National Heritage Conservation Is a Patriotic Undertaking for Adding Brilliance to the History and Traditions of Our Nation
Kim Jong Un
National Heritage Conservation Is a Patriotic Undertaking for Adding Brilliance to the History and Traditions of Our Nation
Talk to Senior Officials of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea
October 24, Juche 103 (2014)
We are greeting the 20th anniversary of on-site guidance by the great Comrade Kim Jong Il of the Mausoleum of King Tangun.
President Kim Il Sung had proposed renovating the mausoleum and paid close attention to the project. Regarding the project as an important part of the undertakings for carrying out his lifetime instructions, General Kim Jong Il gave energetic guidance to it. On October 29, 1994, while looking round the excellently renovated mausoleum, he said that the mausoleum, a national wealth to be handed down to posterity, should be laid out and preserved well, that historical sites and relics should be unearthed in larger numbers to enrich the storehouse of cultural heritage of the nation, and that they should be inherited and developed properly.
As the Mausoleum of King Tangun was renovated in a solemn way thanks to the President’s and the General’s ennobling love for the nation and their wise leadership, it has been clearly verified that Koreans are a homogenous nation who have lived on the same territory carrying forward the same bloodline since the dawn of human civilization with Tangun as their founding father, and a holy place of the nation has been set up for education of all the compatriots in patriotism. This constituted a great, auspicious event for our nation and a brilliant victory of the Juche-oriented policy on conserving national heritage.
The great President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il, recognizing the importance of conserving national heritage, devoted their efforts to this end in the whole course of leading the revolution, thus exalting the brilliance of the time-honoured history and splendid culture of our nation.
With gifted wisdom and Juche-based insight, the President put to rights one by one the problems of history which had been distorted and become complicated by the acts of national chauvinists and great-power worshippers, verifying that our country was one of the cradles of human civilization and formulating the history of our nation which has continued since the days of Tangun’s Korea following the law-governed course of historical development. He advanced the policy of inheriting and developing national heritage on the Juche-based stand, and ensured that many cultural heritage which had been buried in history were unearthed and verified and the historical sites destroyed by foreign aggressors were reconstructed in their original state; he thus saw to it that the cultural heritage created by the ancestors were conveyed to the people, as well as to the coming generations, as the assets of the nation.
True to the President’s intention, General Kim Jong Il correctly evaluated and clarified the problems which were of great significance in putting to rights the history of our country, adding lustre to the righteous history of the nation and ensuring that the cultural heritage associated with wisdom and talent of the ancestors shed their brilliance as priceless wealth that connect the history and bloodline of the nation down through generations. Busy as he was with his Songun-based leadership, he looked round historical sites and scenic spots, leading the work of conserving national heritage to be turned into an undertaking of instilling in the people the excellence of our nation. He also saw to it that the excellent national traditions handed down through generations were preserved, so as to make the spirit and flavour peculiar to the nation pervade the whole country. He proposed building a folk park, a grand open-air history museum, in Pyongyang that can exhibit the culture and customs our people have created from the primitive ages to the modern era. He then channelled great efforts and concern to its construction so as to hand down the time-honoured history and brilliant culture of our nation to posterity.
Indeed, President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il were fathers of the nation, peerless patriots and holy men, as they, by applying the immortal Juche idea, not only glorified the modern history of our nation but formulated the 5 000-year history of the Korean nation in a correct way and demonstrated the nation’s excellence to the whole world.
It is the firm will of our Party to develop our country, by carrying forward their ennobling intentions, into a world-class country of advanced civilization with time-honoured history and brilliant culture, into an ever-prospering, powerful country.
National heritage conservation is a patriotic undertaking for defending the history and traditions of the nation and adding brilliance to them by inheriting and developing the precious spiritual and material heritage created by the ancestors.
We should keep up the President’s and the General’s ideas and theory of conserving national heritage as our guiding principles, and apply them in a thoroughgoing way.
Establishing the Juche orientation and remaining faithful to the principle of historical truth and scientific accuracy are fundamental principles to be consistently adhered to in conserving and inheriting the cultural heritage of the nation. We should resolve all the problems arising in conserving national heritage in keeping with our people’s aspirations, demands, national customs, feelings and sentiment and discover, restore, preserve and maintain the cultural heritage of the nation in a scientific and technological way based on historical facts.
We should properly preserve and maintain historical sites and relics in their original state.
A valuable legacy our ancestors created through their struggle and creative activities, historical sites and relics are an asset of the nation that should be handed down generation after generation. When we preserve and maintain them properly, we can instil higher national pride and dignity into the people and inherit and develop the time-honoured history, brilliant culture and excellent traditions of our nation. The longer the history of a nation is, the more brilliantly it shines and the better historical sites and relics are preserved in their original state, the more valuable they become.
Historical sites and relics should be preserved and maintained in their original state so that they can retain the characteristics of the society and historical period concerned. We should properly preserve and maintain the historical sites and relics in Pyongyang and Kaesong, old-time capitals, and pay close attention to preserving and maintaining the historical sites and relics of national value in other parts of the country. We should first restore those associated with the leadership exploits of the President and the General and rebuild, repair and maintain historical sites and relics on a regular basis in accordance with yearly plan. We should unearth larger numbers of valuable historical sites and relics, thus enriching the storehouse of the cultural heritage of the nation. We should wage a fierce combat against the nihilistic tendency of negating the excellence of our nation and practices of failing to properly preserve and maintain historical sites and relics and damaging them.
We should actively sustain the excellent national traditions of our people.
These national traditions reflect the time-honouredness, excellence, ennobling mental world and unique lifestyle of our nation. We should value the precious creations and good manners and customs that are permeated with the wisdom and talent of the nation and handed down generation after generation, and inherit and develop them in line with the demands of the times.
In order to give full scope to the Korean-nation-first spirit, our Party has ensured that the national culture, arts and customs are actively encouraged, folk festivals are celebrated and folk parks and folk streets have been built.
In the future, too, we should develop traditional music, dance and fine art of strong national tinges, promote national sports including Taekwon-Do and ssirum (Korean wrestling) and ensure that the people prefer playing such folk games as yut game and top-spinning. We should encourage traditional dishes and costumes, sustain the excellence of our language and manners and further develop Koryo medicine and traditional form of architecture.
We should properly conserve and maintain the scenic spots and natural monuments.
From olden times our country has been called a 3 000-ri land of golden tapestry with beautiful mountains and clear rivers. A land of golden tapestry means a land as beautiful as an embroidery on silk cloth. Our country has many famous mountains and scenic spots including Mts. Paektu, Kumgang and Myohyang and Chongsokjong which are envied by the world and it has also many natural monuments which should be conserved through national effort and handed down through generations. Scenic spots used to be pleasure resorts for rich and influential persons in exploiting society, but they are pleasure grounds and cultural resorts for the people in our society where the people are its masters.
We should treasure every tree, every blade of grass and every rock which add beauty to scenic spots and actively protect birds and wild animals in the scenic spot areas.
We should take good care of mountaineering paths and facilities in scenic spots and discover more scenic spots, thus bringing more pleasure and laughter to the people.
Of importance in conserving and maintaining scenic spots is preserving them in their original state without damaging their ecological environment. Thoroughgoing measures should be taken to prevent scenic spots from being damaged or polluted owing to forest fire, random felling of trees, development of underground resources, pests, sewage and industrial waste.
We should lay out history museums and other bases for the education in history well in conformity with the people’s cultural and aesthetic demands and the trend of the times and intensify education through them.
History and folklore museums, folk parks and folk streets are important bases of education for implanting national pride and patriotism in the working people, youth and students. As history museums and folk streets, once laid out well, would become precious assets of the nation, nationwide attention should be directed to building such educational bases without sparing investment.
History museums, folk parks and folk streets in the capital city and provinces should be spruced up to preserve the national identity. The second-stage project of building up the Pyongyang Folk Park more superbly as befits a base of education in patriotism should be completed at an early date, and those provinces which have not yet built folk streets should construct them as suited to their local features. In the future, the Korean Central History Museum should be laid out on the world standard so that it will serve as a prototype of a history museum and a model base of education in history. History museums in provinces should be built to retain the characteristics unique to each locality.
It is important to improve the display in museums. The display of historical relics in the museums should be arranged to ensure scientific accuracy, chronological sequence, vividness and three-dimensional character so that they help visitors easily understand history. Larger numbers of historical relics should be displayed in the museums so as to enrich the contents of exhibits and leave no vacancies in every historical period.
It is necessary to properly conduct educational work by means of the cultural heritage of the nation and the bases of education in history.
Effective education by means of them can enable the people, including youth and students, to be well versed in the history, culture and beautiful manners and customs of our nation, cherish national pride and patriotism and preserve the national identity.
Visit to and tour of history museums, folk parks, historical sites and scenic spots should be widely organized.
At present visit to the cultural relics of the nation is not being arranged effectively. When our people go to Mt. Myohyang, they look round the International Friendship Exhibition House and go mountaineering; it would be ideal for them to visit the history museum and historical sites along the mountaineering course, but they walk past them. It is an expression of indifference to history.
Every scenic spot and historical site of national value in our country bears the footprints and leadership exploits of the peerlessly great persons of Mt. Paektu. If local people come to Pyongyang to visit it, they should be encouraged to look round the Korean Central History Museum, Pyongyang Folk Park, Moran Hill and other historical relics as well as many other places in the city. And visitors to Mts. Kumgang, Kuwol and Chilbo should be encouraged to look round the historical sites there. Then they will have a better understanding of the leadership exploits of the President and the General, and at the same time get a vivid idea of history and feel greater national pride. Working people, youth and students should be educated to have a common knowledge of natural monuments, prides of the nation.
The work of conserving national heritage should be conducted as a campaign involving the whole country and all the people.
Every member of the nation should pay his or her patriotic devotion to this work. Not a few officials are now regarding it as a matter of lesser importance and putting it aside. In some cities and counties valuable historical sites and relics are either being lost or damaged owing to lack of attention to their conservation. Even such practices as damaging the landscape and ecological environment of scenic spots are being revealed. It is heart-breaking that precious national heritage were destroyed or plundered during the vicious colonial rule by Japanese imperialism and three-year war unleashed by the US imperialists, and it is all the more intolerable from the viewpoint of national self-respect that the remaining ones are in a poor state of conservation and maintenance. Neglect of conservation and maintenance of the cultural heritage of the nation may lead to the loss of its history and traditions.
Provincial, city and county people’s committees should entrust institutions, enterprises, cooperative farms and schools with the care of historical sites, scenic spots and natural monuments so as to conserve and maintain the national heritage as an all-people drive, and conduct the work in an intensive way during the general mobilization period for land administration. Education, science, art, literature, publication and media organs should study national classics, translate and publish them, bring out books of common knowledge of history in large numbers, and introduce historical sites and relics and traditional customs in various forms and by various methods. By doing so, we can ensure that working people, youth and students always treasure historical sites and relics, conserve them well and firmly carry on the spirit of the nation.
The Cabinet, the relevant ministries and national agencies should pay due concern to construction and maintenance of historical sites, museums and scenic spots, and provide necessary equipment, materials and funds in a responsible manner. A fair amount of the revenue from visits and tourism to historical sites and scenic spots should be earmarked for the national heritage conservation sector, so that it can independently meet the expenses for their regular maintenance.
Laws and regulations pertaining to maintenance of historical sites, relics, scenic spots and natural monuments should be formulated reasonably, and supervisory and control institutions such as the people’s security organs should exercise strict legal control over any breaches of them.
It is important to put conservation of national heritage on a scientific footing in keeping with the requirements of the developing reality.
The era of the knowledge economy requires scientification of all sectors. If the work of the national heritage conservation sector is not put on a scientific footing, great successes cannot be expected from it.
This sector, in collaboration with scientific research institutions, should positively adopt new scientific and technological achievements in preserving and maintaining historical sites and relics, and ensure that paints, reagents and other materials for their preservation can be produced domestically.
It is necessary to develop a database of historical sites, relics, scenic spots, natural monuments and intangible cultural heritage and promote exchanges of relevant information.
The Korea National Heritage Preservation Agency should be staffed with competent experts and their role enhanced so that the agency can function as a scientific research centre and advisory body in conserving national heritage.
It is essential to radically improve the role of the National Authority for the Protection of Cultural Property. This is a central organ that takes responsibility for and provides unified guidance over conservation of the country’s national heritage. Only when the responsibility and role of the organ are enhanced, is it possible to ensure unified guidance over conservation of national heritage and realize the Party’s intentions in this sector.
It is indispensable to raise the authority of the organ and set up a well-regulated system of guidance over conservation of the country’s overall national heritage. In collaboration with scientific research and educational institutions, the organ should unearth and collect larger numbers of tangible, intangible and natural heritage, and be efficient in their deliberation, registration and evaluation, while giving unified guidance over the work of conserving intangible heritage in the capital city and provinces. It should also encourage the non-permanent committees for conservation of national heritage in the capital city and provinces to enhance their functions and role.
It is important to publicize and commend the compatriots at home and abroad who donate valuable historical relics out of patriotism.
The National Authority for the Protection of Cultural Property should promote exchanges with international organizations and other countries. It should send delegations of researchers to other countries to help them widen their horizon, arrange joint research and academic seminars with historians and cultural heritage-related personages of other countries, and invite foreign delegations to tour historical sites and scenic spots in our country. Koguryo tombs with murals and historical sites in Kaesong have been inscribed on the world heritage lists; continued efforts should be made to have the excellent tangible, intangible and natural heritage of our country inscribed on the lists. Then it would be conducive to publicizing abroad our country’s time-honoured history and brilliant culture and our Party’s policy on conservation of national heritage.
All the people in the north, the south and abroad are compatriots of the same blood, descendants of Tangun. They should have a common understanding of the issues on their national history from a standpoint of attaching importance to the nation, and encourage academic exchanges concerning their national cultural heritage, thus rendering a contribution to adding brilliance to the history of Tangun’s Korea.
Party guidance should be intensified over the work of the national heritage conservation sector.
Party organizations should firmly equip the officials and working people in this sector with the Party’s policy on conservation of national heritage and inspire them to implement it to the letter. Party organizations should encourage them to work hard with pure conscience, sincerity and a high sense of responsibility, cherishing in their hearts the immortal achievements performed for this sector by the peerlessly great persons of Mt. Paektu and Kim Jong Il’s patriotism.
Among the officials and working people in this sector are many patriots and unassuming, meritorious people who remain faithful to their jobs in remote mountainous villages, rain or shine and whether recognized or not. Party organizations should pay close concern to their work and living, fairly assessing their successes and exploits and giving prominence to them, and promptly solving the problems if any.
Party organizations at all levels should form the ranks of officials in this sector with competent people. They should post for this sector those who are loyal to the Party and have expertise and a high sense of responsibility, and take prompt measures to make good the shortage of researchers, lecturers, technicians and skilled workers.
The relevant departments of the Party Central Committee should approach conservation of national heritage as an important undertaking for adding lustre to the achievements President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il made for the nation’s history, and provide efficient policy-oriented guidance over this sector.
All officials should strive to implement the Party’s policy on conservation of national heritage thoroughly so as to defend the immortal achievements made by the President and the General and add brilliance to the history and traditions of our nation.