dealt with the matter of maintaining independence in the revolution, the matter of revolutionary conviction and optimism, and the matter of revolutionary spirit of self-reliance, with the Ten-Point Programme of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland and The Tasks of Korean Communists as its main teaching materials. The military study course was conducted with the main emphasis on making the officers and men of the KPRA fully digest the Guerrilla Actions and the Guerrilla Manual, the crystallization of guerrilla tactics.
The military and political training was a sort of “military and political college” in the forest, a college that helped the KPRA soldiers improve their politico-military qualifications and spiritual and moral qualities, and trained them to be staunch communist revolutionaries who could advance unswervingly along the revolutionary road without any vacillation and in the face of any adversity.
Kim Il Sung once spent a whole night before a campfire, writing a speech in memory of a soldier who had fallen in action during an attack on an internment village in Jingantun, Fusong County, a battle which was fought during the period of military and political training. Each and every word of his memorial address pumped courage into the soldiers gripped by sorrow and indignation, and inspired them to take revenge.
In this period he got Samil Wolgan, Sogwang, Jongsori and other revolutionary publications issued and revolutionary slogans written in great numbers on trees and rocks at the bases and meeting places, camp sites and rendezvous places, so as to prepare the KPRA soldiers and the rest of the people more firmly both politically and ideologically. Various slogans, including Long Live Kim Il Sung, the Supreme Leader of the Korean Nation, became silent teachers and revolutionary nutrition for the KPRA soldiers and people.
Kim Il Sung organized and led the struggle to effect a fresh upswing in the Korean revolution on a nationwide scale, on the basis of the success gained in the military and political actions of the KPRA and the politico-ideological preparation of its ranks.
He ordered the KPRA units to launch an offensive in the spring of 1938, during which many battles were fought at Changbai, Linjiang and other places, so as to administer heavy blows at the enemy stationed in the border areas and greatly inspire the units and political operatives, communists and revolutionary people, all active in their respective places throughout the homeland, to struggle harder against the Japanese.
In this period the Japanese imperialists concocted the “Hyesan incident”14 aimed at wholesale repression of the revolutionary forces. To cope with this situation, Kim Il Sung called an emergency meeting of the Party committee of the KPRA, at which he took relevant measures to protect the untouched revolutionary organizations and restore the wrecked ones. He dispatched Kim Jong Suk, a great woman communist revolutionary, to the Dazhenping area to inform the communists in the homeland of the direction of their work to cope with the attempted wholesale arrest by the Japanese imperialists. Consequently, the Party and ARF organizations could be restored and expanded rapidly despite the difficult situation of the on-going brutal repression by the Japanese.
As a part of his effort to step up the armed struggle on a nationwide scale and expedite the preparations for all-people resistance, Kim Il Sung convened a meeting of the KPRA military arid political cadres and the political operatives active in the homeland, at the secret camp on Mt. Paek-tu in early May 1938. At the meeting he referred to the need to further the advance into the homeland by the main force of the KPRA, rapidly restore the wrecked revolutionary organizations and expand them. He also said that it was necessary to organize the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army of Northern Korea and build up the secret camp on Mt. Kanbaek as a centre for training the hardcore elements of all-people resistance.
Leading some members of the main force of the KPRA, he advanced into the homeland once again in August 1938. Moving to Sinhung and other areas in northern Korea, and as far as Yangdok in central Korea, he acquainted himself fully with the activities of the KPRA small units and political activists relying on the secret bases in these areas, and the situation in all parts of the homeland. On the basis of his first-hand information, he also set tasks of intensifying military actions against the Japanese and, at the same time, building up the Party and ARF organizations and expediting the preparations for all-people resistance to meet the specific situation of each area concerned, and energetically guided the work to implement these tasks.
While vigorously leading the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle of the Korean people centred on the armed struggle from his Juche-oriented attitude, Kim Il Sung firmly maintained an independent stand in his relationship with the Comintern.
The Comintern rendered a number of contributions to spurring the communist movement in each country. Yet, some of its decisions and instructions failed to correspond with the specific situations in some countries.
Always taking a serious attitude to the instructions of the Comintern each time they were issued, Kim Il Sung carried them out in the context of the specific situation of the Korean revolution, while properly combining international and national interests.
In the spring of 1936 and the summer of 1937, and also in the spring of 1938-before and after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War-the Comintern instructed that the anti-Japanese armed units in Northeast China should make an expedition to Rehe15. This was an unrealistic and reckless “Leftist” adventurist line that did not accord with the prevailing military and political situation and the requirements of guerrilla warfare.
Each time the directive for an expedition to Rehe was issued,
Kim Il Sung held fast to the line of independence, the line of extending the flames of armed struggle into the homeland. At the same time, he made the KPRA carry out vigorous military and political activities to fill the military vacuum in some areas of southern Manchuria. This region had been occupied earlier by the Chinese anti-Japanese armed units, which were now advancing on Liaoxi and Rehe. This new action by the KPRA brought about a great upsurge in the Korean revolution and inspired the Chinese people to engage in the anti-Japanese struggle even more positively.
At the end of 1938, when the anti-Japanese armed struggle was expanding rapidly, a crisis arose in the Korean revolution.
While pursuing the Headquarters of the KPRA over a long distance by mobilizing most of the main-force divisions of their Kwantung Army and the Manchukuo Army, as well as the local police force, the Japanese imperialists conducted “surrender hunting” on a large scale in the name of “cultural punitive operations”. Meanwhile, they destroyed revolutionary organizations and arrested, imprisoned and killed the communists and patriotic-minded people more viciously than ever before. On top of this, the KPRA had had to fight almost singlehanded against the huge reinforced enemy troops in the southwest area of Mt. Paektu, for the Chinese anti-Japanese armed units had suffered great losses during the expedition to Rehe.
In order to tide over the crisis actively and bring about an uninterrupted upsurge in the Korean revolution, Kim Il Sung convened a meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRA at Nanpaizi, Mengjiang County, for about ten days from November 25, 1938.
At the meeting he delivered a historic speech, titled Let Us Break Through the Difficult Situation and Continually Advance the Revolution, which analyzed and criticized the “Leftist” adventurist nature of the expedition to Rehe and its evil consequences, and referred to the need for the Korean communists to firmly maintain an independent attitude and correctly judge the prevailing situation, in order to bring about an uninterrupted upsurge in the Korean revolution. In his speech, he put forward a new task-the KPRA forces should move quickly to the border areas around Mt. Paektu to launch military and political activities more briskly in these wide areas.
The meeting reorganized the KPRA into three directional forces and an independent regiment, and designated the theatres of their operations.
The Nanpaizi Meeting marked a historic turn in eliminating the evil effects of “Leftist” adventurism, strengthening the Juche character of the Korean revolution, and bringing about an uninterrupted upsurge in the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
After the meeting the 2nd Directional Army, under Kim Il Sung’s personal command, slipped out of Nanpaizi in early December 1938, and ventured upon a historic arduous march aimed at advancing towards the border areas along the Amnok River.
The trek by the main force of the KPRA from Nanpaizi to Beidadingzi was an unprecedentedly bloody ordeal that was beyond comparison with any other expeditions in terms of arduousness.
Under the name of “punitive operations in Dongbiandao” the enemy made the Headquarters of the KPRA the main target of their “mopping-up operations” and laid double and treble encirclements by mobilizing huge forces, hundreds of thousands strong, and even planes, and closed in on it, by combining violent attack and tenacious pursuit. The KPRA had to continue its forced march and fight bloody battles against the enemy all the while, without properly eating, sleeping or resting in the face of the tenacious and persistent attacks of the enemy, biting cold and raging snow storms unprecedented for 100 years.
Braving the grim trials and challenging difficulties with an iron will and indefatigable revolutionary spirit, Kim Il Sung consistently took the initiative. He positively employed a variety of elusive and flexible guerrilla tactics suited to the challenges arising in the course of the march-proper combination of large-unit action with small-unit operation, concentration and dispersal of forces, swift manoeuvre, and zigzag and telescope tactics-thus striking heavy blows at the overwhelming forces of the enemy.
While commanding the unit in the van during the arduous march, and fighting fierce battles either in the daytime or at night, he educated the guerrillas in the unyielding revolutionary spirit during any difficulty or adversity, in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude, and in revolutionary optimism. He also shared weal and woe with his soldiers and took parental care of them, sharing even his portion of a bowl of parched-rice flour with them.
Greatly inspired by his vigorous political work, the personal example of noble revolutionary comradeship he had set, and his parental love and care for the soldiers, all the officers and men of the KPRA firmly rallied around him, and fought like tigers with strong will and the indomitable revolutionary spirit.
Kim Jong Suk, an anti-Japanese heroine, staunchly supported and defended Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary idea and lines, and fully ensured his safety. The 7th Regiment, led by O Jung Hup, unconditionally implemented Kim Il Sung’s orders and instructions in any adversity, cherishing the firm and revolutionary conviction that they would emerge victorious for sure so long as they were led by him, and safeguarded the Headquarters of the Korean revolution at the cost of their lives amidst the enemy’s encirclement and attack, acting as if they were the KPRA Headquarters and luring the huge enemy forces here and there.
This arduous march, which lasted for about one hundred days, ended in a great victory of the KPRA thanks to the outstanding leadership of Kim Il Sung.
The march was not a mere movement of the KPRA forces. It was a large-scale military operation equal to a campaign, an epitome of the arduous anti-Japanese armed struggle. It was a glorious process through which typical communists of the genuine Juche type were produced, communists who did not abandon their revolutionary convictions in any adversity and emerged victorious in their persistent struggle, upholding their leader’s idea and leadership loyally.
The success in the arduous march opened up a new phase for smashing the desperate reactionary offensive of the Japanese imperialists and the reckless schemes of the “Leftist” adventurists, and advancing the Korean revolution continuously.
In early April 1939, Kim Il Sung called a meeting of the commanding personnel of the KPRA at Beidadingzi, where he made an important speech, titled Let Us Continue to Strike Powerful Counterblows at the Japanese Imperialist Aggressors and Advance to the Homeland, that reviewed the arduous march and set forth a new policy on going over, without allowing the enemy a breathing spell, to an active counteroffensive, aiming blow after blow in quick succession and advancing again into the homeland.
The main force of the KPRA should, he said, advance to the Musan area and unite the broad masses of the people closely with the national liberation front. He also instructed that, after completing the operation of advancing on the Musan area, new operations with large units should be launched in the area northeast of Mt. Paektu, an area particularly favourable for military and political activities.
After the meeting at Beidadingzi Kim Il Sung, in command of the main force of the KPRA, launched an active spring counteroffensive to strike one blow after another at the enemy in many battles, including those at Shiwudaogou and Banjiegou, by employing versatile guerrilla tactics and his superb art of command, and made full preparations for advance into the homeland. He crossed the Amnok River into the homeland in command of the main force of the KPRA on May 18, 1939.
Arriving in Chongbong and Konchang, he carried out military and political activities; at Pegae Hill he pointed out the direction of boldly moving toward the Musan area quickly by employing the march tactic called “one thousand miles at a run”, and led the unit to Mupho along the 40-km-long Kapsan-Musan guard road in fine array in broad daylight.
The KPRA units, under his command, conducted vigorous military and political activities in the areas of Sinsadong and Singaechok.
In his speech, titled Let Us Rise Up Vigorously in the Anti-Japanese Struggle to Hasten the Liberation of the Homeland, addressed to the residents of Sinsadong, Kim Il Sung called on the entire nation to rise up forcefully in the sacred war against the Japanese, rallied firmly around the anti-Japanese front, and render active support to the KPRA.
On May 23 he commanded a battle on the Taehongdan plateau to destroy the pursuing enemy by employing lure-and-ambush tactics.
The operation in the Musan area demonstrated once again the might of the KPRA and administered heavy political and military blows at the Japanese imperialist aggressors who had been advertising that Korea was a “stable rear area”. It also inspired the people with courage and the sure hope for the liberation of their homeland, and encouraged them to rise up vigorously in the struggle against the Japanese.
Following the operation in the Musan area, Kim Il Sung shifted the theatre of struggle to the area northeast of Mt. Paektu, and pushed forward the work of turning the area into a strategic base for the revolution.
In late May 1939 a meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRA was held in Dagou, Antu County, where Kim Il Sung made a speech, titled On Launching Vigorous Military and Political Activities by Relying on the Area Northeast of Mt. Paektu. He set out in this speech the policy of building another strong bulwark of the Korean revolution in the area northeast of Mt. Paektu through intensive military and political activities there, and detailed the mode of the KPRA’s activities, the form of secret camps, and the method of underground work.
After the meeting the main force of the KPRA, under his command, fought a series of battles, including that at Wukoujiang, to pin down the enemy militarily, as a part of the preparations for establishing bases in the area northeast of Mt. Paektu. Meanwhile, they stepped up the revolutionary transformation of the masses through intensive political activities among the people by various forms and methods.
In the meantime, Kim Il Sung took new measures to enhance the role of the Party Working Committee in Eastern Manchuria, restore and readjust the Party and ARF organizations, and form revolutionary organizations in the new areas and establish a regular system of leadership over them. He also got secret bases established in forest areas suitable for the KPRA’s activities. Consequently, Helong, Antu and several other places in eastern Manchuria were developed into impregnable bulwarks of the revolution.
In order to build up the area of northern Korea as a similar bulwark and a reliable base of the Korean revolution, he dispatched small KPRA units and political operative teams into northern Korea along the Tuman River and deeper into the homeland. He himself advanced into the homeland several times to guide the work with vigour.
In June 1939, at the head of some members of the main force of the KPRA, he went to Kuksa Peak, Samha-dong, Samjang Sub-county, Musan County, where he convened a meeting of the chiefs of underground revolutionary organizations and political operatives.
In his historic speech, titled On the Tasks Facing the Revolutionary Organizations in the Homeland, made at this meeting, he emphasized that the area of northern Korea should be built into a reliable base for the Korean revolution, the ARF and other revolutionary organizations should be expanded and built up in various parts of the homeland, and the organizational and ideological foundations for the founding of the Party should be consolidated further.
The communist revolutionary Kim Jong Suk went to Musan and Yonsa in June the same year, organized the Yonsa Area Party Committee and formed Party cells and Party groups at the construction site of the Sodusu hydropower station, and in Yonsa, Sinyang, and other areas, true to Kim Il Sung’s instructions.
In August 1939 Kim Il Sung advanced into the Musan and Yonsa areas again and called many meetings, including the meeting of military and political cadres of the KPRA, the meeting of the chiefs of the ARF organizations and political operatives, and the meeting of the HPWC, at which he took revolutionary measures for making the small KPRA units and groups conduct vigorous military and political activities in northern Korea, and expanding and building up the Party and ARF organizations on a nationwide scale.
Under Kim Il Sung’s wise leadership many revolutionary organizations were formed and secret bases established in eastern Manchuria and in wide areas of northern Korea along the Tuman River, with the result that the region northeast of Mt. Paektu was turned into an impregnable bulwark of the revolution, a reliable strategic base for success in the showdown with the Japanese imperialists.
In this period Kim Il Sung waged an energetic struggle to defend the socialist Soviet Union with arms.
In July 1938, when the Japanese imperialist aggressors carried out an armed provocation against the Soviet Union in the area of Lake Khasan, Kim Il Sung commanded many battles in Linjiang and Huadian, striking the enemy from behind. When the Soviet-Mongolian allied forces were engaged in heavy fighting against the Japanese as a result of the Japanese provocation of the “Khalkhin-Gol incident”16 in May 1939, he concentrated the KPRA forces along the railways that served as a supply route for the Japanese imperialist anti-Soviet armed invasion, and made them fight fierce battles to hold in check and frustrate the movement of the Kwantung Army and the transportation of military supplies. In early August the same year he issued to each of the KPRA units an order for carrying out harassment operations in the enemy’s rear. In accordance with his instructions, all the KPRA units fought many battles, including one at Dashahe-Dajianggang. The battles fought by the KPRA forces in defence of the Soviet Union left a proud record of many proletarian internationalist fighters like Kim Jin, who laid down his young life.
From September 1939 the Japanese imperialists conducted new “punitive” operations in the name of a “special clean-up campaign for maintaining public peace in the southeastern area” involving as many as 200,000 troops, aimed at finally “annihilating” the KPRA. To cope with the prevailing situation, Kim Il Sung organized and commanded large-unit circling operations in the area northeast of Mt. Paektu.
In October 1939 he convened a meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRA at Liangjiangkou, Antu County, at which he made a speech, titled On Launching Large-Unit Circling Operations in the Vast Region Northeast of Mt. Paektu.
Unlike the previous operations of carrying out military and political activities with secret camps as the centres of activity, the large-unit circling operations were mobile operations conducted by large forces of the KPRA moving around constantly in a vast area over a number of designated secret routes and destroying or weakening the enemy by appearing suddenly to attack and vanishing in a minute, with the application of various tactics, such as the “one thousand miles at a run” march and lure-and-deception tactics.
This was a positive policy which was geared to making the KPRA frustrate the enemy’s new “punitive” operations by positive attacks and developing the anti-Japanese armed struggle on a continual basis.
As the first stage of the large-unit circling operations, Kim Il Sung set out on an expedition to Dunhua.
In order to disguise the route of this large-force movement, he employed the tactic of changing the direction of the unit’s movement quickly to drive the enemy into the mountains and valleys in the areas of Helong and Antu, and lead the unit to the backwoods of Dunhua by forced marches of hundreds of miles. In December 1939 he organized and commanded the battles at Liukesong and Jiaxinzi to victory, and led the unit stealthily out southward. Then he organized and guided military and political training for about 40 days at the secret camp in Baishitan on the Songhua River between Antu and Fusong Counties.
The KPRA unit under his command left the secret camp in Baishitan in February 1940 and advanced to the border areas on the banks of the Tuman River, along the secret routes designated for the second stage of the large-unit circling operations. In mid-March, it attacked Damalugou, one of the enemy’s “punitive” operations headquarters, and in late March, under the personal command of Kim Il Sung, fought a battle at Hongqihe, Helong County, which ended in a brilliant victory for the KPRA with the annihilation of the evil “Maeda punitive force”.
The result of the Battle of Hongqihe meant the frustration of the first-stage “punitive” operations conducted by the Japanese imperialists in the name of the “special clean-up campaign for maintaining public peace in the southeastern area”, and victory in the KPRA’s large-unit circling operations.
After completing the large-unit circling operations, Kim Il Sung led to victory the struggle to finally smash the so-called “special clean-up campaign for maintaining public peace in the southeastern area” of the Japanese imperialists, by positively dispersed actions.
In his speech, titled Let Us Launch Daring Dispersed Actions to Meet the Prevailing Situation, made at a meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRA held at Hualazi, Antu County, in April 1940, Kim Il Sung put forward a new policy of dispersing the KPRA units in a positive way to smash the enemy’s “punitive” offensive finally and set the Korean revolution on the road of continuous development.
After the meeting at Hualazi, he reorganized the KPRA into small bands, with the company as the unit, as required by the tactics of dispersed action, and ordered them to attack the walled cities and internment villages by skillfully employing guerrilla tactics such as continuous attack, repeated attack and simultaneous attack. In this way, he dispersed the enemy concentrated in the mountainous regions and border areas, and thus frustrated the enemy’s “punitive” operations piecemeal.
In the summer of the same year, a small KPRA unit under his command encountered the “new army”, the most wicked puppet armed force of the Japanese imperialists, on the outskirts of Dashahe.
Kim Il Sung demonstrated his superb art of command and annihilated the enemy. During the battle, anti-Japanese heroine Kim Jong Suk, at a critical moment when Kim Il Sung was in the jaws of death, shielded him with her own body and thus saved him at the risk of her life.
The small-unit dispersed actions organized and led by Kim Il Sung in the spring and summer of 1940, being a tentative stage of the next small-unit actions, provided a valuable experience in formulating the strategic tasks to be tackled in the next stage of the anti-Japanese armed struggle and determining the basic mode of action for its implementation.
4
AUGUST 1940-AUGUST 1945
Kim Il Sung wisely organized and led the struggle to take the initiative to greet the momentous occasion of national liberation in accordance with the requirements of the rapidly-changing situation in the first half of the 1940s and the developing Korean revolution.
In September 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland, sparking the conflagration of World War II. The Japanese imperialists, prompted by their ambition to carve out a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”, extended the flames of war to Southeast Asia, even though they were still attempting to conquer China. They thus found themselves all the more isolated from within and without, driving deeper into the abyss politically, economically and militarily.
Unable to satisfy their increasing needs for military strength and materials with the extension of the war front, and faced with the strong resistance offered by the Asian peoples and the Japanese people themselves, Japanese imperialism was thrown into a dilemma. Moreover, the contradictions between Japan and other imperialist countries, including Britain and the United States, which were clinging to their colonial spheres of influence in Asia deepened with every passing day.
The prevailing situation as a whole indicated that the destruction of Japanese imperialism was certainly only a matter of time, and that the day when the Korean people would accomplish their historic cause of national liberation was drawing near.
In the meantime, Korea’s driving force for carrying out the tasks of the new strategic stage had already appeared.
The KPRA, under Kim Il Sung’s wise leadership, grew up amidst arduous struggle to become a strong army possessing versatile tactics with which it could fully cope with any situation, a special revolutionary army of a new form that was carrying out both military and political missions simultaneously. It had already taken up a solid leadership position and had been playing a pivotal role in the Korean revolution as a whole. The KPRA was in fact already Korea’s army, Party and government. The organizational and ideological foundation for founding the Party had already been secured, and the broad masses of the people were rising up in the anti-Japanese struggle, rallied around the national liberation front.
With a scientific insight into the trend of the development of the situation as a whole and the requirements of the developing Korean revolution, Kim Il Sung convened a meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRA at Xiaohaerbaling, Dunhua County, on August 10 and 11, 1940, at which he delivered a historic report, titled On Preparing for the Great Event of National Liberation.
In this report he reviewed the successes and experiences gained in the anti-Japanese armed struggle over the previous decade and put forward a new strategic line of making full preparations for taking the initiative to greet the momentous occasion of national liberation geared to the rapidly-changing situation.
In order to take the initiative to greet the momentous occasion of national liberation, it was imperative, he said, to make full preparations for a final do-or-die battle to destroy Japanese imperialism once and for all, and for founding the Party, the people’s power and people’s armed forces, and for promoting the revolution on a continual basis in the liberated country.
He also set out the strategic tasks to be tackled in taking the initiative to greet the great event of national liberation, the tasks of preserving and increasing the KPRA forces, the backbone of the Korean revolution, and training them all into competent political and military cadres on the one hand, and thoroughly preparing the people politically and ideologically for the great event of national liberation on the other.
The two tasks-the final do-or-die battle and the building of a new country-could not be carried out by anybody other than the KPRA and the Korean people. To this end, preserving and increasing the revolutionary forces through actions taken on the initiative of the KPRA itself while avoiding losses from inadvertent combat, and preparing the people politically and ideologically for all-people resistance were raised as a strategic task of paramount importance for the Korean revolution at that time.
To ensure success in the implementation of this strategic task,
Kim Il Sung put forward a new policy of switching over from large-unit operations to small-unit actions.
This was a strategic policy that made it possible for the KPRA to take the initiative to deal ceaseless blows to the enemy at a time when the latter was making a last-ditch attempt at “punitive” operations against the former, to preserve and increase the KPRA forces as far as possible, and build up the internal revolutionary forces of the Korean people through vigorous political work among the masses everywhere. It was a revolutionary policy geared to supporting and defending a revolution that had emerged victorious, and intensifying and developing the world revolution as a whole, just as the Japanese imperialists were attempting to take the activities of the anti-Japanese guerrilla units in Manchuria as an excuse for aggression against the Soviet Union.
In order to implement this new strategic policy, it was important for the KPRA, he emphasized, to conduct small-unit military actions in a flexible manner, while carrying out energetic political activities among the masses, fully prepare every member of the KPRA politically and militarily, and strengthen solidarity with all the revolutionary forces across the world.
His historic report served as an important guideline for consummating the cause of national liberation through the final do-or-die battle against the Japanese imperialists by the Koreans themselves on the basis of the Juche idea, and in the struggle to create powerful internal forces of the revolution capable of building a new society successfully in the liberated homeland.
The Xiaohaerbaling Conference was the turning point when the anti-Japanese armed struggle switched over to a new strategic stage, and the preparation for taking the initiative to greet the momentous event of national liberation by the Koreans themselves gathered all-round momentum.
After the conference at Xiaohaerbaling, Kim Il Sung energetically organized and led the small-unit actions of the KPRA.
In mid-August 1940 he called a meeting of the Party and political officials of the KPRA at Xiaohaerbaling to map out the reorganization of the KPRA in accordance with the change in the strategy of struggle and to restructure the Party organizations and political organs in every unit accordingly.
He formed small units and groups on the principle of appropriate combination of political and military cadres, veteran soldiers and recruits, and set the tasks and area of activity for each of them. He also established a unified commanding system and communication system for the small units and groups, and equipped them with small arms to suit their specific tasks and the conditions in their areas of activity. In addition, he formed Party cells and groups within them, and improved their functions.
In September of the same year he called a meeting of the chiefs of the small units and groups of the KPRA at the secret camp on Mt. Kanbaek to make sure that they understood their tasks.
After the formation of the small units and groups, he concentrated his efforts on building temporary secret bases, in addition to the secret bases already constructed in the late 1930s, on which they would rely.
Following the Xiaohaerbaling Conference, the small units and groups established many temporary secret bases in strategic strongholds throughout the homeland and in wide areas of Manchuria, as directed by
Kim Il Sung. In these bases were secret camps that would accommodate the small units, communication centres, rendezvous points and stores.
The new bases ensured the secrecy and briskness of the small-unit actions and kept close contacts with the old secret bases.
Kim Il Sung wisely led the military activities of the small units and groups to smash the Japanese imperialists’ autumn and winter “punitive” operations which started in early autumn of 1940.
In August 1940 Kim Il Sung, in command of a small unit of the KPRA, fought a battle at a swamp near Huanghuadianzi, Antu County, before breaking through the enemy’s encirclement and moving into regions which the enemy never expected the KPRA to penetrate. He organized and commanded a series of battles-strike, ambush and demolition-and dealt heavy blows to the enemy by employing superb guerrilla tactics in the wide areas of Antu, Helong and Yanji, and in various places in the homeland. Thus, he set a typical example of small-unit actions.
He also combined the small-unit actions with large-unit operations, with the emphasis on the former, to confuse the enemy and camouflage the KPRA’s switch-over to small-unit actions.
While energetically guiding the activities of the small units and groups, he showed parental care for them, sending them food and clothes, as well as medicines.
Thanks to his strategy and tactics and his superb art of command, and greatly inspired by his parental love and care, the small units and groups conducted efficient mobile activities in wide areas of the homeland and Manchuria, dealing blow after blow at the Japanese imperialist aggressors. As a result, the whole of Northeast China and the border area with northern Korea seethed with the activities of the KPRA small units and groups.
At a meeting held at Mengshancun in the autumn of 1940,
Kim Il Sung urged all the members of the KPRA to cherish full confidence in the victory of the revolution, surmount all the trials, and resolutely fight for national liberation.
At the meeting, the soldiers, moved by his earnest words, pledged to be unfailingly loyal to him, share life and death with him, and constantly follow the revolutionary road.
The meeting at Mengshancun was significant in that it demonstrated once again the inseparable ties of kinship between the leader and his followers, the rock-solid unity and cohesion between the leader and the masses, and that it enabled the members of the KPRA to understand more fully that only when they cherished the revolutionary conscience and the commander and the soldiers were united as one could the lifeline of victory in the revolution continue.
The prevailing situation at that time made it imperative to form an anti-imperialist, anti-fascist common front between the communists in Korea, China and the Soviet Union as soon as possible to fight the “anti-communist” alliance of world fascism. With deep insight into the demands of the situation, Kim Il Sung participated in the Khabarovsk conference convened by the Comintern from December 1940 to mid-March 1941.
The conference, attended by the senior officers and officials of the KPRA, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Army (NAJAA), and the provincial Party committees in Manchuria, and the representatives of the Comintern and the Soviet Union, discussed the matter of intensifying and developing the anti-Japanese joint struggle of the revolutionary armed forces of Korea, China, and the Soviet Union, to meet the requirements of the new situation.
At the conference, Kim Il Sung insisted that an international alliance of several armed forces should be formed on the basis of respecting the independence of each force, and explained the principled stand that each should study the form and method of joint struggle which equally accorded with the interests of the revolution in Korea, China and the Soviet Union, and give fullest play to proletarian internationalism with a comradely and disinterested attitude, to form a common front.
The Khabarovsk conference confirmed that Kim Il Sung’s strategic policy of preserving and building the revolutionary forces and switching over from a large-scale guerrilla struggle to small-unit actions was correct, in that it fully met the requirements of the new situation. The conference discussed in real earnest the matter of waging small-unit actions with the main emphasis on preserving the forces of every unit of the NAJAA and the KPRA, and reached a consensus.
The Khabarovsk conference, along with the conference at Xiaohaerbal-ing, was a historic gathering in that it defined the contents and form of the anti-Japanese armed struggle in the first half of the 1940s, and induced the Korean revolutionaries to strengthen, with a firm conviction in the liberation of their homeland, the independent forces of their revolution and at the same time meet the pending great event of liberation on their own initiative. It was also an important occasion for strengthening the international anti-imperialist, anti-fascist allied front.
While he was in Khabarovsk, Kim Il Sung met Korean revolutionaries from northern Manchuria. He explained to them his idea of operations to liberate the homeland and his line of achieving Korea’s liberation by the Koreans themselves. He sincerely discussed with them his idea and line with regard to the liberation of the homeland, and encouraged them all to fight more resolutely for Korea’s revolution.
Kim Chaek, Choe Yong Gon and other Korean revolutionary fighters who had been active in northern and southern Manchuria expressed their great pleasure at meeting Kim Il Sung, whom they had admired so much and wished to meet in person since the early 1930s. They pledged to constantly fight for the liberation of the homeland, holding him as the leader of the Korean revolution, and as the centre of their unity and cohesion.
After the Khabarovsk conference, Kim Il Sung guided the small-unit actions in the homeland and southeast Manchuria, operating from temporary bases in the area of Mt. Paektu and in the Far East region of Siberia.
Prior to his departure from a base in the Far East region in March 1941 to conduct small-unit actions, Kim Il Sung posed with Kim Jong Suk, an anti-Japanese heroine, for a souvenir photo, at the unanimous request of the soldiers. Then, he jotted down on the back of the photo: “Greeting the spring in a foreign land, March 1, 1941. At Camp B.” This photo, bearing his historic autograph, was as good as a wedding photo for them both.
In April 1941, in command of a small unit, Kim Il Sung went to Manchuria and Korea, and made contact with the small units and groups active in those areas. He ensured unified command over them, restored or readjusted the wrecked Party and ARF and other revolutionary organizations, formed new ones, and expanded the armed ranks with the young people selected by the networks of underground organizations. At the same time he conducted energetic activities to train the cadres needed for the final battle for national liberation and the building of a new country.
He instructed all the officers and men to firmly maintain the Juche-ori-ented standpoint and conduct the activities of the small units and groups more aggressively to meet the requirements of the rapidly-changing situation.
In May 1941 he put forward a revolutionary slogan: “Let us carry out the Korean revolution by our own efforts!” in order to prevent any possible ideological vacillation from spreading and influencing some soldiers and the members of the small units and groups in connection with the conclusion of a neutrality pact in April the same year between the Soviet Union and Japan, and instill in his men confidence in the victory of the revolution. At the Kanbaeksan secret camp in June the same year, he instructed the chiefs of the small units, political activist groups and revolutionary organizations to adhere to the Juche-oriented standpoint and conduct intensive ideological education aimed at consummating the Korean revolution by the Koreans themselves, to meet the requirements of the prevailing situation subsequent to the surprise attack by fascist Germany against the Soviet Union.
In July the same year he called a meeting of the chiefs of small units of the KPRA at Thaksanggol, Onsong County, Korea, and another meeting in Jiapigou, Wangqing County. At the latter meeting he made a historic speech, titled Let Us Consummate the Cause of National Liberation with Firm Conviction in Victory, in which he pointed out the deviations that might appear in relation to the changes in the international situation. He said that all the officers and men of the KPRA should take a revolutionary attitude that the masters of the Korean revolution were the Korean people, and cherish a firm conviction that they could consummate the Korean revolution by their own efforts in the face of all challenges. He continued to emphasize that it was imperative to fully prepare the revolutionary forces and step up the activities of the KPRA small units and groups in order to make every preparation for greeting the pending great event of the Korean revolution on their own initiative.
His speech served as an important guideline in firmly maintaining an independent stand in whatever circumstances and intensifying the struggle of the Korean people to make preparations to greet the great event of national liberation by their own efforts.
Following the meeting at Jiapigou, Kim Il Sung, in command of a small unit of the KPRA, raided a road construction site between Wangqing and Luozigou, and conducted vigorous political activities among the workers there, thus inspiring the small units and groups active in their respective theatres of action, as well as the broad masses of the people, with confidence in the victory of the revolution.
In mid-September 1941 he again went to Manchuria and Korea, in command of a small unit, to guide the work of the small units and groups active in various areas, instilling in them the firm confidence in victory and leading them to step up their military and political activities.
At the meeting of the chiefs of the small units and groups and heads of the revolutionary organizations held in Yonbong, Singon-ri, Kyongwon County (present-day Saeppyol County) in October of the same year, and at subsequent meetings, he emphasized the need to intensify efforts to monitor the enemy’s movements, and explained in detail the basic tasks and methods of reconnaissance.
Thanks to his energetic guidance, the KPRA small units and groups headed by An Kil, Kim II, Ryu Kyong Su, O Pack Ryong and Choe Kwang conducted vigorous military and political activities and reconnoitring in the homeland and in eastern Manchuria, and in the border areas between the Soviet Union and Manchuria. In the course of this, they dealt crushing blows to the enemy’s manpower and the transport of materials and military supplies, thus rendering great contributions to mapping out the operations plan for the immediate combat actions and final battle of the KPRA.
Kim Jong Suk, a communist revolutionary, came to the Paektusan Secret Camp in Sobaeksu Valley in June 1941, to readjust and expand the ARF and other revolutionary organizations in Changbai and northern Korea centring on Mt. Paektu, and step up the work to rally the broad masses around these organizations.
Kim Jong Il was born as the son of guerrilla fighters at the secret camp on Mt. Paektu on February 16, 1942, when a revolutionary turn was in effect under Kim Il Sung’s wise leadership in the struggle for final victory in the anti-Japanese war.
Kim Il Sung, in order to create an international atmosphere for building up the motive force of the Korean revolution and to strengthen solidarity with the international anti-imperialist and anti-fascist forces, formed an international alliance together with the Soviet and Chinese communists.
Around mid-July 1942, he finally discussed with Soviet and Chinese military cadres an alliance of the armed forces of Korea, China and the Soviet Union, to be known as the International Allied Forces (IAF), on the precondition that the identities of the KPRA and NAJAA would be preserved.
Kim Il Sung was in command of the KPRA and the Korean Contingent of the IAF at that time.
With the formation of the IAF, the KPRA came to pursue both the cause of Korea’s liberation and the international duty to destroy Japanese militarism once and for all. Its joint struggle with the Chinese people was switched over to the stage of a broad-scale joint struggle of the three armed forces of Korea, China and the Soviet Union.
While maintaining the identity of the KPRA in its activities,
Kim Il Sung strengthened friendship and solidarity with the Chinese and Soviet communists, and fully supported and assisted their struggle.
He furthered his friendly relations with Zhou Bao-zhong, Zhang Shou-jian, Chai Shi-rong, Feng Zhong-yun, and other revolutionary comrades-in-arms in the NAJAA, and sent many hardcore elements of the KPRA to the Chinese units of the IAF to assist their military and political activities wholeheartedly. In the meantime, he maintained close relations with the high-ranking military and political officials of the Soviet Far East Forces, and frequently explained to them the troop dispositions and ruling methods of the Japanese imperialists in Korea, the Korean people’s anti-Japanese struggle in the homeland and its future development, and the practical possibilities of the KPRA’s joint operations with the Soviet Union.
Kim Il Sung’s energetic activities and painstaking efforts for the formation of the IAF and its consolidation and development served as a model of correct combination of two principles to be maintained in revolutionary struggle-the principle of independence and identity of each country and that of international solidarity and cooperation.
After the formation of the IAF, Kim Il Sung, in anticipation of the final operations against the Japanese, channelled his efforts into military reconnaissance and the preparations for all-people resistance conducive to success in the final operations, while extending the width and depth of the small-unit actions.
In the small-unit actions at this period, he maintained the principle of combining the activities of small groups with those of relatively large units, with the emphasis on the former. According to this principle, in military operations emphasis was put on the activities of the groups, which were sometimes combined with strikes or ambushes by small units. Military reconnaissance and operations to disintegrate the enemy forces were pursued intensively.
While promoting the small-unit actions, he stepped up the military and political education and training aimed at preparing all the commanding officers and men of the KPRA politically and militarily.
Following the Khabarovsk conference, Kim Il Sung set up a training base in the Soviet Far East region favourable for military and political training, and from early 1941 organized military and political training, which he stepped up after the formation of the IAF.
Saying that in order to build a new country after the liberation of Korea it was important to train all the cadres needed in various fields as pillars for the building of an independent and sovereign state, he increased the proportion of political education in the military and political training programme, and stepped up the political studies aimed at equipping the officers and men of the KPRA firmly with the Juche-oriented line and the strategy and tactics of the Korean revolution.
The political training dealt mainly with Kim Il Sung’s works such as the Ten-Point Programme and the Inaugural Declaration of the ARF, The Tasks of Korean Communists, and so on, as well as Korean history, geography and culture. Other subjects taught were philosophy, political economics, theory of Party building and the problems related to economic management and operation.
Kim Il Sung personally worked out the curriculum for political lectures, and clearly explained to the politics teachers the method of delivering political lectures. He himself often gave such lectures.
He also channelled great efforts into stepping up military training, along with political studies.
He made all the officers and men master guerrilla tactics on the principle of pursuing the Korean-style training suited to Korea’s topographical conditions and the physical constitution of the Koreans by drawing on the experiences gained in the anti-Japanese war and the Soviet-German war, while at the same time organizing intensive study of military theory and conducting military exercises for his men to learn tactics suited to modern warfare.
He himself conducted tactical training for the commanding officers, attaching importance to tactical training for modern warfare. He saw to it that shooting drill, swimming drill, river-crossing drill, landing exercises, skiing drill, wireless communication drill and training in air-borne operations were conducted, himself participating in parachute training on several occasions.
He ensured that the soldiers and officers were taught manual of arms, topography, sanitation, military engineering and anti-chemical warfare, concentrating the training for guerrilla warfare upon raids and ambushes.
In the course of military and political training, the officers and men of the KPRA prepared themselves firmly as political and military cadres equipped with versatile knowledge about politics and military affairs, guerrilla warfare and modern warfare, and the techniques of all kinds of arms and services.
With the showdown with the Japanese imperialists approaching,
Kim Il Sung organized and wisely led the struggle to build up the internal forces of the Korean revolution and step up the preparations for all-people resistance.
With the coming of 1943 the situation as a whole in and around Korea started to develop in favour of the Korean revolution. The victory of the Soviet army at the Battle of Stalingrad turned the tide of World War II.
Fascist Italy surrendered, while Japanese imperialism was suffering one defeat after another, driven into a tight corner on its fronts in China, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
As the defeat of Japanese imperialism was becoming a foregone conclusion, and its ruling system was being paralyzed gradually in Korea, the attention of people of all walks of life was attracted more and more to Mt. Paektu, where Kim Il Sung was staying.
With deep insights into the developing Korean revolution and the requirements of the prevailing situation, Kim Il Sung called a meeting at Tumu Hill, Sogok-ri, Sinhung County, in February 1943, in which he put forward the three-point line for accomplishing the historic cause of national liberation by means of a general offensive of the KPRA combined with a popular uprising and joint operations behind enemy lines.
He prepared the ranks of the KPRA more firmly in a politico-ideological way, the army that would play a leading, key role in the general offensive for the liberation of the country.
In his historic speech addressed to the political cadres and politics instructors of the KPRA in September 1943, titled The Korean Revolutionaries Must Know Korea Well, he said that the Korean communists must have a good knowledge of Korean history and geography, and the country’s brilliant culture, in order to carry out the Korean revolution with a responsible attitude, pointing out the concrete contents of what they should study and the ways for mastering them. He also set tasks for greeting the great event of the national liberation on their own initiative.
As he instructed, all the commanding officers and men of the KPRA made a careful study of their homeland under the motto “The Korean Revolutionaries Must Know Korea Well,” so as to acquire a profound knowledge of the strategy and tactics of the Korean revolution, Korean history, geography and culture, the specific conditions of the homeland, and the building of the Party, state and armed forces in the liberated country, as well as all other matters to be dealt with in the building of a new country after the national liberation.
All the commanding officers and men of the KPRA stepped up their military and political training intensively. Consequently, within a short span of time they managed to assimilate the whole course of a curriculum which would normally take several years at a regular university or military academy.
As a result, the ranks of the KPRA grew into steel-like revolutionary armed forces that would take the responsibility for playing a leading and essential role in the final battle for greeting the great event of national liberation, fine ranks of cadres capable of shouldering the building of a new society after the national liberation.
As a part of his efforts to implement the three-point line of national liberation, Kim Il Sung stepped up the preparations for all-people resistance.
He said:
“Stepping up the preparations for national resistance, we paid special attention to the following points: One was to establish new temporary secret bases while building up the secret bases existing in the homeland into military and political bases for national resistance; the second was to send more small units and teams as well as political operatives into the homeland to prepare the forces of national resistance thoroughly for the operations to liberate the country, in keeping with the requirements of the new situation; and the third was to establish unified leadership over the national resistance forces in the homeland.”
In order to step up the preparations for national resistance, he expanded the temporary secret bases of various forms and sizes at vantage points across the country, areas that would be of great strategic and tactical importance in the final showdown with Japanese imperialism, while building up the secret bases existing in the homeland. He personally visited the secret bases and temporary secret bases in the homeland to guide the work of intensifying the training of the commanding personnel of the paramilitary organizations and building up starting points of final offensive operations.
Giving priority to the establishment of secret bases, he dispatched to the homeland many more small units, teams, and political operatives, whose mission it was to build up the forces of national resistance and prepare them thoroughly for final offensive operations.
At a meeting of heads of underground revolutionary organizations and anti-Japanese patriotic organizations, held in Tokgol, Phungsan-ri, Musan County, in June 1942 and at a meeting of the heads of the ARF organizations in the homeland held at the temporary secret base on Mt. Sangdan, Sinjang-ri, Yonsa County, in July 1944, he called on the attendants to expand and strengthen the internal revolutionary forces by rallying broad sections of the masses firmly around the organizations and mobilize all the anti-Japanese forces for the sacred war for national liberation.
With a view to building up revolutionary organizations, particularly armed forces, for all-people resistance, he called several meetings, including a meeting of the heads of small units and teams of the KPRA and chiefs of the underground revolutionary organizations, held on Mt. Kom, Oun-dong, Rokya-ri, Kyonghung County (present-day Undok County), in July 1943, at which he explained the tasks and ways for building up workers’ and peasants’ armed corps throughout the country for the national resistance under the banner of national liberation by the Koreans themselves. And he energetically guided the work to this end.
As a result, a secret organization under the title of the Paektusan Association was organized in Songjin (present-day Kimchaek City) in 1942, followed by the “Kim Il Sung Corps” organized in Seoul in 1943. In Pyongyang the Fatherland Liberation Corps was organized by
Kim Il Sung’s cousin Kim Won Ju and other revolutionary young people. Many armed corps under various titles, including the Secret Society at the Ninon Iron Works, the Armed-Revolt Society in Kyongsong (present-day Seoul) and the People’s Armed Corps in Rajin, sprang up throughout the country, hastening their preparations to rise in armed revolt and participate in the KPRA’s advance into the homeland.
The struggle to form national resistance organizations was also waged by the young Koreans drafted into the Japanese aggressor army. The young Korean draftees formed an anti-Japanese armed student-soldier corps and carried out brisk activities under the motto “To Mt. Paektu, to General Kim Il Sung!” A considerable number of communists who had been associated with various organizations in the homeland also joined in the preparations for national resistance to fight the decisive battle against the Japanese imperialists, in support of Kim Il Sung’s line of national resistance.
Under Kim Il Sung’s wise leadership, the forces of national resistance grew rapidly. The anti-Japanese underground organizations in the home-land that had been discovered by the Japanese imperialists in 1942 numbered as many as 180, with about 500,000 members.
Kim Il Sung made efforts to expand and strengthen the Party organizations in the homeland and enhance their roles, in order to realize unified guidance to the forces of the national resistance, which had grown considerably.
At several meetings, including the meeting of the chiefs of Party organizations and hardcore Party members in the homeland, held at Ujokgol, Yonsa County, in February 1943, and the meeting of the chiefs of Party organizations in the homeland, held at the temporary secret base on Mt. Omyong, Rajin City, in July 1944, he took measures for expanding the basic Party organizations in the wide areas of the homeland, building up the regional Party leadership organs in ways suited to the specific conditions of the relevant units and regions, and enhancing the leadership roles of the Party organizations to meet the requirements of the situation, with the final decisive battle just ahead.
His wise leadership resulted in the expansion of basic Party organizations in the key industrial areas and strategic points, and the formation of regional leadership organs, including the Area Party Committee of South Phyongan Province and the Chongjin Area Party Committee, through which the ARF and national resistance organizations in the relevant areas could be guided.
Kim Il Sung worked hard to organize the forces of national resistance even in Japan.
He sent political operatives to Japan to readjust the ARF and various other forms of and-Japanese organizations already existing there in such a way as to get them to join the KPRA in its final offensive operations on the one hand, and form new organizations on a continual basis and step up military reconnoitring on the other.
Kim Il Sung also paid close attention to forming relations and conducting cooperation with all the Korean anti-Japanese forces abroad and the nationalist organizations in the homeland, under the banner of national liberation, transcending ideology and party affiliation.
With the defeat of Japanese imperialism drawing nearer, he saw to it that the workers, peasants and youth and students waged all forms of anti-Japanese, anti-war struggle vigorously, in order to temper them in a revolu- tionary way and prepare them for all-people resistance and armed revolts. In addition, he roused the intellectuals to active struggle to oppose the Japanese imperialists’ national obliteration policy and defend the spirit of the Korean nation.
As a result of his wise leadership, all the preparations for all-people resistance to greet the great event of national liberation were able to proceed in a thoroughgoing way.
In mid-1940s fascist Germany was defeated, and Japanese imperialism, its ally, was suffering one defeat after another on all of its fronts. This created a favourable situation for launching the final offensive operations by the KPRA.
Kim Il Sung, on the basis of his deep grasp of the trend of the rapidly developing situation, called a meeting of the commanding personnel of the KPRA in May 1945, at which he put forward an operational policy for liberating the country by the efforts of the Korean people themselves.
While increasing the political and military capabilities of the KPRA to the maximum and dispatching many political operatives to the homeland to prepare the resistance organizations to the full, he mapped out the plan for the final offensive operations he had been elaborating for a long time. In June of the same year he called a meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRA at the secret camp on Mt. Kanbaek, Korea, in which he published the plan for the final offensive operations for national liberation.
The major strategic intention running through the plan for the final offensive operations was to annihilate the Japanese aggressors and liberate the country by means of positive offensive operations of the KPRA combined with all-people resistance, that is, by the general offensive of the internal revolutionary forces that had been fully prepared.
According to his operational plan, the units that had assembled in the area of Mt. Kanbaek were to move by prearranged routes to different provinces, while the units concentrated in the areas along the Tuman River were to advance to the areas along the Tuman and Amnok Rivers and the Chongjin area. He planned to airlift the units that remained at the training base in the Soviet Far East region to Pyongyang and other areas to occupy the secret bases that had been built and launch military operations in full swing. In addition, the small units and political workers of the KPRA active in the homeland were to expand resistance organizations on a large scale and rouse the people to national resistance so that all the people would join the KPRA in its offensive in all parts of the country.
In July 1945 Kim Il Sung had a consultation with the high-ranking commanding personnel of the Soviet Far East Forces about the KPRA’s joint campaign with the Soviet army that was to take part in the war against Japan according to an international agreement, and adopted concrete measures for the purpose. He also attended a meeting held in Moscow in relation to the operations against Japan. During the meeting he met Zhdanov and Zhukov, high-ranking cadres of the Soviet Party and army, to whom he clarified his principled attitude with regard to the question of the military and political situation and the matter of building an independent and sovereign state after Korea’s liberation.
Kim Il Sung wisely commanded the final offensive operations to annihilate the Japanese imperialist aggressors and liberate the country by the independent forces of the Korean people.
He said:
“Korea’s liberation was the great result of the struggle of the forces of our people and the KPRA themselves in the favourable circumstances created by the Soviet forces’ destruction of the Japanese Kwantung Army. In accordance with the operational plans for the final offensive of the KPRA, the resistance organizations and armed corps we had organized in the homeland in the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s destroyed the aggressor troops and colonial ruling machinery of Japanese imperialism in various parts of the country, and liberated their motherland.”
On August 8, 1945, in order to make a breakthrough in the final offensive operations, Kim Il Sung ordered the KPRA units to attack by surprise several points of strategic importance in the enemy’s fortified zones in the border area, including Tho-ri, Sonbong County, and Nanbieli and Dongx-ingzhen, Hunchun County, creating confusion in the enemy defence system.
On the following day, August 9, 1945, the day when the Soviet Union declared war against Japan, he ordered all the KPRA units to launch general offensive for liberating the homeland.
The KPRA units, remaining true to his order for a general offensive, advanced like angry waves, in close contact with the Soviet army, annihilating the Japanese aggressor army. The KPRA units that had been occupy- ing offensive positions around the secret camp on Mt. Kanbaek for the final operations advanced as planned, strengthening their ranks. The units on the Tuman River broke through the enemy fortresses on the frontier in one fell swoop, liberated Kyongwon (present-day Saeppyol) and Kyonghung (present-day Undok), and made a thrust into Sonbong, liberating wide areas of the homeland. Some units, acting as advance parties for the landing force, landed at Sonbong in close cooperation with the ground force and, exploiting this success, continued to advance to the area of Chongjin.
Other units, having taken Jinchang, Dongning, Muling and Mudanjiang, pursued the enemy troops and gave fatal blows to the Kwantung Army before pressing on towards the Tuman River.
In response to the final offensive operations, the small units and political operatives from the KPRA which had been active in the homeland roused paramilitary corps, armed resistance organizations and broad sections of the people to armed revolts. They harassed the enemy in the rear by boldly attacking the Japanese imperialist aggressor troops, gendarmerie and police establishments, in strong support of the advancing KPRA units.
The People’s Armed Corps in Rajin in North Hamgyong Province had already liberated the Rajin City before the Soviet army landed there, while the Kkachibong People’s Armed Corps destroyed the retreating enemy soldiers and liberated Hoeryong by its own efforts. The armed corps in Chongjin, Kilju and Songjin areas attacked enemy stragglers, took control of factories, and raided police establishments.
The resistance organizations in Cholwon and Poptong in Kangwon Province, and in Sinuiju in North Phyongan Province attacked local police substations and border guard posts, and occupied the provincial police department and provincial office building. They also disarmed enemy stragglers hiding at the airfield.
In South Phyongan Province and Pyongyang a large resistance unit centred on the Fatherland Liberation Corps raided an arsenal, and occupied the provincial and city office buildings. Meanwhile, the resistance organizations in Hwanghae Province also attacked and contained enemy troops in various locations.
Hard hit by the fierce attacks of the KPRA units and the Soviet army and by the decisive blows from the stubborn national resistance, Japanese imperialism declared its unconditional surrender in great haste on August 15, just a week after the start of the operations against Japan.
While commanding the frontline units of the KPRA, Kim Il Sung went to the airfield in command of the airborne troops to be airlifted to vantage points in the homeland, as was envisaged by the plan for final offensive operations.
The operational plan of the airborne troops, however, had to be cancelled, because the Japanese imperialists surrendered unexpectedly.
Kim Il Sung organized and led the struggle to wipe out the remnants of the Japanese aggressor army that were still offering resistance even after Japan’s declaration of unconditional surrender, and smash the Japanese colonial ruling system finally.
On August 16, 1945, the day after Japan’s declaration of unconditional surrender, the Japanese Government-General in Korea and the headquarters of the Korean military district issued the “Outline for Controlling Political Movements” and gave subordinate units in different parts of the country orders to suppress the liberation struggle of the Korean people, in an attempt to maintain their colonial ruling system.
Kim Il Sung ordered the KPRA units and the resistance forces in the homeland to mercilessly destroy the stragglers of the Japanese aggressor army that were putting up resistance and the ruling establishments of the enemy.
The KPRA units and the national resistance forces wiped out the remnants of the Japanese army, disarmed them, destroyed the colonial ruling bodies and formed Party organizations and local autonomous administration and security organs, and established a new people-oriented order.
The resistance organizations and armed corps in Korea, excluding those in North and South Hamgyong Provinces, raided and destroyed nearly 1,000 ruling organs of the enemy in a week in mid-August.
Consequently, the military ruling machinery of Japanese imperialism was destroyed once and for all, and the Korean people were rid of the military rule that had lasted nearly half a century.
The liberation of Korea was won through the struggle of the KPRA, which had struck powerful military and political blows against Japanese imperialism for 15 years, shaking it to its very foundations, and the general mobilization of the resistance forces involving people of all walks of life across the country.
The Korean people, who had been yearning for the day of liberation of their country day after day, gave a hearty welcome to the KPRA, shouting “Long Live General Kim Il Sung!” and “Long Live the Liberation of Korea!” at the top of their voices.
The anti-Japanese armed struggle ended in a great victory, and the historic cause of Korea’s liberation was gloriously accomplished.
The victory in the anti-Japanese armed struggle was the brilliant fruition of the wise leadership of Kim Il Sung, the legendary hero of the anti-Japanese struggle.
Kim Il Sung, who embarked on the road of national liberation in his early days, shouldering the destiny of his homeland and nation, opened up the road of the Korean revolution by authoring the immortal Juche idea and putting forward Juche-oriented revolutionary lines. He paved the way for the successful anti-Japanese war with his military foresight worthy of a genius and Juche-based strategy and tactics. With his outstanding leadership and lofty virtues, he firmly united the entire nation and inspired it to wage the sacred war of national liberation, thus bringing about a brilliant victory in the anti-Japanese armed struggle.
By successfully leading the glorious anti-Japanese armed struggle to victory, he won back the sovereignty of the Korean nation, opened up a broad avenue to the building of a new society, and demonstrated to the whole world the dignity and honour, the indomitable revolutionary spirit and heroic mettle, of the Korean nation.
In the course of leading the arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle to victory over a period of 20 years, he built up the motive force capable of continuing to advance the Korean revolution dynamically, and created the brilliant revolutionary traditions that will be carried forward and developed for ever by the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people.
Kim Jong Il said:
“The revolutionary traditions of our Party are the historical roots of the Party and revolution, their lifeblood and valuable assets for the completion of the cause of our revolution. Incorporated in the brilliant revolutionary traditions of our Party created by the great leader in the flames of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle are the ideology, theory and method of Juche, and the imperishable achievements and experiences gained during the struggle.”
As a result of Kim Il Sung’s creation of the glorious anti-Japanese revolutionary traditions, the Korean people are able to carry them forward in full to advance the revolutionary cause of Juche victoriously, and bring it to noble completion from generation to generation.
5
AUGUST 1945-FEBRUARY 1947
In August 1945 leading personages in Pyongyang and Seoul organized Committees for Welcoming General Kim Il Sung amid the cheers of independence that shook the whole country. The entire nation was eagerly waiting for the triumphal return home of General Kim Il Sung, the legendary hero of the anti-Japanese struggle and the saviour of the country.
Prior to his return home, however, Kim Il Sung was working hard to make preparations for the building of a new country.
Closely observing the developments in the homeland and abroad, he paid primary attention to indicating the way liberated Korea should take, and formulating the method of building a new country.
The end of the Second World War opened up prospects for many European and Asian nations to build a new society on a democratic basis.
In Korea, too, the people’s patriotic enthusiasm that had been displayed in the nationwide resistance was channelled into nation building after the liberation of the country, and the democratic forces were overwhelming the reactionary forces. However, Korea was in danger of becoming a theatre of confrontation between socialism and capitalism because the Soviet and US armies were to be stationed respectively in the north and the south of the peninsula.
The Korean people were all aspiring to build a new society, but they did not know what to do for the time being, or which way they should follow.
How to formulate the line of building a new country was vital to the Korean people.
With an unswerving attitude and decision to strengthen the Korean people’s revolutionary force in every way, and build a new country by the efforts of these people in order to safeguard the sovereignty of the nation and accelerate nation building, Kim Il Sung worked day and night to work out a complete policy line for building the new country, a line which he had been formulating for many years.
On August 20, 1945, five days after the surrender of imperialist Japan, he made a historic speech to the military and political officers under the title, On Building the Party, State and Armed Forces in the Liberated Homeland.
In this speech he set forth the three immediate tasks of building the party, state and armed forces in order to advance the Korean revolution continuously on the basis of the success already achieved, carry out an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution, and build an independent sovereign state.
Kim Il Sung said:
“We must first found a Marxist-Leninist party which will be able to steadily guide the Korean revolution to victory. At the same time, we must establish a people’s government to solve the question of power, the fundamental question of the revolution, and build the people’s armed forces which will defend our country, people and revolutionary gains. These three immediate tasks are a revolutionary duty, the fulfilment of which brooks not a moment’s delay in our revolution’s rapid advance in the liberated homeland.”
His speech served as a bright beacon which clearly indicated to the Korean communists and the rest of the Korean people the road along which they could build the new country with a firm standpoint of Juche, and also as a very important guideline for the building of the party, state and armed forces.
After discussing in detail the direction and method of carrying out the three major tasks, he proceeded to the necessary organizational and political work. He formed small groups that would organize and guide the work of building the party, state and armed forces in the homeland, fixed their destinations, and organized a training course for them for several days, sometimes giving them lectures in person. The training course dealt with various subjects ranging from the content and method of work to be undertaken by the small groups to the customs of the people in the different regions of Korea.
While making preparations for returning home down to every last detail, he paid close attention to giving support to the Chinese revolution. In his talks delivered on September 15, 1945, to the military and political cadres to be dispatched to Northeast China under the title, Let Us Give Active Support to the Revolutionary Struggle of the Chinese People, he said that giving support to the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people was a noble internationalist duty of the Korean communists and the Korean people in the difficult situation created by Jiang Jie-shi’s manoeuvres to reoccupy Northeast China after the defeat of Japanese imperialism. He instructed effective assistance to be given to the work of the armed ranks in Northeast China, establishing a democratic government and forming communist party organizations and mass organizations, and efforts to be put into the work of forming the united front of democratic forces and strengthening solidarity between the Korean and Chinese peoples.
After making preparations for the building of the new country in a short span of time prior to his triumphal return home, Kim Il Sung landed at the port of Wonsan on September 19, 1945. On the day of his arrival in Won-san, he met military and political cadres of the KPRA and the senior officials of the Wonsan City Communist Party organization, and addressed them under the title, Let Us Rally the Popular Masses to Build a New Korea.
He said that liberated Korea must not revive feudalism or establish the bourgeois system; nor must it take the road of socialism immediately, as some people argued. He explained that Korea, then at the stage of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution, must take the road of progressive democracy, and that the state to be established in the liberated homeland must be an independent and sovereign democratic state.
On September 20, the day following his arrival in Wonsan, he explained the immediate tasks of the communists for building a new Korea to the political workers who were going to be sent to North and South Hamgyong Provinces and the Cholwon area, and then left Wonsan with the anti-Japanese revolutionary veterans who were to work in the west coast area, arriving in Pyongyang on the morning of September 22.
Kim Il Sung deferred the announcement of his triumphal return to the homeland and his visit to his old home at Mangyongdae, which he had long yearned for, and plunged into the work of building the party, state and armed forces.
He reminisced about that time:
“On the day following my arrival in Pyongyang, together with my comrades-in-arms, I set about carrying out the tasks of building the party, state and army. That was one of busiest days after liberation.”
For the building of the new country, he visited the Pyongyang Corn-starch Factory, Kangson Steel Works and other factories, farm villages and residential quarters, and met workers, peasants and other people on the one hand, and on the other met various personages at home and from abroad, and discussed the country’s affairs in his office and in his quarters, sharing bed and board with his comrades-in-arms, as he used to do in his days at Mt. Paektu.
Kim Il Sung clearly showed the way to build the independent and sovereign democratic state also in his talks to the communists who had come to visit him from south Korea towards the end of September 1945, in his speech at the consultative meeting of the political workers and officials of the communist party organizations of South Phyongan Province and in his lecture, titled On Progressive Democracy, given to the students of the Pyongyang Worker-Peasant Political School in early October the same year.
He said:
“The Korean revolution at the present stage is an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution. We must follow the road of progressive democracy which suits the Korean situation-neither Soviet democracy nor American ‘democracy’. The road of progressive democracy, this is the very line, the right road, for the Korean revolution at present.”
He said that progressive democracy was characterized by its orientation towards independence, coalition, freedom, prosperity, revolution and peace, and explained these concepts in detail.
He set about accomplishing the cause of founding the party without delay, on the basis of the solid organizational and ideological preparations made during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.
Founding a revolutionary party forthwith was an urgent requirement of the specific reality of the communist movement in Korea immediately after the liberation of the country.
As soon as the country was liberated, the “M-L group”17, “Tuesday group”18 and other factionalists in south Korea formed what they called the “Jangan Party” and “Reconstruction Party”19 in an underhand way without any mass foundation, and were engrossed in their scheme to obtain “hegemony”.
With a deep insight into the complex situation of the communist movement in Korea, Kim Il Sung set forth the policy of founding a unified party with the communists trained and hardened in the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle as the hard core, together with the communists who were active in different parts of the country and abroad, and gave wise leadership to the work of implementing the policy.
He ensured that the veterans of the anti-Japanese revolution who had been dispatched to many regions strengthened and expanded the party organizations that had been formed, and organized new ones where there were none on the one hand, and on the other he met many communists who had been active at home and abroad, and explained the independent policy of party foundation to them, emphasizing the need to found a unified party as soon as possible.
On October 5, 1945 Kim Il Sung convened a preliminary meeting for the founding of the party. He said that in order to push ahead with the overall Korean revolution by the efforts of the Korean people themselves in the circumstances in which the US imperialists occupied south Korea, it was necessary to establish the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea(CPNK), a powerful organ of party leadership, in north Korea, where everything was favorable for this. He exposed and smashed the machinations of the factionalists and local separatists who were against the formation of the organizing committee and insisted on the need to support the “Seoul centre”.
On the basis of these preparations, he summoned the inaugural conference for the founding of the Party, which was held in Pyongyang from October 10 to 13, 1945.
In his historic report to this conference, titled On Building a Marxist-Leninist Party in Our Country and Its Immediate Tasks, he proposed the formation of the Central Organizing Committee of the CPNK, and clarified the organizational and political lines of the Party.
The organizational line he defined was to build up a strong organizational backbone, develop the party into a mass party firmly based on the foundation of the proletariat, realize the party’s unity in terms of ideology, will and action, and strengthen revolutionary discipline based on democratic centralism.
He defined it as the basic political task of the party to establish a democratic people’s republic and develop Korea into a prosperous, independent and sovereign democratic country. In order to carry this programme out, he proposed the immediate tasks of forming a democratic national united front, eliminating all the reactionary elements to smooth over the country’s democratic development, laying strong cornerstones for the construction of an independent democratic state, expanding and strengthening the Communist Party, and vigorously advancing the work of public organizations.
He urged that these immediate tasks be carried out to accelerate the building of the democratic people’s republic and make north Korea a powerful democratic base for the construction of a prosperous, independent and sovereign democratic state.
The conference adopted the Party’s organizational and political lines proposed by him as the common political programme of the Korean communists, as the line of Party building.
At the conference, Kim Il Sung formed the Central Organizing Committee of the CPNK, the Party’s central organ of leadership, and proclaimed the founding of the Party. This meant the birth of a Juche-type revolutionary party for the first time in history. It was a brilliant accomplishment of the cause of building a revolutionary party of the working class, which had started with the formation of the DIU.
By founding the Juche-type revolutionary party, Kim Il Sung provided the Korean people with a genuine vanguard detachment of the working class, a powerful political general staff, and made it possible for them to struggle confidently to build a prosperous, independent new country under the leadership of the Party.
On October 13 he declared the inaugural conference closed, and then made a historic speech under the title, On the Building of New Korea and on the National United Front, to the senior officials of provincial Party organizations who were present at the conference.
In his speech, Kim Il Sung said that in order to build the democratic people’s republic, it was necessary to form a united front which would embrace not only the working class and peasantry, but all the other patriotic and democratic forces, including national capitalists. He explained clearly the proposed composition of the united front. He said that since this united front was for the building of a democratic people’s republic, there should be no collaboration with the stooges of Japanese imperialism. He emphasized that the pro-Japanese stooges and traitors to the nation must be liquidated through a mass struggle.
He elucidated the strategic and tactical principles of the united front movement, including the question of ensuring the leadership and independence of the Communist Party in the united front, and the question of combining unity and struggle.
After carrying out the historic cause of founding the Party,
Kim Il Sung attended a welcoming rally for him held in the Pyongyang Public Stadium (present-day Kim Il Sung Stadium) on October 14, 1945.
He acknowledged the enthusiastic cheers of welcome by more than a hundred thousand people, and made a historic speech marking his triumphal return to the homeland, under the title, Every Effort for the Building of a New, Democratic Korea.
Setting forth the tasks of building a prosperous, independent and sovereign democratic state, he appealed to the nation to achieve great unity for the building of a new and democratic Korea.
He said:
“The time has come when we Korean people have to unite our strength to build a new, democratic Korea. People from all strata should display patriotic enthusiasm and turn out to build a new Korea. To contribute positively to the work of building the state, let those with strength give strength, let those with knowledge give knowledge, let those with money give money, and all people who truly love their country, their nation and democracy must unite closely and build an independent and sovereign democratic state.”
The Korean people were greatly delighted and excited at
Kim Il Sung’s speech made on the occasion of his triumphal return home, the speech that provided a charter for great national unity based on noble love for the country, love for the nation and love for the people, as well as a great programme for the building of the state. The whole country bubbled over with revolutionary enthusiasm for the building of a new nation.
After founding the Party and after extending greetings on his triumphal return home to the people, Kim Il Sung paid a visit to Mangyongdae, his home village, and had a joyous reunion with his grandparents and other relatives.
With uncommon revolutionary zeal and by means of superb leadership, he simultaneously pushed forward the work of carrying out the difficult and enormous tasks arising in the building of the new country such as the work of strengthening the Party after its founding, rallying the masses organizationally, building the armed forces, building state power, the work of the democratic national united front and so on.
He paid close attention to strengthening the Party organizationally and ideologically, and building the monolithic system of organizational leadership.
In early November 1945, he formed the Party cell of the Central Organizing Committee of the CPNK, and guided the first meeting of the cell. At this meeting he took measures to strengthen the Party life of its members and enhance the role of all the Party cells. He also inaugurated the Party’s newspaper, Jongro20, and ensured that the Party press centre was built to publish Party documents and various materials for information and education to raise the ideological awareness of the Party members and working people, and the level of their political theory.
In December 1945, Kim Il Sung convened the Third Enlarged Executive Committee Meeting of the Central Organizing Committee of the CPNK in order to crush the machinations of the factionalists and local separatists who had been hindering the implementation of the Party’s organizational line, and radically improve Party work.
At the meeting, he delivered a historic report, titled On the Work of the Organizations at All Levels of the Communist Party of North Korea, and made a concluding speech, titled For the Consolidation of the Party.
In the report and concluding speech, he made a comprehensive analysis of the successes and shortcomings in the work of Party organizations at different levels following the inaugural conference, especially the shortcomings in the Party’s organizational work, and set forth the tasks of developing the Party into a healthy and powerful one.
Kim Il Sung gave instructions on how to correct the direction of the growth of the Party, improve its composition, tighten inner-Party discipline, preserve the Party’s unity of ideology and purpose, strengthen the ties between the Party and the masses, effectively train the cadres of the Party, allocate Party forces rationally, and deal properly with the work of issuing uniform Party membership cards and the statistics of Party membership.
The meeting took a historic measure to strengthen the Party’s central leadership organ by acclaiming Kim Il Sung as its head, and meted out stern punishment to the factionalists who had contravened the instructions of the Party Centre and violated Party discipline.
The Third Enlarged Executive Committee Meeting of the Party saw the full realization of Kim Il Sung’s monolithic leadership of overall Party work, the strengthening of the Party’s organizational and ideological unity, and a new advance in both Party building and Party work.
While strengthening the Party organizationally and ideologically,
Kim Il Sung saw to it that broad sections of the masses were organized into unified mass organizations according to their jobs and social strata, and were rallied around the Party.
Organizing the masses is necessary not only for the struggle to seize power, but also for the struggle for nation building and the continuation of the revolution after the seizure of power. This is the mechanism and law of social progress.
On the basis of the analysis of the role of young people in the building of a new society and the complex situation of the youth movement in those days, he paid great attention to uniting them into a single youth organization.
He ensured that the YCL organizations that had been formed in the provinces played a great role in organizing the masses of young people, developing the youth movement and mobilizing the young people in the building of the new country.
It was impossible, however, to organize broad sections of young people by means of the YCL, which admitted only the young people of the proletariat who embraced the communist ideology. Moreover, in the situation in which various youth organizations were active in addition to the YCL, there was a danger of the youth movement being split unless a single youth organization that would encompass the young people of different segments was formed.
In October 1945, Kim Il Sung set forth the line of establishing the Democratic Youth League (DYL), a mass youth organization, and organizing the broad segments of patriotic young people into the DYL after the YCL was dissolved on its own initiative.
Kim Il Sung raised the slogan, “Patriotic young people, unite under the banner of democracy!” He saw to it that a preparatory committee for organizing the DYL was formed, and he became the honorary chairman of the committee.
Late in October 1945, he arranged a meeting of young democratic activists, at which he made an important concluding speech, titled On Organizing the Democratic Youth League. In this speech he explained the details of preparatory work and its method, and emphasized the need to carry out the line of organizing the DYL.
He paid close attention to organizing students into the DYL. In his speech addressed to the students of various schools in Sinuiju in late November 1945 and in his lecture given to the students of middle and higher schools in Pyongyang in early December the same year, he appealed to all the young students to unite solidly under the flag of the DYL and make active contributions to building a new democratic country. He made sure that the Students Union was merged into the DYL in late December that year. Under his wise leadership DYL organizations had been formed in the provinces, cities, counties and sub-counties throughout the country by the end of 1945, into which many other youth organizations were merged.
On January 17, 1946, Kim Il Sung convened the conference of the representatives of the democratic youth organizations in north Korea, and declared the formation of the Democratic Youth League of North Korea.
He organized the preparatory committees for the formation of labour unions, peasant unions and women’s union organizations and their central organizations, and guided them to speed up the preparations. As a result, the North Korean General Federation of Labour Unions (the predecessor of the Trade Unions) and the Democratic Women’s Union were formed in November 1945. This was followed by the formation of the North Korean Federation of the Peasants Associations (nowadays known as the Peasant Union).
Through the formation of many mass organizations in a short period, he ensured that the broad masses of different strata were rallied behind the Party.
Kim Il Sung devoted great efforts to the building of the armed forces.
He said:
“For our country to become a fully independent, sovereign state we must found our own powerful national army capable of defending the country and people and safeguarding the advances made in the revolution.”
“A country without its own national army can hardly be called a fully independent, sovereign state.”
Although cadres were badly needed in other fields of nation building,
Kim Il Sung assigned many anti-Japanese revolutionary veterans to the work of building a regular army.
In November 1945, he established the Pyongyang Institute, the first training centre for the military and political officers of a modern regular army in Korea, and made it the parent body for the establishment of military schools for the three services and different arms. He also organized the security corps, border guards and railway guards in all parts of the country for safeguarding the work of nation building and the security of the people. On this basis, he ensured the establishment of the Security Officers Training Centre, the hardcore unit of the regular army.
In November 1945, he paid a visit to the Aviation Association in Sinuiju and gave it the task of organizing the air force of new Korea. He made sure that branches of the Aviation Association were formed in Pyongyang, Sinuiju, Hamhung, Chongjin, Hoeryong and other places, and were merged into the Korean Aviation Association. He became its chairman.
Under his wise leadership, the preparations for the building of modern regular armed forces were successfully completed, despite the complex and difficult situation at that time.
Kim Il Sung pushed forward the struggle to build the people’s government.
He ensured that the veterans of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle who had been dispatched to the provinces gave active guidance and assistance to the work of organizing local people’s committees, and that they organized people’s committees or people’s political committees as organs of self-government in South Phyongan Province, North Phyongan Province, North Hamgyong Province, South Hamgyong Province, Hwanghae Province, and so on.
At the First Enlarged Executive Committee Meeting of the Central Organizing Committee of the CPNK in October 1945, he stressed the need to set up as soon as possible a true people’s government that would champion and represent the interests of the working masses. In the circumstances in which it was impossible to establish an all-Korea central government immediately, he proposed the policy of establishing a provisional central organ of state power in north Korea as a part of the work of founding the central government.
The factionalists who were lurking in the Party came out doggedly against the Party’s political line of establishing a democratic people’s republic. They argued for recognizing the “People’s Republic”21, a bourgeois republic organized in Seoul, or for establishing a proletarian dictatorship right away.
Kim Il Sung called the Second Enlarged Executive Committee Meeting of the Central Organizing Committee of the CPNK in November 1945 in order to carry out the Party’s political line. In his important speech, titled For the Establishment of a Genuine People’s Government, at the meeting he thoroughly exposed to criticism the counterrevolutionary nature and harmfulness of the Right and Left opportunist arguments of the factionalists, and re-clarified the Party’s political line of establishing the democratic people’s republic. He emphasized the necessity of establishing the provisional central organ of state power first in north Korea, where conditions were favorable for the building of the new country.
He made sure that the composition and organizational system of the local people’s committees organized in the provinces were improved and strengthened to accelerate the building of the people’s government. On November 19, 1945, he called a joint meeting of the provincial people’s committees and formed the 10 administrative bureaus of north Korea, the central administration for different sectors. As a result, the conditions and possibilities for the establishment of the central organ of state power in north Korea matured.
In connection with the resolution adopted at the Moscow Conference of Soviet, US and British Foreign Ministers in December 1945, concerning the Korean question after the end of the Second World War, Kim Il Sung maintained a firm standpoint of independence and made every sincere effort to establish a unified provisional government of the whole of Korea for the building of the independent and sovereign state of Korea.
The resolution of the Moscow Foreign Ministers Conference was an international commitment to give assistance to the democratic development of the Korean people and cooperate in the establishment of a free, unified and fully independent state of Korea.
Regarding the resolution as a whole as one for creating favorable conditions for the early reunification of Korea and its development into a democratic and independent sovereign state, in the circumstances in which the Soviet and US armies were stationed in the north and the south of the peninsula, respectively, Kim Il Sung mobilized the whole people in the struggle to support and implement the resolution.
At a consultative meeting of the department heads of the Central Organizing Committee of the CPNK on December 31, 1945, he clearly explained the real intention and fundamental purpose of the resolution, and officially expressed the Party’s support for it. In his speech, titled Appeal to the People of the Whole Country at the New Year on January 1, 1946, in his talk to a senior official from the Communist Party organization in south Korea, titled On Exposing and Crushing the ‘Anti-Trusteeship’ Machinations of the United States and South Korean Reactionaries, in his speech, titled The Results of the Moscow Three Foreign Ministers Conference and the Tasks of the Korean People on January 5 the same year, and other speeches and talks, he exposed the “anti-trusteeship” machinations22 of the United States and south Korean reactionaries, and reiterated the tasks and methods of implementing the resolution of the Moscow Foreign Ministers Conference.
From early January 1946, political parties and public organizations made joint statements in succession in support of the resolution of the Moscow Conference, and mass meetings and demonstrations were held in Pyongyang, Seoul and in all other parts of the country in support of the resolution.
In south Korea, however, the Syngman Rhee puppet clique, manipulated by the US imperialists, continued with their “anti-trusteeship” campaign against the resolution of the Moscow Conference, and thus created the crisis of national division. In consequence, the forces of the Korean nation were divided into Right and Left wings, into patriots and traitors to the nation, and the antagonism between north and south, between democracy and reaction, and tension between the Soviet Union and the United States were intensified. This state of affairs laid great obstacles in the way of the Korean people’s struggle to establish a unified democratic provisional government.
Because the establishment of the unified democratic provisional government was delayed by the US imperialists’ moves to divide the Korean nation, Kim Il Sung stepped up the effort to establish the Provisional People’s Committee of North Korea (PPCNK), the powerful central organ of state power, for the purpose of speeding up the establishment of the unified government.
Establishing the PPCNK was a measure to build up a democratic base in north Korea and create favorable conditions for establishing a unified, democratic central government. As such, it fully accorded with the Party’s political line.
Early in February 1946, Kim Il Sung formed the commission for the promotion of the establishment of the central organ of state power of north Korea. The commission, composed of the leaders of democratic political parties and public organizations, accelerated the preparations for its establishment.
At a meeting of the Executive Standing Committee of the Central Organizing Committee of the CPNK on the 5th of February, Kim Il Sung explained the details of the establishment of the PPCNK and convened the preliminary meeting for the establishment of the PPCNK on the 7th of February. This meeting discussed the draft report to the inaugural conference, the matter of electing the members of the PPCNK and its immediate tasks, and then adopted relevant resolutions.
On the basis of these preparations, Kim Il Sung called a consultative conference of the representatives of the democratic political parties, public organizations, administrative bureaus and people’s committees on February 8, 1946.
In his historic report, titled On the Present Political Situation in Korea and the Organization of the Provisional People’s Committee of North Korea, he dwelt on the need to establish the central organ of state power in north Korea and its immediate tasks, and proposed discussing and deciding on the question of establishing the PPCNK.
The consultative conference organized the PPCNK, the central organ of state power of north Korea, with the representatives of workers, peasants and other people of different strata of society. The conference also set forth the immediate tasks of the PPCNK under 11 headings.
Kim Il Sung was acclaimed Chairman of the PPCNK by the unanimous will of all the people on February 8, 1946.
The PPCNK was the central organ of state power that fully met the requirement for the development of the revolution in Korea and the will of the Korean people. As such it was a genuine people’s government which was organized by the efforts of the Korean people and served their interests.
The basic mission of this government was to perform the function of the people’s democratic dictatorship, carry out the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution in the northern half of Korea, establish a revolutionary democratic base and create conditions for gradual transition to the stage of socialist revolution.
With the establishment of the PPCNK, the Korean people became the genuine masters of the country, holding state power in their own hands for the first time in history, and acquired a powerful weapon to build a fully independent and sovereign democratic state.
Kim Il Sung published the 20-Point Platform of the PPCNK by amplifying the Party’s political line, and made sure that democratic reforms were carried out through the machinery of the people’s government.
He proposed agrarian reform as the first and foremost task of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution in view of the specific situation in Korea, a backward, colonial, agricultural land, and found a brilliant solution to the land question in a unique way.
In consideration of the age-old desire of the Korean peasants to free themselves from the fetters of feudal land ownership, he announced the Decision on the Land Question, which indicated the basic direction of the agrarian reform, at the First Enlarged Executive Committee Meeting of the Central Organizing Committee of the CPNK, which was convened immediately after the founding of the Party. He inspected many farm villages in Taedong and other counties, acquainted himself with the actual conditions there through his talks with peasants, and confirmed the principles and methods of the agrarian reform that suited the rural situation in Korea. Meanwhile, he saw to it that political work, the struggle for the introduction of the 3:7 system of tenancy, and the land petition campaign were conducted vigorously, so that the peasants acquired the consciousness of shouldering agrarian reform and made firm ideological preparations.
After making these preparations, Kim Il Sung put forward the slogan, “Land to the tillers!” at the Fifth Enlarged Executive Committee Meeting of the Central Organizing Committee of the CPNK early in March 1946, and fully explained the major problems arising in carrying out the agrarian reform. On the fifth of March he proclaimed the Law on Agrarian Reform in North Korea.
Kim Il Sung said:
“The Law on Agrarian Reform has defined the basic task of liquidating feudal land ownership and the landlord class in the rural areas and establishing land ownership based on the peasants’ private ownership.”
The policy of agrarian reform set forth by him, the policy of carrying out the agrarian reform on the principle of confiscating land without compensation and free distribution, and making the confiscated land the private property of the working peasants, instead of nationalizing it, was a revolutionary policy in that it eradicated feudal land ownership and the exploitative relationship it entailed, which were deep-rooted in Korea’s rural areas and provided an absolutely correct solution to the peasant and agrarian questions in the stage of anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution.
He paid deep attention to correctly defining the objects of confiscation and the basic target of struggle in the agrarian reform.
On the basis of a detailed understanding and analysis of the actual conditions of farm villages in Korea, he ensured that those who owned five hectares or more of land and rented it out, living like parasites, were defined as landlords, and that their land, houses, draft animals, farm implements, orchards, forests, irrigation facilities and all other property were confiscated. He also defined that all the land which was not tilled by the owner himself or herself but rented out was confiscated, regardless of its size.
Kim Il Sung defined the landlords as the basic target of struggle, the target to be liquidated, and set forth the class policy of relying firmly on farm hands and poor peasants, who were the sector of society most interested in the agrarian reform, allying with middle peasants and isolating rich farmers.
He dispatched Party members and detachments of the elite members of the working class to farm villages, and arranged the organization of rural committees with farm hands and poor peasants, so that these committees themselves carried out the agrarian reform, with the assistance of the working class. In addition, he saw to it that the law on temporary measures for the agrarian reform was enacted, and that the people’s government strengthened its function of dictatorship so as to crush the subversive activities of the class enemy against the agrarian reform.
Kim Il Sung inspected farm villages in Taedong County, South Phyongan Province, and other regions, learned in detail how the agrarian reform was being carried out, and bestowed warm love and benevolence on the peasantry.
On the occasion of his inspection of Songmunri, Sijok Sub-county, Taedong County, he made sure that a landlord’s house and the best land were given to a peasant who had been a servant of the landlord for a long time. He even wrote the inscription for the peasant’s door-plate and his land marker in order to encourage the peasants to have firm confidence and pride in being eternal masters of their land.
Under his wise leadership, the agrarian reform in Korea was carried out thoroughly and successfully in less than a month.
Through the agrarian reform, a total of 1,000,325 hectares of land that had belonged to Japanese imperialists, pro-Japanese elements, traitors to the nation and landlords were confiscated and distributed to 724,522 peasant households which had had little or no land.
The agrarian reform liquidated feudal land ownership and the old exploitative system once and for all, made the tillers the real owners of the land, and gave a strong impetus to the development of agriculture and the national economy as a whole. It also brought the masses of the peasantry over to the side of democracy, strengthened the worker-peasant alliance, and made farm villages the base of democracy.
At the Sixth Enlarged Executive Committee Meeting of the Central Organizing Committee of the CPNK in April 1946, Kim Il Sung summed up the success in the agrarian reform and took measures to consolidate and develop the results of the reform.
To this end, he expanded the Party forces in the farm villages and strengthened the rural base on the one hand, and on the other, promulgated the law on abolishing all extortionate and miscellaneous taxes and introducing a single agricultural tax-in-kind in June 1946.
In addition, he arranged the formation of credit and commercial cooperatives like the peasant bank and consumers’ cooperative to provide the peasants with convenience in farming and everyday life. He also encouraged the peasants to step up agricultural production under the slogan, “Greet the first spring in liberated Korea with increased production. Don’t let even an inch of land lie idle!”
In the same period, Kim Il Sung organized the nationalization of major industries. He rejected the erroneous assertions of flunkeys and dogmatists that industries should be nationalized in the stage of socialist revolution or that all the industries should be nationalized. He also brushed aside the wrong view of some Soviet people who attempted to deal with the factories and other enterprises that had belonged to imperialist Japan, as enemy property. On August 10, 1946 he promulgated the Law on Nationalization of Industries, Transport, Communications, Banks and So on.
He defined the industrial facilities owned by Japanese imperialists, comprador capitalists, pro-Japanese elements and traitors to the nation as the objects of nationalization, and ensured that these were confiscated without any compensation and nationalized. He excluded the industrial facilities owned by national capitalists and small and medium entrepreneurs from nationalization, and encouraged their business activities.
The industrialization of major industries liquidated the economic foundation for imperialist exploitation and enslavement, and basically removed the cause of all social misfortune from the industrial field, brought about the emergence of socialist relations of production and provided the possibility of developing the national economy in a planned manner. The working class became the owner of the major means of production, and its leading position grew stronger.
In order to provide the working people with democratic freedoms and rights in step with the enforcement of economic reforms, Kim Il Sung promulgated the Labour Law for the Workers and Office Employees in North Korea on June 24, 1946, and the Law on Sex Equality in North Korea on July 30 the same year. He also ensured that judicial organs and the prosecutor’s office were democratized, and that a democratic system of education was established by eradicating the survivals of Japanese imperialism in the educational field.
Considering education, the training of national cadres, to be an important question, and the key to the success of the revolution and the future of the nation, he made strenuous efforts to find a solution to this question.
Unhesitatingly trusting old-line intellectuals as constant companions, he made sure that the scientists, technicians and men of letters who had been scattered over the north and south of Korea were contacted and brought to him. He encouraged them to devote all their knowledge and energy to the building of the new country. Meanwhile, in order to train new national cadres from among the working people by the efforts of the Koreans themselves he arranged the establishment of the Central Party School (now Kim Il Sung Higher Party School) in June 1946, the Central Higher Officials School (now the University of National Economics) in July, and Kim Il Sung University in October the same year. In addition, he saw to it that many universities were established by using Kim Il Sung University as a parent body, that specialized schools were quickly increased in number, that night and correspondence courses were added to universities and colleges, and that factory technical schools and specialized night technical schools were set up in all parts of the country.
Kim Il Sung launched a mass campaign to build middle schools and primary schools in all parts of the country to educate all children, and set up adult schools and adult middle schools to help the working people to educate themselves while on the job.
In the process of democratic reforms, a united front of CPNK and the other democratic parties and public organizations was consolidated.
On the basis of this success, he formed the Central Committee of the Democratic National United Front (DNUF), the standing organization of the united front, on July 22, 1946. As a result, the DNUF acquired a well-regulated organizational system from the centre down to local bodies.
The DNUF embraced the Communist Party, New Democratic Party, Democratic Party, Chondoist Chongu Party, North Korean General Federation of Labour Unions, North Korean Federation of Peasants Associations, Democratic Youth League of North Korea, Democratic Women’s Union of North Korea, General Federation of Industrial Technology of North Korea, General Federation of Art of North Korea, Journalists Union of North Korea, Buddhist Federation of North Korea and Christian Federation of North Korea. Thus, six million people of different sections of the population were united solidly under the banner of democracy.
All the democratic political parties and public organizations turned out in the struggle to build a new democratic Korea united closely under the banner of the DNUF.
As the Communist Party grew stronger and the democratic revolution made a successful advance in north Korea, Kim Il Sung worked hard to organize a mass political party of the working people. Such a mass political party was the lawful requirement for the development of the Party and the revolution.
In the course of the establishment of the people’s government and the democratic revolution, the leadership position of the Communist Party became firmly established. The alliance of the working class, peasantry and working intellectuals was strengthened, and they shared common interests in building a new democratic Korea. In this situation, it was meaningless for the Communist Party and other political parties of the working people to exist separately, as their separate existence might split the ranks of the working people. In south Korea, too, it was necessary to prevent the democratic forces splitting and strengthen the unity of the working masses in order to ensure the lawful activities of democratic political parties and develop a powerful struggle to save the nation at a time when the machinations of the US imperialists and reactionaries to divide and disrupt the democratic forces were growing intense. The similarity between the programme of immediate struggle of the Communist Party and the programmes of other working people’s parties in those days became the solid basis on which to organize one mass political party of the working people.
With a deep understanding of the changing social class relations and the requirements of the prevailing situation, Kim Il Sung made a speech, titled On Some Problems Arising in Developing the Country Independently at Present, at the Consultative Meeting of the Senior Officials of the Communist Parties of North and South Korea in June 1946. In this speech, he set forth the policy of forming the mass political party of the working people by merging the Communist Parties with other political parties of the working people.
He said:
“The work of forming the mass political party of the working people at the present stage has to be done separately in the north and south of Korea, because the situations in the two parts of Korea are different and because the tasks they face differ from each other. It is advisable to form the working people’s mass political party in north Korea by merging the Communist Party with the New Democratic Party, and to do the same in south Korea by merging the Communist Party with the People’s Party and the New Democratic Party.”
Kim Il Sung’s policy of merging the Communist Party and the other political parties of the working people into a mass political party was a revolutionary policy that would prevent the split of the working masses and ensure the dominance of the revolutionary forces.
For the purpose of ensuring success in the work of merging the Communist Party with the New Democratic Party in north Korea, he clarified in detail the matters of principle with regard to the name of the party, the procedure of amalgamation, and the training of the party’s hard core at the Eighth Enlarged Executive Committee Meeting of the Central Organizing Committee of the CPNK in July 1946. He saw to it that the programme of the Workers’ Party of North Korea to be founded, its Rules, the detailed regulations for the leadership body and the draft declaration on the amalgamation of the parties were discussed and adopted at a joint meeting of the Central Committees of the Communist Party of North Korea and the New Democratic Party of Korea and at an enlarged joint meeting.
From early August, the organizations of the two Parties at different levels held enlarged meetings, passed the resolution and declaration on the amalgamation of the two parties and discussed the draft Programme and Rules of the Party.
Joint cell meetings, and city, county and provincial meetings of the representatives of the two parties were held in order, and by the end of August, or in less than a month, the local organizations of all levels of the Workers’ Party were formed. The provincial meetings of representatives elected the delegates to be dispatched to the Inaugural Congress of the Party. The Inaugural Congress of the Workers’ Party of North Korea was held in Pyongyang from August 28 to 30, 1946.
Kim Il Sung made a historic report, titled For the Establishment of a United Party of the Working Masses, to the Congress. In this report, he elucidated the character, basic duty and fighting tasks of the Workers’ Party, and declared the inauguration of the Workers’ Party at the Congress.
The Congress adopted the Party’s Programme and Rules, and decided to publish Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the Workers’ Party, and Kulloja, the Party’s magazine of political theory.
The establishment of the Workers’ Party resulted in the rapid expansion and strengthening of its ranks, and the Party became a powerful mass party which struck roots deep among the working masses. The emblem of the Party, inscribed with a hammer, a sickle and a writing brush clearly symbolizes the revolutionary mass character of the Party, which is composed of workers, peasants and intellectuals.
Kim Il Sung also paid deep attention to the amalgamation of the progressive parties in south Korea. He took every possible measure to speed up the amalgamation of the three progressive parties in south Korea by smashing the machinations of the enemy and factionalists to thwart their amalgamation. Especially in his work titled On the Establishment of the Workers’ Party of North Korea and the Question of Founding the Workers’ Party of South Korea published in September 1946, he exposed the schemes of the factionalists to prevent the merger of these parties and emphasized the need to speed it up.
The Workers’ Party of South Korea was founded in November 1946. The amalgamation of the three parties was in name only, because of the divisive manoeuvres of the factionalists, and the Workers’ Party of South Korea was unable to play its role as a united party of the working masses.
Indicating the right direction of Party building and activity in south Korea, Kim Il Sung led the south Korean revolutionary force to be strengthened to develop a powerful mass struggle against the US imperialists’ policy of colonial enslavement.
In his works, titled Let Us Smash the Machinations of the US Military Government and Reactionaries and Strengthen the Democratic Force, Report at the Pyongyang City Celebration of the First Anniversary of the August 15 Liberation and On Some Tasks Facing the ‘Working-Class Movement in South Korea at Present, and in his many other works, which were published in 1946, he elucidated the idea of regional revolution, the idea of advancing the revolution to suit the regional characteristics in the north and south of Korea. He also advanced the fighting tasks of the south Korean people and the strategic and tactical policies of the revolutionary movement in south Korea.
He said:
“In south Korea, too, the people must become the masters and carry out the democratic reforms, just as the people in north Korea have done. Only by so doing can they establish an independent and sovereign democratic state, the basic demand of the Korean people.”
He emphasized that the most important aspect of the south Korean people’s struggle was to categorically reject illusions about the United States and the idea of depending on foreign forces, maintain the right attitude to nation building and the standpoint of independence, and launch an uncompromising struggle against the imperialist United States and those who grovel before it, selling out the country and betraying the nation.
He explained in detail the questions arising in strengthening the revolutionary force in south Korea, the need to form a democratic national united front comprising workers, peasants, democrats and other patriots from all walks of life, and to overcome Right and Left deviations in the mass struggle and skilfully combine various forms and methods of struggle.
He cordially received many patriotic democrats and representatives from different sections of the population, as well as journalists, who came to visit Pyongyang from south Korea in spite of repression by the US imperialists and their stooges, and gave them valuable instructions needed to develop the revolutionary movement in south Korea.
On their return to south Korea, these democrats and representatives struggled hard for the establishment of a unified independent state in support of Kim Il Sung’s leadership, and the journalists published the records of their interviews with him, and wrote and published the short history of his revolutionary activities, giving publicity among the south Korean people to his achievements and his personality as a great man .
Respecting Kim Il Sung as the great leader of the nation, and inspired greatly by the success in the building of democracy in north Korea, the south Korean people turned out in a vigorous struggle against the US imperialists’ policy of colonial enslavement.
In September 1946 the south Korean workers went on general strike in demand of an immediate cessation of all types of repression by the US military government, and of the enforcement of a democratic labour law. The general strike developed into all-people resistance in October.
Kim Il Sung arranged a patriotic mass movement to speed up the successful building of a new society in north Korea.
He wisely organized and led the general ideological mobilization campaign for nation building in order to transform the outmoded ideology among the working people to suit the new circumstances in which the democratic reforms had been successfully carried out.
At the Third Enlarged Meeting of the PPCNK in November 1946, he introduced a policy for launching a general ideological mobilization campaign for nation building. At the 14th Meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Party and at the Eighth Meeting of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front, he explained in detail the tasks and methods of ideological transformation.
He said that the general ideological mobilization campaign for nation building was a great ideological transformation to eliminate all degenerate and decadent customs and attitudes to life, a leftover from Japanese imperialism, fully develop the spirit and features, morality and fighting efficiency required of the workers of a new and democratic Korea, and create wholesome and vibrant national stamina. He instructed that this campaign be conducted by the methods of ideological struggle and ideological education in close combination with the people’s practical struggle to build the new country.
Following his instructions, all the Party members and other working people struggled to wipe out the remnants of the outmoded ideology and equip themselves firmly with a new nation-building ideology on the one hand, and on the other, worked hard to carry out their revolutionary tasks by forming the nation-building ideology under the slogan, “Let us finish the day’s work within the day!”
In the course of this campaign, selfishness, immoral and lazy practices, bureaucracy, lack of responsibility, bad habits of employees and other survivals of outmoded ideas were criticized and overcome. Hostile elements, heterogeneous elements, position-seekers and loafers were discovered and removed, and the masses’ consciousness of nation building, political awareness, patriotic enthusiasm and revolutionary zeal rose very high.
The general ideological mobilization campaign for nation building, which was conducted as an all-people campaign, brought about a great change in the revolutionary ideological transformation of the Party members and working people.
Kim Il Sung effected a great transformation of nature and a spirit of emulation to increase production.
He proposed the Pothong River improvement project, the first project for the great transformation of nature. In May 1946 he attended the groundbreaking ceremony, and himself broke ground for nation building, rousing all the citizens of Pyongyang to action. As a result, the project, which had taken the Japanese imperialists nearly ten years to do only a small part of, was completed in 55 days.
He led the working people to develop a patriotic emulation movement for increasing production in order to quickly reconstruct the economy, which had been damaged by the Japanese imperialists.
At the Fourth Enlarged Executive Committee Meeting of the Central Organizing Committee of the Party in February 1946, Kim Il Sung set forth the task of widely organizing a labour-hero movement in factories, mines and farm villages. While giving field guidance in many areas of North and South Hamgyong Provinces, he roused the workers and peasants to vigorously join the labour-hero movement. This movement rapidly spread all over the country. As a result, 822 factories and enterprises had been reconstructed and put into operation by the end of 1946, and bumper crops were harvested in the first year after the enforcement of the agrarian reform.
Kim Il Sung made sure that the different forms of shock-brigade campaigns for increased production and patriotic deeds displayed in the course of the widespread development of the labour-hero movement were popularized.
In December 1946, he sent a letter of thanks to Kim Je Won and other peasants in Jaeryong County, Hwanghae Province, who had reaped a rich harvest by patriotic efforts to increase production and contributed rice to the state from a patriotic motive. He highly appreciated the laudable deed of the peasant Kim Je Won, who initiated the donation campaign, as an example of a true patriot of new Korea and his contribution as an expression of patriotic loyalty, and encouraged all the other peasants to follow his example and step up the patriotic rice donation campaign. In January 1947, he sent a letter of congratulations to the workers of the Jongju Railway Section, who had repaired dozens of damaged locomotives and formed a coal-cutting shock brigade when imported coal of high-caloric value ran out. They mined coal by themselves, to ensure rail transportation, highly displaying the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance. In his letter, he highly appraised their heroic efforts, and appealed to the railway officials and workers throughout the country to emulate their example.
The labour-hero movement, the patriotic emulation movement to increase production, widespread in industry, agriculture and all other economic sectors and at all units gave a strong impetus to the development of the national economy.
On top of all this, Kim Il Sung effected an intensive campaign to wipe out illiteracy.
In view of the fact that rural women and peasants were the overwhelming majority of illiterates in Korea, he made sure that a decision on a winter rural campaign against illiteracy was adopted at a session of the PPCNK in late November 1946, for the purpose of launching an effective literacy campaign during the slack season for farming.
He put forward the slogan “Let the people begin to promote culture with the elimination of illiteracy!” and ensured that the campaign was conducted throughout society and the nation, under the direction of the Party and the state.
He ensured that a winter rural literacy campaign section was set up in every ri (dong), and that officials in charge of education in the people’s committees at all levels conducted the campaign on their organizational responsibility. Students of Kim Il Sung University, teachers from schools at different levels, and leading personages from political parties and public organizations were appointed to teach the illiterate.
This literacy campaign involving all the people resulted in a systematic rise in the levels of the working people’s general knowledge and technological and cultural attainments, and made it possible to develop a democratic national culture.
The general ideological mobilization campaign for nation building, the emulation campaign to increase production, and the literacy campaign contributed greatly to eliminating the survivals of outmoded ideology and technological and cultural backwardness, which had cramped the working people’s spirit of independence, and to the success in building a new democratic Korea. These campaigns were the origin of the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions.
Under the sagacious leadership of Kim Il Sung, the tasks of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution were successfully accomplished in a short period of time, and the work of building a new democratic Korea made vigorous headway. As a result, the people’s democratic sys- tern was solidly established, and the democratic base of the revolution, a sure guarantee for national reunification, was created in the northern half of Korea. Thus, the Korean revolution was able to proceed to a new and higher stage.
6
FEBRUARY 1947-JUNE 1950
Kim Il Sung followed up the success in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution in the north of Korea by the implementation of the tasks of the period of transition to socialism through the mobilization of the people.
Transition to the socialist revolution in the north of Korea was the law-governed requirement for social and economic development, and the advancement of the revolution.
Kim Il Sung found a brilliant solution to the question of political power in his own way to facilitate the implementation of the tasks of the socialist revolution.
Free from theoretical and practical fetters in the process of resolving the question of socialist political power by destroying all the existing political machinery and establishing a new state structure, he formulated the policy of developing the people’s government, established in the stage of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution, through democratic elections into a state power for carrying out the tasks of socialist revolution.
He said:
“The social change effected by the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution enabled our Party to strengthen and develop the people’s government into a socialist government of proletarian dictatorship as required by the developing revolution.”
At the Second Enlarged Meeting of the PPCNK, at the Fifth Session of the Central Committee of the DNUF and at the Second Meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of North Korea, all held in September 1946, Kim Il Sung explained the significance of the elections, the characteristics of Korean election system, and the procedure and regulations of the elections, and took measures to ensure the success of the elections. In October that year he inspected Uiju, Sakju and Jongju in North Phyongan Province and Samdung Sub-county, Kangdong County, in South Phyongan Province, giving guidance to the preparations for the elections. At a meeting in Pyongyang on November 1 to celebrate the democratic elections, he made an important speech, titled On the Forthcoming Historic Democratic Elections, appealing to all the constituents to participate as one in the elections.
Enlightened by his instructions and through their own practical experience of life, the people clearly realized that the people’s committees were a government that represented and championed their interests, and expressed through the democratic elections their full support for and confidence in the people’s committees.
Thus, the elections to the provincial, city and county people’s committees, held on November 3, 1946, for the first time in Korean people’s history, were a brilliant victory.
Through the victory in the first democratic elections the Korean people fully demonstrated their unbreakable unity behind Kim Il Sung and the people’s government, and their patriotic enthusiasm, and clearly showed the whole world that they were capable of building an independent and sovereign state with their own hands.
On the basis of the success in the democratic elections, Kim Il Sung convened the Congress of the Provincial, City and County People’s Committees in Pyongyang in February 1947. The Congress approved all the democratic laws promulgated by the PPCNK, adopted the national economic plan for 1947, and established the People’s Assembly of North Korea (PANK), the supreme organ of state power.
In his historic report to the First Session of the PANK, titled On the Results of the Work of the Provisional People’s Committee of North Korea, Kim Il Sung declared that the PPCNK transferred its political power to the PANK to meet the new requirements for the development of the revolution.
Kim Il Sung was acclaimed the Chairman of the People’s Committee of North Korea (PCNK) by the unanimous will of the people on February 21, 1947.
Kim Il Sung, authorized by the PANK, organized the PCNK, the new central organ of state power.
The PCNK was a genuine people’s government that carried out the tasks of the period of gradual transition to socialism in the north, exercised democracy for the workers, peasants and the broad sections of other working people, and practiced dictatorship over a handful of reactionaries, as a powerful weapon for the socialist revolution and the building of socialism.
After the establishment of the PCNK, Kim Il Sung built up a well-regulated system of people’s government from the centre down to the lowest local echelon by holding elections to the people’s committees of sub-counties and ri (dong), and renewing the composition of local people’s committees at all levels.
The establishment of the PCNK marked a historic turning-point in the advance to socialism in Korea, whereupon the Korean people started carrying out the tasks of the period of transition from capitalism to socialism.
Kim Il Sung set forth the line of economic construction for the first years of the transition period, clearly indicated the direction and method of developing the national economy, organized the struggle to put them into practice, and gave wise leadership to the struggle.
Now that a new socio-economic foundation had been laid as a result of the successful democratic reforms, dynamic economic construction was raised as an important task for strengthening the democratic base and for achieving the complete independence, sovereignty and prosperity of the country.
In his speeches, titled Concluding the Congress of the Provincial, City and County People’s Committees, For the Efficient Administration of the State Finances and others, made in February 1947, Kim Il Sung instructed that it was essential to ensure solid economic independence through the construction of an independent national economy in order to achieve the complete independence, sovereignty and prosperity of the country.
In consideration of the fact that the national economy as a whole was backward as a consequence of the military rule by imperialist Japan and that even the backward economy was severely damaged, Kim Il Sung, on the basis of the line of constructing an independent national economy, defined the first stage of economic construction as a period of rehabilitation, and set the basic direction of constructing the economy by removing the evil after-effects of Japanese imperialist rule from industry and other economic sectors, and ensuring the dominance of the state sector, instead of merely reconstructing the damaged economy. In addition, he made it the basis of economic policy to combine properly the state, cooperative and private sectors of the economy on the basis of ensuring the state’s direct planned management of the major industrial divisions, rail transport, communications, foreign trade and financial establishments, and of steadily strengthening the leading role of the state sector in the development of the national economy.
On the basis of the Party’s economic policy and the direction of economic construction in the initial years of the transition period, he organized the people in the implementation of the huge national economic plan for 1947, which was to lay a strong foundation for the building of an independent and sovereign state.
He set the tasks of the Party organizations, people’s government organs and public organizations at all levels for the successful implementation of the first national economic plan in his concluding speech, titled On Improving the Method of Guiding the Masses and Ensuring the Fulfillment of the Current Year’s National Economic Plan, at the Sixth Meeting of the Central Committee of the Party in March 1947, in his concluding speeches at 36th Session of the PCNK in May the same year and at the Tenth Meeting of the Central Committee of the Party in October that year, and in other speeches. He also took measures to carry them out.
Kim Il Sung made sure that all the Party organizations and people’s government organs put great efforts into the fulfilment of the economic plan and raised their sense of responsibility and level of economic guidance. In addition, he made the working people’s organizations play the role of a link between the Party and the masses as well as the role of mass political organizations, educating and mobilizing the producer masses in economic construction.
He encouraged the working people to step up the general ideological mobilization campaign for nation building, in order to stimulate their enthusiasm for nation building and production. In April 1947, he got the Presidium of the PCNK to institute the system of awarding letters of commendation to those who displayed patriotic devotion in the work of building the democratic state.
At a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Party in May 1947, he set the detailed tasks of enhancing the sense of responsibility and role of the officials in the industrial sector for the reconstruction and development of industry, the leading sector of the national economy. He gave on-the-spot guidance to the Hwanghae Iron Works in March and July, to the Pyongyang Silk Mill in April, and to the Songjin Steel Works in September the same year, encouraging them to reconstruct the factories and enterprises quickly by their own efforts and overfulfil their production quotas.
In order to increase agricultural production, Kim Il Sung gave on-the-spot guidance to the Mathan irrigation construction site in Kangdong County in April 1947, and transplanted rice seedlings with the peasants on the Mirim Plain in June the same year, rousing them to increased grain production. In September that year, he met the peasants at Kujigol, Unha-ri, Yang-dok County, teaching the people in the mountainous region to make good use of mountains, and introducing the concept of “golden mountains”.
On April 6, 1947, he planted trees in person on Munsu Hill. Saying that planting trees in the mountains of the country and tending them well was a part of the transformation of nature, an undertaking of lasting significance for providing a happy life for the people and handing down rich forest resources and a beautiful land to posterity, he called on the people to create forests by means of a mass movement throughout the country.
In December 1947, Kim Il Sung organized a currency reform and issued a national currency. Thus he established an independent financial system and made it possible to develop the national economy, and stabilize and improve the people’s standard of living.
Under his sagacious leadership, the first national economic plan was carried out successfully. The plan for the total industrial output value of the state sector for 1947 was overfulfilled by 2.5 per cent, and the output of cereals in that year was 170,000 tons greater than in the previous year.
The share of state-owned industry was 80.2 per cent of the total industrial output value. The number of schools increased 1.4 times, and the number of schoolchildren 1.3 times over the figures for the previous year. Many new hospitals and clinics were constructed, and free medical care through social insurance was accorded to industrial workers, office workers, and their dependents.
On the basis of the successful fulfilment of the first national economic plan, Kim Il Sung indicated the direction of drawing up the national eco- nomic plan for 1948 at a meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee in September 1947. At the Fourth Session of the PANK in February 1948, he announced the 1948 national economic development plan and pushed ahead with the struggle to carry it out.
Under his wise leadership, the 1948 national economic plan was also carried out successfully. The plan for the total industrial output value for the state and cooperative sectors was overfulfilled by 2 per cent, and industrial production increased by 50.6 per cent compared with the figures for the previous year. The output of cereals was 10.4 per cent higher than the peak harvest year under Japanese imperialist rule, and self-sufficiency in food was achieved.
Kim Il Sung made active preparations for the socialist transformation of the relations of production in the early years of the transition period, without putting forward the slogan of socialist revolution in consideration of the state of the masses’ preparedness.
The policy of mainly preparing for the socialist transformation of production relations while partially undertaking this work was a correct policy which was based on a scientific analysis of the requirements of the law that governs the development of the socialist revolution and the specific situation in Korea.
In his important speech, titled On Organizing Producers’ Cooperatives, made at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Party in September 1947, Kim Il Sung clearly explained the matters of principle concerning the organization and operation of producers’ cooperatives, as well as the specific methods.
He saw to it that those engaged in sideline production at home and in handicraft production in rural communities organized producers’ cooperatives on the principle of voluntary participation, and that with the growth of rural cooperatives in number and with the accumulation of experience in this work, urban handicraft workers formed producers’ cooperatives widely in various fields.
He set forth the policy of organizing fishermen’s cooperatives in his instruction, titled On Organizing Fishermen’s Cooperatives, given to the senior officials of the Agriculture and Forestry Bureau in August 1947 in order to improve the living standards of the impoverished fishermen and transform them along socialist lines. In late September that year, he inspected Yombunjin, Kyongsong County, explaining detailed methods of organizing the fishing industry along cooperative lines. In July the next year, he took new measures to organize fishermen’s cooperatives widely at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Party, and at other meetings.
He took various steps to strengthen state guidance and assistance to consolidate the organized producers’ and fishermen’s cooperatives organizationally and economically, and display then” advantages. He also ensured the establishment of a separate system of directing them, as these cooperatives rapidly increased in number.
The different types of cooperatives organized in urban and rural areas and fishing villages enhanced the small commodity producers’ enthusiasm for nation building, helped them to understand the advantages of the socialist collective economy and to learn how to operate the cooperative economy. This was an efficient way to accelerate the full-scale cooperativization of the handicraft and fishing industries.
In view of the peasants’ enthusiasm for nation building and their attachment to the land in the early years of the transition period, he directed the main effort to consolidating the success in the agrarian reform and to displaying its vitality on the one hand, and on the other, speeded up the preparations for agricultural cooperativization in the direction of maturing the necessary conditions.
While taking measures to restrain the development of the rich farmers’ economy in order to create conditions favourable for agricultural cooperativization, he encouraged the presentation of object lessons to teach the peasants the advantages of the collective economy.
Kim Il Sung ensured that the activities of the peasant bank and consumers’ cooperatives were strengthened in order to enable them to contribute to eliminating intermediary exploitation, stabilizing and improving the peasants’ living standards, and that the state-owned farms that had been established in many places were consolidated and developed to enhance their role as pioneers. In addition, he popularized and encouraged such cooperative forms of work as traditional ox-sharing and mutual assistance in farm work, so that the peasants understood the advantages of communal labour, acquired the habit of helping each other and became accustomed to teamwork. He also pushed forward the work of creating the material condi- tions for the socialist transformation of agriculture by organizing horse-and-cattle hire stations and farm-machinery hire stations, constructing irrigation works, and ensuring the production and supply of chemical fertilizer.
While preparing for the socialist transformation of capitalist trade and industry from a long-term perspective, he took steps to make use of the positive aspects of the private traders and entrepreneurs and strictly restrain their negative sides, and intensified ideological education for them to spur them to work hard in the interests of their country and their fellow people with a lofty patriotic spirit.
Successful preparations made for the socialist transformation of the relations of production in the early years of the transition period under his wise leadership resulted in favourable conditions for a gradual and full-scale transformation of the relations of production along socialist lines in both urban and rural communities.
Kim Il Sung accelerated the work of founding regular revolutionary armed forces.
The US imperialists and the south Korean puppet clique frequently invaded the north of Korea from 1947, and they intensified their incursions all along the 38th parallel in 1948.
In this grave situation, Kim Il Sung set forth the urgent task of founding a regular army, and made preparations for this purpose down to every detail. In early February he set up the national defence bureau in the PCNK, and on February 8 organized a military parade and transformed the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army into the Korean People’s Army, the regular revolutionary armed forces.
In his historic speech at the parade, he explained the characteristics of the Korean People’s Army, and set the very important tasks of strengthening the regular army.
He said:
“... Though our People’s Army is established today as the regular army of Democratic Korea, it is, in reality, an army long rooted in the past. It is a glorious army inheriting the revolutionary traditions of anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare, invaluable battle experience and indomitable patriotic spirit.”
The Korean People’s Army is a genuine people’s army which was organized with the veterans of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle as its backbone, and with the sons and daughters of workers, peasants and other working people. It is the glorious revolutionary armed forces of the Party, with the noble mission of providing a military guarantee for the struggle to accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche pioneered by
Kim Il Sung.
With the transformation of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army into the Korean People’s Army, regular revolutionary armed forces, the Korean people became able to safeguard their national sovereignty and revolutionary achievements on their own, with their own powerful national army.
Kim Il Sung convened the Second Congress of the WPNK, which was held from March 27 to 30, 1948, in order to take active steps to save the nation by thwarting the US imperialists’ overt manoeuvres for the division of the Korean nation, and reunifying the country, and to set forth a new fighting programme of further strengthening the revolutionary democratic base in the north and qualitatively consolidating the Party.
In his report to the Congress on the work of the Party Central Committee, he clarified once more the Party’s policy for establishing a unified democratic government through all-Korean elections, together with the method of its implementation.
He said:
“Our Party’s stand on the establishment of a unified democratic government remains the same as ever. Our Party holds that a supreme legislative body for all Korea should be elected by secret ballot on the principle of universal, equal and direct suffrage. The supreme legislative body of the people thus elected should adopt a democratic constitution and form a genuinely democratic people’s government to lead our people along the road to national prosperity and happiness. The establishment of a unified government on such lines by the Korean people themselves will only be possible when foreign troops are withdrawn.”
He emphasized that all the patriotic democratic forces in the north and south of Korea, and all the conscientious people who aspired after the freedom and independence of the country must further strengthen their unity and fight to the end against the US imperialists’ cunning policy of colonial enslavement in order to establish the unified democratic government. He instructed that for the time being a joint conference of the representatives of all the democratic political parties and public organizations in north and south Korea should be held to work out a detailed plan and method for accelerating the establishment of the unified democratic state.
Setting the task of enhancing the leadership role of the Party organizations at all levels in economic construction to strengthen the revolutionary democratic base in the north, in his reportjhe said that the Party should become not only a party capable of organizing thesnasses and giving them political leadership, but also a party of constructors equipped with the know-how of economic construction and enterprise management, as well as knowledge of economics and technology.
He also put forward the qualitative consolidation of the Party as the central question of mass party building, and set the task of strengthening Party cells, the grassroot organizations, improving the Party’s organizational leadership and ideological work and intensifying the struggle against factions continuously to strengthen the unity and cohesion of the Party.
At the Congress, he made a historic concluding speech, titled Every Effort for the Consolidation of the Democratic Base and the Reunification and Independence of the Country.
The Congress adopted resolutions to carry out the tasks set by him, and made amendments to the Party Rules to suit the revolutionary tasks and the level of the Party’s development.
The Second Congress of the WPNK saw the Party’s qualitative consolidation and the enhancement of its leadership role and militant functions, and opened up a new phase for the Korean people’s struggle to strengthen the revolutionary base and reunify the country.
After the Second Party Congress, Kim Il Sung concentrated great efforts on the work of achieving the unity of the entire nation in order to build up the patriotic forces of the Korean nation which were to thwart the plot of the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique for “separate elections and separate governments”, and to establish a unified independent and sovereign state for the whole country.
Already in October 1947, at a meeting of the chairmen’s group of the Central Committee of the DNUF, he proposed the idea of north-south negotiations and a joint conference of representatives of political parties and public organizations in north and south Korea, as the form of negotiations, to discuss the urgent measures to save the nation and the question of national reunification. In January 1948, he sent letters to the leaders of political parties and public organizations and individual persons in south Korea, urging them to realize early negotiations between north and south. In these letters, he made it clear that he was ready to join hands with those who opposed the US imperialists and their stooges and were willing to cooperate with the north from the patriotic standpoint for the building of a unified, independent and sovereign democratic state, regardless of their past records, even though they had committed crimes against the country and nation.
He sent messengers to many patriots in south Korea to explain to them the Party’s policy of national reunification and its united-front policy, and opened the way for the patriots to visit Pyongyang to participate in the joint conference.
Deeply moved by his high prestige, great magnanimity and his correct united-front policy, not only progressive political parties and public organizations in south Korea, but middle-of-the-road politicians and even right wing forces came out in active support for the north-south joint conference.
In consideration of the mounting trend favourable to the north-south negotiations, at the 26th Session of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front in March the same year, Kim Il Sung proposed to hold the joint conference in Pyongyang in April 1948, and got the Democratic Front to publish an open letter to south Korean political parties and public organizations, inviting them to the joint conference. He saw to it that the preparatory committee for the joint conference was formed and that the documents to be submitted to the joint conference and accommodation for the representatives from south Korea were prepared down to the last detail.
On April 19, 1948, Kim Il Sung called the Joint Conference of Representatives of Political Parties and Public Organizations in North and South Korea, which lasted until the 23rd of the same month.
The conference was attended by 695 representatives from 56 political parties and public organizations from both the north and south of Korea which embraced a total of more than ten million members.
At the preliminary meeting prior to the joint conference, Kim Il Sung made a speech, titled To Ensure Success in the North-South Joint Conference, and on April 21, he made a political report, titled The Political Situation in North Korea.
In his report, he analysed the situation in the country, and called on the people in both the north and south of Korea to unite closely and devote all their efforts to the struggle to build an independent and sovereign demo- cratic state. He said that the supreme national task for the immediate period ahead was to frustrate the unpopular, separate elections in south Korea and reunify the country by establishing a unified central government on democratic principles, and that all the people who were concerned about the fate of the country and nation must wage a nationwide struggle in close unity regardless of party affiliation, religious belief and political standpoint.
His report enjoyed the enthusiastic support and approval of all those who were present at the conference.
The joint conference adopted the “Resolution on the Political Situation in Korea”, which contained a decision to oppose and reject the separate elections in south Korea, and establish a unified government, and an “Appeal to All the Korean Compatriots”. The conference also organized a commission for the struggle against the separate elections in south Korea, decided on resolutely opposing and rejecting the separate elections, and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Soviet and US armed forces from Korea.
The joint conference was the first historic conference of the representatives of north and south Korea which discussed the question of national reunification in the presence of Kim Il Sung.
On April 30 he called a consultative meeting of the leaders of political parties and public organizations from north and south Korea, which adopted a “Joint Statement of Political Parties and Public Organizations in North and South Korea” about the measures to save the nation. On May 2 the same year, he called another consultative meeting of these leaders on Ssuk Islet on the Taedong River, and discussed and confirmed the practical methods of carrying out the resolution of the joint conference and the prospects for national reunification. The meeting on the islet was virtually an all-Korea political consultation meeting which made an agreement on opposing the separate elections in south Korea and establishing the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the unified central government.
Kim Ku and all the other politicians from south Korea were strongly impressed by the refined, outstanding leadership and genial personality of Kim Il Sung. They expressed boundless respect for him, and pledged to dedicate themselves to the struggle in the noble cause of national unity and the reunification of the country in support of his leadership.
Cooperation at the joint conference and the meeting on Ssuk Islet meant a united front in which all the patriotic forces in the north and south of Korea acclaimed Kim Il Sung as the sun of the nation and as the centre of unity. It was cooperation through which many middle-of-the-roaders and the leaders of some right wing political parties changed their ideas and standpoints, changed from bigoted anti-communism to alliance with communism.
After the April north-south joint conference all the patriotic democratic forces fought dynamically against the separate elections manipulated by the US imperialists. Their struggle virtually thwarted the traitorous separate elections on May 10, 1948 in south Korea. However, the US imperialists and their stooges manipulated the results of the elections and cobbled together a reactionary puppet assembly and a puppet regime with pro-Japanese and pro-American elements and traitors to the nation.
With deep insight into the grave situation in which the crisis of national division was perpetuated by the manufacture of the puppet regime in south Korea, and into the law-governed requirement for the building of state power, Kim Il Sung made preparations for the establishment of the DPRK, the legitimate unified government for all Korea.
In June 1948 he called a consultative meeting of the leaders of political parties and public organizations in north and south Korea, and proposed to hold north-soutii general elections without delay to establish a supreme legislative assembly for all Korea, enact the constitution of the democratic people’s republic and establish the unified government.
This was an active measure to deliver a hard blow at the divisive manoeuvres of the US imperialists and their stooges, speed up the territorial integrity and national reunification, and realize the Party’s political line of establishing the democratic people’s republic to save the nation.
Kim Il Sung had proposed drafting a democratic people’s constitution for the establishment of the democratic people’s republic, and formed a commission for the drafting of the provisional constitution of Korea. In addition, he made sure that the country was named the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by fully reflecting the will of the Korean people and taking into consideration the reality of the divided country and the mission of the Korean revolution. He clearly indicated the basic direction and principles for formulating the national flag and the emblem of the state, and gave careful guidance to this work. He organized a discussion of the draft consti- tution by all the people, and on the basis of this explained the need to enforce the Constitution of the DPRK at the Fifth Session of the PANK in July 1948.
Kim Il Sung mobilized all the people in the struggle to ensure success in the north-south general elections.
In early August 1948, he took measures to establish the joint central leadership of the Workers’ Parties of North and South Korea. He was acclaimed as the head of the joint central leadership.
He ensured that the work of the DNUF was improved to see that the democratic political parties and public organizations took concerted action in the general elections.
In his speech, titled On the Eve of the Elections to the Supreme People’s Assembly of Korea, delivered to the constituents of the Sungho Election District, Kangdong County, South Phyongan Province, in late August, he called upon all the people who loved the country to participate as one in the elections to the Supreme People’s Assembly.
The north-south general elections were carried out successfully on August 25, 1948.
In the north, the deputies were elected to the Supreme People’s Assembly directly and lawfully by democratic suffrage. In south Korea, the people’s representatives were elected first in secret by the indirect method of getting the signatures of the electors, and then the elected representatives assembled in Haeju and held a conference of the representatives of the south Korean people, at which they elected the deputies to the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA).
On the basis of the brilliant victory in the north-south general elections, Kim Il Sung convened the historic First Session of the SPA in Pyongyang from September 2 to 10, 1948.
The meeting adopted the Constitution of the DPRK. Kim Il Sung was acclaimed Premier of the DPRK, Head of State, by the unanimous will of the entire Korean nation.
On September 9, 1948, he formed the Government of the DPRK, the unified central government of the Korean people, and proclaimed the establishment of the DPRK. He announced the Political Programme of the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The DPRK is the only lawful state that inherited the glorious revolutionary traditions of government building created by Kim Il Sung during the anti-Japanese revolution. It was established by the will of all the people in north and south Korea. The Government of the Republic is a genuine people’s government which represents and champions the interests of workers, peasants and all the other working people. It is a socialist government which is thoroughly independent and of the Korean style.
Kim Il Sung said:
“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.”
The establishment of the Republic provided the Korean people with a powerful weapon to accomplish the cause of national reunification, socialism and communism.
The First Session of the SPA of the DPRK demanded that the Soviet and US governments pull out their armed forces simultaneously from Korea, for Korea’s reunification and territorial integrity.
The Soviet government complied, and withdrew its army completely from the north of Korea by the end of 1948.
The US imperialists, however, refused to comply, and compelled their south Korean puppets to make a request for a continued presence of the US army in south Korea.
To cope with the situation in which the US imperialists continued with then” intervention in Korea’s affairs and their manoeuvres to divide the nation, and the south Korean reactionaries grew more and more reckless, Kim Il Sung wisely organized and led the work of strengthening the revolutionary democratic base of the Republic politically, economically and militarily.
He put special efforts into strengthening the Party and enhancing its leadership role. At the Fifth Meeting of the Party Central Committee in February 1949, he reviewed the work of the subordinate Party organizations during the nine months since the Second Party Congress, and detailed the tasks of improving the Party’s organizational work and ideological education, as well as its leadership of economic construction. With a deep concern for strengthening the Party cells and primary Party organizations, he made an inspection of Samhwa-ri and the village of Wondong in Toksan-ri, Sain Sub-county, Sunchon County, South Phyongan Province, early in 1949. He went over the minutes of the Party cell meetings there, and explained how they should prepare for the general meetings of Party cells and how they should work among the masses. He also informally attended study sessions of Party members, listened to their discussions, and emphasized the need to study hard, saying that knowledge was essential for looking to the future.
He set up a system of posting organizers from the Party Central Committee in major factories and other enterprises to help the factory Party organizations to enhance their militant functions and roles.
In March 1949, in order to strengthen the people’s government, he took steps to consolidate local organs of power by holding elections to them, build up government organs with stalwart and able officials, and improve the latter’s work and qualifications.
In June 1949, he made arrangements for the Party Central Committee to send a letter to all the Party members, telling them to heighten their revolutionary vigilance, wage a mass struggle against counterrevolutionaries, and strengthen the people’s government function of dictatorship. As a result, the organizational and ideological unity and purity of the Party ranks were ensured, and the broad sections of the population were rallied closely behind the Party and the people’s government.
He organized all the people in the effort to carry out the Two-Year National Economic Plan for 1949-1950, in order to strengthen the economic power of the Republic.
In his concluding speech at the 10th Plenary Meeting of the Cabinet of the DPRK in November 1948, and in his speech, titled The Execution of the Two-Year National Economic Plan Is a Material Guarantee for National Reunification, at the Second Session of the SPA, in February 1949, he clarified the central task of the economic plan and the method of carrying it out.
Kim Il Sung said:
“The central task of the Two-Year National Economic Plan is to eliminate the colonial imbalance in the economy, the pernicious aftermath of Japanese imperialist rule, put into effect the technical modernization of industry and agriculture, and ensure a high rate of growth of production, so as to lay the foundations of an independent national economy.”
While strengthening Party leadership of economic construction in order to ensure the successful fulfilment of the economic plan, he convened the fourth meeting of the managers of factories and other enterprises under the Ministry of Industry in July 1949, the meeting of economic and Labour-Union activists in the industrial sector in November the same year and other meetings of different sectors, at which he took detailed measures to improve the work attitude and the method of guidance of economic officials to suit the new environment. He gave on-the-spot guidance to many factories, enterprises and farm villages, encouraging all the working people to display their wisdom and creativity to the full in the course of production.
In support of his leadership, the working people throughout the country launched the youth-work-team campaign and other types of mass emulation campaigns for increased production in order to carry out the economic plan ahead of schedule.
As a result, the industrial production quotas envisaged in the Two-Year National Economic Plan were basically fulfilled during the first half of 1950, the colonial imbalance of industry was considerably redressed, and industrial production far surpassed the level under Japanese imperialist rule.
Great successes were achieved in the development of culture. In the north of Korea, where there had previously been no university, 15 institutions of higher education, including a university, training centres of different levels and many specialized technological schools were established, and preparations were made for universal compulsory primary education.
The “Ri Kye San campaign”23, the campaign against illiteracy, proposed by Kim Il Sung, developed into a mass movement, and in March 1949 the DPRK was the first Asian country to become free from illiteracy.
Kim Il Sung worked hard to strengthen the defence power of the country. He devoted great efforts to strengthening the People’s Army politically and militarily, to cope with the grave situation in which the US imperialists were manoeuvring to provoke a war.
He took measures to expand and reinforce the units of the three services and arms, establish the system of assistant company commander for culture in the People’s Army, and enhance the role of cultural departments in the units. He inspected many units, and encouraged them to intensify military and political training and make full combat preparations.
He also paid close attention to the development of the defence industry. Under his energetic leadership, the first ordnance factory was founded in the DPRK in 1948. It started the production of submachine guns in March that year.
He awarded submachine guns produced by the Korean working class to the veterans of the anti-Japanese revolution and posed with them for a photograph in memory of the occasion.
In his talks, titled Let Us Consolidate and Develop the Success in the Production of Submachine Guns and We Must Make Weapons by Our Own Efforts to Arm Ourselves, in December 1948 and in October the following year, respectively, and in other works, Kim Il Sung set very important tasks for the development of the munitions industry, and took steps to produce weapons and military equipment by the efforts of the Korean people themselves. As a result, the foundation for an independent munitions industry was laid.
He organized the people’s self-defence corps and similar paramilitary organizations in factories, enterprises and rural communities, and in July 1949 ensured the formation of the Association for the Support of National Defence and encouraged the campaign to contribute funds for weapons and military equipment and the campaign in support of the People’s Army to be launched as a mass movement, in order to make the defence of the country an undertaking of the entire nation.
In the meantime, while consolidating the revolutionary base in the north of Korea, he worked hard to form the united front of patriotic forces of north and south for reunification, and rally and strengthen the revolutionary forces in the south of Korea.
In his New Year’s Address, titled Let Us Rise Up for Territorial Integrity and National Reunification, in 1949, and in other works,
Kim Il Sung set the task of the south Korean people to launch a widespread struggle to win full independence and sovereignty for the country in solid unity under the flag of the DPRK. In order to organize all the patriotic democratic forces in the north and south of Korea on a wider scale, he also proposed the policy of forming the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland by uniting the patriots who desired reunification and especially all the progressive political parties and public organizations in the north and south of Korea into a single democratic force. In support of this policy, eight political parties and public organizations in south Korea made a joint proposal in mid-May to the Central Committee of the DNUF of North Korea for the formation of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland (DFRF).
Kim Il Sung had the matter of forming the DFRF discussed at a meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee, and then got the DNUF to make active preparations for it. In his report, titled On the Formation of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, to the Sixth Meeting of the Central Committee of the Party in mid-June, he dwelt on the character, the objective of struggle and tasks of the DFRF, thus providing the guideline for its formation and activity.
Thanks to his energetic leadership and the joint efforts of the democratic political parties and public organizations in north and south Korea, the conference for the formation of the DFRF was held in Pyongyang in late June 1949. The conference officially inaugurated the DFRF, which embraced more than 70 patriotic political parties and public organizations in north and south Korea, and adopted its political programme and the declaration on the peaceful reunification of the country, addressed to the entire Korean nation.
In order to smooth over the difficulties in Party work in the south and strengthen the unified leadership of the Workers’ Parties of North and South Korea in view of the fact that the Workers’ Party in south Korea had been destroyed and that there was no possibility of lawful Party activity in the south, Kim Il Sung called the Joint Plenary Meeting of the Central Committees of the Workers’ Parties of North and South Korea on June 30, 1949, and took measures to amalgamate the two parties into a single Workers’ Party of Korea. He made a historic report to the meeting, titled On the Merger of the Workers’ Parties of North and South Korea into the Workers’ Party of Korea, and a concluding speech.
The Joint Plenary Meeting acclaimed Kim Il Sung the Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea. At a time when bright prospects for building a unified independent state were being opened up after the establishment of the DPRK, the communist revolutionary fighter Kim Jong Suk, the dearest revolutionary comrade-in-arms of Kim Il Sung and the paragon of revolutionary selflessness who protected the leader with her life, died on September 22, 1949 at the age of 32, to the great sorrow of all the Korean people. Her death meant the greatest loss to the nation and to the Korean revolution.
Warmly recollecting the great revolutionary career of Kim Jong Suk, who had devoted her all to the struggle for national liberation and the victory of the revolution, Kim Il Sung said:
“Although Comrade Kim Jong Suk has passed away, the noble and valuable achievements she made for the country and people will shine for ever.”
Paying deep attention to the development of the world revolution,
Kim Il Sung made strenuous efforts to give support to the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people and strengthen the solidarity of the international democratic camp.
In spite of the difficult situation in the country during the period of building the new country, he gave selfless support to the Chinese revolution, holding high the banner of proletarian internationalism.
He said:
“During the anti-Japanese armed struggle we formed a joint front with the Chinese people, and waged a joint struggle with them for a long time. Also, in the years after liberation, in spite of the very complex situation caused by the division of the country into north and south by the US army through its occupation of south Korea, and despite many difficulties in building the new country, we did everything possible to help the Chinese people in their revolutionary struggle.”
When the Chinese revolution was undergoing a serious trial because of the general offensive by the Jiang Jie-shi clique with the backing of the US imperialists, Kim Il Sung gave active assistance to the Chinese people in their revolutionary struggle, motivated by a noble sense of internationalist obligation.
At Dandong, China, and in Pyongyang and Namyang, Korea, he met Chairman Mao Ze-dong’s special envoy, a Chinese military district commander, and the representative of the Democratic Allied Force in Northeast China in November 1945, in 1946, in early 1947 and in the summer of that year. He inspired them with unshakable confidence in the victory of the revolution, gave them valuable advice in connection with the operations to liberate Northeast China and took important measures to turn the tide of the war in their favour.
Even in the difficult conditions for the building of armed forces, he sent a hundred thousand items of weaponry and enormous amounts of high explosives, ammunition, food, military uniforms, and medical and other supplies that had been captured from the Japanese imperialist aggressors, in support of the Chinese revolution. He also sent an artillery regiment and engineer units to fight shoulder to shoulder with the Chinese people. In addition, he opened the northern area of Korea, sea routes, railways and roads to be used for the movement of Chinese troops and strategic materials to zones in Northeast China.
Veterans of the KPRA dispatched by Kim Il Sung and 250,000 young Koreans participated in the liberation of Northeast China, and displayed peerless heroism and a self-sacrificing spirit in battles to liberate Changchun, Jilin, Siping, Jinzhou and Shenyang. They shed their blood in the fight to liberate China’s mainland and even Hainan Island.
Chairman Mao Ze-dong and Prime Minister Zhou En-lai expressed thanks to Kim Il Sung on several occasions for the material and moral aid given by him when the Chinese revolution was undergoing trials. They said that one of the five stars inscribed on the Chinese national flag symbolized the blood shed by the Korean communists.
Kim Il Sung paid close attention to strengthening the international democratic camp that was newly formed after the Second World War, and to cementing solidarity with international democratic organizations.
In April 1947, he met the delegation of the World Federation of Trade Unions, the first foreign delegation to visit Korea, and elucidated the policy of thwarting the machinations of the imperialists and reactionaries to split the international working-class movement and strengthening the unity and cohesion of the ranks of this movement.
He made sure that the public organizations in Korea joined international democratic organizations. He sent Korean delegations to the World Youth Festival in July 1947, to the Conference of International Working Youth in June 1948, and to many other international conferences and functions to strengthen friendship and solidarity with the peoples of all the countries which were fighting for peace, democracy, national independence and socialism.
After the foundation of the DPRK, he established diplomatic relations with the countries of the democratic camp on the principle of independence, and developed relations of friendship and cooperation with them.
In accordance with his external policy, the Government of the DPRK established diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the people’s democracies including Mongolia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and the Federation of Yugoslavia in October 1948, with the People’s Republic of Hungary, and the People’s Republic of Bulgaria in November the same year, with the People’s Republic of Albania in May the following year, with the People’s Republic of China in October 1949, with the Democratic Republic of Germany in November the same year, and with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in January 1950.
Kim Il Sung paid a visit to the Soviet Union as the head of a DPRK Government delegation from February to April 1949, and conducted energetic activities to develop the relations of friendship and cooperation between the peoples of the two countries and strengthen the international democratic camp.
In his concluding speech at the Second Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in December 1949, and in many other works, he branded the imperialist United States, which had become the leader of world imperialism after the Second World War, the chieftain of world reaction, and the world’s most pernicious and crafty aggressor, and set forth the revolutionary strategy of anti-US struggle, the strategy of maintaining an uncompromising attitude towards US imperialism, in order to crush its ambition for world domination and safeguard peace. Through the statements and appeals of the SPA, the Government of the Republic, and public organizations, through their letters to international organizations, and through the forums of the World Peace Conference and other international conferences, he laid bare the aggressive nature of US imperialism and its manoeuvres to unleash war in many parts of the world. In this way, he helped the revolutionary people throughout the world to discard illusions about the United States and maintain an anti-US position with a high revolutionary vigilance.
He made every effort to check and thwart the manoeuvres of the US imperialists to start an aggressive war in Korea, and realize an independent and peaceful reunification of the country.
The US imperialists and their south Korean stooges drew up a “strategic map for attack on north Korea” in 1949, and made overt preparations for an aggressive war against the DPRK.
In his instructions given to the commander and other officers of the Third Security Brigade under the Security Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior in February and May 1949, under the titles, Smash the Enemy’s Armed Provocations, and Don’t Give Up Even an Inch of Land to the Enemy, in order to counter the manoeuvres of the US imperialists and the south Korean puppet clique to unleash a war, Kim Il Sung ordered the Security Force to destroy the enemy forays into the northern half of Korea. Meanwhile, he convened a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland in August 1949, and meetings of the Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in August and October the same year. At these meetings, he set forth the task of exposing the enemy’s invasion into the area north of the 38th parallel and their atrocities, and of intensifying the struggle for peaceful national reunification.
From the beginning of 1950, the US imperialists grew more frantic in their manoeuvres to provoke a war.
In his New Year’s Address to the entire Korean nation in January 1950, and in his works, titled The Present Situation in South Korea and Immediate Tasks of the Fatherland Front and Let Us Unite All the Patriotic, Democratic Forces for the Great Cause of National Reunification, and others, Kim Il Sung called on the entire nation to step up the struggle under the flag of the DPRK against the US imperialists and the traitor Syngman Rhee clique that were infringing upon the independence and freedom of Korea.
In view of the acute situation in the country, he proposed a series of new measures to avoid war and realize peaceful national reunification by exerting every effort.
The enlarged meeting of the Central Committee of the DFRF, which was held at the proposal of Kim Il Sung on June 7, 1950, adopted the Appeal to Implement the Measures for Peaceful National Reunification, an appeal that proposed to establish a unified supreme legislative assembly by holding north-south general elections on democratic principles on the occasion of August 15 that year, the anniversary of liberation from Japan, and sent three of the representatives of the DFRF as messengers to convey the appeal to all the democratic political parties, public organizations and personages of different strata in south Korea. The enemy, however, illegally arrested and imprisoned them. That was an intolerable atrocity.
In his concluding speech, titled On Putting into Effect Our Party’s Proposal for Peaceful National Reunification, at the meeting of the Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on June 15 the same year, Kim Il Sung made a new proposal to reunify the country by merging the SPA of the DPRK and the south Korean “National Assembly” into a single legislative assembly for all Korea, since the traitor Syngman Rhee was against the just proposal for general elections to reunify the country. On the basis of this, the SPA adopted a resolution, titled On Effecting Peaceful National Reunification.
As the danger of war was imminent in the hair-trigger situation in Korea, Kim Il Sung warned the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee puppet clique that if they ignited a war, he would resolutely counterattack, in a speech made before the heads of the interior departments of the provinces on June 22, 1950.
The US imperialists and the south Korean puppet clique did not accept any of the patriotic and reasonable proposals of the Government of the DPRK, but took the road of unleashing an aggressive, criminal war in spite of the repeated warnings.
7
JUNE 1950-JULY 1953
Kim Il Sung, ever-victorious iron-willed brilliant commander and preeminent military strategist, organized and led the Fatherland Liberation War to a brilliant victory.
The US imperialists, who escalated armed provocations along the 38th parallel while accelerating preparations for a war of aggression from the very first day they occupied south Korea, launched an all-out surprise invasion of the northern half of Korea on June 25, 1950, by instigating their south Korean stooges.
Owing to their invasion, the Korean people had to suspend peaceful construction and face an unprecedentedly stern trial imposed upon them and their country.
In the face of this grave situation, Kim Il Sung convened an Extraordinary Meeting of the Cabinet on June 25, and took resolute measures to frustrate the enemy’s invasion and immediately mount a decisive counteroffensive.
He said:
“We must resolutely fight the enemy in order to safeguard the independence of the motherland, and the freedom and honour of the nation. We will counter the barbarous aggressive war of the enemy with the righteous war of liberation.
“Our People’s Army must frustrate the enemy offensive, launch a decisive counteroffensive without delay and annihilate the invaders.”
In response to his order, the officers and men of the People’s Army beat back the enemy who had invaded the north of Korea, and immediately went over to the counteroffensive on the whole front. All the Korean people turned out as one in the sacred struggle against the armed invasion launched by the US imperialists and their stooges.
The war of the Korean people against the invading US imperialists and their henchmen was a righteous motherland liberation war, a national liberation war, to safeguard the freedom and independence of the country and the national sovereignty, and to free the south Korean people from the colonial rule of the US imperialists, as well as a serious class struggle against the enemy of the people. It was also a fierce anti-imperialist and anti-US struggle to oppose the allied forces of world reaction, including the US imperialists, and defend the security of the socialist countries and world peace.
Shouldering the heavy burden of both the front and the rear,
Kim Il Sung mobilized all the Korean people in the struggle for victory.
He delivered a historic radio address, titled Go All Out for Victory in the War, on June 26, in which he made clear the justice of the new struggle being waged by the Korean people, and called on the entire nation together with the officers and men of the People’s Army to turn out as one in the sacred war to destroy the US imperialists and their henchmen, setting the fighting tasks for winning the war.
He immediately took political, economic and military measures to mobilize the whole country for victory.
At a meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee held on June 26, 1950, he formed the Military Commission of the DPRK, the supreme national leadership vested with total state power, to organize and mobilize the human and material resources for victory.
He was acclaimed Chairman of the Military Commission of the DPRK.
At a meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee held on June 27, he got a letter of the Party Central Committee adopted in order to reorganize Party work and enhance the role of the Party organizations and the Party members in keeping with the wartime circumstances. He also declared a state of war, in order to quickly reorganize the whole work of the state onto a war footing and mobilize all the forces of the nation for victory. On the same day he convened the Joint Conference of the Chairmen of Provincial Committees of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the Democratic Party of North Korea and the Chondoist Chongu Party of North Korea, and set the tasks of all the political parties for victory in the Fatherland Liberation War.
As the Chairman of the Military Commission, he issued a decree for wartime mobilization throughout the country for the maximum mobilization of human and material resources needed for the war, and reorganized the national economy onto a war footing. In addition, he took important measures to put the command system of the People’s Army on a wartime basis, improve its fighting efficiency and consolidate the home front.
As a result, the wartime system capable of promptly organizing and mobilizing the nation’s full potential to defeat the enemy was established in a very short time after the war broke out, and the whole Party, people and army were knitted into a powerful fighting force. In major industrial districts workers’ regiments were organized and sent to the front, and large numbers of students and other young people volunteered to fight at the front.
Kim Il Sung set forth the strategic policy for victory, and exercised decisive leadership for the new struggle.
Kim Il Sung said:
“We must destroy the enemy by swift manoeuvres and continuous strikes, and completely liberate the southern half of Korea before the US imperialists throw large aggressor forces into the Korean front. This is the strategic policy of our Party at the present stage.”
His strategic policy was based on the correct analysis and appraisal of the prevailing situation, the balance of forces between friend and foe and the enemy’s weakness. It was an insightful policy capable of ensuring the seizure of the initiative at the front and quick victory.
He organized a powerful counteroffensive of the People’s Army along the whole front, focused the direction of the main effort on the western sector, and organized and commanded the operation to liberate Seoul.
The People’s Army, having frustrated the enemy’s surprise attack and switched over to the counteroffensive in accordance with Kim Il Sung’s outstanding operational policy, rapidly advanced. Taking the initiative, it destroyed the enemy’s main force and liberated Seoul, the den of the enemy, within three days after the outbreak of the war, and advanced towards Taejon, breaking through the enemy’s defensive zone. This was the brilliant fruition of Kim Il Sung’s policy for an immediate counteroffensive.
Kim Il Sung was acclaimed Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army on July 4, 1950.
He organized the Front Command, appointed Kim Chaek its commander to cope with the situation on the rapidly extending frontline, and dispatched the members of the Military Commission to army units to ensure the successful command of the frontline divisions advancing south.
The US imperialists, who had been driven into a corner by the fierce advance of the heroic People’s Army, fabricated the “UN Forces” illegally and shipped huge numbers of their aggressor forces and forces sent by their satellite countries to the Korean front.
In view of the US imperialists’ large-scale military reinforcement, the Supreme Commander made a historic radio address, titled Repel the US Imperialist Invasion, on July 8, 1950 and a speech at a meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee on July 9, in which he laid bare the heinous scheme and the brutal nature of the US imperialists, who were expanding the aggressive war against Korea by usurping the name of the United Nations. He called on the officers and men of the People’s Army to lose no time in annihilating the US imperialist aggressors.
In wholehearted response to his militant appeal, the officers and men of the People’s Army speeded up their advance and continued to exploit their success in battle.
The Supreme Commander made a bold plan to encircle and destroy a large enemy force in the Taejon area, and personally went to the Front Command Headquarters in Seoul in mid-July to command this operation.
The combined units of the People’s Army quickly crossed the Kum River under the superb command of the leader, employed a variety of tactics-powerful frontal attack, strikes on the enemy’s flank and rear, swift manoeuvres, outflanking movements, ambushes and raids-in close cooperation between different arms and services, and thus completely encircled and annihilated the 24th US Infantry Division which had boasted of being “invincible”, and liberated Taejon, the enemy’s temporary “capital”.
The Supreme Commander made a journey of hundreds of miles to Suanbo south of Chungju, North Chungchong Province, to the frontline, through enemy fire early in August 1950 in order to ensure successive victories in the offensive operations. There he convened a meeting of the officers of the Front Command Headquarters, commanders of the frontline divisions and officers in charge of cultural affairs of the Korean People’s Army. At the meeting, he indicated the direction of military actions to further speed up the offensive operations, and encouraged the troops.
Following his outstanding operational policy, the frontline combined units of the People’s Army, made a southward advance like a hurricane, giving the enemy no breathing space, making turning movements, surrounding and destroying the enemy by fighting mountain battles and night actions with great efficiency, and by continuous strikes and audacious manoeuvres in cooperation with artillery. Thus they drove the enemy into a narrow area on the south-eastern coast of Korea.
In one and half a months after the outbreak of the war, they destroyed the main forces of the south Korean puppet army and the US imperialist aggressors, liberating 90 per cent of the southern half of Korea and 92 per cent of the population.
Kim Il Sung wisely led the work of socio-economic reforms in the liberated regions of the southern half.
At the meetings of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee and the Military Commission he set the tasks of forming Party organizations, public organizations and people’s government bodies, enforcing agrarian reform and other democratic reforms, and stabilizing the people’s living in the liberated regions of the southern half. He also explained the methods of carrying out these tasks, and dispatched many cadres and political workers to the liberated areas of the southern half to ensure success in this work.
In spite of the heavy pressure of military command of the operations at the front, he made trips to Seoul in mid-July, during the period between late July and early August and in mid-August, 1950, and learned how the democratic reforms were being carried out and how the people were living in the liberated regions, taking the necessary measures to ensure their livelihoods.
United solidly behind the Supreme Commander, with the joy of a new life under the new people’s democratic system, the liberated people in the south gave every assistance to the People’s Army as it advanced southward. A large number of students and other young people in the south joined the People’s Volunteers Corps and fought against the enemy. The number of volunteers amounted to 400,000 within a few weeks after they were liberated by the People’s Army.
Around this time, the Japanese militarists’ scheme to join the Korean war, availing themselves of the opportunity of the US imperialists’ aggressive war, was revealed. At a meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee held at the end of August 1950, Kim Il Sung denounced the criminal acts of the Japanese reactionary rulers, who offered all their territory to the US imperialists as a strategic military base, ensured the production and transport of war supplies for the aggressive war against Korea and sent their military personnel to the war. He emphasized the need to expose and smash their criminal actions.
In mid-September 1950, the military situation of the country changed rapidly.
Faced with imminent defeat, the US imperialists threw to the Korean front hundreds of thousands of troops-all their army, navy and air force in the Pacific, part of their Mediterranean fleet and the troops of their satellite nations, including Britain-in the name of the “UN Forces”. With these reinforcements, they launched a general offensive on the Raktong River frontline on the one hand, and on the other, started a landing operation at Inchon by mobilizing over 1,000 airplanes, hundreds of warships and 50,000 troops.
The defenders of Wolmi Island and other soldiers of the People’s Army fought heroically to repel the offensive of the far superior numbers of the enemy. However, the situation turned against the defenders because of the heavy odds.
At a meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee held on September 17, 1950 to deal with the quickly changing situation, the Supreme Commander took measures to frustrate the frantic enemy offensive and deliver a decisive blow at the aggressors.
He set forth the strategic policy for the second stage of the war to cope with the situation on his own initiative.
He said:
“Our Party’s strategic policy at the present stage is to delay the enemy’s advance as much as possible in order to gain time, and thus save the main force of the People’s Army, and organize fresh reserves with which to form powerful counteroffensive forces, while organizing a planned retreat.”
He convened the consultative meeting of the chairmen of provincial Party committees on September 27, 1950 and set the tasks of the Party organizations for the temporary strategic retreat. On October 11 he delivered a radio address, titled Let Us Defend Every Inch of Our Motherland at the Cost of Our Blood, in which he called on the entire nation including the officers and men of the People’s Army to defend every inch of the motherland at any cost and prepare to deliver a fresh decisive blow at the enemy, and sweep the US imperialists and their stooges from Korean land.
The entire army and people displayed peerless heroism and devotion in the struggle to implement his strategic plan.
The heroic defenders of the Inchon-Seoul area and the 38th parallel front fought resolutely to delay the enemy’s advance. The main force of the People’s Army, which had advanced as far as the Raktong River, fought in mobile defence by divisions in a strategic retreat across rugged mountains. They carried out the mission of temporary strategic retreat in a short span of time.
The workers and peasants evacuated production units to safety zones and continued wartime production, waging a self-sacrificing struggle to deny the enemy even a truck, a locomotive or a grain of rice.
On his way to Kosanjin via Okchon, Hyangsan, Unsan, Changsong, Pyok-tong, Usi and Chosan during the hazardous retreat, the Supreme Commander met soldiers who were marching towards the Supreme Headquarters and loudly singing the Song of General Kim Il Sung. He listened to peasants who told him that they were retreating from Kangwon Province in the belief that they would survive and emerge victorious only by following General Kim Il Sung. He inspired them with the conviction of victory and was encouraged by them.
The US imperialist aggressors committed nefarious atrocities in the areas they occupied in the north.
Kim Il Sung said:
“Once Engels called the British army the most brutal force in the world. The German Nazi army surpassed the British army in brutality during World War II. The human brain could not imagine more wicked and more shocking atrocities than those perpetrated by the Hitlerite beasts at the time. But, in Korea, the Yankees have far outdone the Hitlerites.”
The US imperialist aggressors massacred innocent Koreans at random everywhere they went. In Sinchon County alone, over 35,000 people were slaughtered. The surviving elements of the overthrown exploiter classes and the reactionaries, at the instigation of the US imperialists, joined the atrocities. The enemy’s brutal atrocities showed that one must not harbour any illusion about the US imperialists but must fight against the class enemy without compromise.
Neither the atrocities of the US imperialist aggressors nor any manoeuvres of the class enemy could bring the Korean people, a people united firmly around their leader, to their knees.
The Party members and other people who stayed behind the enemy lines organized people’s guerrilla forces and hit the enemy in all parts of the country, as instructed by the Supreme Commander, striking terror into the hearts of the enemy.
The Supreme Commander built the counteroffensive base deep in the rear. While organizing the strategic retreat, he regrouped the units of the People’s Army, who had retreated, organized new units and equipped different arms and services with modern weapons, thus preparing powerful counterattack forces.
While preparing for a counteroffensive, he formulated a bold and unique strategy for forming a powerful second front with the large combined units of the regular army behind the enemy lines and ensured that the units of the second front were organized so as to occupy a wide area of central Korea from mid-October 1950 and fight ceaselessly behind the enemy lines.
The US imperialists’ attempt to snatch the whole territory of the northern half of Korea was thwarted completely.
The war entered its third stage in late October 1950. Around this time, the Chinese people organized volunteers under the motto, “Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Protect Our Homes and Defend Our Motherland”, and sent them to the Korean front.
Having made preparations for a new counteroffensive, the Supreme Commander set forth the strategic policy of frustrating the enemy’s offensive and pushing him south of the 38th parallel, while destroying enemy troops in large numbers, and then regrouping forces of the People’s Army, strengthening them, and ceaselessly destroying and weakening the enemy forces in preparation for the final victory of the war.
In late October 1950, he went to Puhung-ri and Kosong-ri, Unsan County, close to the enemy, and organized and commanded a powerful counterattack to destroy the enemy force that had invaded the Unsan area. At a meeting of the staff officers and generals assigned to the Supreme Head-quarters of the KPA, held at the end of October 1950, and at a meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee held in early November, he set the task of making preparations for the new counteroffensive more thoroughly and explained the methods of carrying it out.
On November 25, he ordered our units to launch a decisive counteroffensive against the enemy, who had started a “Christmas general offensive”, all along the front.
Guided by his strategic policy, our combined units launched the general counteroffensive in cooperation with the second front forces behind the enemy lines. They encircled and annihilated a large number of enemy troops, including the Eighth US Army commander, and destroyed or captured enemy weapons and equipment in large quantities.
The People’s Army units pursued the retreating enemy and completely liberated the enemy-held areas of the northern half of Korea by the end of December 1950, and advanced to the area south of the 38th parallel.
The US imperialists made frantic efforts to retrieve their fortunes and attempted a new military adventure. Thus the war grew fiercer and dragged on.
In view of the protraction of the war, Kim Il Sung convened the Third Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee in December 1950, and made a historic report, titled The Present Situation and the Immediate Tasks.
In the report, he set the tasks of establishing Juche in the field of the military affairs, strengthening revolutionary discipline, ensuring the unity and cohesion of the Party, consolidating the front and the rear, and brandishing the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance.
His report was of great significance in ensuring fresh success at the front by establishing iron discipline in the entire Party, safeguarding its unity and cohesion, and further strengthening the armed forces and the home front.
After the Plenary Meeting, Kim Il Sung worked hard to establish revolutionary discipline in the Party, state organs and army, and to strengthen the Party’s unity and fighting efficiency. He took measures to put the home front in order, consolidate it politically and ideologically, and improve the people’s deteriorated living standard.
Making great efforts to maintain the principle of using his own judge- ment especially in dealing with military affairs, he talked to the commanders and the political workers of the Korean People’s Army in January 1951 under the title, We Must Fight by Our Own Methods of War. He severely criticized the dogmatic approach to foreign tactics which had caused great harm to the war effort. He clearly indicated the direction and methods of applying tactics that were suited to the Korean situation in operations and combat, so as to deal crushing blows at the enemy.
During the period of operations from late January to early June that year, the People’s Army units at the front delivered heavy military and political blows at the enemy by a ceaseless war of attrition, powerful counterattacks and harassing actions behind enemy lines.
In June 1951 the front was settled roughly along the 38th parallel, and the war entered its fourth stage.
In this situation, the Supreme Commander put forward the strategic policy of building up strong defence positions, maintaining the defence line by active positional defence warfare, and ceaselessly striking and destroying the enemy, while gaining time to reinforce the People’s Army, consolidate the home front and create all the necessary conditions for final victory.
He adopted a new tactical method of building tunnels on the defence line and fighting by relying on them in order to ensure active positional defence warfare.
Tunnel warfare is very effective in that it provides the possibility to protect troops, weapons and equipment from enemy bombing and artillery fire, and to weaken and destroy the enemy by defensive and offensive actions. It gives the soldiers opportunities to relax, study and have entertainment even in a combat situation, thus increasing their fighting efficiency.
The Supreme Commander issued the following orders and instructions: On Organizing Aircraft-Hunting Teams in December 1950, On Intensifying the Actions of the Tank-Destroyer Teams, On Extensive Use of Mortars, On Organizing and Training Tank-Hunting Teams, On Organizing Teams of Snipers, On Organizing Mobile Batteries (Mortar Platoons), Separate Heavy Machine Gun Teams, and Demolition Teams Behind Enemy Lines and on Intensifying Sniper Activities in 1951. In this manner he evolved many adroit Korean-style tactics, and applied them continually, causing the enemy great destruction.
In late June 1951, he met the Heroes of the DPRK and model soldiers, highly praised the heroic feats of the soldiers fighting at the front, learned about their health and living conditions, bestowing parental love and care on them, and presented to them submachine guns inscribed “Destroy the US Imperialist Aggressors!”
The officers and men of the People’s Army, encouraged by his warm love and trust, dug tunnels, relying on which they fought active positional defence warfare, applying his ingenious tactics, and continued to deliver fatal blows at the enemy.
The US imperialists, driven into an acute political and military crisis by then- repeated defeats, proposed armistice negotiations. They prepared a new offensive by gaining a breathing space while pretending to conduct armistice negotiations. Meanwhile, they concealed their attempt to accomplish what they had failed at the front to achieve the aim of aggression through negotiations. They pretended to want peace by ending the Korean war for the purpose of recovering their fallen prestige, easing contradictions among their allies, deceiving the people of the whole world and hiding their aggressive designs on Korea. This meant, in fact, their surrender and public recognition of their defeat.
In his concluding speech, titled The Policy of Our Party and the Government of the Republic on the Proposal of the US Imperialists for Armistice Negotiations, made at a meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee in late June 1951, and in his talk to the delegates of the Korean side to the armistice negotiations early in July, titled On the Direction of the Armistice Negotiations, the Supreme Commander said: We must negotiate the armistice with the attitude that we were ready for a ceasefire or continued fighting; we must have no illusions about US imperialism, but further strengthen our forces; we must continue with military strikes at the enemy to smash his scheme of aggression that was being made behind the smokescreen of armistice negotiations.
As instructed by him, the Korean side maintained a principled and resolute standpoint about the unfair assertion of the US imperialists at the armistice negotiations.
Failing to achieve their sinister aim at the negotiation table, the US imperialists broke off the negotiations unilaterally and launched large-scale “summer and autumn offensives” (from mid-August to mid-November) in 1951.
They started a large offensive on all fronts by means of combined ground and amphibious operations, while putting pressure on the Korean side with the threat to use atomic weapons in an attempt to win an “honourable armistice”.
Making a feint of attacking in the western sector of the front, the enemy massed large forces in the eastern sector by stealth and launched a “summer offensive”.
Seeing through their crafty attempt, the Supreme Commander quickly moved some of the defensive force from the western sector to the eastern sector, and forestalled the enemy by an ingenious strategy and tactics.
Instead of learning a lesson from their ignominious defeat in the “summer offensive”, the aggressors resorted to an “autumn offensive”.
Judging that the enemy would direct the main effort of the “autumn offensive” at the eastern sector, not the western sector, the Supreme Commander made sure that defences were built with tunnels around Height 1211 at which a large-scale attack might be expected. Meanwhile, he kept a reserve force in anticipation of the enemy’s attempt at a landing operation, and strengthened defences on the east coast.
In late September 1951, he visited the defenders of Height 1211, braving enemy gunfire, and gave them a very important mission for repulsing the enemy’s attack.
He said:
“We attach great importance to the defence of Height 1211, because success in it will change the situation on all fronts in our favour. You must defend it with your lives, not yielding even an inch.”
On return from his inspection of the frontline he telephoned Corps Commander Choe Hyon at midnight, saying that all the men at the front were as precious as national treasures that could not be bartered for anything. He added that, as chilly weather had already set in, he must take good care of them so that they could eat hot meals and sleep in warm shelters lest they should fall ill.
Greatly inspired by his on-the-spot guidance and parental love, the heroic defenders of Height 1211 displayed a peerless self-sacrificing spirit and mass heroism in the raging battle, braving the thousands of rock-splintering shells that rained down on them constantly and repulsing the constant attacks of the enemy, which broke upon this bulwark like waves on a solid sea cliff.
Regarding Supreme Commander General Kim Il Sung as the symbol of their motherland, Hero Ri Su Bok and other courageous soldiers of the People’s Army did not hesitate to sacrifice their precious lives for their country. They blocked the enemy’s pillboxes with their very bodies to break open the way of advance for their units, ensured communications by connecting broken telephone lines with their own hands and threw themselves on the enemy’s positions with bundles of handgrenades, as human bombs.
The battle to defend Height 1211, which turned the surrounding heights and ravines into “heartbreak ridges” and “deadly traps” for the enemy, demonstrated the advantages of tunnel warfare, the tactics evolved by the Supreme Commander, as well as the political and ideological superiority of the Korean People’s Army.
The US imperialists, who suffered decisive defeats in their “summer and autumn offensives” turned up again at the negotiation table. They accepted the fair proposal of the Korean side on fixing the Military Demarcation Line and setting up the Demilitarized Zone.
Kim Il Sung made strenuous efforts to strengthen the People’s Army in order to consolidate the victory at the front and accelerate the final triumph of the Fatherland Liberation War.
Attaching decisive significance to the political and ideological factor in war, he took steps to improve the Party’s political work in the People’s Army.
He said:
“The decisive factor in the outcome of a war lies not in the weapons or numerical strength of an army but in the spiritual and moral calibre of the soldiers and people participating in the war.”
From the outset of the war he paid close attention to strengthening Party leadership over the People’s Army and intensifying political work in the army. In October 1950, he took important steps to set up Party organizations and political departments in the People’s Army.
In his concluding speech, titled Some Tasks for Strengthening Party Political Work in the People’s Army, at a meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee held in situation of the protracted war in July 1952, and in other works, he detailed the direction and methods of enhancing the role of the Party organizations and political departments in the army. The speeches also dealt with conducting Party political work in keeping with the actual conditions of the country, the psychological characteristics of the soldiers and the fighting tasks of the units. He gave insightful leadership to the work of strengthening the People’s Army politically and ideologically.
In order to strengthen the People’s Army militarily and technically, he ensured that the training of new officers and refresher training for the veteran officers were organized to improve their qualifications and their command ability. He also ensured that the weapons and equipment of the People’s Army were improved in conformity with the characteristics of modern warfare and the combat training of the units be intensified by making use of the time which had been gained at the cost of their blood.
As a result, in 1952, some 45 per cent of all the officers were re-educated and a large number of commanding officers were trained anew, and the fire power of every infantry division was increased by 60 per cent as compared with the previous year. In addition, the air force was strengthened to destroy the air superiority of the US imperialists.
Having set the important task of strengthening the company, the grassroots organization and the basic combat unit of the People’s Army, the Supreme Commander proposed the model company movement in October 1951, and encouraged all the units to participate in it. As a result, the companies were strengthened in quality and the fighting power of the People’s Army units increased remarkably.
In his historic speech, titled Let Us Strengthen the People’s Army, made in December 1952, Kim Il Sung elucidated his original theory about the essence of war, its character and the cause of war, and the factor of victory in the revolutionary war, and saw to it that the soldiers of the People’s Army were armed firmly with his theory and art of war.
Entering 1952, the US imperialists launched what they called the “strangling operation” and “Kimhwa offensive” in succession by bringing reinforcements to the Korean front and making use of even germ and chemical weapons, which were banned by international law. But each time they were defeated by the Korean People’s Army, which fought powerful defensive and counteroffensive operations, applying the Supreme Commander’s adroit art of war.
Kim Il Sung gave energetic leadership to the work of strengthening Party organizations and government bodies, and enhancing their role.
In order to further expand and strengthen the Party in keeping with the wartime situation, he convened the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee in November 1951 and made a historic report, titled On Some Defects in the Organizational Work of Party Organizations. His concluding speech was titled On Improving the Party’s Organizational Work. In these speeches he set the tasks of overcoming exclusivism, penalty-first policy, bureaucratism and other Left deviations which were discovered in the Party’s organizational work, expanding and strengthening Party ranks, establishing voluntary discipline within the Party, and improving united-front work and officials’ method and style of work.
He ensured that the struggle to implement the decision of the Plenary Meeting was intensified throughout the Party.
Through the struggle, exclusivism was overcome in recruiting new Party members, and soldiers and advanced elements of the workers, the working peasants and intellectuals who fought devotedly at the front and in the rear were admitted into the Party to increase its membership to one million.
Many hardcore elements of Party cells were trained. Party penalties which had been applied incorrectly were nullified or rectified. These measures stimulated Party members to greater enthusiasm and strengthened voluntary discipline among Party members. United-front work improved, the people’s support for the Party and their trust in it increased, and broad sections of the population were rallied solidly behind the Party.
Kim Il Sung directed great efforts to enhancing the function and role of the people’s government and cementing the ties between the Party and the masses.
He made important speeches in February and June 1952, under the titles, The Tasks and Role of the Local Organs of Power at the Present Stage and Strengthening the People’s Power Is an Important Guarantee for Victory in the Fatherland Liberation War. In these speeches he set the task of enhancing the function and role of the people’s government bodies in conformity with the wartime conditions, explained the ways and means of carrying them out, and specially emphasized the need to combat bureaucratism among government officials.
While intensifying ideological education and ideological struggle against the bureaucratic style of work among government officials, he took active measures to improve their political and practical qualifications, and their leadership ability. In addition, he took steps to reorganize the local administrative system by breaking down counties into smaller ones, abolishing sub-counties, and strengthening ri in order to enhance the function and role of government bodies.
Kim Il Sung made strenuous efforts to strengthen the home front in order to accelerate the final victory.
He paid primary attention to fully ensuring wartime production and transportation to the front.
He saw to it that a large part of the leading force was sent to rural areas under the slogan, “Well-Qualified Party Force to Rural Areas!” and raised the militant slogan, “The Struggle for Food Is a Struggle for the Country and for Victory at the Front”. He took measures to increase the production of military supplies and consumer goods, and speed up transportation to the front, by using all the conditions and possibilities.
In spite of the heavy pressure of the work of organizing and leading all the activities to win the war, he gave field guidance to many factories and rural areas to ensure wartime production. In the course of this, he encouraged workers and peasants to engage in wartime production, himself being greatly encouraged by the words of a woman member of the Party cell at the foundry of the Ragwon Machine Factory, who said that if they won the war, there would be no problem in reconstruction, and by the optimistic life of the women Party members in Hajang ri, Ryongchon County, who sang cheerfully to the accompaniment of an organ in the midst of wartime difficulties.
In the harsh conditions in which everything had been damaged by the enemy’s bombing and atrocities, the working class and peasantry worked hard to increase production and ensure transportation through a mass campaign under the slogan, “Everything for the Front!”, and thus produced and supplied all the munitions and food needed at the front. In spite of raging enemy fire, the women of the Namgang Village in Kosong County and other people in the frontline areas carried ammunition to the soldiers fighting on the heights.
Kim Il Sung paid great attention to stabilizing the people’s livelihood in the days of the fierce war.
He raised the norms of food rations and consumer goods for industrial workers, technicians and office workers, and systematically lowered the prices of goods. He got a Cabinet decision adopted for universal free medical care in November 1952. He also ensured that social assistance was organized widely for the families of patriotic martyrs, disabled soldiers and the dependents of the People’s Army soldiers, that schools and orphanages for the children of patriotic martyrs and schools for disabled soldiers were set up in many places, that clothes and food were supplied to the war victims by organizing a rescue commission, and that primary schools and orphanages for the war orphans were established.
During the difficult days of the war, Kim Il Sung always shared life and death, weal and woe with the people and lived frugally saying, “When the people have to live on foxtail millet, we must also eat foxtail millet.”
Thanks to his warm love and meticulous care, nobody in the country died of hunger or froze to death and no war orphan wandered about the streets even in the darkest days of the war.
In the days of the grim war, when the destiny of the nation was at stake, Kim Il Sung pushed ahead with the preparations for postwar reconstruction and the building of socialism with unshakable confidence in victory.
While conceiving the idea of postwar reconstruction at his operations table, he made sure that fact-finding commissions were sent to investigate damaged factories and enterprises, and that plans and designs for the reconstruction of Pyongyang and other cities, factories and farm villages were made.
In January 1951, he indicated the direction of the reconstruction of Pyongyang and instructed that a master plan for reconstruction be mapped out. In May of the following year he had a Cabinet decision adopted for the reconstruction of Pyongyang and got the preparations for the project underway.
In order to establish a powerful machine-industry base needed for socialist industrialization after the war, he selected the site for a new machine-building factory in Huichon in October 1951, and had its construction started in December the same year. He also organized the construction of modern machine-building factories in the Kusong and Tokchon areas. In addition, he saw to it that large state farms and farm machine hire stations which would contribute to the socialist transformation of agriculture were formed on a large scale, and that cooperative forms of labour such as oxen- sharing teams and mutual assistance teams were widely encouraged. He also organized a survey of natural resources and preparations for the transformation of nature in a foresighted way, and gave meticulous guidance to these activities.
In order to train the cadres needed for postwar reconstruction and the building of socialism, he instructed that all universities be reopened, and in August 1951 took bold measures to recall from the frontline the soldiers who had received or had been receiving higher education before the outbreak of the war. He inspected Kim Il Sung University in April the next year, the Central Party School (Kim Il Sung Higher Party School) and Kim Chaek University of Technology, and other universities and cadre-training institutions in June the same year, indicating the direction for training national cadres and helping them solve problems arising in educational work.
In April 1952, he called a conference of scientists, indicated the direction of scientific research work and set the tasks of the scientists. In December that year, he founded the Academy of Sciences and gave instructions concerning the scientists’ research work and living conditions.
He defined the mission of wartime art and literature and indicated the direction of the activities of the writers and artists. He led them to produce many militant and rousing literary works, films, dramas, fine arts and wartime songs with high ideological and artistic qualities, to organize amateur artistic performances, soldiers’ art festivals and mobile motion-picture teams, to encourage the fighting soldiers of the People’s Army and the people.
Kim Il Sung worked hard to develop external activities to isolate the US imperialist aggressors in the international arena and strengthen international solidarity with the revolutionary people of the world.
He led the Party, the Government of the Republic and public organizations to expose and condemn the barbarous acts of mass slaughter and germ and chemical warfare committed by the US imperialists in Korea. As a result, the US imperialists were scathingly condemned as aggressors and war criminals by the whole world.
Kim Il Sung made great efforts to develop the relations of friendship and cooperation with the socialist countries and people’s democracies in all spheres, strengthen the support and encouragement of the world’s progressive people for the just cause of the Korean people and cement international solidarity with them through activities for concerned action with all the revolutionary forces of the world in the international anti-US, anti-war struggle.
He wisely organized and led the struggle for the final victory.
The US imperialists, who had suffered repeated defeats at the front and had been thrown on the defensive in the armistice negotiations, prepared another large-scale offensive.
The situation required a decisive measure to smash the enemy’s new military offensive and achieve the final victory.
First of all, in order to strengthen the Party, the general staff of the revolution, Kim Il Sung convened the Fifth Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee in December 1952 and made a historic report, titled The Organizational and Ideological Consolidation of the Party Is the Basis for Our Victory, in which he set the important tasks for the strengthening of the Party organizationally and ideologically.
He raised the training of the Party spirit of its members as the fundamental question of Party building and gave a scientific answer to it.
He said:
“By heightening Party spirit we mean that each member of the Workers’ Party should be boundlessly loyal to the Party and active in its work, regard the interests of the revolution and of the Party as his life and soul and subordinate his personal interests to them, defend the interests and principles of the Party at all times, anywhere and in whatever conditions, fight uncompromisingly against all manner of anti-Party, counterrevolutionary ideas, be conscientious in his life in the Party organization, strictly observe Party discipline and always strengthen the bonds between the Party and the masses.”
He emphasized that, in order to enhance Party spirit, it is necessary to combat without compromise all manner of indiscipline of refusing to subordinate one’s own interests to the interests of the revolution, strengthen the Party life of its members, and especially intensify criticism and self-criticism.
He instructed that the struggle to train the Party spirit of the members of the Party should be conducted in close combination with the struggle against factionalism and for the unity and cohesion of the Party, and appealed to the entire Party to sharpen its vigilance against the schemes of the factionalists who hindered the unity and cohesion of the Party, watch them closely and strongly combat factionalism.
He set the task for overcoming dogmatism, formalism and national nihilism in the Party’s ideological work and conducting the Party’s ideological education to suit the specific conditions of Korea and to meet the requirements of revolutionary practice.
In the course of discussing the document of the Fifth Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee as an all-Party ideological struggle, the Party spirit of the members of the Party was heightened remarkably, the fighting efficiency of the Party strengthened all the more, all sorts of anti-Party tendencies including factionalism were overcome and the anti-Party, counterrevolutionary plot and criminal acts of the Pak Hon Yong and Ri Sung Yop spy clique, who had been lurking in the Party for a long time, were discovered.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Commander set the task of strengthening the People’s Army at a meeting of high-ranking officers of the KPA in late December 1952 and issued his order, titled On Strengthening Positional Defence, in anticipation of a large-scale enemy offensive.
Entering 1953, the US imperialists made frantic efforts in preparation for an adventurous “new offensive” with a wild ambition to cut off the frontline from the rear by landing on the east and west coasts of Korea and encircling and destroying KPA’s main force in cooperation with an attack on the main line of defence.
At the 53rd Session of the Military Commission in January 1953, the Supreme Commander made a concluding speech, titled On Taking Measures to Defeat the New Offensive of the US Imperialists. In this speech he set the tasks of mobilizing the entire nation and the People’s Army politically and ideologically to build up the defensive positions on the frontline and the coastal areas as quickly as possible, establishing the headquarters for the defence of the Pyongyang area and intensifying the training of the people’s self-defence corps. He also had a letter sent from the Party Central Committee to all Party organizations and Party members to arouse them into a do-or-die battle to crush the enemy’s new offensive. In late February, he visited the officers and men of a unit fighting in defence of the east coast, the workers of a munitions factory, soldiers on the frontline and people at the home front, and encouraged them to turn out as one in the final decisive battle under the slogans, “Let Us Defend Every Inch of the Country at the Cost of the Last Drop of Our Blood!” and “Everyone to the Door-Die Battle to Destroy the Enemy!”.
At the end of January that year, he crushed by his bold flexible command a large-scale enemy attack on Height T, west of Cholwon, an operation launched by the US imperialists as the prelude to their “new offensive”.
Dismayed by the unbreakable spirit and strength of the Korean people and the People’s Army, the US imperialists had to give up halfway their new offensive, which they had prepared for a long time as a last resort.
Firmly taking the initiative in the war, the Supreme Commander organized and triumphantly commanded powerful attacks against the enemy on three occasions from mid-May to late July 1953.
The units of the People’s Army fought over 1,800 battles, large and small, including the attack on Height 351, during the campaign and thus delivered a fatal blow at the enemy, liberating an area of 343 square kilometres.
The US imperialists were driven into a tight corner from which there was no escape.
In the three-year Korean war, the enemy lost 1,567,120 troops, including more than 405,490 US aggressors, and suffered the loss, destruction or damage of 12,220 air planes, 560 warships, 3,250 tanks and armoured cars, 13,350 trucks, 7,690 guns of various types and 925,150 small arms.
The US imperialists, who had suffered irretrievable military, political and moral defeats at the hands of the heroic Korean people and the People’s Army, at last fell to their knees before the Korean people and signed the Armistice Agreement.
On July 27, 1953, the just Fatherland Liberation War of the Korean people against the US imperialist aggressors came to an end in a great victory. That night a gun salute to victory was fired into the sky of Pyongyang, the capital of the country.
The Korean people achieved a brilliant victory in the arduous war against the two million strong enemy forces from 16 nations, including the US aggressors and south Korean puppet army. Kim Il Sung’s pre-eminent and seasoned leadership was the basic factor in this victory.
Under the wise leadership of Kim Il Sung, the Korean people and the People’s Army emerged victorious in the Fatherland Liberation War. They firmly defended the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; and honourably safeguarded national sovereignty and the gains of the revolution, and exalted the dignity and honour of heroic Korea throughout the world. They also made a great contribution to defending the security of the socialist countries, the people’s democracies and world peace, and shattered the illusions about the strength of the US imperialists, sending US imperialism into a decline.
For his immortal accomplishments made before the Party and the revolution, the country and the people, and the times and history by leading the Fatherland Liberation War to a brilliant victory, Kim Il Sung was awarded the title of Marshal of the DPRK on February 7, 1953 and the title of Hero of the DPRK on July 28 the same year.
Kim Il Sung enjoyed boundless trust and high respect from everyone as a gifted military strategist and ever-victorious, iron-willed brilliant commander who led two revolutionary wars to victory in one generation by crushing the Japanese imperialists, the self-styled leader of Asia, and defeating the US imperialists who had boasted of being the “strongest” in the world.
8
JULY 1953-DECEMBER 1960
Following the ceasefire, Kim Il Sung mobilized the whole Party and the entire people for the postwar rehabilitation of the national economy and the laying of the foundations for socialist construction.
Following their victory in the Fatherland Liberation War, the Korean people were faced with heavy and difficult tasks: restoring the ravaged national economy; stabilizing and improving the deteriorated living standards of the people; and consolidating the revolutionary base of the northern half of Korea politically, economically and militarily. At the same time, they had to remain alert against the enemy’s move to provoke a new war and strengthen the national defence capability.
The war had destroyed everything and left only heaps of ashes, plunging the country into an extremely difficult situation, so confusing that the people were at a loss where to start and how. Worse still, many knotty problems arose one after another. The US imperialists claimed that it would take at least 100 years for Korea to rise to its feet again, while even Korea’s friends expressed their apprehension about the situation.
Kim Il Sung dynamically pushed ahead with the struggle for postwar reconstruction, with the full conviction that as long as there were people, territory, the Party and the people’s government, a new life could certainly be rebuilt, however great the war damage and however bad the conditions. He put forward a militant slogan, “Everything for the postwar rehabilitation and development of the national economy to strengthen the democratic base!” in a historic radio address delivered to the entire Korean people on July 28, 1953, and straight from the platform of the Pyongyang mass rally held in celebration of victory in the war, he went to the Kangnam Ceramic Factory to give on-the-spot guidance. The following day, he visited the Pyongyang Textile Mill and the Hwanghae Iron Works, and on August 3, the Kangson Steel Plant and factories and enterprises in the Nampho area. During his visits he discussed with the workers and technicians there the way to rehabilitate production, and told them that they must display the spirit of the Koreans in reconstruction as well.
On August 5, 1953, he convened the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee, at which he delivered an important report, titled Everything for the Postwar Rehabilitation and Development of the National Economy. In the report he pointed out the main direction of the postwar reconstruction and the ways for its implementation, and put forward the basic line of the postwar economic construction.
Kim Il Sung said;
“In postwar economic construction we must follow the line of giving priority to the rehabilitation and development of heavy industry, and simultaneously developing light industry and agriculture. This alone will enable us to consolidate our economic base and rapidly improve the people’s life.”
The basic line of the postwar economic construction was a correct line based on the scientific calculation of the actual possibilities and the law-governed requirements of the economic development of the country for stabilizing and improving the people’s living standards and rapidly laying down the material and technical foundation of socialism; a creative line making it possible to develop the economy at an ever-increasing speed through effective extended reproduction; and a revolutionary line representing the unbreakable attitude of the Party that it would build a self-sufficient national economy quickly on the basis of the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude.
He set three main stages for the grand postwar economic reconstruction-the first being the stage of preparation for comprehensive reconstruction for half a year or a year, the second being that for implementing the three-year plan geared to restoring all sectors of the national economy to their prewar levels, and the third being that for carrying out the five-year plan envisaging the laying of the foundation of socialist industrialization. At the same time he set out the goal and direction of each stage.
Kim Il Sung wisely guided the struggle for postwar reconstruction.
He took political and economic measures to successfully promote postwar reconstruction.
Regarding it as a key to the victory in economic reconstruction to strengthen the Party and tap the inexhaustible strength of the masses, he organized an intensive Partywide rediscussion of the document of the Fifth Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee to ensure the purity of the Party ranks and help the Party members to cherish their intense loyalty to the Party. He also intensified politico-ideological education among the Party members and other working people so that they could give full play to the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude in postwar reconstruction.
In August 1953, he convened the National Meeting of Battle Heroes and called on all the people and officers and men of the KPA to perform heroic feats in the struggle for postwar reconstruction in the same spirit and mettle they had displayed in defeating US imperialism during the war. And at the Meeting of Activists of the DFRF in South Hamgyong Province, held in October that year, and at the Seventh Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee, convened in December the same year, he adopted measures for improving the work of the united front in conformity with the new situation created after the war, and ensured that the masses of the people of all walks of life all turned out for reconstruction, united more solidly behind the Party.
He restructured the war-time economic system to meet the requirements of the new situation following the war, sent competent officials to all spheres of economic construction, and got numerous officers and men of the KPA discharged and sent to various sectors of the national economy.
While taking one revolutionary measure after another to ensure success in postwar reconstruction, he gave ceaseless on-the-spot guidance to many factories and enterprises, farms and construction sites, and educational and cultural institutes, vigorously inspiring the working people and soldiers, youth and students who turned out for reconstruction.
In hearty response to his call, all the people gave the fullest play to their patriotic devotion during reconstruction to build a prosperous country on the debris, tightening their belts.
The workers of the Kangson Steel Plant and many other factories and enterprises restored their production facilities and started production in only a few weeks after the ceasefire, while railway workers ensured train operations on the trunk lines in only a few days after the war ended.
As a result, the tasks to be tackled at the stage of preparation for comprehensive reconstruction were carried out successfully within a short period of five months, and the whole country was able to set about the work to implement the three-year plan for the national economy from 1954.
Kim Il Sung held a consultative meeting of the senior officials of all economic sectors in October 1953, in which he explained central matters of principle in drawing up the Three-Year Plan for the National Economy (1954-1956).
The basic tasks to be pursued by the three-year plan were to reconstruct the economy ruined by the war as soon as possible and to restore all sectors of the national economy to their prewar level. The rehabilitation envisaged by the plan was not confined to restoration to the former state, but geared to eradicating the colonial lopsidedness of industry and creating conditions for effecting the industrialization of the country. It was, indeed, a huge project.
At a Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee held in March 1954 to ensure success in the implementation of the three-year plan, he stressed that the officials should improve their administration of the national economy and work methods to meet the changed situation after the war and that the Party organizations should now direct their attention to industry, the leading sector of the national economy, unlike the wartime period when they had to channel their efforts into agriculture, and step up the Party guidance of economic construction. He called a series of cabinet meetings and meetings of leaders of different sectors of the national economy to set out specific tasks and ways for the implementation of the plan for the national economy.
At the same time as leading the fulfilment of the three-year plan,
Kim Il Sung paid special attention to the implementation of the basic line of postwar economic construction.
Undaunted by the obstructive manoeuvres of the anti-Party factionalists who opposed the Party’s basic line of economic construction, he gave top priority to the reconstruction of heavy industry, and appropriately combined the reconstruction and enlargement of the existing heavy industries with the building of new ones; he concentrated on the building of heavy industry, not for its own sake but because it was indispensable to the development of light industry and agriculture and the improvement of the people’s living standards.
On a visit to the Hwanghae Iron Works in June 1954, he held the factory up as “Height 1211” (an important height in the war-Tr.) of postwar economic construction. In July, when he inspected the Kim Chaek Iron Works and the Songjin Steel Plant, he instructed that the reconstruction of the factories should be pursued in a far-sighted way, and set the tasks and ways for increased production of iron and steel. On his visit to the Kangson Steel Plant in November the following year, he inspired the workers there to take the lead in carrying out the three-year plan.
Consequently, the No. 1 open-hearth furnace and a large-sized crude steel rolling shop of the Hwanghae Iron Works, the blooming shop of the Kangson Steel Plant and the No.l coke oven of the Kim Chaek Iron Works were reconstructed and put into commission in a short span of time.
Attaching great significance to establishing a base for the machinery industry, Kim Il Sung held a consultative meeting of leading functionaries and workers of the Huichon Machine Factory and the Huichon Automobile Parts Factory in April 1954, at which he set out the tasks for developing the machinery industry and, subsequently, visited the Kusong, Pukjung and Ragwon Machine Factories and other machinery factories and construction sites to help the building of the bases for the production of machines of various kinds.
In order to ensure the simultaneous development of light industry and agriculture, he saw to it that the foundation of light industry was laid by restoring or building large light industries, including the Pyongyang, Kusong and Sinuiju Textile Mills and the Chongjin Spinning Mill, and constructing foodstuff processing factories and consumer goods factories throughout the country; he made efforts to get the devastated rural economy restored rapidly, the irrigated area enlarged through the first-stage Phyong-nam irrigation project, and the bases for the production of farm machinery and chemical fertilizers reconstructed and expanded. As a part of his efforts to stabilize and improve the people’s living standards in spite of the difficult situation of postwar reconstruction, he had schools and dwelling houses built at state expense, commodity prices lowered and the salaries of workers and office employees markedly raised on several occasions.
Kim Il Sung pushed forward socialist revolution aimed at transforming production relations along socialist lines in urban and rural areas, in parallel with the postwar economic construction.
In the period of socialist revolution the matter of liquidating exploitation and oppression and realizing socio-political independence of the masses, that is, social reform, comes to the fore.
Regarding the postwar period as a most appropriate time for effecting agricultural cooperativization, Kim Il Sung stepped up the socialist transformation of the rural economy in real earnest.
The Party proposed the task of agricultural cooperativization at the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee convened in August 1953, right after the armistice.
Regardless of the existing formulas or the experiences of foreign countries, Kim Il Sung put forward his original policy of carrying out the socialist transformation of the economic form of agriculture, prior to the technical reconstruction of the agricultural economy, in a unique Korean way suited to specific situation of the country.
He illuminated from a new aspect, on the basis of the fundamental principles of the Juche idea, that the decisive conditions for the cooperativization of the rural economy do not hinge on whether or not the rural economy is equipped with modern technology, but whether agricultural cooperativization presents itself as essential to the farmers and whether the internal forces to undertake it are available.
He ensured that in the cooperativization of the rural economy the voluntary principle was strictly adhered to, farmers educated by factual presentation and the guidance and assistance of the Party and state intensified. He pursued the class policy of firmly relying on poor peasants, strengthening the alliance with the middle peasants and restricting and gradually remoulding the rich peasants. He got the forms and sizes of the cooperatives and the methods of pooling means of production defined in conformity with the farmers’ level of ideological consciousness and the specific situation of the rural economy. He set the year 1954 as the experimental stage of the agricultural cooperativization movement, and made the poor peasants and core elements of the rural economy, the most active supporters of cooperativization, organize cooperatives in their respective counties on an experimental basis.
In speeches made on several occasions, including On Some Problems Arising in Organizing and Operating Agricultural Cooperatives, delivered at a consultative meeting of functionaries of agricultural producers’ associations and front operative corps held in December 1953, and On the Efficient Management of Experimental Agricultural Cooperatives, made at a consultative meeting of the chairmen of the agricultural cooperatives in South Phyongan Province convened in February 1954, he set out concrete ways and tasks for organizing and consolidating agricultural cooperatives and improving their management.
Even on his first birthday after the ceasefire, he visited Samjong-ri, Junghwa County, sat with cooperative farmers there and explained to them the ways for bringing the superiority of cooperative to the full in detail.
Under his meticulous guidance the agricultural cooperatives began to display their superiority from the first year of their formation-their per-unit grain output was 10 to 50 per cent more than that of private farming and their members’ cash income was 2 to 7 times more than that of private farmers.
In his concluding speech, titled On Our Party’s Policy for the Future Development of Agriculture, delivered at a plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee called in November 1954, he summed up the brilliant successes gained at the experimental stage of the agricultural cooperativization movement and set out the task of strenuously undertaking it as a mass movement. He got every provincial Party committee to hold a plenary meeting to discuss the implementation of the decision of the November Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee, reviewed the results of such meetings at a session of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee called in late December, and had a decision of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee on developing the agricultural cooperativization movement as a mass movement issued to subordinate bodies.
As a result, the agricultural cooperativization movement was able to enter the stage of a mass movement from 1955, on the basis of the success achieved at the experimental stage.
Kim Il Sung put onto the right track in time such deviations as attempting to accelerate the movement in an administrative way at the stage of the mass movement, in violation of the voluntary principle, spurred by impetuosity, and organizing only the cooperatives of higher form or large size in disregard of the specific conditions of a particular area, as well as the negative practices displayed by some farmers. He also led the people to wage a relentless struggle against class enemies who were opposed to the agricultural cooperative movement.
He took a variety of revolutionary measures to consolidate the rapidly-in-creasing cooperatives politically, ideologically, economically and technically, and improve their management, guiding the work on the spot.
During the period of agricultural cooperativization, he gave personal guidance to agricultural sectors in South Phyongan Province on nearly one hundred occasions. In November 1955, he visited the Wonhwa Cooperative Farm in Sunan County and warmly encouraged the members to develop the cooperative by fanning well, saying he was also a member of the cooperative.
He put forward the slogan “Rice Is Socialism,” with the intention of inducing the farmers to increase grain production by bringing the vitality of agricultural cooperativization into full play.
The cooperative movement was promoted rapidly, resulting in the enlistment of 80. 9 percent of all the rural households in cooperative farms at the close of 1956.
Concurrently with the agricultural cooperativization movement,
Kim Il Sung pushed ahead with the socialist transformation of urban handicrafts and capitalist trade and industry.
Drawing on the experiences gained in the cooperativization of the handicraft economy, which had been carried out on a partial scale before the war, he saw to it that producers’ cooperatives were organized among handicraftsmen on a broad scale after the ceasefire, and that material, technical and financial assistance to them intensified to consolidate them.
As a result, the postwar socialist transformation of the handicraft economy was rapidly accelerated, and almost finished by 1956.
He put forward a unique policy of transforming the capitalist tradesmen and industrialists along socialist lines without confiscating their property, since the war reduced them to a position similar to that of the handicraftsmen.
He ensured that the capitalist tradesmen and industrialists were admitted into producers’ cooperatives, salesmen’s cooperatives, producer-salesman cooperatives and other kinds of cooperatives on a voluntary basis.
He also pursued the policy of transforming all tradesmen and industrialists into socialist workers through close combination of both economic transformation and remoulding of men, and leading them to socialist and communist society.
His wise leadership led to the successful promotion of the socialist transformation of capitalist trade and industry after the war.
He resolutely rejected the obstructive moves of the revisionists and great-power chauvinists, sycophants towards great powers and dogmatists, on the basis of his firm conviction in socialist revolution and socialist construction, and published in April 1955 theses on the character and tasks of the Korean revolution, titled Every Effort for the Country’s Reunification and Independence and for Socialist Construction in the Northern Half of Korea.
In the theses he scientifically analyzed the different political situations, complicated socio-economic relations and class relations in the north and south of Korea, and on this basis, clearly defined the character and basic tasks of the Korean revolution as a whole. He also referred to the need to dynamically push forward socialist revolution and socialist construction in the northern half of Korea for the nationwide victory of the revolution. He also set out the duty and tasks of the Party in laying the foundations of socialist construction.
Kim Il Sung said:
“The basic task of our Party at the present stage of the transition to socialism is to lay the foundations of socialism on the basis of the achievements gained in the struggle for postwar rehabilitation and the development of the economy, while consolidating the worker-peasant alliance.”
He defined the general task for laying the foundations of socialism as establishing the undivided sway of socialist relations of production in town and countryside by transforming the small commodity sector and the capitalist form, and building the foundations of socialist industrialization by developing the productivity of the country.
Kim Il Sung paid close attention to improving the class consciousness of the Party members and other working people, preparing them ideologically and rallying them around the Party, now that socialist revolution and construction in the northern half of Korea would be accompanied by a thorough class struggle.
In his historic reports On Intensifying Class Education for Party Members and On Eliminating Bureaucracy, and his concluding speech On Some Questions Concerning Party and State Work at the Present Stage of the Socialist Revolution, delivered at a plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee in April 1955, he explained in detail the necessity and significance of class education in the Party and its basic direction and method. He said that it was important to eliminate bureaucracy, improve the work method and style of the Party, and strengthen the ties between the Party and the masses. He also mentioned the sectarian elements lingering in the Party, and stressed the need to prevent the factionalists and advocates of individualistic heroism from weakening the Party ranks and strive energetically to strengthen the unity and cohesion of the Party.
Following the April Plenary Meeting, Kim Il Sung had the documents of this meeting discussed and studied widely in the Party, channelled great efforts into intensifying class education among workers, farmers, soldiers of the People’s Army and young students to awaken them to class consciousness, and ensured that intensive ideological education and Partywide ideological struggle were conducted dynamically to eliminate bureaucracy, thus bringing the revolutionary zeal and creative enthusiasm of the masses into full play in socialist construction.
He also took resolute measures to oppose the servile attitude to great powers and dogmatism, and establish Juche more thoroughly.
The sycophants towards great powers, dogmatists and factionalists accustomed to swallowing up and taking their cue from foreign things, indiscriminately slandered and opposed the original lines and policies the Party put forward after the war, and tried to advocate only the foreign ones. In this period of time, the great-power chauvinists were attempting to keep the DPRK at their beck and call, forcing it to join the Warsaw Pact and Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA).
Attaching primary importance to establishing Juche in ideological work, Kim Il Sung made a historic speech to the Party propaganda and agitation workers in December 1955. In this speech, titled On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work, he set out the important task of establishing Juche in the ideological work of the Party.
He said:
“What is Juche in our Party’s ideological work? What are we doing? We are not engaged in any other country’s revolution, but solely in the
Korean revolution. This, the Korean revolution, determines the essence of Juche in the ideological work of our Party. Therefore, all ideological work must be subordinated to the interests of the Korean revolution.”
In order to establish Juche in the Party’s ideological work, he stressed that it was imperative for them to eliminate any tendency towards national nihilism, become well versed in Korean history, geography and customs, and deeply study the history of the Korean people’s struggle and the revolutionary traditions of the Party, and give wide publicity to them. He added that they must do away with the sycophantic attitude towards great powers, diligently study Korean things, and master the Party’s lines and policies, by which they should educate the Party members and other working people. He continued to emphasize that Marxism and Leninism and foreign experiences should not be accepted dogmatically but be applied creatively in accordance with the specific situation of Korea.
The year 1955 marked a turning point in the Party’s consistent struggle to oppose flunkeyism and dogmatism, and to establish Juche. It was from that very year that the Party’s struggle against dogmatism was combined with the struggle against modern revisionism.
At a session of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee held in February 1956, following the meeting of Party propaganda and agitation workers, he took measures to improve the form and content of the Party’s ideological work in a comprehensive way, and equip the Party members and other working people with the Juche idea. In January and March of the same year he set out a policy and ways for developing the traditional national art and culture in a Juche-oriented way.
As a result of an intense struggle to establish Juche in the ideological sphere, a fresh turn was effected in the ideological life and way of thinking of Party members and other working people.
At the same time as establishing Juche in the ideological sphere,
Kim Il Sung ensured full implementation of the principles of independence in politics, self-sufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in national defence.
In order to present a new fighting programme to the Party and the people, he had the Third Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea called from the 23rd to 29th of April 1956, when the postwar reconstruction of the national economy was near completion and a decisive victory was being secured in the socialist transformation of the relations of production.
In his report to the Congress, he summarized the successes and experiences gained in the activities of the Party during the period under review, and set out programmatic tasks for inspiring the Party and people to a new victory.
He clarified once again the independent and principled foreign policy of the Party, and set out the objectives of the Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy (1957-1961) that had to be attained to implement the programme for laying the foundations of socialism in a short span of time.
He set forth the tasks for consolidating and developing the state and social system, and suggested detailed proposals for accomplishing independent national reunification.
He also set out the tasks to be tackled in opposing factionalism, maintaining the unity and cohesion of the Party, improving the Party’s organizational work, and thoroughly establishing Juche in Party’s ideological work, in order to further consolidate and develop the Party.
The Congress passed the new Party Rules to meet the requirements of Party building and the developing revolution, and adopted a declaration, titled “For the Peaceful Reunification of the Country”.
The Congress re-elected Kim Il Sung Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, representing the unanimous will and desire of all the Party members and people.
With its Third Congress as a landmark, the Workers’ Party of Korea entered a new stage of its development, and the revolution and construction were able to make greater headway.
After the Congress, Kim Il Sung directed primary attention at the struggle to strengthen the unity and cohesion of the Party.
With the revolutionary situation becoming more difficult and complicated, due to the “anti-communist” and “march north” clamour of the US imperialists and their south Korean puppets, increasing pressure of the big-power chauvinists and a variety of economic difficulties, the anti-Party, counterrevolutionary factionalists who had been lurking within the Party, waiting for their chance, raised their heads.
At a plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee held in August 1956, Kim Il Sung took resolute measures to expose and eliminate the anti-Party, counterrevolutionary factionalists who flew in the face of the Party.
The plenary meeting reviewed the work of the government delegation which visited socialist countries and discussed some urgent tasks of the Party, and the matter of improving the public health. But the anti-Party and counterrevolutionary factionalists attacked the Party, raising preposterous problems unrelated whatsoever to the agenda items.
The anti-Japanese revolutionary veterans and other attendants at the meeting delivered a telling blow to this desperate challenge.
The sectarian group subjected to exposure and destruction during the meeting was not a mere faction but an atrocious anti-Party and counterrevolutionary clique that attempted to overthrow the Party and the government in collusion with the US imperialists.
At the meeting, Kim Il Sung cautioned the attendants against any factional activities in the Party, and stressed that they must resolutely smash all factional attempts no matter under what pretexts they were made and how trifling they might seem.
Historical lessons teach that factionalists carry their bad habit of sectarianism to their graves, and that they will, in the long run, betray the Party and revolution, and follow the road of counterrevolution.
In later days, Kim Il Sung bitterly said that his hair turned grey because of the factionalists.
After the August Plenary Meeting, Kim Il Sung pointed out the principles to be adhered to in the struggle against factionalism, as well as the ways for anti-factionalist struggle, and ensured that a dynamic struggle against factionalism was launched within the Party.
The workers in the Kangson Steel Plant told Kim Il Sung that if the factionalists were sent to them, they would throw them into the electric furnace, and a granny in Thaesong Village told him; “Premier, after all, it’s we who will win, and not the factionalist rogues, you see? Don’t worry. We support you.” These were expressions of the steely conviction and will of the entire people of the country. Through the struggle against factionalism the purity of the Party ranks was secured all the more, and the unity and cohesion of the Party and revolutionary ranks was made unbreakable.
While launching a decisive counteroffensive upon the enemy within and without, by building up the Party ranks and uniting the entire people firmly behind the Party, Kim Il Sung channelled his main efforts into socialist economic construction.
He called a Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee in December 1956, at which he advanced a revolutionary policy on bringing about a revolutionary upswing in socialist construction, and put forward the militant slogan “Let Us Produce More, Practise Economy, and Overfulfil the Five-Year Plan Ahead of Schedule!”
After the meeting, he went among the masses of the people and inspired them forcefully to an upswing in socialist construction.
In late December 1956, he went to the Kangson Steel Plant and convened a consultative meeting of leading officials and model workers there. After the meeting, he called the workers together and candidly explained to them the essence of the December Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee, the prevailing situation in and around the country and the difficulties faced by the country. He told them that the Party had nobody to rely on except the working class and people, and expressed his great trust in and expectation of them. He continued that if they produced just 10,000 more tons of structural steel than planned, it would help the country greatly, and indicated ways for exploring untapped resources for increased production. He visited the Hwanghae Iron Works in early January of the following year, and subsequently inspected factories, enterprises, farms, construction sites, fisheries and so on throughout the country one after another, leading the working people on the grand march of Chollima.
He called Plenary Meetings of the Party Central Committee in April and October, respectively, in 1957 to take steps to shore up the backward fishing industry and construction sector.
Under the slogan “Charge at the Speed of Chollima!” put forward by him, the working class and other working people worked hard to tap all inner resources and produce and economize to the maximum by displaying the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude to the full, and thus made miracles and innovations on all fronts of socialist construction.
By working hard, with a burning desire to defend and support
Kim Il Sung with steel production, the workers of the Kangson Steel Plant rolled 120,000 tons of steel plate using a blooming mill with only a 60,000-ton capacity-a miracle, indeed, sparking the flames of a great upsurge in the whole plant. These flames rapidly spread far and wide across the country. The workers at the Kim Chaek Iron Works produced 270,000 tons of pig iron with equipment of only a 190,000-ton capacity, and the workers of the Hwanghae Iron Works built a large blast furnace by their own efforts and technology within less than a year.
The year 1957 saw a rapid increase in industrial output-by 44 per cent-and overfulfilment of the plan for grain production by 12 per cent.
With the great revolutionary upsurge sweeping across the country, the “anti-communist” offensive and “dash-to-the-north” fuss of the enemy and all types of schemes of the anti-Party, counterrevolutionary factionalists were smashed, and the revisionists and big-power chauvinists surrendered. The great upswing in socialist construction gave rise to the Chollima movement, turning misfortune into a blessing.
The Chollima movement, which debuted at the historical December Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee, was an all-people movement to sweep away all sorts of old habits in all domains of the economy and culture, ideology and morality, create new habits, and expedite socialist construction to the maximum, by giving full scope to the revolutionary zeal and creativity of the working masses.
The movement became a general line of the Party in socialist construction.
Kim Il Sung called a conference of the Workers’ Party of Korea in March 1958, when a new upsurge was in effect in socialist economic construction.
The conference discussed matters concerning the First Five-Year Plan for Development of the National Economy of the Country and the further strengthening of the unity and cohesion of the Party.
In his concluding speech, titled For the Successful Implementation of the First Five-Year Plan, delivered at the conference, Kim Il Sung specified the tasks of all sectors of the national economy on the basis of the basic direction of the five-year plan defined by the Third Congress of the Party, reviewed the struggle against factionalism and set out important tasks for further strengthening the unity and cohesion of the Party.
He referred to the need to make a clean sweep of factionalism and its hotbed, nepotism and parochialism, and launch a dynamic struggle against revisionism, in order to further cement the unity and cohesion of the Party.
He also stressed that it was important to intensify Party life and ideolog- ical education among the Party members and step up the Partywide campaign to support the Party Centre and loyally uphold its leadership in the struggle against factionalism.
He made efforts to smash the outmoded bureaucratic and formalistic work style patterned after that of the factionalists and sycophants towards great powers, and effect a fresh revolutionary turn in Party work, while ensuring that a dynamic struggle against factionalism and for a revolutionary upsurge in socialist construction was launched.
He said:
“Our Party work has undergone a great change since the April 1955 Plenary Meeting, the Third Party Congress and, especially, since the anti-fac-tionalist struggle in 1956.”
In order to do away with the outmoded bureaucratic and formalistic work style, he directed his primary attention to firmly equipping the Party officials with the principles of Juche-oriented Party work.
In his speeches, titled On Strengthening Party Organizations and Implementing the Party’s Economic Policy, delivered to provincial, city and county Party workers and Party organizers in July 1957, and On Improving Party Work, addressed to the chairmen of provincial, city and county Party and people’s committees in March 1958 and in many other works, he defined Party work as work with people, and emphasized that the Party organizations should intensify their inner work and Party guidance of administrative and economic affairs, Party workers should on no account adopt an administrative and commanding work style or coercive methods, but do then- work mainly by persuasion and education. He also newly clarified the theory of Party work, including the essence, main content and method of Party work.
In keeping with the in-depth development of the Juche-oriented theory of Party work, Kim Il Sung got the system of Party work completely reformed accordingly.
He saw to it that revolutionary discipline was established whereby Party workers and Party organizations at all levels, ranging from the Party Central Committee to primary organizations, would get acquainted with the Party’s will and policies, and carry them out without fail. He also clearly defined the positions and main tasks of the departments of the Party, and established a new personnel management system and a system under which all the departments worked with their subordinate Party organizations, cadres and members as required by their positions and functions. In order to decisively intensify the Party’s guidance of the revolution and construction, he defined the Party committee of a certain unit as the highest leadership body of that unit, and established a system under which all institutions- state, economic, cultural, etc- and all organizations, be they working people’s organizations or whatever, would, without exception, organize and carry out all their work under the collective guidance of their relevant Party committees.
With great attention paid to the establishment of the revolutionary work method, Kim Il Sung made officials discard their bureaucratic work method and establish a revolutionary one.
He had the previous “Party examination” renamed “intensive Party guidance” and ensured that guidance team members did not search for people’s shortcomings, as they had done before, but helped and taught the masses to find out their shortcomings and correct them by themselves. This was the creation of a new method of guidance of subordinate units.
Kim Il Sung directed close attention to improving and intensifying Party political work within the People’s Army.
In his historical concluding speech, titled Tasks for Improving Party Political Work in the People’s Army, delivered at a plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee held in March 1958, he clearly set the direction of Party political work in the People’s Army.
He said:
“The orientation we set today for Party political work in the People’s Army has two aspects. One is to further strengthen political life and life in the Party organization, and the other is to further intensify ideological education. This is precisely the basic message of the present plenary meeting.”
He referred to the need to establish the system of Party committees and organize Party committees at all levels within the whole People’s Army, in order to improve Party political work in the army, saying that the Party committees in the People’s Army should perform the function of guiding the work of the political organs of the army, and intensifying guidance and control over the Party life of commanding officers.
He stressed that it was imperative to bring home to all the officers and men of the army the idea that the People’s Army is an army of the Workers’ Party of Korea, a revolutionary army which has inherited the revolutionary traditions of the anti-Japanese struggle, and equip them thoroughly with socialist patriotism.
His concluding speech served as an important guideline in eliminating the evil consequences of factionalism in the People’s Army and improving Party work in the army.
Kim Il Sung channelled great efforts into building up the people’s power and enhancing its functions and role while improving Party work.
The election of deputies to the Second Supreme People’s Assembly, which was held in August 1957, ended in brilliant success-an indication of the unreserved respect for and trust in Kim Il Sung, who had overcome severe difficulties and led the Korean revolution to a great upsurge, and a historic occasion in strengthening the people’s power.
The First Session of the Second Supreme People’s Assembly acclaimed Kim Il Sung once again as the Premier of the DPRK Cabinet.
In several works, including On Improving and Strengthening the Work of County People’s Committees in Accordance with the New Circumstances and On the Immediate Tasks of the People’s Power in Socialist Construction, published respectively in July and September of 1957, he set out the immediate tasks to be tackled by the people’s power organs in changing the work system and method of the people’s committees, and accelerating socialist construction.
As a result, the role of the people’s power as the economic organizer and cultural-educational body was enhanced, the work system of the people’s committees was reorganized from the previous system of guiding the private economy into that of guiding the socialist collective economy, and the planning work of the local people’s committees was stepped up.
Kim Il Sung made efforts to frustrate the counterrevolutionary moves of the class enemy that were attempting to hold in check the advance of the revolution, and especially to further the dictatorial functions of the people’s power.
In May 1957, the Presidium of the Party Central Committee adopted a decision on intensifying the struggle against the counterrevolutionaries. In the wake of this, Kim Il Sung saw to it that in the struggle against counterrevolutionary practice friend was clearly distinguished from foe and the spearhead of attack directed at criminals, and that the struggle was launched as a regular political struggle and all-people struggle.
He showed his deep concern for enhancing the role of judicial, procuratorial and public security organs in this struggle. In a speech delivered at a meeting of public security activists in March 1958 and another important speech, titled For the Implementation of the Judicial Policy of Our Party, made at a national conference of judicial workers and public procurators held in April of the same year, he disclosed the inadequacy and harmful aspect of the revisionist sophism of anti-Party, counterrevolutionary factionalists who denied the class nature of the laws, emphatically saying that the dictatorial functions of the judicial, procuratorial and public security organs should be enhanced.
He said:
“Some people seem to think that the people’s democratic dictatorship in our country is not a dictatorship of the proletariat but some sort of intermediate dictatorship between that of the proletariat and that of the bourgeoisie, and they wrongly believe that since our government is based on a united front, our people’s power does not belong to the category of the dictatorship of the proletariat. That is wrong. The present people’s democratic government in our country does belong to the category of the dictatorship of the proletariat. We are now building socialism. The power that builds socialism must be, in essence, the dictatorship of the proletariat.”
He said that the DPRK’s laws should serve as a weapon to champion socialism, emphasizing that all the workers of the judicial organs should be true to the Party’s leadership and intensify the struggle against counterrevolutionaries by firmly relying on the judicial policy of the Party.
His instructions were thoroughly implemented, with the result that the Korean people’s government was able to be further consolidated as a powerful weapon for socialist construction, and the schemes of the class enemies exposed and smashed through an intensive struggle against counterrevolution, and the socialist revolution and construction stepped up victoriously.
While firmly uniting all the people behind the Party and building up the revolutionary base, Kim Il Sung wisely led the struggle for completing socialist transformation in urban and rural areas.
In the DPRK the agricultural cooperativization movement entered its final stage after the Third Congress of the Worker’s Party of Korea.
He strove to follow up the success gained in cooperativization on the one hand and to get all the private farmers on the outskirts of towns and in mountainous areas and newly-liberated zones, who had not yet joined cooperatives, enlisted in the cooperative economy in various ways suited to their specific circumstances.
As a result, agricultural cooperativization was successfully completed by August 1958-a great revolution wrought in the countryside.
As a follow-up to the socialist transformation of the rural economy, he made the cooperatives merged with ri as units, to develop them into more advanced and stable socialist cooperatives.
Thanks to his wise leadership, the socialist transformation of both individual handicraft work and capitalist commerce and industry was completed almost simultaneously with the completion of agricultural cooperativization. Consequently, the socialist transformation of the relations of production was carried out in the short period of four to five years, with the result that a most advanced people-centred Korean-style socialist system, free from exploitation and oppression, was established in the northern half of Korea.
The Korean style of socialism struck its roots deeply among the people, for it had been chosen and built by the Korean people themselves.
In September 1958, Kim Il Sung was awarded the title of Labour Hero of the DPRK for the immortal exploits he had made in bringing about the independence of the masses of the people by leading the socialist revolution and construction in Korea to victory.
In his classic works, including Report at Celebrations Marking the Tenth Anniversary of the Founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and On the Victory of Socialist Agricultural Cooperativization and the Future Development of Agriculture in Our Country, he advanced a new idea that the revolution should be continued to completely free the working masses from the fetters of outmoded ideology, culture and nature, because the remnants of the old society tend to linger for a long time even after the establishment of a socialist society.
Explaining that both the material and ideological fortresses should be occupied in order to build a communist society that would guarantee full independence for the masses of the working people, he defined the three revolutions-ideological, technological and cultural-as the main content of revolution to be carried out in socialist society and as the task to be fulfilled by the uninterrupted revolution till communism is built, and clarified the ways for carrying them out in all respects.
The theory of uninterrupted revolution in socialist society evolved by
Kim Il Sung constituted an important guideline for rejecting the Rightist and Leftist opportunist theories of revolution after the establishment of socialist society and for leading socialist and communist construction in a most correct way.
Once the socialist transformation of the relations of production had been completed, Kim Il Sung made tireless efforts to push forward the struggle to stimulate a great upsurge in socialist construction and accelerate the technical reconstruction of the national economy, in order to lay the foundations for socialist industrialization as soon as possible.
The work of laying the foundations for socialist industrialization was carried out in an extremely difficult situation in the country. Great-power chauvinists obstinately opposed the line of the Workers’ Party of Korea on creating heavy industry with the machinery industry as its core, while the sycophants towards great powers took their side. In addition, passivism, conservatism and distrust of technology got in the way.
Kim Il Sung strictly adhered to the Juche-based standpoint of creating a self-sufficient industry by the Korean people themselves. In his historic speeches, titled On Some Immediate Tasks of the City and County People’s Committees, Against Passiveness and Conservatism in Socialist Construction and Some Problems Arising in Bringing about a Fresh Upswing in Socialist Construction, made in 1958, he set the tasks of smashing passive-ness, conservatism and fear of technology, of maintaining the upswing in socialist construction by boldly thinking and acting, and of accelerating technical reconstruction of the national economy. He also ensured that the September Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee sent a letter to all Party members, calling on them to effect a greater upswing in socialist construction by further spurring the Chollima movement.
Under the slogan “Iron and Machines Are the Kings of Industry!”, he took revolutionary measures to bring about a revolutionary change in the development of the metal and machine-building industries, which were of great significance for industrialization and the technological revolution.
Following the September Plenary Meeting, Kim Il Sung, as a part of his efforts for the development of the metal industry, visited several iron works and steel plants, and pointed out the direction for steel production and the ways to put the production on a regular footing. He also took detailed steps to this end. Inspecting the Kiyang, Tokchon, Ryongsong, Pukjung and Rag-won machinery factories and the West Pyongyang Railway Factory, as part of his efforts to ensure the rapid development of the machine-building industry, he placed great confidence in the workers there and assigned them to the honourable tasks of manufacturing large machines and equipment, such as tractors and trucks, by their own efforts with courage and the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance displayed by the anti-Japanese guerrillas.
Upholding his idea and intention, the workers and technicians in the metal industry sector worked hard to extend and consolidate the steel production base and produce more structural steel. In spite of the difficult situation in which they had not a single blueprint and no manufacturing facilities, and everything was in short supply, the machine industry workers miraculously made the first Chollima tractor, Sungri-58 truck and Cholli-ma excavator in November, and a Pulgunbyol-58 bulldozer in December, 1958, and an 8-metre turning lathe and a 3,000-ton press in September and October of the following year, respectively. These were first-time achievements in the history of the country, the results of a lofty display of the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance in the face of the obstructive moves of the passivists, conservatives, those considering technology mysterious, and the great-power chauvinists.
In March 1959, Kim Il Sung visited a flax mill in Kyongsong County, where the workers had made a machine tool by themselves and were operating it. Setting great store by this spark of innovation, he called an enlarged meeting of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee in May of the same year, at which he lit the torch of the movement to “let one machine tool make other machine tools”. As a result of this movement, marvellous success was scored in producing 13,000 machine tools in excess of the plan within a single year throughout the country.
To instill fresh innovations in the construction sector, Kim Il Sung called a meeting of activists in that sector in Pyongyang City in February 1958, at which he set concrete tasks to be fulfilled by the construction sector, and inspected many construction sites, finding solutions to knotty problems one after the other.
For the rapid development of the electricity industry, he visited the Suphung Power Station in June 1958, and the construction sites of the Jang-jagang and Unbong Power Stations in August of the same year, thereby taking revolutionary measures to build more power stations around the country by the Koreans themselves.
Greatly interested in the swift advance of the chemical industry, he proposed the building of a vinalon factory, and showed the way to step up its construction on the spot.
Under his wise guidance, large-, medium- and small-sized power stations were constructed in many places, the “Pyongyang speed” was created in which a house was assembled every 14 minutes, and young workers completed the construction of the 80-km-long Haeju-Hasong railway line in only 75 days-a task which had been estimated to take 3-4 years.
In order to further the development of light industry, Kim Il Sung proposed a unique policy of developing large-scale central industries and medium and small-scale local industries in parallel, at a Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee held in June 1958, and saw to it that every city and county built more than one local-industry factory through an all-people movement. Thus, 1,000 local factories were built in less than three months. This number increased to 2,000 in less than a year, so meeting the demand for consumer goods.
With a view to effecting the technical reconstruction of the rural economy, Kim Il Sung set a policy of realizing mechanization, electrification and chemicalization in the countryside, with priority given to irrigation, and pushed it forward dynamically.
In particular, he put forward the militant slogan “Make Every Effort to Expand the Irrigated Land by One Million Hectares!” and made efforts to introduce irrigation system to non-paddy fields and expand the area of paddy fields under irrigation through a dynamic mass campaign, so as to basically complete the nationwide irrigation project in a short span of time.
His wise guidance led to a series of miracles and innovations in all sectors of the national economy, a leap forward in the development of the economy, and forceful promotion of technical reconstruction of the national economy.
While stimulating the upsurge of socialist construction and pushing forward the technical reconstruction of the national economy, Kim Il Sung paid close attention to ideological education among the Party members and other working people.
He endeavoured to ensure the inheritance and development of the revolutionary traditions of the Party, and to intensify education among the Party members and other working people in the revolutionary traditions, in order to build up the ranks of revolution and successfully carry out revolution and construction.
In his classic works, including The Korean People’s Army Has Inherited the Anti-Japanese Armed Struggle, Tasks of the Party Organizations in Ryanggang Province and On Intensifying Education in Communism and in the Revolutionary Traditions among Soldiers, published in 1958, he explained the matters of principle in carrying forward and developing the revolutionary traditions, and put forward the tasks to be tackled in intensifying education in the revolutionary traditions.
He clarified that the only traditions to be carried forward were the revolutionary traditions of the anti-Japanese guerrilla army, and that their main content were the Juche ideological system and communist revolutionary spirit, and the precious revolutionary exploits and rich fighting experiences, the revolutionary work method and popular work style. He taught that the revolutionary ideology and fighting spirit contained in the revolutionary traditions should be instilled into the Party members and other working people, and that education in the traditions should be carried on in a realistic and profound way in close combination with revolutionary practice.
With the intention of thoroughly equipping the Party members and other working people with the revolutionary traditions of the Party, he visited Pochonbo, Samjiyon and other revolutionary battle sites and historic places in Ryanggang Province in May 1958, and gave detailed instructions as to the need to intensify education in the revolutionary traditions. In November of the same year he presided over a session of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee, in which he took positive measures to step up education in the revolutionary traditions.
He established a system of education in the revolutionary traditions throughout the Party and sent an expedition to the revolutionary battle sites to discover, collect and put in order the valuable historical data and relics associated with the anti-Japanese struggle in an all-round way. He also ensured that the revolutionary places and battle sites, revolutionary museums, revolutionary history halls and “halls for the study of the history of the Workers’ Party of Korea” were built as centres of education in the revolutionary traditions. At the same time, he got the reminiscences of the anti-Japanese guerrillas and books containing the experiences in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle published widely, and artistic and literary works with the revolutionary traditions as the themes created and disseminated on a large scale.
Kim Il Sung wholeheartedly concerned himself with the intensive education of the Party members and other working people in communism, in keeping with the establishment of the socialist system and the ensuing promotion of socialist construction.
In his classic work On Communist Education, published in November 1958, and other works he comprehensively clarified the matters of principle in intensifying communist education.
What is important in communist education among the working people, he taught, is to inculcate in them the truth that socialism and communism are superior to capitalism and that the new emerges victorious and the old perishes, and to inspire them with the spirit of collectivism, socialist patriotism and proletarian internationalism, the spirit of love for work, the spirit of continuous revolution and the spirit of uninterrupted innovation and advance.
Saying that class education was essential to communist education, he pointed out concrete tasks and ways for intensifying communist education.
Furthermore, he saw to it that communist education was conducted in close combination with education in loyalty to the Party, in Party policies and in the revolutionary traditions, by exerting influence through positive examples, and with production sites as the bases.
In order to accelerate the remoulding of men and propel socialist construction, Kim Il Sung gave an impetus to the Chollima movement so as to develop it into a more organized Chollima workteam movement. He visited the workers at the Kangson Steel Works in February 1959 to light the first torch of the Chollima workteam movement.
Setting the ideological revolution as the first task to be tackled by the Chollima workteam movement, he saw to it that the movement was geared to educating and remoulding the people in such a way that one educated ten, ten a hundred, a hundred a thousand and a thousand ten thousand, under the communist slogan “One for All and All for One”, and inspiring them to collective innovations in production, all helping and leading one another.
Consequently, the Chollima workteam movement turned itself into a great communist school of the times for educating and remoulding all the working people to be communists, and a mass movement of ideological transformation, a mass innovation movement giving a strong impetus to the development of the national economy.
Kim Il Sung set cultural construction as a main task of socialist construction, and strove to effect a fresh turn in the development of science, education, public health, and art and literature.
As a result of the revolutionary measures he took, the educational sector introduced the system of universal compulsory primary education in 1956 and that of universal compulsory secondary education in 1958, and completely abolished tuition fee in schools at all levels, in 1959. Thus, universal compulsory free education was instituted. Factory colleges or factory technical colleges in which workers could study while working were instituted and operated in key factories.
Rapid headway was made in the public health sector, and success in the Juche-oriented study of vinalon and other brilliant results recorded in scientific research, while revolutionary art and literature flourished to cater to the aesthetic tastes of the Chollima era.
Kim Il Sung concentrated on improving the work system and method of the Party, state and economic organs to perfection to meet the requirements of the new circumstances, now that the socialist economic form prevailed throughout the country, the scope of production was growing extensively, and political enthusiasm of the masses was surging higher than ever before.
At the Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee held in December 1959, Kim Il Sung set out the tasks of radically improving the work system and method in conformity with the new circumstances, and in February 1960 he gave on-the-spot guidance to Chongsan-ri and Kangso County for a fortnight to implement the tasks.
Kim Il Sung started his guidance of Chongsan-ri by visiting farmers’ houses there, for the family lives of the cooperative farmers would mirror the general state of work in the area.
He called on an old couple to get thoroughly acquainted with their living conditions, and on his visit to the house of a woman workteam leader, inquired into her living conditions, lending his attentive eyes to the kitchen utensils and furniture in the rooms.
After getting familiar with the general conditions of the local cooperative farm through these visits, he had consultations and talks with officials of primary levels and ordinary cooperative farmers to acquire fuller details of the work of the local Party committee and management board. He then talked with about 60 Party and administration workers and core Party members, in order to grasp in greater detail the work of the county Party committee.
In the course of this he discovered shortcomings and knotty problems revealed in the Party and economic work, which he came to know were also prevalent in other ri and counties. On the basis of this he had a general membership meeting of the Party organization of Chongsan-ri and a plenary meeting of Kangso County Party Committee held, and taught in detail how to prepare and carry out such meetings.
In his speeches, titled For Correct Management of Socialist Agriculture, delivered at the general membership meeting of the Party organization of Chongsan-ri, On Improving the Work Methods of the County Party Organization in Accordance with the New Circumstances, made at the plenary meeting of the Kangso County Party Committee, and On the Lessons Drawn from Guidance for Kangso County Party Committee, addressed to an enlarged meeting of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee, he gave comprehensive answers to all the problems arising in correctly managing socialist agriculture and radically improving the work system and methods of Party, state and the economic bodies.
The new revolutionary work system and work methods he established and the practical example he set during his field guidance for Chongsan-ri and Kangso County, served as the bases on which the Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method were created.
The Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method created by Kim Il Sung is a scientific and communist idea and method of mass guidance which has embodied and developed the anti-Japanese guerrilla work method, the traditional work method of the Party based on the Juche idea and revolutionary mass line, to meet the new circumstances of socialist construction.
The Chongsanri spirit is an idea of mass guidance as an embodiment of the revolutionary mass line of the Party, the basic requirement of which is to safeguard the interests of the masses of the people and rely on them. The Chongsanri method is a scientific and revolutionary method of mass guidance whereby the higher body helps the lower, priority is always given to political work, a person becomes involved in direct work to have a good understanding of the actual situation and find correct solutions to problems, grasps the main link in work and concentrates efforts on it, and proper combination is made of general direction and individual guidance.
With this spirit and method established, the Juche-oriented leadership method could be developed to perfection more smoothly, and a powerful weapon was provided with which the working-class party could ensure correct revolutionary guidance to the masses of the people and guarantee a success in the building of socialism and communism.
Kim Il Sung dynamically pushed forward the work to popularize the Chongsanri spirit and method throughout the country. As a result, the revolutionary system, method and habit of work of the higher body helping the lower were established in all fields of the Party, state and economic guidance, Party work was thoroughly turned into work with people, and the Party’s lines and policies were brought home to the masses and implemented more successfully. A fresh change was effected in the work with the masses, and the work to educate and remould the working people turned into an undertaking of the masses themselves, an undertaking which was developed into a Partywide, all-people movement for ideological remoulding.
In his speech, titled The Main Thing in Party Work Is to Educate, Remould and Unite All the People, delivered at a general membership meeting of the Party organization of Rihyon-ri, Sungho County, he emphatically said that the success gained in work with people in the course of generalizing the Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method was invaluable, more precious than millions of tons of rice.
In the course of implementing this spirit and method, the Party’s leadership role was enhanced and the revolutionary ranks were strengthened all the more, with the result that greater impetus was given to the Chollima movement and the great upsurge in socialist construction.
Thanks to Kim Il Sung’s wise leadership, the Five-Year Plan for the National Economy was successfully fulfilled in the fierce flames of the Chollima movement and the great upsurge in socialist construction.
The fulfilment of the five-year plan resulted in the brilliant accomplishment of the historic task of laying the foundations of socialism. Consequently, the DPRK was turned into a socialist industrial-agricultural state governed by socialist relations of production and based on the solid foundations of a self-supporting national economy, the politico-ideological unity of the whole people strengthened on a new socialist basis, and the state and social system was further consolidated.
While strenuously pushing forward postwar reconstruction and the building of the foundations of socialism in the northern half of Korea,
Kim Il Sung wisely led the revolution in south Korea and the struggle for independent reunification of the country.
After the war, he clearly defined the character, motive force and target of the revolution in south Korea, indicated the directions and ways for its development, and advanced just and reasonable proposals for Korea’s independent and peaceful reunification.
Firmly grasping the policy of struggle put forward by him as the guiding principle, the south Korean revolutionaries and people waged a vigorous struggle against the US imperialists and their stooges in the face of all sorts of hardships and challenges. In April 1960 they rose up in a popular uprising, overthrowing the Syngman Rhee puppet regime.
The victory of the April Popular Uprising was the first of its kind the south Korean people achieved in their struggle for anti-US, national salvation after the war, and dealt a heavy blow to the colonial rule of the US imperialists.
At the same time as energetically pushing ahead with the struggle for national reunification, Kim Il Sung paid close attention to the development of the movement of the overseas Korean compatriots, particularly the movement of the Korean residents in Japan.
Kim Il Sung suggested that the Korean residents in Japan should make energetic efforts to work for their homeland, their nation, and for the Korean revolution after the war. This meant the switchover of their movement line, and the active struggle of the Korean residents in Japan to implement his Juche-oriented policy resulted in the formation of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), their genuine organization, in May 1955.
The formation of Chongryon, the DPRK’s dignified organization of Korean nationals abroad and the first Juche-type organization of overseas compatriots, was the brilliant fruition of Kim Il Sung’s idea and leadership to the movement of overseas Koreans, and a historic event which brought about a radical change in the movement of the Korean residents in Japan and in their lives.
Continuing to show keen interest in the work of Chongryon after its formation, he clearly indicated the direction and ways for strengthening and developing the organization in his speeches, talks and letters, including The Line of the Patriotic Movement of Chongryon Is a Just Line and On Some Problems to Be Adhered to in Chongryon Work.
He strove to build up Chongryon organizations practically and ideologically, while inspiring all the Korean residents in Japan to a vigorous struggle to defend their democratic national rights and dignity.
Regarding the national education of the Korean children in Japan as an important undertaking to defend the national character, he took a warm compatriotic measure of annually sending great amounts of aid funds for education and scholarships to the Korean children in Japan in April 1957, when the entire nation was committed to the fulfilment of the first-year tasks of the First Five-Year Plan of the National Economy in a belt-tightening situation. In January 1960 he published an important work, titled On the Direction of the Educational Work among the Korean Residents in Japan, in which he elucidated the road to be followed by the national education of Chongryon.
He carried out positive and brisk diplomatic activities, which resulted in the realization of the repatriation of the Koreans in Japan from December 1959, ensuring that all conditions were provided for the returnees to enjoy their new lives comfortably to their hearts’ content in the socialist motherland.
While leading the revolution and construction in Korea to victory,
Kim Il Sung energetically worked for the development of the international communist movement and the world revolution.
In his important works, including those presented in 1957, such as The Idea of the Great October Revolution Is Winning, Friendship and Solidarity among Socialist Countries, and Unity of the Socialist Camp and the New Stage of the International Communist Movement, he clarified matters of principle in opposing imperialism and strengthening solidarity within the international communist movement.
He put forward the strategy for anti-US struggle, in which he defined US imperialism as the main target of struggle in the world revolution, as the chieftain of the world reactionaries. He also worked resolutely to safeguard the purity of the revolutionary idea of the working class and realize unity and solidarity of the international communist movement on the principle of independence, upholding the banner of anti-revisionism.
He paid visits to several Eastern European countries and Mongolia from June to July 1956, during which time he carried out positive external activities for opposing revisionism and strengthening the unity and solidarity of the socialist forces and the international communist movement. In November 1957 he attended the meeting of representatives of the Communist and Workers’ Parties of socialist countries held in Moscow to energetically work for the development of the international communist movement and world revolution.
Kim Il Sung ensured that active support and encouragement was extended in all directions to the peoples of south Viet Nam, Laos and the Congo in their struggles against the aggression of the imperialists, peoples of colonial or semi-colonial countries in their liberation struggles for their national independence and the peoples of newly emerging countries in their struggles to build a new society.
By the end of 1960, the DPRK had formed economic relations with about 40 newly emerging countries and conducted cultural exchanges with about 70 countries.
9
JANUARY 1961-NOVEMBER 1970
Kim Il Sung pointed out the main direction and tasks of the grand Seven-Year Plan for all-round socialist construction on the basis of the brilliant victory and successes gained in the fulfillment ahead of schedule of the task of laying the foundations of socialism, and mobilized the entire people to carry out the first-year tasks of the plan.
The Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee, held in March 1961, passed a decision to convene the Fourth Party Congress in September of the same year.
Upon the news of the convocation of the Fourth Party Congress, all the Party members and working people strove to perform feats of labour as a tribute to the Party Congress. They put into operation the vinalon factory and the No. 2 smelting furnace of the Hwanghae Iron Works, and produced an electric locomotive Pulgungi No. 1. They also worked out miracles and innovation of manufacturing new large and precision machines, which were vital to the development of the national economy.
While spending much time for the preparation for the Party Congress,
Kim Il Sung gave on-the-spot guidance to factories, enterprises and rural communities throughout the country, confirming once again the scientific accuracy of his newly elaborated line and policies, and ascertaining the details of a new long-term plan.
The Fourth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea was held from September 11 to 18, 1961.
Kim Il Sung made a report to the Congress on the work of the Party Central Committee.
In his report, he summed up the brilliant victory achieved in the revolution and construction during the period under review, and set forth the tasks for the overall construction of socialism. He also advanced the grand programme of the First Seven-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy for 1961 to 1967.
He said:
“The fundamental tasks of the Seven-Year Plan are to carry out a comprehensive technological reconstruction and cultural revolution, and to make radical improvements in the people’s living conditions by relying on the triumphant socialist system.”
He stressed the need to effect socialist industrialization, equip all branches of the national economy with modern technology, and make decisive improvements in the people’s material and cultural living standards, so as to attain the commanding heights of socialism.
He explained that in order to achieve the independent and peaceful reunification of the country it was important to organize a revolutionary Party capable of leading the south Korean revolution to victory, and strive to drive out US imperialism and ensure the democratic development of south Korean society. This involved the formation of an anti-US national salvation united front in south Korea and the realization of unity between the patriotic, democratic forces in south Korea and the socialist forces in the north.
Putting forward important tasks for consolidating the Party organizationally and ideologically, and further enhancing its leadership role, he emphasized, in particular, that all the Party members and Party organizations should think and act as intended by the Party Central Committee, and share the same fate with it no matter how difficult the situation, by opposing revisionism, factionalism, parochialism and nepotism, and defending the unity of the Party in concept and determination.
He reaffirmed the Party’s independent and principled foreign policy on actively launching a vigorous anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle, strengthening unity and solidarity with the socialist countries, rendering active support to the struggle of the oppressed peoples for their national liberation, and continuing a dynamic struggle on two fronts-those of anti-revisionism and anti-dogmatism.
The Congress re-elected Kim Il Sung Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
The Congress discussed the First Seven-Year Plan and passed a decision on it, adopted a declaration on accelerating the independent and peace- ful reunification of the country, and amended and supplemented some of the Rules of the Party to meet the new requirements for the development of the Party and the revolution.
While mobilizing the entire Party and all the people for the implementation of the decision of the Party Congress, Kim Il Sung channelled major efforts into establishing a new economic management system that corresponded with the intrinsic nature of socialism.
Improving economic guidance and management in accordance with the intrinsic nature of socialism was an urgent requirement of the new circumstances in which an advanced large-scale socialist economic form was holding undivided sway over the whole country; it was also a pressing international problem awaiting solution.
As far as the problem of how to manage a socialist economy was concerned, however, there was no one who had ever given a clear answer to it, nor was there any foreign experience to learn from. This historic problem was resolved splendidly only by Kim Il Sung, who created the Juche-oriented economic management system.
At the Second Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee, held at the end of 1961, he set forth the important task of radically improving the guidance and management of the national economy by fully embodying the Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method, and gave on-the-spot guidance to the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant for over 10 days to set up a new economic management system. Inspecting every workshop in the plant beginning from its generator shop, he made himself acquainted with the actual situation of the plant as a whole and held talks with the shop managers and many other workers. He went on to visit the hostel, dining room and families of the workers, and held a consultative meeting of the Party and administration officials of the plant to better familiarize himself with the management of the plant.
In order to ascertain whether or not the management shortcomings of the plant he had found during his on-the-spot guidance of it were a common phenomenon, he studied and analyzed them in the context of the work of the Pyongyang Textile Mill and the General Bureau of the Machinery Industry.
At the Enlarged Meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee held in mid-December 1961 he summed up his on-the-spot guidance for the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant and proposed the task of setting up a new industrial management system according to his long-cherished plan. At an enlarged meeting of the Party committee of the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant, he also took a revolutionary measure of establishing a system of collective guidance for the Party committee of the plant, a new industrial management system fundamentally different from the previous director’s one-man management system that retained many capitalist elements, and a system of unified and intensive guidance of the Party committee of the plant for production, a system of material supply by the higher echelons to the lower ones, as well as a regular supply service system.
Kim Il Sung clarified the essence and superiority of the Taean work system in several works, including On Further Developing the Taean Work System, a speech made at an enlarged meeting of the Party committee of the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant in November 1962.
He said:
“The Taean work system is, in a word, the application of our Party’s revolutionary mass line to economic management.”
The Taean work system is the supreme economic management system suited to the intrinsic nature of the socialist system, a system by which factories and enterprises conduct all their management activities under the collective guidance of their respective Party committees. In this system, the economic task in hand is fulfilled by giving priority to political work and rousing the producer masses, the higher echelons are responsible for helping their subordinate units, and the economy is managed and run in a scientific and rational way.
The Taean work system created by Kim Il Sung, as a system enabling the masses of the people to give full play to their responsibility and role as the masters of the state and society by combining the Party’s monolithic leadership and the revolutionary mass line, is the application of the fundamental principle of the socialist state in its activities. This system is significant not only as a socialist economic management system but also as a political mode by which to manage socialist society as a whole.
Kim Il Sung, by embodying the requirements of the Taean work system, established a new agricultural guidance system to meet the new circumstances in which the socialist economic system had already been established in the countryside.
Immediately after the Enlarged Meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee, at which he set out the task of establishing a new agricultural guidance system along with a new industrial management system, Kim Il Sung gave on-the-spot guidance to Sukchon County, South Phyongan Province, to set up its model unit.
He acquainted himself fully with the general situation of agricultural work within the county, and newly set up a county cooperative farm management committee, as a specialized organ of agricultural guidance, by taking the function of guidance for agriculture away from the county people’s committee, so that the new committee could directly perform the function of both directing the cooperative farms and bringing material and technical assistance to the rural economy. He spread the county cooperative farm management committee system as practised in Sukchon to all the cities and counties throughout the country, while making sure that a well-regulated socialist agricultural guidance system was established from the centre down to provinces and counties.
He gave detailed instructions so that the new agricultural guidance system could prove its worth. He set out the task of giving full play to the superiority of the new agricultural guidance system in several works, including On Further Strengthening and Developing the County Cooperative Farm Management Committees, a speech delivered at the consultative meeting of the Party officials and agricultural workers of South Phyongan Province in November 1962.
The new system, characterized mainly by the county cooperative farm management committee, is a superior socialist agricultural guidance system which has embodied the requirements of the Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method and of the Taean work system in the rural economy. It is a system that is geared to guiding the rural economy not in an administrative way but by an industrial method, ensuring the organic ties between all-people ownership and cooperative property, and strengthening state guidance and assistance to the cooperative economy in every way.
Following his establishment of the new agricultural guidance system, he made efforts to steadily improve the guidance and management of the rural economy. He got the sub-workteam management system to make the new agricultural guidance system display its advantages better in all units of its application, including the basic units of production and labour administration.
With a new socialist economic guidance system established on a full scale in all fields, he set up a unified and detailed planning system in conformity with the essential requirements of the socialist economy.
Consequently, a new turn was brought about in the planning work, and the socialist economic management system came nearer to perfection.
The creation of the new economic management system, with the Taean work system as the core, was a historic epoch-making event in socialist and communist economic management.
Kim Il Sung led the struggle to implement the Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method in Party work.
On the basis of his first-hand information of the general situation of Party work in South Hwanghae Province during his on-the-spot guidance of the Party organizations in the province in early 1962, he put forward concrete ways for embodying the Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method in Party work in his historic concluding speech, titled On Improving and Strengthening the Organizational and Ideological Work of the Party, made at the Third Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee in March the same year.
Stressing that all the Party organizations should concentrate on inner-Party work, he taught that Party work is aimed at building up the Party ranks and making them display their militant function to the full, and that the main link in Party work is to give proper guidance to the Party members so that they can lead their organizational lives sincerely.
In order to properly guide the organizational life of the Party members it is important, he said, that the Party cells and committees should enhance their functions and roles, and that the organization and propaganda departments of the Party, as well as its economic departments, should work with people efficiently in their respective spheres, so as to mobilize the cadres and masses for the implementation of Party policy.
He stressed that the Party guidance of its organizations as regards administrative and economic work should be given not in an administrative or dictatorial way, but in a political way.
His concluding speech was an important guiding principle which clearly showed the way for overcoming administrative way and implementing the Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method in Party work.
A vigorous struggle was launched to embody the Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method in Party work, with the result that the system of guiding Party life and the system of Party work were properly set up throughout the Party, Party work turned entirely into work with people, and the work method and style of functionaries improved.
Kim Il Sung mobilized the revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses of the people that had reached a crescendo in the process of the struggle to embody the revolutionary mass line in all fields of revolution and construction, for the fulfillment of the Seven-Year Plan.
The vigorous struggle that was waged to fulfil the first Seven-Year Plan under his wise leadership led to great success in socialist economic construction in the first two years of the new long-term plan, thus opening up bright vistas for carrying out the task of taking the commanding heights of socialism set by the Fourth Congress of the Party.
In this period, the country’s internal and external situations grew more acute and tense, because the US imperialists precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis, escalated their war of aggression against Viet Nam, and in south Korea stepped up their aggressive provocations against the northern half of Korea, making frenzied preparations for a new war.
Kim Il Sung called the Fifth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee in December 1962, and set forth a new strategic policy of simultaneously carrying on economic construction and defence building, in order to cope with the increasingly blatant moves of the US imperialists for another war.
He said:
“...our Party set forth the line of carrying on economic construction in parallel with defence building at the Fifth Plenary Meeting of its Fourth Central Committee in 1962, and took a number of important measures for further increasing our defence potential while reorganizing economic construction.”
He put forward the militant slogan “A Gun in One Hand and a Hammer or a Sickle in the Other!” and called on the entire people to rise up for the implementation of the new strategic policy.
After the plenary meeting he made sure that energetic efforts were directed to defence building.
He set out tasks and ways for intensifying class and political education in several of his important speeches, including the speech he delivered to People’s Army unit cadres above the level of deputy regimental commander for political affairs and the officials of the local Party and government organs in February 1963, and strove to get the army and people thoroughly prepared politically and ideologically.
He accelerated the work of carrying through the Juche-motivated military line.
In order to make the People’s Army an army of cadres and modernize it, he stepped up military and political training within the army so that all its officers and men, from the rank and file up to the generals, could become fully prepared to perform the duties of a higher rank or more. Along with this, he also made sure that all the soldiers were armed with modern weapons and combat equipment, as well as with full knowledge of Juche-motivated tactics of warfare, modern military science and technology, and that the weaponry was modernized to meet the specific situation of the country and the level of its industrial development.
While inspecting a People’s Army unit guarding the post on Mt. Taedok on the frontline in February 1963, he put forward a militant slogan requiring each soldier to become “a Match for a Hundred Foes”, and led all the soldiers to fully prepare themselves politically and militarily.
As a part of his efforts to effect the arming of all the people and the fortification of the whole country, he made sure that all the people assiduously acquired the military knowledge and tactics necessary for modern warfare, and built solid defences all over the country.
Thanks to his wise leadership, the whole country was turned into an impregnable fortress capable of fully withstanding any aggression of the enemy and reliably safeguarding the security of the country.
Meanwhile, Kim Il Sung continuously pushed forward economic construction together with defence building. He directed great efforts to the construction of heavy industry while striving to accelerate socialist industrialization.
He arranged the revamping of some imperfect aspects and production processes of key branches of heavy industry, and concentrated efforts on increasing the utilization of the existing equipment and production space, so as to readjust and reinforce heavy industry and give fuller scope to its production capacity. He ensured that its raw material and power production bases were built up and its existing machine-building factories put into good order to ensure timely production and supply of all the machines necessary for developing light industry, agriculture and fisheries. He also took measures to put capital construction on a steady basis and improve transportation.
He paid close attention to developing science and technology to meet the requirements for national industrialization and universal technical reconstruction, as laid down in the Seven-Year Plan.
He showed the correct way for bringing the country’s science and technology onto a higher stage in many of his works, including his important speech made at a conference of scientists and technicians in March 1963 and his talk to the officials of the Science and Education Department of the Party Central Committee in December the same year. He also took steps to enable the institutions of education and science to train more scientists and technical cadres, and to bring about the comprehensive development of scientific and technological branches such as mechanical, radio and electronics engineering, which are indispensable to national economic development.
While stepping up socialist economic construction, Kim Il Sung showed deep concern for the improvement of the people’s livelihood in order to materialize the centuries-old desire of the people to live on rice and meat soup and in a tile-roofed house and in silks.
He took measures to radically improve the people’s living standards at the Seventh Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee in September 1963, saying that the worth of socialist construction should be gauged by how comfortable the life of the people is. He thus directed the efforts of the whole Party and state to improving the people’s living standards.
He took steps above all to boost rice production by converting dry fields into paddies, build a number of chicken and pig farms and processing plants all over the country to provide the people with sufficient meat and eggs, and develop the fishing industry to increase the fish catch.
He also made sure that the light-industry factories were expanded to increase the production of consumer goods, including clothing, and that more dwelling houses were built. In the meantime, he made efforts to get the decisions of the Pukchong Enlarged Meeting of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee and the Changsong Joint Conference of Local
Party and Economic Officials carried out so as to develop fruit-growing and improve the lives of the mountain dwellers.
Kim Il Sung paid profound attention to finding a correct solution to the socialist rural question at the same time as building the economy and national defence in parallel.
Finding a correct solution to the socialist rural question was an urgent requirement of social development of the country which was at the stage of overall construction of socialism; internationally, too, it was a matter of principle and paramount importance which had to be settled to defend and develop the cause of socialism and communism.
He shed light on the essence and contents of the socialist rural question and the fundamental principles and ways for its final solution in his immortal classic, titled Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country, published in February 1964.
The peasant and agricultural questions under socialism which he clarified in the theses, consist in developing the productive forces of agriculture to a high level, in making the peasants well off, in abolishing the backwardness of the countryside left over by the exploiter society, and in gradually eliminating the distinctions between towns and countryside, on the basis of the steady consolidation of the socialist system established in the countryside.
He clearly expounded the basic principles for a successful solution to the socialist rural question.
He said:
“First, the technological, cultural and ideological revolutions should be thoroughly carried out in the rural areas;
“Second, the working-class leadership of the peasantry, the assistance of industry to agriculture, and the support of the towns to the countryside should be strengthened in every way;
“Third, the guidance and management of agriculture should be continually brought closer to the advanced level of enterprise management of industry, the bonds between all-people property and cooperative property should be strengthened, and cooperative property should be steadily brought closer to property of the whole people.”
He taught the main contents of the revolution to be carried on in the countryside after the establishment of the socialist system, the basic way of eliminating the distinctions between towns and countryside, and the basic direction for realizing the organic combination between cooperative property and all-people property.
Advancing his idea of the regional base for the building of a socialist countryside, he explained the conditions required of the unit and base which would give unified guidance to the countryside, and taught that in Korea the county should be the regional unit and center to give direct, unified and comprehensive guidance to rural work and other overall work within that area.
His theses on the socialist rural question is an immortal classic which showed the correct path for finally solving the rural question under socialism and achieving the complete victory of socialism; a great programme for socialist rural construction.
After publishing the theses, Kim Il Sung pushed forward the struggle for their implementation.
In order to consolidate the countryside politically and ideologically, he made sure that the rural Party organizations were built up and the ideological revolution intensified among the peasants, so that revolutionary transformation and assimilation to the working class could be promoted among the peasants and the rural class positions consolidated all the more. Following his proposal the Third Session of the Third Supreme People’s Assembly adopted in March 1964 the historical laws on abolishing agricultural tax in kind completely year by year from 1964 to 1966, on undertaking capital construction and building modern dwelling houses in the countryside at state expense and on supplying the farms with major production equipment and farm machinery free of charge. Besides, he spurred on the technological revolution in the countryside to complete the irrigation programme and introduction of mechanization, electrification and chemicalization at an early date, giving a strong push to the rural cultural revolution.
Kim Il Sung paid close attention to improving the activities of the working people’s organizations and enhancing their role to fit the circumstances in which socialist construction was undergoing in-depth development after the establishment of the socialist system.
He gave a comprehensive and profound elucidation of the activities of the working people’s organizations in socialist society in several works, including On Improving and Strengthening the Work of the Working People’s Organizations, a concluding speech delivered at the Ninth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee in June 1964, and On the Further Development of the Role of Working People’s Organizations, a speech delivered to the officials of the Central Committees of the General Federation of Trade Unions, the Union of Agricultural Working People, the League of Socialist Working Youth and the Women’s Union in October 1968.
Saying that the working people’s organizations should enhance their role more and more in conformity with the in-depth development of the revolution and construction, he threw new light on the character and mission as well as the important duties of working people’s organizations in socialist society.
Kim Il Sung said:
“... the working people’s organizations are the organs of the ideological education for the broad masses and constitute the outer bodies of the Party.”
With the working people’s organizations defined as organs exclusively for ideological education, their mission as outer bodies of the Party and transmission belts linking the Party with the masses was clarified, and their character was scientifically defined in conformity with the feature of socialist society in which the masses of the people became the real masters of the power and means of production.
He newly expounded that a most important duty of the working people’s organizations in socialist society should be to assimilate the working people to the revolutionaries and the working class, and improved the organizational forms and work system of the working people’s organizations in conformity with the requirements of the developing reality, and led them to discharge their mission and role to the full.
Attending the Fifth Congress of the DYL in May 1964, he reorganized the DYL into the League of Socialist Working Youth (LSWY) to meet the requirement of the changed situation. In his speech made at the congress, titled On the Tasks of the League of Socialist Working Youth, he set out the tasks of building up the youth league organizations at all levels, stepping up league life and vigorously pursuing political and ideological work among the young people in order to further enhance the role of the youth league and young people in all political, economic and cultural spheres.
At the Ninth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee he took steps to abolish the trade unions’ old patterns of collective bargaining with factory management and performing the function of supervision and control over the operations of enterprises, and to make them act entirely as organizations of ideological education. He also saw that a new work system was established accordingly.
In the meantime, he took a revolutionary measure to form a new Union of Agricultural Working People different from the Peasants’ Union, the peasants’ organization in the days of the private economy, in keeping with the situation in which all the peasants had become socialist working people.
Consequently, in March 1965 the Peasants’ Union was dissolved and the Union of Agricultural Working People, a new socialist mass political organization of the farming population was formed.
He also took measures to strengthen the Women’s Union organizationally and improve its work.
With the work of the working people’s organizations improved and intensified, and their role enhanced, it became possible to rally the broad masses closely around Kim Il Sung and give fuller play to the revolutionary zeal and creative spirit of the masses in revolution and construction.
Kim Il Sung made every effort to enhance the officials’ loyalty to the Party, the working class and the people, and improve their work method and style in conformity with the demand of the new situation in which full-scale socialist construction was under way.
He convened the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee in December 1964, at which he indicated the orientation and ways for enhancing the officials’ loyalty to the Party, the working class and the people and giving them a correct ideological viewpoint and attitude towards work.
As a part of his efforts to enhance their Party spirit, working class spirit and fidelity to the people he paid close attention to inducing them to faithfully lead their organizational life in Party bodies, particularly in the Party cells. Presiding over the general meetings of the Party organizations of several ministries and bureaus, including the Ministry of the Metal and Chemical Industries and the Ministry of Higher Education in January and February 1965, respectively, he took revolutionary measures to decisively intensify the Party life of functionaries. From March the same year he enrolled himself in the Party cell of the Ferrous Metals Management Bureau of the Ministry of Metal and Chemical Industries for one whole year, setting a lofty example of revolutionary Party life. He also saw to it that Partywide ideological struggle was conducted to rectify the phenomena of officials lacking in Party spirit, working class spirit and fidelity to the people.
Taking the leading officials along on his on-the-spot guidance of the Hwanghae Iron Works and other factories and enterprises, he taught them in detail by his personal example what principles they should observe and what method of guidance they should apply in guiding the lower units, such as the method of concentrating efforts on the main link in the whole chain of work.
As a result, the struggle to heighten Party spirit, working class spirit and fidelity to the people was launched vigorously throughout the Party, and a fresh turn was effected in leading officials’ ideological viewpoint and attitude towards work, work method and style.
Kim Il Sung exerted every effort for the vigorous promotion of socialist national culture.
First of all, he attached great importance to the development of the mother tongue. He held talks with linguists, the results of which were published as Problems Related to the Development of the Korean Language in January 1964 and On Correctly Preserving the National Characteristics of the Korean Language in May 1966. He pointed out that it was important to teach the Korean people to love and take pride in their excellent language and use it correctly on the one hand, and to burnish and develop the Korean language with importance attached mainly to the preservation of the Korean mother tongue on the other. He also referred to the need to preserve the national characteristics of the Korean language and, at the same time, take tendencies common to the development of languages worldwide into consideration.
Also paying particular attention to the development of art and literature, he set forth an important task of bringing about the greater blossoming and development of socialist art and literature in his speech, titled On Creating Revolutionary Literature and Art, delivered to art and literary workers in November 1964. In December he paid a visit to the Korean Film Studio and called an Enlarged Meeting of Political Committee of the Party Central Committee, to clarify the direction and ways for making more revolutionary films conducive to revolutionary and class education.
With a view to developing mass education, he participated in the National Meeting of Active Lecturers of Working People’s Schools and Working People’s Middle Schools in March 1964, and set out the task of elevating the working people’s level of general knowledge and technical and cultural standards by stepping up adult education. He ensured that universal nine-year compulsory technical education was enforced from 1967, so making it possible to bring up the younger generation of the country as all-round workers and reliable pillars for the building of socialism and communism.
Kim Il Sung convened a Conference of the Workers’ Party of Korea in October 1966, in order to correctly analyze and appraise the complicated international situation in the mid-1960s and work out the Party’s internal and external policies.
His historical report to the conference, titled The Present Situation and the Tasks of Our Party, made a profound analysis of the prevailing international situation and the specific situation of the then international communist movement, and indicated a scientific way for developing the Korean revolution and the world revolution.
Kim Il Sung set forth the basic strategy of the world revolution.
He said:
“The basic strategy of the world revolution today is to direct its main spearhead against US imperialism.”
This was an excellent strategy geared to decisively crushing the US imperialists’ machinations for aggression and war by the joint struggle of the revolutionary peoples across the world.
He taught that in order to overcome Right and Left opportunism and achieve the unity of the socialist countries and solidarity within the international communist movement, struggle against Right and Left opportunism should be conducted on two fronts. In this regard, he said that neither Leftist nor Rightist errors should be committed and that the differences of views between Communist and Workers’ Parties must on all accounts be settled by means of ideological struggle guided by the desire for unity.
He stressed that in order to achieve solidarity within the international communist movement joint anti-imperialist actions and an anti-imperialist united front should be materialized and independence maintained by the Communist and Workers’ Parties.
He pointed out that what was most important in pushing ahead with socialist construction and strengthening the revolutionary base in Korea was to build up the revolutionary ranks politically and ideologically. To this end, he said, it is important to properly combine the work of strengthening the unity of the masses of the people with the class struggle against hostile elements, and transform the whole society on the revolutionary and working class patterns.
His historical report shed full light on the road for the development of the Korean revolution, world revolution and the international communist movement, and further developed and enriched the revolutionary theory of the working class with new ideological and theoretical wealth. The Party Conference decided to build up the revolutionary ranks politically and ideologically, readjust the whole process of socialist construction and further the defence buildup in accordance with the requirements of the prevailing situation. It also passed a decision on putting off the First Seven-Year Plan for three years.
The Fourteenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee that was held immediately after the Party Conference elected Kim Il Sung General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea by reflecting the unanimous will and desire of the entire Party and all the people.
After the Party Conference he devoted great efforts to strengthening the Party and the revolutionary ranks, while pushing ahead with the work of establishing the Party’s monolithic ideological system among the Party members and working people.
To establish the Party’s monolithic ideological system is an important undertaking to be pursued permanently by a working-class party. It became more important and urgent in this period because the bourgeois and revisionist elements lurking in the Party were manoeuvring particularly viciously.
He called the Fifteenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee in May 1967, and took stern measures to expose and crush the machinations of the bourgeois and revisionist elements, and clarified the tasks and ways for thoroughly establishing the monolithic ideological system of the Party.
The Fifteenth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee marked a turning point in further cementing the unity and cohesion of the Party centred on Kim Il Sung and in ensuring oneness of ideology and leadership throughout the Party.
In his concluding speech at the plenary meeting and in a series of his works, he gave comprehensive answers to the problems of principle concerning the establishment of the Party’s monolithic ideological system.
Establishing the monolithic ideological system of the Party means imbuing the entire Party with a single revolutionary ideology, the revolutionary idea of the leader, securing the solid unity and cohesion of the whole Party centred on the leader, and carrying out the revolutionary work under the unitary guidance of the leader.
If a party allows an alien idea contrary to the leader’s ideology to exist within itself, or if it fails to secure unity and cohesion centred on the leader and ensure his unchallenged leadership, such a party cannot be called a party in the real sense of the word.
He taught that in order to establish the Party’s monolithic ideological system, it was imperative to step up education among Party members and working people to imbue them with the Juche idea so that they could cherish the firm conviction that they were tainted with no ideas alien to their leader’s ideology, establish the revolutionary tenor of resolutely defending the Party’s lines and policies and unconditionally carrying them through, and establish a rigid organizational discipline whereby the entire Party, the whole country and the whole army would move as one body under the unitary guidance of the leader.
His idea on establishing the Party’s monolithic ideological system is an original idea of epochal significance in developing the theory of the building of a working-class party, serving as a powerful ideological and theoretical weapon for a working-class party to grasp tightly in cementing the unity and cohesion of the party in every way and ensuring the Party’s leadership over the revolution and construction.
After the plenary meeting he launched a dynamic all-Party struggle to establish the Party’s monolithic ideological system.
He ensured that the struggle to eliminate the ideological evils perpetrated by the bourgeois and revisionist elements was conducted not by administrative methods but by ideological education and ideological struggle, and in close combination with actual practice for fulfilling revolutionary tasks. In addition, he ensured that the principle was strictly observed of re-educating and remoulding even those who had committed mistakes if they were proved not to be linked organizationally with the anti-Party elements, so that the struggle could proceed without any deviation.
He made sure that the priority of the Party’s ideological education was given to the work of equipping the Party members and other working people with the Party’s revolutionary ideology, the Juche idea, and implanting loyalty to the Party in their minds, and that positive steps were taken to intensify education in the Party’s monolithic ideology.
Paying deep attention to establishing the Party’s monolithic ideological system within the People’s Army, he took a decisive measure against military bureaucracy at the Fourth Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Committee of the People’s Army in January 1969, arranging to enhance the function and role of the Party organizations and political organs in the army in eliminating the evil effects of military bureaucracy and equipping the officers and men firmly with the Party’s monolithic ideology.
As a result of a vigorous struggle to establish the Party’s monolithic ideological system, the virus spread by the bourgeois and revisionist elements was swept away, so that only Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary idea could pervade the entire Party, and the unity and cohesion of the Party based on its monolithic ideological system could be achieved at a new and higher level.
Kim Il Sung strove to push forward the transformation of whole society along revolutionary and working-class lines, as a part of his endeavour to build up the revolutionary ranks.
In a number of speeches, including On the Elimination of Formalism and Bureaucracy in Party Work and the Revolutionization of Officials, On Revolutionizing the Peasants and Carrying Through Party Conference Decisions on Agriculture, and Our Intellectuals Must Be Revolutionaries Faithful to the Party, the Working Class and the People, made in October 1966 and in February and June 1967, respectively, he reiterated that the cadres and working people should intensify their study and organizational life, and train themselves constantly through revolutionary practice in order to transform themselves along revolutionary lines, and pointed out once again the concrete tasks and ways for assimilating the peasants and intellectuals to the revolutionaries and to the working class with priority given to the revolutionary transformation of the working class.
For successful promotion of the revolutionary transformation and working classization of the whole society, he worked to turn the undertaking into the personal concern of the masses and society as a whole. He also got school education improved and the role of art and literature enhanced decisively, so that education and art and literature could contribute better to the revolutionary transformation and working-classization of the people.
As the work of the assimilation of the whole society to the working class and its revolutionary transformations were accelerated actively, tangible improvements were brought about in the people’s ideological and mental qualities, and the revolutionary ranks were consolidated further.
While pushing ahead with revolution and construction, Kim Il Sung conducted energetic ideological and theoretical activities to give correct answers to the theoretical and practical problems arising in the building of socialism and communism.
In many of his works, including On the Questions of the Period of Transition from Capitalism to Socialism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, a classic presented in May 1967, he gave comprehensively and profoundly scientific and theoretical answers to the questions of the period of transition from capitalism to socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat, the complete victory and final victory of socialism, and so on.
He gave a new elucidation of the question on the transition period on the basis of the actual conditions of the time and the practical experience of Korea.
He said: when we have thoroughly won over the middle classes to our side by advancing socialist construction, and when we have eliminated the distinction between the working class and the peasantry and have built a classless society, we can say that the tasks of the period of transition from capitalism to socialism have been accomplished.
He taught that in order to enter the higher phase of communism after the close of the transition period, the revolution and construction must be continued so as to accomplish the capturing of the ideological and material fortresses of communism.
Giving a profound, theoretical exposition of the dictatorship of proletariat, he scientifically elucidated the duration of the proletarian dictatorship.
He said:
“Even when the transition period is over, the dictatorship of the proletariat must be continued up to the higher phase of communism, to say nothing of its necessity during the entire period of transition.”
He scientifically explained the correlation between the transition period and the dictatorship of proletariat.
Newly explaining that in socialist society there is a form of class struggle to put down hostile elements, along with the basic form of class struggle characterized mainly by ideological revolution, he said that the socialist state should properly combine dictatorship with democracy, and class struggle with the strengthening of the unity of the popular masses.
He promulgated the indices for the complete triumph of socialist society, and set out the tasks for its implementation.
A society, in which the hostile classes persist in insidious manoeu-vrings, where obsolete ideas continue to exert a corrosive influence, where there still remain distinctions between town and countryside and class distinctions between the working class and the peasantry, where industrialization has not been fully realized, and where the solid material and technical foundations of socialism have not been laid, cannot yet be called a completely victorious socialist society, he taught.
In order to win the complete victory of socialism, he said, it is imperative to strengthen dictatorship against the class enemies and transform the whole society along revolutionary and working-class lines through thoroughgoing ideological revolution, find a final solution to the rural question, bring co-operative property to the level of all-people property, and vigorously push ahead with socialist economic construction.
He explained that the final victory of socialism could only be achieved when the menace of aggression and the restoration of capitalism by the imperialists from outside was finally removed. To this end, he said, it is important to build up one’s own internal revolutionary forces by every means and, at the same time, receive active assistance of other detachments of the world socialist revolution and strengthen genuine internationalist solidarity with the working classes of all countries and the oppressed peoples across the world.
His new exposition of the theory of the transition period and proletarian dictatorship, and of the theory of complete victory and the final victory of socialism is an immortal achievement. For it put the theory of communist revolution, including the problem of the course and instruments of the building of socialism and communism and of the law-governed developmental process of world revolution, a theory that had not up to that time gone beyond the bounds of presumption and hypothesis, on a scientific footing, and developed the revolutionary ideas and theories of the working class into perfection.
Kim Il Sung organized and guided the struggle to bring about a great new revolutionary upsurge in all fields of building the economy and defence.
In order to light the torch of a great new revolutionary upswing, he gave on-the-spot guidance to the Ryongsong Machine Plant in Hamhung City, South Hamgyong Province, in June 1967. At an enlarged meeting of the Party committee of the factory, in order to carry through the line of simultaneous building of the economy and defence and complete socialist industrialization, he earnestly appealed for a great revolutionary upswing to be brought about as at the time the Chollima Movement started in 1957. This should be accompanied by an active, keyed-up posture, he noted, and expressed his confidence that the workers of the Ryongsong Machine Plant would take the lead in the struggle.
From the end of June to the beginning of July the same year, he called the 16th Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee, at which he taught that, in order to implement the revolutionary line of building the economy and defence in parallel, cadres and working people should make thorough ideological preparations, and wage a forceful struggle against passivity and conservatism, backwardness and dullness, and redouble their efforts in all sectors to bring about a great new revolutionary upswing.
To bring about such an upswing, he paid close attention to mentally preparing the working people, to improving labour administration, to enlisting the strength of the youth to the full, in particular, and to developing the Chollima Workteam Movement in depth.
He convened the National Youth Meeting for General Mobilization in April 1968, and inspired the young people, enthusiastic and brave, to be the vanguard in all posts of the building of the economy and defence.
At the Second National Meeting of the Vanguards in the Chollima Workteam Movement held in May the same year, he said that the central task of the movement was to do properly the work with people, the work with equipment and materials and the work with books, that is, the ideological revolution, technological revolution, and cultural revolution, and set forth the tasks for deepening and developing the movement.
The Korean people boosted the gross value of industrial output by 17 per cent in 1967, as against the year before, in spite of pouring tremendous efforts into defence building, and increased the grain output by an astonishing 16 per cent, as against the year before, by overcoming unprecedented flood damage.
Great progress was made also in defence building. The defence force of the country grew strong enough to smash any military provocations of the US imperialists at every step, and reliably defend the security of the country and the revolutionary achievements.
In 1968, the US armed spy ship Pueblo entered deep into the territorial waters of Korea and, in the very act of espionage, was captured by the navy of the heroic Korean People’s Army. Immediately the US imperialists madly kicked up a war racket raving about “reprisals”, when Kim Il Sung stated the determined position that the Korean people and the Korean People’s Army would retaliate for the “retaliation”, and return all-out war for all-out war.
Alarmed by this firm and resolute stand, the US imperialist aggressors had no alternative but to kneel down and apologize for their aggressive act.
After this incident, too, the Korean People’s Army meted out severe punishment to the enemy each time they resumed their spying and subversive acts against Korea, the intrusion of the spy plane EC-121 being just one instance.
This signified a shining victory gained in carrying out the line of simultaneously building the economy and defence, and was a great demonstration of its justice and vitality.
He called the First Session of the Fourth Supreme People’s Assembly in December 1967, when a great new revolutionary upswing was being brought about in all fields of the construction of socialist economy and defence building, and made public the political programme of the Government of the DPRK, titled Let Us Embody the Revolutionary Spirit of Inde- pendence, Self-Sustenance and Self-Defence More Thoroughly in All Branches of State Activity,
The ten-point political programme of the Government of the DPRK indicated in the work was the guiding principle for state activity as a brilliant embodiment of the Juche idea in the domestic and foreign policy of the DPRK, and an important document which threw full light on the way for the Korean revolution to advance.
With close attention paid to keeping on with the great new revolutionary upswing in implementing the line of building the economy and defence simultaneously, he gave original answers to the theoretical questions raised in building the socialist economy, especially the key issues concerning the superiority of the socialist economic system and the matter of displaying it to the full, as a result of his endless thinking and study day and night on the basis of his rich experiences in practice.
He gave a scientific elucidation of important, burning economic and theoretical problems concerning the building of socialism and communism in his classic, titled On Some Theoretical Problems of the Socialist Economy, in March 1969.
Making a scientific clarification of the relation between the scale of the economy and the rate of growth of production in socialist society,
Kim Il Sung taught that a socialist society has unlimited potential for developing its economy at a continuously high rate, which would be inconceivable in a capitalist society, and the further socialist construction advances and the stronger the economic basis grows, the greater this potential becomes.
Basing himself on the practical experiences in building a socialist economy in Korea, he gave scientific proof that giving full scope to the people’s high revolutionary zeal is the decisive factor producing a strong impetus on the development of the productive forces in socialist society.
Making it clear why commodity production exists in socialist society, and when the means of production are commodities and when they are not, he proved theoretically that when the means of production are transferred between state enterprises, they assume the commodity form and, in this case, the law of value operates in form. He also newly pointed out the ways for properly utilizing value and commercial forms in the production and circulation of the means of production in socialist society, and the matter of making proper use of the law of value in the production and circulation of commodities.
He gave a comprehensive clarification of the reason for the existence of peasant markets in socialist society and the ways to abolish them, and raised a new matter of the disappearance of the circulation of commodities and the switchover from socialist commerce to a supply system, scientifically explaining its law-governed process.
His classical work is a historical document that further perfected the theories on building socialist and communist economy by newly clarifying the fundamentals of socialist political economy, the economic features of socialist society and the law of its development.
Kim Il Sung pushed ahead with the struggle to fulfil the First Seven-Year Plan and carry out the task of socialist industrialization.
At the 20th Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee held in December 1969, he proposed the convocation of the Fifth Party Congress in November 1970, appealing for the fulfillment of the First Seven-Year Plan ahead of schedule to greet the Fifth Party Congress.
In hearty response to his call, the Party members and working people waged a heroic struggle, through which they created the “Kangson speed”, a new Chollima speed, and achieved new miracles and innovations in all branches of the national economy by giving full scope to the “work manner of the Chongsan-ri people”. In the flames of the great revolutionary upswing, the historic tasks of industrialization were brilliantly accomplished and the First Seven-Year Plan successfully fulfilled.
As a result, Korea was turned into a powerful socialist industrial country with modern industry and developed agriculture.
In the whole period of industrialization from 1957 to 1970, industrial production grew rapidly- at an average rate of 19.1 per cent. As industry developed apace, the share of industry in total industrial and agricultural output value that had been 34 per cent in 1956 increased to 74 per cent in 1969.
As a consequence of the implementation of the Juche-oriented line of industrialization, a modern technical foundation was laid firmly for all the branches of the national economy .
While pushing ahead forcefully with the building of socialism in the northern half of Korea, Kim Il Sung worked heart and soul for the south Korean revolution and the reunification of the country.
With his deep insight into the requirements of the rapidly-changing situation in south Korea and the development of revolution in the 1960s, he taught at the Eighth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Party Central Committee, held in February 1964, that the revolutionary forces in north and south Korea, the internal revolutionary forces, should be built up and solidarity with international revolutionary forces strengthened, in order to drive out the US imperialists and achieve national reunification and nationwide victory in the revolution.
In order to strengthen the revolutionary forces in south Korea, it is important, he taught, to strengthen the main force of the revolution, that is, the main classes which can be mobilized in the revolution, build a revolutionary working-class party, rally the broad masses from all walks of life into a united front, and weaken the counterrevolutionary forces to the maximum in all political, economic, cultural and military fields.
Upholding his policy on founding a revolutionary party, the south Korean revolutionaries formed an underground revolutionary organization and trained the leading core of the party, and, on this basis, set up a Preparatory Committee for Founding the Revolutionary Party for Reunification in Seoul in March 1964.
The Preparatory Committee formed underground party organizations, including the Seoul City Party Committee, with the revolutionaries trained and tested in the crucible of practical struggle as their backbone, and steadily expanded their ranks, conducting a vigorous struggle to equip the members of the party organizations at all levels with Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary ideology, the Juche idea.
In order to lay a solid mass foundation for the party, the party organizations energetically worked to awaken the broad masses to ideological consciousness, formed illegal or legal organizations as the party’s outer organizations to unite the broad masses behind the party, and constantly expanded and strengthened the revolutionary forces through various forms of mass struggle.
On the basis of such preparations, the south Korean revolutionaries formed the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Party for Reunification in August 1969, and proclaimed the founding of the Party.
The founding of the Revolutionary Party for Reunification, with the Juche idea as its guideline, was the brilliant materialization of
Kim Il Sung’s well-thought-out policy on the building of a revolutionary party in south Korea, and a valuable achievement gained by the south Korean revolutionaries and people in their prolonged blood-stained struggle.
Kim Il Sung paid keen attention to strengthening and developing the overseas compatriotic movement, particularly the movement of the Korean residents in Japan.
With the turn of the 1960s, the reactionary Japanese authorities became more blatant in their double-faced policy of repression and assimilation in relation to the Korean residents in Japan while further pursuing the policy of discriminating against the latter more viciously than ever before.
Kim Il Sung clearly showed the road ahead for the movement of the Korean residents in Japan in his letter to the chairman of Chongryon and in several of his works.
He pointed out that the ideological system of Juche should be firmly established among all the Korean nationals in Japan, the unity and cohesion of the ranks of Chongryon strengthened, and its activities further organized. He also stated that the education of the Korean compatriots in socialist patriotism should be intensified to infuse in them lofty pride in being overseas citizens of Juche Korea, so that they could jealously guard the prestige and dignity of their socialist homeland, resolutely defend their democratic national rights, and strive to hasten the independent, peaceful reunification of the homeland.
While scathingly exposing and denouncing the schemes of the reactionary Japanese authorities for suppressing the movement of the Korean compatriots in Japan, he arranged to publish the “Nationality Act of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” in October 1963 to firmly guarantee the Korean compatriots in Japan their legal status as citizens of the DPRK.
Under his wise guidance, Chongryon defended the DPRK citizenship of the Koreans in Japan, in defiance of the enemy’s trick of “application for denizenship in Japan” and attempts to impose south Korean “nationality” upon them. It also frustrated every scheme of the Japanese authorities for concocting various evil laws to persecute the Korean nationals in Japan, and carried on the movement for encouraging Koreans in Japan to be proud of their roots on a wide scale, thus developing the movement of the Korean nationals in Japan to a new and higher stage.
With deep insight into the demands of the situation in which antagonism and struggle between revolution and counterrevolution were growing more sharp in the international arena with every passing day, Kim Il Sung made tireless efforts to strengthen the unity and solidarity of the international communist movement and develop the world revolution.
In a number of his works, including his report to the Party Conference held in 1966, and an article titled Let Us Intensify the Anti-Imperialist, Anti-US Struggle, published in August 1967, as well as a treatise under the title The Great Anti-Imperialist Revolutionary Cause of the Asian, African and Latin-American Peoples Is Invincible, published in October the following year, he threw full light on the scientific strategy and tactics for achieving the unity and solidarity of the international communist movement and socialist countries against Left and Right opportunism, and bringing about an upswing in the anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle and national liberation movements in colonial countries.
Attaching paramount importance to developing friendly and cooperative relations with the socialist countries and Communist and Workers’ Parties, he got a number of agreements, including the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, concluded with socialist countries, and worked to increase mutual visits to and contacts with socialist countries and the Parties to take concerted action.
He also extended active support and encouragement to the peoples of Cuba, Viet Nam and the Arab countries in their hard-fought face-to-face struggle against US imperialism, on the principle of proletarian internationalism.
With great importance attached to the role of the mass media in the anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle, he attended the International Conference on the Tasks of Journalists of the Whole World in Their Fight against the Aggression of US Imperialism held in Pyongyang in September 1969, and pointed out the tasks facing the progressive journalists and other pressmen across the world in their anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle.
Kim Il Sung put forward the external policy of strengthening political, economic and cultural relations with newly-emerging countries. He paid a visit to Indonesia to take part in the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Bandung Conference, thus bringing about a turning-point in developing the militant solidarity and friendly and cooperative relations with the newly-emerging countries.
Thanks to his energetic external activities, the international prestige of the WPK and the DPRK became consolidated all the more, and the international atmosphere developed in favour of the Korean revolution.
10
NOVEMBER 1970-OCTOBER 1980
Kim Il Sung organized the entire Party and all the people in the straggle to hasten the complete victory of socialism and the nationwide triumph of the revolution.
He directed the Fifth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea from November 2 to 13, 1970.
He made a report to the Congress on the review of the work of the Central Committee of the Party.
In this report, he summed up all the brilliant successes achieved in the revolution and construction during the period under review, and put forth the new tasks of straggle, to push ahead with the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions in order to consolidate and develop the socialist system and hasten the complete victory of socialism. He also set the basic task of the Six-Year National Economic Plan (1971-1976).
He said:
“The basic task of the Six-Year Plan in the field of socialist economic construction is to cement the material and technical foundations of socialism and free the working people from heavy labour in all fields of the national economy, by consolidating and developing the successes gained in industrialization and advancing the technical revolution to a new, higher stage.”
He set the central tasks of the Six-Year Plan for different branches of the national economy to strengthen the Juche character of the national industry and to make agriculture highly intensive.
He proposed the three major tasks of the technological revolution, which were aimed at considerably narrowing the difference between heavy and light labour and between agricultural and industrial labour, and freeing women from the heavy burdens of household chores by launching a technological innovation movement in all fields of the national economy so as to free from backbreaking labour the working people, who had been liberated from exploitation and oppression.
The three major tasks of the technological revolution were the tasks of a new and higher stage of the technological revolution to be carried out after socialist industrialization was realized. These were the strategic tasks of the socialist economic construction for ensuring the complete victory of socialism.
Kim Il Sung advanced the task of rapidly developing on a sound basis education, science, art and literature, and all other branches of socialist culture, by thoroughly preventing cultural infiltration by imperialism and overcoming the tendency to return to the past, in order to push ahead with the cultural revolution.
Setting the task of developing in depth the revolutionary transformation of the whole society and its assimilation to the working class by giving priority to the ideological revolution, he emphasized the need to intensify the ideological education of the working people by combining their education and transformation closely with revolutionary practice, strengthen their revolutionary organizational life and establish a new socialist way of life on a full scale in all spheres.
He instructed that in order to strengthen defence power it was essential to adhere to the Party’s military line and thoroughly implement the principle of self-reliant national defence.
He said that the most important task in improving the people’s standard of living was to eliminate, as soon as possible, all distinctions between the living standard of the workers and that of the farmers, and between the living conditions of the urban and rural inhabitants. He instructed that, to this end, the counties should be developed and their role enhanced, and bus services introduced to all rural ri, running water supplied to all rural villages and the clinics in rural ri developed into hospitals.
Kim Il Sung put forth clearly the very important tasks of accelerating the victory of the south Korean revolution and national reunification, and strengthening solidarity with the international revolutionary forces.
He defined the establishment of the Party’s monolithic ideological system and the strengthening of the unity of its ranks in ideology and purpose as the general task of Party work in order to consolidate the Party organiza-tionally and ideologically, and enhance the Party’s leadership role. He emphasized the need to improve work among people, the essence of Party work. He instructed that the Party’s political leadership of socialist economic construction should be strengthened and that its leadership of the people’s committees at all levels, the People’s Army, public security organs, judicial organs and prosecutor’s office be improved.
The Congress discussed and decided on the Six-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy and made amendments to the Party Rules to meet the new requirements of concrete development.
The Congress reacclaimed Kim Il Sung as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
The Fifth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea summed up the overall victories of the Juche idea and the great success in socialist industrialization. It demonstrated the unbreakable unity of the entire Party and all the people, centring on Kim Il Sung.
After the Congress, Kim Il Sung pushed ahead with the struggle to carry out the three major tasks of the technological revolution and attain all the targets of the Six-Year Plan ahead of schedule.
He ensured that efforts were concentrated on the production of machine tools to make a breakthrough in carrying out the three major tasks of the technological revolution, the main tasks of the Six-Year Plan. While giving on-the-spot guidance to the Huichon Machine-Tool Factory in February 1971, he gave the factory the task of launching an extensive technical innovation movement to produce 10,000 machine tools by April the following year. In September and October 1971, he visited the workers of the Kusong and Huichon Machine-Tool Factories, and encouraged them to make great innovations in the production of machine tools. In November he convened the Third Plenary Meeting of the Fifth Party Central Committee, and put forth the specific tasks of the machine-building industry in carrying out the three major tasks of the technological revolution.
The workers of the Huichon, Kusong and Mangyongdae Machine-Tool Factories, and other factories of the machine-building industry throughout the country produced 30,000 machine tools in a little over a year, in the heat of the technological innovation drive which Kim Il Sung sparked off. They thus opened up a bright prospect of successfully carrying out the three major tasks of the technological revolution.
While encouraging them to make a great leap forward in the production of machine tools, he directed all branches and units of the national economy to accelerate the technological revolution with emphasis on its three major tasks, and carry out the Six-Year Plan. As a result, 3,000 factories and enterprises met the two-year quotas of the Six-Year Plan ahead of schedule, and many factories and enterprises reached the level of production that had been estimated for the end of the Six-Year Plan.
While pushing ahead with the socialist economic construction, he paid close attention to the consolidation and development of the political and ideological unity of the whole society.
He set the very important task of building up the revolutionary ranks and further strengthening the political and ideological unity of the whole society at the meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee held in August 1971, at the enlarged plenary meetings of the North Phyongan and South Hwanghae Provincial Party Committees held in September, and at other meetings.
In April 1972, when all the people united closely around Kim Il Sung as never before and a great revolutionary upsurge was being effected in socialist construction, the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people celebrated the 60th birthday of Kim n Sung as the happiest day of the nation.
Kim Il Sung was awarded the title of Hero of the DPRK on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
In his speech, Revolutionary Unity Is a Guarantee for All Victories, at the banquet given in his honour on April 15, 1972, Kim Il Sung said: We emerged victorious in the revolution and were successful in construction entirely because all the people worked hard, united closely behind the Party. He instructed that the entire Party and all the people should unite solidly on the basis of revolutionary comradeship.
With a noble sense of revolutionary obligation, he ensured the immortality of the anti-Japanese revolutionary martyrs.
Although he was strictly against whatever was being planned in his honour on the occasion of his 60th birthday, he planned the building of a revolutionary martyrs cemetery to immortalize the achievements of his revolutionary soldiers who gave their precious lives for the liberation of the country and the freedom and happiness of the people. Clambering over the peaks of Mt. Taesong one day in April, 1972, he fixed the site of the revo- lutionary martyrs cemetery on the ridge of Jujak Hill, which commanded a bird’s-eye view of the prosperous capital. Then he proposed the idea of building the revolutionary martyrs cemetery on Mt. Taesong at a meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee, and instructed busts of the revolutionary martyrs to be erected in the cemetery.
Recollecting one by one the anti-Japanese revolutionary martyrs, he personally wrote down their names, dates of birth, the years they joined the revolution and the dates of their deaths. As for those whose photographs were unavailable, he searched his memory to recall their looks and characteristic features, and gave careful guidance to obtain lifelike reproductions of their images.
The Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery on Mt. Taesong was splendidly built in October 1975, thanks to Kim Il Sung’s noble revolutionary ethic and his warm love for his revolutionary soldiers.
With a deep insight into the requirements of developing reality in which a dynamic struggle was under way to put the Juche idea into practice in all fields of the revolution and construction and in which the desire to study it was growing stronger than ever before among the revolutionary peoples throughout the world, Kim Il Sung fully elucidated the Juche idea in his answers to the questions raised by journalists of the Japanese newspaper Mainichl Shim-bun in September 1972, published as On Some Problems of Our Party’s Juche Idea and the Government of the Republic’s Internal and External Policies, and in his historic report to the commemorative meeting of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea, and other works.
Defining the essence of the Juche idea, he said:
“In a nutshell, the idea of Juche means that the masters of the revolution and the work of construction are the popular masses, and that they are also the motive force of the revolution and construction. In other words, one is responsible for one’s own destiny, and one has also the capacity for hewing out one’s own destiny.”
He newly raised man’s position and role in the world as the basic question of philosophy, and clarified in an original way the philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and he decides everything.
He said that the Juche idea demands that everything should be considered centring on man and geared to serving man, and that the working masses should take an attitude befitting masters of the revolution and construction.
In order to translate the Juche idea into reality in the revolution and construction, he emphasized, it is essential to adhere to the principles of Juche in ideology, independence in politics, self-sufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in national defence.
He fully elucidated the revolutionary theory and the method of leadership on the basis of the principles of the Juche idea.
Kim Il Sung ensured that a new Socialist Constitution was enacted, in order to legally establish the victory and success achieved in the socialist revolution and in the building of socialism, legally define the principles of all fields of socialist society, and provide a legal guarantee for success in the struggle for the complete victory of socialism and the independent reunification of the country.
He himself drafted the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK, and the First Session of the Fifth Supreme People’s Assembly adopted it in December 1972. He also elucidated the basic content and characteristics of the new constitution, and the significance of its enactment and proclamation in his historic speech delivered at the meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly, titled Let Us Further Strengthen the Socialist System of Our Country.
In the Socialist Constitution, he newly defined the principles to be followed in the political, economic and cultural fields in socialist society, the rights and duties of citizens based on the principle of collectivism, the composition and duties of state organs and the principles of their activities.
Amidst immeasurable joy and emotions Kim Il Sung was acclaimed as President of the DPRK at the historic First Session of the Fifth Supreme People’s Assembly held on December 28, 1972.
He paid close attention to solving the problem of ensuring the continuity of the revolutionary cause on the basis of the lawful requirements for the development of the Party and revolution, and the experience and lessons of the international communist movement.
The historic mission of the working-class leader is not only to pioneer and advance the working class’ cause of independence, but also to lay solid organizational and ideological foundations, and establish the leadership system for the continuation of the revolution down through generations.
First of all, he found a correct solution to the problem of the heir to the political leader.
Kim Il Sung said:
“In carrying forward the cause of the party, it is essential to solve the problem of the heir to the political leader correctly.”
The question of the successor is the question of the person who is to take over the position and role of the political leader. What is essential here is to select the right person.
The working-class party must choose an excellent successor who is unfailingly loyal to the ideology and leadership of his predecessor, and possesses the qualities and qualifications to give political leadership to the whole of society.
Looking far into the future, Kim Il Sung had long put his heart and soul into solving the problem of his successor.
While always accompanying Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il acquired all his revolutionary ideology, outstanding leadership and noble communist virtues; and while working as his assistant on the Party Central Committee for a long time, he made immortal achievements before the Party and the revolution, the country and the people.
Kim Jong Il was elected a member of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee and successor to Kim Il Sung at the Eighth Plenary Meeting of the Fifth Party Central Committee in February 1974.
The acclamation of Kim Jong Il as successor to Kim Il Sung was a historic event that provided a sure guarantee for the continuation and accomplishment of the Juche revolutionary cause.
Kim Il Sung devoted great efforts to developing in depth the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions proposed by the Fifth Congress of the Party.
In consideration of the fact that the guidance level of officials lagged behind the requirements for the in-depth development of the three revolutions, he initiated the three-revolution team movement, a new form of revolutionary guidance, in order to bring guidance closer to lower units and give political and ideological, and scientific and technological guidance to subordinates.
In the autumn of 1972, he organized guidance teams with elite officials and university students with specialized knowledge, and dispatched them to light-industry factories to test their guidance ability. Then, at the Enlarged Meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee held in February 1973 he adopted historic measures to organize the three-revolution teams and dispatch them to factories, enterprises, cooperative farms and many other fields of the national economy.
With the three-revolution team movement vigorously under way, the three revolutions developed apace in all places where the three-revolution teams conducted their activities, and new innovations were made in the transformation of people, technological reconstruction and cultural development.
At a consultative meeting of the department heads of the Party Central Committee in February 1973, Kim Il Sung proposed the launching of the Three-Revolution Red Flag Movement, a nationwide mass movement for stepping up socialist construction by intensifying the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions.
As a result of the vigorous progress of the movement, great successes were made in the three revolutions, and the historic cause of transforming the whole society along the lines of the Juche idea made brisk headway.
He ensured that the Party was strengthened and a new advance was made in Party work in order to realize the transformation of the entire Party along the lines of the Juche idea to meet the requirements of the new historical circumstances in which the modelling of the whole society on the Juche idea came to the fore.
In his historic work, titled On Further Strengthening Party Work, in July 1974, Kim Il Sung clearly showed the basic direction and method of making a new advance in Party work.
Saying that strengthening the Party ranks into unbreakable revolutionary ranks is the basic duty and main task of all the Party organizations, he pointed out that, for this purpose, the ranks of cadres should be strengthened and that all the Party members should be trained to be hardcore revolutionaries in order to make the entire Party an elite party of cadres. He emphasized that the unity and cohesion of the Party based on its monolithic ideology must be firmly guaranteed and that, especially, strong organizational discipline by which the entire Party moves under the unified leadership of the Party Centre be established. He also explained in detail how to strengthen the organizational life of Party members, the key to tightening up the Party ranks and Party organizations.
He instructed that the mass line of the Party should be thoroughly implemented to unite all sections of the masses closely around the Party and establish a proper system of work among the masses. He stressed that the Party’s guidance of socialist construction should be further strengthened and that the work method and work style of the Party should be improved.
His historic work became a powerful ideological and theoretical weapon for improving and strengthening Party work, and enhancing the fighting efficiency and the leadership role of the Party so as to give a strong impetus to the transformation of the whole society along the lines of the Juche idea.
He directed the major effort of Party work to strengthening the Party’s monolithic ideological system and its unified leadership system, and continued to push forward this work effectively in order to make a new advance in Party work.
Kim Il Sung organized and wisely led the work of accelerating socialist economic construction and carrying out the Six-Year Plan ahead of schedule, to meet the requirements for transforming the whole society along the lines of the Juche idea.
At the Eighth Plenary Meeting of the Fifth Central Committee of the Party, held in February 1974, he put forward the policy of launching a campaign for grand socialist construction, in order to effect a new upsurge in socialist construction.
He said:
“The whole Party and all the people must be mobilized to fight dynamically for the great work of socialist construction, to attain all the goals of the Six-Year Plan next year, ahead of schedule, and then advance towards the ten long-term goals of socialist economic construction.”
He pointed out that all fields and all units must make a general onward march at the new Chollima speed and, for the present, it was essential to concentrate on the five fields of capital construction, industry, agriculture, transportation and fisheries, in order to carry out the policy of the great work of socialist construction.
At the Plenary Meeting he got a letter adopted to be sent to all Party members to arouse them and other working people to the struggle for the great work of socialist construction. In addition, he took historic measures to abolish taxation completely and sharply reduce the prices of industrial goods. These measures inspired the Korean people with a high sense of honour and pride in living in the socialist motherland, and encouraged them to turn out vigorously in the great work of socialist construction.
After the Plenary Meeting, he called the national industrial conference, the national agricultural conference, and other conferences and consultative meetings of different branches of the national economy. At these gatherings, he indicated the direction and method of fulfilling the Six-Year Plan ahead of schedule. He inspected Pyongyang City, North and South Phyongan Provinces, North and South Hamgyong Provinces, Jagang Province and all other parts of the country, encouraging Party members and other working people to make a new leap forward and innovations, and led the struggle for the great work of socialist construction to shining victory.
He called on the entire Party and all the people to make an all-out charge to meet the quotas of the economic plan for 1974, the first year of grand socialist construction.
At the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Fifth Party Central Committee in February 1975, Kim Il Sung set the task of pushing ahead with the technological revolution while continuing to put great efforts into the five fronts in order to attain the main goals of the Six-Year Plan ahead of schedule to greet the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Party. He gave energetic leadership to the struggle for the Plan’s fulfillment.
Kim Il Sung held up agriculture as one of the main fronts of socialist economic construction, and ensured that a new upsurge was effected in agricultural production.
At the meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee in January 1973, and at other meetings, he proposed a revolutionary policy-the agriculture-first policy-and stood at the helm of the agricultural front, directing agriculture in person, and created the Juche farming method suited to Korea.
While giving personal guidance to the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and cooperative farms in Mundok, Sukchon, Anak, Sinchon, Jae-ryong counties, and in many other counties, he proved that a rich harvest could be reaped by farming in accordance with the Juche farming method.
While intensifying ideological education and ideological straggle to get rid of bureaucratism, subjectivism, empiricism and formalism remaining among the officials and working people in agriculture, he ensured that the Juche farming method was widely disseminated, that the rural technological revolution was stepped up and that the support and assistance to the countryside was strengthened, in order to thoroughly implement the Juche farming method.
At the 12th Plenary Meeting of the Fifth Party Central Committee in October 1976, he put forth the five-point policy on the transformation of nature: It was to complete field irrigation, lay out terraced fields, rezone land, improve soil, effect afforestation and water conservancy, and reclaim tidal flats. He gave a powerful impetus to implementing the policy. The struggle resulted in creating full possibilities to ward off the effect of abnormal weather conditions caused by a cold front and effect a new upswing in agricultural production.
Under the wise guidance of Kim Il Sung, industry and all other branches of the national economy fulfilled their quotas in the Six-Year Plan.
He paid close attention to strengthening the people’s government, a powerful weapon for revolution and construction, in order to hasten the complete victory of socialism and transform the whole society along the lines of the Juche idea.
In his historic speech, titled Let Us Further Strengthen the People’s Government, addressed to the First Session of the Sixth Supreme People’s Assembly in December 1977, Kim Il Sung systematized the Juche-based theory of government building, and clearly indicated the way to strengthen the people’s government.
State power, he said, is the political authority and the main factor defining the position and role of the people, and the question of power is the basic question of the revolution.
Kim Il Sung newly elucidated that the basic mode of socialist state activity is socialist democracy, and set the task of putting it into effect satisfactorily.
He said:
‘The world knows only one genuine democracy, and that is democracy for the working masses, socialist democracy.”
He instructed that, in order to give full scope to socialist democracy, it is essential to encourage the working masses to participate widely in the work of the people’s government, enhance their role steadily in state and political activity and provide them with a higher material and cultural standard by successfully constructing the socialist economy and developing socialist culture. He also set the task of fighting against the hostile actions of the imperialists and their lackeys, who hamper the interests of the working masses and attempt to harm socialist democracy, as well as the task of combating bureaucracy that finds expression among officials.
In order to strengthen the people’s government, he ensured that the ranks of the officials of the government bodies were built up with those who were loyal to the Party and the revolution, that their function of state power was enhanced, and that all the state and economic organs worked as required by the Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method. He saw to it that the people’s government bodies in charge of the state economic activities and people’s living, were ready to answer for what they did for economic construction and cultural development and the work of improving the people’s material and cultural standards. He also ensured that they tightened up law and order by enhancing the role of the socialist law-abiding life guidance committees.
He continued to push ahead with socialist economic construction in order to hasten the complete victory of socialism.
The First Session of the Sixth Supreme People’s Assembly adopted the Second Seven-Year Plan (1978-1984) as law.
He said:
“The main objective of this plan is to further strengthen the economic basis of socialism and raise the people’s standard of living still further by making the national economy Juche-oriented, modern and scientific at a rapid pace.”
Making the national economy Juche-oriented, modern and scientific is the strategical line that must be maintained consistently in building socialism and communism to seize the material fortress of communism.
The Second Seven-Year Plan was a grand programme of economic construction for further increasing the might of the self-reliant socialist economy as well as a grand blueprint for hastening the complete victory of socialism.
Kim Il Sung instructed that, in order to fulfil the Second Seven-Year Plan, it was important, first of all, to continue to accelerate the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions, to bring about an uninterrupted upsurge and fresh innovations in production and construction and modernize the equipment of the existing powerful economic foundation until it was perfect. And he put forward the revolutionary slogan “Let us display higher the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance!” to ensure economic construction with Korea’s own efforts, own technology and own resources. At the 16th Plenary Meeting of the Fifth Party Central Committee in January 1978, he got a letter from the Party Central Committee sent to all the Party members, and roused the Party members and other working people to the fulfillment of the new long-term plan, directing meetings of different branches of the national economy, and giving on-the-spot guidance to many factories, enterprises and cooperative farms.
While giving such guidance in October 1979, he discovered unsung heroes who had devoted themselves to the Party and the revolution, the motherland and the people. He encouraged the people to launch a movement to follow the example of the unsung heroes.
He said:
“The movement to follow the example of the unsung heroes is a mass movement for ideological transformation and it embodies our Party’s policy of education through the influence of positive examples.”
The movement to follow the example of the unsung heroes is a communist movement for ideological transformation to make all members of society Juche-type communist revolutionaries boundlessly loyal to the Party and the revolution, as well as a mass movement for technological transformation to push forward the development of Juche-oriented science and technology. It is a mass movement for embodying the Party’s Juche-oriented work method.
In addition, Kim Il Sung put great efforts into the development of socialist culture.
Attaching prime importance to education, he ensured that the universal 11-year compulsory education, which had been introduced experimentally from September 1972, was enforced throughout the country from September 1975. In April 1976 he had the Law on the Nursing and Upbringing of Children of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea enacted, to ensure that the system of bringing up all the children at state expense was enshrined in law. He took measures to expand the network of higher education and develop the system of higher education for studying while working, thereby increasing the number of technicians and specialists to one million during the Six-Year Plan period, to solve the problem of national cadres.
On the basis of the successes achieved in education, he put forward the policy of intellectualizing the whole society, in his report to the meeting to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the Party in October 1975.
He said:
“The most important goal of our cultural revolution is to intellectualize the whole of society.”
“This means training all members of society, following their working-classization, to be fully developed communist-type people, possessing the cultural and technical standards of a university graduate.”
This policy put forward by him is an absolutely scientific policy reflecting the lawful requirements for the building of socialism and communism. It is the most revolutionary policy for training all members of society to be fully developed, Juche-type communist revolutionaries.
At the 14th Plenary Meeting of the Fifth Party Central Committee in September 1977, Kim Il Sung published the Theses on Socialist Education, in order to further develop education to speed up the fulfillment of the socialist cause.
In his Theses on Socialist Education he pointed out that the aim of socialist education is to train people to be communist revolutionaries who have independence and creativity, and newly formulated the fundamental principle of socialist pedagogy.
He said:
“The fundamental principle of socialist pedagogy is to make people revolutionary, working-class and communist. In other words, it is to equip people with the revolutionary ideas of communism and, on the basis of this, ensure that they acquire sound scientific knowledge and are in good physical condition.”
He instructed that, in order to correctly implement the fundamental principle of socialist pedagogy, loyalty to the Party and working class should be thoroughly embodied and Juche be strongly established in education, that education should be combined with revolutionary practice, and that the principle of the Party and the state assuming the responsibility of organizing and conducting education must be maintained.
He defined political and ideological education, education in science and technology and physical training as the contents of socialist education. What is important in the method of socialist education, he stressed, is to apply heuristic teaching, combine theoretical education with practical training, and education with productive labour, strengthen organizational life and socio-political activity, combine it properly with education, combine school education with social education and conduct preschool education, school education and adult education simultaneously.
He clarified the essence of the socialist education system in Korea and its advantages, and set the task of consolidating and developing it.
Kim Il Sung’s Theses on Socialist Education is the Magna Carta of socialist pedagogy and a great communist educational programme which gives scientific answers to all the theoretical and practical questions arising in socialist education, and establishes the unified system of them on the basis of the Juche idea.
Kim Il Sung called a national meeting of educational workers in October 1978, set concrete tasks for education and took necessary measures to thoroughly implement the theses on education.
In his historic speech, titled Some Tasks in Developing Our Country’s Science and Technology, made at a consultative meeting of natural scientists in December 1972, and in other works, Kim Il Sung set the task of putting efforts into finding solutions to the scientific and technological questions arising urgently in accelerating the construction of the socialist economy and in raising the people’s standard of living by introducing the world’s advanced science and technology and the achievements of scientific research into production, in order to develop Korea’s science and technology to the world standard. He also indicated the method of carrying out this task.
He took measures to strengthen scientific research work from the Juche standpoint, and to this end ensured that research groups were formed with scientists and technicians and dispatched to production sites to solve knotty scientific and technological problems.
As a result, the Juche metallurgical process was invented and a lot of new scientific and technological problems were solved.
Kim Il Sung clearly indicated the basic direction of the development of socialist art and literature.
He instructed that art and literature should establish the monolithic ideological system of the Party, implement the principle of loyalty to the Party, the working class and the people, and increase the production of revolutionary works with a high level of ideological and artistic qualities capable of contributing to establishing a revolutionary world outlook among the people.
His ideas and policies of developing socialist art and literature were translated into reality under the energetic leadership of Kim Jong Il. The cinema, opera, drama, novel, and all other kinds of art and literature were developed to full flowering, and a great heyday of Juche art was ushered in.
He energetically directed the work of establishing socialist culture in life and production, and the work of improving the public health service.
In order to establish modern practices in life and production he made TV service available to the whole country and organized the construction of many modern cultural facilities to satisfy the cultural demands of the people. He also made bus service and running-water service available to rural communities to narrow the difference in the living conditions of workers and farmers, promoted convenience in farmers’ everyday life, and ensured the establishment of modern practices in production and the socialist way of life.
At the Second Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the Fifth Party Central Committee in April 1971, he took decisive measures to improve the public health service, and on his proposal, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea adopted the Public Health Law in April 1980, to ensure that the most advantageous health system in Korea and the successes achieved in the public health service were enshrined in law so that they could be consolidated and developed.
Kim Il Sung wisely directed the work of developing the People’s Army into an invincible revolutionary armed force unfailingly loyal to the leadership of the Party.
He worked hard to establish the Party’s monolithic leadership system in the People’s Army, to meet the requirement for ensuring the continuity of the Juche revolutionary cause.
At meetings of the Presidium of the Party Central Committee and at the 20th Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Committee of the People’s Army, he gave very important instructions on establishing the Party’s monolithic leadership system, Kim Jong Il’s monolithic leadership system, in the People’s Army.
Thus, a well-organized system and order by which all work in the People’s Army is organized and conducted under the unified leadership of Kim Jong Il was established, and the ranks of cadres in the army were built up with officers who are loyal to him.
Kim Il Sung devoted great efforts to strengthening the political and military power of the People’s Army.
In his speech, titled Let Us Build Up the Strength of the People’s Army Through Effective Political Work, delivered at the Seventh Conference of Agitators of the People’s Army in November 1977, in his speech addressed to the conference of the workers of the LSWY in the People’s Army, and in other speeches, he clearly indicated the direction of information and promotion in the People’s Army, and set the task of strengthening the organizations of the Party and the Youth League in the army, in order to improve the Party’s political work in the People’s Army.
In his concluding speech addressed to the 10th Plenary Meeting of the Fifth Party Central Committee in February 1975, and in his instructions given to the soldiers of unit No. 570 of the KPA in December the same year, he put forth the five-point training policy that every soldier should acquire an indomitable revolutionary spirit, adroit tactics, steel-like physical strength and accurate marksmanship, and establish rock-solid discipline, in order to strengthen the People’s Army militarily. He directed them to implement the policy to the letter. He also put forth a ten-point code of conduct to be observed by the soldiers of the People’s Army, so that they acquired the revolutionary traits of performing military service voluntarily.
In order to strengthen the companies, grass roots and basic combat units of the People’s Army, he defined their position and role, set the specific tasks of enhancing the role of the company commanding officers and noncommissioned officers, and explained how to carry them out, in his speech, titled Let Us Strengthen the Companies of the People’s Army, delivered at a meeting of the KPA company commanders and company political instructors in October 1973, in his speech, titled On the Position and Duties of Sergeant Majors, addressed to the closing ceremony of the short course for the sergeant majors of the KPA in October 1979, and in other works.
As a result, a new advance was made in strengthening the People’s Army politically, ideologically and militarily.
Kim Il Sung put forth the three principles and five-point policy of national reunification and took the initiative in paving the way to the independent and peaceful reunification of the country.
Putting forth a new policy of broad negotiations in his historic speech, titled The Revolutionary Peoples of Asia Will Win in Their Common Struggle against US Imperialism on August 6, 1971, he made it clear that the DPRK was ready to establish contact at any time with all political parties, including the Democratic Republican Party, and all social organizations and individual personages in south Korea.
As a result, preliminary talks between the north and south Korean Red Cross Societies were held in September 1971, and separately from this, high-level political talks between the north and the south were held.
Kim Il Sung manifested the three principles of national reunification in his conversation with the south Korean delegates to the high-level political talks between north and south Korea in May 1972.
He said:
“I believe that our reunification question should on all accounts be settled independently without foreign interference and peacefully, on the principle of promoting great national unity.”
The three principles of national reunification is the nation’s common reunification programme, a great charter of national reunification, which was jointly confirmed and declared to be implemented by the north and the south, representing the entire nation’s desire for independence and its fundamental interests.
The historic north-south joint statement was published on July 4, 1972, on the basis of the three principles of national reunification made manifest by Kim Il Sung. The publication of the north-south joint statement with its basic content of the three principles-independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity-meant a brilliant victory of the policy of north-south negotiations proposed by him. After its publication, the trend towards national reunification mounted quickly throughout the country, and a favourable phase was opened for national reunification.
He made reasonable and realistic proposals to implement the three principles of national reunification at the Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Fifth Party Central Committee in July 1972, and on many other occasions.
The leading figure in authority in south Korea, however, threw off his disguise and issued the so-called “special statement”, the gist of which was the idea of “simultaneous entry into the UN”, an overt policy of “two Koreas” aimed at finalizing and perpetuating national division. In consequence, the north-south negotiations that had been arranged with great difficulty were ruptured, and the danger of permanent national division was created.
Kim Il Sung put forth the five-point policy for national reunification in his historic speech, titled Let Us Prevent National Partition and Reunify the Country, in June 1973.
He said:
“Our five-point policy is: to remove military confrontation and lessen the tension between the north and the south, to achieve multilateral collaboration and interchange between the north and the south, to convene a Great National Congress comprising representatives of people of all levels, political parties and social organizations from the north and the south, to institute a north-south Federation named the Federal Republic of Koryo, and to enter the UN under that name.”
The five-point policy for national reunification was a fair and reasonable policy incorporating the three principles of national reunification on a full scale. It was the most reasonable policy for smashing the manoeuvres of the US imperialists and the south Korean puppet clique to perpetuate the country’s division and for reunifying the country by the unified efforts of the entire nation.
Kim Il Sung took active steps to arouse all patriotic Koreans at home and abroad for the country’s reunification on the principle of great national unity, in order to implement the five-point policy for national reunification. At the Third Session of the Fifth Supreme People’s Assembly in March 1974, he took the initiative in proposing a peace treaty between the DPRK and the United States.
The Party’s strenuous efforts to create a favourable international climate for the reunification of Korea strengthened the international solidarity movement in support of the Korean people’s cause of national reunification. The 28th Session of the UN General Assembly in 1973 adopted the decision on dissolving the “UN Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea”, and its 30th Session in 1975 adopted the DPRK’s demand for dissolution of the UN Command, the withdrawal of all foreign troops from south Korea and replacement of the armistice agreement with a peace treaty.
The south Korean youth, students and other people fought against fascism and for democracy. The people in Kwangju rose in revolt in May 1980.
The Kwangju Popular Uprising marked a turning-point in the struggle of the south Korean people against US imperialism and for independence, and for the peaceful reunification of the country.
Kim Il Sung put forward the policy of modelling Chongryon on the Juche idea, and wisely led its implementation.
He said:
“Modelling Chongryon on the Juche idea means training all the Chongryon officials and Korean citizens in Japan to be true revolutionaries in whose veins only blood of a Juche type runs; it also implies embodying the Juche idea fully in developing the Chongryon organization and in its patriotic activities, taking this idea as its sole guiding principle.”
The policy of modelling Chongryon on the Juche idea was a strategic policy that reflected the mature requirement of the movement of Koreans in Japan. Modelling it on the Juche idea meant a new and higher stage of the struggle for embodying the Juche idea in building the Chongryon organization and in its patriotic activities.
In his congratulatory message sent to Chongryon in May 1975, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its formation, and in his talks to the officials of Chongryon, titled Let Us Develop the Chongryon Organization So That It Becomes More Solid, in May 1976, and On Strengthening the Chapters and Branches of Chongryon and Working Efficiently with People from All Walks of Life in September 1977, Kim Il Sung instructed Chongryon to build up its organizations at all levels as reliable Juche-type patriotic organizations to meet the requirement for modelling Chongryon on the Juche idea, unite all sections of the Korean compatriots solidly around Chongryon, deepen the content of its ideological education and improve the method of its mass education.
Following the instructions of Kim Il Sung, the 11th Congress of Chongryon in September 1977 declared its general programme of modelling Chongryon on the Juche idea. It worked hard among the Korean compatriots in Japan to strengthen its chapters and branches.
Kim Il Sung led Chongryon to keep the continuity of its patriotic movement by continuing to develop its democratic national education as the lifeline of the movement of the Koreans in Japan. He guided the Chongryon officials and the Korean compatriots in Japan to make active contributions to the building of socialism in their homeland, and strive for its independent and peaceful reunification.
He worked hard to strengthen the anti-imperialist revolutionary forces under the banner of independence, and guided them to fight against imperialism and dominationism.
Paying prime attention to strengthening the unity and cohesion of the socialist countries for the unity of the people all over the world who champion independence, he put great efforts into developing the non-aligned movement, a powerful anti-imperialist and independent force of the present times.
He put forth the policy of the DPRK joining the non-aligned movement at an Enlarged Meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee in May 1974, and took active steps to this end.
The DPRK became a regular member of the non-aligned movement in August 1975.
In his treatise, titled The Non-Aligned Movement Is a Mighty Anti-Imperialist Revolutionary Force of Our Times, published in December that year, he clarified the position and role and the central task of this movement. In July 1979, when the non-aligned movement was in danger of breaking down because of the imperialists’ manoeuvrings to divide and create bad blood in the movement, Kim Il Sung manifested the standpoint of principle that the member nations of the non-aligned movement should firmly maintain independence, set the strategy of unity against the machinations of the imperialists for division and alienation and settle disputes through negotiations from the point of view of unity. He expressed this principle through the news report on the joint meeting of Political Committee of the Central Committee of the WPK and the Central People’s Committee of the DPRK.
As a result, the Sixth Summit of the Non-aligned Nations was successfully held in Havana, Cuba, in September that year, and the DPRK became a member state of the co-ordinating committee of the non-aligned movement.
The DPRK established diplomatic relations with 66 developing nations in the 1970s, and expanded political, economic and cultural cooperation with 100 countries.
In his classic work, titled Let Us Set Up Socialist Construction under the Banner of the Juche Idea, published in September 1978, and in other works, he pointed out that the fundamental aim of the revolutionary struggle of the world’s people is to safeguard independence, and indicated the common target of struggle to attain the aim.
He said:
“Dominationism is a counterrevolutionary trend that runs against the contemporary move towards independence; it is a common target of struggle of the revolutionary peoples of the world.”
He raised the slogan, “The People of the World Who Advocate Independence, Unite!” and encouraged these people to fight against dominationism, which was trampling on the independence of other countries and oppressing and controlling other nations and peoples, consolidate their national independence and give active encouragement and support to the revolutionary people throughout the world in their struggle for independent development and for the building of a new, independent world.
The Juche idea, the revolutionary idea of Kim Il Sung, spread rapidly all over the world because of its truth and invincible vitality.
The first “Group for the Study of Comrade Kim Il Sung’s Works” was organized in Mali in April 1969. After that, more than 800 Juche idea study groups were set up under various names in more than 60 countries by the end of the 1970s, and developed into regional and continental organizations. In April 1978 the International Institute of the Juche Idea was founded in Tokyo as a permanent international body, and grand seminars on the Juche idea were held on continental and worldwide scales.
At the 19th Plenary Meeting of the Fifth Party Central Committee in December 1979, when a radical change was taking place in the development of the Korean and world revolutions, Kim Il Sung had the decision adopted on convening the Sixth Congress of the Party in October the next year. In January 1980 he put up the militant slogan, “Let Us Greet the Sixth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea by Displaying Great Political Zeal and Making Brilliant Labour Achievements!” In June that year, he got the Party Central Committee to issue slogans to create a political atmosphere of upsurge in the whole country, in anticipation of the Party Congress.
He saw to it that a 100-day campaign (July 1-October 8) was launched in 1980 to effect a revolutionary upswing in production and construction before the forthcoming Sixth Congress of the Party. Through the campaign, the three-year quota of the Second Seven-Year Plan was fulfilled by the end of September that year.
Under his intelligent leadership, brilliant successes were made on all fronts of socialist construction, and a solid foundation was laid on which to push ahead with the modelling of the whole society on the Juche idea on a full scale.
11
OCTOBER 1980-DECEMBER 1989
Kim Il Sung organized the entire Party and all the people in a new struggle to bring about a decisive change in modelling the whole society on the Juche idea and in achieving the complete victory of socialism.
He convened the Sixth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea from October 10 to 14, 1980, when a fresh advance was made in the development of the Party and the revolution.
He made a report to the Congress, reviewing the work of the Party Central Committee.
In the report he summed up the brilliant success made in the revolution and construction during the ten years following the Fifth Congress of the Party, and put forward a new fighting programme for the Party and the people.
Kim Il Sung defined the modelling of the whole society on the Juche idea as the general task of the Korean revolution.
He said:
“Modelling the whole society on the Juche idea is the general task of our revolution. The working class’s revolutionary cause of realizing the independence of the working masses can ultimately be completed only by modelling the whole of society on the Juche idea.”
He explained that in order to model the whole of society on the Juche idea, it is necessary to firmly maintain the independent and creative stand and carry out the line of the three revolutions-ideological, technological and cultural. For this purpose he set forth the task of transforming all members of society on revolutionary lines, assimilating them to the working class and developing them into intellectuals as well as the task of making the national economy Juche-oriented, modern and scientifically-based.
He said that the basic task of socialist economic construction in the 1980s was to lay solid material and technological foundations for a completely victorious socialist society, and radically improve the people’s material standards of living and their cultural levels. He also set ten long-term objectives of socialist economic construction and the tasks of the different branches of the national economy in order to achieve these objectives.
He made a new proposal for reunifying the country by founding the Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo (DFRK) on the basis of the three principles of national reunification.
The DFRK would be a unified federal state with a national government to be established on condition that the north and the south recognize and tolerate each other’s ideas and social systems, a government in which the two sides are represented on an equal footing and under which they exercise regional autonomy with equal rights and duties.
He clarified the problems relating to the establishment of the federal state, and put forward the ten-point policy that should be implemented by the federal state in the fields of politics, the economy, culture, military affairs, the people’s living, foreign affairs and so on. He said that the DFRK would be an independent, democratic, neutral, non-aligned and peace-loving state.
He clarified the important problems arising in strengthening the unity of the anti-imperialist independent forces and developing the world revolution, and put forward the independent foreign policy of the Party.
He said that the major success achieved in Party work during the period under review was the laying of solid organizational and ideological foundations on which to consummate the revolutionary cause of Juche and develop the WPK into an everlasting Juche party. He set the task of improving Party work in keeping with the requirement for modelling the whole of society on the Juche idea.
He explained that it was essential to continue to push ahead with the work of establishing the Party’s monolithic ideological system by adhering to it as the basic line of Party building, strengthen the Party ranks and revolutionary ranks by improving work with people, carry forward and develop the glorious revolutionary traditions of the Party, strengthen Party leadership over the revolution and construction, and steadily improve the method of Party work.
At the Congress, he was again elected the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the WPK by the unanimous will and desire of all the Party members and people.
The Congress adopted the new Party Rules in order to strengthen and develop the Party into an everlasting Juche revolutionary party in conformity with the requirement for modelling the whole society on the Juche idea.
The Sixth Congress of the WPK was of great significance in the development of the Party and the revolution because it was a Congress of triumph, demonstrating the sweeping victory of the great Juche idea and the invincible might of the Party, and because it was a glorious Congress, providing a firm guarantee for the accomplishment of the Juche revolutionary cause by holding Kim Jong Il at the helm of the Party.
After the Sixth Congress of the Party, Kim Il Sung aroused the entire Party and all the people to the general onward movement in the 1980s to carry out the grand programme of socialist construction.
In his New Year Address for 1981, he raised the militant slogan, “Let Us Advance All Out to Implement the Decisions of the Sixth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea!”, and then, in many other works, he put forth the policy on effecting the general onward movement in all fields of socialist construction.
Kim Il Sung’s policy of the general onward movement was a revolutionary policy for making a new upswing in socialist construction.
In order to give a strong impetus to the general onward movement of socialist construction, Kim Il Sung, from early 1981, led the joint meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee, the Central People’s Committee and the Administration Council, the Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee, meetings of provincial Party executive committees and conferences and consultative meetings in different branches of the national economy. At these meetings he explained the tasks for attaining the new long-term objectives and the way to carry them out. He gave on-the-spot guidance to Nampho City in May, to Chongjin City and North Hamgyong Province in June, to South Hamgyong Province in August, and to North Phyongan Province in October that year, encouraging the officials, Party members and other working people who were participating in the general onward movement. As a result, brilliant successes were achieved in the first year of the struggle to carry out the decisions of the Sixth Congress of the Party.
In April 1982, as a great upsurge was taking place on all fronts of socialist construction, the WPK and the Korean people celebrated the 70th birthday of
Kim Il Sung as the greatest jubilation of the nation.
On the occasion of his 70th birthday, Kim Il Sung was awarded the title ofHeroofthe DPRK.
Revolutionary people all over the world celebrated his 70th birthday as a great festival of all mankind.
In his speech made under the title, The Life of a Revolutionary Should Begin with Struggle and End with Struggle at a banquet given by the Central Committee of the WPK and the Government of the DPRK,
Kim Il Sung said that one must continue the revolutionary struggle, without giving up halfway, in order to accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche. He also said that the key to success in the struggle to model the whole society on the Juche idea was to ensure the firm unity and cohesion of the revolutionary ranks in ideology and will, and emphasized that the unity and cohesion of the revolutionary ranks must be based on the Juche idea and centred on the Party Central Committee, and that this unity and cohesion must be reinforced with a noble sense of revolutionary obligation and faith.
Kim Il Sung convened the National Conference of Young Activists in October 1982 and the Conference of the Front-Rankers in the Chollima Movement who turned out for the creation of the “Speed of the 80s” in November, and led them to conduct the movement to create this new speed of advance, thus opening up a period of new revolutionary upsurge on all fronts of socialist construction.
He took measures to carry out the Second Seven-Year Plan ahead of schedule and to attain the ten long-term objectives of socialist economic construction, standing at the helm to organize and direct the struggle to put them into effect.
The Fourth Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee, in October 1981, set the four major tasks for the transformation of nature-the reclamation of 300,000 hectares of tidal flats, creating 200,000 hectares of new land, and construction of the West Sea Barrage and the Thaechon Power Station to solve the problem of irrigation for tidal flats-in order to attain the grain target. He mobilized the entire Party, the entire army and all the people in the struggle to complete these tasks. He personally visited the construction site of the West Sea Barrage, and encouraged the soldiers of the People’s Army and the builders to heroic feats, directing the project from the fixing of the site of the barrage to its design and building operations. As a result, the project of the West Sea Barrage, one of the largest of its kind in the world, a project that was to wall off 8 kilometers of rough sea on the lower part of the Taedong River was completed splendidly in only five years with the use of Korea’s own equipment, materials and technology.
While pushing ahead with the four major tasks of nature transformation, Kim Il Sung took measures to send three-revolution teams and young volunteers to the countryside with a view to solidifying the rural position, at the Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee held in January 1982. He set the tasks of accelerating the rural technological revolution and increasing agricultural production at a consultative meeting of agricultural officials in May of the same year and at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee in December. He ensured that modern farm machinery such as tractors, lorries, rice-seedling gathering machines, rice-seedling transplanting machines, harvesters and mobile threshers were produced and supplied to the countryside in large quantities.
In order to attain the target of seafood production, he set the task of properly catching and processing fish in winter at the Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee, which was held in December 1980. He sent the members and alternate members of the Political Bureau to the fishing stations, and he himself went to the Sinpho Fishing Station. He acquainted himself with the actual conditions of the fishing industry and, on the basis of this, convened the Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee there, and took measures to bring about a revolutionary turn in the production and processing of fish. He set concrete tasks for developing the fishing industry at the Joint Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee, the Central People’s Committee and the Administration Council, which was held in March 1981, and at the Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee which was held in February of the following year.
Kim Il Sung devoted great efforts to the struggle to attain the targets for steel, nonferrous metals and coal.
At the Joint Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the North Hamgyong Provincial Party Committee and the Chongjin City Party Committee which was held in June 1981, at the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee which was held in Hamhung in August 1982, at the meeting of the senior members of the Administration Council of the DPRK which was held in September that year and other meetings,
Kim Il Sung set the tasks of attaining the targets for steel, nonferrous metals and coal, and explained how to carry them out. He defined the Komdok General Mining Enterprise and the Anju Area Coal Complex as the lifeline of the national economy, and made sure that efforts were concentrated on them, as attaining the targets of nonferrous metals and coal depended largely on them.
As a result, Ore Dressing Plant No. 3, with an annual capacity of 10 million tons, was built in only one year at the Komdok General Mining Enterprise, and the metallurgical works and coal and ore mines were rebuilt and expanded on a large scale.
Kim Il Sung energetically led the struggle to attain the targets for chemicals and fabrics, which are of great significance in the development of the national economy and the improvement of the people’s standard of living.
He set forth the tasks for attaining the goals for chemicals and fabrics, and showed the methods of attaining them in his speech at the consultative meeting of the senior officials of the chemical industry in February 1982, in his speech at the consultative meeting of the leading officials of light industry in March 1983 and in his concluding speech at the Seventh Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee in June. He saw to it that the production of chemical fibre, chemical fertilizer and synthetic resin and rubber was greatly increased, and that a great advance was made in the development of light industry.
At the Eighth Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee in November 1983, he took revolutionary measures to attain the target for electric power, and organized the work of building many large thermal and hydroelectric power stations and medium and small-size hydroelectric power stations. He also took revolutionary measures to ensure that the target for cement was hit.
At a consultative meeting of the senior officials of the economic sector in August 1983, he set the task of concentrating efforts on the basic fronts in Sunchon, Anju, Chongjin, Nampho and Hamhung districts in 1984, the last year of the Second Seven-Year Plan, and led the struggle to launch an all-out advance.
Under his wise leadership, the general onward movement to attain the new long-term objectives of socialist economic construction was launched vigorously, and the Second Seven-Year Plan was carried out with credit.
On the basis of the brilliant successes achieved in the fulfilment of the Second Seven-Year Plan, Kim Il Sung defined 1985 and 1986 as an adjustment period, and ensured that the coal and electric power industries, railway transport and the metal industry, which should lead other industries, were developed quickly. He also saw to it that the “June 1985 let-one-machine-tool-produce-another movement” was conducted dynamically. Thus the Korean people were able to produce a 10,000-ton press, a large oxygen plant and other large items of equipment which were of great significance in the development of the machine-building industry and the fulfilment of the technological revolution.
While pushing forward the general onward movement to achieve the new long-term objectives of socialist economic construction, Kim Il Sung paid close attention to enhancing the function and role of the people’s government in every way in the struggle for the complete victory of socialism.
He newly elucidated the theory of the people’s government during the period of building socialism and communism in his important policy speech, titled Tasks of the People’s Government in Modelling the Whole Society on the Juche Idea, which was made at the Joint Meeting of the Party Central Committee and the Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK in April 1982, in his speech, titled The DPRK Represents Genuine People’s Power and Is a Banner of the Unity and Solidarity of the Masses, which was made at a banquet to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the foundation of the DPRK, and in other works.
He said:
“The people’s government plus the three revolutions will achieve communism. If the people’s government is continually strengthened and its functions and role are enhanced, and thus the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions are carried out in full, a communist paradise where the independence of the popular masses can be completely realized, will be built.”
The people’s government is a powerful weapon to build communism, in which the independence of the working masses is realized, and the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions are the fundamental method of its realization. Carrying out the three revolutions while strengthening the people’s government and steadily enhancing its functions and role is the general line of the WPK which must be firmly adhered to in building socialism and communism.
In the period of building socialism and communism, Kim Il Sung said, the people’s government represents the working people’s right to independence, organizes their creative ability, takes charge of the people’s living, and protects their independent and creative lives. He instructed that in order to strengthen the people’s government and enhance its functions and role, it is necessary to thoroughly embody the Juche idea in all fields of state activities, carry out the mass line, strengthen the unified leadership of society and push ahead with the three revolutions.
He ensured that the government of the DPRK was consolidated through the elections to the Seventh Supreme People’s Assembly in February 1982 and to the Eighth Supreme People’s Assembly in November 1986.
In order to improve the work of the people’s government bodies, he paid primary attention to giving correct Party leadership and political guidance to them, and also paid close attention to steadily perfecting the leadership and management system of the state in conformity with the requirements for the development of socialist society. Especially he made sure that the people’s government bodies thoroughly implemented the class line and mass line by adhering to socialist democracy as fundamental principle and basic method of their activities, improved the observance of socialist laws, tightened up the administrative discipline of the state and managed the state’s economic life in a responsible manner.
Thus the socialist political system of Korea was further consolidated and developed in keeping with the requirements for modelling the whole society on the Juche idea.
Kim Il Sung paid close attention to implementing the socialist principles in the field of economic construction and resolutely defending the socialist economic management system of Juche.
Adhering to the socialist principles in the construction of the socialist economy was an important demand, because in the ‘80s some socialist countries followed the road of revisionism and reformism by adopting the capitalist industrial management method.
Kim Il Sung made a historic concluding speech, titled Let Us Thorough- ly Implement the Taean Work System and Improve the Management of Factories, at the Third Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee held in April 1981, and published his historic work, titled Let Us Thoroughly Implement the System and Method of Juche-Oriented Economic Management, in December 1984. In these and other works he said that the socialist economy must not be managed by a medley of socialist and capitalist methods. He set the task of firmly defending and thoroughly carrying through the economic management system of Juche, including the Taean work system which embodies the fundamental principles of socialist economic management in an all-round way.
He said that a proper combination of political guidance with economic and technological guidance, unified state direction with the creative initiative of every unit, democracy with unified direction and political incentives with material incentives is the basic principle of the management of the socialist economy. He also explained that in order to defend and implement the economic management system of Juche, it was imperative to strengthen the collective guidance of the Party committee, the core of the Taean work system, enhance the responsibility and role of the leading economic officials, properly organize the economy and direct production, and put industrial management on a regular basis.
He organized the struggle to defend and implement the socialist economic management system of Juche as an all-Party political struggle and as a strong ideological struggle, so as to establish the revolutionary atmosphere of thoroughly safeguarding and carrying through the socialist principles in economic management and the excellent economic management system of the Korean style.
In order to carry through the Korean-style socialist economic management system, he took measures to improve industrial management on the basis of the Taean work system, in conformity with the requirements of the developing reality, and ensured that the principle of managing agriculture by the collectivist method was maintained, strictly guarding against the slightest element of the private method.
Thanks to his intelligent leadership, the economic management system of Juche was thoroughly safeguarded and carried through, and thus the socialist economic system of Korea was further consolidated, and a steady upsurge took place in socialist economic construction.
Kim Il Sung strengthened and developed the WPK into the revolutionary party of Juche, in keeping with the need of the Party and the developing revolution, to accelerate the work of modelling the whole society on the Juche idea.
Regarding the establishment of the monolithic ideological system of the Party as the basic line of Party building, he continued to push it ahead, as required by concrete developments.
He made it clear that the monolithic ideological system of the Party meant the ideological system of Juche, and that the essence of establishing the monolithic ideological system was to induce the cadres and the Party members to keep loyalty to the Party as their faith. He saw to it that education in the Juche idea and loyalty to the Party was intensified. He encouraged cadres and Party members to acquire the experiences of the struggle against factions and promptly quash the slightest element that might weaken the unity of the Party.
He paid close attention to the work of establishing the leadership system of Kim Jong Il, together with the work of establishing the monolithic ideological system of the Party.
He said:
“It is only when the work to lay the foundation of the Party and establish its leadership system is done well that the militancy of the Party and its leadership ability can be enhanced, the political and ideological unity and purity of the Party ranks defended and the revolution and construction led to victory. Therefore, a working-class party must treat this work as an important matter in party building.”
At the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee in December 1983, in his talk to the senior officials of the Administration Council in March the next year, in his instructions to the senior officials of the Party Central Committee in May and November 1985, and on other occasions he said: “Comrade Kim Jong Il is a great man of the Mt. Paektu type, a peerless philosopher, a great thinker and theoretician, outstanding statesman, master of leadership, genius of creation and construction, man of literary and military talents, ever-victorious brilliant commander, the people’s leader with a noble personality, and the supreme incarnation of loyalty and filial duty to the leader and his cause. My ideas are his ideas, my leadership is his leadership, my personality is his personality, and my traits are his traits.”
Saying that this is the Kim Jong Il era, Kim Il Sung gave ardent instructions that it is essential to unite the entire Party and all the people behind Kim Jong Il, and translate his ideas, lines and policies into reality.
His instructions served as a very important guideline for inspiring the entire Party, the entire army and the entire nation to support Kim Jong Il’s monolithic leadership loyally, and inherit and accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche.
With a view to uniting the broad masses of the people closely around Kim Jong Il, he made speeches, titled Our Youth Should Be Dependable Heirs to the Revolutionary Cause of Juche, at the Seventh Congress of the LSWY of Korea in October 1981, and The Working Class Should Become the Pivotal Force in the Struggle to Model the Whole Society on the Juche Idea, at the Sixth Congress of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea, in November the same year. Through these and other speeches, he took measures to further enhance the role of the working people’s organizations and strengthen Party leadership over them.
Kim Il Sung organized the work of firmly safeguarding and brilliantly developing the revolutionary traditions of the WPK, the fundamental guarantee for the building of the revolutionary Party of the Juche type and for carrying forward and accomplishing the revolutionary cause of Juche.
In October 1982, he took measures to rebuild and expand the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery on Mt. Taesong, as a great temple for education in the revolutionary traditions. In October 1985, he got his autographed epitaph, “The Lofty Revolutionary Spirit of the Anti-Japanese Revolutionary Martyrs Will Remain Alive Forever in the Hearts of Our Party and People,” inscribed on the Monument to the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery upon its completion. Thus he added lustre to the feats of the anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners who had devoted all their lives to the freedom and independence of the country.
In August 1986, he visited Sobaeksu Valley in Samjiyon County, Ryanggang Province, and rediscovered the secret camp on Mt. Paektu where the Headquarters of the Korean revolution was situated during the period of the anti-Japanese armed struggle. He gave directions for restoring it to its original state. In July 1988, he gave instructions for building the area around Mt. Paektu into a great open-air museum, when examining a sand table of the master plan for laying out the old revolutionary battle site on Mt. Paektu. In August that year, he twice visited the secret camp on Mt. Paektu, which had been restored to its original state, and instructed that the revolutionary sites and relics, including the motto-bearing trees24, be rediscovered and preserved and managed properly, to strengthen education in the revolutionary traditions through them.
In consideration of the unanimous desire of the Party and people,
Kim Il Sung had the inscription Jong Il Peak carved on the peak behind the log cabin where Kim Jong Il was born, on Mt Paektu.
Kim Il Sung published his classic work, titled The Historical Experience of Building the Workers’ Party of Korea, in May 1986, in order to develop Party work in depth and firmly arm the cadres and the Party members with the historical experience of Party building.
In the work, he summed up the historical experience of Party building in an all-round way, and systematized the theory of building the Party of Juche. He gave scientific answers to the theoretical and practical questions arising in defending, strengthening and developing the revolutionary character of the working-class party.
He clarified the essential characteristics and basic mission of the WPK as a Juche-type revolutionary party as well as the fundamentals and the basic principles of Party building which the Party has consistently maintained.
He said:
“Providing political leadership for the whole of society by concentrating on work with people is the basic principle of building the working-class party....
“The basic principles which our Party maintains in Party building are, first, to establish a monolithic ideological system in the Party; second, to make the Party one with the people; and third, to ensure continuity in Party building.”
He clarified the historical inevitability of the continuation of the Party’s cause even after communism is realized. He instructed that, in order to build the Party in a far-sighted way as the guide to socialism and communism, the Party’s cause must be carried forward down through generations, and that the basic question in this respect is to properly solve the question of the successor to the political leader. He added that it was necessary to model the entire Party on the Juche idea, and further develop and complete the ideology and theory of Party building in keeping with the intrinsic requirements of socialist and communist society.
Kim Il Sung pushed ahead with the struggle to accelerate the complete victory of socialism.
In order to set the task of hastening the complete victory of socialism, he scientifically analyzed the vitality of the socialism of Korea and the trend of the world socialist movement and, on this basis, made a policy speech, titled For the Complete Victory of Socialism, at the First Session of the Eighth Supreme People’s Assembly held in December 1986.
In his policy speech, Kim Il Sung scientifically clarified the lawful course of building socialism and communism. He said that the basic task in achieving the complete victory of socialism was to transform the people and the social relations on working-class lines so as to liquidate class differences and realize a classless society. To this end, he said, it was necessary to carry out the Party’s theses on the socialist rural question and convert cooperative ownership into all-people ownership, thereby ensuring the undivided sway of all-people ownership over the means of production.
He said that pushing ahead with economic construction was the most important responsibility for the complete victory of socialism, and set the long-term tasks of the Third Seven-Year Plan (1987-1993), and indicated the ways to carry them out.
He dynamically aroused the entire Party and all the people to the struggle for the fulfilment of the Third Seven-Year Plan.
In order to implement the huge and difficult tasks of the Third Seven-Year Plan successfully, Kim Il Sung encouraged all the Party members and working people to display the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and the revolutionary traits of living in Korea’s own way.
He advanced the militant slogan, “Let Us Reach the Ambitious Goals of the Third Seven-Year Plan Ahead of Schedule by Displaying a Higher Degree of the Revolutionary Spirit of Self-reliance and Fortitude!” in his talk to the senior officials of the economic sector in January 1987. In a speech made at the consultative meeting of the senior officials of the chemical industry in March that year, he emphasized the need to live in Korea’s own way.
Kim Il Sung encouraged the Party members and working people to establish the revolutionary spirit of mobilizing and using the internal reserves to the maximum with a determination to do work by their own efforts even if their superiors did not supply materials to them, as well as the spirit of fighting against unsound ideological trends such as flunkeyism and defeatism, defending the Juche idea of the Party and the Party’s lines and policies, the embodiment of the Juche idea, and carrying them out with unshakable faith.
He made sure that efforts were concentrated on the major projects to carry out the Third Seven-Year Plan and that the construction of the socialist economy was undertaken vigorously.
In July 1987, he convened a meeting for general mobilization to carry out the Third Seven-Year Plan ahead of schedule. At the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee held in February 1988, he got a 200-day campaign launched, had a letter of the Party Central Committee sent to all the Party members and the slogan of the Party Central Committee published on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK.
He himself became the Supreme Commander of the Central Headquarters for the 200-day campaign, and gave on-the-spot guidance to the construction site of Kwangbok Street and other major projects in April 1988, to effect a new upsurge in all fields of socialist construction.
As a result of the 200-day campaign, which was led by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, colossal construction projects were finished successfully. Great monumental structures were erected one after another in Pyongyang and in many other parts of the country, the power stations, metal and chemical industrial centres, which were of decisive significance in the fulfilment of the Third Seven-Year Plan, were constructed vigorously, and a 240-km railway line was laid in the northern part of the country.
Kim Il Sung appealed to all Party members and the working people to conduct another 200-day campaign without slackening the triumphant spirit they displayed in the first 200-day campaign.
In order to develop the mining, power and metal industries, as well as the machine-building, electronics and automation industries, in conformity with the demands of the new stage of socialist economic construction and the technological revolution, during the Third Seven-Year Plan,
Kim Il Sung convened the 14th Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee in November 1988. At this meeting he indicated the direction and method of developing the machine-tool, electronics and automation industries quickly.
Kim Il Sung organized the construction of solid modern machine-tool production centres and powerful bases for the electronics and automation industries to mass-produce digital-controlled machine tools and robots and markedly increase the production of integrated circuits and electronic computers, and various kinds of electronic components and automation gauges and instruments.
Regarding the early realization of the socialist rural theses as the key to the complete victory of socialism, he set the tasks of stepping up the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions in the countryside at the First Session of the Eighth Supreme People’s Assembly held in December 1986, at a meeting of the Central People’s Committee and the Second Session of the Eighth Supreme People’s Assembly, which were held the next year, and other meetings.
Kim Il Sung made great efforts to spur the ideological and cultural revolutions in the rural areas, and led the farmers to intensify ideological education and organizational life, and adult education. He promoted the dissemination of scientific and technological know-how among them, and encouraged them to actively conduct the Three Revolution Red Flag Movement and other mass movements in order to accelerate the transformation of agricultural working people on revolutionary lines, assimilating them to the working class and training them to be intellectuals.
In his talk to the senior economic officials under the title, On Carrying out the Tasks of Technical Revolution Set by the Socialist Rural Theses, in October 1987, he detailed the tasks of realizing the irrigation and electrification of agriculture on a higher level and completing comprehensive mechanization and chemicalization, explained how to carry them out, and encouraged the agricultural working people to the struggle to put them into practice.
He had the rural technological revolution carried out in two stages by concentrating efforts on the provinces with the large plains in the first stage, and the mountainous provinces in the second stage.
While accelerating irrigation, he encouraged the construction of medium- and small-sized power stations on a large scale, so as to widen the sphere of utilizing electric power in the agricultural production and consolidate the successes gained in electrification.
Kim Il Sung set the target of raising the people’s standard of living by resolving the problems of food, clothing and housing to meet the people’s demands, which were growing with the progress of socialist construction. He proposed the agriculture-first policy, the light-industry-first policy, and the fishing-industry-first policy and ensured that a great advance was made in the production of food and consumer goods.
He changed the phrase “clothing, food and housing” into “food, clothing and housing”-giving food priority. In this regard, he concentrated all the forces of the country on the production of cereals under the slogan, “Rice is communism.”
He attached great significance to the development of stock farming and the fishing industry in order to provide the people with rice and meat soup, he himself organizing and leading this work.
In his concluding speech under the title Let Us Carry Out the Party’s Policy on Effecting a Revolution in Light Industry by Stimulating Officials’ Loyalty to the Revolution, the Party, the Working Class and the People, at the 16th Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee held in June 1989, and in other works, he put forth concrete ways to develop light industry onto a higher stage and pushed ahead with the struggle to put them into effect, in order to satisfy the people’s demands for consumer goods by carrying out the Party’s policy on effecting a revolution in light industry.
Directing great efforts to the chemical industry, which produces raw materials for light industry, he took measures to build up the production base of chemical fibres, increase plastic, paper and salt production, and develop the medium- and small-sized chemical industry at a consultative meeting of the senior officials of the chemical industry held in March 1987, and other meetings.
With a view to solving the people’s housing problem satisfactorily and providing them with better conditions for cultural and emotional life, he directed the construction of large, modern bases for the production of building materials, such as the Sangwon Cement Complex and the Silicate Brickyard, as well as modern houses and cultural and welfare facilities on a large scale in urban and rural communities.
In accordance with the great city construction plan of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and under their energetic leadership, modern Changgwang Street, Munsu Street, An Sang Thaek Street, Kwangbok Street and Chongchun Street, and the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace, the May Day Stadium, the Ice Rink, the Changgwang Health Complex and other cultural and sports facilities were constructed in Pyongyang.
While leading creation and construction by associating them with the people, Kim Il Sung named the army, the government, hospitals and other monumental structures the people’s army, people’s government, people’s hospital and so on. He got the modern library constructed at the best place in the centre of Pyongyang, and named it the Grand People’s Study House.
In his historic work, titled On Further Developing Communist Policies published in October 1985, Kim Il Sung said that various popular and communist measures could be put into effect only by the WPK and the Government of the DPRK, which value the people and take good care of them by assuming full responsibility for their destiny, not by every socialist country, and definitely not by rich countries. He emphasized the need to further develop the best communist measures to provide the people with a richer and more civilized life, in order to promote their well-being.
Even under the difficult circumstances in which the imperialists are scheming to isolate and stifle the Republic, Korea maintains the food supply system, the universal free education system, the universal free medical care system, the system of bringing up and training children, the system of building dwelling houses at state expense, the social insurance system, the social security system and various other communist measures, thanks to Kim Il Sung’s boundlessly warm love for the people and his consistent, popular policy.
Kim Il Sung made strenuous efforts to bring about a fresh upsurge in science, education and public health.
For the development of science and technology, he made speeches, under the title, On Consolidating Scientific and Technological Research in Keeping with the Situation in Our Country at the consultative meeting of officials in the field of science and technology held in February 1982, and On Making a Fresh Advance in Scientific Research addressed to the scientists of the Academy of Sciences in March 1983. In these and other speeches, he clearly indicated the basic direction and method of solving the scientific and technological problems from the firm standpoint of Juche, the problems arising in speeding up the Juche-orientation and modernization of the national economy and placing it on a scientific basis, in achieving the new long-term objectives of socialist economic construction and in raising the people’s living standards. He personally directed this work, helping the scientists and technicians solve their problems.
At the 13th Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee held in March 1988, he instructed that the electronics, biology, heat engineering and other branches of science and technology should be developed quickly in keeping with the world trend of modern science and the demands of the reality. He got the three year-plan for the development of science and technology (1988-1990) adopted, in order to make a revolutionary advance in the development of science and technology. He concentrated great efforts on the development of electronics, biology and heat engineering.
In order to effect a new advance in educational work, he directed primary attention to raising the quality of the eleven-year compulsory education, and saw to it that the contents and method of education were improved in keeping with the levels of the knowledge and the ages of the pupils of the primary and senior middle schools and that such model schools as Pyongyang Senior Middle School No. 1, which was created by WPK’s popular policy on education, were increased in number. Meanwhile, he continued to direct great efforts to strengthening higher education so as to train large numbers of well-qualified scientists, technicians and specialists winning doctor and master of science degrees in their twenties and thirties. He ensured that the scale of the training in the universities and colleges was enlarged, and that new colleges and higher specialized schools were set up in large numbers.
With a view to further developing the study-while-working system of higher education, he had many factory colleges, farm colleges and fishermen’s colleges set up and run properly, and a TV college started.
He also ensured that the Grand People’s Study House and the libraries throughout the country, important centres for transforming the whole society into intellectuals, were run efficiently, so as to strengthen social education and establish the revolutionary atmosphere of study in the whole society under the slogan, “The Party, the People and the Army Must All Study!”
Thus, the system of socialist education was further consolidated and developed, and its superiority and vitality displayed on a higher level. A great advance was made in the preparation for compulsory higher education in the future.
He ensured the thorough implementation of the Party’s policy of preventive medicine in the development of the public health service, as well as the consolidation of people’s hospitals and clinics, and improvement in treatment through the development of traditional Koryo medicine (traditional Korean medicine-Tr.). As a result, the people are enjoying long lives in good health.
While pushing ahead with socialist construction dynamically, he devoted all his energies to strengthening and developing the People’s Army into the Party’s army of Juche and an invincible revolutionary army, in order to guarantee the revolutionary cause of Juche by the armed forces.
In his classic work, titled Let Us Firmly Guarantee the Fulfilment of the Revolutionary Cause of Juche by the Armed Forces, published in April 1982, and in other works, he set the very important task of strengthening the People’s Army, the reliable defender of the cause of the Party, the revolutionary cause of Juche, to meet the requirements of the new higher stage, when the work of modelling the entire army on the Juche idea had come to the fore, and showed how to carry out the task.
He set the general task of the People’s Army, the task of imbuing the entire army with the Juche idea, by training all its soldiers to be true communist revolutionaries of the Juche type and thoroughly embodying the Juche idea in all fields of military affairs and activities. He gave instructions that a dynamic struggle should be launched to strengthen the People’s Army politically, ideologically, and militarily under the slogan, “Let Us Model the Entire Army on the Juche Idea!”
He endeavoured to establish the monolithic ideological system of the Party in the entire army and firmly establish Kim Jong Il’s system of military leadership.
He convened a meeting of the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee in June 1982, and said that Kim Jong Il should give direct military leadership to the People’s Army, as well as continuing to give it Party leadership. He ordered that all the military affairs of the People’s Army should be brought to Kim Jong Il’s attention. At the conference of the commanders and the political workers of the KPA held in September 1985 and in the instructions he gave to the senior officials of the People’s Army in February 1988, and on other occasions, he emphasized the need to establish the revolutionary system of military leadership by which the entire army unconditionally obeys Kim Jong Il’s orders and instructions, and moves as one.
Kim Il Sung directed great efforts to implementing the policy of making the entire army a cadre army, and modernizing it.
He directed the People’s Army to intensify combat and political training, so that all its soldiers mastered modern weapons and equipment, were well versed in the Juche-oriented tactics suited to Korean conditions, and became unconquerable fighters. He also directed the army to develop military science and technology quickly, and improve its technical equipment steadily to meet the requirements of modern warfare.
As a result of the establishment of Kim Jong Il’s military leadership system in the entire army and of the strengthening of its combat power, the People’s Army became able to smash the scheme of aggression and war of the US imperialists and their stooges, and to guarantee the socialist cause, the revolutionary cause of Juche, by the armed forces.
Kim Il Sung sagaciously led the Korean people to advance confidently along the road of socialism, holding high the revolutionary banner of Juche, the red flag of the revolution.
After the mid-1980s, because of the imperialists’ hard-line policy and their manoeuvres to stifle the socialist countries and their persistent “strategy of peaceful transition”, as well as because of the machinations of the renegades from socialism, in some socialist countries Marxism-Leninism was revised into modern social democracy, and “reform” and “restructuring” became their lines and policies. The result was that they gave up socialism.
Kim Il Sung expressed, with great foresight, his firm determination to advance, holding higher the banner of socialism in this complicated situation.
Anticipating the First Session of the Eighth Supreme People’s Assembly, to be held in December 1986, Kim Il Sung explained why the programme of the complete victory of socialism was to be put forth. Pointing out that some socialist countries had adopted revisionism and reformism, running fundamentally counter to the principles of socialism, he emphasized: We should fight for the complete victory of socialism, continuously holding high the banner of revolution, true to our pledge made when we first held up the red flag of revolution, the pledge to keep the Red Flag flying even though cowards deserted the cause.
Kim Il Sung stressed the idea, “Let cowards flinch and traitors sneer. We’ll keep the Red Flag flying here” when other countries were abandoning the Red Flag of the revolution. This was the solemn declaration of the unshakable conviction and will of the WPK and the Korean people to accomplish the cause of socialism, brandishing high the Red Flag of Juche, the symbol of the revolutionary faith and victory and the beacon of struggle and advance.
Inspired with his spirit of the Red Flag, the Korean people stepped up their grand advance towards the complete victory of socialism, holding the Red Flag of the revolution higher and higher.
Kim Il Sung led officials and the people to oppose revisionism and reformism thoroughly, and acquire the habit of struggling and living in the Korean way.
At a consultative meeting of senior officials held in March 1987, he instructed that in order to reject revisionism and reformism and live in the Korean way, it is necessary to arm oneself with the Juche idea, combat flunkeyism and work in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude.
He said:
“Our officials should never harbour any illusion about the revisionist and reformist policies pursued by other countries, but should make our Party’s lines and policies their sole conviction, and implement them to the letter.”
In his classic works, titled On Firmly Holding up the Revolutionary Banner of Juche and Vigorously Accelerating Socialist Construction, published in March 1988, and Let Us Accomplish the Cause of Socialism and Communism under the Revolutionary Banner of Juche, published in September the same year, Kim Il Sung substantiated the validity of the Party’s line of building socialism and communism, and emphasized the need to defend and carry through the Party’s line and continue to advance along the selected road of socialism in whatever circumstances.
In his speech at the 26th Session of the Eighth Central People’s Committee in May 1989 and in his concluding speech at the 16th Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee in June the same year, he said that there was nothing to be reformed or restructured in the DPRK. He stressed that all the officials must have a firm conviction of the justice of the Party’s lines and policies, advance holding high the banner of modelling the whole society on the Juche idea, firmly maintain the revolutionary principle of strengthening the Party’s leadership, and thoroughly carry out the Chongsanri method and the Taean work system. He warned them not to cast dazzled eyes at other countries’ policies of reform and restructuring and not be infected by them, but set up a tight screen in order to prevent the infiltration of alien ideas and trends contrary to the Juche idea of the Party.
In the latter half of the 1980s, the WPK and the Korean people strongly defended the revolutionary banner of Juche, the Red Flag of the revolution, under the slogan, “Let Us Live Our Own Way!”, without wavering in any storm. Thus the socialism of Korea grew stronger and struck root deeper in the minds of the people.
In conformity with the general task of the Korean revolution for modelling the whole society on the Juche idea, Kim Il Sung made strenuous efforts to develop in depth the struggle to imbue the ranks of Chongryon with the Juche idea.
Kim Il Sung sent congratulatory messages to the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th congresses of Chongryon and a congratulatory message under the title On the Occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Founding of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, to the Chairman of the Central Standing Committee of Chongryon in May 1985. In these messages, and in other works, he clarified the tasks of Chongryon in adhering to the line of modelling its ranks on the Juche idea as the main line, so as to establish the ideological system of Juche within its organization and strengthen and develop it into a patriotic organization faithful to the Party’s leadership. In addition, he explained how to carry out these tasks.
With a view to developing in depth the modelling of Chongryon on the Juche idea, he made sure that efforts were channelled primarily into building up the ranks of Chongryon officials-the hardcore force of the movement of the Korean residents in Japan, the educators of the masses of the Korean compatriots, and professional patriotic fighters-and into work with these officials.
He made Chongryon step up its education of the younger generation in keeping with the actual situation in which a change of generation was taking place within its organization, so that the young Koreans in Japan could fully understand how precious their homeland was to them, remain unfail- ingly loyal to the homeland and the Party as their predecessors had done, and reliably carry on the movement of the Korean residents in Japan generation after generation. He also saw to it that Chongryon improved its work with the Korean traders and manufacturers, the backbone of its mass base, so as to encourage them to play their maximum role as the masters of patriotic work and to consolidate its mass base.
He paid close attention to democratic education in Chongryon.
In his congratulatory message sent to Joson University on the 30th anniversary of its foundation in April 1986 and in other works, he set the task of turning national education into the movement of all the Korean compatriots in Japan.
His wise leadership and meticulous care resulted in great strides in the modelling of Chongryon on the Juche idea and in-depth development of patriotic work, thus placing the movement of the Korean residents in Japan on a higher stage of development.
Kim Il Sung made painstaking efforts to realize national reunification by founding the DFRK.
As a part of his endeavour to materialize the proposal for founding the DFRK, he put great efforts into the work of achieving the great unity of the whole nation, taking various measures, including the convocation of a conference for the promotion of national reunification, and a series of proposals for the purpose, and appealing to all the Koreans in the north, the south and abroad to firmly unite behind a single great national united front, under the banner of national reunification, regardless of their ideologies and ideals, party affiliation or political views.
Motivated by his warm love for his fellow countrymen, he took the compatriotic measure of sending 50,000 sok (one sok is equivalent to about 144 kg-Tr.) of rice, 100,000 tons of cement, 500,000 metres of cloth and large quantities of medicine as relief goods to the south Korean flood victims in September 1984.
In 1989 he warmly received the Rev. Mun Ik Hwan, advisor to the Coalition for the National Democratic Movement (Jonminryon) of south Korea and girl student Rim Su Gyong, delegate of “Jondaehyop” (the National Council of Student Representatives) from south Korea, and held them up before the nation as envoys of reunification, in high appreciation of their great patriotic deeds.
The delivery of relief goods to the south Korean flood victims and the visits of reunification envoys to Pyongyang encouraged the Korean people in the north, the south and abroad to respect and follow Kim Il Sung all the more as the lodestar of reunification, and have an even stronger desire for national reconciliation, unity and reunification.
In support of the policy of national reunification put forward by him, the south Korean people intensified the struggle for independence, democracy and reunification, and the Revolutionary Party for Reunification renamed itself the “National Democratic Front of South Korea” (Hanmin-jon) in July 1985 and stepped up its leadership role in the south Korean people’s struggle for anti-US independence and for anti-fascist democracy.
In the 1980s the struggle of the Korean people to realize the idea of founding the DFRK mounted higher in both north and south Korea, and throughout the world, thus creating a phase favourable for achieving national reunification.
Kim Il Sung made tireless efforts for global independence, under the unfurled banner of anti-imperialist independence.
He put forward the policy of realizing global independence in many of his works, including his historic policy speech delivered at a joint meeting of the Party Central Committee and the Supreme People’s Assembly, held in April 1982, when the struggle between the revolutionary forces and the counterrevolutionary forces, between the anti-imperialist independence forces and dominationist forces, was growing acute in the international arena.
He said:
“The progressive people of the world must further intensify the trend towards independence in our times, and thus win independence across the whole world.”
An independent world means a world where all forms of dominationism and colonialism have been wiped out, and the sovereignty of all countries and nations is fully realized.
The driving force in making the world independent, he said, is the peoples across the world who champion independence, and the principal target of the struggle is the US-led imperialist forces. He also emphasized that in order to materialize global independence, all countries and nations must firmly maintain full independence, fight against domination and subjuga- tion by the imperialists and establish an equal international order based on independence, oppose any policy of aggression and war and safeguard world peace and security. At the same time, they must frustrate the imperialists’ manoeuvres for division and estrangement, and strengthen the unity of the anti-imperialist independence forces, he said.
In his endeavour to realize global independence, he paid primary attention to strengthening the unity of the socialist forces.
He visited the People’s Republic of China in September 1982, November 1984 and May 1987, the Soviet Union and other East European socialist countries from May to July 1984, and the Mongolian People’s Republic from June to July 1988, during which time he conducted energetic activities to develop unity and friendly and cooperative relations among the socialist countries, and encourage them to maintain socialist principles.
Holding fast to the principle of proletarian internationalism, he rendered active support and encouragement to the Cuban people in their struggle to maintain socialism. In June 1989, when the imperialists and reactionaries were launching an anti-China campaign, he sent a special envoy to China to encourage the Chinese Communist Party and the veteran Chinese revolutionaries.
He devoted great efforts to expanding and developing the Non-aligned Movement, a movement for independence against imperialism. In his answers given to the questions raised by the delegation of the Yugoslav News Agency Tanjug, in December 1981, in his important speech, titled For the Development of the Non-aligned Movement, made at a joint meeting of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee and the Central People’s Committee in 1986, and in other works, he pointed out matters of principle to be adhered to by the Non-aligned Movement. He stressed the need for the non-aligned nations to be faithful to the principle of independence, the idea of anti-imperialist independence, the settling of differences of views and disputes through negotiations in all circumstances on the principle of unity, and the need to effect South-South cooperation and establish a new impartial international economic order. This had to be done, he said, to strengthen and develop non-alignment by thwarting the imperialists’ moves to divide the non-alignment, create bad blood within them and scramble for plunder.
In pursuit of his effort to develop South-South cooperation among the non-aligned and other developing countries in all spheres of politics, the economy and culture, he made the DPRK host several international conferences, including the Symposium of the Non-aligned and Other Developing Countries on Increasing Food and Agricultural Production, held in August 1981, the First Conference of Ministers of Education and Culture of Non-aligned and Other Developing Countries, held in September 1983, and the Extraordinary Ministerial Conference of Non-aligned Countries on South-South Cooperation, held in June 1987. At these meetings, he delivered such important speeches as Non-aligned and Developing Countries Should Solve the Agricultural Problem Through Their Own Efforts, For the Development of the National Culture of the Newly-Emerging Countries, and Let Us Develop South-South Cooperation. In these speeches he explained the matters of principle that could serve as the guidelines for the struggle of the peoples of the non-aligned and newly-emerging countries for the building of a new society. He also got agricultural institutes and experimental farms established in several countries in Africa, and disinterested assistance and cooperation rendered to non-aligned and newly-emerging countries in the spheres of industry, national culture and construction.
Kim Il Sung led a vigorous struggle to oppose the US-led imperialists’ policy of aggression and war, and safeguard world peace and security.
In his historic speeches, titled Let Us Shatter Imperialist Moves towards Aggression and War and Safeguard Peace and Independence, made in July 1983, and Preventing War and Preserving Peace Are the Burning Tasks of Mankind, delivered in September 1986, and in other works, he pointed out that people all over the world should strive to frustrate the schemes of the United States and other imperialists for stoking up a nuclear arms race and provoking a nuclear war, to get aggressive military bases and troops withdrawn from foreign countries and to dissolve all kinds of military blocs. In addition, he said, they should strive to create nuclear-free and peace zones in many parts of the world, and expand them, and wage principled struggles against imperialism.
He had the DPRK host the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students held in July 1989 under the motto “Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship”. He attended its inaugural ceremony and delivered a speech in which he advanced the mission of the young people in the present era, and set the fighting tasks of the youth and students throughout the world for giving a stronger impetus to the onward movement in the era of independence.
The WFYS, the first of its kind to be held in Asia, with the attendance of youth and student delegations from more than 180 countries in five continents across the world, representatives of over 60 international and regional organizations, and many heads of state and guests of honour, served as an important opportunity to strengthen international solidarity with the Korean revolution and the unity of the anti-imperialist independent forces, and to promote the independence of the whole world.
12
JANUARY 1990-JULY 1994
During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the masses’ cause of independence, the cause of socialism, encountered a grave challenge. The machinations of the imperialists and the renegades from socialism led to the collapse of socialism and the revival of capitalism in the Soviet Union and the East European countries. Taking advantage of the abnormal situation, the imperialists and reactionaries made frantic efforts to isolate and stifle the DPRK, the citadel of socialism, clamouring for the “end of socialism”.
Kim Il Sung made strenuous efforts to crush the frenzied campaign of the imperialists and reactionaries against socialism and his Republic, and defend and brighten the socialist cause, enduring acute mental and physical agony.
In his New Year Address in 1990, the first year of the new decade, he declared that although the imperialists were persisting in their foolish attempt to turn back the historical tide, humanity’s advance along the road of socialism was an immutable truth and accorded with the law of the development of history.
He said:
“The road to socialism is an untrodden path. Therefore, in the course of advance one may encounter unexpected incidents, and undergo trials and tribulations. The way of building socialism should also be steadily improved and perfected in keeping with changes in the situation. But there can be no change in the truth of history that mankind must follow the road of socialism.”
No matter what may happen, he said, the masses of the people, the makers of history, must not deviate from the fundamental principle that they must oppose imperialism and advance towards socialism. He emphasized that they must steadfastly adhere to the principle of anti-imperialism and independence, the principle of socialism, in order to counter the imperialists’ manoeuvres, and must fight to the end, by displaying an indomitable fighting spirit and with confidence in the victory of socialism.
Giving full rein to the advantages of the socialist system was the key to adherence to the socialist principles and success in accomplishing the historic cause of building socialism.
In his policy speech, titled Let Us Bring the Advantages of Socialism in Our Country into Full Play, addressed to the First Session of the Ninth Supreme People’s Assembly in May 1990, Kim Il Sung explained the essential characteristics and advantages of the people-centred socialism in Korea, which embodies the Juche idea, and set the task of giving them full play, and indicated the method of doing so.
He explained that in order to accomplish the cause of socialism and communism it was essential to speed up socialist construction by adhering firmly to the general line of the WPK, the line of pushing ahead with the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions while strengthening the people’s government and enhancing its function and role, and capture the ideological and material fortresses, the basic strategic objectives of building socialism and communism.
He indicated the basic direction and method of human transformation. These were to give priority to capturing the ideological fortress so as to revolutionize all members of society, assimilate them to the working class and train them to be intellectuals, in other words, to make them intellectuals who have been transformed on working-class lines and train them to be workers who have been developed into intellectuals. In addition, he said that the strong motive force of the revolution was the source of the invincibility of Korean-style socialism as well as a sure guarantee for accomplishing the socialist cause, and stressed that the basic task in this respect was to strengthen the Party and cement its ties with the masses so that the two would be inseparable.
He said that the construction of the socialist economy should be accelerated to occupy the material fortress, and that the national economy should be Juche-oriented, modernized and placed on a scientific basis in accordance with the Party’s line, its basic strategy.
Dwelling on the need to implement socialist democracy in state activities, he emphasized that Party leadership must be ensured, that bureaucratism and subjectivism must be eliminated, and that the revolutionary mass line must be implemented in order to give full rein to socialist democracy and display the advantages of the socialist system.
He said that socialism can be built only on the socialist principles and by the socialist method, and that all problems arising in the construction of socialism must be solved on the basis of socialist theories, on the principle of giving full play to the advantages of socialism and by the method of activating the inexhaustible creativity of the masses of the people.
His policy speech was a classic, in that it further developed the revolutionary theory of the working class on the construction of socialism and communism, and, as such, it served as a guideline and militant banner in the struggle to defend and accomplish the people’s cause of independence, the cause of socialism.
Kim Il Sung led the entire Party, the entire army and all the people to unite solidly behind Kim Jong Il and support his leadership, in order to safeguard socialism and carry forward and accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche.
He said:
“In order to defend the people-centred socialism of our country and brilliantly accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche, the entire Party and all the people must unite firmly behind Comrade Kim Jong Il and loyally support his leadership.”
Kim Jong Il has been giving intelligent leadership to all the work of the Party, state and army for a long time, and has made imperishable achievements.
The Korean people and the officers and men of the KPA, who have keenly felt Kim Jong Il’s greatness through their life experience, are resolved to loyally support his ideas and leadership, with him at the helm of the Party and the revolution, and carry out the Juche revolutionary cause pioneered by Kim Il Sung.
In consideration of the unanimous will of the Party and the people, Kim Il Sung turned over the heavy responsibilities of the state and the revolutionary armed forces to Kim Jong Il one by one, and made sure that he was acclaimed as the supreme leader of the Korean revolution.
By the organizational will of the entire Party, the entire army and all the people and their unanimous desire, Kim Jong Il was appointed Supreme Commander of the KPA at the 19th Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee on December 24, 1991, was awarded the title of Marshal of the DPRK on April 20, 1992, and was acclaimed as Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK on April 9, 1993.
The provision of a sure guarantee for the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche, the cause of socialism, through the installation of Kim Jong Il as the supreme leader of the revolution and through the establishment of the system of his leadership was the greatest achievement made by Kim Il Sung in his struggle for the Juche revolutionary cause.
Kim Il Sung led the entire Party and all the people to understand Kim Jong Il’s greatness and have unqualified reverence for him.
Early in February 1992, Kim Il Sung approved the decree of the Central People’s Committee on celebrating February 16, Kim Jong Il’s birthday, as the most jubilant festival of the nation, a decree that represented the ardent desire of the Korean people. Thus, he made it traditional to celebrate the day with the greatest joy.
In his talks to the veterans of the anti-Japanese revolution and the children of revolutionary martyrs in March 1992 and in January and March 1993 under the title, For the Accomplishment of the Socialist Cause, Kirn II Sung gave a full account of the greatness of Kim Jong Il, who has superb civil and military capabilities combined with loyal and filial devotion, as well as of his imperishable achievements made for the times and the revolution. The talks stimulated the people’s feelings of worship for Kim Jong Il.
Kim Il Sung arranged conferences of the people of different strata in order to encourage them to give loyal support to Kim Jong Il’s leadership.
He organized a national conference of the families of revolutionary martyrs in October 1992, and a national conference of war veterans in July 1993 in order to ensure that the veterans and the martyrs’ families played the pivotal role in loyally supporting Kim Jong Il’s leadership. In December 1992 he called a conference of Korean intellectuals and led them to be the Party’s eternal companions, its faithful assistants, good advisers, ardent champions and thorough implementers of its policy, while loyally supporting Kim Jong Il’s leadership with their knowledge and technical skills, and taking the lead in resolutely defending and adding lustre to Korean-style socialism.
In his historic letter under the title, Young People Must Brilliantly Accomplish the Revolutionary Cause of Juche in Enthusiastic Support of the Party’s Leadership, sent to the Eighth Congress of the LSWY in February 1993, Kim Il Sung instructed the younger generation to loyally support Kim Jong Il’s leadership.
Although he was the General Secretary of the Party and the President of the State, Kim Il Sung set the example of doing everything after reporting it to Kim Jong Il, Organizing Secretary of the Party Central Committee, saying that it was his duty as a Party member to receive assignments from the Secretary who was in charge of Party work and report the results to him.
Kim Il Sung led Chongryon to do all their patriotic work with great enthusiasm in loyal support of Kim Jong Il’s leadership.
In his talk, titled On the Work of Chongryon, given to the congratulatory group of Koreans who came from Japan to celebrate Kim Jong Il’s 50th birthday in February 1992, and his talks to many other delegations from Chongryon, and in his letters and telegrams of congratulations sent to many of its conferences,
Kim Il Sung instructed Chongryon to loyally support Kim Jong Il’s leadership no matter what wind might blow.
He said:
“Chongryon officials and the compatriots in Japan should follow Comrade Kim Jong Il as faithfully as they support me, and carry out the patriotic work according to his wishes.”
Kim Il Sung led all the officials of Chongryon and the Korean compatriots in Japan to defeat the destructive and subversive acts of Japanese reactionaries, defend the organization of Chongryon, turn out in the struggle for the building of socialism and national reunification with unshakable confidence in their socialist homeland and carry on Chongryon’s patriotic work down through generations, in loyal support of Kim Jong Il’s leadership.
He made the driving force of socialism rock-solid by cementing the single-hearted unity of the Party and the revolutionary ranks behind Kim Jong Il.
He said:
“In order to support Comrade Kim Jong Il’s leadership as you should, you must continue to strengthen the single-hearted unity of the Party and the revolutionary ranks.”
Single-hearted unity, Kim Il Sung said, is the revolutionary philosophy of the WPK and the fundamental principle of revolution. It means a single- minded unity around one centre, around the leader. Single-hearted unity centring on Kim Jong Il is more powerful than an atomic bomb, and can crush any imperialists’ offensive against socialism and defend and brighten socialism, he instructed.
Kim Il Sung strengthened the Party, the basic factor in enhancing the motive force of the revolution, and boosted its leadership role.
He said:
“The powerful driving force of the revolution is unthinkable without a revolutionary party, and the advantages of socialism and its victory are inconceivable without the leadership of the party.”
When the party is weakened and its leadership role emasculated, the masses of the people are disintegrated organizationally and ideologically, lose sight of their target and the direction of struggle, become confused and in the end make a fiasco of the revolution and construction. This is a serious lesson of the history of the international communist movement.
In his speech at the banquet given in celebration of the 45th anniversary of the foundation of the WPK in October 1990, Kim Il Sung elucidated the matters of principle in developing the Party into a revolutionary party which is firmly united organizationally and ideologically and has unconquerable fighting power. He emphasized that all the Party organizations and all its members should loyally support the leadership of the Party Central Committee.
Attaching great importance to strengthening Party cells, the lowest basic organization of the Party and the base of Party life, he set the task of strengthening Party cells to meet the requirements of the developing situation at the enlarged plenary meeting of the Party committee of North Ham-gyong Province in September 1992, and led the Party to improve its work and enhance its leadership role.
He also paid close attention to strengthening the inseparable ties between the Party and the masses.
In his talk, titled Officials Must Become True Servants of the People, given to the officials of the Party, administrative and economic bodies in December 1992, and in many other works, he said that officials must struggle devotedly to unite the broad masses of the people behind the Party and promote the people’s welfare.
In order to further cement the inseparable ties between the Party and the masses, he made sure that all the officials refrained from abusing their authority and from practising bureaucratism, that they shared life and death, weal and woe, with the people, mixing closely with them, listened to their voices, and helped them solve their problems promptly, and that the Party’s benevolence and consideration reached the people unimpeded.
Under the leadership of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the motive force of the socialist cause has become unconquerable as a harmonious unity of the leader, the Party and the masses.
In April 1992, the Korean people celebrated the 80th birthday of Kim D Sung as the national jubilation, at the historic turning point in the struggle to carry on and accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche, the cause of socialism.
Under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, monuments to Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary activities were erected in many parts of the country, housing construction for fifty thousand families was carried out, and the second-stage tramways were laid in the capital city, to mark the jubilant occasion. In addition, the Pyongyang-Kaesong motorway and many other monumental structures of lasting significance, as well as many new factories and other enterprises were constructed.
The 80th birthday of Kim Il Sung was celebrated as a grand international political festival throughout the world; over 420 delegations, public figures, and artistes from more than 130 countries came to visit Pyongyang and offered their best wishes for a long life to him. Meanwhile, the Tenth April Spring Friendship Art Festival, a grand international art festival, was held on an unprecedented scale.
For his imperishable achievements in the revolutionary cause of Juche, in building the army and in the cause of anti-imperialism and independence, Kim Il Sung was awarded the title of Generalissimo of the DPRK.
In his important speech, titled Enhancing the Role of the Popular Masses Is the Guarantee for Victory in the Cause of Independence, made at the banquet given in honour of his 80th birthday, Kim Il Sung said that those 80 years marked a life dedicated to the struggle for the people as their son and in their love and trust, and that in the future, too, he would serve the people to the end, continuing to enjoy their love and trust.
Saying that his whole life was devoted to his country and nation, during which he had struggled together with the people all his life, he took great pains to write With the Century, the memoirs that summed up his brilliant career, regarding it as a noble duty to tell the coming generations the precious revolutionary truth and the practical experience of the triumphant Korean revolution that would serve as a guideline to the accomplishment of the popular masses’ cause of independence.
The memoirs contain a comprehensive account of his ideas, leadership and noble personality, as well as of his imperishable revolutionary achievements, priceless experience of struggle, unfailing loyalty to the revolutionary cause, warm love for the people, and great generosity and magnanimity with which he led all the people along the road of revolution, together with his pre-eminent art of leadership.
As an immensely valuable textbook of revolution that shows the truth, experiences and lessons which revolutionaries should take as the guideline for their lives and struggles, the memoirs have a strong educational influence.
Kim Il Sung devoted great efforts to strengthening the ideological bulwark of socialism in order to defend and brighten the socialist cause.
History proves the truth that socialism triumphs when its ideology is adhered to, and that it perishes when its ideology is lost.
In his classic work, titled Ours Is the Socialism of Juche, and in other works, Kim Il Sung developed in depth the socialist ideology and theories with regard to the motive force of socialism, the basic mode of statecraft in socialist society, and the continuity of leadership, which is the decisive guarantee for the ultimate victory of the socialist cause.
He ensured that the educational work of equipping the Party members and other working people with socialist ideology was intensified.
He made sure that the education of all the Party members and working people in the theory of the Juche idea was carried on in close combination with their education in loyalty and Party policy, and that they acquired a firm revolutionary world outlook of Juche as well as a deep understanding of the essential advantages of socialist society and the inevitability of the triumph of socialism, so that they struggled with increased devotion for its victory with unshakable confidence in socialism.
Attaching great importance to education in the revolutionary traditions, he inspected the Hyesan, Samjiyon, Pochonbo, and Phophyong areas in Ryanggang Province in August 1991, and instructed that the old revolutionary battle sites and the sites of revolutionary history should be well laid out to improve education in the revolutionary traditions by making use of these sites. On a visit to the Korean Revolution Museum in July 1993, he ascertained new materials of revolutionary history, and emphasized the need to organize people’s visits to the museum properly to improve their education which would equip them firmly with the revolutionary traditions.
He saw to it that class education was intensified among the Party members and working people, and that their education in collectivism, the basis of socialist society, was combined closely with their education in communist morality. In December 1993 he arranged the National Meeting of Models of Communist Virtue, a conference which occasioned the full flowering, throughout society, of the fine communist traits based on the collectivist outlook on life.
He took measures to overcome all manifestations that ran counter to socialist ideology, and build up a barricade to ward off debased imperialist ideas and culture.
Speaking about the problems arising in strengthening the Party ideologically and organizationally at an enlarged plenary meeting of the Party committee of North Hamgyong Province in September 1992, he emphasized that the Party committee should equip the Party members and other working people in the province solidly with the Juche idea to prevent them from being infected with capitalist viruses, in view of the fact that the province was more vulnerable to the infiltration of capitalist ideas than other provinces because it is adjacent to a country where capitalism has revived and because it borders on the Rason area, which is the focus of the world’s attention.
Kim Il Sung strengthened the People’s Army, the backbone of national defence power and the main force for the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche, in order to defend Korean-style socialism with armed force.
In his classic work, titled On the Duties of the Company Political Instructors of the Korean People’s Army, a speech made in December 1991, and in his other works, he set the task of strengthening the People’s Army to be unconquerable by training each soldier to be a match for a hundred foes and by transforming the entire army on revolutionary lines, and explained how to carry out this task.
He took steps to establish an unshakable system of military leadership of the Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il throughout the army.
He said:
“I hope that all the officers and men will obey Comrade Kim Jong Il’s orders without question, regarding them as my own, and follow his leadership loyally.”
Availing himself of every opportunity, Kim Il Sung used to say to officials: Comrade Kim Jong Il is the general of the Mt. Paektu type. As an illustrious commander he has all the outstanding qualities in combination and at the highest level, such as brilliant ideas, extraordinary brains, ingenuity, strategic clairvoyance, unwavering conviction and will, peerless audacity and courage, and unextinguishable ardour and benevolence.
During the period 1992-1993 alone, Kim Il Sung arranged a dozen conferences, including conferences of the commanding officers and the political officers of the KPA, to serve as a turning point in giving the army’s loyal support to the leadership of the Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il.
At a meeting of the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee in February 1990, and on other occasions, Kim Il Sung clearly indicated the basic direction of political and ideological education for the People’s Army. In his speech addressed to the conference of the company political instructors of the KPA held in December the following year, he dwelt on the need to display more clearly the fine traits of unity between officers and men and between soldiers and civilians. He also elucidated his original idea of army building about ensuring unity between Party members and Youth League members.
Meanwhile, he took steps to intensify the combat training of the People’s Army, modernize its artillery and signal corps, and increase the mobility of all its weapons and equipment, together with their striking power.
With keen interest in strengthening the companies of the People’s Army he arranged conferences of the company commanders, company political instructors and sergeant majors of the People’s Army in 1991, and a conference of the chairpersons of company primary organizations of the LSWY in 1992, and provided them with a very important guideline for increasing the combat efficiency of the companies.
Kim Il Sung’s cause of army building has been brilliantly carried forward by Kim Jong Il’s revolutionary army-first leadership, and the People’s Army has been strengthened into invincible revolutionary armed forces.
Kim Il Sung pressed ahead with the construction of the socialist economy in order to give full play to the advantages of socialism.
In the difficult economic situation caused by the breakdown of the socialist market and by the pernicious economic blockade imposed upon the DPRK by the imperialists and reactionaries, Kim Il Sung convened the 17th Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee in early January 1990. At this meeting he took revolutionary measures to improve the economic structure towards strengthening the country’s economic independence to ensure economic self-sufficiency in whatever circumstances by adjusting the rate of economic growth and reducing the economic scale envisaged in the Third Seven-Year Plan, and to change the direction of foreign trade.
In his concluding speech, titled Let Us Effect a Great Upsurge in Socialist Construction by Waging a Dynamic Campaign for Increased Production and Economy made at the Plenary Meeting, he called on the entire Party to make a revolutionary upsurge once more in building socialism without wavering before manifold difficulties, but highly displaying the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude.
In his speeches addressed to the First Session of the Ninth Central People’s Committee and the First Session of the Ninth Administration Council, in May 1990, and in his talk to economists in April the same year, he clearly indicated the direction and method of enhancing the function and role of the Administration Council and other administrative and economic establishments, of implementing the principles and methods of socialist economic management in line with the character of the socialist economy, and of improving economic guidance and management, in order to effect an upsurge in socialist construction to suit the new environment.
Kim Il Sung convened a national conference of production innovators, a national conference on agriculture, a national conference of activists in the electricity industry and other conferences of different sectors, innovators’ meetings and consultative meetings in succession for the successful fulfillment of the Third Seven-Year Plan.
At the same time, Kim Il Sung, who used to consult the people whenever difficult and complex tasks came up, and find solutions to the problems by activating their efforts, gave ceaseless on-the-spot guidance to the workers and farmers even in his eighties in order to break through the difficult situation by mobilizing their efforts.
In 1991 he inspected the June 1 General Electrical Appliances Factory in Hamhung, the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex and the Ryongsong Associated Machinery Bureau in South Hamgyong Province, visiting the province three times that year. Late in August and early in September that year he gave field guidance to the Musan Mining Complex, the Experimental Farm of the Kyongsong Branch of the Academy of Agricultural Science, the Hoeryong Foodstuffs Association, the Wangjaesan Cooperative Farm in Onsong County, the Ilhyang Cooperative Farm in Kyongsong County, and others in North Hamgyong Province.
Under his wise leadership, all the Party members and other working people launched the campaign to create the speed of the 1990s, and carried out the Third Seven-Year Plan, under the slogan, “When the Party is determined, we can do anything,” in spite of many difficulties and trials.
In December 1993, Kim Il Sung convened the 21st Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Party Central Committee, and summed up the results of the implementation of the Third Seven-Year Plan. In his concluding speech, titled On the Direction of Socialist Economic Construction for the Immediate Period Ahead, he put forward a new economic strategy. He said that it was imperative to carry out the agriculture-first policy, the light-industry-first policy and the foreign-trade-first policy and give definite priority to the development of the coal industry, the power industry and rail transport, which were to lead the development of other economic sectors, while continuing to develop the metal industry.
In order to carry out the Party’s new economic strategy, he raised the slogan, “Let Us Speed Up the All-Out Advance of Socialism with the Revolutionary Spirit of Self-Reliance and Fortitude.” At the Seventh Session of the Ninth Supreme People’s Assembly, he had a decision adopted on successfully carrying out the tasks for the period of adjusting the construction of the socialist economy (1994 to 1996).
He made sure that the struggle for the ultimate solution of the socialist rural question was pushed forward.
In his historic speech, titled Let Us Carry Out the Theses on the Socialist Rural Question, made in June 1990, he instructed that a vigorous advance should be made confidently along the road indicated by the theses.
Pressing ahead with the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions in the rural areas, he made sure that the granaries on the west coast were fully irrigated by the completion by 1990 of the colossal project for the construction of 800 km of irrigation canals linking the Taedong River with the Ryesong River, and the Amnok River with the Taeryong River, to form a single irrigation system in order to complete the irrigation of farmland on a high level.
Giving on-the-spot guidance to many cooperative farms in Paechon, Yonan and Chongdan Counties in August 1993, he encouraged the farmers to increase grain production, and sent them many tractors and lorries needed for agricultural mechanization.
In view of the success made in the 30 years of struggle since the publication of the socialist rural theses and the current requirements at the stage of new development of socialist rural construction, he sent a letter, titled For an Ultimate Solution of the Rural Question under the Banner of Socialist Rural Theses, to the National Agricultural Conference in February 1994. The letter clearly indicated the direction and method for ultimately solving the socialist rural question.
When the struggle was under way to implement his policy on developing cooperative ownership into public ownership with the county as the unit, the cooperative farms in Sukchon County, South Phyongan Province, and those in Mangyongdae District, Pyongyang City, were successfully transformed into ones of public ownership type in 1994.
Kim Il Sung ensured the rapid development of socialist culture in all domains.
On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the publication of the Theses on Socialist Education, he saw to it that a great advance was made in the education of the younger generation and the training of national cadres by improving the content and method of education and raising its qualitative level to meet the requirements of the developing reality.
Through the struggle to implement the Theses on Socialist Education, Korea produced a contingent of 1.7 million intellectuals, and its education attained the high level of making the whole society intellectual.
With a view to developing science and technology to a higher stage in the shortest period of time, he took measures to establish the State Acade- my of Sciences in 1993, an institution that performs the function of the state’s unified direction of the scientific research institutions, to steer scientific research work towards the Juche-orientation and modernization of the national economy and its placement on a scientific basis, and to find adequate solutions to the problems arising in developing science and technology in the country to the international standard.
Kim Il Sung also paid close attention to the development of socialist art and literature, and sports and physical culture.
In February 1993, he summoned those who had rendered distinguished services while working in the field of art and literature for a long time, and earnestly instructed that they should work hard to implement the Party’s policy on art and literature with greater success. For the development of sports and physical culture, he took measures to improve education in physical culture, put efforts into defence sports and mass physical culture, and highly evaluate and highlight the champions who had won international games and had the flag of the DPRK hoisted.
Even in the difficult situation in the country he ensured that free medical care was continued and that the Party’s policy of preventive medicine was thoroughly implemented.
He took measures to carry forward and develop the cultural heritage of the nation to add lustre to its long history, and systematize the nation’s history from the standpoint of Juche.
In early May 1992, he paid a visit to Kaesong and inspected Song-gyungwan, a historical relic of higher education, dating back a thousand years. He saw to it that Koryo Songgyungwan, a university of light industry, was established to carry on the tradition of higher education.
In January 1993, saying that the history of King Tangun and Kojoson (ancient Korea-Tr.), which had been distorted by the Japanese imperialist policy of obliterating Korea’s national culture, should be corrected, he indicated the direction and method of excavating the tomb of King Tangun, located in Kangdong County.
As a result, the remains of the king and the relics relating to him were unearthed in February 1993. The latest dating instruments confirmed that the remains were 5,011 years old. The scientific proof of the fact that King Tangun, who had been regarded as a mythological figure, had been a real human being and that he had founded the first state of the Korean nation with its capital at Pyongyang, established that Pyongyang is the birthplace of the Korean nation and that King Tangun was the founder of Korea.
In September 1993, Kim Il Sung made a personal inspection of the site of the mausoleum of the king to be reconstructed, and fixed it at the foot of Mt. Taebak in Kangdong County. He gave valuable instructions on 47 occasions regarding the reconstruction of the mausoleum.
Under the careful guidance of Kim Jong Il, the tomb of King Tangun was reconstructed as an imposing mausoleum by early October 1994, as a national treasure to be handed down to posterity, and as a monumental structure of the age of the WPK.
Kim Il Sung took measures to reconstruct the tomb of King Tongmy-ong, the founder of Koguryo, and the tomb of King Wang Kon, the founder of Koryo, in a grand style, and had monuments bearing his autographed inscriptions erected at the reconstructed tombs.
He ensured that the ancient and medieval history of Korea, which had been seriously distorted by chauvinistic and sycophantic historians, was corrected and systematized on the principle and methodology of Juche.
As a result, the primitive society of Korea was fully explained, and a system of ancient history centring on Kojoson and medieval history dealing mainly with Koguryo was established, and a system of ancient and medieval history that links Kojoson, Koguryo, Palhae and Koryo was fully established on the basis of national traditions.
At the Sixth Session of the Ninth Supreme People’s Assembly in December 1993, Kim Il Sung arranged the discussion of the matter of improving the inheritance and development of the cultural heritage of the nation. At the seventh session of the same in April the following year, he had the Law of the DPRK on the Protection of Cultural Relics enacted, and thus provided the legal guarantee for the proper care and development of the cultural heritage of the nation.
Thanks to his effort to carry forward and develop the cultural heritage of the nation, Korea has become able to exalt its honour as an advanced Eastern nation with a history of 5,000 years, as a homogeneous nation founded by King Tangun.
He led the struggle to reunify the country through the great unity of the entire nation, and brought about a new phase in this struggle.
Representing the burning desire of the entire nation for national reunifi- cation, he called on the people to make the 1990s a historic period of national reunification in his New Year Address in 1990 and at the First Session of the Ninth Supreme People’s Assembly in May the same year. In his works, titled Let the Entire Nation Unite and Hasten the Reunification of the Country, published in August 1990, and Let Us Achieve the Great Unity of Our Nation, published in August 1991, he emphasized that the first and foremost task of the entire nation in the historic cause of national reunification was to achieve its great unity.
He took measures to increase contacts and visits among the Koreans in the north, the south and abroad, and realize an alliance of all the political parties, public bodies, organizations and compatriots of all strata in the north, the south and abroad.
The opening ceremony of the Pan-National Rally and the launching ceremony of the grand march from Mt. Paektu to Mt. Halla, which were held on the summit of Mt. Paektu and the First Pan-National Rally which was held at Panmunjom, with the participation of the representatives from the reunification movement organizations and personages of various strata at home and abroad, in August 1990 for the first time in the 45 years since the division of the country, marked a turning-point in the struggle to reunify the country through great national unity.
Various contacts, exchange and reunification functions were held in a grand manner by the Koreans in the north, the south and abroad. In November 1990, the Pan-National Alliance for the Country’s Reunification, a patriotic reunification movement organization, was formed, and in August 1992 the National Alliance of Youth and Students for the Country’s Reunification was organized. These were of epochal significance in strengthening the motive force of national reunification, and in expanding and developing the movement for reunification.
In his talk, titled Let Us Realize the Country’s Reunification Independently through the United Efforts of the Whole Nation, given to the overseas compatriots who attended the Third Pan-National Rally in August 1992, and in other works, Kim Il Sung appealed to the overseas compatriots to achieve national unity with national pride and the idea of love for their homeland, their nation and their fellow Koreans, regardless of their thoughts, ideas, political views, religious beliefs, places of residence or affiliations, and make a characteristic contribution to the cause of national reunification.
In the mounting trend towards national unity and reunification, he took every possible measure to bring back the long-term prisoners from the south who refused to renounce communism. As a result, Ri In Mo, an incarnation of faith and will, who had steadfastly refused to renounce communism during 34 years in south Korean jails, was brought back to his home in March 1993.
Kim Il Sung strove to take practical measures to remove military confrontation between north and south and ensure peace, and to thwart the moves of the south Korean puppet clique for their separate entry into the UN. As a result, the DPRK was admitted into the UN at its 46th General Assembly session in September 1991, and the Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression and Cooperation and Exchange between the North and the South was adopted at the fifth north-south high-level talks in December the same year, and this was followed by the publication of the Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. These were the first agreements made since the publication of the July 4, 1972 North-South Joint Statement. They marked a milestone on the way to the peace and reunification of the country. This was an epoch-making event.
At the Fifth Session of the Ninth Supreme People’s Assembly in April 1993, when tension had risen again and a grave obstacle was laid in the way of national reunification because of the pernicious manoeuvres against the DPRK by the divisive forces at home and abroad, Kim Il Sung announced the 10-Point Programme of the Great Unity of the Whole Nation for the Reunification of the Country.
He said:
“All those who are concerned about the destiny of the nation, whether they be in the north, or in the south, or overseas, and whether they be communists or nationalists, rich or poor, atheists or believers, must unite as one nation, transcending all their differences, and together pave the way for national reunification.”
In the 10-Point Programme, he indicated the general objective of establishing an independent, peaceful and neutral unified state through the great unity of the entire nation, and elucidated in an original way the ideological basis of great national unity to be achieved on the basis of love for the nation and the spirit of national independence, and the fundamental principle of promoting co-existence, co-prosperity and mutual interests, and sub- ordinating everything to the reunification of the country. He also clarified all the practical methods of achieving great national unity, namely, the matter of refraining from any political tug-of-war and promoting mutual trust and unity between the north and the south, the matter of joining hands on the way to national reunification regardless of political views, of protecting the property of individuals and organizations and making use of them for great national unity, the matter of the entire nation understanding, trusting and uniting with each other through contacts, visits and dialogue, and the matter of giving due recognition to the persons who have contributed to great national unity and reunification.
In order to bring about a new phase in the cause of national reunification under the banner of the 10-Point Programme, he led to success the negotiations with the United States, which is directly responsible for the division of Korea, got its commitment to support Korea’s independent and peaceful reunification, and strove for a north-south summit conference.
Thanks to the important measures taken by Kim Il Sung, a preliminary contact for the summit was established at Panmunjom in June 1994, and an agreement was reached on holding the summit in Pyongyang from July 25 to 27 the same year.
Kim Il Sung worked hard for the victorious advance of the world revolution under the banner of anti-imperialist independence, the banner of socialism.
Clamouring about the end of the cold war and the advent of an “age of peace”, the imperialists behaved arrogantly in an attempt to obliterate socialism and establish their domination throughout the world.
Kim Il Sung encouraged the revolutionary people of the whole world to struggle to build a new world of independence in solid unity against the dominationist manoeuvres of the imperialists.
In his speech, titled For a Free and Peaceful New World, addressed to the Opening Ceremony of the 85th Inter-Parliamentary Conference held in Pyongyang in April 1991, he appealed to all countries and nations to maintain independence and launch a powerful international joint struggle against power politics in order to check imperialist aggression and arbitrariness, and defend peace.
In his Replies to the Managing Editor of Mainichi Shimbun in April 1991 and in other works, he said that the people of Asia must firmly maintain an independent stand in settling Asian questions without permitting imperialists’ arbitrariness and intervention any further, and that they must cooperate closely in order to build an independent and prosperous new Asia.
Kim Il Sung paid an official visit to the People’s Republic of China from October 4 to 13, 1991, in order to help safeguard peace in Asia and the rest of the world, and strengthen the forces of anti-imperialist independence.
Because Kim Jong Il was looking after the country, Kim Il Sung was able to be away on a ten-day visit abroad, a rare event in the diplomatic world, attracting the world’s attention and free from worries even in the grimmest and acutest situation when the imperialists and reactionaries were making every effort to isolate and stifle the DPRK, the citadel of socialism.
Kim Il Sung gave energetic leadership to the struggle to rebuild the socialist movement. In his talk to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Portugal in July 1991, in his replies to the questions raised by a journalists’ delegation from an American newspaper, The Washington Times, in April the next year and on other occasions, he put forward the guideline for rebuilding the socialist movement.
He said that the failure to adhere to the fundamental principle of socialism was the basic cause of the collapse of socialism in several countries. The basic principle of building socialism, he emphasized, is to maintain independence and ensure that the masses of the people hold the position of masters of the state and society, and perform the role of masters. He added that the socialist countries of Eastern Europe perished because the leaders of these countries were servile to big powers, worshipped them, and practised bureaucratism to such an extent that they were divorced from the people.
In order to rebuild the socialist movement, he said, communists and revolutionaries must refrain from falling into defeatism, and steadfastly advance along the road of socialism with firm confidence in the triumph of socialism.
The delegates of the Communist and Workers’ Parties and progressive political parties of various countries who came to Pyongyang in April 1992, to congratulate Kim Il Sung on his 80th birthday keenly felt the need for a common programme for rebuilding the socialist movement and for advanc- ing the socialist cause to victory, held the Pyongyang Conference of Revolutionary Parties in April 1992, and adopted and published the historic Pyongyang Declaration under the title, Let Us Defend and Advance the Cause of Socialism.
The adoption of the Pyongyang Declaration terminated the retreat and confusion of the socialist cause. The socialist cause of the world rallied its ranks and started a new dynamic advance, counterattacking the imperialists and reactionaries.
The revolutionary parties and people throughout the world spoke highly of the Pyongyang Declaration as a “New Communist Manifesto”, a “historic document heralding the fresh start of the international communist movement”, and a “guideline to the direction of action for revolutionary parties”. Seventy parties signed the Declaration, and the number of signatories is quickly increasing every year.
Kim Il Sung made sure that Korea played the role of the fortress for rebuilding and advancing the socialist movement under the banner of the Pyongyang Declaration, and gave wholehearted support to the progressive people in their struggle for socialism.
With a deep insight into the world’s progressive people’s aspiration for independence and the turbulent changes in the international situation, Kim Il Sung gave wise leadership to the non-aligned movement and ensured its continued development.
In his Answers to Questions Raised by the Editor-in-Chief of the Indonesian Newspaper Media Indonesia, and in other works, he said that the end of the cold war meant, on no account, the loss of the position and role of the non-aligned movement, and clarified the principles of defending and developing the non-aligned movement under the banner of anti-imperialist independence and peace against war. In order to strengthen non-alignment, he said, the non-aligned countries must realize the unity and cohesion of the movement, oppose imperialism, dominationism and racism, take concerted action with a common strategy in the international arena, including the United Nations, cooperate closely with one another in all fields of politics, the economy and culture, destroy the outmoded international order, establish a new fair international order, and make strenuous efforts to develop South-South cooperation.
Kim Il Sung sent special envoys and delegations to the summit conferences of non-aligned nations and other important conferences and many non-aligned countries, so that the DPRK played a great role in developing the non-aligned movement.
With deep interest in non-aligned information services, Kim Il Sung personally attended the Fourth Conference of the Ministers of Information of Non-Aligned Countries held in Korea in June 1993 and made an important speech under the title, Non-Aliened Information Services Must Contribute to the People’s Cause of Independence, which gave full answers to the questions of principle arising in non-aligned information services.
Even in 1994, the last year of his great career, Kim Il Sung worked hard for the accomplishment of the revolutionary cause of Juche and for the triumph of the cause of global independence.
On New Year’s Day 1994, as he had done every year, he celebrated the New Year with schoolchildren, whom he had long held up as the kings of the country and loved dearly.
Saying that it was his outlook on the younger generation to raise them well and take good care of them, and regarding it as his greatest joy, as an important beginning of his routine for the new year and as an affair of state to celebrate the New Year with children, Kim Il Sung, together with the senior officials of the Party and the state, paid a visit to the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium to see a children’s performance given in celebration of the New Year.
Acknowledging the best wishes for his longevity from the children who were exemplary in their school work and organizational life, and outstanding in sports, arts and in other skills, he posed with them for a photograph in memory of the occasion. And then, he saw the joyful performance of the children which they had prepared with all their enthusiasm in anticipation of the New Year. He wished them a bright future.
That year he suffered from heart trouble and, worse still, had an operation on his eyes. Although he needed rest and treatment, he continued with his revolutionary activities, exerting super-human efforts, in spite of his doctor’s advice. As if he had anticipated his future, he settled all his affairs one by one.
That year he gave the New Year Address, and in February and March arranged the National Agricultural Conference, the National Conference of Party Cell Secretaries, the National Conference of the Workers of the Coal- Mining Industry, and then the Fifth Congress of the Childrens’ Union of Korea, and other conferences. He sent letters and congratulatory messages to these meetings, encouraging all the Party members and other working people and youth, students and schoolchildren to struggle vigorously for the triumph of the socialist cause in single-hearted unity behind Kim Jong Il.
Kim II Sung, disregarding his fatigue, met veterans of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, revolutionaries from south Korea, bereaved children of revolutionaries, and people at home and from abroad who were connected with the anti-Japanese revolution. He posed with them for photographs in memory of the occasions and encouraged them all to carry out the revolution in loyal support of Kim Jong Il, emphasizing that the first revolutionary generation, the veterans of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle in particular, should set an example in supporting Kim Jong Il, and that the bereaved children of revolutionaries should stoutly carry on the cause where their parents left off.
On April 25, the anniversary of the founding of the KPA, the main force of carrying out the revolutionary cause of Juche and the prop of the revolution, he met the commanding officers of the People’s Army and gave them a very important instruction that they should loyally support the leadership of the Supreme Commander Kim Jong Il, reunify the country and accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche. In May he met a senior official of Chongryon and bestowed warm love and consideration on him, saying that the official should take good care of himself.
In order to ensure the prosperity of his socialist homeland and provide a happy life for the people, Kim Il Sung frequently inspected cooperative farms. In June that year he gave on-the-spot guidance to the Kumdang Cooperative Farm in Onchon County and a cooperative farm in the Taesong District of Pyongyang City, despite the hot weather.
In order to make a revolutionary turn in economic construction, he called consultative meetings of the senior officials of the economic sector on July 5 and 6.
In his historic concluding speech, titled On Effecting a New Revolutionary Turn in Socialist Economic Construction, he set the tasks of making a new upsurge in socialist economic construction in different branches, and explained how the officials should carry them out, in order to brighten the Korean-style people-centred socialism by defeating the manoeuvres of the imperialists and reactionaries against the DPRK, and crushing their attempt to isolate and stifle the Republic and apply sanctions against it.
His instructions formed a programme which would give a strong impetus to the construction of the socialist economy without being affected by the imperialists’ economic blockade. Those were his last instructions.
In April that year, in order to realize national reunification, the supreme task of the nation, and the cause of global independence,
Kim Il Sung met the members of the Group of Former Heads of State and Government and Other Politicians of Different Countries Visiting Pyongyang, gave answers to the questions raised by the General Director of the Cuban News Agency Prensa Latina, a journalists’ delegation from an American newspaper, The Washington Times, a journalists’ delegation from CAW International and a Japanese journalists’ delegation from NHK. In June that year alone, he met 18 foreign delegations and delegates, including a Cuban woman lawyer and the chairman of the Central Committee of the Belgian Labour Party.
On June 16 and 17, Kim Il Sung met former US President Carter in Pyongyang, and commented on the question of the United States’ “special inspection” and “sanctions”. “The United States says that she will bring the Korean ‘nuclear issue’ to the United Nations and call for sanctions against us. But we are not afraid of sanctions. We have lived in spite of the sanctions imposed upon us, we have never been free from sanctions, and we do not care at all whether the United States cancels the sanctions or not,” he declared.
Through his interview with Kim Il Sung, Carter was completely fascinated by the clear judgement and mysterious power of analysis with which Kim Il Sung expressed his views cogently, by his unshakable will and strong ardour which were based on his boundless love for his country and people and trust in them, by his great magnanimity and familiarity with which he dealt with the visitor in a simple and unreserved manner, by his gifted wisdom that shone in his countenance, and by his warm personality that pervaded all about him.
In a press conference held in Seoul on his way back home, Carter said that President Kim Il Sung was not only very energetic and wise, and had deep and broad knowledge of all questions, but was also generous. He highly praised him, saying that President Kim Il Sung was a pre-eminent man who was as great as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, the most illustrious early US Presidents, all combined. Through his talk with Carter, Kim Il Sung created favourable conditions for the opening of Korea-US negotiations about the nuclear issue and for the north-south summit conference.
From June 20 through July 5 he gave instructions about the north-south summit conference on dozens of occasions, and a dozen autographed instructions. On July 6 he had a detailed discussion on the telephone with Kim Jong Il about the questions relating to the summit conference.
On July 7, the last day of his great career, Kim Il Sung worked without a moment’s respite.
That day he began his work at dawn. Skipping his morning walk, he went over a document on the reunification of the country word by word, and finished it by signing it, “Kim Il Sung July 7, 1994”, the last historic autograph he left behind. At ten o’clock in the morning, he summoned an official. Telling him that the weather forecast predicted a heavy rainfall, he instructed him to go to a dam to collect information about the water level and the condition of the dam. He inquired about the weather conditions in the afternoon, and instructed the officials concerned to take emergency measures to prevent large rivers and reservoirs from overflowing. At 3:55 pm he explained to a diplomat Carter’s attitude after his visit to Korea and the situation in Japan, and told him to deal with diplomatic affairs properly. At 4:09, 5:25, and 5:37 pm he rang up the officials concerned and gave them important instructions about power supply and other problems arising in carrying out the revolutionary economic strategy. At 7:30 pm he sat down to supper for about five minutes, but without finishing his meal he went back to his office. He went over a document, underlining now and then and revising some parts by writing in margins to the limits, deep into the night.
As we can see, Kim Il Sung worked hard for the Party and the revolution, for the country and the people till the last moment of his life without a respite from his mental and physical fatigue, and died from sudden illness in his office at two o’clock on the morning of July 8, Juche 83 (1994).
His death put the entire nation into the deepest mourning in their history of five thousand years; it meant the greatest loss that nothing could ever make up for.
The sad news was broken to the entire nation and the rest of the world by a special broadcast at noon, July 9 that year.
The news that fell upon the Korean people like a bolt from the blue grieved them beyond control. The profound shock that seemed to blot out the sunlight, shatter the earth, and rend the sky, drowned the whole nation in a sea of tears, a sea of wailing, and shook the mountains and rivers, trees and grass, making them writhe with grief.
The working class, cooperative farmers, the officers and men of the People’s Army, intellectuals, young people, students and children, the entire nation, who had lived proud lives with Kim Il Sung as their father, as the foremost leader of the revolution, became mourners. Day and night they visited the late President lying in state, his bronze statues and the monuments to his revolutionary activities, observed mourning, expressing their deepest grief. During mourning period (July 8 to 20) alone, as many as 212 million people of all walks of life, including soldiers, paid their last respects to him.
On July 19 his funeral ceremony was solemnly held in Pyongyang, the revolutionary capital. A portrait of the late President smiling broadly was set at the head of the procession that carried his coffin.
Two million Pyongyang citizens who were lined up row upon row on both sides of the 25-mile streets burst into wailing, bidding their last farewell to the late President, beating the ground and crying, “Fatherly leader, please don’t leave us! If you leave us, how can we live?”
On the 20th of July the national memorial service was solemnly held at Kim Il Sung Square, and local memorial services were simultaneously held in all parts of the country.
Young people, students, personages in the opposition and a broad section of the population in south Korea arranged incense burners and altars in many places in spite of fascist repression by the enemy, and held memorial services, expressing their deepest grief at his death. Wall posters of condolence were put up in universities, tens of thousands of handbills were scattered in many places, many organizations and personages of different strata published statements of condolence or sent a large number of telegrams and letters of condolence to Pyongyang through legal or illegal channels. In prison cells, too, hunger strikes as tokens of mourning took place.
Chongryon and other organizations of overseas Koreans and individual compatriots in foreign lands sent to their homeland telegrams of condolence and wreaths as signs of their grief at losing the father of the nation. Together with the people in their homeland, they became mourners and held memorial services everywhere they were living. A large number of condolence delegations and individuals came to their homeland to visit the late President lying in state or his bronze statues and paid their respects to him.
At the sad news of the death of Kim Il Sung, who was a veteran of world statesmanship and a pre-eminent leader in the era of independence, heads of state and government, leaders of political parties, personages of various strata and large numbers of other people in China, Cuba, Cambodia and nearly all the countries in the world sent to Korea more than 4,000 telegrams of condolence, expressing their deepest sympathy, or presented wreaths, totalling more than 3,300, by paying condolence calls at Korean embassies, representative offices and consulates in their countries.
Over 20 countries and international organizations set condolence days or condolence periods and hoisted flags draped in black, and memorial services were held in more than 160 countries.
Even the presidents and former presidents including the US President, and prime ministers of the countries which had hostile relations with Korea, as well as high-ranking statesmen of capitalist countries and publications on government payrolls publicly expressed their sympathy.
The UN Secretary-General and the Chairman of the UN General Assembly expressed their deep sympathy and hoisted a flag draped in black at the UN Headquarters. This was an unprecedented event.
During the mourning period, more than 700 press organizations in 120 countries published special editions, and over 200 news agencies, radio and television stations put out 2,200 special broadcasts or special bulletins.
Although he is dead, Kim Il Sung remains immortal as the sun of Juche in the minds of the Korean people and the revolutionary people throughout the world.
Kim Jong Il said:
“Although his heart has ceased beating, the great leader is still with our people. He is immortal as the top intellect of the harmonious entity of the leader, the Party and the masses, and as the sun of the nation.”
The immortality of the foremost leader can be guaranteed by his greatness and his unfailingly loyal successor.
Kim Il Sung was a great leader, great revolutionary, great man, great philosopher, great statesman, great military strategist and great artist of leadership.
He started his revolutionary activities in his teens, and victoriously led the two revolutionary wars against the Japanese and US imperialists, respectively, the two stages of social revolution, reconstruction in two periods and many stages of socialist construction. As a result, he developed backward, colonial and semi-feudal Korea into a socialist state which is independent, self-sufficient and self-reliant in defence. He made an imperishable contribution to the cause of global independence.
“The people are my God” and “I am dedicated to the people” were his mottoes, and he lived up to these mottoes all his life.
During the period of half a century after he liberated the country, he gave on-the-spot guidance to more than 18,000 units on 8,000 occasions, travelling 550,000 kilometres.
Working energetically for the victory of the cause of the independence of the world, he met over 70,000 foreign guests including Heads of State and Government and party leaders, and paid official or unofficial visits to 80 countries on 50 occasions.
He was awarded the titles of Generalissimo of the DPRK, Hero of the Republic (three times), and Labour Hero for his imperishable achievements in the revolutionary cause of Juche and in the cause of global independence. He received over 180 top decorations from more than 70 countries and international organizations, titles of honorary citizenship of over 30 cities, titles of honorary professor and honorary doctor from 20 renowned foreign universities, and 165,000 presents of best wishes from party leaders, Heads of State and Government and progressive personages of more than 170 countries.
Bronze statues of Kim Il Sung were erected in China and Mongolia, the “International Kim Il Sung Prize” was instituted, and more than 480 streets, institutions and organizations in over 100 countries were named after him.
His classic works were translated into 63 different languages and published by publishing houses in 108 countries.
His achievements for the triumph of the cause of independence for the masses of the people and the socialist cause will live indelibly down through history.
Representing the unanimous desire of the Korean people and the world’s revolutionaries to have Kim Il Sung as the eternal sun of Juche, Kim Jong Il, who is unfailingly loyal and dutiful to his predecessor and has the noblest sense of communist moral obligation, has got the Kumsusan Presidential House, where Kim Il Sung worked for a long time, rebuilt into the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, the Kumsusan area into the sacred temple of Juche, at the highest level, and has had him installed in state in the palace, so that he will be among the people for ever.
Kim Jong Il has raised the slogans, “The great leader Comrade
Kim Il Sung will always be with us” and “Let us arm ourselves more firmly with the revolutionary ideas of the great leader Comrade
Kim Il Sung!” and made sure that the leader’s last instructions were carried out. He has thus ensured that the WPK and the Korean people revere Kim Il Sung, the founder of socialist Korea, for ever, burnish his great revolutionary ideas and imperishable achievements down through generations, and carry out the revolution and construction in accordance with his will and the way he did.
Kim Jong Il has ensured that April 15, the birthday of Kim Il Sung, is observed as the Day of the Sun, that the Juche era, beginning in 1912, was instituted, and that the Constitution stipulates Kim Il Sung as the eternal President of the Republic.
The great revolutionary idea of Kim Il Sung is being brilliantly developed as the idea of Kim Jong Il, and Kim Il Sung’s leadership continues dynamically as the outstanding and refined leadership of Kim Jong Il.
Because Kim Jong Il is at the top of the hierarchy of the WPK and the Korean nation, Kim Il Sung will always be with the Korean people, and his revolutionary history will continue through the prosperity of his country, where his last instructions will come into full flowering, and through the prosperity of his nation that will thrive for ever.
NOTES
1. Juche 1(1912)-Korea instituted the Juche era with 1912, the year when Kim Il Sung was born, as the first year, so as to exalt for all generations to come the revolutionary life and immortal exploits of Kim Il Sung, who created the Juche idea and led Korea’s revolution and construction to victory, and consummate his revolutionary cause. The institution of the Juche era was decided on July 8, 1997, the third anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s death. p. 1
2. Preparedness for the three contingencies-a heritage Kirn Hyong Jik left to his son, Kim Il Sung. It means that one must be prepared for death from hunger, from a beating and from cold, yet he must stick to the high aim he has set himself at the outset, and only then can he emerge victorious in the revolutionary struggle by overcoming all manner of difficulties. p. 5
3. The June 10th Independence Movement-a mass demonstration against the Japanese military occupation of Korea. Entering the 1920s an energetic revolutionary struggle got underway in Korea, propelled by workers and peasants. On the death of Sunjong, the last king of the Ri dynasty, in April 1926, the Korean people’s anti-Japanese feeling ran high. Hundreds of thousands of people who gathered in Seoul to participate in the royal funeral, held rallies, at which anti-Japanese speeches were made. On June 10, as the bier of Sunjong was passing through the streets, the people standing on both sides of the streets staged demonstrations, shouting, “Long live the independence of Korea!” and “Japanese troops, get out!” Demonstrations took place not only in Seoul but also in Inchon and in other places. This movement showed that the Korean people would never yield to the Japanese imperialist occupiers. p. 6
4. Jongui-bu-an anti-Japanese organization formed in 1925 and involving a dozen nationalist organizations. In April 1929 it merged with Chamui-bu and Sinmin-bu, its sister organizations, under the name Kukmin-bu. p. 6
5. The “East China Railway Incident”-an attack by the troops of the Fengtian warlords of the Chinese Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) to seize the East China Railway and invade the Soviet Union. It is also called Soviet-Manchurian war. The East China Railway had been managed jointly by China and the Soviet Union, in accordance with an agreement reached in 1924. In July 1929, instigated by Japan and other imperialist powers, the warlords seized the wireless station and management bureau by force of arms. This led to an armed clash. The incident came to an end after the Khabarovsk Protocol was signed by the warring parties on December 1, 1929. p. 14
6. Sinmin-bu-an independence movement organization of Korean nationalists. It was formed in Ningan, northern Manchuria, in March 1925, involving some military organizations of nationalists. It ceased to exist after the merger of the three organizations-Jongui-bu, Sin-min-bu and Chamui-bu-in April 1929. p. 15
7. Chamui-bu-an independence movement organization of Korean nationalists. It was formed in Tonghua, southern Manchuria, in August 1924, by the nationalists who had seceded from a similar organization known as Thongui-bu. It mainly conducted the raising of war funds and its leaders were not united. It was merged into Kukmin-bu in April 1929, but some of its members seceded. p. 15
8. Kukmin-bu-a united independence movement organization of Korean nationalists. The three organizations-Jongui-bu, Sinmin-bu and Chamui-bu-which had been active in northern and southern Manchuria in Northeast China since the 1920s, had been engrossed in rivalry to widen their spheres of influence instead of fighting against the Japanese imperialists. Since the formation of the three organizations, the pioneers of the independence movement had keenly realized the need for the merger of the organizations, and made efforts to this end. Meetings to merge them took place several times in various places from the summer of 1928. The organizations were formally merged under the name of Kukmin-bu in April 1929, but this body was later dissolved owing to Japanese imperialist suppression and its own shortcomings. p. 15
9. Star of Korea-an immortal revolutionary song the revolutionary poet, Kim Hyok, created in the early days of Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary struggle. It was created in the late 1920s. The song reflects the ardent desire of the Korean people to honour Kim Il Sung as the star of Korea and sun of the nation. It was sung widely from the first days of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, and is still sung by the Korean people. p. 16
10. The Jidong area-a wide area in the east of Jilin Province, Northeast China. It includes several counties, such as Jiaohe, Dunhua, Yanji, Antu, Wangqing, Helong and Hunchun. p. 23
11. The Chinese Northeast Army-a regular army of the Fengtian warlords in Northeast China (Manchuria). Its predecessor was the Fengtian Army, led by Zhang Zuo-lin, a local warlord. At the end of 1928, when Manchuria was placed under the rule of Jiang Jie-shi’s Kuomintang government, it was renamed the Northeast Independent Directional Army, or Northeast Army. Its commander was Zhang Xue-liang, Zhang Zuo-lin’s son, and it was 300,000 strong. p. 29
12. The Chinese National Salvation Army-Chinese armed forces that fought against the Japanese imperialist aggressors in Northeast China. Among the Chinese anti-Japanese armed units there were units consisting of soldiers who had broken away from the former Northeast Army, which had been under the influence of the Kuomintang government, after the Manchurian incident (September 1931) and peasants who had risen up under the banner of anti-Japanese national salvation. p. 45
13. The anti-”Minsaengdan” struggle-the struggle against the “Minsaengdan”, a counterrevolutionary organization of spies and stooges the Japanese imperialists organized in Jiandao, China, in February 1932 to destroy the revolutionary ranks from within as they were alarmed by the growth of the Korean revolutionary force. From its inception, the counterrevolutionary nature of the organization was revealed, and it was dissolved in July 1932, as it was condemned and rejected by the people. However, the cunning Japanese imperialists continued after its dissolution to give the impression that branches of the “Minsaengdan” had been formed in many places. Deceived by this, national chauvinists and factional sycophants took the anti-”Minsaengdan” struggle to the extreme Left, causing great damage to the unity of the revolutionary ranks and the development of the Korean revolution. The extreme Leftist deviation revealed in the anti-”Minsaengdan” struggle was put to rights by the principled struggle Kim Il Sung waged. p. 52
14. The “Hyesan incident”-two rounds of wholesale arrests the Japanese imperialists conducted in 1937 and 1938 to crack down on the Korean revolutionaries and patriotic people in the area along the Amnok River, the northern border area of Korea. In August 1941 the Hamhung District Court passed sentences of death or life imprisonment on 167 revolutionaries and patriots, including Kwon Yong Byok, Ri Je Sun and Pak Tal, and later cruelly tortured and executed them. p. 79
15. Expedition to Rene-an expedition Leftist adventurists imposed upon the anti-Japanese armed units active in Northeast China. They demanded, in the name of the Comintern, that the units encircle and attack Changchun, the capital city of “Manchukuo”, and advance to Rehe. The expedition failed after incurring great losses. p. 80
16. The “Khalkhin-Gol incident” (Nomonhan incident)-an armed attack by the Japanese imperialists in the area of Khalkhin-Gol on the People’s Republic of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May 28 to September 16, 1939. In order to occupy the eastern salient of the People’s Republic of Mongolia and then invade the Soviet Union, cutting the Trans-Siberian railway and occupying the Soviet Far East, the Japanese imperialists mobilized elite troops under the Kwantung Army. But after suffering about 61,000 men killed or wounded, Japan was forced to end hostilities, marked by a pact signed in Moscow. p. 86
17. “M-L group”-the Marxist-Leninist Union, formed in April 1926. In the autumn of that year the union entered the Korean Communist Party. The strife between the M-L group and other factions for hegemony developed to the extreme, dismembering the communist and labour movement in Korea. In 1928 the Korean Communist Party itself was dissolved. p. 113
18. “Tuesday group”-a faction that caused great harm to the Korean revolution after appearing in the Korean communist movement in the 1920s. In November 1924 it was renamed the Tuesday Association after Karl Marx’s birthday, which falls on a Tuesday. p. 113
19. The “Jangan Party” and “Reconstruction Party”-the former was the communist party organized by the M-L group in the Jangan Building in Seoul in 1945; the latter was a communist party the Tuesday faction members organized in Kyedong in Seoul, also in 1945 at a meeting of the faction’s activists on the pretext of “reconstructing the Communist Party”. In this way factionalists were engrossed in strife even after the liberation of the country, each under the name of “communist party”, putting obstacles on the road of organizing the Communist Party on a normal footing. p. 113
20. Jongro-predecessor to Rodong Sinmun, organ of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea. Its first issue was published on November 1, 1945. From September 1, 1946, i.e., after the Workers’ Party, a united party of the working masses, was founded on August 28 the same year with the merger of the Communist Party and the New Democratic Party, the paper was renamed Rodong Sinmun. p. 117
21. The “People’s Republic”-a bourgeois republic Pak Hon Yong, an anti-Party, counterrevolutionary factionalist, and others propagated after the country’s liberation, instigated by the US imperialists and Korean reactionaries. They advocated building a bourgeois government including Syngman Rhee, a dyed-in-the-wool anti-communist and pro-US element, and other pro-Japanese elements and traitors to the nation, as well as factionalists. Their machinations were checked by the firm Juche-oriented stand and revolutionary principle of Kim Il Sung. p. 121
22. The “anti-trusteeship” machinations-machinations the reactionary forces, instigated by the US imperialists, engaged in against the resolution of the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers of the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain. At the conference, held in December 1945, the US representative insisted on enforcing US and Soviet military rule in the south and north of Korea, respectively, for a certain (unspecified) period of time, and after that administering trusteeship of the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and the Republic of China over Korea for 5 years and, if necessary, extending the term of trusteeship to another 5 years. The Soviet representative said that a democratic provisional government should be established soon in Korea, proposing a 5-year trusteeship to help the process. The meeting passed the Soviet proposal. The United States, which did not want a unified, independent state established on the Korean peninsula in 5 years, took the road of opposing the resolution of the conference. US President Truman dismissed Secretary of State Byrns soon after the tatter’s return from Moscow for accepting the resolution that ran counter to the US policy.
With the US proposal at the Moscow Conference up his sleeve, Hodge, commander of the US troops in south Korea, instigated the reactionaries in Korea to object to the resolution, claiming several times that the Korean people were free to do so. The resolution was an obstacle to the US policy of subjugating Korea. However, the United States, having signed the resolution, could not openly oppose its implementation. Thus, she covertly propagated the distorted view that the resolution was a plan for trusteeship, irritating the Korean people, who were desirous of immediate independence. This also instigated the reactionaries in the country to stage an anti-”trusteeship” movement. Contrary to its ture purpose, the movement was a traitorous movement in that it schemed to realize in actual fact the trusteeship, i.e., the colonialist policy of the predatory United States. p. 122
23. The “Ri Kye San Campaign”-a campaign to wipe out illiteracy conducted in Korea after liberation. In August 1947 Kim Il Sung met Ri Kye San from Phyonggang County, Kang-won Province, who had come to Pyongyang to see him with grain she had harvested from the land she had been allocated. When he came to know that she was illiterate, Kim Il Sung told her to learn to read and write, and to write a letter to him in three months’ time. He inspired her to become a model in abolishing illiteracy. Thanks to the brisk campaign conducted throughout the country true to Kim Il Sung’s instructions, 2.3 million illiterate people had become literate by March 1949. The campaign was called the Ri Kye San campaign. p. 153
24. Motto-bearing trees-trees on which soldiers of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army and members of the revolutionary organizations in the days of the anti-Japanese revolution led by Kim Il Sung, wrote slogans expressing their desire for Korea’s liberation, such as “A peerless commander has descended on Ml. Paektu,” and “The Lodestar has risen on Mt. Paektu.” The trees are treasures of great significance, as they themselves help to hand down the brilliant history of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. p 275
Printed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
No.1831024