Tuesday 8 September 2015

LET US ACCOMPLISH THE CAUSE OF SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM UNDER THE REVOLUTIONARY BANNER OF JUCHE(extract on the reunification issue)

KIM IL SUNG
 

 
Report at the Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
September 8, 1988
 
(Extract)
3
Comrades,
Our people’s struggle to reunify the country is a sacred struggle to link the national ties of blood, which have been cut off by the imperialists, and to achieve the coordinated development and prosperity of our nation.
There is no internal necessity for Koreans, who have lived as a homogeneous nation for thousands of years, to be bisected in our times. Our nation was divided and has not been reunified entirely because of imperialist intervention and obstructive moves. The struggle for national reunification is not an effort to settle any contradiction between classes within our nation or antagonism between systems; it is the cause of the whole nation for accomplishing its liberation and realizing the independence of the Koreans.
In view of the basic character of the reunification question, our Party and the Government of the Republic put forward the three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity. The three principles of national reunification are a most reasonable reunification programme; they accord with the Korean people’s desire for independence and their fundamental interests as well as with the trend of the times and the aspirations of people throughout the world.
The realistic method of settling the question of national reunification on the basis of the three principles is to establish a Democratic Federal Republic of Koryo.
The DFRK is the most rational form of a unified state capable of achieving national unity by regarding the common desire and interests of the nation as basic and transcending ideas and systems. National reunification is for the good of the entire Korean nation, not for any specific class or section of the population. Therefore the interests of any particular class or section should be subordinated to the common interests of the nation. In order to reunify the country when different ideas and systems exist in the north and south of Korea, it is necessary to form a unified state by federating the two autonomous governments, leaving the two systems as they are on the principle of coexistence, one refraining from conquering the other or one side refraining from overwhelming the other. Establishing the DFRK is the only correct way of settling the issue of reunification independently and peacefully by the united effort of the whole nation in accordance with the common desire and will of the nation.
In the future, too, we shall make every effort to reunify the country by establishing the DFRK on the three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity.
In order to achieve the independent and peaceful reunification of the country, we ‘must fight against the US imperialists’ policy of subjugating south Korea as their colony and against their scheme to create “two Koreas”.
The US imperialist policy towards Korea is an important part of its Asian-Pacific strategy. Seizing south Korea, a zone of strategic importance, the United States is attempting to put this aggressive strategy into effect by forming an axis of the US, Japan and south Korea. Talk about national reunification apart from the struggle against the US imperialists’ scheme to make “two Koreas” and dominate south Korea forever is only deceitful, empty talk.
The south Korean people, in the grip of untold hardships and misfortunes under the US imperialists’ colonial domination and their stooges’ fascist rule, have been fighting resolutely for national sovereignty and democratic freedom. The Popular Uprising in April9 1960, the Kwangju Popular Uprising10 in 1980 and the June Popular Resistance last year were heroic struggles that demonstrated the strong spirit of independence and mettle of the Korean nation, never yielding to any brutal enemy. These were historic events that took the liberation struggle of the south Korean people onto a higher plane. Trained and awakened in the flames of struggle, the south Korean people are directing the spearhead of attack gradually to the US imperialists. Freeing themselves from the worship and fear of the United States, they have raised high the banner of anti-US independence, have overcome spontaneity and dispersiveness of struggle and are developing a more organized mass struggle. This marks an important turning point in the history of their liberation struggle. Today the south Korean people are combining the struggle against fascism and for democracy and the struggle for national reunification closely with the anti-US struggle for independence, thereby advancing along the right path of national liberation.
The youth and students are playing a hardcore and leading role in the south Korean people’s struggle for independence, democracy and national reunification, and their courageous struggle is developing still further with the passage of time, attracting attention from people at home and abroad and receiving encouragement from them.
Under the patronage of the US imperialists the south Korean authorities are now craftily trying to deceive the people in the guise of democracy. However, they are revealing nakedly their true colours as fascists by resorting to a bloody repression of the just struggle of the young people and students. At a time when the entire nation is fighting to hand down a reunified country to posterity, they are brutally suppressing the innocent students and other young people who have risen up under the banner of reunification. They must be cursed and condemned as a gang of traitors to the nation by all Koreans.
The south Korean people must foil the enemy in his suppression and stratagem and fight firmly united as one, thus discharging their honourable duty in ending the colonial rule of the US imperialists in south Korea and accelerating national reunification.
Removing the danger of war and easing tension in our country is a most important matter and an indispensable condition at the moment for the peaceful reunification of the country.
Having deployed a large number of aggressor troops and nuclear weapons in south Korea, the United States is ceaselessly perpetrating provocative acts of aggression against our Republic. Because of this, in our country military confrontation is continuing and the danger of war increasing. Unless the danger of war is removed and tension eased in our country, an atmosphere of trust cannot be created between the north and the south and the question of national reunification cannot be settled in a peaceful way.
If a guarantee for peace on the Korean peninsula is to be provided, it is necessary to conclude a peace agreement between us and the United States, adopt a nonaggression declaration between the north and the south, compel the US troops and nuclear weapons to move out of south Korea and effect a phased and drastic reduction of the armed forces of north and south.
Peace negotiations between Korea and the United States, which we have already proposed, still remain unrealized, entirely because the United States maintains its stand for permanent domination of south Korea. The United States is afraid that it will no longer have any grounds for occupying south Korea if a peace agreement is concluded and a nonaggression declaration is adopted. The United States must approach the Korea-US negotiations with a sincere attitude to settle the Korean question substantially in keeping with the trend of the times.
A nation that rules and oppresses another nation cannot keep itself free. The misguided policy of the government of the United States in occupying south Korea and obstructing the reunification of the Korean nation is a great shame to its own people. The US imperialists’ aggressive policy for world supremacy not only imposes a heavy burden upon its people, but also is a source of dire disaster. Honest-minded people of the United States and far-sighted, reasonable politicians must naturally contemplate the grave consequences of the imperialists’ aggressive policy and fight against their aggressive Korea policy and the strategy for world supremacy.
In order to reunify the country independently and peacefully, dialogues and negotiations between the north and the south must be developed.
A north-south dialogue can be successful only when both sides have a sound stand and attitude towards the talks. These talks must be held on the basis of the three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity—the reunification programme common to the nation.
The north-south dialogue must always talk of reunification. Reunification stands for the independence of the nation and a love for the country and nation, whereas division stands for dependence on foreign forces and treachery to the country and nation. It is impermissible to use the venue of talks as a means to finalize and legalize division by following the foreign forces against the will of the entire nation aspiring to reunification.
The dialogue between north and south must, first of all, find a solution to the fundamental questions related to reunification. Avoiding discussion of the political and military questions for creating basic preconditions for reunification and giving prominence to matters of secondary importance must be denounced as a scheme to obstruct reunification and keep the country divided by deceiving public opinion at home and abroad and using delaying tactics.
The north-south dialogue must be a wide-ranging dialogue that represents the desires and will of all the people in a democratic manner. The dialogue for reunification must not be monopolized by the authorities or by any particular party or group. The dialogue must be participated in widely by not only the authorities of the north and the south, but also different parties, social organizations, people from all walks of life and overseas compatriots. They should actively promote different forms of bilateral and multilateral contacts and negotiations.
As far as top-level talks between north and south are concerned, this is a matter we have already proposed and our attitude towards it is clear. The top-level talks must discuss and decide, first of all, adopting a nonaggression declaration between north and south by which neither side is restrained or guaranteed by anyone else as well as founding a federal government of the unified state, leaving the two systems in north and south as they are, or establishing a committee for peaceful reunification and the like for setting up such a government. We welcome any who come to Pyongyang to meet us out of a sincere desire to realize national reunification by solving these problems, but if they wish to argue about keeping the country divided into “two Koreas” forever, without the authority and ability to discuss and decide these fundamental problems independently, they need not come to meet us. The point in question is to ripen conditions for the holding of north-south top-level talks and producing desired results. To this end, the south Korean authorities must abandon their dependence on outside forces and join the entire nation in its campaign for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country.
Great obstacles and difficulties still lie in the way to national reunification. However, whether or not the country is reunified depends, in the long run, on how our nation, the motive force of reunification, struggles. All the Koreans in the north, south and abroad, rallied rock-firm on the principle of great national unity, must make strenuous efforts to achieve the independent, peaceful reunification of the country without fail.

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