REPORT OF WORLD JUCHE CONGRESS
Our delegation consisted of 2 of us from the JISGE and ASSPUK. It was a great honour to visit the DPRK on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung, the eternal president of the DPRK, father of the Juche idea , founder of socialist Korea and a great outstanding leader of the international communist and revolutionary movement. Our time passed very quickly when we were in the DPRK, so much was packed into a short space of time.
Our delegation at times doubted whether we would ever make it to the DPRK, all sorts of things seemed to threaten our visit, family issues, problems getting the Chinese visa ( which was obtained after hard work and effort by the DPRK embassy here and the Air Koryo office in Beijing) and been told just as I was checking in at Heathrow that the surname and first name on my ticket had been reversed. However we got there in the end !
Our thanks is also due to our old friend Kim Song Il of the KPEIC Beijing bureau who kindly assisted us in Beijing.
Our trip had so many high points it is difficult to list them all or put them in order of priority. This report to members and supports of the Juche Idea Study Group of England will aim to focus on the World Juche Congress. One of the greatest and most significant feats of the great leader president Kim Il Sung (other than achieving Korea's liberation and building socialism)was the creation of the great Juche idea, the idea that has solved the question of human destiny by stipulating that man is the master of everything and decides everything. The Juche idea is the idea the revolutionary idea of the present era, an idea that lights the way to total liberation and independence for humankind. On March 5th 2011 Bangladeshi Juche idea study group organisations put forward a proposal to hold a World Congress on the Juche Idea to significantly mark the centenary of the birth of the great leader president Kim Il Sung the author of the Juche idea.
To all sadness the great leader general Kim Jong Il the successor to the great leader president Kim Il Sung, who had himself significantly enhanced and developed the Juche idea particularly by the publication of the thesis “On the Juche Idea “, had passed away unexpectedly
in December 2011. Nevertheless the Korean people were undaunted ,they turned sorrow into strength and rallied around respected general Kim Jong Un , the great successor to the cause of Juche and Songun. Thus the World Congress on the Juche Idea went ahead.
After spending a night in Beijing (in a run down hotel) we boarded our Air Koryo flight to Pyongyang on Monday 9th of April. We arrived in the afternoon. Pyongyang was covered in the beautiful April sunshine . We were met at the Airport by Professor Ri Mu Il , who heads the British studies section of Kim Il Sung university and is an expert on Britain. He was our guide for the visit. Professor Ri was a jolly and humorous man.
The World Juche Congress was attended by 300 people from the 4 corners of the globe. Mostly
Juche idea and Songun idea study groups but also some political parties such as the New Communist Party of Britain, the Free Homeland Party of Brazil and the Bangladesh Peoples League
to name a few sent delegates. The atmosphere was very lively
The World Juche Congress was held in the Peoples Palace of Culture in the centre of Pyongyang. The Peoples Palace of Culture was built in the 1970s and is built in Korean style. It hosted the 1977 International Seminar on the Juche Idea. The Congress opened with due ceremony
on the 12th of April. The opening ceremony was attended by Kim Yong Nam, chairman of the presidium of the Supreme Peoples Assembly of the DPRK, Kim Ki Nam Choe Thae Bok and Kim Yong Il, secretaries of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun, Kim Jong Suk, chairwoman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Song Ja Rip, president of Kim Il Sung University who is the minister of Higher Education, Thae Hyong Chol, president of the Academy of Social Sciences, Kim Chang Ryong, vice chairman of the DPRK Preparatory Committee of the World Conference on the Juche Idea. Also present was Ogami Kenichi secretary general of the International Institute of the Juche Idea and Dr Vishwanath director general of the International Institute of the Juche Idea . Dr Vishwanath made an opening speech titled “Ideology and Cause of President Kim Il Sung Are Immortal “ he said “Global independence is a century old desire of humanity . We should make every effort to realise global independence with the Juche idea as powerful weapon for justice ,progress ,development and prosperity “
Vishwanath's opening reflected the spirit of the congress . There were strongly anti-imperialist militant speeches by the Latin American delegates particularly those of Brazil, Colombia and Valenzuela . Ms Rosanita Campos of the Free Homeland Party of Brazil strongly attacked US imperialist policies in Latin America and also Britain's imperialist interference over the Malvinas islands. European delegates also made good speeches. Juha Keiski of Finland spoke about the crisis in Europe and the reduction in people's living standards and how the Juche idea is relevant to the struggle in Europe.
I myself spoke in the afternoon of the first day . Here is an excerpt of my speech
“The great leader comrade Kim Il Sung is revered not only by the Korean people but by the peoples of the whole world because he made such a great contribution to the cause of global independence. Global independence is basically the cause of the world revolution in modern conditions.
President Kim Il Sung pioneered a new path for the national liberation movement in colonies under the banner of the Juche idea. In his works such as the “Path of Korean Revolution” and the “Tasks of Korean Communists “ which showed the correct path not only the Korean revolution but for anti imperialist struggle in the colonies. It was later acknowledged by the World Cultural Congress in Havana, Cuba in 1968 that the anti-Japanese armed struggle led by the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung was an example and a model.
In such works as “Let Us Intensify the anti US anti imperialist struggle “, The Great Aanti-Imperialist Cause of the Asian African and Latin American Peoples Will Be Invincible and Progressive Journalists of the five Continents Wield your Powerful Revolutionary Pen The great leader comrade Kim Il Sung originally clarified strategic and tactical problems in the struggle for national liberation in colonies and dynamically mobilized hundreds of millions of people in colonial countries ally to the sacred struggle for liberation. He met important revolutionary figures such as Che Guevara, Salvador Allende, Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat to name a few .
(full text of my speech is available).
The congress was also addressed by lecturers from the Academy of Social Sciences and Kim Il Sung University. Later we were given three excellent lectures , one on Songun politics , one on Kim Jong Un is the great successor and one on the situation on the Korean peninsula. The congress adopted the “Pyongyang Declaration of World Congress on the Juche Idea “ , we hope to make available to members and publish it in in full. Briefly it does state “the popular masses' struggle to build a new independent world free from intervention and pressure under the banner of the Juche idea will surely win victory … All countries and nations that aspire after independence and peace
should fight staunchly against the hegemony and aggressive moves made by the imperialists including the US imperialists under the ambition of world supremacy. Illusion and fear of imperialism immediately leads to death”
We were able to meet and discuss matters with delegations from Brazil, Russia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Malta and Switzerland as well as the IIJI and the KASS. Separately to the Congress we had meetings with the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front of south Korea plus also the Korean Publications Exchange Association and the Korean Committee For Friendship with the British People. Our delegation also participated in the International Conference for Korea's Reunification and the International Joint meeting. We visited the e library of Kim Il Sung University , the swimming pool of Kim Il Sung university , the Taedong combined fruit farm , the turtle farm as well as the Kimilsungia exhibition. We also went to the unveiling of the new statues on the Mansu Hill and the April 15th grand military parade(see separate report) Whilst were staying in the DPRK the 4th conference of the Workers' Party of Korea elected respected general Kim Jong Un as First Secretary of the WPK and declared its guiding ideology to be Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism. The Supreme Peoples Assembly also elected general
Kim Jong Un as First chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK. This is a manifestation of the Korean peoples trust and support in general Kim Jong Un. We could tell that he is a popular leader with deep trust and love of the people.
We were able to see the true superiority of Juche -based socialism, this is covered by another report but suffice to say we saw that the DPRK is in good shape and living standards are going up.
All in all a very successful congress. Now we need to apply concretely the decisions by the congress in the UK. We must intensify our study of the Juche idea and Songun idea 10 fold and a 100 fold and win more adherents.