For Reunification of Korea: Kim Il Sung

Eternal President of the DPRK Kim Il Sung made speech “Let Us Prevent a National Partition and Reunify the Country”at the Pyongyang Mass Rally to Welcome the Party and Government Delegation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic on June 23, 1973.

It reads:

Esteemed Comrade Gustav Husak,

Esteemed Comrade Lubomir Strougal,

Esteemed guests from Czechoslovakia,  Dear comrades and friends,

The people at all levels in Pyongyang have gathered here today, overjoyed to welcome you, goodwill envoys from the brotherly country of Czechoslovakia.

In the name of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of

Korea, the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Korean people, I should like first to repeat my warm welcome to the Party and Government delegation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic led by Comrade Gustav Husak, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party.

Allow me also to convey, through you, the Korean people’s warm greetings of fraternal friendship to the Czechoslovak people.

We highly appreciate the visit to our country by a Party and Government delegation of the highest level from Czechoslovakia as an expression of the deep friendship cherished by the Czechoslovak people for our people, and as a manifestation of firm solidarity with our struggle for socialist construction and national reunification.

Your present visit to our country marks a milestone in deepening mutual understanding between the peoples of the two countries and raising their relations of friendship and cooperation to a new stage.

Our meeting with you has given us a better understanding of the course of arduous yet brilliant struggle traversed by the Czechoslovak people, their achievements in the building of socialism and the future of the struggle of your Party and people.

As a people living in the heart of the European Continent, plagued throughout history by conflicts between nations, the Czechoslovak people fought protracted and dynamic battles against foreign invaders and for national independence and social emancipation. In the hard days when the Hitlerite fascists were occupying the country, the communists and patriotic people of Czechoslovakia carried out a gallant anti-fascist fight for liberation with arms in their hands.

Even after fascist Germany was routed and the country liberated, the Czechoslovak people have followed the complicated road of struggle. The  Czechoslovak people, who took the road towards socialism following the February Victory in 1948, have turned their country into a socialist state with a developed industry in a short time by displaying patriotic devotion and creative activity and safeguarded their gains of the revolution, shattering the repeated subversive and destructive plans of the class enemies.

Under the leadership of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist   Party   headed   by   Comrade   Gustav   Husak   the Czechoslovak people are now making great strides in their endeavours to achieve further progress in the national economy, raise the people’s living standards and overfulfil the Fifth Five-Year Plan, in accordance with the programme of the 14th Congress of the Czechoslovak Communist Party to consolidate and develop the socialist society more fully.

Czechoslovakia is daily expanding the sphere of its activities in the field of international relations, too.

Our people heartily rejoice over all the successes made by the brotherly Czechoslovak people in the building of a new society and sincerely wish them ever-greater victory in their future work.

Our people also express solidarity with the Communist Party, Government and people of Czechoslovakia in their efforts against the imperialists’ war policy and for peace and security in Europe.

Through their own experiences our people well know that the road to socialism is by no means a smooth one.

After liberation, our people embarked on the building of a new\ society under the difficult situation in which our country was divided into two parts because of the US imperialist occupation of south Korea.

Under our Party’s leadership, our people, frustrating the ceaseless intrigues of US imperialism and its running dogs to ignite aggression and war, have turned their once backward country into an advanced socialist state in a short time, by successfully carrying out the democratic revolution and the socialist revolution and building an independent national economy.

Upholding the grand program mapped out by the Fifth Congress of the Party, our people are now achieving a great revolutionary advance on all fronts of socialist construction to fulfil ahead of schedule the Six-Year Plan and the three major tasks of the technical revolution and to achieve the independent, peaceful reunification of the country while accelerating the revolutionization and the working-classization of the whole of society by giving priority to the ideological revolution.

Korea and Czechoslovakia embarked on the building of socialism under different conditions after the Second World War, but the common experience accumulated by the two countries clearly demonstrates that the only way to bring the working people genuine freedom and independence, happiness and prosperity is to take the road to socialism.

The Korean and Czechoslovak peoples have long maintained firm ties of friendship and have cooperated closely for the common goal of opposition to imperialism and for the victory of the cause of peace and socialism.   This friendship based on the principles   of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism displayed greater vitality whenever the two peoples faced difficulties and trials in the way of their advance.

The Czechoslovak people rendered great assistance, both material and moral, to our people during the Fatherland Liberation War against the US imperialist aggressors and during the period of postwar rehabilitation and construction. We shall always remember this.

The  Czechoslovak people  are  still  giving  active support  and assistance to our people’s struggle to build socialism and achieve the independent, peaceful reunification of the country. Some time ago the Federal Assembly of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, in its reply to the letter addressed by our Supreme People’s Assembly to the parliaments and governments of all countries, positively recognized our policy of peaceful reunification and gave assurances that it would continue to render active support and assistance to our people’s just cause.

I take advantage of this opportunity today to express my profound thanks again to Comrade Gustav Husak and the Communist Party, Government and people of Czechoslovakia for their brotherly support and assistance to our people.

As is shown by the current visit of the Party and Government delegation of Czechoslovakia to this country, the relationship between our two countries keeps developing favourably and their internationalist solidarity is growing in strength.

The strengthening of unity amongst socialist countries contributes to increasing the might of socialism as a whole and shows that the position of world socialism is sound.

Our people will, in the future, too, carry out the revolution and construction in our country well and thereby faithfully discharge their national and international duties.

Comrades and friends,

Today the international situation is developing in favour of socialism and the revolutionary forces and to the disadvantage of imperialism and the reactionary forces.

In the face of the growing forces of socialism and the national-liberation, working-class and democratic movements, imperialism is on the decline and is finding itself in a more difficult situation with every passing day. To find a way out, the imperialists are resorting to more cunning double-dealing tactics.

The United States is carrying on aggressive and interventionist activities in many parts of the world under the pretence of “peace” and is trying to maintain its colonial domination by suppressing small nations by force while improving its relations with big ones.

This is fully proved by its aggressive actions and intervention against Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, a number of Arab countries, Cuba and many other nations of the world.

The United States wants to hold onto south Korea for ever as a major stronghold to save its colonial ruling system which is falling into total disarray in Asia.

Adopting two-faced tactics under the “Nixon doctrine”, the United States is not willing to desist from its plans to instigate south Korea’s bellicose elements to make Koreans fight Koreans, perpetuate the division of Korea and create two Koreas, even after the North-South Joint Statement was published and dialogue started between the two parts of Korea.

In step with these US machinations, the south Korean authorities are also employing double-dealing tactics. They are scheming to perpetuate the division of the nation and are exerting every effort to reinforce  their  military  strength,  claiming  to  practice “peaceful reunification” on the one hand and, on the other, openly clamouring for “confrontation with dialogue”, “competition  with  dialogue”  and “coexistence with dialogue”.

Because of all this the dialogue between the north and south of Korea is not progressing as it should and a big obstacle still lies in the way to reunification, despite the consistent, sincere efforts of our Party and the Government of our Republic for the country’s independent, peaceful reunification. Consequently the bright prospect for national reunification which was opened before our nation when the historic North-South Joint Statement was published a year ago is being damaged.

Because of our earnest desire to get over the difficult situation created today and bring about the people’s long-cherished aspiration for peaceful national reunification as soon as possible, we hereby reaffirm before the world the policy of our Party and the Government of our Republic for independent, peaceful reunification:

1. To improve the present relations between the north and south of Korea and accelerate the peaceful reunification of the country,  it is necessary,  first of all,  to eliminate military confrontation and ease tension between the north and south.

To remove military confrontation and alleviate tension between the north and south is a matter of pressing urgency and vital importance at present in dispelling the misunderstanding and mistrust and deepening mutual understanding and trust, creating an atmosphere of great national unity, ameliorating the relations between the north and south and bringing about the peaceful reunification of the country.

The military confrontation between the north and south with huge armed forces in itself constitutes not only a major factor which threatens peace in our country but also a source of misunderstanding and mistrust.

Only when this fundamental question is solved can tension and mistrust between the north and south be removed, a climate of trust be created and all problems be settled successfully on the basis of mutual trust. It is unnatural to advocate peaceful reunification and hold a dialogue, with a dagger in one’s pocket. Unless the dagger is taken out and laid down, it is impossible to create an atmosphere of mutual trust or find satisfactory solutions to any problems, large or small, related to the country’s reunification, including that of achieving collaboration and interchange between the north and south.

Therefore, as the first step for the peaceful reunification of the country, we have more than once advanced to the south Korean authorities the five-point proposal: to cease the reinforcement of armies and the arms race, make all foreign troops withdraw, reduce armed forces and armaments, stop the introduction of weapons from abroad and to conclude a peace agreement.

However, the south Korean authorities are determined to postpone the solution of this urgent problem and gradually solve matters of secondary importance through different stages.  Actually this is intended not to increase mutual trust and promote great national unity, but to maintain and freeze the territorial division, keeping the painful wound of national partition unhealed.

If they truly desire peaceful reunification and seek the practical solution of the reunification question, the south Korean authorities must renounce this position and take the course of removing military confrontation.

2. To improve north-south relations and expedite the country’s reunification,   it   is   necessary   to   bring   about   multilateral collaboration and interchange between the north and south in the political, military, diplomatic, economic and cultural fields.

Multilateral collaboration and interchange between the north and south are of tremendous importance in reuniting the severed ties of the nation and providing preconditions for reunification. Only when such collaboration and interchange are brought about, will it be possible to consolidate the peace agreement to be concluded between the north and south.

The south Korean authorities propose in words that both sides “completely open” their societies to each other, but in actual fact they are afraid of tearing down any of the barriers between the north and south and are dead set against interchange and collaboration between the two parts of the country.

The south Korean authorities are not collaborating with their fellow countrymen now; in collusion with outside forces, they are bringing in foreign monopoly capital without limit to reduce the south Korean economy completely to a dependent economy. They are even spoiling our beautiful land by introducing polluting industries which are rejected as “rubbish” in foreign countries.

We again emphasize that if the south Korean authorities have a spark of national conscience, they should obviously strive to develop the economy in the interests of our nation through the joint exploitation of   our   country’s   natural   resources   and   bring   about   national collaboration in all spheres.

3. In order to settle the question of the country’s reunification in conformity with the will and demand of our people, it is necessary to enable the masses of the people of all levels in the north and south to participate in the nationwide patriotic work for national reunification.

We consider that the dialogue between the north and south for national reunification should not be confined to the authorities of the north and south but should be held on a nationwide scale.

To this end, we propose convening a Great National Congress composed of representatives of people of all walks of life-the workers, working peasants, working intellectuals, students and soldiers in the north, and the workers, peasants, students, intellectuals, military personnel,   national   capitalists   and   petty   bourgeoisie   in   south Korea-and   the   representatives   of   political   parties   and   social organizations in the north and south, and comprehensively discuss and solve the question of the country’s reunification at this congress.

4.  In speeding up the country’s reunification it is very important, today, to institute a north-south Federation under the name of a single country.

It goes without saying that there may be various ways to achieve the complete reunification of the country.

Under the prevailing conditions we think that the most reasonable way for reunification is to convene the Great National Congress and achieve national unity, and on this basis, institute the north-south Federation, leaving the two existing social systems in the north and south as they are for the time being.

If the north-south Federation is instituted, it will be good to call this federal state the Federal Republic of Koryo after Koryo, a united state which once existed on our territory and was widely known to the world. This will be a good name for the state, and acceptable to both the north and south.

The founding of the Federal Republic of Koryo will open up a decisive phase  in  preventing  national  partition,  bringing  about all-round contact and collaboration between the north and south and in hastening complete reunification.

5. We consider that our country should be prevented from being partitioned into “two Koreas” permanently as a result of the freezing of national division and that the north and south should also work together in the field of external affairs.

Of course we are developing state relations with all countries friendly to our Republic on the principle of equality and mutual benefit; but we resolutely oppose all intrigues designed to make use of this to create “two Koreas”.

We maintain that the north and south should not enter the UN separately, and consider that if they want to enter the UN before the reunification of the country, they should enter it as a single state under the name of the Federal Republic of Koryo, at least after the Federation is set up.

But apart from the question of admission to the UN, if the Korean question is placed on its agenda for discussion, the representative of our Republic should be entitled to take part in it and speak as the party concerned.

Our people are a single people who have lived with the same culture and the same language through many centuries, and they cannot live separated into two parts.

Our proposal is to remove military confrontation and ease tension between the north and south, bring about multilateral collaboration and interchange between the two parts, convene the Great National Congress composed of representatives of people of all levels and political parties and social organizations in the north and south, institute the north-south Federation under the single name of the Federal Republic of Koryo and enter the UN under that name. When this proposal for the country’s reunification is put into effect, there will be a great improvement in accomplishing the historic cause of peaceful national reunification on the principle of the North-South Joint Statement, as commonly desired by our people and the world’s people.

We expect the south Korean authorities to approach this new fair proposal of ours for reunification sincerely.

At the same time we strongly demand that the United States face up to the rapidly changing situation of today, withdraw its troops from south Korea as soon as practicable and discontinue its aggression and intervention against our country.

If the United States thinks that it can swallow small nations one by one, while improving its relations with big powers only, or maintain its colonial domination by propping up its minions, already forsaken by the people, under the slogan of “anti-communism”, it is seriously mistaken.

This policy of the United States is more likely to arouse the resistance and hatred of the majority of the world’s people and hasten its ruin.

We think that the UN should now strike at the United States’ scheme to justify the occupation of south Korea by its troops under the pretext of the UN “resolution”.

The UN must take the “UN forces” helmets off the US troops in South Korea, make them withdraw and dissolve the “United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea” and thus remove all the obstacles it has raised to hamper the independent, peaceful reunification of Korea, in keeping with the trend of the present times towards independence and peace. This is demanded by

the general world situation.

It is the Japanese militarists who are still working desperately in the international arena as the most active followers of the US imperialists

in their ill-fated plots to meddle in our internal affairs. We again warn the Japanese militarists that they must also face facts squarely, give up their hostile policy against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and desist from their cunning attempts to seize an opportunity to give effect to their wild desire to invade south Korea again.

Comrades and friends,

The   Korean   people’s   righteous   struggle   to   reject   foreign interference   and   achieve   the   country’s   independent, peaceful reunification enjoys the support and encouragement of the peoples of socialist countries, the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America and all the peace-loving people of the world.

Our Party and people always regard it as an important factor for the victory  of  our  revolution  to  cement  their  solidarity  with  the international revolutionary forces, while firmly building up their own revolutionary forces.

In the future, too, we shall fight staunchly for the triumph of the cause of peace and democracy, national independence and socialism, in unity with the peoples of socialist countries, in unity with the international working class, in unity with the fighting Asian, African and Latin American peoples and in unity with all the peace-loving people of the world, upholding the banner of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian   internationalism,   the   revolutionary   banner   of anti-imperialist struggle.

The Korean people strongly support the Vietnamese people in the new phase of their struggle to ensure the strict observance of the Paris Agreement on Vietnam, build socialism in the north, defend peace, independence and sovereignty in the south and reunify their country peacefully.

We also express firm solidarity with the Laotian people in their struggle to preserve peace in Laos and achieve national harmony and the reunification of their country.

Today the United States is expanding its war of aggression in Cambodia, raining down large quantities of bombs every hour of every day, but it is only destroying its prestige and dignity with its own bombs and revealing its savagery more clearly. We sternly condemn the United States for its war of aggression against Cambodia and express full support to the patriotic Cambodian people’s just fight for the complete liberation of their country.

The Korean people actively support the struggle of all Asian peoples against the aggression of US imperialism and the revival of Japanese  militarism  and  resolutely  support  the  struggle  of  the Palestinian people and other Arab peoples against the US-backed aggressors of Israel.

Our people actively support the struggle of the African peoples against  imperialism,  colonialism  and  racism  and  for  freedom, liberation and consolidated national independence and express firm solidarity with the struggle of the Latin-American peoples against the aggression and intervention of US imperialism and for defending the sovereignty, territorial waters and natural resources of their countries.

The Korean people express firm solidarity with the struggle of the working class and working people of the capitalist countries against exploitation and oppression by capital and for democratic rights and socialism.

The people in Europe have waged a protracted struggle to remove the root cause of war and guarantee durable peace and security in this continent which was the breeding ground of the two world wars.

We express full support to the endeavours of the European socialist countries and the peoples of other countries in Europe for peace and security in this part of the world.

We shall, in the future, too, continue to do all we can to promote fraternal friendship and solidarity between the Korean and Czechoslovak peoples in the struggle to attain our common goals and ideals.