Enhancing the Role of the Masses of the People Is the Guarantee for Victory in the Cause of Independence (Kim Il Sung)

Enhancing the Role of the Masses of the People Is the Guarantee for Victory in the Cause of Independence
Author	Kim Il Sung
First published	April 15, 1992
Type	Speech

Esteemed, distinguished guests from foreign countries,

Comrades and friends,

This banquet is honoured by the company of our close comrades-in-arms and intimate friends, Comrade Yang Shangkun, President of the People’s Republic of China; His Royal Highness Samdech Norodom Sihanouk, Head of State and President of the Supreme National Council of Cambodia; Comrade Kaysone Phomvihane, President of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic; His Excellency Lansana Conte, President and Head of State of the Republic of Guinea; His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of Unganda; His Excellency Joseph Saidu Momoh, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone; His Excellency Obiang Ngue-ma Mbasogo, President of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea; as well as the members of more than 420 delegations from over 130 countries.

Allow me to express my heartfelt thanks to you heads of state, high-ranking leaders of parties and governments, distinguished figures and friends from many countries of the world for having taken the trouble of making long journeys to congratulate me on my birthday.

Allow me also to offer my thanks to the members of the congratulatory group of the National Democratic Front of South Korea, the congratulatory group of the Koreans in Japan, and all the congratulatory groups from China, the Russian Federation, Europe, the United States, Canada and other parts of the world from coming to congratulate me on my birthday, and to send my warm greetings to all the people in south Korea and to all my overseas compatriots.

It seems only yesterday that I crossed the Amnok River, determined not to return home without liberating my country, but now 1 am 80 years old. With so many comrades and friends congratulating me on my 80^th birthday today, I cannot repress my surging emotions.

Ever since I took the path of revolution I have lived under the loving care of my comrades and my fellow people. Throughout the whole period of the arduous revolutionary struggle, my comrades in the revolution and my people have loved me warmly, protected me and helped me with all their hearts. Whenever I was undergoing trials, they inspired me with courage and confidence. I am very proud of the fact that I have enjoyed the trust and love of such loyal revolutionary comrades and such fine people. I would like to take this important opportunity, which is overflowing with beautiful feelings of revolutionary obligation ad comradely love, to express my warm gratitude to the veteran revolutionary comrades who have shared weal and woe with me all along the path of revolution, to the cadres who have grown up to become reliable leaders in the practical struggle, and to all the Party members and to all other people who are unfailingly loyal to the Party and the revolution.

As I look back on my past I can say, in short, that the 80 years of my life as a son of the people have been years of struggle devoted for the people.

I embarked on the path of revolution with a determination to dedicate myself to the country and my fellow people, and ever since my love for the people has at all times been uppermost in my mind. Even in almost helpless situations when I had to eat in the wind and sleep in the open during the grim days of the anti-Japanese revolution, I strengthened my fighting spirit at the thought of our suffering nation, and when I had to endure cold and hunger by a campfire I took courage by picturing in my mind our happy people who would live in the liberated country.

With the belief that the masses of the people, not an individual, are the makers of history, I have always linked my life with the life of the masses and found the value of my life and the key to victory in sharing the same destiny with the masses. I fought, braving all the difficulties, with the conviction that I would surely emerge victorious if I fought believing in the people and relying on their strength. Our enemy was formidable and our struggle was arduous. When the country was liberated through the protracted and arduous struggle against imperialism, the whole country bubbled over with joy and delight. The people were hopeful about worthwhile creation and a happy future, but unexpectedly we were faced with the new misfortune of national division and had again to fight imperialist forces of aggression. The three-year-long Fatherland Liberation War against the imperialist invasion was a hard fight. Our struggle to reconstruct towns and villages on the ruins after the war and our efforts to build socialism were also difficult. But we were not afraid of our enemies from whatever quarter, nor did we feel discouraged in the face of any trials and difficulties. We have been able to overcome all our trials and difficulties and win a brilliant victory by fighting with the conviction that nothing is impossible for us as long as we have the Party and the masses who are solidly united behind the Party.

Our Juche idea reflects the desire of the masses, the makers of history, for independence and their interests. In the whole course of the revolution and construction we have been guided by the Juche idea and adhered strictly to the Juche stand and Juche principles.

Meeting the desire of the motive force of the revolution for independence by strengthening it and increasing its role is the guiding principle of the revolution and construction which embodies the Juche idea. Both in our struggle against imperialism and in our efforts to build socialism we have put our main efforts into strengthening the motive force and enhancing its role, and we have promoted all our work to transform nature and society to meet the requirements of the motive force. The line of effecting Juche in ideology, independence in politics, self-sufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in national defence, as well as the general line of socialist construction on giving a strong impetus to the three revolutions-ideological, technological and cultural-while strengthening the people’s power and continually raising its function and role, embody our Party’s Juche-based guiding principle.

The society we have built is a society in which the Party and the masses of the people have been fused into a single-hearted unity and constitute an independent motive force for the revolution; it is also a society in which Juche has been firmly established in all fields of politics, the economy and culture and it is a socialist society centred on the people that makes everything serve them. That is why our socialism is advancing confidently and steadily, displaying its advantages, in spite of the ceaseless anti-socialist manoeuvres of the imperialists and reactionaries and despite the turbulent situation.

I can say that the Juche idea is a life-giving factor in the efforts of our Party and our people to accomplish the Juche Revolutionary cause. In the future, too, we must continue to advance under the banner of the Juche idea and consistently implement the guiding principles of Juche, holding fast to them. Then we will be able to achieve the ultimate victory of our cause.

The unity and cohesion of the Party and the masses achieved on the basis of the Juche idea through a long-drawn-out and arduous struggle is the core of the glorious revolutionary traditions of our Party. Today, by inheriting the Party’s revolutionary traditions, our entire Party membership and all other working people have become a strong motive force that will continue the revolution, closely united behind Comrade Kim Jong Il and the Central Committee of the Party. This is the basic guarantee for the ultimate victory of our revolution, and it gives me great satisfaction, I would like to say that this was a summary of my life of 80 years.

One thing that concerns me today is that I have not met our nation’s desire to live happily together in a reunified country. It is a great misfortune for our people that they ae suffering national division, unable to reunify their country, still today when nearly half a century has passed since the country was liberated. To reunify the country is the long-cherished common desire of our nation as well as my own pledge to the nation.

The reunification of our country is, of course, influenced a great deal by foreign forces. National division itself was forced on us by foreign forces, and these forces still remain the major obstacle to national reunification. But we must reunify the country by believing always in our own nation and relying on the efforts of our own nation. There are still many obstacles in the way of national reunification but the prospects for reunification are brightening. The spirit of our nation which has a long history and time-honoured cultural traditions is alive, and the motive force for national reunification is growing stronger with each passing day through the tireless patriotic struggle of compatriots in the north, south and abroad. All our fellow countrymen must unite firmly and open the door to reunification, under the banner of great national unity and in the patriotic spirit of independence, the pride of our nation.

Present here now are many of my old comrades-in-arms, comrades and friends from many countries who can advance hand in hand with us for a common cause. This is a source of great support and encouragement for our people.

Since the early years of our revolutionary activities we have been establishing unbreakable comradely ties with fraternal peoples and have been fighting shoulder to shoulder with one another against our common enemy. We have never forgotten our fraternal peoples and internationalist revolutionary comrades who assisted us in our revolution at the cost of their blood.

The destiny of our nation is closely linked with that of the world’s people. Our people will remain loyal not only to their own cause but also to the common cause of the people of the world; they will oppose national egoism and fulfil their internationalist obligations.

Although imperialists and reactionaries are clamouring about the crumbling of socialism in some countries as if humanity’s cause of independence had been completely foiled, history will inevitably develop along the road of independence, as the masses of the people desire. Exploitation and oppression which are contrary to man’s intrinsic independent nature are being rejected with the passage of time, and the aspirations and desire of the people to live freely and peacefully in an independent world ae daily growing stronger.

Taking advantage of the disappearance of their military rival and the destruction of the balance of forces, the modern imperialists are scheming to maintain and extend the old order of domination and subjugation, relying on their military superiority, but this is an anachronistic delusion. Deriving feelings of superiority and satisfaction from ruling and oppressing others by violence is a manifestation of the aggressive nature and anti-popular spirit which are characteristic of the law of the jungle, and clinging to outmoded views and methods will ultimately hasten self-destruction. Because of its long-accumulated self-contradictions, modern imperialism is not only ailing and rotting, but also being rejected by both the people and the capitalist world for the arrogance and arbitrariness it displays in its attempts to dominate the world. With the world producing a vast amount of material wealth thanks to the rapid development of modern science and technology, and with international relations growing close in political, economic, cultural and all other spheres, the globe is genuinely becoming a common environment for human existence. All this means that, contrary to the subjective will of the imperialists and reactionaries, the social and historical conditions for building a free and peaceful new world are maturing. We must view the present situation optimistically and continue to advance.

Today the common task facing the progressive people of the world is to build an independent new world. By an independent world I mean a world which is free from domination and subjugation between countries and nations and from aggression and war, in other words, a new world where the international community has become democratic. When the whole world becomes independent, a broad avenue will be open not only to durable world peace and the full development of friendship and cooperation among peoples but also to complete independence for the peoples of all countries.

An independent new world can be built only by the joint efforts of the people united throughout the world. Unlike in the past when the monopoly of capital was limited to individual countries and capitalist powers were biting at one another, the monopoly of capital has now extended on an international scale and the imperialists are allied in their opposition to the people’s cause of independence. In this situation, strengthening solidarity among the progressive people throughout the world is now our major strategic task.

The people who have emerged in the historical arena as the masters of the world and the masters of their own destiny demand independence, peace and friendship, not subordination, war and antagonism. Independence, peace and friendship are the noble, common ideals of humanity and these serve as the basis for the unity of the world’s people in their struggle for making the whole world independent. The social and historical conditions and the situation differ from country to country. But, if they base themselves on the noble, common ideals of mankind, the people of the world will be fully able to unite and become a great force that is capable of putting an end to the old world and creating an independent new world.

In effecting the unity of the world’s people, the responsibility and role of the progressive parties that represent the desire of the people of every country for independence and their interests are very important. The progressive parties of different countries must unite on the basis of the principles of independence and internationalism, cooperate closely to chart a correct common strategy for coping with the changing situation and circumstances and encourage the people and lead them dynamically towards the implementation of the cause of independence against imperialism.

When all the progressive parties and peoples throughout the world struggle shoulder to shoulder, faithful to and with a firm belief in the cause of independence, they will frustrate all the manoeuvres of the reactionaries to reverse the historical tide and will bring about a bright future for humanity.

It is the noblest of moral obligation and duties for a revolutionary to serve the people. Nothing is worthier and more glorious for him than to devote his whole life for the people. I wish to dedicate the rest of my life to the people’s cause, being loved and trusted by them.

Allow me to propose a toast to the victory of the common cause of the people for independence, to the health of the heads of state and high-ranking party and government leaders from different countries present here, to the health of my compatriots from south Korea and abroad and to the health of other comrades and friends.