Kim Il Sung, Eternal President of DPR Korea

Chairman of the National Defence Commission Kim Jong Il made a talk 《Let Us Hold the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung in High Esteem as the Eternal President of Our Republic》to senior officials of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on July 11 and 19, 1994.

 Following is the full text of his talk:

 These days as I stand beside the bier of the late Comrade Kim Il Sung, what dominates my mind is the thought of how the late leader can be held in high esteem forever and how his great ideas and immortal exploits can be defended and carried forward.

 Come what may, we should make sure that he remains with us forever just as he looked during his lifetime. We should make sure that the great leader is always with us by preserving his benevolent lifetime image.

 We acclaimed him as President of our Republic in response to the unanimous will of all the people, and they built this presidential palace with devotion. He worked here until the last days of his life. He himself named the palace the Kumsusan Assembly Hall. Therefore, I have resolved to preserve him forever in this presidential palace and rebuild it as a memorial hall.

 Since his death, it has been suggested by many members of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee and by numerous people that I be elected President of the Republic. I am grateful to my comrades and people for the trust they place in me, but we must decide this matter after due consideration.

 The issue of establishing a leadership system for the Party, state and army is vital for the future of the revolution and construction.

 In his lifetime, President Kim Il Sung gave important instructions on several occasions concerning what this leadership system should be like. Bearing his instructions in mind, I have thought over and over again about how we should establish the system once he had passed away.

 The leadership system for our Party, state and army must be such that it can thoroughly defend the revolutionary cause of Juche pioneered and led by the President and carry it forward faithfully. Thus we should develop our Party, state and army into the eternal party, state and army of Kim Il Sung.

 The respected leader Kim Il Sung was an outstanding leader of our state, whose like our nation greeted for the first time in its 5 000-year history, a benevolent father of our people and a great thinker, a great statesman, a great revolutionary and a great man to whom the world looked up.

 He was gifted with ideas and theories and a preeminent leadership ability that no one else in the world could possess, and embraced all the people with a noble benevolence that no one else could possess. He was the greatest of great men, who enjoyed respect and reverence for his outstanding ideas and theories and distinguished leadership ability, and for his benevolent personality and lofty virtue that had never before been recorded in the history of mankind.

 His passing is the greatest loss for our Party and revolution and a source of the bitterest sorrow for our people. People across the country have wailed over the sudden death of their great leader, their great father, and unable to suppress their yearning for him people are paying a tribute to his memory in front of statues of him in all parts of the country, including that on Mansu Hill, and at historic sites associated with him even in the pouring rain, day and night. All our fellow countrymen have expressed in deep grief their condolences at his death, and many overseas compatriots have come to their motherland and shed tears of grief before his bier. The whole world is expressing deep condolences at his death as a great loss for mankind, and hundreds of millions of people are sharing our sorrow. Witnessing all this, we have come to realize more keenly what a great man he was for our people and nation and the peace-loving people the world over.

 Korea, a small country of no importance in the international arena in the past, is well-known in the world thanks to his leadership and his reputation, and the eyes of the international community are now focused on it. All credit for our country becoming a powerful and dignified country and our people becoming a dignified and proud people goes to him.

 We should hand down to history and posterity our honour and pride in having carried on the revolution under the leadership of such a great leader, and add eternal lustre to them. To record such a prominent great man, such an outstanding leader, in our history is a duty that our Party and people, who fought and lived together with him, are obliged to perform for history and the coming generations

 With ennobling humanity, he bestowed great affection and trust on us and led each of us warmly. We must remain faithful to the moral obligation to the great leader, the great mentor, who brought all of us up to be revolutionaries, to carry through the revolution to the end with an unshakable faith.

 He was the first President of our Republic, elected by the unanimous will of all the Korean people and with their absolute support. The President of our country is none other than Comrade Kim Il Sung. Foreign friends also called him President Kim Il Sung out of feelings of respect and intimacy. The word president has been deeply engraved on the minds of our people and the entire nation as unthinkable apart from his name, and the words President Kim Il Sung are etched on the minds of the world’s people.

 It is imperative for us to ensure that the great leader always lives on the hearts of our people and the world’s progressive people with his intimate honorific title and undying fame. There can be no other president of our country than President Kim Il Sung, who will live forever, and no person can have the title of president other than him.

 Although he is gone, I am absolutely determined to hold Comrade Kim Il Sung, who rendered such distinguished service to our country and people, to the world and to mankind and who enjoyed the highest respect and reverence, as the only President, as the first and eternal President in the history of our country.

 We should ensure that his honorific title, that is so familiar and priceless to mankind, is inscribed in the history of our country, and the coming generations extol President Kim Il Sung alone with pride when they say president.

 Proceeding from such a standpoint and attitude I am resolved to hold him in high esteem just as we did in his lifetime and ensure that President Kim Il Sung alone is recorded as the eternal President in the history of our country.

 Hence, I propose abolishing the presidential system in our country’s Constitution and accordingly, revising the system of state power. In our era there has been no other such great man who was endowed with such a natural disposition as our leader, and therefore, we should enshrine in law that in the future, too, Comrade Kim Il Sung alone will be venerated as the only President of our country and no one else will be vested with the official title of president.

 According to the Socialist Constitution drawn up by Comrade Kim Il Sung, there has been the post of president, the head of state, in our country until now. And the Central People’s Committee has discharged the function of leadership as the highest state leadership body under the direct guidance of the president, and the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly has worked as the permanent body of the Assembly. With the presidential system soon to be abolished, it is of no significance to preserve the Central People’s Committee, which has worked under the guidance of the president. Therefore, I think it is rational that the functions performed by the Central People’s Committee and by the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly are merged so as to set up the state mechanism of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly which will perform the functions of the highest power organ when the Assembly is in recess, staffed with a chairman and several vice-chairmen.

 As for the suggestion that I assume the role of president, rather than declining it I cannot accept it because it does not conform to my will. As a soldier and devoted follower of Comrade Kim Il Sung who is loyal to his ideas and lines, I cannot accept the honour of the title of president, nor would it be appropriate for me to do so.

 I and all other comrades should, as in the past, so in the future, remain loyal and filial to him as his soldiers and devoted followers.

 True to his will and to the deep trust placed in me by you and other people, I will focus my attention on strengthening our Party and armed forces while leading the revolution and construction.

 Comrade Kim Il Sung said it would never be easy to accomplish our revolutionary cause, and told me over and over again that I should not be too preoccupied with the administrative and economic affairs of the state but channel greater energy into consolidating the Party and the People’s Army. In his lifetime he entrusted me with the work of the Party and the army, and he himself mostly took charge of foreign affairs and economic work. Our Party is the highest political organization leading the revolution. Strengthening the Party and enhancing its leadership role ceaselessly is a decisive guarantee for consolidating the driving force of the revolution and leading the revolution and construction along the road to victory by rallying the masses of the people closely behind the Party. Only when Party ranks are built up firmly and its leadership guaranteed properly can socialist economic construction as well as the state and cultural construction be successfully promoted.

 Strengthening the People’s Army is also very important. Regarding army building as the fundamental issue in the revolution, Comrade Kim Il Sung founded the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army before anything else in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and waged an armed struggle for the liberation of the country; after liberation he directed his primary attention to strengthening the Korean People’s Army. Without the military guarantee provided by revolutionary armed forces, peaceful economic and state construction cannot be ensured, nor can the security of the country and people be safeguarded. As the Supreme Commander of the revolutionary armed forces appointed by Comrade Kim Il Sung, I view the building up of the People’s Army as the most important revolutionary task devolving on me.

 We are currently on the arduous struggle to safeguard the cause of socialism and bring it to completion in a very complex situation. The victory of our revolution is scarcely thinkable without a strong party and army. We are defending the socialist cause and the country’s honour and dignity unperturbed despite the current situation when the imperialists and reactionaries are stepping up their anti-DPRK and anti-socialist schemes; this is attributable entirely to the fact that our Party is strong and our revolutionary armed forces are invincible. Whether our revolution emerges victorious or fails depends, in the final analysis, on how we consolidate our Party, the general staff of the revolution, and build up the People’s Army, the revolutionary armed forces of our Party.

 Therefore, I am convinced that it is the correct alternative conducive to the success of the revolution that I make every possible effort to strengthen our Party and the People’s Army, true to the lifetime instructions of Comrade Kim Il Sung.

 If I assume even the duties of state administration, I may be involved against my will in legislative, administrative and economic affairs and, in the long run, I may be separated from the work of the Party and the army. This would not be good.

 I do not think that everything will go better and Party leadership of the administrative and economic affairs of the state will be more effective simply because I take direct responsibility over these affairs. All the organizations in our country, including the legislative and administrative organs of the state, are doing their work in line with the Party’s lines and policies under its leadership. When the Party is strengthened and its monolithic leadership is thoroughly ensured, the overall work of the country will go well.

 That is why we should ensure that a legislative measure is taken at the next session of the Supreme People’s Assembly to amend the relevant parts of the Constitution by bringing under deliberation the issues of abolishing the presidential system in our country and revising the structural system of power.

 I believe that all cadres, Party members and other people will agree with my proposal.