On 80th Birth Anniversary of Chairman Kim Jong Il

-Son of Mt Paektu

Mt Paektu is the native home of Chairman Kim Jong Il (1942-2011).

Called the ancestral mountain of the Korean nation and the sacred mountain of the Korean revolution, it is the highest mountain in Korea, and had been uninhabited from time immemorial because of the rugged terrain features and rough weather. The “first residents” appeared in the primeval forests in the late 1930s, when Korea was under military occupation by Japan (1905-1945).

As the leadership base of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, which was being waged fiercely in the vast Manchurian plain under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, was to move to Mt Paektu, secret camps and the headquarters of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army were built in the Sobaeksu Valley.

In this nameless place, which was surrounded by high mountains and dense forests and where the Sobaek Stream meanders, a log cabin with a roe-hoof door handle, which was smaller than other log cabins, was set up.

In this small log cabin Chairman Kim Jong Il, who left indelible imprints in the political history of the world, was born on February 16, 1942.

Born to the guerrillas, his life was extraordinary from the beginning; he grew up wearing clothes permeated with powder smoke, eating army rations and hearing the charge sound.

The first human reflected in his eyes was his mother in military uniform, and he grew up among the guerrillas. His first playing ground was Mt Paektu.

Recollecting his uncommon birth and growth with deep emotion, President Kim Il Sung wrote: That Kim Jong Il is a son of Mt Paektu means that he was born of the anti-Japanese revolution as a son of the nation. He is a son of Korea who started his life and rose as a lodestar of our revolution in the embrace of the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters.

In the days when a new democratic society was being built in the country, where backwardness, poverty and colonial survivals were prevalent after its liberation on August 15, 1945, in the days of the Korean war between 1950 and 1953, when he learned at the table of the Supreme Headquarters the mysterious tactics of defeating the allied imperialist forces, and in the days when many factories and beautiful streets were being built from the debris after the war under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il cherished a grand ambition to lead Korea to the bright future by inheriting the cause of Kim Il Sung. The poem, O, Korea, I Will Add Glory to Thee, which he wrote when entering Kim Il Sung University in the early 1960s, depicts how great his ambition was.

The period of over half a century since June 1964, when he started working at the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea after graduating from the university, was the days when he implemented the ambition.

He developed the Juche idea, authored by Kim Il Sung, as the guiding ideology of the Korean people and the era of independence, and applied it to all the realms of his country, turning it into a country united single-heartedly, a powerful socialist country. He ushered in a golden age of art and literature, called Renaissance in the 20^th Century by the world, and opened up a heyday of construction by having numerous architectural structures built to the surprise of the world.

In the end of last century the DPRK had to experience unprecedented economic hardships and trials owing to the harsh economic sanctions and blockade the allied imperialist forces imposed upon it by taking advantage of the collapse of several socialist countries and to the consecutive natural disasters.

During the period, which would have brought others to their knees more than one hundred times, Chairman Kim Jong Il was always with people and soldiers. On his field guidance tours he encouraged them, sharing weal and woe with them.

Thanks to his original Songun politics, the DPRK became a military giant, equipped not only with the state-of-the-art means of attack and defence but also war deterrent that no powerful enemy could belittle, defended its own style of socialism and made a firm springboard for building a powerful socialist country by reversing the tide.

Kim Jong Il worked heart and soul to remove the pain of national division.

Thanks to his will and decision, an inter-Korean summit meeting was held for the first time in the history of national division in Pyongyang in 2000, and the June 15 North-South Joint Declaration, a milestone for national reunification, was adopted.

His external activities aspiring to independence, peace and friendship proved their justice and vitality in practice.

Many countries established diplomatic relations with the DPRK, transcending differences in ideology and social system. The DPRK contributed to encouraging the international trend to aspire to independence, peace and friendship by expanding and developing economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation with many countries and strengthening solidarity with the progressive peoples, who aspired after independence and justice.

The achievements of the great man, who contributed to the progress of mankind and society, will be handed down to all generations to come.

-Outstanding Statesman

Mikhail Zemskov, former editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Patriot, wrote in an article:

The Korean people are innovative creators for the present and future of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and heroes of labour and national defence. It is the great Juche idea that has given full play to their energy, wisdom and creative potentiality, thus enabling them to be effective one hundredfold in practice. The outstanding artist of creation, produced in this life-giving flower garden of the Juche idea, is Kim Jong Il, the supreme leader of the DPRK. Today, the whole world, in other words, not only friends of the Korean people but also their hostile forces recognize that he is a world-class politician who makes great contributions to opening the road of mankind in the 21^st century.

As he wrote, Kim Jong Il (1942-2011) was recognized as an unexcelled statesman, accomplished, broad-minded and versatile, by not only friends of his socialist country but also statesmen of the US.

By energetically conducting ideological and theoretical activities with extraordinary passion and ability to explore, Kim Jong Il ensured that the Juche idea shone more brilliantly as a great ideology guiding the era of independence.

He developed and enriched the idea, authored by President Kim Il Sung, by elucidating such issues as the one of consciousness of man, the one of the position of the masses as the driving force of social movement, the one of the role of the leader in the revolutionary struggle of the working class, the one of the leader being in inseparable relationship with the party and the masses, the one of the strategy and tactics of the revolution and the one of accomplishing the people’s cause of independence.

When the Western countries were fussing about the “end of socialism” by taking advantage of the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and other eastern European countries, he dealt a decisive blow at them.

He declared:

Socialism is a science. Socialism has been frustrated in a number of countries, but scientific socialism is as alive as ever in the minds of the people. The crumbling of socialism in various countries does not mean the failure of socialism as science but the bankruptcy of opportunism which has corrupted socialism. Although socialism is temporarily experiencing a heartrending setback because of opportunism, it will without fail be revived and win ultimate victory for its scientific accuracy and truth.

Under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, an incarnation of firm faith in socialism, the Korean people displayed their unchangeable loyalty to socialism and the cause of independence, holding higher the banner of the Juche idea.

In the face of worst-ever hardships caused by the disappearance of the international socialist market, relentless isolate-and-stifle manoeuvres by the allied imperialist forces, the greatest national sorrow over the death of President     Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) and the unprecedented harsh natural disasters,      Kim Jong Il did not waver or yield but worked a miracle of turning the misfortune into blessing.

What was the secret of the miracle?

“A miracle is not an accidental gift from Heaven; it is something inevitable bestowed by the people”

This is an aphorism by Kim Jong Il.

The DPRK leadership roused the people to defending socialism, and the people shared will and destiny with the leadership.

The hostile forces calculated that the country’s social unity would be cracked and its leadership would change its line as time went by, and intensified their politico-military offensive.

However, the Korean people rallied behind the Workers’ Party of Korea more firmly and the leadership responded to the US hard line with a harder line, putting the enemy on the defensive.

Americans were astonished, for no other country in the world had ever approached them in that way until then. They conducted simulation of a war in Korea, but the result was the defeat of the US.

The American politicians and military experts recognized the result.

A senior research fellow at Harvard University said: In north Korea      Kim Jong Il, who has a firm faith in the communist ideals, leads the country and there are his followers, a political force, that can exert a great political impact on this planet.

A five-star general said: I can’t believe that the US can win in a new Korean war; it is difficult for the US to expect victory in the war.

The US could not but promise that it would not have recourse to arms against the DPRK but respect its sovereignty, ensure denuclearization, peace and security on the Korean peninsula, support the independent and peaceful reunification of Korea, and it would build light-water reactors in the DPRK.

US President Bill Clinton sent the letter, in which he assured the US commitments under the DPRK-US Agreed Framework, and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang and met Kim Jong Il.

Amid the international prestige and dignity of the DPRK rising remarkably at the change point of the centuries, meetings between Kim Jong Il and Putin were held in Pyongyang and Moscow, opening a new era of comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, and many member states of the EU established diplomatic relations with the DPRK.

During those days, thanks to Songun politics administered by Kim Jong Il the Korean People’s Army was strengthened in terms of the standard of its military hardware, unity, organization, discipline and combat capability, most importantly in terms of the service personnel’s ideological faith and fighting spirit. The KPA displayed to the full its dignity as an invincible armed force which no one would dare to attack.

CIA experts also recognized it.

Dmitri Yazov, former Soviet defence minister, said that Kim Jong Il won victory and safeguarded global peace without firing even a gunshot.

February 16 this year is the 80^th anniversary of the birth of Kim Jong Il, who still enjoys praise of the people all over the world as an outstanding politician.

-Dwelling Houses First and Power Station Second

People were always deeply seated in the heart of Chairman Kim Jong Il of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, who, regarding the people as his God, devoted all his life to them. Their demands and interests were the criteria and starting-point of all his thinking and practice and he made no compromise with regard to them. He considered their aspiration and demand first when formulating a line or policy and regarded it as an iron rule to resolve them.

Following is a story that proves it.

One very cold and windy day in March 2006 he visited the construction site of the Samsu Power Station in a northern alpine area of the country.

While inquiring into the progress of its construction, he asked the officials what measures they had taken concerning the dwelling houses of the residents in the area to be submerged.

They replied that no measures had been taken yet as the project of the power station was still under way.

He said with a serious expression on his face: I came not only to get a firsthand knowledge of the progress of the dam construction of the Samsu Power Station but also to inquire into the construction of the houses for the residents who would be relocate from the area to be inundated; in the Samsu Power Station project, importance should be given to two fronts, in other words, the construction of the power station and new houses for the families to be relocated, with priority given to the latter; we should build their houses before we complete the construction of the power station and start producing electricity.

He learned that if the power station was brought to completion, nine ris would be submerged in water and that if the residents of 4 900 households, who lived there, were relocated, the number would be 15 000 people in total when each household was assumed to have three members. Now he told the officials to take immediate measures for solving the housing problem for them. Then he stressed that as the state was duty-bound to provide the people with houses in the DPRK, the Cabinet should take full responsibility for this work.

In this way over 150 villages were newly built in a short span of time and the local people were provided with houses which were better than their previous ones.

When the relocated families moved to new houses, Kim Jong Il had a colour TV set, duvets, blankets, winter coats, various other kinds of clothes and daily necessities sent to each household.

There are many similar stories which show his affection for the people.

It is not accidental that Pulikovski, former chief presidential delegate to the Far Eastern Federal District, Russia, wrote in his memoirs that he was convinced that all the activities of Chairman Kim Jong Il of the DPRK National Defence Commission were geared to attaining a single objective, that is, to bring happiness and prosperity to his people.

Every year the Korean people celebrate February 16, Kim Jong Il’s birthday, as the greatest national holiday. This year is very significant for them as it is the 80^th anniversary of his birth.