ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF SONGUN POLITICS UK

LET US ALL LIVE AND STRUGGLE LIKE HEROES

Talk to the Senior Officials of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea

May 15, 1988

This year is an eventful year which marks the 40^th anniversary of the foundation of the Republic and the 35^th anniversary of victory in the Fatherland Liberation War.

In recognition of these anniversaries, we are going to hold a national meeting of heroes on a grand scale.

The aim of this national meeting of heroes is to advance the revolutionary cause of Juche victoriously by carrying forward the heroic fighting traditions of our people, with the revolutionary banner held higher, and by effecting a continuous upsurge in the revolution and construction.

Immediately after the end of the Fatherland Liberation War, the great leader convened a national meeting of war heroes and encouraged our People's Army and our people to continue to perform heroic exploits in the struggle for national defence and postwar reconstruction with the spirit and stamina they had displayed in defeating the US imperialists. The first heroes' meeting held 35 years ago made a great contribution to inspiring our people to overcome triumphantly the difficulties and trials standing in their way by displaying mass heroism.

The forthcoming national meeting of heroes will be a historic occasion for rousing all the people to a new heroic struggle to achieve the complete victory of socialism and hasten the reunification of the country.

Today our revolution is entering an important phase.

Under the leadership of the Party, our people have fought a hard struggle and done a great deal of work in building socialism. If, through an uninterrupted, efficient struggle, we carry out the Third Seven-Year Plan successfully, we shall be able to display the superiority of our socialist system to the full and make a decisive turn in the struggle for the complete victory of socialism.

The south Korean people are now fighting strongly against the United States and for independence, against fascism and for democracy, as well as for national reunification. Young people, student sand broad sections of the people in south Korea have realized the truth of the Juche idea, and the trend among them to reunify the country in cooperation with the people in the northern half of Korea is mounting as never before. This means that the situation is maturing in favor of national reunification. If, in this situation, we accelerate socialist construction and give it greater momentum, it will be a great inspiration to the fighting south Korean people and will further hasten the reunification of the country.

Today socialism and imperialism are standing in acute confrontation in Korea in all fields of politics, the economy, military and culture.

With the wild dream of obliterating the cause of socialism and communism, the imperialists are making frantic moves against the socialist countries and the international communist movement. They are threatening the socialist countries militarily by their continued pursuance of power politics and are employing all sorts of cunning schemes to damage the socialist countries politically and economically, ideologically and culturally.

The US imperialists in particular are concentrating their attack on our country in league with the Japanese reactionaries and other imperialist forces of the world.

The US imperialists have made south Korea their colony and nuclear war base and are trying to obstruct our people's cause of national reunification and socialist construction, defame our country and isolate it in the international arena.

They are doing so because our Party and our people are firmly opposed to imperialism and are confidently following the road of socialism, with the revolutionary banner of the Juche idea always unfurled. They fear the fact that our Republic is strengthening daily to become an indestructible bulwark that thwarts their aggressive Asia-Pacific strategy. They are also afraid of our revolutionary influence on the south Korean people and on the progressive people throughout the world.

How to counter the frantic imperialist offensive against socialism is a matter of principle that affects the destiny of our revolution and socialism.

Our Party and our people have assumed a heavy responsibility to our times and to history. We must keep the banner of revolution, the banner of socialism, flying, by foiling the enemy's frenzied attacks and effecting a steady advance in socialist construction. We must never weaken, but continue to maintain the high enthusiasm being displayed in the current 200-day campaign. We must follow this campaign with a 2,000-day campaign and then a 20,000-day campaign. This is the way to carry the revolutionary cause of Juche through to the end and to discharge the heavy responsibility we have assumed before the world revolution.

This is precisely our Party's intention in convening the national meeting of heroes, that is to rouse all the Party members and other working people to a heroic struggle.

Our people have the proud traditions of fighting heroically for the fatherland and for the revolutionary cause of Juche.

The great leader Comrade Kim ll Sung began our people's heroic struggle and led this struggle to victory at each stage of the development of the revolution, and under his loving care great numbers of heroes have grown up through the generations.

The anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle was the most glorious one in which our people, under the banner of the Juche idea, defeated a formidable imperialism for the first time in their history. It was the most heroic struggle which was waged unyieldingly for a long period, despite the unprecedented arduous and harsh trials.

The anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters are the first proud generation of heroes produced by our people. With the respected Comrade Kim ll Sung as the core of unity and the centre of leadership, they displayed an incomparable heroic and self-sacrificing spirit in their fight against the Japanese imperialists, overcoming all manner of difficulty and hardship. They held the unshakable conviction that living or dying on the path of the revolution directed by the people's leader, whom our nation had acclaimed for the first time in their history of several thousand years, was the source of honor. They never failed to fulfill their revolutionary obligations to the leader as his soldiers in any adversity, and were unfailingly loyal to the revolutionary cause. The exploits performed by the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters in defending the leader of our revolution with their lives in the most trying conditions and in contributing to the establishment of the glorious revolutionary traditions of our Party and to the accomplishment of the cause of national liberation, hold a glorious place in the history of our revolution.

In view of both their distinguished service and their fighting spirit, they are the model of revolutionaries and the paragons of heroism whom our people must follow from generation to generation.

Our Party respects and values them as the veterans of our revolution, and shows deep concern for the anti-Japanese revolutionary martyrs so that they hold a permanent place in the history of our nation.

The three-year-long Fatherland Liberation War was our people's grimmest struggle after liberation.

It was a great revolutionary war of worldwide significance, a war in which our people defended their motherland and inflicted the first-ever defeat on US imperialism, the ringleader of world imperialism, by waging a national, heroic struggle. It was, indeed, a miracle that our newly-liberated people could defeat the powerful US imperialists in this war. At the time the enemy forces were incomparably superior to ours both numerically and technologically. The US imperialists mobilized for the Korean war their vast army, navy and air force armed with modern weapons and the latest equipment as well as the armies of their 15 satellites, and conducted the most cruel and brutal warfare. The young People's Army and our people were able to defeat these enemies because they fought heroically, displaying the indomitable fighting spirit of their anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners and trusted and united closely behind the great leader, the legendary hero of the anti-Japanese war and the ever-victorious, iron-willed, brilliant commander.

Our people, who had experienced a decent life and real happiness as masters of factories and land for the first time in their own liberated country, fought the aggressors self-sacrificingly, remembering that the motherland was more precious than their own lives and that it was their obligation to prove themselves, even at the cost of their lives, worthy of the benevolence shown by the leader, the leader who had won back the country for them.

In response to the orders of the Comrade Supreme Commander, the soldiers of the People's Army defended every inch of the country with their blood. They fell upon the enemy tanks and warships and destroyed them and silenced enemy pillboxes with their breasts, as if their bodies were bombs, in fierce, decisive encounters, and so ensured victory in battle. Truly, the soldiers of the People's Army fought bravely, sacrificing their youth and their lives without hesitation for the sake of the country and the people. During the war the people on the home front also fought well. Eyen the women, old people and children came out in support of the battle front and produced war supplies, defended their factories and their villages and towns, and so made a great contribution to victory in the war.

For their matchless mass heroism displayed during the Fatherland Liberation War, our people were called a heroic people by the world.

The large numbers of heroes produced during this war are a source of pride for our people and a valuable asset of our revolution.

The anti-Japanese fighters made an immortal contribution to winning back the lost country; the heroes of the Fatherland Liberation War made a great contribution to defending the motherland from US imperialist aggression and to demonstrating the heroic mettle of our liberated people to the whole world.

The war heroes, heroes of a new generation produced by the Republic, are a splendid model in educating our younger generation and the people in loyalty to the Party and the leader and in the spirit of patriotism.

Our people not only fought heroically in the wars against the Japanese and US imperialists, but also performed heroic exploits in their endeavors to create a new life.

No war in history has ever devastated every town and village and reduced them all to ashes as the war did in our country. Nor is there any historical precedent for having constructed new towns and villages from the rubble and having built socialism so wonderfully in so short a time as in our country. The US imperialists have a shameful record in the history of criminal destruction, whereas our people have an honorable record in the history of fruitful construction. The fact that our people have achieved such a miraculous success in spite of the ceaseless aggressive maneuvers and obstructive actions of the US imperialists and their minions is an eloquent demonstration of the amazing heroism they have displayed in postwar reconstruction and in building socialism.

The Chollima Movement and the great upsurge in socialist construction are a clear expression of our people's mass heroism. The heroes who were produced on the great Chollima march formed the front rank in the work of re-educating the people as well as being the standard-bearers of the collective innovation movement, heroes who acquired the truth of the Juche idea that man decides everything.

They educated and transformed people along communist lines so that everyone participated in making collective innovations in production and construction, helping and leading each other forward, under the slogan "One for all and all for one!".

The heroes in the days of the great Chollima upsurge made a historic contribution to turning the work of re-educating people into the concern of the masses themselves and to ushering in the heyday of socialist construction, by carrying through the revolutionary mass line of our Party.

The unassuming heroes who are being produced in large numbers from among our people today are model communists of the Juche type. They believe firmly in the Juche idea and our Party's policies, the application of this idea, and have been discharging their responsibilities and playing their roles as masters of the revolution and construction whether they are recognized or not. Our unassuming heroes are people who have acquired the attitude of master towards the revolution and construction and made it their life blood.

The unassuming heroes are the heroes of a new type who represent our times, when the modeling of the whole of society on the Juche idea is developing in depth.

We are trying to transform the whole of society after the Juche idea in order to train all the members of society to be communist people of the Juche type who live and work in accordance with the Juche idea, just as the unassuming heroes do.

The daily-growing numbers of unassuming heroes prove the validity of our Party's consistent policy for transforming people along communist lines as well as the superiority of our socialist system,

In our country there are also a large number of well-known heroes and unsung heroes who have devoted everything in their possession to the sacred causes of defending our revolutionary achievements and our people's security and of reunifying our country and making it prosperous. Our Party and our people will never forget their heroic services.

The ranks of our heroes, that were first formed during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, have continued to grow, and our people's heroism, that has been carried forward and developed through the generations, has now become universal among the masses and a part of their everyday life. This means that our people's heroism has entered a new, higher stage in which every member of society is becoming a hero.

Our Party wants everyone to become a hero, and in our society everyone can become a hero.

Living and fighting like heroes means struggling with total devotion for the revolutionary cause of the popular masses, not for one's own interests and fame.

In the old society of exploiters only exceptional people with outstanding qualities were considered heroes. However, the heroes we refer to are those people who enjoy the love and respect of the people for the great services they have rendered for the good of the fatherland and the people, the society and the collective. In our society, where the people have become the masters of the country, not only those with outstanding qualities, but also the ordinary people can all become heroes.

A man who is completely devoted to the common cause of the popular masses can become a war hero by silencing an enemy gun muzzle with his chest in a battle to defend the country; in socialist construction he can become either a labor hero by making innovations, or an unassuming hero by making a valuable contribution to the building of socialism while quietly carrying out his duties as befits a master.

To live like a hero and to become a hero is the most valuable and worthwhile way of life and the highest honor for an independent man.

Man does not live in isolation, but as a member of society and of the collective.

Therefore, the worth of his life is appraised by how much he contributes to the society and the collective. The greater contribution someone's life has made to the country, the nation and the revolutionary cause of the people, the more valuable that life is.

Only a man who leads such a worthwhile life can feel the real value of life.

If a man was to live only for his own sake, in isolation from the society and the collective, his life would be utterly worthless. The life of such a man would be as meaningless as if he had not been born because he would neither contribute anything to the society and the collective, nor leave anything for them.

Living a worthwhile life for the society and the collective and spending one's whole life meaninglessly for one's own self-interest represent two fundamentally different attitudes towards life.

A life which is spent only for the individual's sake ends with the death of the individual. His life has no future. There is an end to the life of an individual, but the society and the collective exist and develop for ever. A life which contributes to the good of the society and the collective not only benefits the person himself and his generation but also creates a lasting future for the society and the collective. Such a life, indeed, conforms to man's inherent desire for independence; it is a worthy life which enables a man to perform his duty as a member of the society and the collective. If a man only seeks his own comfort, irrespective of what becomes of the society and the collective, his life will essentially be no different to that of an animal. No noble self-sacrifice or heroic deed can be expected from a man who is selfish. Heroic deeds can only be performed by a man who believes the greatest value and worth in life to be to contribute to the society and the collective, which are eternal and incomparably more precious than his own individual self.

Living and fighting heroically is the way for a man to exalt his most precious socio-political integrity and make himself immortal.

Both man's physical life and his socio-political integrity are precious. A sound physical life helps in one's socio-political activities. But socio-political integrity is more valuable for a man, a social being. It is only when people form a social organism and acquire socio-political integrity that they can shape their destiny independently and live like men, as the masters of the world and of their own destiny A man's physical life is mortal, but his socio-political integrity as part of the social organism is immortal.

Socio-political integrity is honored in the struggle to meet the desires of the society and the collective. These desires are represented by the Party and the leader.

Therefore, a man can add lasting glory to his socio-political integrity if he is loyal to the Party and the leader and fights heroically to implement the Party's line and policies.

A long life is not necessarily the measure of the value of one’s life. A man ought to live like a hero even if he only lives a short while. Our Party wants everyone to live and fight like a hero because it wants everyone to enjoy a most valuable and worthy life. In former days, people did not know what was meant by a heroic life, and there was no one who could guide them to lead a heroic life. So there were many instances of people, in spite of loving their country and nation ardently, failing to find the right course for their struggle, shedding their blood in vain and spending their whole lives fruitlessly. Nowadays, our Party is leading our people in a heroic struggle. Anyone who follows the leadership of the Party and the leader loyally and works with devotion in carrying out his revolutionary tasks can enjoy a worthwhile life and become a hero.

Today our people are living in the most glorious era of struggle in the long history of our nation.

To win the complete victory of socialism and reunify the country are our sacred duties to history and to our nation; these are urgent tasks that must be carried out by our generation.

The most difficult yet important task in accomplishing the revolutionary cause of Juche, that has been initiated and directed by the leader, is to achieve the complete victory of socialism. We must attain the goal of the complete victory of socialism and thus open up a broad path to the ideal society of communism.

At a time when the colonial system has collapsed throughout the world and when all the liberated people are following the road of independence, it is intolerable that colonial rule has been imposed on half of our country by the US imperialists for more than 40 years in the wake of Japanese imperialist colonial rule. We must, without fail, reunify the country in our generation and put an end to the history of national suffering.

Anyone who has the blood of a heroic Korean must always remember the mission entrusted to him by history and his nation, and must take part in this sacred struggle and render heroic services.

If he becomes a laggard in this momentous struggle led by the great Party and the great leader, it will be a disgrace to him throughout his life and the stain will be passed down to posterity.

We must carry forward our people's glorious fighting traditions and rouse all the people forcefully to a heroic struggle to accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche.

We must enhance the leadership role of our Party in order to press on with the heroic struggle of all the people.

All the heroic struggles of our people in the past have been conducted under the direct guidance of the great leader. He has led our people's heroic struggle personally not only during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and the Fatherland Liberation War but also in the period of socialist construction. He lit the torch of the Chollima Movement and trained the working people to be Chollima riders and heroes. He has discovered unassuming heroes and led a mass movement to emulate them.

We must learn from the great examples shown by the leader, and guide the all-people, heroic struggle of today properly.

Party organizations must conduct energetic political and organizational activities to rouse all the Party members and working people to the heroic struggle.

"Let us all live and struggle like heroes!"-this is our Party's requirement and the slogan that we must shout now. We must encourage all the Party members and working people to advance under this militant slogan so that the whole of society is imbued with heroic mettle with which all of them make continual innovations and a continuous advance by displaying boundless devotion and an indomitable fighting spirit and wiping out all indolent easygoing attitudes, conservatism and lethargy, and fight courageously, full of confidence and optimism, sweeping away cowardice and defeatism.

Ours is the age of science and technology. The mass heroism of our people must be combined with modern science and technology.

We must press ahead with the technical and cultural revolutions, along with the ideological revolution, and quickly raise the working people's scientific, technical and cultural levels so that they make greater achievements in socialist construction.

The Three-Revolution Red Flag Movement and the campaign to follow the examples of the unassuming heroes, which are developing under our Party's leadership, are powerful mass movements to transform people along communist lines and bring about collective innovations in socialist construction. But these movements are not displaying their advantages and vitality as mass movements to the full because Party organizations do not employ a correct methodology to give efficient guidance to them. The lifeblood of a mass movement lies in its being the movement of the masses themselves. Party organizations must radically improve their guidance of the Three-Revolution Red Flag Movement and the campaign to emulate the unassuming heroes. In this way they will ensure that these movements become a powerful motive force capable of rousing all the working people to conduct heroic activities in keeping with the Party’s intention to induce them to perform great services for the country and the people and enjoy a valuable and worthwhile life; they will also ensure that these campaigns fully become movements of the masses themselves.

Party organizations should work well with heroes.

This is very important in imbuing our society with the revolutionary spirit to live and struggle in a heroic way and in expanding the ranks of heroes ceaselessly.

Party organizations must treasure and lead well our heroes who, in support of the Party, have performed exploits for the country and the people, so that they continue to flourish. They must respect the heroes and place them at the fore, and create the social climate for emulating them.

Good preparations should be made for the heroes’ meeting.

The meeting will be attended by anti-Japanese revolutionary veterans, heroes of the Fatherland Liberation War, people who have become heroes during post-war reconstruction and socialist construction and unassuming heroes, as well as people who have performed distinguished services and made innovations for the country and the people.

We must make sure that the heroes' meeting is held on a large scale, in a grand manner and at a high political and ideological level.

It is the unshakable will of our Party to accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche down through the generations under the revolutionary banner of the Juche idea. We must ensure that the forthcoming heroes' meeting demonstrates to the world both our Party's will to carry through the Juche-orientated revolutionary line with absolute consistency and the unconquerable might of our people who are fighting heroically, united solidly behind our Party.