On the Strength of Songun

August 25 is not an ordinary day for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. On the day in 1960, Kim Jong Il (1942-2011), eternal Chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, started the Songun-based leadership by inspecting the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Guards 105th Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army. 

For over half a century since then, under his Songun-based leadership, the DPRK has always safeguarded its sovereignty and dignity with honour in the ceaseless confrontation with the United States which claims to be a “superpower.” In January 1968, the US armed spy ship Pueblo - which had intruded into the territorial waters of the DPRK and which had been conducting acts of espionage - was captured by the navy of the KPA. Availing itself of the incident, the US dispatched legions of its troops to the Korean peninsula, clamouring about retaliation against the DPRK. Dark clouds of war hung over the peninsula. The world people were apprehensive about the outbreak of a new war in Korea. The government of the Soviet Union advised the Korean counterpart to release the captured ship. At this juncture, Kim Jong Il stated that he would not release the crew of the Pueblo unless the Americans submitted a letter of surrender and that since the ship was Korea’s booty, he would not return it even if they presented it. The DPRK declared to the world that it would retaliate against the “retaliation” of the US and return all-out war for “all-out war.” Utterly dispirited by the resolute countermeasures taken by the DPRK, the United States had no option but to sign its letter of apology in December that year, in which it acknowledged its hostile acts and assured that no US ships would intrude into the DPRK’s territorial waters in future. The then US President Lyndon Johnson lamented that it was the first letter of apology ever since the United States was founded. 

The same is true of ensuing incidents: The US large espionage plane EC-121 was shot down after having intruded into the territorial air space of the DPRK in April 1969; and the US soldiers committed acts of provocation against the guards of the KPA at Panmunjom along the Military Demarcation Line dividing Korea into the north and the south in August 1976, but were severely punished. In those cases too, the US made such rackets as if it would start a war at once, but was frightened by the decisive countermeasures and strong military might of the DPRK and gave up its attempts. 

The first nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula between 1993 and 1994 was induced by the US, which falsely accused the DPRK of its nuclear issue and instigated the International Atomic Energy Agency to force the DPRK to receive its “special inspection” of the major military sites while launching war rehearsals on a large scale in South Korea. Such being the case, Kim Jong Il issued an order of the KPA Supreme Commander on declaring a state of war readiness across the country. It was followed by the publication of a statement of the DPRK government that it would withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in order to defend the supreme interests of the country. Finding itself in a dilemma by the bomb-like declarations of the counterpart, the United States was forced to come to the negotiating table and to sign the DPRK-USA Agreed Framework for solving the nuclear issue of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful way. The US President Bill Clinton sent Kim Jong Il a letter of assurance, in which he ensured the sincere implementation of the US commitments under the Agreed Framework. Afterwards, the US picked a quarrel with the DPRK in 1998 over its nuclear facilities for the peaceful purpose while making public the OPLAN 5027 for preemptive nuclear strike and intensifying pressure on it. To cope with this, the DPRK solemnly declared its stand that it had no other choice but to prepare its nuclear deterrent. The more pressure and threats the US applied, the more strongly the DPRK responded to it. The DPRK’s supertough countermeasures compelled the Clinton administration to confess its defeat. 

Entering the new century, the Bush administration, branding the DPRK as part of the “Axis of Evil” and announcing that it was a target of preemptive nuclear strike, became hell-bent on launching reckless moves of nuclear war provocation. Given the situation, the DPRK formally withdrew from the NPT and then stated its possession of nuclear weapons. It carried out missile launches and underground nuclear test, thus delivering a decisive blow to the US in its acts of arbitrariness and nuclear blackmail. The US administration could not but make public the removal of the DPRK from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. The American magazine Newsweek carried an article about striking the DPRK off the list of states sponsoring terrorism. It said that President Bush informed the US Congress of crossing out North Korea from the list, which was an event symbolic of his surrender to North Korea. 

So is the case with the DPRK’s launch of the second artificial satellite Kwangmyongsong 2 in April 2009. When the DPRK announced its launch programme, the US and other hostile forces made a huge fuss about it. Japan, having defined intercepting of Korea’s satellite as part of its national policy, deployed combat vessels in its attempt to hamper it. Nevertheless, the Korean leader had the satellite launched as planned. He took steps to severely punish not only the enemy’s intercepting bases but their strongholds if they dared intercept it. 

Indeed, Chairman Kim Jong Il was a peerlessly brilliant commander, who always won victory in the confrontation with the US in the latter half of the 20th century and the early 21st century by dint of Songun, defeating the successive US presidents and concurrent commanders in chief of the armed forces of the US – Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bush Senior, Bill Clinton, Bush Junior, and Barack Obama. Kim Jong Il once said that a powerful military strength supported him when he was taking on the US, a self-styled “sole superpower” in the world, with courage and pluck, and that as he had a powerful army and munitions industry he was at ease and did what he wanted to do. His words still have a lingering effect on the international society. 

 

Immortal Exploits in Songun-Based Revolutionary Leadership

On August 25th 1960, Kim Jong Il - eternal leader of socialist Korea - started his Songun-based revolutionary leadership. Since then, his half-a-century-long leadership ushered in a new era of prosperity unprecedented in the Korean history spanning some 5,000 years. 

Kim Jong Il’s Songun leadership built up the country as a military power. It was a century ago that Korea was reduced to the Japanese imperialist colony (1905-1945) for its weak military strength. It must be this grim lesson of history that impelled him to launch political activities with guidance over the Korean People’s Army. 

Kim Jong Il paid primary attention to the thoroughgoing politico-ideological preparedness of the service personnel in his Songun-based leadership. The principal factor in the victory in a war is not the latest military hardware, but the soldier masses that handle them - this was his steadfast viewpoint. He ensured that the political organs in the army enhanced their role to intensify ideological education of the service personnel and set forth militant slogans for them. He saw to it that they emulated the examples of the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters who fought for national liberation, battle heroes of the Fatherland Liberation War (1950-1953) and those who sacrificed themselves for the country and people. Whenever he inspected the army units he showed deep concern regarding the newspapers, magazines and books read by the soldiers. 

Kim Jong Il put emphasis on strengthening the military capabilities of the People’s Army. He ensured that all the service personnel trained hard to be physically strong, well-trained in the use of their weapons and to possess excellent marksmanship. He taught them original strategies and tactics while inspecting their military drills. 

He exerted great efforts into developing self-reliant defence industry capable of manufacturing any state-of-the-art military equipment as it wished. From the mid-1990s Kim Jong Il held higher the banner of Songun and redoubled his effort to strengthening the military capabilities. The US-led imperialist allied forces went to the extreme of anti-DPRK manoeuvres, taking advantage of the collapse of socialist countries. To cope with them, he made energetic inspection tours of the army units for military buildup. He inspected over 5,200 units of the ministry of armed forces from the day of the start of his Songun-based revolutionary leadership until the last days of his life, and among them the units he visited from 1995 to December 2011 numbered 2,492. 

Under his wise leadership, the Korean People’s Army has developed into an invincible army fully prepared for both defence and attack and also possessed of a powerful nuclear deterrent. Kim Jong Il turned Korea into a political and ideological power of the single-hearted unity by dint of his Songun-based revolutionary leadership. He put forward the People’s Army as a pillar, main force, of the socialist cause. He ensured that the entire people modelled after the revolutionary soldier spirit displayed by the service personnel of the People’s Army. Accordingly the identity of the army and the people in ideology, viewpoint and fighting spirit reached a higher level and so much consolidated was the traditional single-minded unity of the Korean community. 

Kim Jong Il made all of the people further cherish their confidence in socialism through consistent enforcement of such socialist policies as free education and medical treatment, though the country was undergoing severe economic difficulties due to the economic blockade of the imperialist allied forces in the closing years of the last century. Living up to the motto “The people are my God” throughout his life, he worked heart and soul to improve the people’s standard of living. 

Human history has not yet recorded a people’s leader but him, who passed away on the road of field guidance for the well-being of his people. His Songun-based revolutionary leadership made it possible for the army and people in Korea to achieve their single-hearted unity around the Party. Kim Jong Il ushered in a new era of prosperity of building a thriving nation by his Songun-based revolutionary leadership. In August 1998 Korea launched its first earth satellite Kwangmyongsong 1 which was made entirely by their own efforts and technology. It was a clear signal that Korea set about building a prosperous and powerful nation. It was his ideal to establish a thriving socialist country with strong national power in which everything prospers and its people live happily with nothing to envy in the world. 

For its materialization he set forth a line of economic construction in the Songun era that priority is given to the development of defence industry while simultaneously developing light industry and agriculture. The line brought about eye-opening economic development in Korea. An iron-making system without using coking coal and scrap iron was established and the magnesite industry made Juche-based. The machine-building industry broke through the cutting edge and mass-produced CNC machine tools. The modernized fibre and fertilizer industries fed with domestic fuel and
raw materials are greatly paying off. Radical progress is also made in light industry and agriculture. Gene engineering, bioengineering, information technology, nano technology and other cutting-edge technologies are making brisk headway. Farms of sturgeon, salmon, eel and terrapin mushroomed in all parts of the country. All other sectors including education, public health and physical culture and sports underwent marked developments, while the cities and villages being turned into socialist fairylands for the people to live in splendour. Kim Jong Il’s Songun-based revolutionary leadership is now being carried forward by supreme leader Kim Jong Un.

Day of Songun in the DPRK

August 25 is the Day of Songun in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The day was instituted to commemorate August 25, 1960, when Kim Jong Il (1942-2011), eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, started Songun-based revolutionary leadership with the inspection of the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Guards 105th Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army. The inspection was a significant declaration of the motto of the man, who would later lead his country and people, and the mode of his politics. 

From that day until the last days of his life, he inspected over 5,200 units in the military field. He inspected the 105th Tank Division, symbol of his Songun-based revolutionary leadership, for over 20 times. In those days he built up the KPA into invincible armed forces and consolidated the country’s military capabilities to the maximum with the KPA as the core, thus providing a sure guarantee for the victory of the cause of socialism. 

Always attaching great importance to consolidating the politico-ideological, military and technical capabilities of the KPA, he energetically led the work of building up the KPA into invincible armed forces on the road of his Songun-based revolutionary leadership. Directing primary efforts to training the commanding personnel and staff officers of the army he also ensured that all the soldiers were fully prepared to be reliable defenders of the socialist cause, a-match-for-a-hundred combatants. When visiting units and sub-units of various services, arms and corps, he acquainted himself with their preparedness for combat and clarified the ways and means for solving in an original way the strategic and tactical problems arising in modern warfare. As he led the KPA by dint of his Juche-oriented military ideas and theories, unexcelled military insight and judgment and profound military knowledge, it could be remarkably developed into the ranks of combatants each of whom is a match for a hundred foes. 

Kim Jong Il also paid close attention to modernizing the military hardware of the KPA. In line with the demands of the rapidly-developing modern military science and technology, he gave ceaseless guidance to the defence industry of the country to modernize the KPA’s military hardware. He inspected many munitions factories so as to ensure that they put production on a normal footing whatever the adversity and turned out sophisticated military hardware of various types. This enabled the KPA to develop into invincible armed forces possessed of all the strategic as well as tactical weapons necessary for attack and defence on the ground, on the sea and in the air. 

The KPA, developed into an elite force in the politico-ideological, strategic, tactical, military and technical aspects under the guidance of Kim Jong Il, have always emerged victorious in the uninterrupted showdown with the US-led imperialist forces. As the Pueblo incident in January 1968, the EC-121 incident in April 1969 and the Panmunjom incident in August 1976 showed, the US, which committed one provocation after another against the DPRK, could not avoid merciless punishment by the KPA on the sea, in the air and on the ground. 

Around the end of the last century, when socialism was imploding in several countries, the KPA, as a steadfast advocate and reliable defender of the socialist cause, frustrated the anti-socialist offensives by the allied imperialist forces. Having defended socialism in the most trying international situation under the unfurled banner of Songun, Kim Jong Il ushered in an era of building a thriving socialist country. He led the service personnel and people to the effort for building such a country in the spirit of being victors in the battle of defending socialism. He encouraged the service personnel to stand in the van of this effort holding the slogan, “Let us take upon ourselves both national defence and socialist construction!” Encouraged, the service personnel performed heroic feats in socialist construction braving difficulties and hardships through audacious offensive. Naming the spirit they displayed the revolutionary soldier spirit, Kim Jong Il enlisted all the people to making great innovations and leaps in all the sectors of the building of a thriving country by learning after the spirit. 

As a result, the DPRK could open a grandiose era of building a thriving country amidst the vicious schemes of the imperialists to stifle it; all the crop fields were realigned into large-sized, standardized ones as befit those of a socialist state, the economy began to be reactivated and many factories and enterprises were renovated; the whole country seethed with the enthusiasm for introducing CNC technology and, stoking up the industrial revolution of the new century, the DPRK advanced vigorously to achieve the status of a scientific and technological power, an economic giant. 

The eye-opening reality in the DPRK, which is ever-victorious by dint of single-hearted unity, formidable by dint of self-reliant national defence and achieving prosperity by dint of the industrial revolution of the new century, is unthinkable separated from Kim Jong Il’s exploits in the leadership of the Songun revolution. Kim Jong Il’s exploits of having laid eternal foundation for the prosperity of his country and nation through outstanding and seasoned Songun-based leadership will shine forever together with the Day of Songun.

August Name of Kim Il Sung

The name of President Kim Il Sung, founder of socialist Korea, literally means the sun in Korean. As the sun shines for ever, so does his august name. The august name of President Kim Il Sung is symbolic of the national liberation struggle and the era of independence. 

Early in his teenage years the President embarked on the road of revolutionary struggle to liberate Korea from the military occupation of the Japanese imperialists (1905-1945). He authored the Juche idea and the Songun idea to illuminate the way ahead of the revolutionaries and people of Korea. By so doing he ushered in a new era of independence when the masses of the people became the masters of their own destiny for the first time in history and elucidated the truth of Songun that the victory of the revolutionary cause and independence, sovereignty and prosperity of a country and nation rest on the arms. 

The Korean revolutionaries and people called him Kim Il Sung in the sense that he was like the sun which illuminates the road to national resurrection and prosperity. He liberated Korea after waging a 15-year-long anti-Japanese armed struggle and established the people’s country. He defeated the United States that prided itself on being the world’s “strongest” in the Korean war (1950-1953), for the first time in history and safeguarded national sovereignty and dignity with credit. And he led to victory the post-war rehabilitation, socialist revolution and the several stages of socialist construction. Thus, he set a world’s example in the struggle for accomplishing the cause of independence of the masses. 

He rendered unstinted assistance to China, Vietnam, Cuba and other countries in their struggle of national liberation and anti-imperialism. Many African countries could achieve their national liberation and build a new society thanks to Kim Il Sung’s unselfish assistance. Sam Nujoma, first president of Namibia, credited the Korean President Kim Il Sung with the independence of his country. 

There have been formed at a national, continental and international level a large number of organizations for the study and dissemination of the Juche idea originated by the President and acknowledged as a guiding ideology of the cause of independence of mankind. 

The non-aligned movement could be constantly strengthened and developed into a powerful anti-imperialist, independent force by virtue of his deep concern and energetic activities and add great spurs to the struggles for putting an end to domination and subordination and gaining independence of the country and nation and the masses of the people worldwide. It has become an irresistible trend of the times and aspiration of mankind to advance along the road of independence indicated by the Juche idea. 

The august name of Kim Il Sung is symbolic of lofty virtue and ennobling sense of obligation. His Juche idea and Songun idea are likened to the light of the sun that illuminates the way to be followed by mankind, while his virtue and moral obligation are to the heat of the sun that gives life to all organisms. 

The President was a genuine friend and a great benefactor of the peoples of developing countries. He spared nothing in supporting them undergoing difficulties in the building of a new society. He sent a number of experts and technicians to African and other countries to help them sincerely in their efforts to build party, state and armed forces and to develop industry, agriculture, education, healthcare, sports and other sectors. Stressing the need to develop agriculture in order to solve the food problem, he ensured that they adopted farming methods suited to their specific conditions and helped their irrigation projects. He made the DPRK host a symposium of the non-aligned and other developing countries on increasing food and agricultural production in Pyongyang and proposed to establish institutes of agricultural science with a view to improving agriculture in African countries. Kim Il Sung Research Institute of Agricultural Science was established in Guinea of western Africa and Chollima Agricultural Institute in Tanzania of eastern Africa by help of the Korean agro-technicians, which made a contribution to the agricultural development in Africa. 

President Kim Il Sung treated those fighting against imperialism and for independence as his genuine comrades and friends and set a fine example of noble sense of moral obligation of keeping faith with them to the last. There are many anecdotes about his obligation to the friends, including the Great King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and the former Chilean President Salvador Allende. All the people who met him even once could not but feel great admiration and reverence for his lofty virtues and ennobling personality, even if they were from the countries hostile to Korea. Among such people were Jimmy Carter, former US president, and Shin Kanemaru, former deputy prime minister of Japan. 

Kim Il Sung’s name is shining as the banner of eternal victory. Entering the new century, the aspirations of the world people to live and develop independently are getting ever stronger. 

As time goes by, the truthfulness and invincibility of the Juche idea becomes clearer. Seminars on the Juche idea and the activities for its dissemination are proceeding on a worldwide scale. The world conference on the Juche idea is to be held this April in Pyongyang. The International Kim Il Sung Prize Council was organized in April 1993 and the International Kim Il Sung Foundation established in 2007. 

The present situation, when high-handedness, despotic and aggressive moves of the imperialists get ever more unscrupulous after the end of the Cold War, demands that the countries actively advocate the Songun idea and Songun politics rooted in the Juche idea. Progressive peoples of the world regard Songun politics as an invincible banner that makes it possible to safeguard national sovereignty under any challenge and adversity and accomplish the cause of anti-imperialism and independence. 

Nearly 500 streets, institutions and organizations in over 100 countries are named after the august name of Kim Il Sung.

Benevolent Image of Kim Il Sung

Nearly twenty years have passed since President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), founding father of socialist Korea, passed away. However, he is still alive in the memory of the people across the world. 

What comes first when recollecting the President is his benevolent image with a broad smile. He always wore a sunny smile. When he visited the countryside, he unceremoniously got together with the farmers, beaming; while visiting factories, he first acquainted himself with living conditions of the workers with a benign smile. Even when he blamed officials for their failures in work, he convinced them patiently of their errors with a generous smile. He broad-mindedly forgave even those who had committed crimes against the country and people and led them to start a fresh life. His smile that made everyone feel at ease and pleasant was the manifestation of his genuine love for and kind feelings towards people. 

As he was born with this outstanding personality, he never changed his looks in front of the people, though he had to overcome all kinds of ordeals and hardships, and sorrows and pains beyond imagination while leading the protracted Korean revolution. It is the personal attraction unique to the President to treat everybody generously and take a paternal care of them, always wearing a beaming smile on his face. 

The President treated Korean compatriots from South Korea and overseas and also the foreigners so generously and friendly that anybody who met him was attracted by his personality at a breath. Josip Broz Tito, former president of Yugoslavia and one of the initiators of the non-aligned movement, said, “I met many heads of state, but it was only President Kim Il Sung whom I made myself understood and got familiar with as soon as we met.” 

Attracted by the great personality of President Kim Il Sung, Tito visited Korea, travelling a long distance, at the advanced age of 85, though he seldom visited other countries. President Kim Il Sung charmed everybody he met with his personality, though they had different ideologies, political views and beliefs. 

The chairman of the Asia and Pacific subcommittee of the US House Foreign Relations Committee visited Pyongyang as the first statesman from the hostile country. After meeting President Kim Il Sung he said that the President talked with a smile on his face at all times and impressed him as a kind-hearted person. 

Selig Harrison, senior fellow from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace expressed his impressions of the President after an interview that President Kim Il Sung was a warm-hearted man with strong charisma. 

Jimmy Carter, former US President, visited DPRK in 1994 and said that he was deeply impressed by President Kim Il Sung and that the talk between them carried on smoothly as the President was of free and modest character. 

US evangelist Billy Graham, too, said that everybody, once they met him, would be sure of the warm humanity of the President.

 

Luiser Rinzer, a German woman writer, was so fascinated by the President that she visited DPRK almost every year, praising that the President was a godlike man whether he liked it or not. 

President Kim Il Sung met foreigners of all strata including heads of party and state, over 70,000 from 136 countries of the world, since the liberation of Korea (August 1945) from the Japanese military occupation till the last days of his life (July 1994). Those who met Kim Il Sung were in unison to give unstinted praise to his preeminent ideology, outstanding leadership and striking personality that moved everybody. 

The benevolent image of President Kim Il Sung is etched deep in the heart of the people all over the world though time passes by.

Great Man Admired by the World

President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was a great man who enjoyed the high esteem and reverence by the world people, transcending differences in ideology, system, political view and religious belief. Below are some remarks made by renowned statesmen and figures in the East and West of the world. 

Iosif Stalin of the former Soviet Union: “Comrade Kim Il Sung is a genuine proletarian internationalist and a paradigm of communist movement, who defended our Soviet Union at the cost of the blood, with arms, from the aggression of the imperialists in the East. It is quite inconceivable that without the struggle of genuine communists like Comrade Kim Il Sung the Soviet Union is unable to carry on socialist construction in such a peaceful environment as today.”

Chairman Mao Zedong of China: “Comrade Kim Il Sung, you are the only one that can see to the world revolution. I request sincerely that you lead the world revolution and the international communist movement in the future, as well.” 

Fidel Castro of Cuba: “Comrade Kim Il Sung is most experienced and prestigious among the leaders across the world.” 

Josip Broz Tito, president of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: “Comrade Kim Il Sung is the wisest man. He has done so many things in his generation that the following ones will have no more work to do.” 

Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam: “I am older and began revolution earlier than Comrade Kim Il Sung. However, I am just his disciple.” 

Great King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia: “There had been not only a few people who felt pity for my country, but none of them gave us assistance in real earnest with no other strings attached. It was only His Excellency Kim Il Sung of the DPRK who helped us unconditionally and self-sacrificingly.” 

President Sukarno of Indonesia: “Respected Your Excellency Kim Il Sung, please allow me to name this newly-born flower of the orchid family Kimilsungia, after your august name. It is the unanimous desire of myself and Indonesian people.” 

President Samora Moises Machel of Mozambique: “As the great hero Comrade Kim Il Sung showed us the road ahead, we could break the fetters that shackled our ancestors and ourselves, and greet the liberation free from the slavery lot.” 

President Mitterrand of France: “President Kim Il Sung was a great head of state. He was the greatest of those who have been active since the Second World War. I am the only one among the heads of seven industrial nations (G-7), who was lucky enough to meet President Kim Il Sung. I regard this as a great honour.” 

Jimmy Carter, former president of the United States: “President Kim Il Sung of the DPRK was a great leader who was prominent and well-versed in everything. He was greater than George Washington, the first president of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, the most illustrious early US presidents, all combined.” 

Gomes, former president of Portugal: “The operations plans advanced by the United States in the war (Korean war of 1950-1953) were all formulated after several rounds of discussions by dozens of bourgeois generals, like chiefs of staff and military specialists, of the Western countries on the US side. But General Kim Il Sung frustrated them all single-handed. Witnessing it, I learned that General Kim Il Sung was the one and only military strategist and a great general.” 

Mark Clark, former commander of the “UN Forces”: “The North Korean army could emerge victorious (in the Korean war) thanks to General Kim Il Sung’s efficient command.” 

Billy Graham, US evangelist: “I felt no need for preaching the gospel in North Korea. The 66 books of the Old and New Testaments all deal with the God’s will that loves human being. The love for human being is executed as a state policy in that country. Free medical care, free education and the state responsibility for the people’s clothing, food and housing—these are state policies put forward and being pursued by President Kim Il Sung. North Koreans hold him as their God. I thought bible was not necessary in such a country.” 

Luiser Rinzer, writer of the former West Germany: “As a devout believer I offered prayers to God, but never once a flower bouquet. However, I want to present President Kim Il Sung this flower bouquet. You deserve it well, for you have established this all-people-equal society even the God failed to.” 

Jean Carlo Valory, secretary general of Italian Research Institute of International Relations: “Visit to the DPRK has become one of my annual events. The Muslims make a pilgrimage to Mecca every year, but I make a pilgrimage to Pyongyang to receive the instructions of President Kim Il Sung. Should I necessarily become a believer, I will be a faithful devotee of the Juche idea and President Kim Il Sung.” 

Che Guevara, internationalist fighter: “I was greatly moved by Comrade Kim Il Sung, who said though his country was still undergoing hardships, it would give active support to the Cuban people. The words of the respected Comrade Kim Il Sung gripped my heart completely. From this moment on I will keep his words as the dictum of my life. And I firmly swear that I will remain faithful to my dictum to the end.” 

Shin Kanemaru, former deputy prime minister of Japan: “President Kim Il Sung is a great statesman and a great man, who cannot be found in the history of the world. As I was seeing a great man, I shed tears in front of him from the first moment I saw him. I was so fascinated by his greatness that I felt as if I passed out. Nay, I passed out, indeed. It is regretful for me that I have met such a great man in the twilight years of my political career.”

Illustrious Leader in the 20th Century

President Kim Il Sung of the DPRK (1912-1994), founding father of socialist Korea, passed away on July 8, 1994. 

Nearly 20 years have passed, but progressive mankind cherishes the memory of the President as the distinguished leader who represented the 20th century. Kim Il Sung was a great thinker and theoretician who authored the Juche idea and Songun idea, ushering in an era of independence and ensuring the victorious advance for the cause of global independence. 

In his early teens he set out on the road of struggle to liberate his country and people from the Japanese military occupation and created the Juche idea and Songun idea in the course of blazing the trail for the Korean revolution. Under the banner of these ideas he organized and led the 15-year anti-Japanese armed struggle and achieved the historic cause of Korea’s liberation. 

After liberation he founded the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the first democratic and people-oriented country in the East, and inflicted on the United States, which had been boasting of being the “strongest” in the world, a disastrous defeat in the Korean war (1950-1953), for the first time in its history. 

In the postwar period, he developed the DPRK into a powerful socialist country independent, self-sufficient and self-reliant in defence. The reality of Korea which adorned the 20th century with victory and glory eloquently proved the correctness, truthfulness and invincible vitality of the Juche idea and Songun idea. The ideas have rapidly been disseminated across the world. 

By regarding them as a treasured sword for ensuring victory in carrying out their cause for independence, the progressive mankind marched full of confidence towards a bright future in the era of independence. Kim Il Sung was also an outstanding leader who, under the unfurled banner of anti-imperialist independence, led the cause of global independence to victory throughout his life. In the violent turmoil of the 20th century he took the helm of independence and illuminated the way for the cause of global independence against imperialism. 

He published many works including Let Us Intensify the Anti-imperialist, Anti-US Struggle, The Great Anti-Imperialist Revolutionary Cause of the Asian, African and Latin-American Peoples Is Invincible, The Peoples of the Third World Advancing under the Uplifted Banner of Independence Will Certainly Win Their Revolutionary Cause, For the Development of the Non-aligned Movement, Preventing War and Preserving Peace Are the Burning Tasks of Mankind and For a Free and Peaceful New World, in which he indicated fundamental principles, ways and methods for accomplishing the cause. 

He rendered active support and encouragement to the countries and peoples in their struggle against imperialism and for independence. During the great anti-Japanese war for liberating  Korea, he assisted the Chinese revolution at the cost of blood and safeguarded the Soviet Union  with arms. He was in the vanguard of the worldwide solidarity movement to defend the Cuban revolution when the Cuban Missile Crisis broke out in the early 1960s. His deep concern and wholehearted assistance were also given to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and other countries aspiring after independence and opposing imperialism. 

Stirred up by his encouragement and support, peoples in many colonial countries could achieve the cause of national liberation, make a dynamic advance towards the building of a new society, and win victory in the war to repulse the imperialists’ aggression. Thanks to his close attention and energetic activities the non-aligned movement foiled the machinations of the imperialists and dominationists to divide and ruin it and made continuous efforts to strengthen and develop itself. 

Kim Il Sung was a veteran statesman of the world who enjoyed high respect and reverence for his noble personality. As head of state, he visited foreign countries on 54 occasions travelling over 520,000 km and met more than 70,000 heads of state, and party, and other political and public figures. 

Everyone who met him was so moved by his ennobling personality that they praised him highly as the greatest man. Among them were Stalin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, Sukarno and Tito, famous people of the 20th century. The former US president Jimmy Carter said that President Kim Il Sung was as great as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, the most illustrious early US presidents, all combined. Other well-known Western politicians, including Mitterrand of France and Shin Kanemaru of Japan were also greatly fascinated by his personality. Hans Klekazky, an Austrian politician, said that there had never been and would never be such a world-famous leader as President Kim Il Sung in the West and the East.