ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF SONGUN POLITICS UK

KIM IL SUNG

FOR THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE SOCIALIST CAUSE

Talk to the Veterans of Anti-Japanese Revolution and the Children of Revolutionary Martyrs

March 13, 1992 and January 20 and March 3, 1993

I am very glad and full of deep emotions to see you, the old comrades-in-arms of mine ever since the years of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, and the children of the revolutionaries that have already left us.

I am grateful to you for your concern over my health and for your best wishes for my good health and long life.

Ever since I embarked on the road of revolution, I have always lived under the support and loving care of the people and my comrades in the revolution. I have been able to work for the revolution in good health until today when I am older than 80 years only because my comrades and the people loved me dearly and protected me in every way.

Our path of revolution has been thorny and full of trials. The circumstances were difficult in the early years of our revolutionary activities when we were pioneering the new path of the Korean revolution while recruiting Juche-orientated revolutionary ranks from among the young communists of the new generation. Indescribably arduous were the years of the armed struggle against the one-million-strong Kwantung Army of the Japanese imperialists; the guerrilla army we had raised on our own had to fight the formidable enemy by enduring severe cold and hunger without any support from a homefront and a regular army. During the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle we were always shadowed by danger and we had to brave death innumerable times. Each time my comrades and the people helped me in every way, saved me from the danger and protected me with all their hearts.

Some time ago I met Han Yong Ae’s daughter. Han Yong Ae helped me in my revolutionary work and protected me in the early days of my revolutionary activity. She was one of my saviours I can never forget. She protected me from the danger of being arrested by the enemy when we were fighting against the construction of the railway between Jilin and Hoeryong by the Japanese imperialists. After the May 30 Uprising I went to revolu via Jiaohe in order to restore the damaged revolutionary organizations. When I was working in Harbin, she also helped me with all her efforts. Later, she was arrested by the enemy while carrying out the revolutionary assignment I had given her. Even in her prison she remained honourable in spite of her torture by the enemy. In those days, the young communists faithfully carried out the revolutionary assignments I had given them. They also unhesitatingly laid down their lives to protect me.

Comrade O Jung Hup, a commanding officer of an anti-Japanese guerrilla unit, was always concerned about the security of the Headquarters before anything else. He was a faithful revolutionary who protected me at the risk of his own life. One winter when I was fighting in the Mt. Paektu area, I went to the Hongtoushan secret camp to spend the lunar New Year Day with a small number of my men. Sensing that we were a small force, the enemy surprised us with a more than 500-strong force to surround and destroy my Headquarters. At that time Comrade O Jung Hup was marching towards Linjiang in command of his unit. Having received word that the enemy’s “punitive” force had moved towards the Hongtoushan secret camp where the Headquarters was based, O Jung Hup turned his unit back at once and hurried towards us at a stretch, for he had thought that the Headquarters might be in danger. He attacked the surprising enemy from behind and destroyed them. Thus the Headquarters was saved from the danger.

During the anti-Japanese armed struggle, countless guerrillas and people protected me and saved me from danger at the risk of their own lives. On my way back from the first expedition to north Manchuria I narrowly escaped death thanks to the self-sacrificing efforts of the guerrillas and the local people. At that time I got a bad chill and found myself in the jaws of death. But for the assistance given me by old man Kim we met at a lumber station and Choe Il Hwa’s family, who were living in Laoyeling, I might have died. Zhang Wei-hua and other Chinese people also protected me during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. While engaged in underground activity in touch with me, Zhang Wei-hua was arrested by the enemy because a stool-pigeon had informed against him. While being tortured, he was afraid he might reveal the location of my Headquarters unconsciously and killed himself. He was my comrade in the revolution and my saviour whom I cannot forget.

A person who does good things for his country and fellow people will find good comrades and saviours when he is in difficulty. I should like to say this from my own experience during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. We were able to fight through to the end and triumph in the revolution because we were always assisted by our comrades in the struggle for the country and people, for the revolution, and rescued by the people whenever we were in crisis. As the proverb says, a general by himself is no general. Without the people’s support he can neither survive nor emerge victorious from the revolution.

You say you are happiest when you see me in good health on the TV screen. I am still in good health. I think I can work for ten more years. A long time ago I said that 60 years of age means the prime of youth and 90 years means an old age. I do not recognize 60 years of life as old age. You and I are not yet ninety years old, so we have not yet reached old age. We must, therefore, refrain from considering ourselves old, and must think of working a lot more, full of hopes and optimism.

If we are to live for a long time, working for the revolution, we must live optimistically, with confidence in victory. Because I believe that the people’s cause will triumph without fail, I do not feel pessimistic in and out of work. I have lived and am still living cheerfully with a firm conviction that there will be a way out even if the sky falls in and with an unshakable confidence in victory. This is one of the secrets of my good health, so to speak. A few years ago, when I met the “Prime Minister” of south Korea, who came to Pyongyang for the north-south high-level talks, he asked me what was the secret of my good health. I told him that I was healthy because I was living with optimism, not knowing pessimism. Optimistic people will not grow old.

Today I am very glad to see you all in good health.

You say you owe your good health to me, but you should say that you owe it to the socialist system in our country and to the Party’s correct leadership, rather than to me.

The socialist system in our country is truly for the people. In our country, the popular masses, the makers of history, are the masters of everything, and everything serves them. In our country state power and the production means are in the hands of the people, and all the people live in happiness, receiving free education and free medical care, free from the worries of food, clothing and housing. All the policies of the Party and the state in our country emanate from the need to meet the people’s desire for independence and champion their interests to the maximum, to encourage them to display their creative ability higher, and these policies are subordinated to this end. In other words, our socialism is the embodiment of the Juche idea, the people-centred outlook on the world and the revolutionary idea. That is why socialism in our country is called the socialism of Juche or people-centred socialism.

In order to build this society that is truly for the people, we have fought under the banner of Juche unyieldingly for the past several decades ever since the years of the anti-Japanese revolution, enduring all the difficulties and hardships. We must take legitimate pride and confidence in the fact that we have built a splendid, people-centred socialism by translating the Juche idea into socialist construction for the first time in history, and that we are solidly defending the banner of socialism in the East.

With the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries, the imperialists are working more frantically to destroy socialism in our country. However, they will not be able to pull down socialism in our country. Our socialism differs from that which crumbled in the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries.

Socialism in our country is strong in Juche character and has struck root deep among the popular masses.

In the whole course of our struggle for socialism, we have firmly and consistently maintained the standpoint of Juche and have done everything in our own way by relying on the efforts of the masses.

Ever since we started pioneering the path of the Korean revolution, we have kept the viewpoint of Juche that the popular masses are the motive force of the revolution and construction and that they have the strength to push forward the revolution and construction. At that time we resolutely broke with the nationalists and the communists of the initial period that were involved in the movement and engrossed in futile factional strife, dreaming of national liberation and independence by relying on foreign forces, instead of believing in the strength of the popular masses. With the conviction that the revolution would triumph only when we believed in the strength of the popular masses and relied on them, we united the masses from broad sections of the population and roused them to the struggle for national liberation. Not only in the years of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle but also in the years after liberation, we have always gone out among the masses, got to know the people’s aspirations and requirements in each stage of the revolution and formulated revolutionary lines, strategy and tactics in accordance with their aspirations and requirements for independence and found solutions to all the problems by educating them and mobilizing them. In this manner, we achieved the liberation and independence of the country through our own struggle for national liberation and carried out the socialist revolution and the building of socialism by our own efforts. We have experienced many a difficulty because we have had to carry out the socialist revolution and build socialism in direct confrontation with the imperialists, but we have never depended on large countries. In building socialism we have relied on the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude, on our own efforts in all events. People of a large country invited us to the membership of the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), but we declined. Because we have constructed a solid independent national economy by our own efforts, instead of joining the CMEA, we have been able to exercise our legitimate sovereignty free from any pressure or restraint and stoutly advance on our own feet, without vacillation even in complex situations.

Our Party’s traditional work method of leading the revolution and construction to victory by believing in the strength of the masses, always living among them, educating them and motivating them has found systematic expression in the Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method. The Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method we have established are the Juche-orientated principle and method of mass leadership, which are the application of the revolutionary mass line. On the basis of the Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method, our Party has established the Taean work system, the best system of managing the socialist economy. By the creation of the Chongsanri spirit and Chongsanri method and establishment of the Taean work system we have acquired a new mode of statecraft, the mode of genuine socialist statecraft, that accords with the intrinsic requirements of the socialist society.

We have always thoroughly implemented the revolutionary mass line in Party and state activities. That is why we have been able to overcome bureaucratism that may appear in the ruling party, convince the popular masses that they themselves are the masters of the socialist society, and realize an unbreakable unity of idea and purpose between the Party and the masses. In our country the Party and the masses in harmonious unity constitute the powerful motive force of the revolution, and all the people treasure the socialism they have built at the cost of their blood and sweat, as much as their lives. Socialism in our country, therefore, will not crumble.

In our country the revolutionary cause is steadfastly being carried forward from one generation to the next.

How the revolutionary cause is carried on from generation to generation is an important matter that affects the destiny of socialism. The masses’ cause for independence, the socialist cause, is an undertaking that is accomplished through a long period, through many generations. If the leadership of the revolution and construction is not succeeded properly at the time one revolutionary generation is replaced by another, the socialist cause will suffer twists and turns and end in failure. This is clearly illustrated by the situation in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was the first to triumph in the socialist revolution under Lenin’s leadership and the most developed socialist power but failed in the socialist cause because it had failed in the solution of the problem of succession to leadership. Because wrong persons succeeded the leader in the Soviet Union, the Party degenerated into a revisionist party and was unable to adhere to the revolutionary traditions and socialist principles; bureaucratism became rife in Party and state activities, and unity of the Party and the popular masses was not realized. The Party’s degeneration and divorce from the people made it impossible for the Party to give political leadership to the revolution and construction, and for the people, the motive force of socialism, to play their role as they should and defend socialism from the anti-socialist offensive of the imperialists and reactionaries. In consequence, the flag of socialism that had flown for 70 years in the Soviet Union fell into the mire overnight, and the downfall of socialism in the Soviet Union was followed by the collapse of socialism in the Eastern European countries that had been acting under the baton of the Soviet Union.

In our country Comrade Kim Jong Il has been giving wise leadership to all the work of the Party, state and army; the problem of ensuring continuity of leadership has thus been brilliantly solved.

In our country now Party work is successful, state work is successful, military operations are successful and socialist construction is successful, under the leadership of Comrade Kim Jong Il. Today in our country all the people have become a great family, single-heartedly united around the Party, and they are loyally supporting the Party’s leadership. In the course of many years of struggle under the Party’s leadership, our people have realized deep in their hearts that our Party is the true representative and stalwart champion of the masses and their great guide. Therefore, they entrust their destiny entirely to the Party. The recent conference of the families of martyrs from all parts of the country, the conference of Korean intellectuals and the Eighth Congress of the League of Socialist Working Youth of Korea and other conferences have clearly demonstrated again our people’s ardent and loyal support for the Party and their unshakable determination to defend and accomplish the socialist cause under the leadership of the Party.

We still have a lot of work to do to accomplish the socialist cause, the revolutionary cause of Juche. We must firmly adhere to our Party’s general line and press ahead with the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions to consolidate and develop people-centred socialism in our country and also realize national reunification, the cherished desire of our nation.

We have struggled for socialism all our lives, and it is inconceivable now to discard the best socialism of ours and restore capitalism, a society where “the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer.” The road of socialism is the road of true freedom and happiness for the people, whereas the road of capitalism is the road of exploitation and oppression, misery and suffering for the people. The defence of socialism means victory, whereas giving up socialism means death. Since we pledged to build socialism when we started fighting for the revolution, we must defend socialism through to the end without the slightest vacillation and accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche.

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. Loyal support for Comrade Kim Jong Il’s leadership is the sure guarantee for continuing and accomplishing the socialist cause.

Comrade Kim Jong Il is the genuine leader of the people. He is loyal and dutiful and versed in civil and military affairs. He is a pre­eminent thinker and theoretician, statesman and military strategist, unfailingly loyal to the country and people and very dutiful to his parents. He is the paragon of loyalty and filial devotion.

The most important mission of the leader of the revolution is to develop the guiding ideology of the revolution and clearly show the road to be followed by the masses’ cause of independence. The people’s cause of independence can overcome the trials of history and advance along the road of victory only when it is guided by the beacon of ideology that correctly reflects the requirements of the times and the people’s aspirations.

Comrade Kim Jong Il has been engaged in ideological and theoretical activities with an unusually strong spirit of inquiry and energy, brightening our Party’s Juche idea as the great guiding ideology of the age of independence.

I put forward the Juche idea, which reflects the requirements of our revolution and the aspirations of the people in the new age of independence, and have led the revolution and construction, guided by this idea, but I have not given much thought to systematizing the principles of the Juche idea.

This task has been carried out splendidly by Comrade Kim Jong Il.

On the basis of his profound study of the basic principles and essence of the Juche idea, he defined our Party’s guiding ideology as the integral system of the idea, theory and method of Juche. He has also enriched the Juche idea with new principles and content to meet the requirements of our times and the development of the revolution and fully developed it in depth. In addition, he has worked energetically to equip our people with the Juche idea and give wide publicity to this idea abroad. He has thus ensured that the Juche idea is the revolutionary idea of the popular masses themselves in name as well as in fact. In other words, he has cultivated the Juche idea, the seed which I had planted in the soil of our people and developed, into a thriving crop and has gathered a rich harvest, so to speak.

Our Party paper now publishes important documents written by Comrade Kim Jong Il one after another. This alone shows how hard he is working to develop and enrich the Juche idea and equip the people with it. Recently, The Historical Lesson in Building Socialism and the General Line of Our Party and On the Fundamentals of Revolutionary Party Building have been published. These documents have historic significance in that they provide a scientific exposition of the basic cause of the collapse of socialism in several countries and clarify the path of true socialism and the fundamental principles of building revolutionary parties. The documents he has published serve not only as excellent pabulum for the revolutionary education of our Party members and working people but also as the revolutionary banner that encourages the revolutionaries and progressive people throughout the world in their struggle for sovereignty, independence and socialism and lights their road ahead.

Comrade Kim Jong Il gives wise leadership to the revolution and construction with uncommon leadership ability.

The ability to lead the revolution and construction can be said to find expression in the leader’s capacity and skill with which to encourage the masses, the motive force of the revolution, to display their creativity to the highest. The masses have unfathomable strength. Success in revolution and construction depends on how the masses are encouraged to exert their unfathomable strength. If the masses are to make such efforts, they need to be awakened to political consciousness, organized and ideologically motivated. The work of awakening them to political consciousness, organizing them and motivating them ideologically can only be done by the revolutionary party of the working class. This function and activity of the revolutionary party is ensured by the guidance of the leader with outstanding ability and skill.

Comrade Kim Jong Il strengthens the Party and enhances its leadership role as the main link in the whole chain of leading the revolution and construction. He has put forward and implemented the policy of modelling the entire Party on the Juche idea, developed it into an unconquerable force, united on the basis of the Juche idea, into a seasoned leading political organization with strong fighting capacity. He has strengthened the motive force of our revolution as never before by uniting all the people around the Party. While thoroughly establishing the system of giving Party leadership to the revolution and construction on the one hand, he ensures on the other hand that priority is given to ideological education, the transformation of people, in Party activity under the banner of ideology. By so doing he makes sure that all the Party members and working people, firmly equipped with the revolutionary idea of our Party, fulfil their responsibilities and role as masters of the revolution and construc­tion. Today our Party is working hard to protect the people’s interests more effectively and meet their desire for independence to the fullest under the slogan, “We serve the people,” and the people are displaying their revolutionary enthusiasm and creativity in the struggle to carry out the Party’s lines and policies under the slogan, “When the Party is determined, we can do anything!”

Under the leadership of Comrade Kim Jong Il, our revolution ushered in a new period of upsurge. Since he assumed leadership, a new change has taken place in all areas of political, economic and cultural work as well as in Party work. Important innovations and upsurge have been effected on all fronts of socialist construction.

For example, under his guidance, a great heyday of Juche art and literature was unfolded in the first few years of the 1970s. In this period, amazing progress was made in all areas of cinema and other arts and literature, masterpieces of world standard were created and made public one after another, and in the course of this, writers and artists became the front rankers in the revolutionary transformation of the whole society and its assimilation to the working class. People call this the “revolution in art and literature” or the “Renaissance in the 20th century”. I do not think they are mistaken.

Under the leadership of Comrade Kim Jong Il, our people have been inspired with the pride of being victors and have exalted their honour and dignity in the eyes of the whole world. On their visits to our country leaders of many countries and other foreign guests enviously admire the solid unity of the Party and the popular masses and the vigorous advances of all the people, full of confidence in victory, under the Party’s leadership.

I should say that Comrade Kim Jong Il has rendered distinguished services when he has developed a powerful motive force, welding the Party and the popular masses into a single socio-political organism and effected a great historic change by transforming nature and society on the strength of the motive force. This bespeaks his loyalty to the revolutionary cause of Juche and also proves his pre-eminent qualities and ability as the leader.

Comrade Kim Jong Il’s leadership has brought about a new change also in building up the revolutionary armed forces.

As you comrades have seen, the parade held in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army demonstrated the unfailing loyalty of our revolutionary armed forces, particularly the People’s Army, to the Party and the revolution, their high level of organization and discipline and their unconquerable strength. It is entirely the result of his correct leadership that the People’s Army has been strengthened into revolutionary armed forces, each soldier being fully prepared politically, ideologically and militarily and a match for a hundred foes. It has been discharging its honourable mission as the defender of the Party and the revolution, the country and the people. In line with the Juche-orientated policy of building the army, he stepped up the work of the Party’s political and ideological education, established the Juche-orientated military command system by which the entire army moves as one under the Party’s leadership, and made the People’s Army truly the army of the Party, the army of the revolution. In keeping with the requirements for modern warfare and the specific conditions in our country, he has developed the Juche art of war, built a powerful, modern defence industry and steadily increased the com­bative power of the People’s Army and improved its weapons and equipment. Under his leadership, our People’s Army has become a loyal combat force laying down their lives for the Party and the revolution, and developed into an invincible force equipped with modern means of both attack and defence. The all-people defence system with the People’s Army at the core has been solidly established. Comrade Kim Jong Il has unbreakable will, audacity, outstanding strategic intelligence and the art of military leadership worthy of the supreme commander of the revolutionary armed forces. This is the guarantee for the continuous development of our revolutionary armed forces and their victory in every battle.

Comrade Kim Jong Il has all the best qualities required of the people’s leader.

He is, before all else, unfailingly loyal and devoted to the Party and the revolution, and to the country and the people.

He makes every effort and carries out whatever he thinks is needed for the country and the people. In particular he spares no effort to do things I wish and to solve the problems of my concern so that he can give me pleasure.

This can be illustrated by the fact that Pyongyang, the capital of revolution, has been constructed as one of the most magnificent and beautiful cities in the world. Constructing Pyongyang in such a way that it may be called the face of our country, was my desire and that of our people. On my return from a visit to the Soviet Union and the socialist countries in East Europe in 1984, I told officials that I had seen nothing envious in those countries and that one thing I regretted was that there were few modern streets in Pyongyang with accommodation capable of appropriately hosting major international functions. I said it would be desirable to build such a large street in the direction of Mangyongdae so that Pyongyang might take on a better appearance as the capital of the revolution. Comrade Kim Jong Il, in enthusiastic support of my idea, said that he would take charge of the construction of a new modern street in Pyongyang. He undertook a bold, building operation in a big way and constructed Kwangbok Street and Chongchun Street in a short span of time. Immediately after the project was completed, he proposed the construction of Thongil Street and carried it out with great effort. As a result, Pyongyang took on a new appearance; the people’s housing problem was also resolved. On the occasion of my 70th birthday, he ensured the construction of the splendid Ice Rink and the Grand People’s Study House in Pyongyang as I had hoped. In addition the Maternity Hospital, the Changgwang Health Complex and many other modern cultural facilities and monumental structures were completed. Whenever I look around magnificent and beautiful Pyongyang, I feel great pleasure.

As you can see, Comrade Kim Jong Il does everything to see that my wishes come true, and that the problems of my concern are resolved. Exactly here his loyalty to the Party and the leader, his devotion to the country and the people, and his filial devotion find concentrated expression.

He has been working day and night, with all devotion and without taking care of himself, in order to carry forward and develop the revolutionary cause of Juche. Concerned over his health, I have advised him to relax now and then, but he continues to overwork, saying that he is impatient over the passage of time while he has so much work to do.

I am now old, but still working in good health thanks to his loyalty and filial devotion. He always pays special attention to my health, rest and relaxation. He takes all the necessary measures to relieve me of inconveniences in my work. Worried over my eyesight growing weak and my fatigue from reading many papers, he has taken steps to get the reports to me typed in large letters and some of the papers and information for me tape-recorded. Thanks to his measures I do not feel tired even though I read a lot of papers requiring my approval.

Comrade Kim Jong Il has the virtue of respecting his seniors in the revolution.

He respects and gives prominence to the veteran revolutionaries, my comrades-in-arms in the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, and takes meticulous care of them in and out of work. He looks after retired veterans, providing them with good clothing and sending them to holiday homes every year to keep them in good health. You comrades, who are present here, say that I need not worry over you because you are living in happiness, being provided with good houses, colour television sets and deluxe cars thanks to his consideration. That is a good thing. He sincerely cares for not only the veterans of the anti-Japanese revolution but also the aged officials, who have worked with me since the liberation of the country, and looks after them kindly. I am very pleased with this.

His respect for my comrades in the revolution and holding them in public esteem is an expression of his unshakable determination to accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche by carrying forward the revolutionary traditions we established. Revolutionaries must always bear in mind the roots of the revolution and inherit the revolutionary traditions in a pure way. Inheriting them does not mean anything special. Respecting the forerunners that pioneered the revolutionary cause and preserving and brightening their idea and achievements means inheriting and developing the revolutionary traditions. The attitude towards the revolutionary forerunners and the purity of the inheritance of their revolutionary traditions are the touchstone that distinguishes between the true successor to the revolution and a traitor. As for the behaviour of the persons that claimed to be leaders of a certain country, they disparaged their revolutionary forerunners and put themselves forward as soon as they came to power. This is an act of traitors. Such an act will cut off the lifeline of the revolution.

Judging from the single fact that Comrade Kim Jong Il respects the revolutionary forerunners and holds them in high public esteem, we can say that he has an excellent virtue as the leader of the people. If he trains many more officials loyal to the Party and the revolutionary cause and educates the younger generation so that all of them maintain the tradition of respecting their revolutionary forerunners, our revolutionary cause will be stoutly carried forward from generation to generation.

Comrade Kim Jong Il takes loving care of the people and his comrades in the revolution.

Once he trusts a person, he holds him dear as his revolutionary comrade and cares for his destiny through to the end on his responsibility. If officials make mistakes in their work, he feels very sorry for them. While criticizing them sternly, he sets store by their loyalty, trusts them invariably and leads them to brighten their political integrity all their lives. Therefore, our officials regard Party criticism as an expression of its trust in them and strive to correct their mistakes to remain loyal to the Party as long as they live.

Comrade Kim Jong Il takes care of the workers, farmers, intellectuals and all the other sections of the population in his embrace, puts them forward as the masters of our society and leads them to play their role as masters. He warmly looks after even people with stained family backgrounds or with chequered socio-political records without discrimination and enlists them as legitimate members of our revolutionary ranks if they follow our Party and support socialism at present. He always goes out among the people, shares weal and woe with them and spares nothing for their happiness.

I can say that love for and trust in his revolutionary comrades and the people are the basic characteristics of Comrade Kim Jong Il’s statesmanship. His statecraft of love and trust has produced loyalty and filial devotion among our Party members and other working people, brought about a full flowering of beautiful communist virtues in all parts of the country and changed the whole of society into a large harmonious family, which is united on the collectivist principle, “One for all and all for one!” Our people now call his state management the politics of love, politics of trust or all-embracing politics. This is an expression of their confidence in him and praise of him, one who trusts the people and dedicates himself to the struggle for them.

For his leadership ability and character and for his loyalty, devotion and achievements. Comrade Kim Jong Il has earned the people’s respect and love as well as high prestige as their leader.

A person that makes sincere efforts and fights for the people with all devotion will enjoy the people’s support and a high public reputation although he refrains from showing off. Comrade Kim Jong Il does not like being in the limelight in the belief that all that he needs to do is to work with loyalty to the country and his fellow people, but our people respect and support him, calling him “Dear Leader” for a long time. This title carries with it our people’s love and confidence in him.

It is a matter of great pleasure that Comrade Kim Jong Il, as the leader carrying forward the Juche revolutionary cause, is respected, loved and praised by the people. That is why I composed a poem in praise of him, representing the unanimous feelings of the people on the occasion of his 50th birthday.

The 19th Plenary Meeting of the Sixth Central Committee of our Party acclaimed Comrade Kim Jong Il as the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army. This is a high evaluation of his qualifications and his revolutionary achievements as well as the expression of the unshakable will of our Party and the people to accomplish the Juche revolutionary cause under his leadership.

The officers and men of our People’s Army and all the people take great delight in having Comrade Kim Jong Il as the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army and are bidding him an enthusiastic welcome. His acclamation as the Supreme Commander strengthens our People’s Army further and inspires our people with higher spirits. In contrast, the enemies tremble with fear of him.

Because Comrade Kim Jong Il carries forward our revolutionary cause splendidly, everything in our country is going successfully at present and will proceed with success in the future as well. The era of Kim Jong Il is glorious today and will be more prosperous and resplendent in the future. Our revolution has a really great future.

Our people now sing a song to the effect that without Comrade Kim Jong Il there would be no motherland. This is a good song. As the song says, without him both you comrades and the socialist motherland would not exist. His destiny is your destiny and the destiny of the country. The destiny of the leader, the Party and the people is one. You must, therefore, remain unfailingly loyal to him and brilliantly accomplish the socialist cause and the reunification of the country under his leadership.

In order to support his leadership as you should, you must continue to strengthen the single-hearted unity of the Party and the revolutionary ranks.

The single-hearted unity we are speaking of is the single-hearted unity around a single centre, the leader. Only when the popular masses are united rock-solid around the leader as a socio-political organism can they be the independent motive force of the revolution and play their role as such. Our revolution has been able to advance victoriously, overcoming incomparably arduous trials and we are now defending and brightening socialism, changing adverse conditions into favourable ones. This has been achieved in the difficult situation in which the imperialists’ offensive against socialism has been unprecedentedly intensified. This is because our revolutionary ranks have become a powerful motive force of the revolution, one which is single-heartedly united behind the leader. All the officials must make active efforts to strengthen the unity of the Party and the revolutionary ranks around Comrade Kim Jong Il by carrying forward the tradition of single-hearted unity of our revolution.

In order to fortify this achievement, all the Party members and working people must support Comrade Kim Jong Il with pure hearts, safeguard him and protect him in every way on the basis of revolutionary faith in him and revolutionary obligation. There should not be the slightest affectation, pretension or self-interest in supporting one’s leader. A person with self-interest may be affected by the general trend and change with the change in the circumstances. One must always support one’s leader with a pure and sincere mind. Our Party members and working people must believe in their leader Comrade Kim Jong Il, follow him and support him invariably with unfailing loyalty whether in peace or in harsh trials.

The system of Comrade Kim Jong Il’s unified leadership of the entire Party and the whole of society, must be strengthened.

The leader’s unified leadership is essential for ensuring the unity of idea and purpose of the revolutionary ranks and their concerted action and for accelerating the revolution and construction in keeping with the aspirations and demands of the popular masses.

The unified leadership of the entire Party and the whole society is realized in the process of carrying out the leader’s lines and policies. All our officials and working people must accept Comrade Kim Jong Il’s lines and policies as absolutely valid and carry them out in whatever difficult conditions and circumstances. A person that strives with all his heart to carry out the Party’s lines and policies and works with all devotion, though speaking little, is a truly loyal person that knows how to support his leader.

We must establish revolutionary discipline by which the entire Party, all the people and the entire army move as one under Comrade

Kim Jong Il’s leadership and prevent the infiltration among us of bourgeois idea, revisionist idea, flunkeyist idea and all other heterogeneous ideological trends that are contrary to our Party’s revolutionary idea, so that everyone in our Party and revolutionary ranks breathes the same air as the Party, speaks in accordance with the Party’s intention and walks in step with it.

The veterans of the anti-Japanese revolution must set an example in supporting Comrade Kim Jong Il.

Anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters are the honourable first generation of our revolution, who, together with me, pioneered and developed the revolutionary cause of Juche. You, the veterans of our revolution, must make sure, by your practical example, that the people and the younger generation sincerely support and follow their leader.

Anti-Japanese revolutionary veterans must sincerely support and help Comrade Kim Jong Il just as they have been loyal to me until now, and ensure that the socialist cause, the Juche revolutionary cause, is accomplished. Since our revolution continues down through generations, loyalty to the leader must be carried forward down through generations. When loyalty to the leader continues to be loyalty to his successor, it will be genuine loyalty, and the person with such loyalty is a true and loyal revolutionary.

Anti-Japanese revolutionary veterans must educate their sons and daughters to support Comrade Kim Jong Il with loyalty and become stalwart heirs to the revolution.

The younger generation is the heirs to our revolutionary cause. The future of socialism we have built and the destiny of the Juche revolutionary cause depend entirely on how the new generation, the heirs to the revolution, are prepared. As history shows it, the younger generation in some countries has not been educated on revolutionary lines, so that the younger people were deceived by the imperialists and reactionaries, came out in opposition to socialism and followed the road of restoring capitalism. In view of the great importance of the younger generation’s education in the continuation of the revolutionary cause, we have for a long time put great efforts into training the younger people to be reliable heirs to the revolution.

Today the ideological and spiritual state of the young men and women, who have been educated by our Party, is very good. They are intensely loyal to the Party and work with all devotion to resolve the problems of our Party’s concern. Our young men and women volunteer to work in coal-mines, country areas and other fields where work is difficult and toilsome. Some have married honourably disabled soldiers and adopted orphans as their children. These laudable deeds have become universal in our country. We are greatly proud of these excellent young men and women, and exactly for this reason the future of our revolution is securely guaranteed.

We must not rest content with success in education and training of the younger generation; we must continue to put great efforts into this work. The veteran revolutionaries must teach their children how their parents fought in the past for the freedom and independence of the country and for the people’s happiness; how socialism has been built as we see it today, and implant intense loyalty and an unbreak­able revolutionary spirit in their hearts. In this way you will make sure that not only your children but also your grandchildren and great-grandchildren take over the Juche revolutionary cause, securely defend it and brilliantly develop it.

The children of revolutionary martyrs, who are present here, have pledged to be single-heartedly loyal to dear leader Comrade Kim Jong Il just as their parents were faithful to me in the past. That is good.

Your parents were loyal revolutionaries. They devoted everything to the struggle for the victory of our revolution in the past. None of your parents started the revolution in the hope of winning personal honour or an official position. They embarked on the road of revolution solely for the liberation and independence of the country and for the people’s happiness and unhesitatingly laid down their precious lives for that purpose. I can never forget your parents, who died while fighting heroically for the country and the revolution.

You must purely inherit the loyalty and revolutionary spirit of your parents and struggle with all devotion for the victory of the Juche revolutionary cause.

The Party deeply trusts the children of revolutionary martyrs and expects a great deal from them. The Party regards you as the hard core of our revolution and expects you to keep the important posts of the revolution rock-solid. You must always bear in mind the Party’s trust and expectations and become guards and shock brigades in support of Comrade Kim Jong Il’s leadership.

In order to fulfil your duties, you must firmly prepare yourselves to be Juche-type communist revolutionaries.

As I always say the son does not become a revolutionary automatically simply because his father is a revolutionary. The children of revolutionary martyrs, to be true revolutionaries, must have high ambitions and a strong determination to carry forward the revolution following the example of the revolutionary spirit of their parents and steadily train themselves through revolutionary practice.

Only those who have high ideals and ambition and realize them without fail can become genuine revolutionaries. My father advanced the idea of “Aim High” and educated me to cherish it. I have fought with his words as my maxim and still keep them in my mind. You must bear in mind that the Juche revolutionary cause pioneered and developed by your parents is a great, noble undertaking for the prosperity of the country and the people’s happiness; you should become loyal men and women who share the same destiny with the Party for ever in the struggle to accomplish the cause.

The children of revolutionary martyrs, to be Juche-type communist revolutionaries who are unfailingly loyal to the Party and the revolution, must firmly equip themselves with our Party’s Juche idea.

The Juche idea is the sole guiding ideology of our revolution and the revolutionary outlook on the world that the Juche-type communist revolutionaries must acquire. Only when you are solidly armed with the Juche idea can you have the awareness of being masters of the revolution and confidence in the victory of the revolution and fight for the victory of the Juche revolutionary cause through to the end. You the children of revolutionary martyrs must study the Juche idea harder, make it your unshakable belief and translate it thoroughly into work and life. You must, on no account, be affected with heterogeneous ideas that run counter to the Juche idea and with the decadent way of life. If you are affected with corrupt bourgeois ideas and way of life, you will become ideologically and mentally degenerate. If this happens, you will be unable to work for the revolution. You must reject these evils and think and act only in keeping with the requirements of the Juche idea.

Participating faithfully in organizational life is extremely important. People can add lustre to their valuable socio-political integrity and lead worthwhile lives only through organizational life. The children of revolutionary martyrs must always value their organization, participate faithfully in organizational life so as to train themselves ideologically and prepare themselves into stalwart revolutionaries with a high sense of organization and discipline.

The children of revolutionary martyrs must be free from greed for high positions and refrain from hoping for privileges and special benefits. Greed for high positions and the desire for privileges and special benefits are alien to the qualities of revolutionaries. Since the days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, I have considered it an iron rule of life to “oppose eating from a small pot”. This means opposing to live in a manner different from the ways of the masses without mixing with them. In the years of the anti-Japanese armed struggle I always shared bed and board with my men. During the Fatherland Liberation War when the people had to live on foxtail millet, I fought, eating foxtail millet. I still live in the way I did in the past. Only then can I feel peace of mind. Whatever you do and wherever you work, you the children of revolutionary martyrs must refrain from hoping for high positions and special treatment and carry out the assignments given by the Party in a responsible manner. You must also love and respect the people at all times and share hardships and pleasure with them.

The children of revolutionary martyrs must not be greedy for material wealth. Such greed is like opium that paralyses people’s revolutionary spirit. If people covet articles and money, they will become ideologically degenerate and end in betraying the revolution. You must work and live in a clean and pure way with a noble revolutionary spirit so that you want nothing more than to work for the revolution, even if you have to eat only frugal meals with soya-bean paste.

Today I have had a pleasant time with you, old comrades-in-arms of mine and the children of revolutionary martyrs.

I strongly believe that you will stoutly fight for the accomplishment of the socialist cause, the Juche revolutionary cause, in loyal support of Comrade Kim Jong Il’s leadership.