Modern History of Korea (Kim Han Gil)

Modern History of Korea
Author	Kim Han Gil
Publisher	Foreign Languages Publishing House
First published	1979 Pyongyang
Type	Book
Source	https://archive.org/details/ModernHistoryOfKorea/mode/1up
PDF	https://archive.org/download/ModernHistoryOfKorea/Modern%20History%20of%20Korea.pdf

Foreword

Modern history of the Korean people is the glorious history of their hard -fought yet victorious struggles for national independence and sovereignty and for the cause of socialism and communism. It mainly covers their anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, communist movement, anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution, socialist revolution, socialist construction, anti-US, national-salvation struggle, struggle for national reunification, and activities for strengthening international solidarity. The Korean people have traversed a really arduous path beset with vicissitudes. They had to wage a hard struggle against the powerful and heinous imperialist aggressive forces — Japanese and US imperialisms. Besides, they had to undergo hardships and make strenuous efforts to build a new society while surmounting the backwardness of the economy, culture and other spheres caused by harsh Japanese imperialist colonial rule. Moreover, the US imperialists' occupation of south Korea split the Korean nation into north and south and aggravated the situation of the country, which put many obstacles and difficulties in the way of their revolutionary struggle and construction work. The three-year-long fierce war provoked by the US imperialists and their lackeys was a severe trial for the Korean people and the monstrousravages of wargreatly affected therevolution, construction, and people's livelihood. The Korean people had to push forward the revolution and construction in face of all these hardships, complications, manifold difficulties and tribulations, The course of the modern history of the Korean people has been an arduous course and, at the same time, a brilliant course full of great victories. They emerged victorious in the arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle to lay all the necessary foundations for the building of a new Korea. In the period that followed, they achieved signal successes in the revolution and construction. In particular, the liquidation of the colonial, semi-feudal social relations, the establishment of the people's democratic system and the socialist system, the accomplishment of the task of industrialization, the building of the independent national economy and socialist national culture, and the building up of self-defensive power in the northern half of the 1

country — these are the great achievements to be recorded in their history for ever. Following up these achievements, they are waging a vigorous struggle to drive the US imperialists out of south Korea and reunify the country independently,, The great successes they have achieved in defiance of the hardest conditions are unquestionably ascribable to the wise leadership of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, a gifted revolutionary and great thinker and theoretician, and to the heroic struggle of the popular masses rallied closety around him. The secret of all their victories and successes lies, above all, in the great Juche idea founded and developed by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung. This doctrine indicated the way to the correct solution of all the difficult and complex problems arising in the revolutionary struggle and the work of construction, served as the unique compass for shaping an uncharted course and brought the inexhaustible revolutionary enthusiasm, fighting spirit and creative initiative of the popular masses into full play. The modern history of the Korean people is the history of the materialization of the immortal Juche idea under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. The Korean people attach great importance to their modern history, because it boundlessly heightens their national pride and teachesthem how to live and fight, as Koreans. They all the more value it, because it holds their important contributions to world history. This book gives an outline of the modern history of Korea, showing its general course and main features. In compiling it, serious attention was given to the following points: First of all, a principled approach was made to the existing literature on modern Korean history. So far many books on it were published at home and abroad. These books have presumably made many contributions. But some of them are not free from errors and even distortions and falsifications. Hence, due attention was given to the close examination and elimination of shortcomings of these books, distortions and falsifications in them in particular, while making the most of their achievements. Efforts were also made to ascertain the authenticity of the materials we treated. Utmost prudence was used in treating every material to avoid prejudice, and a critical view taken particularly of unofficial historic data, documents issued by reactionary organs and historical data collected and arranged by individual persons. A comparative study of materials, their overall examinations in the light of the correlated events 2 and the method of judging historical facts on the basis of the practical experience of people related to relevant events were widely applied. In this, experiences and views of many persons were taken together and generalized with due regard to the limitations of personal experience, and the true facts were ascertained through comparative study of historical documents and memories of eyewitnesses. This helped make up defects revealed formerly in the treatment of historical materials. Attention was also directed to proper appraisal of historical facts (definition of their characters, positions and significance). Aware of the importance of the correct appraisal of historical facts after clarification of them and of the need to have strict objectivity in authenticating them and, to do so, a correct guiding principle, a standard, the compilers of this book took as their invariable guiding principle and standard the Juche idea which is founded on the philosophical principle that man is master of everything and decides everything and which gives one the viewpoint of considering everything with man as the central factor and making it serve him. The destiny of men, the destiny of the popular masses, in the given historical conditions and especially their desire for Chajusong* were made the starting point in appraising each event and defining its negative and positive aspects, its progressive and reactionary characters.

"Notes To The Term "Chajusong"

The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said; "The quality of man to live freely as the master of the world is termed Chajusong." Chajusong is an attribute of man who desires to live and develop independently as master of the world and his own destiny Because of Chajusong inherent in his nature, man, unlike animals which are subordinated to their environments, desires to live free from the fetters of nature and society and is the master who dominates the world. Chajusong is the life and soul of man, the social being. Physical life is the life of man asa living organism, and socio-political life is the life of man as the social being. If a man has no Chajusong in society, he is as good as dead for a social being, even if he is physically alive. Only a man who has Chajusong and exalts his sociopolitical integrity can be a truly worthy social being. Human history is a history of struggle of the people for Chajusong. This is so essential because the masses desire Chajusong and struggle fot it. The transformation of society, remaking of nature and remoulding man are the important contents of the masses' struggle for Chajusong. The Chajusong of a country and a nation is the prerequisite for the Chajusong of the popular masses, and the struggle for the Chajusong of a country and a nation is precisely the struggle for the Chajusong of the masses. 3

The text on this page is estimated to be only 29.11% accurate The Korean word "Chajusong" is given as it is pronounced because there is no suitable English word to correctly express such a profound meaning and wide connotation of the original. This must be the methodology to be generally applied in the historical study. It is impossible to fully grasp the general course of the modern history of Korea and give proper analysis and appraisal of its major events apart from the Juche idea because the history has been made mainly by the revolutionary struggle waged under the leadership of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the founder of the great Juche idea, that is, by the course of the embodiment of this idea. This outline of modern Korean history is far from flawless and may leave much to be desired. Readers' suggestions will be highly appreciated. 4

Part One: Anti-Japanese Revolutionary Struggle

Chapter I: Close Of The Bourgeois Nationalist Movement. The Early Communist Movement

1. Socio-economic Situation Of Korea In The Early 20th Century

The modern social movement, the communist movement, of the Korean people has its origin in the complicated socio-economic relations in Korea in the eariy 20th century. Hence, the modern history of Korea naturally begins with the socio-economic situation in the early 20th century. The main, determining factors in the socio-economic situation of our country in those days were the underdevelopment of capitalism in our country, the Japanese imperialists' occupation of Korea, and the attitude of various classes and circles towards Japanese imperialism. Gradual Growth of Capitalist Elements in Korea and Hindrance to Their Normal Development From the 18th century the elements of capitalism grew noticeably little by little in Korea. Commodity production gained in scope and a uniform currency was put into circulation throughout the country. In the late 18th and the early 19th century there was a considerable growth of trading capital in the form of accumulated money. The mining industry (iron, gold, silver and copper mining) and the metalworking industry showed relatively rapid growth, and capitalist management was introduced into them gradually. 7

In the late 19th and the early 20th century, enterprising companies appeared in the textile, paper and other industries, which introduced machines and equipment driven by water power, oil or steam power. In those days there came into being the banks which gave commercial and collateral loans. Until 1903, five banks including the Korea Bank were set up. Commodity production increased in agriculture, too, and there appeared business and commercial forms of farming. This resulted in a rapid growth in the sales of rice and other grain crops, tobacco and other industrial crops, cattle, oxhide and other livestock products, insam and other products for special use. Thus, capitalist elements grew gradually in Korea, but its normal development was greatly hindered by the feudal fetters which were phenomenal. The feudal ruling circles made desperate efforts to prevent the feudal relations from being broken, thereby checking the development of capitalist elements in every respect. For all this, a socio-political movement to oppose the feudal system and introduce a capitalist one rapidly gained in strength. Various forms of anti-feudal struggle in the late 1 9th and the early 20th century including the struggle for bourgeois revolution led by the "Reform Party" in 1 884 were illustrative of it. It is evident that but for outside interference Korea herself would have taken the road to capitalist development. Smooth development of capitalism in Korea was seriously hampered by foreign aggressive forces, the occupation of Korea by Japanese imperialism in particular. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Because of Japanese imperialist rule, Korea's capitalist development was greatly retarded and its social system remained colonial, retaining many of the vestiges of feudalism." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed , Vol. I, p. 295.) Japanese imperialists' occupation of Korea and their policy of harsh colonial plunder blocked the road to the normal development of capitalism in Korea and converted her into colonial semi -feudal society. 8 8 Japanese Imperialists' Occupation of Korea and Socio-Economic Relations of Colonial Semi-Feudal Character From the latter half of the 1 9th century Korea which still remained a feudal state fell a prey to aggression of Western capitalist countries and Japan. The masses of the people and the feudal ruling circles assumed quite different attitudes towards foreign aggressive forces. The popular masses were consistent and uncompromising in the struggle against the aggressors, but the corrupt feudal ruling circles gave way to them. They even went the length of suppressing the people's struggle against aggression. Due to the country-selling, treacherous acts of the feudal ruling circles, Korea was reduced to an exclusive colony of Japanese imperialism in 1 91 0. Japanese imperialism found in American and British imperialists active supporters of its scheme to turn Korea into its colony. As far back as the Russo-Japanese war the US ruling circles expressed their full recognition of Japanese imperialism's colonization of Korea* and thoroughly approved of Japanese imperialism's occupation of Korea in the agreement concluded in July 1 905 between the Japanese Prime Minister and the US Secretary of Army (the so-called "Katsura-Taft Agreement"") and in the agreement reached in November 1908 between the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and the US Secretary of State (the so-called "Takahira-Root Agreement"). * The then Secretary of State Hay, Chief Advisor on Far Eastern affairs Rockhill and other lop officials maintained that Korea should become a Japanese dependency, and in August 1904, the US President Theodore Roosevelt proposed to Germany's Kaiser to jointly approve of Japan's protectorate over Korea. (See A.W. Greeceworld. Far Eastern Policies of the United States, New York, 1938.) The British imperialists affirmed Japan's "political, commercial and industrial predominance" in Korea in the first "Anglo-Japanese Alliance" concluded in January 1902, and approved of Japan's "permanent economic, political and military interests and rights" in Korea and Japan's right to "protect" Korea in the second alliance signed in August 1 905. 9

Having occupied Korea with the active support of the American and British imperialists, Japanese imperialists entered on a harsh colonial policy. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "...the Japanese imperialists have turned our country into a source of raw materials and labour, a market for their commodities and a military base for aggression against the continent." {Ibid,, p. 134.) All the policies carried out in Korea by the Japanese imperialists were directed to making Korea a source of their provisions and raw materials and labour, a market for their commodities, a land for their capital investment and a military base for their aggression on the continent, The Japanese imperialists adopted the policy of political repression coupled with unlimited authority to attain their evil object of colonial rule. They set up the "Government-General of Korea" invested with all powers and stationed a large contingent of troops in Korea to support it. The Government-General of Korea trampled underfoot even the elementary rights of the Korean people. Upon taking office, the first Governor-General Terauchi openly declared that "Koreans should obey the law of Japan or die." Through the Government-General, the Japanese imperialists employed open "military rule" for the first ten years. But as it met with a stubborn resistance of the Korean people (March 1 Uprising in 1 919 in particular), they had to adopt the so-called "cultural rule," which, in essence, had nothing differentfrom the "military rule" and proved to be a far more crafty one. Completely deprived of the freedom of speech, the press, assembly and association, the Korean people were forced info unconditional submission. Korea was turned into a gruesome living hell covered with troops, gendarmerie, police and prisons, and other repressive apparatuses. "Severe punishment" was meted out to every patriotic move of the Korean people, which is evidenced by the statistics released by the Japanese imperialists themselves. According to them, between 1911 and 1918 cases of summary conviction accounted for 330,025 involving 461 ,442 persons and the number of the arrested amounted to 79,343 in 1 91 9 and 1 38,020 in 1 929." 'Annual Statistical Bulletin of the Government- General of Korea 1 929 pp 361-62. Annual Statistical Bulletin of the Government-General of Korea, 1930, p 344. 10 In line withtheir harsh political repression, the Japanese imperialists enforced ideological and cultural policy to stamp out the Korean people's consciousness of national independence and make them submit to their colonial rule. They cooked up various evil laws including the "Korean Educational Ordinances" of August, 1911 and carried out a most notorious policy for colonial enslavement education. Because of their evil policy of keeping Koreans in ignorance, the percentage of school attendance was less than 20 per cent of all the schoolable children even in the early 1 930's, and education was wholly devoted to rearing "colonial slaves". The Japanese imperialist occupationists enforced a policy of stamping out the national culture of Korea. They not only checked, the development of the national culture of Korea in every way, but also recklessly destroyed and plundered the priceless cultural heritages. They illegally unearthed ancient tombs and royal tombs in Pyongyang, Kaesong, Kyongju and other places to carry away rare relics and precious metal works and spoiled and looted archives of tens of thousands of volumes preserved indifferent parts. They went so far as to distort the Korean history for their colonial rule. They perpetrated wanton economic plunder and exploitation. Their harsh colonial policy prevented normal industrial development in Korea. Industry in genera! was on a low level and Korea remained a backward agrarian country as ever. The industrial policy the Japanese imperialists pursued in Korea was aimed at securing exclusive possession of all the key branches of industry, putting a curb on the development of national industry, and getting utmost colonial superprofits through harsh exploitation of Korean workers. . They hampered the growth of Korea's national industry by proclaiming the "Corporation Ordinances" (December, 1910) and instituting the system of doing business under licence when it was still unfavourable for them to invest capital in Korea. After favourable conditions were created, they repealed the "Corporation Ordinances" (April, 1 920) to facilitate rush of their capital. Thus, in the latter half of the 1 920's Japanese capital accounted for over 90 per cent of the entire capital investment in Korea. Moreover, Korean industry was made to turn out mainly raw materials and half-finished goods for Japanese industry and the productive forces were so distributed as to facilitate their colonial plunder. Korean industry was nothing more than an appendage to Japanese industry. The Japanese imperialists' policy of monopolizing industries 1 1

arrested the normal development of national industry. Factories and enterprises run by Koreans were few and most of them were small. Tyrannical Japanese imperialist colonial rule not only hindered the normal development of national industry but brought the traditional handicraft to total ruin. Such being the situation, the Korean capitalist forces were very weak in general, and, on top of it, they were split into compradore and non-compradore capitalists, Compradore capitalists were made up of comparatively big capitalists who were in collusion with the Japanese imperialists. They rendered active support to the colonial policy of these imperialists and served them. They, along with landlords, belonged to the reactionary classes that turned traitors to the fatherland and people. Non-compradorecapitalistswere mainly composed of middleand small entrepreneurs They were under the thumb of the Japanese imperialists and compradore capitalists and, therefore, were always discontent with Japanese imperialist colonial rule. Urban small -propertied class was constantly going downhill due to the predatory policy of the Japanese imperialists and the pressure exercised by the compradore capitalists. Their life wasalways insecure. Hence, most of them were opposed to Japanese imperialism. The working class suffered double and treble national and class oppression and exploitation. Most of the Korean workers had to work twelve hours and more every day and quite a few of them were forced to work 1 4 to 1 6 hours. Despite the long working day, they received "starvation wages," that is, less than half or one-third of those paid to Japanese workers. As capitalists could obtain cheap labour with ease due to the incessant impoverishment of peasants the workers had to work at very low wages. Many workers found it hard to meet the minimum living expenses. At times they could not get even such low wages. What is worse, they were charged with "fines" and various other impositions by capitalists. In particular, female and child labour became the objects of harsh exploitation by capitalists. There were no labour protection device to speak of. On the contrary, devices and systems designed to better oppress and exploit workers increased from day to day. In factories overseers kept keen watch over every movement of workers. In case a worker was disabled by labour accident he was discharged right away without compensation. In those days Korean workers were subjected to indescribable humiliation and maltreatment on top of harsh exploitation. They were paid slaves, a kind of "commodity," and, at the same time, colonial 12 slaves subjected to utmost national discrimination and oppression^ They were not allowed to put up any demands for improvement of their labourconditionsand livelihood, Even their rudimentary demands were always ruthlessly suppressed by the Japanese imperialists. But the Korean working class valiantly came out from the first in the revolutionary struggle in defiance of Japanese imperialist bayonets. As it originally was the most revolutionary class, it rapidly developed its revolutionary spirit coupled with anti-imperialist spirit and national consciousness after it emerged in the harshly-exploited colony of the Japanese imperialists. It gradually took the lead in the anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle. The Japanese imperialists recklessly plundered the countryside as well. While leaving feudal landownership and tenancy system untouched, they introduced commodity-money relations and modern trade connections in the countryside to change it to semi-feudal one. This enabled them to commit maximum plunder through feudal as well as capitalist exploitation. The Japanese imperialists, above all, seized a vast area of land. This was effected mainly through the "land survey" conducted for about nine years from 1910, through the creation of the "Oriental Development Company" and other organs for "development of agriculture" (aimed to plunder land) and through the increase of Japanese landlords. By 1 927, 400,000 hectares of arable land fell into the hands of the Japanese imperialists and the corresponding amount of land was mortgaged to Japanese organs and citizens. Thus 20 per cent of the then total arable land came in possession of the Japanese imperialists.* The absolute majority of the big landlords were Japanese who accounted for 81 per cent of the landlords owning over 200 hectares of land. The Japanese imperialists' plunder of land wasgetting intenser as days went by, ' The January 3, 1 928, issue of newspaper Tonga llbo published in Seoul from She time of Japanese imperialist rule. Volume of farm produce exacted by the Japanese imperialists increased year after year. They foraged over 6,600,000 sok (a sok is about 1 44 kg) of rice on an average every year between 1 927 and 1 931 to ship it to Japan, which accounted for 42 per cent of the annual output of rice.' * Korean Rice Crop Survey, 1934. 13

After the Japanese imperialists' occupation of Korea and particularly in the 1920 s, class differentiation proceeded apace in the countryside, plunging a majority of the rural population in the mire of bankruptcy and ruin. Over half of the total crop area was in the hands of landlords who accounted for a little more than three per cent of farm households, and larger part of it was concentrated in the hands of a few number of big landlords. Landless or landshort peasants accounted for some 80 per cent of farm households and rich peasants were very few. Landlords, along with pro-Japanese elements, traitors to the nation and compradore capitalists, were the main support for Japanese imperialist colonial rule. Under the aegis of the Japanese imperialists, they exacted farm rent amounting to 50 to 90 per cent of the total output from the peasants. What is more, they even got the tenant farmers to pay all kinds of taxes and levies placed on themselves. Colonial, feudal and capitalist oppression and exploitation reduced the peasant masses to a wretched plight. In particular, the poor peasants heavily in debt were on the verge of starvation every year. More and more peasants had to live on grass roots and tree bark. A good many impoverished peasants became hired hands, flowed into towns or sought a living in an alien country. Anii-Japanese sentiments and anti-feudal feelings of the peasant masses grew rapidly as a result of harsh oppression and exploitation by the Japanese imperialists and landlords. As the most reliable ally of the working class, they took an active part in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal struggle. The general class relations in those days showed that all the classes and social strata except a handful of pro-Japanese elements, traitors to the nation, landlords and compradore capitalists took an anti-Japanese stand, which provided a fertile ground for a vigorous anti-imperialist national-liberation struggle in the future. The working masses including the working class constituted the main force opposing Japanese imperialism. Thusthe favourable social conditions were created for the development of the communist movement in keeping with the anti-imperialist national-liberation struggle.

2. Decline Of The Nationalist Movement And The Rise Of The Communist Movement. Harmful Acts Of Sects

Decline of the Nationalist Movement Prior to the rise of the communist movement the anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle in Korea was waged mainly under the influence of nationalism. Anti-Japanese volunteers' struggle and patriotic enlightenment /novement took place before and after the Japanese imperialists' occupation of Korea. They assumed a nationalist character in spite of their specific features. Nationalism which carried anti-imperialist and anti-feudal tinges exerted no small influence upon the Korean peoplegroaning under the yoke of Japanese imperialism. But nationalism which, in essence, represented a bourgeois ideological trend could not properly reflect their interests, was unable to bring their revolutionary enthusiasm into full play and, consequently, failed to lead their anti-Japanese nationalliberation struggletodecisive victory. This was clearly revealed bytherr anti-Japanese uprising on March 1, 1919. The uprising lasted for ten months. Even according to rough statistical data, over two million people in all walks of life took part in the uprising from March to May and more than 3,200 demonstrations and revolts took place throughout the country by December, The all-people March 1 Uprising widely demonstrated the patriotic spirit of the Korean people and clearly showed that they would never submit to Japanese imperialism. At the same time, it fully laid bare the vulnerability of bourgeois nationalism. The nationalist leaders sought to attain "independence" by petitioning the Japanese imperialists or in reliance on some big powers. To this end, they drew up a "Declaration of independence" and proclaimed it in Seoul on March 1, 1 91 9. But, to their surprise, the masses of the patriotic people rose in a large-scale uprising to achieve national independence. Scared by this; the nationalist leaders sur15

rendered themselves to the Japanese police and preached nonresistance to the masses. Thus the mass uprising broke out without any unified leadership. Accordingly, it could not but be desultory and spontaneous. The result was that in all parts of the country the insurgents were ruthlessly suppressed piecemeal by the violent force of the Japanese imperialists. The whole process of the March 1 Uprising clearly showed that nationalism could not become the Korean people's true banner of national liberation and thatthe nationalists could not possibly lead the anti-Japanese struggle of the popular masses. After the uprising the nationalist movement showed a rapid decline and the period in which nationalism prevailed in the Korean people's anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle came to a close. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "With the March 1 Uprising as a turning point, the epoch of bourgeois nationalist movement came to a close and the national-liberation struggle of the Korean people led by the working class under the banner of Marxism-Leninism entered a new stage." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 1 1 , p. 301.) After the March 1 Uprising the nationalist forces went through the process of gradual disintegration. Most of the leading bourgeois nationalists turned to national reformists to become active collaborators of the Japanese imperialists. Some of the nationalists met in Shanghai, China, where they rigged up the "Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea," which was no more than a body of exiles alienated from the masses of the people and consequently, failed to exert any influence on the actual process of their anti-Japanese struggfe. This body was unequivocally opposed to the communists and other nationalists and failed to get over the discord within itself. It became nominal with the lapse of time.*1 Other nationalists raised an "Independence Army" and fought the anti-Japanese struggle to some extent. Some of them went the way to destruction shortly and some othersjoined handswith the communists to continue the national-liberation struggle,*2 Most of the nationalists who had been scattered in different parts gave up the independence movement, turned their coat or became Philistines. The declining nationalist movement ceased to exert its predominant influence on the anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle and receded. On thecontrary, thecommunist movement made rapid strides and came to the fore in the anti -Japanese national-liberation struggle. 16 *1 Twenty-nine nationalists who had exiled to Shanghai, China, after the March 1 Uprising in 1919 confabbed over the establishment of the "Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea" and proclaimed it in April 1 91 9, Li Dong Nyong was made "Chairman" of the "Provisional National Assembly," Syngman Rhee "Prime Minister," An Chang Ho "Minister of Home Affairs," Kim Gyu Sik "Minister of Foreign Affairs," Li Si Yong "Minister of Judicial Affairs," Choe Jae Hyong "Minister of Financial Affairs," Li Dong Hwi "Minister of Military Affairs," and Mun Chang Bom "Minister of Communication." There was a reshuffle in Septemberthe same year, whereby Syngman Rhee was made "President," Li Dong Hwi "Prime Minister" and other ministerial changes were effected. No peace was ever present within the "Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea" because of sectarian strife, scramble for power and dissension over financial affairs. Sectarian strife and scramble for power caused frequent "Cabinet" reshuffles and there was no end of detestable wrangle over embezzlement and squander of the "independence funds" raised in different ways. Syngman Rhee was made the butt of public hatred and denunciation because he petitioned the then US President Wilson for placing Korea under the League of Nations' mandate, and his embezzlement of the "independence contributions" made by Koreans in Hawaii gave rise to a hot discussion. And he was removed from "Presidency" in March 1925. In 1926 the "presidential system" was replaced with the "prime-ministerial system" which was later replaced by the "cabinet committee system." Kim Gu was appointed "President" and Kim Gyu Sik "Vice-President." The "Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea" was aloof from the mass struggle of the people. This body sought to attain Korea's "independence" on the "strength" of the Kuomintang Government of China and imperialist countries but in vain. Kim Gu and other members of the "Provisional Government" resorted mainly to individual terrorism. Typical examples of this tactic were the case of Li Bong Chang's attempted shooting at the Japanese Emperor in January 1932, and the case of Yun Bong Gil's assassination of Japanese General Shirakawa with an explosive in April. But their individual terrorist reprisals had nothing to do with the mass struggle. They recklessly applied the same tactic even to communists to produce a great deal of harmful effect. The "Army for Restoration of Independence" organized by the "Provisional Government" failed to grow in strength and gain any results to speak of. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out, the "Provisional Government," instead of fighting Japanese imperialists, only sought safety in following the steps of Jiang Jieshi and fled to Chongqing in November 1937. Upon returning to south Korea after the defeat of Japanese imperialism, members of the "Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea"tried to keep up its signboard but failed to win recognition. (Pak Un Sik, Bloody History of Korean Independence Movement; Kim Jong Myong, Korean Independence Movement, Vol. I, Tokyo, 1969; Tsuboe Senji, Undisclosed History of Korean National Independence Movement, Tokyo, 1 959; National Political Dictionary, Vol. I, Seoul, 1963, and other historical materials.) 'z Armed groups which were organized with some nationalists and patriotic youth, and participants of the volunteers' struggle in particular, and active in the south, east and north Manchuria afterthe March 1 Uprising in 1 91 9 were generally called "Independence Army." This army was the most active force among the nationalist forces. The unit of the "Independence Army" led by Hong Bom Do who became renowned for his volunteers' struggle had several engagements with Japanese 17

imperialist troops and police between 1919 and 1920, causing heavy casualties to the enemy. The units of the "Independence Army" lacked unity and were seriously pitted against and discordant with each other. After repeated amalgamation and dissolution the units of the "Independence Army" and "independence organizations" were divided into three groups — Chongui-bu, Chamui-bu and Sinminbu— around 1924 and 1925. After a prolonged "conference for the merger of the three groups" they were merged into the Kukmin-bu. Most of the units of the "Independence Army" were gradually broken up due to the persistent attacks of the enemy and the internal discord. The units under the command of Ryang Se Bong alone kept up their activity for some time until they were admitted into the Korean People's Revolutionary Army led by the great leader Comrade Kim if Sung. (Reference Materials for the History of the Workers' Party of Korea, Vols. I and II, Pyongyang, 1965; Pak Un Sik, Bloody History of Korean Independence Movement; Police Affairs Department of the Government-General of Korea, the annual issue of Srafe of Public Peace in Recent Years; History of Korean independence Movement Vols. IV and V, Seoul; and other historical materials.) Start of the Communist Movement The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "In Korea the communist movement started in the early 1920 s under the impact of the Great October Socialist Revolution." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. VII, p. 200.) The victory of the October Socialist Revolution in Russia awakened the working class and the oppressed nations of the world and encouraged their struggle against capital. The progressive patriots of Korea who had been earnestly groping forthe way of liberation while groaning underthe harsh suppression of Japanese imperialism were greatly stirred and inspired at the news of the October Revolution and started to turn their eyes to Marxism Leninism, the communist ideology. As a result, Marxist- Leninist groups were organized in Pyongyang, Seoul and other places, and these groups and progressive patriots started their activities to study and propagate MarxismLeninism. The activities for the propagation of Marxism- Leninism went on under d iff icult conditions owing to the repressive moves of the Japanese imperialists. In order to prevent the dissemination of Marxism-Leninism among our people, the Japanese imperialist aggressors carried out a strict news blackout and cracked down on the progressive patriots and Marxist- Leninist groups by mobilizing many gendarmes and policemen on the one hand and, on the other, used vicious tricks to dampen the people's revolutionary consciousness. But with no vicious move could the Japanese imperialists destroy the 18 elated revolutionary mettle of our people who rose for national independence and class liberation. Marxism-Leninism spread rapidly on the current of the people's revolutionary spirit. Progressive patriots and Marxist- Leninist groups secretly translated and printed Marxist- Leninist literature in defiance of the strict watch of the Japanese imperialists. Concepts and fundamental doctrines of Marxism-Leninism were introduced and expounded even in some of lawful publications including newspapers and magazines though in a limited degree. Booklets carrying Marxist- Leninist propositions and contents in fragments were also put out. Their activities for study and propagation of Marxism- Leninism started in major cities and gradually spread to industrial districts, farms and fishing villages in the localities. These activities took various forms such as lecture, oratorial contest, etc. The work of disseminating Marxism-Leninism proceeded also among the Koreans living in exile in the Maritime Province of the USSR, Japan and other places. The activities of those progressive patriots and Marxist-Leninist groups could not be free from some limitations owing to the prematurity of the time. Nevertheless, Marxism -Leninism spread rapidly among youth and students and intellectuals, let alone workers and peasants, because of its great attraction. Diffusion and influence of Marxism- Leninism led to the formation of many organizations of workers, peasants and youth. In April 1920 the "Workers' Mutual Aid Society of Korea," the first mass labour organization in Korea, was founded in Seoul. Afterwards, mass organizations of workers, peasants and youth were formed successively in all parts of the country. In 1 924 the Korean Federation of Workers and Peasants was formed, which was later split into the Korean Federation of Workers and the Korean Federation of Peasants. Then followed the formation of the Korean Federation of Youth. Mass struggle of workers, peasants and student youth, too, rapidly gained momentum. Between 1 920 and 1 925 there were over 330 workers' strikes, counting only comparatively big ones, with the participation of about 27,000. Among them were the general strike of workers in Pusan in September 1921 and the strike of the workers employed in the hosieries in Pyongyang in August 1923. The mass tenancy disputes of the peasants which took place in the same period numbered about 570 cases involving nearly 30,000 peasants. Students' strikes and the cases of their reading circles took place in succession. 19

Inthe course of the propagation of Marxism-Leninism and growth of the labour movement the Communist Party of Korea wasfounded in April 1925. Foundation of the Communist Party accelerated the progress of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. But it was dissolved three years later. Canker of Sectarianism The early communist movement in Korea had a number of characteristics and serious weak points. They were related, first of all, to severe suppression by the Japanese imperialists. Vigorous suppression by the Japanese imperialists compelled the communist movement in Korea to start in absolute secrecy, which made it conducted by several groups in a dispersed way. Lack of possibility of legal and open activity was a big obstacle to the merger of the communist groups and the achievement of unity in the communist movement. Besides, there were also weak points in the composition of the communist ranks. The Korean communist movement was conducted by intellectuals for some time in its initial period. As a result, it failed to penetrate deep among the masses and in most cases was aloof from the masses. The intellectuals who took part in the communist movement in those days lacked deep understanding of the communist ideas and failed to firmly grasp the revolutionary ideas from the standpoint of the proletariat and in consideration of the actual conditions of the country. Most of them were those who had broken with the nationalist movement for the communist movement, as if to follow the fashion. They regarded the communist movement as something to plume themselves on and fooled around in groups. Thus, sectarianism became strikingly manifested in the communist movement and did a really great harm. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "All the bitter failures and sacrifices in the communist movement and anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle in the past are, without exception, related to their criminal deeds." (Kim II Sung, Works. Eng. Ed., Vol. 1, p. 76.) The canker of sectarianism, first of all, is that it split the ranks of the communists. 20 The champions of the early communist movement, the pseudo Marxists, formed their own groups such as the "Tuesday group," "Seoul group," "North Wind Association," "M-L group," and "SeoulShanghai group," and engaged themselves in factional strife. To get the upper hand of their opponents those sectarians resorted to every possible means and ways and even went to the extreme of informing to the Japanese police against each other without scruple. The biggest crime committed by thesectariansisthat they brought the Communist Party to split and dissolution. Originally, sectarian antagonism was not surmounted when the Communist Party of Korea was founded in 1 925. The founding of the Party was merely based on the ostensible merger of the "Tuesday group," "North Wind Association," and "Shanghai group" with the "Tuesday group" as the centre on a temporary agreement. Therefore, the sectarian strife revived and got aggravated before long. Antagonism between the groups within the Party and the "Seoul group" remaining outside it grew acuter. Meanwhile, there was no end of strife between the "Tuesday group", "North Wind Association" and "Shanghai group" within the Party. With the formation of the "M-L group"*1 and the "SeoulShanghai group"*2 the sectarian strife assumed greater dimensions. As a result, the Communist Party failed to attain the unity of its ranks even for a moment. There were several roundups of communists by the Japanese police. This was also ascribable to the sectarian strife. Each roundup brought about change in the sectarian composition of the leadership of the Party and its membership. * 1 In April 1 926 the "M- L group" was formed with part of the "Seoul group" and "Manchurian Communist Youth group" and the members of the "January Society." (The "Seoul group" was formed from the "Seoul Youth Society" and tbe "Manchurian Communist Youth group" from the "General Bureau of Manchurian Communist Youth," and the "January Society" was organized by the Korean students in Tokyo in January 1925). Central figures of the "M-L group" were Choe Chang Ik, Han Bin, Choe Ik Han and others. Availing itself of the arrest by the Japanese police of the leading figures of the "Tuesday group" and the "Shanghai group" who' had assumed the leadership of the Communist Party of Korea, the "M-L group" took the leadership of the Party in December 1 927. {Reference Materials for the History of the Workers' Party of Korea, Vol. I, Pyongyang, 1965; Glossary to the Secret Police Service, Police Affairs Department of the Government-General of Korea, 1933; Kim Jong Myong. Korean Independence Movement, Vol. V, 1 969; and others.) * The "SeouLShangbai group" was formed with part of the "Seoul group" and "Shanghai group" in December 1927 in opposition to the "M L group" which assumed the Party's leadership. Its central figures were Li Dong Hwi, Kim Choi Su, Kim Yong Man and others. The "Seoul -Shanghai group" held a "Party Congress" unilaterally and formed its-own "Party Central Committee" to stand up against the "Party Central Committee" of the "M-L group." Both "Party Central 21

Committees" sent their respective representatives to the Comintern to seek its "recognition.'1 By doing so. they cut a poor show of themselves. (Ibid.) The Party should have rallied its ranks closer in face of ever more intensified suppression by the Japanese imperialists. Butthe sectarian elements persisted in their splitting manoeuvres, with the result that the Party itself could not continue to exist and was dissolved in 1928. Even after the dissolution of the Party the sectarian strife worsened over the reconstruction of the Party.* Putting up the signboard of the "Preparatory Committee for Rebuilding the Communist Party of Korea" or the "Communists' League," the "Tuesday group" styled itself as the "orthodox one" and tried to "rebuild" the Communist Party with the leadership composed mainly of itself. The "M-L group" and the "Seoul ■ Shanghai group," too. acted likewise, the former putting up the signboard of the "Consultative Committee of the Korean Communists" a'nd the latter the signboard o\ the "Committee for the Reconstruction of the Korean Communist Party" or the "Preparatory Committee for the Reconstruction of the Korean Communist Party." {Reference Materials for the History of the Workers' Party of Korea, Vol. I, Pyongyang, 1965; Glossary to the Secret Police Service. Police Affairs Department of the Government-General of Korea, 1933; Kim Jong Myony, Korean Independence Movement, Vol. V, Tokyo, 1969; and others.) Sectarianism did serious harm to the mass movement as well. As the Communist Party was not deep-rooted among the masses of the workers and peasants, it remained an upper organization that had no Party cells in factories, enterprises and rural districts and no kindred ties with the masses. This was the serious consequence resulted directly from the violation of the principles on building a revolutionary party and on the party's mass leadership on account of the bitter factional strife of the sectarians. Blind with their splitting manoeuvres, the sectarians placed their sectarian interests before the unified party leadership in the relationship with the masses. The sectarians struggled between themselves to win workers, peasantsand youth organizationstotheir side. Thisgave rise to serious antagonism between and within the mass organizations, holding back their consolidation and development. In early 1927 the "Singan Association,"* a temporary coalition of communists and nationalists, came into being. If proper leadership had been given, it could have grown into a fine anti-Japanese national united front organization, but, the possibility was precluded by the antagonism between communists and nationalists and the factional strife of the sectarians. It was eventually placed under the leadership of national reformists and dissolved at last. 22 The "Singan Association" was formed in February 1927 at. the joint proposition of the "Chongu Association," a socialist organization, and the "Minhung Association," a nationalist organization. At first it took the stand of opposing national reformism, which won it the support of communists, antiJapanese nationalists and religionists. It played a definite part until the massive anti-Japanese struggle of all the students in the country was sparked off by the students in Kwangju m November 1929. Later it gradually came under the influence of national reformists and was dissolved in May 1931. (Reference Materials for the History of the Workers' Party of Korea, Vol. I, Pyongyang, 1 965; Glossary to the Secret Police Service, Police Affairs Department, GovernmentGeneral of Korea, 1933, Kim Jong Myong, Korean Independence Movement, Vol. V, Tokyo, 1969; and others.) Even the organization of mass struggles of workers, peasants and youth was done in the sectarian interests. As a result, there often occurred cases in which some sects organized them while other sects manoeuvred against them In June 1926 a demonstration was organized by the "Tuesday group" in pursuance of its factional purpose, but due to obstructive manoeuvres on the part of the "Seoul group," it was limited to some streets of Seoul and ended in a failure before gaining desired results. Another canker of sectarianism was that it had fostered ' flunkeyism. Communists are, as a matter of fact, staunch revolutionaries who conduct, the communist movement out of their conviction and advance it on the strength of the masses of the working people. If a communist fails to adhere to- such Juche-based stand, he cannot be a genuine communist. However, champions of the early communist movement, the ostentatious Marxists in Korea, were not persons of the sort. They were seriously infected with flunkeyism, and sectarianism rendered the malady more serious. Before and after the founding of the Communist Party and even after its dissolution, each sectarian group claimed to be the "orthodox" one while rejecting others, and unscrupulously tried to get the recognition of the Comintern. Instead of conducting their activity using their own brains and relying on their own strength, they strove to gain recognition from others and rely on others and turned to the Comintern for the solution of all problems. It was evident that they could not properly advance the Korean communist movement and anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. Besides, the canker of sectarianism manifested itself gravely in many respects. Thus, the early communist movement in Korea was misled by the pretended communists, the sectarians who put up the signboard of communism, and thrown into utter confusion. 23

This, in the final analysis, was entirely due to the lack of a distinguished leader. A distinguished leader, a great revolutionary leader, alone could get over sectarianism and confusion and set the communist movement on the right track. 24

Chapter II Appearance Of A New Generation In The Communist Movement

1 . Formation Of The Down -With -I Imperialism Union. Communists Of A New Generation

When the early Korean communist movement was thrown into utter confusion and the Korean people eagerly yearned for the appearance of a distinguished revolutionary leader, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung came to take the lead in the Korean communist movement and anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung was born on April 1 5, 1912, into a poor peasant family in Mangyongdae, Pyongyang (formerly known as Nam-ri, Kopyong Sub-county, Taedong County, South Pyongan Province), Hegrew up in theyears when the Japanese imperialists ever more intensified their colonial oppression and plunder of the Korean people and the Korean people's anti -Japanese nationalliberation struggle shifted from the nationalist movement to the communist movement. His was the greatest revolutionary family, which produced ardent patriots for successive generations, and his parents were the most revolutionary anti -Japanese fighters. His father, Kim Hyong Jik held a leading position in the national-liberation struggle and fulfilled a pioneering role in the switchover of the nationalist movement to the communist one. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, unusually foresighted and strong-willed, grew early into an outstanding revolutionary under the influence of this historical and family background. After finishing the primary school, he was admitted to the Hwasong Uisuk School in Huadian County, Manchuria, in June 1 926. The school was run for the "Independence Army." The content of 25

its education was nationalist to the last degree. Such old-fashioned education naturally could hardly satisfy Comrade Kim II Sung who sought a true revolutionary path on his own. There he clearly saw the disgraceful factional strife, of the nationalists. Besides, he turned a keen eye to the behaviour of the pseudo Marxists, the sectarians, who tried to get their influence to be felt there. Taking a critical view of nationalism and the early communist movement from the outset, Comrade Kim II Sung deepened his original study of the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory and the history and reality of Korea. This led him to form an unshakable conviction that for the national and social liberation of the Korean people it was necessary to take the road to the communist movement, instead of the road to the nationalist movement, and that the communist movement should be advanced along truly revolutionary lines and on a sound basis, not in the way the ostentatious revolutionaries, the sectarians, did. He was also convinced that to this end it was necessary, first of all, to build up a new communist rank with the young generation. The great leader Comrade Kim H Sung energetically pushed forward the work of firmly equipping the patriotic, revolutionary and hot-blooded young people with the communist ideasand uniting them closely. On this basis, he formed the Down-with-lmperialism Union (DIU) on October 17, 1926.' * A Short History of the Korean Revolutionary Movement Abroad (Vol. 1 ), published in south Korea irvDoeember 1 945, wrote under the heading "The DIU and Kim II Sung": "The boy Kim II Song's brain, nay, the consciousness of student Kim Song Ju (Comrade Kim II Sung's original name — Q uote-r), became critical of these two social tendencies (the nationalist movement and the earfy communist movement— Quotes) and realized that he would be able to attain his end in the future through his independent development.... Rejecting infantile Right and 'Left' trends, he organized the Down-with-lmperialism Union. ... Much was expected from Kim II Sung, and the activities of this organization were positive. The support of the masses for Kirn II Sung, a man of passion and emotion, was great." The DIU set it as its immediate aim to defeat Japanese imperialism and achievethe liberationand independence of Korea, whiledefining it as its ultimate aim to fight for the building of socialism and communism in Korea in the future and then defeat all the imperialists and build communism all over the world. To this end, it set it as its primary task to make a deep study of the advanced ideas of Marxism-Leninism and disseminate them and rapidly expand revolutionary organizations among the masses. 26 The formation of the DIU constituted a historical declaration of the appearance of communists of a new generation in Korea and a new start of the Korean revolution. With the formation of the DIU, the communist movement and revolutionary struggle of the Korean people for the first time proceeded on the right track on the principle of Chajusong. It was from that time that the Workers' Party of Korea and the Korean revolution began definitely to take their glorious roots. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung strengthened the DIU organizationally and ideologically for some time before he moved to Jilin, a major city of Manchuria where there were many progressiveminded Koreans, young Koreans in particular, in order to expand hris theatre of struggle. From January 1927, as a student of the Yuwen Middle School in Jilin, he expanded his revolutionary activity in a big way. He let the DIU members organize small groups in various schools in Jilin city and exerted efforts to spreading the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary ideas. Unlikethe pseudo Marxists, he carried on thedissemination of the ideas in such a way that one could have a good grasp of their revolutionary essence and creatively assimilate them in the practice of the Korean revolution. He applied varied methods — literary appreciations, discussions, lecture meetings, Oratorical contests, etc. He energetically carried on organizational work. While giving guidance to the Students' Fellowship Society, reading circles and other legal organizations, in August 1 927 he reorganized the DIU into the Anti-Imperialist Youth League, an illegal organization of young masses, and organized the Young Communist League of Korea, a vanguard youth communist organization. He guided the general organizational work on the principle of giving priority to rearing the revolutionary backbone and giving full scope to their activity, of combining legal and illegal organizational work and admitting those tempered and tested in legal organizations into the illegal revolutionary organizations. In this course, he reared a new generation of revolutionaries, communists. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung tempered them in a revolutionary way through practical work. While directing the students' strikes, students' and popular masses' struggle to boycott Japanese goods and their struggle against the aggressive advance of the Japanese imperialists,* the class struggle of workers and peasants, he led them to take a firm anti-imperialist stand and class stand. " In this period the Japanese imperialists intensified their aggressive manoeuvres against Manchuria. In 1928, by coercing the Manchurian warlords, 27

they set about building a railway line linking Jilin with Hoeryong, a northern border town of Korea, with a view to securing control over east Manchuria. Seeing through the sinister design of the Japanese imperialists, in the .autumn of 1928 the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung organized and led the students' struggle against the Jilin -Hoeryong railway project. Concerning it, a document of the Japanese imperialists wrote: "...On the morning of 26, over 2,000 students of middle schools and higher educational institutions in Jilin suddenly gathered around the building of the provincial general assembly and its neighborhood... and started demonstration. They marched along the streets in four files, shouting radical slogans and carrying streamers inscribed with "Withdraw the Jilin-Hoeryong railway!," "Down with imperialism'," "Down with traitors to the nation!," and so on in defiance of the cordon of some 350 policemen and troops. Reaching the office of the provincial governor, they sought an interview with him and submitted a petition asking him to oppose the Jilin-Hoeryong railway project. This created a very grave atmosphere for a while. On the 27th, 28th and 29th, the struggle surged higher. Students broke themselves into several groups, installed platforms in over ten places in the city and made street speeches in denunciation of the project and scattered leaflets and pasted up posters on electric poles and walls of houses in the city as if they had the understanding of the provincial and government authorities." (ChasaJiho, Investigation Section, the General Affairs Deportment, South Manchurian Railway Company, November 25, 1928, p. 49.) The then Korean paper Tonga llbo reported On the truth of the demonstration in Jilin, and its progress under the headline "Anti-Japanese Sentiment Rising in Jilin owing to the Jilin-Dunhua Railway Extension Project. Students' Demonstration Held Everyday. Anti -Japanese Struggle in Tianjin Turns Serious in Several Days" (the November 2, 1 928, issue). Under the headline "Students' Organizations in Harbin Rising in Strong Opposition to the Jilin-Hoeryong Railway Project. Clash with the Police on the 9th; 148 Wounded" the same paper (the November 1 3, 1928, issue) reported: "Anti -Japanese movement of various organizations opposed to the Jilin-Hoeryong railway project here has now reached its height. There was a clash between 2,000 demonstrators from 18 schools and the police on the 9th and it was found on the 1 1 th that 148 students were wounded when the police opened fire. Consul General Yagi lodged a warning protest to the Chinese side... but the students' movement is expected to mount further." Thus the ranks of communists of a new generation led by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung grew rapidly in number and strength. They came out gradually as the leading force of the Korean communist movement and the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The genuine Korean communists representing the new generation learned serious lessons from the preceding nationalist movement and the early communist movement; equipped with a new revolutionary world outlook, they chose an entirely different revolutionary road from that followed by their predecessors." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed , Vol. VII, p. 200.) The communists of the new generation differed in many respects 28 from those engaged in the early communist movement. First, the communists representing the new generation were the fresh communists who had joined the communist movement from the outset without undergoing nationalist influence, whereas most of those engaged in the early communist movement, its leading figures in particular, were those who had changed to the communist movement from the nationalist movement following the trend of the new age. Secondly, the former had not joined any sectarian group but had grown up and had been tempered in the struggle against sectarianism, while the latter without exception had belonged to one or another sectarian group. Thirdly, the former were mostly the staunch communists of worker or peasant origin and the devoted revolutionaries who had been tested and tempered in actual struggles, while most of the latter were intellectuals who were not firm in taking their stand by the proletariat and conducted the communist movement for appearance s sake. Fourthly, the communists belonging to the new generation were the Juche-type communists, revolutionaries, who had profound understanding of the essence of the revolutionary principles, creatively applied them to the actual reality of Korea and advanced the communist movement and the anti -imperialist revolutionary struggle mainly on their own, on the strength of the Korean people while strengthening international solidarity, whereas those engaged in theearly communist movement were dogmatists-flunkeyists who mechanically learned the separate propositions of Marxism- Leninism by heart and tried to advance the Korean communist movement relying on others, on the Comintern in particular. As can be seen, the communists of the new generation led by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung could open up a new path for the Korean revolution on their own because they were fresh and genuine communists radically distinct from those engaged in the early communist movement. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung founded the immortal Juche idea and, on its basis, set forth the Juche-oriented revolutionary line, strategy and tactics, thereby providing a sure guarantee for the newly rising communists' activity to energetically push ahead with the Korean communist movement and anti-imperialist revolutionary struggle. 29

2. Creation Of The Juche Idea. The Juche Oriented Revolutionary Line

Creation of the Great Juche Idea as a Guiding Idea for the Korean Revolution What was imperatively necessary for the development of the communist movement and the national-liberation struggle in Korea was to provide the revolution with a correct guiding idea. It was due to the lack of the correct guiding idea, strategy and tactics that the anti-imperialist revolutionary struggle and the communist movement in Korea failed to follow the right course for some time. The historical task of establishing the correct guiding idea for the Korean revolution found its brilliant fulfilment in the creation of the great Juche idea by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung. The Juche idea was founded on the basis of a creative study of the established theories on revolution and the practical experience in the original struggle for victory of the revolution in Korea and, particularly through the persistent ideological struggle against the bigoted nationalists and the ostentatious Marxists. Recalling that time, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "These two factors— the serious factional strife in the Korean national-liberation and communist movements and the leadership divorced from the masses — strongly convinced us that we must not carry out our revolution in that way. We keenly felt that we must go among the masses and rely on them in our struggle, that we must solve our problems by our own efforts, and that if we worked well, others' recognition would be out of the question. "The two aspects as mentioned above had great impact on the development of my revolutionary thinking. From then on we emphasized that the populace are the masters of revolution, and accordingly, we must go among them and that if we step up the revolution of our own country with our own efforts in a responsible manner, whether or not recog30 nized by others, we will naturally gain sympathy, recognition and assistance from other countries. We can say this was the starting point of our Juche idea." {Answers to the Questions Raised by Foreign Journalists, Eng. ed., 1974, pp. 317-18.) The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung had a keen insight into the two most serious and essential defects of the then nationalists and ostentatious Marxists. One was that divorced from the masses, they numbering a very few got together among themselves as leaders and simply played with words and quarrelled, instead of rousing the masses in the actual revolutionary movement. Keeping aloof from the masses, they oniy scrambled for hegemony and had "theoretical" arguments with each other. Their "theory" was sophistry which had nothing to do with the revolutionary struggle. Through his showdown with the nationalists and ostentatious Marxists and through lectures and symposiums for student youth and through various publications, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung exposed' and criticized these facts and explained that mere controversy among a few persons on the top level who were alienated from the masses could never make for the substantial promotion of the communist movement and the national-liberation struggle. At the same time, he emphasized that the popular masses were masters of the revolution and only when they rose would it be possible to win the revolutionary struggle and that the solution of all problems depended on the popular masses. Thus he led the communists of the newgenerationtogodeep among the massesand, relying on them, carry on .the revolutionary struggle. In this way he clarified the basic principle of revolution that the masses of the people are masters of the revolution and, therefore, that in order to push forward the revolution one should go among the popular masses and get them on the move. This principle served as a foundation for the Juche idea. Besides, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung scathingly flayed the nationalists and the pseud o Marxists for their serious factional strife and flunkeyist tendencies. In those days the nationalists, divided into groups, were engrossed in factional strife. In particular, they rejected the communists at random, even making no scruple of employing terrorism against them. They persisted in their stand of depending on outside forces in an attempt to achieve independence of Korea on the strength of other countries. The ostentatious Marxists, too, still indulged in factional strife 31

without giving up the inveterate sectarian habits. Not waging a revolutionary struggle, each of their groups was intent as ever on gaining the recognition of the Comintern. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung mercilessly exposed and condemned the nationalists and ostentatious Marxists for their factional strife and fiunkeyist tendencies. He strongly denounced their acts of trying to rely on outside forces and obtain others' recognition as a disgrace to the Korean nation. He emphasized that a revolutionary movement was not something to carry on with the approval of others but a work to be done out of one's own conviction, that one should solve one's own problems by oneself and that only when one waged the struggle well, would others naturally recognize it. He made clear the basic principle of revolution, the basic stand to be invariably adhered to in the revolutionary struggle, that one should carry on the revolution in one's own country in a responsible manner without depending on others, This served as another foundation for the Juche idea. Whiledeeplydelving into various phenomena observed during his early revolutionary activity and studying and analyzing them in combination with the basic requirements for the development of the communist movement and revolutionary struggle, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung established most essential principles and, on this basis, created the immortal Juche idea. In a nutshell, the Juche idea means that the masses of the people are masters of the revolution and the work of construction and that they are also the motive force of the revolution and the work of construction. In other words, it means that one is responsible for one's own destiny and one has also the capacity for hewing out one's own destiny. With the creation of the great Juche idea, the Korean revolution was provided with a definite guiding idea and a most powerful ideologico-theoretical weapon prepared for vigorous promotion of the Korean communist movement and anti-imperialist national-liberation struggle. The Juche idea also correctly reflected the requirements for the advance of the international communist movement and the world revolution as well as the urgent demand for the development of the Korean revolution. With the progress of the communist movement and the revolutionary struggle in each country, the national contingents of revolution grew in scope and strength and the national features of the revolutionary struggle became ever more pronounced. Under these circumstances, the international communist movement and the world revolution would make successful progress only when each country carried on the revolutionary struggle independently and creatively 32 relying on the efforts of its own popular masses. The Juche idea reflected these requirements for the development of the international communist movement and the world revolution in an all-round way. After creating the Juche idea, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung worked on a new revolutionary line and strategy and tactics on the basis of the idea while arming the new generation of communists and the masses of the people with it. Juche-oriented Revolutionary Line The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung trod an arduous. path of revolution, surmounting manifold difficulties and trials. In the autumn of 1 929 suppression by the reactionaries went from bad to worse. The Japanese imperialists reinforced their aggressive armed forces in Manchuria under various pretexts and bribed the Chinese reactionary warlords into a sweeping roundup of Korean revolutionaries in an attempt to crush the fast growing revolutionary forces. In October that year the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung was arrested by the reactionary police. Even in the Jiiin Prison, he did not stop his revolutionary struggle. His guidance to his comrades within the prison and the revolutionary organizations in Jiiin and other parts continued through various secret liaisons. The prison served him as a place for elaborating a plan for the powerful development of the communist movement and the antiJapanese national-liberation struggle. He was released in early May 1930. He denied himself even a short rest and carried on his revolutionary struggle with greater energy, restoring and reorganizing the revolutionary organizations. He worked out a correct revolutionary line, strategy and tactics in order to lead the Korean communist movement and the anti-imperialist revolutionary struggle along the right path, In this, he was guided by the Juche idea. In his report The Path of the Korean Revolution delivered at the meeting of the leading personnel of the Young Communist League and the Anti-Imperialist Youth League held in Kalun in June 1 930, he put forward the Juche-oriented revolutionary line, strategy and tactics. He first elucidated the nature and basic tasks of the Korean revolution. 33

In those days the pseudo Marxists, the sectarians, were confusing people by defining the Korean revolution at the stage as a bourgeois or a socialist one. Under the circumstances, it was important before everything to make clear the nature and basic tasks of the Korean revolution. Only when the nature and basictasks of the revolution were defined correctly, would it be possible to work out scientific strategy and tactics and, on that basis, to confidently mobilize and organize the popular masses for the revolutionary struggle. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The main task of the Korean revolution, therefore, is to overthrow the Japanese imperialists and win independence for Korea and, at the same time, to liquidate feudal relations and introduce democracy, "In view of the main task of the Korean revolution, its character at the present stage is anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed,„ Vol. 1, p. 7.) Korea was then a colonial semi -feudal society whose norma) capitalistic development was retarded and there the feudal relations prevailed due to the Japanese imperialists' occupation. From this derived the above-mentioned basic tasks of the Korean revolution and such nature of the Korean revolution as well. Without sticking to former conceptions of the bourgeois revolution and the socialist revolution, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung originally defined the character of the Korean revolution from the Juche standpoint in consideration of the actual conditions of the country. The anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution is a revolution with a specific content, a revolution different either from the bourgeois revolution for bourgeois society or from the socialist revolution for the socialist system. In other words, it is a democratic revolution of a new type for a popular, democratic society. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung elucidated that workers, peasants, student youth, intellectuals, the petty bourgeoisie and other broad sections of the anti -imperialist forces including conscientious national capitalists and religionists could participate in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution and that the targets of the revolution were the Japanese imperialists and their accomplices — landlords, capitalists, pro-Japanese elements and traitors to the nation. He also pointed out the need to continue the revolution after the completion of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution so as to build socialist, communist society and then carry on the world revolution. Having elucidated the nature and basic tasks of the Korean 34 revolution, he gave clear answers to the problems of strategy and tactics for it. He first of all advanced the line of armed struggle. He said: "Owing to its intrinsic aggressive and predatory nature, imperialism will never withdraw from the colonies of its own accord, and will always resort to brutal violence to maintain its colonial rule. So the imperialist forces of aggression must be smashed by revolutionary armed forces." {/bid., p. 8.) Various forms and ways of struggle should be applied in countering the imperialist aggressive forces. It is very important to properly choose the main form of struggle. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung defined the armed struggle as the main form of struggle to be applied in vanquishing the Japanese imperialists. The historical experience and lesson of the Korean people's antiJapanese struggle clearly showed that national independence- could by no means be presented by others and that a peaceful means fell short of defeating the Japanese imperialists and achieving independence. Particularly, the situation in our country between the late 1 920's and the early 1 930's urgently called for organized armed struggle. In those days, seeking a way out of the grave economic crisis of 1929 in an aggressive war against China, the Japanese imperialists were busy preparing for it. To this end, they intensified political suppression and economic plunder of the Korean people as never before. The Korean workers, peasants and student youth came out in stronger resistance against them, putting up violent struggles in different places. Typical of them are the Wonsan dockers' long -drawn general strike and violent struggle from January 1 929, the strikes and demonstrations of the workers of textile mills in Pusan in January 1 930, strikes and demonstrations in Pyongyang, Seoul, Pusan, Taegu, Inchon, Wonsan, Chongjin, Hung nam and other cities on May Day the same year, the riot of the workers at the Sinhung Coal Mine in May 1 930, the street demonstrations and violent struggle of the workers at the Pyongyang Rubber Factory in August the same year, the mass farm-rent nonpayment struggle and raid of peasants on the Japaneserun Fuji Farm in Ryongchon County, North Pyongan Province and the tenancy dispute and revolt of the peasants on the Japanese-run Hazama Farm in Kimhae County, South Kyongsang Province in 1 929, the struggle of the peasants in Tanchon, South Hamgyong Province in 1930, and the school strikes and demonstrations by students in Kwangju and the students all over the country which lasted for over six months from November 1929. 35

Under these circumstances, the organized armed struggle was the only way to further develop the anti-Japanese struggle of the workers, peasants and student youth. If the organized armed struggle was not adopted but the former methods of struggle were used, it was clear that the sporadic violent struggles of workers, peasants and student youth could not but be suppressed piecemeal by the violent force of the Japanese imperialists and that the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle of the Korean people as a whole inevitably be brought to impasse. This showed that the armed struggle was the most urgent demand for the upsurge of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle of the Korean people, and it was the only way for them to attain the liberation and independence of their country. Stressing the need to make good preparations for the armed struggle, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung put forward the task of organizing the young communists into the Korean Revolutionary Army, a revolutionary armed organization. He then put forward a line of anti -Japanese national united front, the line of awakening and closely rallying all the anti-Japanese patriotic forces and rousing them to the anti-Japanese struggle. He stressed the need to closely rally the workers, peasants, religious people and conscientious national capitalists and all the other people with anti-Japanese sentiment under the anti- Japanese banner. He presented, as an important matter, the problem of active promotion of the work of founding the party. He stressed the need to make thoroughgoing and solid preparations for founding the party from a Juche standpoint. He said: "We must not fail to found a new revolutionary party for ourselves. We must make ample preparations for the purpose." {Ibid., p, 9.) He further said: "We must form the party not by proclaiming the party centre first but by setting up fully prepared basic party organizations and steadily expanding them." (Ibid., p. 9.) The immediate dissolution of the Korean Communist Party founded in the 1 920's is attributed to the fact that the party was not founded after thoroughgoing Juche-motivated preparations were made and, consequently, remained something like a castle in the air. However, instead of drawing a serious lesson from this the sectarian elements tried to hastily organize the "Party Central Committee" and proclaim the founding of the party. They thought that if they would succeed to obtain the recognition of the Comintern, that's that. No revolutionary party could be founded in this way and even if founded, 36 such a party can hardly discharge its mission properly and maintain its existence in the face of the counterrevolutionary offensive. A revolutionary party of Korea should naturally be founded by the Korean communists and people themselves and, to do so, its preparations be made most substantially from an independent standpoint. For the substantial preparations, the lower party organizations should be properly formed before anything else. Only then could the party be founded with solid organizational foundation and deep rooted among the masses. The respected leader Comrade Kim li Sung taught that preparations for founding the party should be made in close combination with the actual struggle against Japanese imperialism. This combination would help train fine communists tested and tempered through the practical struggle and lay firm organizational and ideological foundation for the founding of the party. At the Ka I un Meeting the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung gave a profound exposition of the basic problems arising in advancing the anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle and communist movement in Korea and elucidated the only correct, revolutionary line based on the Juche idea, the Juche-oriented revolutionary line. As a result, the communists representing the new generation and the revolutionarymasses came to have unshakable guideline for the active promotion of the Korean revolution, so that this revolution which had suffered setbacks and vicissitudesduetothe lack of a correct revolutionary line, strategy and tactics in the past could unswervingly advance along the only road of victory indicated by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung.

3. Preparations For Armed Struggle

Creation of the Korean Revolutionary Army and Its Activity After the Kalun Meeting the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung directed his effort to the organization of the antiJapanese armed struggle. It was in Guyushu on July 6, 1 930 that the first unit of the Korean 37

The text on this page is estimated to be only 29.51% accurate Revolutionary Army was formed with the core members of the YCLK and the AIYL The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "In July 1930 we formed the Korean Revolutionary Army as the first step in preparation for the armed struggle. The KRA was the first Marxist-Leninist armed organization in our country. Members of the KRA went to many urban and rural areas and conducted vigorous political and military activities among the workers, peasants, youth and students, preparing to form the guerrilla army." (Ibid., p. 46.) While constantly expanding the ranks of the KRA, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung saw that its members quickly improve: their politico-ideological and military qualifications and accumulate practical experience in all respects. He formed many small groups out of the KRA and sent them to various places. In the summer of 1930 he dispatched a small group of the KRA headed by Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon. a staunch communist, deep into the homeland. In Pungsan it disposed of the wicked Japanese police sergeant who was harassing the Korean people and made a fervent address before the masses calling on them to join the antiJapanese struggle before advancing to Riwon, Pukchong, Hong won and other areas where it conducted its activity.* Another group advanced as far as central Korea and was active in the regions of Chunchon andTaejon for several months. Everywhere they went, they conducted active political work and military operations, throwing the Japanese imperialist aggressors into confusion and exerting a great revolutionary influence upon the broad sections of the people. " Choson tfpO and Tonga Ubd, the Korean newspapers published in Seoul in those days, covered the raid" of the Paballi Police Substation in Pungsan County by a group of the KRA and part of the activities of other groups in several issues. {Refer to August and September, 1 930, issues of the above newspapers.) While expanding its theatre of activity, the KRA energetically pushed ahead with the preparations for armed struggle. In this, it was of primary importance to train a backbone force. While recruiting the KRA with fine youths tempered and tested through mass struggles, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung took measures to train them to be communists, able political and military commanders. He often organized a short course to rear the members of the KRA and the fine young people, from various regions into the backbone of the revolutionary armed force by training them to be able commanding personnel with political and military qualifications. In the 38 short courses problems of strategy and tactics of the Korean revolution, the methods of mass political work and the internal and external situations were dealt with and, at the same time, military training was conducted. Through such educational and training processes a pivotal force of armed struggle was fostered creditably. What was next in importance in preparing for the armed struggle was that the small armed groups of the KRA should accumulate military experience, obtain arms and make other military preparations through vigorous military activity. The KRA members solved the problem of arms by various means, taking them from the enemy and purchasing them through certain channels. In the meantime, they intensified their military actions. In these actions the main stress was laid on the struggle to do away with the secret agents and stooges and the fightings with the "Japanese imperialist aggressor army and reactionary police. In this course the KRA acquired military experience.' As regards the KRA's activity, A Short History of I ha Korean Rnvotutionary Movement Abroad published in south Korea immediately after liberation wrote: "This army was made up of young fighters, among them Kim Song Ju (the great leafier Comrade Kim II Sung's original name Ouoter), Cha Gwang Su, Kim Hyok and Choe Hyo If, and first went into action in the area around Yitong County, Jilin Province. Being an organization of young people, its activity was very daring. Although the Jingangguan incident in Changchun involved the tragic sacrifice of Paek Sin Han, and the Da oh incident in Harbin resulted in the jailing of the revolutionary poet Kim Hyok in Lushun Prison, the army continued to grow, extending its range of activity even to the interior of Korea, where it oroved itself in the Hongwon and Tanchon actions, which caused a great stir in the north and west of Korea. Through its heroism and the different kinds of struggle it waged, the army made a great contribution to the revolutionary movement of the time." (Choe Hyong U, A Short History of the Korean Revolutionary Movement Abroad, Korean ed.. Vol. I, Tongbangmunhwa Publishing House, Seoul, 1945, p. 25.) While conducting vigorous military operations, the KRA threw its energy into the laying of a mass foundation for armed struggle which posed as an important problem in preparation for that struggle. Since the armed struggle had to be waged with the mountainous and rural areas as the bases, in laying its mass foundation it was most important to revolutionize the rural areas, To this end, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung saw that revolutionary and mass organizations and schools were set up, that the peasant masses were educated through various publications and various other means. And he led the KRA members to take an active part in the work. 39

The formation of revolutionary and mass organizations in the rural areas according to social strata or on an all-embracing basis helped rally the broad sections of the peasantry organizationally, heighten their revolutionary consciousness quickly and rouse them to mass struggle. The Young Communist League of Korea, the Anti-Imperialist Youth League, the Peasants' Union, the Children's Expeditionary Corps and other revolutionary and mass organizations were thus formed and active in the rural areas. Besides, schools were set up in different parts to train revolutionary core elements. Illustrative of them are the Chinmyong School in Kalun, the Samsong School in Wujiazi, and the Samgwang School in Guyushu. The KRA members were sent to teach these schools, where politico-ideological and general education and military training were properly combined. The youth who graduated from these schools were sent to different rural areasto conduct organizational and political work for the revolutionization of the rural areas. Newspapers, magazines and other publications including Bolshevik, Nongu (Peasant Fellowship), Reader for Peasants were issued and circulated in the rural areas. The masses were also educated through vigorous art performance. The revolutionary plays A Mountain Shrine and The Landlord and the Farm Handwritten by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung and other operas and plays were staged and many revolutionary songs were composed and popularized. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung went round the rural areas without intermission to give guidance to the revolutionization of the rural areas. He guided the work of the revolutionary organizations on the spot, conducted the mass political education himself and devoted much energy to literary and artistic creations. Active Preparations for Armed Struggle in the Areas along the Tuman River. Implementation of the Revolutionary Organizational Line With the progress of the preparations for armed struggle, there arose the important question as to where to establish the main base for it. It was impossible to set up such base within the territory of Korea which was unfavorable for the armed struggle in many respects under the prevailing circumstances where the colonial ruling system of the Japanese imperialists was rigid and the reactionary armed forces were 40 concentrated and in view of terrain features there. Nor was it possible to set it up far from Korea. Taking all these conditions into account, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung decided on establishing the main base for the armed struggle in the wooded area along the Tuman River in east Manchuria. Bordering on the northern boundary of Korea, the area was fit for armed struggle because it had so far remained a far weaker link in the counterrevolutionary ruling machine than in homeland. Another advantage was that with a mountain range connecting it with Korea, it was easy to extend the flame of the armed struggle to the homeland. Over 80 per cent of the inhabitants there were Koreans and their number amounted to nearly 400,000. Most of them were those who had emigrated there, unable to endure the tyranny of Japanese imperialism in the homeland. They had high anti-imperialist revolutionary spirit. Covered with dense forest, she area was very favorable for armed struggle. After the Kalun Meeting the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung sent the KRA members and political workers there to lay the revolutionary foundation In 1931 he moved his theatre of activity there. In order to establish a solid mass revolutionary base in east Manchuria, it was urgently necessary, above all, to make clean sweep of the evil effects of "Left" adventurism. The ambitious sectarians, the ostentatious revolutionaries, revealed their Left-most "ultra-revolutionary spirit" riding on the high revolutionary upsurge of the popular masses in the area. They often goaded the masses to adventurous revolt without sufficient preparations or a scientific analysis. The serious consequence was the alienation of the- revolutionary organizations from the masses, the destruction of revolutionary organizations and the worsening of the relations between the Korean and Chinese peoples. Without eliminating these aftereffects thoroughly it was impossible to lay the mass foundation of revolution and set up the main base of armed struggle there. With a view to solving this urgent problem, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung called a meeting of Party and YCLK cadres at Mingyuegou in May 1931. At the meeting he made a historic speech entitled Let Us Repudiate the "Left" Adventurist Line and Follow the Revolutionary Organizational Line. He said: "The most important task for the Korean communists at present is to follow out the revolutionary organizational line which makes it possible to unite the main masses of the 41

revolution firmly and, around them, the anti -Japanese forces from all walks of life, thereby building up the whole nation into a political force." {Ibid., p. 18.) The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung emphasized that in order to ensure the correct implementation of the revolutionary organizational line it was necessary, first, to firmly build up the revolutionary leading nuclei and expand and strengthen the YCLK ranks by embracing young communists tested in the revolutionary practice, secondly, to create a firm mass base for the revolution by restoring and reorganizing mass organizations or forming new ones and educating and rallying the broad sections of the people, thirdly, to advance the struggle of the masses step by step from small-scale to large-scale struggle, from economic to political struggle to temper them in the struggle and skilfully link up legal with semi-legal and illegal struggles and, fourthly, to strengthen militant friendship and revolutionary solidarity between the Korean and Chinese peoples. A vigorous struggle was waged to carry into effect the revolutionary organizational line outlined by him. As a result, the revolutionary organizations wrecked by the enemy's wholesale roundup were rapidly restored and a number of new ones came into being and began to operate actively. The revolutionary organizations became firmly rooted in towns and villages, coal and ore mines in east Manchuria and all the masses except a handful of reactionary elements came under their influence. The activity of the KRA gained in scope and intensity and the Red Guards and Children's Vanguard were formed and operated in almost all parts along the Tuman River. These paramilitary organizations fought to defend the revolutionary organizations and the revolutionary masses from the enemy's encroachment. Thus preparations for armed struggle were well under way. 42

Chapter III Beginning Of The Anti-japanese Armed Struggle. First Stage Of The Armed Struggle

1. Founding Of The Anti-japanese People's Guerrilla Army

Basic Line for the Anti-Japanese Armed Struggle In September 1 931 trie Japanese imperialists at last launched an invasion on Manchuria. This brought about a rapid change of situation and presented it as an urgent demand to organize and wage a prompt anti-Japanese armed struggle. Paving their way for the inroad upon theAsian continent with their invasion of Manchuria, they intensified their reactionary offensive against the Korean people as never before for the "security of the rear." They suppressed every manifestation of revolutionary advance of the Korean people by force and arrested, jailed and killed people at random. Their bloody suppression was severe in Manchuria, particularly in Korean settlements in east Manchuria. They raided and burned Korean villages, indiscriminately massacring innocent men and women, young and old, in an attempt to wipe out the revolutionary force which was fast growing under the wise leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. Under these circumstances, without taking up arms against Japanese imperialism it was impossible to advance the Korean revolution even a step farther and pave the way for victory of the national liberation. In those days conditions were ripe for an anti-Japanese armed struggle. 43

As the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung had energetically pushed ahead with the preparations for the armed struggle, reliable leading nuclei had been formed and political and military experience accumulated for an extensive anti-Japanese armed struggle. Anti-Japanese sentiments of the popular masses were at rising tide. A fierce violent struggle was fought by workers and peasants and other sections of the Korean people against the brutal suppression by the Japanese imperialists which was intensified after the invasion of Manchuria. The anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle rapidly gained momentum in the Korean settlements in Manchuria, and in theautumn of 1931 more than 100,000 Korean peasants in east Manchuria launched a well-organized autumn struggle, which developed into a violent struggle. All this showed that a mass foundation was laid on a broad scale for the anti-Japanese armed struggle. Penetratingly analyzing the situation right after the invasion of Manchuria by the Japanese imperialists which was characterized by the chaos caused by the crumbling of the Kuomintang rule in Manchuria prior to the setting up of the Japanese imperialist ruling machine and the upsurge of the anti -Japanese struggle of the masses, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung considered that itwas high time to organize and wage a large-scale anti -Japanese armed struggle right away. In December 1 931 he called a meeting of Party and YCLK cadres at Mingy uegou where he made a historic speech. On Organizing and Waging Armed Struggle against Japanese imperialism. In his speech he reviewed the situation caused by the occupation of Manchuria by the Japanese imperialists, analyzed lessons drawn from the history of the Korean anti-Japanese national-liberation movement. On this basis, he set forth the policy of organizing and waging an anti-Japanese armed struggle in the form of guerrilla warfare. He said: "Guerrilla warfare is a method of armed struggle which will enable us to deal heavy political and military blows to the enemy while preserving our own forces, and to defeat the numerically or technically superior enemy even with small forces. Only when we organize and launch armed struggle using guerrilla warfare, while relying on the active support and encouragement of the masses of the people and the favourable conditions of nature and terrain, are we fully capable of defeating the piratical Japanese imperialist aggressive forces." {ibid., pp. 27-28.) Guerrilla warfare is a form of armed struggle by which an armed force annihilates the enemy with ceaseless action through free 44 movements while maintaining close ties with the inhabitants in the areas under the enemy's occupation. Formerly the guerrilla warfare had been regarded as an auxiliary means of the regular warfare or as a form of a secondary struggle in the revolutionary struggle. However, without sticking to such ready-made views, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung defined the guerrilla warfare as the basic form of revolutionary war, as the main form of struggle in the colonial national-liberation struggle. It enables guerrillas to adopt a plan for action and choose their theatre of action as they want, apply flexible tactics and strategy adroitly and deliver battle where victory is sure. It also makes it possible to constantly expand and strengthen the armed ranks relying on the broad -based mass foundation, rely on the active material and spiritual support on the part of the people and launch vigorous political and military activities in the vast area, closely linking them with various forms of mass struggle. Therefore, it makes it possible to deal incessant military and political blows at the enemy and successfully defeat the numerically and technically superior enemy. In guerrilla warfare, the guerrillas can go among the broad sections of the masses and rouse them to revolutionary struggle while expanding and strengthening their guerrilla operations, lead them to an allpeople mass revolt at the proper time and thus launch the decisive general offensive against the enemy, pooling the efforts of the guerrillas and the popular masses and linking guerrilla operations with mass revolt. As mentioned, guerrilla warfare is a very superior form of struggle and the most powerful method of armed struggle fully capable of defeating the piratical Japanese imperialist aggressive forces. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung clearly showed the way to the solution of important problems arising in waging the armed struggle mainly through guerrilla warfare. In particular, he stressed the need to form the guerrilla army, the revolutionary armed force, which would undertake the armed struggle, that is, the guerrilla warfare, and set up guerrilla bases, to lay a mass foundation for the armed struggle and to form broad anti -Japanese united front between the Korean and Chinese peoples and united front with the Chinese nationalist antiJapanese units, and the necessity for the formation of Party organizations in different partsand the strengthening of the work of the YCLK. All these policies of his on waging the armed struggle against Japanese imperialism were put into practice without delay. 45

Formation of the Anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army Under the careful organizational guidance of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung the work of founding the guerrilla army, the revolutionary armed force which would wage an armed struggle was rapidly pushed ahead. To begin with, the work of building up the armed ranks went on everywhere. In early March 1932 in Antu the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung formed a small guerrilla unit with those active in the revolutionary struggle since the DIU as its core and gradually expanded its ranks while giving general guidance to the work of forming guerrilla ranks in different parts. Then, he generalized the experience gained, Afterwards, in the areas along the Tuman River in east Manchuria a number of small guerrilla units and groups were formed with KRA members and other young communists, front-rank workers, peasants and fiery youth tested and tempered in the actual struggle. The struggle to get arms, too, developed incessantly. The great leader Comrade Kim f! Sung put up the militant slogan: "Arms are our life and soul! Oppose arms with arms!" Very arduous was the struggle to obtain arms: At times a pistol, a bullet or a gram of gunpowder cost human lives. Members of small guerrilla groups, the YCLK, the Anti-Imperialist Youth League, the Children's Vanguard and theWomen's Association, and even children and old people took part in the struggle. By their selfsacrificing struggle they took weapons from the Japanese imperialist army of aggression, the Japanese and Manchurian police and the vicious pro-Japanese landlords and officials. Meanwhile, giving full play to their wisdom and ingenuity, the communists and revolutionary people manufactured weapons themselves. Using simple rudimentary tools, they made or mended weapons and turned out bombs of various types. The work of founding theguerrilla army was attended with a fierce struggleto counterthe brutal suppression of the Japanese imperialists. Frightened at the formation of small guerrilla groups and the rapid revolutionary advance of the popular masses in different parts of east Manchurian areas, namely, the Jiandao region, where the Koreans were concentrated, the Japanese imperialists held an emergency 46 Cabinet meeting to adopt the resolution "on measures against the precarious situation in the Jiandao region" and gave a directive to the Ministry of War to send the "Jiandao Expeditionary Force." And in the spring of 1 932 a large contingent of the "punitive force" was thrown into the Jiandao region to commit the most brutal atrocity of massacre against Koreans. They turned the Jiandao region to a "sea of flame", a "sea of blood," openly raving, "Kill Koreans without mercy. Out of one hundred Koreans you kill, one, at least, is surely Communist or Young Communist Leaguer," However, no brutal suppression of the Japanese imperialists could check the struggle for founding the anti-Japanese guerrilla army. Preparations for founding the guerrilla army made a rapid progress for all the brutal suppression on the part of the Japanese imperialists. After thoroughgoing preparations, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung founded the Anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army in Antu on April 25, 1932, Atthefounding ceremony, thegreat leader Comrade Kim II Sung made a historic speech, On the Occasion of Founding the AntiJapanese People's Guerrilla Army. After solemnly proclaiming the founding of the AJPGA, he elucidated its character and mission. He said: "The AJPGA is made up of the workers, peasants and young patriots who oppose the Japanese imperialists and their stooges and love their country and people; it is a revolutionary armed force which will dedicate itself to protecting the interests of the people. "The aim and mission of the people's guerrilla army is to overthrow the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism in Korea and bring national independence and social emancipation to the Korean people." {Ibid,, p, 47.) The AJPGA was a genuine new-type revolutionary army quite different from the former "Righteous Volunteers' Army," the "Independence Army" and other nationalist armed forces in the guiding ideas, class composition, fighting goal and methods and in other respects. It was a revolutionary army of the Juchetype unswervingly guided by the great.Juche idea enunciated by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung. It was a genuine people's army which was made up of the advanced workers, peasants and patriotic youth and maintained ties of 47

kinship with the people. It was Korea's first revolutionary armed force whose aim was immediately to fight to drive out the Japanese imperialist aggressors, establish a genuine people's government and, furthermore, eliminate all sorts of class oppression and exploitation and build socialism and communism. It was not merely an armed force fighting Japanese imperialism, but was also a political army, that is, a propagandist and organizer that educated the masses and roused them to revolutionary struggle. Moreover, it was an internationalist revolutionary army that fought for the world revolution as well as for the Korean revolution, under the militant slogan, "Workers of the whole world, unite!" In order to strengthen the guerrilla army, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung exhorted its commanding officers and men to be all boundlessly loyal to the revolution, love each other, secure unity of ideology and purpose, tighten the ties of kinship with the people, and observe an iron discipline, so that they could give full play to their excellent political and moral character as a true people's army, a revolutionary army. He also stressed the need to rapidly increasethe guerrilla ranks and improve their armament. Pointing out that in order to further strengthen the guerrilla army, the commanders and men should also acquire ingenious guerrilla tactics and apply them with skill, he said: "We should make it a basic principle of guerrilla warfare to wipe out as many enemy troops as possible while preserving the guerrilla force to the maximum. To do this, we should correctly assess the situation and the balance of forces between friend and foe and, on this basis, engage the enemy only when we are sure of victory." {Ibid., p. 49.) The great leader said thai in order to wipe out many enemy troops while preserving its own forces, the guerrilla army should correctly grasp the enemy's weak points and turn them to advantage, keep him on the defensive and destroy him ceaselessly, ambushing and assaulting him everywhere. After proclaiming the founding of the AJPGA, the great leader Comrade Kim I! Sung saw that small guerrilla groups were rapidlyexpanded in different parts along the Tuman River. As a result, the AJPGA units were organized and started their operations in all parts along the Tuman River. Korean communists in south and north Manchuria, too, upholding the policy of the armed struggle set forth by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, formed armed units and carried on guerrilla operations. 48 Significance of the AJPGA's Founding The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The foundation of the AJPGA provides us with the motive power which will directly undertake and push forward the armed struggle, the mainstream of the antiJapanese national-liberation movement in our country, and with the possibility of dealing decisive blows at the Japanese imperialist aggressors and advancing the anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle to a higher stage. "The foundation of the AJPGA will open up a phase in implementing the line of the anti-Japanese united front and the policy for founding a Marxist-Leninist party by greatly invigorating and encouraging the Korean people who are groaning under the colonial yoke imposed on them by Japanese imperialism and by inspiring them to the antiJapanese struggle." {ibid., p. 47.) The founding of the AJPGA and its armed operations marked a historic eventthat opened up a new age for the victorious revolutionary struggle of the Korean people. The AJPGA's founding meant the emergence of a powerful revolutionary force capable of implementing the great Juche idea, the Juche-ortented revolutionary line set forth by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, and the anti-Japanese armed struggle by the AJ PGA signified the start of a powerful struggle which would put into effect the Juche-oriented revolutionary line. The AJ PGA's founding and its armed struggle were the declaration of war on the Japanese imperialists and their stooges who were trampling underfoot the Chajusong of the Korean people; they were the emphatic announcement to the world public that it resolutely repudiated the flunkeyist tendency of nationalists and the participants of the early communist movements who had tried to rely on the outside forces and that they were ready to carve out the destiny of the nation and class by its own efforts and on its own responsibility. The armed struggle against the Japanese imperialists brought the Korean communist movement and anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle to a higher plane. The armed struggle itself was the highest form of struggle capable of delivering decisive blows on the Japanese imperialist aggressors. 49

and, at the same time, exerted a powerful revolutionary influence on the people in all walks of life and greatly encouraged the other forms of mass struggle, thereby making it possible to develop the general antiJapanese national-liberation struggle of the Korean people on to a higher stage. With the anti -Japanese armed struggle based on the great Juche idea, the revolutionary theory and practice were most correctly combined from the independent and creative standpoint, the communist, working-class leadership of the anti-Japanese nationalliberation struggle was firmly established and the communist movement was closely linked with the struggle for national liberation and sovereignty and the struggle for class and social liberation. With the anti-Japanese armed struggle, a new turn was brought about in preparations for founding a communist party and in the work of the anti-Japanese national united front. Organizational and ideological preparations for founding a communist party could be vigorously pushed ahead in the flame of the most .active form of revolutionary struggle and on the broad mass foundation and, accordingly, all the basic conditionsforfounding the communist party created with credit. Thanks to its revolutionary might and influence, the antiJapanese armed struggle could bring about complete isolation of the Japanese imperialists and their stooges from the popular masses and rally the patriotic people of all walks of life under the anti-Japanese banner, providing favourable conditions for forming an anti-Japanese national united front. It also enabled the Korean communists and Korean people under the wise leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung to make great contributions to the development of the international communist movement and the world revolution. The AJPGA's founding and its armed struggle against the Japanese imperialists had a big repercussion internationally in those days. Reporting on the operations of the Korean guerrillas in Manchuria, the Japan Communist Party's organ Akahata of August 20, 1 932, emphasized their great import, their international significance in particular. It pointed out that they had a deep meaning for the revolutionary struggle of the Japanese people by delivering big blows atthe Japanese imperialists and that they acquired a great significance in frustrating the war preparations of the Japanese imperialists, those against the Soviet Union in particular. The anti -Japanese armed struggle as a revolutionary struggle waged in a colony under the revolutionary banner of Juche marked an important event in the revolutionary movement of the world oppressed people for national sovereignty. It was a great struggle that clearly 50 proved to all the revolutionary people the world over that any aggressive forces, however powerful, should be fought resolutely and that when the popular masses are properly organized and mobilized a decisive struggle could be waged in defiance of the tyranny of the wicked imperialist aggressors. The AJPGA's founding by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung and the anti-Japanese armed struggle waged with the guerrilla warfare as its principal form were of great historic significance because they marked a signal change in the development of the antiJapanese revolutionary struggle of the Korean people and showed the people under imperialist yoke the way to most active struggle for liberation.

2. Establishment Amd Consolidation Of Guerrilla Bases Along The Tuman River

Establishment of Guerrilla Bases or Liberated Areas A vigorous struggle was waged to set up guerrilla bases in line with the policy set forth by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, He said: "To organize and develop the armed struggle through guerrilla warfare, a guerrilla base must be set up. A solid guerrilla base will make it possible to continually expand the armed ranks and wage protracted guerrilla warfare even when besieged by the formidable enemy. It will also make it possible for us to protect the revolutionary masses from the cold-blooded murder and barbarity of the enemy. In particular, as we fight the armed struggle with no state backing and no aid from outside, we badly need our own firm military base, a rear base. Furthermore, this base is absolutely necessary in order to progress with preparations for the founding of the Communist Party and the revolutionary movement as a whole, while waging armed struggle." {ibid., pp. 30-31 .) All the organized armed struggle can be fought properly only by relying on a certain base. In case of the regular army the state rear is such base. However, the guerrilla warfare with no state rear inevitably 51

needs adequate military, logistic base, that is, a guerrilla base, A guerrilla base will make it possible to organize and conduct military and political activity and logistical work as a whole, maintain ties with the masses, expand and strengthen the guerrilla ranks and wage a protracted guerrilla warfare even when besieged by the formidable enemy and protect the revolutionary masses from the enemy's atrocity of indiscriminate massacre. A guerrilla base had very weighty significance also as a base for the Korean revolution as a whole, the fountainhead of revolution, besides its being a base for armed struggle. For further progress of the Korean revolutionary movement in thosedays it was necessary to wage a vigorous armed struggle against the Japanese imperialists and, in parallel with it, energetically push ahead with preparations for founding the communist party and different forms of mass struggle. In order to give unified guidance of all this work there should bethemain base, fountainhead of revolution. A guerrilla base could be such a f ountainhead of revolution.. A guerrilla base could take different forms according to the prevailing subjective and objective situations, the environment and conditions of struggle or the degree of preparedness of armed forces. Taking into account the conditions created in those days, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung set forth a policy for setting up guerrilla bases in the form of a liberated area, to begin with. Only by establishing bases in the form of a liberated area, i.e., guerrilla zones free from the enemy's ruling machine, it was possibleto expand and reinforcetheftedgeling guerrilla army rapidly in reliance on it, rally the revolutionary masses around it and protect them and successfully promote military and political preparations for the development of the general anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle centred on the armed struggle. It was important to select an adequate area for a guerrilla base or liberated area. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The establishment of a guerrilla base or liberated area must presuppose the following three basic conditions: first, there must be an economic base and a mass foundation to enlist protection and support from the revolutionary masses; second, it must be geographically advantageous for the guerrilla army to defend itself even with small armed forces and the site should be such that it would be difficult for the enemy to attack the guerrilla army even though he has up-to-date 52 weapons; third, it must have armed forces of its own which should at least be capable of self-defence." {Ibid., pp. 31 -32.) Most suitable site for a guerrilla base of a liberated area was the mountainousarea along the Tuman River, and a vigorous struggle was fought there to establish a liberated area. The struggle to establish a guerrilla base or a liberated area began with the revolutionization of the people in this area. Various revolutionary organizations were expanded in vast areas and a vigorous politico-ideological work was conducted among the masses. This decisively heightened the anti -imperialist revolutionary consciousness among the people. The word revolution became popular among the people in these areas and it was considered as a binding obligation of the Koreans to respond to the call of revolution. Thus, ties between the guerrilla units and the people became inseparable to be in perfect harmony. The creation of a guerrilla base was promoted in the struggle to neutralize the enemy militarily. Without neutralizing the enemy.it was impossible to establish a guerrilla base or a liberated area or maintain it, as the Japanese imperialists became frenzied in their suppression and massacre of the revolutionary forces and the people with all their aggressive forces, their puppet Manchukuo army and puppet police. Guerrilla units active in different areas had daring engagements with the enemy forces in cooperation with paramilitary organizations* to neutralize the enemy militarily, and in this course wide area along the Tuman River was secured. According 10 a confidential document by the Japanese imperialists, in the one year of 1932 the AJPGA had 984 engagements which involved the total strength of 1 3,470. (Activities of the Foreign Ministry's Policemen in Manchuria and the Plan for Future Reinforcement, March 1 933, the Police Affairs Section of the Imperial Embassy in Manchuria.) Many patriotic-minded people came to the area. All of them were the revolutionary people who bore a bitter hatred towards Japanese imperialism and resolved to put up a stubborn struggle against it. In many parts of the area party and YCLK organizations, the Peasants" Association, the Anti-Imperialist Union, the Revolutionary Mutual Aid Society, Women's Association, Children's Corps and other revolutionary organizations along with the Red Guards, Children's Vanguard and other paramilitary organizations were formed and the broad sections of the masses were rallied in those revolutionary organizations. A revolutionary government was established and guerrilla barracks, schools, publishing houses, arms repair shops, sewing shops and others were set up in the liberated areas. 53

Inthiswaya guerrilla basewasset up in the form of a liberated area free from the enemy's rule." " Concerning the guerrilla bases established along the Tuman River., the Japanese imperialist aggressors wrote: "Today the supposed bases of the ■communist bandits (so they called the communists disparagingly^! uoter) are: Wangougou and Shirengou districts and their neighbourhood in Yanji County, bordering on Wangqing County; Yulangcun district and its neighbourhood in Helong County, bordering on Yanji and Antu Counties; Xiaowangqing north of Baicaogou in Wangqing County; Dahuanggou in Hunchun County, bordering on Wangqing County; Yantonglazi district and the area north of it bordering on the Maritime Province of the Soviet Union. All these bases are situated at obscure spots among rugged mountains bordering on the county boundaries or the frontier. These geographical features provide a favourable condition for unrestrained sorties to the neighbouring areas and even to the area facing North Hamgyong Province across the river." (Secret Service Police Bulletin, No. 2, Public Security Section, the Police Affairs Bureau, Government-General of Korea, pp. 221 -22.) The founding of the guerrilla army and the establishment of guerrilla bases provided essential conditions for the speedy promotion of the anti -Japanese armed struggle. But at that time "Left" opportunism raised its head, doing great harm. Regarding the establishment of liberated areas in some areas as the completion of revolution, the "Left" opportunists retired on their laurels. They kept aloof from the armed struggle and even stood in its way. Maintaining that the socialist revolution should be carried out immediately, they insisted on establishing a soviet form of government in the liberated areas. In the solution of the agrarian question, too, they negated private ownership in general and went in for confiscation of all the land and introduction of cooperative farming. This caused great confusion and vacillation among the masses. The "Left" opportunists kept clear of and were hostile to the inhabitants in the areas situated between the liberated and the enemyheld areas. They branded those in the in-between areas as "two-faced people" or those in the enemy- held areas as "lackeys" of the Japanese imperialists. Furthermore, they gave up not only work with the revolutionary organizations in the enemy-held areas but work with those in the intermediary areas. Such "Left" opportunism became more pronounced, leaving grave consequences, during the time when the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung was in south and north Manchuria with some units of the AJ PGA, The aim of his advance to north and south Manchuria was to get the broad sections of people to be informed of the founding of the AJ PGA, give them revolutionary influence, expand guerrilla ranks and 54 temper them in actual struggle and establish contacts with the troops of the Korean Independence Army and the Chinese nationalist antiJapanese units. Returning from north and south Manchuria in the late autumn of 1 932, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung led the guerrilla army and revolutionary organizations to firmly build up the guerrilla bases, expedite the anti-Japanese armed struggle and extend it to the homeland, while resolutely repudiating "Left" opportunism. Policy of Spreading and Developing the Armed Struggle into the Homeland Leading a unit of the guerrilla army across the Tuman River in March 1933, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung advanced into the Onsong district on the northern border of Korea. After fully grasping the state of affairs there, he called a meeting of chiefs of underground revolutionary organizations and the underground political workers in the Onsong area. Mt, Wangjae was the venue of the meeting. In his speech To Spread and Develop the Armed Struggle into the Home/and delivered at the meeting he emphasized that only by spreading and developing the armed struggle into the homeland was it possible to give irreparable political and military blows to the Japanese imperialists, who were forcing all sorts of misfortune on the Korean people, exert a strong revolutionary influence to the people in the homeland and rouse them vigorously to a sacred war against Japan. He pointed out that in order to spread and develop the armed struggle into the homeland it was necessary to establish semi-guerrilla zones over a wide area in the homeland. He said: "To do this we should wage a more forceful struggle to establish and consolidate more semi-guerrilla zones over a wide area in the homeland adjacent to the guerrilla bases along the Tuman River." (/hid., p. 58.) A semi-guerrilla zone meansan area which, though under the rule of the enemy inform, isundertheguidanceof theguerrilla army and the revolutionary organizations in practice. Such zone serves as an important politico-military stronghold and rear base for the guerrilla army and as a source for reinforcing the guerrilla ranks. Hence, by setting up and consolidating semi-guerrilla zones over a wide area 55

in the homeland it was possible to successfully spread the armed struggle to the homeland. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung said that in order to form the semi-guerrilla zones oyer an extensive area in the homeland the guerrilla army should conduct vigorous combat operations in the border areas and meanwhile, the underground revolutionary organizations at home should rally and revolutionize the broad masses opposed to Japanese imperialism and set up secret communications centres and various other centres for activity wherever necessary, by turning to account the favorable terrain conditions of the wooded areas. He stressed the need to closely rally the whole nation into a single political force under the anti-Japanese banner, actively organize the people's anti -Japanese struggle in various forms in combination with the armed struggle, and that the revolutionaries and people at home should make every effort to support the guerrilla army and the guerrilla bases. The policy set forth by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung at the meeting at Mt. Wangjae' provided a basic guideline for further advancing the armed struggle and stepping up the activity of the revolutionary organizations at home. Establishment of the People's Revolutionary Government and Enforcement of Democratic Reforms in the Liberated Areas. Creation and Expansion of the Semi-Guerrilla Zones While resolutely repudiating "Left" opportunism, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung put forward the line of setting up, instead of a soviet government relying only on the workers and peasants, the people's revolutionary government in the liberated areas and implemented it. This government relied on workers, peasants and other patriotic-minded people of all walks of life. Recalling those days, he said: "In the days of the anti -Japanese revolutionary struggle we laid down, on the basis of a scientific analysis of the tasks of our revolution and thesocial-class relations in our country, the Juche-oriented line of building the government — to establish the people's government based on the workerpeasant alliance led by the working class and resting on the 56 i united front of the broad popular masses. Following this line, we set up and exercised the people's revolutionary government, a unique form of power, in the guerrilla bases, thus gaining precious experience in building up the people's government." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. VII, p. 417.) Under the wise leadership of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung the people's revolutionary government was set up in the liberated areas. Where the soviet government had been formed, it was reorganized into the people's revolutionary government and where the former was not yet formed, the latter was established from the outset. The people's revolutionary government enjoyed the positive support of the entire popular- masses. The people's revolutionary government was a government capable of fully satisfying the demands of the workers, peasants and other broad popular masses; it was a most revolutionary and popular government that could rally them closely and powerfully organize and mobilizethem in the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. It was most suitable to the process of the progress of the national-liberation revolution at the time and the actual condition of the liberated areas. It served as the prototype of the state power to be established in the liberated homeland in the future. The line of people's revolutionary government set forth by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung was an original linethatthrew light on the problem of power, the basic problem of revolution. There had once prevailed a notion that a sovietgovernment should be set up in all cases of the revolution led by the working class. But the change of the conditions of revolutionary development and, particularly, theproblem of the anti-imperialist national united frontwhich came to the fore in the colonial national-liberation struggle, required the solution of the question of power from a new angle. The line of people's revolutionary government set forth by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung fully met this requirement for the first time, thereby making outstanding contribution to the development of the theory on state power. The people's revolutionary government made public its programme and carried out democratic reforms. It ensured complete political freedom and democratic rights to the people in the liberated areas. On the other hand, it exercised implacable dictatorship over the pro-Japanese elements, traitors to the nation and reactionary classes, It confiscated the land of the Japanese imperialists, pro-Japanese 57

landlords and traitors to the nation and distributed it to the peasants, proclaimed an eight-hour working day and a minimum wage system and abolished miscellaneous levies and taxes, it also enforced the equality of the sexes, free compulsory education and free medical care. Thus, new socio-economic relations and revolutionary order were established in the liberated areas. The liberated areas were now in a position to acquit themselves well as the reliable military strategic strongholds and strong rear bases for the anti-Japanese armed struggle and as the fountainhead of the general Korean revolution.* * A magazine published in. Japan in those days wrote: "What attention is focussed on was, above all, the fact that the communist bandits (So they called communists disparagingly — Quoter.) have established the so-called complete '...Kingdom' using the natural strongholds of those mountainous areas. "The kingdom has a government. Head of the government called chairman exercises control over military, administrative, guidance, educational and executive organs through consultation' with the members of the supreme executive committee.... The people in the kingdom work the dry and paddy fields distributed by the government, and do the work of repairing roads or building houses by government order." "Besides, the kingdom occupies a definite area.... They are keeping strict guard, always sending out guards tothe observation posts set up on key points of the boundary they have fixed. They call the boundary 'frontier.' "...Thus the guerrilla zone in the Jiandao district is fully provided with three factors land, people and. government and presents a single state... by operating them." {Toyo, February, 1934, issue, Toyo Society, pp. 92-93.) Successful progress was also made in establishing semi-guerrilla zones around the liberated areas. In pursuance of the line put forward by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung the communists and guerrillas expanded revolutionary organizations in the vast rural area around the liberated areas, intensified revolutionary education for the popular masses and infiltrated into the enemy's government organs. Semi -guerrilla zones were thus established in the regions around the liberated areas in east Manchuria and in Onsong, Hoeryong, Musan, Saebyol, and other places in the vast northern border area of Korea. With the creation of many semi-guerrilla zones, the bases and mass foundation for the armed struggle were built up more firmly than before. They were the invisible rear bases giving material and spiritual support to the guerrilla army and the reliable advance bases supporting and protecting the liberated areas. They were also the military strongholds enabling the guerrillas to secure adroitness and manoeuvrability in their operations and the revolutionary bases to rear the revolutionary force.* 58 * In his report to the chief of the Police Affairs Bureau of the GovernmentGeneral of Korea on the state of affairs in the Luozigou area, the then semiguerrilla zone, the panic-stricken chief of the South Hamgyong Provincial Police, wrote as follows: "General Situation in the Luozigou Area. 1 . The population is made up of a thousand and several hundred households; every inhabitant iscommunized and keeps frequent contacts with the Communist Party. 2. Armed groups have free play even in the vicinity of towns at day time." (The chief of the South Hamgyong Provincial Police, On the Dispatch of Young Korean Communists Resident in Manchuria to Korea. September 23, 1935, Kannan Ko-otsu, No. 1399.) While setting up and expanding the semi-guerrilla zones, thegreat leader Comrade Kim M Sung saw that in the enemy-held areas where it was impossible to establish semi-guerrilla zones, secret communications centres were set up for the small guerrilla groups to secure their secret movements and operations or underground revolutionary organizationswere formed sothatthe guerrilla army could rely on them in tightening its ties with the revolutionary masses there. 1 After the guerrilla zones-liberated areas, semi-guerrilla zones and bases for guerrilla activity were established systematically in the northern border area of Korea and the extensive area along the Tuman River, a vigorous push was given to the anti-Japanese armed struggle and the general anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle centred on it.

3. Expansion Of The Revolutionary Organizations

The organizational and ideological preparations for founding a communist party were successfully pushed forward side by side with the reinforcement of the guerrilla units and the consolidation of guerrilla bases. In this period the fundamental question in the preparations for the founding of the Party was to organize its organizations in the antiJapanese guerrilla units, the guerrilla bases and all other possible places in accordance with the principle of organizing and building it from below, establish its organizational and guidance system, step up the work of the Young Communist League of Korea and expand mass organizations. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Only when the vanguard role of Party organizations is 59

enhanced and the work of the YCL further strengthened, can we successfully carry out all the tasks that will arise in organizing and waging the armed struggle and make sound organizational and ideological preparations for founding a unified Marxist-Leninist Party." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 1, p. 40.) Only when party organizations were formed and the work of the YCLK strengthened, was it- possible to admit into them advanced elements of worker and peasant origins and thus solidly lay an organizational backbone and foundation for party building, and intensify the anti-sectarian struggte and achieve the unity of thought, purpose and action in the communist ranks. And only when the party organizations and the YCLK organizations were organized systematically and their vanguard and leading role enhanced, was it possible to exercise the party's principled leadership over the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggles including the armed struggle. Along with this, the mass organizations had to be widely organized. Only then, was it possible to rally the broad masses organizationally and educate them and thus lay a solid mass foundation for party building and the revolution. Expansion and Strengthening of the Party and YCLK Organizations In accordance with the line put forward by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, organizational and political work was vigorously prosecuted to expand and strengthen the party and YCLK organizations in the guerrilla units and among workers and peasants. First of all, in the guerrilla units the party and YCLK organizations were systematically organized from the IPwer up to the higher on the principle of democratic centralism and a political organ came into being in every unit to give unified guidance to the organizational and political work in it. The party and YCLK organizations grew rapidly in number in the liberated areas and semi-guerrilla zones, too, with the result that their organizational systems were established. They spread even to the enemy-held areas." * At that time the Japanese imperialists admitted that as of May 1 934 there were four county committees (Yanji, Wangqing, Helong, Hunchun) and under 60 them 21 district committees and 1 61 party branches were organized and active in the area along the Tuman River. (The July, 1934, issue of the Toa, a Japanese magazine, East-Asian Economic Research Department, p. 138.) The Japanese imperialists deplored as follows: "As for the activities of the Communist Party in the white area (enemycontrolled district — Quoter) recently. .. the cell organizations of the Communist Party itself seem to have assumed wide dimensions there. Attention should be paid to the fact that every communist organization within the white area is under the wirepulling of the party headquarters in the Red district (guerrilla area — Quoter). So long as their base in the Red district is not destroyed, we can hardly expect the liquidation of the Communist Party in Jtandao, no matter how we may try to destroy them in the white district." (Data on the Recent Communist Movement in China and Manchuria, Section No. 2, East Asia Department, December 1934, pp. 204-05.) Through the party and YCLK organizations which were thus expanded and strengthened, the new communists of worker and peasant origins, that is, the Juche-type communists of the new generation, who were seasoned organizationally, ideologically and in practice, grew up rapidly and the organizational backbone for the founding of a party was prepared. The process of expanding and strengthening the party and YCLK organizations and rearing the communists of the new generation was accompanied by a fierce struggle against sectarianism. This struggle could be waged more forcefully than ever as the party and YCLK organizations were systematically organized and the core ranks of the communists grew up reliably under the energetic guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. What was of great significance in intensifying the anti-sectarian strugglewas the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung'sworkief t/s Wipe Out Factionalism and Strengthen the Unity and Cohesion of the Revolutionary Ranks (published on May 10, 1933}. Referring to the ideological source of sectarianism, he said: "Factionalism is a product of bourgeois and pettybourgeois ideologies, particularly of self-heroizing, fameseeking and careerism; it has nothing in common with the revolutionary ideas of the working class." {ibid., p. 76.) He pointed out the cause and the circumstances of the origin of sectarianism in the Korean communist movement and disclosed the crimes committed by the sectarians historically and systematically. Exposing the crafty tricks employed by sectarians, he made clear that it was their old trick to disguise themselves as "ardent revolutionaries" with various hypocritical words, win over the people to their side in an unprincipled manner by means of every possible form of deception, conciliation and machination, play a double game, look down on the masses and force others to obey their will. 61

He also clearly pointed out measures for the struggle to liquidate sectarianism. Firstly, he stressed that all the guerrillas and the members of the YCLK and other revolutionary organizations should strive to have a sound revolutionary world outlook and that a man without such world outlook can neither wage a successful anti-sectarian struggle nor prevent the infiltration of sectarianism. Secondly, he said that all the guerrillas, YCLK members and broad revolutionary masses should be actively drawn in the anti-sectarian struggle. Thirdly, he also taught that the struggle against sectarianism should be closely combined with the work of strengthening the revolutionary ranks. Fourthly, he taught that the Right and "Left" deviations should be guarded in the struggle against sectarianism and this struggle be waged in a principled way in the interests of the revolution. He also stressed that one should not commit the "leftist" error by regarding the people as sectarians unreasonably and, at the same time, that one must guard against the rightist error which might be made by neglecting or weakening the anti-sectarian struggle. He further said that as the struggle to eliminate sectarianism could not be carried out in a short span of time, it should be waged patiently and stubbornly until sectarianism was completely done away with. In those days the anti-sectarian struggle presented great complexity. It was due to the facts that not a few sectarians were occupying the leading posts in the party organizations and various revolutionary organizations and, furthermore, that they were covering their true colours with ultra-revolutionary words. However, the staunch communists who were closely rallied around the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung unfolded a principled anti-sectarian struggle without letup. As a result, the foothold of the sectarians gave way rapidly. In the process of the struggle against sectarianism the party and YCLK organizations were reinforced, their role enhanced and their members were further tempered ideologically and organizationally. Leading their members to tighten their organizational life, the party and YCLK organizations firmly built up the organizational backbone for the founding of a party. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "To establish the leadership elite of the guerrilla army and the organizational backbone of the Korean Communist Party to be founded in the future we must strengthen the life of Party organizations." {Ibid., p. 40.) 62 The party and YCLK organizations at all levels helped their members to enhance their sense of organization and heighten organizational discipline, held party meetings, party study sessions, and meetings for reviewing party life regularly and firmly established the revolutionary habit of criticism and self-criticism. In the course of tightening party and YCLK organizational life, the Juche-type revolutionaries who were firmly equipped with a strong organizational spirit and a revolutionary world outlook, the indomitable communists, i. e., the communist elite, who were resolved to accomplish their revolutionary tasks to the last in any adversity were trained and increased. The party and YCLK organizations energetically conducted the politico-ideological work to firmly arm the guerrillas and the popular masses with the great Juche idea and the Juche-oriented revolutionary lines, strategy and tactics. The work of systematically raising the politico-theoretical level of the men and officers of the guerrilla army went on regularly at the military-political cadres' training centres and the short courses setup in the liberated areas. A number of revolutionary publications including magazines and newspapers such as Chontu-ho (Combat Daily), Minjung-bo (People's Daily), Pan/e-jonson (Anti- Imperialist Front), faejungsinmun (Mass- News), Nongmin-tujaeng (Peasants' Struggle), Chongnyon-tujaeng (Youth Struggle) were issued. They corresponded to the specific conditions and educational level of the people of all walks of life. They were widely distributed not only in the liberated areas, but even to the semi-guerrilla zones and enemy-controlled areas, to give the people revolutionary education and awakening and forcefully arouse them to the anti-Japanese struggle. Revolutionary literary and artistic activities, too, were extensively developed. Militant and popular revolutionary songs, dramas and various other kinds of literary and art works of high ideological and artistic quality played a great role in enhancing the class consciousness and revolutionary zeal of the guerrillas and the people and arousing them to struggle against the enemy. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung got the party and YCLK organizations and mass organizations to establish the revolutionary system and method of work in their activities. He first of all established a work system under which the leading personnel went down to the lower bodies and gave them a substantial help. Rendering substantial assistance to the lower units is one of the 63

fundamental requirements of the revolutionary work system which calls for performance of all work in conformity to their actual situation and the demands of the masses and strengthens the unity of thought and purpose between the superiors and the subordinates. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung saw to it that all the functionaries of the party and YCLK organizations and all the revolutionary organizations and the commanders of the guerrilla army made it a rule to go down to the lower units with knapsacks on their backs, kindly help and educate their subordinates and the masses, sharing board and bed with them. And he in person set an example and popularized it. He then set persuasion and education as the basic methods in work with the party members, the YCLK members, the guerrillas and the masses. A revolutionary struggle can be forcefully wagud only when it is based on a high level of political awareness on the part of the people; the fundamental method of enhancing the revolutionary consciousness of the people consists in persuasion and education, i. e., political work. Persuasion and education are the revolutionary methods of work derived from the nature of the communists who perform all the revolutionary activities in reliance on the masses. They acquired a particular importance in the unprecedentedly arduous anti-Japanese armed struggle. The respected leader Comrade Kim I! Sung got al! the functionaries, the party members and the guerrillas to make it a rule to conduct political work in diverse forms and methods at anytime and in any place. By so doing he steadily enhanced the revolutionary consciousness of the guerrillas and popular masses and led them to successfully discharge whatever difficult revolutionary tasks with conscious efforts. In particular, he stressed on the thorough establishment of a revolutionary style of work, the style of doing all work in a substantial and creative way without sticking to any forms, carrying out work boldly and in a go-ahead manner and tackling all the tasks militantly and quickly to accomplish them in good time. He defined it as an iron rule for the leading personnel to take an initiative and set an example to others. The revolutionary system and method of work created by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung served as a decisive guarantee for the success of the politico-organizational work of the party and YCLK organizations and the mass political work of the guerrillas and the communists. 64 Expansion and Development of Mass Organizations Attaching a deep significance to the building of mass organizations, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "No revolution can be made by a few communists alone, without the active support and participation of the majority. For the masses to be involved in the revolutionary struggle and to be turned into a strong political force, they should be armed with a revolutionary consciousness and organized in large numbers in mass organizations." {Ibid., p, 20.) Under the wise guidance of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung various mass organizations were successfully organized and expanded. The Peasants' Association (Peasants' Committee), the AntiJapanese Association (Anti -Imperialist Union), the Revolutionary Mutual Aid Society and various other mass organizations were organized in the liberated areas and semi -guerrilla zones. In the enemy -held areas, too, the Anti -Japanese Association and many other mass organizations were formed.*1 The names and forms of these mass organizations varied according to the features of the localities. The Peasants' Mutual-Aid Association was organized to operate in the northern part of Korea.*2 * 1 As regards the activities of the Peasants' Association and the AntiJapnnese Association, confidential documents of Japanese imperialism wrote: "The Peasants' Association plays the most important role 'in cbmmunizing the peasants. It is intended to unite the poor tenant-farmers, who are suffering from the ferocity of the landlords, and pit them against the landlords, start a campaign for the reduction of farm rent and lead it to a land revolution aimed at the confiscation and distribution of land. The activities of the Peasants' Association occupy an important part of party work in such areas as the Hunchun area in Jiandao where peasants account for over 90 percent of the population." (Outline of the Rise and Fall of the Communist Party Attendant on Operations for Mopping Up the Bandits, Police Affairs Office, Jilin Provincial Government, 1934, p. 36.) "...The popular masses are organized info such mass organizations as the Peasants" Committee and the Anti-Japanese Association to serve as human and material foundations for the activities of the Communist bandits (so they called the communists disparagingly — Qtioter). "Especially the Anti-Japanese Association is a dreadful organization which is found wherever the communist bandits are active. It performs intelligence liaison missions for the armed communist bandits (so they called the antiJapanese guerrillas depreciatingly -Quoter), the supply of weapons, ammunition. 65

food and clothes to them, the destruction of traffic and communication networks. Besides, it has separately organi2ed the Peasants' Armed Self- Defence Corps as a force for supplementing the regular- army activity. "Such a close organizational fusion between the communist bandits and the people is a feature to be found only in the activity of the communist bandits. The fact that when political bandits and local bandits have been rapidly decreasing and mining by punitive expeditions, the communist bandits alone keep persistent resistance is largely attributable to it." (Study on the Communist Bandits in Manchuria, Mo. 2, Advisory Department, Manchukuo Military Administration, 1937, p. 5.) * z According to a Japanese police document, a mass organization called the Worker -Peasant Union was reorganized into the Peasants' Mutual -Aid Association in the area of Onsong County, North Hamgyong Province, which conducted vigorous activity in close contact with the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Army. (Thought Bulletin, No. 6, Thought Department, Public Procurator's Office, High Court of Justice, March 1936, pp. 8-19.) The mass organizations were made up of workers, peasants, youth, students and other anti-Japanese people in various walks of life. The mass organizations played the part of peripheral organization of the party and were active in the forefront in work with the masses. Imbuing the broad masses with the Juche-oriented revolutionary tine worked out by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, they forcefully aroused them to the anti-Japanese struggle and directed much effort to supporting and assisting the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Army. As the mass organizations involving the broad masses came into being and actively operated, the foundation of the anti-Japanese national united front movement was also laid solidly. Especially such mass organizations as the Anti-Japanese Association and the AntiImperialist Union played an important role in the development of the above-mentioned movement in those days as the organizations resembling a united front which embraced the anti -Japanese people of all walks of life. While pushing ahead with the work of organizing and expanding various mass organizations, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung taught them concrete ways and means for successfully carrying out the mass work. He repeatedly stressed that in the mass work, they should, first of all, be closely united with the masses and go deep among them, sharing sweets and bitters with them. He taught that the political education of the masses should be conducted in the ordinary, easy-to-understand language and that its level be elevated step by step. He stressed that the contents and forms of political work should tally with the features of people of various strata and that diverse methods of political work be applied. In 66 particular, he taught that as for the workers and peasants, they should be firmly armed with the anti-imperialist revolutionary ideas while enhancing their class consciousness and that in the case of the national capitalists and religious men, they should be induced to come out in the anti-Japanese struggle while heightening their national consciousness. As a result of the implementation of his teachings, great successes were registered in the mass work. The revolutionary consciousness of the masses was quickly developed, and they came out more actively in the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. As a consequence of the intensified political and organizational work among the masses, the mass foundation of the revolution, the mass foundation for founding a party was solidly laid.

4. Growth Of The Guerrilla Ranks And The Intensification Of The Armed Struggle

Growth bf the Guerrilla Army and Its Political and Military Consolidation The ranks of the guerrilla army grew and strengthened rapidly. The revolutionary youths who had been trained in various paramilitary organizations joined the guerrilla units in succession. Many young workers and peasants who had been seasoned and tested through diverse struggles in the enemy-controlled areas were also admitted into them. In June 1 933, more than 1 50 workers of a mine in Badaogou, Yanji County, joined the guerrilla army at the same time. Youths from the homeland and various parts of Jiandao joined it one after another. With the growth of the guerrilla ranks, a considerable attention was paid to the rigid maintenance of their purity. In those days, defending this purity acquired special importance because the enemy was making frantic efforts to infiltrate spies, subversive elements and saboteurs in them, resorting to every possible manoeuvre in an attempt to destroy the guerrilla army. Therefore, in expanding the guerrilla 67

ranks, the principle of careful selection, along with the voluntary principle, was observed. In parallel with the constant reinforcement of the guerrilla ranks, there arose the important task of reinforcing them politically, ideologically, militarily and technically. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "We endeavoured to ensure the organizational and ideological purity and unity of purpose of the anti-Japanese guerrilla ranks and equip all the guerrillas with the firm consciousness of Juche, ardent patriotism and warm revolutionary comradeship and voluntary discipline. Also, we improved the military equipment of the guerrilla army with weapons captured from the enemies in the course of incessant battles with them. We further expanded and developed the guerrilla ranks." (Answers to the Questions Raised by Foreign Journalists, Eng. ed., p. 139.) Political and ideological superiority is an intrinsic feature of the revolutionary army and the source of its indestructible might. Just for this superiority a revolutionary army is able to destroy any numerically and technically superior enemy. In order to strengthen the guerrilla army politically and ideologically and to consolidate the unity of ideology and purpose in its ranks, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung set it as the most important task to firmly arm the guerrillas with the Juche idea and thoroughly establish the monolithic ideological system within the ranks. Also he strove to equip the guerrillas with ardent patriotism, indomitable revolutionary spirit, warm revolutionary comradeship and voluntary discipline. He also saw that the revolutionary trait of unity between men and officers and of unity between the army and the people was firmly established. This can be found only in the revolutionary army. Full development of it offered important condition conducive to strengthening the guerrilla army, A revolutionary army can show greater political and ideological superiority when this superiority is combined with military and technical might. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung took measures so that the guerrilla units could get powerful weapons as far as possible while possessing weapons and equipment suited to the guerrilla warfare. Since the guerrillas used diverse arms captured from the enemy he also gotthem to be well versed in all kinds of weaponsand fully acquire the strategy and tactics of a revolutionary war. He led all the officers and men to enhance their political, 68 ideological, military and technical qualities so as to be well prepared for performance of the function of a higher grade. This is an important requirement for the qualitative growth of the revolutionary armed forces. This was a proper measure particularly under the conditions thatthe guerrilla army had an increasing number of recruitsand that its ranks and units expanded without letup. With the thorough observance of the principle of building the revolutionary armed forces, the guerrilla army grew quickly in quality and quantity. The Anti-Japanese People's Guerrilla Army grew into an invincible, powerful revolutionary armed force in the fierce battles with the enemy. The guerrilla ranks swelled rapidly, many fine military cadres and political workers with military experience and commanding ability grew up, and their armament and equipment also improved. It was now necessary to reorganize the military and organizational system of the guerrilla army. The AJPGA was reorganized into the Korean People's Revolutionary Army in March 1934. Thus, divisions, regiments, companies, platoons and squads were organized systematically and all the guerrilla units came to be placed under a unified organizational system. This marked an important turning point in strengthening and developing the guerrilla army. With this reorganization, a system of unified command over many guerrilla units in different areas was firmly established, the party's guidance to the activity of the guerrilla units was further improved and the armed struggle was expanded and developed still more. The People's Revolutionary Army extended its sphere of activity, dealing a greater blow to the enemy. Arming of the Entire People in the Liberated Areas and the Fortification of These Areas Alarmed at the rapid expansion and development of the armed struggle, the Japanese imperialists made frantic efforts to nip the guerrilla army and its bases in the bud. In January 1 933 a joint conference of the high-ranking officers of both the Japanese imperialist army and the Manchurian police was held at the Japanese Consulate General in Jiandao to discuss about a large-scale "mopping-up" operation against the guerrilla baseliberated area along the Tuman River." * At this conference the enemy screamed: "In view of the present situation 69

of the public peace in Jiandao the activities of the Korean communist bandits (so they called anti-Japanese. guerrilla army insultingly — Quoter) are of far more serious consequence than the damages done by the bandits (Chinese nationalist anti -Japanese units — Quoter.) or the mounted bandits, it may be said that 90 per cent of public peace in Jiandao is successful only when they are put down." {Foreign Ministry Police Annals, the Volume on Jiandao, Japanese Foreign Ministry, SP 205, pp. 8392-93.) The Japanese imperialists mobilized a large force and resorted to the "scorched -earth tactics" to bum down, kill and plunder all in the guerrilla bases- liberated areas and the "siege-and-attack operations" to envelop and attack the liberated areas for a long period. Besides, in order to cutthe contacts between the guerrillas and the popular masses they set up "concentrated villages" and forced the inhabitants around the guerrilla bases-liberated areas into them and enforced the medieval system of collective watching. They pursued a total blockade policy toward guerrilla bases. They also mobilized all their espionage and hireling organizations and their propaganda machine to viciously carry out wrecking activities, sabotage and reactionary propaganda. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung advanced a positive policy for defending the guerrilla bases- liberated areas in the face of the enemy's frenzied "punitive" operations. What was essential in this policy was the arming of the entire people in the guerrilla basesliberated areas and the fortification of the guerrilla zone and the skilful employment of the superb guerrilla tactics of combining the active defence with the attack on enemies from behind. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung taught: "In the guerrilla zone we must not only develop the guerrilla army politically and militarily; we must also expand and' reinforce paramilitary organizations such as the Red Guards and the Children's Vanguard and arm everyone in defence of the guerrilla base." (Kim II Sung, Works. Eng. ed.. Vol. 1, p. 32.) In order to increase the defence power of the guerrilla basesliberated areas in an all-round way, it was necessary to reinforce the guerrilla army and, at the same time, arm all the people in the guerrilla zone. Arming the people, especially youth and children in the guerrilla zone and training them militarily and technically acquired a great importance not only to the immediate defence of the guerrilla bases, but also to the systematic future growth and reinforcement of the guerrilla forces. The most important thing in arming all the people in the guerrilla bases- liberated areas was to expand and strengthen the paramilitary organizations. 70 The members of the paramilitary organizations conducted military activities while participating in production, so many people in the guerrilla zones could be enlisted in these organizations. In the guerrilla zones various paramilitary organizations such as the Red Guards (the Anti-Japanese Self-defence Corps), the Children's Vanguard, the Youth Voluntary Army and the Shock Brigade were organized and expanded. Continued intensification of politico-ideological education and military training among the members of the paramilitary organizations enabled them to successfully accomplish their duties in political, military and productive activities." The newspaper Choson l/bo issued at that time in Seoul said: "The communist guerrillas,. ..even the children and women are versed in tactics. They fight- the punitive forces with machine guns." (Choson llbo. September 28 1933.) In parallel with the arming of alt the people, the guerrilla zones were fortified so that the alt-people defence system could display its invincible might. Under the condition that the guerrilla bases- liberated areas were encircled by the enemy on all sides, fortification of a certain spot or an outpost alone fell short of fulfilling the mission of the defence of the guerrilla bases. In consideration of these actual circumstances the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung advanced the policy of accomplishing the allround fortification of the guerrilla bases, putting the favourable natural and topographical features of the liberated areas to good use in combination with the artificial defence facilities. In line with this policy the anti -Japanese guerrillas and the people in the liberatedareasdug trenches, communication trenches and firing dugouts everywhere and built a large number of obstacles and defence facilities against the enemy's attacks, taking advantage of natural and terrain features. And a system of emergency mobilization was worked out and all measures for evacuating the old and infirm and children were taken so as to ensure high mobility in case of emergency. In order to detect the movement of the enemy in good time and take necessary measures, a ramified network of watch was spread and an all-people system of guarding and warning was established.* * With regard to the fact that their action plans could not but be exposed instantly by the close warning system set up in the guerrilla zones, the Japanese imperialists said: "Actions of the punitive forces themselves are a military secret. 71

and it is a usual practice for them to advance and retreat with agility and deal surprise blows to the enemy. But here the enemy keeps a cleverly-wrought intelligence network and watching and guarding are particularly strict in and around the guerrilla bases. They are on the constant alert, signalling with blank shots, beacons as well as red and white flags." (Secret Service Police Bulletin, No. 2, Public Security Section, Police Affairs Bureau, Government-General of Korea, p. 220.) An all-people defence system was thus firmly established in the guerrilla bases-liberated areas, and this provided a sure guarantee for the defence of the liberated areas and the active promotion of the armed struggle, Intensification and Development of the Armed Struggle. Struggle in Defence of the Guerrilla Bases The Japanese imperialists' "punitive" operations against the guerrilla bases- liberated areas became intenser with each passing day. They hurled a large number of troops in the "punitive" operations on the guerrilla bases along the Tuman River. They even mobilized aggressive forces in other areas, to say nothing of the Jiandao Expeditionary Force of their occupationist army in Korea, the independent garrison unit, gendarmes, police forces and the puppet Manchukuo troops and police. The guerrillas and the people in the guerrilla bases were faced with a serious ordeal. However, under the high command of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung they waged a heroic struggle. They victoriously fought back the enemy in many battles from January 1933 to March. In April 1933 a large enemy force made an assault on the Xiaowangqing guerrilla base where the headquarters of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army was located. Afierce battle was fought in defence of Xiaowangqing, In the bloody offensive and defensive battle the anti-Japanese guerrillas and the people in the guerrilla bases wiped out over 400 enemy troops and repulsed the enemy to win a great victory. The brilliant victory in this battle clearly showed that under the sagacious leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the antiJapanese guerrillas had been reinforced and developed into an invincible revolutionary armed force in a matter of only one year and 72 that the guerrilla bases were converted into an impregnable fortress. After repelling the enemy's "punitive" operations, the guerrilla units went over to offensive to destroy the military stronghold of the enemy while expanding the scope of this military action. In the period between the summer and autumn of 1933 they launched successive assaults, ambuscades and attacks on walled towns, wiped out and weakened the enemy's manpower and inflicted a great loss on his combat and technical equipment. Thisputthe enemy on the defensive.' * About the guerrillas' vigorous ambushing operations, the enemy said: "The motor road running from Yanji to Baicaogou was attacked more than 50 times between early 1932 and March 1934." {Economic Situation in the Area along the Xinjing-Tumen Lint 3nd behind It, Manchukuo General Railway Board. 1935, p. 395.) A former officer of the 10th Regimenf, 10th Division of the Japanese imperialist aggressive army, who took part in the "punitive" operations against the guerrilla zones in 1933 stated about the fierce assaults launched by the guerrillas: "At that time the Japanese troops made a tenacious attack, each time with overwhelmingly large strength and superior weapons, but they were impotent before 'Kim II Sung's units' which were gallant and high in antiJapanese spirit and performed protean guerrilla operations. "When the exhausted Japanese army stopped its summer 'punitive' operations, 'Kim II Sung's units' made-assaults almost every day. They raided on several big towns in Jiandao Province." {Sidae, No. 4, 1974, Tokyo, Sidae Publishing House, p. 73.) The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung directed deep attention to putting up a united front with the Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units. In June 1 933 he opened up through negotiation, a new phase in the formation of the joint front with the Chinese nationalist antiJapanese units which were active in east Manchuria. And in September he organized and commanded combined operations with them for an offensive on the Dongning County seat, a military stronghold in the area on the Soviet-Manchurian border, dealing a telling blow to the Japanese imperialist aggressors and the puppet Manchukuo Army * * As for their miserable defeat in the Dongning County seat, the Japanese imperialist aggressors sadly cried: "Attacks on county seats become intenser in the summer of 1933... Assaults on the Dongning County seat and other seats added difficulty to the punitive operations." {Manchukuo Police Annals, Vol. 1, Police Affairs Office, the Public Peace Department, 1942, pp. 288-89.) The Japanese imperialists were greatly scared at the rapid expansion of the armed struggle. They had to discuss this matter even in a cabinet meeting and dispatched high-ranking officials to 73

Manchuria to take necessary measures. In October 1933 these officials, the heads of the Kwantung Army, its gendarmes, intelligence corps and embassy and also the heads of gendarmes, army and police in Yanji gathered at Yanji, discussed measures and decided to launch large-scale "winter punitive" operations. And the enemy carried out the "winter punitive" operations between the end of 1 933 and early 1934. In the "winter punitive" operations the enemy directed its main force at the Xiaowangqing guerrilla zone where there was the headquarters of the KPRA while assigning his auxiliary forces to the attack on other guerrilla zones. In order to cope with this situation, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung further adjusted and improved the defence system in the guerrilla zones and skilfully applied diverse tactics to beat off the enemy's attacks successfully. In particular, when the enemy came out with "prolonged siege-and -attack" operations after reinforcing his forces, he completely frustrated his attempt by skilfully combining positive military actions in the guerrilla zones with the operations to harass his rear, In early 1 934 he divided the defence force in the base into two units, and got one to continue stubborn defence in the base and the other to boldly advance into the enemy's rear to destroy his main military strongpoints and supply routes. He in person led one unit behind the enemy line. This unit made assaults on enemy barracks, police stations, selfdefence corps, arsenals and military supply routes and raided Wangqing City, a military stronghold of the enemy, seizing the opportunity of most of the enemy troops having been mobilized for the "punitive" operations on the guerrilla bases. The enemy, now badly hit as a result of the masterly and bold tactics of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, had no choice but to hurriedly withdraw his troops from the "punitive" operations against the guerrilla bases. And the battle in defence of the guerrilla bases which had lasted 90 days from late 1 933 to early 1 934 ended in a shining victory for the anti -Japanese guerrillas and the people in the bases. Afterwards, the Japanese imperialists persistently launched "siege-and -attack" operations continuously mobilizing largeforces in an attempt to recover their ignominious defeat. In the "siege-andattack" operations the enemy intended to "strangulate" the guerrilla zones not by one or two offensives but by prolonged encirclement, incessant attacks, the maintenance and expansion of the occupied areas and the intensification of economic blockade. 74 While redeploying the KPRA units so as to encounter the enemy's "siege-and-attack" operations,thegreat leader Comrade Kim II Sung sent numerous large and small units into the enemy-held areas to launch raids and surprise attacks, strengthen political work among the people there and conduct active work of undermining the enemy forces, and thus shatter their schemes to pieces. In the spring of 1 934 the KPRA units made successive assaults on "concentrated villages" to deal a heavy blow to the enemy's "siegeand-attack" operations. In the summer of that year, while intensifying assaults on the "concentrated villages," they carried out attacks on the enemy's important "punitive" operation bases including Luozigou, Wangqing County, dealing repeated decisive blows to his "siege-andattack" operations.* On the KPRA activities in those days the Japanese imperialists wrote in despair: "The 3rmed communist troops operating in this area in concert with the bandits (so they called the Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units — Quoter). amassed substantia! force; their actions are extremely agile. They are not only familiar with actual fighting, but armed with the best weapons; sometimes they use light machine guns, mortars and other efficient weapons. They defy the fierce firing of our punitive forces, and rather staunchly fight back them by relying on favourable heights or steep spots which make our machine gun fire useless." {On the Increase of Defence Establishments and Police Personnel, a document sent by Nagai. Consul-General in Jiandao, to Hirota, Foreign Minister, on July 17, 1934.) Reporting on the Luozigou Battle, the newspaper Chosonllbo wrote: "...the National Salvation Army (Chinese nationalist anti -Japanese units— Quoter), the armed communist troops based in Wangqing County and the communist troops in the area of Dahuangwai, Yanji County, with a total force of approximately 1,000, allied themselves and they encircled Luozigou City from the night of 26th and launched a furious attack on the Manchukuo Army camps and the police station there. The Manchukuo Army and police put up a desperate fighting, but odds were against them. All the policemen including the superintendent were already disarmed. The troops fought within the camps, but at 7 a.m. on the 28th the streets were completely occupied by the enemy (the KPRA — Quoter). (Choson Itho, June 30, 1934.) As can be seen, under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung the guerrillas and revolutionary masses beat off all the "punitive" operations of the enemy and heroically defended the guerrilla bases-liberated areas. 75

5. Growth And Development 07 The Antijapanese Struggle Of The Popular Masses Under The Impact Of The Armed Struggle

Rapid Extension of the Revolutionary Influence of the Anti-Japanese Armed Struggle The news of the a nti -Japanese armed struggle led by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung spread rapidly with an irresistible force. Everyone talked and heard with admiration about General Kim II Sung, the anti-Japanese guerrillas and the growth of the armed struggle and the defeat of the Japanese army and police. The stories about General Kim II Sung and the a nti -Japanese armed struggle circulated like a legend. The anti-Japanese armed struggle had a revolutionary influence not only in the localities around the guerrilla bases- liberated areas but in every corner and nook of Korea It had strong impact not on a single class or stratum, but on all classes and strata. The Japanese imperialists resorted to every possible means to prevent its influence, but in vain. The revolutionary influence of the anti-Japanese armed struggle grew stronger with the anti-Japanese guerrillas' advance into the homeland. The great leader Comrade Kim 11 Sung said: "The expansion and development of the armed struggle into the homeland plays a decisive role in exerting a revolutionary influence on the peopleat home, strongly inspiring themtothe anti -Japanese struggleand finally eradicating the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism." {Ibid., p. 61 ) The anti -Japanese guerrillas frequently advanced into the homeland and conducted military and political activities in accordance with the policy put forward by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung. Between 1933 and 1935 they carried out valiant combat actions on scores of times in the northern border areas of Korea such as Onsong, Musan, Hoeryong and Saebyol* and dealt a serious blow to the 76 Japanese imperialist aggressors and gave the people sure conviction about victory. A Japanese police document contains mention of the activities of 234 men of the KPRA in Korea in the one year of 1 935. (ThoughtBulletin, No. 14, Thought Department, Public Procurator s Office, High Court of Justice, March 1 938 a 72.) The ties between the popular masses and the anti-Japanese armed struggles became closer through the activities of the political workers dispatched by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. The political workers sent to North Hamgyong Province set up secret camps in the backwoods of Onsong County, Musan County and Hoeryong County* and carried out political and organizational work among the broad popular masses, while extending the scope of their activities to the industrial centres, ore and coal mines, ports and rural areas. The sites of the Wangjaesan secret camp in Onsong County, the Karajibong secret camp in Musan County and the Soksaegol secret camp in Hoeryong County are still preserved aimost as they were.. Many political workers were also dispatched to Hamhung and various other areas inside Korea. They carried out vigorous activities centering on factories, villages, schools and shops. The political workers were very active in organizing diverse illegal revolutionary organizations including the Anti-Imperialist Union and the Anti-Japanese Association and forming such legal and illegal organizations asthe Friendship Society and the Mutual Aid Society. At the same time, they strove to establish contacts with the existing a.ntiJapanese organizations. They explained to the revolutionary masses the revolutionary lines advanced by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung and organized and mobilized them in active anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. Various publications issued in the guerrilla bases-liberated areas were widely circulated among the broad popular masses. All this contributed to daily increase of the revolutionary influence of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, greatly inspiring the people of all walks of life in their anti-Japanese armed struggles. 77

part of Korea came to the great leader Comrade Kim fl Sung to join the guerrilla army.* * Even a Japanese paper informed: "The Jiandao Red Army (the Anti -Japanese Guerrilla Army— Quater) has been further reinforced by the mass enlistment of workers and peasants. It has repeatedly foiled the attacks of the Japanese army." (Akahata, organ of the Japan Communist Party, March 5, 1933.) Under the guidance of the revolutionary organizations, the patriotic people offered the detailed informations on the enemy at all times, and this constituted one of the major conditions for ensu.ing the success of the combat activities of the guerrilla army. In particular, the advance of the guerrilla units intothe homeland was conducted always on the basis of the precise informations offered by the people. When the guerrilla units advanced into a strange place, they were always guided by the revolutionary people and provided with the conditions for billeting. In case of emergency the people helped them to take refuge in safe places. The popular masses also lent ever-increasing material assistance to the guerriiia units and the people in the guerrilla zones. They provided, through a mass movement, materials for the political and military activitiesand lifeof theguerrillasand the people in the guerrilla zones. The broad people in all strata including even patriotic religionists, tradesmen and industrialists, to say nothing of workers, peasants, youth, students and intellectuals, participated in the aiding work. The aid materials included explosives, reagents, materials for repairing and manufacturing weapons, provisions, daily necessities, medical apparatus, medicines, printing equipment, school things and various other items. The material assistance had to be rendered amidst a strict cordon of Japanese imperialism. Therefore, this work could be ensured by the self-sacrificing efforts of the revolutionary organizations and patriotic people. If anyone was detected by the Japanese imperialists in the act of aiding the guerrillas, he was put to severe torture or hanged in the worst case. This, however, could not bring the revolutionary people to their knees. The active support of the popular masses for the anti-Japanese armed struggle greatly inspired the struggle of the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Army and the people in the guerrilla zones and strengthened the bonds between the armed struggle and the general anti -Japanese struggle of the popular masses. SO Growth of the Mass Struggle of Workers and Peasants Under the revolutionary impact of the anti-Japanese armed struggle the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle of the workers, peasants and other popular masses assumed greater dimensions. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung taught: "Underground revolutionary organizations and political workers must actively organize and wage in towns, farming and fishing villages at home diverse forms of anti-Japanese struggle of the popular masses in coordination with the antiJapanese armed struggle. In this way, we will give a decisive blow to the Japanese imperialist aggressors, expand and strengthen the mass foundation of the revolution and accelerate the destruction of Japanese imperialism." (Ibid , p. 61.) The Japanese imperialists intensified their suppression of the Korean people as the days went by. In an attempt to completely check the revolutionary advance of the people, they gave unlimited right to the gendarmes and the police, including "the right to summary punishment." Even the figures released by the Japanese imperialism reveal that the number of the people who were arrested, imprisoned or punished by the "right to summary punishment" amounted to more than 453,800 between 1932 and 1935. However, no ferocious suppression could check the revolutionary struggle of the Korean people who had been greatly encouraged by the anti-Japanese armed struggle. The struggle of the workers, peasants and other popular masses became more active and militant. Even according to the doctored figure of Japanese imperialism, from 1931 to 1935 over 900 strikes were staged involving over 70,000 workers. The numbers of the strikes and the participants were far greater than the total of the past 10 years. What was conspicuous in the workers' struggle in those days was that the struggle of the workers employed in the large factories and enterprises run by the Japanese imperialists, especially in the branches of heavy industry, gradually assumed high proportions. Beginning from 1 934, the miners went out on strike in succession in various places and the workers of the major metalworking factories took an active part in the strike struggle. In October 1934, over 600 81

workers of the Hung nam Smeltery staged a general strike. In March 1 935, 1 ,700 workers of the Kyomipo Iron Works (now Hwang hae Iron and Steel Complex) laid down their tools in demand of better treatment and higher wages. In July 1 ,200 workers of the Nampo Smeltery called on a strike under the active support of the workers of the other factories in Nampo and the peasantsfora 50 percent wage rise, better treatment, an 8-hour working day, collective bargaining, the abolition of national discrimination, and so on. All these struggles, far going beyond the bound of economic struggle, assumed the nature of political struggle, and the main spearhead was eventually directed to the colonial domination of Japanese imperialism. The peasants' struggle, too, grew intenser rapidly. According to the minimized figures issued by the Japanese imperialists, between 1 931 and 1 935 there were over 350 mass tenancy disputes involving about 1 8,000 peasants. Thiswell testifies to the leaping progress of the peasants' struggle. The peasants' struggle in those days was marked by successive mass tenancy disputes in the farms run by the Japanese organs and Japanese in various parts of the country including Hwang hae. South Pyongan, North and South Choi la, and North and South Kyongsang provinces. Their violent struggle went on without letup. They collectively meted out punishment to the malicious landlords while struggling to take back the comrades who had been arrested by the police and falling on the ruling machine and predatory organs of Japanese imperialism. In those days the Korean people also waged a vigorous struggle against the new war preparations of the Japanese imperialists. Since 1933-1934 the Japanese imperialists forced the Korean people to make contributions to funds for airplanes and store up provisions for the army. However, the patriotic people of Korea resolutely opposed it. Written appeals were distributed revealing the vicious scheme of the Japanese imperialists and calling on the people to oppose it. {Protocol of Preliminary Examination, South Hamgyong Provincial Police, March 1934, pp. 110-11.) The incidents of anti-Japanese school strikes, the reading circles and of anti-Japanese and anti-war leaflets occurred in succession among the student youth, " As can be seen, after the start of the anti- Japanese armed struggle, the general anti -Japanese revolutionary struggle of the Korean people made a rapid progress. 82

6. Advance Of The Korean People's Revolutionary Army Into A Wide Area

Closing of the Liberated Areas The anti-Japanese armed struggle had so far made a rapid growth relying on the guerrilla bases- liberated areas. However, such reliance gradually proved to be unreasonable for the development of the armed struggle. So another measure had to be taken. In March 1 935 this question was mainly discussed at the meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRA held at Yaoyinggou, At the meeting, the respected, leader Comrade Kim II Sung delivered a speech On Relinquishing the Guerrilla Zones and Advancing over Wide Areas. He clearly explained the need to close the guerrilla basesliberated areas from two angles— the requirements for further development of the armed struggle and the demand of the obtaining situation. He said: "Now we have the urgent task of following up these valuable successes and experience so as to further the revolutionary struggle. This task requires that we leave the limited guerrilla zones and launch into wider areas for largescale guerrilla operations." {Ibid., p. 95.) The full guerrilla zones, that is, the guerrilla bases in the form of the liberated areas had performed their missions admirably as the strategic bases of the armed struggle. The guerrilla army had rapidly grown in scope and strength and tempered itself politically and militarily and accumulated precious experiences while operating in reliance on the liberated areas. Many young communists were trained in the flames of the fierce revolutionary struggle and the unity and cohesion of the revolutionary ranks further strengthened through the struggle against sectarianism and Right and "Left" opportunism. And a mass foundation for the armed struggle and the founding of a party had been firmly laid down as a result of winning the broad masses of people over to the side of revolution. The anti-Japanese united front with the Chinese people 83

was also successfully materialized. In a word, a strong internal force was built up for further development of the armed struggle and the general anti -Japanese revolutionary struggle. These circumstances required the units of the KPRA to advance into broader areasfor more active operations without being confined to the liberated areas. Only by so doing, could they expand the armed struggle, deal a greater political and military blow to the enemy and energetically push forward both the work of founding a party and that of the united front. The obtaining situation also demanded that they close the guerrilla zones and advance into wider areas. At that time the Japanese imperialists mobilized crack armed force tens of thousands strong, encircled the guerrilla zones thick and threefold and launched "punitive operations'' every day They tried every means available to sever the ties between the KPRA and the people. In such situation, if efforts were concentrated on the defence of the fixed guerrilla bases-liberated areas, it would neither be possible to preserve the revolutionary force built up for many years nor could the initiative be kept in the fight with the enemy. It was, therefore, imperative to close the fixed liberated areas and march into wider areas to expand guerrilla operations, The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung criticized some people who had insisted on 'defending the guerrilla zones to the last" and fully explained to them that their view wasan expression of military adventurism which might lead to doing grave damage to the revolution. The policy of closing the guerrilla bases liberated areas and making the KPRA units advance into broader areas was a strategic policy for developing the armed struggle onto a new, higher stage; it was the only correct policy in developing the Korean people's antiJapanese revolutionary struggle centred on the armed struggle, a policy adopted on the basis of profound consideration of the prevailing subjective and objective conditions.' *As regards the closing of the liberated areas, even the Japanese imperialists said: "Jt was not due to the loss the revolutionary army had suffered from the 'punitive operations,' but for further expansion of the guerrilla movement." (A Study of Recent Communist Movement in Manchuria, Police Affairs Department, Embassy of the Japanese Empire in Manchuria, July 31. 1935.) Following the Yaoyinggou Meeting, the work of closing the guerrilla bases-liberated areas began. Among the people in the guerrilla bases, the youth and children who had been educated and tempered in the paramilitary organizations 34 such as Young Volunteers' Army, Red Guards, Anti-Japanese Selfdefence Corps, Shock Brigade and Children's Vanguard and in other revolutionary organizations were admitted to the KPRA. Other revolutionary masses were to go into the enemy-ruled areas and continue their revolutionary work there. They were very reluctant to part with the KPRA, but made for the enemy-held areas in hearty response to the policy of closing the guerrilla bases- liberated areas. The units of the KPRA advanced into wider areas without delay. Advance of the KPRA into Wider Areas The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung took measures to send out the KPRA units into wider areas of Korea and north and south Manchuria. He got the main units to advance in the direction of north Manchuria. The main units of the KPRA commanded by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung reorganized their ranks. They made preparations for the north Manchurian expedition through the Laoheishan Battle in Dongning County in June 1 935 and the Taipinggou Battle in Wangqing County, while conducting various organizational and political activities. Then they crossed the Laoyeling Range and advanced into North Manchuria. They dealt a telling blow to the enemy through the Shandongtun Battle in INingan County (July 1935) and greatly encouraged the people in north Manchuria to the anti-Japanese struggle. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung called a meeting of the cadres of the main units of the KPRA at Sandaohezi in Ningan County in August 1 935, where he put forward the policy of separate actions to cope with the enemy's concentrated offensive. According to this policy, the main force of the expeditionary units advanced in the direction of Emu, one unit into Wangqing and Hunchun of east Manchuria and another unit into the Ningan, Muling and Linkou areas. The main force of the expeditionary units, under the command of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, crossed Lake Jingbo in late August 1935 and energetically carried out political work among the people. Meanwhile, it annihilated the Japanese garrisons in the Qinggouzi Battle (September 1935) and fought the Pipadingzi Battle (September 1935) and the Nantianmen Battle (September 1935). 85

It also dealt a crushing blow to the Japanese- Manchurian mixed units in the Wanligou Battle (October) in Emu County and then made an assault on the Japanese garrison stationed in Sandaogou. Thus appearing now in the east and now in the west like a flash, it struck successive blows at the Japanese imperialist aggressive army and the puppet Manchukuo troops. It divided up into several groups and carried out many battles including the ambush near Laodaokou in Emu County early in November 1 935, the Xinxingcun Battle in the south of Qinggouzi, Emu County, at the end of November, the Liuchaigou Battle in the vicinity of Guandi in December, administering terrible blows to the enemy. As can be seen, under the prominent command of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the units of the KPRA that had advanced into north Manchuria dealt successive severe blows to the enemy and, at the same time, exerted a revolutionary influence on the people and greatly inspired them.* "A high-ranking Japanese policeman who took part in a desperate attack on the KPRA at that time in the Emu area complained: "It must be 'Kim II Sung's units' that make frequent appearance in this area recently. This area was not their original operational base. Until several months ago they had been active in the area of Ningan County, but now they seem to have moved to this area. If they are to stay on in this area in the future, it will greatly affect the 'public peace' in this locality. We W3nt to 'destroy' them as early as possible, but the 'punitive units' suffer repeated defeats. This really worries us. If 'Kim II Sung's units' are to stay on here for a long time, we cannot maintain the 'public peace' in this area. So it is our earnest wish that they will move toother areas as quickly as possible." (Sidae, No 6, 1973, Tokyo, Sidae Publishing House, pp. 41 -42.) The main units of the KPRA that had advanced into north Manchuria fought in close coordination withtheguerrilla unitsalready operating in this area and assisted them in many ways. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung dispatched excellent officers and men of the KPRA to the guerrilla units in north Manchuria to reinforce them politically and militarily. The units of the KPRA which had advanced into Korea, too, scored a glittering success. A small unit of the KPRA dispatched by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung advanced into the northern part of Korea in May 1935 and conducted agile military and political activities.* 'About the actions of the KPRA unit in Korea, the Tonga llbo reported under the title "The Communist Troops in Musan Having a Hard Fight on the Ujok Pass": " 'Police Affairs Bureau Operations'. A few days ago, 70 armed communists intruded in the area within the jurisdiction of the Musan Police Station. ..and 86 disappeared. A search party of the station led by Sakata, chief of the police, is said to have engaged over ten communists on the Ujok Pass near the borders of Musan Sub-county and Yongbuk Sub-county, Musan County." (Tonga llbo, June 1 , 1 935.) It also reported under the title "Six Armed Communist Intruders Still Travel in Disguise;... They Turned Out to Be Members of the Revolutionary Army. The Police Is Busy Searching": "The headquarters of the search party was moved to the Musan Police Station from the police substation in Rangyongdong at 11 p.m. on the 30th. The Hoeryong, Puryong and Yonsa police stations are all out to annihilate them, tightening their guard in the above-mentioned areas." (Tonga llbo, June 2, 1935.) The Small units of the KPRA, operating in Korea, carried out vigorous military and political activities in broader areas including the Musan area and the Puryong, Chongjin, Pungsan and Kapsan areas. A unit of the KPRA that had advanced in the d irection of Fusong and Mengjiang in south Manchuria waged vigorous military and political activities in close contact with the local units. The KPRA units that had advanced into north and south Manchuria and Korea in accordance with the new policy advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, could accumulate military and political experience in many aspects and decisively strengthen their fighting capacity in all respects and exert strong revolutionary influence on the broad popular masses through their vigorous activities in the broader areas. Moreover, the advance of the KPRA units into wider areas not only dealt a great blow at the enemy but also marked an epochal turn in sowing the seeds of revolution among the broad popular masses and continuously increasing their combat power and a new turning-point in expanding and developing the anti-imperialist united front with the anti-Japanese armed units of the Chinese people. 87

Chapter IV: Expansion And Development Of The Anti -Japanese Armed Struggle. Second Stage Of The Armed Struggle

1 New Policy . Jr Further Intensifying And Developing The Anti-japanese Nationalliberation Struggle

In the mid-1 930's a new change took place in the internal and external situations. The might of the Soviet Union, the first socialist state, had rapidly grown and the liberation struggle of the oppressed and exploited peoples of the world gained momentum, whereas imperialism was becoming more and more reactionary. The imperialist powers made frenzied efforts to prepare themselves for an aggressive war in order to get out of the economic crisis of 1 929-1 933, In particular, the fascist states such as Japan, Germany and Italy entered into an "AntiCommunist Agreement" and manoeuvred to trigger off aggressive wars everywhere. At that time the Japanese imperialists intensified tyranny over and plunder of the Korean people as never before, while preparing for an aggression on the continent. The Japanese imperialists cooked up various kinds of new evil laws including the so-called "Law on Protection and Supervision of the Political Offenders," and greatly expanded the police information network. And they whipped up the militarization of the economy, mobilizing all the manpower and material resources of Korea for war preparations. The obtaining situation demanded further intensification and development of the anti -Japanese revolutionary struggle of the Korean people. 88 !n those days there had been built up a great force capable of bringing about a new upsurge in the anti -Japanese revolutionary struggle of the Korean people. Amidst the vigorous anti-Japanese armed struggle, the leading force of the Korean revolution had been firmly prepared, broad revolutionary and patriotic forces rallied around the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and precious experience accumulated. A meeting of the military and political cadres of the KPRAwas held in Nanhutou in February 1936. At the meeting the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung delivered a historic report entitled The Tasks of Communists in the Strengthening and Development of the AntiJapanese National -Liberation Struggle. In the first part of the report he set forth the policy of moving the main force of the KPRA to the border areas and gradually extending the theatre of its struggle into the homeland. He said: "In order to bring about a great upswing in our antiJapanese national-liberation struggle at the present stage we must shift the main force of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army to the border areas and gradually extend the theatre of our struggle into the homeland." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 1, p. 99.) Only when the scene of struggle of the main force of the KPRA was moved to the border areas and the armed struggle extended into the homeland, could the KPRA give a hope of national liberation and the confidence in the victory of the revolution to the Korean people who were groaning under the vicious colonial rule of Japanese imperialism, and could itgive more effectiveguidance to variousforms of the anti-Japanese struggle of the people at home and more energetically propel the anti -Japanese national united front movement and the preparations for party building. For the People's Revolutionary Army to move to the border areas and homeland for operations, its bases had to be established along the border. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung said that the guerrilla bases should be established in the border areas around Mt. Paekdu which were most appropriate in view of both the mass foundation and the geographical conditions. He ad.ded that they should be a new type of guerrilla bases different from those in the form of liberated areas formerly built in east Manchuria. He said that the guerrilla bases of the type of semi-guerrilla zone should be set up by forming a network of secret camps in the vast expanse of virgin forests around Mt. Paekdu on which the KPRA was to rely in its activity and organizing the people in the neighbouring areas. 89

Such a guerrilla base could be a flexible bastion invisible to the eyes of the enemy and, accordingly, the units of the KPRA could be able to conduct mobile military and political activities and wage all struggles actively, moving to wider areas without staying at one place. In particular, it was great;*/ advantageous to them in extending the armed struggle into the homeland. In the next place, the report put forward the policy of further expansion and development of the anti -Japanese national united front movement. Only when this movement was expanded snd developed and conducted vigorously on a nationwide scale, was it possible to unite the patriotic masses of the people of all strata under the banner of resisting Japan and bring the anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle to a new upsurge. The expansion of the anti -Japanese national united front movement in Korea was urgent in the light of the requirement of the international situation. Fascism which appeared in many countries at that time was the greatest menace to the world. The fascists were trying to enslave not only the peoples of their own countries but also all humanity and fascistize the whole world by means of sanguinary dictatorship and aggressive war. In that situation the Seventh Congress of the Comintern held in the summer of 1 935 appealed to the Communist Parties of all countries to form anti-fascist popular fronts, deeming it imperative for the working people and the broad sections of democratic forces in all countries to unite and counter international fascism. So the first and foremost task in the international communist movement was for each country to form anti-fascist popular front or anti-imperialist national united front and fight against the fascist forces and their schemes of war provocation. And the anti-Japanese national united front movement of the Korean people against the Japanese imperialists, the most ferocious "shock brigade" of international fascism, came to occupy a very important place in the international struggle against fascism and war. In this period the subjective and objective conditions for expanding and developing the anti -Japanese national united front movement had been created in Korea, Due to the unheard-of fascist tyranny and colonial plunder of Japanese imperialism, the conditions of all people— intellectuals, national capitalists and urban petty-bourgeoisie, to say nothing of the workers and peasants — went from bad to worse. Such being the case, the anti-Japanese sentiments of all classes and strata, except for a 90 handful of pro-Japanese elements and national traitors, reached the highest point. So, all of them could be rallied under the banner of the anti -Japanese struggle. At the same time, in the course of promoting the anti-Japanese national united front movement the leading cores had been prepared and precious experience accumulated. Under these conditions, it was possible to develop the united front movement onto a new stage. The great leader Comrade Kim I! Sung said: "We need a standing body of the united front if we are to advance the anti-Japanese national united front movement to a new stage." {Ibid., p. 107.) In the first half of the 1930's besides the party and YCLK organizations, labour organizations, peasant organizations and other mass organizations representing various classes and strata and the Anti-Imperialist Union and other such organizations embracing different classes and strata were organized in many places and, on this basis, the anti-Japanese national united front movement was carried on. But in those days, due to the lack of a comprehensive united front organization, the movement inevitably suffered dispersion. !n order to further organize and systematize the movement, it was imperative to form a comprehensive, integrated standing body of the united front. The respected leader Comrade Kim M Sung taught that this united front organization should be a mass revolutionary organization thatwould organizeand mobilizethewhole nation, excepta handful of the reactionary elements, to the front for national liberation. Stressing the importance of yniting all the youth of various strata into the anti-Japanese national liberation front in the expansion and development of the united front movement, he suggested the dissolution of the YCLK which admitted only those young people dedicated to the cause of communism, and set forth the task of setting up an AntiJapanese Youth League of Korea as a mass organization of youth which would embrace the broad sections of young patriots. The report then set forth the policy of actively stepping up the preparations for the founding of a party on a nationwide scale. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "We should make vigorous, nationwide preparations for building a party and lay solid organizational and ideological foundations so that we can found the party at the opportune moment when the situation permits." {Ibid., p. 109.) In the first half of 1 930's there were lots of complicated problems entangled in the preparations for party building. However, thanks to the wise leadership of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, a considerable success was achieved in this work. Reliable revolutionary 91

ranks, a new generation of communists trained and tested in the Flames of the armed struggle had rapidly grown up and their unity and cohesion further cemented on the basis of the Juche-oriented revolutionary line. In addition, the party organizations were formed in the KPRA units and in many regions and various revolutionary organizations expanded, with the result that the organizational foundation for party building was laid. Nevertheless, it was necessary to continue to step up the organizational and ideological preparations for party founding and it was particularly important to quickly extend this work into the homeland. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung set forth the task of firmly laying down organizational and ideological foundations for party building through energetic nationwide preparations for it. He stressed that party organizations should be expanded to every possible region and unit, especially into the homeland, the party's unified organizational guidance system established from the KPRA party committee to all the party organizations at the lowest level and an organizajional backbone for party building solidly built up through the active promotion of the work of expanding the party ranks. He pointed to the need of laying a firm ideological basis for party founding through an uncompromising struggle against sectarianism and opportunism of all shades and the strengthening of the unity of thoug ht and purpose of the communist ranks, the revolutionary ranks based on Marxism- Leninism and the Juche-oriented line, strategy and tactics of the Korean revolution. He stressed that the mass basis for party building should be firmly laid by uniting the broad popular masses of all sections. As can be seen, at the Nanhutou Meeting the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung clarified new policies for further promoting the communist movement and anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle in Korea. Decisive reinforcement of the internal force of the Korean revolution, an all-round materialization of the Juche-oriented revolutionary line, expansion of all forms of struggle deep into the homeland and development of the Korean revolution for its great upsurge— these had been the basic thoughts underlying the report and the fundamental spirit of the Nanhutou Meeting. Following the Nanhutou Meeting, a tireless struggle was waged to carry through the line set by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, and the armed struggle, the anti-Japanese national united front movement and the preparations for the founding of a Communist Party began to follow a new road of development. 92

2. Founding Of The Association For The Restoration Of The Fatherland

Founding of the ARF and Its Significance After the Nanhutou Meeting the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung energetically stepped up the preparations for the founding of an anti-Japanese national united front organization as a standing body and organized a preparatory committee for it Pressed as he was with the supreme command over the KPRA s advance to the border areas, he personally drew up the documents to be adopted at the time of founding s united front organization in the future. On the basis of thoroughgoing preparations, a meeting was called at Donggang to set up an Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland as a standing anti-Japanese national united front organization. And on May 5, 1 936, the founding of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland was announced to the world, and the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung was elected its chairman. The meeting adopted the Programme, Statutes and the Inaugural Declaration of the ARF drawn up by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. It also decided to publish the monthly Samil Wotgan as the organ of the ARF. The ARF was the first anti-Japanese national united front organization and a powerful underground revolutionary organization of the Korean people. Withthefounding of the ARF, the lineof a united front laid down by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung was brought to brilliant fruition. The founding of the ARF was of great significance in the development of the anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle of the Korean people. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The founding on May 5, 1936 of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland, the first organization of the anti-Japanese national united front in our country, was an event of epochal significance in consolidating the mass basis of revolution. With the founding of the association, the anti93

Japanese national united front movement developed more organizationally, systematically and rapidly on a nationwide scale in close combination with the anti-Japanese armed struggle. It became possible firmly to organize and mobilize all the anti-imperialist forces in the struggle to liberate the country ." (Answers to the Questions Raised by Foreign Journalists, Eng. ed., p. 139.) The founding of theARF made it possible to more firmly unite the broad anti-imperialist patriotic forces comprising people of all sections and develop the anti-Japanese national united front movement organizationally and systematically on a nationwide scale. It was of great significance also in the development of the antiJapanese armed struggle and the preparatory work for party building. It brought the anti-Japanese armed struggle and the antiJapanese national united front movement into a closer link, decisively cemented the ties between the KPRA and the broad popular masses and widened and consolidated the mass foundation of the antiJapanese armed struggle in an all-round way. It also made it possible to step up the preparatory work for party building on a broad mass basis in close combination with the antiJapanese national united front movement. The preparations for the founding of a party could be further systematized and energetically expanded into the homeland through the ARF network. Moreover, the Programme of the ARF could play a great role in laying a mass base and ideological foundation for party founding. It fully reflected the requirements of the platform of a revolutionary party in the stage of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution. So it contributed to the solution of the question of preparing for the platform of the party in the making, which was the most important problem in the ideological preparations for party building. Under the banner of the ARF Programme the ideological unity of the communist ranks could be strengthened and the revolutionary base successfully expanded among the broad popular masses. Programme, Statutes and Inaugural Declaration of the ARF The Programme of the ARF consists of the following 10 points: 1. To mobilize the entire Korean nation and realize a 94 broad-based anti-Japanese united front in order to overthrow the piratical Japanese imperialist rule and establish a genuine people's government in Korea; 2. To defeat Japan and overthrow its puppet state "Manchukuo" by the Koreans resident in Manchuria through a close alliance between the Korean and Chinese peoples, and to effect full autonomy for the Korean people residing in Chinese territory; 3. To disarm the Japanese armed forces, gendarmes, police and their agents and organize a revolutionary army truly fighting for the independence of Korea; 4. To confiscate all enterprises, railways, banks, shipping, farms and irrigation systems owned by Japan and Japanese and all property and estates owned by pro-Japanese traitors, so as to raise funds for the independence movement and use part of these funds for the relief of the poor; 5. To cancel all loans made to people by Japan and its agents and abolish all taxes and monopoly systems; to improve the living conditions of the masses and promote the smooth development of national industries, agriculture and commerce; 6. To win the freedom of speech, the press, assembly and association, oppose terrorist rule and the fostering of feudal ideas by the Japanese imperialists, and to release all political prisoners; 7. To abolish the caste system which divides the ryangban (nobles) and the common people, and other inequalities; to ensure equality based on humanity irrespective of sex, nationality or religion; to improve the social position of women and respect their personalities; 8. To abolish slave labour and slavish education; to oppose forced military service and military training of young people; to educate people in our national language, and to enforce free compulsory education; 9. To enforce an eight-hour day, improve working conditions and raise wages; to formulate labour laws; to enforce state insurance laws for the workers, and to extend state relief to the unemployed; 10. To form a close alliance with nations and states which treat the Koreans as equals and to maintain comradely relations of friendship with states and nations which express goodwill and maintain neutrality towards our nationalliberation movement. 95

As seen above, the Programme of the ARF was a programme for the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution which comprehensively defined the tasks of national liberation and of the democratic transformation of society. It first clarified political tasks for regaining national sovereignty. It set forth the task of overthrowing Japanese imperialist colonial rule and establishing a genuine people's government. To this end, it pointed out, a revolutionary army should be built up and a broad antiJapanese national united front formed. This was the reflection in the programme of the political task of defeating Japanese imperialism by the efforts of the Korean people themselves and establishing a genuine people's sovereign power. The Programme pointed out political tasks for winning the freedom of the press, publications, assembly and association and ensuring the equality of the sexes and other democratic freedoms and rights. Then it presented all the economic tasks for the independent development of Korea. It clarified the basic requirements of the agrarian reform and the nationalization of major industries —confiscation of land owned by Japanese imperialism and traitorous pro-Japanese elements, all enterprises, railways, banks, shipping, farms and irrigation systems owned by Japanese imperialism and all property owned by the traitorous pro-Japanese elements. It also made clear thetask for the introduction of an eight-hourday and the democratic system of labour protection and the improvement of the living conditions of the working people Along with the tasks for social and economic reforms, it also put forward the task of developing national industry, agriculture and commerce so as to build an independent national economy. Besides, it presented it as the task of social democratization to liquidate the Japanese imperialist colonial ruling system and the feudal remnants in all the domains of social life and promote democratic national education and national culture. Lastly, it laid down the basic principles of independent foreign policy, the principles of maintaining friendly relations with all the countries which take a position of equality with the Korean nation and express goodwill and maintain neutrality to the national-liberation movement of the Korean people. The ARF Programme was an original one which embodied the Juche idea of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung; it was also a revolutionary programme which .thoroughly reflected the Juchemotivated stand and properly combined the class line with the mass 96 line. It was an immortal classic showing the colonial and dependent countries the most correct road of revolution, the road of the antiimperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution. The Statutes of the ARFconsisted of eight chapters and 14 articles plus three additional articles. It provided for requirements for membership, admission procedure, the principles of activity of members, the organizational principles and form of the ARF, the norm of activity of its branches at all levels and the special members, to name the main clauses. All the provisions of the Statutes were so enacted as to unite as many patriotic forces of ail strata as possible and actively organize and mobilize them in the anti-Japanese struggle. The Inaugural Declaration of the ARF was a historic document that announced the founding of the ARF to the whole world. In its opening sentence, the Declaration says: "Our nation is, indeed, in an unheard-of wretched plight. Which road should our people take now, deprived of their homeland and weighed down with a terrible misfortune? For our nation there is no alternative but to fight against the Japanese imperialist marauders. This is the only way to usher in the dawn of national liberation." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng ed.. Vol. 1, p. 114.) Laying stress on the fact that the chief cause of the failure in the effort to achieve national independence and liberation in spite of the sacrifice and courageous struggle of so many patriots in the past was the lack of unity of all the movements for national liberation, the Declaration pointed out that the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland was inaugurated as the body of general leadership that would unite as one all the anti-Japanese forces at home and abroad and ensure a unified leadership over them and that its Ten-Point Programme was adopted. In accordance with the Programme, the Inaugural Declaration announced to all the Korean people as follows: "1 . The whole Korean nation will fight in unity against the enemy, the Japanese imperialist aggressors, irrespective of class, sex, social status, party affiliation, age and religious belief, so as to win back the country and establish a genuine people's government in Korea. ... "2, Koreans living in Manchuria will strive to overthrow the aggressive machines of Japanese imperialism and its puppet state 'Manchukuo' through a close alliance with the Chinese people, and to bring about genuine national autonomy for the Koreans in Chinese territory. ... 97

"3. For the liberation of the fatherland, we will expand and strengthen the revolutionary armed ranks. ... "4, In order to build a wealthy and mighty independent and sovereign state, we will carry out economic and cultural policies that are genuinely popular and democratic. ... "5. We will form a common front against the enemy, the Japanese imperialist aggressors, in close alliance with states and nations which express goodwill and maintain neutrality towards the Korean national-liberation movement." {/hid., pp. 115-117.) The Declaration then made this appeal: The ARF organizations should be formed at once in factories, mines, railways, various schools, newspaper offices, army barracks, shops and everywhere in towns and the countryside and all the people united under the banner of the TenPoint Programme of the ARF to wage a vigorous struggle for the liberation of the country. The Declaration inspired in the entire Korean people a firm faith in national liberation and independence and forcefully encouraged them to come out in the sacred struggle for national liberation. It served as a historic document in this respect.

3. Creation Of The Base On Mt. Paekdu

The main force of the KPRA personally commanded by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung advanced into the area along the Amnok River, where it waged a vigorous struggle to create a new guerrilla base around Mt. Paekdu. What was primarily required in this struggle was to paralyse the enemy militarily. In view of the immediate military requirement for the creation of the guerrilla base and the future requirement for the development of the armed struggle, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung took measures to reorganize and expand the ranks of the KPRA and formed a new division. Afterwards, the KPRA units launched many battles in the west and northwest of Mt. Paekdu, neutralized the enemy and roused the broad popular masses to the anti-Japanese struggle, thereby creating 98 favourable conditions for building the guerrilla base. What acquired particularly great significance in this was the attack on the Fusong County seat (the centre of "punitive operations" against the guerrillas in south Manchuria in those days) in August 1 936. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung raised the morale of the vacillating Chinese nationalist anti-Japanese units around Fusong and, in cooperation with them, organized and commanded the victorious battle in the Fusong County seat.* This battle which dealt a hard blow at the enemy widely demonstrated the might of the KPRA and stirred up the anti-Japanese spirit of the people. 'On this battle, the enemy at that time said: "...The People's Revolutionary Army... and various other kinds of enemy troops, totalling about 1,000 men, encircled and attacked the Fusong County seat. Thereupon the police units of the county seat are striving to repulse the attackers, but are now fighting under great difficulty and unfavourable conditions as ammunition is running shortMeanwhile, about 300 enemy troops, which are thought to be part of the abovementioned army, made a simultaneous attack on Songshuzhen in the same county and completely reduced the city. Receiving an urgent report, the Kwantung Army sent two bombers from Xinjing to the county seat to airlift ammunition and bomb the enemy troops, and mobilized garrison troops at Shanchengzhen, Tonghua and Huanren, and dispatched two companies of the Manchukuo Army and one security corps company from Maoershan and two security corps companies from Mengjiang County. ... Eighty men under Captain Tanaka of the Garrison Force at Chunggangjin in North Pyongan Province crossed the border to join the punitive operations...." (South Hamgyong Provincial Higher Police Document, Kannan Ko-otsu, No 1565 August 26 1936.) A report of the Korean newspaper Tonga //bo published in Seoul in those days says: "As previously reported, 1,000 communist troops encircled and attacked the Fusong County seat.... Planes (bombers) flew to the scene from Xinjing and are bombing there, but the attackers are returning a fire, without retreating. A police force and security corps 100 strong rushed from Changbai to the scene, which presents a terrible sight...." (Tonga l/bo, August 21, 1936.) After the battle in the Fusong County seat, the Korean People's Revolutionary Army carried out successive attacks on the enemy's major strongholds in the area along the Amnok River, thus holding the complete military supremacy over the enemy." * H a ving suffered a telling blow due to the outsta nd i ng g uerril la tactics of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the Japanese imperialist aggressors could not but raise a cry of despair. They exclaimed: "Kim II Sung, ..employs ingenious propaganda and tactics, so other units hardly match his units. Each punitive force hasdone its level best to annihilate them, butthey tactfully get out of thepunitive operations and are fighting dauntlessly, appearing here and there by elusive movements." f'Tiexin, War Ministry, Manchukuo, May 1937, p. 133.) 99

In parallel with the military operations of the KPRA, the work of creating a new base made headway. A secret camp was set up in the vast forest area of Mt Paekdu. In this camp there were the headquarters, barracks, signal stations, rest places, weapon repair shops, sewing shops, hospitals, printing shops, liaison, etc. And there were also cadre training centres for training commanders of the KPRA and local poiiticai cadres. The secret camp was set up so that the KPRA units could operate making free movements. It served as the reliable base for the KPRA's military-political activities and the guidance to the underground revolutionary organizations. Side by side with the establishment of the secret camp, the work of forming the underground revolutionary organizations went on briskly. The party organizations, the ARF organizations and various underground revolutionary organizations grew in number in the area of Fusong and the wide region along the Amnok River including Changbai County. Thus a vast semi-guerrilla zone was created. The area around Mt. Paekdu was turned into an area superficially under the enemy's jurisdiction but actually under the influence of the KPRA, The newly created base on Mt. Paekdu was a powerful and invisible citadel whose secret camp set up under favourable natural and geographical conditions in the area of heavy forest was linked up with the underground revolutionary organizations rooted among the broad people. It enabled the KPRA units to carry on military operations with high mobility unhampered by the need to defend the base, secure its rear establishments and provide a rest for its units even when the enemy intensified his desperate offensive. Moreover, it made it possible to strengthen the ties between the KPRA and the masses of the people over wider areas and protect the revolutionary organizations and ensure support for the KPRA. It also played a great role in improving the guidance to various revolutionary struggles of the people at home, actively promoting the anti -Japanese national united front movement and the organizational and ideological preparations for party founding on a nationwide scale, and expediting the general Korean revolution centred on the armed struggle. The news that the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the sun of the nation and a legendary hero, had come to the area of Mt. Paekdu commanding the KPRA instantly spread far and wide among the Korean people at home and abroad. Their attention was focussed on the base on Mt. Paekdu, the strategic base of the Korean revolution. Boundlessly encouraged by the full activity of the KPRA, the 100 people of various strata who were placing al! their hope on the great leader energetically waged diversified anti-Japanese struggles, and numerous patriotic youths at home and abroad thronged to the base and joined the KPRA. After the creation of the base on Mt. Paekdu, the armed struggle rapidly gained in scope and strength. The scale of the armed struggle got enlarged and the scope of activity widened. The guerrilla tactics, too, became more elusive. Greatly alarmed by the KPRA's advance into the areas along the border and the creation of the base the Japanese imperialists held the "Tumen Conference"* in October 1 936. Then they reinforced guard in the northern border area of Korea, set up a large number of "concentrated villages" in Manchuria and threw a large force in the "punitive operations" against the KPRA, covering all places around Mt. Paekdu with their troops and police. ' In October 1936 the Japanese imperialist Governor-General of Korea (Mirtami) and the Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army and concurrency Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan in Manchuria (Ueda) held a meeting in Tumen, a town on the Korea -Manchuria border, where they discussed and decided on the concrete measures for "mopping up" the KPRA. The substance of these measures was: to place a stricter guard along the border with a view to checking the KPRA's advance into Korea; to conduct large-scale "punitive operations" against the KPRA; and to set up a large number of concentrated villages around Mt. Paekdu in an effort lo sever the contacts between the KPRA and the people. In January 1937 even the "Emperor" of Japan sent his special envoy to inspect the areas along the Amnok and Tuman rivers for over one month and clamoured about the checking of the KPRA's advance into Korea and the increased attacks on it. To counter the enemy's offensive, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung saw thatthe KPRA employed the large-unit operations as the main tactics and combined them with the small-unit ones in a proper way and applied the superb tactics of concentration and dispersion, surprise attacks and night assaults, and decoy and ambush, so as to deal a telling blow at the enemy. The Japanese imperialists hurled a huge force in their "winter punitive operations" between November 1 936 and March 1937, but the KPRA successfully repulsed the enemy's attacks through the battles in Komuigol (November 1936), in Hongtoushan (February 1 937), in Taoquanli (February 1 937), in Limingshui (February 1 937) and many other battles. The KPRA conducted political work vigorously in parallel with the military activities. 101

Many works of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sungr including The Ten-Point Programme of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland, The Inaugural Declaration of the ARF, How Should We Organize the Anti-Japanese Mass Movement in Korea?, and a large number of revolutionary literature were published. The monthly Samil Woigan was founded in December 1936 as the organ of the ARF, and Sogwang, the organ of the KPRA, in May 1 937, and then the weekly newspaper of the KPRA Chongsori. The KPRA men systematically studied the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung's works and revolutionary publications to get a deep understanding of his Juche-oriented revolutionary line, strategy and tactics and widely explained and propagated them to the popular masses. The KPRA's revolutionary literary and artistic activities were afso further intensified, Among the colourful literary and artistic activities of the KPRA a specialty important place was held by the performance of the revolutionary dramas created under the guidance of the respected leader Comrade Kim IT Sung. The revolutionary plays Sea of Blood and The Fate of a Self-defence Corps Man, both immortal classics, were put on the stage in different places in succession. They played really a great role in the revolutionary education of the soldiers of the KPRA and the masses of the people. After seeing them the people firmed their fighting resolution and many young people volunteered to join the KPRA, vying with each other. Following the creation of the base on Mt. Paekdu the antiJapanese national united front movement and the preparations for party founding also made progress.

4. Growth Of The Anti-japanese National United Front Movement And Energetic Promotion Of Preparations For Founding The Communist Party

While vigorously pushing forward the anti-Japanese national united front movement and the preparations for party founding, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung rallied the communist ranks, revolutionary forces and patriotic forces organizationally and sys102 tematically on a nationwide scale. In order to rally the communist ranks and the revolutionary and patriotic forces as many as possible, he made sure that the party and ARF organizations were expanded on a nationwide scale. To this end. Comrade Kim Jong Suk, Kwon Yong Byok, Li Je Sun, Kim Ju Hyon, Chi Tae Hwan, Pak Rok Gum and many other political workers were dispatched to different places. Surmounting all sorts of difficulties and hardships caused by the strict guard of the enemy, they carried through the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's policy on the national united front movement and the preparations for party founding. Expansion of the ARF Network The political-military activities of the KPRA units and the active struggle of the political workers resulted in rapid expansion of the party organizations and ARF lower organizations bearing various names.* " Admitting the successful organizational and political work of the KPRA units and political workers, a journalist patronized by the Japanese imperialists in those days said: "...The communist bandits (so the enemy called the KPRA disparagingly— Ouoter) establish connections with wandering people tactfully, win them over to their side and are doing their utmost to communize XXX areas and fan the antiManchurian and anti-Japanese sentiments. This tactic is indeed very subtle and reasonable. ..so these people are thoroughly placed under their control. "To take an instance, they wipe out or subdue the local rebels who plague the wandering people and win their confidence first. Then they hold lecture meetings on 'the overthrow of Japanese imperialism' and scatter antiManchurian and anti-Japanese leaflets. Falling into this reasonable tactic, the nomadic people regard them as a savior .whom they have long awaited and admired. And anti-Japanese associations are formed at once and the revolutionary army has the wandering people at its beck and call. Accordingly, wherever they appear, there is a rise of anti-Msnchurian and anti-Japanese sentiments and the inculcation of the communist thought, which is their objective." (Flower on the Border Line, Sinuiju, Apgang Daily News Office, December 5, 1936, pp. 23-24.) The party and ARF organizations were set up systematically from above to below in the wide areas around Mt. Paekdu and various legal and illegal mass organizations were also organized and started their activities. In the Changbai area along the Amnok River was formed the county committee of the AR F which had under it district associations. 103

branches and chapters, and the ARF network spread throughout the county. In the semi-guerrilla zones around Mt. Paekdu the political workers infiltrated into the enemy's ruling and subsidized organs and even the enemy's military organizations. This was of very great importance in paralysing the enemy's ruling function and ensuring the activities of the KPRA units and the revolutionary organizations. The ARF network spread far and wide in different parts of Korea. Acting upon the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's line of national united front, the political workers dispatched to different parts in Korea reorganized the existing anti-Japanese organizations intothe local organizations of the ARF, and at the same time, formed new organizations of various names according tothe strata and localities to suit the specific features of the localities and the socio-political composition and preparedness of the inhabitants. There organizations were formed and functioned in absolute secrecy.* * Revealing a part of the expansion of the ARF network in those days, a Japanese imperialist police document pointed out: "Kim II Sung himself called in Pak Dal, a resident in Unhung Sub-county, Kapsan County, South Hamgyong Province, in. December 1936 and gave directives on the organizational activity. Meanwhile, either the political workers sent out secretly to Changbai County were instructed to expand an organizational network by themselves gradually from the opposite side of the border, or they were sent out to visit their friends and related persons or their native places in secrecy to expand the network. In this manner the network spread to more than ten important places in Morth Pyongan, North and South Hamgyong Provinces, including such militarily important areas in Korea as Hungnam, Hamhung. Wonsan and Sinuiju.... The organization was named the ARF. the Korean National Liberation League, the Association of Political Friends, the AntiJapanese Association, the Anti- Japanese Group or others which would help rouse the national sentiments of the Koreans in particular. Thus the persons with common interests are mustered." (Recent Situation of Public Peace in Korea, Police Affairs Bureau of the Government-General of Korea. 1938, p 410.) The ARF network expanded in wider areas as the days went by. Lower organs of the ARF were formed in different forms in North and South Hamgyong Provinces, North and South Pyongan Provinces, Kangwon Province, Kyonggi Province, South Kyongsang Province and in towns and villages all over the ccuntry in a well-adjusted system. Thanks to the great revolutionary thought and wise leadership of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung and to the great appeal of the ARF Ten-Point Programme and Inaugural Declaration which he himself drafted, hundreds of thousands of people joined the ARF in spite of the Japanese imperialists' cruel suppression. 104 The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland played a great role in explaining the aim and tasks of our national-liberation struggle among the broad masses and in mobilizing all the patriotic forces of Korea in the struggle to liberate the country." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. 9, p. 271.) Workers, peasants, youth, students, intellectuals, urban petty bourgeoisie, small and medium traders and factory owners, nationalists, patriotic religionists and other broad sections of people were enlisted in the ARF. Even the members of the "Independence Army" who had once been antagonistic towards the communists supported the Ten-Point Programme of the ARF and participated in the anti-Japanese national united front movement. Later they were incorporated into the KPRA.* * The independence Army unit (its only remaining unit at that time) in south ■Manchuria Led by Ryang Sc Bong and later by Choe Yuri Gu alter his death responded to the great leader Comrade Kim, II Sung's appeal to rise in the antiJapanese national united front movement ( See the initial number of rhe monthly Samil Woigun) and the whole of the unit was incorporated into the KPRA in March 1 938. Many progressive followers of the Chondo Religion, too, took an active part in the movement for the ARF * Adherents of the Chondo faith in Pungsan and other localities formed the ARF chapters by themselves and conducted vigorous activities. ' The Chondo Religion rose in Korea in the 1 9th century and spread rapidly over wide areas of Korea. Its followers took an active part in the March 1 Uprising in 1919. When the ARF was organized and its Ten-Point Programme was announced, not only the ordinary believers but also the upper crust actively responded to it. In November 1936, Li Jon Hwa, Chairman of the Changbai County Committee of the Chondo Religion, and many of its members joined the ARF organizations, and Pak In Jin. head of a local Chondoist community, and other leaders and believers of this religion joined the ARF and rendered active service. Reporting on this under the heading "Mr. X, Top-ranking Leader of the Chondo Religion, Personally Calls on Our ARF Representative," the monthly Samii Wolgan, the organ of the ARF, wrote: "...Mr. X, XX member of the Chondo Religion which has a strong mass basis at home and abroad is said to have visited our representative Commander Comrade Kim II Sung out of his ardent patriotism.... "He expressed his personal approval of our ARF Programme and all our advocacies. At the same time, he clarified his readiness to send one million young believers of the Chondo Religion to the front for Korean independence and made a solemn promise that he would keep closer contacts with the ARF in the future." (The initial number of the monthly Samii Wulgart. December 1936.) 105

With the expansion of the ARF network, the broad masses of all strata were rallied and the ties between the anti-Japanese armed struggle and the masses of the people became closer, and the popular support for the KPRA was activated as never before. The people in the base on Mt. Paekdu and around it and even the people in the area considerably distant from it rendered extensive support to the KPRA not only politically and ideologically but also materially. The ARF organizations actively organized the enlistment of the ardent youth in the KPRA while leading the masses of the people to various forms of anti-Japanese and anti-stooge struggles. As a result, a great number of patriotic young people at home joined it, in addition to over 300 young people around Mt. Paekdu who joined it in a few months after August 1936.* " About this, the monthly Sam/I Wolgan, organ of the ARF, wrote in its first number; "Expansion of the National Liberation. Front; Ardent Young Patriotic People of Courage Join General Kim il Sung's Unit One after Another: "(XX Press) The gun-reports of justice, the cry of liberation coming from the areas along the Amnokand Tuman Rivers with the expansion of the sacred. ..antiJapanese national revolutionary front in Manchuria stir up the militant spirit of the passionate young people and patriotic warriors in our country! "Ardent youths, patriotic men of courage in different places in the northwestern pan of Korea cross the Amnokand Tuman Rivers in groups of 7 or 8 every day to join. ..the units led by General Kim N .Sung. "After that, in the period of a fuil month the number of the new antiJapanese soldiers reached more than 90 and it is said that as they are well acquainted with the terrains, roads and the actual conditions of various parts in the interior of Korea, they have volunteered to lead the van in the advance into the interior of Korea as the vanguards of the armed ranks. "Extremely terrified by this, the Japanese enemy is reportedly making every effort to guard the border." (The first number of the monthly Samil Wolgan, December 1936.) One of the important tasks of the ARF organizations around Mt. Paekdu was to organize and guide the guerrilla production units. These units were organized with the excellent youths among the ARF members as the backbone. They were the non-standing armed units which engaged in labour and military activities. They reconnoitred the enemy's movements, did away with the vicious stooges, lent military material assistance to the KPRA and, if necessary, took part in the battle to support the KPRA units. With the formation of the guerrilla production units and the daily growth of their ranks, the areas around Mt. Paekdu were further consolidated as the hidden semi-guerrilla zone defended secretly by the KPRA, the standing army, and by the non-standing popular armed forces. 106 According asthe KPRAcarried on brisk activities in reliance on the base on Mt. Paekdu and the network of the ARF rapidly expanded, the Korean people came to have a feeling of infinite adoration and confidence toward the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung; they were firmly resolved to entrust all their destinies to him and fight on resolutely.* Thus broad revolutionary, patriotic forces were closely united around the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung. " Referring to this, even a Japanese imperialist police document wrote: " . A great many people support both openly and secretly... Kim II Sung... who is operating from Chang bai County. They look on him as a great world figure and the savior of the Korean nation and respect and revere him." (Written Evidence on the Hyesan Case Hyesan Police Station, p. 29.) Energetic Preparations for Founding the Communist Party The organizational and ideological preparations for founding a arty proceeded successfully on a nationwide scale in the course of the evelopment of the anti-Japanese armed struggle and the expansion f the a nti -Japanese national united front movement. In accordance with the policy set forth by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the work of laying the organizational and Geological foundations for party founding was pushed on in close combination with the anti-Japanese armed struggle and also with the united front movement and the ARF movement, with the result that a signal success was scored in this sphere. Communists were brought up and trained without letup through the ARF network and, on this basis, the party organizations and groups rapidly grew in number. Meanwhile, the communists who had been active separately in different parts were widely drawn 'into either the party organizations or the ARF organizations. Thus, in the course of the expansion of the party and ARF organizations, the communist ranks were rallied organizationally and systematically in a very wide scope and the organizational backbone for party founding strengthened rapidly, The ideological preparations for founding a party, too, made progress. As the revolutionary impact of the anti-Japanese armed struggle gained in scope and strength and the movement for the ARF was developed, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung's great J uche 107

idea, Juche-oriented revolutionary line and its embodiment -the TenPoint Programme of the ARF — became an invariable guideline and a revolutionary banner for the Korean communist movement and the Korean revolution. No bigoted sectarians, pseudo communists and narrow-minded nationalists could dare openly oppose it. Thanks to this great guiding idea and revolutionary banner, the communist ranks' unity of ideology and purpose was strengthened indestructibly and the ideological foundation for party founding laid firmly. With the creation of a broad revolutionary force through the antiJapanese armed struggle and the anti- Japanese national united front movement, the mass base for party founding, too, was further solidified. In vigorously pushing forward the preparatory work for party founding and the united front movement, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung gave special importance to the question as to how to deal with the communists and revolutionaries active at home. He sent political workers to various localities at home to make contacts with the communists and revolutionaries there At the same time, he personally met them and gave them concrete guidance. In the winter of 1936 and the spring of 1937 he received the reports on the situation of the anti -Japanese movement at home from Comrade Pak Dal who was active in the Kapsan area, explained the Juche-oriented line of the Korean revolution and its strategic and tactical policies to him and elucidated the fighting tasks and plan of action for the communists at home Later on he gave constant guidance to the communists at home. He kindly taughtthem to oppose all hues of sectarian tendencies, achieve the unity of the communist ranks and do solid preparatory work for party founding He gave concrete explanation of the policy of building party organizations from the bottom upwards. Criticizing the phenomenon that some people indulged in a profitless controversy on the question as to which should be organized first, the party organizations or the mass organizations, he taught that a party organization could be formed first where it was possible and then mass organizations under its guidance and that if conditions were not yet mature enough for forming a party organization, mass organizations could be formed first and then a party organization with their best members. The respected, leader Comrade Kim II Sung also severely criticized the tendency to think that the Comintern would help found a party or that a party could be founded only after the approval and ratification of the Comintern. He stressed more than once that it was not the ratification or approval of anybody that Marx founded a communist party and that the heart of the matter was not whether or not there was the approval of the Comintern but that the Korean 108 communists should found a party on their own and lead the Korean revolution correctly. He first formed a party group with Comrade Pak Dal and other communists inside Korea. He lucidly explained to them the line of anti-Japanese national united front and how to implement it. In those days, in various localities of Korea there was a strong tendency to "Left" closed-doorism which prevented the union of the broad anti-Japanese forces. This was dueto the organization of a "red trade union," "red peasants' union," "Leftwing trade union," and so on. Criticizing such tendency, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung stressed that the communists should strive to unite workers, peasants and other broad people of all classes and strata opposed to Japanese imperialism, putting the line of anti-Japanese national united front in the forefront. He gave a clear exposition of the Programme, Statutes, Inaugural Declaration of the ARF and explained the need to organize lower organizations of the ARF in wide areas of Korea and rally the masses of the people of all strata under the banner of the Ten-Point Programme of the ARF. In accordance with the teachings of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the Korean National Liberation League, one of the ARF organizations inside Korea, was formed in Kapsan in January 1937. Later the ARF iower organizations expanded more rapidly on a nationwide scale, and consequently, the preparatory work for the founding of a party progressed apace successfully. Following on the success gained in the anti-Japanese national united front movement and the preparations for party founding, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung energetically pushed forward the anti-Japanese armed struggle.

5. The Battle Of Pochonbo

The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung put forward the policy of KPRA units' advance into the homeland with the aim of dealing a heavier blow at the Japanese imperialists, who were ever intensifying the suppression and plunder of the Korean people, and enkindling a torch of struggle in every heart of the people and inspiring them with confidence in victory. 109

At the Xigang Meeting held in March 1937, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "By advancing into the homeland in great strength to deliver a blow to the Japanese imperialist aggressors and set the enemy's bulwark ablaze, we should clearly demonstrate to the people that the KPRA is on the move and going from victory to victory in the solemn struggle for national liberation, and should make it known to them that so long as our People's Revolutionary Army exists Korea will win her independence for certain." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng.ed., Vol.1 , pp. 122-23.) The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung set forth a plan for dispatching the KPRA in three directions for the operation of advance into the homeland. The main unit was to cross the Amnok River and push ahead towards Hyesan, a strongpoint of frontier guards of the Japanese imperialists; another unit was to skirt Mt. Paekdu and push on to the northern border areas adjoining the Tuman River; and yet another unit was to advance as far as the Linjiang and Changbai areas on the shores of the Amnok River. According to the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung's operational plan, some units of the KPRA moved to the area along the Tuman River in mid-May 1937 and launched daring battles in the Musan area, striking the Japanese imperialists severe blows. Flurried at this, the Japanese imperialists concentrated large forces to encircle and attack the KPRA. The KPRA unit that had advanced into the Musan area was gradually placed in a difficult situation. It had to wage an arduous battle. Having been informed of the fact that the unit operating in the Musan area was in danger in the enemy's encirclement, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung made up his mind to start the main force marching into the homeland earlier than schedule, thrust it in the direction of Hyesan on the shore of the Amnok River and attack Pochonbo, the enemy's strongpoint of frontier guards. The main force of the KPRA, under the personal command of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, broke through the frontier defences which were loudly advertized by the Japanese imperialists as a "wall of iron," and on June 4, 1 937, attacked Pochonbo. In swift and brave action, it wiped out the enemy and burned and destroyed the Japanese imperialists' ruling establishments including the police substation in a twinkling.* Commenting on their ignominious defeat, the then chief constable of the police station (Shiotani) said: "...In calm retrospect now, we feel as if a harvest 110 gained over many a day of hard labour has been reduced to ashes in a twinkling because of this Pochonbo incident. Though I learned a great lesson from it in working out my guard plans, I keenly feel myself heavily responsible to my superiors, fire victims and public in general for the too great sacrifice. June 4, this is a sorrowful day I can never forget all my life." (Kannan Keiyu, South Hamgyong Provincial Police, 1937. p. 26.) In admiration of the' gallantry of the KPRA, the enemy said: "Theiraction was so systematic and orderly that you could not tell it from that of the regular army of an independent state." {Ibid,, p. 146.) The Battle of Pochonbo and the Battle of Jiansanfeng were also highlighted in the newspapers Tonga itbo and Choson l/bo. to offer proof of a heavy defeat of the Japanese imperialists The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung made a historic speech to the enthusiastically cheering people. In it, revealing and denouncing the dreadful atrocities committed by the Japanese imperialist aggressors, he stated that the KPRA would tighten its grip on the arms of revenge and liberate the fatherland for certain. Then he called on them all to rally closer underthe banner of theanti-Japanese national united front and rise as one in the sacred struggle against the Japanese imperialists. Men of the KPRA distributed handbills giving the ARF Ten- Point Programme and the Proclamation calling on the entire Korean people to struggle. They also conducted agitation and propaganda activity among the masses. The Proclamation reads: Proclamation The most villainous bandits, the Japanese imperialists, have occupied Korea. Through colonial domination by the Government-General for over twenty years, they have trampled on and massacred Korean people. Our compatriots are robbed by the aggressors of all their property, gained by their sweat and blood, and are forced to lead the miserable life of colonial slavery. Furthermore, the Japanese imperialists are forcing the Korean people to become an "advance detachment" for the Second World War, a tool of their aggressive war against China. Our Korean nation is at stake. We are the Korean People's Revolutionary Army that is waging a struggle to open the way for the people, bring them a worthwhile life, defeat Japanese imperialism and liberate the country. It is universally acknowledged that we havedealt the Japanese imperialist marauders fatal blows in our life111

The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.59% accurate and -death struggle of the past six or seven years on the vast Manchurian plain. Relying on the firm unity between the patriots in Korea and our ardent fighters, this Army has crossed the Tuman and Amnok Rivers and come on an expedition to the provinces of North and South Hamgyong with the object of fighting the Government-General of Korea, the vampire that fattens on the blood of the Korean people. Long-suffering compatriots and brothers! Come out at once! Rally around the anti-Japanese national united front and respond to the guerrilla warfare of this Army by waging struggles in various ways! Fight on to smash Japanese imperialist rule quickly and build a genuine government of the Korean people! KIM IL SUNG, Commander, Korean People's Revolutionary Army June 1, 1937 Terrified by the KPRA's advance into Korea, the Japanese imperialists mobilized all the Japanese troops stationed in Korea and frontier guards and came in pursuit of the KPRA. However, they suffered another serious defeat in the Battle of Mt. Kouyushui.* Okawo, a Japanese who was then vice-chief constable of the Hyesan police station and the commander of a "special garrison," reviewed the crushing defeat in the Battle of Mt. Kouyushui as follows: "We were climbing Mt. Kouyushui, panting. The guerrillas suddenly began to shower bullets on us at a range of some thirty metres. "I promptly hid myself behind a rock and looked up through binoculars. Unexpectedly, it brought into view the majestic figure of General Kim II Sung directing the battle in the centre of his uni! like a Hercules. He was standing in a short distance with a pistol in his hand. I was so surprised that I felt as if my heart has stopped beating. In the meantime, the five machine guns of the antiJapanese guerrillas began to spit out lead all at once. My men returned fire, lying scattered here and there. "The battle continued long. Occupying higher and favourable positions. General Kim II Su pig's unit attacked us with a force several times larger than ours. As time passed, the situation became worse for us. On top of it, we ran out of ammunition.... "But, strange enough, the a nti -Japanese guerrillas stopped shooting all of a sudden. Now stones and rocks started rolling down upon us like an avalanche. "General Kim If Sung's unit switched over to the tactics of stone rolling. There was no lime to keep away. The number of my men was again reduced to a half in the baptism of stones. "Shrieks of my men hit by the rolling stones were heard from all sides. 112 "A little later a silence reigned over the hill. I looked for my men and found that a few were alive. "My heart sank low at the thought that I had led my unit to total destruction "So I made up my mind to kill myself." (The Prolcan Anti-Japanese Guerrillas, Reminiscences of Former Japanese Imperialist Soldiers and Policemen, Sidae Publishing House, Tokyo, 1975, pp 56-58.) " After its victorious battles in Pochonbo and on Mt. Kouyushui, the main unit of the KPRA returned to Komuigoi. Around that time, other units, too, came back after successfully discharging their missions. Comprehending the situation that at that time over 2,000 troops of the 74th Regiment of Hamhung belonging to the 1 9th Division of the Japanese army stationed in Korea, and more than 500 puppet Manchukuo troops in Changbai County were chasing the KPRA, bragging that they would "annihilate" it, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung drew up an operational plan for a counterattack to rout the enemy. The combined units of the KPRA, under the personal command of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, sallied forth to Jiansanfeng on June 30 and delivered a large annihilating battle, winning a brilliant victory. In this battle the enemy suffered over 1 ,500 casualties and was put to rout.* " On the Jiansanfeng Battle, the then Korean paper Tonga llbo reported; "On the 29th (June, 1 937— Quoier), some 500 troops of the allied antiJapanese forces which united with Kim il Sung, who had attacked Pochonbo, at Taoquanli, Erdaohezi, Badapgou, right opposite to Singalpa in South Hamgyong Province, were about to attack the opposite side of the border. The Regiment of Hamhung is said lo have received information about this. "So, Major Kim (meaning Kim Sok Won who was then regimental commander — Quoter) of the Regiment of Hamhung set out towards the scene at 1 :00 p.m. on June 30 in command of a certain number of troops. No sooner had they arrived at the scene than they went into battle." (Tonga llbo, July 2, 1 937.) "Kim II Sung. ..who are operating in an orderly way from their base in the Changbai County bordering on South Hamgyong Province seem to have amassed some 500 persons near Limingshui, Shisandaogou, for a certain scheme. It is said that they have formed a unit in military fashion, got many new weapons of late and are watching an opportunity to rise in a big rebellion. "They had an encounter battle with Major Kim's unit.... In the fight this unit suffered a great loss. They (the KPRA — Quoter) seem to have two heavy machine guns, more than a dozen light machine guns, mortars and a large number of rifles. In view of its strategy and tactics their unit is seemingly very strong. Its future movement is worth noticing." (Tonga llbo, July 8, 1937.) "The combined unit of Kim (I Sung .is said to have a force some 600 strong, light machine guns and- many other weapons. In the party there are more than 30 women members. At the time of battles they, amid a hail of bullets, play on 'harmonica' or sing songs in Manchurian or in Korean to encourage the spirits of the combatants. "And it is said that even during a battle they struck the note of irony and occasionally played interesting 'nonsense'." (Tonga llbo, July 10, 1937.) 113

The news of the KPRA's advance into the homeland and the victory of the Pochonbo Battle instantly spread over the length and breadth of the country and aroused a great hope in the minds of the Korean people who had been in a hopeless situation. The victory of the Battle of Pochonbo was of great historic significance. About this, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The significance of the battle does not lie in the fact that a few Japanese were killed in the battle but in the fact that it showed the Korean people were not dead, but alive; it offered revolutionary rays of hope which inspired them with the confidence that they could defeat Japanese imperialism if they fought it. The Battle of Pochonbo declared to the whole world: the Korean people are resisting Japanese imperialism; they do not accept the idea that 'Korea and Japan are one'; they say the Japanese and the Koreans are not of the 'same descent'; the Koreans will not join the Japanese in invading China; the Koreans will notabandon their mothertongue, nor will they change their surnames into Japanese ones; the Korean people are not dead but alive; and they can defeat the Japanese scoundrels if they fight them. This is the strategic significance of the Battle of Pochonbo. Herein lies the historic significance of the Battle of Pochonbo." (On the Bui/ding of the Workers' Party of Korea, Eng. ed., Vol. 2, p. 297.) The victory of the Battle of Pochonbo dealt a serious political and military blow at the Japanese imperialist aggressors and threw them into uncontrollable anxiety and terror, it implanted a firm confidence in national restoration in the hearts of the Korean people and gave a great impetus to the anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle. The revolutionary torchlight lifted high in the night sky of Pochonbo by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung clearly illuminated the road of national resurrection for the Korean people who had been subjected to unbearable humiliation and maltreatment and demonstrated to the whole world that the Korean people were not dead, but alive and that they could fight on and defeat the Japanese imperialists without fail. Confident that so long as they had the sagacious guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, their fatherland would be certainly restored, the Korean people came out more actively in the antiJapanese revolutionary struggle in response to the anti -Japanese armed struggle, regarding the torchlight lit over Pochonbo asthe dawn of Korean independence. 114

6. Intensification Of Military And Political Activities Of The Kpra After The Outbreak Of The Sino-japanese War. The Kpra's Intensive Study And Training

Measures for Positive Struggle in Connection with the Outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. Intensification of Military and Political Activities of the KPRA The Japanese imperialists unleashed the Sino-Japanese War in July 1 937 with an eye to occupying .the whole of China. This set a new fighting task before the KPRA and the Korean communists. In his speech delivered in August 1 937 at the Meeting of Officers and Men of the KPRA and in his appeal to the Korean people issued in September that year in connection with the outbreak of the SinoJapanese War, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung made clear the fighting tasks to cope with the new situation. He analysed the vulnerability of Japanese imperialism in many angles and pointed out that the more they expanded the aggressive war, the faster they would bring ruin upon themselves. Explaining the task the KPRA should carry out in connection with the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, he stressed that it should expand the armed struggle behind the enemy line to deal more powerful political and military blow at them. He added that more political workers should be sent to the major military bases and centres of munitions industry to continue to expand the anti-Japanese national united front movement, step up organizational and political work among the people and thus extensively organize and wage variousforms of struggle, including mass strikes and sabotages against the Japanese imperialist aggressive war. In the appeal the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said that well-trained political workers should be senttothe key military bases in Korea to establish contact with the comrades already working there and enlarge and reinforce the revolutionary organizations, and stressed 115

that it was particularly important and urgent to create shock troops made up of workers, whose mission it was to become the vanguard in carrying out armed rebellion in the rear. He also. said that as soon as orders came f rom above, armed revolts should be started, spearheaded by the shock troops, subversive activities organized in the rear, ammunition factories and other important enterprises set on fire and destroyed, police substations raided to get weapons and ammunition, and railways destroyed to disrupt the transportation of military supplies. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung called on the entire people to make full preparations so that they could rise in resistance struggle everywhere in coordination with the military actions of the KPRA. The policy of struggle set forth by him inspired the KPRA and the popular masses with confidence in victory and roused them to a new struggle. According to the policy the KPRA units first launched vigorous operations to harass the enemy's rear. In August 1937 the KPRA units went into large-scale mobile operations in the south, southwest, west and northwest of Mt. Paekdu. Its operations covered very wide areas including Changbai County, Linjiang County, Fusong County and Mengjiang County, Huinan County, Tonghua County and Jian County. The main unit of the KPRA boldly carried out the Xinfangzi Battle in Changbai County and the Yaogang Battle in Linjiang County in August 1937, the Battle on the Huinan County seat in September, the battle of ambush on the road between Fusong and Xigang in October and many other daring attacks on walled towns, assaults, ambush and demolition of military installations. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War the frontier was further fortified, but this could not stop the KPRA's advance into the homeland. Small units were ceaselessly dispatched to operate in the northern region of Korea, While commanding military operations, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung again sent out many political workers including Comrade Ma Dong Hui to the border area and .Hungnam, Hamhung, Wonsan, Sinuiju and other industrial centres and the areas of military and strategic importance inside Korea. In accordance with the new policy of struggle laid down by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the formerly and, newly dispatched political workers conducted active organizational and political work among the masses. As a result, the network of lower organizations of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland 116 was further expanded, the people of all strata were enlisted in them and the anti-Japanese, anti-war struggles were intensified.* About the vigorous activity of the political workers, a Japanese police document points out: "They have dispatched political workers to Hungnam, Hamhung, Wonsan and other cities of mihtary and defensive importance in the province (South Hamgyong Province) as well as to places in North Hamgyong Province... to organize various types of illegal organizations or to elicit cooperation from Chondo religionists for the promotion of the movement of the antiJapanes.e people's front. At the same time, regarding the current incident (the Sino-Japanese War) as providing a capital chance of recovering their lost territory and winning Korean independence, they have planned, and have been carrying out, armed rebellion and rear harassment by mobilizing the entire force of their associates in Korea and Manchuria." (The Situation of the Public Peace, South Hamgyong Provincial Police, 1938. p. 16.) Many guerrilla production units, paramilitary organizations, were formed in the border areas along the Amnok River and engaged in their activities by stealth. In many areas, active preparations were made to organize workers' shock troops. The anti-Japanese, anti-war struggle of workers, peasants and other popular masses picked up momentum as well. What was characteristic in the workers' struggle at that time was that fierce struggles went on in factories and construction sites which were of importance from the military point of view. Illustrative of this were the strikes of the workers of the Nampo Refinery in July 1 937 and of the Haeju Cement Factory in March 1 938 and strikes in other big factories and mines, and strikes, sabotages and desertion cases in the latter half of 1937 in different construction sites including fields of railway work. In those days, peasants, while keeping on their usual antiJapanese, anti -landlord struggle, particularly intensified the struggle against the plunder of agricultural produce and others and forced labour which were related to the expansion of the aggressive war. The KPRA's Intensive Studies and Training Very complicated was the situation following the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. On the international level, the reactionary offensive and war provocative manoeuvres of the fascist states of Germany, Italy and Japan became more pronounced and got some "success" though 117

temporarily. Communist and revolutionary forces in many countries were piaced under harsh fascist suppression and suffered great losses, The opportunists of all hues openly joined forces with fascism. After provoking the Sino- Japanese War the Japanese imperialists, under the pretext of "security of the rear," iaunched a frantic offensive against the revolutionary forces in Korea and Manchuria and intensified their suppression and massacre of the masses of the people as never before. Clamouring that they would annihilate the KPRA, the kernel force of the Korean revolution, all at once, they perpetrated frantic "punitive" operations. The Japanese imperialist murderers destroyed the lower organizations of the ARF in the northern border area of Korea and arrested and jailed a great number of underground political workers and members of the ARF. Everywhere in the country they rounded up, imprisoned and killed numerous patriotic people. In this critical period of national suffering, the national reformists, "Left" and Right opportunists and factionalists took off their masks and overtly colluded with the Japanese imperialists, and among those who had tried to remain faithful to the revolution and the nation there was a tendency to losing confidence and courage. The Korean revolution was expected to go through a grimmer ordeal in the future. In this difficult situation, it was impossible to continue the vigorous anti-Japanese struggle without firmly preparing the men of the KPRA, all the communists and the popular masses politically and ideologically so that they could wage the revolutionary struggle undauntedly under whatever conditions. In November 1937 the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung made public a historic work The Tasks of Korean Communists offering clarification of the basic problems of the Korean revolution and other immediate important problems arising in the revolutionary practice. In the work he made clear the nature and basic task of the Korean revolution and the target and motive force of the revolution, and then set forth in the concrete the immediate tasks of the Korean communists in carrying out the revolution victoriously, particularly the tasks for the armed struggle, the anti- Japanese national united front movement, the work of strengthening solidarity with the international revolutionary forces and the preparations for the founding of a party. He stressed that the Korean communists should firmly ad here to the independent stand more than anything else in order to successfully fulfil the revolutionary task facing them. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "An independent position means the fundamental stand of the communists — having confidence in the strength of 118 their own people and responsibly carrying through the revolution in their country by their own efforts. Only when they maintain a firm independent position in the revolutionary struggle can they formulate revolutionary lines and policies corresponding to the actual conditions in their country, safeguard and implement them thoroughly and fight to the last for their country's revolution no matter what the difficulties and hardships. "The masters of the Korean revolution are the Korean people and the Korean communists. The Korean revolution must be carried out by the Korean people under the leadership of the Korean communists." {Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed„ Vol .1 , p. 166.) Pointing out that the bitter lesson that the communist and revolutionary movements of Korea suffered a great damage and underwent twists and turns due to the flunkey ism of factionalists in the past should not be forgotten, he earnestly taught that the Korean communists must carry on their revolutionary struggle in accordance to their belief, firmly build up their own revolutionary forces, rely on them thoroughly and thus lead the Korean revolution to victory. After the publication of The Tasks of Korean Communists, the study of the work was organized systematically in the KPRA and among the communists. From the close of 1937 to the beginning of 1938 the KPRA's intensive winter political-military study and training were conducted in a deep forest called Matanggou. In hearty response to the teaching of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung "Study is the first and foremost task of revolutionaries," the KPRA men devoted themselves to the politicalmilitary study. In the political study they delved in the main into The Tasks of Korean Communists, The Ten-Point Programme of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland, and many other works of the great leader. Besides, immediate practical problems were also the subjects of their study. In military lessons and training, the Juche-oriented military thought, guerrilla tactics and strategy, topography, shooting, ordnance science, the study of the enemy troops, the method of managing an army unit and other military theories and actual practice were treated, Throughout the period of the intensive study the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung personally gave lectures and guided discussion sessions. According to the standards of learning, the KPRA men were 119

The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.16% accurate divided into the self-study group and the alphabet group and the studies were conducted in various ways — lecture, self-study, discussion, specific guidance, mutual aid and question-answer contest.* Recalling those days one anti-Japanese fighter who had directly participated in the Matanggou military-political study wrote: "Comrade Kim II Sung personally look part in the building of the camps and, in the meantime, worked out an overall programme of military and political studies for the winter, organized study groups, and selected and allocated lecturers. "Taking account of the fact that there were both persons of a high knowledge level and raw recruits who scarcely knew how to read and write, he ascertained the knowledge levels of individual guerrillas through commanders, political workers or directly, and, on this basis, formed study groups — the selfstudy group and the alphabet group. "The self-study group comprised the responsible persons of the party branches, company commanders, political commissars and adjutants whose political and theoretical levels were fairly high; this group was guided directly by Comrade Kim II Sung. "The basic textbooks for this group were The Ten-Point Programme of the Association f or the Restoration of the Fatherland and The Problems of Leninism. Studies in the self-study group were conducted primarily by the methods of studying by oneself and discussions. "Upon finishing lectures on each subject, he used to set problems such as 'On the character of the people's revolutionary government to be established in the future,' 'On correlations between the party and the government,' 'On the motive force of the revolution,' etc., and saw to it that everyone studied them by himself before taking part in discussions. "Particularly in the discussions it was demanded of everyone to combine such problems as the conditions of various classes and sections of the population in Korea, the livelihood of the workers and peasants, their strike struggles and tenancy disputes, with practical matters arising in the guerrilla life and the tasks confronting the unit. "After leading the debaters to draw conclusions by themselves through discussions, he assessed the observations of each comrade, correcting what was wrong, and then summed up the study. "The alphabet group comprised the rank and file. In this group the company political commissars and members of the secretariat gave lectures chiefly on The Ten -Point Programme of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland. and the modern history of Korea (from the seizure of Korea by the Japanese imperialists to the 1 930s),and the method of study was a little different from that applied in the self-study group. "Here the main stress was put on lectures and, with a view to consolidating the knowledge one had acquired, discussions were also held. After finishing lectures on a certain subject, concrete problems, such as 'How are the workers fighting at home?' 'How do the Japanese imperialists oppress the Korean people?' 'How do the landowners exploit the peasants?' etc., were given and everybody was encouraged to take part in the discussions on those problems. Debates were held on a voluntary principle and if there was one who took little part in the discussions, the lecturer would direct guestions to him." (Reminiscences of the Anti -Japanese Guerrillas, Eng. ed., pp. 67-69.) 120 Another anti-Japanese fighter who had participaied in the military-political study at that time wrote in retrospection: "Every day Comrade Commander would give lectures on tactics to regimental cadres and company commanders and train them through practice. "Besides guerrilla tactics, he taught them tactical problems for coping with the enemy's tactics. In this he referred to the enemy's tactical manuals taken from him. "Among the Japanese army's tactics I learned in those days, the so-catied 'tactics of attack at dawn' is still fresh in my mind. "According to this tactics, the dawn of the day was preferred for an attack in a small-scale battle, and during the blockade of Port Arthur (J_ushun) in the Russo-Japanese War and the Lugouqiao Incident the enemy actually made surprise attacks at the dawn of Sunday when everyone was deep asleep. "Comrade Commander taught in detail what was to be done to counter this tactics of the enemy and what was its weak point. "He also taught us how to estimate ground and measure distance with the eye, giving explanation on the basis of his experience in actual fighting. "Some specific rules he mentioned when teaching eye-measuring still serve me as a guide in practical activities. He explained that an isolated cottage could be viewed from the distance of five kilometres; tree trunks, mileposts and electric poles one kilometre; a walking person with clear contours of arms and legs 700 metres, or 200-300 metres when the details of clothes and their colours were distinguishable. "He gave lectures on marksmanship as well. Still fresh in my memory were the explanations he gave us on the methods of shooting up and downward.... "During lectures on tactics regarding ambush, assault and other combat actions Comrade Commander used a sand table to explain them by the actual battles conducted by our unit.... "Comrade Commander himself gave lectures on the structures, powers and working principles of various kinds of weapons and directed us in sighting and shooting exercises, setting examples to us," {For the Freedom and Liberation of the People. (Chronicles), Koreaned., Vol. IV. pp. 254-56.) Through the intensive political -military study the men of the KPRA came to establish a firm revolutionary world outlook based on the Juche idea, well acquaint themselves with the Juche-oriented revolutionary lines, strategy and tactics and improved their qualities as Juche-type communists, the indomitable revolutionary fighters, who, under whatever adversity, convincingly march along the road of revolution without the slightest vacillation. The main unit of the KPRA, now more thoroughly prepared politically, ideologically, militarily and technically through the political -military study, advanced toward the shore of the Amnok River southwest of Mt. Paekdu and carried on an energetic military and political activity. It delivered serious blows on the enemy in the Liudaogou Battle in April 1 938 and many other battles. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung saw to it that the KPRA units launched a concentrated attack on the enemy in the area along the Amnok River. Then he got them to operate in different directions in 121

order to lure and disperse the enemy forces concentrated in that area and conduct military and political activities in broader areas. Thus the main unit of the KPRA launched swift mobile operations in vast areas including Linjiang, Mengjiang and Fusong. In July 1938 when the Japanese imperialists invaded the Lake Hassan area on the southern tip of the Soviet Union's Maritime Province, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung led all the KPRA units to further intensify the operation of harassing the enemy's rear. The KPRA units waged the Battle of Badaojiang (September 1938), the Waichagou Battle (September 1938) and many other battles to deal successive blows at the enemy from behind.

7. The Kpra's "Arduous March" And Its Advance Into The Musan Area

The 100 Odd-Day-Long "ARDUOUS MARCH" The Japanese imperialists had planned to win the Sino-Japanese War quickly. However, on the contrary to this the war gradually assumed a protracted nature. Impatient over this, the Japanese imperialists threw more troops into the Sino-Japanese War front. At the same time, they mobilized the "crack units" of the Kwantung Army, which they had kept to provide for invasion against the Soviet Union, all the puppet fVianchukuo Army and police to encircle and attack the KPRA which they regarded as an impediment to their aggressive war. Meantime, taking advantage of the moment when the main unit of the KPRA under the personal command of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung temporarily had left the base on Mt. Paekdu to harass their rear, the Japanese imperialists made a sweeping roundup from late 1937 to 1938. They arrested and imprisoned Comrades Kwon Yong Byok, Li Je Sun, Ma Dong Hui, Pak Dal and other communists and people numbering thousands. In view of its scale, this incident of wholesale arrest called the "Hyesan Incident" was the largest one in the Korean communist movement. While perpetrating such atrocity, the Japanese imperialists conducted a false propaganda thatthe KPRA men were all "rounded up" in an attempt to disappoint the popular masses and turn them away from the anti-Japanese struggle. It was necessary to take an active countermeasure. 122 At the meeting of military and political cadres held in IManpaizi in November 1938 the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung advanced double measures for struggle. One wasthat in orderto counterthe enemy scheme to encircle and attack the KPRA by large-units, the KPRA units should deliver a crushing blow at the enemy by large-unit mobile operations. To this end, the guerrilla army was to be reorganized into three regional units and their spheres of action designated. The other was that the main unit of the KPRA should advance into the area around Mt. Paekdu and the homeland again to expand the armed struggle and, at the same time, carry on the organizational and political work to restore the destroyed revolutionary organizations and arouse the popular masses to a vigorous anti -Japanese struggle. After the fManpaizi Meeting the main unit of the KPRA under the personal command of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung started up its march to Mt. Paekdu. Thus began the "Arduous March" which lasted for over TOO days. The march was attended with untold hardships. In order to encircle and attack the main unit of the KPRA, the Japanese imperialists mobilized a huge military force and employed i|i© tactics of the "deployment of troops at strategic points" and "longdistance pursuit battle " By the tactics of the "deployment of troops at strategic points" the enemy concentrated his forces at every strategic point and encircled and attacked the units of the KPRA when they appeared at these points. By "long-distance pursuit battle" the enemy hotly pursued the KPRA units to prevent them from taking a rest and getting food, exhaust them utterly and then make a determined attack. The ceaseless hard -fought battles, the bitter cold of 30 to 40 degrees below zero, the breast -deep snow (that year witnessed "the heaviest snowfall in 100 years") and the serious shortage of food presented difficulties to the KPRA on the march. The enemy mobilized even the air force to attack the KPRA from the air, while at the same time recklessly running amuck to disrupt the ranks of the KPRA by frequently scattering handbills calling on them to surrender. But neither vicious enemy nor. grim ordeal could check the march of the KPRA led by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, while tirelessly cheering the revolutionary fighting spirit of the KPRA men, led the march successfully smashing the enemy by virtue of his bold and masteriy art of command and guerrilla tactics. He divided the KPRA into seve/al units and got them to move in different directions. This tactics frustrated the enemy's encirclement operations. He adopted the tactics of swift and prompt concentration and dispersion and thus threw the enemy into confusion. He left the 123

enemy in the lurch by properly alternating the course of the march from the forest area to the hilly area. Occasionally he led the marching unit along the highway to ensure swift mobility. He combined a powerful concentrated attack with a surprise attack todeal the enemy successive blows and frequently used decoying tactics and the tactics of making the enemies fight each other. The Japanese imperialists bragged thatthey would "wipeout"the KPRA and came in repeated pursuit But each time the enemy met with defeat in the face of the flexible guerrilla tactics of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. The "Arduous March" was a course that literally entailed a great hardship and, at the same, time, a course in which the advantage of the original guerrilla tactics created by him was demonstrated to the full. The revolutionary idea and fighting spirit which the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung had infused into the hearts of his men, his parental affection and concern for them and their burning loyalty to him were the source of indestructible might the KPRA displayed in the 100-odd-day "Arduous March." During the march the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung gave his men the conviction in sure victory, fostered in them revolutionary optimism and inspired them with indomitable revolutionary fighting spirits so that they could stand any ordeal. In the days of the difficult march he looked after his men with lofty revolutionary comradeship and paternal affection. At times he personally helped exhausted soldiers on the march by carrying their bags on his back. At another time he evenly portioned out to his men a bowlful of parched rice powder. The men of the KPRA emulated the noble virtues of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung. They firmed their ranks still closer with utmost revolutionary comradeship and surmounted all hardships, helping and leading, each other forward. They united themselves steeMike around the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, entrusting their all to him, and safeguarded and defended him with their lives politically and ideologically in any adversity. They unconditionally accepted the lines and policies set forth by him and his orders and instructions and did everything in their power to carry them out to the end. During hard-fought battles and difficult marches they first thought of his safety; in the trying severe cold and hunger, too, they were concerned first about his health. Regimental Commander 0 Jung Hup held him in high esteem and carried out his orders and instructions to the letter even going through fire and water, Whenever the Headquarters was in danger, he made his regiment look like the Headquarters and lured and destroyed the 124 enemy, thus defending the safety of the leader at all costs, The "Arduous March" further steeled the men of the KPRA politically, ideologically, militarily and technically. They grew up into reliable communist fighters, iron-willed soldiers who would unswervingly fight and march along the one road of revolution under whatever adverse circumstances. The "Arduous March" was crowned with victory. The KPRA was now confronted with a new military and political task Advance into the Musan Area Thegreat leader Comrade Kim II Sung called a meeting of cadres of the KPRA at Beidadingzi in April 1 939. At the meeting he summed up the "Arduous March" and set forth the immediate tasks of struggle. First of all, he put forward the tasks of going over to a general counteroffensive without giving the enemy a breathing spell, and of advancing into the Musan area to burn the torchlight of national restoration all the more vigorously. In consideration of the fact that the enemy was concentrating his huge armed forces in the area southwest of Mt. Paekdu in search of the KPRA, he set forth a new line of struggle, the line of advancing into the Musan area and then quickly moving to the area northeast of the mountain. Immediately after the Beidadingzi Meeting the KPRA units waged the battles of assault on the enemy's central bases for "punitive operations" in the area along the Amnok River (the Battle of Qiujiadian in Chang bai County and the Battle of Shiwudaogou in April 1 939 and the Battle of Banjiegou in Changbai County in May 1939) and many other battles and thus created favourable conditions for their advance into the homeland. The main unit of the KPRA under the persona! command of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung crossed the upper reaches of the Amnok River on May 18, 1939, to advance again into the homeland and reached the forest of C hong bong. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung dispatched a small unit in the direction of Potae-ri to keep in close touch with the movements of the enemy. Meanwhile, he ordered a few men to bring lumber workers in the nearby village and fully acquainted himself with their living conditions and gave them words of encouragement. Then he ordered 125

the whole unit to bivouac at Chongbong (the site of the camp still remains). The soldiers wrote on big tree trunks the following militant slogans: "Down with the Japanese fascist military clique!" "Korean youth, come out quickly and join actively in the anti-Japanese war!" and "Labouring people of the whole world, rise up, unite and fight for freedom and liberation!" (the slogans still remain as they were). The small unit dispatched in thedirection of Potae-ri feltan enemy and assaulted a timber station owned by a Japanese (Takase) around noon and captured a large amount of food and other materials. It distributed the booty among people, and then energetically conducted political work before coming back to Konehang. After camping at Chongbong the main unit of the KPRA under the command of the great leader moved to Konehang on May 1 9, where it camped and, picking up the small unit returning from Potae-ri, moved to Pegaebong to camp there again (the sites of these two camps still remain). Alarmed at the KPRA unit's advance into Korea, the Japanese imperialists issued an emergency mobilization order to mobilize the frontier guards and policemen and intensified frontier guard. Meanwhile, they started large-scale operations to search the KPRA. The enemy was concentrating a huge force in the mountainous areas around Potae-ri and along the upper reaches of the Amnok River. Grasping this situation the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung decided to employ the "one step makes a thousand miles" tactics. Accordingly, the KPRA unit left Pegaebong and passed by Lake Samji and then boldly marched along the 1 00 -odd -//'-long Kapsan- Musan military road' in fine array in broad daylight and soon reached Mupo on the bank of theTuman River, from which it advanced into the Taehongdan area. ' The "Kapsan-Musan military road," a straight road running through an uninhabited virgin forest between Kapsan and Musan, was built with "special budgetary appropriation" by the Japanese imperialists after suffering a crushing blow in the Pochonbo Battle, with a view to guarding the KPRA's advance into Korea It is still left intact. The Japanese imperialist army and police never imagined that the KPRA would march along the military road they had built. They were roaming about the forest areas along the Amnok River to find out the whereabouts of the KPRA. Informed that the unit of the KPRA had marched along the road they were- panic-stricken and didn't know what to do. The KPRA unit that had advanced into the Taehongdan area put 126 the Sinsadong and Singaechok areas under its control and conducted extensive political work among the inhabitants. Therespected leader Comrade Kim II Sung created confidence in national restoration in the hearts of inhabitants and workers of the timber station in Sinsadong and warmly appealed to them to take an active part in the anti-Japanese struggle. In particular, he emphasized that the working class, the most revolutionary class, should take the lead in the anti-Japanese front. His earnest teaching and appeal stirred the hearts of the people and forcefully aroused them to the anti-Japanese struggle The workers vied with each other to join the KPRA. Informed of the KPRA main unit's advance into the Taehongdan area, the Japanese imperialist army and police rushed there in a hurry. They formed a huge force, but, disheartened as they were before the flexible tactics of General Kim II Sung and the might of the KPRA, they dared not pounce upon the large unit of the KPRA. On May 23 the KPRA unit under the command of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung launched large-scale annihilation operations in the Taehongdan Plain and won signal victory. The enemy suffered heavy casualties in the battle. On top of it, there was a disgraceful fighting between the terrified deserters and the terror-stricken ones who were hurriedly driven there by their superiors, which caused many casualties again. The advance of the KPRA into the Musan area once again demonstrated to the whole world the superb commanding art of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and the might of the KPRA and inflicted a heavy blow on the enemy. The KPRA's advance into the homeland for about a week gave new vigour to the popular masses who had temporarily remained dispirited due to the Japanese imperialists' harsh oppression, their false propaganda about its "annihilation" and the destruction of many revolutionary organizations. 127

8. Large-unit Circling Operations In The Northeast Of Mt. Paekdu

Advance Into the Area Northeast of Mt. Paekdu After conducting political and military activities in the Musan area, the main unit of the KPRA under the command of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung advanced into the area northeast of Mt. Paekdu as planned. This area had been a guerrilla zone or a semi-guerrilla zone in thefirst days of the anti-Japanese armed struggle and, therefore, had a reliable mass foundation. The KPRA carried out military and political activities in this area, too. Soon after the advance into the area northeast of Mt, Paekdu, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung dispatched political workers to different areas including the Musan area for the organizational and political work of restoring and expanding party and revolutionary organizations and enlisting the broad popular masses in the antiJapanese national united front. He himself went to the shore of the Tuman River and conducted work among the masses there. As the enemy kept a strict vigilance over that area, he got small armed units and groups to protect political workers active there. He made sure that the KPRA unit organized athletic sports and art performances in association with the people in places where it was stationed. Through these activities the guerrillas could keep closer relations of kinship with the masses of the people and inspire them with fighting spirit and revolutionary optimism. While conducting active political activities, the KPRA units fully maintained the initiative in combat actions, too. Panic-stricken by the KPRA's advance into the northeast of Mt Paekdu, the enemy in this area got nervous and was at a loss what to do The enemy showed his heel in advance when the KPRA unit made its appearance near by.* 'Frightened at the news that the KPRA would come, the policemen of 128 Huifengdong in Helong County took to flight, vacating the village, in early June 1939. Such cases frequently occurred in other places, too. Taking into account this situation, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung suggested more positive activity to disintegrate the enemy forces, the puppet Manchukuo Army in particular. No sooner had the main unit of the KPRA advanced into the area northeast of Mt. Paekdu than the Japanese imperialists hurriedly mustered their forces there and obstinately attacked it. They even called out their aircraft. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung completely exhausted the obstinately pursuing enemy by decoying him to steep mountains for several days and then ambushed and annihilated himbytheOlgi River. The Battle of the Olgi River which took place in June 1939 was the first big battle waged by the main unit of the KPRA after its advance into the area northeast of Mt. Paekdu. It was of great significance in gaining military control over the enemy's frantic "punitive operations." After this battle the enemy dared not pounce upon the KPRA althoug h he knew that it was on the upper reaches of the Olgi River. After the Olgi River Battle the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung organized and commanded numerous battles, big and small, in the area along the Tuman River, swiftly moving his units, and dealt the enemy successive blows. In those days the KPRA's military activities were closely associated with the struggle to hold back the Japanese imperialists' armed provocation against the Soviet Union. In the period from May to September 1 939 when they perpetrated another large-scale armed provocation against the Soviet Union in the Halhingol area, the KPRA, holding aloftthe banner of internationalism as ever, played a part in curbing their military action by inflicting successive blows on them from the rear as it had actively carried out the harassing operations in the enemy's rear in July 1938 when the Japanese imperialists launched an armed invasion against the Soviet Union in the area of Lake Hassan. In early August 1939, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung ordered all the units of the KPRA to intensify the rear-harassing operations. In accordance with this August order all the units of the KPRA mounted fierce attacks on the enemy's rear everywhere. In the latter half of August the KPRA units launched battles in Dashaheand Dazangjiang, causing serious casualties to the Japanese imperialist aggressor troops, and in the Yaocha Battle in September 129

they assaulted and burned 12 military trucks carrying hundreds of enemy officers and soldiers, annihilating them. In September the KPRA units made simultaneous assaults on 1 2 concentrated villi, is in Yanji County, including Fumancun and Helincun, to deliver successive blows on the enemies. In north and , south Manchuria, too, the KPRA units fought numerous battles to hit the enemy from the rear. Large-Unit Circling Operations The Japanese imperialists were greatly exasperated at the fact that the KPRA was gaining in strength as the days went by. They became more desperate than ever before to "mop up"the KPRA. In September 1939 they established in Jilin the "Punitive Headquarters"* directly under the commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army. "Itwas called the "Nozoe Punitive Headquarters" because Masanori Nozoe, Major General of the Japanese Army, was appointed its commander-in-chief. Under the "Punitive Headquarters" disti ict "punitive units" were formed to embrace all the "punitive forces." This "Headquarters" worked out a "general plan for the mopping-up and cleanup operations in Jilin, Jiandao, Tonghuo and other provinces in the Autumn of 1939 " Nozoe bragged that he would "exterminate" the Korean People's Revolutionary Army bv the end of the year. For the new "punitive" operations the enemy mobilized a huge armed force — the units under the Kwantung Army, the puppet fvlanchukuo Army, a part of the "Expeditionary Army in China," gendarmerie, police, and armed self-defence corps. In order to cope with the enemy's forthcoming large-scale "siegeand-attack" operation, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung determined to apply the large-unit circling operations which meant dealing the enemy blows circling a vast area along the predetermined secret route. The KPRA first delivered a surprise attack against the enemy concentrated in the border area along theTuman River and then moved far to the north to inflict another blow on him. And when the enemy concentrated his forces in that direction, the KPRA slipped out of there, to throw him into confusion. Then he worked out a concrete plan for military actions — to move again to the border area along the Tuman River and smash the enemy there. According to the plan of action mapped out by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung the main unit of the KPRA attacked the enemy 130 in different places along the Tuman River. It lured the enemy into mountains and valleys in Helong County and then moved northward several hundreds of ri and reached the hinterland of Dunhua in a trice. Afterwards, in December 1939, the KPRA unit made surprise attacks on Liukesong and then Jiaxinzi, winning a great victory. It conducted extensive political work among the lumber workers in Liukesong and Jiaxinzi and recruited over 200 advanced workers who volunteered to join the KPRA. The Japanese imperialists never imagined that the KPRA unit could slip out of their tight encirclement ring so swiftly and advance into the hinterland of Dunhua. Informed of the urgent news that the KPRA surprised Liukesong and Jiaxinzi, the enemy rushed his troops to Dunhua in a great hurry. But he was late because the KPRA unit had already moved to the south and reached the basin of the Sungari River on the border of Antu and Fusong Counties Having got the enemy's attention focussed on the Dunhua area, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung organized 40-odd -day political-military study in Baishitan in Fusong County, considering that the enemy would not beableto find out the main unit of the KPRA for a long time. In this period he gave thorough political and military training to the recruits numbering several hundreds. After increasing the fighting strength of the KPRA ranks through the intensive political-military study, he, personally commanding the unit, left Baishitan in February 1940 and advanced into the opposite side of the Musan area following the predetermined course. In March 1 940 the Korean People's Revolutionary Army attacked Damalucjou, one of the enemy's strongholds in the border area where the "punitive force" was entrenched. After wiping out the enemy, it successfully concealed its w hereabouts. The enemy that had suffered an ignominiousdefeat in Damalugou reinforced hisforcesand combed mountains in Damalugou. But bythattimethe KPRA unitwas camping in the deep forests of Hualazi. Driven to desperation, the Japanese imperialists massed the most notorious "punitive units" and chased the main unit of the KPRA tenaciously. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung planned to deliver a decisive blow on the enemy in pursuit. In March 1940 he organized and commanded the Hongqihe Battle that annihilated in a flash the "Maeda unit" known as the strongest "crack unit" of the Japanese imperialists.* That day the Japanese "punitive unit" and over 500 men of the puppet Manchukuo Army who came after the "Maeda unit" saw this unit being annihilated and dared not pounce upon the KPRA unit. They fled away, firing blind shots. 131

"Ad mining that the unit was annihilated in the Hongqihe Battle, the enemy described the superb tactics employed at this battle as the "finger of God" or with various other expressions. Terror-stricken at the. defeat of Maeda, known as the "warrior of many campaigns" and "a veteran in punitive operations," the enemy raised a cry of distress. (Magazine Keiyu, organ of the "Manchukuo" Police, July 1 940; documents of the North and South Hamgyong Provincial Police; and other Japanese police documents.) After the Hongqihe Battle the KPRA units conducted agile operations in spring and summer, circling Antu, Helong, Yanji and Dunhua areas. This put the enemy on the defensive. Heavily beaten in his camp or in pursuit battles, he was utterly flurried. The large-unit circling operations of the KPRA under the command of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung in the area northeast of Mt. Paekdu completely foiled the enemy's large-scale encirclement operations in which a huge army 200,000 strong took part, and caused serious politico-military setbacks to the enemy. It also inspired a firm confidence in national restoration among the people everywhere. 132

Chapter V Struggle For Providing Autonomously For The Great Occasion Of National Restoration. The Third Stage Of The Anti-japanese Armed Struggle

t. THE NEW POLICY OF PREPARING FOR THE GREAT OCCASION OF NATIONAL LIBERATION

Mew changes took place in the internal and external situations between the end of the 1930's and the beginning of the 1940s. The wars of aggression waged by the fascist countries— Japan, Germany and Italy -finally expanded into World War II with fascist Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939. Fascist Germany occupied many European countries and, on this basis, was madly preparing for invasion of the Soviet Union. Italy invaded some countries in southeast Europe and east Africa. The Japanese imperialists, likewise, were expanding their aggressive war. They had largely depended on foreign oil, steel, rubber and other materials of strategic importance. So they gave vital importance to their advance into southeast Asia and made active preparations for it. Meanwhile, they were watching a chance to march into Siberia when fascist Germany invaded the Soviet Union, While stepping up preparations for expansion of the aggressive war in this way, the Japanese imperialists, with an eye to ensuring "security of the rear," intensified their suppression of the Korean people, particularly their assaults on the KPRA as never before. They considered that without "annihilating" the KPRA it was impossible to conduct the "synchronous operations in the both directions of the 133

Soviet Union and China" and materialize their desire to secure "supremacy in Asia." In view of the obtaining situation and its prospect and the balance of forces between friend and foe, it was necessary to define a new direction of KPRA's activities. In his report On Preparing for the Great Event of National Liberation delivered at the Meeting of Military and Political Cadres of the KPRA held at Xiaoharbaling in August 1940 the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung put forward a new struggle policy. Deeply analysing the facts that the aggressive wars of the fascist countries were rapidly expanding on a world-wide scale and that by escalating their aggressive war the Japanese imperialists would be further isolated internally and externally and sink deeper and deeper into a bottomless abyss politically, economically and militarily, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung drew the following conclusion: "All this clearly shows that the fall of Japanese imperialism is definite, that it is a question of time; and it proves that the day is approaching when our people will win the historic cause of national liberation. "This situation urgently requires that we be wellprepared for the great event of national liberation" (Ibid., pp. 194-95.) To make autonomous preparations for the great event of national liberation meant to get fully ready for a final decisive battle to defeat Japanese imperialism at a forthcoming decisive moment and to make full preparations for vigorous promotion of the revolution in the liberated fatherland. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung clarified the major directions and tasks in making autonomous preparations for the great occasion of national liberation. He taught thatw hat was most important in these preparations was to preserve and accumulate the forces of the KPRA, the central force of the Korean revolution, while, at the same time, training them to be competent political and military cadres. Only then, was it possible to win victory in the final decisive battle with Japanese imperialism and successfully build new Korea in the liberated fatherland, with them as its backbone. In order to give better political, ideological, military and technical trainingstoall commanders and soldiers of the KPRA, it was necessary to intensify study and training among them so that they might master the Juche idea, the lines, strategy and tactics of the Korean revolution and guerrilla tactics, the advanced military knowledge for modern warfare and technics of all services. 134 In the next place, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung pointed out the need to switch from the large-unit operations over to the small-unit operations. Since the Japanese imperialists were intensifying the "Punitive offensive" as never before and their troops and police combed mountains and fields, the continued large-unit operations wouid inevitably entail a great loss of forces. It ran counter to the principle of guerrilla warfare that calls for destroying more enemies while preserving the forces to the maximum. Under the prevailing circumstances, only by going over to the small -unit operations, was it possible to constantly step up guerrilla operations while preserving and accumulating the forces of the KPRA and fully display the superiority of guerrilla warfare. To go over to small-unit operations was an urgent problem in firmly building up the general revolutionary forces of the Korean people. In order to provide autonomously for the great event of nationalliberation it was imperative to get the entire people to be fully prepared politically and ideologically while preserving and accumulating the forces of the KPRA. Accordingly, it was an urgent task of the KPRA to vigorously conduct mass political work. For this, numerous small units and political workers' groups should be formed and underground struggle stepped up so that they could go deeper among the broader masses opposed to the Japanese imperialists. For the KPRA to stop its large-unit operations and go over to small-unit operations was also necessary from the internationalist point of view. In those days the Soviet Union was faced with the danger of receiving a pincer attack from fascist Germany and Japanese imperialism. Therefore, it was pursuing a neutralizing policy in the East in order to have time to prevent the danger and further strengthen its defence capabilities. In this connection, the Comintern suggested that the antiJapanese guerrilla units operating in the area of Manchuria might suspend their large-unit operations for the time being in order to ease tension in the Soviet- Manchurian border area and not give the Japanese imperialist aggressors an excuse of igniting an aggressive war against the Soviet Union. Since the Japanese imperialists in those days were trying to use the struggle of the anti-Japanese guerrilla units as a pretext for an aggressive war against the Soviet Union, to suspend large-unit activities was an important requirement of internationalism in defending.the Soviet Union. As can be seen, that the KPRA was to switch from large-unit 135

operations over to small-unit operations was of great significance in the light of the prospects of the Korean revolution and in the interests of the world revolution as well. To put into practice this new policy, the respected leader Comrade Kim 11 Sung gave detailed explanations of the tasks ahead; to form small units and political workers' groups and conduct vigorous mass political workand flexiblesmall-unit military activities; to fully improve thepolitico-ideological and military-technical qualities of all the KPRA men; and to strengthen solidarity with the world revolutionary forces. The new policy and the task put forward by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung were put into effect without delay.

2. SMALL-UNIT ACTIVITIES IN WIDE AREAS

While organizing the work of military and political training of the men of the KPRA, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung organized and guided its small-unit activities. A large number of small units and groups were dispatched to different parts of the homeland and Manchuria. Temporary bases for small-unit operations were built up. They consisted of the central bases and the bases for action. They were set up in great numbers in the northern area of Korea and the vast areas of Manchuria. Small units and groups launched into energetic military, political and reconnaissance activities. Small-Unit Military Activities The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said at the Xiaoharbaling Meeting. "At present, the military activities of the small units are a major guarantee for hastening the final destruction of the Japanese imperialist aggressors and, in particular, for successfully ensuring political work among the broad massesand consolidating its achievement. 136 "While strictly guarding against reckless military actions which might harm the general interests of the revolution, we should constantly make shrewd assaults everywhere to kill Japanese imperialist troops and police and their lackeys and destroy military installation;, thus throwing the enemy's rear into confusion and militarily supporting the political activities among the broad masses. This will keep the enemy in a constant state of terror and increase our people's confidence in the victory of the revolution." {Ibid., p. 199.) The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung sent many small units and groups to different parts. Commanding a small unit himself, he advanced into the area northeast of Mt. Paekdu and conducted an active military and political activity there. He organized and commanded many battles including the battle on the marsh near Hanconggou, Antu County, and the battle near Banjietun, Yanji County, in August 1 940 and dealt successive blows at the enemy. Meanwhile, he did mass political work, moving in wide areas After dispatching small units and groups to different areas, he showed a deep paternal love and concern for them who were waging arduous struggles. He saw that food, clothes and medicaments were supplied by various means to the constantly moving small units and groups. He even kindly looked after the life of every soldier. Boundlessly inspired by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's superb strategy and tactics, extraordinary command, parental love and concern, the small units and groups conducted daring military activities and political work everywhere they went. The small units waged numerous battles of ambush and assaults in many places at home and the vast areas of Manchuria, dealt the enemy successive blows and inflicted a serious manpower and material loss upon the enemy.* "Panic-stricken at the vigorous operations of the small units and groups in diffetent places, the Japanese imperialists gavedespairing cries. ( Ten-day Report on Punitive Operations, No. 36, Nozoe Punitive Headquarters; Semiannual Report on Thought Control, Yanji County Gendarmerie, June -November 1940; Monthly Report on Thought Control, May 1 941 ; Information on the Bandits on the Opposite Banks of Arnnok and Tuman Rivers, March 1941.) The internal and external situations were very complicated after the KPRA's switchover to the small-unit activities. In April 1941 the conclusion of the "Soviet-Japan Neutrality Pact" was announced and in June Germany made a surprise attack on the Soviet Union and 137

intruded deep into its territory. In December the same year, the Japanese imperialists ignited the Pacific War. Whenever such great international events took place, the great leader Comrade Kim (I Sung directed deep attention to the problem of leading the KPRA men to take a correct attitude. After the conclusion of the "Soviet-Japan Neutrality Pact" the Japanese imperialists intensified the ideological and political offensive as never before to paralyse the revolutionary fighting spirit of the KPRA and the entire Korean people. In those days many people had been thinking that a war would surely break out between the Soviet Union and Japan and that Japan would be routed. So, the announcement of the "Soviet-Japan Neutrality Pact" could not but exercise some effect on. some politically immature persons. At such time the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung strove to arm the KPRA men more closely with the Juche idea and got them to takea correct view of the development of the situation and have a firm confidence in victory. This helped them to be more awakened to the truth that the Korean revolution should be carried out to the last by the Koreans themselves on their own responsibility and by their own efforts. In his speech made at the temporary base in Jiapigou, Wangqing County, at the end of June 1 941 , immediately after the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung reiterated the immediate action plan of the KPRA. He analysed the complicated situation and scientifically proved that the temporal unfavourable situation would certainly be replaced by the favourable one in the future, He stressed that the KPRA men should have a firm faith .in the revolution and a deep sense of responsibility in whatever circumstances, make every effort to buiid up the internal revolutionary forces more firmly and further intensify the military and political activities so as to provide for the great occasion of national liberation in an autonomous manner. While guiding from the Jiapigou base in Wangqing County the activities of the small units and groups dispatched to different places, he himself led a unit and waged energetic military and political activities. In the summer of 1 941 he organized and commanded many battles including an assault on the Wangqing-Luozigou military road construction site. At the same time, he conducted organizational and political work among the people. The small units rapidly expanded their military activities to vast areas. They assaulted and destroyed the enemy's barracks, guarded positions, military trains and roads in succession everywhere. 138 The small units and groups dispatched to the homeland advanced into Sonbong and many other localities and dealt the enemy a serious blow, exerting a great revolutionary influence upon the people In the activities of the small units and groups deep attention was also directed to military reconnaissance, which was very important not only for the immediate battles against the enemy but also for the forthcoming final showdown. Intensification of Mass Political Work The small units and groups of the KPRA stepped up vigorous political work among the masses without letup in accordance to the policy advanced by the respected leader Comrade Kim li Sung at the Xiaoharbaling Meeting. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said at this meeting: "In order to bring the broad masses into the fold of the revolution we should conduct exhaustive work to organize and guide mass organizations. The small units and political work teams of the KPRA should go among the broad antiJapanese masses in Korea and Manchuria and actively work to restore and consolidate, expand and develop the revolutionary organizations, including the ARF organizations destroyed by the enemy. In this way we will make sure that broader anti-Japanese masses are united in the revolutionary organizations. With a view to organizing and uniting the broad masses and firmly preparing them for a final battle with Japanese imperialism, all commanders and soldiers should become organizers of the masses and, at the same time, enhance their role as educators. We must fully acquaint the broad masses opposed to Japan with the viciousness and brutality of the colonial rule of Japanese imperialism, with the Ten-Point Programme of the ARF, with the strategy and tactics for the Korean revolution, with the rapidly changing internal and external situation and with the inevitability of the downfall of Japanese imperialism." (ibid., pp 198-99.) All small units and groups, without exception, conducted the political work among the masses. Even when they were mainly engaged in military activities, they did not stop the political work. In addition, the political work teams were sent to different regions to take 139

exclusively charge of the organizational and political work among the masses. The political workers' groups were dispatched not only to the border areas of Korea but also to North and South Hamgyong Provinces, North and South Pyongan Provinces, many places in the central and southern parts of Korea and even to Manchuria and Japan. They explained and propagated among the masses the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's Juche-oriented revolutionary line, strategy and tactics and his superb art of command and protean tactics in an easy-to-understand language. This made the people boundlessly revere him and have a firm faith that his sagacious leadership would certainly bring about national liberation, the political workers got the people well acquainted with the viciousness and brutality of Japanese imperialist colonial rule, the rapidly changing internal and external situations and the inevitability of the ruin of Japanese imperialism, so that they would take an active part in the anti-Japanese struggle. They restored and reorganized the destroyed revolutionary organizations, keeping close contacts with the revolutionaries and patriots operating in different parts. In those places where there were no revolutionary organizations they formed them in various forms and under different names in conformity with the characteristic features of the localities. The ARF organizations and various other anti-Japanese organizations were now active clandestinely throughout the country. All this mass political work greatly conduced to helping the masses push ahead with the politico-ideological preparations for positively greeting the great event of national liberation and making them get fully ready to rise in all-people resistance in response to the forthcoming final offensive battle of the KPRA. entire commanders and soldiers of the KPRA, the nucleus of the Korean revolution, prepare themselves politically and militarily. "So, all commanders and soldiers should make the most of every condition and possibility to intensify their studies in order to more thoroughly prepare themselves politically and ideologically and in military technique. They should intensify their study of Marxist-Leninist theory and, especially, study intensely the line of the Korean revolution, its strategy and tactics. All of them will then become competent political workers capable of undertaking and performing the duties of a higher rank and skilfully organizing and mobilizing the masses for the revolutionary struggle. At the same time, they should master guerrilla tactics and study hard the advanced military knowledge and the techniques of all arms needed for modern warfare." {Ibid., p. 200.) In accordance with this policy, political and military education and training were conducted in order to more thoroughly prepare all the commanding cadres and soldiers of the KPRA politically and ideologically and in military technique. In the past, too, the KPRA men always had learning processes and military training and, at times, intensive study and training for a certain period. B ut, the new intensive political and military study and training which lasted for a long period were far more extensive and systematic than the previous ones. That is, all the necessary education and training were given on the highest standards required for taking the initiative in greeting the great event of national liberation. Political Education

3. MILITARY AND POLITICAL TRAINING OF THE KPRA

The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "With the great event of national liberation approaching, we need many excellent cadres who are well-prepared politically and militarily. Whether or not we shall be ready for the great event of national liberation depends on how firmly the 140 In the political education of the commanding personnel and soldiers of the KPRA, stress was laid on the deep study of the works of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung in order to firmly equip them with his great Juche idea and its embodiments— the lines, strategy and tactics of the Korean revolution. At the same time, revolutionary theories, Korean history and geography, the experience of the international communist movement and other practical problems were dealt with. While guiding small -unit activities and military-political training as a *whole, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung personally gave 141

lectures on the internal and international situations, the principles of party building, the revolutionary strategy and tactics, the principle and policy of the anti-Japanese national united front movement, the revolutionary work method and popular style of work and other important problems. He also guided debates. After the KPRA switched over to military-political training and small-unit activities the general situation gradually turned decisively in favour of the Korean revolution. From 1 943 on, the fascist countries went downhill on all fronts. After its crushing defeat in Stalingrad, the army of fascist Germany was retreating from the territory of the Soviet Union and the Japanese imperialists were waging one losing battle after another in China, southeast Asia and on the Pacific front. Theday wasapproaching when the KPRA would carry onthe final offensive operations against Japanese imperialism and achieve national liberation. Under such situation the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung pushed ahead with the work of equipping the officers and men of the KPRA with the revolutionary theories and modern military science and technology and getting all of them to be ready for the final, decisive battle. fn bringing up the men of the KPRA into able political workers and military commanders, his speech The Korean Revolutionaries Must Know Korea Weil, addressed to the political cadres and political instructors of the KPRA on September 15, 1943, had great significance. In this historic speech he analysed the general situation of World War II and proved that the great event of national liberation was approaching. Then, he set important tasks before the Korean revolutionaries. In the speech he first stressed the need to make a good study of the motherland. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung taught: "Today, with the great event of national liberation almost in sight, one of our most important tasks is to study the homeland well. "A good knowledge of our country and our people is essential for us to discharge our duties successfully as patriots and communists and carry out the Korean revolution with honour," {Ibid., p. 204.) He stressed that in order to discharge the responsibility for the Korean revolution the KPRA officers and men should be well versed in 142 the history and geography of the homeland and be well informed about its cultural traditions. This was indispensable to them in fostering ardent patriotism, increasing their readiness to serve the country and the people with devotion, taking independent and creative stands in the revolutionary struggle and saving their fine national traditions and national riches from the Japanese imperialists' policy of national eradication. And only by studying the history and culture, nature and geography of Korea as well as the beautiful morality and custom of the people, could they systematically acquire the knowledge necessary for building the economy and culture in the liberated country. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung went into detail on the orientation of the study of the history, geography and cultural traditions of the country He emphasized the need to make a good study of the history of the Korean people's struggles and creative activities, instead of the history of kings or feudal rulers in studying history. He pointed tothe need to make a comprehensive study on how greatly the Korean people contributed to the science and culture of mankind in studying cultural traditions, and make a deep study of the rich natural resources of the country in studying its geography. Then, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung made clear the immediate task in hastening the great event of national liberation. He stressed that a firm mass foundation should be laid for a showdown with Japanese imperialism by further intensifying theantiJapanese national united front movement on a nationwide scale, that the revolutionary bases be built up in the mountainous areas of the homeland for the Korean People's Revolutionary Army to rely on in the final decisive battle, and that all the KPRA commanding officers and soldiers make fuller political and military preparations for the great event of national liberation. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's historic speech The Korean Revolutionaries Must Know Korea Well was a hig hiy important document in getting the men and officers of the KPRA to be fully prepared for the great event of national liberation and to fulfil important tasks in the building of a new country after liberationAll the officers and men of the KPRA, regarding his speech as a guiding principle, stepped up their military-political training. Through political education, their politico-ideological level rose rapidly, and they were fully prepared to be indomitable revolutionary fighters who would devote themselves to national liberation and the victory of the revolution in any adversity, and communist revolutionaries firmly equipped with the Juche idea. 143

Military Education and Training In military education and training, attention was paid, first of all, to deeper assimilation of the experience and tactics of guerrilla warfare. This was necessary not only for the immediate small-unit activities but for the future national-liberation operations as they would be carried out along with guerrilla operations. Besides, in order to fully master the strategy and tactics of modern warfare, important military-scientific and military-technical problems were treated, and the training of basic arms and various special arms conducted. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Also, all the commanding officers and soldiers of the KPRA should raise their military technique to a higher level. "All of them are national treasures, who have gained rich fighting experiences in the fierce flames of guerrilla warfare for more than ten years. But the guerrilla warfare alone will not win the coming decisive battle against the thieving Japanese imperialists. We will have to make a showdown with the strong Japanese army equipped with modern military techniques. Accordingly, if we fail in the application of various modern tactics — offensive, landing and air-borne operations — we cannot expect a successful battle with the aggressive troops of Japanese imperialism. Therefore, we must combine up-to-date military techniques with our wealthy experiences of guerrilla warfare, and modern tactics with the swift and peerless guerrilla tactics, and then annihilate the enemy, overwhelming him by strategy and tactics. "For this purpose, it is essential for us to study and master the offensive and defensive tactics of a regular army and intensify tactical training, practising modern tactics such as amphibious and air-borne operation." (ibid., pp. 222-23.) The subjects of military study of the KPRA were equivalent to the several years' courses of study in a regular military academy. It was a very difficult task to carry on so many subjects of study in parallel with small-unit activities. However, all the commanding officers and soldiers of the KPRA carried out the huge task, tiding over all hardships, in hearty response to the respected leader Comrade 144 Kim II Sung's teaching that a revolutionary was an iron-willed man who would do whatever required by the revolution. In military education lectures were given in parallel with discussions. In tactical training, outdoor lessons and training and night exercises were intensified, using the terrains similar to those in actual fighting. Through the systematic military-political training all the commanding officers of the KPRA were prepared politically and militarily so that they could command in the future tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, performing duties of several higher ranks. All the soldiers fostered their ability so that they could command hundreds or thousands of troops in the future. In this way they got always ready for the final, decisive battle, for the early organization of a communist party, people's government and regular army in the liberated fatherland and for the vigorous building of a new society as well.

4. FULL PREPARATION FOR ALL-PEOPLE RESISTANCE

Preparations were also made among the masses of the people to greet the great event of national liberation in a positive way. At the Xiaoharbaling Meeting the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "In order to be fully ready for the great event of national liberation, our people should be thoroughly prepared politically and ideologically, while, at the same time, preserving and accumulating the forces of the KPRA. Only by doing this, will it be possible, with the advent of the great event of national liberation, to successfully organize and conduct fullscale popular resistance against Japanese imperialism in coordination with large-unit operations of the KPRA." {ibid., p. 196.) As the revolutionary influence of the anti-Japanese armed struggle grew rapidly and the small groups and political workers of the KPRA and the revolutionary organizations intensified mass political work, and Japanese imperialism suffered repeated defeats on all fronts, the masses of the people were getting better prepared for the great 145

event of national liberation, that is, rising up in a nation-wide resistance in a decisive moment. Thisfound expressions, among other things, in their absolute faith in and deepest adoration for the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the sun of the nation and the lodestar of liberation, their active preparations for joining the KPRAandthe intensification of all forms of anti-Japanese, anti-war struggle. Absolute Faith in and Reverence for the Great Leader Comrade Kim tl Sung Workers, peasants, youth, students and other broad sections of the popular masses further deepend their absolute faith in and reverence for the great leader Comrade Kim II1 Sung as the days went by. They entrusted their destiny entirely to him and all of them ardently wished him to accomplish the cause of national liberation. Variousrevolutionary publications, handbillsand appeals praising him highly were distributed in succession,* An instance of this was an appeal entitled "Commander in Mt. Paekdu" written by the ARF organization in the Pungsan area in South Hamgyong Province. It reads. "Mt. Paekdu is renowned in Korea. It is a lofty mountain, hence the name Paekdu (White Head —TV,). There, in the depths of the mountain an unrivalled general, the Commander of Korean Independence, has his camp. Who is this general? He is the famous Commander of Korea, General Kim. General Kim flies in all directions as if by magic. General Kim is the Commander of the Korean' Independence and a world -famous general/ General Kim brings sunlight to the Korean peninsula by annihilating the Japanese army. The Japanese warlords fall like dead leaves in the autumn before' General Kim's famous tactics. They seek escape even at the mention of General Kim's name. That is why our compatriots throughout Korea are filled with confidence in victory. General Kim will win victory after victory and bring independence to Korea." Leaflets bearing the slogans saying "General Kim II Sung will come in a few days" and "Wait for the day of General Kirn II Sung's return," were put up here and there. Even in the Japanese munitions factories such as the Pyongyang Arsenal, the Japanese institutions and the vigilance corps, such leaflets were put up one after another. In 1944, bold red letters reading "Kim II Sung, Commander of Korean Independence" were found written on the ceiling in the third-class steerage of "Koan-maru" (a ferryboat sailing between Japan and Korea). 146 The brilliant exploits of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung were widely told and retold among the people in those days. Whenever the people, men and women, young and old, got together, they, revering him, told many stories in praise of his outstanding talent, superb commanding art and flexible tactics. Telling legendary stories about the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung employing the art of land contraction, apprehending wonders of nature and transforming himselr, they drew vigour and encouragement from them. They often linked him with their native places and even spoke of his having visited them. The following story is enough to show what a great reverence the Korean people, the youth and students in particular, felt for him. In 1 944 a Japanese scholar gave a lecture to the six-year pupils of a primary school and the second-year pupils of a secondary school in a region in the southern part of Korea. Then, he asked them to write down in unsigned sheet of paper the one whom they admired most. The result showed that 67 per cent of them put down 1 Kim II Sung." (New Stories about Korea, 1 952, Tokyo, p. 384 ) Considering that due to the Japanese imperialists' harsh suppression at that time no small number of pupils could not express their views in fear, it was no doubt that almost all students were revering the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, holding him in the highest esteem. In those days, the Korean people had a high regard for the respected leader Comrade Kim If Sung as the "supreme leader of Korea after her independence," the " President of future Korea" and the "commander-in-chief" and looked forward with confident hope to the day when their fatherland would be liberated and prosper under his wise guidance. Indeed, the dignified name of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung came to stand out as a symbol of liberation and victory for the people all over the country from Mt, Paekdu to Cheju Island and their compatriots in faraway foreign countries, as a lighthouse of hope for the entire Korean people. The absolute faith in and adoration for the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung was not merely embedded in the minds of the people. It constituted the most powerful ideological and mental motive force arousing the masses of the people to the anti -Japanese revolutionary struggle. 147

Extensive Preparations of the Masses for Concerted Action with the KPRA What was most characteristic in the people's struggle in those days was active preparations for concerted action with the KPRA led by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. Workers, peasants, youth and students, holding him in boundless esteem, formed various revolutionary organizations and made preparations for direct participation in the final, decisive battle to defeat Japanese imperialism in concerted action with the KPRA at the decisive hour. Organizations for armed revolts were formed everywhere. In the summer of 1944, the "National Liberation Corps" was organized in Pyongyang. It conducted vigorous activities in South Pyongan Province and Hwang hae Province. As an anti-Japanese underground revolutionary organization and an organization for an armed" revolt, it set it as its chief objective to rise in armed riot to respond to the KPRA's operations for national liberation and made active preparations for it. {Pyongyang Minbo, November 15, 1945.) Between 1 942 and 1 945 such organizations were also formed and operated in North Pyongan and Kangwon Provinces, in Pungsan and other areas of South Hamgyong Province and in Hoeryong and other areas of North Hamgyong Province. The preparatory work for a concerted action with the KPRA was conducted in various other forms. It was graphically manifested primarily in the working class. In 1 941 the iron workers in Pyongyang banded themselves and strove to manufacture weapons in a clandestine manner. They planned to join the KPRA and take part in the national -liberation operations and carried on vigorous activities for it {Document on the Attempt of Employees of the Iron Works to Achieve Korean Independence and Other Papers, South Pyongan Provincial Police, 1944.) In 1944 the workers of the Chongjin Iron Works planned to respond to the forthcoming final offensive operations of the KPRA and made preparations for a large-scale armed revolt. And the tailors of Pukchong in South Hamgyong Province and the workers and students of Chinju in South Kyongsang Province carried on their struggle with a determination togo over to Manchuria soasto cooperate with the KPRA in the sacred war for national liberation. The workers of the Pyongyang Arsenal, too, seized weapons and ammu148 nition and made preparations for armed revolt in secrecy. {Papers on the Cases of Stealing Arms for Korean Independence and of the Arrest, of Those Who Attempted to Organize a Mass Party, 1 944, pp. 2-4.) Workers' preparations for the anti -Japanese revolt were under way vigorously in many other towns, too. Peasants, too, launched a struggle to prepare food, spears and swords with a view to joining the KPRA when it advanced into the homeland. Peasants in Suam Sub-county, Sihung County, Kyonggi Province, and Hanchon Sub-county, Pyongwon County, South Pyongan Province destroyed the government and public offices of Japanese imperialism, captured grain from storehouses and beat the Japanese officials in charge of grain delivery, inflicting serious wounds upon them. {Higher Foreign Affairs Monthly Bulletin, No. 46, 1 943; The Tendency of Young People to Opposing the Enforcement of Conscription System, the Gendarmerie of Sin uiju, 1 941 -1 945, pp. 4546.) The struggleto take joint action with the KPRA wasfierce notably among the youth and students. Between 1942 and 1943 the youth and students led by the graduates from Choryang Commercial School in Pusan made preparations for an armed revolt to act in concert with the anti-Japanese armed struggle. {Higher Foreign Affairs Monthly Bulletin, No. 49, the Government-General of Korea, 1 943-1 944, p. 9.) The students of the Chonju Normal School in North Cholla Province made a firm determination as follows: "We must steel our bodies to be the soldiers of General Kim II Sung and make every effort to achieve Korean independence." {Ibid., No. 51, 1944, pp. 10-11.) Moreover, the progressive youth and students in Songjin, (now Kim Chaek), North Hamgyong Province, organized a secret organization and named it "Paekdusan Association," after Mt. Paekdu as this mountain where thegreat leader Comrade Kim II Sung was in activity was the base of the Korean revolution. {Monthly Bulletin on the Arrest of Political Offenders, North Hamgyong Provincial Police, 1942, p. 177.) Preparations for anti-Japanese revolts were made by the broad Korean youth and students in Japan, too. The Korean youths who had been forcibly drafted into the Japanese army were also making preparations to rise up in an armed revolt in concert with KPRA units. In August 1 944 the Korean youths serving in the Japanese marine corps in Chinhae were resolved to join the KPRA and deserted barracks. {Lesson of the Arrest of Spies and Political Offenders. Educational Material, Ranam Gendarmerie, December 1944, pp. 72-79.) 149

A vigorous struggle to join with the KPRA went on on a nationwide scale. It was true that preparations for joint action with the KPRA were not limited to a particular region or some strata of people. They became a common phenomenon among the popular masses of all strata in all areas, the irresistible trend of the times. In face of this situation the Japanese imperialists gave a cry of alarm. They said that it was the general trend that students and other youths with a firm belief in Japan's collapse were scheming to rise up in an armed revolt in close relation with General Kim II Sung whom they worshipped from the bottom of their hearts or under his command. {Higher Foreign Affairs Monthly Bulletin, No. 46, Police Affairs Bureau of the GovernmentGeneral of Korea, 1943, pp. 5-6.) Thus, the people of all strata were making extensive preparations to join with the KPRA led by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. This meant that full preparations were being made for an all-people resistance against Japanese imperialism at a decisive moment. Intensification of Various Forms of AntiJapanese, Anti-War Struggle Workers, peasants, youth and students and other sections of people energetically waged the anti-Japanese, anti-war struggle, looking forward to the day of national liberation. Workers went on strikes and sabotages everywhere, with the result that the wartime production of Japanese imperialism was hard hit. In 1 943 stevedores in Raj in under the direct guidance of the KPRA small units and groups launched a strike. Dockers in other major ports at home also staged daring strikes. These struggles greatly hampered the wartime transportation of Japanese imperialism. Workers' strikes broke out one after another: Strikes in the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory in July 1942, in the Songjin High Frequency Factory in June 1943 and June 1944 and in other major munitions factories were some of them. Workers also waged more determined struggles such as arson and destruction of wartime production establishments of Japanese imperialism, and riots. Big and small incidents of explosion and arson occurred one after another at factories and enterprises. There were the incident of explosion in the Hoeryong Colliery in the summer of 1 943, 150 he Nampo Refinery workers' struggle to wreck machines, the incident of arson in the Samchok Colliery in Kangwon Province and in the "Korean Aviation Company," and the case of explosion of the Hungnam Nitrogenous Fertilizer Factory in September-October 1 943. This dealt a serious blow at the wartime production of Japanese imperialism. Strikes and sabotage went on continuously in Pyongyang, Chongjin, Seoul, Pusan and other important industrial cities and construction sites in all parts of the country. Incidents of explosion and arson happened in succession in munitions factories and aerodromes. The active struggles of the workers caused a big loss to the Japanese imperialists' wartime production. The Korean workers who had been drafted to work in Japan put up fierce strike struggles. Between 1941 and 1942 the total number of cases of workers' strikes in Japan amounted to 602 involving 30,1 65 workers. Of them, 449 were the Korean workers' strikes with the participation of 26,1 49. In the first half of 1943 alone there were 1 74 strikes involving as many as 9,661 . {Higher Foreign Affairs Monthly Bulletin, No. 51, Police Affairs Bureau of the Government-General of Korea, 1944, p. 133.) Along with the anti-Japanese, anti-war struggles of workers, positive struggles were also waged by the peasants against the forcible delivery of agricultural produce, various wartime burdens and compulsory labour. Peasants in some regions courageously assaulted in groups the Japanese imperialists' sub-county offices, destroyed the warehouses of the "County Agricultural Association" to divide food among themselves and killed vicious stooges. The cases of the formation of secret societies of teachers and students and school strikes cropped up one after another in all parts of the country. The young and middle-aged people waged vigorous struggles against conscription, commandeering and compulsory labour. At that time "rumours" were widespread among the people. Most of them were related to the predictions as to the defeat of Japanese imperialism and Korean independence, fn those days the Japanese police and law courts had the busiest time to deal with the cases of "circulation of sensational rumours." As seen in these few instances, different kinds of strikes and sabotages, the evasion of expropriation, forcible conscription and forced drafting by the Japanese imperialists and rumours were, in the final analysis, the evidence of the upswing of trend to oppose and reject their colonial rule and war policy. In those days it was a common 151

phenomenon and general trend that the popular masses came out in opposition to the Japanese imperialist colonial rule and war policy as a whole. Such advance took both organizational and separate forms and was made in an open or clandestine way. At the bottom of this move of the people lay their firm conviction that the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, commanding the KPRA, would certainly liberate the country and that the day of national liberation was drawing near. Because they had such conviction, they could tirelessly wage the anti-Japanese struggle in various ways at all risks. In the midst of the anti- Japanese, anti -war struggle of the masses of the people of all strata, full preparations were being made for an allpeople resistance, in response to the KPRA's national-liberation operations to be conducted in the future under the general command of the great leader Comrade Kim N Sung. 152

Chapter VI: Great Victory Of The Anti-Japanese Armed Struggle

1. NATIONAL- LIBERATION OPERATIONS

Final Preparations for National-Liberation Operations In the latter half of 1 944, World War II entered its last stage. Fascist Germany was suffering defeat after defeat and its destruction was a foregone conclusion. Italy, another fascist country, already surrendered unconditionally. The countries which had been servile to Hitler Germany dropped off from the fascist camp one by one. Many countries in east and central Europe were liberated in succession from the yoke of fascism. On May 9, 1945, fascist Germany at last surrendered unconditionally. The defeat of Germany worsened the situation of Japanese imperialism, one of its major allies, and showed that the collapse of this imperialism, too, was imminent. Since the Japanese imperialists were falling into irrecoverable predicament, the KPRA was confronted with the task of accelerating the preparations for a final decisive battle. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung organized the KPRA units into combat formation so that they could undertake the nationalliberation operations at any moment. He also got them to make elaborate preparations for all kinds of combat materials, technical equipment and war materials, and finish training for coordinated actions and all other work. The men of the KPRAdeeply acquired not only the experience and tactics of guerrilla warfare but also the offensive and defensive tactics 153

of a regular army. They intensified combat exercises for modern warfare and particularly the exercises of landing and air-borne operations. Military reconnaissance was further activated, which was of weighty significance" in deciding upon the operational plan of the KPRA for national liberation and accomplishing preparations for the final decisive battle. Thegreat leader Comrade Kim II Sung completed the operational plan for national liberation. According to the operational plan, it was anticipated that the main unit of the KPRA wasto occupy the favourable mountain areasof many provinces including North and South Pyongan Provinces, North and South Hamgyong Provinces, Hwanghae Province, and Kangwon Province, and carry on the operations for liberation rapidly reinforcing the armed ranks with patriotic youths, while at the same time combining these with theguerrilla operations of small unitsand theallpeopierevolt. Other units of the KPRA weretosally intotheareasalong theTuman and Amnok Rivers, advance in the direction of the northern areas of Korea, and, at the same time, land on the eastern coast to take the offensive. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung fixed the landing points for the KPRA parachutists and the areas for their activity, and the landing places of other KPRA units and the directions of their advance. Thereupon, he worked out a detailed plan for the distribution of forces and also a plan to conduct a coordinated action with the Soviet Army when it would participate in the war against Japan. He mapped out a concrete plan for building a new country after repulsing the Japanese imperialists. He also took concrete measures to found a party, set up a government of people and strengthen the revolutionary armed forces, and established definite policies for carrying out the socio-economic reforms. At the beginning of August 1 945 he led the units of the KPRA to carry through the operational plan for national liberation. With the immediate operations for national liberation ahead, the party organizations of the KPRA actively conducted political work among its members to get them thoroughly prepared ideologically so that they could display unparalleled courage and mass heroism in the final decisive battle for national liberation, keep closer bonds vith the people and strictly adhere to mass discipline. Prior to the all-out offensive operations, thegreat leader Comrade Kim !! Sung organized an assault on Tori, Sonbong County, on August 7, 1945, for a forced reconnaissance. A sub-unit of the KPRA crossed the Tuman River under cover of darkness, attacked the village of Tori and annihilated the enemy forces 154 there. This attack inflamed the spirits of the KPRA and damped the enemy's fighting spirit to the extreme.* ' (Record on the Cessation of Hostilities in Korea, 1 964, Tokyo, p. 29.) Operations for National Liberation On August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. Coinsiding with this, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung ordered the officers and men of the KPRA to carry on the final decisive battle for the liberation of the homeland. Emphasizing the significance of the operations for the liberation of the country, he gave concrete tasks to the units which would break through the northern frontier and land on the coast, the units assigned to each region and the reserve units. in accordance to the battle order given by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung the units of the KPRA went over to general offensive all along the front. The officers and men of the KPRA, who had been armed with the Juche idea of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and grown into an invincible revolutionary army through long years of hard -fought guerrilla struggle and the military-political training for bringing about the great event of national liberation, displayed unrivalled valour, selfsacrificing spirit and mass heroism from the first moment of operationsfor national liberation. The fortified border defences of the enemy which had been much vaunted as "an impregnable fortress" were destroyed in a twinkling by the strong attack of the KPRA. The KPRA units crossed the Tuman River in a single attack. They advanced to the areas of Saebyol and Undok and liberated wide areas before long. Other units landed at Sonbong and expanded their combat activities to Raj in and Chongjin. On all fronts the KPRA units continued their attacks and liberated many areas in succession. The operations for national liberation were actively participated in by the small units and political workers of the KPRA active in the homeland, the people's armed groups and armed insurgent organizations formed undertheguidance of the above small unitsand political workers, and the broad masses of the people. 155

While organizing and commanding the KPRA units' advance in different directions and their landing operations, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung saw thatthe units of theair-borne landing force got themselves fully ready for action. These units were anticipated to land on the mountain areas of Korea. The Japanese imperials, however, surrendered unconditionally in a great hurry on August 1 5, 1945, only one week after the KPRA launched the operations for national liberation. Even after their unconditional surrender the Japanese imperialist aggressors made a last-ditch effort, using their enormous armed forces and power organs. Therefore, the KPRA units kept up their struggle to annihilate the desperate Japanese imperialists and smash their colonial ruling machines. Everywhere occurred exciting scenes of reunion between the KPRA men and the liberated people. The people warmly welcomed the men of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army, shouting loudly: "Long live General Kim II Sung!" "Long live Korean independence!" The workers, peasants, youth, students and all the other sections of people who had been making preparations for a final decisive battle to liberate the homeland made assaults on the Japanese imperialist gendarmerie, police organs and government offices in concert with the advancing KPRA, wrested all power from Japanese imperialism and seized it. They stoutly fought to prevent the Japanese imperialists from destroying economic and cultural establishments and al! other assets. The KPRA men and political workers directed the work of forming Communist Party organizations and local government organs, uniting the communists, who had been active in different parts and the masses of the people. Japanese imperialism met its doom and the Korean people were freed from the yoke of nearly half-a-century-long colonial rule. The Korean people's 15-year-long heroic anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle organized and led by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and marked by the immortal exploits which would shine for ever in the annals of Korea, was crowned with brilliant victory. 156 2. HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ANTIJAPANESE ARMED STRUGGLE The anti -Japanese armed struggle organized and led by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung was a national-liberation war, a revolutionary war organized and waged under the revolutionary banner of the Juche idea. It was a glorious struggle that demonstrated the revolutionary stamina of the Korean communists and people to the whole world and upheld the dignity and honour of the Korean nation. Very arduous was the anti-Japanese armed struggle, a guerrilla warfare fought for 1 5 long years in the absence of a state rear against the regular armed forces millions strong. It was indeed an arduous, protracted revolutionary war rarely to be seen in world history. Nevertheless, the anti-Japanese armed struggle at fast won a final victory, getting over all sorts of difficulties and ordeals. Then, what were the factors in the victory of the anti -Japanese armed struggle? What historic status and significance did this struggle have? Factors in Victory of the Anti-Japanese Armed Struggle The brilliant victory of the anti-Japanese armed struggle was ascribable only to the sagacious guidance of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, a gifted revolutionary, great thinker and theoretician, ever-victorious iron-willed brilliant commander, and outstanding military strategist. All the factors in victory of the antiJapanese armed struggle could be formed just by his ingenious organization and guidance. The victory of the anti -Japanese armed struggle was, first of all, a brilliant victory of his great Juche idea and the Juche-oriented revolutionary line. The Juche idea authored by him was an invincible revolutionary banner that greatly inspired the communists and popular masses to the 157

anti-Japanese struggle; it was an ideological and theoretical weapon for a most correct solution of all problems arising in the revolutionary struggle. On the basis of his Juche idea, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung put forward the Juche-oriented revolutionary lines and policies such asthe line of theanti-Japanese armed struggle,the policy of founding a Communist Party, the line of establishing a people's revolutionary government, the policy of building up revolutionary mass organizations, and the line of united front. By carrying them through, he [ed toa brilliant victory the Korean people'santi-Japanese nationalliberation struggle centering on the anti-Japanese armed struggle. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung firmly armed the men of the KPRA and the people with the Juche idea and the Juche-oriented revolutionary lines and aroused them to the struggle against Right and "Left" opportunism and sectarianism. And he led them to thoroughly establishing Juche in the revolution and solving all problems independently and creatively. The Juche idea induced the KPRA men and the popular masses to give full play to the anti-imperialist revolutionary sentiments, the spirit of uncompromising struggle against the enemy, the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance characterized by the solution of all problems arising in the revolutionary struggle by one's own effort, the firm faith in the victory of the revolution and the indomitable fighting spirit. The KPRA men educated in the Juche idea were never disheartened even in any complicated and difficult situation, fought with an ardent wish, "fight the enemy tothe seventh life!" Their heartswere always overflowing with revolutionary optimism. They fully displayed a lofty revolutionary spirit, the spirit of devoting their all unhesitatingly to the revolution. As they were firmly equipped with the great Juche idea and the Juche-oriented communist revolutionary spirit, the KPRA could demonstrate indestructible might in struggle and win a historic victory in the anti-Japanese armed struggle. The brilliant victory of the anti-Japanese armed struggle could be possible thanks to the identity of thought and will and revolutionary unity of the revolutionary ranks with the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung as the pivot. The steel -strong unity of thinking and will and revolutionary cohesion of the revolutionary ranks could be achieved because the revolutionary thought and theories of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung were correct and great and his guidance was sagacious. And nothing could break that unity and cohesion. The KPRA men infinitely believed in him and revered him. They 158 regarded it as their loftiest duty to safeguard and defend the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung politically and ideologically at the cost of their lives. They lived and fought as he taught, without yielding even when they were left alone in primeval forests, put in the enemy'sjai! or brought to the scaffold. As the KPRA was based on such iron-like unity of ideology and will, the warm revolutionary comradeship and the traits of unity between men and officers prevailed and the revolutionary cohesion was firmly ensured within its ranks. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "A tofty spirit of revolutionary comradeship always prevailed among the anti-Japanese guerrillas. Although the antiJapanese armed struggle was of an unprecedented arduous nature, the anti-Japanese guerrillas were able valorously to overcome all difficulties and trials and win a shining victory, because they fought in firm unity, with one ideology and will, giving full play to their communist spirit of revolutionary comradeship." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. VI, p. 399.) Within its ranks the men and officers of the KPRA were more harmonious than among their own brothers and the superiors and the inferiors were firmly united with one mind and purpose and shared their fate, joys and sorrows. Soldiers of the KPRA defended their commanders at the cost of their lives and the latter educated, took warm care of their men and became an example for them in performing heroic exploits. The KPRA men were ail revolutionary comrades infinitely faithful to the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. They valued and loved each other from their hearts. As they were united by truly revolutionary comradeship, they showed no tolerance for defects found among their comrades and criticized them in time to correct them. So, a firm principled unity prevailed within their ranks. Because they were in firm unity with a singleness of mind and purpose, they could successfully overcome so many unimaginable difficulties and trials and at last emerge victorious. The victory of the anti -Japanese armed struggle was the brilliant victory of the superb military strategy and guerrilla tactics of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. On the basis of the Juche idea, he trained the KPRA to be the revolutionary armed force fully prepared not only politically and ideologically but also in military technique. He set forth the correct strategic and tactical policies at each stage of the anti- Japanese armed struggle and created new tactical principle 159

and methods of guerrilla warfare and developed and enriched them. By thoroughly carrying through his correct military strategic policiesthe KPRA could firmly takethe initiative in the whole period of the anti- Japanese armed struggle. By skilfully applying original, ingeniousand multifariousguerrilla tactics created by him, it could win victory at each battle fought with the incomparably superior enemy. As the KPRA was armed with the original military art created by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, as well as the politicoideological superiority, it could prevail over the enemy by tactical superiority in the 15-year-long anti-Japanese war and achieve the historic cause of national liberation. The victory of the anti-Japanese armed struggle was also attributable to the close kindred ties between the KPRA and the popular masses which were based on the revolutionary mass line, the revolutionary method of work and the popular style of work initiated by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. He said: "The anti -Japanese guerrillas were able to wage a guerrilla struggle over a period of 15 years even though they did not have state power, because they fought for the people and enjoyed the active support and backing of the people." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. II, p. 67.) He impressed on the men of the KPRA that strengthening kindred ties with the masses of the people was a basic guarantee for the victory of the anti -Japanese armed struggle. He himself offered examples of the revolutionary method of work and the popular style of work and led his men to give full play to the beautiful trait of unity between the military and the people. True to his teaching that "Guerrilla cannot live without people as fish cannot live without water," the KPRA men most valued theinterests of the people anywhere and atany time and fought at the cost of their lives for the good of the people. That was why they couid enjoy the active support and love of the people. The people with all their might supported and encouraged the KPRA both materially and spiritually in spite of the cruel suppression by the Japanese imperialists. Therefore, no big-scale enveloping attack and vicious containment policy of the enemy could defeat the KPRA bound by close kindred ties with the people. The KPRA won victory in the anti-Japanese armed struggle while strengthening internationalist solidarity. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The anti-Japanese guerrillas belonged from the outset to one and the same family of communists. The guerrillas upheld the idea of Marx: 'Workers of the whole world, unite!' 160 and firmly armed themselves with the idea of proletarian internationalism." [Ibid., p. 71.) The anti -Japanese armed struggle of the Korean people was an important link in the chain of the international communist movement and the national -liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples of the world. It was carried out in close relation with the international revolutionary forces, the revolutionary forces of neighbouring countries in particular. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung was the first to set forth the original line of international anti-imperialist united front. He brought into reality a joint struggle and a united front with the communists and broad anti- Japanese forces of China over the whole period of the anti-Japanese armed struggle. *The KPRA always upheld the slogan "Defend the Soviet Union with arms!" put forward by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung. Historic Significance of the Anti-Japanese Armed Struggle The anti- Japanese armed struggle was truly of great historic significance in the development of the revolutionary struggle of the Korean people. Its historic significance lies, firstly, in the fact that it developed the anti-Japanese national-liberation movement in Korea to the highest stage and successfully accomplished the historic cause of national liberation from the colonial yoke of Japanese imperialism. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The anti-Japanese armed struggle organized and waged under the leadership of the communists raised the Korean people's national-liberation struggle and communist movement to new heights." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. VII, p. 201.) In view of both its guiding idea and form of struggle, the antiJapanese armed struggle was the highest stage of national-liberation struggle. This struggle was a revolutionary struggle which was organized and waged on the basis of thegreat Juche idea and the Juche-oriented revolutionary line which embodied it and fully demonstrated the 161

validity and invincible vitality of the above idea and line. This bespeaks that in view of its ideological content the anti -Japanese armed struggle was the highest level of national-liberation struggle. Moreover, in the light of its form of struggle this struggle was the highest form of struggle in which the revolutionary armed forces were set up against the counterrevolutionary armed forces, the aggressive imperialist armed forces. This struggle was the most conscious and organized violent struggle and the highest form of struggle capable of defeating the superior enemy. This anti-Japanese armed struggle definitely formed the main force of the national-liberation movement in Korea. It dealt a decisive blow at the Japanese imperialists and, at the same time, gave a great impetus to all types of anti- Japanese struggle of the popular masses, thus developing the general revolutionary struggle of the Korean people to a new high. As a result, it could defeat the Japanese imperialists and successfully accomplish the historic cause of national liberation. Secondly, its historic significance is that it built up a powerful internal force capable of vigorously pushing ahead with the Korean revolution in the future. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "In former days, we communists formed armed units to carry on the revolution by our own efforts, and fought the Japanese imperialists. In the course of this struggle, we constantly expanded the revolutionary ranks and, after liberation, with them as assets, we could found the Party and correctly lead our country's revolution." (Kim II Sung, Se/ected Works, Eng. ed„ Vol. 'IV, pp. 97-98.) In the course of the anti-Japanese armed struggle the broad masses of the people came to hove deeper reverence for the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, regarding him as the sun of the nation, and were firmly rallied around him. Accordingly, the internal forces of the Korean revolution were firmly built up. In the flames of the anti-Japanese armed struggle were formed the powerful ranks of the Juche-type communist revolutionaries led by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. Through the practice of the anti-Japanese armed struggle it was substantiated that the communists alone could be the leading force in thestruggleforthe independenceand prosperity of the country and the development of the revolution. Through this struggle the communist ranks were expanded and strengthened, a wealth of experience in struggle accumulated, and furthermore, they came to have even their own powerful armed force. As a result, the communist force led by the 162 great leader Comrade Kim II Sung became a strong force that no other political force could match; it came to have the ability to lead the popular masses most excellently. What is more, in the course of the anti-Japanese armed struggle and the anti-Japanese national united front movement the workingclass leadership in the revolution was firmly guaranteed, the workerpeasant alliance strengthened and, on this basis, the broad antiimperialist patriotic forces of all strata united. On the contrary, the anti-Japanese armed struggle and the antiL Japanese national united front movement dealt a fatal blow at the stooges of Japanese imperialism and all other reactionary forces and completely isolated them from the masses. Thanks to the full preparation of the internal revolutionary forces led by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung in the course of the antiJapanese armed struggle, the Korean people could achieve the cause of national liberation, overcoming all sorts of hardships and trials and energetically carry forward the revolution thereafter. Thirdly, the historic significance of the anti-Japanese armed struggle is that through this struggle a firm organizational and ideological foundation was laid for founding a Communist Party in Korea and that the most glorious revolutionary traditions of the Korean people were established. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung stated: "In the course of the long, arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle the Juche idea was founded, developed and enriched and the ideological system of Juche was established in the Korean communist movement. Through this struggle numerous hard-core communists developed; the unity and cohesion of the revolutionary ranks in ideology and purpose were realized; immortal revolutionary achievements and rich and valuable fighting experience were gained; and revolutionary methods and a popular style of work were created. As a result, the organizational and ideological basis was laid for establishing a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist party and our Party's glorious revolutionary traditions were built up." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. VII, p. 202.) Drawing on the experience and lesson of the early communist movement in Korea, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung formulated a correct policy for the founding of a Communist Party and energetically pushed ahead with the preparatory work for it in close combination with the anti-Japanese armed struggle and the anti-Japanese national united front movement and laid a solid organizational and ideological groundwork for it. 163

Amid the intense flames of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, a great number of communists of Juche type were trained and a stout organizational kernel force for the founding of the party established. As a result of relentless anti-factional struggle, factionalism was overcome in the Korean communist movement and the unity and cohesion of the broad communist ranks rallied around the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung was definitely achieved. With the creation of the Juche idea, the only correct guiding idea, and the formulation of the Juche-oriented revolutionary line and the revolutionary programme by him the ideological and theoretical preparations for the founding of the party were fully made. A solid mass foundation was also laid forthe Korean revolution andforthe founding of the party and its activity through the anti-Japanese armed struggle and i he a nti -Japanese national united front movement. In this way, the firm organizational and ideological groundwork for the founding of the party was laid, with the result that even under the complicated circumstances following liberation the Communist Party could be founded on a solid foundation without delay, shortly become the party in power, lead the struggle for social transformation successfully and quickly grow into a powerful mass-based party. In the fierce flames of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle were also established the glorious revolutionary traditions which the Workers' Party of Korea and people should inherit and uphold for ever. These glorious revolutionary traditions are characterized by the thorough embodiment of the immortal Juche idea created by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. They are very priceless revolutionary traditions whose main content is: 1 ) The Juche ideological system; 2) the lofty revolutionary exploits and experience in struggle gained in the course of hewing out a new road of the revolution on the Juche standpoint; and 3) the revolutionary method of work and popular style of work established in the course of the correct implementation of the mass line in keeping with the requirements of the Juche idea. The revolutionary traditions contain the revolutionary principle i and methods and every rich and many-sided experience of struggle, which the communists and revolutionary people should uphold at any time and in any place. The glorious revolutionary traditions have become the firm historical root of the WPK and the Korean revolution and the valuable revolutionary assets of the Korean people. Since the WPK and the Korean people inherited the great revolutionary traditions, they have been able to vigorously push forward the revolution and construction and achieve world-startling brilliant successes even under the very 164 complicated and arduous circumstances in which they were in direct confrontation with the US imperialists, the ringleader of world reaction. Fourthly, the, anti-Japanese armed struggle was of great international significance. Its international significance lies, above all, in that it opened a new path of the revolution waged under the banner of Juche, The anti-Japanese armed struggle clearly showed that no force could block the road ahead of the people who under the revolutionary banner of Juche held their destiny in their own hands, rose up to carve it out by their own efforts. Its international significance also lies in the fact that this struggle furnished an example of trail blazer in the anti-imperialist nationalliberation movement and played a great role in starting the imperialist colonial system disintegrating. The anti-Japanese armed struggle of the Korean people was a great revolutionary warthatforthefirsttime led the national-liberation struggle in the imperialists' colonies to victory. This gave and is giving a strong encouragement to the world's oppressed people. A document entitled The Anti -Japanese Armed Struggle of the Korean People Organized and Waged under the Personal Guidance of ComradeKim II Sung was ad opted at the Havana Congress of Culture held in Cuba in 1 968. The congress decided to take it as the strategy and tactics of the anti-imperialist national-liberation struggle of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The anti-Japanese armed struggle which defeated the Japanese imperialists, the Asian "shock-troop" of international fascism, greatly contributed to saving mankind from the danger of fascist enslavement and played an important role in giving beginning to the collapse of the imperialist colonial system. Its international significance also lies in the fact that it offered a living example of proletarian internationalism and helped greatly strengthen and consolidate the international revolutionary forces. Through the anti-Japanese armed struggle the Korean communists helped the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people with their blood and safeguarded with arms the Soviet Union which was building socialism single-handed in the encirclement of capitalism. Another international significance is that in the course of the antiJapanese armed struggle were obtained very valuable ideological and theoretical assets and experience in practical struggle for the oppressed and exploited people to apply in their liberation struggle. The Juche idea founded by the great leader Comrade Kim I! Sung in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and the 165

Juche-oriented revolutionary line, and his rich, many-sided original theories including those on the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution, the armed struggle based on the guerrilla warfare and the anti-imperialist national united front, indeed, form an outstanding contribution to the development of the theories on revolution in general and especially the theories of the colonial national-liberation revolution. These great theories and the experience gained in the struggle to implement them constitute the priceless common assets of the working class and the revolutionary people of the world. 166

Part Two: Building Of A New Korea. The Fatherland Liberation War

CHAPTER I THE CARRYING OUT OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST, ANTI-FEUDAL, DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

1. POLITICAL SITUATION IN KOREA AFTER LIBERATION

Road Ahead of the Liberated Korean People On August 15. 1 945, the Korean people were liberated from the colonial yoke of Japanese imperialism. They were exuberantly jubilant over the liberation and rebirth and turned out as one in the building of a new country. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the sun of the nation and the lodestar of liberation, returned home in triumph amid enthusiastic welcome from the people.* * At that time, various meetings were held to. welcome the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung returning from victories. The "Committees Welcoming General Kim II Sung" were organized in Pyongyang, Seoul and many orher regions. The "Mass Rally Welcoming General Kim II Sung" and the "Athletic Meet Welcoming General Kim II Sung" were held. The people present at the meetings revered him, looking up to him as "the sun of the nation" and "the hero '•f Korea," About the Pyongyang City welcome meeting, Pyongyang Minbo (a paper published in Pyongyang immediately after liberation) wrote under the headline: "Cheers of 400,000 People Rock the Land of Korea, a Brocade of Nature." "Pyongyang has a long history of 4,000 years and its population isas large as 400,000 people. But has such a large crowd ever before met in one place?... What made this meeting particularly significant historically, and turned it into a storm of emotion, was that General Kim II Sung, the great patriot of Korea, and the hero whom Pyongyang produced, was present in person there, and had extended joyful and enthusiastic greetings and words of encouragement to the masses of people... As soon as General Kim II Sung, whom the Korean people most deeply 169

adore and have been looking forward to meeting, appeared at the meeting, a storm of enthusiastic cheers arose and all the assemblage weredeeply moved and shed silent tears of joy." The great leader Comrade Kim I! Sung clearly indicated the road for the liberated Korean people to follow. He first set the building of the party, state and armed forces as the immediate important tasks. In his speech delivered to military and political cadres on August 20, 1 945, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "We must f irst found a Marxist-Leninist party which will be able to steadily guide the Korean revolution to victory. At the same time, we must establish a people's government to solve the question of power, the fundamental question in the revolution, and build the people's armed forces which will defend our country, people and revolutionary gains. These three immediate tasks are a revolutionary duty, the fulfilment of which brooks not a moment's delay in our revolution's rapid advance in the liberated homeland." (Kirn II Sung, Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. I, p. 226.) Only by building the party, a people's government and regular armed forces, was it possible to push ahead with the revolution with vigour, frustrate the obstructive manoeuvres of the enemies within and without and construct an independent, sovereign state, rich and strong. What social system should be established and what sort of democracy be adopted in the liberated country was a serious problem. The Rig htistforces maintained that a bourgeois republic should be set up and some reactionary forces even manoeuvred to restore a feudal system. On the other hand, the Leftist elements held that a socialist revolution should be carried out right away. These assertions confused the people who had risen up in building new country. Pointing out their wrong views in a lecture given tothe students of the Pyongyang Worker- Peasant Political School on October 3, 1 945, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The road Korea should take is the road to progressive democracy, true democracy. Only this road will give our people freedom, rights and a happy life and guarantee the country full independence and sovereignty." (Ibid., p. 253.) He went on to say: "The democracy we aspire to is fundamentally different from that of Western capitalist countries, nor is it a slavish copy of that of a socialist country, (f we tried to apply uncritically the former or the latter to our country which has 170 just been freed after 36 years of Japanese imperialist colonial rule, it would be a grave mistake. "Ours is a new type of democracy most suited to the reality of Korea which is in the stage of anti-imperialist, antifeudal democratic revolution," {Ibid., p. 257.) The respected leader made clear the main features of progressive democracy. First, progressive democracy is characterized by independence. This means opposing dependence on and subjection to other countries and taking an independent stand and creative attitude which require judgement of all problems on one's own and solution of them on one's own efforts. In a word, it is the first and foremost requirement of progressive democracy to achieve complete national independence. Secondly, progressive democracy is characterized by coalition. In other words, progressive democracy is not for one ctass and one political party but for the broad popular masses. Accordingly, it demands the formation of a national united front in order to unite the patriotic people of all strata. Thirdly, progressive democracy guarantees the masses of people freedom and equality. Fourthly, this democracy aims at building a rich and strong state which really ensures a happy life to the people. Fifthly, one of the major characteristics of this democracy is that it aims at revolution and demands uncompromising struggle against those who betray the country and the people. Sixthly, it aims at peace both internally and internationally. Progressive democracy clarified in a unique way by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung was the only correct road the Korean people liberated from the colonial yoke of Japanese imperialism should follow. However, in so doing, they found themselves in two diametrically different situations. One was that after liberation the revolutionary enthusiasm of the popular masses grew rapidly, creating a favourable condition for putting progressive democracy into effect, and the other was that the occupation of south Korea by US imperialism caused great complexity in the building of a new country on the basis of progressive democracy. Revolutionary Advance of the Popular Masses Liberation brought about a great revolutionary upsurge on a 171

nation-wide scale. The masses of the people broke down the last resistance of the defeated Japanese imperialists and turned out in a nation-wide struggle to achieve national independence and build a new society. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Today, delighted with freedom and liberation, all of our workers and peasants and other patriotic people of different sections are bubbling with tremendous patriotic enthusiasm and taking part as one man in the building up of the country. "The revolutionary spirit of our liberated people is very high and the revolutionary forces are overwhelming the forces of reaction." (Ibid,, p. 274.) The revolutionary advance of the popular masses was rapidly gaining in intensity in north Korea. Communist Party organizations and social organizations were formed in different regions and local self-government organs (local people's committees), militia, security forces, guards and other people s armed forces organized by the people themselves to secure their life and social order with credit. The popular masses everywhere waged a dynamic struggle to expose, denounce and suppress the stooges of the Japanese imperialists. The workers took over their factories and enterprises, fought valorously to defend them from the subversive machinations of the Japanese imperialists and their stooges, and organized production on their own. The peasants waged a mass struggle to expose and condemn oppression and exploitation by landlords and their illegal acts, while stoutly defending their localities. The intellectuals, too, came out actively to the building of a new country through the work of education, the construction of national culture, and scientific and technical work. Patriotic enterprisers and merchants, as well, devoted themselves to state -building. In this way all the people turned out as one in the building of the country, dedicating what they had — strength, knowledge, or money. In south Korea, too, the revolutionary, patriotic struggle of the popular masses surged up vigorously. Here, too, Communist Party and social organizations, and local autonomous organs were formed in various parts in a short span of time- The struggle of the south Korean people right after liberation was similar to that of north Korea. But, as the disarmament of the Japanese army and police was delayed there, the masses of people had to fight the armed Japanese soldiers. Nevertheless, the south Korean people 172 were not daunted in the last. They turned out as one in the building of the country with redoubled courage. Both in north and south Korea the revolutionary spirits of the masses of people definitely overwhelmed the reactionary forces. The pro-Japanese elements, national traitors and other reactionary classes were completely isolated from the people. Panic-stricken, they could • hardly raise their heads. The situation prevailing in our country immediately after liberation and the balance of the forces as a whole clearly showed that the Korean people were fully able to build an independent, sovereign state and create a new life for themselves. However, because of the occupation of south Korea by US imperialism the struggle of the Korean people for building a new country assumed a complicated, arduous character. US Imperialists' Occupation of South Korea and the Split of Korea As is generally known, in the Cairo Conference in 1 943 and other international meetings held during the Second World War the United States officially admitted that Korea should be an independent state. However, the aggressive army of the US imperialists which landed in south Korea after the unconditional surrender of Japanese imperialism on the pretext of disarming its army, acted quite contrary to their statement. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The US imperialists who occupied south Korea were opposed from the start to the construction by the Korean people of a democratic independent state, while they pursued a colonial enslavement policy there." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. II, p. 195.) The US imperialists had calculated that they would occupy south Korea, get the whole land of Korea into their clutches and make her a strategic point in realizing their plan for world supremacy. It was precisely for this reason that the US army enforced a rigorous military administration from the moment they set their feet on south Korea and strictly prohibited the free political activities of the Korean people." " "Proclamation No. 1 " published on the seventh day of September 1 945 in 173

the name of Commander-in-Chief of the US Army Forces, Pacific (MacArthur), points out: "...By virtue of the authority vested in me as Commander-in-Chief, United States Army Forces, Pacific, 1 hereby establish military control over Korea south of 38 degrees north latitude and the inhabitants thereof, and announce the following conditions of the occupation: "All powers of government over the territory of Korea south of 38 degrees north latitude and the people thereof will be for the present exercised under my authority. Persons will obey my orders and orders issued under my authority. Acts of resistance to the occupying forces or any acts which may disturb public peace and safety will be punished severely. , "For all purposes during the military control, English will be the official language...." Hodges, Commander of the US occupotionist troops in Korea, named Korea an "enemy country of the United States" and raved that "therefore. (Korea)" was duty bound to "abide by the terms of capitulation." (Mark Gayn, Japan Diary, Vol. II, Japanese ed., Tokyo, p. 166.) During their military administration the US imperialists kept the colonial ruling machines of Japanese imperialism intact. Hodges officially said that he was using those ruling machines, because it wasa most effective way of management. (People's World, San Francisco, September 1 9, 1 945.) It was an open revelation of the true motive of the US imperialists who wanted to follow Japanese imperialist rule by the governor-general and carry out a colonial enslavement policy in south Korea. The US imperialists got the police, the Japanese officials and the pro-Japanese Korean officials to remain in office and applied even the laws enacted under Japanese imperialist rule. On November 2, 1 945, through "Military Government Ordinance No. 21," they announced that "all laws which were in force, regulations, orders and notices or other documents issued by any former government of Korea (Government-General) having the force of law" will continue in full force and effect. All these facts were something the Korean people could hardly look with tolerance upon. The masses of the people clearly saw that there was no difference between the US and Japanese imperialists and that they were as like as two peas in a pod. In enforcing military administration in south Korea the US imperialists cracked down on the patriotic democratic forces on the one hand, and, on the other, raked together the reactionary forces to lay a political foothold for their colonial rule. The US imperialists forcibly dissolved local self-governing bodies and the people's committees of all levels set up by the people themselves. OfV, October 17, 1945, Hodges, commander of the US army, announced that "The Military Government Office is the sole / 174 government of Korea." With this, he denied the existence of the people's committees of all levels and forced the Korean people to "submit to the order of the Military Government Office," menacing them with the statement that "If there is any person who complains of the orders or deliberately slanders the Military Government, he shall suffer punishment." After this statement Hodges' full-scale suppression of the people's committees of all levels started, in the end they were all forcibly dissolved. The US imperialists persecuted and suppressed the activities of democratic political parties and social organizations in every way and arrested and imprisoned the revolutionaries and patriots who opposed or resisted their policy of colonial enslavement and repression. At the same time with the suppression of people, they were busy raking together the pro-Japanese elements, national traitors and other reactionary elements, and employed them in the Military Government organs to make them their political foothold for colonial rule. They appointed Kim Song Su, a big landlord, pro-Japanese capitalist and the traitor to the nation who had called on the Korean youth to shed much blood for Japan in the Second Worid War, and other reactionary elements of the Hanguk Democratic Party (the party of the ultra-rightist national traitors formed on September 9, 1945, when the US army entered Seoul) advisors of the Military Government. And they filled the posts of the President of the Supreme Court, high judicial officers, the Public Procurator General and even the lowest local judges and public procurators with the pro-Japanese traitors. Not content with it, the US imperialists hurriedly brought their long -fostered running dog Syngman Rhee from their country and made him the ringleader of reaction.* ' fn the name of the "President" of the "Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea," a nationalist group formed in Shanghai, China, in 1919, Syngman Rhee petitioned the US President for the mandate of Korea and thus perpetrated a treacherous act of selling the nation. Then he went to the US where he lived with the money he got from Oliver and Goodbell, US capitalists, promising them the transfer of economic rights, the mining concessions in particular, after Korean independence. After the defeat of Japanese imperialism, those Americans acted as his advisors or guardians. (The History of Modern Korea, 1953, Kyoto, Japan, p. 27; David Conde, The Modern History of Korea, Vol. I, Tokyo, Japan, p. 1 45; the south Korean monthly, Sasanggye, September 1965 issue, p. 196.) Even the badly dispirited pro-Japanese elements, national traitors and compradore capitalists in north Korea attempted to raise their heads pinning their hopes on the reactionary policy of the US 175

imperialists and no small number of them fled to south Korea. All hues of political speculators, nationa! traitors and pro-US elements wormed their way into south Korea from abroad. As a result, south Korea was turned into a den or a rallying centre of reactionaries.* * John Guntber, known as a biographer of MacArthur, afso pointed out that "the Koreans rallied around Hodges (commander of the US army) are no other than a group of those expelled from the country, those associated with Japan, fascist elements, professional assassins and intellectuals whose heads were in confusion." (John Gunther, The RiM/e of MacArthur, Japanese ed., Tokyo, p. 283.) In this way, after their liberation from the yoke of the Japanese imperialists the Korean people were split in two parts — the north and the south. And they were placed in different situations. North and south Korea were compelled to take two different roads. North Korea where the people became the masters of their destiny came to advance along the road of progress and independence with vigour and south Korea where people were again condemned to slavish submission had to follow the dark road of reaction and enslavement. The diametrically different situations created in the north and the south presented many difficult problems before the Korean people, and the future destiny of our nation depended on how to solve them. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung saw through the prevailing situation in which the Korean revolution could not but be carried on in the different forms of struggle under two different circumstances in the north and the south for a certain period, and took positive line and policies to tide it over.

2. FOUNDING OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY

Inaugural Party Congress. The Party's Organizational and Political Lines The situation prevailing in our country urgently demanded that a Marxist -Leninist party, thegeneral staff of the revolution, wasfounded as early as possible. This was essential for the organization of the 176 working class and other working masses into a strong revolutionary force and for the work to lead them to the victory of revolution with purposeful ness, The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung put forward wise policies for founding the party immediately. He first set forth the policy of founding the party with the communists tempered and seasoned in the crucible of the protracted and arduous anti -Japanese revolutionary struggle as the core and many others active in different localities. The work of founding a Communist Party after liberation was the direct continuation of the struggle for founding a party waged for a long period from the days of the anti -Japanese revolutionary struggle; and it was a work to bring it to fruition. It was a natural consequence of historical development, therefore, that the party was founded with the veterans of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle as the core who had ceaselessly made the organizational and ideological preparations for founding it overcoming all hardships and trials and formed the pivotal force of the Korean revolution to exercise leadership over that struggle. There could be no way of founding the party other than that. Only by relying on the veterans of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, was it possible to found a true revolutionary party and develop it on a sound basis. At the same time, only by widely enlisting the communists active in different places at home and abroad, was it possible to found the party on a broad footing. Under the conditions of those days when it was impossible to examinethe past career of each of the communists in different localities and admit them into the party, it was necessary, first of all, to admit them into the party first and test and educate them through practical struggles. As the backbone of the party was made up of the veterans of the anti -Japanese revolutionary struggle, even if the communists in different places were widely enlisted in it, it was fully possible to keep and consolidate the unity of the party, win them over, educate and remould them. In the next place, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung advanced the policy of suiting the party founding to the conditions that the country was split intothe north and the south and thatthetwo parts were placed in different situations. Since the US imperialists occupied south Korea and were enforcing a harsh military administration, it was impossible to immediately found a unified party embracing the communists in north and south Korea. However, the founding of the party could not be put off until conditions were matured for the establishment of a unified party. The diametrically different situations created in north and south Korea demanded that the revolution be developed and the work of party 177

founding promoted in conformity to the specific features of both parts. Taking this state of affairs into account, the respected leader Comrade Kirn II Sung advanced the policy of forming a Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea* as a powerful centralized leadership body of the party, taking advantage of the favourable conditions created in north Korea. In those days it was impossible to immediately hold an all- Korea party congress to form a Party Central Committee. Under the circumstances, only by forming a Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea at an early date, was it possible to unite in a single body the Communist Party organizations formed in different places, achieve the organizational and ideological unity of the communist ranks and firmiy build up the general staff of the Korean revolution. It was also possible to make north Korea a strong revolutionary base and dynamically expedite the revolution throughout the country. * It was so named in consideration of preparations for convening a nationwide party congress in due course of time. Many hardships and difficulties lay in the work of party building. The great leader Comrade Kim N Sung said: "Our Party was born in the complicated and chaotic circumstances immediately after liberation, in the midst of the struggle against the subversive activities of the class enemy and all shades of opportunism including factionalism and provincialism." {Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. IV, p. 299.) The US imperialists occupying south Korea directed their spearhead of attack to the communist movement in their suppression of the patriotic and democratic forces, and hampered the founding of a Communist Party in every way. The inveterate factionalists, who had destroyed the party founded in the 1920's and subsequently persisted in disruptive machinations, viciously hindered the normal work of party founding even after liberation. They got together in Seoul and launched mean factional strifes in separate groups, each putting up a signboard of the Communist Party."1 In particular, Pak Hon Yong sent his followers to even north Korea to expand the influence of his group and hampered the creation of a Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea to the utmost/2 Asa consequence, in north Korea, too, the followers of Pak Hon Yong and other factionalists and provincialists busied themselves in laying footholds for their respective groups. 178 *' Immediately after liberation Kang Jin, Choe Ik Han, and other members of the "M L Group" gathered at the Changan Building in Seoul and rigged up a "Communist Party" (known as "the Communist Party of the Changan Group" or "the Changan Party"). Meanwhile, Pak Hon Yong and other members of the "Tuesday Group" held the so-called "Kyedong Conference of Activists" and announced the "rebuilding of the Communist Party" (known as the "Communist Party of the Reconstruction Group"). After that, part of the members o( the "Changan Group" joined in the "Reconstruction Group," which led the "Communist Party of the Changan Group" to dissolution. But a little later a factional scramble was again aggravated especially in connection with their merger into a Workers' Party. (See 5. Merger of the Communist Party and Other Working People's Parties.) 'J pak Hon Yong and his agents asserted that an all -Korea party central leadership body should be set up in Seoul, a den of reactionaries. It was evident that the Party central leadership body should be placed in north Korea where all favourable conditions were created and that if it was located in Seoul under the occupation of the US imperialists it was impossible to fully ensure party activities and the nation-wide guidance to the revolutionary struggle. Nevertheless, they persisted in their allegation and opposed and hampered the formation of a Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea. This was entirely due to their confirmed factional ist viewpoint. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung energetically worked for the immediate founding of the party in reliance upon the organizational and ideological preparations made in the crucible of the protracted anti -Japanese revolutionary struggle. He personally met many communists and explained to them the policy of party founding. Meanwhile, he sent the veterans of anti -Japanese revolutionary struggle to different places to step up the preparations for party founding. On the basis of these preparations a preliminary meeting was held in Pyongyang on October 5, 1945, for founding a party. At the meeting a sharp struggle was waged against the factionalists and provincialists. A crushing blow was dealt at the subversive manoeuvrings of the sectarians who opposed the formation of the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea and their machinations for factional strife were shattered to pieces. The Inaugural Party Congress was held in Pyongyang from October 1 0 to 13. At the Congress the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung delivered a historic report, On Building a Marxist- Leninist Party in Our Country and Its Immediate Tasks. The report proposed to create a Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea and made clear the Party's organizational and political lines. 179

Clarifying the basic principles of Party building, the Party's organizational line defined the following as its main contents: 1. To build up the Party's organizational backbone with the fine communists who had been tried and seasoned through the long and arduous revolutionary struggle; 2. to make the Party a mass-based one strongly rooted on proletarian foundation by tirelessly improving its composition; 3. to guaranteethe ideological purity of the Party, oppose factionalism, parochialism and all other anti-Party and counterrevolutionary ideological trends and achieve a steel-like unity and cohesion of the Party; 4. to tighten Party discipline and thoroughly carry out the principle of democratic centralism. The Party's political line defined as its basic task the establishment of a Democratic People's Republic and, to carry it out, put forward the following four immediate tasks: First, to endeavour to build a Democratic People's Republic that will guarantee our nation's complete sovereignty and independence, by forming a Democratic National United Front embracing all patriotic, democratic political parties and groupings so as to rally broad patriotic, democratic forces; Second, to sweep away the remnant forces of Japanese imperialism, the lackeys of international reaction and all other reactionaries-the greatest obstacle to the building of a democratic state — thereby expediting the democratic development of the country; Third, to form a people's committee, a genuine people's organ of power, in each locality, carry out democratic reforms, reconstruct and develop the economy and raise the people's material and cultural standards of living, thus firmly laying the main foundation for the building of a democratic, independent state; Fourth, for the fulfilment of all these tasks, to expand and strengthen the Communist Party and dynamically promote the work of the social organizations. Along with the above four immediate tasks, the policy of building up north Korea into a mighty democratic base, a revolutionary base, for the establishment of a rich and strong democratic, independent and sovereign state, formed the important component part of the political line. US imperialism's occupation of south Korea and the split of the country into two made it impossible to develop the Korean revolution in a uniform way throughout the country. These circumstances urgently demanded that the revolution in north Korea where all favourable conditions had been created be promoted 180 as speedily as possible so as to convert it into a reliable base for the nation-wide revolution and national reunification. This line of a democratic base, a revolutionary base, was a most sagacious one because it enabled the Korean people to positively and actively propel the revolution even under the arduousand complicated circumstances in which they were directly confronted with the US imperialists, the ringleader of world reaction, on the territory of their country. The Congress adopted the Party's organizational and political lines set forth by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung in his report and formed the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea. Thus came into being the ever-victorious revolutionary Party that inherited the glorious traditions of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and took the immortal Juche idea as its invariable guiding idea. With the founding of the Communist Party, the Korean revolution embarked on a new road of development for buiiding a new country and a new society on the basis of the Juche idea, the revolutionary idea of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and providing the people with a truly independent and creative life. The Korean people became a dignified and mighty people with a revolutionary vanguard detachment, their powerful leading and guiding force. After its inception, the Communist Party exerted its main effort to expanding its ranks and strengthening them organizationally and ideologically. In this course it grew up quickly to be a leading force capable of dynamically organizing and mobilizing the masses of the people to the fulfilment of the immediate revolutionary tasks. Formation of Working People's Organizations and The United Front Movement In order to step up the revolution with great force, it was essential to closely unite the broad masses while strengthening the Party organizationally and ideologically. Uniting the masses closely is always important in the 181

revolutionary struggle, and it was particularly so in Korea in the light of her situation immediately after liberation. At that time, the revolutionary struggle of the masses showed a rapid upsurge, but it seriously suffered dispersion and disorder. Availing themselves of this, all hues of political speculators, the renegades of the revolution and the traitors to the nation manoeuvred to deceive the masses and lead them to wrong road, disguising themselves. This situation demanded that the masses were closely united and led to the right path. It was a most urgent problem the solution of which brooked not a moment's delay. The primary thing to be done in uniting the masses was to organize, consolidate and expand social organizations and the working people's organizations. At the Inaugural Party Congress the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Public organizations are the transmission belts that link the Party with the masses. Only by energetically promoting their work, can we organize and rally the broad masses of all walks of life closely around the Party and correctly exercise its leadership of the people. "We should bind together the masses of the people of all strata in public organizations under unitary organizational systems according to their respective social standings and trades. We should reorganize and readjust the public organizations formed sporadically in different localities after liberation and should affiliate youth and students with the youth league, women with the women's union, workers with the trade unions and peasants with the peasants' associations, without exception," (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. I, p. 291.) On November 30, 1945, General Federation of Trade Unions was organized to rally the working class, the leading class of revolution, and its organizations came into being in all factories and enterprises. On January 31, 1946, a Peasant Union, a unified mass organization embracing peasants, was formed. In forming mass organizations, it was a very important and complicated problem to enrol all youths in the unified youth organization. In those days, the Young Communist League, "League of Liberated Youth," and "Students' League" and a number of other youth organizations with different .names were organized in various localities and were carrying out their activities separately. 182 The YCL had a small number of youths under its wing and there were even cases in which it had difference with other youth organizations. Taking advantage of this, reactionaries manoeuvred to split the youths and lead them to the road of counterrevolution. Under these circumstances, if the YCL organizations had been kept, it might have ied to disrupting the youth movement instead of rallying the broad youths. With a view to straightening out this serious situation in the youth movement and uniting all the patriotic youths in a single organization, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung reorganized the YCL into a Democratic Youth League underthe slogan "Patriotic youth, unite under the banner of democracy!" As a result, the Democratic Youth League, the sole organization for the youth, was formed on January 17, 1946. This prevented the disruption of the youth movement and closely rallied the broad sections of patriotic youth under the banner of democracy. The Democratic Women's Union, a mass organization for the women, was formed on November 18, 1945. . In addition to these, the General Federation of Unions of Literature and Arts, the General Federation of Industrial Technology, the Christian Federation and the Buddhists Federation and many other social organizations were organized. These mass organizations and social organizations embracing people of all strata were organized in a very short span of time to raliy more than three million people. On the basis of the successes gained in. the building of mass organizations, a democratic national united front movement was started with great force. Immediately after liberation the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "We must work energetically to form a democratic national united front that will embrace all the patriotic, democratic forces including not only the workers and peasants but also intellectuals, religious communities and even honest national capitalists." {Ibid., p. 286.) He also said: "As people of all walks of life have a vital interest in building a new. democratic Korea, the task for the whole nation now is to establish an independent and sovereign democratic state. Because of this identity of interests, the entire people can form a united front on a dem183

ocratic basis and achieve firm alliance and solidarity." {Ibid.. pp. 260-61.) In north Korea after liberation there came into being the Democratic Party, composed mainly of small and middling capitalists and Christians, and the Chondoist Chongu Party made up of Chondo believers (mostly peasants). And the New Democratic Party was organized with intellectuals and peasants (mainly middling peasants). In accordance with the policy set forth by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung the Communist Party formed a democratic national united front in active alliance with those parties on the basis of the principles of anti-imperialism and national independence and of anti-feudalism and democracy. Needless to say, this united front took the form of a joint front of political parties and social organizations, which was different from that in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. Embraced in the democratic national united front were people of all classes and strata except for a tiny handful of pro- Japanese elements, traitors to the nation, landlords, and comprador capitalists. Particular attention was directed to preventing reactionaries and subversive elements from worming their way into the united front to undermine it. The united front movement was steered in all cases in such away thata tiny handful of reactionaries were completely isolated and that an uncompromising struggle was fought against them. The democratic national united front adhered to the principle of correctly combining an alliance between all sections and their independence. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Only when we form a union on a nationwide scale, giving full consideration to the independence of each section, will we be able to form a truly solid united front and rapidly build a new society where the whole of our people will enjoy a happy life." {Ibid., p. 262.) If the union or independence of each political party, social organization, class, section was overstressed or undervalued, it might paralyse activeness and voluntariness in the united front movement or destroy unity. After all, a united front could not be properly formed. Only when independence was allowed on the major premise that alliance was maintained, could the united front be a really durable and active organization, a powerful organization for struggle. In north Korea, under the wise leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung the democratic national united front 184 movement progressed very successfully from the start. As a result, the broad patriotic democratic forces could be united and the unity of action between political parties and social organizations successfully ensured in fighting imperialism and feudalism and building a new country and a new society.

3. ESTABLISHMENT OF PEOPLE'S GOVERNMENT

Readjustment and Consolidation of Local People's Committees. The Administrative Bureaus of North Korea The solution of the problem of power was an important task to be fulfilled immediately after the founding of the Communist Party. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung clarified a basic policy for the solution of the problem of power on the basis of the line of people's government mapped out by him in the period of the anti -Japanese revolutionary struggle and the experience gained in the building of power in the liberated areas, and in consideration of the situation prevailing after liberation. He stressed the need to set up a genuine people's democratic government on a firm mass foundation relying on the democratic national united front and the local people's committees. He taught that the local power organ should be established first in north Korea on the premise that a unified state power would be set up in the future. A party-wide, nationwide struggle was waged to solve the problem of power. This struggle began with the establishment of local people's committees and their readjustment and consolidation. The local autonomous organs of various forms organized in various places immediately after liberation were integrated into the people's committees and these committees readjusted and strengthened. The local people s committees took measures to seize administrative power, maintain public peace, defend and manage public establishments and industrial and transport facilities. Struggles were waged to prevent reactionary elements from worming their way into local power organs and doing harm, and those organsfrom falling intothe hands of a small number of exploiting class. Through the process of this principled struggle the representatives of 185

workers, peasants and other working masses came to play the leading role in the local people's committees. As the people's committees were systematically organized in each locality and they were readjusted and reinforced, it was now an important problem to surmount spontaneity in their activities and maintain political and economic ties between localities. A transitory step was first taken to settle this problem. To direct and manage the administration of five provinces in north Korea in a unified way there were organized ten administrative bureaus of north Korea in November 1 945 — industry, communication, agriculture and forestry, commerce, communications, finance, education, public health, the judicature and security. These administrative bureaus played the role of coordinators for economic and cultural activities and the work of security, ensuring ties between provinces. The organization and consolidation of the local people's committees and the setting up of the ten administrative bureaus served as a groundwork for the establishment of a central government organ in north Korea. Establishment of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea and the 20-Point Platform Establishing a central government organ in north Korea was now a pressing demand to be met without a moment's delay. As the establishment of a nationwide, united government was retarded due to the colonial enslavement policy of the US imperialists who occupied south Korea, only when a central power organ of north Korea was set up at an early date, was it possible to carry out the antiimperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution in north Korea without delay, create a revolutionary democratic base and positively and forcefully push forward the struggleto build a democratic independent and sovereign state. Establishing the central power organ of north Korea was also the urgent requirement of the development of the people's power itself. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "With the establishment and further development of new-type organs of power in the local districts, we were confronted with the task of setting up a central organ competent to give unified leadership to the local people's 186 committees. Only when such a central state apparatus was established was it possible to overcome the lack of system of the organs of people's power and the tendency towards local separatism, and to accomplish more successfully and in a unified way the pressing political and economic tasks confronting the country and the people." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. I, p. 225.) As the established local power organs were reinforced and developed, a central power organ was required to give uniformed guidance to them. To meet this requirement, the ten administrative bureaus were set up as a transitory measure. But their function was limited to coordinating their respective branches. They were unable to organize and guide the general political, economic and cultural life of north Korea in a unified way. Only by establishing central power organ, a central guidance organ for them, was it possible to ensure unified leadership over every bureau and the local people's committees, tighten up things in these committees, overcome local separatist tendencies and accelerate the building of a new country with success. Under the guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung the work of setting up the central power organ of north Korea progressed at a rapid pace. A committee for the promotion of the establishment of the central power organ of north Korea was organized with the leaders of various political parties and social organizations, and the preparatory work for it was actively pushed ahead. A conference of representatives of the north Korean democratic political parties, social organizations, administrative bureaus and provincial, city and county people's committees was opened in Pyongyang on February 8, 1946. At the conference a decision was adopted on the setting up of the central power organ of north Korea, and as such organ, the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea (PPCNK) representing various classes and sections was established. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, peerless patriot and national hero, was made the Chairman of the PPCNK. Twenty-three committee members and other members were elected, including vicechairman, chief secretary, directors of the bureaus of industry, transport, agriculture and forestry, commerce, communications, finance, education, public health, the judicature and security, and heads of planning, propaganda, labour and general affairs departments. As a result, a revolutionary government, the genuinely independent power, was set up, and the line of a people's revolutionary government laid down in the period of the anti-Japanese armed struggle came to bear a new fruit. 187

The entire Korean people cheered the establishment of the PPCNK with a stirring excitement and joy. Throughout the country mass meetings were successfully held every day in enthusiastic welcome of this historic event The crowds cried out at the pitch of their voices, "Long live the establishment of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea!" "Long live General Kim II Sung, Chairman of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea!" and addressed to the great leader letters of thanks rendering the highest honour to him," ' To take an instance, the people of Kangwon Province wrote a letter to the great leader as follows: "Our respected national leader General Kim II Sung, On the occasion of the establishment of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea on February 8, we extend our heartiest welcome and sane celebration to the birth of the committee, a concerrtrical expression of a line of progressive democracy and a national symbol of people's power, and at the same time, pay our highest respect and praise to you General, Chairman of the Committee... Our great leader General Kim II Sung, We, one million people of Kangwon Province, will uphold your guidance and be true to the decision of the PPCNK to discharge our duty." (Chongno, March 26, 1946.) As to the nature of the PPCNK, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The Provisional People's Committee of North Korea performed the functions of the people's democratic dictatorship; it was a people's power that relied on a democratic national united front embracing the broad anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic forces based on the worker-peasant alliance led by the working class." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed„ Vol. V, pp. 136-37.) The PPCNK, the people's power relying on the democratic national united front, was fundamentally different from the power of bourgeois dictatorship, capitalist power, and, at the same titne, from socialist power, the power of proletarian dictatorship; it was the power of the people's democratic dictatorship. With the establishment of PPCNK, our people came to have the genuine people's power, which they had aspired after so long, and seize a powerful revolutionary weapon. From then on, the masses of the people came to exercise their independent rights as a full-fledged master of society and determinedly wage a creative struggle to transform nature and society. The basic task of the PPCNK was to carry outtheanti-imperialist. 188 democratic revolution and create a revolutionary democratic base in the north. This task was made explicit in the 1 1 -point immediate tasks set forth by the great leader Comrade Kim I) Sung at the time of the establishment of the PPCNK and in "The 20-Point Platform" issued by him in March 1946. "The 20-Point Platform" gave a comprehensive explanation of the political, economic, social and cultural tasks the people's power should perform in the stage of the anti- imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution. The Platform defined the following political tasks; to thoroughly liquidate all the remnants of Japanese imperialist rule from the political and economic life and feudal customs (1); to wage an implacable struggle against reactionary and anti -democratic elements (2); to form power organs through universal, direct and equal suffrage by secret ballot (4); to grant the people democratic freedom and equal rights in political and economic life (3, 5, 6, and 7). As the economic tasks, the Platform laid down the tasks of enforcing anti -imperialist, anti-feudal socio-economic reforms including the tasks of carrying out an agrarian reform on the principle of confiscation and free distribution of land (11) and nationalizing major industries (9); and stipulated for the development of industry, agriculture, transport and trade for the enhancement of the people's welfare (8), the encouragement of private trade and industry {1 0), the fixation of market prices, for living necessaries (12), the introduction of the systems of uniform taxation and progressive income tax (13), the introduction of an eight-hour working day and the fixation of minimum wages (14), and the institution of life insurance for factory and office workers (15). As socio-cultural tasks it provided for the setting up of a system of public education and the introduction of a system of universal compulsory education (1 6), the institution of free medical care for the poor (20), and the development of national culture, science, education, the arts and public health (17, 18, 19 and 20). "The 20-Point Platform" was a platform for the anti -imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution which inherited and developed the Ten -Point Programme of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland in accordance to the actual conditions of the building of a new democratic Korea; it became the banner of the struggle of the entire people of north and south Korea for the reunification, independence and democratic development of the country and the basis for the platform of the government of a unified democraticpeople'srepublicto be set up in the future. 189

4. SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF DEMOCRATIC REFORMS

Immediately after the founding of the Party and establishment of the people's power, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung mobilized the entire Party, the people's power organs and all the people to the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, socio-economic reforms. The carrying out of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic reforms at that time was a requirement of the laws governing the social development of Korea. Only when democratic reforms were enforced, was it possible to do away with the socio-economic foothold of imperialism, landlords, compradore capitalists and other reactionary classes, lay the foundation for the building of a democratic, independent and sovereign state, fiberate the masses of the people from colonial and feudal exploitation and oppression and open up a wide road for the development of the national economy and culture. Only then, could the north be turned into a firm base for a nationwide revolution and national reunification. The democratic reforms in north Korea covered all the domains of society. Here the agrarian reform, the nationalization of major industries, the introduction of democratic labour protection, the guaranteeing of the equalities of the sexes, and the democratization of the judicature, education and culture acquired special importance. Implementation of the Agrarian Reform The agrarian reform was enforced as the first democratic reform. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The question of land is a vital question that must be 190 solved before anything else in the democratic revolutionary stage." {ibid., p. 137.) He further said: "The solution of the land question acquired a particularly important significance in our country which was a backward colonial agrarian country, with an overwhelming peasant majority." {ibid., p. 137.) Only by carrying out the agrarian reform, was it possible to emancipate the peasants, who in those days occupied the overwhelming majority of the population, from feudal exploitation, free the agricultural productive forces from the feudal fetter, open up a vista of the possibilities for the rapid development of the rural economy, strengthen the social and political foundations for the democratization of The political, economic and cultural life of the country, and forcefully promote the rehabilitation and development of the whole of the national economy. Feudal landownership was dominant in the rural areas of Korea which had been a colonial and semi-feudal society. At the time of liberation, in the northern half of Korea the landlords, who represented only four per cent of all the rural households, owned 58.2 per cent of the arable land, while the preponderant majority of the peasants possessed either no land or only small plots. The high-rate tenant system made the peasants suffer harsh exploitation and oppression by the landlords. Landownership in favour of the landlords was the economic foothold of the reactionary forces; it was a big fetter for the development of not only the agricultural productive forces but also other fields of the national economy. The agrarian reform, therefore, was raised as a most urgent requirement for the social development of the country. The struggle of the peasant masses which had rapidly gained momentum after liberation fully prepared them for an agrarian reform. The peasants launched a struggle for a 3:7 system of tenancy (30 % to the landowner, 70 % to the tenant) and achieved a complete victory in it. In the course of the struggle their political consciousness was greatly raised. They were firmly convinced that when they united themselves and fought, victory could be theirs. Peasants in various localities addressed letters to the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung in succession, in which they expressed their ardent desire for the confiscation and distribution of landowners' land. More than 30,000 letters arrived from them. On the anniversary of the March 1 Movement in 1 946, over two million peasants held demonstrations in different parts of north Korea and demanded land. In order to meet the lawful demand of the social development of 191

the country and realize the centuries-old desire of the peasants, the great leadei Comrade Kim II Sung more than once visited many rural villages to closely study the complicated relations of landownership and, on this basis, formulated the policy of agrarian reform most suited to the realities of the country. "The Law on Agrarian Reform in North Korea" was promulgated on March 5, 1946. On the principle of "only the tiller has the right to (and" the law provided for the confiscation and distribution of iand as follows: 1 ) Land formerly owned by the Japanese imperialists, the proJapanese elements and traitors to the nation and the land of the landlords who owned more than five hectares and ail other lands continuously leased out, shall be confiscated without compensation and distributed free to the landless and land-poor peasants to be passed into their hands. 2) Land shall be distributed in proportion to the size of a peasant family and the number of its working members, the sale, purchase and mortgaging of the distributed land and all systems of tenancy prohibited. 3) The confiscated forests, irrigation facilities, orchards and some lands not suitable for peasant farming shall be nationalized. The Agrarian Reform Law was a popular law aimed at completely satisfying the centuries-old desire of the peasants for land. It was a revolutionary law aimed at most thoroughly settling the peasant and agricultural questions in the stage of democratic revolution and ensuring a most smooth development of the rural economy. It was also a most progressive agrarian reform law which would make it possible to put an end to the feudal relations of exploitation, prevent their rebirth and restrict to the utmost the growth of the capitalist relations of exploitation in the countryside. The Agrarian Reform Law received enthusiastic support and welcome from the entire peasants of the country. They rose as one in the struggle for the agrarian reform. In carrying out the agrarian reform the Communist Party and the people's government had firmly adhered to the policy of relying on the poor peasants and the farm hands and forming a solid alliance with the middle peasants. At the same time, they made sure that the rich peasants who were opposed to or unconcerned about the agrarian reform could not exert their bad influence upon the peasants and ally themselves with landlords. The agrarian reform proceeded literally in an all -people movement. In the first place, the peasants themselves acted as the executors of 192 the reform. More than 11,500 rural committees, made up of the poor peasants and farm hands, were set up all over the country to take direct charge of the work of confiscating and distributing land. Many Communist Party members and over 10,000 progressive workers were dispatched to the countryside to assist the peasants in the agrarian reform And the Peasants' Union and all other mass organizations were activated to help the rural committees. With the agrarian reform as a momentum, the united front of democratic political parties and social organizations was further consolidated. The landlords who were being deprived of their land manoeuvred to put a spoke in the agrarian reform, spreading all sorts of reactionary rumours and some of them plotted even for subversion. In particular, spies, terrorists, wreckers and saboteurs were sent into the north from south Korea to engage in malicious intrigues. All manoeuvrings of the enemy, however, were smashed at once by the powerful ali-people struggle and no big trouble took place throughout the period of the agrarian reform. Though it was a great revolution in the countryside, the agrarian reform was carried out very smoothly and successfully in only 20 odd days. The agrarian reform was characterized by the fact that even under the very complicated and difficult conditions in which the country was divided, it was accomplished in a very short span of time and in a most thoroughgoing way. Asa result of the agrarian reform, more than 1 ,000,000 hectares of land was confiscated and distributed to over 720,000 peasant households, and all the peasants became independent farmers. It must be noted that, before liberation, of the total number of farmers, the independent accounted for 20 per cent, the independent-tenant farmers 30 per cent and pure tenant farmers 50 per cent. A due measure was taken for the forfeited landlords. If they were allowed to remain in their original residential areas (the countryside), they might exert this or that evil influence upon the peasants. Therefore, to prevent this in advance, the Party and the people's government took a step to move them to other localities and distribute land to them, if they hoped to do farming on their own, thereby opening up the road of a new life for them. The agrarian reform was of great historic significance. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "We freed the productive forces in agriculture from their feudal shackles and emancipated the peasants from exploitation and enslavement by the landlords by carrying out the agrarian reform in a thoroughgoing way on the principle of confiscating the landlords' land without compensation and 193

distributing it among the peasants gratuitously. This was a revolutionary change of great significance not only in the speedy development of agriculture and the improvement of the peasants' standard of living, but also in the strengthening of the worker-peasant alliance and the democratization of the country's political, economic and cultural life as a whole." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. IV, p. 212.) With the victorious agrarian reform, the peasant and agricultural questions in the stage of anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution were successfully solved in north Korea and a broad vista was opened for the development of the rural economy and overall social progress. Following the agrarian reform, measures were taken and vigorous efforts made to consolidate the success gained in it. On June 27, 1946, the PPCNK announced the "Decision on Agricultural Tax in Kind," whereby a system of agricultural tax in kind, a uniform tax levied -on land, was enforced. Under this system, the peasants were to pay 25 per cent of the yields {later it was revised to 10-27 per cent according to crops or the fertility of land). Thus the peasants were freed once and for all from farm-rent and miscellaneous taxes, and came to own 73-90 per cent of'the yield, although 50-80 per cent of their harvest had been plundered in the past. This enabled them to improve their material and cultural life quickly. Moreover, in order to provide the peasants with conditions for doing farming on their own, the PPCNK widely organized the peasants' banks, consumers' cooperatives and other credit and trade cooperative organizations so that they could obtain farming fund and buy chemical fertilizer and farm implement at a low price. It also provided them with seed grain, food and draught animals. In hearty response to the call of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, "Greet the first spring of liberated Korea with increased production. Don't let an inch of land lie idle!" the peasants rose as one in a shock campaign to plough the land and complete the spring sowing, in building irrigation facilities and opening new land. They waged a vigorous struggle to greet the first spring of the liberated fatherland, the first spring in which they became the owner of land, with increased production, and the spring ploughing and sowing were successfully carried out without delay. 194 Nationalization of Major industries. Measures for the Democratic Freedom and Rights of the Working People The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Another important question in carrying out the tasks of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution is that of nationalizing the key industries, transport, communications, banking, commerce and foreign trade formerly owned by colonial rulers and comprador capitalists so that they can be used in the interests of the people." {Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. V, p. 1 38.) In the past, more than 90 per cent of Korean industry was owned by the Japanese imperialists and most of the rest by compradore capitalists, their stooges. Under these conditions, it was impossible to attain the nation's independence and sovereignty, prosperity and development without seizing the property of the Japanese imperialists and compradore capitalists. Only by nationalizing their property, was it possible to do away with the political and economic foothold of imperialists and domestic reactionaries and use the nation's important means of production for the independent development of the national economy and the promotion of the well-being of the people. The "Law on Nationalization of Industries, Transport, Communications, Banks and So On" was promulgated on August 1 0, 1946. This law stipulated: "All enterprises, mines, power stations, railways, transport, communications, banking, trading and cultural establishments formerly owned by the Japanese state, juridical and private persons or by traitors to the Korean nation shall be confiscated without compensation and transferred to the ownership of the Korean people, namely, to the state." Asa result of the nationalization of major industries by virtueof the law, more than 1,000 industrial establishments, railway, communications and banking organs, or over 90 per cent of all industries formerly owned by Japanese imperialism and compradore capitalists were brought under state and all-people's ownership. Thus, the economic foothold of imperialists and compradore capitalists was liquidated, all the causes of social evils basically eliminated from the sphere of industry, the socialist relations of production came into being and the state sector, the ownership by the 195

whole people, came to hold a leading position in the national economy, This offered conditionsfor developing the national economy in a planned way. The working class, once the proletarian class, became a full-fledged owner of the means of production. The nationalization of major industries was a reform enforced as a link in the chain of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution, which did not go beyond the liquidation of the ownership by the Japanese imperialists and compradore capitalists. Accordingly, it did not mean liquidating capitalist ownership as a whole. The property of national capitalists was left untouched and protected by law. The PPCNK adopted on October 4, 1946, the "resolution on measures to protect the right to private ownership and give play to the initiative of individuals in industrial and trading activities," and legalized individual business enterprises. It encouraged business activities of individual enterprisers so that they could contribute to the rehabilitation and development of the national economy. Measures were also taken to let banks give loan to private traders and industrialists and make "industrialists and traders display their initiative in developing industry and trade." But their acts of speculation and profiteering were prohibited and their exploitation of workers restricted. Those measures for individual enterprise not only did much toward rehabilitating and developing the national economy and raising the people's standard of living but also were of weighty importance in leading national capitalists to the road to the building of a new country. Along with the reforms in the relations of ownership, a number of other reforms were enforced to guarantee the working people democratic freedom and rights. The Labour Law was promulgated on June 24, 1946. This law was aimed at radically improving the working conditions of factory and office workers, promoting their material welfare, exterminating the vestiges of imperialist exploitation in industry and realizing the democratic emancipation of the working class in the working conditions. To this end, the law provided for an eight-hour day (seven hours in case of underground and harmful labour), instituted systems of equal pay for equal work irrespective of age and sex, two- or four- week regular paid holidays and a 77-day-long maternity leave, banned the employment of juvenile labour arid took measures for social insurance, labour safety and health protection. The Law on Sex Equality was announced on July 30, 1 946, in order to realize the social emancipation of women. 196 The law stipulated that "in all branches of state, economic, cultural, social and political life women have the equal rights with men" and "in local or supreme organs of the state. ..they have the suffrage and eligibility on a par with men." It also announced that women have the same rights to work, rest, social insurance and education with men, that free marriage is secured, that the system of polygamy is banned, and that licensed and unlicensed prostitution and the system of kisaeng are abolished. Democratic measures were taken in the spheres of the judicature, education and culture as well. The Japanese imperialist judicial and police system was thoroughly smashed and the popular procuratorial and judicial organs were set up, with the result that a democratic judicial system was established. The Japanese imperialist system of slave education was abolished and the well-regulated public education system ranging from general education to secondary and higher education was establ ished, and the Juche-oriented education conducted actively. Revolutionary measures were also taken to do away with reactionary and degenerated cultural practices introduced by the Japanese imperialists and bring democratic national culture and art into full flowering. As can be seen, under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung various democratic reforms were successfully accomplished, and old social relations, colonial and feudal, were liquidated and new democratic social relations established in the northern half. Training of Native Cadres . In parallel with the democratic transformation of the social system, the work of training native cadres needed for the building of a new society was carried on' in a dynamic way. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "One of the most important problems in the making of a new society is that of building up a solid contingent of one's own cadres. This was a key problem decisive to the success of revolution and the work of construction, particularly in view of the fact that our country had very few intellectuals of its own and the absolute majority of the population were far removed from modern technical civilization owing to the 197

policy of colonial slave education pursued by the Japanese imperialists." (Ibid., p. 139.) Many native cadres were needed forthe building of a new country. However, as a consequence of Japanese imperialist colonial rule, after liberation in Korea there were very few specialists, scientists and technicians in every sector. How to solve the problem of native cadres, indeed, presented itself as a key problem decisive of the fate of the building of a new country. In order quickly to solve the problem of native cadres, the great leader Comrade Kim N Sung set forth the policy of boldly trusting and embracing old intellectuals while training a large number of new intellectuals from among the working people. In accordance with this policy, old intellectuals were actively drawn into the building of a new society. Most of them came from rich families. But as intellectuals in a colony, who loved truth and justice and had suffered especially from oppression and maltreatment by imperialists, they had an anti-imperialist, revolutionary consciousness. This enabled them to display their patriotic enthusiasm in the building of a new country and dedicate all their strength and wisdom to the interests of the masses. In the embrace of the great leader they grew up into the people's intellectuals, revolutionary intellectuals and followed a hope-filled road with pride. Great concern was directed to training a large number of new intellectualsfrom among the working people. Schools at all levels were set up all over the country. A university, a powerful basefortraining cadres for the nation, was set up in Pyongyang in October 1 946. It was a very hard job to create a university under the conditions of those days. However, on the bold initiative of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and under his active guidance, the university was born at last. It was named Kim II Sung University by the people. With Kim II Sung University as the parent body, many new institutes of higher learning were set up later. A large number of specialized schools of various kinds were erected and a nationwide movement was launched to set up primary and middle schools. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung paid great attention to bringing up the children of revolutionary martyrs to be fine native cadres, reliable heirs to the revolution. He saw that the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School was set up for them. Aduft education was also activated. The absolute majority of the inhabitants had been denied an opportunity of learning owing to the Japanese imperialists' policy of 198 keeping the Koreans in ignorance. As a consequence, there were more than 2.3 million illiterates in the northern half alone immediately after liberation. This situation presented the elimination of illiteracy after liberation as an essential problem for the building of a new country. In order to eradicate illiteracy adult schools were established across the country. During vacation all students were mobilized for anti-illiteracy work. By 1948, illiteracy was nearly wiped out. Establishment of the People's Democratic System As a result of the thorough implementation of the tasks of the antiimperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution, the looks of society were changed radically and. the people's democratic system, a new progressive democratic system, was established. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The democratic reforms in the northern half of our Republic brought about the establishment of the people's democratic system and the democratic base as the groundwork for the reunification of the country, and the creation of the material conditions for the building of the foundation of socialism." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 10, p. 158.) The colonial and semi-feudal nature of socio-economic system was completely eliminated. The socialist economic sector, made up of state-owned economy and cooperative economy, came to hold dominating sway, while there remained the small commodity economic sector consisting of private peasant economy and urban handicrafts economy, and the insignificant capitalist economic sector confined to private capitalist trade and industry in towns and rich peasant economy in the countryside. On the basis of these new economic relations a radical change took place in social class relations. Landlords, compradore capitalists, pro- Japanese elements and traitors to the nation were overthrown, the working people became masters of the country, the leading role of the working class was enhanced and the worker-peasant alliance further strengthened. As a result, the people's democratic system was definitely established in the northern half and a revolutionary democratic base, a reliable guarantee for national reunification, was created. 199

The democratic reforms not only brought about a turn in the life of the north Korean people but also exercised an irresistibly enormous revolutionary influence on the south Korean people and greatly encouraged them in their liberation struggle,* * An American frankly said this, drawing a comparison between north and sout+i Korea in those days: In south Korea "the peasants had to pay about 80 per cent of their harvest as a tax," but in north Korea, as a result of the agrarian reform, land was distributed to peasants and, with the nationalization of industries and the enforcement of the Labour Law, factory and office workers came to work under an eight- hour day without monopoly capitalists. South Korea is in the "age of terror by the rightists," whereas "north Korea is the blessed land." (John Gunther, The Riddle of MacArthur. p. 287.) The democratic reforms in north Korea, the first of its kind in the East, was of great international significance. It became a powerful inspiring banner to the people fighting to extricate themselves from colonial and feudal bondage.

5. MERGER OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND OTHER WORKING PEOPLE'S PARTIES

Founding of the Workers' Party of North Korea With the progress of the revolution it was urgently required to further consolidate the Party and especially develop it into a massbased party. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Most decisive of all to the fulfilment of the great democratic tasks facing the Korean people is the formation of a unified general staff of the working masses, the sole militant vanguard of the working people. This problem could only be solved by founding the Workers' Party." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. I, p. 84.) In order to consolidate the success of the democratic reforms in the northern half and powerfully propel the revolution forward it was imperative to strengthen the unity and cohesion of the working class and other working masses. In south Korea, too, as the oppression of 200 democratic forces by US imperialism and its splitting manoeuvrings against them became more pronounced, it was essential to strengthen the unity of the popular masses, the working masses in particular, in order to smash the malignant intrigues of the enemy and develop the revolutionary movement. The unified leadership of a single party was indispensable to decisively strengthening the unity and cohesion of the working masses. However, to cite parties embracing the working people in those days, in north Korea there were the Communist Party and the New Democratic Party, and in south Korea the People's Party and the New Democratic Party along with the Communist Party. The New Democratic Party and the People's Party mainly comprised the pettybourgeois stratum among the working masses. The existence of several parties embracing the working people was detrimental to strengthening the unity and cohesion of the working masses and provided only favourable conditions forthe manoeuvrings of the enemy to divide and destroy the democratic forces. Giving these circumstances due consideration, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung put forward the policy of merging the Communist Party and other working people's parties to found the Workers' Party, a mass -based party capable of giving unified guidance to the working masses, and energetically pushed this work. In July 1 946 a joint enlarged meeting of the Central Committees of the Communist Party and the New Democratic Party adopted a decision on merging the two parties and founding the Workers' Party of North Korea. The work of party merger proceeded from the cell upward. On the basis of the merger of local party organizations the Inaugural Congress of the Workers' Party of North Korea was held in Pyongyang on August 28, 1946. At the Congress, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung made a report entitled For the Establishment ol a United Party of the Working Masses. The report made an overall analysis of the successes gained in the revolutionary struggle of the last one year, stressed the significance of the merger and then clearly defined the character of the Workers' Party and its basic tasks. And it set forth the task of party building for strengthening and developing it into a powerful militant detachment. The Congress announced the inauguration of the Workers' Party of North Korea, adopted the Party Programme and Rules, and adopted a decision on publishing newspaper Rodong Sinmun 201

asthe organ of the Party Central Committeeand its politico-theoretical magazine Kulloja. As a result, the WPNK, a mass-based party for guiding the entire working people in a unified way, was founded. After the founding of the Workers' Party, its ranks were rapidly expanded and consolidated and its leadership over the working masses and its guidance to the revolution and construction strengthened. Work of Merging Parties in South Korea The work of party merger in south Korea had to go through a great ordeal due to the subversive manoeuvres of the US imperialists and their lackeys and the divisive intrigues of the anti-Party factionalists. The US Military Government rounded up and imprisoned the cadres and members of the Communist Party, the New Democratic Party and the People's Party and perpetrated subversive manoeuvrings, manipulating the spies and saboteurs whom it had smuggled into those parties. The inveterate factionalists, particularly Pak Hon Yong and other members of the "Tuesday group" and the members of the "M-L group," intensified their factional strife over the work of party merger. The party merger was aimed at uniting forces, and members of the Communist Party, the People's Party and New Democratic Party, and the entire working masses gave active support to it. Nevertheless, the factionalists ran counter to the stream. Their standpoint was to "merge the parties' in favour of their group, or, if unfavourable, rather choose division. The party merger in south Korea was quite a chaos. In order to tide over this grave situation and actively push ahead with the work of merging three parties, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung issued an essay, On the Establishment of the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Question of Founding the Workers' Party of South Korea, on September 26, 1946. In this essay the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "All democrats, truly mindful of the interests of the labouring masses, must overcome the intrigues and obstructions set up by the reactionary forces, expose and crush the divisive actions of the position -seekers, self-seekers and factional elements, and awake some of their Party members who do not yet have a correct understanding of the merger. 202 thereby completing the work of merging the Parties with concerted efforts in a short span of time." {ibid., p. 119.) The party members and working masses of south Korea enthusiastically supported this essay and strongly demanded an earlier realization of party merger. The Workers' Party of South Korea wasfounded on November 23, 1946. But, owing to the criminal factional strife, the party merger in south Korea turned out to be only nominal. The Workers' Party of South Korea failed to become a mass- based party for leading the working masses in a unified way. It was no more than a replacement of the signboard of the Communist Party with that of the Workers' Party. Pak Hon Yong and his party maintained a superior position as ever in the Workers' Party of South Korea. , Meanwhile, the "Working People's Party" was organized with members of the"M-LGroup," who were opposed to Pak Hon Yong, as the main constituents. It was, in essence, little different from the People's Party and the New Democratic Party. As a consequence, the working masses of south Korea remained divided and the desired purpose of themergerwas not fulfilled in south Korea. Strengthening and Development of the United Front Movement Under the outstanding guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung the united front movement in north Korea rapidly gained in scope and strength. Millions of patriotic democratic forces of various sections were rallied in and around democratic parties and social organizations, the PPCNK, a people's power based on the democratic national united front, was established and the broad masses of the people turned out in a struggle to carry through the measures of the people's power. In the course of carrying out democratic reforms the united front movement assumed greater proportions. For the further development of the united front movement the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung put forward a policy of making the movement more organizational and systematic, and a conference of political parties and social organizations of north Korea was 203

held in Pyongyang on July 22, 1 946, where the Central Committee of the Democratic National United Front was formed. Embraced in the Democratic National United Front of North Korea were three political parties (namely, the Workers' Party, the Democratic Party and the Chondoist Chongu Party) and 15 social organizations including the trade union, the Peasants' Union, the Democratic Youth League and the Democratic Women's Union. The Democratic National United Front took the 20-Point Platform as its joint programme and set it as its basic task to carry it through. The leaders of the political parties were made to assume the chairmanship of the front alternately. The formation of the Central Committee of the Democratic National United Front of North Korea wasfollowed by the organization of committees of all levels in every province, city and county. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Through the activities of the Committee of the DNUF we will be able to organize and mobilize all sections of patriotic, democratic forces on a broader scale, and ensure closer cooperation and united action of all political parties and social organizations, thus further strengthening the democratic base of north Korea." (Kim II Sunq, Works Enq ed Vol. 2, p. 275.) ' The Democratic National United Front of North Korea, a solid united body of democratic parties and social organizations of north Korea, played a great role in helping the people's power accomplish democratic revolutionary tasks, rousing the broad masses to the struggle for founding a united and democratic, independent and sovereign state and ensuring united action among various political parties and social organizations. The united front movement in south Korea was carried on amid a struggle against the colonial rule of the US imperialists. The US Military Government, while gathering together the domestic reactionary forces, intensified its suppression of the patriotic democratic forces and hampered the establishment of a provisional democratic government. Therefore, it was a most urgent problem to unify the democratic forces, and it was all the more urgent for democratic political parties and social organizations to act in concert in a struggle against the US imperialists and the domestic reactionary forces. On February 1 5, 1 946, a democratic national f ront was organized with 29 political parties and social organizations in south Korea. The national front put forth as its demand the establishment of a democratic government, economic construction and rehabilitation, the 204 solution of land problem, an 8-hour day, the improvement of the people's livelihood, etc., and fought against the US imperialists and their stooges. In south Korea, too, after liberation, the popular masses made a vigorous revolutionary and patriotic advance, isolating the reactionary forces. This created a favourable condition for developing the democratic national united front movement. But the Communist Party (the Workers' Party) in south Korea failed to play its proper role and other political parties were neitheroff noron, which made it impossible for the united front movement to develop smoothly. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung always directed great attention to the activities of the patriotic political parties of south Korea, put forward as an important problem the identity of purpose and action of all the democratic and patriotic, political parties and social organizations in north and south Korea and devoted efforts to closing the ties between the political parties and social organizations of north Korea and the counterparts of south Korea. This resulted in the convocation of the Joint Conference of Representatives of the North and South Korean Political Parties and Social Organizations in April 1948. (See 3 of Chapter If.)

6. GENERAL IDEOLOGICAL MOBILIZATION MOVEMENT FOR NATION BUILDING

The Party and the people's power had from the start made great efforts to educate the masses of the people so as to arm them in the spirit of building the country. At the Inaugural Congress of the Communist Party the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung taught: "We should launch a forceful struggle to rid the people of the ideological survivals of Japanese imperialism and intensify their education in democracy so that all of them may have a high sense of national pride and self-confidence and arm themselves with the ardent spirit of building the country and healthy democratic thinking." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. 1, p. 287.) Through the education of the popular masses in the ardent spirit of 205

nation-building and democratic thinking, the Party and the people's power could actively mobilize them to the fulfilment of democratic reforms and carry all the reforms to successful conclusion. However, the education of the masses in the ideas of nationbuilding and democracy could not be discontinued on the ground that the democratic reforms had been carried out. The fulfilment of democratic reforms did not mean the completion of the building of a new country nor did it mean that the popular masses were fully armed with the idea of national construction and democratic thinking. The remoulding of the ideological consciousness of the popular masses waslagging behind the drastic socio-economic change brought by the democratic reforms, and the ideological remnants of Japanese imperialism still persisted in their minds a great deal. These ideological remnants, which were deeply planted in the minds of people, and outmoded customs were manifested in various aspects of social life to hamper the progress of the work of national construction. In order to consolidate the success in the democratic reforms and continue to forcefully push the revolution forward it was imperative to launch a strong movement for ideological remoulding to definitely nurture the idea of nation-building among the functionaries of all fields and the masses of the people. Proposing the start of a general ideological mobilization movement for nation building at the Third Enlarged Meeting of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea held on November 25, 1946, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "...we should carry out the ideological revolution aimed at cultivating the spirit, trait, morality and fighting efficiency befitting the builders of a new, democratic Korea. We should conduct the great ideological remoulding work to do away with all the depraved and decadent ways and attitudes of life left behind by Japanese imperialism in the past and to create a national spirit worthy of the new, virile and pulsating democratic Korea." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 2, pp. 49293.) The general ideological mobilization movement for nation building was, in essence, a democratic ideological revolution, or the antiimperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution in the realm of ideology and consciousness. The targets of struggle in this movement were the ideological survivals of Japanese imperialism, the remnants of feudal ideas, especially personal comfort, dissipation, indolence and idleness, fraudulence and usurpation, misappropriation and squandering and 206 other evil practices and a servile spirit in work, irresponsibility, formalism, bureaucracy and other old attitudes of work. The purpose of the movement was to build up a national tone full of vitality befitting the master of new democratic Korea among the functionaries of all (Spheres and the popular masses, heighten the indomitable fighting spirit to pull through all hardships and trials in the building of a new country, and establish popular morality whereby everyone placed the interests of whole society above his personal interests and all people united themselves and helped one another. On December 3, 1946, the Presidium of the Party Central Committee took measures to launch the general ideological mobilization movement for nation building and then the PPCNK announced a "propaganda programme for the general ideological mobilization movement for nation building " This movement involved the entire masses. In all units, report and lecture meetings and learning processes were organized for the movement and ideological struggles unfolded. The "groups for the study of the reports of Chairman Kim II Sung," "lecture organizing centres," "writers' lecturing groups" and various other propaganda groups were formed and active in every sphere and unit, and broadcasting, newspapers, magazines and other press media were all enlisted. Cadres and Party members were in the lead of the movement. The movement was widely conducted also in the people's power organs, mass organizations, factories, enterprises, residential quarters, and farm villages. In the course of the movement, some officials of the people's power organs, who put on airs, shouted commands at the masses, instead of sharing weal and woe, life and death, with them, unnecessarily increased their structure and did work in a hit-or-miss way, were named and criticized sharply. The evil elements and loafers who had wormed their way into power organs to violate laws, disturb order, abuse their authority and pursue only their personal comfort were disclosed and purged. In factories and enterprises, workshop meetings were held to criticize manifestations of outdated ideologies. There resolutions were adopted on making every effort to build a new country. Relying on the Democratic Youth League organizations, students conducted a strong movement to improve the traits of students to uproot the ideological remnants of Japanese imperialism and the outdated habits and mode of life and foster the' spirits befitting the students of new Korea. In order to root out the bourgeois reactionary view of culture and equip themselves with the working-class' revolutionary view of 207

literature and art, men of culture, too, directed the spearhead of attack at the reactionary ideological tendency to escapism and art-for-art principle. In residential quarters and the countryside, too, a vigorous struggle was waged to discover, expose and criticize loafers, swindlers and various hues of evil elements. In the course of further development of the general ideological mobilization movement for nation building, the campaign to remould ideology was closely combined with practical activities and, consequently, a patriotic struggle for increased production and various forms of patriotic movements to contribute substantially to the building of the country were launched involving the whole masses. At the end of 1 946, the workers of the Chongju Locomotive Yard, upholding the spirit of self- reliance, pooled their collective wisdom to solve difficult technical problems and meet the shortage of materials and fuel with their own efforts, thereby setting an example for a patriotic struggle for increased production.* * With outdated equipment with which they did only small repairs, they regenerated 28 disused engines, made large repairs on 42 cars and medium -scale repairs on 47 cars, to work a miracle. What is more, they succeeded in making on their own even spare parts which could not be produced at home before liberation. {Rodoiig Sinmun. January 22, 1947.) They also found a way to substitute home-made coal for foreign fuel upon which they had depended so far. They themselves formed a coal-cutting shock brigade to mine coal after work hours, displaying "lofty patriotic devotion." (Pyongbuk Sinmun, January 24, 1947.) The beacon fire of a patriotic campaign for increased production kindled by the workers of the Chongju Locomotive Yard flared up among all workers of industrial and transport fields. And the campaign was soon expanded and developed into an all-people emulation drive for increased production. Peasants participated in the general ideological mobilization movement for nation building by way of a patriotic rice donation campaign. Its first signal-fire was lighted by a peasant named Kim Je Won, a member of the Workers' Party. Having gathered in the first harvest after the agrarian reform, the peasant Kim Je Won donated to the state 30 bales of rice out of his patriotic mind. The Chaeryortg County Meeting in Celebration of Full Payment of Agricultural Tax in Kind was held on December 1 0, 1 946. In the name of the meeting an appeal was made to all the peasants of the country to wage an all-people patriotic rice donation campaign. This proposal received an instant response from peasants in all parts of the country. More than 1 8,700 peasants in six provinces donated rice 208 out of their love for the country, and the agricultural tax in kind for that year was fully paid by December. It was a brilliant success. The patriotic-minded traders and entrepreneurs, too, participated in the general ideological mobilization movement for nation building. Inspired by this movement being unfolded with great force among the working masses, they conducted various forms of patriotic donation campaigns as a token of patriotic devotion. To live up to the lofty concern of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung for the education of the rising generation, they started a drive to make a contribution to the construction of schools, a campaign to make a gift of goods of their factories to the state and a canvass for collection of fund needed in constructing many kinds of cultural establishments, so as to contribute to the building of a new society. Thus, the movement spread to all the spheres of the national economy and all realms of social life to grasp the hearts of the masses, thereby displaying a great vitality. It aroused the people of all strata to a vigorous patriotic struggle to build a new democratic Korea. 209

Chapter II: Transition To Socialist Revolution. Founding Of The DPRK

1. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NORTH KOREAN PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE. BEGINNING OF THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION TO SOCIALISM

The northern half pushed ahead with the revolution without letup After carrying out the tasks of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution it went straight over to the stage of socialist revolution. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Gradual transition to socialism is an inevitable demand of the social and economic development in the northern half." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed„ Vol. I, p. 505.) He also said: "The socialist revolution and the building of socialism in the northern half of the Republic were raised not only as an irresistible demand of social development in the northern half, but also as a vital demand of the Korean revolution to politically and economically consolidate the democratic base in the northern half." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. Ill, p. 72.) Revolution is in essence a struggle of the masses of people to defend their Chajusong. The fulfilment of the anti-imperialist, antifeudal, democratic revolution provided important social conditions for the Chajusong of the masses of people, but it alone was not enough to fully ensure every condition for their Chajusong. So the revolution should not end with it. The anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution should be duly followed by the socialist revolution which 210 would remove all the old relations of production based on private ownership — the essential condition for completely eliminating the social sources of exploitation and oppression and poverty, and for developing the economy and culture apace to provide the working people definitely with an independent and creative life. The socialist revolution in the northern half was also indispensable for liquidating the footholds of reactionaries, strengthening the democratic base in the northern half politically and economically and, on this basis, stepping up the struggle forthe independent reunification of the country more vigorously. In order to go over to the socialist revolution, it was necessary above all to establish a power equal to its tasks, that is, a government of the proletarian dictatorship. Given the process of power building in north Korea, such a government could be set up by consolidating and developing the existing people's government. The Provisional People's Committee of North Korea was a working-class-led people's government set up on the ruins of the Japanese imperialist colonial ruling machine. In the course of carrying out the democratic revolution, it won the deep trust and support of the masses of the people. So, it was possible to turn this people's government into a government of the proletarian dictatorship for the socialist revolution by way of further consolidating and developing it. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung fully grasped this and set forth the policy of establishing a new and more developed people's government through democratic elections. Thus, the genuinely democratic elections came to take place forthe first time in the history of Korea. Election committees were organized under a definite system and the democratic elections were held by secret ballots on the principle of universal, equal and direct suffrage. All citizens aged 20 and over in north Korea, except lunatics, those disfranchised by judicial decisions, and a handful of those branded as pro-Japanese or traitors to the nation, had the right to elect and to be elected, regardless of property status, education, residence and religious beliefs. The elections of the provincial, city and county people's committees took place first on November 3, 1946 and then those of the ri (dong) and sub-county committees in February and March the next year respectively. All voters took part in the elections with high political zeal, smashed the subversive machinations of the reactionaries at each step, and brought the first historic democratic elections to a shining victory. 211

The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.77% accurate In the elections of the provincial, city and county people's committees 99.68 per cent of the electorates took part, and 97,06 per cent of them voted for the candidates from the Democratic National United Front. The elections of the ri and sub-county people's committees, too, showed similar figures. As the results of those elections the fine and talented persons of all strata who could faithfully serve the country and people became the members of the people's committees.* * The following tables show the party affiliations and social status of the elected provincial, city and county people's committee members. Party Affiliations Total Workers' Party Democratic Party Chongu Party Nonaffiliated Number 3,459 1,102 351 253 1,753 % 100 31.8 10 8.1 50.1 212

The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.09% accurate Based on the successful first democratic elections, a Congress of the Provincial, City and County People's Committees of North Korea was held in Pyongyang on February 1 7, 1 947. It was attended by the delegates chosen from among the newly elected members of the provincial, city and county people's committees in the ratio of one to three. The Congress unanimously approved all the laws proclaimed by the PPCNK, adopted the 1947 Plan for Development of the National Economy and formed the North Korean People's Assembly as the supreme organ of power of north Korea.* The North Korean People's Assembly consisted of 237 people's delegates elected from among the attendants of the Congress at the rate of one to five. The following tables show the party affiliations and social status of the deputies to the North Korean People's Assembly. Party Affiliations Total Workers' Party Democratic Party Chongu Party Nonaffiliated Number 237 86 30 30 91 100 36 13 13 38 (The minutes of the Congress of the Provincial, City and County People's Committees of North Korea, 1 947, p. 57.) 214

The First Session of the North Korean People's Assembly organized the North Korean People's Committee as the supreme executive organ of north Korea. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung was elected Chairman of the North Korean People's Committee. The North Korean People's Committee kept two vice-chairmen, and it consisted of 14 bureaus — planning, industry, home affairs, foreign affairs, finance, transportation, agriculture and forestry, communications, commerce, public health, education, [abour, judicial affairs and people's inspection. It also kept 4 departments-propaganda, personal affairs, food administration and general affairs. The North Korean People's Committee was the first government of the proletarian dictatorship in Korea. With the establishment of this government, the revolution in north Korea entered the period of transition to socialism. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The People's Committee of North Korea, a powerful arm of socialist revolution and socialist construction, strove to carry out the tasks for that period of gradual transition to socialism and develop the national economy in a planned way." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. V, p. 140.) Transition to socialism covers the period up to the complete victory of socialism following the establishment of the proletarian dictatorship, fn this period the socialist transformation of the relations of production is completed and all class disparity removed to realize a classless society through continued revolution and construction. The complete victory of socialism comes when society is clear of the exploiterclassand also of the class difference between the workers and peasants. The Workers' Party and people's government had to carry out the task of the transitional period on the basis of the correct calculation of the country's specific conditions from the outset. Under the condition where the northern half alone entered the period of transition with the country split by US imperialism, it had to carry out the task of the transitional period under a very complicated situation, waging a fierce struggle against the enemies at home and abroad and closely combining that task with the struggle for national reunification. It took over a very backward economy from Japanese imperialism. Worse still, it was hard to run as it was severely destroyed by it when beating retreat. Given such situation, it was hardly possible to carry out the general task of the transition period full-scale from the start. The immediate task was to rehabilitate and develop the ruined national 216 economy and, along with this, to make preparations for overall socialist transformation of the production relations while partially undertaking it.

2. REHABILITATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL ECONOMY

Economic Policy at the Inception of Transitional Period. Line of Building an Independent National Economy On entering the transitional period, the Korean people launched a vigorous struggle for the rehabilitation and development of the national economy. With regard to the orientation of economic construction in the early transitional period, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "...our Party and people have embarked on economic construction in order to consolidate the successes gained in the democratic social and economic reforms and, on this basis, to restore and develop the national economy. It was important in this connection to restore and develop the national economy in such a way as not merely to rehabilitate the ruined economy, but to eliminate the baneful aftermath of the protracted Japanese imperialist rule in industry and various other fields and to ensure a predominant position for the state sector." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng, ed., Vol. I, pp. 230-31.) The basic orientation of economic construction in the early transitional period was set in two aspects — one to restore and build the national economy by way of removing the aftermath of Japanese imperialist colonial rule, and the other to develop the economy by way of strengthening the predominant position of the state sector. In rehabilitating and developing the national economy the immediate primary task was to restore the ruined economy, regularize the economic life of the country and speedily stabilize the deteriorated people's living. What was important here, however, was not to merely 217

rehabilitate the economy to its original state, but to clear the economy of colonial lopsidedness, the evil result of tong-drawn Japanese imperialist rule, that is, to lay the foundation of an independent national economy. ■The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "To build an independent democratic state, the basis of an independent economy of one's own nation should be built without fail, and to lay the basis of an independent economy, the national economy should be developed rapidly. Without the basis of an independent economy we can neither achieve independence, nor can we build a state Or maintain our existence." {Ibid , p. 134.) Building an independent national economy means setting up a many-sidedly developed economy equipped with modern technique, an economy capable of producing goods to meet the country's needs for itself mainly with the natural resources and personnel of one's own country. Such an independent national economy is indispensable for consolidating the country's political independence, attaining national prosperity and successfully laying the material and technical foundations of socialism and communism. Particularly in Korea which took over a very backward, lopsided economy the building of an independent national economy presented itself as a vital problem determining the development of the economy, the improvement of people's living and the prosperity of the nation. Proceeding from this, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung put in the forefront the line of building an independent national economy as the line of economic construction to be invariably maintained by the Party and government, and saw that it was faithfully implemented. What was next in importance in restoring and developing the national economy was to properly set the mutual relations between the economic sectors while running the economy in a planned way. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The fundamentals of our Party's economic policy consisted in ensuring the direct, planned state control of the majorindustries, railway transport, communications, foreign trade and financial agencies and in the proper co-ordination of the state, co-operative and private sectors of the economy based on the constant strengthening of the leading role of the state sector in the development of the national economy." (mid:, p. 231.) As a result of the democratic reforms and under the measures for consolidating and developing their success, the state and cooperative 218 economic sectors came into being and these socialist economic sectors held a leading position in the national economy as a whole. This rendered it possible to operate the planned economy, an indispensable need. Economic planning was essential to speedily develop the national economy in the right direction with full aim and purpose and forcefully push ahead with the building of an independent national economy. And in the condition where various economic sectors coexisted, it was important to properly establish their mutual relations. Here due stress had to be put to raising the leading role ofthe state sector by developing it rapidly. Only by so doing was it possible to ensure the normal development of the overall national economy and lead the cooperative and private sectors in the right direction. It was necessary to properly develop'the cooperative and private economies on the basis of enhancing the leading role of the state economy. This would make it possible to turn to full account every reserve and possibility for the restoration and development of the national economy and the stabilization and improvement of the people's living in the then situation and to strengthen the workerpeasant alliance and promote the unity of the entire people. There arose an important problem of how to step up the socialist transformation of the relations of production in the early transitional period. At that time, the condition for an overall socialist transformation of the production relations was still immature, and it could be partially undertaken in some fields only. Producers' cooperatives could be organized in fisheries and handicrafts as they were much favourable to those in straitened circumstances. In the countryside preparations had to be stepped up for cooperativization while developing agriculture on the basis of private farming for a definite period. As for the capitalist trade and industry their socialist transformation had to be held up fill the condition was ready for it while restricting their negative aspects and cashing in on the positive ones. The national economic plans in the early transitional period were mapped out according to the above economic policies. 219

Successful Fulfilment of the First National Economic Plan Our people set to carry out the economic plan for 1 947. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "That we have entered upon the road of planned development of our national economy on the basis of the successes achieved in the democratic reforms in one year after liberation, means that we have taken the first step in the great work of laying the economic basis for the building of an independent and sovereign state, and it acquires a tremendous historic importance. We should exert every effort for the successful carrying out of the 1 947 Plan for Development of the National Economy." (Ibid., p 134.) The 1947 Plan for Development of the National Economy envisaged to increase the industrial output some twice as much as that of 1 946. Many difficulties and obstacles were in the way of fulfilling this plan at the time. The originally backward economy was severely destroyed by Japanese imperialism,' and raw and other materials and funds were in very short supply. Even in such situation the economy had to be developed at a high rate. Native technical cadres and skilled workers were also small in number. In such situation the economy had to be run. " At the time of its defeat. Japanese imperialism wrecked the Chongjin Iron Works, the Chongjin Steel Works and the Supung Power Station. It aiso destroyed or burnt down the main shops and production facilities of 47 big factories and enterprises including the Pyongyang Chemical Factory It submerged or blew up 242 coal and ore mines completely or partially. Our people thus found themselves hard to manufacture even a farm tool and pencil at the time. Worse still, the division of the country into the north and the south broke the contacts of north Korea with south Korea where agriculture and light industry were rather concentrated. This further aggravated the deformative and lopsided characters of the north Korean economy. And the US imperialists and home reactionaries resorted to every means to prevent our people from fulfilling the national economic plan. The vast national economic plan had to be carried out under such 220 very difficult conditions. The enemy deprecated this plan as "spurious," and some of our persons even expressed a doubt about its fulfilment. Our people, however, under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, overcame all these difficulties and obstacles and captured one height after another of the national economic plan with confidence in victory, displayingtheirdauntlesS fighting spiritand unusual creative zeal. In order to carry out the national economic plan successfully the primary concern was directed above all to enhancing the leading role of the Party and the organizational function of the people's power in the economic construction. And deep attention was paid to letting the people of various strata willingly take part in the economic construction by increasing the role of the working people's organizations and intensifying the united front with the associate parties. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung paid personal visits to the Hwanghae Iron Works and other major factories, coal mines and power stations where he not only showed the workers the specific ways to fulfil the national economic plan, inspired and encouraged their struggle and unravelled their knotty problems but also carefully looked after their life. With deep interest in the development of the rural economy, he went out to the fields and transplanted rice in person, heartening the peasants in their farm work. He betook himself to a remote mountainous village and taught the inhabitants there to make better use of mountains, thusopening the new history of "golden mountains" in our country. Encouraged by the wise guidance and warm concern of the respected leader, the whole people of our country displayed infinite devotion and creativeness in their efforts to overfulfil the national economic plan. Flames of increased production shock-brigade movements swept over the length and width of the country. Th'e "increased production drive in commemoration of the March I Uprising" was launched in response to the call of the workers of the Sadong Colliery in Pyongyang. It was followed by the "increased production emulation in celebration of May Day" initiated by the workers of the Pyongyang Railway Locomotive Section. In June and July the workers of the Nampo Refinery kindled the flames of the "increased production drive in memory of the proclamation of the Labour Law" that spread all over the country. In July and August the vigorous "increased production campaign marking the second anniversary of August 1 5 liberation" was triggered off by the workers of the 221

Bungnam Fertilizer Factory. This campaign embraced over 2,200 factories and some 500,000 workers. {Rodong Sinmun, December 3, 1947:) the campaign brought out its greater merit as it was waged in close combination with the general ideological mobilization movement for nation building. Workers strove to care for and economize in state and public property, fill the shortage of funds and fuel and solve technical problems through extensive technical impartment and a mass movementfor invention and innovation. By keeping upthestrugglefor liquidating the noxious ideological aftereffects of Japanese imperialism, they shook off the practices of misappropriation and waste and the bad habit of idleness. The 1 947 national economic plan was successfully carried out by the efforts of the entire people. The plan for the total state-run industrial output was fulfilled at 1 02.5 per cent. Thanks to the creative efforts of the workers and technicians the country became able to turn out scores of kinds of new products such as transformer, roller, copper wire, carbide, alcohol and storage battery which had all been outside the preceding list of products. The ranks of technicians and skilled workers, too, grew considerably for each factory or enterprise to handle its modern equipment on its own. tn agriculture the sowing area of 1 947 was 0.4 per cent more than planned and the total grain output some 1 80,000 tons more than the previous year. Thus the difficult problem of food was in the process of gradual solution. In railway transport, too, the transport plan was carried out by 138 per cent. The railway transported 2.5 times more freight than the previous year, making for the fulfilment of the national economic plan in all domains. Great successes were also scored in thefields of education, culture and public health. The number of schools grew by 40 per cent and that of students by 30 per cent over the previous year. Scholarships were issued to the students of colleges and specialized schools. There appeared 17 dramatic companies and 8 orchestras and rose hosts of hospitals and clinics. The people's living standards were markedly improved thanks to the increase of industrial and agricultural production and various economic and cultural measures. The successful fulfilment of the 1947 national economic plan acquired a very great significance both economically and politically. It heightened the confidence of the people in economic construction and made them support more actively all the policies and measures of the 222 Party and government set forth by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. Upon carrying out the 1947 national economic plan the Korean people tackled the 1 948 one. The basic task of the 1 948 national economic plan was to eliminate the colonial lopsidedness of industry by maintaining the economic policy, the basic orientation of the economic construction, in the early period of transition, and to develop industry by way of laying the foundation of the national economy. In industry main stress was thus put on replenishing the equipment of factories and producing machines, tools, spare parts and daily necessities while rehabilitating the factories and enterprises destroyed by Japanese imperialism. In agriculture main efforts were directed to grain production to fully meet the demand of the northern half for food and, at the same time, it was envisaged to step up the cultivation of industrial crops to supply raw materials to light industry. The plan for the industrial output of the state and cooperative sectors was set 41 per cent higher than the result of 1947. The 1948 national economic plan, too, was successfully carried out. The plan for the industrial output of the state and cooperative sectors was fulfilled by 102 per cent and the total industrial output showed an increase of as much as 50.6 per cent over 1947. New machine plants and a sheet glass factory were built and hosts of chemical, pulp and other factories were rehabilitated or expanded. The grain output in 1948 was 600,000 tons greater than the previous year It topped the level of the pre-liberation peak year 1 939 by 1 0.4 per cent. With the successful fulfilment of the above two national economic plans major destroyed factories and enterprises were rehabilitated and readjusted in the main, basic foundations laid to some degree for the normal development of the national economy, and some assets provided for the stabilization of the people's living. 223

3. THE WORSENING CRISIS OF NATIONAL SPLIT. APRIL NORTH-SOUTH JOINT CONFERENCE

Oecision of Moscow Three Foreign Ministers' Conference and USSR-US Joint Commission The colonial enslavement policy of the US imperialists in south Korea was daily coming into the open. It became clearer that the occupation of south Korea by the US army did not aim to disarm the Japanese troops and make for the independence of Korea as they alleged, but to place the whole of south Korea in their grip and turn it into a strategic point for stepping up their plan of world supremacy in Asia. This move of the US imperialists found its expression above all in their obstinate efforts to void the decision of the Moscow Three Foreign Ministers' Conference envisaging the establishment of a provisional democratic government of Korea and freeze her split. Atthe Conference of Soviet, US and British Foreign Ministers held in Moscow in December 1945, the US delegate insisted that the US and Soviet armies should run a military government respectively in south and north Korea for a definite period (an unfixed length of time), then place Korea under the trusteeship of four powers (the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and the Republic of China) for five years and extend this trusteeship for another five years if need be,"1 This US proposal aimed to hinder the building of a sovereign independent state and set up a colonial ruling system in Korea. The Soviet delegate turned down the US proposal and insisted on establishing a provisional democratic government soon in Korea with the participation of the democratic parties and social organizations and proposed that for this purpose, the allied powers place Korea under their tutelage for less than five years. The conference vetoed the US proposal and adopted the Soviet one in the end.*2 *1 This proposal advanced by US State Secretary Burnesat the conference had its historical root. As early as the 1 S30's, the US government worked out its plan lo make Korea a colony and strategic point of the United States for military 224 aggression. In the 1 860-70's, it organized an "expeditionary force" and launched armed aggression against Korea, During the Second World War US President Roosevelt insisted at the Teheran Conference on placing Korea under luvo scores of yea rs of trusteeship. At the Yalta Conference in February 1 945, too, he said that at least 20-30 years of trusteeship would be necessary for Korea to foster the "self -governing capacity" of her people. The US proposal made by Burnes at the Moscow Foreign Ministers' Conference can be said to be a concrete form of Roosevelt's plan for trusteeship. '2 An abridged version of the decision of the Three Foreign Ministers' Conference is: a. A provisional democratic government of Korea shall be set up for the purpose of restoring her into an independent state, developing her on democratic principles and creating conditions for her to rapidly liquidate the evil aftermath of long drawn Japanese rule. b. A joint commission shall be organized with the delegates of the headquarters of the Soviet and US armies stationed in Korea in order to cooperate in the establishment of a provisional government of Kore3 and prearrange proper measures for it. The commission shall discuss without fail with the democratic parties and social organizations of Korea when it works out its proposal. c. The joint commission shall also take measures to assisl and cooperate (tutor) in the political, economic and social progress and democratic and independent development of the Korean people or in the establishment of an independent state of Korea with the participation of a Korean provisional democratic government and with the involvement of the Korean democratic organizations. A proposal of the joint commission should go through the joint examination of the Soviet, US, British and Chinese governments to work out an agreement on bringing Korea under their tutelage lasting less than five years, after discussion wrth the Korean provisional government. d. The delegates of the headquarters of the Soviet and US armies shall meet within a fortnight. The earnest wish of our people was of course that the Soviet and US armies would withdraw simultaneously right after disarming the Japanese troops and that the Korean people would build a sovereign independent state for themselves at an early date. This wish, however, could not be met smoothly in the condition where the imperialist army was occupying the southern half of Korea. In the then situation the implementation of the decision oF the Moscow Three Foreign Ministers' Conference might provide a more realistic way for the early attainment of Korea's reunification and independence. Hence that decision enjoyed the support of the Communist Party and other progressive and democratic parties and public organizations and patriotic people of Korea. The Korean people thought that once the decision of the Moscow Three Foreign Ministers' Conference was carried out they would be able to easily thwart the aggressive designs of the US imperialists and 225

that if they successfully stepped up a state building, they would be able to shorten the period of 5-year tutelage and facilitate the building of a sovereign independent state. The US imperialists, however, went against that decision because they didn't want to have a unified sovereign independent state established on the Korean Peninsula within five years. The then US President Truman dismissed State Secretary Burnes upon his return from Moscow because the latter had accepted the decision inconsistent with the US policy. Catching this signal, Hodges, Commander of the US army occupying south Korea, deliberately obstructed the implementation of the Moscow decision in a planned way. While keeping the US proposal advanced at the Moscow Foreign Ministers" Conference in the dark, he publicly stated time and again that the Koreans were free to oppose the decision of the Moscow conference. In effect, his statement was like officially instigating the reactionary force to an "anti-trusteeship movement" in opposition to the decision of that conference. If this decision was put into effect, the US imperialists would be unable to achieve their objective of colonizing and subjugating Korea or south Korea. So they had to oppose it anyway, but as its signer they were in no position of openly going against it. Thus they egged the reactionary force on to stage an "anti -trusteeship movement" (a movement against the decision of the Moscow conference), while agitating the Korean people aspiring after Korea's immediate independence by covertly spreading the distorted word that the decision of the Moscow conference was a trusteeship one. Therefore, the "antitrusteeship movement" was in essence an unpatriotic movement whose actual aim was to effect a trusteeship (a colonial rule) under the signboard of anti-trusteeship, and an anti-national movement serving the aggressive policy of US imperialism in every respect. In such complex political situation the USSR-US Joint Commission was organized according to the decision of the Moscow Three Foreign Ministers' Conference and it met first in Seoul on March 20, 1 946. The US delegate, however, from the outset of the meeting, tried to break up the commission deliberately laying obstacles in its way. In designating those to consult about the question of establishing a provisional government, he proposed to organize a "Consultative Committee" on the basis of the "Democratic Chamber" which was formed with the reptile organs of the US Military Government, exclusive of the genuine democratic parties and social organizations, embracing the elements opposed to the decision of the Moscow Three Foreign Ministers' Conference and the USSR-US Joint Commission, 226 and to add several representatives of north Korea to it. He also insisted on empowering this "Consultative Committee" to work out the ministerial list of the provisional government and enact an interim Constitution. This preposterous proposal met with a due rebuff and a procedure for consulting with all the democratic parties and social organizations was adopted on the proposal of the Soviet delegate. The US side, however, put another obstacle in the way of the meeting by insisting that the reactionary political parties and public organizations opposed to the decision of the Moscow conference and hosts of bogus organizations framed up overnight should be included in the list of those with whom the commission would consult. (The democratic social organizations embracing millions of people under the National Front of South Korea were not included in the list submitted by the US side.) Due to the planned subversive move of the US delegate the USSR-US Joint Commission stopped its work on May 6 and its meeting was adjourned for an unlimited duration. Following the breakup of the first meeting of the USSR-US Joint Commission the US imperialists and south Korean reactionaries resorted to the nation-splitting policy. with greater fury. On May 12 the reactionary elements opposed to the decision of the Moscow Three Foreign Ministers' Conference held a "meeting of winning independence" as an official function where they clamoured about "wiping out" patriotic democratic personages and setting up a separate government in south Korea They organized a demonstration with terrorists and made them raid the National Front, democratic parties and social organizations and progressive press organs. It fully exposed that the "anti-trusteeship movement" actually aimed to set up a separate government in south Korea and accordingly it was an unpatriotic and anti-national act, suited to the nation-splitting policy of the US imperialists. In January 1947 the pro- Japanese and pro- US traitors to the nation including a pack of those affiliated with the Hanguk Democratic Party cooked up an "Anti-Trusteeship Struggle Committee" with Syngman Rfiee, the boss of the south Korean reaction, as its advisor, organized a demonstration against the resumption of the meeting of the USSR-US Joint Commission, and made terrorists murder Ryo Un Hyong, Presidium Member of the National Front and President of the Working People's Party, and other patriotic personages. All this made it harder to carry out the decision of the Moscow Three Foreign Ministers' Conference. 227

South Korean People's Struggle against the Colonial Enslavement Policy of US Imperialism The US imperialists sped up the process of colonizing and subjugating south Korea while following the policy of severing our nation. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The US army set out on a policy of colonial enslavement as soon as it crept into south Korea. In the first place, it adopted two basic policies to attain its goal: politically, it smothered all the democratic initiatives of the liberated people who set themselves against its policy of colonial enslavement, and suppressed all the democratic forces and, at the same time, it rallied and fostered the reactionary forces that were instrumental in the implementation of its aggressive policy aimed at splitting the Korean nation and turning Korea into a US colony; economically, it has pursued a policy of hampering the development of Korea's national industry and economy and subordinating them to the economy of the United States." (Ibid , p. 218.) The US imperialist aggressors framed various evil laws in order to stamp out all democratic freedoms and rights of the south Korean people. In February 1946 they proclaimed the "Political Party Registration Law" by Act No. 55 of the US Military Government, under which every "political party or organization with more than three members" was forced to register the number of its membership, the list of its functionaries and all its activities with the US Military Government. The US imperialists ran wild to disorganize the Communist Party in south Korea. In May 1 946 they framed up the "Case of forging paper money by the Chongpan Press'" to suppress the Communist Party and forcibly close down its organ Haebang //bo. With this as an occasion, communists and a large number of cadres of the progressive political parties and social organizations were arrested and imprisoned, a taboo placed on the democratic publications, and reactionary terrorist outrages perpetrated everywhere in broad daylight. * "The Chongpan Press" was run by the Communist Party in Seoul in those days. US imperialism laid a preposterous charge of forging paper money against (his press. 228 Cases of wholesale murder occurred more frequently. The US Military Government, reactionary police and terrorists swooped down on the workersfighting against the closure of their enterprises, causing many victims. They also roughly repressed and killed peasants who rose against harsh plunder. In August 1 946. the rascals bestially suppressed and slaughtered peasants in Haui Island, South Cholla Province, who were out against forced delivery In Kwangju they even mobilized aircraft and tanks in massacring the workers of the Hwasun Colliery who demonstrated in commemoration of the first anniversary of August 15 liberation. Economically, too, the US imperialists faithfully followed a policy of subordination. First of all they sought extensive economic plunder. The US Military Government proclaimed a number of "Acts" including Act No. 2 on "Enemy Property" in September 1 945 to "take over" as "enemy property" the railways, ships, communication facilities, banking organs, land, irrigation facilities, houses, storehouses, shops and their goods and all other estates owned by the Japanese state or individuals and to put them into the possession of the US Military Government. Even according to the doctored figures made public by the US State Department on September 25, 1947, the property seized by US imperialism included 24 factories and enterprises in the basic field of production and upwards of 320,000 hectares of land. It amounted to over 80 per cent of the total property of south Korea at the time. ' * US imperialism concluded the "Agreement on Transfer of Finance and Property" (south Korea- US agreement) with the puppet regime of south Korea in September 1948. and formally "transferred" thai property to the puppet government of south Korea. However. US imperialism kept the right of control over it by prescribing in this "agreement" that "the right of acquisition and ownership of that properly can be removed according to the demand of the US Government". In addition, under this traitorous agreement a vast stretch of land, buildings, roads and dwelling houses of south Korea were offered to the US army as its military bases and establishments, and the south Korean people had to pay 10 million won a month as the expense for the stationing of the US army. The "south Korea -US agreement", therefore, was virtually a traitorous, aggressive one which legalized the pillage of all property of south Korea by US imperialism. US imperialism was keen to fostering the compradore capitalists who would broker the surplus goods of the United States, usher in the US private capital, render help in the plunder of wealth and deliver some military supplies in south Korea. Thus it brought forth a group of such compradore capitalists by selling some of the "enemy property" to the pro-Japanese and pro-US elements and profiteers at cheap 229

prices and giving them thp privilege of selling wholesale or trading the US surplus goods. The situation was about the same in the rural areas too. US imperialism maintained the feudal relations of exploitation there by proclaiming in September 1945 that the relations of land ownership would remain unchanged and the landlords be invested with the right to draw in the farm rents. In March 1948 it announced that the "enemy" land held by the "Sinhan Company" would be sold to the tenant farmers. This, however, could not improve the situation of the south Korean countryside. The acreage of the land sold amounted to no more than 1 0 per cent of the total arable land and the farm households that bought it numbered a little more than 20 per cent of the total. And even those farmers who bought the "enemy" land found it harder to stay alive because of the high price of land, onerous tax and forced delivery. The south Korean people were driven to the limits of endurance. They rose up in a valorous struggle against the colonial enslavement and nation-splitting policies of US imperialism and in demand of the same democratic reforms as carried out in the northern half and of the independent reunification and independence of the country. In September 1946 over 40,000 railway workers of south Korea staged a general strike, putting up economic demands for better living and calling for the immediate stoppage of suppression by the US Military Government, the enforcement of democratic reforms, the reopening of the meeting of the USSR-US Joint Commission for reunification and independence, the liquidation of traitors, etc. In response to this general strike over 300,000 south Korean industrial workers in different branches downed tools and students, office employees and citizens joined in their struggle. The general strike of the south Korean workers threw US imperialism and its stooges into utter confusion. They called in the army, police, terrorists and even tanks to crack down harshly on the strikers and on the people who joined hands with them. There were clashes between the strikers and police in many places and a large number of workers were wounded, killed or arrested. Such sanguinary suppression by the US Military Government fanned up the resistance of the enraged people. The workers went over to a mass demonstration in protest against the bestial repression by US imperialism, and an all-people anti-US struggle broke out in October. The flames of this struggle gradually enveloped all parts of south Korea. Its participants fought heroically, holding up the slogans, "We oppose the colonial enslavement policy of US imperialism!" "Transfer power to the People's Committee!" "Enforce such democratic reforms 230 _ carried out in north Korea!" and the like. Mass revolts broke out everywhere. The revolted masses raided police stations and other reactionary organs and finished off vicious policemen and officials. The people's resistance lasted as long as two months, embracing over 2,300,000 patriotic people. The September general strike and October people's resistance clearly showed that the south Korean people resolutely opposed and rejected the colonial enslavement policy of US imperialism and demanded the sovereignty and independence of the country and the establishment of such people's democratic system as set up in the northern half. They fully demonstrated the revolutionary might of the working class and other popular masses. The September general strike and October people's resistance were quelled by enemy's bestial "bloody suppression." But various forms of people's anti-US, nation-saving struggles continued without letup even afterwards. Presentation of the Korean Question to the UN and Fabrication of "UNTCOK" by US Imperialism Despite the stubborn resistance of the popular masses US imperialism daily intensified its scheme for permanent occupation of south Korea in a crafty way. Under its neo-colonialist policy, it planned to rig up a puppet government with the pro-US henchmen in order to maintain its rule over south Korea. Already in February 1946 the US Military Government organized the "Democratic Chamber of South Korea" and appointed Syngman Rhee as its president. In his speech at the opening ceremony of the Chamber, Syngman Rhee blurted that "the Democratic Chamber would get the approval of the US Military Government as the future south Korean government". This implies that the "Democratic Chamber" was just a product of the US imperialists' colonial enslavement and nation-splitting policies. In December that year US imperialism rigged up the "Interim Legislative Council of South Korea" as the "legislative organ of Koreans", and in June 1947 it made it pass a "general election law". This served later as the reactionary election law applied in the traitorous May tenth separate election. When this is considered, it is clear why US imperialism fabricated the "Legislative Council". 231

At the same time, with the purpose of mitigating the daily mounting discontent of the people with the US Military Government and stepping up its nation -splitting policy, US imperialism turned the high-ranking officers of the US Military Government and provincial governors of the US army into advisors and put the Korean traitors to the nation in their places in the period from the end of 1946 to the beginning of 1 947. In February 1 947 it seated a Korean (An Jae Hong) on the post of civil administrator, the supreme leader of the south Korean puppet administration, and made him a faithful servant of Hodges. Then it changed the signboard of the US M ilitary Government into that of the "South Korean Interim Government". In this way it systematized the puppet organs from legislation to administration. This was timed to coincide with Truman's proclamation of challenge to communism at US Congress in Washington, which aimed for the establishment of "US supremacy" over the world. That was the "Truman Doctrine" and with its proclamation as an occasion US imperialism went over to the total reactionary offensive for the realization of its plan for world supremacy. This reactionary offensive of US imperialism was fully reflected in its policy towards Korea, that is, in its scheme to turn south Korea into a military strategic baseforthe occupation of whole Korea by tearing the decision of the Moscow Three Foreign Ministers" Conference into shreds and rigging up a puppet government in south Korea. Thus, the second meeting of the USSR-US Joint Commission, which was opened after a long recess on May 21 , 1 947, ran against a snag from the outset because of the premeditated policy of disruption on the part of US imperialism. This time too the US delegate deliberately created an obstacle in the way of defining those to consult. He advanced a list of 425 bogus organizations cooked up overnight — their "membership" totalled 56 million or nearly twice as many as the population of Korea- -and arbitrarily claimed for including them in those to consult. To cope with such abnormal situation the Soviet delegate proposed to approve only the existing organizations with the membership of over 1 0,000 each. But the US side opposed this proposal on the plea that the parties and organizations included in the "AntiTrusteeship Struggle Committee" were left out of the list submitted by the Soviet delegation. When the Soviet side proposed to organize an All- Korea Provisional People's Committee with the equal number of representatives from the north and the south, the US side turned down this proposal too simply because it would not guarantee the absolute majority of the south Korean reactionaries. Like this, the US Government made its delegate to the USSR-US 232 Joint Commission obstruct in every way the implementation of the decision of the Moscow Three Foreign Ministers' Conference in Seoul. On the other hand, on September 1 7 in the middle of the meeting of the Commission it sent State Secretary Marshall to New York who saddled on the Soviet side the responsibility for bringing the work of the USSR US Joint Commission to a deadlock and proposed to discuss the Korean question at the UN. This was virtually an open nullification of the decision of the Moscow Three Foreign Ministers' Conference and a wanton violation of the UN Charter. According to the UN Charter, an internal affair of a country or a "postwar regulation affair" piaced under an international agreement is outside examination by the UN General Assembly. Accordingly, the Korean affair should not be presented to the UN in every point. Nevertheless, it was unduly brought up to the UN which was then controlled by the hand-raising machine of the United States, and unreasonable resolutions on Korea were adopted in succession at the UN in the absence of the Korean representative, under the coercion of the United States. The second meeting of the USSR-US Joint Commission was virtually meaningless since the US Government unduly presented the Korean question to the UN. In such condition the Soviet delegate proposed on September 26 to withdraw the Soviet and US troops simultaneously from Korea and insisted that the establishment of a Korean provisional government should be left to the Korean people themselves. This proposal greatly flustered the US delegate, and the south Korean reactionaries now begged forthe long-term stationing of the US army, though they had justclaimed "immediate independence" in an attempt to break up the USSR-US Joint Commission. The sudden change of their attitude brought their real aim into the light of the day. Thus the second meeting of the USSR-US Joint Commission was closed on October 18 unilaterally by the US delegate who proposed to repose "expectations in the help of the UN." Having broken up the USSR-US Joint Commission, US imperialism never failed to bring the Korean question up to the UN. On November 14, 1947 the second plenary session of the UN General Assembly passed the US "resolution" whose main content was: a) to organize a "UN Temporary Commission on Korea" (UNTCOK) with nine member states including Australia, Canada and India; b) to hold elections under its supervision within March 31, 1 948 and establish a government; c) to withdraw the occupation army within 90 days following the establishment of a government. To hold elections under the supervision of the "UNTCOK" was an infringement upon the sovereignty of the Korean nation, a neglect of 233

the independent capacity of the Korean people and a total treachery to the decision of the Moscow Three Foreign Ministers' Conference, which was signed by the US Government itself. The UN "resolution" on Korea did meet of course the unanimous opposition and denunciation of the entire Korean people. Envisaging this, on February 26, 1 948 US imperialism, under its pre-arranged plan, forced the "Little Assembly" of the UN to adopt a resolution on conducting the separate election in south Korea alone under the UN supervision. In this way the "UNTCOK", a'tool serving US imperialism, was cooked up, and under its supervision the separate election was to be held in south Korea and the nation-splitting policy of US imperialism put in the stage of open implementation. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The 'mission' of the 'UN Temporary Commission on Korea' is obvious. It is to justify the US policy of colonizing Korea under the cloak of 'elections', to rig up through fraudulent 'elections' a 'government' to the liking of the US imperialists, consisting of pro-Japanese elements and traitors to the nation who place their private interests above the national interest and who sell out the country and the people to foreign countries, and to tear south Korea away from our country for ever and convert it into a US colony." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 4, pp. 177-78. ) The "UNTCOK" was no more than an aggressive tool of US imperialism in the full sense of the term, which gilded the nationsplitting policy of US imperialism and helped realize its scheme to rig up a puppet government in south Korea. Due to the move of US imperialism to hold separate elections in south Korea, the people were faced with the very serious crisis of territorial division and national split. April North-South Joint Conference At the Second Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea convened in March 1948, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung set forth the line of facilitating the cause of national reunification, tiding over the serious crisis faced by the country and nation and the immediate fighting task for its implementation. He determinedly declared that the Korean people were resolutely 234 opposed to the unjust "resolution" of the UN on the Korean question and would never recognize, under any circumstances, the traitorous puppet government to be set up under the patronage of the "UNTCOK", and clarified the line of establishing a unified democratic government on an independent and democratic principle. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Our Party holds that a supreme legislative body for all Korea should be elected on the principle of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot. The supreme legislative body of the people thus elected should adopt a democratic Constitution and form a genuine democratic people's government to lead our people along the road to national prosperity and happiness. The establishment of a unified government on such lines by the Korean people themselves will only be possible when foreign troops are withdrawn." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 1, p. 222. ) The line of establishing a unified government elucidated by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung was a most just one which fully accorded with the desire and aspiration of the entire Korean people and correctly calculated the practical ability and subjective force of our people who were fully able to solve their question with their own strength. He taught that all the patriotic and democratic forces and personages with national conscience should be united and their struggle forfrUstrating the crafty nation-splitting policy of US imperialism be intensified in order to smash the plot for the establishment of a separate government in south Korea and set up a unified democratic people's government. He again proposed to convene, forthe present, a joint conference of representatives of all democratic parties and social organizations in north and south Korea. On March 25 the Democratic National United Front of North Korea sent an open letter entitled "Appeal to the South Korean Political Parties and Social Organizations in Opposition to the Establishment of a Separate Government in South Korea" and separate letters to different parties and groups of south Korea, calling upon them to hold a north-south joint conference in Pyongyang in April 1948. Amid the enthusiastic welcome of the entire Korean people, this appeal met a unanimous response from all the patriotic political parties and social organizations of north and south Korea. Even the wavering middle political forces and some ultra-Rightist forces of south Korea keenly felt the impending crisis of national split caused by US imperialism and eagerly hoped to attend a north-south joint conference. The proposal for convening a north-south joint conference found 235

such a big response and enjoyed a nationwide support and welcome because it reflected the strong aspiration and urgent desire of the people to reunify the country by themselves and because the entire people of north and south Korea seethed with the warm reverence for and absolute trust in the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the initiator of that proposal, wishing to attend him as the supreme leader of the nation. It was only a handful of the traitors to the nation such as Syngman Rhee and Kim Song Su that came out against the calling of a northsouth joint conference. They were thus cut off from the entire Korean people. The Joint Conference of Representatives of Political Parties and Social Organizations of North and South Korea was opened in Pyongyang on April 1 9, 1 948 amid the interests of the whole nation. It was attended by 695 representatives of 56 political parties and social organizations from north and south Korea, except the archreactionaries.* Even Kim Gu, representative from the "Korean Provisional Government" and an ultra Rightist who had been devoted lo anti-communism all his life, and Kim Gyu S'ik, who represented the middling forces, came to Pyongyang and attended the conference. With regard to this, American writer John Gunlhcr wrote: "Almost all fine persons of south Korea, except Syngman Rhee, were included in the south Korean representatives (o this conference.... The fact thai such many south Koreans accepted their attendance at the conference shows how deep-rooted are their instincts for national reunification, whatever the circumstances." (Tha Riddle of Mac Arthur. Japanese ed., Tokyo, pp. 289-90.) In his report at the conference the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung made a deep analysis of the political situation of the country and outlined the task of the whole nation to achieve unity and solidarity and fight to frustrate the planned traitorous separate election in south Korea and build a unified democratic and independent state, His report threw the representatives from north and south Korea into a storm of emotion and excitement and enjoyed their unanimous support. Representatives of various political parties and social organizations made fiery speeches at the conference which adopted on April 23the "Resolution on the Political Situation in Korea'and the 'Appeal to the Fellow Countrymen of All Korea." The resolution and appeal affirmed that Korea must be reunified without fail and stressed that they resolutely opposed and rejected the holding of the traitorous separate election and the establishment of a separate government in south Korea, considered the democratic reforms and the results of construction in north Korea to be the 236 foundations for sovereignty and independence and demanded in the name of the thirty million fellow countrymen the simultaneous withdrawal of the Soviet and US armies. In the wake of the conference the leaders of political parties and social organizations from north and south Korea consulted with each other, and on April 30, issued a joint statement. In this statement they solemnly declared: a) to absolutely support the proposal for the withdrawal of the Soviet and US armies; b) to secure perfect order following the withdrawal of both armies; c) to convene a political conference of all Korea following the withdrawal of the foreign troops and establish a provisional democratic government representing the people of all strata; d) to never recognize a separate government to be rigged up through a separate election in south Korea. As can be seen, the attendants of the north-south joint conference, despite their differences in political views and religious creeds, unanimously approved and supported the national -salvation proposal and reunification policy advanced by Comrade Kim II Sung, the sun of the nation, and expressed their firm determination to rise up as one to carry out the resolution of the conference. The north-south joint conference was a historic meeting held for the first time by the representatives of political parties and social organizations from north and south Korea to discuss the measures to save the national crisis. It united all the patriotic and democratic forces of the country, transcending ideology and ideal, system and religion, under the banner of national reunification, and opened up a new prospect in the way of the struggle for the independent reunification of the country. The successful conference demonstrated before the whole world that the Korean people were a resourceful, competent and dignified people who, under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, were fully able to solve their affairs for themselves. All the success of the north-south joint conference was a shining victory of the policy of united front and a valuable fruit of the outstanding leadership and selfless efforts of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung who held an absolute authority and trust among the people of north and south Korea.* ' A south Korean representative observed: "...I made tours of Asian and European countries, large and small, and met many so-called 'top-notch' men and heroes' but have never yet encountered such a true leader of the people as the General " Even Kim Gu who had been devoted to "and -communism expressed full support to the report of the great leader, saying: "The biggest obstacle now in the way of reunification and independence is a separate election a separate government. Our common struggle must therefore aim to smash them " Hailing General Kim II Sung as the only hero who would rebuild Korea, 237

he admitted: "Korea can be happy only if led by General Kim II Sung. IF I had known that the true nature of communism was represented by the government of General Kim, how could I have opposed communism? ...I will follow General Kim II Sung, walking in his path, for this is the very path our nation should take." (After the conference he returned lo south Korea and strove to put his determination into effect. But in June 1949 he was murdered by a sublieutenant named An Du Hui who was sent by Syngman Rhee. The murderer was given a life sentence, only to be promoted to the rank of a lieutenant colonel one year later ) The north-south joint conference united closer the patriotic and democratic forces of north and south Korea and forcefully aroused them to a sacred national-salvation struggle for smashing the traitorous separate election and achieving the cause of reunification under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. May 10 Separate Election and Forging of Puppet Government in South Korea The US imperialists, ignoring the unanimous wish of the entire Korean people to set up a unified sovereign and independent state, followed the policy of establishing a separate regime in south Korea and turning this area into their colonial military base. On January 8, 1948 the "UN Temporary Commission on Korea" crept into south Korea and announced that a separate election would be held in May in south Korea under its supervision.* ' There were 4 ayes, 2 noesand 2 abstentions in the "UNTCOK" concerning the question of holding a separate election in south Korea. The "UNTCOK" was obliged to admit in Korea that the only force supporting the separate election was Syngman Rhee and the "Hanguk Democratic Party" formed with big landlords and entrepreneurs and that it was rejected even by many Rightist leaders, to say nothing of the Leftist and middling forces. The entire Korean people turned out as one in the struggle against the traitorous separate election. The February 7 national-salvation struggle against the entry of the "UNTCOK" and the separate election was vigorously waged throughout south Korea. Over two million patriotic people of all strata- -workers, peasants, youths and students, intellectuals, etc. — staged strikes or demonstrations shouting, "UNTCOK, get out!" "We oppose the establishment of a separate government in south Korea!" "Both armies, withdraw simultaneously and leave the establishment of a unified democratic 238 government of Korea to us Korean people!" Their struggle reduced the colonial ruling system of south Korea to a state of complete paralysis. Running up against the unanimous opposition and rebuff of the entire Korean people, the US imperialists worked hard to hold the separate election by turning to an unprecedented fascist suppression and enforcing a state of emergency, According to foreign dispatches at the time, on May 10 the US imperialists mobilized many battleships and large-sized bombers in order to put down the struggle of the people and conduct the separate election. They drew in a huge mobile force equipped with tanks, cannons and machine guns throughout south Korea and ordered al! the police, terrorists and even the "Hyangbodan" to drag the people to the "polling stations." Barricades were built around the "polling Stations" and machine guns placed on them. That was their muchvaunted "free atmosphere" of the election.* * After witnessing the "election" scenes, UP special correspondent James Roper wrote as follows: "American reconnaissance planes flew overhead. ..and the polling stations were strictly guarded by the "Hyangbodan' carrying baseball bats, and in Seoul thousands of policemen and specially appointed civilians, with the backing of the US troops, set up barricades at main points and intersections and constabularies were posted at each entrance of the back alleys. Civilian guards were armed with axe- handles, baseball bats and clubs, and the south Korean constabularies with US carbines. The atmosphere resembled that of a city .under martial law." {Korean Central Yearbook, 1949, p. 171.) The south Korean people, however, did not give in to the harsh suppression but daringly fought against the traitorous separate election. The workers and office employees staged a general strike on May 8 and, on the tenth, millions of citizens demonstrated, peasants rose in riot and students went on strikes against the separate election. Tens of thousands of handbills were scattered every day over every town and village rejecting the separate election and separate government. Beacon fires were lighted in many places at night symbolizing the patriotic fighting will of the people. Railway and shipping services were interrupted, communications and transport paralyzed, roads and bridges cut off and power stations destroyed. Armed struggles broke out in many places of south Korea including Cheju Island. The Cheju islanders brought the reactionary police under their control by force of arms and completely frustrated the "election." In Taegu, Hamyang and other places people were forced to turn up at the "polling stations," but only 1 0-30 per cent of them took part in the "election." 239

The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.82% accurate They reluctantly stood before the booths because they were given a warning notice that "anyone staying away from voting would be severely called to task as an out-and-out Leftist". Some smeared the end of a writing-brush cap with red stamping ink and pressed it on the margin below the name of a "candidate" by way of "voting", some others asked where they should seal as they were not clear of the name of a "candidate", and yet some others had to seal unconcernedly against their will.* " Li Sang Ok, History of Korea (8), Seoul, p. 64. Forty-six "polling stations" and 73 police stations and government offices were completely destroyed or burnt down and those raided by the people ran into hundreds. Like this, the May 10 separate election forcibly held by US imperialism was virtually frustrated by the heroic struggle of the south Korean people.* * Twelve reactionary politicians including Syngrnan Rhee acted such a farce where they declared their "automatic returns" on the plea that they had had no contestants in the election. (That was not [he case. In case of Syngman Rhee, he should have fought candidate Choe IMutig Jin in the same constituency. But terrorism compelled the latter to waive his candidacy.) Yun Chi Yong who became the Home Minister lavished 4 million won and Chang Myon 1 6 million won in buying over the electorates. {Korean Central Yearbook, 1949, p. 172.) The south Korean press exposed Syngman Rhee as a hypocrite. Il wrote; At first, Syngman Rhee appeased the people with the word, "I'm satisfied with the country 's independence, so I'll not run for office." When his sycophants cooked up the recommendation of 40,000 people for his candidacy and presented it to him, Syngman Rhee willingly came forward as a candidate, saying, "I'm obliged to follow the will of the people." This reminds of Wang Mang of the Xin dynasty of China who, after snatching power, claimed he was enthroned by the people (Li Sang Ok, History of Korea, (8), Seoul, p. 64.) For all this, on May 31, 1948, the puppet "National Assembly" was framed up on the basis of the fraudulent "election results," and on August 15 the "south Korean government" rigged up with Syngman Rhee, who was "returned" to "presidency" without voting.* * That day MacArthur flew into Seoul to "congratulate" Syngman Rhee, expressing his great satisfaction over the manufacture of the puppet government the first "success" of the US imperialists in their splitting policy. His congratulatory speech for Syngman Rhee hinted at Korea's reunilication by the south Korean government. It suggested the essence of the future US policy towards Korea. The French daily Cornba commented on the May tenth separate election as follows: The Seoul dictator had turned a deaf ear to all the voice of compromise and opposed it. Five days earlier than the polling day, two political leaders — 240 Right-wing conservatist Kirn Gu and typical liberalist Kim Gyu Sik, both known as anti-communists — came back to Seoul after winding up their talks with the northern leaders in Pyongyang. They stated they had succeeded in reaching an agreement with the political leaders of the north to reunify Korea under favourable conditions. Syngman Rhee, however, did not listen to this. The aim pursued by him was to keep himself alone as the master and he did not want to share power with anyone else.... Flinging aside the outstretched hands of compromise, he conducted the unilateral restrained election. Even if he had won the majority vote he owed it to the US bayonets and tanks. It cost 323 lives including 32 policemen and produced 1,000 wounded. (Comba, June 2-3, 1956.) The anti-popular and reactionary nature of the puppet government was reflected in the composition of the puppet National Assembly which had none of representatives of workers and peasants. Out of its total membership of 1 98, 83 were landlords, 32 capitalists, 23 pro Japanese officials, 20 office employees, 9 men of culture, 6 religious believers, and 25 others. After rigging up the "south Korean government" the US imperialists acted a farce of "transferring power". Reversing black and white, they brazen-facediy described the establishment of the separate government in south Korea as a "victory of democracy." On December 12, they again forced the UN General Assembly to pass the unjust "resolution" on recognizing the "south Korean government" as the "only legal government" in Korea. In fact, however, the so-called "south Korean government" was an illegal puppet regime to the core which was engineered by US imperialism. It was no more than a veil drawn over its neo-colonial rule and a tool for executing its aggressive policy. By cooking up such pro-American puppet regime in south Korea US imperialism came to establish its neo-colonial ruling system in south Korea. Now it stepped up its policy of converting south Korea into its military base in real earnest and made haste to prepare a "crusade expedition" for carrying out its plan for world supremacy in Asia. 4. FOUNDING OF THE DPRK North-South General Election The concoction of the puppet regime in south Korea by US imperialism created a new grave situation in Korea. It called for taking more positive nation-saving measures in order 241

to. prevent south Korea from being reduced to a complete colony and the nation from being permanently split and to achieve the reunification and independence of the country. It would serve no purpose to merely issue a statement condemning US imperialism and traitor Syngman Rhee and repudiating the south Korean "National Assembly" and puppet regime. Decisive, practical measures were needed. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "We must set up without delay an all-Korea supreme legislative body representing the Korean people's will and adopt the Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. By so doing, we will not be establishing a separate government but an all-Korea government comprised of representatives of north and south Korean political parties and social organizations." (Kim II Sung, Works. Eng. ed., Vol. 4, p. 302.) Only by establishing a unified legal regime representing the will of the entire people of north and south Korea was it possible to fully lay bare the illegal nature of the puppet regime, an offspring of the US imperialists' nation-splitting policy and a tool of their neo-colonial policy, rally closer the patriotic people of various strata in north and south Korea and energetically and positively push the struggle for the reunification and independence of the country, closing its ties of solidarity with international forces as well. The policy of establishing a unified government, advanced by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, enjoyed a positive support from all the democratic political parties and social organizations and from the entire people. In June 1948 the council of leaders of the political parties and social organizations in north and south Korea confirmed the frustration of the separate election forcibly held in south Korea, declared it null and void and then decided to conduct an allKorea election and, on this basis, to set up a Supreme People's Assembly and a central government. On August 25, 1948 the election of deputies to the Supreme People's Assembly was held in all parts of north and south Korea amid high enthusiasm and excitement of the whole nation. In the northern half where the election was held on the principle of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot 99.97 per cent of all the eligible voters took part and 98.49 per cent of them voted for the candidates. They elected 212 deputies. In south Korea, taking the obstructive machinations of the reactionaries into account, people's representatives were elected by way of covertly signing voters' name and they came over to the 242 northern half of the Republic to elect deputies to the Supreme People's Assembly. No sooner had the election started in south Korea than the US Military Government and south Korean reactionaries mounted a wave of suppression. They proclaimed a state of emergency and deployed the US mobile units all over south Korea from the 38th parallel up to Cheju Island. The reactionary police and terrorists were all hurled into a wholesale arrest. They coerced people to abstain from voting by signature.* In a single day of August 20, 1,370 people were rounded up throughout south Korea. In the whole period of the election tens of thousands were arrested and imprisoned, and several thousands killed or wounded {Korean Central Yearbook, 1950, p. 220.) Defying the tyrannical suppression by US imperialism and reactionaries at home, the south Korean people took part in the election with high patriotic zeal and strong fighting will to save the nation. Thus, 6,732,407 people, 77.52 per cent of the eligible voters, participated in the election and elected 1,080 representatives. The elected representatives came to Haeju in the northern half and held the conference of south Korean people's representatives between August 21 and 26 for the election of deputies to the Supreme People's Assembly of Korea. They elected 360 deputies by secret suffrage with the ratio of one to 50,000 of the south Korean population. Founding of the DPRK On the basis of the results of the historic north-south general election the First Session of the Supreme People's Assembly was held in Pyongyang on September 2, 1 948. It was attended by 572 deputies elected in north and south Korea. The First SPA Session adopted the Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung was elected there Premier of the Cabinet, Head of State, of the DPRK. On September 9 he declared the founding of the DPRK to the whole world and announced the Programme of its Government. The main points of the Programme is: firstly, to unite all the Korean people, mobilize them to the struggle for national reunification and realize the simultaneous withdrawal of both the Soviet and US armed 243

forces from Korea; secondly, to eliminate the evil effects of Japanese imperialist domination, infljet legal punishment on the pro-Japanese elements and traitors to the nation and expose and frustrate the traitorous acts and subversive machinations of the reactionaries; thirdly, to declare invalidated the laws of the Japanese imperialists and the south Korean puppet government and enforce the democratic reforms on an all-Korea scale; fourthly, to build an independent national economy that will guarantee the independence and prosperity of the country; fifthly, to develop education, culture and public health service; sixthly, to consolidate and develop the people's power organs of all levels and restore them in the south; seventhly, to enter into friendly relations with many freedom-loving nations on an equal basis; and eighthly, to strengthen the People's Army to defend the country and safeguard the achievements of the democratic reforms. The DPR K is the only legal state power of Korea which commands the unanimous support of the entire people of north and south Korea; it is a most democratic, patriotic and independent power which has carried forward the glorious traditions of the anti- Japanese revolutionary struggle, a genuine people's power which thoroughly defends the interests of the workers, peasants and other popular masses. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the embodiment of the unanimous desire of our nation to attain the freedom and independence of our country, was a brilliant victory which our people, supporting the wise policies of the Workers' Party of Korea and rallying closely around it, won in their proud struggle to build a rich and strong sovereign independent state, It was an event of epochal significance in the revolutionary struggle of our people advancing towards the bright future of socialism and communism." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. V, p. 141.) With the founding of the DPRK the Korean people became a dignified nation whom no one dares to flout, a sagacious people of a sovereign independent state who take power firmly in their own hands; they came to possess a more powerful weapon in the creation of a new life and in the realization of the cause of national reunification. The founding of the Republic helped strengthen the might of the socialist countries as a whole, strongly inspired the revolutionary struggle of the world people and dealt a heavy blow to the colonial enslavement policy of US imperialism. 244 independent Foreign Policy of the DPRK Government The Government of the DPRK declared its steadfast independent foreign policy and strove hard to strengthen solidarity with the international democratic forces. On this, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "...in the foreign policy the Government of the Republic will endeavour for our country to establish friendly relations, as an equal member of the world democratic camp, with various freedom-loving countries that respect the liberty and independence of our nation and approach us on an equal footing. "The revival of Japanese imperialism is a menace to the independence of our nation and so the imperialist countries that are attempting to revive Japan as an imperialist aggressive state will all be considered enemies of our nation." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. I, pp. 274-75.) The main points of the foreign policy of the DPRK Government were to strengthen solidarity with the international democratic forces to enhance the international position of the Republic and create the international conditions favourable for national reunification and to contribute to the international peace and security and to the development of the world revolution through a vigorous anti-imperiaiist struggle. The DPRK Government worked hard to form diplomatic relations with democratic and peace-loving nations. Despite the heinous stalling manoeuvres of US imperialism it established diplomatic relations with many countries on the principle of mutual equality, friendship and non-interference in other's internal affairs in a short period of time. In order to defend its sovereignty and strengthen its international position the DPRK Government launched a principled struggle. At that time the UN, going against its Charter as manipulated by US imperialism which emerged as the chieftain of world imperialism, adopted resolutions which were favourable to the imperialist states and unfavourable to small nations. In the Korean affair too the U N followed the dictate of the US and British imperialist forces. 245

The imperialist nations in the UN were hostile and noncooperative to the Government of the Republic and flagrantly violated the dignity and sovereignty of the Korean nation. When the Korean question was again presented to the Third Session of the UN General Assembly by the US and British imperialists, the DPRK Government fully exposed its injustice, strongly demanded the participation of the Korean delegate in the UN session and filed stern protest with the UN for having "approved" the Syngman Rhee puppet regime. In February 1 949 it strongly demanded that the DPRK founded by the common will of the entire Korean people be duly approved by the UN as the only legal government on the Korean Peninsula. In October 1949 the Special Political Committee of the Fourth Session of the UN General Assembly, heedless of the just demand of the DPR K Government, railroaded a US "resolution" in the absence of the Korean delegate, which envisaged the continuation of the activity of the "UNCOK" and the extension of its function, in strong protest against this, the Government of the Republic sent a letter to the UN Secretary- Genera I (Trygve Lie) and its Chairman (Romulo) fully exposing the injustice and aggressive aim of that "resolution". The Government of the Republic insisted that the "UNCOK" should be dissolved immediately and the Korean people be provided with the possibility for establishing a unified democratic state by themselves'. Sternly declaring it would "invalidate any resolution on the Korean question adopted without the participation of the genuine delegate of the Korean people", the Government of the Republic manifested its firm stand that the Korean people would "make every possible effort to make the 'UNCOK' withdraw from Korea immediately and continue to fight to completely reunify the country as a democratic independent state with their own strength".* " The letter of the Foreign Minister of the DPRK to UN Secretary-General Trygve Lie and Fourth UN General Assembly Chairman Romulo, dated October 14.'1949. (Korean Central Yearbook. 1950, pp. 74-75.) The Government of the Republic scathingly condemned the aggressive policy of US imperialism towards south Korea through such struggle and, at the same time, closely watching the US imperialists' criminal move to revive Japanese militarism, strongly demanded that all the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration be observed strictly and unconditionally. The independent foreign policy of the DPRK Government and its positive activity to carry it out made a great contribution to consolidat246 jng the international position of the young Republic, strengthening its ties with the international democratic forces and creating international conditions favourable for national reunification.

5. INCREASE OF POLITICO -ECO NO MIC MIGHT OF THE DPRK. THE STRUGGLE FOR PEACEFUL REUNIFICATION OF THE COUNTRY

Strengthening of Workers' Party Organizations and People's Power Organs The Workers' Party of North Korea rapidly expanded its ranks following its founding. Its membership ran into 700,000 in March 1948 when its Second Congress was convened. The Workers' Party channelled much energy into continuously expanding its ranks while improving their quality. With the expansion and strengthening of the Party its prestige rose apace and its kindred ties with the masses became closer. The Party increased its capacity of guidance to economic construction while strengthening its ranks organizationally and ideologically and rallying the broad masses closer around itself. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The present situation in our country demands not only that our Party should become a party capable of organizing and politically leading the masses, but also that it should become a party of builders able to build the economy and manage enterprises and possessing knowledge of economics and technology." {Ibid., p. 233.) When enforcing the democratic reforms the Party laid emphasis on giving political guidance to the popular masses. However, as the economic construction came to the fore following the completion of the democratic reforms, the Party had to enhance the level of its guidance in conformity to the progress of economic construction. It should become not only a political guiding force but a party of builders capable of leading economic construction. Hence, the Party made its organizations penetrate into production and its members stand in the forefront in economic construction while 247

striving to acquire the knowledge of it, learn the method of economic management and possess production technology. This measure ensured Party's successful guidance to economic construction. The strengthening of power organs of all levels stood out as a very important problem following the founding of the DPRK. It was essential for consoiidating the political foundations of the Republic, vigorously stepping up economic construction and energetically organizing the struggle for national reunification while fortifying the democratic base of the northern half politically. After the founding of the DPRK the organizational and work systems of the power organs of all levels were readjusted and strengthened as a whole and a staunch struggle waged for establishing strict order and strong state discipline to prevent the infiltration of saboteurs and sullied, alien elements. Much attention was paid to manning the power organs with sound and able personnel. Especially, through election to the local power organs held in March 1 949, they were staffed with fine and sound functionaries, steeled and tested, who could render a devoted service to the people. And training institutions of various levels were set up at ministries and in localities and short courses run often in order to improve the qualities of government functionaries. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung stressed time and again the necessity of strengthening the kindred bonds between people's power and popular masses by getting the people's power organs to work deep among the people and, at the same time, making the latter actively support the former and carry out their policies. As the people's power organs enhanced their functions and role they came to enjoy greater support from the masses of the people. All the policies of the DPRK Government found active support from the people of both the north and the south. The people in the southern half considered that the Constitution of the DPRK ought to be enacted in south Korea too, and they waged a bloody struggle for it. Fulfilment of the Two-Year National Economic Plan The fulfilment of the Two-Year National Economic Plan (194950) was of weighty significance in increasing the might of the DPRK and consolidating its economic foundations. Concerning its basic task, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The Two-Year National Economic Plan is designed to 248 increase further the rate of development in all fields of the national economy. Its aims are to rehabilitate all the factories yet to be rebuilt, reinforce the inadequately equipped factories, utilize the equipment of those in operation to the maximum and remove the colonial deformity from all economic branches. This would accelerate the pace of building an independent national economy and produce daily necessities in sufficient quantities to meet the demands of the people." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 5, p. 207.) The two-year plan aimed to surpass by far the production level of the pre-liberation year 1944 in all domains of the national economy and carry out the task of the period of rehabilitation. In industry it was planned to develop state industry by 43.2 per cent in 1 949 and 94. 1 per cent in 1 950 respectively over 1 948t thereby surpassing the productive level of 1944 by 33.2 per cent in 1950. In agriculture it was envisaged to undertake irrigation projects and bring the total grain output to three million tons in 1 950 by increasing it by 7.9 per cent over the figure of 1948. A vigorous all-people struggle was waged to fulfil the Two-Year National Economic Plan. It involved a resolute struggle for singling out and liquidating subversive and sullied elements. The US imperialists and their henchmen had eagerly wishedthe 1 947 and 1 948 economic plans would fall through. But when these plans were carried to success and the new two-year plan tackled from 1949, they smuggled a larger number of spies and subversive elements into north Korea and let them conduct such underhanded activities as assassination, vandalism and incendiarism in their effort to worst that plan. The reactionary and sullied elements lurking in north Korea too engaged in insidious manoeuvrings. In such situation the Party and government called upon the Party members and people to launch a powerful struggle against the subverters and saboteurs. In the course of this mass struggle the undercover spies and saboteurs were ferreted out and liquidated. And through this struggle strict discipline and order were established at all institutions, factories and enterprises, vigilance sharpened among the popular masses, and the zeal for carrying out the economic plan rose ever higher. Meanwhile, measures were taken to improve the guidance ability of the Party, state and economic functionaries in conformity to the new circumstances and conditions of the country. At the Meeting of Economic and Trade Union Activists in Industry held in November 1 949, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sungmadea 249

speech entitled, The New Circumstances and Conditions Demand a New Style of Work, proposing specific ways to improve the work method and styfe of the functionaries. He laid particular emphasis on planning and organizing all work in keeping with the new circumstances and conditions where the democratic reforms were enforced and the people's democratic system established, on doing away with bureaucracy and irresponsibility among the functionaries and on establishing order and discipline, enhancing the level of technical knowledge and skill, caring and economizing state property and expanding the emulation drive for increased production at factories and enterprises. The powerful struggle for improving the work method and style in economic construction resulted in considerably increasing the economic organizer's function of the power organs and economic guidance institutions. Along with this, the activeness and creativeness of the working people rose higher in their struggle for the fulfilment of the national economic plan and the flames of the vigorous mass emulation drive for increased production swept every nook and corner of tbe country. As a result, the 1 949 economic plan was overfulfilled and the 1 950 one was being successfully translated into, reality. In industry the 1949 plan was overfulfilled by 2.8 per cent to increase its output by 236.7 percent over 1 946. The socialist economic sector came to hold over 90 percent of the total industrial output value, and handicraftsmen's cooperatives (producers' cooperatives) which had started forming from 1947 grew in number rapidly. The engineering and light industries began to take shape. It was a most important success. The machine production increased by 1 46.9 per cent as against 1 944 and light industrial production by 52,7 per cent. Thus, machine tools which had been outside the list of products in the days of Japanese imperialist rule were turned out, and 500-ton iron-clad boats and 240-hp bulb engines manufactured. In agriculture, the grain output reached over 2,654,000 tons, despite a severe drought. It meant the growth of 39.9 per cent over 1 946. The per unit output of rice increased by 8.3 per cent and that of foxtail millet by 78.3 per cent as against 1 944. Thus, the northern half of the country was transformed from a food-deficient into a foodsufficient zone. In some regions state agro-stock farms were expanded or new ones established. In 1 950 farm machinery hire stations, the first of their kind, were set up. They helped restrict the exploitation of the poor peasants by the rich ones, controlling the growth of the rich peasant economy. Along with the state agro-stock farms, they played a big role 250 in preparing the peasants for a gradual switchover to agricultural cooperation. The plan for railway freightage was overfulfilled by 8.4 per cent and new railways laid and expanded. The vast plan forcapital construction too was overfulfil led to build and expand hosts of factories and workshops and step up large-scale irrigation projects. With the overfulfilment of the plan for cultural construction the preparations were successfully made for introducing a compulsory primary education from September 1950. Schools of various levels were built on an extensive scale. As a result, 15 higher educational institutions came into being in north Korea where there had been none of them before liberation. The number of the middle schools was 22 times and that of their students 23 times greater than that before liberation. The successful fulfilment of the plan for 1 949, the first year of the Two-Year National Economic Plan, opened a rosy prospect for carrying out the 1 950 plan much earlier. The heroic working class rose up in a movement to carry it out by August 15, four months earlier. It was initiated in early 1950 by the workers and office employees of the Hungnam Fertilizer Factory. As a result, they scored such a shining success as fulfilling the two-year plan basically by the first half of 1 950. The industrial output in the first half year of 1 950 topped the level of 1 944 by 26.3 per cent. The reliable foundations of an independent national economy were laid and the material and cultural living standards of the people improved in a great measure. The economic might of the Republic grew and its revolutionary democratic base became powerful enough to actively push forward the struggle for the independent peaceful reunification of the country. Strengthening of Defence Capacity It was also important to strengthen the defence capacity of the DPRK in increasing its might. A reliable national army capable of defending the country and people is indispensable for the building of an independent sovereign state. In particular, the formation of regular armed forces stood out as an urgent task that allowed of no further delay in the condition where US 251

imperialism built "national defence guards" and other puppet armed forces in south Korea, expanded them extensively and stepped up preparations for armed aggression on the northern half of the Republic in 1947-48. In February 1948 the Korean People's Revolutionary Army was strengthened and developed into the Korean People's Army as regular armed forces. It carried a great meaning in increasing the defence potential of the Korean people. The Korean People's Army is an army of new type which is quite different from an imperialist aggression army or a traitorous puppet army. It is a patriotic army solely dedicated to the liberation of the nation and the sovereignty and independence of the country, an army of justice opposed to all aggression, and a genuine people's army devoted to the masses of the people. Accordingly, the Korean People's Army rapidly grew in number and strength amid the active support and assistance of the people and constituted the base of the reliable armed forces of the DPRK. After rigging up the puppet regime the US imperialists in league with traitor Syngman Rhee stepped up their war policy more openly and committed various cases of intrusion in the area along the 38th parallel almost every day. In such situationthe Republic hadto speedily increase defence potential invincibly. The Workers' Party and the Government of the Republic concentrated great efforts on strengthening the People's Army while preparing the entire people politically and ideologically to meet any surprise attack of the enemy. Summing up the one-year work of the DPRK since its founding, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Due to the grave political situation created in our country by the US imperialists and the traitorous acts of proJapanese elements and other national betrayers, the Government strengthened the People's Army in order to defend solidly all that has been achieved in the democratic construction in the north and ensure successfully our people's struggle to repel encroachment by foreign imperialist aggressors and reunite the country." (/bid., p, 216.) The Party and government intensified education within the People> Army to build it up into an army which was sound politically and ideologically, and well-disciplined and whose high and low were drawn together. Besides, military studies and combat trainings were intensified to improve the military and technical qualities of the People's Army. Even in the difficult economic situation at the time, the munitions 252 industry was born to produce weapons, ammo and other military goods. Great attention was paid to making defence work the concern of the entire people while strengthening the People's Army in every way. In July 1 949 the preparatory committee for the formation of the Society for Assisting in National Defence was organized on the initiative of the great leader, and this society was soon formed in all parts of north Korea. The Society for Assisting in National Defence, as a mass social body, rendered material and mental assistance to the People's Army and Security Forces and conducted an active work of arming the popular masses firmly with the idea of national defence. In the wake of its formation, the work of assisting the People's Army and helping servicemen's families was carried on on a broader mass scale. This was greatly conducive to stiffening the morale of the officers and men of the People's Army and increasing the combat capacity of the army units. Under the great concern of the entire people, the People's Army was strengthened and developed into invincible revolutionary armed forces capable of smashing any armed provocation of the enemy at one blow. It was defending the revolutionary democratic base with credit. South Korean People's Anti-US, Anti-Puppet Struggle after the Fabrication of the Puppet Government The south Korean people, immensely inspired by the founding of the DPRK and the success of the northern half in the building of a new society, kept up their valorous struggle against the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique even under very arduous conditions. After hammering out the south Korean puppet regime, the US imperialists concluded many agreements with the Syngman Rhee horde to "legalize" the relations of colonial subjugation.* They fabricated various evil laws including the "State Security Law" and reinforced police and terrorist groups to crack down harshly on the people " Representative ones are the south Korea-US "tentative military pact'' (August 24, 1 948), "agreement on transfer of finance and property" (September 18. 1948) and south Korea-US" economic aid agreement" (December 10, 1948). 253

In effect, these fine-sounding agreements "legalized" the military and economic control of US imperialism over south Korea. At the request of the DPRK the Soviet troops completely withdrew by the end of 1948. US imperialism, however, stationed its army in south Korea on a long-term basis and "legally" held all real power there. Harsher suppression by the enemy, however, brought forth greater resistance on the part of the patriotic people who resorted more to violence. In October 1 948 the patriotic soldiers of the 1 4th regiment of the "south Korean arrny" stationed in Ryosu resolutely rose in revolt, enraged at the traitorous act of the henchmen who ordered them to crush the resistance of the Cheju Islanders, that is, to kill fellow countrymen. All people in Ryosu hailed the heroic deed of the soldiers. The revolted soldiers numbered some 3,000. When the armed civilians were included, the armed force totalled 5,000-6,000. In a flash they smashed the police station and other enemy's ruling organs and set up the Ryosu County People's Committee. The people in Ryosu held their conference where they solemnly declared that the people's committee would take power and render absolute support to the DPRK. They also proclaimed the total abrogation of the laws enacted by the puppet regime, the liquidation of the pro-Japanese and malignant police and malicious reactionary elements; and the enforcement of the agrarian reform through confiscation and distribution without compensation. All the patriotic political parties and social organizations in the Ryosu area were restored to resume their activity. Malicious leaders of the "Hanguk Democratic Party," a den of traitors, and the fascist and terrorist organizations such as the "Taehan Young Men's Association," "National Young Men's Association" and "Northwestern Young Men's Association" were rounded up and put on trial by the people. Some of the revolters advanced to Sunchon and placed this area under their control, They were joined by another 300 south Korean armymen there. The enemy launched an attack on the revolters with heavilyarmed mechanized units commanded by US army officers. They came indiscriminately machine-gunning and bombarding with naval guns. Putting up a hard battle with the outnumbering enemy, the revolters drew back slowly from Ryosu and, together with those seizing Sunchon, established their base around Mt. Paegun and Mt. Chi ri . Relying on this base they waged a guerrilla struggle in the vast zone of North and South Cholla Provinces. In December a part of the soldiers of the Taegu regiment who were hurled into 254 the area of Mt. Chiri on a mopping-up mission rose in mutiny and a part of the soldiers of the sixth regiment of the south Korean army in Taegu too joined the guerrillas. Thus, the armed struggle spread up to the area of Kyongsang Province. People in Kangwon Province conducted a guerrilla activity from early May with Mt. Odae as the base. The south Korean guerrillas rapidly expanded their activity and, at one time, their scope of activity covered ail provinces of south Korea, turning almost all the main moutainous regions into their bases* In response to this guerrilla struggle, workers and peasants started riots everywhere, bringing malicious elements to justice. Really heroic were the soldiers' revolts, people's guerrilla battles and violent struggles of workers and peasants, that proceeded in 1 94849, Their participants were all afire with revolutionary zeal and patriotic spirit and fought without thought of self, administering a heavy blow to US imperialism and the Syngman Rhee clique. Their struggle, however, lacked correct guidance and so it suffered too big a loss and ended in failure. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung always laid stress on properly coordinating an immediate struggle with the accumulation of revolutionary force as one of the most important principles of revolutionary activity and on guarding against both Rightist capittilationism and Leftist adventurism. Notwithstanding this, due to the treacherous and harmful acts of Pak Hon Yong, the leadership of the South Korean Workers" Party was pursuing ultra adventurism in the violent struggle, committing Leftist and Rightist deviations by turns. This reckless adventurism worked on the revolt of the Ryosu armymen and on the guerrilla struggle of the people, causing a great loss of the revolutionary force for nothing. New Measures for Drawing Together the North-South Revolutionary Forces. DFRF's Appeal for Peaceful Reunification The situation created in 1 948-49 called for taking new measures to unite the revolutionary forces in the north and the south. It was necessary to merge the North and South Korean Workers' Parties, to begin with. In south Korea the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique 255

intensified reactionary offensive as never before. On the other hand, the Pak Hon Yong clique deliberately turned down the repeated instructions of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung on preserving the revolutionary force from the enemy's reactionary offensive. They indulged in harmful acts, resorting to criminal adventurism and capitulationism. In consequence, the Workers' Party organizations and revolutionary force in south Korea suffered one blow after another and the South Korean Workers' Party faced the danger of total destruction. in order to save this grave situation, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung took measures to merge the South Korean Workers' Party with the North Korean Workers' Party. On June 29, 1 949 the North and South Korean Workers' Parties were formally merged into the single Workers' Party of Korea. There also arose the question of merging the Democratic National United Fronts in north and south Korea. There was no need to keep these two united fronts separately in the north and the south in the condition where the political parties and social organizations under their wings founded the DPRK in concert and participated in its Government all alike. By merging the two Democratic National United Fronts into one and expanding it, it was possible to unite the patriotic and democratic forces of north and south Korea closer and wage the struggle for national reunification more vigorously. The Democratic National United Fronts of north and south Korea made contacts with each other from mid-May of 1 949, and on May 25 the preparatory committee was formed to merge both united fronts into the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland. In June 1 949 the DFRF was formally established and it embraced more than 70 political parties and social organizations of the north and the south, including 24 new ones of south Korea which had not been affiliated with, the Democratic National United Front of South Korea. The inaugural meeting of the DFRF adopted a declaration for the peaceful reunification of the fatherland. The declaration strongly demanded the immediate withdrawal of the US troops from south Korea and the dissolution of the illegal "UNCOK" so that the Korean people would solve the question of Korea's reunification by themselves. It proposed to hold a general election of all Korea in September 1949. In orderto createa free atmosphere of the election, the declaration strongly called for stopping the suppression of the democratic political parties and social organizations including their activists, legalizing them, ensuring the freedom of speech, press, assembly and demonstration and immediately releasing all the patriotic political offenders. The declaration also proposed to convene a consultative meeting 256 with the representatives of political parties and social organizations of north and south Korea and form an election guidance committee which would give necessary instructions to the existing governments and institutions of north and south Korea concerning the election, review their execution and exercise direct jurisdiction over the police and public security organs of north and south Korea. The declaration proposed to let a newly-elected supreme legislative body adopt a Constitution and establish a new government which would take over power from the existing governments of north and south Korea and merge the armies of the north and the south. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The DFRF Manifesto puts forward the measures for reunifying our country peacefully on a democratic basis, free from fratricide and foreign intervention. Everyone who cherishes the interests of the Korean people and our national independence will certainly hail the Manifesto." {Ibid . p. 1 86 ) Most realistic and rational was the peaceful reunification proposal outlined in the declaration of the inaugural meeting of the DFRF. It was a fair and square one that could be acceptable to anyone who longed for national reunification. Hence it commanded an enthusiastic support and approval from the entire people of north and south Korea. The people in the northern half of the Republic held mass rallies in support of the formation of the DFRF and its declaration and evinced their firm determination to translate it into reality. The people in the southern half expressed their determination in many publications and responded to the declaration with their practical struggle against US imperialism and Syngman Rhee. On July 20, 1949 the south Korean workers staged a general strike in support of the proposal for peaceful reunification. On June 29, 1 949 the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the DFRF sent over 1 ,000 copies of its declaration to the political parties and social organizations, press organs, educational and cultural institutions, industrial, economic and commercial organs, various religious organizations, public health, athletic and other organs, and public figures of ail walks of life in south Korea and to the "National Assembly" and all its members as well as to the authorities of the US army occupying south Korea and to the "UNCOK". On July 2 it sent the declaration to the UN Secretary -General (Trygve Lie), asking him to convey it to the governments of the UN member states. However, US imperialism and its followers and a handful of home reactionaries turned down this just proposal, fully exposing themselves as the enemy of the Korean people and peaceful reunification. With a nudge from US imperialism the Syngman Rhee clique, 257

setting themselves against the peaceful reunification proposal, shouted themselves hoarse about "march-north unification" and, to this endr sped up aggressive war preparations in real earnest.

6. WAR PREPARATIONS OF US IMPERIALISM AND SOUTH KOREAN PUPPET CLIQUE

Strengthening of Military Base Policy To turn south Korea into a military base -this was policy of aggression US imperialism had followed from the first day of its occupation of south Korea. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The basic object of the US imperialist policy of colonial enslavement in south Korea is to reduce it to a military base of aggression for the United States, to its military appendage. Ever since they first landed in south Korea, the US imperialists have all along pursued the insidious aim of turning south Korea into their colony and using it as a stepping-stone for their aggression against the whole of Korea and Asia." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. IV, p. 400.) Upon creeping into south Korea, the US imperialists got down to the work of building positions along the 38th parallel. They used negro units in laying a strong defence line in the area around the Rimjin River secretly under the supervision of US army officers. They built new artillery positions and bomb-shelters near the 38th parallel and repaired and reinforced the military fortresses built by the Japanese troops. The US imperialists made Cheju Island a province, placed it under the direct control of the US army headquarters* and expanded Mosulpoand many other air bases there. They expanded Kimpo Airport huge enough for a B-29 to take off and land. " Special correspondent of New York American Journal to Seoul reported. "Cheju Island is a very important place from a strategic viewpoint. Along with Okinawa Island it supplies a position against the Soviet Union." {New York American Journal, October 30, 1947.) 258 Vast funds were allotted for the construction of not only air bases but military roads. The construction of Seoul- Pusan military road was completed in October 1947. Then this road was extended up to the 38th parallel, and the highways linking Seoul, Inchon and Kimpo were also completed. The US imperialists spurred on the construction of naval ports too. Pohang, a fishing port, was rebuilt intoa naval port Ryosu, Inchon and Pusan ports were expanded, many new naval bases built, and the Chinhae Gulf, the former naval base of Japanese imperialism, reinforced. What held an important place in the US imperialist policy of turning south Korea into a military base was to form an army with the south Korean youth as cheap cannon fodders. The US imperialists, keeping the police and military affairs departments within the Military Government Office, stepped up the work of organizing a puppet army. By virtue of "Military Government Ordinance" No. 28, they framed up the "National Defence Headquarters" in November 1 945 which aimed to form puppet ground and naval forces. Meanwhile, they set up the "Military English Institute" in December in order to train the military cadres of the puppet army. This institute enrolled reactionary youths including those who had served in the Japanese imperialist army, and trained them to be commanding officers. It was reorganized into the "National Defence Guards School" in May 1946 and renamed the "Military Academy" in September 1 948. On this basis, the "National Defence Guards" was organized in January 1 946, and the "National Defence Headquarters" changed in June that year into the "Guards Office" (originally the "National Guards Office") which was composed of the "General Headquarters of Korean Guards" commanding eight regiments and the "Coastal Guards Department." Along with the army force, the puppet naval force was also formed. The "Coast Defence Corps" organized as early as in November 1945 was reorganized into the "Coastal Guards" in June 1946. An air force unit too was organized and expanded with the "Hanguk Aviation Association," which was organized already in 1 945, as the parent body. In this way, the puppet army was formed in south Korea. This puppet army came to bear the name of the "Hanguk army" in September 1 948. The puppet armed force was reinforced full scale on the proposal of Lieutenant General Wedemeyer who had been to south Korea as Truman's special envoy in the summer of 1947. In this proposal he said 259

that the US troops should hot make haste with their evacuation from south Korea and stressed the necessity of increasing military aid to south Korea to build up the puppet army. In the spring of 1 948 US President Truman, at the advice of the State Security Council, adopted the policy of increasing military aid to south Korea to modernize the puppet army. (Truman, Memoirs, Vol. II, Japanese ed., Tokyo, p. 231.) Thanks to the "aid" of US imperialism, the regular ground force of the puppet army swelled into 8 divisions with 22 regiments already in June 1949. The US imperialists paid great attention to the organization and training of the reserve force of the puppet army. By organizing the "National Protection Army" under the Army Headquarters, they gave military training to the youths and middleaged. They also framed up the "Students' National Defence Corps" by pressganging middle school students and let them undergo hard military training to make up the puppet army officers in the future. Besides, the "National Young Men's Association" giving Nazi-styled training, "Taedong Young Men's Association" and other terrorist organizations served as an important source of armed forces for the puppet army. The "South Korean Youth Defence Corps" with the membership of 200,000 was the greatest reserve of the puppet army. in August 1948, the "Conscription Law" was promulgated and the draft system introduced. The "Military Affairs Command" was set up in each provincial capital. It held the physical checkup of the youth and middle-aged and was crazy over scraping up cannon fodder. After forming the puppet army equipped with all forces and ail arms, the US imperialists set spurs to modernizing its equipment while reinforcing it.* * Even according to the curtailed figures released by the puppet authorities, the numerical strength of the puppet army on the eve of June 25. 1 950 was as follows: a) Ground force— 8 divisions 67,416 strong Supporting units 27,558 strong Total 94,974 strong b) Naval force — 7,715 strong Marine corps — 1 ,1 66 strong c) Air force- 1,897 strong Sum total— 105,752 strong. (Civil War in Korea, Seoul, p. 208.) The figure added Up to over 1 60,000 if over 50,000 policemen armed and trained after art American fashion were counted. In his statement on May 2, 1951 US State Secretary Acheson said that the puppet army which had been 114.000 strong in June 1 949 had swollen into 1 50.000 by June 1 950 under the US aid. (UP, May 2, 1951 .) 260 At the end of June 1 949 the US imperialists formed the Military Advisory Group with 500 men and intensified the American- sty te training of The puppet army. They modernized the equipment of the puppet army by rendering military aid many times. According to Achcson's testimony, the military equipment with a market value of 1 10 million dollars was transferred to the puppet army for its modernization. (UP, May 2, 1951.) The south Korean puppet clique too were immersed in armament expansion. Out of the total budgetary expenditure for 1949 of the puppet government amounting to 52,989 million won, they allotted 46 per cent or 24,300 million won as the "national defence expenditure,"* * Ton-Ysur History of South Korean Industry and Economy, Seoul, p. 366. In order to reinforce their air force the south Korean puppet clique started the "patriotic aircraft donation movement" in September 1 949, raked up 320,000 dollars and shipped aircraft and other equipment from Canada. The US imperialists spent a large amount of additional funds in expanding the air bases in south Korea (320,000 dollars in 1949 and 280,000 dollars in the first half of 1950). Thus, they completed the expansion projects of the air bases in Kimpo, Suwon, Kwangju, Taegu and Cheju Island. In January 1 950 the US imperialists cooked up another aggressive military pact called the south Korea-US "Treaty of Mutual Defence and Assistance" and gripped the command of the puppet army, augmenting the "military aid" for its modernization. They trained the officers of the puppet army after American fashion. In order to inculcate America-worship ideas they sent many officers and military personnel of the puppet army to the United States for study. They also sent a large number of puppet army officers to the US 24th Division stationing in Kyushu and Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, for their systematic training." * Collection of Army War History edited by the Society for the Study and Dissemination of the Japanese Army War History, Vol. i, Tokyo. The south Korean puppet army under the command of the US army at the time came to be hailed as the "most Americanized army" among the foreign troops trained by US imperialism * * Roberts, head or the US Military Advisory Group, called the south Korean army "my invincible army", describing h as a "watchdog" of Asia defending the United States. An officer of the Intelligence Departmenl (G-2) of the Mac Arthur Command said that "If a war breaks out, the south Korean army can beat the 261

north Korean army with no difficulty." (John Gunther, The Riddle of MacArihur. Japanese ed., p. 258.) On May 9, 1 950 Johnson, Director of the Korean Affairs Department of the United States Operations Mission, assured before the House Appropriations Committee that "the 1 00,000-strong south Korean army equipped with the US armsand trained by the US Military Advisory Group is fully ready to starta warat any time." Later, foreign commentators wrote that this statement of Johnson served as an important factor in making Truman ignite the Korean war. Like this, the south Korean puppet army under the US "aid" attained a combat capacity great enough to be called the "best army in Asia" (MacArthur) in early 1 950. Since it was trained to be the "faithful watchdog guarding the US capital," as Roberts put it, it was clear to all that the puppet army would be used as a tool of the US policy towards Korea. Outcry for "Northward Expedition" and Armed Intrusions at 38th Parallel Entering 1949, the US imperialists drew up a detailed plan for the provocation of an aggressive war against north Korea and under this plan, made their puppets in south Korea fan up an atmosphere of war and start a "small war" with the north so that the puppet army would acquire "combat experience" and foster "combat capacity" through it. The noisy outcry for "northward expedition" and frequent armed intrusions at the 38th parallel came from this policy of US imperialism. Now the Syngman Rhee clique did not conceal their intention to "march northward to unify" by force of arms. At his press interview on January 1 2,1 949 Syngman Rhee said that "our plan is to dissolve and disarm the north Korean People s Army."*1 Addressing the puppet "National Assembly" on February 7, he raved that if he failed to "swallow up" north Korea with the aid of the "UNCOK," the south Korean army would have to "march northward without fail."*2 On March 1 8 at the national conference of representatives of the "National Council for Promotion of Independence", he, likening the question of peaceful reunification to "tying a bell around a cat's neck,""3 yelled, "Who puts up this impossibility and hinders the restoration of our sovereignty (march-north unification)?"*iOn October 31 , on the deck of US cruiser Setpol, he advocated "march-north unification" with this word: "North-south division must be removed through war. We can occupy north Korea and achieve unification."*5 In his confidential letter to Robert T. Oliver dated September 30, that year, he wrote: "I 262 think this is a golden chance for us to open an attack and wipe out the remnants in Pyongyang. Our people hanker for north-bound expedition. I'm convinced that if only we're allowed to do it, we'll wind it up within an agreeably short span of time,"*6 In his press interview on December 30, 1949 he betrayed his ambition to unify the country by war within 1 950, by saying: "In the comingyearwe will strive asone to regain our lost territory. ... We must rememberthat next year we shouid unify north and south Korea by our own strength."*7 *1 Reproduced from the report of the Seventh Meeting of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for (he Reunification of the Fatherland. (Korean Central Yearbook, 1951 -52, p. 147.) '2 Documents on the Atrocities of US Aggressors in Korea, p. 497. *'3 This expression denoting impossibility comes from a fable whose import , ■ is: Much harassed by a cat, the rats go into a huddle to avert the calamity. One rat says they'll be all right if the cat carries a bell with it. But who's it that'll tie a bell around the cat's neck? To this question none of the rats dares to give an affirmative answer. *" Korean War History, Seoul, p. 105. 15 History of Korean Civil War, Seoul, p. 85. Korean Central Yearbook, 1951-52, p.147. "6 The confidential letter sent by Syngman Rhee to Robert T. Oliver on September 30. 1 949. (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists. These are confidential documents of the south Korean puppet clique seized by the Korean People's Army on June 28. 1950 when it liberated Seoul.) "7 Who Began the Korean War? edited by the Committee for American Democratic Far Eastern Policy, Japanese ed., Tokyo, p. 27. The brass hats of the puppet army too chimed in with Syngman Rhee and raised a shrill cry over "northward expedition,"* * Puppet Prime Minister Li Bom Sok, addressing the inaugural meeting of the "Students' National Defence Corps" on March 8, 1 949, blurted: "Students! Let's all march to the north, plant our flag on Mt. Paekdu and put down our guns at the Tuman River." (Report of the Seventh Meeting of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, Korean Central Yearbook, 1951 -52, p. 147.) Puppet Minister of National Defence Sin Song Mo said that the south Korean army with its best equipment "can subjugate north Korea within three days" (Ibid.), that "our south Korean army is capable of occupying Pyongyang and Wonsan in a day on the presidential order" (Ibid.), and that "we are fully ready to restore the lost territory, so we only wait forthe gooff signal." (Hanguk Dispatch, January 24. 1950.) Kim Sok Won, First Division Commander of the puppet army, vouched oh May 4, 1 949 before his men: "Once northward expedition started, we'll take our breakfast in Haeju, lunch in Pyongyang and supper in Wonsan." (Report of the Seventh Meeting of the DFRF Central Committee.) In his press interview on March 9, 1 949 puppet Home Minister Yun Chi Yong nonsensically described peaceful reunification as "a political plot." He gabbled that "the only way to north-south unification is for south Korea to restore the lost territory of the 263

north t>v force" and that "an active cooperation of the UNCOK in this effort of south Korea is the best way to accomplish the task of north-south unification." (Ibid. ) In his "New Year address" in 1 950 Chae Byong Dok, Chief of the General Staff of the puppet army, remarked that "the armed force of the north counts for nothing since it is no more than 80,000 strong and its weapons are old and outworn." "This year's task. of the south Korean army," he added, "is to win back our lost territory and unify the country through action." On the outcries of Syngman Rhee and his close associates. The New York Times wrote that "most of the south Korean leaders are using warlike languages." (Dispatch from Seoul special correspondent Sullivan of The New York Times, March 2, 1950.) This "northward expedition" din showed that the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique sought the only way of reunification in war and placed the provocation of a civil war on the order of the day. Hence, on February 1 5, 1 949 Syngman Rhee framed up the "five provincial governments of the north" as the "administrative organs of the localities (five provinces of north Korea) to be brought under jurisdiction" and appointed "governors." Now he embarked upon the road of war for the capture of north Korea so that these "governors" would play the role of his cat's-paws in north Korea. According to the testimony of Kim Hyo Sok, ex-Home Minister of the south Korean puppet government, US Ambassador to south Korea Muccio called him and Sin Song Mo, Minister of National Defence of the puppet government, to his office in May 1 949 and ordered them to get fully ready for the general assault upon the north of the 38th parallel.*1 Afterwards too, he gave instructions many times on preparing for "northward expedition." The operation plan for "north-bound expedition" was directly mapped out by the Head of the US Military Advisory Group (Roberts) in cooperation with the Commander of the First Division (Kim Sok Won) and Minister of Transport of the puppet regime (Ho Jong). *3 According to this plan, the military operations for "northward expedition" were to begin on the western and eastern fronts simultaneously in July and August, and full-scale attack was to be mounted on the western front while the eastern front was only to provide cover for this attack. It was planned to launch attack from Kaesong and take Pyongyang via Kumgyo in a sweep if things on the western front went smoothly.*3 *i Testimony of Kim Hyo Sok on September 26, 1950. (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, Pyongyang, pp. 1 1 3 and 1 1 5-1 6.) *2 Ibid, Ibid. 264 The operation map for "northward expedition" seized from the puppet army headquarters when Seoul was liberated on June 28, 1 950 fully accorded with the testimony of Kim Hyo Sok. The marks on the Korean map on a millionth scale published by the US Army Map Service indicated the following plan for "northward expedition": a) The infantry force of two army corps would start the "northward march"; the first army corps consisting of the first echelon (the first and second divisions and an independent brigade) and the second echelon (the fifth division, three independent regiments and an artillery unit) should launch military action from the line between Koryangpo northeast of Kaesong and the west coast and advance towards Pyongyang via Kaesong and Sariwon; the second army corps, made up of the first echelon (the seventh and eighth divisions) and the second echelon (the sixth division, an independent battalion and an A. A. artillery unit) should go into action simultaneously towards Ryonchon and Wonsan from the line between Koryangpo and the east coast. (The third division and the mechanized division would act as reserve units.) b) In keeping with military operations along the main frontline, the marine corps should land at Hanchon (Pyongwon County, South Pyongan Province) on the west coast and at Hanam-ri (Chongpyong County, South Hamgyong Province) on the east coast underthe cover of the air force.* Refer to the "northward expedition" map. Under this plan, as mentioned above, the work of increasing and fortifying the air and naval bases was undertaken, aggressive agreements concluded on bringing them under the direct control of US imperialism, and the puppet army modernized speedily. And in June 1949 when the "northward expedition" plan was mapped out most of the puppet armed forces were deployed along the 38th parallel — the eighth division in Chumunjin, the sixth division in Wonju, the seventh division in Tongduchon, the first division in Kaesong, the metropolitan division in Seoul and the 17th regiment underthe direct control of the army headquarters in Ongjin. In order to "mop up" the guerrillas and crush the national-salvation resistance of the people in the rear the second division was deployed in the central region, the third division in Ryongnam, and the fifth division in Honam.* .' Army War History (Army Headquarters), Vol. If, Seoul, p. 10. 265

The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.01% accurate After drawing up this "northward expedition" plan, the US imperialists organized armed intrusions into the area north of the 38th parallel on an unprecedentedly large scale in order to carry that plan into effect. In 1949 alone, the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique made 2,61 7 armed invasions of the territory north of the 38th parallel The largest ones were of the Taetan area and Mt. Unpa in Pyoksong County, of Mt. Songak in the Kaesong area and of Mt. Kosan in the Yangyang area. Each of them was virtually a kind of war, taking into account its size, the fierceness of battle and the length of its line That was why Western publications later described it as a "small war" on the 38th parallel. Hurled into this "small war" were over 49, 000 -strong armed forces deployed along the 38th parallel, who were all malicious gangsters steeped in "anti-communist" idea.* * The New York Herald Tribune dated August 5, 1 949, touching' upon the bellicose nature of the south Korean puppet army,, wrote that "what is strikmq among the south Korean army... is their unconcealed wish to charge ai north Korea. They are eager to crass the borderline (the 38th parallel- -Quoter)." The main aim of their armed intrusions was to secure the points of strategic importance in the northern half and create conditions favourable for their future large-scale armed aggression. To achieve this aim, the puppet army occupied favourable heights in Mts Unpa and Songak of the north for a long time, building positions and committing atrocities. Another aim was to sound out the combat capacity of the People's Army and, at the same time, to confirm whether the puppet army was ready for action" and balloon its "combat capability" for the provocation of war with full preparedness.* 1 Refer to Mun Hak Bong's Exposure of the Truth about the US Imperialist Policy of Aggression against Korea and the Real Provoker of tbe Civil War Pyongyang. (The author was then political advisor to Syngman Rhee and advisor to the CIC.) Yet another aim was to cause social disorder and unrest in north Korea. An eloquent proof of this was furnished by the criminal subversive activity of the "Horim Unit" for disturbing the rear of north Korea.* ' The two battalions of the "Horim Unit" intruded deep into Yanqyanq and Rinje Counties on the night of June 29. 1 949, to disturb the rear of north Korea I hey kidnapped and murdered inhabitants, attacked shops and clinics, and 266 plundered provisions. Ail their members numbering 1 50 were killed, wounded or captured on July 5 by the Security Forces. Such frequent armed intrusionsfrom south Korea were planned by Roberts, Head of the US Military Advisory Group, and perpetrated under his personal command. Roberts admitted this himself.*1 And in his official statement he said that the US military advisors in each division, regiment and battalion were "working, fighting and resting together with south Korean army officers" on the 38th parallel.*2 *1 At the divisional commanders' meeting held at the army headquarters in October 1949, Roberts said: "Attacks on the region north of the 38th parallel have been and will be made by my orders. In many cases, however, units launched attacks at discretion only to spend a tremendous amount of ammunition with no result whatsoever except to suffer heavy losses." (Kim Hyo Sok's Testimony, Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of Korean Civil War by the US imperialists, pp. 121-22.) Roberts' statement on June 5. 1 950 in Who Began the Korean War?edtie$ by the Committee for American Democratic Far Eastern Policy, p. 114. Like this, "small wars" against the northern half of the Republic were kept breaking out on the 38th parallel in 1 949 by US imperialism. They were a preliminary war, as their provokers admitted themselves, for testing the feasibility of their projected "northward expedition." The Government of the DPR K exercised its utmost patience with the armed intrusions of the enemy in order to carry out its policy for the peaceful reunification of the country, ft made a point of restricting the scale of conflicts by beating back the intruded enemy with its Security Forces.* Thus, the armed intrusions on the 38th parallel did not develop into a civil war, though they were made as a prelude to "northward expedition." It was fully attributable to the peace-loving and compatriotic stand of the Government of the Republic which was striving for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country. ' The enemy too acknowledged that the Security Forces of the Republic was in a defensive posture. At a divisional commanders' meeting of the puppet army on August 2, 1 949 Roberts said: "My colleagues and I believe lhat the conflicts were provoked by the south Korean side and that all the attacks (pursuits — Quoter) of the north Korean side on south Korea were countermeasures." {Who Began the Korean War? edited by the Committee for American Democratic Fat Eastern Policy, p. 162.) The armed intrusions into the area north of the 38th parallel organized by the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique ended after all in failure, and the enemy's projected "northward expedition" in 267

1949 was thwarted by the positive defence of the People's Security Forces of the Republic. Having received the report on the results of the armed intrusions on the 38th parallel, the US rulers had to stop the "north-bound expedition" of the puppet cliqueforthetime being.* However, instead of drawing due lessons from their fiasco, they set to work out an ever more dangerous war plan for boosting the "combat capacity of the Syngman Rhee army." ' At the memorial service for the "March 1 Independence Movement" in 1950, Syngman Rhee said: "Our army would have launched an offensive, had Washington permitted us to," This word of his hinted that after receiving the report on the unsuccessful raids of the puppet army on the 38th parallel in 1949 US imperialism suspended Syngman Rhee's "northward expedition" for a while. (Report of Sullivan, special correspondent of The. New York Times to Seoul, March 2, 1950.) Revised Aggressive Plan and Intensified Move for War Provocation Having received the report on the failure of the 1949 plan for "northward expedition," the warlords in Washington came to a conclusion that there were many defects in the war preparations of the south Korean puppets and that it was quite impossible for them to defeat the People's Army and occupy the northern half of the Republic under the then situation. Thus they had to change their original 1 949 plan for "northward expedition" in part and work out a new one for war provocation. The following were the main points of their revised war plan: The "northward expedition" should be deferred until 1 950 but not so belatedly. This was because the economic crisis which had started in the United States from the end of 1948 was further aggravated in 1949 and, accordingly, it stood out as an urgent problem to create a "war boom."* - "The 1949 forum of the US "Jefferson School of Social Science" reached the conclusion that "...unless there area war and war economy LIS 'capitalism is unable to cope with the growing overproduction crisis, the shrinkage of the home and foreign markets, the coming decline of capital accumulation and profits." Under the plan to unleash war as early as possible in 1950, 268 MacArthur called Syngman Rhee to Tokyo in February 1 950, gave him the "eleven-point instruction" concerning the provocation of the Korean war and directed him to ignite it before July at the latest and receive "guidance" and "assistance" from the Japanese government in preparing the war* and made him consult the Japanese Prime Minister (Yoshida) about the "normalization of the south Korea-Japan relations." "Radio address of Mun Hak Bong on July 21, 1950. (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, pp. 1 01 -02.) It was also calculated to let the US troops openly join in the war immediately if the "northward expedition" started by the south Korean army took a bad turn for it.* 'This criminal plan was brought to light by Colonel Eida,, US military advisor in Iran, who had formerly worked at MacArthur Command as a specialist "familiar with the US plan for Korean unification." In his interview with staff officers of the Iranian army he stated: "The US plan for Korean unification was to occupy the territory of Korea north of the 39th parallel with Syngman Rhee troops' direct participation and the assistance of the US ground and naval forces." (Indian Paper, Crossroads. December 22, 1950, Bombay.) The operational plans were also reframed according to the newly revised war plan. In other words, the simultaneous landings on the east and west coasts of Korea envisaged in the 1949 "northward expedition" plan was replaced with the concentration of all the armed forces for the breakthrough operations at the 38th parallel in the new revised plan.* "With regard to this. Colonel Eida said that "the original plan of the United States for the troop landings on both the easl and west coasts of Korea was withdrawn long before the start of the military operations on June 25 and armed forces were concentrated on the breakthrough at the 38th parallel." According to the Indian paper Crossroads dated December 22, 1950, Colonel Eida, much "elated" over his knowledge of this top secret, repeatedly told it to the students of the Iranian Army Military Academy. The new war plan premising an all-out intervention of the US army naturally called for the repeal of the operational plan for landing on the east and west coasts. By way of landing in the rear, the US imperialists would be unable to accuse north Korea of having first started an "armed attack," and, accordingly, to give "legality" to the US troops' all-out intervention. And even if they launched the landing operations, they thought, it would be a blind adventure to throw the "unreliable" Syngman Rhee troops into the depths of the northern half. 269

The text on this page is estimated to be only 29.64% accurate The new operational plan attached greater weight to Japan's role as a base Tor attack grid a rear base and fixed her as an important strategic rear and the Korean peninsula as the front. Thus, the revival of militarism was stepped up in Japan and the policy of "Far East Ordnance Factory" promoted in those days. From the outset the US imperialists regarded Korea as an object to be reduced to ashes and a sea of blood. Next, the US imperialists schemed to frame up the "UN forces" by whipping their "allies" and satellites together. The US State Department plotted to spread the false word about the "start of the armed attack by north Korea" and force the United Nations to "accuse" the DPRK of being the "aggressor" and adopt the resolution on forming the "UN Forces" in defence of south Korea from the "aggression of north Korea." It organized a secret group in advance and made it work out a "draft resolution" to bring a "suit" in the UN against the "armed invasion by north Korea."* 'This "plot was laid bare by John Hikerson, the then Assistant Secretory of State for United Nations Affairs., during s hearing at the US Senate Appropriations Committee in June 1 951 . There he admitted [hat the keynotes of the "draft UN resolution" had been worked out in advance, that the United States had drafted a statement to be made in case the Soviet Union exercised a veto at the UN Security Council and thai it had mapped out even a plan to bring the matter to a special session of the UN General Assembly (The Record of the Hearing at the US Senate Appropriations Committee on the Expenditures of the Departments of State, Justice and Commerce, rind Court for J 952, p. 1 ,086.) The US imperialists also deemed it necessary to prepare the written report of the third person who would act as the "witness" and "prover" of "north Korea's invasion." It was an international plot masterminded by US imperialism. Thus, the US State Department decided to place the "military inspection team" in the "UNCOK", which would discharge that mission. Under this shady plan of US imperialism the "new UNCOK" was cooked up on October 21, 1949, The "troublesome" Syrian delegate who was suspicious and critical of the work of the "UNCOK" was ousted and the US-serving Turkish delegate seated in his place." "At that time the US delegate to the UN said that the new task was assigned lo the "UNCOK" in order to enable the UN to get, in case of a conflict, the necessary informations on its cause from its designated body. (US State Department, The Record on Korean Unification. 1943-60, p. 85 ) That meant the "UNCOK" was a reptile-body framed up by the US imperialists in order to give "objectivity" and "legitimacy" to their cooked-up "situation report" in its name In fact, the report on "north Korea's invasion" senl on Juno 26, 1 350 by this body to UN Secretary-General was a product of the US State Department for putting 270 into effect the plot of the war provokers. This report was first sent to the US State Department, not to the UN. Later, the US delegate made it public at the UN, but he did not show its original text to the UN delegates. The intelligence operational plan held an important component of their war plan. Among the secret documents seized in June 1950 when Seoul was liberated were "Plans (a) and (b) for Intelligence Work for 1 950" worked out by "Section III, Intelligence Bureau, Army Headquarters" and "Scout Unit Plan for March- May, 1950" prepared by the "Reconnaissance Room, Section III." Both plans covered not only the strategic reconnaissance of all objects in the northern half but also the information of military establishments and army's disposition and. the reconnaissance of topographical features. Their prefaces pointed out that those plans were needed for the preparation of the coming "northward expedition." They set it as an important task to form many "organic permanent cells" that would play the role of guide for the "south Korean army" in the event of "advance." It was also defined that those plans should be carried out before May 1 950. These facts show that those "intelligence plans" were war plans aimed at creating the conditions favourable for an all-out military invasion into the north.*1 They were worked out by Wedemeyer and other*2 US warlords in consultation with Acheson And they actually supplied many intelligence data in putting into effect the Korean war plan.*3 *1 Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of Korean Civil War by the US imperialists, pp. 1 32- 21 0. '2 "Letter fromChang Myon to Synqman fihee, dated April (3, 1 949." (ibid., p. 9.) In 1 949 the "US CIA Far Eastern Affairs Office" was moved from Manila to Tokyo. Willoughby, Director ol G-2 ol MacArthur Command, rigged up the "Korean Liaison Office" (KLO) in June 1 949 as an intelligence agency in south Korea. It is said that as many as 1,1 95 informations were sent by its agents to Washington, by June 1950. (Charles A. Willoughby, MacArthur 1941-1951, pp. 351 -54.) These are the outline of the new war plan, the revised version of the 1949 "northward expedition" plan. This plan is considered to have been completed in early 1950 in view of the foreign news reportthat the plan of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to cope with the Far Eastern situation was unanimously approved in January*1 and the fact that Cho Byong Ok urged Syngman Rhee to work out the "plan for attaining unification" within March.*2 "' New York HerM Tribune, June 26, 1950. *2 The confidential letter sent to Syngman Rhee by his special envoy to the 271

US Cho Byong Ok on November 3, 1 949 has the following clause hinting the date of the completion of the war plan: "I'm firmly convinced that Korea's unification is possible only through the exercise of the sovereign power (it denotes a war— Quote* ) on the part of our government. ... In view of the general development of the world situation our plan for unification must be worked out within March. State preparations for military and economic potentials are the most important task assigned to our government in this period," (Who Began the Korean War?, p. 28.) With the completion of this war plan the US imperialists feverishly sped up war preparations in a new stage. Their war preparations began with the removal of the factors that had compelled them to defer their "northward expedition." Thus, they threw themselves into the fascistization of the south Korean society for the "stable rear." After enacting the notorious "National Security Law" in November 1 948, they rigged up various kinds of other sanguinary evil laws in succession * and perpetrated unheard-of terrorist outrages upon the patriotic people. All the democratic political parties and social organizations of south Korea were outlawed, progressive personages arrested, imprisoned and murdered, and anyone voicing the slightest discontent with the colonial policy of US imperialism subjected to harsh suppression, to say nothing of those patriotic people fighting for national salvation. * Such fascist evil laws as "National Public Service Law," "Mail Censorship Law," "Education Law," and "Newspaper Law" were manufactured in those days to repress the freedom and democracy of the people. The frantic suppression allegedly aiming at the- "stable rear" was perpetrated on Truman's direct order. Informed of the news that the Syngman Rhee troops suffered a chain of defeats in their armed intrusions on the 38th parallel in 1 949 and that the guerrilk": struggle was mounting higher in south Korea, Truman quickly ordered Syngman Rhee to "stabilize" the rear of south Korea above all else. (Truman, Memoirs, (2), Japanese ed., Tokyo, p. 232.) More than 93,000 Korean patriots were killed in four years by July 1 949 since the US troops had crept into south Korea. But, over 9,000 more people than this figure were slaughtered in the seven months from July 1949 to January 1950 when there was the frantic fascist suppression for the "stable rear." To "mop up" the people's guerrillas was regarded as the foremost strategic task in "stabilizing the rear." Thus, the spearhead of repression for "public peace" was directed to the "mopping-up" of the people's guerrillas. Head of the US Military Advisory Group Roberts Called a meeting in Taejon in the fall of 1949 with the attendance of the south Korean 272 puppets and brass-hats. This meeting decided to "place the general headquarters in Taejon for "mopping up" the people's guerrillas, divide the "mopping-up" zone into five districts such as Mts. Chi ri, Taebaek and Odae and set up "punitive command" in each district. Under the "general punitive headquarters" were five divisions embracing over 60,000 puppet armymen and tens of thousands of terrorists. It was also decided to mobilize even airplanes and tanks. The meeting adopted the bestial "mopping-up" line of "resorting to every means and way to achieve the expected results." (American Ambassador Muccio's word.) In this way the unprecedentedly cruel "punitive" operations were launched. Due to the merciless "operations for annihilating rebels" and "scorched-earth operations" the whole territory of south Korea was turned into a battlefield, the green mountains into a sea of flames and blood. The mountainous hamlets were reduced to ashes and the earth and heaven shook with the rancorous cries of the wronged people and the savage yells of the enemy In the "winter punitive operations" from December 1949 to January 1950 alone, more than 40,000 people were killed and by February that year over 47,000 houses were burnt down and over 88,000 houses forcibly evacuated from the mountainous areas. In the bestial "punitive operations" American Ambassador Muccio won the "reputation" by uttering the fascist cry that subhuman atrocities were indispensable for achieving their goal, and puppet Chief of the General Staff Chae Byong Dok displayed his cruelty to the full to be reported to the US Department of Defence as the "typical chief of police in a barbarian country." The US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique kicked up the "purge" din in the puppet army while intensifying the fascist suppression of the patriotic people. This campaign called the "purge in the army" was conducted in the name of removing "communists" from the ranks of the puppet army. But the spearhead of this campaign for "hunting Reds" was actually directed against all the progressive officers, noncoms and men. Its aim was to turn the "unreliable" puppet army into a "reliable" combat unit. For this, an "investigation group" was organized to conduct interrogation by the cruellest method.* * "Torture was unavoidable" at interrogation "as verbal evidence was meaningless and only self-confession wasokeyed." So, most of the suspects had 273

to make false confessions "unable to stand out torture." (Korean War— Chapter of Korea. (1), Tokyo, p. 342.) More than 8,000 officers and men including chiefs of brigade staffs, regiment commanders and other high-ranking officers were "purged on the charge of being Reds." {History of the Korean War— a Fresh Excavation of Modern History, Tokyo, pp. 26-29.} A large number of fascist elements and bigwigs of terrorist groups such as the "Northwest Young Men's Association" were promoted to commanders in place of those who were shot or imprisoned through the "purge in the army." Like this, the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique worked hard to remove the obstacles in the way of war provocation and "stabilize the rear" by fascistizing the south Korean society and intensifying the "punitive offensive." Under the revised war plan, open war preparations were stepped up in the US mainland and Japan. Since this war plan premised the allout intervention of the US troops, they regarded the United States and Japan as the strategic rear bases. In 1 949 the military expenditure of the United States reached the top level in its peacetime history and its armed forces too showed a record-breaking growth. More striking were the war preparations in Japan. Capitalizing an their occupation of Japan, the US imperialists sped up the "anti-communist base policy" there in dead earnest, which they had been pursuing ever since World War II. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The US imperialists seek to subordinate Japan to US monopoly capital and convert her into a forward base for invading many Asian and Pacific countries," (Kim II Sung Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. I, p. 208.) In order to turn Japan into their forward base, into their rear base for the Korean war, the US imperialists first made the Potsdam Declaration stipulating the democratization of Japan a scrap of paper and revived the Japanese militarist forces. From December 1948 "war criminals" were set free and the "dismissal ordinance" against the militarists repealed. Thus, they came to strut about again and reorganize hosts of fascist bodies including the "East Asia League." They went so far as to cry for the "construction of Greater East Asia" again and croak about the restoration of the "Great Empire of Japan" through the Japanese annexation of Korea and Taiwan. The US imperialists openly quit their farce of "disorganizing the monopoly financial cliques" in Japan, and from 1 949 they pursued the 274 "Far East Ordnance Factory" policy in real earnest to turn Japan into their rear base for Asian aggression. More than 800 big munitions factories liable for reparation went into the production of weapons under the control of the US army. From early 1950 no small number of engineering, chemical and other factories and enterprises of Japan were changed into munitions factories to produce military supplies on the order of the MacArthur Command.* * The "East Japan Heavy Industry," "Fuji Automobiles," "Komatsu Factory" and others were made to repair and assemble military cars and tanks of the US troops, and chemical factories came to produce raw materials of TNT and poison gas. (Monthly Report of investigation of industrial Labour, Japan, No. 7, 1 950. ) Meanwhile, the work of turning LSTs into troopships proceeded full sail at Japanese shipyards from early 1 950. (Japanese maqazine Study of Korea. No. 6, 1 966.) Communists and other progressive democratic personages were thrown behind bars whereas the militarists were revived. Harsh was the suppression of the Koreans in Japan under the plan for the provocation of the Korean war. The US imperialists and Japanese reactionaries paid the primary attention to cracking down on the Koreans in Japan by dint of the "Organization Control Ordinance." On September 8, 1949 the reactionary Japanese government called in hundreds of armed policemen to surround the offices of the Federation of Korean Residents in Japan and the Democratic Youth League of Korea in Japan and orderthemto dissolve immediately. They confiscated their property worth several hundred million won on the false charges of "opposing the occupation army," committing "violences" and rendering "a grave menace to the life of the Japanese." But they failed to produce any evidence of it. On June 3, 1950 all the outdoor meetings and demonstrations were tabooed in Japan. It was virtually the proclamation of "martial law." In order to convert Japan into an offensive base, the work of increasing the combat power of the US troops in Japan and building or expanding air bases was stepped up at a very fast tempo along with the work of militarizing Japan. The infantry units were reinforced and, on June 23, 1950 large bombers such as B-26 and B-29, wings of chasers, aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers were sent as reinforcements and concentrated in Kyushu. The construction of the Okinawa air base was started from October 1949 undet Lhe six-year plan, but the main part of it was 275

completed in a matter of half a year. Altogether 61 2 military bases and installations were' built in Japan. All these facts showed how cunningly and extensively the US imperialists were preparing the Korean war.

7. PRESSING SITUATION ON THE EVE OF WAR. INTENSIFIED STRUGGLE FOR PEACEFUL REUNIFICATION OF THE COUNTRY

Washington's Plot and "Seoul Crisis" Entering the year 1950, the US imperialists pushed ahead with war preparations in the final stage. Having ratified the new revised war plan, the US ruling elites got through with every practical affair necessary for war provocation in Washington, Tokyo, Seoul and on the 38th parallel. In Washington the brass- hats of the US Department of Defence and Joint Chiefs of Staff issued directives to the MacArthur Command in Tokyo to the effect that it should reinforce the ground, naval and air forces under it and speed up the construction of military bases. The State Department officials carried on a massive propaganda to mislead world public opinion. The US imperialists racked their brains above all to devise some scheme to lay the blame for war at the door of the D PR K under their war plan. They organized a secret group and made it rig up a draft "lawsuit" to be broughtto the UN under the guidance of the Assistant Secretary of State for UN Affairs. While planning a war, they also worked out a false statement that the United States would take its hands off the Korean affairs. Hence, on January 1 2, 1 950, State Secretary Acheson told about "Asian crisis" at the Federal Club and made the "defence line" statement that "the US defence line in the Far East ran from the Aleutians to the Loochoos through Japan proper and then from the Loochoos to the Philippines."*1 thus deliberately setting aside south Korea from the US "defence sphere" in the Far East. The US imperialists had got something up theirsleeves in placing 276 south Korea outside the US "defence line" while talking about "Asian crisis" and afterfixing Korea asthe "dangerous point of ignition." Their aim was to give the world an impression that the United States had no stake in Korea and, consequently, would not open war there.*2 *n Acheson, Asian Crisis, US Policy's Trial. {State Dept. Bulletin. No. 1, January 23, 1950, p. 116.) *a On January 5 Truman made a statement on the so-called "policy of nonintervention in Taiwan" to the effect that since the United States was no longer interested in Taiwan, it would "refrain from giving any aid or advice" to the Jiang Jieshi troops, no matter whether the Chinese people launched the operations for the liberation of Taiwan or not. {State Dept. Bulletin, No. 12, January 16, 1950, p. 79.) This statement too was a deceptive one based on the same script of Acheson's "defence line" statement, both seeking one and same purpose. Only after igniting the Korean war on June 25, 1950 did Acheson officially link south Korean "security" with US "security" and declare that "the attack on Korea... is a test decisive of the survival or ruin of our collective security system." This suggested that south Korea had been placed not outside but inside the "Far Eastern defence line" of the United States. In his statement on July 27, 1950 Truman too ordered the Seventh Fleet to occupy Taiwan, thereby selfexposing that his "policy of nonintervention in Taiwan" was false and it was no more than a smokescreen tor the provocation of the Korean war. Putting up a show of their "indifference" to south Korea, the US imperialists ordered their puppet in south Korea to stop the "northward expedition" din and keep quiet, not clamouring about the "restoration of the lost territory." Thus, no provocative cry over "northward expedition" came from the lips of Syngman Rhee who had appealed through radio to the people of north Korea to a "revolt" until early May, mouthing about "May-June crisis." So clamorous "northward expedition" rackets came to a dead stop with Sin Song Mo's last intended "anti-communist" statement on May 10 that the "crisis of invasion" was imminent because of the north Korean troops' "concentration on the 38th parallel." Western reporters who had been accustomed to the bellicosity of the south Korean puppet rulers cast strong doubts on this sudden silence and ironically described south Korea in May and June as a "quiet land."* * Refer to I.F. Stone's The Hidden History of the Korean War and David W. Conde's An Untold History of Modern Korea. A mysterious silence fell on Washington and Tokyo too. But it was the silence before a storm. It came from a piece of silly ruse to provoke war and then pass the buck to the DPRK by spreading a rumour about the "surprise attack from north Korea" in a "state of deepest sleep" (John Gunther's word) and, at the same time, to carry the "northward expedition" to easy success. 277

The text on this page is estimated to be only 29.00% accurate When the bigwigs of the US imperialists were playing a silly farce to pull the wool over the eyes of the world public, the south Korean economy hit the bottom of bankruptcy and the political crisis of the Seoul puppets reached the highest pitch. Due to the colonial enslavement policy of US imperialism the south Korean economy was totally ruined, the currency inflation was simply horrible and the commodity prices were soaring on wings. Rice petered out in the market, leaving the people on the verge of starvation Added to this was the "political crisis." Even Rightist leaders in south Korea, not to speak of the ordinary people, set themselves against Syngman Rhee, and under such situation the US political circles started airing their views that "the time has come to change the horse in Seoul." The fundamental factor of the political crisis faced by the Syngman Rhee clique was that they turned down the fair peaceful reunification policy of the Government of the Republic and rushed along the road of civil war against the will of the whole nation.* * In November 1948 when the Hanguk Democratic Party presented the "draft resolution on the permanent stationing of the US troops" before the "National Assembly" 44 "assemblymen" opposed it and claimed for the "withdrawal of the foreign troops." And in March 1 949 when they submitted the "written advice about the evacuation of the US troops" to the "UNCOK" 63 "assemblymen" signed it. In June that year when the faction opposed to Syngman Rhee offered the "draft resolution expressing a distrust of the government," it was passed 89 to 59. Bui Syngman Rhee did not accept it on the plea that it was invalid under the existing "Constitution" based on "Presidential responsibility." From that time on, the struggle was waged to revise the "Constitution" into one based on "cabinet responsibility." In March 1950 the anti-Syngman RThee faction submitted a "draft constitutional bill" to the "National Assembly," but failed to pass it as 79 votes it won fell short of the required two-thirds. This anti-Syngman Rhee faction was being led by the supporters of norlh-south negotiation. This affords a glimpse of what was the cause of the "crisis " Even the Rightist force of the Hanguk Democratic Party began to turn against "unpopular Syngman Rhee " Thus, the US overlords came to hold a view of putting up Kim Song Su, "traditional bourgeois representative of south Korea," or Catholic Chang Myon, south Korean Ambassador lo the United States, who was also called John Chang after an American, as the presidential candidate in place of Syngman Rhee. (History of the Korean War a Fresh Excavation of Modern History, Tokyo, p. 1 79 ) The miserable defeat of traitor Syngman Rhee in the "May 30th election" was an eloquent proof of his isolation. This "election" was conducted in an atmosphere of fascist terrorism against the people after jailing 30 opposition candidates under the direct supervision of Syngman Rhee. But he barely managed to get 47 out of the 210 seats 278 and the overwhelming majority of them were taken by the antiSyngman Rhee faction including the supporters of north-south negotiation. The "election" results would not only bring the dictatorial regime of Syngman Rhee to ruin but create a grave "crisis" in the colonial rule of US imperialism over south Korea."1 Under such situation the US imperialists decided to keep their support to Syngman Rheeforthetime being.*2 So, they hadtoturn the majority into "sheep" obedient to Syngman Rhee by some coercive method. And they found this "coercive" method in war, nothing else. '"' Even the authors of History of the Korean War — a Fresh Excavation of Modern History wrote as follows: "The United States was landed in a position where ft had to shrink back in south Korea" because the "May 30th election provided the possibility lor the middling assemblymen of no party affiliation with anti-US leanings lo hold the leadership," "There was much likelihood of the presidential election returning a middling candidate." But the Korean war broke • out at the time and "Syngman Rhee won the strong support of the UN overnight and could survive under the "blue UN flag' made of silk." (Ibid., p. 180.) This comment reveals, against the intention of its authors, the basic reason why the US imperialists and traitor Syngman Rhee unleashed war in June. 12 Truman wrote in his Memoirs: "I was deeply concerned over Lite Rhee government's lack of concern about the serious inflation that swept the country. Yet we had no other choice but to support Rhee." (Truman, Memoirs, (2), Japanese ed., Tokyo, p. 232.) Syngman Rhee had the same stake in this point with his master. He "laid his last hope of survival on war" (from Hershel D. Meyer's Modern History of America) and dreamt to bury the resistance of his opponents in the flames of war which he would ignite soon and to achieve "march-north unification". Hence, Syngman Rhee hurriedly sent Chang Myon to Washington as his special envoy who on June 1 2 informed the US masters of the ruinous crisis of the puppet government and "asked for an urgent US help" to get rid of this crisis. '1 To round up the Western dispatches at the time, the "urgent help" begged for by Syngman Rhee to the US Government meant after all that the war should be kindled without delay to melt up the politico-economic crisis in the war cauldron.*2 New York Herald Tribune, June 14, 1950. *a For instance. New York Herald Tribune dated June 26, 1 950 reported that "south Korean Ambassador Chang Myon gave a State Department dignitary a warning report on his country being on the brink of fall" and "asked for some guarantee for US armed intervention in case of war." Truman returned a quick response to Syngman Rhee's urgent279

message and request. He had no other way but to check the fall of Syngman Rhee. Otherwise, it would mean permitting the appearance of "president from a middling political party or a faction independent from the US policy." He hurriedly sent Advisor to State Department Dulles known as a "warmonger" to south Korea and Defence Secretary Johnson and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley to Tokyo and let them make the final check-up with the war preparations together with FvlacArthur and fix the date of war. DPRK Proposal for Facilitating the Peaceful Reunification of the Country The Workers' Party of Korea, the DPRK Government and the Korean people could not remain indifferent to the war machinations of the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique. They took measures against the danger of war in two ways. One was to decisively fortify the defences, and the other to keep up the struggle for the peaceful reunification of the country. The Party and Government got the People's Army and the entire people fully ready politically, ideologically and militarily to beat back any surprise attack of the enemy. Of course, they were against a war and made every effort to prevent it. But it was their principled stand that if the enemy, heedless of this effort, dared to start a war, they would crush him at once and realize the cause of reunification and independence of the country with the concerted efforts of the whole nation. Peaceful national reunification was the greatest wish of the Workers' Party of Korea and all other political parties and social organizations under the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, and of the DPRK Government and people. That was why they strove their hardest to achieve the peaceful reunification of the country even when the enemy's war manoeuvres reached their zenith. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland, reflecting the will of the entire people, again made a proposal on June 7, 1950 to expedite the peaceful reunification of the country. But the traitorous Syngman Rhee gang also prevented this proposal of the D.F.R.F. for promoting the peaceful reunification of the country from being carried out, threatening to label anyone favouring it as 280 a traitor." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed„ Vol. I, p. 289.) The Enlarged Meeting of the Central Committee of the DFRF was convened in Pyongyang on June 7, 1950 at the instance of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung who had always set the peaceful reunification of the country as the greatest national task. It adopted an "Appeal for Promoting the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland" to be addressed to the political parties and social organizations and the entire people of north and south Korea, and a resolution concerning the method and procedure of conveying this appeal. The appeal reviewed the one-year situation of south Korea following the June 1949 proposal of the DFRF for peaceful reunification and called attention to the urgency of national reunification. Suggesting the fifth anniversary of the August 15 liberation be celebrated with national reunification, it advanced the following appeal for promoting peaceful reunification of the fatherland. 1) to hold a general election throughout north and south Korea between August 5 and 8 and establish a unified supreme legislative body; 2) to convene a meeting of the supreme legislative body in Seoul on the fifth anniversary of August 1 5 liberation; 3) to convene for this a consultative meeting of representatives of the north and south Korean political parties and social organizations longing for the peaceful reunification of the fatherland in Haeju or Kaesong between June 15 and 17 and discuss and decide there the problems concerning the creation of the conditions for peaceful reunification, the procedures for the general election and the establishment of a central election guidance committee; 4) to forbid the traitors to the nation adverse to the peaceful reunification of the country from attending the consultative meeting of representatives, and the "UNCOK" from meddling in the work of national reunification. This was a most reasonable and fair proposal acceptable to anyone who heartily wished the independent peaceful reunification of the country. It received an absolute support and response from the entire Korean people particularly because it would prevent the civil war planned by US imperialism and the Syngman Rhee horde, achieve the unity of the nation and realize the cause of reunification at the earliest possible date. Nevertheless, the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique obstinately opposed this proposal.* * Now that the US imperialists hod decided lo follow their policy of war they 281

did not allow even the slightest move for peaceful reunification. The February 1 950 "Act of Aid to Korea" of US Congress had this article: "Aid shall be stopped in case a coalition cabinet participated in by more than one member of the Communist Party or the political party dominating the present north Korean government is set up in Korea." (Maccun, Today's Korea. Japanese ed., Tokyo, p. 255.) To meet this demand of its master, the "Syngmon Rhee government clarified its stand that it would neither take part in an official discussion with the north for unification nor approve of any unofficial effort for it and that even if thisunofficia effort is a mere try, it would regard any proposal for north-south negotiations as an expression of unfaithfulness 1 iUNCOK Report Dec. 1949-Sept. 1950.) Traitor Syngman Rhee, who used to wag his tongue about achieving "unification under south Korean jurisdiction" even with bloodshed, made Chief of General Staff of the puppet army and Director of the Public Information Bureau threaten the south Korean people by issuing a despicable warning' statement that "north-south negotiations and peaceful unification are impermissible" and that "anyone attending a meeting of north-south representatives would be branded as a traitor." And from June 9 they placed the whole of south Korea up to the 38th parallel under "special inspection watch," a kind of martial law, to hamperthe convocation of a consultative meeting of north-south representatives, * ' AP dispatch from Seoul, June 10, 1950. However, the DFRF Central Committee sent three persons as its envoys of peace to provide the possibility for peaceful reunification against all odds. They arrived atthe notified point (Ryohyon Station adjacentto the 38th parallel) atthe notified hour (1 0 a.m., June 1 0) and waited for the south Korean representatives and "UNCOK" delegates to convey the DFRF appeal to the political parties, social organizations and individuals of south Korea and to the "UNCOK". But the enemy of the nation fired over 10,000 bullets, far from warmly welcoming these peace envoys. The firing continued for many hours and no one dared to approach them. So, they could only convey the appeal and the list of its addresses to the delegate of the "UNCOK" who turned up, carrying a "blue flag." Next day, on the instruction of the DFRF Central Committee, the peace envoys left Ryohyon Station for Seoul to directly convey the appeal to its addresses But the Syngman Rhee clique arrested and jailed them. On June 1 9, 1 950 the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly accepted the June 1 6 request of the DFRF for exploring the "possibility of taking measures for the peaceful reunification of the 282 fatherland on the part of the state power organs," and discussed the question on promoting the peaceful reunification of the country. It adopted a resolution on "promoting the peaceful reunification of the fatherland." The resolution proposed that the peaceful reunification of the country be achieved by way of unifying the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly and the "National Assembly" of south Korea into a single legislative body for all Korea and that this all-Korea legislative body shall adopt a Constitution, form a Government and, under this Constitution, hold a general election for an all-Korea legislative body. The resolution also clarified that in case the "National Assembly" of south Korea acceded to the negotiations the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly had the readiness to send its delegation to Seoul or meet the delegation of the south Korean "National Assembly" in Pyongyang on June 21, 1950. This proposal was a most positive and reasonable one that greatly moved the entire Korean people at that time. But the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique turned down this proposal too. War was the only road for them ftj follow under the revised plan. Situation on the Eve of June 25 The warlords in Washington were much flurried by the urgent report of the "Seoul crisis" and the positive proposal of the DPRK for peaceful reunification. They had sought their outlet in war and now considered it couldn't be put off any longer. The longer the start of war was deferred, the more it would be unfavourable to them. The Syngman Rhee puppet regime, forsaken by the people and even by the "National Assembly," would fall in no time. And it was clear that US imperialism would become ever more awkward when there was a daily mounting trend towards peaceful reunification. But it was Syngman Rhee who was driven beyond all limits. His fate hanging in the balance now, he had no thought but to ignite war quickly, which would help him to arrest the advance of his opponents and keep his post. There was another factor that made US imperialism and traitor Syngman Rhee dash for a war with greater fury. It was the so-called "Taiwan crisis." The US government, which had obtained the information that 283

the Chinese Communist Party had been contemplating the invasion of Taiwan to be started some day in summer,"*1 received a more detailed information that the Chinese People's Liberation Army had wound up its operational preparations for Taiwan liberation.*2 11 Glenn D. Paige, The United States and the Korean War, Japanese ed Tokyo, p. 80. . *2 According to the confession made by Mun Hak Bong, the former political advisor to Syngman Rhee, the US government, having received an information thai the Chinese people would launch operations for the liberation of Taiwan in July at latest, decided to advance the date of the provocation of the Korean war to June and schemed to solve the Taiwan question with this war. (Exposure of the Truth about the US Imperialist Policy of Aggression against Korea and the Real Provoker of the Civil War, Pyongyang, pp. 72-80.) These informations, though doubtful of their accuracy, could not but give a big impact on US imperialism in sparking war in Korea. Basing itself on these "informations" US imperialism decided to hurry up the provocation of the Korean war. To implement this decision on the spot, on the order of Truman, Defence Secretary Johnson, .Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley and State Department Advisor Dulles who also acted as Presidential envoy flew to Tokyo and had a secret talk together with MacArthur. At this so-called "Tokyo four-men talk" they discussed the Korean affairs" and the "Taiwan affairs" in camera, not the question of a peace treaty with Japan" as alleged in their official statement. They shared the same view on the "absolute necessity of a new positive policy" (the provocation of a war— Quoter).*" Johnson and Bradley received fvlacArthur's report on the state of the US ground, air and naval forces in the Far East and inspected them on the spot'*2 • The New York Times, June 20, 1 950 and Ne w York Post, June 28, 1 950. "2 Back to Washington, Johnson said in his June 24 statement that they had inspected every important unit in the Far East and grasped the real state of affairs (Washington Post, June 25, 1950.) On June 1 7 notorious war maniac Dulles crept into south Korea. His mission was to examine the war preparation of Syngman Rhee and give him a directive concerning the provocation of the civil war after smelling out the defences of north Korea. He first went to the 38th parallel for inspection on June 1 8. After looking out over the defences of the northern half and inspecting the war preparation of the south Korean puppet army, he inspired the puppet army officers and men to war with this word: "No strong enemy whatever would stand against 284 you But I hope you will strive ever harder because the day is not so tar off when you'll have to display your great might for your own sake.' " Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of Korean Civil War by the US Imperialists, p. 1 27. On June 19 Dulles, attending the opening session of the new south Korean "National Assembly." told about the US Far Eastern policy and hinting "northward expedition," said that "you are not alone" in the fight with the communists and that they would always receive strong "moral and materia! support" from the United States.* * Glenn D.Paige, The United States and the Korean War, Japanese ed., Tokyo, pp. 82 and 91 . Much satisfied with his successful Seoul trip, Dulles left south Korea leaving two farewell messages to Syngman Rhee and puppet Foreign Minister Rim Byong Jik. In the message to Syngman Rhee, he wrote: "I attach great importance to the decisive role which your country can play in the great drama that is unfolding." 1 To Rim Byong Jik he wrote: "...I appreciated the opportunity of discussing with you and with President Rhee some of the hard problems that we face, problems that will require courageous and bold decision."*2 Back to Tokyo he met his colleagues, reported the result of his south Korean visit and finally confirmed every detail of their war plan. "i Who Began the Korean War?, Japanese ed., Tokyo, p. 41. John Foster Dulles' letter to Rim Byong Jik, June 20, 1950. (Documentary Evidences for the Provocation of Korean Civil War by the US imperialists, pp. 88-89.) The Syngman Rhee clique pushed forward the war preparations in the last stage with the backing of the US imperialist overlords. They started readjusting the deployment of the puppet army along the 38th parallel from early 1950. Now they completed it and got themselves fully ready for a "jump on the north" at a stroke.* - MacArthur who had hand in this work testified: "The south Korean army had concentrated all its supplies and equipment on the area along the 38th parallel Its units hadn't made dispositions in depth (defenses - Quoter). and thus The whole region between the 38th parallel and Seoul had been turned into a logistical are

agents of the intelligence headquarters of the puppet army intruded into the northern half almost every day.' " Collection of Army War History. (1), Tokyo, p 26. The military inspection teams of the "UNCOK" could not find the slightest sign of "southward aggression" along the 38th parallel but the US imperialists forced it to continue its "inspection" on the 38th parallel in an attempt to draw up false documents. The 24th fell on Saturday, but officers and men were not granted outings or furlough. They were ordered to maintain combat posture.* A large-scale artillery bombardment over the area of the northern half which had started at 22:00 on June 23 went on on the 24th In tnese two days the enemy fired more than 700 1 05- mm howitzer and 81 -mm mortar shells. It was the prelude to war. * Li Sony Ga the then Commander of the Eighth' Division of the puppet army deployed on the front, said: "...for me. front line dSvbiortM commander we wore in g state of emergency atthartime. There had been a curfew order and wo had to go into a battle from the d.iwn of June 25." (The Tragedy of the Korean Wat south Korean magazine SaSanggye.- Ho. 6, 1,965.) 286

Chapter III: Fatherland Liberation War

1 START OF THE FATHERLAND LIBERATION WAR. LIBERATION OF THE VAST AREAS OF THE SOUTHERN HALF

Provocation of War by US fmperialism and Counteroffensive by the Korean People's Army The US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique eventually provoked an aggressive war against the DPRK on June 25, 1 950. The puppet army launched an attack at dawn all along the 38th parallel, intruding one-two kilometres deep in the territory of the northern half in the direction of Haeju, Kumchon and Choiwon. In the western sector of the front the 1 7th Regiment of the puppet Metropolitan Division came attacking in the directions of Taetan and Pyoksong, the First Infantry Division in three directions from the Kaesong area, and the 7th Infantry Division in the direction of the Ryonchon area. In the eastern sector of the front the 6th Infantry Division of the puppet army came rushing in the directions of Hwachon and Yanggu, and the 8th Infantry Division from three directions towards Yangyang on the east coast. The enemy's armed attack spelt a grave danger to the fatherland. The Government of the DPRK demanded that the enemy stop war actions at once, and warned that if they did not meet this demand, decisive retaliatory measures would be taken. Disregarding this warning however, the enemy expanded the war. At this crucial moment for the country and the people it was needed to take countermeasures to crush the enemy without delay. On 287

June 25 the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung called an emergency meeting of the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee and the Cabinet. The meeting discussed the measures against the armed invasion of the enemy. An order was issued to the Korean People's Army and the Security Forces of the Republic to halt the enemy's advance and go over to a decisive counterattack at once. The KPA units and the Security Forces that were fully ready to beat back the enemy at any time and in any circumstances immediately went over to the counteroffensive to annihilate the enemy. Thus started the Fatherland Liberation War against the armed invasion of the US imperialists and their stooges. What the US imperialists wore after in this aggressive war was to occupy the territory of the northern halt topple the DPRK and turn the whole of Korea into their colony. By this war they also schemed to tide over the economic crisis sweeping the United States, threaten evermounting national-liberation movement in different parts of the world and tighten their control over the countries under their subjugation. Furthermore, they intended to fulfil their ambition for world supremacy by escalating the war. In a word, this war was an aggressive one designed to carry out their plan for world domination. In contrast, the warfought by the Korean people against the armed invasion of the US imperialistsandthetraitorousSyngman Rhee clique was a just fatherland liberation war. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The war we are fighting against the civil war started by the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique is a just one for the country's reunification, independence, freedom and democracy." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. I, p. 291.) The struggle of the Korean people against the armed invasion of the US imperialists and their stooges was a national liberation war for defending the freedom and independence of the country and a class struggle against the people's enemy who schemed to topple the people's democratic system. At the same time, it was a just war for smashing the US imperialists' plan for another world war and defending the socialist countries and world peace. As it was not long since the Korean people had got state power and a regular army, it was an extremely tough job and severe trial for them to fight against US imperialism which boasted of its being the "strongest" in the world. But because they had at their head the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the ever-victorious iron-willed brilliant commander and great military strategist, and were highly conscious and proud of their being under his wise leadership in the just Fatherland Liberation War 288 they were firmly convinced that they would surely win even in face of anv severe trial. 1 ,, . . „ The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, reflecting the unanimous will of the entire Korean people, appointed Comrade Kim II Sung, the sun of the nation, Chairman of the Military Commission and Supreme Commander of the KPA. Enjoying the absolute trust of the entire people who put all their expectations in him and taking upon himself all the heavy burdens of Party Government and army and all the work of both the front and the rear the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung organized and led the people to the vigorous struggle for victory in the Fatherland Liberation War. "Go All Out for Victory in the War" On June 26 1 950, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung made a radio address entitled Go A// Out for Victory in the Warto mobilize ibe entire people and officers and men of the KPA to the struggle tor VICt°ln his radio speech the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung made clear the aggressive aims pursued by the enemy in the war and the just character of the war waged by the Korean people. He "The entire Korean people, if they do not want to become slaves of foreign imperialists again, must rise as one in the national-salvation struggle to overthrow and smash the traitorous Syngman Rhee regime and its army. We must win ultimate victory at all costs." {/bid., p. 291) The radio speech detailed the militant tasks for bringing the Fatherland Liberation War to victory. It first emphasized that the People's Army officers and men must display an unexcelled gallantry and devotion in the just struggle to defend the gains of the democratic reforms in the northern half to he last liberate south Korea and reunify the country, and must fight to the last' drop of their blood for the country and people. It also pointed out that the people in the northern half must reorganize all their work on a wartime footing, organize all people assistance to the People's Army and make the rear an '^pregnable fortress Then it urged them to wage an implacable struggle against deserters and rumour-mongers, detect and wipe out spies and 289

The text on this page is estimated to be only 29.85% accurate subversive elements, firmly defend all institutions and, enterprises and to produce and supply all kinds of materials and provisions needed for the front. Also outlined in the radio speech were the tasks facing the people in the south. It called upon them to intensify guerrilla warfare to confuse the enemy's rear, fight resolutely against traitorous Syngman Rhee by way of riots, strikes, slowdowns and the like and to give active assistance to the People's Army with all their might. It urged the south Korean army officers and men to turn their guns on traitorous Syngman Rhee, come over to the side of the people and join in the all -people struggle for national reunification and freedom. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's radio speech became the fighting programme of the Party and people for victory in the war and served as a banner in powerfully inspiring the entire people and the People's Army officers and men to the decisive struggle against the enemy. Under the militant slogan "Everything for victory in the war!" put forward by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the whole national work was reorganized on a wartime footing. On June 27 the Party Central Committee sent a letter to all its organizations and membership and made sure that Party work was reorganized to suit wartime conditions, revolutionary discipline strengthened within the Party and every Party member acquired military knowledge and got himself fully ready to fight the enemy as befits a Party member under any circumstance. On the same day a state of war was proclaimed and on July 1 wartime mobilization orders issued. The whole authority was placed in the hands of the Military Commission and a powerful wartime mobilization system established to promptly organize and mobilize everything for victory En war. With a view to expanding the ranks of the People's Army and increasing its combat effectiveness many fine cadres and core Party members were sent to the People's Army and the commanding system of the army reorganized on a war footing. Timely neasures were taken to strengthen the political education of the armymen, reinforce army units, expand the units of technical arms, prepare reserve forces and train commanding cadres. The work of the people's power organs and public organizations was also reformed to suit the wartime conditions. In order to ensure supplies to the front the national economy was promptly reorganized on a war structure. As many state enterprises as possible were turned into munitions factories, measures taken to build new ones and the transport of war 290 raw materials and munitions, ensured preferentially. Besides, important factories and enterprises were dispersed and evacuated to safe places to continue production and steps taken to increase gram production in the countryside. 1 . , And the Two-Year National Economic Plan was reexamined and changed into a quarterly plan to meet the war situation. ' In this way the very complex and difficult task of reorganizing all work on a war footing was successfully carried out in a very short span of time and both the front and rear built up into one combat Unit The people rose up as one in the showdown battle against the US '^aSouYsSQ 000 studer ts and other young people volunteered for the front in the first few weeks of the war and the working class formed workers' regiments to go to the front. The struggle for increased production to assist the front was also unfolded vigorously. aa-^* Resolved to do the work of those who wentto the front in addition to their own assignments, the heroic workers launched a "front shock briqade movement," "youth workteam movement and many other increased production drives to actively ensure wartime production. Munitions production shot up five or six times as against the peace ^^in defiance of the enemy's barba rousatrra id, thetransport workers ensured wartime transportation at the risk of their lives. The peasants devotedly strove to produce more gram overcoming all difficulties and hardships, restored bombed roads and bridges, and directly carried war supplies to the front. In all parts of the country powerful mass movements were waged to aid the dependants of the People's Army, defend the rear and fight the rumour-mongers and spies ' Under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung such a nationwide mobilization system unprecedented in the Korean history was formed and the whole nation put up a tierce struggle in defence of the freedom and independence of the fatherland. Liberation of Seoul. All-out Armed Intervention of US Imperialism While organizing and mobilizing the entire people the great leader 291

Comrade Kim II Sung led the People's Army officers and men to victory with his superb military strategy and tactics. He set forth the strategic policy of frustrating the enemy's armed invasion, swiftly switching over to counteroffensive, annihilating the enemy's main force in a short span of time with great manoeuvrability and successive blows before the US imperialist aggressors could bring in massive reinforcements and of liberating the people in the south. In outlining this strategic policy, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung set great manoeuvrability and successive blows to the enemy as the basic demands to be met in the battle. At the same time, he stressed the importance of annihilating the enemy's main force in a short period of time, by encircling and destroying it, instead of pursuing Them merely pushing it back. Having successfully repulsed the enemy's armed invasion, the People's Army units went over from defence to counteroffensive over the whole front, upholding the strategic policy advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. The enemy made desperate efforts to check counterattack of the People's Army, erecting defence in the areas south of the 38th parallel. After a fierce battle the enemy's defence position was broken throuqh soon. The People's Army units advanced in high feather, repulsing the enemy. On June 28 they completely liberated Seoul, the centre of the colonial rule of the US imperialists and hangout of the reactionaries. The Seoul citizens and the people in the liberated areas turned out to the streets with flags of the Republic in their hands, and warmly welcomed the People's Army. The fall of Seoul threw the enemy into great confusion and brought the US imperialist colonial ruling system on the brink of total disintegration. Syngman Rhee took flight to Pusan stealthily at 3 a.m. of the 27th. Some of the puppet clique followed after him and some others who failed to escape were captured. In face of the People's Army's first counterattack that resulted in liberating Seoul, the main force of the puppet army was routed and its whole front line collapsed. Now that the "northward expedition" of the south Korean puppet army came to grief, the US imperialists went over at once to their planned all-out armed intervention. To start with, they cunningly manoeuvred to use the "UN" signboard in this all-out armed intervention. Compelled by the United States, the UN Security Council called an emergency meeting at 2 p.m. of the 25th in American time (4 a.m. of 292 the 26th in Korean time). The Soviet delegate who had declared his nonparticipation until the People's Republic of China restored its legal seat in the Council, was absent. The delegate of the PRC was kept out of his lawful seat and the DPRK delegate was not invited. Therefore, that meeting had no force as a meeting of the UN Security Council. Secretary-General Trygve Lie who had been favoured with US dollars did not try to see the truth of the Korean war at the meeting but made haste to brand the DPRK as the "aggressor" with the "unconfirmed" report of Muccio, US ambassador to south Korea, as the only "legal ground." At the meeting, the US delegate submitted, without presenting any ground, a "draft resolution" defining the DPRK as the "aggressor," which had been prepared before the war. However, it encountered the opposition of some member states. So its term, "armed aggression of north Korea" was replaced by "armed attack on the Republic of Korea," and it was amended before passage into a "resolution" demanding the "withdrawal of the north Korean troops back to the 38th parallel" while generally urging both parties to "stop the act of war." This "resolution" of the UN Security Council was utterly unjust because it was a distortion of the fact in its content and was adopted out of order without the presence of the delegate of the Korean people as well as the delegates of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, both the permanent members of the Council. Moreover, the "resolution" itself did not supply any ground for the all-out armed intervention of the US imperialists. Nevertheless, at the first confab held that night at Blair House which was attended by Secretary of State, Secretary of Defence and Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force and Chiefs of General Staff, Truman decided to authorize MacArthur to ship military equipment in haste to south Korea and dispatch the air force in the name of covering the evacuation of Americans to "destroy" the airplanes and tanks of the People's Army.* * Glenn Paige, The United States arid the Korean War, Japanese ed., Tokyo, p. 138. Truman, Memoirs, (2), Japanese ed., Tokyo, pp. 236-37. On the night of the next day, the second confab was held at Blair House where it was decided to send the naval and air forces to Korea and make preparations so that the UN Security Council could decide on the "special aid" to south Korea.* * Glonn Paige, the United Slates and tfie Korean War, p. 173. 293

At noon of the 27th (American time) Truman issued a statement officially announcing the US imperialists' armed intervention in Korea's internal affairs to the whole world. That day the UN Security Council met again under the plan of the US imperialists. At the meeting the US delegate submitted a "draft resolution" urging the member states to offe"r "aid" to south Korea. Despite the opposition and abstention of the delegates of some member states, the US "resolution" was railroaded through. In this way, the United Nations, in contravention of its Charter, played a foul role of "justifying" Truman's statement and US imperialists' highhanded interference in the internal affairs of other country. At 5 p.m. on June 29 (American time) Truman called a National Security Council meeting where he withdrew his June 26 order that restricted the operational zone of the US naval and air forces to the area south of the 38th parallel (The B-29 formation had already started the bombing of the north from the 29th ), and gave MacArthurthe right to expand the operation of the air and naval forces to the areas of north Korea. And next day he annulled his previous order concerning the dispatch of a limited scale of the ground force and invested MacArthur with "full powers to use the naval and air forces under his command (the US Armed Forces in the Far East- -Quoter),".* ' Truman, Memoirs, (2), Tokyo, p. 138. Thus started the all-out armed intervention of the US imperialists. People's Army Operation to Liberate Taejon and Its Advance to the Rakdong River Line On July 7, 1950 the sly US imperialists forced again the United Nations to adopt the illegal "third resolution" on setting up the "UN Forces" and appointing its "Commander" by the United States. Thus, MacArthur was appointed the "Commander of the UN Forces" and the US imperialist aggressor troops entered the Korean war, wearing the UN helmet. MacArthur who had assumed the commandership of the 7th Fleet and the Fifth Air Force plus the US ground force in the Far East in the Korean war, now became the Commander of the UN Forces and on July 15 held concurrently the post of commander-in-chief of the south Korean puppet ground, naval and air forces by the "written request" 294 of Syngman Rhee He thus came to act as the "sovereign of the Far East" both in name and in reality. The US imperialists considered that they would be fully able to occupy the whole of Korea at a stretch by relying on their huge armed forces, modernized equipment and MacArthur's commanding ability. They believed that the entry of the "world's strongest" ground force which had never suffered a setback in its long history of aggressive war brought the "first phase of the battle to a close" and the defeat of the People's Army was a "matter of time."* • In his situational report to the Headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff dated June 29 MacArthur bragged, "Two US divisions are enough to support Korea " Lieutenant- Colonel Smith, the commander of the special attack unit of Ihe US 24th Division who was dispatched to the Osan line (about 50 kilometres south of Seoul) blared. "At the mere sight of us they (the People's Army) would turn tail." {The Korean War— Korea, (1), Tokyo, p. 453.) The revolutionary peoples and friends of the world closely watched the developments of the Korean war, expressing great apprehensions about the destiny of the Korean people. In face of the intensified armed invasion of the US imperialists, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung made a radio address entitled Repel the US Imperialist Invasion! on July 8. He emphasized that even though the US imperialists were pouring in huge numbers of their aggressive troops, they could never subdue our people who rose up as one for the country's reunification and independence and that the entire Korean people and the People's Army officers and men would decisively annihilate the US imperialist armed invaders through their heroic struggle and finally win the just Fatherland Liberation War. His address roused the burning hatred of all the people and officers and men of the People's Army for the US imperialists, gave them firm confidence in victory and more vigorously inspired them to annihilate the enemy. Grasping the situation at the front where the battle became fiercer daily and foreseeing the developments of the war situation, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung took various important measures to consolidate both the front and the rear. Thus, the Front Command was set up and new reserve and coastal defence units organized. In order to fortify the rear an all-people defence system was established and measures taken to strengthen anti-aircraft activity and night transportation. The People's Army officers and men and people turned out in the battle to annihilate the US imperialists with a burning fighting spirit 295

The text on this page is estimated to be only 29.61% accurate and fought heroically both at the front and in the rear, with renewed confidence in victory. The US imperialists' hopes that the all-out armed intervention would quickly turn the war situation in their favour were shattered to pieces. The two infantry and artillery battalions which were deployed already on July 5 along the Osan line as the advance unit of the US 24th Division were routed the moment they encountered the People's Army. Brigadier General Path, artillery commander of the 24th Division, while inspecting the unit, had said, "This marks a historic moment for the United States entering the first war since World War II." He had recorded the battle hour in the firm belief that it would be the "record of victory." That hour, however, became the hour of the first defeat toiling the knell for the US 24th Division renowned as an "ever-victorious division" and the record was that "the first battle of the US troops in Korea ended in miserable defeat." * * The Korean War (the weekly Shukan Gendai, February 20, 1975.) Pointing out the miserable defeat of Smith's unit in Osan, the author wrolc that when taking to flight the US troops "took only the slightly wounded, leaving the seriously wounded covered with the Stars and Stripes behind" (In truth, they were deserted — Guoter.) and thai "not a few runaway soldiers took off their helmets, coats and even their boots in the excess of terror." Smith's special attack unit was almost annihilated in Osan. But they reported that 1 50 were killed and 72 captured out of 600 (the wounded excluded). Having won the first battle with the US aggressor troops, the People's Army fighters continued to advance southward, repelling the enemy. The operation to liberate Taejon was a great annihilation operation of decisive significance in keeping up the southward advance of the KPA units. Taejon, a major city in south Korea, was a point of strategic importance. The enemy proclaimed it the "temporary capital" and concentrated the bulk of his armed forces including the US 24th Division there. In his desperate attempt to defend Taejon, the enemy built strong defence positions at each vantage point, turning to good account the natural barriers of the Kum River and the Sobaek Range, situated in the north of Taejon. He bragged that it was the "line of no retreat'' or the "last defence line." Under such conditions, without wiping out the huge enemy 296 armed forces along this line, it was impossible to ensure the success of subsequent operation. Only by breaking it through, could the People s Armv open a phase favourable for its southward advance. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung mapped out a superb operation to free Taejon and commanded it in person at the frontHe planned an encirclement to wipe out the enemy in the Tae on area he, closely coordinating operations by all arms of the Peoples Army d reeled frontal and flank attacks. At the same time, he saw to it fhaTsome units quickly made a detour to the south of Taejon whe™ they penetrated deep into the enemy's rear to block off his retreat and cut the route for reinforcements. in accordance with this plan, the KPA combined un.ts iwh ch advanced to the Kongju-Ronsan line began to make a quick _delour o the south of Taejon on July 18 without waiting for the advance to Taejon of the combined units which were fighting a fierce battle in Chongju . At the end of an arduous march the 1 8th regiment ■ penetraud ^vertTyintotherearofTaejoninthemorningofthe19thwh,leanother Z advanced to the area west of Taejon. Meanwhile, the combined infantry and tank units moved to the areas northwest and north of this city. Thus, Taejon was completely encircled ,n the afternoon of the 1 9th At the dawn of the 20th the People's Army combined units m closely concerted operations with the combined tank units, opened an attaCDuen ttTthe fierce charge of the infantry units, the straight concentric artillery fire a nd the violent rush of the tank units -the enemy became completely resistless and tried to retreat to the southeast of Taejon But the People's Army units cut the line of retreat and wiped out the enemy mercilessly. . Lieutenant General Walker, Commander of the US 8th Army , who had set u p the command in Taegu on July 13. ^ First Cavalry Division which landed in Pohang on the 1 8th and the 25th Division which landed in Pusan on the 10th, in an attempt to de ive? he enchcled 24th Division. But the People's Army units wiped out The encircled enemy before the arrival of his reinforcements and thus liberated Taejon at the noon of the 20th. +„t„M„ The US 24th Division which was defending Taejon was totaNy destroyed and its Commander Dean was captured white fleeing ,n the diS9The opL^onm liberate Taejon, personally commanded by the respeciec leader Comrade Kim II Sung was an operation which 297

The text on this page is estimated to be only 25.03% accurate applied the tactics he had worked out early in the period of ami Japanese armed struggle to suit the condition of mode? warf r e Th e Svinndl33 9 bri!"am 6Xamp,e °f modern ^ncireling warfare invovingd verse combat tactics such as frontal, flank and back attacks and deto-. ^buSh and raids, with closed concerted operat on between troops of all arms. The operation served as wXraPbrilnttd0,n9tteCh:Cal SUP'ema^ -^"tactic" sup^cy.Tt was a brilliant operation that displayed the Jucha-based militarv an Z lT

was directfy carried out by the rural committees organized with poor and hired peasants indifferent parts of the south Korean countryside. It was completed in a little over one month amid the mounting enthusiasm of the peasants. Through the agrarian reform, some 43.3 per cent of the arable land in the liberated areas of south Korea or 596,202 hectares of land were confiscated without compensation. Besides, the payment on 89,994 hectares of land purchased by the peasants from the landlords in yearly installments under the coercion of the puppet government was abolished along with all other taxes and debts of the peasants related to the land. Of the confiscated land 573,343 hectares were distributed free to 1 ,267,809 households of hired, landless and land-poor peasants, which accounted for some 66 per cent of the total farm households in the liberated areas. And 22,859 hectares of land amounting to 3.8 per cent of the confiscated land was nationalized. As a result of the agrarian reform, the peasants became masters of land and freed themselves from the exploitation and subordination of the landlords. The feudalistic landownership and exploiting system were abolished and a wide avenue was opened for the overall socioeconomic development. On August 19, 1950 by the decision of the DPRK Cabinet the same Labour Law as that enforced in the north was proclaimed and measures taken to democratize education, society, culture, public health and judicature. Thanks to the democratic reforms US imperialist colonial rule was liquidated and a people's democratic system set up in the liberated areas of the south and the broad sectors of the people united still firmer around the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and the Workers' Party of Korea and the DPRK Government headed by him. A large amount of provisions and cloth were supplied to the urban paupers and war victims. By Cabinet Decision No. 139 dated July 9, 1 950 the predatory, anti-populartax system of the puppet government was abolished and a democratic tax system put in force instead, prohibiting all extra-tax impositions. Thanks to another Cabinet decision on wages adopted on August 1 8 the colonial starvation wage system was done away with to introduce wage scale applied to the factory and office workers of the north. To rapidly stabilize the living of the factory and office workers in the south they were paid 8 times more than their fixed wages at that time. On the same day, under the Cabinet decision on enforcing a taxin-kind system in the south the peasants were freed from the "delivery system", (and tax and other miscellaneous taxes and allowed to freely 300 dispose of their agricultural products after paying tax in kind in the same proportion with that paid by the peasants in the north. The people in the south were eager to repay with allegiance the great favour shown by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung who liberated them, provided them with a new social system and made them the worthy masters of the country. They fought devotedly for the victory of the war, firmly united around him. They sent their sons and daughters to the front without hesitation In a few weeks after the liberation of the south by the People's Army more than 400,000 students and other young people volunteered to go to the front. . The south Korean people, enjoying a new life, sincerely assisted the People's Army. They sent food to the front, restored the destroyed bridges and roads, built new ones and carried shells to the front, braving the barbarous bombing of the enemy planes. All this fact clearly showed what social system the south Korean people wanted to live in.

2 STRATEGIC RETREAT OF THE KPA AND PREPARATION FOR COUNTER OFFENSIVE

Enemy's Landing Operation at Inchon and "General Offensive" Faced with the danger of final defeat by the strong attack of the KPA the US imperialist aggressors attempted a landing operation at Inchon with new force while scheming a strong counterattack with beefed-up strength along the Rakdong River. By landing at Inchon, the enemy aimed at developing a new strong f ront in central Korea to "encircle and smash" the mam units of the KPA in cooperation with the forces counterattacking along the Rakdong River line and thus occupy the whole of Korea quickly. For this "general offensive," the US imperialists ballooned their armed forces to reinforce the 8th Army (the troops dispatched to the Korean front) and, at the same time, placed under its command two US army corps {the 1 st and 9th Army Corps) composed of the British and south Korean troops and the 1 st and 2nd Army Corps of the south 301

Korean puppet army. And they formed the 1 0th Army Corps with the US 1st Marine Division and 7th Infantry Division and the 17th Regiment and Marine Corps of the puppet army In mid-September the enemy conducted a large-scale landing operation at Inchon with a force of over 50,000 troops, more than 300 ships and over 1 ,000 planes. At the same time, he went over to the "general offensive" from the Rakdong River line. To counter it, the People's Army officers and men fought heroically. Those defending Wolmi Island, the gateway to Inchon, fought the incomparably overpowering enemy in human bullets, delaying his landing operation, while the KPA units defending the Inchon-Seoul area fought seif-sacrificingly with the active assistance of the people. Thus, the enemy was held in check for 14 days. Along the Rakdong River line, too, the KPA combined units put up a stubborn defensive battle and checked the enemy's "general offensive" for 1 0 days. However, there was too great a disparity in the balance of forces and the enemy's "general offensive" created a very unfavourable situation for the People's Army. On the basis of his scientific insight into the prevailing military and political situation, the Supreme Commander Comrade Kim II Sung advanced a strategic policy in the second stage of the war. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "In such a grave situation, our strategy was, on the one hand, to slow down the enemy's advance and thus gain time to rescue the main force of the People's Army from encirclement in the southern half and, on the other, to continue to muster reserve units and make an organized retreat." ( Ibid., p. 154.) The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung set it as the most important demand of the strategic retreat to keep the main forces of the People's Army, form reserve and prepare a new counterattack, and proposed wise measures to fiil this demand. He stressed the need to organize mass defence so as to prevent the front units from being destroyed piecemeal and, at the same time, properly combine mobile defence with repeated attacks on the enemy. He also taught that in the course of retreat the People's Army should check as many enemies as possible with small troops in different places on the one hand and, on the other, battles should be waged with overpowering force to encircle and annihilate the enemy's separate units. This was an original policy because it enabled the People's Army to gather force and smite the enemy continuously in separate battles. 302 even though the enemy predominated overwhelmingly at the front as a whole. It was also a most correct policy which made it possible to wipe out a large number of enemies and delay the enemy's advance while ensuring the successful strategic retreat. The enemy made a desperate military attack to check the organized retreat of the People's Army. But the People's Army units and people carried out the difficult and complex retreat successfully.* * The US AP reported: "It is a puzzle in the war how the north Korean troops in the southern front have got rid of the pursuit of the UN Forces. They have vanished in smoke. They covered up their tracks overnight." (AP dispatch, September 27, 1950.) Even though the US imperialist aggressor troops could launch counterattacks from the Inchon-Seoul and Rakdong River lines by securing overwhelming numerical and technical supremacy, their attempt to "encircle and annihilate" the main units of the KPA was shattered by the stout and quick mobile defence of the People's Army. Defensive Battle for Ensuring the Strategic Retreat of the People's Army Upon reaching the 38th parallel on which they ignited the aggressive war in late September and early October 1950 the enemy troops continued to advance northward with all their might. The south Korean puppet army crossed the 38th parallel on October 1 on the eastern sector of the front and the US army on October 7 on the western sector.* * At that time the advance of the US troops to the north of the 38th parallel stirred up international public opinion. Even England, the closest satellite of the US imperialists, expressed concern. However, it was, in fact, a wild dream to expect of the US imperialists who provoked the war with the basic aim of overthrowing the DPRK to stop their troops on the 38th parallel. The USlmperialists could not "legalize" their advance to the north of the 38th parallel with the former UN decisions. Therefore, on October 7 they forced again the UN to adopt a new "resolution" which "legalized" it. The systematic consideration of the "resolutions" adopted by the UN in relation to the Korean war since its provocation by the US imperialists clearly shows what a dirty role it played as an aggressive tool of the US imperialists fundamentally contrary to its Charter. 303

In order to meet the prevailing situation the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung made on October 1 1 a radio addressentitled Let Us Defend Every Inch of Our Motherland at the Cost of Our Blood. In this address he declared that even though the situation was grave the Korean people would certainly win final victory in their just struggle for the freedom and independence of the country. He clearly outlined the fighting tasks of the entire people and officers and men of the People's Army for carrying out the strategic policy in the second stage of the war. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The most important task confronting us today is to defend every inch of the homeland at the cost of our blood and prepare ourselves fully to deal a fresh, decisive blow to the enemy." (Ibid., p. 120.) He urged the officers and men of the People's Army to fight courageously to the last drop of their blood to defend every inch of the fatherland. He appealed to the people in the rear to produce more weapons and ammunitions and ensure supplies for the front satisfactorily. In case they were compelled to retreat, he stressed, they should transfer all materials and means of transport to the rear and not leave a single locomotive orfreight car or even a grain of riceforthe enemy. He also called upon the people in enemy-occupied areas to wage vigorous guerrilla warfare to wipe out the enemy's headquarters by surprise, cut their supply lines, destroy their means of communication and set fire to their arsenals and war materials. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung's radio address served as the steadfast guideline of the Korean people in their struggle to overcome the stern trial which befell the fatherland and secure a new victory. Stubborn defensive battles were fought along the 38th parallel and in the Wonsan and Yangdok areas. The units on the defensive mission along the 38th parallel bravely countered the incomparably superior enemy and secured the routesfor the retreat of the main units of the People's Army which had advanced southward. i The units in the Wonsan area, too, kept up the stubborn defensive battle for as long as 10 days (from October 5 to 14) against the onslaughtofthesuperiorenemy, thereby crushingtheenemy'sattempt to advance to the Wonsan- Pyongyang line and seize and annihilate the People's Army units on the 38th parallel. The People's Army units defending the Yangdok area, too, dealt a heavy blow on the enemy by waging a fierce defensive battle. 304 The KPA combined units which had advanced to the Rakdong B, veXHaf 9 advantage ■ * ^he precious tin. gamed ,n the from behind and broke through the enemy s encirclement They successf ully com pleted the retreat covering a long distance of 600-700 ki'°7h?veteran^ struggle played a nuclear and leading role ,n carry.ng out this hard ^^The oraanized evacuation of the Party and state organs, factories enteLnse an^ people was also conducted successfully m the areas whe e Sr retreat was inevitable due to the enemy s intrusion Jhe Korean people ana reopie b Miuiy wo npRK headed by Workers' Party of Korea and the Government of the DPRK headed oy the respected leader Comrade Kim II bung. US Imperialists' Atrocities in Their Occupation Areas. Indomitable Struggle of the Patriotic People Tho , ,q imperialist aaqressors who wormed their way into the areas^Hhe^Sm "hi If o?Korea committed thrice-cursed atrocities " ^"Do^'t^om ha'nd tremble even when those who appear before soldiers' this ''order " The US imperialists 305

reactionary elements lurking in the north to organize reactionary organizations such as the "peace maintenance corps" and "vanquishcommunism corps." Everywhere they shot and burned patriotic and innocent people to death or buried them alive at random. The atrocities committed by the US imperialist aggressors in the areas under their temporary occupation were most vicious ones ever known in world history The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Once Engels called the British army the most brutal force. The German fascist army surpassed the British army in brutality during World War II. The human brain could not imagine more wicked and more shocking atrocities than those perpetrated by the Hitlerite beasts at the time. But, in Korea, the Yankees have far outdone the Hitlerites." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. 7, p, 152.) The number of the Korean people massacred by the US imperialist brutes was beyond count. In H wanghae Province alone, over 1 20,000 people were butchered, including more than 35,000 in Sinchon County, a quarter of its population. In some villages of this county 87 per cent of the inhabitants were killed. More or less, similar was the case in other provinces, too, which were under temporary occupation. The methods of massacre used by the devilish homicides who gloated over the blood were on the crest of cruelty. In slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocent people, the cutthroats did not merely employ the means of shooting, clubbing, hanging and burying alive. They killed people after dragging them about the streets, with their noses and ears piercedwith wire; they gouged out the eyes, cut women's breasts, heads and bodies, cut off iips and tongues, chopped limbs, sawed bodies, threw human beings into flames or boiling water, nailed them on trees and ran over them with tank. Their atrocities were simply horrible. This was the very "police action" the US imperialists, who had emerged on the sea of Indians' blood, conducted in Korea, wearing the helmet of the "UN Forces." The Commission of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers which investigated the US imperialists' murder atrocities on the spot in March 1952, wrote in its report: "The evidence of mass murders, individual murders and bestialities committed by the military forces of the USA against the Korean civilians including women and children is overwhelming both in quantity of the crimes committed and in the variety of methods employed."* 306 Aggressors in Korea, Pyongyang, p. 36^» , . international Democratic - In Us report, the Investigation Commissi , o ^ h™nat ,„ Korea Women's Union which «ted he^Cffl^ th W« ^ ^ Hitler Nazis in temporarily occupied Europe, (ibid., p. sal,} With no bestial mass murders, however, the ^emy could subdue The rreTe!7he enemy's atrocities became, the more resolunrly ,he PaXrembe. and patriotic peopie fought against the wnh Democratic People's Republic of Korea! in hPartvresoonse to the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung s formed in S October, the Rinje and Yanggu People s Guer, la Unas unS were formed in Nyongwon and many other areas when the 307

the guidance and assistance of the second front units behind the enemy lines. Drawing on the valuable experience gained by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung in the struggle for the establishment of the guerrilla bases in the period of the anti-Japanese armed struggle, the people's guerrilla units waged a vigorous struggle to prepare arms and intensified the political and military training to increase the fighting capacity of their armed ranks, while paying primary attention to firmly securing and building up their bases. They made surprise attacks on the enemy's important bases and assembly points, and destroyed and burned his transport facilities and combat equipment everywhere. While wiping out enemy effectives ceaselessly, they demolished reactionary ruling institutions and finished off vicious elements, thereby throwing the enemy into unrest and terror. Successful Preparations for Counterattack Along with the organized retreat, preparations for a new counterattack were pushed forward. In preparation for a new counterattack, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung advanced the policy of regrouping, expanding and reinforcing the KPA units as a whole on the one hand and, on the other, of organizing large-scale operations behind the enemy lines. This policy was carried into practice without delay. A brisk work was conducted to replenish and regroup the retreated units and reinforce them with new combat and technical equipment to prepare them for the next action. The newly-organized units were transferred to the main units and many efficient army corps organized. As a result, the main units were expanded and reinforced in a short period of time to form a powerful contingent for counterattack. The work of organizing new reserve units, too, was vigorously pushed forward on the basis of the preparations which had already been made in a prospective way in the first stage of the war. Thus, many reserve units came into being, and intense combatand political training was given to the combatants to bring them home to the Juche-based tactics. A dynamic work of readjusting and reinforcing the units of all services and arms with new combat and technical equipment was conducted so as to smash the enemy counting on his technical 308 superiority. In particular, the units of technical arms were expanded and reinforced on a large scale. In order to strengthen the People's Army more Party members and cadres were made to work in it and a great number of military and political cadres trained through short courses in the military academies which had been evacuated to the northern mountainous areas. Besides, a political organ of the KPA was set up with a view to strengthening political work within the army. In preparation for a new counterattack the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung organized and directed the work of opening a strong second front behind the enemy lines with some combined units of the regular army. The second front was opened in the midst of the planned retreat of the People's Army. For its sake, able cadres steeled in the antiJapanese armed struggle were sent to the enemy's rear. Those units active behind the enemy lines combined with some retreating units and occupied a vast area in the enemy's rear. Setting forth the task of the second front units to the commander of an army unit fighting in the enemy's rear, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "When our main force switches over to the counteroffensive, the second-front units must engage the enemy actively and strike them from behind. Then, they will be able to drive the enemy into a large encirclement and wipe them out to a man.... "You should take the initiative and fight actively everywhere and destroy or take control of the roads and bridges, cut off the enemy's transport routes and retreat, and wi pe out the retreating enemy troops and their reinforcements. In this way you will ensure success in the counteroffensive." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. 6, p. 141.) The policy of opening the second front with the large combined units of the regular army in the depth of the enemy's rear and striking at the enemy in front and from behind was a new one without precedent. It was a wise policy which would enable the combined units of the People's Army to soften up the enemy's mobility and annihilate the enemy in a big encirclement, occupying a vast area behind the enemy lines. The policy of opening the second front in the enemy's rear was also a unique policy based on an overall analysis of the enemy's weakness and the favourable operational conditions behind the enemy lines. As the enemy, dreaming of the "quick war and quick results," hurled most of his troops into the first echelon, his rear was actually 309

vacant. And there was a big gap between the west and the east because the enemy's 8th Army (west) and the 1 0th Army Corps (east) failed to keep contact and lacked uniformity in command in their offensive operations. In contrast, some KPA units occupied the enemy's rear beforehand, formed ties of kinship with the people and were familiar with the terrain, The opening of the second front, therefore, would provide the possibility to bisect the enemy's front and rear by striking him hard in the rear, break off the connection of his forces between the east and the west and, with the start of the counterof tensive, to crush him piecemeal in a big encircling net. In accordance with the original policy advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the second front units were formed with several KPA combined units which had retreated up to the area along the 38th parallel from the Rakdong River. They went into positive ■action from late October, expanding their bases over Kangwon, Hwanghae and South Pyongan Provinces. Thus, the preparations for large-scale counterattack to inflict a fatal blow on the enemy were successfully completed.

3. RADICAL TURN IN WAR SITUATION. KPA'S COUNTER OFFENSIVE

Counterattack of the KPA Combined Units and the Defeat of the "Christmas Offensive" Under the wise leadership of the great strategist Comrade Kim II Sung the KPA firmly built up its forces for counteroffensive in a short span of time. Now it was in a position to enter a new stage in which it could deal a decisive blow on the US imperialist aggressors and bring about a radical change in the war. It was at that time that the Chinese people, under the banner of "Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea," sent volunteers to the Korean front to assist the Korean people's struggle with their blood. It was the most valuable assistance based on the historicallyforged militant friendship and solidarity between the Korean and Chinese peoples and a living example of the internationalist aid to the 310 ^nti-imperialist, national-liberation struggle. The entry of ^ Chinese PeopIT'sVolumeers into the warturnedthe balance of forces further m ^Tatt in October 1950, the war entered the third stage. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said. ' ThI third stage is a period when ^'^^"g^ together with the Chinese People s Volunteers^ rustrate the -enemy , attack, annihilate large n^ __H drive them to the south of the 38th parallel, i n» ■=■ i in order to carry througn the strategic policy of the thi d stage ^ a numbe! of oper^ons were carried on first of all to decisively frustrate the enemy's offensive.' Japan before Christmas at latest ,n (he western per, of (he from (he KPA £°v™ on the enemy who had penetrated north of (he Chongcnon o stubborn defensive battles in Hwangcho Pass, Pujon rass, Offensive" of MaeArthur who gave orders of all out .b itt ttack. he Pr8P Sing'sustained a severe blow from the KPA combined units the enen^nched a new large-scale f^^^^S^S. the front me MaeArthur flew to the 8th Army Cj^n^iu and 311

* At that time MacArthur told the Commander of the US 9th Army Corps. "I'd like to meet my promise to the soldiers that they will be back home before Christmas." That was why the November 24 "general offensive" of the US aggressive troops was called an "offensive for the end of the war." "Christmas offensive," and MacArthur' s statement of that day "declaration of victory." MacArthur's statement, however, was fated to be recorded as the "declaration of defeat" in history. The day after the statement was made the KPA combined units, upon the order of the Supreme Commander Comrade Kim II Sung, switched over to a general counterattack. The initiative at the front was taken by the People's Army from the start. The KPA combined units on the western sector of the front encircled and annihilated the enemy in the Chongchon River area and stormed southward. The whole enemy on the western sector of the front started beating a retreat on December 1 . The combined units of the People's Army on the eastern sector of the front encircled the US 1 0th Army Corps, on November 27 at Lake Changjin and wiped out most of it. The enemy in Pungsan and Chongjin retreated in disorder in face of the counterattack of the People's Army. Things coming to this pass, Truman manoeuvred to subdue the Korean people with his November 30 statement to the effect that the use of A-bombs was under consideration. On December 1 6 he proclaimed a "state of emergency" in the United States. However, the KPA combined units gave hot chase to the fleeing enemy. The KPA units pursuing the enemy on the western sector of the front, liberated Pyongyang on December 6 in coordination with the second front units and, by December 24, wiped out or expelled the enemy in the western and central districts north of the 38th parallel. (Walker, the 8th Army Commander, was killed in Ryonchon area by a subunit of a second front unit.) The KPA combined unitson the eastern sectorof thefront gave the enemy a good drubbing, cornering him into a narrow region. The survivors beat a hasty retreat through the Hungnam Port by the end of December. Thus, the whole area north of the 38th parallel was liberated and the enemy's "general offensive" aimed at ending the war before Christmas completely smashed. The enemy started the "December general retreat." In an attempt to get a respite the cunning US imperialists fabricated the so-called "three-man committee for the Korean ar312 mistice" with the representatives of India, Canada and Iran at the Fifth Session of the UN General Assembly on December 1 4 to make them act a farce of "unconditional, immediate ceasefire." However nerther th nuclear blackmail of the US imperialists nor the state o emerqency " nor the "ceasefire" farce could turn the tide of war m the 85 The combined units of the People's Army pursued the enemy without letup, thusdriving him outto the 37th parallel at the beginning of January 1 951 , Struggle of the Second Front Units and People's Guerrillas in Enemy-Controlled Areas The second front units and people's guerrillas wh^™ a«j*£ the enemy-controlled areas played an important role m ensuring the successful counterattack of the People's Army. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The People's Army units and guernllas who are operating behind enemy lines must penetrate deep into the enemyheld areas and launch active guerrilla warfare from al I directions. They must blow up railways, roads, bridges and communications networks to interdict the enemy s rear and nara vse i mobility, and raid his command posts and headKartere. Th?y must bravely attack and liberate not only villages but towns as well." {/bid, p. 1 68.) Following this guerrilla warfare policy set forth by Comrade Suoreme Commander, the people's guerrillas launched a vigorous struggle raiding the enemy's command and institutions by surprise and mopping up his effectives. The Kuwolsan People's Guerrilla Unit advanced to Unn/uL Sinchon, Ariak and Chaeryong and fought scores of battle; j smashing theenemv's ounitive bases, reactionary organizations and msti tutions, destroying or captunng large quantities of war materials and delivering hundreds of patriotic people. The people's guerrilla units active in the east of ^ Prov inceand in Kangwon Province, in close cooperation with £h * KPA units in the enemy's rear, made a daring attack upon the important Stan, stVonapoints of the enemy and scored many successes in their struqqle to crush the enemy's "punitive operations. To paralyze the enemy's transport and manoeuvrability and 313

destroy his communication network was one of the important tasks facing the people's guerrillas. The Kowon and Maengsan People's Guerrilla Units destroyed and closed the Pyongyang-Wonsan road and railway connecting the east and west front lines of the enemy to paralyze his transport and manoeuvrability. In the meantime, the guerrillas active in Kangwon Province blocked up the fleeing enemy's retreat in the Wonsan area by destroying and cutting off the important roads on the eastern sector of the front at the time of the counterattack of the People's Army. The guerrillas in South Hamgyong Province, too, carried out bold struggles against the enemy which had penetrated deep. They made no small contribution to weakening the enemy's manoeuvrability by striking him from behind. Acting in concert with the counterattack of the People's Army, the people's guerrilla units in different areas also unfolded resolute struggles to liberate towns and villages. Those in Munchon, Koksan, Rinje, Yanggu and Nyongwon intensified their liberation struggles in cooperation with the People's Army or the second front units when the main units of the People s Army were expanding the results of their counteroffensive, The people's guerrilla units also conducted a vigorous politicoideological work with the people in the enemy-occupied areas to give them firm conviction in victory and successfully carried outthe work of restoring the destroyed local Party organizations, government organs and social organizations. The second front units were the main force in the struggle behind the enemy lines. After regrouping themselves and securing their bases by the end of October the second front units, upon the new order given by the Supreme Commander in early November, kept up their struggles in the areas centring around Kangwon, Hwanghae and South Pyongan Provinces, widening their sphere of activities in the enemy's rear. The enemy desperately tried to bring in more reserves arid war materials in an attempt to recover his defeat when his "Thanksgiving Day offensive" proved abortive and his dream of "quick war and quick results" was dashed. Under such condition the second front units blocked the road leading to Pyongyang from Wonsan in the east, hindered the enemy's manoeuvrability and transport to the front line and successfully carried out the coordinated operations with the combined units of the People's Army on the main front. The units in charge of blocking the Pyongyang-Wonsan line intercepted the Yangdok-Wonsan railway and road, lying in ambush, laying mines or attacking the enemy by surprise in Ahobi Pass, the 314 Maion-ri area and Masik Pass. Asa result, the enemy's manoeuvrability and transport were paralyzed and he had to leave the main force of the US 25th and 2nd Divisions in the rear while preparing for the "Christmas offensive." This provided favourable conditions for the operations of the KPA units on the main front. The second front units active in the east threatened the Seoul Wonsan railway with ceaseless assaults on trains and seized all the main roads with active battles, throwing the enemy's rear into great confusion. Those active in the western and central parts seized vast areas ot Hwanghae South Pyongan and Kangwon Provinces by liberating Koksan, Ichon, Kangdong, Samdung, Cholwon and Chunchon and hamstrung the enemy by attacking Sibyon-n, a point of traffic importance on the central part of the front. Towards the end of November the second front units liberated almost all regions along the 38th Parallel except Kaesong and Kumchon and made a decisive contribution to the counterattack of the main front units by pinning down a huge armed force of the enemy and obstructing his logistical supply. In cooperation with the counterattack of the main front units the second front units went over to active offensive, intercepted the enemy's retreat and encircled and annihilated his effectives en masse. In orderto carry out the order of Comrade Supreme Commander to smash the enemy's defensive attempt in the middle of the 38th Parallel, the second front units altered their dispositions by the end of November and laid a dense network of ambush along all the roads covering 200 kilometres from Songchon and Kangdong to the Changpung and Ryonchon lines. In the Songchon and Kangdong areas they hit the back of the enemy which was falling back before the counterattack of the main combined units of the KPA and struck hard at the retreating units of the US 9th Army Corps and puppet 2nd Army Corps in Suan, Smgye and Koksan of Hwanghae Province where they had been lying in ambush. In early December the KPA units which were taking up a position along the Rimjin River conducted a large-scale annihilating operation against the fleeing enemy and mowed down mercilessly the last remnants of the enemy who had struggled into the area north of the 38th Parallel. Meanwhile in the east, Wonsan was liberated on December 8 This prevented the US 1 0th Army Corps and puppet 1 st Army Corps retreating along the eastern coast from defending the middle part of the 38th Parallel and forced them to take flight through the Hungnam Port. Through their struggle in the enemy's rear the second front units 315

completely liberated a vast area covering some 30,000 square kilometres. The policy of opening the second front advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung brought about brilliant successes, indeed. It created a shining example of combining frontal attack with attack behind the enemy lines, and large unit operations with small unit ones, which added a new page to the world history of war. Strengthening of Revolutionary Discipline in All Realms, Rehabilitation and Readjustment of the Rear The US imperialists had little mind to pull out in spite of their ignominious defeat at the Korean front. They brought in large-scale reinforcements and undertook a new military adventure. Asa result, the war became more arduous and assumed a protracted nature. To meetthe protracted warthegreat leader Comrade Kim II Sung took measures for decisively consolidating the front and the rear. At the Plenary Meeting of the WPK Central Committee in December 1 950 he set forth along with military tasks the task of straightening out the temporary confusion which had inevitably resulted from the retreat, particularly the specific tasks of strengthening revolutionary discipline in all realms and speedily rehabilitating and readjusting the rear. In the wake of this pfenary meeting a vigorous struggle was waged to strengthen revolutionary discipline in all realms of Party, state and military activities. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "One of the basic conditions for defeating the enemy and winning victory is to strengthen Party discipline more than ever and to firmly rally the entire membership around the Party Central Committee." {Ibid., p. 170.) In order to strengthen revolutionary discipline all violations of Party, state and military discipline that had been made during and after the temporary retreat were scathingly exposed and criticized and a powerful struggle was launched within the Party and state institutions and army against all unsound practices such as liberalism and irresponsibility. Along with it, a vigorous ideological education was conducted among the functionaries in ail domains to induce them to observe revolutionary discipline voluntarily. The work of reorganizing the Party and Government bodies and 316 working people's organizations destroyed in the areas temporarily held by the enemy was successfully carried out in a short time. Besides, an all-out attack was launched against counterrevolutionary elements. The counterrevolutionaries who had committed all kinds of deadly crimes against the people during the enemy's temporary occupation were still lurking in the rear and engaging in subversive and wrecking activities even after the US imperialists were ousted. Hence, the struggle against them posed as very serious and important problem. On how to wage this struggle largely hinged the security of the rear and the unity of the masses of the people. If this struggle were slackened even a little, it would further the activity of the counterrevolutionaries and put big obstacles in the way of promoting the security of the rear and heightening the masses' morale and revolutionary spirit. On the contrary, if it were waged in an ultra -Leftist manner, it might cause fear, unrest and mutual distrust among the people and weaken their voluntary unity, thus playing into the hands of the enemy who viciously schemed to disintegrate them from within. Hence, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung warned time and again against "Left" and Right tendencies in the struggle against counterrevolution and set forth the principle to be adhered to in this struggle and concrete ways for its implementation. In keeping with the principle advanced by the respected leader, the Workers' Party of Korea and the Government of the D PR K severely punished those who, having reactionary class origins and bearing malice towards the people's democratic system, had perpetrated vicious atrocities intentionally. But they embraced and educated those who, hailing from basic classes, followed the enemy involuntarily and acted passively, threatened and fooled by him. And they endeavoured to rally as many people as possible following the policy of magnanimously forgiving those who surrendered themselves and sincerely repented their crimes committed before the country and people. The Party and the Government made a point of thoroughly isolating the enemy and heightening the awakening and fighting spirit of the masses of people by making them judge and punish counterrevolutionaries for themselves. Thus mass and people's trials were held in different parts of the country for the people themselves to punish according to the gravity of the offence those who committed crimes or participated in reactionary organizations during the temporary retreat. The struggle against counterrevolutionary elements rapidly heightened the political awakening of the masses and rallied them closer around the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung. Thus, the cunning 317

scheme of the US imperialists to alienate the Party from the masses was smashed. Next, a number of economic steps were taken to rehabilitate, readjust and consolidate the rear. Primary attention was paid to stabilizing the people's livelihood. The Political Committee of the WPK Central Committee met in January 1951 and discussed a series of measures to stabilize the people's livelihood. On this basis Cabinet decisions were adopted and concrete steps taken. Thus, the supply of food and daily necessities increased and factories and enterprises expanded their sideline farming. For those who had lost their homes, measures were taken to provide them with new ones. In order to stabilize the life of peasants, provisions and seeds were loaned to them and they were exempted from delivering part of their tax in kind and returning loaned grain. For war sufferers a war-victims relief committee was organized to supply them with provisions and clothing, and they were given free medical care. And state and public assistance was organized extensively for the bereaved families of patriotic martyrs, People's Army dependants and disabled soldiers. A Cabinet meeting held in January 1 951 adopted the "decision on setting up schools for the bereaved children of People's Army officers and men, guerrillas and patriotic martyrs who fell in the Fatherland Liberation War." Under this decision nurseries and schools for the bereaved children and primary schools for war orphans were set up in all provinces and major cities and opened on April 1 simultaneously. Disabled soldiers' schools were built in many places so that disabled soldiers and wounded patriots could study science and technology to their heart's content according to their wish. State measures were taken to protect orphans whose number swelled during the war. Thanks to all these positive measures taken under the warm care and solicitude of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung for the people, no one died of hunger or cold nor did any orphan wander about the streets even in the teeth of the severe war. As the people's living was gradually stabilized, the struggle to rehabilitate the devastated national economy and ensure wartime production picked up momentum. In rehabilitating the economy great efforts were directed to intensifying the rural work before anything else. It was because with towns and industrial establishments demolished by the barbarous bombing of the US imperialists the countryside became an important 318 rear base and only by concentrating efforts on the rural districts where farmers and draught animals were short, was it possible to solve the □roblem of food and stabilize the people's livelihood. Correctly appraising the position and role of the countryside under the wartime conditions, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung sent most of the fine Party members to the countryside to improve the rural work. He personally went out to many rural villages for on-thespot quidance, inspired the peasants to increased wartime grain production and made all people support the countryside under the militant slogans: "Sowing is another front this year! and The struggle for food is astruggle forthe fatherland, for victory at the front!" , ,. , As a result the work of the Party and Government bodies in the rural districts was strengthened and the rural strongholds of the Party built up solidly with the bereaved families of patriotic martyrs and the families of servicemen, To provide peasants with farming conditions, seed and grain were loaned out, houses built and irrigation setups repaired with state funds, and many state stock farms set up with war victims and impoverished peasants. To make up the shortage of labour power and draught animals in the countryside, an all-people movement was launched to give helping hands to the farmers. Encouraged by this, the peasants strove for wartime grain production overcoming all difficulties and hardships. They built dugouts on the edges of fields, camouflaged the oxen and carried on with their ploughing and sowing day and night, braving the enemy s intensive air raid Women took up ploughs in place of their husbands and brothers who had gone to the front, and laboured to boost the wartime gram °U thanks to the devoted efforts of the peasants, the 1951 spring sowing was completed 10 to 15 days earlier than in the peacetime ^Tn order to ensure wartime industrial production vigorous efforts were made to rehabilitate and readjust the wrecked production facilities and move factories and enterprises underground. Thus the rear healed the wounds inflicted during the temporary retreat in a short span of time and firmly built itself up to cope with the protracted war. „~„„iQ With the rehabilitation and readjustment of the rear all-people suDport to the front was further strengthened. Under the militant slogan, "Everything for vctory in the war'" all people, whether men or women, young or old, rebuilt and repaired the destroyed railways, roads and bridges day and night to ensure wartime transport, braving the heavy bombing by enemy 319

aircraft. They carried on the back or in carts ammo, provisions and other war supplies for the front. In May 1951, the people in the rear launched a movement to donate funds for arms. In forty days they donated 1 ,539 million won in cash and over 168,000 bags of grain as war funds. When the first national defence bonds were issued in July 1951, the people purchased 600 million won of bonds in ten days, which were 1 00 million won more than the planned amount. Such patriotic zeal of the people in the rear inspired the People's Army officers and men to fresh military feats. Struggle to Establish Juche in Military Field. Incessant War of Attrition at the Front and Powerful Preemptive Strike Along with the work of rehabilitating and readjusting the rear, a powerful struggle was waged to overcome dogmatism and establish Juche in the military field in order to increase the fighting capacity of the People's Army. A vigorous struggle was waged in the People's Army units to acquire and apply the Juche-oriented art of war on the basis of that created during the anti-Japanese armed struggle and the experience gained in the course of the Fatherland Liberation War, and a number of steps were taken to introduce Juche-oriented tactics to suit the conditions of Korea. On the order of the Supreme Commander many aircraft-hunting groups equipped with small arms were organized and theactivity of the anti-aircraft artillery units intensified. The aircraft-hunting groups, which were formed by generalizing the experience of anti-aircraft fighting with small arms introduced during the anti- Japanese armed struggle, played a big role in countering the enemy's "air supremacy" and in supporting the combat actions of the ground units of the People's Army. At the same time, measures were taken to enhance-the role of the commanders and commands at all levels, properly arrange cooperation between the units and make effective use of artillery to meet the demand of modern warfare. Political work with armymen was further strengthened. Party organizations and political organs were built up within the army and an ideological education intensified to firmly equip the armymen with 320 loyalty to the fatherland and the people and with unshaken confidence in victory in the war. The People's Army was converted into an invincible contingent fully ready to carry out the orders and instructions of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the Supreme Commander, unconditionally to the letter. The People's Armv units which equipped themselves with the Juche-oriented art of war and became steel-like armed forces under the outstanding strategic and tactical leadership of the respected Supreme Commander Comrade Kim II Sung, waged incessant war of attrition and launched powerful preemptive attacks on two occasions between late January and early June 1951. The combined units encircled and annihilated the enemy's large forces north of Seoul and in the Rinje and Hyonri districts on the eastern sector of the front, inflicting heavy losses upon the enemy in manpower and technical equipment. This frustrated the enemy's new adventurous "large-scale offensive," throwing him into utter confusion.* * On April 11,1 951 Truman shifted the blame for this defeat to MacArthur and, on the charge of repeatedly "overriding his commission" against the US foreign policy, removed him from the post of Commander of the US Forces in the Far East and that of "Commander of the UN Forces" and appointed as his successor Ridgway, Commander of the 8th Army. The KPA units further steeled themselves in operations and mastered night and mountain warfare so that they could quickly turn the enemy's flank in a mountainous area at night and encircle and annihilate his large force. More strategic reserves were prepared to reinforce the main frontline units, and the coast defence units expanded to decisively strengthen coast defence. The victory at the third stage of war turned the tide of war further in favour of the KPA, enabling it to make full preparations for eventually bringing the US imperialists to their knees in the next tactical stage. Having suffered a string of ignominious defeats, the US imperialists were compelled to fall back to the vicinity of the 38th Parallel. They realized no "large-scale offensive" could subdue the Korean people, and there rose a sad cry, "It would be lucky to make a truce at the 38th Parallel." (US State Secretary Acheson.) The myth about the "might" of US imperialism was smashed to atoms and Jts vulnerability and corruption were fully exposed before the people of the world.* * Acknowledging their ignominious defeat at the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee in May 1951, Bradley, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: "Frankly speaking,.,, the strategy of 'fighting for unification of Korea' involved us in the wrong war at the wrong place, at the wrong time and with the wrong enemy." (Robert Murphy. Diplomat among Soldiers. Tokyo, p. 450.) 321

4. ACTIVE POSITIONAL DEFENSIVE OPERATIONS

Start of Positional Defensive Operations. The Opening of Armistice Negotiations In June 1951, the battle tine was basically fixed along the 38th Parallel, which marked the beginning of the fourth stage of the war. In the one-year course of the war the US imperialists suffered as much losses of manpower and combat and technical equipment as more than half of those they had suffered in the whole period of World War II. However, in an attempt to recover from their defeat they resorted to vicious manoeuvrings. While strongly reinforcing their troops, air force, tanks and artillery firepower, they watched for a chance to break through the front and to land troops on the east and west coasts. In such a military and political situation, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung laid down a new strategic policy to frustrate all the enemy's offensive manoeuvres, deal him deadly blows and win final victory, His strategic policy in the fourth stage of the war involved active positional defensive operations aimed at maintaining the existing battle line and ceaselessly striking at and wiping out the enemy, while preparing conditions for ultimate victory by gaining time to increase the fighting capacity of the KPA and consolidate the rear. In advancing this policy, he presented it as a task to make defence positions tunnel-like so that active positional operations could be launched against the technically superior enemy. This method of warfare was a new, original one as it had great advantage not only in securing the KPA units from the enemy's ground and aerial observations and radiolocators, effectively -protecting their manpower, weapons, and combat and technical equipment from all kinds of the enemy's attacks and strikes, but also in ensuring their systematic combat actions and, especially, in preparing and carrying out countercharges and assaults. The KPA units waged a vigorous struggle to build solid tunnel positions along the existing battle line, displaying the revolutionary 322 spirit of braving all hardships. As a result, a powerful defence system comprising mainly tunnels was completed along the battle line and on the east and west coasts in a short span of time, turning the positions into an impregnable fortress * • Clark, the third Commander of the UN Forces, said: "...the communist positions on the battle line are made up of underground forts, in some part extending as far as 25 miles to the rear. They are linked from the east to the west coast of Korea and their structures extremely solid, and, therefore, most of them are secure from aerial and artillery attacks." Exclaiming in despairthat the defence line, "far stronger than the two defence lines" of Germany's West wall defences and Siegfried line, "is probably the strongest one ever known in the world, ' he could not but confess that there was no hope of success either in frontal attacks or in landing operations. (Clark, The Hidden History of the Korean War, Korean 3d., Seoul, p. 159.) Artillery firepower was also increased in the digged-in positions.* In view of the fact that nearly 80 per cent, of the country's terrain consisted of mountains, high angle firepower was increased on a large scale and direct fire guns were pulled up on hills to smash at once the enemy's pill-boxes and tanks on the opposite hills. Moreover, mobile artillery batteries were organized in the coastal defence positions to fight better with the enemy's warships. * In July and August 1951, the artillery force on the front, even without counting the mortars, increased over two times. This made Clark shriek: From the late autumn of 1951 the front was suddenly enveloped with flames by the artillery attacks of the communist army." (Ibid.) The KPA units intensified their military actions to destroy as many enemy's technical material as possible. They repulsed the enemy's attacks in good time, firmly maintaining the initiative in the war. Towards the end of June, 1951, the US imperialists proposed holding armistice talks. l This proposal, needless to say, was made chiefly due to their repeated ignominious defeats, but it did not mean that they had given up their aggressive design. By proposing the truce talks, the crafty enemies sought to pacify the world public opinion denouncing their aqgression on Korea, making believe that they wanted the cessation of the war and the restoration of peace. But what they hoped to do actually through the proposed talks was either to achieve their aggressive designs, which they had failed to on the front, or, if this was impossible, to reinforce their forces behind the screen of the talks and launch a new military offensive. Seeing through the US imperialists' scheme to use the armistice negotiations for their aggressive aims, the respected leader Comrade 323

Kim 11 Sung clarified a principled stand and attitude towards negotiations. This principled stand and attitude was, in a word, to get ready for both armisticeand the long-drawn-out war. Namely, it wasto make an utmost effort for armistice but not accept in any case an unfair truce, detrimental to the interests of the Korean people, and realize a triumphant truce by further increasing our forces and decisively smashing the enemy's military offensive in face of their military reinforcement behind the armistice talks. The armistice negotiations started on July 10, 1951, but due to the unreasonable arguments of the US imperialists, they could not proceed smoothly. When the problem of fixing the military demarcation line was discussed, the US imperialists put forward very absurd and shameless arguments. They rejected the DPRK side's reasonable proposal on effecting a ceasefire with the 38th Parallel as the military demarcation line (the 38th Parallel was a line most contiguous to the present line of military confrontation) and claimed that the military demarcation line should be fixed far to the north of the battle line. The pretext was that their air and naval forces were predominant. They schemed to wrest a very important military strategic area (amounting to 13,000 square kilometres or one-twentieth of the total Korean territory) north of the battle line. Our side resolutely rejected the absurd claim of the US imperialists It maintained that if the argument brought forth by the US imperialists was valid, the argument that the military demarcation line should be fixed along the line of Pusan, the southernmost tip, should be far cogent since our units and guerrillas had advanced to that area. This logic of our side completely silenced the enemy's argument. Now that their scheme was frustrated in face of our side's decided refutation, the US imperialists unilaterally suspended the armistice talks while trying to carry into effect their plan for a new military offensive which they had. prepared behind the talks. Frustration of the Summer and Autumn Offensives. Heroic Battle for Height 1211 The aim of the US imperialists in the new offensive wasto capture the mountain areas of strategic importance along the eastern and central sectors of the front and push the front further northward. By 324 nnttina such military pressure on our side, they were going to make it SSS? their Unfair proposals at the truce talks so as to achieve an "honourable armistice" and become a victor . The enemy made a feint of large-scale offensive ,n the western sector of the front. Meanwhile, he secretly massed a huge force ,n the fastem seTtor and made preparations for landing m the areas of Wnnsan and Tonqchon on the east coast. Having seen Through this insidious scheme of the enemy ,n good time the resected leader Comrade Kim II Sung took a w,se step to Hprisivelv smash the enemy's offensive. He foSaw that the eastern sector of the front would bear the brunt of the enemy's offensive, and took a bold st ep « defence units on the west coast quickly to the eastern sector Healso saw that powerful defences were prepared on and around Height 1211 that strong reserve units were formed and that the east coast defences -fortified in order to foil the enemy's attempt at landing. deffinM eove he sapped up political work among the soldiers ,sc .that they miqht understand the essence of the strategic policy J stage of the war and be firmly resolved to defend every inch of the land W According to their plan for a new offensive prepared behind the truce talks ?he US imperialists launched an unusually arge-scale attack on ou positions in the eastern sector of the front , n mid- August. The enemy poured in tens of thousands of shells and bombs every day and Sen Stacked our positions in waves with the support of tank* The heroic men and officers of the KPA, true to the . orcler of

The text on this page is estimated to be only 29.97% accurate strongpoint. That was why we defended it to the last at all costs." The enemy attacked Height 121 1 with desperation and the KPA soldiers fought heroically to repulse him. This was due to the strategic importance of the height.* 'It was a strategically important height situated in The key point of the eastern sector of the tram. If the enemy took it, he could advance at a stretch as far as the Wonsan line. Therefore, the US Sth Army Command regarded it as an important object of attack during the "summer and autumn offensives." Mobilizing all the available combat and technical equipment the enemy showered 30,000 to 40,000 shells and bombs on Height 1 21 1 daily. Rocks on the height were crushed into powder, hundreds-yearsold big trees uprooted, and the peaks lowered by one metre on an average. But the defenders of the height were never daunted even in a sea of flames. They fought heroically, inflicting death wholesale on the enemy who made scores of attacks every day. They held Party and servicemen's meetings, where they made a firm resolution to defend to the last Height 1211, the height dear to the fatherland, and pledged to the respected ieader Comrade Kim II Sung, Supreme Commander, to fight on dauntlesslv emulating the anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters.* * A letter sent to the respected Supreme Commander, which carried the burning determination of the combatants, ran thus: "General Kim II Sung, our respected Supreme Commander! "We combatants of the heavy machine gun platoon respectfully write this tettenn the trenches on Height 1211 in the midst of powder-smoke. "Upholding your order that we must not yield even an inch of land, we have already defended this height for a week.... As long as we remain alive, we will never yield an inch of irte land where our children are growing like lovely flowers, of our land filled with the lofty spirit of the anti-Japanese guerrillas who devoted their lives to the dauntless revolutionary struggle for the freedom and liberation of the fatherland. "Comrade Supreme Commander! Rest at ease. So long as yoursoldiers are in the trenches. Height 1211 will belong forever to the fatherland. .. ' We will defend it with honour under whatever circumstances." Defenders of Height 1211, sacrificing their youth without hesitation, blocked enemy pillboxes with their chests to make breaches for their advancing units. They plunged into the midst of the enemy, carrying bundles of hand grenades, to mow him down, and restored communications with their bodies. When ammunition ran out, they rolled down rocks and rushed in at the bayonet charge. 326 The people rendered energetic support to the battle for Height 1211. When the supply to the front was in difficulty due to a long spell of rain lasting over one month, they carried shells and ammunition and provisions on their heads and backs to the front, displaying a "do-ordie" spirit. When bridges were destroyed by enemy bombings, they rebuilt them at once. At times, they jumped into rivers to sustain makeshift bridges with their shoulders so as to pass trucks boundtothe ^"such mass heroism displayed by the defenders of Height 1211 and the people was the manifestation of their infinite loyalty to the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung and of their ardent love for the country and nation. The enemy's "summer and aufumn offensives" were completely frustrated early in November 1951 thanks to the correct operational policy and wise guidance of the respected leader Comrade Kim If Sung, the great military strategist, and to the heroic struggles of the KPA men and officers and people who were boundlessly faithful to him,* - Even according to the fiqures released by The US imperialists, for their attacks on Height 1 21 1 they spent two months of time, suffered a loss of 6,000 (the actual figure being over 1 5.800) effectives and "consumed an astronomical amount of war supplies" including 250 tons of bombs and 697,000 and more shells {Annals of Land Warfare, edited by the Society for Publication and Diffusion of The Annals of Land Warfare, Vol. IX, Tokyo.) But, HeighT 1211 remained as ever a heighT of the Korean people, "the height of heroes. The enemy called This heighT "Heartbreak Ridge" because he was heartbroken whenever he looked aT hand named The ravine below it "Punch Bowl as no one emerged from it alive. Having suffered a complete, ignominious defeat in the "summer and autumn offensives" which he had launched, clamouring that only victory in battle is precondition for success in negotiations (Ub Btn Army Commander Van Fleet)," the enemy was compelled to come again to the table of the armistice talks which he had unilaterally broken off and to accept the proposals of our side on the fixing of a military demarcation line and establishment of a demilitarized zone strictly on the basis of the existing battle line, withdrawing his unreasonable claims. However, this time he again tried to bring the talks to rupture by advancing an unjustified claim regarding the problem of the repatriation of war prisoners, putting forward such absurd claims as "voluntary repatriation." 327

Original Juche-Based Tactics. Positive Military Action of the KPA From the beginning of 1952, in order to overwhelm the muchvaunted "technical superiority" of the US imperialists, the units of the KPA intensified positive military operations based on the Jucheoriented methods of warfare created by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung. He said: "... our units took positive defence actions and seized the initiative all along the front, launching an energetic movement of assault parties, aircraft- and tank-hunting teams and sniper teams." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed„ Vol. 7, p. 371.) The activities of the storming, aircraft-hunting, tank-hunting and snipers' teams were the Juche-based methods of warfare, that is, the development and enrichment of the original methods of warfare initiated by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung during the anti-Japanese armed struggle to suit the requirements of modern warfare. These positive methods of warfare were adapted for foiling the enemy's operations by restricting his actions in his forward defence areas and destroying his effectives and combat and technical equipment in the depth of his rear. Among these diverse methods of warfare, the assault, the night assault in particular, was an effective one. It made it possible to firmly take the initiative in the warthrough thefurther increase of positiveness of defence and overpower the enemy's "technical superiority" with tactical superiority. Drawing on the experience already gained in the struggle of the storming groups, the units of the KPA developed in activities of the groups from a small to a large extent and from the assault on a separate target in a certain area to the simultaneous attacks on several targets in wider areas. The storming groups broke through the enemy's wireentanglements and mined zones and frequently raided major objects in the enemy's forward areas, headquarters, signal posts, artillery batteries, concentration centres and magazines. From the latter half of 1952 they extended the scope of assault by successively raiding and overriding the fortified enemy defences in many places under the powerful artillery support and in close cooperation with various arms. While making assaults on the enemy's forward defence line and strong points, the KPA storming groups broke into the rear of enemy 328 units and boldly raided and destroyed their headquarters, signal posts, concentration centres, artillery firing positions, tanks and other important targets. In the year of 1 952 alone, they made as many as more than 480 daring assaults, dealing the enemy a telling blow and striking terror and unrest in his heart at all times. The activities of the snipers' groups also played an important role in increasinq the positiveness of defence. As the opposing forces were confronting each other, relying on solid defensive positions, the sni pers shot as many enem.es at ; poss, ble without letup, thereby restricting the enemy s individual and collective actions. After the start of the movement of the snipers' groups the ranks of its participants expanded rapidly and their activities Jeanne in tenser From May 1952 the members of the snipers groups put up the slogan "Let's sally forth, find out and shoot the enemy!" and waged an active struggle. They sallied forth in search of the enemy, rather than S * or "him to tu rn up and shot everything on the move as soon as ,t came in sight. The intensified activities of the snipers' groups compelled the enemy to stop his action in the daytime and prefer separate action to cEive one He felt very uneasy every day with the constant fear of be h shot straight by the KPA snipers. The back sides o hills .formerly regarded as "places of safety" all turned into places of death for the enemy. . ■ . , The tank-hunting groups broke through the stnetly guarded enemy line and penetrated deep in his rear, where they laid ant _tank mines or ambushed and attacked the enemy tanks coming to the toward defence areas or destroyed them in their as»mbly positions by su rp'se attacks. The enemy lost over 200 tanks in 1 952 at the hands of the heroic tank-hunting groups of the KPA. The aircraft- hunting groups, which were organized at the end of 1 950 developed their activities to a higher stage in the fourth stage ot the war and thus played a great role i n smashing the "aerial su periority °f Reactivities had a characteristic feature in that it usee I various small arms as the principal means of the anti-aircraft defence The who e country presented a forest of guns, that is, tens of thousand of rifles light and heavy machine guns and anti-tank guns. The aircrafthunting groups armed with them shot down numerous enemy planes As can be seen, by skillfully applying the diverse, Juche-based methods of warfare de-loped in person by Supreme ^ommand" Comrade Kim II Sung, the units of the heroic KPA could increase tne 329

positiveness of the positional defence and deal a telling blow at the enemy, firmly taking the initiative in the war at all times. Consolidation of the Rear. Preparations for Postwar Reconstruction As the war assumed a protracted character, a vigorous struggle was waged to consolidate the rear all the more in keeping with the requirements of modern warfare. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Foremost among the permanently-operating factors in contributing to the outcome of a war is stability of the home front which constitutes the basis for the military power of a state and the combat capability of its armed forces." (Ibid d 389.) The most important thing in the consolidation of the rear was to strengthen the Party, the organizer and guiding force for victory of war, tighten the ties between it and the people and fortify people's power' In those days "Left" deviations were seriously revealed in the field of Party building due to some anti- Party elements including Ho Ga I who held a leading post in the Party. They did great harm to this field. At the Plenary Meeting of the Central Committet. of the WPK held in November 1951, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung made a historic report entitled On Some Defects in the Organizational Work of Party Organizations. In the report, he deeply analyzed and criticized their vicious acts and set forth the tasks for expanding and strengthening the Party and rallying the broad revolutionary forces around it. He first made clear again the nature of the Party as a mass-based party of the working class and other working people, severely denounced the tendency towards the "Leftist" closed-doorism of denying admission on various pretexts, and stressed that the work of increasing Party membership should be properly done so that the advanced workers, peasants, armymen and working intellectuals who had been tested in the course of war might be widely admitted into the Party. Setting forth the task of thoroughly overcoming the tendency towards the penalty-first policy, he taught that unjustified penalties should be cancelled, corrected or remitted as soon as possible, and stressed that the education of Party members should be intensified so that they would observe discipline in the Party voluntarily. 330 Guarding strictly against the tendency towards underestimating the significance of united front under the wartime conditions, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung gave earnest teachings on the need to further strengthen united front work in keeping with the difficult wartime conditions. He then pointed out that one of the mam causes of all the Lett deviations revealed in Party work was the bureaucratic and formatistic styles of work found among some functionaries, and stressed the need to wage an all- Party struggle against them. After the plenary meeting, a powerful struggle was launched to remove the aftereffects of "Leftist" closed-doorism and penalty-first policy. In the course of the struggle, the Party ranks grew rapidly and the Party grew into a powerful one with a membership of more than one million. And the political and ideological consciousness of Party members was heightenedconsiderably, their activity and creativeness increased the bonds between the Party and the masses tightened all the more, and the militancy and leading role of the Party enhanced. The struggle against bureaucratism was also vigorously waged. In this the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sungs speech The Tasks and Role of the Local Organs of Power at the Present Stage in February 1 952 was of great significance. _ Through the struggle against bureaucratism and for the strengthening of the organs of people's power, the bureaucra -c sty e of work that is, a practice of issuing orders and sticking to administrative methods on the pretext of wartime conditions, was criticized and rectified the function and role of the power organs further enhanced and their kindred ties with the masses cemented still more. While improving and strengthening the work of the Party and power organs and rallying the masses .closely around the Party the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung dynamically pushed ahead with the struggle for wartime production and the preparations tor postwar reconstruction. „a«™,ai Even under the difficult wartime conditions he called a national meeting of peasant activists, a national meeting of activists in the field ofTndustry a'nd transport and other such meetings f?7«|Ous branches of the national economy and brought the patriotic devotion and initiative of the workers and peasants into full play. He gave personal guidance at factories and in villages and urged the working people to struggle vigorously to increase production. ntfnrt^fnr The working people all over the country made strenuous efforts for wartime production. . , ..... The peasants were in difficult circumstances. Irrigation facilities had been destroyed, the supply of electricity and chemical fertilizers 331

stopped, and manpower and draft animals insufficient. But, displaying the revolutionary spirits of relying on oneself and enduring hardships and making strenuous efforts, they unfolded a vigorous mass movement for increased grain production. More women joined the rank's of operators of ploughs, and a movement was widely afoot to yield large crops. Air observation posts were set up everywhere and, in defiance of the barbaric bombings of the enemy planes, spring plowing, sowing, rice-transplanting and harvesting were finished ahead of the set time. The peasants near the battle line organized armed workteams to fight the enemy and do farming at the same time. The Party and the Government, under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, took various positive measures to ensure success in wartime agricultural production. In order to meet the shortage of farm rnachinesand implements, farm machine-hire stations were increased in spite of all sorts of difficulties. State- run agro-stock farms were organized with the displaced war victims. During the war, the numbers of the farm machine- hire stations and the state agro-stock farms increased 3 and 5.7 times respectively. Furthermore, in order to fill the shortage of manpower and draft animals, "ox-sharing teams," "mutual-help farming teams" and other types of cooperative labour were widely encouraged. "Battle-line joint workteams" were organized in the areas near the front All these acquired great importance in the successful wartime agricultural production and prepared a favourable condition for the future cooperativization of agriculture. The workers also launched various struggles for increased production. They conducted a vigorous movement to create new norms and did not stop production even though power stations and production facilities had been destroyed and raw material was in short supply. When the electric supply was cut, they worked machines by their hands to produce shells. They built small-scale furnaces in deep ravines to smelt iron and forwarded the emulation movement for increased production. They ensured with a self-sacrificing spirit the wartime transport, braving ceaseless unscrupulous bombings of enemy planes. Even under the difficult conditions of war, much effort was directed to the production of daily necessities. Light industry factories were evacuated separately in safety zones to continue production. Moreover, no small number of medium and small-scale local industry factories were newly erected. Producers' cooperatives were organized by way of merging means of production owned by individuals and pooling their labour. This was of great significance not only in meeting the wartime needs for daily necessities but also in carrying out the socialist reorganization of private trade and industry in the future. 332 Thanks to the devoted struggle of the working people for wartime production, the wartime national economic plans for 1951 and T9&2 were successfully carried out. In 1952, gross industna output value grew to 119 per cent and the total grain output to 113 per cent ^as compared with 1 951 . A marked success was registered in the fields of education, culture and public health as well. By the end of 1952 schools of all levels were brought into norma! operation, and a universal free medical service at state expense was introduced in ^ThVqreat leader Comrade Kim II Sung, who, always clearly foreseeing the future of the development of the revolution, solves problems by closely combining the immediate and future needs sav* r to it that the wartime economic construction, too, was linked with the oreoarations for postwar reconstruction. P The work of building a machine-building industry base was started under the difficult wartime conditions in order to ensure the wartime production of munitions and make sure the rapid rehab.htation of the destroyed national economy after the wan The quest.cn of building a modern machine-building industry was discussed at the Political Committee of the Party Central Committee held in August 1 951 and much effort was directed at once to building large-scale machine- building factories in Huichon, and other different areas. Along with the creation of a machine-building industry, preparations were made to rehabilitate the metal, electric, coal, chemical building-materials and other key industrial branches, and the scientif c researches into the industrial production of vmalon and the preparations for the construction of its plant were stepped up. In the meantime, investigations of actual conditions of the destroyed factories and towns and the work of mapping out plans for their reconstruction and making designs were pushed forward^ In early 1 951 the desiqners, under instruction from the great leader Lomraoe Kim il Sung, started making designs to build Pyongyang more beautifully and magnificently. Reforestation nurseries were laid tor town building. , . . . A large-scale nature- remaking project for reclaiming land was Planrnd1952 Surveyors' group formed personally by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung surveyed the inland alpine regions and the tideland on the west coast. . , A deep attention was paid to the training of nat.ve cadres and the development of science and technology in spite of the difficult COn^nL°toWw,rse measures taken by the respected leader Comrade 333

Kim II Sung, a large number of combatants were recalled from the battle line and sent to the institutions of higher learning to be trained for postwar reconstruction and socialist construction, and Kim II Sung University and all the other colleges and training institutions were evacuated in safety zones for normal operation. A congress of scientists was held in Pyongyang in April 1 952 and an Academy of Sciences founded in December. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung personally attended the congress and exhorted the scientists to establish Juehe in their scientific researches and carry on them giving primary consideration to the solution of problems urgently needed for developing the economy iri reliance on the domestic natural resources. He also set forth the tasks the scientists should carry out for the postwar reconstruction and development of the national economy. Thus, under the wise guidance of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung the Korean people could expedite wartime production and meet the demand of the front and, at the same time, could have a grand blueprint for postwar reconstruction already in the flames of the severe war and make active preparations for its materialization. Bestial Methods of Warfare Used by US Imperialists Having suffered repeated ignominious defeats before the mighty KPA, the US imperialists revealed their wolfish nature to the full. They made frantic efforts to bring the Korean people to their knees, employing the most atrocious methods of warfare ever known in history. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The American invaders are using the most barbarous, most brutal and mediaeval methods of warfare in our country. They have devastated all our peaceful towns and villages, have burnt our fields with napalm bombs, and are slaughtering the peaceful inhabitants, men and women, young and old, without discrimination. They are using bacteriological and chemical weapons both at the front and in the rear, and are killing our soldiers who were taken prisoner in cold blood. "The Americans calculated that they could threaten and subdue our people and other Asian peoples in that way, and 334 break their will to fight for liberty and independence," {Ibid. 387 ) The US imperialists foolishly hoped to frighten the Korean people and bring them to their knees by the most bestial method of warta* n flagrant violation of the international agreements on the ; Ration of war they mobilized the latest military technique and al i the jethal weapons and indiscriminately bombed education, pub he : he th and cultural establishments, to say nothing of peaceful residential areas factories, enterprises and villages of Korea. As ^^fJ/^^S all towns and villages were leveled to dust, mnoce n 'nhab.tente I k tiled and larqe and small factories, enterprises, hospitals, theatres ana schoolswere all destroyed. Already at the end of 1 950, they announced that "there are no more targets (to bomb) in Korea. *i At "the MacArthur Hearings" in June 1951, O'Doonel, Commander of the US Air Force in the Far East, said that the mission of his force was to reduce owns of orth Korea to heaps of ashes and destroy them totally so as to make the Korean people "get a terrible shock" from it and desist from the war. Then he pro ,dly slid about his bestiality: "Almost the whole Korean Peninsula is m an Xly tXfl" stat. Everything ,s being destroyed. Nothing worth ; — n, remains intact "("the MacArthur Hearings, June 25, 1951, the testimony ot °'D°-"nThe "MacArthur Hearings," June 25, 1951. the testimony of O'Donnel. These were the real facts of the "scorched -earth operationsmuch -vaunted openly by the US imperialists. These "operations were the tactics of the 20th-century cannibals aimed at exterminating all the living things and concrete objects in Korea. From the latter half of 1951, the US imperialists, launching the "summer and autumn offensives," resorted to the most atrocious tactics called the "strangulation operations." The "operations" were aimed at reducing the rear to a debris and cutting the front from the rear so as to prevent the supplies and reinforcements from reaching the battle line and thus strangling the People's Army. Forthis purpose, the US imperialist air pirates bombed not only the already destroyed towns but also lanes in valleys and stone bridges across streams. They took all as the targets of bombing and strafing, to say nothing of grazing calves, women doing washing and children on their way to school. In the area of Hwanghae Province alone, between July and Auqust 10 1951, 18,685 American planes made more than J,2UU rounds of bombings and strafings, destroying and burning down 4 458 dwelling houses and killing 6,894 inhabitants including 625 children. 335

In 1 952, on the order of Clark, Commander of the UN Forces, the "scorched -earth operations" and "strangulation operations" were stepped up with increasing frenzy with a view to "leaving nothing to be swept in north Korea" and "wiping off the map" 78 towns in the northern half. As a consequence, in the one year of 1 952, over 52,380 bombs of various kinds were dropped over Pyongyang alone, and as many as 428,700 or more napalm and other bombs in the three years of war. This means that one bomb for every citizen, or 8,000 bombs for every square kilometre were dropped. The fact alone clearly lays bare the bestiality of the enemy's indiscriminate bombings. However, the "strangulation operations," as they themselves admitted, could not "strangle" either the front or the rear and improve in the least their disadvantageous situation in the war. Driven mad by the failure of their "strangulation operations," the US imperialists bombed, as their last resort, power stations and reservoirs which were closely related to the people's livelihood. On June 23, T952, Clark, acting upon the directive of Truman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, carried out a large-scale bombing of the Supung Power Station, the biggest of such kind in Korea, and then of many power stations including the Changjingang, Pujongang and Hochongang power stations, totally destroying their dams and generating facilities. In 1 953, with truce near at hand, the enemy bombed at his option many large reservoirs in the northern half of the Republic to kill several thousands of peasants and plunge numerous villages and fertile land under water, thereby committing another beastly atrocity.* ' Some Japanese and American historians denounced such atrocity of the US imperialists, A Japanese historian charged against the bombings of power stations, saying: "It did not influence the general war situation and its political effect is in the minus side." (Kamiya Fuji, Korean War, Tokyo, p. 148.) A US historian made the following historical comparison: During the three years and one month of the Korean war the US imperialists dropped on the small area of north Korea as much tonnage of bombs as they had dropped on many Pacific countries during the three years and eight months of the Pacific War. It exceeded fargreater than that dropped on Germany during Worid War II. Besides, they fired 221 ,563,000 rockets and other projectiles at the Korean people. And US warships shot 438,000 tons of shells and four million bullets. (Hershel D. Meyer, The Modem History of the United States, Japanese ed., Kyoto, p. 41 6.) Having failed to bring the Korean people to their knees and "strangle" the People's Army in spite of the fact that the millions of bombs and hundreds of millions of machine-gun bullets from planes 336 were expensed, the dastardly US imperialists went so far as to wage a qerm warfare. . ■ , The plot to launch a microbe war in Korea was woven in real earnest already from the autumn of 1950.* * The US pilots who took part in the criminal germ warfare perpetrated by the US imposts in Korea and were captured by our side made ^«*™* he crime In their written confessions and statements, four US pilots mclud ng Colon" Frank H Schewable belonging to the US Marine Corps laid bare the fns de facts of the germ warfare And 19 pilots including Colonel Walker Wl Mafurin o the US Air Force, citing concrete facts, gave testimonies as to how the crime had been plotted and developed. Their confessions and statements are 3ZS on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in Korea. (Pyongyang, 1 95 According to their testimonies, the US imperialists committed the atrocity ■ of nerm warfare in conspiracy with the Japanese militarists. They took over the jZn^ imperialists ' "731st unit" and other bacteriological research insttSsTnd employed Ishii Shiro and other Japanese g---3,^^1^^ carry on researches into germ weapons. They nursed germs m Japan and the US mainland and manufactured germ bombs in Japan The plot was carried out in two stages. The first stage of the microbe war was the "experimental stage" for the selection of targets for effective dropping of germ bombs and for the *wl°pmen : o\ Mhe method of dropping and the tactics of germ warfare. The second stage was the "stage of all-out operations" for the confirmation of the infected areas and the carrying out of the concentrated dropping. At the "experimental stage" the germ weapons were applied to the POWsof the Republic. The US imperialists took out matters needed tor germtculture from the bodies of the prisoners of war ^ conducted over 3,000 experiments in the laboratory of a special boat for bacteriology, infecting 1 ,400 of them with serious diseases and 80 per cent of all the POWs with various other diseases. On the basis of the results of experiments on the efficacy of germ bomb made on the prisoners in October 1951 the US Joint Chiefs of Staff gave out a directive for the start of a germ warfare tn Korea, and Wayland Commander of the US Air Force in the For East, was to execute the directive. Concrete assignments were given to the Commanders of the US Fifth Air Force and the 1 9th Bomber Wing on °kmActing upon the directive, "B-29s" started the germ warfare of the "expelenta" stage" in November 1 951 . From the Matter part of May 1 952 at the operational stage, its scope was extended. Infected areas were 'fixed and the disorderly separate droppings changed to a Concentrated dropping. In this way the infected areas were reimected once for every ten days.*2 337

The text on this page is estimated to be only 25.79% accurate The statement of December 6, 1952, made by Frank H Schewable, Colonel of the US Marine Corps," (Documents on Atrocities of the US Aggressors in Korea, pp. 130-31 & 133-40.) *2 An infected belt was to be created afong the line running across the central part of north Korea. The First Air Wing of the US Marine Corps was assigned to the left flank, to which belonged Sinanju, Kunu-ri and their neighbourhood and the section between them. The Air Force was assigned to the rather bigger section ranging from Kunu-ri to the spot 30 miles away from the east coast. The Navy took charge of the right flank. ("The statement of December 1 9, 1 952, made by Frank H. Schewable, Colonel of the US Marine Corps," ibid., pp. 139-40.) The germ bombs were filled with flies, fleas, spiders, bedbugs, mosquitoes, lice, beetles, crickets and other noxious insects infected with vicious epidemic bacilli such as cholera, pest and typhus.* * fn March 1952, in order to make on-the-spot investigations of bacterial atrocity committed by US imperialism in Korea, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers sent to Korea a delegation led by Brandweiner, Professor of international law at Graz University, Austria, and in August the same year an international scientific commission comprising noted germ experts came to Korea, investigated the bacterial atrocity of US imperialism and made public a report. According to the "Report on US Crimes in Korea" made public on March 31, 1952, by the Commission of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, different kinds of insects were found in 169 areas of north Korea, and in 1 5 of them the above-mentioned insects infecied with epidemic bacilli discovered. {Ibid., p. 363 ) Adducing all the evidences in its report of August 31 , 1 952, the International Scientific Commission made up of Dr. Andrei n Andrea, Chief of the Central Clinical Laboratory, Hospital Control Bureau, Stockholm, Sweden, Prof, Jean Martel, Chief of the Zoophysiologicaf Laboratory, the State Grignon Agricultural Institute, France, and other celebrated scholars from Great Britain, Italy, the Soviet Union and China, pointed out that [he United States "actually used such inhuman methods" and that the germ warfare was the development of the method the Japanese army had used during World War II. (Ibid., p. 447.) Due to the US imperialists' criminal atrocity of germ warfare, various infectious diseases never known before broke out in places where germ bombs had been dropped and they took a toll of precious lives of people. However, thanks to the order of the Military Committee on intensifying an anti- bacterial warfare, the prompt measures taken by the Party and the Government and the ali-people campaign, the germ bombs were discovered at once and the germ carriers stamped out, with the result that most of them proved ineffective. And the bestial microbe war perpetrated by the US imperialists in an attempt to make up for their shameful failures in the "scorched -earth and strangulation operations" was frustrated before its objective was attained. 338 The US imperialists committed a dreadful atrocity of murder against the POWs of the Republic who had made an objection to their inhuman treatment and claimed the rights of POWs as provided for tn the international laws. They murdered them by vanous mediaeval methods They even used them as the objects of experiment for atomic and germ weapons and chemical warfare, as the targets of ball -firing and the objects of the efficiency test of arms. Especially abominable was the outrage committed on the Republic's POWs who were opposed to the forced "voluntary repatriation" {in fact, forced detention) and demanded their repatriation to the DPRK A typical example of it was the mass murder committed at the camps on the island of Koje in February and May 1952. ■ A detailed account of the inhuman outrage committed on the war is given in the Japanese edition of The US Army in Korea published ,n Tokyo under joint authorsh.p of Wilfred G. Burchett and Alan Wmnmgton. The US imperialists used the "CIA" agents in forcing the so-called "voluntary repatriation" upon the Republic's POWs who demanded their repatriation to it. They forced them to write ' petitions, tattoo such slogans as "Destroy Communism" and "Oppose Communism on parts of their bodies. Those who still refused were either massacred with machine guns or burned to death by flame-throwers. ' On June 15, 1951, in POW Compound No. 62 or, Koje Island over 1 00 prisoners were massacred at one time as targets of ma f™*™ ball- irmg. On February 18 1952, those prisoners who had protested against the derivation of their right to repatriation and the forcible reclassif ication of them as "c?vn™emees" w^re raided by surprise and 21 4of them killed or wounded on the spot. (The US Army in Korea, Tokyo, pp. 59-60.) Another atrocity of massacre took place on May 23, 1 952 A ■ ener sen t from the prisoners of war affords abundant evidence of it. Some extracts of the letter are as follows: "We write this appeal with the blood of our hearts. "...Not a day, not a night but the sacrifice of some of our On May 1 8 . in Compound No. 76 .1 3 of our comrades were M led in public, theiHeas and armstornoff. On the same day, at three divisions of Compound Ife 77 ° US i troops^sed tear gas against POWs, killing 24 of our comrades and depriving 46 of their eyesights. f,|«>iv "On May 19 1952, in Compound No. 66, the American devils... falsely announced .hat all the POWs willing to return to north Korea should assemb e SS own barracks by 7 p.m. ready to embark ... While =re =g into line, American soldiers opened fire with mach.ne guns and ™d used even tanks killing 127 of our comrades and wounding many more. Un two successive days' May 20 and 21, in the four divisions of our camp, more than 1 000 o our comrades were summoned to the offices of the American military police and the Tow Camp Commandant to be subjected to the so-called Pvo untary repatriation' question ings. 422 of our comrades have not returned till 339

now, while more than 100 returned bleeding all over with fractured arms and dagger wounds in their breasts, with their backs, arms and breasts branded with disgraceful characters.... On May 22 and 23 the American military police committed bloody slaughter in Compounds 60 and 73.. . Eighty-eight comrades were killed and 39 were wounded by machine gun fire and hand grenades.... There is no limit to the brutality of the American murderers.... No matter how hard they try threats of hanging, torture, and bacterial, chemical, atomic and other lethal weapons, our hearts and minds are always with the fatherland, people and General Kim II Sung, out leader." (This letter signed by 6.223 POWs on May 23 1952, was smuggled out of strictly guarded Koje Island and passed on to their fatherland.) This was the truth of the so-called "humanitarian voluntary repatriation" much advertized by the US imperialists. As the progressive world public opinion rightly points out, no period throughout human history, in all ages and countries, be' it a period of the worst despotic rule or a period of darkness overridden by fascist hangmen, and no bloody war of aggression, has ever seen such a record of barbarities that surpass, in brutality and bestiality, the atrocities of murder committed by the US imperialists in the Korean war. The crimes committed by US imperialism in Korea revealed to the whole world that it is the most vicious barbarian ever known in human history, the devilish homicide of the 20th century and a two-legged beast.* * Katayama who translated The US Army in Korea into Japanese writes: "The US murder of POWs was the product of the higher politics designed to achieve a higher and far-reaching political aim (obstruction of the truce talk— Quoter) than the case of atrocity committed by the Japanese army." "The US troops' violence, such as outrage and murder at the front, indiscriminate bombings, the use of napalm bombs and a germ warfare, reached the zenith in this aggressive war in Korea. "The United States is certainly an abominable higher barbarian." (The US Army in Korea, p. 3. ) The Korean people never yielded to such bestiality of the US imperialists, nor they were scared of it. On the contrary, they nursed intenser hatred and hostile feeling against them and fought more heroically to retaliate on them a thousand and one times. The whole course of the Korean war showed in actual fact that the numerical and technical superiority of US imperialism, its "strangulation operations," germ warfare, atrocities of mass murder and all the other barbarous war methods met with total destruction. 340 International Support and Encouragement International solidarity with the Korean people was constantly strengthened throughout the Fatherland Liberation War. Al! the peaceloving people of the world, not to speak of the people of the socialist countries, rendered active support and encouragement to the Korean people. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The US imperialist armed invasion of Korea is arousing the indignation of the peoples the world over. In many countries of the world including the Soviet Union, China, France, Britain, Germany, Australia, Italy, Pakistan, and Japan, and even in the United States itself, popular movements are unfolded against US imperialist aggression in our country under the slogan 'Hands Off Korea!' The just cause of our people for the freedom and independence of the country is receiving warm support and encouragement from the freedom-loving peoples of the whole world." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.r Vol. I, pp. 301-02.) The peoples of the Soviet Union and all the other socialist countries gave active material and moral support to the Korean people, and particularly the Chinese people assisted them with blood by sending the volunteers. Through their statements and at international bodies and meetings, the parties, governments and social organizations of the socialist countries denounced the US imperialists for their crimes committed in Korea and strongly demanded that they stop their aggressive act at once. They informed the peopfe of their countries of the US atrocities and the heroic struggle of the Korean people and directly sent people's delegations and consolatory groups to Korea to encourage the Korean people in their struggle. The peoples of the socialist countries established Week tor Solidarity with the Korean People" and the "Week for Supporting Korea" and organized various functions and campaigns, such as mass demonstrations, meetings, exhibitions and drives for increased production, to lay bare and denounce the bestiality and aggressive nature of US imperialism and strengthen solidarity with the Korean people. They formed the "committees for assisting Korea," "committees for helping and protecting the Korean war victims" and teams for 341

collecting presents and launched vigorous campaigns to aid Korea The "Kim II Sung Brigades" and "Korea Brigades" were formed and all the income from the emulation drives for increased production and overtime work was offered for Korean aid. They bought foodstuffs, clothing, fabrics, daily necessities, medicines, hospital equipment, ambulance cars and many otheraid goods with a huge sum of aid fund collected through various forms of aid campaigns and sent them to Korea. Moreover, they sent medical groups and health teams to give medical assistance to the Korean people and took over and looked after many war orphans in their countries. The active support and encouragement given by the peoples of the socialist countries greatly inspired the Korean people and the People's Army and played an important part in hastening victory in the war. The more the US imperialists expanded their war of aggression, the greater the support and encouragement of the international democratic organizations and the freedom- loving peoples of the whole world to the just cause of the Korean people became. The International Federation of Trade Unions, the World Federation of Democratic Youth, the International Democratic Women's Union, the World Council of Peace and other international democratic organizations and bodies attached at that time importance to the Korean support and anti-imperialist struggle in their activities and waged their struggle, calling for the cessation of the US imperialists' aggression on Korea, the withdrawal of the US army from Korea and the peaceful solution of the Korean problem. Through international meetings and the activities of their investigation commissions, they fully laid bare and denounced the bestial atrocities committed by US imperialism in Korea and aggressive nature of USjmperialism and roused a larger number of world people to join the movements supporting and encouraging the Korean people in their struggle. The peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America who were opposed to imperialism and colonialism stepped up the anti-imperialist national-liberation struggles in their countries, drawing infinite inspiration from the great victories won by the heroic Korean people, and expressed their internationalist solidarity with the Korean people through various forms of struggle against colonialism. The peoples in many Southeast Asian countries and Middle and Near East countries held meetings denouncing the atrocity of germ warfare and massacre of POWs committed by the US imperialists in Korea and demanding the immediate stoppage of their aggressive war and lent their militant support and encouragement to the Korean people. The Latin -American peoples fought against the sinister machinations of their pro-US reactionary governments to dispatch 342 aggressive troops to the Korean front on the request of US imperialism, and most of those who had been pressganged in the name of "volunteers" deserted, dealing a blow at the US imperialists' plan for war escalation. The people's anti-war movements prevented all the Latin-American countries except Colombia from dispatching their aggressive troops to the Korean front. The world peace-loving people condemned the US imperialists, shouting the slogan "US imperialism, take your blood-stained hands off Korea!" and rendered international support and encouragement to the Korean people. The working classes and progressive perjple in the capitalist countries struck a blow at US imperialism in carrying out its aggressive war, by rejecting the loading and transportation of the aggressive troops and munitions bound for the Korean front and fighting against the manufacture of war goods.* * A workers' self-defence corps at the port of Singapore destroyed 27 armoured cars and 20 heavy tanks of the British mercenary troops hound for Korea. In other places, too, weapons, ammunition and war supplies of the US army bound for the Korean front were thrown into the sea. Greek youths resolutely opposed the troops dispatch to Korea by the reactionary rulers of their country who schemed to make them cannon-fodders for US imperialism. They shouted "Greek should not become a second Turkey! The Turkish 1 7th Brigade which had taken part in the Korean war returned in bleached bones!" The struggle against the US imperialists' aggression on Korea went on in the United States, too. In the spring of 1 952 the US peace crusaders decided to launch a crusade against the atomic and germ warfares and opposed the US imperialists' microbe war in Korea. In November a massive workers' demonstration was held in New York against the Korean aggression of the US imperialists. More than 400 workers staged a three-day allnight demonstration in front of the UN Headquarters in demand of immediate cessation of the Korean war. "Save our sons!" was one of the principal slogans of the anti-war movement in the United States. The more serious defeat the US imperialists suffered in Korea, the greater the scope of the anti-war movement in the United States became. The vigorous anti-US struggle and anti-war movement of the world revolutionary people including the peoples of the socialist countries drove the US imperialists to a tighter corner, and the Korean people could further hasten victory in their Fatherland Liberation War amidst the powerful international support and encouragement. 343

5. Organizational And Ideological Consolidation Of The Workers' Party Of Korea. Failure Of The Us Imperialists' Military Adventure And The Victory Of The Korean People In The Great Fatherland Liberation War

Struggle to Temper the Party Spirit of Members of the WPK. Exposure and Purge of the Pak Hon Yong Clique Having suffered repeated severe blows as a result of the positive military actions of the heroic People's Army, the US imperialists made preparations for a large-scale "new offensive," instead of drawing a due lesson from their defeats. In December 1952 Eisenhower who had taken the presidential chair "inspected" the Korean front on the spot and pushed on the preparations for the "new offensive," saying: "Action is better than negotiations." {This "new offensive," therefore, was called the "Eisenhower offensive.") The chief aim of the new offensive was to launch large-scale landing operations on the east and west coasts early in 1 953 and form a new front along the 40 degree N.L. so as to cut our front from the rear, to encircle and wipe out our main unit in concert with the attack on the principal front and occupy the whole of Korea, and to extend the flames of war to the Chinese mainland by using, if necessary, even tactical nuclear warheads.* * The "Eisenhower offensive" plan envisaged the question of "drawing in the battle the divisions of the Chinese Kuomintang army," the question of bombing Manchuria and the mainland of China, the question of blockading China, and even the "question of tactical use of atomic bombs." This fact was revealed by "Bradley's secret testimony at the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 1 0, 1953" which was recently made public by UPI, (UP/, March 6, 1977, Washington.) For the "new offensive" the US imperialists brought the 7th Fleet 344 to the east and west coasts of Korea, reinforced the air force, combat and technical equipment and armed force on a large scale and hurriedly expanded the puppet armed forces. They also schemed to hurl in a large number of Japanese and Jiang Jieshi mercenaries. The obtaining situation demanded the adoption of decisive measures so as to frustrate the enemy's "new offensive" and achieve the final victory of the war. In this connection, it was of primary importance to further consolidate organizationally and ideologically the Workers' Party of Korea, the leading and guiding force of the Korean people, augment militancy of the Party and prepare the entire Party well for a showdown with the enemy. At the Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea held in December 1952, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung made a historic report entitled The Organizational and Ideological Consolidation of the Party is the Basis for Our Victory, in which he detailed the tasks for it. He set it as the most important task to enhance the Party spirit of the Party members. He said: "The heightening of Party spirit means for each member of the Workers' Party to be boundlessly loyal to the Party and active in its work, to regard the interests of the revolution and of the Party as his life and soul and subordinate his personal interests to them, defend the interests and principles of the Party any time, anywhere and in whatever conditions, fight uncompromisingly against all hues of anti-Party, counterrevolutionary ideas, lead his organizational life in the Party conscientiously and observe its discipline strictly and always to strengthen the bonds between the Party and the masses." {Ibid., pp. 395-96.) Under the wartime conditions attended with manifold difficulties and requiring a high degree of devotion, it was all the more important to strengthen the Party spirit of the Party members. Pointing out the lack of Party spirit revealed among some of the Party members, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung stressed the need to thoroughly overcome it and wage a vigorous struggle to enhance Party spirit. He said that this struggle should be closely linked with the struggle to oppose factionalism and defend the unity and cohesion of the Party. During the war, as in the prewar days, the factionalists persisted in their vicious manoeuvrings, and their aftereffects were all the more pronounced. They rallied all hues of impure and alien elements and worked to undermine the unity and cohesion of the Party, playing a double game. 345

The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.22% accurate The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung sharply criticized such manoeuvrings of the factionaiists and warned them to frankly confess their crime before the Party and stop all their anti- Party acts. He also stressed the need to uphold the weapon of criticism and self-criticism and wage a resolute struggle against all tendencies that ran counter to Party spirit. After the plenary meeting, the Party organizations at all levels conducted discussions on the documents of the plenary meeting. In this course, the Party spirit of the Party members was greatly enhanced, the militancy of the Party strengthened and factionalism and all the other anti -Party tendencies were exposed. In particular, the crimes committed by Pak Hon Yong-Li Sung Yop spy band were laid bare to the full. Pak Hon Yong was the "renegade of the revolution who had surrendered to Japanese imperialism and degenerated into a spy of US imperialism before liberation.*1 He formed a spy-factionalist group consisting mainly of turncoats and factionaiists from the "Tuesday Group" and "Seoul Cong Group" and did great harm to the development of the Korean revolution, craftily disguising himself for a long time before and after liberation. The Pak Hon Yong clique destroyed the Party organizations in south Korea and made a mess of the people's revolutionary struggle there after liberation under instruction from US imperialism.*^ Even after coming to the northern half, they mustered spies and saboteurs, continued all sorts of vicious manoeuvres to undermine the Workers' Party. During the difficult wartime they systematically passed Party, state and military secrets to the US intelligence agency.*3 in 1951 when the US imperialist aggressors launched their "summer and autumn offensives," they plotted to raise an armed revolt in coordination with the enemy's offensives. Later, when Eisenhower was plotting his "new offensive," they again manoeuvred to stage an armed revolt, synchronized with the enemy's attack, in an attempt to overthrow the Party and the Government.*"* Pak Hon Yong and Li Sung Yop could not hide their grave crimes to the end because the Party members were highly conscious politically and many of their conspirators and followers were in the northern half. When all their crimes had been brought to light they admitted them at a public trial in the presence of thousands of observers. *1 Arrested by the Japanese police in 1 925, Pak Hon Yong informed against many others to be arrested. Later he was rearrested and expressed (he "abandonment of his idea" to the Japanese police in September 1939. Thus he 346 became an out-and-out turncoat In October £*3ST» restaurant in Seoul he ^.^S^nhuifilS anTa miaiona^. He disguising himself as ^^S^^SSsS^mi later systematically pa^Sna^ „ the US Military Government by ^^^^^^^^ informations about the orga " ^t^e mS 2 ^ on the democratic united directly commanded by Hodges, ^iS ffl^ of the US ,he South Korean Workers" Party, ^"^^^^'^^l. An qang. For fear of the secret beuigleto £ ^ak"™ [n™flurion from Nickols. he pp. 35-38.) R h „ applied to the US imperialists •3 Between 1 947 and 1948 the spy gang 5 ^ f . s jet s|de t0 informations about the national economy ■ P'^ep^ %™™^Amy the Second USSR-USA Jotrrt f?™^°"J^^ and the currency forces, the setup of the People s Committee of North £° ^ ]|e| and reform. In 1949 Li Sung Yop himself made a ^^p^,^^^, the places examined into the size ^SS'^Sfi i Parallel. Then where they were stationed, and the state ot deienc e ^ « - supp|ied by this he offered information about it to his ™^hQ^ hired spy gang to US imperialism proved of ™P°™nt serviCe of the Korean war by the enemy. V™;PVj*. oi > command at the house of *« In September 1 951 the spy clique formed a r ot com Pak Hon Yong. Li Sung Yop was made tc^"^^im Ung Bin, d.rector; Rim appointed chief of staff; Pae Choi, military °™a"^' K™ ^aihoymiiswred Hwa and Cho II Myong asthose in charge o Po it.cali Pr°^™a and the and got ready a force nearly 4,000 strong ^"^j^^^bled. ^S^^o^t^^^ Hon Yong as premier 347

and to elect Li Sung Yop first secretary of a "new party.'' in the event of the success of the armed revolt, Chang Si U and Chu Nyong Ha, the followers of Pak Hon Yong, were informally designated as vice -premiers, Pak Suno Won as K r ' Ttl'0*' U Gan£! Guk as fore'gn minister- Kim Un9 Bin as defence m mister, Cho II Myong as minister of propaganda. Rim Hwa as minister of education, Yuri Sun Dal as minister of commerce, and Pae Choi as minister of & 154-60 )MmentS Y°ng' USUng YopanrfPaeChol>'tf- PP- 46-48 v Th!i,rp'^ was PromPted bVtte promise made by Noble, a US spy to Li Suno Yop ,n May 1 947 Noble said to him; "If the patriots like you establish a unified government with those between the Left and Right forces in Korea, it may prove successful and the United States will give active support to you." (/bid, pp 43The anti-Party, counterrevolutionary intrigues of the Pak Hon Yong-U Sung Yop clique were detected and exposed to the full by the Party members who were closely armed with the revolutionary ideas of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sungand ralliedfirm around him and the people s stern judgment was meted out to the treacherous clique The exposure and purge of the Pak Hon Yong-Li Sung Yop spy clique who had wormed their way into the revolutionary ranks further strengthened the unity and cohesion of the Party and the revolutionary ranks and greatly augmented the militancy of the Party This was an important factor in foiling the enemy's new military adventure and hastening final victory in the war. Frustration of "New Offensive" and the Signing of Armistice Agreement While strengthening the Party organizationally and ideologically the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung dynamically organized and mobilized all the forces of the country to the struggle to frustrate the new offensive" of the enemy. Supreme Commander Comrade Kim II Sung ordered as followsIn case the US imperialist aggressors undertake a new military adventure, all the men and officers of the People's Army shall never yield even an inch of our territory and shall lose no time in dealing a crushing blow on them, and thus push them to their destiny which is the setting sun, and bring about a great change in the war situation to guarantee our ultimate victory." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 7, p. 404.) In January 1 953 the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of 348 Korea sent a letter in its name to all Party organizations and members in order to get them to be ideologically mobilized in the struggle to foil the enemy's "new offensive," to make full combat preparations and beat him at a stroke in case he made an attack. The letter forcefufly roused the entire Party and people to a decisive battle for routing the enemy. Party meetings were held at Party organizations of all levels to discuss the letter of the Party Central Committee. The spirits of the People's Army and the entire people rose very high and they made every combat preparation. At the front, some combined units were redeployed and the tunnel defences perfected. Thus the density of defence increased at anticipated landing spots of enemy airborne and seaborne troops, the tank forces and artillery firepower were reinforced, and the air forces got fully ready for sortie. The combatants were waiting for the enemy in the high spirit of destroying him. The struggle to defeat the enemy's "new offensive" went on vigorously in the rear, too. The armed self-defence corps were reinforced and the workers and peasants made preparations for a decisive battle with the enemy while stepping up wartime production and front aid work with an unusual vigor. In preparing his "new offensive," from January 1953 the enemy conducted large-scale exercises of airborne and seaborne troops and perpetrated the acts of shelling, bombing and attacking in unprecedented intensity to break our front defence system.* * 1 ) Shelling: Daily average of over 24,000 in January 1953. Daily average of over 33,000 in February 1953. Daily average of over 44,000 in March 1953. 2) The total of over 72,000 sorties of planes made between January and April to attack the ground front. 3) Between January and March, 1953, 48 attacks and 143 raids made. (Material I II, the War Experience Research Room, the Ministry of People's Armed Forces, the DPRK Administration Council, pp. 283-84.) The typical battle fought by the enemy in preparing his "new offensive" was that for a nameless hill west of Cholwon. The attack started on January 25, 1 953. The enemy described this battle as a truly "exemplary battle" to be fought as prescribed in the "military manual" with the mobilization of all the arms and services and latest weapons as required by the modern military science. The Commander of the US 8th Army {Van Fleet) himself commanded the battle and the Commander of the US 5th Air 349

Force and other high-ranking officers of the US Air Force and Army and all the correspondents of the "UN Forces" were invited to observe the battle. The enemy used a large number of planes and guns to pour 300,000 shells and bombs on the small hill and mobilized 40 tanks and a force one regiment strong in the attack. But, due to our stubborn positional defence, the enemy's "exemplary battle" ended in an utter failure.* The announcement of the KPA Supreme Headquarters, January 26, 1 953. According to a material of the enemy, in an attempt to take a small hill the US imperialists started an attack with four battalions {4,000) receiving the covering fire of 16 field-artillery battalions (280 guns) and hundreds of aircraft sorties They anticipated some 200 casualties at the outset. But after 1 4-day-long battle they sadly announced that they suffered a loss of 8,000. (Mark Clark, The Hidden History of the Korean War, Seoul.) Robert Murphy, US Ambassador in Japan, wrote: "The hillock was never taken in spite of some 6,000 casualties on the side of the UN troops." {Diplomat among Soldiers, Japanese ed., Tokyo, p. 455.) Hershel D. Meyer, an American writer, wrote: "Clark and Van Fleet shot 300,000 shells a day and hurled in the most excellent mechanized force to get a tactically important hill, buT total failure was the result." (The Modem History of the United States, Japanese ed., Kyoto, p. 105.) The victory in the battle for a nameless hill west of Cholwon dealt a fatal blow at the "new offensive" plan of the US imperialists. Voices of apprehension came out of the US ruling circles that since even the "exemplary" attack on a nameless hill organized according to the manual of modern military science ended in an unequivocal failure, it was hard to tell what catastrophic result the large-scale offensive along the whole front would bring about. US Congressmen, too, said that "the attack on the 25th attests what great sacrifice of life the all-out attack on the communist front will cause." If the "new offensive" was launched, they warned, it would cause "50,000 or more" casualties and, in the worst case, it would involve the risk of being wiped out to the last man, attacked from both flanks."* The "new offensive" plan thus fell through. * Rodong Sinmun, February 2, 1953, Through their devoted struggle, the Korean people and the People's Army, who, rallied closely around the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, had prepared the showdown battle, completely frustrated the US imperialists' "new offensive" plan on which they pinned their last hope. When their much advertized "new offensive" plan by which they 350 had dreamed to realize an "honourable armistice" ended in complete failure the US imperialists were compelled to come to the hall of truce talks which had been left vacant for nearly six months since they unilaterally declared indefinite adjournment on April 26.* * Hershel D. Meyer wrote about this: "So far it had been tried to save appearances. The United States could not impose conditions of peace upon the enemy for the first time in its history Being nailed to the battlefield and compelled to take part sincerely in the peace talks— this was a very unpleasant thing to the Pentagon rascals. It could be nothing more than admitting defeat.' (The Modem History of the United States, Japanese ed., Kyoto, p. 1 87.) Though they turned up again at the ceasefire talks when it was "clear to all that they could not force" on us their unreasonable proposal— unilateral detention of the POWs, the US imperialists, regarding the "truce talks" as "dishonour" and "shame" (Robert Murphy, Diplomat among Soldiers, Japanese ed., Tokyo, p. 450.), started again to ridicule our proposal that those so-called "POWs not desirous of repatriation" should not be detained but be handed over to neutral nations for six months' explanation. In the meantime, they egged the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique on to raise the clamour of "determined opposition to the ceasefire" and "an independent expedition to the north" in an attempt to conclude an armistice on terms more favourable to them. At the same time, they viciously carried out abominable bombings of power stations and reservoirs in the rear. Since the enemy persisted in crafty dealings and atrocities without admitting his crushing defeat, it was necessary to show him cleariy what price he would have to pay for such criminal acts. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung ordered the KPA units to deal the enemy powerful military blows all along the front. The KPA units staged three powerful strikes against the enemy from mid-May to late July 1953. In these actions, they wiped out a large number of enemy troops in many areas, took important enemy defence zones and liberated an area of some 343 square kilometres. The three strikes compelled the US imperialists to realize that time would not solve anything for them and that it was no longer possible to continue the war against the Korean people and the People s Army who were gaining in strength in its progress. The ignominious defeats suffered by the US imperialists in the three-year war drove them to the last extremity. They had thrown into the Korean front a huge armed force, numbering millions altogether, including one-third of their, ground force one-fifth of their air force, and the greater part of their Pacific 351

Fleet, plus troops of 1 5 of their satellite countries and the south Korean puppet troops, and assembled large quantities of up-to-date combat and technical equipment Moreover, in the Korean war they resorted to the most violent and barbarous means of warfare unprecedented in war history. But nothing could deliver them from defeat. During the three years of war, the enemy lost 1 567 128 men including more than 405,000 US aggression troops, and an enormous amount of combat and technical equipment and war supplies, including 12,224 aircraft, 564 warships of various types, 3,255 tanks and armoured cars, 7,695 guns of various calibres and 925,1 52 small arms and squandered 165,000 million dollars of war funds. The irretrievable military, political and moral setbacks of US imperialism on the Korean front made it difficult for even its war maniacs to carry on the war any longer. The US imperialists at last changed their stand on the question of the repatriation of POWs which they had dragged for eighteen months on the preposterous pretext of "voluntary repatriation,"* and signed the Armistice Agreement at Panmunjom on July 27, 1953. * After the conclusion of an agreement on the repatriation of the prisoners of war on June 18, 1953, the US imperialists committed an illegal act of unreasonably releasing" (detaining) by force nearly 27,000 POWs of our side. The realization of ceasefire in Korea was a great victory for the Korean people and the People's Army who had fought for the freedom and independence of their fatherland against the armed interventionists of the 1 6 countries headed by the United States and the Syngman Rhee clique and a disgraceful defeat for the US imperialist aggressors who had boasted of being the world's "strongest." The US imperialists fell to their knees before the Korean people and signed the Armistice Agreement without victory for the first time in their 100-odd years' history of aggression.* "Signing the Armistice Agreement, the defeated American General, Clark said: "I don't feel happy at this hour." "We are defeated in the sense that our enemy remains undefeated and as a more powerful and menacing being than before." (The Hidden History of the Korean War. Seoul, p. 460.) Heexpressed his disappointment, saying that "there was no turn of expression of a victor in the letter President" Eisenhower sent to him. (Ibid., p. 486.) In his Diplomat among Soldiers, Robert D. Murphy wrote: "In norlh Africa where we dealt with the French army or with the Italian and German armies, we were always victorious. (But) this time there was neither victory nor anything like that." (Diplomat among Soldiers, Tokyo, p. 455.) With the realization of ceasefire in Korea, the reckless aggressive 352 design of US imperialism to occupy the whole land of Korea and then conquer Asia and the world was completely frustrated and the Korean people became a heroic people, the first to defeat US imperialism in world history. 6. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF VICTORY IN THE FATHERLAND LIBERATION WAR Factors in Victory The Fatherland Liberation War waged by the Korean people againstthe armed invasion of the allied forces of imperialism led by US imperialism was the grimmest and severest war ever known in the history of mankind. No previous war could match the Korean war in the number of troops hurled in the front by the aggressors, in the density of firepower, in the savageness of warfare and in the brutality of murderous atrocities. However, the Korean people heroically withstood the unprecedented^ severe and grim trial of war, inflicted a shameful defeat on the US imperialists and their stooges and won historic victory. The historic victory of the Korean people in the Fatherland Liberation War was possible only thanks to the wise leadership of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the gifted revolutionary, evervictorious iron-willed brilliant commander and great military strategist: Throughout the Fatherland Liberation War, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung sagaciously led the Party, state and people to shining victory, carrying the destiny of the fatherland and the people on his shoulders and surmounting manifold difficulties and trials. The Korean people's victory in the war was, above all, the brilliant victory of the great Juche idea of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung. The Juche idea demonstrated its invincible vitality to the full not only in socio-economic transformations and the work of building the economy and culture but also in the Fatherland Liberation War against the aggressors. Guided by the Juche idea, the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung formulated original strategic and tactical policies for 353

victory in the war and resolved all the problems that had arisen at the front and in the rear in a correct way in conformity with the specific conditions of the country and the requirements of modern warfare. The Juche idea provided the Party, Government, People's Army and entire people with an invincible ideological and spiritual weapon with which they could stand any trying ordeal and defeat the enemy. All the factors that decidedly contributed to victory in the war were attributable to the great Juche idea created by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung and his wise leadership. The victory in the Fatherland Liberation War was also possible because the Workers' Party of Korea, under the wise leadership of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, built up its ranks, constantly enhanced their militant function and did all the organizational and political work in a proper way in the whole course of the war. His outstanding policies for victory in the war and the Party's organizational and political work for their implementation constituted the main source of the great achievement accomplished by the People's Army and the people in the battle at the front and in the rear. Members of the Workers' Party were always in the van of all difficult struggles at the front and in the rear. They fought bravely at all risks, standing at the head of the masses. The victory was also possible because the Korean People's Army brilliantly carried out the Juche -motivated military thought and military policies of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung and displayed peerless heroism and patriotic devotion. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung attached primary importance to firmly arming the People's Army politically and ideologically, strictly adhered to the principle of bringing the politicoideological superiority of the People's Army into full play and combining military and technical work with it in the whole course of the war and overcame the numerical and technical superiority of the enemy with political and ideological, strategic and tactical superiority, taking the initiative in battle at all times. The People's Army, which have thus grown in strength politically, ideologically and in military technique, carried out difficult military strategic and tactical tasks of each stage of the war without fail and won the final victory in the war. Another factor in the victory was the immeasurable vitality of the people's democratic system established by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung and the stability of the rear based on it. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The historic triumph in the Fatherland Liberation War was a clear demonstration of the inexhaustible vitality of our Republic and the people's democratic system and the in354 vincible strength of our people who had become masters of X country." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. V, p. 145|he people's democratic system fully demonstrated its advantage and vitality in the wartime as well as in the period of peaceful construction. The presence of the people's democratic system made rt possible to successfully mobilize all the manpower and material resources of the country in the struggle to win victory in the war and served as a firm basis for the consolidation of the rear. The Korean people, who had experienced a new. free and happy life under the people's democratic system, displayed a high degree or SSI devotion , and self-sacrificing spirit and fought heroically go ng Through fire and water, to defend the system. With heightened political awareness and indomitable fighting spirit, they volunteered for service in the People's Army, replenishing its ranks without letup and met the demand of the front, braving all sorts of hardships and difficulties. The active support and devoted struggle of the people in the rear for victory at the front greatly encouraged the combat activities of the People's Army and afforded a powerful material and spiritual quarantee for victory in the war. The victory of the Korean people in the Fatherland Liberation War was also possible because of the internationalist support and encouraqement of the revolutionary people of the world. The Korean people's Fatherland Liberation War received powerful support, encouragement and material and moral assistance covering al fields of politics, economy and military affairs from hundred of millions of people in the world including the people of the socialist countries and this formed an important factor m hastening ourv.ctory. Historical Significance The Korean people's victory in the Fatherland Liberation War had a areat historical significance. Firstly its significance lies in that by defeating the US imperialist aggressors the Korean people defended the DPRK, their glorious fatherland, and jealously safeguarded the gains of the revolution. The qreat leader Comrade Kim II Sung said. "By their self-sacrificing struggle the Korean people and People's Army safeguarded the people's democratic system set up in the northern half of our country, the achievements of 355

democratic reforms and the democratic base from the encroachment of the imperialist allied forces led by the US imperialist aggressors, the ringleader of modern imperialism." {Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. 7, pp. 450-51.) By defending the DPRK, their glorious fatherland, from the aggression of the US imperialists and their hirelings, the Korean people upheld the national dignity and honour and demonstrated to the whole world the revolutionary stamina and heroic spirits of an independent people. They have been able to wage a more vigorous struggle in their effort to achieve the independent reunification of the country, the supreme national desire, and to win the nationwide victory of the revolution, by protecting all the revolutionary gains and safeguarding the revolutionary base of the northern half. Secondly, its significance lies in that through the grim ordeal of the war the entire Korean people were more closely rallied around the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung and our internal revolutionary forces strengthened considerably. The great leader Comrade Kim If Sung said: "Through the war, our Party and people have grown stronger and increasingly confident of the victory of their just cause. "Now our Party is a Marxist-Leninist Party which has not only led the revolution and construction but was also tested and accumulated a wealth of experience in the crucible of the hard war. The cadres and Party members have been steeled, the workers, peasants, intellectuals and all the people have been tempered, and the unity of the Party and people has become even firmer. Our People's Army has grown into a powerful revolutionary army. "Besides veteran revolutionary cadres seasoned in the protracted revolutionary struggle, hundreds of thousands of new revolutionaries have been trained in the flames of war and our revolutionary ranks have been greatly expanded and strengthened." {Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. IV, pp. 302-03.) In the fierce flames of the war the Workers' Party of Korea was tempered and seasoned and its ranks were further strengthened to become steel-like In the crucible of the war, the People's Army grew into the invincible modern revolutionary armed forces. It was further strengthened politically, ideologically, militarily and technically and accumulated a rich combat experience. 356 In the course of the war, the ranks of cadres, the commanding personnel of our revolution, were solidly built up, and in addition to veteran cadres seasoned in the protracted revolutionary struggle, hundreds of thousands of new cadres grew up. In the hard trial of the war the Korean people were further awakened politically and ideologically and became more classconscious and underwent revolutionary tempering. They were firmly convinced that when they were rallied closely behind the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and followed his leadership, they could surmount any hardship and difficulty and win victory. Thirdly, the Korean people's victory in the Fatherland Liberation War had a great international significance. The great leader Comrade Kim I! Sung said: "The victory of our people in the Korean war was a victory of the revolutionary people over the imperialist reactionary forces, a victory of the revolutionary army over the aggressive armed forces of imperialism." {ibid., p. 302.) He remarked: "The Korean war clearly showed to peoples all over the world that no force can conquer a people who have risen in defence of the freedom and independence of their country against colonialism, and that the time is long past when the imperialists could exploit and oppress the peoples of colonial and dependent countries as they pleased." (Kim II Sung, Works. Eng. ed., Vol. 10, p. 167.) By inflicting the first defeat in history on the US imperialists in the Fatherland Liberation War, the Korean people humbled the pride of US imperialism which had boasted of being the "strongest" in the world, shattered the myth of its might and brought about the beginning of a downhill turn for the US imperialists. The great victory of the Korean people in their Fatherland Liberation War largely contributed to smashing the US imperialists' machination to ignite a new world warand safeguarding the security of the socialist countries and world peace. It gave great inspiration to the anti-imperialist, national liberation struggle of hundreds of millions of people of the world who were fighting for national independence and freedom. It clearly showed that no force could conquer the people who, holding their destiny firmly in their own hands, had risen up for the freedom, independence and progress of their country, and that even a small nation could successfully defeat any numerically and technically superior imperialist aggressors if it firmly believed in its strength and fought, united as one. With the historic victory of the Korean people in their Fatherland 357

The text on this page is estimated to be only 17.57% accurate o th 2 n m°TntUm- the ^.-imperialist. anti-US struggle of the worlds oppressed people and revolutionary people entered a period of new upsurge and the imperialist- colonialist system under went a process of rapid disintegration. The great Fatherland Liberation War of the Korean people dealt a wa7 and pea^ * ^ °Pp0rtUni* V'6WS °" KjiSfc' The experience of the Korean war showed that the nature of imperialism did not change but, on the contrary, its agg essive nature Sence ofT; T^0^ '* COnf,rmed that 'he ™??on^ndein Sieved ie.°PPressed copies and world peace could never be achieved by begging the imperialists for them but be won and r . TldTW thmU9h an ^compromising struggle It 7so ren the3 rut that ?hT ^ ^ W6aPOn te -d clearly P^d the truth that the primary factor in victory in a war is the oeoole a^SSKnitaht * f6 S°UndneSS °f th6ir Se°,0giCal -Vs-SneP that soundness9 W6aP°nS 56 aU9mented °^ on the basis of By leading the Korean people's Fatherland Liberation War to victory the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung developed anew the theories on a revolutionary war and modern warfare Tan all round way. The outstanding thought on military strategy, gifted mN ary art basfs nftaht,CS and rJ°dS °f W3rfare 0r'9ina"V H by" m on the baas of the great Juche idea constitute the common treasures of he revolu.onary people of the world and a powerful weapon tc use Vn he anti9USimrIr^d?m and,indePe"dence and in the'ant.-impe ia st anti-Ub imperialist struggle. The brilliant victory the Korean people won in the HahtPn,,^ Fatherland Liberation War against the US impeX ggresSo?s unde tdZ'l °f thG 9reat 'eader Comrade » Sung was indeed a great historic event of deep significance in the development of the Korean revolution and the world revolution aevemPmem 358

Part Three: Socialist Construction And Struggle For National Reunification

CHAPTER I: SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION

1 Postwar Internal Situation. The General Task Of Laying Socialist Foundations

Political and Economic Situations Having won great victory in the fierce three -year Fatherland Liberation War against the US imperialists' armed invasion, the Korean people embarked straight on the road of postwar rehabilitation and construction. They had to heal the war-wounds quickly and push the revolution and construction vigorously. However, their post-war revolutionary struggle and constructive work could not be smooth sailing. Although the fire ceased, the situation of the country was tense as The primary concern of the Korean people after the war was to bring about a complete peaceful settlement of the Korean issue at the forthcoming political conference to be held under the Armistice Agreement.* * According to Paragraph 60 of the Korean Armistice Agreement a political conference of a higher level to be held after the Korean armistice would talk over the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Korea and the peaceful settlement of the Korean question and discuss other issues. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The basic aim of the political conference is to get all the troops of the United States and its satell.te countries to withdraw from south Korea and to enable the Korean people 361

The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.91% accurate to settle the Korean issue by themselves, and to prevent foreigners from interfering in the internal affairs of our country-" (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed. Vol. I, p. 416.) The peaceful settlement of the Korean question by Koreans themselves was the unanimous desire of the entire Korean people and it was also the hope of the people of the whole world. However, with the political conference at hand, the US imperialists and their stooges Syngman Rhee clique made much fuss and sought vicious destructive manoeuvres. Far from drawing the due lessons from their disgraceful defeat in the war they mustered their forces again and bode their time to invade the northern half, clamouring, "The armistice is a recess," "The real war is yet to be fought." Even after signing the Armistice Agreement stipulating that the chief aim of the political conference is to discuss the question of withdrawal of the foreign troops from Korea, the US imperialists concluded the so-called south Korea -US "Mutual Defence Pact" with traitor Syngman Rhee on August 8, 1953 immediately after the ceasefire. This six-article pact allows the US aggressor troops to station permanently in south Korea without any restriction of region, numerical strength or term.* ' Article 4 of the south Korea-US "Mutual Defence Pact" stipulates that "by mutual consent south Korea shall grant the United States the right to deploy its land, naval and air forces within the south Korean territory and its vicinity, and the United States agrees to it" Article 6 provides that the pact shall remain in force indefinitely. The aim of the south Korea- US "Mutual Defence Pact" was after all to provoke another criminal war of aggression in Korea, tearing up the Armistice Agreement any time in case of need. Therefore, the entire Korean people and the universal conscience of justice strongly condemned the pact, branding it as an aggressive pact which allows the US imperialists to hinder the peaceful reunification of Korea and interfere in her domestic affairs, as an open country-selling pact which enables the Syngman Rhee clique to sell off south Korea to the US imperialists. The conclusion of this pact by the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique with the political conference at hand was a wicked act of obstructing the reasonable solution of the Korean question at the political conference. In view of the prevailing situation it was clear that they would resort to all sorts of intrigues, hindrances and provocations at the political conference, too, just as they had done at the truce talks, throwing it into confusion. The plot of the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique to 362 torpedo the political conference was clearly revealed m their joint statement" issued on the occas.cn of the conclusion of the south Ko eTuS "Mutual Defence Pact." There they openly declared they The subseouent development fully confirmed this. The talk or ooin I£e hek i Panmunjom from October 26, 1953 in connection with the nuestion of the political conference was broken up due to the unfo mdi Targumen'and unjust assertion of the US side concerning ^e composulon of the pol meal conference, for all the sincere efforts of the Korean-Chinese side. After disrupting the political conference, the US imperial ists overoowered by ^pressure of the world peace-loving forces, agreed on th?cTnvoca?ion of a Geneva Conference whose important task was to seek the peaceful mediation of the Korean issue. But they d d everything in their power to foil this conference even before ^t was open When the Geneva Conference was called from April 25, 1 954 he UsTmperialists and Syngman Rhee clique obstinate y oP^r»fa^ and reasonable proposals of our side for the peaceful mediation of the Korean issue and broke up the conference on June 1 b. while leaving the US troops as they were. The US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique also retnforced their aggre^ive aimed forces. They ballooned the P"PP* «mV SnS (11 of February 1954) from 16 divisions at the time of the a m he nd expanded^heir arms on an extensive scale _Even before thT'nk on the Armistice Agreement dried up they cried out for the "northward march" in gross violation of it. ■ Entenng 1 954. the US war mania™ and the Syngman ^^j^J£ t&XS&^^~^ - a^ force into a je, unit. Due to the manoeuvres of the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee 363

clique to provoke another war, the country's situation was tense and the danger of war was still lingering. The ceasefire did not mean a real peace. The prevailing situation compelled the Korean people to keep themselves alert and ready and continue to strive to increase the country's defence capability while carrying on the postwar rehabilitation and construction. The economic situation of the country, too, was indescribably hard. The three-year war reduced the towns and countryside to ashes and ruined the economy compfetely. During the war the enemy indiscriminately bombed all the industrial establishments and peaceful populated areas. They dropped an average of 18 bombs per square kilometre on the northern half of the Republic. As a result, all the towns and villages were ruined and devastated and all branches of the national economy including industry, agriculture and railway transport, and all educational and cultural establishments were totally destroyed. Such severe destruction was, indeed, unprecedented in war history. The most miserable was the industrial branch. More than 8,700 factories and enterprises were utterly destroyed and the industrial production dropped to 64 per cent, of which electrieity.to 26 per cent, coal to 1 1 per cent, and iron to 10 per cent respectively. Agriculture, too, suffered enormous damage. Due to the enemy's barbarous bombing more than a quarter of the farmland was damaged and the acreage of arable land showed a sharp decrease. During the war the agricultural production dwindled to 76 per cent. Dwelling houses with the total floor space of 28 million square metres, over 5,000 schools, over 1,000 hospitals and clinics, over 260 theatres and cinema houses, and thousands of cultural and welfare establishments were levelled to the ground in the towns and the countryside. The total damage inflicted upon the national economy during the war amounted to 420,000 million won (old currency). The war not only caused a severe damage to the national economy but also deteriorated the people's living to the extreme. Most people lost homes and household furnishings. Especially, they were very short of food and clothes. The US imperialists prattled that "Korea would be unable to get back on her feet even in a hundred years." Even some foreign friends who sympathized with the Korean people expressed a great doubt about the prospects of the postwar rehabilitation and construction in Korea. But they were not to blame. At the time of truce there was no 364 proper equipment capable of producing even a brick, a handful of rpmpnt and a scrap of iron. Korea's Postwar reality was really harsKThe situation was so hard the Korean people were at a loss what to begin w.th and how. Nevertheless, they didn't lose their hearts nor wavered m the |p„

In the theses the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: The basic task of our Party at the present stage of the period of transition to socialism is to lay the foundations of socialism on the basis of the achievements gained in the struggle for the postwar rehabilitation and development of the national economy, further consolidating the workerpeasant alliance. "We should further expand and strengthen the predominant position of the socialist economic form in all spheres of the national economy by gradually transforming the small commodity and capitalist economic forms along socialist lines, and should further develop the productive forces to lay the material and technical foundations of socialism. "To this end, it is necessary to eliminate the colonial one sidedness and technical backwardness of industry and build the foundation for socialist industrialization." {Ibid., pp. 509The general task of laying the foundations of socialism was largely defined in two aspects- production relations and productive forces In the first aspect, the task was to transform all the relations of production along socialist lines. In the second aspect the task was to establish trie solid foundation of an independent national economy while laying the foundation for industrialization. The socialist transformation of the relations of production was aimed at opening a broad avenue for the rapid development of the productive forces of the country and eliminating the millenniums-old source of exploitation and poverty. The building of the foundation of an independent national. economy was aimed at ensuring an affluent and civilized life for the people with home production. The line of building the foundations of socialism was a wise one which correctly reflected the requirements of the law governing development of the revolution, the building of socialism and communism, in Korea. Having taken over a very backward economy from the old society Korea could go over to the full-scale building of socialism smoothly only by passing through the stage of laying its foundations. The building of the foundations of socialism was a most positive measure that made it possible to successfully carry out all the major tasks alike including the immediate postwar rehabilitation and construction, the stabilization and improvement of the people's living and the strengthening of the revolutionary base of the northern half In order to successfully undertake the postwar rehabilitation and construction and fulfil the huge task of laying the foundations of 366 socialism, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung set forth the 'ineof Kpg out the rehabilitation and construction basically m three "'"The task in the first stage was to make prepacati ments for the overall rehabilitation and construction of the ruined national economy; the task in the second stage was to carry out a Hiree vear plan for the rehabilitation and development of maSa, economy to reach the prewar level in all branches; the task m the third stage was to fulfil a five-year plan for laying the toundd "ons of industrialization, that is, for occupying the first stage of "^Now fhauhe genera, task of laying the foundations of socialism and the fighting tasks of each stage were clearly outlined the Korean neoole wS mly convinced of victory and could unfold the vigorous KSMMoTthe building of socialist foundations w.th a definite goal from the outset.

2 Postwar Rehabilitation And Construction Of The National Economy

Basic Line of Economic Construction Having embarked on the building of socialist foundations he Korean people above ail faced an urgent task of rehab Hrtaf ng the ruined national economy rapidly and stabilizing the deteriorated oeoDle's livinq in a short period of time. „„„„„ P t order to rehabilitate and develop^he postwar n^ and step up social 1st construction, it was necessary, first of all, to rjetne a line of economic construction which would show the people the or entat on an border of priorities for rehabilitation and construction Tha" a one would make it possible to rapidly restore the natural Lonomy and vigorously push socialist economic construction under the then circumstances in which the national economy was totally avaald I and the material and technical foundations were very weak deferring to the basic line of the postwar economic construction t the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the Central Comm.ttee of the WPK in 367

The text on this page is estimated to be only 29.92% accurate August 1 953 immediately after the armistice the great leader Comrade Kim If Sung said: "In postwar economic construction we must follow the line of giving priority to the rehabilitation and development of heavy industry simultaneously with development of light industry and agriculture. This alone will enable us to consolidate the economic foundations of our country and improve the people's life in a short period of time." {Ibid., p. 420.) Giving priority to the rehabilitation and development of heavy industry while developing light industry and agriculture simultaneously was the wisest line of economic construction which rendered it possible to fix the right direction and order of priorities for rehabilitation and construction, grasp the main link in the chain and concentrate efforts on it. The basic line of economic construct/on defined heavy industry as the key to the solution of all problems arising in postwar rehabilitation and construction. Without giving priority to the development of heavy industry, it was impossible either to restore and develop light industry and agriculture successfully or to carry out properly the task of laying socialist foundations, the task of building up the basis of socialist industrialization and the solid foundation of an independent national economy. Rapid development of heavy industry was the basic guarantee for swiftly restoring and developing the national economy and stabilizing and improving the deteriorated people's living, overcoming the difficulties created in the postwar period, and was the key to the solution of all problems arising in postwar rehabilitation and construction. Yet, the postwar situation of the country did not permit it to retard the development of light industry and agriculture while concentrating all efforts on heavy industry. To improve the war- impoverished life of the people rapidly, it was imperative to increase the production of rice, cloth and other consumer goods. In order to build an independent national economy in Korea where light industry and agriculture had originally been very backward, they ought to be developed speedily, along with heavy industry. True, it was a very difficult task to give priority to heavy industry and develop light industry and agriculture simultaneously in the postwar conditions where everything lay in ruins. But this path ought to be broken anyway, no matter how rugged and thorny it might be, for there was no alternative but to carry put both tasks of building up the solid foundation of an independent national economy through speedy rehabilitation and development of the economy and of rapidly stabilizing and improving the people's life. And if the people who had been steeled in the unprecedentedly severe war made strenuous efforts, 368 industry and agriculture simulta"e°UnS'Ymction set forth by the great The basic- line of economic construct on se f ™ y he baaed ,eadar Comrade Kim l^^gjj, countrys on the correct evaluation of ss^b l ty for their supply. It economic development and the actua P0^'01' 2_Leninist theorv on was also a line that creatively applied the Ma x st Lem d g expanded reproduction to the specific rea '^'es ofb^jng of an evolutionary line that would e^ s^t^ selfindependent national economy in the revolut.onary spirit r6lia This revolutionary line which embodied the Juche based line of socialist economic ^^^^S^a^ original way the direction of economic cc .nstru W Thanksto ^S&tTJ2 Sped in Nevertheless, the anti-Party tac ti on, s»i economic dogmatism and flunkey.sm opposed ^ tas.c 1m when construction saying J™ rtrew « pu ^ & ^ the people are bad ly off and No c°, untry ^ hegvy They were particularly critical of the pol icy or gi y m d industry and laying the ^"da«^ was insisted on turning everything to >™™^JT™™M nox only hinder an extremely harmful ^ma*"™'^^^w. but also the independent development of he ^national ecor ^ * o{J eventually make it impossible to improve me u m systematically on a sound basis_ resolutely turned down The great leader Comrade Kim I Sung I f^iuieiy . ti_Partv the absurd arguments and obstructive schemes the ant.Ja ^ factional ists and dogmatists and wiseiy ieu economic thoroughly implement the basic line u m construction. The Struggle for Carrying Out the Three-Year Plan The Korean people qu.ckly addressed themselves to the task of the 369

and the entire people of all ages and sexes — workers, peasants, People's Armymen, office employees and students — set out on rehabilitation and construction. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung always went down and guided the work of rehabilitation and construction on the spot. Having grasped the disposition of labour power for rehabilitation and construction, he formed the technical groups with scientists and college teachersand students and sent them to the important objects, and took measures for supplying necessary equipment and materials. Boundlessly inspired by the sagacious, energetic guidance of the respected leader, the working people unfolded a vigorous struggle for rehabilitation and construction. As a result, a great number of factories and enterprises rehabilitated theirequipmentand wentinto production in a few weeks. In the field of railway transport the severely destroyed railways were rehabilitated in a matter of a week to get trains to run on all trunk lines. In the rural economy, too, the bombed arable land and irrigation facilities were quickly readjusted and repaired for the next year's farming. Thus, the preparatory work for postwar rehabilitation and construction had been successfully carried out in less than half a year by the end of 1 953. From 1 954 the Korean people went over to the struggle for carrying out the Three-Year Plan, the task of the second stage of rehabilitation and construction. As regards the main task of the Three- Year Plan for Postwar Rehabilitation and Development of the National Economy, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The principal task of postwar rehabilitation and development of the national economy envisaged in the ThreeYear Plan did not end with the restoration of our war- ravaged economy to its former state. It was to eliminate the colonial one-sidedness of our economy left over by the long destructive rule of the Japanese imperialists, to ensure the priority growth of heavy industry so as to build the foundations of socialist industrialization in the future and, at the same time, to speedily restore and develop light industry and agriculture for stabilization and improvement of the deteriorated living standards of the people." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. 10, p. 168.) During the Three-Year Plan period it was envisaged to restore and surpass the prewar level in the industrial and agricultural production. In this period the gross industrial output value would increase 1 .5 times and grain output 1 .2 times over 1 949. More than 240 large-scale factories and enterprises would be restored and expanded and over 80 370 new modern ones built. At the same time, it was also expected to rehabilitate or newly establish 3,000 shops and build dwelling houses with a total floor space of 4,700,000 square metres. The path ahead of the Korean people's struggle forcarrying out the - task of the Three-Year Plan was strewn with innumerable difficulties and obstacles. Enormousfund, material, manpowerand technicians were needed for rehabilitation and construction, but they were very short. In addition, the US imperialists and Syngman Rhee clique were engaged in subversive wrecking activities to obstruct our economic construction, continuously aggravating tension. Moreover, some unsound persons carped at the Party's plan of economic construction, labelling it as "unrealistic." The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung systematically took important measures for the Korean people to bridge over the bottlenecks and difficulties for themselves and successfully fulfil the vast task of postwar rehabilitation and development of the national economy. First of all, he gave primary attention to strengthening the Party. Without strengthening Party ranks organizationally and ideologically and enhancing their militancy it was impossible to accomplish the huge task of the Three-Year Plan. Along with this, the great leader made sure that the united front work was improved. Due to the war the composition of the population became more complex. Their class composition remained complicated and there were those who had joined reactionary organizations during the temporary occupation by the enemy and those families whose members had gone over to the south. Under such condition, only by closely rallying the masses of all strata through effective work with them, was it possible to successfully push the huge work of rehabilitation and construction and the work of transforming the old relations of production along socialist lines. The Seventh Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the WPK held in December 1953 sternly criticized the practice of minimizing or mishandling the united front work and took measures for improving and intensifying the work with the masses of all strata. With the organizational and ideological strengthening of the Party and the improvement of the united front work, the work with all sections of masses, there were built up the powerful forces capable of successfully undertaking postwar economic construction. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung led the struggle for carrying out the Three-Year Plan to victory by taking correct economic and organizational measures and properly organizing and mobilizing the people. In order to solve the problem of funds properly, to begin with, he 371

saw to it that capital investment was made on a priority basis in two directions. One direction was of concentrating investments mainly on those branches of heavy industry which were closely related to the people's livelihood and the other was of laying stress on the rehabilitation of old enterprises and installations in order to save funds and get a good return on the investment within a short span of time, while simultaneously rehabilitating and rebuilding enterprises on a new technical basis and erecting some new factories. This provided favourable conditions for the priority growth of heavy industry and helped increase the tempo of rehabilitation and construction in all other branches of the national economy including light industry and agriculture and stabilize the people's livelihood in a short space of time. The rational capital investment and the maximum mobilization and utilization of the inner resources rendered it possible to steadily carry through the basic line of economic construction and speed up overall rehabilitation and construction. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung raised it as an important problem to make the Party and state organs turn on industry and raise the economic guidance level of the functionaries in the fields of industry and transport in particular. During the war the best forces of the Party had been allocated to the countryside for the purpose of reinforcing the rear in keeping with the specific circumstances then prevailing. However, the new postwar situation did not allow of this. The huge and difficult task confronting industry and transport presented it as a matter of pressing urgency to improve and strengthen the guidance to these domains. The March 1 954 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the WPK took measures to enhance the guidance level of the leading functionaries of Party and state organsand economic institutions in the fields of industry and transport. Particularly, it stressed the need to rectify the functionaries' armchair, bureaucratic style of work and bring their guidance closer to the lower units, so that the guidance could be practical, effective and analytical and set forth the task of heightening their sense of responsibility, conducting a systematic inspection and establishing order and discipline in work. It also stressed that the leading functionaries should learn economic knowledge and technology, make a deep study of economic affairs and intensify the Party guidance and control of economic construction. Besides, it took measures for solving a series of other questions — the question of properly selecting and allocating technical cadres, the question of preventing fluctuation and wastage of manpower by improving labour administration and of actively mechanizing production processes, the question of increasing the inner accumulation of the national economy 372 and lowering production cost, the question of introducing correct JKnS the question of strengthening political work m industry and transport by the Party organizations and Party functionaries etc. Thanks to these measures a great change was effected in the guidance of industry and transport and the creative enthusiasm and activity ot the working people rose still higher. The struggle for rehabilitation and development of the national economy was hard beyond measure. However, the entire working people came out as one and waged a heroic struggle. The economic : I rfe of the country was very hard and hosts of complicated problems copped up one after another. But they all willingly undertook .difficult jobs, helping and pulling ahead. The strugglefor postwar rehab, tat^on and construction was literally an all-people struggle and a highly selfconscious struggle ,flhah;iitatirm and An extensive mass emulation movement for rehabilitation and construction was waged in all branches of the national economyjhe increased production emulations which were vigorously unfolded in owns and'the countryside, at factories, enterprises and construe , on sites heightened the rate of production and construction 2-3 times by giving full play to the labour enthusiasm and creative initiative of he working people and tapping enormous inner ^es-Th^°^. Creative suggestions of production innovators thousands of inventions and new deas were introduced into production every year m industry alone, their number totalling some 10,000 by 1956, the last year of the ThreASYtherentlre people unfolded a vigorous struggle, tightening their belts and practising the strictest economy, the world -startling miracles ana Innovations were made one after another in and construction. The US imperialist aggressors had gabbled that the Hwangh e Iron Works would not be able to stand on its feet again by the efforts of Koreans themselves ' But its workers rebuilt open hearth furnace No, 1 twice as large as that destroyed in the war within ess than a year. The workers and technicians of the Hungnam , Fe t. ze Factory rebuilt their factory in less than two years, and started hts first staae oDeration in August 1955 to produce ammonium sulphate. I ne SSm^Ss believed that it would take 30 years to reconstruct this f3Ct The Korean people, under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, successfully overfulfilled the huge Three .Year Plan through the dynamic struggle for postwar rehabilitation and C0T£rTsof the gross industrial output value the -^ee^r Plan was fulfilled in two years and eight months and overfulfilled by 22 per 373

The text on this page is estimated to be only 29.50% accurate cent by the end of 1 956. In 1956 the gross industrial output value grew 2.8 times over 1953, 1 .8 times over tine prewar year 1 949, and about 2 times over the preliberation year 1 944. With the thorough implementation of the basic line of economic construction, the output of the means of production showed the growth of 4 times and that of consumer goods 2.1 times as the former increased at the rate of 59 per cent and the latterat the rate of 28 per cent on an annual average during the plan period. The rapid growth of the output of means of production as a whole furthered the development of machine-building, metal and building-materials industries while the speedy growth of the output of consumer goods helped eliminate the backwardness of light industry considerably. As a result, the colonial onesidedness of industry and its grave disproportion caused by the war were removed markedly and the structure of industrial branches was improved qualitatively. In the preliberation year 1944 when the country was under Japanese imperialist colonial rule, the machine-building industry shared 1 .6 per cent and the textile industry 6 per cent in the gross industrial output value. But the figures sharply grew to 1 7.3 per cent and 1 8.4 per cent respectively in 1956, the last year of the Three-Year Plan. During the plan period more than 280 large- and medium-size industrial enterprises including the Hwanghae Iron Works, Kim Chaek Iron Works, Supung Power Station and Pyongyang Textile Mill were rehabilitated and expanded on a new technical basis, and there came into being more than 80 new ones equipped with modern technique including the Huichon Machine-Tool Factory. Great headway was also made in the rehabilitation and development of the rural economy. The capital investments in agriculture were far greater than planned, and thus the material and technical foundations for agricultural production were rapidly strengthened to boost agricultural produce. In 1956 grain output surpassed the prewar level by 8 per cent and the output of other farm produce such as animal products and cocoons all topped the prewar level. With the successful fulfilment of the Three-Year Plan for Postwar Rehabilitation and Development of the National Economy the foundations of an independent national economy were laid in the main. Thanks to the fulfilment of this plan, the war wounds were healed, the period of rehabilitation came to a close, and there were established the solid foundations for going over to the period of technical reconstruction. 374 Stabilization and Improvement of People's Livelihood While energetically directing the work of postwar rehabilitation andconiructbn the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung made a point of mo?dTv ^abmzing the people's livelihood extremely deteriorated by the war. -Oufparty and the Government of the Republic are confronted with the important tasks of restoring ; ind developing the war- ravaged national economy and of stamnz"gand improving the people's deteriorated hvel.hood. (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. I p. 419.) To rapidly stabilize and improve the war-deteriorated people s living was one of the basic tasks in the period of postwar rehabilitation It was really a hard job to stabilize and improve the peoples Mvel hoo while carrying' out the vast task of re ha b, I rtation and construction in so difficult postwar conditions. However, without doing th job, it was impossible to successfully mobilize the people to the vigorous struggle for postwar restoration and construction for soria Pst revolution and socialist construction. Therefore, although the life was very hard, the Party and state always showed great concern to the problem of people « |;™',22«;*tOITiraeJe Whenever working out a line or policy the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung adopted the way of rapidly stabilizing and improving the TolsZ While giving on-the-spot guidance to a factory or village E would take measures to speedily improve the people s Miving. The nuestion of stabilizing and improving the peoples life was also pinpo Zee Tin he general task of building the socialist foundations in f "postwar period9 and one of the chief aim, of the basic ne o J the economic construction, too, was to elevate the people s life in a short ^^stabilization and improvement of the people's livelihood mam efforts were directed to steadily increasing * snarolv raising the national income. As production and labour produc sharply during the Three-Year Plan period, the , nj , ttona income swelled 2.1 times or 1 46 per cent as against the prewar year 1 949 On the basis of the sharp increase of the national income the state fixed a proper ratio between accumulation and consumption and 375

augmented consumption systematically while allotting a large portion to accumulation. Thus there were created conditions for speedily stabilizing and improving the people's life. In accordance with the basic line of economic construction light industry, along with heavy industry, was rapidly restored and developed to boost the production of consumer goods. This made It possible to reduce the prices of mass consumption goods on five occasions in the postwar period. In this period the prices of mass consumer goods dropped to 54 per cent on an average. This brought a profit of scores of billions of won to the people. The wages of workers and office employees increased markedly whereas the prices of consumer goods were lowered. Thanks to the repeated wage rise their monetary wages grew by 58 per cent during the plan period. Their real wages thus surpassed the prewar level In addition, they were granted a great deal of other benefits including social insurance and security. During the Three-Year Plan period the outlay for social and cultural measures for the working people alone amounted to 29,500 million won. A number of measures were also taken for stabilizing and improving the peasants' living along with factory and office workers Particularly, they were given a tremendous assistance in their life During the Three-Year Plan period, the state loaned them over260 000 tons of food and seed grain and some 6,000 million won More' the state exempted them from the payment of 90,000 tons of the unpaid tax in kind and loaned grain during the war and from 1 ,400 million won of the peasants' bank loans. At the same time, there was introduced a new tax-in-kind system under which the tax rate was reduced as a whole and fixed. The irrigation fee and the exchange rate of chemical fertilizer were also revised in favour of the peasants. The rapid growth of agricultural production under state assistance ^en!yn!?r0Ved the Peasants' liv'ng. During the plan period about 200,000 households of the poor peasants reached the level of middle peasantry. Great effort was directed to the construction of dwelling houses to speedily stabilize and improve the people's living. The Three-Year Plan period witnessed the construction of dwelling houses with a total floor space of 13,400,000 square metres although there was a great shortage of materials, funds and manpower necessary for postwar rehabilitation and construction, of which 5,1 00,000 square metres of houses were built at state expense. As a result, the acute housinq problem was much solved in towns and the countryside Educational, cultural and public health establishments too were rapidly expanded in towns and the countryside During the Three-Year 376 Plan period 5,455 schools were restored, expanded or newly built, which were 382 more than the prewar days. On this basis, compulsory primary education was introduced from 1956. Retail commodity circulation shot up with the growth of industrial and agricultural production and the increase of the people's demand. During the Three-Year Plan period the total value of retail commodity circulation grew 2.8 times, doubling the 1 949 level. The large turnover of mass consumer goods including fabrics and daily necessaries helped improve the people's life markedly. Thanks to the speedy recovery and growth of the light industrial and agricultural production under the wise leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and to the active state measures, the people's living, cleared of the war wounds, was stabilized as a whole during the Three-Year Plan period. Its standards were on a steady rise.

3. Socialist Transformation Of The Relations Of Production

In Korea the socialist relations of production had already been born in the course of expropriating the property of the imperialists and their stooges in the stage of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution. They were fully established in the postwar period through the cooperation of private farming and the socialist transformation of private trade and industry. In the period of prewar peaceful construction the socialist transformation of the relations of production was only partially carried out, preparing for their full-scale transformation in a prospective way. In this course, the preconditions for agricultural cooperation were created, the experience of socialist transformat ion of private handicraft accumulated, and measures taken to utilize and control capitalist trade and industry. On the basis of all these conditions and experience the socialist transformation of the relations of production was undertaken on a full scale in the postwaryears in parallel with the rehabilitation and construction of the national economy. 377

Agricultural Cooperative Movement The agricultural cooperative movement for turning individual peasant economy into socialist cooperative economy held the leading place in the postwar socialist transformation of the relations of production. In Korea, agricultural cooperation stood out as a most urgent problem in the postwar period. The war had severely devastated agriculture and caused a great shortage of manpower and draught animals. If individual peasant farming was left alone under such conditions, it would be hardly possible to recover agricultural production quickly, improve the peasants' standards of living and particularly to solve the problem of the poor peasants whose number had swollen during the war to hold 40 per cent of the peasants. Their economy being severely destroyed, the peasants were unable to farm without pooling their efforts in one way or another. The onfy way to restore and develop agriculture and improve the deteriorated peasants' living quickly was the cooperation of individual farming. There were socio-economic and material conditions for agricultural cooperation and a revolutionary force capable of undertaking it. The socialist state economy, which occupied the leading position in the national economy, was exerting great influence on individual farming. In particular, the fast-growing socialist industry could give material assistance to the peasants' cooperative movement. As for the balance of the class forces in the countryside the rich peasants had their economic foundation destroyed in the war and their influence was insignificant whereas the working peasants were politically awakened through the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution and the fierce war and united themselves firmer around the Party. Favourable conditions for agricultural cooperation were provided by the expansion and strengthening of socialist elements —the state agrostock farms, farm machine hire stations, rural credit cooperatives and consumers' cooperatives established after the agrarian reform and the labour exchange teams organized in the countryside during the war. Having gained a deep insight into the requirement of the law of socio-economic development and actual possibilities, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung put forward a new original line of agricultural 378 cooperation, a line of reorganizing the economic forms prior to technical reconstruction. He said: "Our Party's policy intended to assure the rapid advance of the productive forces and, in particular, to open up a broad avenue for the technical revolution by transforming, first of all, the relations of production along socialist lines according to the urgent needs of social development, instead of waiting for the day when industry could develop to such an extent as to carry out the technical reconstruction of the national economy." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed„ Vol. Ill, pp. 71 72.) This original line of socialist transformation was a Juche-based line laid down in conformity with the specific conditions of Korea without following others' experience or any ready-made formulas that the economic forms can be transformed only by giving priority to technical reconstruction. It was based on the standpoint that socialist transformation can not be held back when life itself urgently demands the reorganization of the outdated relations of production and there are revolutionary forces prepared to carry it out, even though the level of development of the productive forces and technology is relatively low. The dogmatists and factionalist-flunkeys who looked only to others carped at the new policy of agricultural cooperation, alleging: "The transformation of the relations of production is impossible before socialist industrialization," "It is impossible to cooperativize agriculture without up-to-date farm machines." Categorically rejecting their allegations divorced from reality, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung brought the task of agricultural cooperation to the fore immediately after the armistice and pushed it forward actively as the peasants' enthusiasm was heightened. Voluntary principle was strictly adhered to in the agricultural cooperative movement. Strict adherence to the principle of voluntariness alone would enable cooperation to develop on a sound basis by drawing on the political consciousness of the peasants. The question of leading along the socialist road millions of the scattered individual peasants who had long been accustomed to private ownership and individual farming and whose economic conditions were varying could not be solved unless the agricultural cooperative movement was made the work of the peasants themselves and they were enlisted in it consciously. In order to heighten the peasants' self -consciousness and activeness in the agricultural cooperative movement it was necessary to 379

explain the superiority and advantage of the cooperative economy to the peasants and convince them of it with practical example. With this in view, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung set an experimental stage of the agricultural cooperative movement. Between 1953 and 7 954 a few agricultural cooperatives were formed on an experimental basis in each county with the poor peasants and rural Party nuclei who most actively supported cooperation and the work of strengthening them undertaken." This was the experimental stage, the first stage of the agricultural cooperative movement in Korea " By June 1954 1,090 agricultural cooperatives were organized, which averaged 5 for each county. The establishment of the experimental stage was designed to strictly observe the voluntary principle and induce the peasants to the superiority of the cooperative economy with a practical example and, on this basis, develop the agricultural cooperative movement. It also assumed great significance in defining the form, method and rate of cooperation to suit the actual condition of Korea and in getting functionaries to accumulate the experience in cooperation and heighten their confidence. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung organized and guided the work of forming agricultural cooperatives in the first stage and generalized its experience throughout the country. Asa result, the work of organizing experimental agricultural cooperatives in every county was wound up in a short span of time. Even though these agricultural cooperatives were organized on an experimental basis, they were unable to display the superiority of the cooperative economy over private farming easily since their economic foundations were very weak and there was no experience for their management. In orderto make the newly organized cooperatives prove their worth quickly, they needed a powerful guidance and support of the Party and state. Only then, was it possible to shore up the cooperatives speedily and push the agricultural cooperative movement vigorously. To this end, positive steps were taken to strengthen the Party and state guidance and assistance to the agricultural cooperatives. The Party and state directed attention to strengthening the rural Party organizations, imbuing the cooperative members with socialist ideology and thoroughly establishing a socialist system and order in the cooperatives, and sent a great number of management personnel and technicians to the agricultural cooperatives to consolidate them. 380 At the same time, the state gave the cooperatives every available aid loaning food and seed grain, supplying farm machinery and building materials on a preferential basis, providing the co-op farmers with more fertilizer at a lower price than that supplied to individual peasants, granting long-term credits, collecting less agricultural tax in kind, charging lower rates for the hiring machines, helping them in terms of manpower and so on. Thanks to the active guidance and assistance of the Party and state the agricultural cooperatives began to show their distinct superiority and the agricultural cooperative movement became more activated. As of October 1954 the number of agricultural cooperatives reached 21 5 per cent of the peasant households. The cooperatives expanded and improved no small land by way of pooling their plots and ameliorating them and rapidly increased agricultural production, widely introducinq the advanced farming method. The successes attained by the agricultural cooperatives bore witness to the superiority of the cooperative economy^ It shattered all kinds of false rumours which had been spread, when the cooperatives were first organized, by the reactionary elements and laggards saying: "Anyone joining the cooperative will be deprived of all his Property, "There are neither distribution nor liberty in the cooperative. With the enrolment of a great number of peasants in cooperatives, there arose the need to expand and develop the agricultural cooperative movement on to a higher stage The November 1 954 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the WPK summed up the results attained in the experimental stage of the agricultural cooperative movement and set forth the task ot developing it on a mass basis. Thus this movement went over to the second stage of mass enrolment from the experimental stage. As the agricultural cooperative movement entered the stage of mass enrolment the question of the form of cooperative economy and the way of pooling the means of production came to assume greater importance. Already at the inception of the agricultural cooperative movement the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung outlined three forms ot aqricultural cooperatives and let peasants choose one suited to them. The first form was the mutural-aid team in which work alone was done jointly without pooling land and farm implements. The second one was the semi -socialist form in which land was pooled, work done jointly and income distributed according to land contributed with the primary stress laid on the amount of work done. The third one was the complete socialist form the highest form of cooperative economy, in which land 381

and the basic means of production were pooled and distribution made only according to the amount of work done. When the means of production of cooperative members such as draught animals and farm implements were disposed of, they were made to be pooled not compulsorily but according to the wish of their owners to be used jointly while retaining their private ownership for a certain period. In case of amalgamation, appropriate prices had to be paid without fail. Thanks to these correct measures a tendency to organizing only a higher form of cooperative without regard to the economic conditions and political awareness of the peasants or a tendency to organizing a lower form of cooperative talking about "graduality" even though there were ample conditions for taking a higher form of cooperative, was rectified opportunely in some local areas, and many deviations revealed in amalgamating the means of production were corrected. The size of cooperatives, too, was decided properly. At first they embraced a small number of 1 5-20 households each and as conditions were matured, they were gradually extended, holding 40-1 00 households each. Timely removal of the deviations that might have appeared in the mass stage of the agricultural cooperative movement furthered the work of organizing agricultural cooperatives on a full scale. In the first half of 1955, the first year of the stage of mass development, 1,500 cooperatives were newly organized, turning nearly half of the individual peasant economy into cooperative one. The rapid quantitative growth of cooperative farming urgently called for its qualitative consolidation. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung personally inspected many villages, grasped the real state of the cooperative movement and directed the work of consolidating and developing the organized cooperatives. He gave meticulous on-the-spot guidance to cooperatives in varied topographical conditions, in plains, in-between areas and remote mountain areas. During his on -the -spot guidance the respected leader took steps to select and allocate management cadres correctly, establish socialist order and system, strengthen socialist education, consolidate the economic foundation of the cooperatives and rapidly improve the livelihood of the cooperative members. In order to fully implement the line of consolidating the agricultural cooperative economy set forth by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the Party mobilized a great number of Party and government functionaries in 1955 and gave intensive guidance to all 382 cooperatives. Afterwards, such intensive guidance was given once or twice every year. Agricultural cooperatives were consolidated apace politically and economically, displaying their increasing superiority. Now, middle peasants, too, started joining cooperatives en masse and even' rich peasants came to accept the agricultural cooperative movement. One of the important factors that made for the smooth and rapid progress of the agricultural cooperative movement in Korea was the correct guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung who set forth a correct class policy and had it carried out thoroughly. As for the composition of the rural population at the time of agricultural cooperation, the poor peasants held 40 per cent, the middle peasants 59.4 per cent and the rich peasants 0.6 per cent. Their attitudes towards the agricultural cooperative movement were different The poor peasants actively supported it from the start. As for the middle peasants, those who had bettered themselves thanks to the agrarian reform actively supported it like the poor peasants but the rest of the middle peasants took a wait-andsee attitude. The rich peasants looked askance at it or opposed it. In the light of such composition and mood of the rural population, the cooperative movement followed the class policy of firmly relying on the poor peasants, strengthening alliance with the middle peasants and remoulding the rich peasants. In other words, the cooperatives were first organized mainly with the poor peasants who were made to play a pioneer role in the agricultural cooperative movement. The middle peasants were actively drawn into the cooperative economy through object lessons, strictly prohibiting any acts of infringing upon their interests and weakening alliance with them. The rich peasants were remoulded into socialist working people by way of restricting their negative tendencies and educating them with patience, instead of expropriating them. This entirely original policy taken towards the rich peasants was correct one based on a scientific assessment of the actual conditions where the revolutionary forces of socialism were powerful while the rich peasants were very weak and were not in a position to live the way they had done before as socialist transformation progressed rapidly in town and country and they lost their object and source of exploitation. Agricultural cooperation involved an acute class struggle. A handful of reactionary elements who were against cooperation from the start worked maliciously to damage the common 383

property and set back production, while trying hard to prevent the peasants from joining the cooperatives. However, their wily plot to frustrate the agricultural cooperative movement was shattered in time in face of the struggle against counterrevolution waged by the peasant masses whose class consciousness was heightened through intensified political work in the countryside. The agricultural cooperative movement made a swift progress and by the end of 1956, 80.9 per cent of the total farm households had joined the cooperatives, of which those of the third form held 97.5 per cent. At the Third Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea held in April 1956 the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung set forth the task of completing the agricultural cooperative movement during the FiveYear Plan period. Thus, agricultural cooperation entered the third, finishing stage in Korea from 1957. Those who remained outside the cooperatives were chiefly wellto-do peasants, peasants engaging both in trade and farming nearby towns, peasants widely dispersed in the mountain areas, and peasants in the newly-liberated areas which had been under the misrule of the US imperialists and their stooges in the past The voluntary principle was strictly adhered to in the finishing stage, too. As for the well-to-do peasants and those in the newlyliberated areas, a tireless politico-ideological work was conducted with them and they were made to choose the form of cooperative suited to their actual conditions. As for the peasants around town who also mostly engaged in trade, the work of forming their agricultural cooperatives was closely combined with the socialist transformation of private trade and industry. In the mountain areas small-scale combined workteams of some independent nature were organized with a residential area as the unit and joint stockbreeding bases established so that the peasants would run the cooperative economy. For the completion of agricultural cooperation the Party and state gave more material assistance to the cooperatives, strengthening guidance to them. The cooperatives got loans of provisions, seed grain and money and received new labour power. During agricultural cooperation the state loaned over 300,000 tons of food and seed grain and over 24,300 million won of farming funds to the agricultural cooperatives whose economic foundations were weak and to the poor peasants, and wrote off over 1 60,000 tons of tax in kind and grain and over 1 ,400 million won in loans. Under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and thanks to the conscious struggle of the peasant 384 masses, aaricultural cooperation was eompleted at last in August 1958. Thus the difficult and complex task of transforming the small peasant farming and capitalist economy in the countryside into the socialist cooperative economy was successfully carried out in a matter of 4-5 years. In order to continuously consolidate and develop the success of agricultural cooperation after its completion and particularly to push the technical revolution full scale and bring agricultural production to a higher level, the agricultural cooperatives were amalgamated with n, the lowest administrative unit, as the unit. As a result, the former 13,309 agricultural cooperatives were merged into 3,843 and the average number of peasant households per cooperative grew from 80 to 300 and the average acreage of land from 1 30 to 500 hectares. In January 1959 the National Congress of Agricultural Cooperatives was held. The congress summed up the victory of the agricultural cooperative movement, put forward the task of vigorously pushing forward the rural technical, cultural and ideological revolutions without letup and adopted the Standard Rules of the Agricultural Cooperatives (tentative). Now, the socialist relations of production holding the undivided sway over the countryside a new fruitful struggle started to consolidate and develop the socialist countryside in all fields by vigorously pushing forward the three revolutions, ideological, technical and cultural. Socialist Transformation of Private Trade and Industry Along with the agricultural cooperation the socialist reorganization of handicrafts and capitalist trade and industry was successfully carried out in town as well. in order to complete the socialist transformation of the relations of production and firmly establish a socialist system, it was necessary not only to cooperativize private farming in the countryside but also to reorganize private handicrafts and capitalist trade and industry along socialist lines in urban areas. In Korea the socialist transformation of private trade and industry, handicrafts in particular, had already started before the war. Thanks to the active guidance and assistance of the people's power after liberation, the Korean handicraftsmen, whose economy had been fated to decline and ruin under Japanese imperialist colonial 385

rule in the past, developed their economy and improved their living conditions markedly. Nevertheless, the handicraft economy, originally fragmented and technically backward, had to go into a slump in a definite state. Only by cooperativizing their private economy could the handicraftsmen fundamentally improve their standards of living. From 1947 producers" cooperatives were organized with handicraftsmen and casuals. They rapidly expanded and developed, displaying their superiority from the outset. Their number swelled from 27 in 1947 to 567 in 1949 and the average membership of each cooperative grew from 1 0 to 40. The cooperation of private handicrafts went full steam in the postwar period. The handicraftsmen who had suffered a heavy loss and had got into a greater scrape during the war, could sustain their economy only by organizing cooperatives and receiving positive assistance from the state. Such being the case, the cooperation of handicrafts proceeded rapidly and was completed rather smoothly in a short period of time. The socialist reorganization of capitalist trade and industry was far more difficult and complex than the cooperation of handicrafts. As regards the socialist reorganization of capitalist trade and industry, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "During the period of transition, our Party's policy in relation to capitalist trade and industry was to transform them gradually into the socialist economy, utilizing their positive features and controlling their negative ones." (Ibid., p. 68.) After liberation the status of medium and small entrepreneurs and traders, too, changed. Freed from the past situation in which they were oppressed and exploited by the Japanese imperialists and comprador capitalists, they participated in the democratic revolution under the guidance of the people's power, and then, rendered service to the cause of the country's prosperity and welfare of the people. The state, from the outset, allowed by law the economic activities of capitalist traders and industrialistsand restricted and controlled their negative aspects while utilizing their positive ones. Patriotic economic activities were encouraged, but their ventures and profiteering were controlled and all usuries strictly prohibited by law. While pursuing the policy of restricting andutilizing the capitalist elements the state reshaped them gradually along socialist lines. It was the postwar period when the socialist transformation of capitalist trade and industry was stepped up full scale. Due to the war, entrepreneurs and traders, too, went bankrupt and were reduced to a status no better than that of handicraftsmen and 386 small merchants. More, with the rapid expansion of socialist industry and the cooperation of agriculture and handicrafts, they could no longer obtain raw and other materials at the private market as they had done in the past. In such situation, the only way for them to revive was to pool their means of production and funds and run the socialist economy. Capitalist trade and industry were transformed by way of organizing producers' cooperatives according to business lines in close combination with reorganization of handicrafts. There were three forms of producers' cooperatives The first form was an initial form of cooperative economy in which the production tools were not placed under common ownership and work alone was done on a collective basis. The second form was a semi -socialist form in which the means of production were under both joint and private ownership and both socialist distribution according to work done and distribution according to the amount of investment were applied. The third form was a completely socialist form in which all means of production and funds were turned into common property and only socialist distribution applied. The second form was popular in the cooperation of capitalist trade and industry. It was a rational form which was readily acceptable to capitalists because it applied the distribution according to the amount of investment while laying stress on the socialist principle in the ownership of the means of production and distribution. A considerable number of entrepreneurs went over to the third form through the second form. Unlike private industry, private trade was transformed by way of forming marketing cooperatives and producing-marketing cooperatives. The former marketed goods purchased or partly processed by themselvesandthe latterengaged in both production and marketing of their products. Here producing-marketing cooperatives were predominant. They were a rational form which made it possible to gradually reshape traders into socialist working people participating in productive labour by letting them attend to both production and marketing. As the proportion of production grew higher the producing marketing cooperatives were all reorganized into producers' cooperatives The socialist transformation of private trade and industry was not confined to merely changing economic forms; it proceeded in close combination with the remoulding of men, with the result that private traders and manufacturers were reshaped into socialist working people. The remoulding of men alongside of the reorganization of economic forms aimed to realize the great leader's far-reaching plan to take all private traders and manufacturers along to communist society 387

by educating and remoulding them and actively drawing them into the building of socialism. In order to consolidate the producers' cooperatives politically and economically they were directed to properly run their economy according to the rules of their cooperatives, and the state gave them greater material and financial help, The economic foundations of the producers' cooperatives were speedily fortified and the coop members' living further improved. The socialist reorganization of private trade and industry proceeded rapidly at the rate of 33.7 per cent in 1 953 and 77.2 per cent in 1957. It was completed in August 1958 simultaneously with the agricultural cooperation. With the completion of the agricultural cooperation and the socialist reorganization of private trade and industry, the socialist relations of production became completely dominant. An advanced, socialist system free from exploitation and oppression, which had been so long aspired for by the Korean people, was firmly established in the northern half of the Republic. The completion of the socialist transformation of production relations and the establishment of the exclusive domination of the socialist economic system opened up a new brqad avenue for the development of productive forces and the national economy and provided a solid socio-economic guarantee for rapidly improving the people's livelihood as a whole. And this decisively strengthened the democratic base of the northern half of the Republic and provided the possibility for pushing the struggle for the country's independent reunification more vigorously. The experience of the WPK which successfully carried out the complex task of the socialist transformation of production relations in a short span of time overcoming all difficulties, constitutes a great contribution to the international communist movement and the development of the world revolution. Especially, the original theory on the agricultural cooperation and the socialist transformation of private trade and industry expounded by the great leader Comrade Kim il Sung assumesan enormous significance in the development of the theory of socialist revolution. The socialist revolution which did away with all kinds of exploitation and oppression was the last social revolution whose main purpose was to bring about a radical change in social system. That, however, did not mean the end of revolution as a whole. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung clarified that the revolution should be continued until the two fortresses of communism, ideological and material, are captured and a complete communist 388 society is realized and that the ideological, technical and cultural revolutions come to the fore after the victory of socialist revolution. This unique theory of the great leader signifies a new development of the theory on revolution, on uninterrupted revolution in particular.

4. The Struggle To Establish Juche

The Thoroughgoing Establishment of Juche in the Ideological Sphere A dynamic struggle to firmly establish Juche was launched in ideological work and all other domains of socialist revolution and socialist construction in the postwar days. It was impossible to push the revolution and construction successfully at that time without combating flunkeyism and dogmatism and establishing Juche firmly. Theantj-Partyfactionalists, flunkeysand dogmatists, swallowing foreign things whole and copying them mechanically, opposed overtly and covertly our Party's independent lines and creative policies which embodied the Juche idea. They not only took exception to the basic line of economic construction most suited to the actual conditions of Korea and the policy for socialist transformation of the relations of production but also prevented the Party's ideological work from being conducted in conformity with the demand of the Korean revolution. They even fell victim to national nihilism which extols foreign things without consideration while slighting one's own. The harm done by flunkeyism and dogmatism became intolerable. Without doing away with them and thoroughly establishing Juche, it was impossible to solve the questions arising in the socialist revolution and socialist construction originally in conformity to the specific conditions of Korea and carry out the difficult and complex tasks of the Korean revolution on the principle of self-reliance. Regarding the elimination of flunkeyism and dogmatism and the establishment of Juche as the key to the success of the socialist revolution and socialist construction, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung put forward a determined policy of thoroughly establish389

ing Juche in ideological work and all other domains of the revolution and construction. He made a historic speech. On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in ideological Work, before Party propagandists and agitators in December 1955. There he taught: "What is Juche in our Party's ideological work? What are we doing? We are not engaged in any other country's revolution, but precisely in the Korean revolution. This, the Korean revolution, constitutes Juche in the ideological work of our Party. Therefore, all ideological work must be subordinated to the interests of the Korean revolution." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. I, pp. 582-83.) This teaching of the respected leader that the Korean revolution constitutes Juche in the ideological work of our Party is a clear, concentric expression of the basic purpose, orientation, ways and means of our Party's ideological work. Needless to say, the basic purpose of the ideological work of the Workers' Party of Korea is to successfully ensure the victory of the Korean revolution and, accordingly, its ideological work should naturally be conducted in such a way as to meet the practical demand of the development of the Korean revolution in consonance with the realities of Korea. Hence arises an urgent question of firmly establishing Juche in the Party's ideological work. Establishing Juche in ideological work constitutes the starting point of the establishment of Juche in all fields of the revolutionary struggle and constructive work. Without establishing Juche in the ideological sphere, one can neither independently think of the revolution of one's country nor can display any creative initiative nor can check Right and "Left" opportunism infiltrating through flunkeyism. Only by establishing Juche thoroughly in the ideological sphere, is it possible to firmly establish Juche in the political, economic, military and all other fields. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung expounded the basic means of thoroughly establishing Juche in the Party's ideological work. Emphasizing that in order to establish Juche in the ideological field it is necessary to get every one to acquaint himself with the specific realities and things of Korea, the respected leader taught that all Party members and working people should be brought home to the history of Korea, the struggle and fine traditions of the Korean nation and the Party's lines and policies. In connection with the problem of establishing Juche, the 390 respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung lucidly explained the corelations between socialist patriotism and proletarian internationalism. Savinq that patriotism and internationalism are inseparable ne stressed that he who does not love his country cannot be loyal to internationalism, and he who is unfaithful to internationalism cannot be faithful to his own country and people. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's historic speech On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche m Ideological Work brought about a radical change in the work of getting rid of the evil effects of flunkeyism and dogmatism which had been handed 'down through history in Korea, of establishing Juche m all soheres of the revolution and construction, of arming the working people with the Juche idea and of embodying the revolunonary principles of independence, self-support and self-defence in an allrOUnFoX!fowing his speech a vigorous struggle was waged against flunkeyism and dogmatism and for the establishment of Juche. The educational work for arming the Party members and working people more firmly with the great Juche idea and its embodiment, the Party's policies, was intensified full scale along with a resolute struggle against flunkeyism, dogmatism and all other shades of opportunism^ The education in the revolutionary traditions, too, was strenqthened. A great deal of materials were published for the study ot the revolutionary traditions and the education in these traditions came to hold an important place in the Party's ideological work. Through a powerful struggle to establish Juche in the ideological field all ideological trends inconsistent with it were completely overcome and a new change took place in the ideological viewpoint and mode of thinking of the people. The Party members and working people heightened their national pride and sense of independence. They began to form a revolutionary standpoint of taking a critical view of everything without blindly following others, and I gave fu I p ay to the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance which enabled them to tackle all problems arising in the revolution and construction with their own strength. Implementation of the Line of Independence, Self-Sustenance and Self-Defence Along with the work of thoroughly establishing Juche in ideo391

logical work, a vigorous struggle was waged to establish Juche in all fields of politics, economy and military affairs. In order to push the revolution and construction forward successfully with the Juche idea as the guideline it was necessary to establish Juche in ideology and, at the same time, thoroughly embody the principles of independence in politics, self-sustenance in economy and self-defence in national defence. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "What is important in applying the Juche idea is to carry out the principles of Juche in ideology, independence in politics, self-support in economy and self-defence in guarding the nation." (Answers to the Questions Raised by Foreign Journalists, Eng. ed , Vol. 2, pp 134-35.) The principle of independence in politics is embodied above alf in working out and implementing all lines and policies independently in conformity to the specific realities of one's country. Under the wise leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the Workers' Party of Korea and the Government of the DPRK putforwardthe independent and creative linesand policies best fit for the actual conditions of Korea in the Party building, power building, social reforms and economic and cultural construction and carried them through to the letter to attain brilliant successes in all fields of the revolution and construction. The principle of independence in politics was maintained in the struggle for the country's reunification, too. Proceeding from the firm standpoint that the question of the reunification of Korea should by all means be solved by the Korean people themselves in accordance with their demand and will, the WPK and the DPRK Government put forward the proposals for the country's independent peaceful reunification and unfolded a positive struggle to bring them to realization. In the foreign policy, too, they held fast to the principle of Chajusong and established relations with other countries on the principles of complete equality and mutual respect. Self-support in economy is a guiding principle the WPK and the DPRK Government are persistently adhering to in economic construction. All economic policies were oriented to embodying the principle of independence and the whole course of economic construction was a course of building an jndependent self-supporting economy. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung resolutely spurned the allegation of the anti-Party, counterrevolutionary elements, flunkeys and opportunists that Korea had better develop just mining and there was no need for her to endeavour to develop machine-building industry. He set forth the line of building a Juche-based 392 industry, a modern independent heavy industry with a powerful machine-building industry as its core and wisely led the Korean people to thoroughly implement it in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance. Deeply conscious that the carrying out of the line of building an independent national economy alone is the only correct way to make the country rich and powerful and steadily ensure an affluent life, the Party members and working people steadily built up the foundations of an independent national economy, getting over manifold difficulties and obstacles in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance. Through a powerful struggle to attain self-support in the economy the foundation of an independent national economy was laid in the main in the ThreeYear Plan period and further consolidated in the Five-Year Plan period. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung wisely led the building of a powerful self-defensive force by thoroughly materializing the principle of self-defence in national defence. In carrying out the line of self-defence primary attention was directed to fully preparing the entire people and servicemen politically and ideologically to face up war at all times. Although the armistice was declared, the enemy was ceaselessly perpetrating provocative acts in violation of the Armistice Agreement. Under such condition, nation's defence capability had to be built up in every way while firmly arming the people and armymen with the Juche idea of the WPK and intensifying the revolutionary and class education among them to get them fully ready politically and ideologically. In ordertomake national defence invinciblethe military line of the Party was thoroughly carried out in the field of national defence on the principle of self-defence. The line of turning the whole army into an army of cadres and modernizing it was properly implemented in the People's Army while the line of arming all the people and turning the whole country into a fortress was carried through among the people. Material preparations for increasing nation's defence capacity were also made fully. Defence industry was rapidly developed m proper combination with the economic construction from the early postwar days and ample material reserves secured through the struggle for increased production and economization. Through the struggle for implementing the line of independence, self-sustenance and self-defence the country's political independence was further consolidated and an independent national economy and nation's self-defence were firmly built up on the revolutionary principle of. self-reliance. Like this, the struggle to establish Juche gave birth to a great material force in all domains of the revolution and construction. Thanks to the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung who setforth the 393

determined policy of establishing Juche and roused the whole Party and entire people to the vigorous struggle for implementing it, the Korean people could win great victory in the socialist revolution and socialist construction.

5. Chollima Movement

Origin of Chollima Movement The Third Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea hefd in April 1 956 discussed as an important question the basic task of the FiveYear Plan which aimed to complete the building of socialist foundations. The Five -Year Plan starting from 1 957 envisaged the completion of agricultural cooperation and the socialist transformation of private trade and industry, the building of the foundations for socialist industrialization and the basic solution of the food, clothing and housing problems of the people. In the period of tackling the Five-Year Plan, the internal and external situation was very complicated and there were hosts of obstacles and trials in the way of our people's struggle for further accelerating the socialist revolution and socialist construction on a higher stage. The international reaction headed by US imperialism was stirring up an "anti-communist" wave and the US imperialists and the south Korean rulers in collusion with it kicked up a "march north" din. The anti-Party, counterrevolutionary factionalists represented by Choe Chang Ik, who had long been lurking within the Party and watching for a chance to attain their sectarian purpose, threwdown the gauntlet against the Party with the backing of foreign forces. These scoundrels, following the moves of the revisionists, hampered the implementation of the Party's policy overtly and covertly and framed a heinous plot to oppose the Party and the state and ruin the revolution. They were brought to light and justice at the August 1956 Plenary Meeting of the WPK Central Committee, but their remnants were still engaging in insidious manoeuvrings. Therefore, the arduoustask of the Five-Year Plan had to be carried out amid the struggle with them. 394 The economic situation of the country was still very difficult. Though the industry was rehabilitated in the main and exceeded the prewar level in the total output during theThree-Year Plan period, such branches as electric and chemical industries which had been most severely damaged in the war had still war wounds to be healed. The metallurgical and machine-building industries, too, were not in a position to meet the rapidly-increasing requirements of the national economy. The large-scale factories built during the Three-Year Plan period still failed to demonstrate their might to the full. The production of grain and industrial crops fell behind the daily-growing demand of the national economy. A greater shortage of equipment, materials and funds than in the past was felt in successfully carrying out the task of the Five- Year Plan looking forward to the rapid development of production. The fulfilment of the Three- Year Plan stabilized the people's life considerably, but not fully. Production of consumer goods could not keep pace with the people's requirement. There was a great housing shortage. It was a serious problem how to break through the difficult situation of the country and accelerate the revolution and construction at a rapid rate without letup. To solve this problem, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung set forth a wise policy of focussing main efforts on the construction of the socialist economy while consolidating the cohesion and unity of the Party, rallying the entire people around the Party and dealing a decisive counterblow to the offensive of the enemies at home and abroad. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung taught: "...white building up its ranks more firmly and uniting the entire people more closely around it and thereby dealing a decisive counterblow to the offensive of the enemies of all kinds both within and without, the Party directed its main effort to the economic construction of socialism. Under the prevailing situation, our Party intended to rouse the whole Party and the entire people to activity to consolidate the positions of our revolution as firmly as a rock and bring about a great upsurge in socialist construction and, in so doing, completely crush all the offensives of internal and external enemies and open up an even wider vista for the revolution and constructive work in our country." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. IV, p. 208.) The Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the WPK which was held in December 1956 had a really important significance in 395

surmounting the difficulty ahead and implementing the policy laid down by the great leader. It discussed the task of the national economic plan for 1 957, the first year of the Five-Year Plan, and concrete ways and means for bringing about a great upsurge in socialist construction. Industrial production in 1957 was set 21 per cent higher than 1956. It was a tight plan. However, even that was insufficient for satisfying the urgent requirements of the developing national economy and people's life atan early date. More hadto be produced. The plenary meeting thus advanced increased production assignments for steel, daily necessities and grain outside the plan and called orj the working people to fulfil them. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung found the key to fulfilling the targets for the first year of the arduous Five-Year Plan in tapping and enlisting the internal reserves of production in every way and enhancing the utility rate of the existing equipment and put forth the militant slogan, "Maximum production with maximum economy." And he took positive measures to tide over ail the tribulations and trials and successfully carry out the immediate revolutionary tasks, by getting the functionaries to go among the masses and enlist their consciousness and creativeness to the utmost. Immediately after the plenary meeting the great leader personally went out to the Kangson Steel Works where he met the workers and explained in detail the country's difficult situation, the requirements of the revolution and the Party's determination Saying that if they turned out a little more steel than the plan, it would help the country greatly, he forcefully roused them to increased production. The workers of the Kangson Steel Works who had always remained true to the call of the respected leader made their inflexible determination to work innovations in production, wholeheartedly responding to his instructions. They rose up as one in the struggle for maximum increased production and economy, and stepped up production in the spirit of Chollirna. The flame of the struggle, the torch of the Chollirna movement, kindled by the respected leader among the working class of the Kangson Steel Works spread all over the country like a prairie fire. To his militant call the workers of the Kangson Steel Works and all other working people of the country started a great upswing in socialist construction, finding out what they lacked and turning out what they did not have, smashing old norms and rated capacity and creating new ones inconceivable before. The workers of the Kangson Steel Works who rose up to live up to the deep trust placed in them by the respected leader resolved to produce 90,000 tons of steel billets in a blooming 396 mill which had been regarded as absolutely incapable of turning out more than 60,000 tons. But they actually produced a miraculous 120,000 tons. The workers of the Kim Chaek Iron Works, too, resolved to produce 250,000 tons of pig iron but actually turned out 270,000 tons with equipment whose maximum annual capacity had been rated at 1 90,000 tons. The light industrial factories produced 7,000 million won (old currency ) worth of commodity outside their plan without receiving additional labour power and materials. By these uninterrupted innovations made in socialist construction, the industry's quota for 1 957, the first year of the Five-Year Plan, was overfulfilled by 17 per cent. Annual industrial output grew at an extraordinary rate of 44 per cent. In agriculture there was a good harvest and much more grain than the plan was produced. In the flames of struggle kindled by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, socialist construction proceeded at an unusually high speed, giving rise to the great Chollirna Movement. Essence of the Chollirna Movement The Chollirna Movement was the natural result of the great socioeconomic changes effected in that period. It was based on the material and mental forces. Decisive victory in the socialist revolution and the building of the foundations for an independent national economy were the socioeconomic and material factors of the Chollirna Movement. But these were, after all, only objective factors and potentialities; the Chollirna Movement did not come about by virtue of them alone. The decisive factors that brought about the great upsurge in socialist construction and the Chollirna Movement were the wise leadership of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, who correctly organized and mobilized the masses in this great movement, and the extraordinary determination and revolutionary enthusiasm of the popular masses who were rallied around him as firmly as a rock and strove to carry through to the last the Party's policy. In each stage and period of the Korean revolution the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung promptly and correctly grasped the obtaining "situation, the requirements of the revolution as it developed, the masses' aspirations and the urgent problems presented by life itself, and formulated most scientific and revolutionary lines and policies. And once he shaped lines and policies, he sagaciously led the masses 397

to carry them through to the end, never shrinking back in face of any complicated and difficult circumstances. Vigorously stimulating the high revolutionary zeal of the masses, with his extraordinary revolutionary sweep, the great leader solved one problem and immediately presented another matured one, leading the masses to the continued innovation and continued advance in all branches of the revolution and construction. He correctly grasped the main link in the chain of the work in each period of the developing revolution, concentrated efforts on it, and thus undid the whole knots in the way of the revolution and construction. In leading the revolution and construction, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung actively solved all the problems by closely combining general guidance with concrete specific guidance, giving priority to political work and rousing the masses to action. He promptly fostered the new things and positive factors the moment they appeared among the masses and publicized them, fn this way he always kept the whole country in a ferment of creation and innovation. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's firm Juche position and scientific foresight in framing policies, his strong revolutionary fortitude and exceptional revolutionary sweep in their implementation — these always helped deepen the people's confidence in their cause and made them advance vigorously towardsthe victory of revolution along the road indicated by him without slightest vacillation or hesitation^ in guiding the revolution and construction, the great leader also always believed in the wisdom and strength of the popular masses. Whenever a new task presented itself or difficulties arose in the revolution, he informed them of the situation, discussed solutions directly with them and harnessed their inexhaustible creativity to carry out the task. The people always placed an infinite trust in the great leader, followed him with reverence and established a revolutionary tone with which they devoted their all to the implementation of the line and policy laid down by him regarding it as their supreme task. Believing in the wisdom and might of the popular masses, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung went among them and personally conducted organizational and political work to give full play to their enthusiasm and creativeness, thus vigorously rousing them to the great Chollima Movement. The Chollima Movement was a concentric expression of the sagacity of the leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and a resplendent fruition of the Juche-oriented revolutionary mass line. It rapidly expanded into a great all-people revolutionary move398 ment covering all spheres of the economy, culture, ideology and morality. Thus the Chollima Movement in Korea became a mighty motive force accelerating the revolution and construction at an extraordinary high speed. Originally, Chollima means the horse galloping 1,000 ri a day. From olden times this term had been used by Korean forefathers as one symbolizing a high speed. The Chollima Movement manifests the forward movement of the Korean peopfe dashing ahead at the speed of Chollima. The Chollima Movement is a revolutionary movement of the Korean people who, rallied close around the great leader and the Workers' Party of Korea led by him, are striving to accelerate the building of socialism and communism to the maximum, displaying a high degree of revolutionary zeal and creative wisdom. To expedite socialist and communist construction to the maximum was a lawful requirement of the developing revolution and the unanimous desire and revolutionary will of the Korean people who resolutely rose up to build a new happy life on their land, never leading a bitter life again as in the past when they had been trampled underfoot and oppressed. The Chollima Movement was a mass onward movement started by the people themselves in wholehearted response to the great leader's call for meeting the requirement of the developing revolution and realizing their own aspiration. Herein lay the source of the power of this movement to speed up the building of socialism and communism. The Chollima Movement was a communist onward movement which organically combined the collective drive for innovation in the building of the economy and culture with the work of educating and remoulding the working people. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The Chollima Movement is a movement of communist education, its aim being to convert large numbers of people into activists of socialist construction who make continuous advance and uninterrupted innovation; it is a forward movement of communism to get large numbers of people to display mass heroism and vigorously push ahead with socialist construction." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works; Eng. ed.. Vol, V, p. 49.) The Chollima Movement raised it as its first and foremost task to educate and remould all the people into genuinely communist-type people firmly armed with the great Juche idea, the spirit of collectivism, the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and indomitable fighting spirit; it roused the working people to mass heroism and collective innovation to push the economic and cultural construction forcefully. 399

The Chollima Movement was an all-people movement waged in all spheres of the revolution and construction. It was not confined to any separate fields of the socialist construction, but covered all spheres — industry, agriculture, construction, transportation, science, education, culture, public health, etc. — embracing in it workers, peasants, intellectuals, students and even members of the people's residential sub-units. Covering all the domains and embracing all the people, the Chollima Movement helped accelerate the socialist and communist construction as a whole. As a mass educational movement and communist forward movement, the Chollima Movement paved the correct way to expedite the socialist and communist construction to the maximum in Korea. Great Upsurge in Socialist Construction. Successful Fulfilment of the Five-Year Plan The Korean people strove hard to fulfil the Five-Year Plan ahead of schedule, never slackening the Chollima Movement. Having overfulfilled the first-year, quotas of the Five-Year Plan which had been considered to be a very hard task, they kept up their speed of advance with redoubled stamina. The Chollima Movement was waged in close combination with the struggle for technical reconstruction in all branches of the national economy. It was because the Five-Year Plan period was the first phase of technical reconstruction and, more importantly, the completion of the socialist transformation of production relations in 1 958 opened up a broad avenue of technical reconstruction and, at the same time, presented technical reconstruction as the most urgent task. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung taught: "To build a socialist society it is not enough merely to transform the relations of production on socialist lines. Along with this, it is necessary to further strengthen the material and productive basis of socialism which enables us to equip all sectors of the national economy with modern technology. Under the conditions in which socialist production relations have mostly triumphed, technological reconstruction comes to the fore as the most pressing task." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. II, p. 155.) In order to carry out the technological reconstruction of the 400 national economy, it was necessary first to rapidly develop the metal and machine-building industries. Irrigation stood out as an urgent task in the technical reconstruction of the rural economy. At the September 1 958 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee oftheWPKthe great leader Comrade Kim II Sung set forth the tasks ot decisively developing the metal and machine-building industries and of substantially completing irrigation in the near future, and advanced the slogans, "Iron and machinery are the kings of industry, and "Make every effort to expand the i rrigated area by one million The plenary meeting sent a Red letter to the entire Party members, callinq upon them to bring about a great revolutionary upsurge in socialist construction, surmounting all shades of conservatism and passivity and speeding up the grand Chollima march. The great leader's militant call made at the Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee and its letter marked an epochal turn in bringing about an ever-greater revolutionary upsurge on all fronts ot socialist construction. Pursuing the grand Chollima march, all the working people wrought fresh world -startling miracles and innovations one after another in all domains of the national economy. The workers of Kiyang who were then turning out simple ammaidrawn farm implements and the workers of Tokchon who were producing some automobile accessories, boldly buckled down to the production of tractors and automobiles. Having no blueprints or facilities they had to sketch and hammer out every accessory part and solve everything from designing to assembly for themselves. After repeated failures, however, they succeeded in turning out a tractor m 30 days and an automobile in 40 days by toiling with set teeth in the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance. The workers of the Ragwon and Ryonqsong Machine Factories produced various modern machines and equipments such as excavator, bulldozer, and 8-metre turning lathe Great innovations were also made in housing construction, a miracle called "Pyongyang speed" was wrought in which one flat was built every fourteen minutes. Making miracles and innovations in succession, the workers doubled and trebled the amount of products and the volume ot construction with the materialsand fundsat hand in all branches of the national economy A let-one-machine-tool-make-machine-tools movement took □lace in the flames of the Chollima Movement.' In the course of his on-the-spot guidance the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung saw workers of a small flax mill making new 401

machine-tools successfully with their simple machine-tool. There he found a positive way to relieve the shortage of machine-tools at an early date and proposed to extensively wage the let-one-machinetool-make-machine-tools movement, a movement for making machine-tools everywhere there was a machine-tool. This movement was launched in all branches of the national economy as a movement of the entire masses. Through this movement over 13,000 machinetools were produced outside the plan in 1959 alone. In the flames of the let-one-machine-toof-make-machine-tools movement the foundation of the machine-building industry was rapidly consolidated and the working people became confident that they could make whatever machines. Along with the machine-building industry other key branches of heavy industry were also built up. In electric power industry, in accordance with the Party's policy, the construction of hydroelectric power station and thermal power station was rationally combined and a mass movement launched to build small and medium-sized power stations along with large-sized ones. Besides, the independence of steel industry was strengthened and there appeared a new organic chemical industry turning out vinalon, vinyl plastics and others with home raw materials. In order to speedily shore up light industry while rapidly developing heavy industry, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung set forth the original policy of developing small and medium-scale local industry factories alongside large centrally-controlled ones in light industry. At the June 1 958 Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee he set the task of building at least one local industry factory for each town and county, without relying on the state. Upholding this policy put forward by the great leader, the working people of the whole country rase up to build local factories. They built them by way of enlisting all facilities, even manual tools, with which they could produce daily necessities with local materials. Thus, more than 1,000 local factories (4-5 for each county) were built in different parts of the country in a few months, entirely with local reserves, not using state funds. At first most of these factories were short of equipment. But they were gradually improved and modernized by the devoted efforts of their workers and came to produce about a half of the country's light industry goods. The working people also pushed ahead with the technical reconstruction of the rural economy on a big scale while laying a powerful heavy industry base and modern light industry base. The great leader defined irrigation, mechanization, electrification and chemicalization as the basic contents of the rural technical 402 reconstruction and, in view of the natural and climatic conditions of Korea and the specific features of her agricultural production, gave top priority to irrigation. A vigorous mass irrigation drive was launched in the wake of the September 1958 Plenary Meeting of the Party Central Committee. Thus some 10,000 irrigation projects were started throughout the country and large irrigation facilities capable of watering 380,000 hectares of paddy and nonpaddy fields were completed in only six months. . Along with irrigation, mechanization was energetically pushed ahead to widely use various modern farm machinery such as tractors and trucks in farming. Rural electrification and the use of chemicals in agriculture were also sped up to supply electricity to almost every rural village, even in mountainous areas, and sharply increase the amount of chemical fertilizers applied per hectare. The speedy progress of the rural technical revolution provided the possibility for steadily and rapidly boosting agricultural production on a solid material and technical foundation, regardless of any adverse natural conditions, The cultural revolution was also strongly pushed along with the technical revolution. In order to carry out the task of the cultural revolution a great effort was directed to the development of school education for raising the working people's level of general knowledge and technical knowhow and their cultural standards and for training hosts of technical personnel. Universal compulsory primary education was introduced in 1956 and, in 1958, universal compulsory (seven-year) secondary education, for the first time in Asia. In 1959 all tuition fees were abolished at the schools of all levels and education became completely free and compulsory. On the other hand, with a view to strengthening technical education the old system of public education was reorganized into the secondary and higher technical education systems in 1 959, In order to make the working people receive higher education without leaving production a higher educational system of studying while working was established and, especially, factory colleges, a new type of college where one could study while on the job, were set up. During the Five-Year Plan period the number of colleges increased from 19 to 78 and that of students in all schools reached 2,530,000 equivalent to about one-fourth of the population. With the dynamic progress of the ideological revolution, socialist construction went stronger and the Chollima Movement gained further momentum. With a view to speeding up the ideological revolution aimed at 403

educating and remoulding the people, the great leader clarified the content and methods of communist education whose keynote is ciass education in his historic speech, On Communist Education, delivered in November 1 958, at a short training course for agitators of city and county Party committees from ali over the country. In accordance with his teachings, communist education was intensified and the work of remoulding men taken on by the masses themselves. As this work was linked up more closely with productive activities, the flames of revolution surged ever higher and the Chollima Movement developed into the Chollima Workteam Movement. The Chollima Workteam Movement, an intensified and developed form of the Chollima Movement, splendidly played the role of a communist school in educating people in communist ideology and rousing them to collective heroism and innovation. In order to spread the flames of the Chollima Workteam Movement kindled for the first time in 1959 by the workers of Kangson to all domains of socialist construction, the great leader Comrade Kim fl Sung called a national conference of pioneers of the Chollima Workteam Movement in August, 1960 and set programmatic tasks before the Chollima riders. Following the great leader's programmatic teachings, the participants in the Chollima Workteam Movement, pulling and helping each other forward under the slogan "One for all and all for one!" built up their workteams into Red collectives working, studying and living in a communist way. After the above-mentioned conference, the Chollima Workteam Movement spread not only to the industrial branches but also to all branches of the national economy and accelerated socialist construction at an exceptionally high speed by sweeping away everything outmoded in all spheres of economy, culture, ideology and morality and making uninterrupted innovations. As the Chollima Movement was developed in depth and a greater revolutionary upsurge effected in the building of socialism, the FiveYear Plan for complete establishment of the foundations of socialism was fulfilled with success. The Five-Year Plan which had envisaged to increase industrial output value 2.6 times was carried out in a matter of two and a half years, and the total value of industrial output increased 3.5 times during the four years between 1 957 and 1 960 and industrial output grew at a high rate of 36.6 per cent every year in the same period. In the fouryears in which the Five-Year Plan was fulfilled, grain output went up by 32 per cent. The national income increased 2.1 times, the real wages of factory and office workers 2.1 times, and the living standards of the farmers as a whole reached the level of the former middle peasants or well-to-do middle peasants. In the field of 404 the people's living the task of solving in the main the problems of food, clothing and housing was fully accomplished. With the establishment of the foundations of socialist industrialization and the firm base of an independent national economy as a result of the successful fulfilment of the Five-Year Plan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was transformed into a developed socialist industrial-agricultural state. 405

Chapter II: All-round Socialist Construction

1. TRANSITION TO ALL-ROUND SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION

In the period of the Five-Year Plan the Korean people under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung accomplished the laying of the foundation of socialism by finishing the socialist transformation of production relations and building a basis for industrialization. In 1961 they went over to the stage of building socialism in an all-round way. With the fulfilment of the task of laying the foundation of socialism, the socialist system free from exploitation and oppression was established and a foundation for consolidating the material and technical bases of socialism laid. This, however, was not enough for the complete victory of socialism. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "...we still have much to do to win complete victory for socialism. Even after the achievement of a socialist base, the socialist state should continue to carry out the revolution thoroughly in all spheres of political, economic and cultural life." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. V, p. 163.) Even after the establishment of the foundation of socialism there still remain the survivals of the old society in the ideological, political and economic life of the people and in the technological and cultural fields and the class distinctions between the working class and the peasantry. Accordingly, it can hardly be said that socialism has won complete victory. For this it was required to raise the ideological, technological and cultural level of the people as high as to commensurate with socialist society by continuously promoting the revolution in all spheres of social life, particularly in the fields of ideology, technology and culture and, on this basis, eliminate the class 406 distinction between the working class and the peasantry and build a classless society. The historic period in which the complete victory of socialism is achieved after the establishment of the foundation of socialism signifies the very stage of all-round socialist construction. All-round socialist construction requires a much longer time than the building of a foundation for socialism and can be accomplished only through the fulfilment of many national economic plans. Entering the stage of all-round socialist construction, the Korean people set out to carry out the First Seven -Year Plan. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung outlined the fundamental tasks of this plan as follows: "The fundamental tasks of the Seven-Year Plan are to carry out a comprehensive technological reconstruction and the cultural revolution, and to make radical improvements in the people's living conditions by relying on the triumphant socialist system. We must carry out socialist industrialization, equip all branches of the national economy with modern technology, and decisively raise the material and cultural standards of the whole population. Thus, we will attain the high peak of socialism." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. Ill, pp. 106-07.) The Seven-Year Plan envisaged a 3.2-fold increase m the total industrial output value. And the central task set before industry was to establish an independent industrial system which is developed in a many-sided way, has its Own stable base of raw materials and is fully equipped with the latest technology. This was to be done by perfecting the structure of industrial production and reinforcing its technological foundation. The central task of agriculture was to effect farm mechanization and further increase farm production. The Seven-Year Plan envisaged the growth of grain output to 6 million tons. In the plan period science wasto be rapidly developed, a nine-year compulsory technical education enforced and, at the same time, adult education stepped up so as to make all the working people acquire one technical skill or more, Whereas the Five-Year Plan was a plan for laying a foundation tor industrialization and fulfilling the tasks of the first stage of the technical revolution, the Seven-Year Plan was a plan for carrying out industrialization and overall technological reconstruction and, in keeping with this promoting the cultural revolution. As the problems of food, clothing and housing had been solved in the main during the Five-Year Plan, it was imperative to markedly improve the living standards of the people in the period of the Seveh-Year Plan. 407

The great teader Comrade Kim II Sung elucidated the basic policies to be followed without fail in the struggle to carry out the Seven-Year Plan. To begin with, he stressed the need to maintain the line of giving priority to the growth of heavy industry while simultaneously developing light industry and agriculture and of achieving an all-round development of science and culture. Only by continuously adhering to this line, was it possible to keep the equilibrium among the branches of the national economy, effect overall technical renovation, bring national culture into bloom and rapidly improve the people's living standards. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung also stressed the need of continued development of the Chollima Movement. In order to fulfil the grand Seven-Year Plan, it was necessary to maintain the high rate of development in the economy and culture Therefore, only by giving full play to the revolutionary enthusiasm and initiative of the working masses to add spurs to the grand Chollima march and make uninterrupted innovations and continued advance, was it possible to carry out the Seven-Year Plan with success. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung pointed out emphatically that in the Seven-Year Plan, as in the past, in doing all work consideration should be given not only to the improvement of the material and cultural standards of the people in the northern half but also to the building of a firmer basis for the rehabilitation of the south Korean economy and the liberation of the south Korean people from famine and poverty after the reunification of the country in the future. A great many new important problems had to be solved for the successful fulfilment of the First Seven-Year Plan, the first plan in the stage of the all-round construction of socialism. It was necessary to solve the problem of the method of work for ensuring proper guidance to the popular masses in conformity with the requirement of extensive socialist construction and open the way for the correct solution of the socialist rural problem, one of the most important problems in achieving the complete victory of socialism, that is, realizing a classless society. A right solution should also be given to the question of properly combining economic construction and defence upbuilding in keeping with the promotion of socialist construction and the demand of the prevailing situation. It also arose as a momentous problem to bring about the all-round flowering and development of socialist national culture. The key issue in powerfully pushing ahead with the all-round construction of socialism was the question of the working masses' thinking, that is, the problem of the ideological revolution, and 408 the correct solution of this problem was a very difficult and complicated task. Successfully solving all these problems under the sagacious guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the Korean people vigorously marched ahead towards the complete victory of socialism and, for the present, towards the carrying out of the First Seven-Year Plan.

2. THOROUGH APPLICATION OF CHONGSAN-RI SPIRIT AND CHONGSAN-RI METHOD

Chongsan-rr Spirit, Chongsan-ri Method The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung exerted great effort to the improvement and strengthening of the work of the Party, state and economic organs to suit the developing realities and new, changed circumstances in the period in which the building of the foundation of socialism was completed and the all-round construction of socialism started. As a result of the struggle to lay the foundation of socialism, the socialist transformation of relations of production was completed, the socialist system established, the solid foundation of an independent national economy laid, production developed at a rapid tempo and its scope increased considerably. The political enthusiasm of the masses grew beyond measure through the upsurge of socialist construction and the Chollima Movement. The prevailing new circumstances demanded a radical improvement of the system of work and the method of work and the elevation of the business level of functionaries to suit the developing realities. Without solving this problem, it was impossible to rapidly develop the socialist economy and increase the speed of socialist construction. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung timely perceived such demand presented by the new circumstances and conditions and solved the problem correctly, personally giving on-the-spot guidance at Chongsan-ri, Kangso County, South Pyongan Province, for 1 5 days in February 1 960. In the course of his guidance to Chongsan-ri and the Kangso 409

County Party organization the great leader concretely examined, studied and analysed Party work, cooperative farm management and operation and the farmers' living conditions. He had many talks with Party members, farmers and ri and county cadres on the spot and, on this basis, personally gave minute guidance in the preparations and proceedings of the general membership meeting of the ri Party organization, a conference of functionaries of the county Party organization, a general meetingof the primary Party organization of the county Party committee and a plenary meeting of this committee. Through his on-the-spot guidance he showed a practical, living example of going down to the lower units, acquiring a good grasp of the whole situation and giving concrete guidance, and taking correct measures for carrying the Party policies through to the end. In this course he created the Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method. The Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method are a spirit of mass leadership and a method of mass work, the embodiment and development of the traditional revolutionary mass line of our Party to suit the new realities in which the building of socialism was going on. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The essence of the Chongsan-ri method is that the higher body helps the lower, and the superior assists those under him and always goes down to the work places in order to have a good grasp of actual conditions arid find correct solutions to problems, gives priority to political work, work with people in all undertakings and enlists the conscious enthusiasm and initiative of the masses so as to ensure the fulfilment of revolutionary tasks. This is not only a powerful method of work for carrying out immediate revolutionary tasks both successfully and substantially, but a powerful method of education for raising the ideological and political level and practical capacity of the functionaries and for revolutionizing the masses." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. IV, p. 312.) One of the fundamental requirements of the Chongsan-ri method is that the higher body should help the lower and the superior assists his subordinates. This is a method of work fundamentally different from the bureaucratic method whereby the upper units only issue orders and commands to the lower; it is a communist method of work whereby the higher body kindly teaches the lower and the higher and lower units do all work in firm unity. Another fundamental requirement of the Chongsan-ri method is that one should always go down to work places in order to get a good grasp of actual conditions and find correct solutions to problems. This 410 is scientific method of leadership which renders it possible to eliminate subjectivism and formalism in guidance and solve tasks most correctly to suit the realities. The Chongsan-ri method also demands that in all work, priority be given to political work and the conscious enthusiasm and initiative of the masses enlisted so as to carry out the revolutionary tasks. The masses of the people are the masters in the revolution, and the building of socialism and communism is entirely an undertaking of their own. Therefore, the conscious and creative activities of the masses themselves is an imperative necessity for the successful carrying out of the revolution and construction. The Chongsan-ri method is a revolutionary method of work as it makes it possible to satisfy this demand most excellently. The Chongsan-ri method also demands that one properly combine general with specific guidance, determine the order of priorities, concentrate efforts on the main link for the solution of general work, organize and plan all work and push it forward powerfully. True, the creation of the Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method became an event marking a decisive turning point in the mass leadership for the building of socialism and communism. A Change in the Work of Party, State and Economic Organizations After his on-the-spot guidance at Chongsan-ri the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung energetically pushed the struggle to thoroughly put into effect the Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method in the work of Party, state and economic organizations. The Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method had a tight grip on the millions of people by virtue of the great influence of the respected leader's practical example and of their correctest reflection of the matured requirements of the revolution and construction in the country. An all- Party struggle for carrying through the Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method was unfolded in all branches of the revolutionary struggle and the work of construction. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "A radical change took place in the activities of state and economic institutions in the course of applying the work experiences of Chongsan-ri. Guidance was brought closer to 411

the grass-roots level, and there was established a revolutionary method of work whereby the higher bodies help the lower, the officials go deep among the masses to educate, remould and unite them and solve all problems by enlisting their revolutionary zeal and creative initiative." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. V, p. 159.) Through the successful application of the Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method the work system of Party, state and economic organizations was improved as a whole and theirfunctions increased. The work system of Party, state and economic organizations was transformed in conformity with the new circumstances, and a vigorous struggle was launched among the functionaries to establish the revolutionary method of work and the popular style of work as required by the Ghongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method. As a result of the establishment of the work system under which the superiors go down to the lower bodies and help their subordinates, guidance was brought closer to the grass-roots level in the work of all domains, the superiors came to help and teach those under them and the leadership level of functionaries heightened without letup in keeping with the demand of the developing realities. At the same time, all work was thoroughly turned into work with people, the Party's intention brought home tq the masses promptly and accurately, and all the revolutionary tasks were successfully carried out in reliance on the strength and wisdom of the masses. Through the struggle for the popularization of the Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method great progress was made in the work of educating and remoulding the masses and firmly rallying people in all walks of life. Through the application of the Chongsan -ri method the class and mass lines were more correctly implemented in work with the masses. Consequently, a small number of hostile elements were isolated more thoroughly and the revolutionary consciousness and creative enthusiasm of the workers, peasants and other masses of various strata elevated beyond measure. In particular, the work of educating and remoulding the people, the most difficult work, was converted into the work of the masses themselves and powerfully pushed forward. With the popularization of the Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method and the strengthening of work with people, work with the masses, the Choljima Movement was developed onto a higher plane and greater successes registered in all branches of the national economy. The Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method displayed ever greater vitality with each passing day. 412 Establishment of the Taean Work System and the New System of Agricultural Guidance The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung extensively applied the Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method to the guidance and management of the national economy, thereby establishing a new socialist system of economic management. The new situation in Korea where the socialist transformation of the relations of production had been completed and all-round technological reconstruction promoted, urgently required a decisive change in the guidance and management of the national economy. With the accomplishment of the historic task of laying the foundation of socialism, the advanced, large-scale socialist economic sector held undivided sway. But the system and method of economic guidance were not yet adapted to this and the ability and level of the functionaries also failed to keep pace with it. At the Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the WPK convened in November 1961 in order to tackle the problem of the guidance and management of the national economy, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung set forth tasks for radically improving the economic guidance and management. And then he gave on-the-spot guidance at the Taean Electrical Machinery Plant in December. During over 10 days' on-the-spot guidance at the plant he analysed one by one the weak points of the existing work system and shortcomings in the method and style of work of the functionaries and, on this basis, created the Taean work system, a new, socialist system of industrial management fundamentally different from the old factory management system. Under the new system, a principle was laid down that the factory should be managed under the collective leadership of the Party committee, and a system of guidance of production which makes it possible to intensify technical guidance and establish comprehensive guidance to production was set up. In addition, there came into being a material supply system under which the upper units supply the lower with materials, and a new supply-service system for the workers. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The Taean work system is a system of economic management admirably suited to the nature of a socialist system, for it stipulates that the factories and enterprises conduct all 413

their management activities under the collective leadership of Party committees and carry out their economic tasks by giving precedence to political work, infusing the producing masses with an enthusiasm for work; that superiors do everything they can to help their subordinates and that the economy be managed and operated in a scientific and rational way." (Ibid,, p, 435.) With the establishment of the Taean work system, an end was put to the one-man management by the director, the outdated way of enterprise management, the Party committee became the highest leading organ of each economic unit and the system of collective leadership of the Party committee in enterprise management was established. This made it possible to eliminate the subjectivity and arbitrariness of individuals in enterprise management and enlist collective wisdom in managing and operating the large-scale, modern socialist economy efficiently. It also made the broad masses creative and active in production with the attitude of masters. Under the Taean work system the economy was made to be managed and operated in such a way that priority was given to political work, work with people, unlike the old system under which the economy had been managed mainly by economic, technical, administrative and business-like methods. The new system made it possible to inform the masses correctly of the Party's intentions and heighten their political and ideological consciousness so that they would carry out their economic assignments voluntarily. Thanks to the Taean work system, there was established a wellregulated system under which the functionaries of the higher bodies including trie ministries and bureaus of the Cabinet and management workers of enterprises go down to the work places to solve knotty problems readily, and the higher units supply with responsibility all equipment and materials necessary for production. Under the Taean work system a unified and concentrated system of production guidance was established and the work of planning and direction of production radically improved. Those directing production were made to draw up plans on the basis of discussions with the producer masses who were best acquainted with all the factors of production, and this enabled them to work out a scientific and realistic plan. Further, those versed in technology were charged with unified and comprehensive direction of all sections related to production — from planning and technical preparations to the guidance of the production processes. As a result, an end was put to the former irrational practice, which made it impossible to give effective guidance in production because of the separation of planning from technical 414 and productive directions, and productive and technical directions were closely combined and given substantially and, particularly, the technical direction for production was further strengthened. Under the Taean work system was established a new materials supply system by which the higher levels directly supply materials to the lower with full responsibility and the materials supply is undertaken by special materials supply agencies. This new system obviated the shortcomings revealed in the past among leading functionaries of the higher units who sent down only plans without any guarantee for the supply of materials to the lower and gave no effective guidance in production and thus made the producers run about for materials and fail to concentrate all their efforts on production. It made it possible to promptly supply materials necessary for production so that production could be normalized and guidance in production, too, given positively. The Taean work system created by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung was a new socialist form of economic management which correctly embodied the mass line and scientific principles in enterprise management and did away once and for all with the remnants of the outmoded capitalist method of economic management. After establishing the Taean work system, the great leader Comrade Kim fl Sung took new measures to improve the system of guidance and management of agriculture. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung visited Sukchon County, South Pyongan Province, in December 1961 where he acquainted himself well with the state of agricultural production and of agricultural guidance and management, and gave concrete instructions as to how to radically improve the system of agricultural guidance.. Following hison-the-spot guidance in Sukchon County, the great leader separated the function of directing agriculture from the county administrative body and newly set up a county cooperative farm management committee. In the past guidance in agriculture in the county was given mainly by the administrative method through one agricultural guidance department of the county people's committee. Such a method of guidance was possible in the days of private farming, but the collectivized socialist agriculture could no longer be dir ected by administrative methods. The large-scale socialist rural economy equipped with new technique had to be guided by the method of enterprise management by a specialized body of agricultural guidance like a county cooperative farm management committee. The county cooperative farm management committee had the function of directly guiding the cooperative farms, while exercising a unified leadership over the agro-technicians and the state enterprises 415

in the service of agriculture, and the function of bringing the materiel and technical assistance of the state to the rural economy. In parallel with the organization of the county cooperative farm management committee, the Ministry of Agriculture was reorganized into the Agricultural Commission and a rural economy committee established in each province to strengthen scientific and technical guidance in agriculture. The establishment of the new system of agricultural guidance, with the county cooperative farm management committee as the axis, made it possible to direct agriculture by the method of enterprise management, not by the administrative method as in the past. As a result, the method of agricultural management and operation could be brought constantly closer to the advanced industrial method of management, all the management activities carried on in a more planned and organized way and technical guidance in agricultural production strengthened. The establishment of the new system also made it possible to organically combine all -people and cooperative property and further strengthen the productive ties between industry and agriculture. With the introduction of the Taean work system and the new system of agricultural guidance, a new, out-and-out socialist system of economic guidance and management was established in all domains of the national economy and socialist economic construction could be carried on more successfully.

3. ACTIVE PROMOTION OF THE BUILDING OF A SOCIALIST COUNTRYSIDE

Great Programme for the Building of a Socialist Countryside One of the very important issues in expediting the complete victory of socialism is that of correctly solving the socialist rural question and quickly eliminating the differences between town and country. In order to solve the socialist rural question, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung delved into the realities of the countryside from 416 different angles and solved one by one the principled problems arising in the building of a socialist countryside. He deepened his study of the socialist rural question and elaborated his plan for its solution and, on this basis, made public Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country at the Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the WPK held in February 1 964. The plenary meeting adopted the theses as the Party's programme for the building of a socialist countryside. In the theses the respected leader, first of all, elucidated the essence of the rural question — the peasant and agricultural questions — in different stages of the revolutionary development. In the stage of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic revolution, the rural question consisted in emancipating the peasants from the exploitation and subordination by the landlords and freeing the agricultural productive forces from the fetters of the feudalists relations of production by abolishing the feudal landownership. In the stage of the socialist revolution, it consisted in emancipating the peasants for ever from all types of exploitation and oppression by getting rid of the capitalist elements and transforming the private economy into a socialist collective economy and in completely freeing the agricultural productive forces from the fetters of the outmoded relations of production based on private ownership. Under socialism the rural question consists in highly developing the productive forces of agriculture, making the peasants well off, abolishing the backwardness of the countryside left over by the exploiter society, and in gradually eliminating the distinctions between town and country, on the basis of the steady consolidation of the socialist system established in the countryside. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung laid down the basic principles to be adhered to in successfully solving the rural question under socialism. He said: "For the successful solution of the peasant and agricultural questions under socialism, it is imperative to adhere firmly to three basic principles in rural work. "First, the technical, cultural and ideological revolutions should be thoroughly carried out in the rural areas; "Second, the working-class leadership of the peasantry, the assistance of industry to agriculture, and the support of the towns to the countryside should be strengthened in every way; "Third, the guidance and management of agriculture should be brought continuously to approach the advanced level of enterprise management of industry, the bonds be417

tween all-people property and co-operative property should be strengthened, and co-operative property should be steadily brought closer to property of the whole people." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. IV, p. 36.) These basic principles for the solution of the socialist rural question constitute a classic definition which gave full answers for the first time to the fundamental questions arising in the elimination of distinctions between town and country in the building of socialism. The technical, cultural and ideological revolutions are the central revolutionary tasks to be carried out in the countryside after the completion of socialist cooperativization. The countryside is lagging behind the towns in the spheres of technique, culture and ideology. Therefore, only by properly carrying out the technical, cultural and ideological revolutions there, is it possible to remove the lag of the countryside behind the towns and eliminate distinctions between town and country and differences between the working class and the peasantry. The tasks of the technical, cultural and ideological revolutions in the countryside are closely interlinked, and they must be carried out as a unified process. Among them, the ideological revolution is the most important and difficult revolutionary task that must go ahead of all other work. Therefore, definite priority must be given to this revolution, while at the same time energetically promoting the technical and cultural revolutions. For the vigorous promotion of the technical, cultural and ideological revolutions in the countryside and the elimination of distinctions between town and country and between the working class and the peasantry, it is required to ceaselessly strengthen the leadership of the working class over the peasantry, the assistance of industry to agriculture and the support of the towns to the countryside. The peasantry can enter the path of socialism and communism only underthe politico-ideological leadership of the working class and with its material, technical, cultural and financial assistance; agriculture can be equipped with modern techniques like industry only when industry gives it assistance; and the level of the countryside can be raised to the level of the towns only when the latter gives support to the former. Saying that it was an expression of capitalist ideas to neglect rural work, leave the rural areas without aid and, still worse, to develop industry exclusively at the expense of agriculture and build up towns exclusively at the cost of the countryside, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung stated that only when proper leadership, assistance and support were given to the countryside after the establishment of the 418 socialist system and the laying of a socialist industrial base, was it possible to develop agriculture rapidly, improve the living standards of the peasants and forcefully push forward the development of the national economy as a whole. In order to eliminate distinctions between town and country and the class distinctions between the working class and the peasantry, it is necessary to rid the countryside of its backwardness in technology, culture and ideology and, at the same time, its backwardness in the relations of ownership and the level of economic management. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung pointed out that the basic direction in improving the guidance and management of socialist agriculture was towards bringing the method of management of the agricultural cooperative economy steadily closer to the advanced method of industrial enterprise management. For this, he set forth the unique policy of directing and managing the agricultural cooperative economy by the method of enterprise management, (Refer to the foregoing section under the subtitle 2.) He also said that cooperative property should be further developed and brought to greater perfection and, at the same time, the organic ties between property of the whole people and cooperative property should be strengthened and the latter converted into the former. He added that the most important thing here is to organically fuse the two properties in such a way as to strengthen the direct production ties between industry and agriculture and constantly enhance the leading role of property of the whole people over cooperative property. And he taught that for the organic fuse of the two properties, the state enterprises directly serving the rural economy should be actively enlisted in agricultural production on cooperative farms. One of the important ideas elucidated in the theses is the idea on the regional unit and base for state leadership in building a socialist countryside. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung developed in the theses his original idea on county which he had already set out at the Changsong Joint Conference of Local Party and Economic Functionaries held in 1962. He said: "In our country the county serves as the regional unit and as the base for giving direct, unified and comprehensive guidance to the rural work and to all local affairs. Our county unit is most suitable in respect to size and in that it is possessed, in the main, of cadres, leading bodies, and material, technical and cultural facilities. ... "The county is the base for accelerating the technical, cultural and ideological revolutions in the countryside, the 419

base for connecting the towns and the countryside and giving the political, economic and cultural support of the towns to the countryside." {ibid., pp. 67-68.) The idea of the great leader on the regional unit and base is a creative idea that most correctly solved the question of regional unit and base in the building of a socialist countryside and socialist construction; it constituted a firm guideline in successfully eliminating the distinctions between town and country. Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung becomes a great programme which must always be firmly upheld for the final solution of the rural question in the whole historical period of achieving the complete victory of socialism after the establishment of the socialist system. The theses opened up before the Korean people a sure prospect for the acceleration of the building of a socialist countryside to abolish distinctions between town and country and class distinctions between the workers and peasants and hasten the complete victory of socialism. The theses also powerfully encouraged the struggle of the people of the southern half of the Republic, exerted a great revolutionary influence on the world's people aspiring after socialism and wholly disapproved the slanders of the imperialists against the socialist system of agriculture. A great number of communists and revolutionary people the world over described the publication of the theses as an "event in the history of the development of the international communist movement and Marxism -Leninism." They highly appraised the theses as a "valuable Marxist- Leninist literature which has provided a scientific solution to the basic question of the building of socialism and communism" and a "textbook for the most correct solution of the socialist rural question." Expedited Building of a Socialist Countryside. Rapid Growth of Agricultural Production The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung took a series of measures to carry out the tasks set forth in his rural theses and hastened the building of socialism in the countryside on the basis of the theses. In the first place, he made sure that the technical, cultural and ideological revolutions were vigorously pushed forward. After the publication of the rural theses, medium and small-scale irrigation works as well as large-scale ones were carried out extens420 ively. With the irrigation system nearing completion, the work for establishing a drainage system was started in 1966 in an all-mass movement. Thus, the irrigation of agriculture was developed into a complete irrigated system with water supply and drainage systems. Construction of powerful heavy industry capable of fully supplying the countryside with modern technical means was accelerated. Particularly, the construction of heavy industry directly serving agriculture, such as tractor plant, chemical fertilizer factory, power plant, trailer farm implements factory, was energetically carried out. At the same time, the ranks of tractor drivers were largely expanded, the state enterprises in the service of agriculture includingfarm machinestations were enlarged and reinforced and measures were taken to give full play to the advantages of the new system of agricultural guidance. For the promotion of the electrification of agriculture medium - and small-scale power plants, along with large-scale ones, were built in all parts of the country through a nation-wide campaign. In Korea electricity had already found its way into 93.3 per cent of the rural economy and 71 per cent of the farm households at the time of the publication of the rural theses. Under this condition, for the introduction of electricity into the out-of-the-way mountain villages where electric supply had not been on yet, the scattered farmhouses were concentrated in definite places and small generators were manufactured and sent to the places where it was hard to- introduce electricity. In order to accelerate the chemicalization of agriculture, a variety of highly effective chemical fertilizers and agricultural chemicals were produced in large quantities and their composition was improved and a greater amount of microelement fertilizer suited to the characteristics of soil and crops of the country was turned out. Along with this, a positive effort was made to fully protect the crops from noxious insects by establishing a scientific manuring system and making a wide use of agricultural chemicals including insecticide. In parallel with the struggle for capturing the material fortress in the countryside, the struggle for successfully taking the ideological fortress was also vigorously launched through the dynamic ideological and cultural revolutions. In accordance with the basic direction of ideological work in the countryside given by the great leader, the education in Party policies and the revolutionary traditions and communist education with class education as its main content, as well as education in socialist patriotism, were intensified among the farmers. In particular, the farmers were perseveringly educated so as to do all farm work tenaciously and methodically with the attitude of master, and collectiv421

ist education was strengthened. In addition, the Agricultural Working People's Union was newly organized in 1965 in keeping with the changed status of the farmers, so that it made every possible effort to revolutionize and working-classize the agricultural working people. The cultural revolution was also dynamically promoted in the countryside. In order to carry out the important task of raising the general and technical knowledge levels of the farmers, which had been set forth in the rural theses, the universal compulsory nine-year technical education was accurately enforced in the countryside, too, from April 1, 1967, so that the agricultural working people of a new generation might decisively improve their cultural and technical standards. And adult education and the dissemination of scientific and technical knowhow were intensified. Besides, a vigorous struggle was carried outto get rid of the backward way of life and customs of the old society and build up a sound tone of life and to promote cultural practice in production and in life. While forcefully promoting the ideological, technical and cultural revolutions in the rural areas, the Party and state continually increased their support to the countryside in all spheres. In strengthening the guidance of the Party and state over the countryside, great significance was attached to the improvement of the system and method of work and the functionaries were made to thoroughly carry into effect the requirements of the Chongsan-ri spirit and Chongsan-ri method and give precedence to work with people, political work, in all work and go down to the grass-roots level for substantial guidance. The Party and state took a series of important measures for consolidating the economic foundations of the cooperative farms and improving the material and cultural standards of life of the farmers while steadily improving political leadership over the countryside. The Third Session of Third Supreme People's Assembly held in March 1 964 passed a historic law on abolishing the agricultural tax in kind step by step from 1 964 to 1 966 and appropriating state funds for capital and housing construction in the countryside and for supplying the rural areas with major production equipment and farm machinery. The agricultural tax in kind from which a great number of cooperative farms had already been exempted by 1963 was completely abolished by 1966 by exempting annually over 800 cooperative farms from it from 1964. In this way, the countryside became completely free from taxation. After the publication of the rural theses a great portion of state investments had been appropriated every year for the development of the rural economy and the rural construction, with which nature422 remaking projects and other vast capital construction were carried out and many productive facilities of cooperative farms and modern houses were built at the expense of the state. Besides, the state systematically lowered the prices of necessities of life and even exempted the farmers from the house rent and supplied their children with clothes while raising the purchase prices of agricultural products. The state strengthened labour assistance as well as material and financial assistance to the countryside. It gave the countryside tens of millions of mandays of labour every year through a wide social movement. As the tasks set forth in the rural theses were successfully carried out, our countryside, where ignorance and poverty had prevailed in the past, was transformed into a technically up-to-date, rich and civilized socialist countryside and an uninterrupted upsurge brought about in agricultural production as well.

4. BUILDING OF THE ECONOMY AND DEFENCE IN PARALLEL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ALLPEOPLE DEFENCE SYSTEM

Line of Building the Economy and Defence Simultaneously At a time when the Korean people were engaged in a vigorous struggle to carry out the Seven-Year Plan, the US imperialists and their lackeys stepped up'war provocation manoeuvres. The US imperialists aggravated the international situation by provoking the "Caribbean crisis" againstthe Republic of Cuba in 1 962 and later intensified their manoeuvres of aggression in Asia more openly. They provoked the "Bac Bo Gulf incident" against the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, escalating their aggressive war in Viet Nam, and worsened tension in Southeast Asia, the Far East and other areas. The US imperialists war provocations became more pronounced in south Korea as well. They turned south Korea into their atomic and rocket base while suppressing the struggle of the south Korean people with bayonets and intensified their aggressive provocations against the northern half of the Republic, making frenzied 423

preparations for a new war. The Japanese militarists, too, at the bidding of US imperialism, again stretched out their tentacles of aggression to south Korea. The prevailing internal and external situations demanded that the defences of the country be strengthened impregnably and that full preparations be made to cope with a sudden attack from the enemy. Having a deep insight into the prevailing situation, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung set forth the positive line of building the economy and defences in parallel at the Fifth Plenary Meeting of the Fourth Central Committee of the Party convened in December 1962 and stressed again the necessity of thorough fulfilment of this line at the Party conference held in October 1966. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "It is of paramount importance for our revolutionary struggle and constructive work today to reorganize the whole work of socialist construction in line with the requirements of the prevailing situation and, especially, to carry on the building of the economy and defences in parallel so as to further increase our nation's defence capacities to cope with the enemy's aggressive manoeuvres. This is the basic strategic line of our Party which we have carried on for several years now in view of the changed situation. In the future too, we must follow this line of the Party with all firmness and consistency and base all our work on it." (Ibid., p. 368 ) In order to powerfully push ahead with economic construction and defence building in parallel, it was required to direct tremendous human and material resources to national defence and this could not but affect the economic development of the country and the improvement of the people's living standards to a certain degree. If greater efforts had been directed to economic construction with a less outlay of efforts to defence building, the national economy would have been developed more rapidly and the people's living standards far more enhanced. The situation, however, did by no means allow of doing so. Our people could not give up the fundamental interests of the revolution for a momentary comfort and did not wish to become a stateless people again. They ought to direct great efforts to the building up of defences as well as economic construction for the perfection of national defence even though it meant great restrictions on the development of the nation's economy and the improvement of the people's life. The basic requirement of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's strategic line of carrying on economic construction and defence building at the same time was to increase the proportion of defence 424 building and continually push forward both economic construction and the building of defences at a high tempo in line with the created situation and thus to fulfil at a time all the tasks of increasing defence capability, consolidatingthe economic foundations and enhancing the living standards of the people. This line which fully conformed with the fundamental interests of our revolution and construction under the new situation created at home and abroad was the most revolutionary and correct line. It was a positive line which thoroughly embodied the unshakable Juche-motivated stand of carrying out the Korean revolution self-reliantly to the end and a sagacious line which rendered it possible to make ample preparations for crushing the enemy, while at the same time properly conducting socialist construction, under the historical condition where imperialism was in a last-ditch struggle. With a view to the thorough implementation of the line of building the economy and defence simultaneously, the great leader Comrade Kim it Sung indicated the specific orientation as to the reorganization of the national economy in keeping with the requirements of the situation. In particular, in order to increase the country's defence capability, he set forth the task of fully implementing the Party's military line while getting the people and armymen firmly prepared politically and ideologically. Implementation of the Party's military tine— to train the whole army into a cadre army, modernize it, arm the entire people and turn the whole land into a fortress -was a fundamental way to increase defence capacities as firm as an impregnable fortress. The Party's military line advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung was an embodiment of the Juche idea and the revolutionary principle of self-defence; it was the most scientific and revolutionary line which solved in a unique manner the problem concerning the building of a revolutionary armed force and the defence of a socialist country to suit the characteristics of modern warfare. The revolutionary essence of this line consists in the fact that it makes it possible to enable all the armymen to perform the duties of a higher rank and upwards on the basis of the firm politico-ideological preparations of the army and people, firmly equip the People's Army with up-to-date weapons and combat and technical equipment and establish a solid, powerful all-people defence system and thereby to build up national defences capable of smashing any armed attack of the enemy at one stroke and stoutly defending the fatherland and people. The Party's military line constituted a firm guarantee for building up national defences steel-strong to safeguard the gains of the 425

revolution and attain the ultimate victory of the revolution selfreiiantly. Increase of Self-Reliant Matronal Defences, Establishment of an All-people Defence System Vigorous efforts were made to reorganize the national economy and firmly build up national defences in accordance with the line of carrying on economic construction and defence building in parallel. In strengthening the nation's defence power in every way, the attention of the whole Party was directed above all to fully preparing the People's Army and all the people politically and ideologically. All the people were made to have a good understanding of the revolutionary essence of that line and its validity and establish a right viewpoint on war, especially the standpoint of not wanting war but never fearing it. The work of carrying through the Party's military line on the basis of arming the People's Army and the entire people politically and ideologically was dynamically conducted. To begin with, great efforts were directed to strengthening the People's Army as a match-for-a-hundred revolutionary army. The tendency towards neglecting political work in the army and laying stress only on military-technical work was thoroughly overcome and the principle of properly combining the work of heightening the political awakening and ideological consciousness of the armymen with military-technical work was put into effect. Intense politicoideological education was conducted constantly among the armymen so that they could clearly know the mission of the People's Army, thoroughly arm themselves with the Juche idea, the revolutionary thought of the great leader, display socialist patriotism and the indomitable revolutionary spirit and establish the traditional trait of unity between men and officers, unity between the army and the people and a steel -like military discipline. At the same time, they were so educated as to infinitely love the people, have a burning hatred toward the enemy and display mass heroism and gallantry in battle. Military training was further intensified in the People's Army so that all the servicemen might become fully versed in modern military science and combat equipment. And on the basis of a powerful independent national economy the People's Army was firmly armed with up-to-date weapons and combat equipment. 426 While turning the People's Army into a match-for-a-hundred cadre army well prepared politically and ideologically, militarily and technically, the policy of arming the entire people and fortifying the whole country was carried through to the end. All the working people were brought to imbibe military knowledge and the ranks of the Red Worker- Peasant Militia were firmly built up. Rock-firm defensive installations were built on a large scale in the frontline, coastal and interior areas to convert the whole land into an impregnable fortress. In accordance with the change of the situation a measure was taken to postpone the execution of the Seven-Year Plan for three years with a view to directing greater efforts to defence building and carrying on economic construction smoothly. Thanks to concentration of much effort on the strengthening of defence power and the adjustment of the speed of development of the national economy, the nation's defence capability was considerably increased in a brief span of time and an allpeople defence system with the People's Army as its pivot further consolidated. As the self-reliant national defences were further increased, full preparations were made to cope with the enemy's aggressive manoeuvres at any time and at any place. The powerful self-reliant national defences enabled the Korean people to safeguard their fatherland with credit even under such condition that the imperialists were behaving so violently, and let the enemy not venture to challenge them. The situation in Korea was very tense when the incident of the US armed spy ship "Pueblo" took place in 1 968 and that of the large-sized spy plane "EC-121" in the following year. At the time when the People's Army captured the armed spy ship "Pueblo" in the territorial waters of Korea and when it shot down the large-sized spy plane "EC-121" in her territorial airspace, the US imperialist gangsters brought a large armed force to the threshold of Korea, openly attempting an armed attack on the northern half of the Republic. However, the Korean people who had established a powerful all-people, nationwide defence system were never afraid of it and could take a resolute stand of returning retaliation for the "retaliation" of the enemy, all-out war for all-out war, and eventually made the aggressors kneel down before them." "The US government submitted a letter of apology to the Korean people for the espionage and hostile acts the "Pueblo" had perpetrated after intruding into the Democratic; People's Republic of . Korea. The letter of apology signed by Gilbert H. Woodward, Major General of the US Army, on behalf of the US government reads: "The Government of the United States of America, "Acknowledging the validity of the confessions of the crew of the USS 427

The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.65% accurate 'Pueblo' and of the documents of evidence produced by the representative of the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the effect that (he ship, which was seized by the self-defence measures of the naval vessels of the Korean People's Army in the territorial waters of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on January 23, 1968, had illegally intruded into the territorial waters of the Democratic People's Republic .of Korea on many occasions and conducted espionage activities of spying out important military and state secrets oi the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, "Shoulders full responsibility and solemnly apologizes for the grave acts of espionage committed by the US ship- against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea after having intruded into the territorial waters of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, And gives firm assurance that no US ships will intrude again in future into the territorial waters of the Democratic People's Piepublic of Korea. "Meanwhile, the Government of the United States of America earnestly requests the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to deal leniently with the former crew members of the USS 'Pueblo' confiscate! by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea side, taking into consideration the fact that these crew members have confessed honestly to their crimes and petitioned the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for leniency." The Korean people, following the line and policies laid down by the great leader, vigorously pushed ahead with the .tremendous work involved in strengthening the People's Army, placing the entire people under arms and fortifying the whole land and thus could more rapidly build up self-defence power strong enough to reliably defend the security of the homeland from the aggression of the enemy.

5. EFFLORESCENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALIST NATIONAL CULTURE

Development of Public Education and the Training of a Large Army of Intellectuals The primary thing to be done in carrying out the cultural revolution as reguired by the all-round building of socialism was the extensive promotion of public education and the training of native cadres. The great leader Comrade Kirn II Sung said: "In its work to bring about the cultural revolution, the Party attached primary importance to public education and 428 the training of our own cadres, giving top priority to these tasks. It took a series of radical measures aimed at training the younger generation to be able builders of socialism and communism and at creating large numbers of technicians and specialists, in keeping with the swift pace of the technical revolution." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. V, p. 420.) In order to carry out the tasks set for the Seven-Year Plan, measures were taken to introduce universal compulsory nine-year technical education. On the basis of further consolidation of successes in the universal compulsory secondary education introduced in 1 S58, universal compulsory nine-year technical education was enforced in 1 967. As a result, all the boys and girls from 7 to 1 6 years old were entitled to receive free, compulsory technical education at regular schools. And from 1 972 universal 1 1 -year compulsory education was introduced for one-year compulsory' preschool education and ten -year compulsory school education. The universal 1 1 -year compulsory education is a free compulsory education which provides a complete general secondary education to all membersof the rising generation till they reach the working age; it is the most advanced educational system which is based on a scientific educational system and combines general education and technical education on a high level. Thanks to the universal 1 i -year compulsory education now in force, more than 5.6 million children and young people accounting for one-third of the population receive free education at the schools of various levels from the higher grade of kindergarten to senior middle school. In parallel with the development of compulsory education at regular schools for the younger generation, the policy of giving all working people compulsory education under some kind of educational system was fully carried into effect. The system of education under which one studies while working has been further expanded and strengthened in order to give better systematic education to all the working people Including those adults who were denied an access to learning in the old, exploiter society. As a result, the education system consisting of working people's middle school, factory higher specialized school, factory college, correspondence and evening courses has been expanded in a big way and the regular study system for cadres and working people has also been improved and strengthened. Development of the full-time educational system and the studying-while-working educational. system was of very great significance in mtellectualizing the whole of society while rapidly augmenting the scientific and technical knowledge of all the working people. 429

An epochal measure taken for educational development was that universal compulsory education was made a thoroughly free one. Immediately after liberation when the economic situation in the country was very difficult, the state took measures to exempt the children of poorfamiliesfrom tuition fees and issue scholarships to the students of specialized schools and colleges and universities. In the postwar years universal compulsory free primary and secondary education was carried on. On this basis, in 1959 state-financed universal free education was introduced in all educational institutions of the country. Thanks to free education, the annual cost of education borne by the state for one student kept increasing systematically.* * Today in'south Korea under the tyranny of US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique, their stooges, the students are forced to pay more than 60 kinds of "miscellaneous impositions" in addition to high tuition fees. The yearly school expenses amount to some 1 30,000 wan at primary school, 200,000 won at middle school, 480,000 won at high school and 740,000 won at university. Therefore, now in south Korea nearly three million schoolable children are engaged in hard toil, unable to get school education. Even many of students, unable to earn their school expenses, sell their blood and eyeballs or even kill themselves out of despair. Such a misery is quite a commonplace (hero. The state also defrays expenses foradult education forcadres and working people as well as regular school education. In Korea, educational expenses assume a very large proportion of the state budgetary outlays, which is on a steady increase year after year. State investments in the educational field increased several times in the period of the Seven-Year Plan alone, and they again showed a 1.7-fold increase in the following four years until 1975. In order to meet the urgent demand of socialist construction, higher specialized schools and universities were greatly expanded so as to train a larger number of technicians and specialists. During the Seven-Year Plan the number of universities and colleges increased from 78 to 1 29 and during the Six-Year Plan {1 971 -1 976) it reached 155. And higher technical schools were reorganized into higher specialized schools to be put on a college level. Along with the full-time higher educational system, various forms of studying-while-working higher educational system were further developed. With the strengthening and development of the training of technicians and specialists, their number reached over 497,000 in 1970, the last year of the Seven-Year Plan, and as a result of the training of more than 600,000 technicians and specialists during the Six-Year Plan, there emerged a large contingent of one million intellectuals. Today the number of technicians and specialists accounts for 1 9.2 per cent of the total working force in the national economy. Each 430 cooperative farm has 55 technicians and specialists on an average. Under the parental care of the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, great efforts were also directed to rearing children at public expense. After liberation, nurseries and kindergartens were setup and run in towns, factories, enterprises and state- run farms with a heavy outlay of state funds and this gave rise to a system of nursing and educating children under public care. Even under the difficult conditions of the Fatherland Liberation War the work of nursing children under public care was continued and an epochal measure taken to establish a large number of nursery schools and kindergartens for bringing up the war orphans. The nursing and upbringing of children under state care entered the stage of full-scale development after the establishment of the foundation of the country's independent national economy and of the socialist system in the postwar period Thanks to the planned state investments and a nationwide social campaign, modernly-equipped nursery schools and kindergartens sprang up extensively everywhere in towns and villages and their management underwent systematic improvement. The 6th Session of the 5th Supreme People's Assembly held in April 1 976 adopted the socialist law on the nursing and upbringing of children aimed at consolidating by law the successes achieved in the work of nursing and educating children under state care and completing this work in accordance with the intrinsic requirements of socialist society. According to the law, all the children of preschool age are to be reared and educated collectively at nursery schools and kindergartens. Thus, a socialist system of the nursing and upbringing of children in which all the preschool children are reared at the nursery schools and kindergartens at state and public expense has been firmly established. Today Korea has 60,000 modernly-equipped, fine nurseries and kindergartens, where 3.5 million children are happily growing entirely at state and public expense. In rearing the children, the state expenditures are yearly increasing. The Korea's system of nursing and educating children under state care is the most advanced one which embodies in itself the communist principle of 'upbringing. 431

Rapid Development of Science and Technology For the successful carrying out of industrialization and the technical revolution, the basic tasks for the Seven-Year Plan, it was urgently required to rapidly develop science and technology. Referring to the tasks the Fourth Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea had set before scientists and technicians, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The Party Congress entrusted them with the tasks of making great efforts for solving urgent scientific and technological problems which have arisen in the practical work of socialist construction, and bringing our country's science to the international level in the near future by assimilating scientific achievements attained by advanced mankind. It also charged our scientists to take an active part in carrying out the technical revolution, do their best to mechanize all branches of the national economy including agriculture, to introduce comprehensive mechanization and automation in some branches of the economy, and firmly establish an independent industrial system based on the natural resources of our country." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. Ill, pp. 527-28.) From the first days of her liberation, Korea took measures for the quick training of a large number of scientific and technical personnel in order to shore up the backward science and technology in a short period of time, and state outlays were made to give active backing to their research work. Even in the years of the hard-fought war against the US imperialists' armed aggression, research work was pushed forward without letup for the rapid development of science. In the postwar days, the main effort was directed to the solution of the practical problems arising in the socialist revolution and the building of socialism, particularly the urgent scientific and technological problems for the further development of the economy in reliance on domestic raw materials. And a strong push was given to the work of firmly building up the ranks of the scientists and a material foundation for scientific research work. In the initial period of industrialization the scientists and technicians, following the Party's line, conducted their scientific researches in close combination with production and thus completed researches on vinalon, solved the 43"> problem of gasification of anthracite and made successful researches on semiconductor and many other matters. During the Five-Year Plan for laying.the foundation of industrialization, the number of scientific research institutions increased 2.6 times and scientists 2.8 times. On the basis of these postwar achievements, a conference of scientists and technicians was held in 1 963 to develop the country's science and technology on to a new, higher plane in keeping with the all-round building of socialism. At the conference, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung delivered a historic speech worthy of a programmatic guideline for the development of the country's science. In response to the programmatic speech of the respected leader, the scientists and technicians devoted all their abilities and wisdom to the rapid development of science and technology. Well aware that they were people's scientists and technicians, they deeply studied the policies of the Party and state and established Juche more firmly in their scientific research work. They maintained a principled attitude of holding themselves responsible to the Party and state for scientific research work and solved the pressing scientific and technological problems arising in the practice of socialist construction by their own efforts from an independent and creative stand, fully displaying the revolutionary spirit of overcoming any difficulties. Even in case of applying advanced scientific results achieved by mankind, they did it in a Juche-oriented manner in conformity to the specific realities of the country. The scientists and technicians, strictly adhering to the Juche principle, explored new fields of science and concentrated great efforts on the study of mechanical engineering, electronics and radio engineering which are of great national economic significance. In pursuance of the policy of closely combining science with production, they brought scientific research work closer to the reality and carried out all-round creative cooperation with the producer masses. In this course, the scientific results were verified by practice and perfected without letup. The devoted endeavours made by the scientists and technicians to carry through the policy of developing Juche-oriented science and technology brought about successful solutions of many scientific and technological problems arising in the overall socialist industrialization and the all-round technical revolution. 433

Fruitful Development of the Juche-Oriented Literature and Art Since starting the building of a new society Korea has thoroughly carried into practice the policy of critically inheriting the legacy of national culture and developing a new national culture reflecting the current life and feelings of her people and brought about uninterrupted advance of revolutionary and popular literature and art. Following the carrying out of the socialist revolution and the establishment of the socialist system, literature and art were faced with the tasks of educating the working people in a communist way and creating a greater number of revolutionary works. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Literature and art play an important role in the communist education of the popular masses. Writers and artists are entrusted with the important responsibility of portraying the real heroes of both our revolution and the building of a new life, thereby educating people in the ideas of the Party and the working class." {Ibid,, p. 129.) From the first days when Korea embarked upon the road of building a new society after liberation, the writers and artists carried throughthe Juche-oriented literary and artistic policy of upholding the revolutionary traditions of literature and art established by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung in the period of the anti- Japanese revolutionary struggle, making literature and art faithfully serve the Korean revolution and developing them in conformity to the thought, sentiments and aesthetic sense of the Korean people. In the postwar period, particularly after the socialist revolution was carried out and the socialist system established, the writers and artists worked hard to create revolutionary works capable of doing much toward the communist education of the working people and the revolutionization and working-classization of the whole of society. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's talk given to writers, composers and film workers in November 1 960 under the heading of Let Us Create Literature and Art Suitable to the Chollima Age, and his speech made before workers in the field of literature and art in November 1 964 under the title of On Creating Revolutionary Literature and Art, marked a new turning point in the struggle for developing the Juche-oriented revolutionary literature and art. 434 In these classical works, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung clarified the revolutionary and popular characterof the literature and art of Korea from the standpoint of the Juche idea, put forward the new line of building a Juche-based socialist national literature and culture and fully propounded the basic principles to be adhered to in its implementation. The most important thing in these basic principles is to thoroughly embody the Party spirit, working-class spirit and popular spirit in literature and art. True to this principle, the writers and artists always faithfully followed the Party's policies in the creation of literary and artistic works and devoted all their energies to the creation of literature and art for the working class and people which correctly reflected the aspiration of the workers and other people and which were easily understood and warmly loved by them. Another important principle to be firmly maintained in the building of the nation's socialist literature and art is.to advance literature and art on the basis of the national roots to suit the modern aesthetic sense. Following this principle, the writers and artists overcame flunkeyism, dogmatism and national nihilism and laid stress on the development of the unique national culture and art of Korea in all fields of literature and art. And in carrying forward the national cultural heritages they overcame the restorationist tendency and positively developed and perfected the national form to suit the demands and emotion of the socialist working people. Yet another important principle is to create revolutionary works of literature and art with lofty ideological content and high artistic value, following closely the method of creation based on socialist realism. By thoroughly applying this method in creating works which are socialist in content and national in form, the writers and artists produced fine revolutionary works with lofty ideological content and high artistic value, which truthfully reflected the revolutionary struggle against the national and class enemies and the realities of socialist society where the working people have become its masters and which conformed with the emotion and taste of the Korean people. At the same time, they waged an uncompromising struggle against every hue of reactionary literary thoughts hostile to the revolutionary literature and art. They thoroughly checked the infiltration of imperialist reactionary culture from outside while strictly guarding against the appearance at home of the tendency to restorationism, a tendency to uncritical restoration of old culture. An important policy followed in the building of socialist national culture was to popularize literature and art. In line with this policy, literature and art were developed on a mass basis, literary and art work 435

turned into the work of the masses themselves and the activities of the writers and artists properly combined with the literary and artistic activities of the broad masses. The idea that literature must serve as a communist humanics holds an important place in the Juche-oriented literary and artistic thought advocated by the Workers' Party of Korea. The writers and artists who got a deep understanding of this idea concentrated their efforts on portraying man as the major subject of artistic representation, especially on describing a living man whose original nature is Chajusong with which he shapes his destiny by himself and who has the creative ability to transform nature and society. They tried to depict people who showed their true worth in life, labour and struggle, cherishing sociopolitical life more than physical life, and to represent the model of a Juche-type man, an independent man, putting up as heroes the working people who create a new history as the nucleus of society. The writers and artists thoroughly carried through the Party's policy of selecting a proper theme in creating a work. They selected proper themes which form a kernel determining the ideological and artistic value of their works before conducting their creative activities. Thus they could bring about a radical turn in the creation of revolutionary works and successfully produce works with high ideological and artistic value. As a result of the thorough implementation of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's Juche-oriented line of literature and art and his unique policies for its materialization, Korean literature and art have blossomed brilliantly and become a model of genuinely revolutionary literature and art. The most noteworthy success made in the recent years in the field of literature and art is that the classic literary works created under the guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung during the period of the anti- Japanese revolutionary struggle have been successfully filrnized and operatized in keeping with the demands of the present times. Based on the immortal classics Sea of Blood, The Fate of a Selfdefence Corps Man and The Flower Gift, feature films and operas of the same titles were produced, causing a great sensation at home and abroad. In particular, in the course of operatizing the classic work Sea of Blood, a new type of revolutionary opera of the "Sea-of-Blood" type was created and this marked the beginning of the opera revolution. Brilliant fruits of the opera revolution were borne one after another in the course of adapting the classic work The Flower Girl for an opera and creating other operas. The "Sea-of-Blood" type revolutionary opera is a new type of revolutionary opera consisting of stanzaic songs, Korean-style pan436 gchang, orchestra, beautiful and noble national dance and streamlined stereo art. . ■ In the wake of filmizing and operatizing the immortal classics, their novelization was pushed forward. The creation of the novels Sea of Blood. The Fate of a Self-defence Corps Man, and The Flower Girl based on the classical works of the same titles afforded a model of revolutionary novels and set a practical example of brilliantly inheriting and developing the revolutionary literary and artistic traditions. The writersand artists, through theirextensive and profound study of immortal classics, came to know well the requirements for depicting the processes of formation of a revolutionary world outlook of people the principles of satisfying them and the most effective methods of reoresentation, and successively created revolutionary works and masterpieces conducive to making people revolutionaries. Particularly, they devoted all their creative zeal to the glorious work of portraying the great leader. As a result, many monumental literary works have been produced. Among them are the novels The Year 1932, The Dawn of Revolution, The Arduous March and At the Foot of Mt. Paekduimm a cycle of novels Immortal History, the novels Mangyongdae, 1,000-Ri Journey for Learning, and Dawn on the Amnok River, and an epic Our Sun- Marsha! Kim II Sung. Film art, too, has made a leaping progress. In recent years alone, -a large number of revolutionary works excellently representing communist revolutionaries have been produced. Among them are Five Guerrilla Brothers, A Worker's Family, and The Flourishing Village (People's Prize winners), and Rolling Workers, and To the End of the Earth. Music and dance also made brilliant progress. The Korean music has been developed into a Juche-based national music which agrees to the modern aesthetic sense and has a national colouring, and a large number of popular songs of high ideological and artistic value touching the heartstrings of the masses were created. A new form of instrumentation, the orchestration of Korean type that combines national with Western instruments, and a new, Korean way of singing songs beautifully and qently have been completed. Successes have been scored in dance, too, which is now blossoming as a beautiful, graceful national dance. In the field of fine arts, too, the traditional canons of Korean painting have been developed into those of coloured painting to suit the modern aesthetic sense. The modern Korean paintings have been made to form the main current of the Korean fine arts and the excellent features of the beautiful and elegant Korean paintings have been displayed in all works of art. Thus the Korean fine arts have been 437

quickly developed into a Juche-based revolutionary art full of national characteristics. Acrobatics, too, has been developed into a socialist national acrobatics which has fully got rid of deformed, bizarre and other abnormal tendencies and is harmonious in respect of physical culture and sound ideologically and artistically. The Juche-oriented art of Korea which has brilliantly effloresced and developed under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung has completely gripped in recent years the hearts of people everywhere in the world— Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, etc.— and evoked their admiration and excitement. The Pyongyang Mansudae Art Troupe, the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Korean People's Army, the Pyongyang Art Troupe, the Pyongyang Acrobatic Troupe and other art troupes visited dozens of countries including the Soviet Union, China, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Zahi'r, Mali, England, France and Japan where they gave performances amid enthusiastic welcome and acclamation of the people. Many people of the world who saw the performance of the Korean art troupes were unsparing of their praise. They described the Korean art as a "world's first-class art," the "pinnacle of the world's revolutionary art," an "art representing the future of human art," and the "standard and model of the world's art and the pride of the art of the 20th century." As a result of the successful fulfilment of the task for the building of socialist national culture, today Korea has become a land of education where the entire people, young and old, are studying and a land where science and socialist literature and art are in full bloom and rapid progress.

6. IDEOLOGICAL REVOLUTION. R EVOLUTION IZATION AND WORKINGCLASSIZATION OF THE WHOLE SOCIETY

Ideological Revolution and Reeducation of Man Carrying out the ideological revolution and remoulding people along communist lines posed as a most important revolutionary task in the period of the all-round construction of socialism. 438 The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "To build this socialist society, the creation of material and technical foundations must go hand in hand with the transformation of man's consciousness. Even though the socialist transformation of the relations of production is completed and new technology introduced, we cannot claim that the building of socialism has been completed as long as the people, the masters who control society and technology, are not remoulded." (/bid., p. 40.) In order to achieve the complete victory of socialism and build communism, it is imperative to energetically push ahead with the ideological revolution to remould man's consciousness while laying firm material and technical foundations after the establishment of the socialist system. The ideological revolution isa most acute revolution to completely liquidate capitalism even in the minds of people and revolutionize and working-ciassize all the working people. Only by vigorously promoting the ideological revolution, can the ideological fortress in socialist and communist construction be occupied and its material fortress, too, be seized with success through the working people's conscious participation in the building of socialism and communism In the ideological revolution, the WPK and the Government of the DPPiK laid the main stress on firmly arming the working people with the Juche idea, the revolutionary idea of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. And the education of the working people in the Juche idea, the Party's policies and the revolutionary traditions was conducted extensively and a vigorous struggle was waged against capitalist ideologies, feudal Confucianism, dogmatism, flunkeyism and all the other outdated ideologies opposed to the Juche idea. Then the Party and government paid great attention to intensifying, among the working people, communist education with stress laid on class education. In accordance with the direction clarified by the great leader in his classical work. On Communist Education, made public in 1 958, and in a number of other works, primary attention in communist education was directed to letting working people have an unshakable revolutionary world outlook and making them more ciass-conscious so thatthey could fight resolutely against imperialism, the exploiting class and the exploiting system and strive for the victory of the cause of socialism and communism. At the same time, a strong effort was made to arm the working people with the spirits of opposing individualism and egoism and loving the collective and labour and with socialist 439

patriotism, proletarian internationalism and the revolutionary idea of constant innovation and continuous advance. Communist education was conducted in close combination with practical activities to implement the Party's policies. In the course of carrying out the Party's policies, the ideological remoulding of the working people was stepped up forcefully, and the Party's policies were carried through more successfully with the promotion of their ideological remoulding. Communist education was also linked with education in the revolutionary traditions. As a result, it became not only the work of learning the general principle of communism but also the work of following the living examples of communists and exerting great animating influence upon people Ideological education among the working people was conducted with places of work as bases, mafnly through influencing people by positive examples. The work of immediately discovering positive examples made by the masses, giving active support to them and popularizing them was conducted widely Leading functionaries went among the masses to set examples to them by their own action, took a warm care of those with faults and consistently helped them along the right course. By conducting communist education with places of production as the bases, the work of remoulding people's thinking and consciousness could be directly linked up with their productive activities and their communist traits be cultivated quickly in practical activities. The Choi lima Workteam Movement assumed great importance in expanding and strengthening the work of educating and remoulding the working people. This movement is not only a collective innovation movement in production but also an effective way of educating and remoulding the working people along communist lines and a mass movement to push ahead with the ideological revolution. This movement has developed in depth into the Three-Revolution Red Flag Movement from the end of 1975, the year when the Six-Year Plan succeeding to the Seven -Year Plan was fulfilled By developing the Chollima Worktearh Movement in depth, the Party and government were able to further intensify the work of educating and remoulding the working people in close combination with socialist economic and cultural construction. The Chollima workteams attached primary importance to communist education of the working people and found a right key to collective innovation in educating and remoulding people and enlisting their voluntary zeal. The Chollima workteams took appropriate measures to educate each of their members and pushed ahead with the work of educating 440 and remouMing man in a planned way. They educated people by the collect: /e stmgth. To this end, they exerted a constant influence upon people with positive facts, took the lead in setting examples in practical work, gave comradely help to lagging persons in every aspect and patiently influenced them to the last. As a result, along with the energetic activities for socialist industrialization and the overall technological reconstruction of the national economy, the work of educating and remoulding people was conducted vigorously as a movement of the whole masses in every field and every unit The accelerated ideological revolution brought about a great turn in remoulding people's thinking. All the working people overcame all the outdated ideas and were firmly armed with the Juche idea. Their revolutionary enthusiasm was further enhanced. As a result, a great victory was achieved in socialist construction. Revolutionization of the Working Class, Peasantry nnd intellectuals and Their WorkingClassization and the Strengthening of PoliticoIdeological Unity of the Whole Society The revolutionization and world ng-classization of all the members of the society were vigorously pushed forward in the course of further development of the ideological revolution. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The work of revolutionizing and workingdassizing the whole of society is a requirement of the law that guides the construction of socialism and communism, and is one of the most important responsibilities of the dictatorship of the proletariat after the establishment of the socialist system.' (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed... Vol. V, p. 425.) Only when the classless society is materialized, can the complete victory of socialism be achieved, and the only way to liquidate class distinction and realize a classless society is to working-classize the whole of society. When the whole society is working-classized. there remains only the working class in the society, the working class itself then ceases to exist as a class, and a classless society comes into being. Complete socialist society and communist society is a most developed society not only economically, materially and technically but also fundamentally different from the former societies in the ideological and 441

spiritual traits of people. In order to win complete victory for socialism and bring communism into reality, therefore, it is imperative to revolutionize ail the members of society, uproot the remnants of old ideologies and closely equip them with communist thought, the working-class thought, and make them men of a new, socialist and communist type. The Party and government vigorously pushed ahead with the revolutionization and working-classization of the whole of society while stepping up the all-round building of socialism. For the successful accomplishment of the' work of revolutionizing and working-classizing the whole society, it was required to carry on this work in conformity to the peculiarities of people in all walks of life. About the basic principle that the Party and government consistently maintained in carrying out the policy of revolutionization and working-classization of the whole of society, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "In carrying through the policy of revolutionization and working-classization of the whole of society, our Party has firmly maintained the principle of steadily enhancing the leadership role of the working class and of educating and remouldingthe farmers and intellectuals on the pattern of the working class." (Ibid., p. 426.) The working class is the genuine leading class in the building of socialism and communism. For the successful revolutionization and working-classization of the whole of society, therefore, it is essential to give priority to the revolutionization of the working class and, revolutionize and workmg-classize all the other classes and strata on its pattern. In order to revolutionize the working class, it is imperative to enhance their ideology, culture and organization and further steel them in a revolutionary way in all aspects. The Party and government, therefore, saw to it that political and ideological work was intensified among the workers to make them more class-conscious and tempered tirelessly in productive labour. They decisively enhanced their culture while firmly building up their ranks organizationally and ideologically. In this process, the working class was made a model of revolutionization. The Party and government actively pushed ahead with the working-classization and revolutionization of the peasants. Petty-proprietor inclinations, selfishness and other outdated ideas of the former society are found deep-rooted in the minds of peasants for a long time even after agricultural cooperativization. Therefore, with a view to the revolutioryzation and working-classization of the 442 peasantry, the Party and government directed special attention to stepping up the ideological revolution while increasing the working class' guidance and support to them and promoting the technical and cultural revolutions in the countryside. Ideological education and organizational life were strengthened among the peasants and they were steeled through socialist community labour. As a result, their level of ideology and consciousness was markedly raised and their spirit of collectivism and organization further cultivated. With the rapid promotion of the technical and cultural revolutions in the countryside, the technical and cultural levels of peasants were further elevated and their socio-economic status brought closer to that of the working class. Deep and constant concern was given also to the revolutionization and working-classization of intellectuals. The policy pursued in our country from the outset was to positively remould old-time intellectuals while training new intellectuals from among the working people, and tireless education was given to the old-time intellectuals. As a result, in the stage' of socialist construction, the question of the dual nature of the old intellectuals, that is, the question as to whom they should serve, was solved, and there remained only the question as to how they should serve better the working class and the people. In the period of socialist construction, special attention was devoted to the revolutionization and working-classization of ail intellectuals, and the work of educating and remoulding them to be true intellectuals of the working class who serve the country and people more faithfully. Thus, the ideological education and revolutionary organizational life of intellectuals were strengthened, with the result that all outdated ideological survivals, were successfully wiped out and all the intellectuals further tempered politically and ideologically. The accelerated revolutionization and working-classization of the whole of society cemented the politico-ideological unity of the whole society. With the elimination of the exploiting classes and all sorts of sweating systems and the establishment of a new socialist system, the worker- peasant alliance was further strengthened and the politicoideological unity of the entire people achieved on that basis. Unlike in the exploiter society where antagonism and struggle between the exploiting class and the exploited class form the basis of social relationship, in our society in which a socialist system won victory, the unity and cooperation between the working class, cooperative farmers and working intellectuals came to form the basis of social relationship. Workers, peasants and intellectuals are now closely united politically and ideologically fortheircommon socio-economic positionsandtheir 443

common objectives and interests. They are striving forthe victory of the cause of communism, closely cooperating with each other on a comradely basis. The politico-ideological unity of the Korean people is a durable one based on the Juche idea, the revolutionary idea of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. The Korean people regard his revolutionary idea, the Juche idea, as their invariable world outlook and are living, working and striving in iine with it. Armed with the Juche idea, they are energetically acceieratingsocialistand communist construction, maintaining independent and creative stands in the deeper consciousness that they are masters of society. The course of their socialist and communist construction isthe very course of embodimentof the Juche idea, the revolutionary idea of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, in all spheres of society. The politico-ideological unity of the Korean people firmly united around him, which is based on the Juche idea, his revolutionary idea, isthe most durable one no force on earth can break. This unity is exhibiting its indestructible strength in the revolution and construction. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The political and ideological unity of the masses of the people — based on the worker- peasant alliance — and their common aspiration and enthusiasm to build socialism and communism under the leadership of the Party are the main driving force propelling the progress of our society and the decisive factor in speeding up the building of socialism." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. IV, pp. 381-82.) The Party and government have made every effort to constantly strengthen the political and ideological unity of the popular masses, the main driving force of socialist construction. In this, the basic policy of the Party and government is: firstly, to propel the ideological revolution to revolutionize and working-classize all the members of society; secondly, to thoroughly suppress the subversive manoeuvres of the hostile elements; and thirdly, to improve work with those people with complicated circumstances of social life. In our society there remain spies, saboteurs and a handful of hostile elements. As a matter of course, the political and ideological unity of our society cannot be damaged by those hostile elements. But in order to further cement the unity and ensure smooth socialist construction, it is imperative to thoroughly suppress their subversive manoeuvrings. The Party and government strictly exercised dictatorship over those who continued to put up resistance and did not cease subversive and sabotaging activities while opening up a broad road for those who 444 had belonged to the exploiting classes in the past so that they might be regenerated under socialism. They got the masses to be vigilant and made them voluntarily participate in the struggle against hostile elements, thereby achieving great success. Meticulous attention was directed to work with those people with complicated circumstances of social and political life in order to consolidate the political and ideological unity of the whole society. The socio-political composition of the population of the country became very complex because of the protracted colonial rule of Japanese imperialism, the partition of the country into the north and the south and particularly the enemy's manoeuvrings to split the nation during the Fatherland Liberation War. There were people who served the Japanese imperialists this or that way, those whose past records were not good, the families whose members had gone to south Korea and those who worked in the enemy's institutions in the days of the enemy's temporary occupation during the war. Besides, there were no small number of other people whose social and political records were complicated. It was a very important matter in strengthening the unity of the entire people to correctly solve the question of those complicated strata and definitely win them over to the side of the Party and revolution. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung took strict precautions against indiscriminate exclusion of those with complicated social and political records. He set forth the principle of work with them, a principle of appraising each of them always giving primary consideration to his present attitude, trusting in and embracing him if he is not a hostile element and testing and remoulding him through actual work. According to this principle, all those who have been faithful to the revolution and made patient effort to remould themselves, even though their origin, environment and past records were complex, have been embraced and trusted and work has been systematically conducted to educate and guide them so that they can give full play to their talent and zeal in socialist construction. Asa result of the promotion of the revolutionization and workingclassization of the whole society and the further strengthening of the political and ideological unity of the entire people, the Korean society has been firmly built up as never before. This is a sure guarantee forthe victory of the Korean people's revolutionary cause. 445

7. REALIZATION OF SOCIALIST INDUSTRIALIZATION

Fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan Many obstacles and hardships cropped up in the way of fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan. In addition to various economic and technical troubles, the internal and external situations were very complicated and, in particular, the US imperialists occupying south Korea and their stooges kept intensifying their war provocative manoeuvres. It was in this tense situation that the Seven-Year Plan had to be carried out. But our people under the sagacious guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung buckled down to it with confidence, courageously surmounting all hardships and ordeals. The Seven-Year Plan was carried out in two phases— the first and the second half. In the first half (three years), efforts were to be concentrated on the better adjustment of the existing heavy industry bases and their effective use and, on this basis, the rapid development of light industry and agriculture and the radical improvement of the people's livelihood. In the second half, it was envisaged to further improve the people's livelihood while attaching importance to the decisive reinforcement of the material and technical foundations of socialism through the further expansion of heavy industry base and the improvement of its technical equipment. In 1961, the first year of the Seven-Year Plan, our people displayed unexcelled devotion and heroic stamina. They constructed Blast Furnace No, 2 with a yearly capacity of 250,000 tons at the Hwanghae Iron Works in a matter of half a year. Responding to the call of the Party, "Everything for the construction of the vinalon factory!" they created an unprecedentedly high construction speed (called the "Vinalon Speed") to startle the world people. They succeeded in building the world-famous up-to-date Vinalon Factory with domestic materials, technique and labour in a matter of a little over one year. Such high speed was registered in all spheres of industrial production, with the result that the total industrial output plan for the first year of the Seven-Year Plan was overfulfilled. In the rural economy, too, the 446 overall technical reconstruction, the expansion of arable land and land amelioration went on with success. Thus, the target for increased yield of one million tons of grain could be hit. The task for 1 962 was to scale six heights — 5 million tons of grain, 250 million metres of textile, 800,000 tons of marine products, dwelling houses for 200,000 families, 1,200,000 tons of steel and 15,000,000 tons of coal. This task was fulfilled. In 1963, the main efforts were concentrated on the carrying out of the major tasks — -the implementation of Taean work system and Chongsan-ri method in the guidance and management of the economy, the intensification of the Party guidance to the economy, the improvement of planning work, the improvement of cooperative production, the increase of equipment utility rate, the extensive promotion of the technical innovation movement, the improvement of labour administration, the thorough realization of concentric capital construction, the improvement of supply service work, and the intensified studies of workers. Asa result, signal success was made in economic construction. It was initially planned that after the fulfilment of the 1 963 plan the tasks for the second half of the Seven-Year Plan period would be tackled from 1964. However, the situation prevailing in the previous two or three years demanded the exertion of greater effort to increasing defence capacity. This could not butdelay the economic development. So, in 1 964. too, the task for the first phase of the Seven-Year Plan was to be carried out. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung put forward the tasks of the last year of the first phase of the plan. They were to make effective use of the already-laid heavy industry, place it in better service of light industry and agriculture andthus produce popularconsumption goods in a big way and raise the people's living standard up to a higher level while making conditions and preparations for the further expansion of the heavy industry base of the country. In the course of carrying out these tasks, the already-built heavy industry was replenished first of all to increase its might so as to make heavy industry better serve light industry, agriculture and the improvement of the people's livelihood, and at the same time, daily necessities workshops were built within heavy industrial factories and enterprises so as to make it possible to produce low-priced daily necessities in a short span of time without a huge investment. Along with this, the technical foundation of light industry was further consolidated with the support of heavy industry and all the light industry factories were run to full capacity to increase the production of daily necessities and their variety markedly. Having successfully fulfilled the tasks for the first phase of the 447

Seven-Year Plan, the Korean people set out to carry on the task for its second phase in 1965. The tasks set before them in the year were to concentrate efforts on heavy industry and, particularly, the seizure of the heights of pig iron, steel, chemical fertilizer, electricity, coal, and grain, the decisive links in carrying out the Seven-Year Plan, and at the same time rapidiy develop all other branches of the national economy, in accordance with the general task for the second phase of the Seven-Year Plan. In order to fulfil these tasks, vigorous efforts were made to intensify the overall technical innovation movement, further raise the utility rate of equipment, improve labour administration, and tap inner reserves to the greatest possible extent, and thus hasten economic development all the more. However, due to the US imperialists' intensified manoeuvres to provoke another war, the situation in Korea became strained as never before, and greater efforts had to be focussed on strengthening the defence capabilities. Hence, the historic conference of the WPK held in October 1966 adopted a resolution on extending the Seven-Year Plan by three years. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung saw to it that the whole work of socialist construction was reorganized in line with the requirements of the prevailing situation. He defined it as the basic direction of economic development to make effective use of the already-created economic foundations and raise the quality of products and construction in all fields. He stressed again the need to strengthen the economic independence of the country. The Korean people made greater efforts to carry out the tasks of economic development in the direction pointed by the respected leader. The Party and people energetically launched the Chollima Workteam Movement, overcoming conservatism and passivism in the way of the advance movement in all realms of economic construction and defence upbuilding, and thus brought about a new revolutionary upsurge. The line of socialist industrialization was implemented successfully in the midst of the new revolutionary upsurge. The extraction and power industries were kept ahead of other branches, industrial branches rounded out, and technical management and technical renovation promoted. This led to the normalization of production and rise in production capacity. Meanwhile, the technical revolution in the rural economy made progress, the labour administration and management of the cooperative farms improved, with the result that there was a marked increase in grain output and the speedy development of other branches of agricultural production. 448 Great success was also achieved in the work of reinforcing and rounding outthe branches of production and enterprises and of further improving the structure of the national economy, which was aimed at increasing the economic independence of the country, and in the work of ensuring the continuous development of large, medium and smallscale enterprises in parallel, the rational distribution of the country's productive forces and, particularly the expansion of the local economy. The working people raised the technical level in all branches of the national economy and stepped up the struggle for economization. They zealously solved economic and technical problems on their own' with a great display of the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and courageously surmounting difficulties. The great leader Comrade Kim M Sung saw that certain functionaries rectified their wrong views on the tempo of economic development, with a view to successfully hitting all the goals of the Seven-Year Plan and speedily implementing the line of industrialization by giving continuous spurs to the people's mounting struggle for economic construction. In those days, among some functionaries were revealed such a wrong tendency as to think that the rate of economic development could be lowered because the enlarged scope of the economy would not allow a high rate of economic growth. In order to intensify the rate of economic growth by turning the advantages of socialist economy to account, it was necessary to rectify such mistaken view. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung made public his immortal classic On Some Theoretical Problems of the Socialist Economy, in which heenunciated the original idea that it is lawful that the economy in socialist society develops ceaselessly at a high rate. He said: "Insocialist society ... all the labour resources and natural wealth of the country can be utilized in the most rational way;> and production can be raised continually according to plan." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. V, p. 295.) "The production relations of socialism open a broad highway for unrestricted development of the productive forces; the socialist state, by making use of this potential, can develop technology rapidly, according to plan." (Ibid., p. 296.) "In socialist society, the people's high revolutionary zeal is the decisive factor forcefully pushing the development of the productive forces. The essential superiority of the socialist system lies in the fact that the working people, freed from exploitation and oppression, work with conscious enthusiasm and creative initiative for the country and the 449

people, for society and the collective, as well as for their own welfare." {/bid., p. 296,) The high rate of economic growth in socialist society reflects the actual requirement based firmly on the socialist regime itself; it is tiot the subjective desire. The point is how to give full play to the superiority of socialist regime. The respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung brilliantly elucidated the commodity form of the means of production and the use of the law of value in socialist society, the peasant market and the way to abolish it, thereby providing the powerful instrument for pushing ahead with economic construction successfully. Thanks to his wise leadership and the heroic struggle of the entire working people, the Seven -Year Plan was carried out with success. Conversion of the Country into a Socialist Industrial State With the successful fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan and the historic task of socialist industrialization, the country was converted into a socialist industrial state. Summing up the fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan at the Fifth Congress of the WPK. the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Our greatest achievement in socialist construction during the period under review is that the country has been converted into a socialist industrial state as a result of our splendid fulfilment of the historic task of socialist indus'trialtzation." (Ibid , p 411.) During the Five-Year Plan and the Seven-Year Plan, namely, in the whole period of industrialization, industrial output grew at the amazing rate of 1 9.1 per cent on an annual average. In 1 970 the value of the gross industrial output rose 11.6 times that of 1956 — 13.3 times as much in manufacture of the means of production and 9.3 times as much in consumer goods. Korean industry came to make as many industrial products in just 12 days as turned out in the pre-liberation year of 1944. In the period of the Seven-Year Plan, emphasis was laid on the improvement and reinforcement of the key branches of heavy industry, while, at the same time, extensive work was carried out to expand the heavy industry bases. As a result, heavy industry became fully 450 equipped, with its own powerful machine-building industry at the core, and its strength was increased beyond compare. The country's machine-building industry, the basis for the development of the national economy and technological progress, was established. Korea, which could not even make simple farm implements properly before liberation, was now in a position to manufacture such large machines as 6,000-ton power presses, heavy-duty trucks, large tractors, excavators, bulldozers, electric and diesel locomotives and vessels, and precision machines; it could also produce not only individual machine units and pieces of equipment but also complete sets of equipment for outfitting modern factories. Under the SevenYear Plan alone, the machine-building industry produced and supplied aggregate, plants for more than 100 modern factories, including power stations and metallurgical and chemical plants. The power bases of the country, too, were further consolidated to meet the demands of rapid industrial development and overall technical revolution. Giant hydro-and thermo-power plants were built during the Seven-Year Plan, with the result that the total generating capacity of the country grew considerably, the one-sidedness of the electric power industry— which had relied exclusively upon hydraulic power was eliminated and the nation's power bases consolidated qualitatively. The ferrous metallurgical industry, equipped with perfect production processes for everything from pig iron to steel, rolled steel and goods of second-stage metal processing, became a powerful industrial branch, and it could now satisfy all the demands for different metals needed to develop the national economy with its own products. The look of the chemical industry, as well, underwent a fundamental change. During the period of industrialization, powerful bases for both the organic and the inorganic chemical industry with branches producing vinalon and other synthetic resins were laid, rendering it possible to further step up the use of chemicals in the national economy. Rapid progress was also made in the coal industry, mining industry, building-materials industry and in other branches of heavy industry In 1 970 heavy industry turned out 1 6,500 million kwh of electricity, 27.5 million tons of coal, 2.2 million tons of steel, 1 .5 million tons of chemical fertilizers and 4 million tons of cement. Signal headway was also made in the development of light industry. In line with the policy of concurrently developing large-scale central industries and medium- and small-scale local industries, new modern factories of centrally-run light industry were established under 451

the Seven-Year Plan while, at the same time, many local industry factories were set up and the technological reconstruction of this industry was actively pushed ahead. All this resulted in the establishment of all sectors of light industry production, including a textile industry with an annual capacity of more than 400 million metres of high-quality fabric, a food industry and an industry for daily necessities. Moreover, up-to-date light industry bases were set up to fully meet the working people's demand for consumer goods. With its rapid advance and great expansion, industry came to play a more decisive role in the gross national output and national income. Industry's share in the value of the total industrial and agricultural output rose from 34 per cent in 1956 to 74 per cent in 1969, and its share in the national income from industrial and agricultural production increased from 25 to 65 per cent during the same period. There was a marked rise in the per capita output of main manufactured goods, an important index to a nation's economic strength and level of industrial development. In 1970 the per capita output was 1 ,1 84 kwh of electricity, 1 ,975 kilogrammes of coal, 1 58 kilogrammes of steel, 108 kilogrammes of chemical fertilizer and 287 kilogrammes of cement. Thus, Korea caught up with the advanced industrial countries in the per capita output of major industrial products and surpassed them in some items. Powerfully supported by the country's heavy industry, the task of overall technical reconstruction was carried out successfully. As a result, all branches of the national economy were placed on the footing of up-to-date technology. Thanks to the rapid promotion of mechanization and automation, the technical equipment of industry was basically improved, and mechanization of industrial production was nearly completed and its electrification and automation extensively introduced. The technological reorganization of the rural economy, too, was realized successfully. During the Seven-Year Plan, the irrigation of the paddyfields was completed and many non-paddyfields irrigated. As a result, a perfect irrigation system was established, ensuring rich, stable harvests every year, regardless of the weather. Mechanization of the rural economy was further stepped up and farm-machine stations were set up in every city and county throughout the country. Also, countless new farm machines were introduced in the rural areas. Between 1 961 and 1 969, the number of tractors and trucks serving the rural economy increased 3.3 and 6,4 times respectively. The task of electrification in the countryside was also admirably carried out. As a result, every ri in the country had electricity and every farmhouse had electric lights. In the countryside electricity was used 452 extensively not only in the home life of the farmers but also as the source of power for machines and of heat in agricultural production. Annual consumption of electricity in the countryside reached 1,000 million kwh, and the country already compared favourably with the advanced countries in the field of rural electrification. Great progress was also made in the use of chemicals in agriculture. The amount of chemical fertilizers applied rose 3.2 times during the Seven-Year Plan and the use of agricultural chemicals and weed killers increased greatly, All branches of agricultural production made rapid progress as the rural technical revolution gathered headway. With the yearly increasing grain output, the food problem was completely solved, and a firm basis of grain production was laid which rendered it possible to develop all other fronts of the rural economy more rapidly. Having laid the solid material and technical foundations for stock breeding, the country's animal husbandry entered a new phase of development based on modern techniques.. The poultry industry experienced a noteworthy advance. It was now able to produce over 700 million eggs and large amount of chicken every year by industrial methods The electrification of railways was one of many major achievements wrought in the technological reconstruction of the national economy. Under the Seven-Year Plan 850 kilometres of railway were switched over to electric traction so that the electrification of the major trunk lines was substantially completed. With the establishment of the independent, up-to-date industry and the progress of overall technical reconstruction of the national economy, the historic task of socialist industrialization was carried out successfully and Korea, a once colonial agrarian land far removed from modern technical civilization, was turned into a socialist industrial state with modern industry and developed agriculture. Thus, the difficult and complex task of industrialization — which took the capitalist countries a full century or even a few centuries — was creditably accomplished in a very short time, in only 1 4 years. The conversion of the country into a socialist industrial state was an event of great historic significance in the struggle to accelerate the building of socialism and communism in the country and attain a nationwide victory for the Korean revolution. With the accomplishment of socialist industrialization, our country was provided with the firm material and technical foundations for socialism and was new capable of meeting all the demands of its economic and defence construction as well as the people's needs for industrial products and agricultural produce. Strong asset was provided for speedy development of science, technology and culture and 453

forthe ultimate emancipation of the working people from heavy labour, and solid foundations were laid for successfully seizing the material fortress for the complete victory of socialism. The conversion of the country into an industrial state as a result of industrialization turned our revolutionary base into an impregnable fortress and provided us with a solifl asset for supporting the liberation struggle of the south Korean people and energetically pushing ahead with the struggle for national reunification. With the founding of an independent, modern industry and the introduction of modern technology in all the branches of the national economy, including agriculture, the country finally did away with the economic and technical backwardness it had inherited from the old society and joined the ranks of the advanced countries of the world asa full-fledged member. With the building of an advanced socialist industrial state, the Korean people, never again to suffer all those insults and contempts because of their backward economy, could now proudly enter the international arena as a mighty and advanced nation on an equal basis with all the other nations of the world, large and small. With overall progress of socialist industrialization and the economy and the growth of production, the people's livelihood improved systematically. The real income of the working people showed a steady increase. The state sharply increased the wages of factory and office workers and technicians. Following the rise in the wages of the working people in the low-wage category, in September 1970 the wages of factory and office workers and technicians were boosted by 31 .5 per cent on an average. With the growth of agricultural production and a number of important measures taken by the state to improve the peasants' livelihood, the per farm household share of grain and cash rose 1 ,8 and 2 times respectively between 1 961 and 1 970 and the real income of the farmers increased markedly, In order to further increase the real income of the working people, the agricultural tax in kind was abolished and the income tax for the working people was reduced systematically. Thus, the prerequisite was created forthe complete abolition of taxation forthe working people/ * The Third Session of the Fifth Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK held m March 1974 adopted a historic decree on the complete abolition of taxation system in our country and made it public: before the world. As a result, Korea has become the first country without taxation in the world. With a view to raising the real income of the working people, 454 radical reduction was also made in the prices of thousands of items of daily necessities including fabrics and goods for children and the service fees. The working people received additional benefits of over 5,000 million won from the radical price reductions effected on more than ten occasions during the Seven-Year Plan. With the further development of the embryonic form of communist distribution, the working people came to enjoy much state and social benefit in addition to the share they received according to the work done. In 1 969 alone the expenditures for social and cultural measures were 2.1 times those of 1 960. The working people received additional income through the expenditures for social and cultural measures and additional state benefits such as the supply of food at a nominal price, supply of children's clothes at state expense, free education, free medical care* and paid leave. These additional income and benefits almost equaled the total wages paid to factory and office workers and, in case of peasants, accounted for half of their cash income. " Korea irrtrtx&tcsd universal free medical care in 1953. The system of free medical treatment put an end to fees for consultation, experimental test, visit, midwife's service, operation and X. raying, hospital charges and others. The state bears even drug fees, boarding charges for in- patients, all charges at a sanatorium inclusive of traveling expenses. Thanks to the systematic improvement of the people's livelihood during the period of industrialization, the working people could enjoy a more affluent and cultured life. The Korean people were confronted with a new task— to further strengthen and develop the socialist system on the basis of achievements in socialist construction and bring earlier the complete victory of socialism. To this end, they had to continue a powerful struggle to occupy the two fortresses, ideological and material, which should be captured without fail on the way to communism. The Fifth Congress of the WPK held in November 1 970 adopted a Six-Year Plan (1971-76), a grand programme for socialist construction, on the basis of the achievements in the socialist economic construction in the Seven-Year Plan. The Six -Year Plan, the principal goal of which was to carry out the three major tasks of the technical revolution— to narrow down to a considerable extent the differences between heavy and light labour, between agricultural and industrial work and relieve women of the heavy burden of household chores, was carried out successfully ahead of schedule. The Six-Year Plan of industry which envisaged a 2.2-fold growth 455

was fulfilled one year and four months ahead of the set time in terms of the value of gross industrial output and the Six- Year Plan of agriculture which envisaged the seven million tons of grain output was carried out two years earlier. Industrial production grew at the high yearly rate of 1 6.3 per cent on an average in 1 971 -76, surpassing the expected rate of growth, and in 1 976 the value of gross industrial output rose 2.5 times that bf 1 970. Besides, fuel-power and raw materials bases of the country were consolidated, key branches of heavy industry including metallurgical, machine-building and chemical industries and light industry made rapid progress. The structure of industry was further rounded out and its independence and technical foundations were markedly strengthened. In the field of the rural economy, too, its material and technical foundations were consolidated beyond compare, and a most scientific Juche-oriented farming method suited to the realities of the country was initiated and widely introduced in agricultural production. As a result, grain output showed a rapid growth every year in spite of the unfavourable weather conditions caused by the influence of the cold front. With the powerful promotion of the technical innovation movement and the consolidation of the technical foundations of production in industry, agriculture and all the other branches of the national economy, a great turn was brought about in delivering the working people from heavy and harmful labor, and the workingconditions were greatly improved for all the working people. As a result of the successful carrying out of the huge task of the Six-Year Plan, the foundation of the socialist, independent national economy of the country was consolidated incomparably and the revolutionary basis of the northern half of the Republic strengthened in all respects. Basing themselves on the signal success in the Six-Year Plan, the Korean people set outto carry outthe Second Seven-Year Plan (1 97884), another grand programme for socialist construction. Its basic task was to further strengthen the economic foundations of socialism by propelling the Juehe-orientation, modernization and scientification of the national economy and raise the people's livelihood to a higher level. The new prospective plan envisaged a 2.2-fold growth in industrial output — 2.2- and 2.1 -fold growth in the manufacture of the means of production and consumer goods respectively. By the end of the Second Seven-Year Plan the Korean people will produce 56,000-60,000 million kwh of electricity, 70-80 million tons 456 of coal, 7.4-8 million tons of steel, 1 million tons of non-ferrous metals, 5 million tons of engineering goods, 5 million tons of chemical fertilizer, 12-13 million tons of cement, 3.5 million tons of marine products, 1 0 million tons of grain a year, reclaim 1 00,000 hectares of tideland and increase production over twice as much as at present in many branches of the national economy. The Second Seven-Year Plan is a grand programme for economic construction to further increase the might of the socialist, independent national economy by accelerating the Juche-orientation, modernization and scientification of the national economy; it is an inspiring blueprint to hasten the accomplishment of the historic cause of socialist, communist construction. When the new prospective plan is fulfilled, an epochal advance will be made in the Korean people's struggle for the complete victory of socialism and the entire Korean people be provided with a happier and more proud life in all spheres, political, economic and cultural. 457

Chapter III National-Salvation Struggle Of The South Korean People

1. THE APRIL POPULAR UPRISING

Postwar Politico-Economic Crisis in South Korea The politico-economic crisis in south Korea became ever acuter with each passing day due to the colonial subjugation policy of the US imperialists and the despicable unpatriotic schemes of the Syngman Rhee clique. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The aggressive policy of the US imperialists and the reactionary rule of the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique in the southern half of our country are faced with total bankruptcy in all the political, economic and cultural fields. No other result can ensue from the most infamous predatory policy of the US imperialists and the traitorous policy of their lackeys, the quisling Syngman Rhee clique. "{Kim II Sung. Selected Works, Eng. ed„ Vol. II, p. 25.) The US imperialists were trying hard to convert south Korea into their permanent military base and an advance base for a new aggressive war. The US imperialists, who had systematically violated the Armistice Agreement, unilaterally "notified" at a meeting of the Military Armistice Commission held on June 21 , 1 957, that Paragraph 13-d of the Armistice Agreement banning military reinforcements was not binding on them, and in July moved the "UN Command" from Japan to south Korea and brought in a large amount of A-bombs, guided missiles and other new-type weapons. The Syngman Rhee puppet clique that faithfully served the US imperialists in their scheme to provoke another war and colonial 458 subjugation policy openly requested the continued presence of the US troops and put the south Korean economy under the sway and control of the US imperialists. Moreover, it ran amuck to increase the puppet army as cannon-fodder for aggressive war of the US imperialists and feverishly expanded the fascist repressive apparatus. The puppet police force was increased so much that it accounted for one policeman for every 2.5 square kilometres. In 1 958 the puppet government appropriated over 68 per cent of the total ordinary budgetary expenditure for military and police spendings {Economic YearbookA 958, Seoul). In face of the grave politico-economic crisis the Syngman Rhee clique newly enactedthe "National Security Law"* and other evil laws to suppress the south Korean people while leaving intact many evil laws framed up at the time of the US Military Government, with a view to forcing the fascist "laws and order" upon them. Thus, the south Korean people were deprived of even elementary democratic rights and freedom. * In 1958 the Syngman Rhee clique prom ulga led a "New National Security Law" comprising 40 articles by amending the 6-artic!e "National Security Law" which had been cooked upin"Decemberl948, Being the. worst of the evil laws, it enlarged the conception of "crime" and the range of application of capital and severe punishment in comparison with the old one. Articles 6 and 1 Oof the law brand the formation of any "associations, groups and organizations" going against the grain of the Syngman Rhee clique as "criminal acts" and provide that those implicated shall be condemned to capital punishment, life imprisonment and other severe punishment. It stipulates that capital punishment shall be meter) out to such "criminals" unconditionally in wartime and the similar emergency {Clause 2 of Article 8). This was aimed at suppressing democratic activities of the people and barring ihe political activities of the opposition parties through severe punishment under almost all circumstances, as the Syngman Rhee clique trembling with apprehension at all times declared "state of emergency" on every possible pretext. Articles 11,12 and 14 of the law, which are designed to intensify the suppression of public opinion by broadening the conception and extent of the "state secret," provide for the utmost suppression and ban of the freedoms of speech and the press. They are so framed as to constitute a "crime" waywardly. By adding that "state secret covers whatever is made public ornot" (Article 4), it forces people not to speak of the already known facts or carry them in the press. Moreover, Article 39 of the law "invests the police record with the strength of evidence," regardless of the admission of the "suspected," so as to freely frame crimes by means of severe torture. This lays bare the Syngman R fee's policy of massacring people. Moreover, it allows them to frame "cases" and apply punishment as they want, through such provisions as the ban of contacts between the "suspected" and his counsel for a definite period (Article 34). the "extension of legal detention" on wilful request of the police (Article 38), and the curtailment of "trial" procedure. 459

The text on this page is estimated to be only 19.53% accurate The US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique arrested, imprisoned and massacred people indiscriminately by mobilizing the military and police setup. In the years between 1955 and 1959 alone, over 810,000 people were arrested, imprisoned and killed. Along with harsh political suppression against the south Korean people, the US imperialists intensified their colonial plunder. In order to intensify their domination and plunder of the south Korean economy, in December 1 953 the US imperialists, in collusion with Syngman Rhee, concocted the "Agreement" of the South Korea US Joint Economic Commission on Economic Reconstruction and Financial Stabilization Program. On the strength of this agreement, the US imperialists came to supervise the establishment and enforcement of ail the economic policies in south Korea such as exploitation of all the resources, production and distribution,, trade, price -setting and finances and banking and put the south Korean industry and financial and banking systems under their control through the south Korea-US "Joint Commission-" The US imperialists rigged up a number of "treaties"" and "agreements" to ensure investment of American capital- Typical of them is the "Treaty" of South Korea-US Friendship, Trade and Navigation concluded on November 28, 1956. The treaty legally permitted the American monopolies to have a hand in industry, trade, finances and other profitable enterprises and set up "branches, agencies, offices and factories" for the purpose. They acquired the right to acquisition of land, buildings and other real properties, the right to compensation for the Joss of capital by the state budget, the right to compensation for the object of investment in case it is transferred to public utility. They even enjoyed the extraterritorial right beyond the control of the puppet government, even in case they are engaged in criminal or intelligence activities. The US imperialists seized the main economic arteries through the "economic aid" and geared them entirely to their policy of military aggression and colonial subjugation- It is widely known that the "economic aid" of the US imperialists was aimed at establishing their military and political control over other nations, but in south Korea it assumed the most naked and brazen -faced form. The greater part of the American "aid" to south Korea was appropriated for armament of the puppet army and military installations and the rest for bringing in the US surplus goods. In exchange for the "economic aid," the US imperialists had the last say in the operation of major production facilities and economic organs of south Korea They rendered south Korean industry fully subordinate to them by making its key production facilities dependent entirely on the United ^60 States for raw and other materials, while plundering valuable resources by exercising their control over its economy. As a consequence, the colonial lopsidedness and deformity of south Korean industry became more pronounced and many middle and small traders and industrialists went bankrupt or were mined due to the great influx of American goods, rise in the prices of equipment and raw and other materials imported from America and heavy burden of tax. Eighty per cent of factories and enterprises, over 90 per cent of which were middle and small ones with less than 50 employees, curtailed or suspended operations due to the shortage of raw materials, power and funds and marketing difficulties. This reduced south Korea to dependency which had to meet 70-80 per cent of the demand for manufactured goods with imports. The rural economy of south Korea, too, was on the verge ot bankruptcy. The area under crops and grain output markedly shrank as against the closing days of Japanese imperialist rule. As a result, south Korea, once a granary, was turned into a district stricken with chronic famine and importing over five million sok of grain every year. The "agrarian reform"* the Syngman Rhee clique had enforced to placate the south Korean peasant masses demanding land reform meant rather their utter ruin, leaving grave consequences. They were deprived of the greater part of the annua! grain yield by the puppet government and landlords under the name of "grain for redemption of land," "land acquisition tax" and grain purchase and others and the socalled "distributed" land fell again in the hands of landlords and rich peasants. As a result, many peasants were again reduced to tenant farmers and hired hands or had to leave their native places, giving up farming • The "agrarian reform" was enforced in south Korea in 1 950. Trie substance of it is as follows: . _ . The "Agrarian Reform Law" provides that the "reform is to be enforced on the principle of purchase and distribution with compensation, by which iheiand not belonging lo "farmers" and, even of the land of the ^dependent farmers, the portion exceeding three hectares shall be purchased and "distnbuted with compensation within the limit of three hectares for each household. But inoiner provisions the "law" leaves a loophole for the landlords to keep their land intact Namely in the definition of "farmer," those who " supervise farm.ng are stipulated as coming into the category of "farmer" so that the resident landlords may pose as the "tiller" -farmer even in case a member of the.r family sype^ses farming Orchards, seedling plots, mulberry plots and others owned by iandiords were not to be purchased even if they exceed three hectares and the land set apart for those who care for an ancestral grave," forests, riverside stnps, reclaimed land and tideland were entirely excluded from purchase or given privilege^ G reater part of the land of absentee landlords were left intact under the pretext ot "reserving for some time" the purchase of the land of the landlords who were 461

away from the countryside for - medical treatment, official business, school attendance and other inevitable circumstances." Besides, it allowed landlords to dispose of their useless land at a high price by setting the "price of land" at a considerably high scale and making them choose the land to be "purchased" of their own accord. Moreover, the tenancy system was allowed legally even after the "reform." By the "agrarian reform" the toiling peasants were to bear heavy burdens. They had to deliver to the puppet government as much as 1 50 per cent of their yearly average harvest from the "distributed" land in five years" installments. Peasants were not allowed to dispose of the right of ownership of the land of their own accord prior to the full delivery in kind of the "compensation grain" for the "distributed" land. What is more, they were to be deprived of their land "in case they fail to deliver compensation money without justifiable reasons," The land of landlords "purchased" through the "agrarian reform" did not exceed 330,000 hectares. To the tenant farmers were "distributed" 570,000 hectares of land including the land owned by the "Sinhan Company" (a predatory organ formed by the US Military Government in 1946 to expropriate and "manage" the land formerly owned by rhe Japanese imperialists). The acreage of the "distributed" land accounted for 37.8 per cent of 1,440,000 hectares of tenant land in 1945, the year of liberation. It was "distributed" to over 1,646,000 poor peasants or 1, 000 pyong (one-third of a hectare) per household on an average. Peasants had to run into debt because of that small lot of "distributed" land. The catastrophic crisis of the south Korean economy extremely aggravated the livelihood of the south Korean people. Particularly,' the south Korean workers were reduced to a wretched plight. They were paid starvation wages less than one-third of the minimum living cost, and even these were often held in arrears for several months. The number of the unemployed and semi-unemployed showed a yearly increase and reached six millions. Hundreds, of thousands of children wandered about the streets, begging for food. Peasants too were on the verge of starvation. In the spring of 1 957 the number of foodless farm households in south Korea reached one million. More than 90 per cent of the peasants suffered from heavy debt onerous levies and usury and were reduced to debtors to the rich peasants and landlords. As the south Korean rulers admit, south Korea had to experience the "hardships of national life never known in four thousands of years." The south Korean rulers were engrossed in lining their own pockets by bleeding the people white without paying heed to the wretched plight of the economy and people's livelihood. Attributing the miserable situation of south Korea to "overpopulation," they went so far as to work out an "emigration" scheme to sell off people to other countries as slaves. The social and cultural life of south Korea, too, was plunged in a hopeless situation of all-round catastrophe In south Korean society 462 prevailed the corrupt American way of life and misanthropy. The American way of life and man-hating idea corroded ethics and morals in south Korea and wantonly trampled under foot the time-honoured national culture and beautiful manners and customs of the Ko.ean people. As a result, darkness and degradation prevailed overthe whole society of south Korea. Due to the ever-intensified colonial subjugation policy of the US imperialists and the traitorous acts of the Syngman Rhee clique after the war, the national and class contradictions became acuter and the political crisis of the pup pet government was mo re aggravated in south Korea, All-People Resistance. Collapse of the Syngman Rhee Puppet Regime Inspired by the brilliant achievements in the revolution and construction in the northern half of the Republic, the south Korean people kept on their vigorous struggle in the postwar years for political freedom, democratic rights and national reunification against the US imperialists and their stooges. After the war their revolutionary struggle gradually entered a new stage of development. The south Korean revolutionaries and people shed much blood and suffered a number of setbacks in the struggle against the US imperialists and their lackeys. In this course they came to realize the great truth of revolutionary struggle that victory can be won only by an organized struggle against the ferocious enemy. They came to keenly feel the. need to unite the revolutionary forces into one block and found a party capable of giving co-ordinated leadership to the struggle and energetically strove to meet it. As a result of their struggle, the Progressive Party, a legal party of south Korean revolutionaries, came into being in December 1955. The Progressive Party headed by Cho Bong Am put forward a fighting programme with anti-imperialism, anti-fascism and peaceful reunification as its key points and launched an active struggle to rally patriotic democratic forces in various strata and oppose the policies of national division and fascistization pursued by US imperialism and its henchmen. It acquired increased prestige among the broad segments of the south Korean people and especially its programme of peaceful reunification found popular support in south Korean society. This was unquestionably testified during the puppet presidential "election" in 463

The text on this page is estimated to be only 24.16% accurate 1956, when the Progressive Party "candidate" (Cho Bong Am) received over two million votes (or slightly less than what was raked up by Syngman Rhee by coercion and deception) in spite of the repression, fraud and swindle on the part of the US imperialists and their stooges. Terrified by the rapidly expanding influence of the Progressive Party among the south Korean people, the US imperialists and their stooges launched bloody repression, perpetrating such bestial barbarity as arresting and imprisoning numerous members of the Progressive Party and slaying its leader Cho Bong Am. They forcibly dissolved the party and it ceased to exist in January 1 958. Even after the dissolution of the Progressive Party, the dynamic struggle of the south Korean people against the US imperialists and their stooges went on without letup. Between 1 958 and 1 959 there were 390 strikes of workers and 320 cases of peasants' struggle. Students, too, launched a vigorous struggle for the democratization of campus. In April 1 960, the south Korean people's struggle against the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique developed into a mass uprising to topple the Syngman Rhee puppet government. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The Popular Uprising of April 1 960 marked a newturning point in the advancement of the south Korean revolutionary movement. The April Popular Uprising was an explosion of the enmity and resentment of the south Korean people which had long been pent up under the colonial rule of US imperialism and its lackeys. It was a mass resistance struggle against the US and for national salvation, involving millions of the broad masses throughout south Korea." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. V, pp. 476-77.) The April Popular Uprising was the resistance of the entire people who fought in demand of a new democratic government and a new regime and in opposition to and denunciation of the corrupt puppet ruling circles on the occasion of the puppet "presidential and vicepresidential election" held in south Korea in March 1960. The uprising which swept all over sou th Korea was triggered off by the students and citizens of Masan who rose up in a heroic resistance in demand of the "immediate suspense of fraudulent election." They held a demonstration in opposition to the murderous repressive election on March 1 5 and went over to a mass revolt in face of the barbarous repression by the US imperialists and their henchmen, the Syngman Rhee clique. Twenty-three thousand insurgent students and citizens raided and destroyed police stations, "Masan Branch of the Seoul Sinmun Office," the "National 45 4 Hall" and others and paralyzed the puppet ruling setup in the city Tens of thousands of rebellious mass rose again in revolt on April 1 1 . shouting the slogans: "Syngman Rhee, step down!" "The election's fraudulent. Hold it again!" "Let's restore democracy!" The insurgents pulled down the "Masan Branch of the Liberal Party." the "Masan Police Station." "Masan Branch of the Pusan District Procurator's Office." the "Masan City Hall" and other ruling establishments and took away weapons from the enemy In response to the struggle of the Masan citizens, hundreds of thousands of people rose up in mass revolt in Seoul, Pusan, Taegu, Inchon, Chonju. Kwangju, Taepn, Chinju. Chongju, Suwon and in almost all other districts of south Korea. They demanded new politics and ax new life and smashed puppet ruling apparatus. On April 18, over 4.500 students of Koryo University and Seoul citizens gathered in front of the puppet "National Assembly Hall," breaking through the tight cordon of puppet police, and adopted the four-point resolution demanding that "the Administration stop murderous dictatorial policy" and appealing to the peopie to "drive out traitors to the nation." They staged a sit-in strike m demand of the appearance of Syngman Rhee. On the 1 9th they went over to a revolt. The insurgent masses raided the puppet "Capitol Building." destroyed police stations and burnt down buildings of the "Headquarters of the Liberal Party" (the party of Syngman Rhee). the "Anti-communist Hall," the "Seoul Sinmun Office,'' and the "Counter Intelligence Corps" of the puppet Second Army. And they obtained weapons through raids on the ordnance stores of the "Public Peace Bureau" and "Police Bureau". Synchronizing with the resistance of the Seoul students and citizens, students and people in other districts rose in a vigorous demonstration and revolt, raiding and destroying puppet ruling bodies and repressive organs everywhereFlurried at the popular uprising spreading all over south Korea, the US imperialists and their henchmen attempted to pacify the insurgents with a partial reshuffle of the puppet government. At the same time, they intimidated the insurgents, while intensifying repression, in an attempt to check the mounting struggle of the people. Unable to put down the uprising of the people with the puppet police alone, the US imperialists and the traitorous Syngman Rhee clique declared "emergency martial law," mobilized the puppet army under the UN Command" and suppressed and massacred the insurgents who had risen in a righteous struggle. On April 21, when the resistance of the south Korean people expanded and spread with each passing day, the Central Committee of 465

the WPK issued an "Appeal to the South Korean People" in active support of theirstruggle. Pointing outthe significance of their uprising, the appeal gave them a clear-cut direction and way for tiding over the tense situation obtaining in south Korea. Noting that it was impossible to achieve national reunification and independence and save the catastrophic situation in south Korea so long as the US imperialist aggressor army remained there, the appeal fervently called on the south Korean people to wage a persistent struggle for the immediate withdrawal of the US troops and the overthrow of the Syngman Rhee puppet government. It also proposed immediate convocation of a joint conference of the representatives of political parties and public organizations of north and south Korea to save the catastrophic situation in south Korea. The appeal greatly encouraged the south Korean students and people in their resistance struggle. Inspired by the appeal and drawing strength and courage from it, the south Korean people intensified their resistance struggle. On the 25th, over 10,000 insurgents in Seoul raided the "Kyongmudae," "Capitol Building" and police organs, giving close battle to puppet troops and policemen. Scared at this, the Syngman Rhee clique fenced the puppet "Capitol Building" and other central government bodies with barbed wire entanglements, mobilized one puppet army division and scores of tanks, and made frantic efforts to suppress insurgent masses. But the jnsurgents did not draw back in the least but persisted in resistance, further extending their struggle. The masses who gathered in front of the "Kyongmudae" sent their four representatives for negotiation with traitor Syngman Rhee and eventually forced from him a definite promise that "if it is the will of the nation, I will resign from presidency." The insurgents pulled down the bronze statue of Syngman Rhee at the "Pagoda Park," tied its neck with a rope and dragged it on the street. That day the students went to Suwon and Inchon, where they staged demonstrations together with their local colleagues and citizens, shouting, "Expose those responsible for illegal election!" and destroyed and burnt down puppet ruling establishments there and took away numerous automobiles. When the heroic resistance struggle of studentsand citizens was mounting in Seoul, over one hundred thousand students and people in Pusan pulled down and burnt the "municipal building," the "provincial administration office" and other puppet ruling establishments. Panic-stricken at the people's resistance, the puppet clique mobilized tanks, armored cars and heavily armed troops in an attempt to put down the revolt. But, part of the puppet army soldiers, overwhelmed by the towering spirits of the masses, joined demonstrations in a mass, and the soldiers of the puppet army brought in to put down the 466 resistance expressed their sympathy with the insurgents. The puppet troops and police were thrown into utter confusion. Even after Syngman Rhee issued the "retirement statement," the revolt continued. Students and citizens held street demonstrations till late at night, shouting, "Out with established politicians!" and "Let's achieve reunificat if" Fiercer struggles went on in Taegu, Taejon and other cities as well. The students and citizens in Seoul and all other places of south Korea heroically fought without the slightest vacillation in defiance of the enemy's armed repression. This eventually toppled the puppet government of Syngman Rhee which had faithfully served the US imperialists for over ten years. It was the first, victory the south Korean people won in their anti-US, national-salvation struggle in the postwar years. The April Popular Uprising clearly demonstrated the heroic mettle of the south Korean people before the whole world and proved the truth that if the masses pool their strength and rise in a struggle against the oppressors, they can certainly crush any stronghold of the enemy. With the uprising as a momentum, the crisis of the colonial rule nf the US imperialists in south Korea deepened and the situation turned in favour of the revolution. Following the uprising, the revolutionary advance of the patriots and the masses of the people in south Korea gathered headway with each passing day and progressive political forces appeared on the scene, and in this process the Socialist Mass Party came into being. Under the guidance of the south Korean revolutionaries the Socialist Mass Party set forth, as its immediate task, the founding of a unified democratic state based on the line of national independence, and conducted brisk organizational and political activities to steer the massive advance of the people to a national-salvation movement for the independent reunification of the country. The fierce flames of struggle enveloped the whole land of south Korea. The advance of the students and people of south Korea failed to develop into a struggle that would end the occupation of south Korea by US imperialism, smash its colonial ruling machine and establish a democratic government and, consequently, failed to achieve complete victory. Syngman Rhee was ousted, but another stooge of US imperialism was installed in his place, leaving the colonial ruling system of the US imperialists and the puppet setup as they were. The national-salvation struggle of the south Korean people failed to make clean sweep of the reactionary corrupt ruling system and set up a new social system, because it did not grow into the antiimperialist, anti -feudal struggle in which broad workers and peasants took part under the leadership of the working class. The insurgents 467

The text on this page is estimated to be only 24.46% accurate expected that everything would go well if only the Syrsgman Rhee clique was ousted The experience of the April Popular Uprising taught an important lesson: For the south Korean people to win complete victory in the struggle, the workers, peasants and other patriotic democratic forces must take part in the struggle in union under the leadership of a revolutionary party, and this struggle must be a thoroughly antiimperialist, anti-feudal struggle and its spearhead be directed to forcing the US imperialist aggressors, the sworn enemy of the Korean people, out of south Korea.

2. ESTABLISHMENT OF MILITARY FASCIST DICTATORSHIP. PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRATIZATION OF SOCIETY

Fabrication of a Military Fascist Regime by the US Imperialists Right after the collapse of the Syngman Rhee puppet regime as a result of the April Popular Uprising of the south Korean people, the US imperialists rigged up the "interim government" headed by another minion of theirs (Ho Jong) in an attempt to reestablish their political footing for colonial rule. The US imperialists instigated the "interim government" to stage the "election to the National Assembly" by force and trickery on July 29. 1960, drawing a police cordon involving tens of thousands of policemen and thus formed the puppet National Assembly on August 23 and the "Cabinet" with Chang Myon. the old pro-American stooge, as "Prime Minister " Though the Chang Myon puppet government was rigged up, it could not save from the grave crisis US imperialist colonial rule nor check the accelerated revolutionary advance of the people. Due to the colonial subjugation policy of the US imperialists and the reactionary traitorous policy of the puppet Chang Myon regime, south Korea was driven deeper into an irrecoverably ruinous situation in all the political, economic and cultural fields. This brought the south Korean people to the keen realization that, one puppet tyrant would be 4 58 replaced with another one so long as the US imperialists remained in south Korea and kept their puppet rule, and led them to launch a new struggle. Particularly, the anti-US, anti-'government" struggle for the pullout of the US aggressor troops and independent national reunification rapidly gained in strength and scope among the south Korean people of various strata. With the conclusion of the South Korea-US "Economic and Technological Agreement"" as an occasion, the south Korean people launched a vigorous struggle against the US imperialists and the puppet government under the slogans, "Out with the US troops!" and "Out with the Chang Myon government!" ■ Regarding this agreement as the open interference in the political and economic affairs of south Korea, the south Korean people condemned the US ambassador in Seoul as "Military Governor' of south Korea. Even the south Korean "National Assembly" denounced it as a humiliating one remindful of the "treaty on protectorate" forced upon Korea by the Japanese imperialists before and after their occupation oF her. (Tongyamj Tongsin dispatch of February 13. 1961.) In opposition to the pro-American, reactionary conservative forces, the reformist forces rapidly gathered strength and launched vigorous activities. The Socialist Mass Party and other reformist forces formed the "Central Council for Independent National Reunification," a coalition of a united front type of the broad democratic forces, and organized and directed the joint struggle of alt strata of the people against US imperialism and its lackeys. On May 4, 1961, when the balance of forces between the revolutionary and reactionary forces underwent a rapid change, the "League for National Reunification" of "Seoul University" officially proposed a meeting of north and south Korean students, and on May 5 the "Conference of Promoters of the National Federation for Unification of the Nation" put forward a new proposal on holding "talks between north and south Korean students" at Panmunjom in May. !n such surging atmosphere, the south Korean students and people waged a valiant mass struggle under the slogan, "Let's go to the north, come to the south, let's meet at Panmunjom!" The US imperialists and the Chang Myon clique exhausted every means to suppress the dynamic struggle of the south Korean people, but the struggle became intenser hourly and came near to bringing about an "unforeseen situation". Nonplused at this, the US imperialists instigated the ultra -fascist elements within the puppet army to stage a "military coup" on May 1 6, 1961, to topple the Chang Myon "government" with a view to 469

maintaining and strengthening their colonial rule and thus established a most ferocious fascist military dictatorial "regime" in its place, "Military coup" is one of the hackneyed practices of the US imperialists in rigging up their puppet government. As their plot for world domination did network as they wanted in postwaryears, in the 1 950's the US imperialists used the native military fascist elements as an important political force in pursuing their policy of aggression on colonial and dependent countries. It was the established practice of the US imperialists to hatch a sinister plot of military coup (masterminded by the "CIA") when the existing governments of other countries were not to their liking. In south Korea, too, they egged the ultra-fascist elements within the south Korean puppet army on to stage a "military coup."* ' In his TV talk in the United States on May 3, 1964, John Allen Dulles, the former CIA director, openly said "What was most successful in the overseas operation of the CIA during my office was the military coup in south Korea.... If the United States has remained unconcerned, doing nothing the public might have supported the 'insurgenss' demanding north-south unification," This brought to light that the US imperialists were the ringleader and mastermind of the counterrevolutionary "military coup," The military dictatorial regime was from the first the most reactionary and wicked fascist dictatorial machinery that faithfully executed the neo-colonialist policy of the US imperialists. The so-called "Military Revolutionary Committee" made up of the heinous pro- Japanese, pro-American and anti-communist elements declared "Americanism" and "anti-communism" the first "national policy" and defined it as its primary task to "bend every effort to foster real ability for fighting communism" by "strengthening anticommunist system." On May 16 the military gangsters issued Decree No. 1 "banning all indoor and outdoor meetings" and on May 19, issued a "special statement" on the "prohibition of all labour disputes." The military regime which came to enjoy the "strong support"* of the US imperialists got riotous. In a matter of three months after the "military coup" it arrested, imprisoned and killed over One hundred thousand patriotic people. Thus, south Korea was again reduced to a dark hell devoid of all the democratic freedoms and rights, to a shambles where mass terrorism and massacre were rampant. ' In his statement of July 27, 1961, the US Secretary of State Rusk declared: "We strongly support the military government." 470 Struggle against Military Fascist Rule The military fascist gangsters under the manipulation of the US imperialists stepped up bestial suppression and fascist terrorist rule as never before in an attempt to check the revolutionary advance of the south Korean people longing for a new system and life and save the colonial ruling system from a grave crisis. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The military fascist dictatorship established in south Korea is a product of the US imperialist policy of colonial enslavement and war, faithfully serving it. It has assumed an unprecedented ferocious and barbarous nature and become a pattern of the vicious fascist rule of imperialism over its colonies." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. IV, p. 402.) The military fascist gangsters resorted to every conceivable means and ways to wipe out all social and political elements detrimental to US imperialist colonial rule and war policy. While manufacturing various fascist evil laws, they expanded the machine of repression on a large scale to cover the whole of south Korea with military, police, intelligence and secret service networks and plunge it into a land stricken with overpowering terror. The spearhead of their fascist tyranny was directed to stamping out all democratic freedoms and rights of the people and suppressing the patriotic, democratic forces^ All the progressive political parties, public organizations, and organs of public opinion and the press were the targets of repression, and numerous revolutionaries and patriotic people fell victims to fascist rule. The US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique left no means untried to justify their outrageous fascist rule of terrorism. In particular they used "anti-communism" as a major political and ideological medium, Under the signboard of "anti-communism" the renewed aggression of Japanese militarism on south Korea was tolerated, and many young and middle-aged men were dragged off to the shambles in south Viet Nam. With such "anti-communism" clamours, however, the US imperialists and their stooges could never cover up their criminal acts and deceive the masses. No amount of suppression and trickery could help the US imperial471

The text on this page is estimated to be only 22.72% accurate ists and the military fascisi gangsters to curb the growth of the revolutionary struggle of the people in south Korea. The military fascist policy which brought unbearable calamities and sufferings to the people deepened the south Korean people's discontent with US imperialism and its stooges and kindled among them strong aspirations for the right to live and democracy. People of all walks of life in south Korea launched a vigorous struggle for the democratization of society against the military fascist rule in defiance of the unprecedentediy ferocious fascist tyranny following the "military coup." They opposed the worst military fascist tyranny and all the traitorous and anti- popular reactionary policies of the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique under the US imperialists' manipulation and demanded the right to live and democratic rights. Their struggle gradually went over to a mass struggle to foil all the fascist terroristic policies of the military fascist regime and democratize the sociopolitical life of south Korea. The south Korean workers carried on strikes, hunger strikes and stay-in strikes and various other forms of positive struggle They fought against the. "Labour Standard Law," the "Labour Dispute Adjustment Law" and other wicked labour laws framed up by the military fascist ruling circles with a view to suppressing labour movement, for payment of wages in arrears, wage increase, improvement of labour conditions, control of unemployment and other immediate demands for the improvement of livelihood, and for the right to collective agreement, right to dispute, freedom of trade union activity and other democratic rights essential for the development of labour movement, which were reflected in their slogans. In 1962, the south Korean workers, who had waged an energetic struggle to wipe out military fascist rule since immediately after the "military coup" staged demonstrations, strikes, sit-in strikes and other forms of struggle on more than 200 occasions for the realization of their immediate demands for livelihood and democratic rights. In March, May and June 1962, the workers of the "Tongchang Mine" in North Chungchong Province, the "Sinhung Mine" in Kyonggi Province and coal mines in Kangwon Province went on sit-in and other strikes in demand of payment of wages in arrears and freedom of trade union activity. In April, June and September, the workers of the "Samhwa Iron Industry Company," clashing with the puppet police, waged sit-in and other strikes while fasting against arrears of wages, extended working day, forcible dismissal and suppression of the trade union activities. In March 1962 the employees of the "Simyang Bus Company in Kwangju" waged a struggle for eight-hour work day and the "collective agreement." It w£is followed by the struggle of the 472 workers of the Tourist Company in south Korea for freedom of the "trade union" activity in May and for the conclusion of the "collective agreement" in June; Cases of struggle the south Korean workers fought against the military "regime" in 1962 accounted for 34 per cent of the total, or nearly 41 per cent il the cases of the struggle of the workers engaged in the "land construction" under the direct supervision of the military "regime" were added. In 1963 the struggle of the south Korean workers made rapid progress, showing a new tendency. In particular, with the resumption off political activity prior to the '"(ransfer of the reins off government to civilians"" as an occasion, workers stepped up their struggle for the "restoration of right to labour dispute" and formation of trade unions The struggle which had so far failed to go beyond the bounds of individual factories and enterprises developed on February 1 4, 1 963, into a regional joint struggle involving chemical workers in the Yongdungpo diistricL The struggle the workers off the "Kumsong Company" in Pusan fought forthe formation of a trade union on April 9 developed into the joint struggle in which workers in 1 4 industries in Pusan City took part. In June such struggle spread all over south Korea, as shown by the joint struggle for the repeal of the "decree on the special measure: for the control of employees* pay" which was participated in by over 43,000 employees of 15 "govemrnent-run enterprises" in the seven, industries— mining, metal, electric power, transport, chemical, marine and banking. Thus., in 1963 the workers' struggle against military fascist rulie made headway as against the previous years in terms of the number of cases and workers involved, as well as in their demands. Along with the workers, the peasants waged an active struggle against the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique's policy of harsh plunder of the countryside, putting up such fighting slogans for the improvement off their livelihood as "We are against onerous levies/' "Ensure farming conditions, " "Compensate for land" and "We want guaranteed livelihood.'" The struggle of south Korean peasants started with their opposition to the deceptive "regulation of usury in farming and fishing villages," requisitioning of grain and the so-called "national movement for reconstruction" which the military fascist gangsters perpetrated following tl-eir. seizure of power. It showed a rapid growth in 1 962, its cases reaching 1 57. Needy half of them were the cases of the struggle against expropriation of land, forced sale of grain, freeze of prices of agricultural produce, rise in the prices of fertilizers and industrial goods, increase of taxes and various other predatory policies of the 473

military "regime," This struggle of anti-"government" nature which was passive at first gradually assumed positive forms such as demonstration and sit-in strike. On April 8, 1 962, over 300 peasants in Kajo Sub-county, Kochang County, South Kyongsang Province, went on sit-in strike on the site of construction against the military fascist clique's expropriation of land under pretence of the "development of regional community." On September 30, over 1 80 peasants in Kwigok-ri, Ungnam Sub-County, Changwon County, South Kyongsang Province, held demonstration in denunciation of the expropriation of land by landlords in collusion with the military "regime" under the name of the "reclamation of wooded land." The peasants' struggle for land, too, gained in strength. In April 1962, the tenant farmers in Ryonggwang County, South Cholla Province, rose up in a struggle in demand of distribution of the landlords' land. There were similar struggles in other localities. In their struggleforthe solution of land problem, the peasants made a demand for the distribution of the landlords' land and the "state land," putting up concrete fighting slogans such as "Let the tenancy system be reformed to an owner-farming system!" and "Let each farm household have over one hectare of land!" instead of former vague ones. The struggle of south Korean workers and peasants against military fascist rule was a just one reflecting their urgent demands stemming from their suffering from hunger and poverty and dire nonrights. It delivered telling blows at the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique who were engaged in military fascist rule. Other broad segments of the south Korean people including the students and intellectuals, too, took part in the struggle against the US imperialists and the military fascist dictatorship of the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique in demand of the right to live and democracy. The students who had opposed the fascist tyranny of the military "regime" since right after the "military coup" waged more vigorous struggles as its fascist dictatorship was intensified and its traitorous acts became more pronounced. They fought against commercialization of campus, forced closure of universities by the "Decree on the Readjustment of Universities" and against the "system of bachelor's degree examination." Their demands were the reduction of school fee and the abolition of various impositions, extension of educational facilities and improvement of other educational conditions and guarantee of employment after graduation. Their struggle took a positive form and their demands assumed a strong political nature. When the puppet police prevented the students of Seoul University from holding a meeting in commemoration of the 474 second anniversary of the April 19 Uprising, some of them read a declaration opposing and denouncing the military ' regime and marched through the street following the course of demonstration at the time of the April Popular Uprising. At the ceremony commemorating the April 1 9th a student representative expressed the resolution of the students, saying, "Our conviction and sense of justice with which we fought against injustice and dictatorship two years ago remain the same at present and will be invariable for ever." The anti-"govemment" nature of the students' struggle was clearly revealed in the struggle against the reactionary educational policy of the military "regime." Their struggle in September 1961 against the "Decree on the Readjustment of Universities" caused great repercussions among the south Korean public. It involved students from the Normal College of Seoul University and the College of Liberal Arts and Science and the Law College of Pusan University and others^ It grew into a more vigorous struggle in 1962. Sit-in struggles and school strikes were staged against the decree at Chonbuk University and Chonnam University in February, at Tongyang Medical College and Toksong Women's College in April and at Chonbuk College ot Liberal Arts and Science in December. The south Korean students put up a persistent struggle against the "system of bachelor's degree examination" which was aimed at controlling their employment and entry into public life after graduation. On October 8 and 1 2, students of 1 4 universities and colleges in Seoul including Seoul University and Yonse University held meetings and conferences. They strongly demanded the authorities of the military "regime" to abolish the "system of bachelor's degree examination. ' The similar struggle broke out at universities in different localities including Pusan, Masan, Kwangju, Taejon and Cheju. Men of the press and other intellectuals opposed and denounced the military fascist dictatorship from theoutset. Many dailies boycotted covering the Pak Jung Hi's "commemorative address" delivered at the "ceremony marking the liberation" on August 1 5, 1 963 (the January 1965 issue of the monthly Sasanggye,$eou\, p. 33). This clearly showed how the south Korean people, intellectuals in particular, hated and opposed Pak Jung Hi. At first the south Korean intellectuals took a stand ot silent resistance against the military "regime," but, with its fascist tyranny intensified they gradually assumed the posture of open struggle. They now opposed its fascist educational and cultural policies, press gag and scheme to perpetuate its stay in office in particular, and demanded an end to the military fascist rule. As things got harder after the "military coup," urban dwellers, 475

The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.15% accurate handicraftsmen and petty traders changed their wait-and-see attitude and gradually took an active part in the struggle against the military "regime's" predatory and other fascist policies. Following the "military coup," the south Korean people's struggle for the right to live and the improvement of the living conditions gradually developed into a mass struggle against the US imperialists and all the fascist terroristic policies of the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique. Struggle against the South Korea-Japan "Talks" and South Korea-Japan "Agreements" While running amuck to strengthen the fascist ruling system internally, the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique, externally, tried hard to bring the south Korea-Japan "talks" to a speedy conclusion to usher Japanese militarism in south Korea again. The US imperialists instigated the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique to "normalize" the so-called "diplomatic relations" with the Japanese militarists and, accordingly, to bring the south Korea-Japan "talks" to success for the political tie-up between them. In this, they intended to make Japanese militarism a tool in facilitating their colonial rule in south Korea and rig up the "NEATO" with Japan and south Korea as the axis to use it as a shocking brigade in their aggression on Asia In 1964 they urged them to wind up the talks. Early in that year the US imperialists sent Secretary of State Rusk and Attorney General Robert Kennedy to Seoul and Tokyo to hold "high-level talks" and urge the reactionary Japanese government and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique to bring south Korea- Japan "talks" to early conclusion.* * On January 29, the day after his talks in Tokyo, Rusk flew into Seoul and held the "Rusk-Pak Jung Hi talks." Following it, a '■joint statement" was issued. It said that the early conclusion ofihe south Korea-Japan "talks" was "necessary not only for both 'south Korea and Japan' but also for the unity and consolidation of [he free camp as a whole." Expressing their readiness to accelerate the south Korea-Japan "talks" even by staking the fate of the "Third Republic" (the military fascist regime), the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique under the active backing of the US imperialists, held unpatriotic negotiations with Japan under the plan of "settlement in March," "signing in April" and "ratification in May." The Japanese militarists set to the south Korea Japan "talks" with zeal, regarding them as the best opportunity for 476 stretching their tentacles of aggression again to south Korea. Thus, south Korea was faced with the danger of being put under double subiuqation by US and Japanese imperialisms. While waging a powerful struggle against the military fascist ru a from the first days of the "military coup," the south Korean people closely combined it with the struggle against all the traitorous antipopular manoeuvres of the military gangsters. In particular, they waged a vigorous struggle against the south Korea-Japan talks in 1 364. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The patriotic youth and students and people in south Korea fought heroically against the ROK- Japan talks' in defiance of harsh repression by the tra.torous Pak Jung Hi clique and are courageously fighting on to shatter the ROK-Japan agreements.' The struggle of June 3 1964 and the militant demonstration staged again in August this year were patriotic anti-imperialist, antifascist struggles to oppose the aggressive policy of the US and Japanese imperialists and to overthrow the traitorous cUaue." I/bid., p. 31 7.) . . vnrr,~„ On March 24 1 964, the broad segments of patriotic south Korean people including the students came out in a mass struggle against the traitorous acts of the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique and the reinvaston scheme of the Japanese militarists. That day over 7 000 J^ents m Seoul including those of Seoul University, Koryo University, Yonse University, Taegwang High School and over 1 0,000 citizens he dmass demonstration carrying placards bearing slogans denouncing he south Korea-Japan "talks" and singing the strains of the "Reunification March." In front of the "National Assembly Ha I and the US embassy, they clashed hard with the puppet police and . staged a sit-in strike. The struggle touched off by the students and I citizens in Seoul spread over 37 universities and colleges and 163 m ddle and hfgh schools in 38 districts between March 24 and 30 involving over 217 000 students and over 1 0,000 citizens. Th.s struggle, fought under the slogan "Oppose humiliating diplomacy" in the tense situation when The Pak Jung Hi puppet clique were hurrymg with the conclusion of the south Korea-Japan "talks," heightened the fighting spir t of the students and citizens and exerted a great revo ut.onary inf luence on the broad sections of the south Korean people so that they mioht prepare themselves for a higher form of struggle. 9 The struggle against the south Korea-Japan "talks broke out again with the fourth anniversary of the April Popular Uprising as a momentum. The struggle sparked off by the demonstration of the Seoul University students on April 17 went on till the 21st, involving 477

The text on this page is estimated to be only 29.28% accurate 26,000 students from 27 colleges and schools in nine districts. It was directed against the south Korea-Japan "talks" and the Pak Jung Hi "regime" that defifed the "April 19 spirit," clearly revealing its antiimperialist, anti-fascist demonstration nature. The struggle of the south Korean students and people against the south Korea-Japan "talks" grew into an anti-"government" revolt in June 3. That day, students in Seoul occupied the "Capitol Building," encircled the "National Assembly Hall" and closed in on the "Blue House." They raided the Seoul City Hall, Sodaemun Police Station, Songdong Fire Station, Central Election Office, Police Ordnance Stores and others, destroying and occupying some of them and completely neutralized the puppet police. The struggle spread to localities and went on till June 5, involving over 73,500 students from 89 universities and schools in 33 districts and over 10,000 citizens. The struggle against the south Korea-Japan "talks" which went on for three months from March 24 to June 5 was a big mass struggle in its scale, nature and activeness. It involved more than 310,000 students from 53 universities and colleges and 1 73 middle and high schools and tens of thousands of citizens in 42 districts. The insurgents inflicted 1,572 casualties on the puppet police and completely destroyed 12 puppet police sub-stations, two puppet administration buildings, 60 police cars and 12 police sidecars. There were 1,352 casualties on the part of students and citizens and over 3,000 arrested. The March 24-June 3 struggle which was the biggest mass political struggle following the April Popular Uprising marked an important stage in the development of the struggle of the south Korean people. This mass uprising frustrated the scheme of the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique to hurry up with the conclusion of the south Korea -Japan "talks." Even after that, however, they persisted in their plot to resume them. Following the June 3 Uprising, for the resumption of the south Korea-Japan "talks" the USimperialists preferred interference through "active mediation" to the "former behind-the-scene negotiation." Thus, following the June 3 Uprising, the south Korea-Japan "talks" virtually changed to the south Korea-US-Japan "talks," On the US imperialists' instructions the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique requested the resumption of the south Korea-Japan "talks" in early December, fawning upon and kowtowing to the Japanese reactionaries while launching "large-scale enlightenment propaganda" to dampen the struggle of the students and the people against the talks. They intended to achieve the goal of "complete settlement" by April May 1 965. The south Korea- Japan "talks" were resumed on December 3 after eight months' interval. There were the preliminary signings 478 of the traitorous "treaty " on the basic south Korea-Japan relations on February 20, 1 965, the next year, and, on April 3, of the "principles of agreement" on "property claim," "fishery," "the legal status of Korean residents in Japan" and others, thus bartering away matters of national concern for the Korean people. On June 22 there was the formal signing of the treacherous south Korea- Japan "Agreements" with the Japanese imperialist reactionaries.* " Traitor Syngman Rhee sinned the south Korea-Japan "talks" in February 1952 during the Korean war under the underhand manipulation of the US imperialists. The talks dragged on for over ten years, but he failed to bring them to conclusion in lace of the people's resistance. However, they were resumed by Pak Jung Hi in October 1961, five months after his seizure of "power," and wound up with the signing of the humiliating south Korea- Japan "Agreements" in June 1 965. The "pending problems" discussed at the criminal south Korea-Japan "talks" were the questions of. "property claim," "fishery," "the legal status of Korean residents in Japan " and of the "basic relations." In ttie whole course of the south Korea Japan "talks" the Pak Jong Hi puppet clique, assuming weakkneed posture, accepted she aggressive demands of the Japanese militarists unconditionally. The "question of property claim against Japan," one of the most important questions of debate at the south Korea-Japan "talks", was settled on the terms that the Japanese militarists would give the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique the socalled 300 million dollars "aid" and 200 million dollars "credit." Fundamentally speaking, this question consists in the rig hi of the Korean people to demand reparations from Japan for human and material damages caused to them by the Japanese imperialists during their colonial rule for nearly half a century. Therefore, the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique that cannot represent the interests of the Korean people have no legal rights to deal with it As to the damages the Japanese imperialists caused to the Korean people, even what is calculable alone amounts to hundreds of milliards of won. Hence, 500 million dollars the Japanese militarists offer to the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique have nothing to do with the reparations for the human and material damages done to the Korean people by the Japanese imperialists. It was nothing but a kind of political funds they handed out to their counterpart. In regard to the "question of fishery," the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique bartered away the best fishing ground to the Japanese militarists for one hundred million dollars, though one million south Korean fishermen stake their fate on it . As to the "question on the legal status of Korean residents in Japan," the Japanese militarists plotted to hand over 600,000 Korean citizens in Japan to the US imperialists and the south Korean puppet clique, while forcing the humiliating puppet south Korean "nationality" upon them. As regards the "question on basic relations," the south Korean puppet clique threw open south Korea to the Japanese militarists' reinvasion on the pretext of "normalization of diplomatic relations." The Pak Jung Hi puppet clique put their signatures to all the documents on their unpatriotic dealings with the Japanese militarists in defiance of vehement opposition and denunciation of the Korean people. This revealed their true colours as traitors. 479

On August 14, the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique railroaded the "motion for the ratification of the south Korea-Japan Agreements" through the puppet National Assembly, thereby legalizing the Japanese militarists' reinvasion of south Korea and placing it under double domination and yoke of the US and Japanese imperialist aggressors. In 1965 the south Korean patriotic students and people waged a courageous struggle to frustrate the south Korea- Japan "Agreements" in the teeth of the harsh fascist suppression by the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique. Their struggle against the south Korea- Japan "Agreements" burst out with the informal signing of the "treaty" on the south Korea- Japan basic relations on February 20 and of the "principles of agreement on three pending questions — property claim, fishery and the legal status of Korean residents in Japan" en bloc on April 3 as the momentum. The struggle gathered headway with the demonstration of the students of Chonnam University and the "pan-student movement" launched across south Korea by the "Students' Joint Struggle Committee" formed by 40 students representatives from 1 3 universities and colleges in Seoul on April 1st as an occasion. Alarmed at the demonstration organized by the struggle committee, the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique mobilized heavily armed troops and police, harshly suppressed the peaceful demonstration of the students and arrested them recklessly. The number of the arrested accounted for one for every 50 participants. Enraged by the formal signing of the traitorous south Korea- Japan "Agreements" on June 22, the south Korean students formed the "Federation of Universities and Colleges against the Ratification of the South Korea- Japan Agreements" on July 1 3 to cope with the changed situation and launched an extensive struggle to nullify the south Korea- Japan "Agreements" and stop their ratification by the "National Assembly." At the same time, men of the press and people in all walks of fife formed their own struggle organizations and came out actively in the struggle against the south Korea-Japan "Agreements." The situation took a sudden turn as the south Korean students and people rose up again in a powerful struggle against the south KoreaJapan "Agreements" on August 20, the first day of a fresh term. Between August 20 and 26, tens of thousands of students from over twenty universities and colleges and many high schools in Seoul staged demonstrations simultaneously. There were bloody clashes with the puppet police. The stubborn struggle the south Korean students and people waged in 1965 against the south Korea-Japan "Agreements" gave a telling blow to the aggressive policy of the US and Japanese 480 imperialists and shook the fascist ruling machinery of the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique to the very foundation.

3. FOUNDING OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY FOR REUNIFICATION. INTENSIFICATION OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST ANTI-FASCIST STRUGGLE

Founding of the Revolutionary Party for Reunification Building a revolutionary party posed as an urgent requirement for the development of the revolutionary movement in south Korea. In order to carry on the anti-imperialist, anti -feudal struggle successfully and win victory, it was imperative for the south Korean people to have a powerful revolutionary party capable of correctly leading the complicated and arduous struggle. Only such a party alone could provide the popular masses with a clear-cut fighting programme, closely rally the revolutionary masses and launch a mass struggle in an organized way. The historical experience of the south Korean revolutionary movement showed that without the unified leadership of a revolutionary party the people could not win victory in their revolutionary struggle. After the August 1 5 liberation, the situation in south Korea was very advantageous to the revolutionary struggle. However, as the Communist Party— the Workers" Party of South Korea— fell from the first in the hands of the Pak Hon Yong spy -faction a list clique, it failed to lead the revolutionary struggle of the people to victory and maintain its existence. In the postwar period, too, there were several favourable phases of situation such as the April Popular Uprising in 1960, but none of them could be seized by the forelock to lead the revolutionary movement to victory due to the failure to build up a solid revolutionary party and the lack of unified leadership over the revolutionary struggle of the people. Having perceived the need to build a revolutionary party through the historical experience, the south Korean revolutionaries and people waged an active struggle to organize such a Party on their own and 481

found the Revolutionary Party for Reunification to crown their struggle with a signal success. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "As a united Marxist- Leninist Party, a party of the w6rking class, the Revolutionary Party for Reunification was born in the hard revolutionary fight of the south Korean revolutionaries and people against the US imperialists and their stooges. With its emergence, broad masses of the oppressed and exploited people in south Korea have acquired a genuine defender of their class and national interests. The south Korean people today have a reliable political general staff in their revolutionary battle for freedom and liberation." (Kim (I Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. V, p 480.) The struggle to build a revolutionary party in south Korea proceeded under very arduous conditions. The successive rulers of south Korea at the instigation of the US imperialists, put up "anti-communism" as the first "national policy" and cracked down on the communists and all the other progressive forces. Particularly the Pak Jung Hi military fascist clique harshly suppressed the communists and revolutionary organizations as never before and barbarously arrested, imprisoned and killed numerous patriots and innocent people. In recent years alone, the military fascist clique arrested, imprisoned and massacred hundreds of south Korean revolutionaries, rigging up the "case of the Society for Spread of Communism," the "People's Revolutionary Party case," the "Liberation Strategy Party case" and others. Another obstacle in the way of building a revolutionary party was the aftereffects of evil acts of the Pak Hon Yong clique. This spyfactionalist clique caused serious consequences by misleading Communist Party members — the Workers' Party members — in south Korea to "Left" adventurism, chauvinism, or Right capitulationism, which led the masses to entertain a wrong view of the communist ideology and communist movement. This greatly hindered the building of a new revolutionary party in south Korea after the war. The south Korean revolutionaries and peopfe, braving the obstacles and difficulties in the way of building a revolutionary party, waged a courageous struggle to found the Revolutionary Party for Reunification which would give unified leadership to the revolution in south Korea. In March 1964 the south Korean revolutionaries formed a preparatory committee for founding the Revolutionary Party for Reunification. Then they energetically pushed ahead with the building of the revolutionary party, forming its local bodies and conducting 482 underground revolutionary activities. Having. drawn a serious lesson from the former revolutionary movement in south Korea, they made persistent efforts to make thoroughgoing organizational and ideological preparations for founding the Party. The preparatory committee, first of all, consolidated and expanded the party organizations while forming their leading backbones with seasoned revolutionaries who were able to make a correct appraisal of the situation in any complicated circumstances and skilfully organize and lead the struggle in strict adherence to revolutionary principles. The party organizations sef it as the most important one of the 14 immediate fighting tasks to intensify the "struggle to train the leading cadres of the party" and made an energetic effort to rear the core elements. In doing so, the primary stress was laid on thoroughly equipping cadres and party members with the great Juche idea. The party organizations regularly held meetings of Party members, evading the enemy's close surveillance, to study and discuss problems of the party strategy and tactics on the basis of the great Juche idea and elevated their political and practical levels through struggles. They admitted into the party numerous revolutionary comrades steeled and tested in the flames of struggle and expanded the party organizations. As a result, the leading backbone of the party was built up solidly and the party organizations grew to be revolutionary and militant ones. The preparatory committee strove tirelessly to lay a mass foundation for the party. The party organizations conducted energetic activities among workers, peasants and intellectuals to expand the party ranks and strike their roots deep in the masses. At the same time, they formed numerous working people's organizations to rally them around the party organizationally and tightened their ties of kinship with the masses. They bent great efforts to mass political and propaganda work to expand and consolidate the party's mass foundation. In this, Chongmaek, the organ of the Revolutionary Party for Reunification, played a big part. It was issued in tens of thousands of copies till June 1967 afterthe publication of its first number in August 1964. Through this, it awakened the south Korean people politically and ideologically and bred among them a class consciousness of struggle. All these energetic organizational and political activities resulted in the establishment of a solid mass foundation for the party The preparatory committee made sure that party organizations expanded and consolidated the party and mass organizations in close combination with mass struggles. The party organizations organized the March 24- June 3 struggle in 1964 against south Korea-Japan "talks," the August struggle in 1965 against the south Korea-Japan "Agreements," the struggle against the "Presidential election" on 483

May 3, 1 967, and the election to the "National Assembly" on June 8, the July struggle in 1967 against the "visits to south Korea" of warmonger former US Vice-President Humphrey and boss of the Japanese militarists Sato, and the July struggle in 1969 against the "constitutional amendment for presidential election for the third term." They also actively organized denunciation meetings, demonstrations, strikes, fasting and sit-in strikes. In the course of these struggles the revolutionary organizations gained in scope and strength and revolutionary fighters were trained and steeled. On the basis of the organizational and ideological preparations for party building, the preparatory committee formed the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Party for Reunification and made public the Manifesto and Programme of the Party, in August -1 969, thereby formally announcing the founding of the Party before the whole world. In its Manifesto and Programme the Revolutionary Party for Reunification (RPR) made, clear its guiding idea, class nature, aim of struggle and posture and stand towards the revolution. Declaring that "Our Party represents and defends the interests of the working class and peasantry, the mainstays of our society, and the rest of the working people," and that "The Party is organized with the advanced elements of the workers, peasants and intellectuals," the Manifesto clarifies that the RPR is the vanguard and organized detachment of the workers, peasants and working intellectuals. In the Manifesto, the RPR stated: "The guiding idea of the Revolutionary Party for Reunification is Comrade Kim II Sung's great Juche idea which is the original embodiment of Marxism-Leninism in the present era and in the actual conditions of our country." In the Manifesto it also elucidated that "The south Korean revolution is rooted in the glorious traditions of the anti- Japanese armed struggle led by Comrade Kim II Sung, the outstanding leader of the present age." In the Programme, the RPR defined the building of socialist, communist society as its highest aim and the carrying out of people's democratic revolution to overthrow the corrupt colonial, semi-feudal social system and set up a people's democratic system and the accomplishment of national reunification as its immediate aim. It declared that driving out the US imperialist aggressive forces was prerequisite to carrying out the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution in south Korea. At the same time, it pointed out the need to crush the re invasion scheme of the Japanese militarist forces. In the Programme the RPR also defined the masses of workers, peasants, soldiers, youths and students, intellectuals, urban petty 484 bourgeoisie and conscientious national capitalists, who are subjected to all kinds of exploitation and oppression, as the motive forces of the revolution, and the US imperialists and their accomplices— landlords, compradorcapitalistsand reactionary bureaucrats— as the target of the revolution, and clearly stated that the task of the anti-impenalist national -liberation and the anti-feudal democratic task could be carried out only through an acute struggle between these two f o rc@s^ The RPR declared that it would win power by a revolutionary means, This was the elucidation of its principled stand on the solution of question of power, the key problem in the revolution. Further, it pointed out the need to rally the broad sections of the people under the leadership of the working class, put an end to US imperialist colonial rule and establish the independent people's regime. Defining in the Programme the task of overthrowing the fascist dictatorial system and realizing democracy in socio-political life, the RPR declared that it would launch a struggle against fascistization and for democratization. At the same time, it presented it as its tasks to carry out an agrarian reform, put an end to poverty in the farming and fishing villages, nationalize the major industries owned by US, Japanese and other foreign monopolists and comprador capitalists, build an independent national economy, democratize the campus, and promote public health service and national culture. The RPR founded as a result of the bloody struggle of the south Korean revolutionaries is the general staff and guiding force that gives unified leadership to the south Korean revolution. With the founding of the RPR, the south Korean peoples revolutionary struggle made rapid headway as a purposeful one. The founding of the RPR constituted an epochal event in the development of the revolutionary movement in south Korea and a new turn in the south Korean people's struggle for the completion of their national-liberation democratic revolution. Intensification of the Anti-Imperialist, Anti- Fascist Struggle The south Korean revolutionaries and people waged a vigorous struggle against the US imperialists and the military fascist tyranny of the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique and for political freedoms and democratic rights while constantly reinforcing the revolutionary forces. 485

The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "An important task facing the south Korean revolutionaries and patriotic people at the present stage is the positive development of the mass struggle forthe democratization of society and against the colonial rule of US imperialism and fascist suppression by its henchmen." (Ibid., p. 483.) The strugg[e against fascistization and for democratization in south Korea is a struggle to do away with the military fascist dictatorship and ensure the democratic development of south Korean society; it is a struggle to prevent the perpetual split of the nation and hasten national reunification. It is the most important fighting task for the advance of the revolutionary movement in south Korea to wage a dynamic struggle against fascistization and for democratization as the military fascist tyranny reigns over south Korea causing untold misery and sufferings to the south Korean people and greatly hindering the democratic progress of south Korean society and the development of the revolutionary movement. The south Korean people's struggle against fascistization and for democratization went on without letup from the day of the establishment of the military fascist dictatorial regime. It was developed on to a higher phase with the struggle against the south Korea-Japan "talks" in 1964-65 and March 24-June 3 struggle against the south KoreaJapan "Agreements" as a momentum The biggest struggle the south Korean people fought against fascistization and for democratization following the March 24-June 3 struggle was the mass struggle against the "fraudulent June 8 electi on in 1 967 which the traitorous Pak Jung Hi clique under the manipulation of the US imperialists held in an attempt to prolong their military fascist regime. The struggle which caused the eruption of the anti-US, anti"government" sentiments of the south Korean people started from the indignation meetings and demonstrations of the students of the Law College of Seoul University and the Law and Political College of Kyongbuk University held on June 1 2 in the wake of the indignation meeting of the students of Yonse University held on the 9th in denunciation of the election malpractices. It spread all over south Korea like prairie fire and eventually grew into a joint mass struggle. The masses of the people waged a fierce struggle from the first in the forms of demonstration, stay-in and fast strike, and indignation meeting. They repeatedly clashed with the armed puppet police that cracked dOwn on them from the ground and air with the help of tear bombs, clubs and helicopters in the so-called "three-dimensional suppression operations." They demanded the "annulment of the 486 fraudulent June 8 election" and the "reelection," but their struggle, m essence, was the struggle against fascistization and for democratization to oppose and reject the south Korea-Japan 'Agreements, "dispatch of troops to Viet Nam," "special plutocrats' contraband and other traitorous dealings and fascist suppression of the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique and to win democratic rights. This struggle occasioned by the "fraudulent June 8 election went on from June 3 to 1 7 and then from June 29 to July 5, involving students from 1 45 universities, colleges and middle and high schools in more than 30 districts and citizens in different parts of south Korea, over 240,000 in all. . ,. , The mass struggle of the students and patriotic citizens delivered a telling blow at the US imperialist aggressors, who made an attempt to consolidate their colonial rule through the traitorous Pak Jung Hi clique's continued stay in office, and stirred up the anti-US, anti"government" sentiments of the south Korean people. In this struggle the patriotic students frustrated the Pak Jung Hi puppet cliques manoeuvres to make the student movement controlled by the govern ment under the names of a "movement for purification of the campus and a "new wave movement" and enlisted the broad segments of students in the fighting ranks to give them political training. The mass struggle waged in 1 969 to foil thetraitorous Pak Jung Hi clique's vicious scheme for their prolonged "stay in office" was the biggest one since the struggle against the "unfair June 8 election in 1967. t. The Pak Jung Hi puppet clique openly sought to revise the existing constitution of the puppet regime to legalize the presidential election for three successive terms in an attempt to "remain in office. This was one of their manoeuvres to prolong their "seizure of power. The south Korean youth and students and people rose up in a mass struggle to foil the traitorous Pak Jung Hi clique's sinister plot to prolong their "stay in office" through the "constitutional amendment for election of president for the third term." This struggle was a link in the chain of struggle to shatter US imperialist colonial rule and, at the same time, a struggle to do away with the Pak Jung Hi military fascist dictatorship. . The struggle was rapidly developed into a mass resistance struggle with the "indignation meeting to oppose the constitutional amendment for the third-term office" held on June 12 by the students of the Law College of Seoul University as an occasion. That day over 500 students of the college held an indignation meeting and bitterly denounced the criminal acts of the US imperialists and their stooges to prolong their colonial, military fascist tyranny in spite of 487

the unanimous opposition of the south Korean people. They adopted a declaration, which reads: "The spectre of dictatorship has turned upas a new menace. No anti-national acts overriding the fatherland can be tolerated.'' And a message was addressed to the entire south Korean students. The message called on them boldly to come out in a mass struggle to foil the traitorous Pak Jung Hi clique's scheme to continue to "stay in office." Responding to this appeal, students of Seoul University, Koryo University, Yonse University, and many other universities and middle and high schools and urban paupers came out in the struggle. The struggle spread in a flash/ to Seoul, Pusan, Taegu, Masan, Kumchon, Andong, Inchon, Kangrung, Kwangju, Mokpo, Chonju, Riri, Taejon, Kongju and other districts of south Korea. In a month till July 1 2, students from 39 universities and colleges, and 1 6 middle and high schools and citizens numbering more than 80,000 took part in the struggle. As the struggle of the south Korean students grew in scope and strength with each passing day, the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi clique forcibly closed the schools for a vacation and arrested and suppressed the patriotic student leaders without letup. Meanwhile, on July 25-traitor Pak Jung Hi made a "special talk" to urge the realization of the proposal on the constitutional amendment, openly revealing his "desire" for prolonged "stay in office." Enraged by the feverish manoeuvres of the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi clique, the south Korean students at last launched a mass resistance struggle again on August 9 immediately after the school opened. They put up the slogans, "We resolutely oppose the constitutional amendment for election for the third term!" "We oppose dictatorship!" "Down with the Pak regime!" They opposed the Pak Jung Hi puppet "regime" pointblank. The slogans put up by the students of Kyongbuk University and others were: "Punish corrupt financial clique!" "We boycott foreign goods!" Thus, the struggle of the south Korean students against the "constitutional amendment" was directly related to the struggle to overthrow the existing puppet "regime," the colonial ruling machinery of the US imperialists, At the same time, the students fought for the freedoms of the campus, speech, assembly, association, demonstration and other democratic rights. The courageous struggle against the "constitutional amendment" waged on a full scale from mid-June went on for nearly four months, involving over 1 57,000 students from 55 universities and colleges and 37 high schools across south Korea and numerous inhabitants. In their fierce struggle fought under the active support and encouragement of the broad sections of the public, the south Korean students inflicted on the puppet police over 800 casualties including 488 the heads of the Tongdaemun Police Station in Seoul and the Tongrae Police Station in Pusan and destroyed numerous suppressive fittings. The mass resistance of the south Korean students and people delivered a telling blow at the colonial, military fascist rule of the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi clique and clearly proved that their anti-fascist struggle was growing daily in spite of the enemy's fascist tyranny. The vigorous struggle of the students against the fraudulent "election" held by the Pak Jung Hi clique in 1971 was the biggest mass struggle the south Korean people fought against fascistization and for democratization following the struggle against the "constitutiona! amendment." T-his struggle for democratization against fascistization was sparked off on April 2 by the demonstration of the Yonse University students against "military drill." It rapidly spread to Seoul, Taegu, Kwangju, Taejon, Chunchon, Cheju and the rest of south Korea. In spite of the harsh suppression by the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi clique it lasted for six months till October, involving over 1 45,000. The students formed the "National Federation of Youth and Students for Defence of Democracy," the "Committee of Struggle for Defence of Democracy," the "Committee against Military Drill," the "Committee for Defence of the Campus," the "Committee for the Release of Detained Students," the "Council of Youth for Defence of Democracy" and other organizations and, under their guidance, waged an organized struggle. In their struggle, along with the slogans opposing the "military drill," the students put up such slogans as: "We resolutely oppose campus inspection!" "Ensure the freedoms of speech, the press, assembly and association!" "Out with the political power jeopardizing democracy!" "Minister of Defence and Minister of Education, Resign!" "Dissolve the KCIA!" "We oppose unfair May 25 election!" "Hold a fair election!" "We resolutely oppose the south Korean visits of Sato and the officers' group of the Japanese SelfDefence Forces!" While struggling, the south Korean students extended the scale of their struggle, formed new struggle organizations and put up new slogans, strengthened unity and solidarity between universities and colleges and purposefully waged solidarity struggle with workers and peasants. The ever- intensifying struggle of the students struck extreme unrest and terror into the hearts of the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique who ran amuck to further fascistize south Korean society and plunge the people and students in an unbearable state of suffocation. It delivered a telling blow at their colonial fascist rule. 489

The text on this page is estimated to be only 28.28% accurate The south Korean people's struggle for democratization against fascistization became more vigorous with the adoption of the "constitutional amendment" by the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique to cut out the term limit to "presidency" and legalize "lifelong presidency" with a view to strengthening the fascist dictatorial system. In an attempt to check the ever-growing trend of the south Korean people towards national reunification since the north-south Red Cross talks (See Section 2, Chapter IV), the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique declared "a state of emergency" throughout south Korea on the pretence of the fictitious "Threat of southward aggression from the north." And on October 17, 1972, prior to the national referendum on the 'bill on constitutional amendment," they declared the "emergency martial law" to ban political activities of all political parties and dissolve the "National Assembly." After binding the people hand and foot, they carried out the so-called "national referendum" on November 21 and rigged up an "amended constitution," that is, the "Revitalized Constitution," and on December 15 effected the "election for the Autonomous National Congress for Unification" to legalize their perpetual stay in office. As the public opinions at home and abroad comment on it unanimously, the "amended constitution" was so established as to concentrate all the power on the present ruler, "legalize" his perpetual stay in office and strengthen the fascist dictatorial system. A "revitalized" fascist dictatorial system was thus rigged up in south Korea to realize this personal ambition for prolonged stay in office and "unification by prevailing over communism."* * The "revitalized system" can be summarized as follows: The "Revitalized Constitution "replaced the former system of "presidential "election by direct vote with one by indirect vote, prolonged the term of presidency from four years to six years and omitted the article providing for its limitation, thereby making the present ruler's prolonged stay in office an "almost established fact " The President" is invested with infinite power and can exercise not only executive but also judicial and legislative powers. The revised constitution empowers the President" to shape all "policies" and carry them out of his own accord The Revitalized Constitution" "legalizes" the harsh suppression of the democratic rights and freedoms of the people and the ban of the political activities of the opposition parties. It declares the "rights of people," for form's sake but places more rigid limitation on them than before in each article. The former constitution . for example, provided for the "limitation" to the "freedoms'' of change of domicile, choice of occupation, speech, the press and association in "wartime" alone, but the new "constitution" stipulates them as being "guaranteed only by law, thereby providing the "legal basis" for unlimited suppression at all times Moreover, it allows arrest of people without warrant and precludes the arrested without 'guilt" from making an appeal. The "revitalized system" established by the Pak Jung Hi puppet 490 clique in the terror-inspiring atmosphere of a "state of emergency" and the "emergency martial law" is a system for national split aimed at perpetuating the national split dependent on outside forces, a system of "anti-communism" to achieve "unification by prevailing over communism." At the same time, it is a system of war to advocate the "confrontation" between the north and south and provoke another aggressive war in Korea with the backing of US imperialism and a system of fascist suppression to stifle the revolutionary forces in south Korea and perpetrate suppression and massacre of the people. From the outset the "revitalized" fascist dictatorship which was out of time with the trend of the times met powerful resistance on the part of the south Korean people. Over 300 students of the Liberal Arts and Science College of Seoul University who gathered before the "Monument to the April 19 Student Uprising" on October 2, 1973, lighted the torch of resistance against the "revitalized" fascist dictatorship under the slogan,"Who is the 'October Revitalization' for? Is it for the enslavement of the people?" They rushed out in the streets like angry waves, after adopting the following four-point resolution: 1. Stop immediately the fascist intelligence government and establish a free democratic system guaranteeing the people's rights; 2. Put an end at once to the subordination of south Korea to Japan, establish economic independence and guarantee the existence of the people; 3. Immediately dissolve the "KCIA," the ringleader of fascist intelligence government, and clear up at once the truth of the Kim Dae Jung case* which has aroused popular indignation; 4. Demand serious reflection on the part of intellectuals, politicians and pressmen. * Kim Dae Jung ran for the "presidential election" in 1 971 and became the No. 1 political rival of Pak Jung Hi. He advocated the democratization of south Korean society and the independent peaceful reunification of the country. When Pak Jung Hi accepted the north-south Red Cross talks in 1971 and put his signature to the north-south joint statement in 1 972, he denounced Pak Jung Hi as having no sincere intension of promoting the independent peaceful reunification of the country and as using the north -south talks only for the maintenance of his "regime" and the suppression of the south Korean people. When Pak Jung Hi made public his "special statement" in June 1 973, the keynote of which was the "simultaneous entry of the north and south into the United Mat ions." he took it as a scheme to perpetuate "two Koreas" and made preparations for launching a movement to overthrow the Pak "regime" in Japan, too, for the democratization of south Korean society and the peaceful reunification of the country. Scared at this, Pak Jung Hi instructed the KCIA to abduct Kim Dae Jung in broad daylight at the "Grand Palace Hotel" in the heart of Tokyo, Japan, on August 8, 1973. Pak Jung Hi s original plan was to throw him overboard and announce that he was " missing." But the disclosure of the secret of Kim Dae Jung's abduction began to arouse public opinion in Japan, he was kept alive, brought to Seoul on August 13 and was put under 491

confinement, on the instruction of the US imperialists who feared that it might impair the relations between the Tanaka government and the Pak "regime" to the disadvantage of the enforcement of the "Nixon doctrine". As the case of Kim Dae Jung's abduction aroused public censure at home and abroad, Pak Jung Hi made a spectacle of himself by sending ' Prime Minister" Kim Jong Pil to Japan in November 1973 to make an "apology" in an attempt to hush up the case by all means. The torch of the struggle for democratization against fascistization lit by the students of the Liberal Arts and Science College of Seoul University flamed at 58 universities and 13 high schools for nearly three months. Over 100,000 students took part in the struggle. The students held anti-' government" indignation meeting and adopted a resolution calling for the democratization of society and the establishment of the right to live and then staged a powerful demonstration, shouting slogans in denunciation of the "revitalized" military fascist dictatorship. In their demonstration struggle, the students had to wage, from the first, a hot stone-throwing battle against the heavily armed puppet police. This struggle, which was the first mass resistance since the establishment of the so-called "October revitalized system," was a broad declaration of war to the Pak Jung Hi military fascist clique. It put up strong anti-"government" slogans such as: "Down with the Pak regime!" "Dissolve the KCIA, the ringleader of fascist intelligence government!" In their struggle for democratization against fascistization the south Korean students and people skilfully applied different forms of struggle including fast, stay-in, sit-down and school strikes, refusal to take lessons, mass demonstration, indignation meeting and issue of declarations denouncing the Pak Jung Hi gangsters' traitorous acts and exposing their bestial fascist repressive manoeuvres according to the movements of the enemy and the change of the situation. Commanding the revolutionary situation with such flexibility, they threw the fascist clique into unrest and terror. In 1 974 the anti-fascist democratization struggle which started in the previous year grew into a "pan-national movement" for the amendment of the "Revitalized Constitution." And the movement involved over 300,000 people from all walks of life in lessthan ten days since it was launched. In April that year, the south Korean youth and students unfolded a large-scale demonstration struggle, putting up highly political slogans such as: "Stop intelligence government!" "Amend the Revitalized Constitution!" Down with the Pak regime!" The struggle spread to over 40 universities and colleges and more than 1 0 high schools in a 492 day, involving tens of thousands of students. This struggle fought under the leadership of the "National Federation of Democratic Youth and Students," a unified struggle organization of the south Korean students, was a mass struggle that opposed point-blank the "one-man dictatorial system and despotic intelligence government." The struggle of the south Korean students which had been temporarily becalmed by the enemy's bestial fascist suppression revived in September and spread all over south Korea following the rekindling of the torch of struggle by the students of Koryo University. By the end of November, over 100,000 students from over 60 universities and colleges, that are almost all major institutions of higher learning in south Korea, and f rom more than ten high schools took part in the, struggle. The righteous struggle of south Korean students enlisted the support and solidarity struggle of the broad sections of the people, political and social circles. On October 24 the reporters of Tonga llbo (one of the leading newspapers in Seoul) gave vent to their pent-up indignation. They made public their resolution demanding an "end to the suppression of the press" and went on strike all at once. Responding to this, reporters of Hanguk llbo. Chosen llbo, Tongyang Tongsin and other private news media, Seoul Sin/nun and other government-controlled newspapers and broadcasting stations and of local newspapers and broadcasting stations adopted the "Declaration on the Practice of Free Speech," the "Declaration on the Defence of the Freedom of the Press" and the like and joined the struggle under the slogans, "We report the struggle of students and men of religion as it is." "We oppose detectives' visits to the editorial office." In the former struggle fought against fascistization and for democratization, men of the press had confined it to several publishing houses and news media. But, having overcome such shortcoming, almost all newspaper, radio, and news agency reporters in Seoul and localities now joined the joint mass struggle. All the conscientious men of culture and intellectuals in south Korea came out in the struggle for democratization against fascistization without yielding to the suppression and conciliatory and deceptive manoeuvres of the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique. Stating that "men of culture who should be the witnesses of the reality and the spokesmen of national conscience can no longer remain silent," they issued a declaration in denunciation of the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique's "foreign -dependent modernization policy," '"the rich get richer the poor poorer' policy" and "policy of 493

infringing upon people's rights/' and launched a vigorous struggle for democratization against fascistization. The south Korean religious men, too, came out against the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique and waged a powerful struggle for democratization against fascistization. This led to the further expansion of the joint mass struggle of the south Korean people. Laying bare the fascist criminal acts of the Pak Jung Hi clique, the religious men vigorously called upon the peopte to rise up in the struggle against them. Their struggle, too, was developed into a mass struggle involving 10,000-20,000 people. As the south Korean people's struggle for democratization against fascistization was fought forcefully enlisting broad classes and social strata, political circles out of power began to ride on the wave of the struggle. The New Democratic Party and the Democratic United Party fought against the one-man military fascist dictatorship and for repeal of the "Revitalized Constitution" by staging fast, sit-in strike, demonstration and the like. The struggle of the south Korean people to smash the fascist "revitalized" system and win freedom and democracy became fiercer with the "national referendum" as an occasion, which the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique heid in 1 975 in an attempt to perpetuate the "revitalized system." From the very moment of the announcement of the "national referendum," the south Korean people, who had been fighting to put an end to the notorious "revitalized" dictatorship and win political freedoms and democratic rights, waged a mass protest struggle in the forms of indignation meeting, prayer meeting for national salvation, ripping-off of advertisements, adoption of written declaration and statement in denunciation of the Pak Jung Hi clique's military fascist dictatorship and in demand of the democratization of society, demonstration for the "movement of declaration of conscience", sit-in strike and the like, putting up the slogans, "Frustrate Pak Jung Hi's plot for lifelong stay in office!" "We categorically reject the 'national referendum'!" "Pak Jung Hi, repeal the 'Revitalized Constitution' and step down!" On February 1 2, the election day, the south Korean people waged a more active struggle. They decidedly refused to go to the "polls," boldly smashed ballot boxes and burned down polling stations even in the dreadful situation in which the Pak Jung Hi clique declared the "top emergency martial law" and mobilized all the puppet troops, police, public procurators and other repressive forces. Those who did not go to the polls or cast a dissenting vote amounted to 6,988,000, and particularly in Seoul the number exceeded 65 per cent of the "electorate." Thus, the "national referendum" farce staged by the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique practically proved to be a failure. 494 Through the struggle against the deceptive "national referendum" the south Korean people laid bare before the world the fact that the "Revitalized Constitution" and "revitalized system" of the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique were entirely illegal and criminal ones. The vigorous struggle of the south Korean people for democratization against fascistization occasioned by the struggle against the south Korea-Japan "talks" aggravated the crisis of the Pak Jung Hi puppetclique's military fascist rule and delivered a hard blowatthe US imperialists' colonial subjugation policy toward south Korea and the Japanese militarists' reinvasion scheme. The similar struggle against the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique was widely waged among the Korean compatriots resident in foreign countries including Japan, the United States, Canada and West Germany. The six hundred thousand Korean nationals in Japan waged a powerful mass struggle in denunciation of the Pak Jung Hi poppet clique's national splitting manoeuvres and fascist atrocities and in support of the south Korean people's anti-fascist democratization struggle, thereby greatly inspiring the fighting south Korean compatriots. The compatriots in Japan under the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan waged vigorous struggles of different forms such as mass meeting, demonstration and streets propaganda to oppose the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique and lay bare and denounce the reinvasion scheme of the Japanese reactionary forces. Their struggle is gaining in strength and scope as the days go by. The tendency to struggle against the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique is increasing even among the Korean compatriots underthe pro-Seoul "Korean Residents Union in Japan." They expressed their resolution to wage a powerful struggle to overthrow the Pak Jung Hi clique as early as possible and accomplish the democratization of south Korean society and national reunification, at a meeting commemorating the second anniversary of the announcement of the north-south joint statement, which was held on July 4, 1 974, under the joint auspices of the eight organizations— the Japan headquarters of the "National Conference for Promotion of National Unification" underthe "KRUJ," the "National Council for Restoration of Democracy in South Korea and Promotion of Unification," the "Committee for the Defence of Independence," the Tokyo and Kanagawa headquarters of the "KRUJ," the Tokyo headquarters of the youth league and the women's association underthe "KRUJ" and the "Committee for the Rescue of Kim Dae Jung." ' On March 2, the Korean residents in New York, the United States, held a meeting in protest against fascist dictatorship by the south 495

Korean puppet clique and adopted a declaration in demand of the "fulfilment of the north-south joint statement," the "abolition of dictatorial measures and the establishment of a government under the democratic constitution, prevention of Japan's aggression in political, economic and diplomatic fields." On July 20 they held a demonstration in front of the UM building carrying placards bearing the slogans, "Punish the cutthroat Pak.Jung Hi!" "Release all the patriots!" "The United States and Japan, discontinue aid to Pak Jung Hi!" They denounced the Pak Jung Hi military fascist for harsh suppression of people and atrocity of murder and punishment. In 1974 the "National Front for Defence of Democracy in South Korea", an organization of Korean residents in north Europe, issued a statement on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the March 1 Uprising, expressingtheirresolveto denounce the Pak Jung Hi military dictatorship and fight for the cause of national reunification. The south Korean students, scholars and artists in West Germany formed the "Society to Defend Democracy in South Korea" and came out in a struggle against the south Korean puppet clique's fascist dictatorship and on March 1,1 974, held a protest meeting against the Pak Jung Hi gangsters' fascist repressive schemes under the auspices of the "Council for Building Democratic Society in South Korea" and adopted a letter of protest addressed to the south Korean authorities. Overseas Korean compatriots, who cast in their lot with their fatherland and nation, formed such anti-Pak Jung Hi organizations in spite of hardships and difficulties in the alien lands and launched antiPak Jung Hi struggles, applying different forms and means such as meeting, demonstration, protest, request, signature campaign, and press publicity. All these struggles of the overseas compatriots greatly inspired the south Korean people in their struggle against fascistization and for democratization and delivered a heavy blow at the south Korean puppet clique and their helpers — the US and Japanese aggressors. Internationally, mass struggles were widely waged to stop the bestial, murderous atrocities of the Pak Jung Hi fascist clique and release the arrested and imprisoned south Korean patriots. On August 2, 1974, the Prune Minister of Sweden issued a statement in protest against the atrocities of the Pak Jung Hi clique and the Prime Minister of Finland sent a telegram of protest to them. The Foreign Ministry of Denmark also gave out a statement demanding the repeal of sentence of death passed on the south Korean patriots. Similar statement, appeal or protest were made by almost all the international organizations including the World Federation of Trade Unions, Tri- Continental People's Solidarity 496 Organization, Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization, International Students' Union and Arab Lawyers' Union as well as political parties and public organizations in many countries. Many public organizations and personages in Austria anJ West Germany sent telegrams and letters expressing their solidarity with the south Korean people. Thirty-three political parties and public organizations in Japan including the Japan Socialist Party, the Komei Party and the General Council of Japanese Labor Unions lodged a protest against the Pak Jung Hi clique's suppression of patriots, and mass meetings were held in Japan and different other countries of the world to demand the release of the arrested and imprisoned south Korean patriots. The military fascist dictatorship of south Korea drew forth a strong protest and denunciation from the broad public circles and people of the world and caused the further isolation of the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique in the international arena. The Pak Jung Hi puppet clique, however, rushed headlong toward strengthening their military fascist dictatorship in defiance of the strong protest at home and abroad, thereby plunging south Korea into a hopeless mire and a state of darkness. The US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique are frantic in their fascist suppression of the south Korean people, while ceaselessly intensifying the criminal manoeuvres to provoke another war in Korea. The Pak Jung Hi puppet clique took "emergency measures" following the declaration of the "state of emergency" and the "emergency martial law," rigged up evil fascist laws in succession, drastically increased the repressive setup to cover the whole of south Korea with more ramified military, police, intelligence and secret service networks and are stepping up the suppression of the people. In 1 976 they viciously suppressed those who implicated themselves in the "Declaration for Democracy and National Salvation" in demand of Pak Jung Hi's resignation, recklessly arrested and punished patriotic students and intellectuals and rounded up, imprisoned and murdered innocent people at random. The crisis of the Pak Jung Hi puppet regime is becoming more acute with each passing day. The political chaos and unrest are steadily increasing within the south Korean ruling circles and contradictions and dissensions have grown more serious among them. The so-called "cabinet reshuffle" is repeated and those who seek refuge abroad are rapidly increasing and the cases of taking out property to foreign countries are occurring in succession. Many of those who formerly served the ruling circles as government officials joined in the anti-Pak Jung Hi struggle, exposing the military fascist gangsters' outrageous 497

repressive policy and brazen-faced traitorous acts, which threw the ruling circles into greater confusion. The catastrophic crisis of the south Korean economy has come to the extreme. The south Korean economy which underwent a process of constant bankruptcy and ruin has been driven into more ruinous situation due to the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique's manoeuvres for its militarization and their policy of dependence on outside forces. The south Korean economy is saddled with enormous foreign debt and the south Korean rulers are in debt to the extent of 3,000 million dollars to foreign countries. The people's living is at its lowest level due to the catastrophic crisis of the south Korean economy. The workers receive starvation wages for 1 2-1 8 hours of drudgery a day and even they are often not paid for several months. Most of the workers live in board shanties, tents and dugouts. Agricultural production has shrunk due to the antipopular agricultural policy of the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique. The peasants are harshly plundered: they have to pay farm rent amounting to more than half of their products, miscellaneous taxes and charges. Asa result, the farm households suffering from chronic famine account for 80 per cent of the total. The land of south Korea, as all the progressive people of the world denounce, has been literally converted into a prison without bars, a living hell. The south Korean people are carrying on a vigorous, righteous struggle to overthrow the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique andaccomplish the democratization of society and the reunification of the country, 498

Chapter IV Struggle For The Independent Peaceful Reunification Of Korea

1. POSITIVE OFFENSIVE FOR THE ACCELERATION OF NATIONAL REUNIFICATION

Positive Struggle for Turning the Ceasefire into Durable Peace Under the wise leadership of . the great leader Comrade Kim fl Sung the Korean people defeated US imperialism in the threeyear-long Fatherland Liberation War and concluded the Armistice Agreement, thereby obtaining the possibility of peaceful solution to the problem of national reunification. Though the ceasefire did not bring about complete peace, it served as the first step towards the peaceful solution of the Korean question. Now the Korean people faced an important task to consolidate the armistice they had won at the cost of tremendous sacrifices and fight stubbornly for durable peace in Korea and the peaceful reunification of the country. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "A truce in Korea must be the first step towards easing the international tension and starting peaceful solution of the Korean question and the peaceful reunification of Korea." (Kim II Sung, Works, Eng. ed., Vol. 7, p. 458.) In accordance with the line set forth by the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung the Workers' Party of Korea and the Government of the Republic made persevering efforts to make the ceasefire the start for the peaceful solution of the Korean question, for the peaceful reunification of Korea. 499

They did all they could to convocate a political conference for the peaceful solution of the Korean question as defined in Paragraph 60 of the Armistice Agreement, but failed to do it due to the detestable evasive machinations of the US imperialists. The US imperialists were dead set against the peaceful reunification of Korea, and it was fully revealed at the Geneva Conference held between April and June 1954. The conference discussed the problems concerning the peaceful adjustment of the Korean question and the restoration of peace in Indo- China, and the Korean question was discussed by delegates of 1 9 countries includingthe DPRK, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, France, Britain, and the United States. At the conference the delegate of the DPRK put forward a most just and reasonable proposal on the peaceful settlement of the Korean question. The proposal demanded that in order to attain quickly the national reunification of Korea and found a unified democratic independent state a general election to a National Assembly be held so as to form a unified government of Korea on the basis of the free expression of will of the entire Korean people. It also insisted that all the foreign armed forces be withdrawn from the territory of Korea within six months, and asked the states most interested in the maintenance of peace in the Far East to make efforts helpful to the early realization of Korea's peaceful reunification. This proposal received warm, absolute support not only from the entire Korean people but also from the delegations of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China present at the conference and from hundreds of millions of peace-loving people the world over. However, the delegates of the United States and its satellite countries opposed this just and reasonable proposal of the DPRK Government delegation without any reason. They shamelessly claimed again the holding of "UN "-supervised elections and the continuous stationing of the US troops in south Korea. The "UN" was a belligerent in the Korean war and the "UN Forces'' entered into the Armistice Agreement with our forces. It was therefore too obvious that the holding of "UN "-supervised elections in Korea was out of the question. Nevertheless, they asserted it and insisted on the stationing of the "UN Forces" (the US army) in south Korea. This was no more than an open revelation of their ambition to make Korea their colony in opposition to her peaceful reunification. The discussion of the Korean question at the Geneva Conference broke down due to the shameful trick and vicious machination of the US imperialists and their lackeys the Syngman Rhee clique. Even after the breakdown of the Geneva Conference the 500 Government of the Republic strove tirelessly to transform the ceasefire into durable peace and solve the Korean question by peaceful means. The Eighth Session of the Supreme People's Assembly convened in October 1 954 discussed the results of the Geneva Conference and adopted an appeal addressed to the "National Assembly", political parties, public organizations, personages of all strata and all other fellow countrymen of south Korea in order to accelerate the peaceful reunification of Korea. The appeal proposed to call a joint conference of representatives of political parties and public organizations of north and south Korea ora joint meeting of the two national assemblies of the north and the south in Pyongyang or Seoul and, for discussing the problem of the convocation of such a conference and other problems, to hold a meeting of north and south Korean delegates at Panmunjom or in Kaesong in February 1955. As soon as the appeal was issued, mass rallies supporting it were held every day in Pyongyang and local districts, and meetings of people from ail walks of life in factories, farm villages, schools, organs and residential quarters. The SPA's appeal received support from the broad public opinion of the world The Conference of Asian countries which was held in New Delhi in April 1 955, in its resolution, supported the stand of the Korean people to shape their destiny on their own and demanded that all the foreign troops be withdrawn from Korea and an international political conference of the countries concerned about the peaceful settlement of the Korean question be convocated as early as possible, However, the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique adamantly refused the peaceful solution of the Korean question and did every available trick to obstruct the peaceful reunification of Korea. On November 11, 1954 the Syngman Rhee clique issued a statement blackmailing that any person supporting the SPA's appeal "shall be punished by severe laws irrespective of his position..., so all newspapers, the press, political parties and public organizations must be careful lest they should break the law." And they threatened the "Assemblymen" to rig up a "resolution of the National Assembly" opposing the appeal of the SPA. Besides, they made the puppet government issue more than once its "statement" opposed to the appeal. In the summer of 1 954 the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique had south Korea -US "talks"* at which they hatched a plot to oppose the peaceful reunification of Korea and perpetuate the occupation of south Korea by US imperialism, and perpetrated systematic manoeuvres to dissolve the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission to break off the Armistice Agreement. 501

The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.88% accurate * The items agreed upon at the south Korea-US "talks" in the summer of 1954 were confirmed in the so-called south Korea-US "agreement on military and economic aid" (signed provisionally) on November 17. 1954 and, at the same time, in the "south Korea-US minutes." The main contents of the "south Korea-US minutes" are as follows: 1 ) Syngman Rhee "helps" the United States in "the efforts forthe unification of the country including a possible effort through the UN", and the right of operational command over his puppet army is placed in the hands of the US army command (the UN Command). ("Effort through the UN" was in facta veil for opposing the reunification of Korea.) 2) The "standard and principle" for the puppet armed forces provided for in the Appendix (B) are observed as much as the south Korean economy permits. 3) Free introduction of US capital is ensured. 4) The procedure forthe management of US "aid" funds is followed so that the United States may control the south Korean economy in return for its "aid." 5) The exchange rate of currencies and the condition and place for purchasing goods are as fixed by the US as a "measure" necessary for the "effective" execution of the economic plan, "information" regarding the use of foreign currency supplied, and "realistic efforts" for a balanced budget and inflation control made by way of raising taxes and prices for the increase of revenue. The items to be executed by the US are roughty as follows; 1 ) The US offers 700 million dollars as a "military and economic aid" in the 1 955 fiscal year. 2) It helps reinforce the puppet army with ten reserve divisions included. 3) It continues to offer its economic "aid" to Syngman Rhee. Despite every obstructive machination of the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique the Korean people waged a vigorous struggle to realize the proposal for the peaceful reunification of the country advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. New Proposal for Hastening National Reunification In his report delivered at the Pyongyang City rally celebrating the tenth anniversary of August 1 5 liberation on August 14, 1 955 the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung held again that the north and south Korean people should sit together at one place forthe discussion of the Korean question, establish a unified democratic central government according to their free will and define the character of the government through the representatives elected by the people, and proposed the conditions for promoting negotiations and strengthening the ties between north and south Korea, And he clarified the principled requirements for the solution of the problems concerning the establishment of lasting peace in Korea, the convocation of a Far Eastern conference for the peaceful settlement of the Korean question, the withdrawal of the foreign troops, the north-south statement on 502 refraininq from the use of arms against the other side, the reduction of armed forces of north and south Korea and the early convocation of a conference of representatives of north and south Korea. The proposal put forward by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung found a warm welcome of all the peace-loving people of the world as well as of the entire Korean people. Different political parties and public organizations supported it and took measures for its materialization. The 40th session of the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland discussed measures to put into effect the great leader Comrade Kim 11 Sung s proposal forthe peaceful reunification of the fatherland and decided to mobilize all members of the political parties and public organizations under its influence and the people of all walks of life in the struggle for its realization The Korean National Peace Committee and the Central Committees of the Korean Democratic Party, Chondoist Chongu Party, Korean Christians Federation, and Korean Buddhists Federation held meetings respectively and discussed and adopted measures to carry outthe proposal forthe peaceful reunification of the country advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. Thus unfolded was a vigorous struggle for transforming the armistice into a durable peace and achieving the country s peaceful reunification. Because of the obstructive moves of the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique the proposals of the WPK and the Government of the DPRK for converting the ceasefire into a durable peace and solving the Korean question peacefully failed to be carried out and the peaceful reunification of Korea was retarded. The domestic and international situations, however, changed in favour of the Korean people fighting for the peaceful reunification of the country and the possibility for the peaceful solution of the Korean question ever increased. In such a condition the Party and Government put forward a new proposal for the peaceful reunification of the country and took measures to fight for its materialization. At the Third Congress of the WPK in April 1 956 the great leade Comrade Kim II Sung set forth a concrete proposal for the peaceful reunification of the country. He said: "Our Party's line with regard to the peaceful reunification of the country along democratic lines-the I basic task of the Korean revolution at the present stage-is the only correct line in view of the situation prevailing at home and abroad. Our Party, therefore, has adhered consistently and 503

will adhere to the line of peacefully reunifying the country. "(Kim II Sung.Works, Eng. ed„ Vol. 10, p. 216.) The third Party congress issued a historic declaration, "For the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland" which was drawn up in accordance with the line and policy of national reunif ication laid down by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. The declaration once again emphasized that the ultimate solution of the Korean question should be brought about on the basis of the democratic will of the Korean people themselves, tne unified government of Korea established through a general election of the entire Korean people and any intervention of foreign countries not tolerated. For the peaceful reunification of Korea, it pointed out, measures for transforming the armistice into a durable peace should be taken first of all, all the foreign troops withdrawn from Korea and an international conference held for the maintenance of peace in Korea and the peaceful solution of the Korean question. It also stressed that in order to enlist the broad masses of the struggle for the peaceful reunification of the country and bring their patriotic enthusiasm and activeness into full play it was necessary to carry out democratic principles in the whole socio-political life of south Korea and improve the people's living. Holding that for the acceleration of the country's peaceful reunification the artificial barrier between north and south Korea should be removed and mutual contacts and negotiations realized between the north and south Korean people, the declaration made overtures to organize a standing committee composed of representatives of north and south Korea for the concrete discussion of Korea's reunification question. And it proposed to achieve the union of the political parties and public organizations of north and south Korea and hold the broad negotiations of patriotic personages in the north and the south in orderto rally all the patriotic democratic forces and achieve the country's peaceful reunification. This declaration which concentrically manifested the invariable stand of the WPK and the Government of the DPRK for the peaceful reunification of the country raised ever higher the fighting spirit of the entire Korean people and received active support from the peaceloving people the world over. In May 1 956, in active support of the WPK's proposal for national reunification, the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland made an appeal to the whole nation to struggle for carrying out the proposal. Reflecting the ardent desire of the Korean people to see the peaceful solution of the Korean question and contribute to world peace, the Government of the Republic issued a statement on the 504 reduction of the armed forces of the Korean People's Army on May 31, 1956 and took a measure to reduce them by 80,000 by the end of August; it solemnly declared that it would never use arms against south Korea as it had not done before as long as the south Korean authorities did not resort to arms first. This measure showed the sincere efforts of the Government of the Republic for the peaceful settlement of the Korean question and gave a serious blow to the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique who were feverishly bent on war preparations and armament expansion clamouring about the danger of "southward invasion." However, the US imperialists and the Syngman Rhee clique turned down every proposal for the peaceful reunification of Korea and, at the same time, unhesitatingly and openly threatened peace and aggravated tension in Korea. Particularly in January 1958, they conducted a large-scale exercise for an "atomic offensive battle" in the areas south of the Military Demarcation Line and ran hog-wild in building atomic and guided missile bases. In such situation the Government of the Republic took positive measures to remove threats to peace in Korea and the Far East, alleviate tension and achieve the peaceful reunification of the country. In its statement issued on February 5, 1 958 the Government of the Republic, stressing that the problems as to the puNout of all foreign troops from Korea and the peaceful reunification of Korea were already mature and must be solved without delay, solemnly declared that the US army, the Chinese People's Volunteers and all the other foreign troops must pull out of Korea simultaneously and that Korea must be reunified peacefully through all-Korea free elections in a definite period after their complete withdrawal. Following that a talk between the government delegations of Korea and China took place in Pyongyang, at which the problem of completely withdrawing the Chinese People's Volunteers from Korea by stages until the end of 1 958 was confirmed, and on February 1 9 the joint communique of the Korean and Chinese governments was announced. According to the positive measures of the Korean and Chinese governments the Chinese People's Volunteers pulled out completely from March to October 1958. The new proposal of the Government of the DPRK for the peaceful solution of the Korean question and the withdrawal of the Chinese People's Volunteers got an absolute support from the world peaceloving people. The socialist countries issued government statements warmly welcoming the positive measures of the Korean and Chinese governments and unanimously demanding the United Statesand other countries to withdraw their troops from south Korea. The broad public 505

of Japan, India and other countries of Asia and Africa also voiced welcome to the positive measures of the Korean and Chinese governments. Even a spokesman of the British Foreign Ministry, referring to the measures of the Korean and Chinese governments for the withdrawal of the CPV, said, "The British government welcomes any measure which is helpful towards easing the tension in that region and thus solving the Korean question by peaceful means." The US imperialists were driven to a wall by the fair, strong demand of the Korean people and the world public for the withdrawal of the US aggression army from south Korea But they refused again the withdrawal of their troops talking about the so-called "UN resolution" as usually they did. As the just proposal for the peaceful solution of the Korean question came to a deadlock due to the obstructive manoeuvres of the US imperialists and their bootlickers, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung advanced another concrete proposal in August 1 960 for the withdrawal of the US troops from south Korea and the peaceful reunification of the country. Stressing again that the peaceful reunification of the country must be attained independently without foreign interference, by means of holding free north-south genera) elections on democratic principles, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung proposed that if the south Korean authorities were not yet ready to agree to free north -south general elections, at least an interim step be taken for settling, to begin with, the urgent matters of common concern for the nation. As such a step he proposed the enforcement of North-South Confederation by way of organizing a Supreme National Committee consisting of north and south Korean representatives, which would discuss and resolve the problems arising in the fields of politics, economy, culture and military affairs between the north and south, while leaving the present political systems in north and south Korea untouched for the time being and preserving the independent activities of the DPRK Government and the "south Korean government." The enforcement of North-South Confederation would have ensured north-south contacts and negotiations to promote mutual understanding and cooperation, eliminate mutual distrust, create favourable conditions for north-south general elections and let the north and the south do much towards the unified development of the country through mutual assistance. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung also suggested that if the south Korean authorities considered even the North -South Confederation yet unacceptable, at least a pure economic commission composed of representatives of business circles in north and south 506 Korea be set up to exchange goods and cooperate m economic construction between the north and the south. And he repeatedly emphasized that aside from the political affairs, the devastated south Korean economy should be rehabilitated and the south Korean compatriots be relieved of famine and poverty in reliance upon the powerful heavy and light industries built in the northern half of the Republic, The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung proposed once again to conduct north-south exchanges in all spheres of science, culture, art and sports, and start postal services and free visits between the north As an "important step for the improvement of the north-south relations he proposed to make the US army withdraw from south Korea and reduce the armed forces, of north and south Korea to 100,000 or He also proposed to the authorities, political parties, public organizations and individual personages of south Korea to discuss all these problems at an early date in Pyongyang, Seoul or Panmunjom in the presence of their delegates. Subsequently, the Government of the Republic made concrete proposals for national reunification on a number of occasions. The number of reasonable proposals for national reunification so far made by the Government of the Republic has reached over 150. . However, the US imperialists and their minions turned down aU these just and reasonable proposals. They even obstinately opposed the proposal for north-south travel and communication. Compatriotic Measures for the South Korean People The people of the northern half of the Republic longing for the peaceful reunification of the country regarded as their own the sufferings of the south Korean people fleeced and oppressed by the Ub imperialists and their stooges and did their bit to give material assistance to them considering it as their lofty compatriotic duty. The Government of the Republic, reflecting the compatriotic desire of the people in the north to help the miserable south Korean people took measures on many occasions to render material ass(stance to the south Korean compatriots in the postwar period as the economic foundations of the northern half were consolidated. 507

The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "In the northern half of the Republic, the foundations of an independent economy have been laid and powerful heavy and light industry bases have been built. Electricity, coal, steel, cement, chemical fertilizer and others abundant in the northern half are the precious assets for our people to build Korea into a rich and strong, independent and sovereign state. We ardently desire that all the valuable riches we have created will be used to rehabilitate south Korea's economy and free its people from penuary. "The Government of the Republic has, on a number of occasions, offered to supply south Korea with electricity, coat, cement, chemical fertilizer, etc., through economic exchange between the north and the south." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol II, p. 224.) The Government of the Republic proposed to offer economic assistance for the rehabilitation and development of the south Korean national economy and the stabilization of the south Korean people's livelihood. The Eighth Session of the Second Supreme People's Assembly held in November 1960 offered to pay off the debts of the south Korean peasants and fishermen, reclaim one million hectares of land for peasants in a few years and supply fishermen with more than 700 fishing boats including 3,500-ton class mother ship and 400 to 500-ton class iron boat. Besides, it suggested constructing a combined ferrousmetallurgical work with an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons of pig iron, 200,000 tons of steel and 150,000 tons of rolled steel and a number of large power plants and cement, machinetool, farm machine, mining-machine, chemical fertilizer, sheet glass and artificial fibre factories in south Korea with the equipment and technique of the north and building 1 00,000 apartment houses in a few years to offer them gratis to the urban paupers of south Korea. The Third Session of the Third Supreme People's Assembly held in March 1 964 offered to supply two million sok (300,000 tons) of rice, 100,000 tons of steel, one billion kwh of electricity, 10,000 tons of chemical fibre and large quantities of other goods to south Korea every year in order to diminish the burden of its economy. The Government of the Republic also made many offers to relieve the unemployed and neglected orphans of south Korea and help the moneyless students failing to go to school. In August 1 958 the Cabinet of the Republic adopted a decision to offer 150,000 sok of polished rice, 5 million metres of cloth, 4 million pairs of shoes and various sorts of other daily necessities to relieve the unemployed of south Korea, to place the neglected orphans of the south 508 under the care of the Government of the Republic, to grant a monthly scholarship of 1,000 won (old currency) to each of 3,000 poor university students of the south and to give free schooling to those who came over to the northern half of the Republic from the south for learning Prior to this, in January 1956 the Cabinet of the Republic decided to readily receive anytime those Korean students in the south and Japan who wished to study in the Republic, to give them education at schools of their choice at state expense, to grant each of them 20 000 won of living expense upon their coming over to the Republic and to issue 1,500 won for a university student and 1,000 won for a specialized or senior middle school student every month as the "Scholarship Marking the Tenth Anniversary of the Founding ot the League of Democratic Youth" in addition to the ordinary state scholarship and the free supply of clothes, shoes and school things. In January 1959 it also offered to receive all the unemployed of south Korea give them jobs according to their wishes and skills, and ensure them a stabilized life. In 1 960 it again proposed to take over 500,000 waifs of south Korea to rear and educate them. Whenever the south Korean people suffered severe natural calamities the Government of the Republic suggested measures to relieve them In 1 956 and 1 957 when south Korea faced an acute food crisis and then suffered a big flood damage, producing a large number ot victims the Government of the Republic decided to send 1 00,000 sok of polished rice, foodstuffs, household utensils, medicaments and many other materials. When storms and floods swept across south Korea in 1 959 and many fishermen were caught in a heavy storm and met with a disaster on the East Sea in 1932, it also offered to send a large amount of rice, cloth, shoes and so on. In 1961 and 1963 when south Korea yielded bad crops tne Government of the Republic time and again suggested supplying 100,000 sok of polished rice to the huhger-stricken south Korean ^^Each time it took a com patriotic step the Government of the Republic proposed to meet representatives of the relevant institutions and organizations of south Korea and discuss measures for its materialization. . . The south Korean people warmly welcomed the compatriotic steps of the Government of the Republic whenever they were taken, and anxiously waited forthe helping hands of the north Korean people to reach them at an early date. However, the sincere compatriotic steps of the Government of the Republic could not be put into effect due to the obstructive manoeuvres of the US imperialists and their lackeys. 509

2. JULY 4 JOINT STATEMENT. NORTH-SOUTH DIALOGUE

Three Principles of National Reunification and July 4 Joint Statement Entering the 1970's the internal and external situations changed more favourably for the cause of national reunification of the Korean people. The revolutionary forces of north and south Korea grew in scope and strength as never before. Under the wise leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim I! Sung the Korean people successfully carried out the task of socialist industrialization in the northern half and made full preparations for expediting the country's reunification. The feelings of unbounded respect and reverence for the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the sun of the nation and a legendary hero, mounted higher than ever before among the south Korean people, too, and the struggle of the people of various strata for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country rapidly gathered momentum. The international solidarity with the Korean people was further strengthened as well. Thanks to the independent foreign policy of the Government of the Republic based on the Juche idea, the international dignity and prestige of Korea rose apace and the ranks of supporters of and sympathizers with the Korean revolution swelled quickly. Particularly, the international support for and solidarity with the struggle of the Korean people for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country were strengthened The decisive strengthening of the revolutionary forces both in Korea and the world threw the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique into greater predicament and confusion. Bumping into the strong rebuff of the Asian people, the US imperialists suffered a string of defeats in that region and found themselves hard to hold out there any longer. In the United States itself the anti-war and antigovernment movements mounted higher, the economic situation got worsened and the contradictions among the rulers became 510 aggravated. Fear-stricken by the isolation of US imperialism at home and abroad and the ever-intensified struggle of the south Korean people, the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique strengthened fascist suppression against the people on the one hand, and, on the other, tried to curry favour with them under such deceptive slogans as "modernization" and "programme for peaceful unification." The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, basing himself on a scientific analysis of the sudden change of the domestic and international situation, set forth the policy of holding broad-based northsouth negotiations for national reunification. In August 1971 the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "We are ready to establish contact at any time with ail political parties, including the Democratic Republican Party, and all social organizations and individual personages in south Korea." (Answers to the Questions Raised by Foreign Journalists, Eng. ed , p. 30.) The policy of broad-based north-south negotiations advanced newly by the great leader in order to positively open the way for the country's reunification made it possible to raise the struggle of the Korean people for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country on to a new stage. Greatly inspired by this new north-south negotiation policy on establishing contact with all the political parties, including the Democratic Republican Party (Pak Jung Hi's party), social organizations and individual personages, the south Korean people raised highertheir voices for peaceful reunification. The broad sections of the south Korean people came to discuss widely about peaceful reunification, regarding it as a matter of reality. Even in the "government party" (the Democratic Republican Party), to say nothing of the opposition parties, there appeared a tendency to bringing pressure to bear upon the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique while expressing some response to the voices of the popular masses for peaceful reunification. At the "National Assembly" some "members" stated: "It is quite wrong not to accept the proposal to a meeting with representatives of the north Korean political parties." "We are ready to meet them even in Pyongyang," "Let us hold political talks in Panmunjom." Like this, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's policy of northsouth negotiations greatly increased the trend towards reunification in south Korea and spread widely over the world, producing a great repercussion. Pressed hard by the mounting voices of the south Korean people and the world public demanding the implementation of the policy of north-sOuth negotiations, the south Korean puppet clique, which had 511

been dear! set against any north-south contacts, were compelled to turn up at the place of dialogue. The north-south high-level talks were held in accordance with the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's policy of broad-based northsouth negotiations, and the north-south joint statement was announced whose main content was the three principles of national reunification advanced by the great leader. Asforthe three principlesof national reunification the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "We always maintain that our homeland should be reunified independently and peacefully without foreign interference. Furthermore, we hold that the unity of the entire nation should be achieved under conditions in which both sides trust and respect each other, despite the different social systems in the north and the south." {Ibid., p. 254.) The three principles of national reunification put forward by ttie great leader Comrade Kim II Sung are: firstly, to solve the question of reunification independently on the principle of national selfdetermination without outside intervention; secondly, to achieve reunification by peaceful means without recourse to the use of arms against the other side; and thirdly, to promote great national unity transcending the differences of ideology, ideal and social system. At the talks held in Pyongyang and Seoul after the preliminary contacts between the liaison delegates of the two sides of north and south Korea, an accord of views was reached on the three principles of the country's reunification laid down by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and an agreement was reached on a number of questions for promoting the independent, peaceful reunification of the country including the question of forming a North-South Coordination Commission. On this basis, the north-south joint statement was published simultaneously on July 4, 1972 in Pyongyang and Seoul. The north-south joint statement comprises seven points which are as follows: 1 . The two sides reached an agreement on the following principles of the reunification of the country: Firstly, reunification should be achieved independently, without reliance upon outside force or its intervention; Secondly, reunification should be achieved by peaceful means, without recourse to the use of arms against the other side; Thirdly, great national unity as one nation should be promoted first of all, transcending the differences of ideology, ideal and social system. 2. The two sides agreed upon refraining from slandering and calumniating the other side and from committing armed provocations. 512 big or small, and upon taking active measures for preventing unexpected military conflicts, in order to ease the tension between the north and the south and create an atmosphere of trust. 3. The two sides agreed upon realizing many-sided interchange between the north and the south to restore the severed national ties, promote mutual understanding and accelerate independent, peaceful reunification. 4. The two sides agreed upon rendering active assistance m bringing to an early success the north -south Red Cross talks now in progress amid the great expectation of the whole nation. 5. The two sides agreed upon installing permanent direct telephone links between Pyongyang and Seoul to prevent unforeseen military incidents and deal with directly, promptly and accurately the questions arising between the north and the south. 6. The two sides agreed upon forming a North-South Coordination Commission for the purpose of promoting the implementation of these points of agreement and, at the same time, settling various problems between the north and the south. 7. Firmly believing that the points of agreement mentioned above conform to the unanimous desire of the whole nation which aspires after national reunification so ardently, the two sides solemnly promise to the whole nation to honestly fulfil these points of agreements. The north-south dialogue and the north-south joint statement paved the way for achieving reunification, removing the barrier standing between the north and the south long enough for a new generation to have grown up. And they laid the precious foundation of struggle for realizing the supreme desire of the nation on the principle of national reunification fully conforming to the national aspiration and interests of the Korean people and in reliance upon the united strength of the nation. Besides, they opened the actual possibility of alleviating tension in Korea and, at the same time, of restoring the long-severed national ties, reviving an atmosphere of national amity and expediting the independent, peaceful reunification of the country in every way. The announcement of the north-south joint statement aroused a great repercussion both at home and abroad. It was enthusiastically supported by the entire people of north and south Korea.* * A south Korean radio said: "The cheers of emotion-charged joy today reminded us of the emotional August 1 5 liberation day when we were freed from Japanese imperialist rule," A south Korean newspaper wrote: "This, in a word, rs a very impressive thrilling event. A thing that has only been conceived in our imagination until now appears before us as a sober reality." 513

The overseas compatriots separated far away from the homeland, too, warmly welcomed the north -south joint statement based on the three principles of national reunification advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, and renewed their determination to bring earfier the reunification of the fatherland with their tireless concerted efforts. The unbiased peace- and justice-loving world public unanimously extended warm support and welcome to the statement and said that it could be issued only because the great leader had put forward the fair and reasonable policy of national reunification and wisely fed the struggle for its implementation. The north-south joint statement found abroad response from the heads of state of many countries and numerous political and public figures and men of the press of the world, and the just cause of the Korean people for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country enjoyed greater support and encouragement from the world people as the days went by. The North-South Coordination Commission After the announcement of the historic July 4 joint statement there were contacts and negotiations between the north and the south. Co-Charimen of the North-South Coordination Commission met in Pyongyang, Seoul and Panmunjom in order to carry out the agreed points of the joint statement and hasten the country's reunification. Their first meeting was held at Panmunjom on October 1 2, 1 972. At the meeting the situation created after the issue of the north-south joint statement was analyzed and both sides exchanged their candid and unreserved views on the problem of accelerating the independent, peaceful reunification of the country on the three principles of national reunification. They reached an agreement on forming and operating the North-South Coordination Commission. The second meeting of the Co-Chairmen of the North-South Coordination Commission was held in Pyongyang, the glorious capital of the DPRK, between November 2 and 4, 1972. The meeting adopted a written agreement on the composition and operation of the NorthSouth Coordination Commission. In the written agreement it was defined as the objective of the North-South Coordination Commission to solve the problem of the country's reunification in accordance with the agreed principles of 514 national reunification by promoting the execution of the agreed points of the July 4, 1972 north-south joint statement, improving and developing the relations between the north and the south and joining efforts in all fields. The North-South Coordination Commission was made to perform the following functions; to discuss and decide on the problem of achieving the country's independent, peaceful reunification on the agreed principles of national reunification and ensure its realization; to discuss and decide on the problem of realizing broad political interchange between the political parties, public organizations and individual personages in the north and the south and ensure its realization; to discuss and decide on the problem concerning economic, cultural and social interchange and mutual assistance between the north and the south and ensure its realization; to discuss and decide on the problem of easing tension, preventing military conflicts and removing military confrontation between the north and the south and ensure its realization; and to discuss and decide on the problem of taking a concerted action between the north and the south in external activity and increasing the national pride as a homogeneous nation and ensure its realization. It was set out to form the North-South Coordination Commission with one co-chairman, one vice-chairman, one executive secretary and two members from each side and, in case of need, to increase the number of its members. And it was decided to organize under the North-South Coordination Commission an executive secretariat which, on behalf of the co-chairmen of both sides, would discuss and decide on the problems raised during the recess of the commission and ensure its realization, and to form political, military, diplomatic, economic, and cultural subcommissions. The joint office of the NorthSouth Coordination Commission was to be located in Panmunjom. The North-South Coordination Commission was to meet in Pyongyang and Seoul alternately in principle and, in case of need, in Panmunjom. Under the agreement reached by the two sides at the second meeting of the Co-Chairmen of the North-South Coordination Commission their third meeting was held in Seoul between November 30 and December 1, 1972. At the meeting the two sides reached an agreement on formally organizing the North-South Coordination Commission and letting it start functioning. The North-South Coordination Commission thus organized had soon its first session in Seoul on two occasions. There the two sides exchanged their views on effecting interchange and working together with concerted efforts in all fields in accordance with the spirit of the north-south joint statement and the agreed points of the second 515

meeting of the Co -Chairmen of the North-South Coordination Commission. The side of the DPRK Government repeatedly advocated manysided collaboration between the north and the south in politics, economy, culture, military affairs and diplomacy. In the economic field it proposed, first of all, to take measures for the joint development and utilization of underground resources and to cooperate with each other in undertaking irrigation projects in south Korea. In the sphere of culture it proposed to work together in developing the national language in a unified way and studying the Korean history and join forces with each other in the domains of literature, art, science, education, public health and sports. It also asserted that if north-south political collaboration was realized, it would be possible to promote cooperation in the fields of the economy, culture, military affairs, and diplomacy and, especially, that if a confederation was introduced, it would open a decisive phase in improving the north-south relations and achieving the independent, peaceful reunification of the country. Besides, it proposed to stop arms drive, reduce armaments and ease tension between the north and the south. However, the south Korean side refused to accept all these just proposals on the pretext that they were "premature". The second session of the North-South Coordination Commission was held in Pyongyang on March 15, 1973 and the third session in Seoul between June 1 2 and 13. Both sessions discussed the problems of eliminating the existing military confrontation between the north and the south and organizing subcommissions within the North-South Coordination Commission. In order to remove the existing military confrontation the DPRK Government's side proposed to cease the reinforcement of armies and arms race, reduce the armies of the north and the south to 1 00,000 or less each and armaments by a large margin, stopthe introduction of weapons, operational equipment and warsuppliesfrom abroad, makeall foreign troops includingthe US army withdraw from Korea, and to afford a guarantee for the disuse of armed forces against each other. Along with this it brought forth the problem of forming five subcommissions, political, military, diplomatic, economic and cultural, within the North-South Coordination Commission in accordance with the points agreed upon already by the two sides in order to actively push ahead with the vast work of the commission which was to realize collaboration in the political, economic, military, cultural and diplomatic fields. It also made an overture to hold a political consultative meeting of the political parties, public organizations and people from all walks of life in the north and the south at an early date, while continuing to promote the work of the 516 Coordination Commission for expanding the scope of the north-south dialogue and negotiations. But, at the session no agreement was reached on these important problems due to the opposition of the south Korean side The south Korean side talked about "complete opening" in words but in actuality insisted on forming only two subcommissions, economic and cultural, within the Coordination Commission while turning down all other measures for removing the existing military confrontation, forming the political, military and diplomatic subcommissions, and holding a north-south political consultative meeting. The proposal made by the DPRK Government's side at the meetings meant a complete and all-out opening without any limit, but that by the south Korean side a limited partial one. The difference of views shown at the meetings was the principled one between the lines of unity and confrontation, between the lines of collaboration and competition and between the lines of reunification and coexistence which had been revealed already from the first day of the north-south dialogue; it was related to the diff erence of two positions, one to attain early reunification and the other to perpetuate division. The WPK and the Government of the DPRK presented many concrete and reasonable proposals for the materialization of the northsouth joint statement after its announcement and made every sincere effort to step up the work of the North -South Coordination Commission. However, due to the treacherous acts of the south Korean side the north-south dialogue came to a deadlock and a great obstacle cropped up in the way of national reunification. In order to reopen the full-dress meeting of the North-South Coordination Commission which fell into stagnation, improve the north-south relations and hasten the country's reunification out of its love for the country and the nation, the DPRK Government made sincere effortsforthe successful contact between vice-chairmen of the North-South Coordination Commission which was started from December 5, 1 973. It proposed time and again to expand and reorganize the Coordination Commission by way of widely enlisting in it the representatives of all political parties, public organizations and people of all strata inside and outside Korea besides the delegates of both authorities, or to convocate a north-south political consultative meeting to extend the scope of the north-south dialogue while letting the Coordination Commission continue its work. However, the south Korean side turned down this proposal on reflecting the will of the broad masses of people from all walks of life in 517

the work of the Coordination Commission whose basic mission it was to solve the question of the country's reunification. The vice-chairmen of the North-South Coordination Commission had contacts with each other on a number of occasions, but failed to reach any agreement due to the insincere attitude on the part of the south Korean side. When the US imperialists were driven out of Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos, the south Korean side more openly violated the agreed points of the north-south joint statement and things came to such a pass where it was difficult to have contacts between the vice-chairmen of the two sides. Thus, the contact between the two sides came to a close after their vice-chairmen met for the tenth time on March 14, 1975. As seen above, for all the efforts of the Government of the Republic to cope with the situation through vice-chairmen's contacts on ten occasions, the North-South Coordination Commission failed to carry out its mission of materializing the ideal and principles of the joint statement and came to a rupture at last due to the insincere attitude of the south Korean side. ' North-South Red Cross Talks Talks between the Red Cross organizations of north and south Korea came to take place as a result of the invariable efforts of the Government of the Republic for the realization of north-south contact and dialogue. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The aspirations of the entire people in north and south Korea for peaceful reunification are growing more than ever today. At Panmunjom representatives of the north and south Korean Red Cross organizations met for the first time in the 26 years after liberation to discuss the important question of alleviating the distress of our fellow countrymen living separated from each other in the north and the south. The entire people in north and south Korea are very glad that such contact between the north and the south has been materialized, though belatedly, and are unanimous in expressing the hope that the talks pave the sure way for pulling down the barriers between the north and the south and 518 materializing the peaceful reunification of the country." {New Year Address, Eng. ed., 1972, p. 17.) Messengers of the north and south Korean Red Cross organizations met first on August 20, 1 971 and then five times, which led to the opening of the preliminary talks between the two organizations on September 20. The preliminary talks of the north and south Korean Red Cross organizations which had opened at Panmunjom on September 20, 1 971 went on for nearly one year on 25 occasions. They discussed the problems of the place, opening date and agenda of the full-dress talks, but failed to reach an agreement easily due to the exorbitant claim of the south Korean side. Particularly since the south Korean side obstinately held that the date of the full-dress talks should be discussed at the closing session of the preliminary talks, the problem of agenda of the full-dress talks was discussed before reaching an agreement on the date. Thanks to the positive proposal and sincere effort of our side the 20th sitting of the preliminary talks held on June 1 6, 1 972 reaffirmed the agenda of the full-dress talks arranged at the working-level meetings of the two sides, and agreed on and fixed it as the agenda of the full -dress talks to be held between the north and south Red Cross organizations. The agenda of the north-south Red Cross full -dress talks adopted at the 20th sitting of the preliminary talks were as follows: 1 ) inquiring the addresses of the family members and relatives dispersed in the north and the south and ascertaining whether they are alive or dead and notifying the results: 2) Free visits and free meetings between the family members and relatives dispersed in the north and the south; 3) Free correspondence between the family members and relatives dispersed in the north and the south: 4) Reunion of the family members dispersed in the north and the south according to their free will; 5) other matters to be settled from a humanitarian standpoint. The first session of the full-dress talks between the north and south Korean Red Cross organizations was held in Pyongyang between August 30 and September 2, 1972. It was charged with a lofty mission to alleviate the fellow countrymen's suffering caused by national split through the united efforts of the north and the south and to lay a stepping-stone for national reunification, transcending differences of ideology, ideal and social system. The meeting adopted without modification the agenda agreed upon at the preliminary talks as the agenda of the full-dress talks and fixed up a mutual agreement reflecting the resolution of the both sides 519

to make every effort to bring the fuil-dress talks to a successful conclusion at the earliest date in conformity with the spirit of the northsouth joint statement in which the three principles of national reunification were clarified. The second talk held in Seoul from September 1 3 to 1 5, the same year, established a mutual agreement in thoroughly embodying democratic principles, the principle of freedom, the humanitarian spirit of Red Cross in the solution of ali the questions placed on the agenda of the north-south Red Cross talks and in starting the discussion of items on the agenda from the third talk in the atmosphere of mutual understanding and trust which had been deepened through the first and second full-dress talks. At the third talk held in Pyongyang from October 24 to 26, 1 972, the DPRK side advanced five principles that should be observed in discussing the five items on the agenda and made a 4-point proposal concerning the first item. The five principles laid down by the DPRK side were: Firstly, the Juche stand should be thoroughly maintained in the talks; secondly, the principles of democracy and f reedom should be strictly observed in all the questions proposed; thirdly, the principle of deepening mutual understanding and trust between the north and the south and promoting the national amity and great unity should be maintained through the talks; fourthly, the humanitarian principle of the Red Cross should be thoroughly put into practice in the discussion of all problems; and fifthly, the principle of promoting the work of alleviating the suffering of the displaced fellow countrymen as a nationwide, allpeople work should be strictly observed in order to let it bear a definite result. These were most reasonable principles stemming from the national and humanitarian mission by alleviating most speedily and extensively the sufferings of the fellow countrymen and accelerating the cause of national reunification, the long-cherished desire of the nation, through the talks. In the next place, the DPRK side made proposals on the first item — "locating the whereabouts of the family members and relatives displaced in the north and the south and ascertaining their safety and notifying the result." It proposed to determine the scope of the displaced families and relatives strictly according to the appeals made by the persons concerned; to let the persons concerned themselves freely travel the areas of the other side to locate the whereabouts of their families and relatives, ascertain their safety and notify the result, which should be adopted asthe basic method on the premise that other methods can be applicable. It also suggested to dispatch Red Cross fact-finding and explanatory personnel to the other side as a measure 520 to remove the existing legal and social conditions of south Korea detrimental to mitigating the sufferings of the fellow countrymen and, at the same time, investigate the actual conditions of the families and relatives, dispel the misunderstanding and distrust and ensure smooth performance of the humanitarian work. But the south Korean side tried to narrow the scope, insisting that the scope of families and relatives should be determined by the confirmation of the third person, not according to the appeals of the persons concerned, and confining the humanitarian work to the location of the whereabouts of families and the "inquiry after their safety." As for the method of locating the whereabouts of the displaced family members and relatives and ascertaining their safety, it insisted only on the so-called "method of exchanging documents" which does not suit to the actual conditions of Korea. It refused to accept the proposal of the DPRK side to remove the existing legal and social conditions of south Korea standing in the way of relieving the sufferings of the compatriots and to dispatch the Red Cross factfinding and explanatory personnel. Due to the unreasonable insistence of the south Korean side, the discussion on the first item from the third to seventh north-south Korean Red Cross talks made no progress, and the talks came to a deadlock from mid-July, 1 973, especially owing to the fascist suppression by the south Korean puppet clique and their policy of "anticommunism" and confrontation against the DPRK side. In contrast to the sincere efforts made by the DPRK side, the south Korean side had no intention to solve the question from the outset and was bent on making the talks of humanitarian nature serve the impure political aims of the authorities. The south Korean side not only paralyzed the discussion of the fundamental question in the talks but also used a political ruse against the DPRK side, acting as a spokesman of the south Korean authorities who advocated "anti-communism," casting aside even the mask of Red Cross humanitarianism. Atl fhsse facts showed that though the south Korean side had entered into the talks under the name of the "solution of humanitarian questions," it actually made use of them in tiding over the everworsening crisis of the fascist rule in south Korea and maintaining the power by all means by spinning out the time, distracting the attention of the people and deceiving the public opinions at home and abroad. 521

3. STRUGGLE TO COUNTERACT "TWO KOREAS" MACHINATION

"Two Koreas" Plot of the Divisionists Within and Without The Government of the DPRK made every possible effort to materialize the July 4 north-south joint statement based on the three principles of national reunification. But the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique under the active support of the US imperialists and Japanese militarists brought the north-south dialogue to a deadlock, and proclaimed the creation of "two Koreas" their policy and viciously machinated the permanent division of the country. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "The nation-splitting manoeuvres of the south Korean authorities are a product of the 'two Koreas' policy of US imperialism. Seeing that it was impossible to materialize their crazy plan to invade the northern half of the Republic and turn the whole of Korea into their colony, the US imperialists put forward the 'two Koreas' policy with the sinister aim of keeping at least south Korea in their grip." {Answers to the Questions Raised by Foreign Journalists, Eng. ed., Vol. 2, p. 2.) The US imperialists have kept south Korea under their occupation for over 30 years, turned it into their colony and military base and, using it as a stepping-stone, ceaselessly perpetrated aggressive and war acts against the northern half of the DPR K. But they could never have their aggressive ambition reafized and their aggressive and war machinations suffered ignominious defeat at every step. Seeing that it was impossible to materialize their aggressive design to turn the whole of Korea into their colony, the US imperialists clung to the criminal "two Koreas" plot, rejecting all fair and realistic proposals of the Government of the DPRK on national reunification with an eye to indefinitely keeping at least south Korea under their occupation. They tried to continue to station their aggressive troops in south Korea to fix the division of Korea and perpetuate their colonial rule in 522 south Korea. They clamoured that the US troops stationed in south Korea were not the "UN Forces" but the troops remaining there according to the so-called south Korea-US "Mutual Defence Pact" to "protect" south Korea from "communist aggression" and that if they were pulled out, another war might break out in Korea. They instigated the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique to create "two Koreas" for the permanent division of Korea. The Pak Jung Hi puppet clique turned down the just proposals of the Government of the DPRK for the country's reunification and worked to break the north-south dialogue. They issued a "special statement" for "two Koreas" on June 23, 1973. The so-called "special statement on diplomatic policy for peaceful unification" prepared and made public under instructions from US imperialism was an out-andout unpatriotic document, an open declaration of their policy based on the "two Koreas" plot of the. US imperialists. The US imperialists got the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique to advance a proposal on the simultaneous admission of "two Koreas" to the UN and vociferated that they were in favour of it. On July 20, 1973 US Secretary of State Rogers flew into south Korea. Expressing his "active support to the simultaneous entry into the UN of north and south Korea," he declared that the United States "will bend every possible diplomatic effort for the simultaneous admission of north and south Korea to the UN." He projected a joint draft resolution on the simultaneous entry of "two Koreas" into the UN to be presented to the 28th session of the UN General Assembly in September that year. The US imperialists also proposed "cross- recognition" so as to fix "two Koreas" internationally. The "cross-recognition" is a plot to give recognition to the Pak Jung Hi puppet regime which is only indulging in treachery and national division. To attain this criminal aim, the US imperialists used every artifice to save the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique from the position of an international orphan, favouring them on the international arena while speaking ill of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The Japanese militarists are the most zealous supporters of the US imperialists in their "two Koreas" manoeuvres. As is well-known to the world, the conspiracy of the US- Japanese aggressors in the "two Koreas" plot wasformed in 1 969 when the talks were held between Japanese Prime Minister Sato and US President N ixon, the plan for "simultaneous admission of north and south Korea to the UN, "the first off spring of the talks, was elaborated by the US and Japanese aggressors before the announcement of the "special statement" by the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique according to the instructions of US imperialism.* 523

* The Japanese magazine Gendainome {the October 1 973 issue) laid bare: "As for the 'two Koreas' policy which has become solid through the Japan-US summit talks, it was projected earlier by Washington, Tokyo and Seoul, and the direction, methods and assignment of roles were decided for the creation of 'two Koreas' through the brisk tripartite consultations involving Kim Jong Pil's visit to Tokyo in January and his talks with Prime Minister Tanaka and Foreign Minister Ohira, his European tour in mid-June and revisit to Tokyo and US Secretary of State Rogers' visits to Tokyo and Seoul right after that," ■On the day when Pak Jung Hi gave out his "special statement" Japanese Foreign Minister Ohira said "the matter was previously discussed," revealing the US-Japan conspiracy for the creation of "two Koreas." On August 1, 1973, prior to the 28th UN Genera! Assembly session, there was a talk between Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka and US President'Nixon, in which a "strategy" and "plan" were worked out to place the "proposal on the simultaneous admission of north and south Korea to the UN" on the agenda of the UN General Assembly session and carry it through. A few days later the US and Japanese ambassadors to the UN summoned the ambassadors of England and Australia and other countries following their lead and plotted together to carry them out. The Japanese militarists volunteered to become a projector of the "proposal of simultaneous entry of north and south Korea into the UN" and made every nasty machination to obtain more votes in favour of it. The "two Koreas" plot motivated by the crafty political aim of the aggressors and the quislings is a "drama" acted by the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique according to the "playbook" written by the US imperialists and the "acting copy" made by the Japanese militarists. The Pak Jung Hi puppet clique persisted in reiterating the "special statement" in which they openly proclaimed the creation of "two Koreas" their "policy" under the active support of the US and Japanese aggressors. In June 1 974, traitor Pak Jung Hi again announced in the "form of an informal talk" that he had never given up the plot to create "two Koreas" which he had declared one year ago and would stick to his scheme for the permanent division of the nation. With the 29th General Assembly session as a momentum, the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique more tenaciously engaged themselves in all sorts of machinations to materialize the "admission of 'two Koreas' to the UN." On October 28, the "Prime Minister" of the south Korean puppet "government" fully revealed his intention of perpetuating the national division in his secret talks with the US Secretary of the Treasury by saying that north and south Korea "should enter the UN separately as 'two Koreas' even if unification is delayed and the present situation of division is kept for some time." Speaking at the First Committee of the 29th UN General Assembly on November 29, the 524 "Foreign Minister" of the south Korean "government" begged the simultaneous entry of north and south Korea into the UN and US army's continued presence in south Kore3. He strenuously insisted that south Korea should enter the UN separately since the Government of the DPRK rejected the "simultaneous entry," uttering that to demand the withdrawal of the US army was tantamount to "hindering the UN's role" and that such allegation stemmed from the intention of "invading the south." With the 30th session of the UN General Assembly in 1 975 as an occasion, the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique became more desperate in their manoeuvre to create "two Koreas" for permanent national division, persistently opposing national reunification. They successively held the meetings of the chiefs of puppet diplomatic and consular offices in the regions of Africa and the Middle and Near East on January 27, in the Asian region on February 27, in the regions of Europe and North America on March 16 and in the region of Middle and South America on April 11, at which they deliberated over the "measures to provide for" the discussion of the Korean issue in the coming UN GeneralAssembly session, in an attempt to realize the "two Koreas" scheme. After April they dispatched the puppet "Prime Minister," "Chairman of the National Assembly," "Foreign Minister" and "special envoys", "missions" and "visiting groups" to their imperialist masters in the United States and Japan almost every day and let them clamour that "if the US troops are withdrawn from south Korea, there may break out a war" and that "the US troops are the defender of peace in south Korea," thus making every desperate effort to perpetuate the country's division and create "two Koreas." When their plot of "simultaneous admission to the UN" of north and south Korea was frustrated, they perpetrated all sorts of despicable acts from 1 975, advocating the "separate entry into the UN" of south Korea. That year they "applied for separate admission of the UN." Moreover, in order to justify the US aggressors' prolonged stay in south Korea and realize their "two Koreas" manoeuvre, they drafted a deceptive "resolution" oh the conditional "dissolution of the UN Command" and made frenzied attempts to put it through at the UN. All the crazy machinations for creating "two Koreas" made by the US imperialists and their stooges have strained the situation in Korea and kept it in a constant danger of war. And they constitute the chief obstacle lying in the way of the realization of the country's reunification. 525

Five-Point Policy for National Reunification Owing to the "two Koreas" manoeuvres of the division ists at home and abroad, the prospect of reunification, once brightened by the north-south joint statement was beclouded and the cause of national reunification was faced with a grave difficulty. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, having made a deep analysis of the serious situation created on the road of national reunification, clarified a 5-point policy for preventing the split of the nation and achieving the independent, peaceful reunification of the country, The great leader Comrade Kim If Sung taught: "Out of our earnest desire to get over the difficult situation created today and materialize the people's longcherished 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... "2. To improve the north -south relations and expedite the country's reunification, it is necessary to materialize manysided collaboration and interchange between the north and south in the political, military, diplomatic, economic and cultural fields..., "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 people of all strata in the north and south to participate in the nationwide patriotic work for national reunification.... "4. What is of great significance today in speeding up the country's reunification is to institute a north-south Confederation under the name of a single country.... "5. We consider that our country should be prevented from being split into two Koreas permanently as a result of 526 the freezing of national division and that the north and south should also work together in the field of external activity.'' (Answers to the Questions Raised by Foreign Journalists, Eng. ed., pp. 37-41.) To remove military confrontation and tension between the north and the south is a matter of pressing urgency and vital importance at present in dispelling the misunderstanding and mistrust and deepening mutual understanding and trust between the north and the south, creating an atmosphere of great national unity, improving the relations between the two parts and bringing peaceful reunification to the country Therefore, as the first step for the peaceful reunification of the country, the Government of the DPRK has more than once advanced to the south Korean authorities a series of reasonable proposals such as on the discontinuance of the reinforcement of armed forces and arms race, the withdrawal of all foreign troops, the reduction of armed forces and armaments and the suspension of the introduction of weapons from abroad. The many-sided collaboration and interchange between the north and the south clarified in the five-point policy for national reunification were of tremendous importance in rejoining the severed ties of the nation and providing preconditions for reuniftcation. The five- point policy points to the need to enable the masses of people of all strata in the north and the south to participate in the nationwide patriotic work for national reunification. This constitutes the most active and positive policy reflecting the urgent demand of the present situation. It is also a Juche-oriented policy for reunification fully conforming to the characteristics of the reunification issue and the principles of its settlement. In order to carry out this policy the northsouth dialogue for national reunification should not be confined to the authorities of the north and the south but be held on a nationwide scale, The five-point policy for national reunification contains the convocation of a Great National Congress composed of representatives of people in all walks of life— the workers, peasants, working intellectuals, student youths and soldiers in the north, and the workers, peasants, student youths, intellectuals, military men, national capitalists and petty bourgeoisie in the south— and of representatives of political parties and social Organizations of the two sides, for the comprehensive discussion of the question of national reunification. The proposal on the institution of a north-south Confederation under the single name of a country is the most reasonable way to achteve the country's reunification. It is suggested that in case the north-south Confederation is instituted, this confederal state can be 527

named the Confederal Republic of Koryo after "Koryo", a unitary state which once existed on our territory and was widely known to the world. It is a good and most fair name of a country acceptable to the south Korean side. The founding of the Confederal Republic of Koryo will open up a decisive phase in preventing the national split, bringing about all-round contact and collaboration between the north and the south and in hastening complete national reunification. The policy also presents the question of preventing the country from being split into "two Koreas" permanently as a result of the freezing of national division and the question of north and south working together in the field of external activity. This is a just policy for preventing the permanent division of the nation the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique are machinating at the instigation of US imperialism and for realizing national reunification. In order to materialize this policy, the north and the south should not enter the UN separately, and if they want to enter the UN before the reunification of the country, they should do so as a single country under the name of the Confederal Republic of Koryo, at least after the Confederation is set up. As mentioned above, the policy for national reunification consists in the removal of military confrontation and the easing of tension between the north and the south, the materialization of many-sided collaboration and interchange between the two parts, the convocation of a Great National Congress composed of representatives of people of all strata and political parties and social organizations in the north and the south, the institution of a north-south Confederation under the single name of the Confederal Republic of Koryo and the entry into the UN under the single name of the Confederal Republic of Koryo. If this policy is put into effect, there will be a great turn in accomplishing the historic cause of peaceful national reunification in accordance with the principles specified in the north-south joint statement and the common aspiration of the Korean people and the world's people. Thanks to the five-point policy for national reunification put forward by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the Korean people are provided with a powerful weapon for promoting the cause of national reunification by the united efforts of the whole nation, overcoming all difficulties lying in its way. With a view to advancing the cause of national reunification by opening a favourable phase in putting an end to foreign interference in the internal affairs of Korea and solving them by the Koreans themselves, the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPR K sent a letter to the US Congress in March 1974, proposing to conclude a peace agreement with the United States. The keynote of the peace agreement proposed to the US Congress 528 is: Both sides shall pledge to each other not to invade the other side and the United States shall have the obligation not to incite the south Korean authorities to war provocation manoeuvres and fascistization policy or patronize them, not to hinder the north and the south of Korea from reunifying the country independently and peacefully in accordance with the north -south joint statement, to totally desist from meddling in the interna! affairs of Korea; the two sides shall discontinue the reinforcement of armed forces and arms drive and stop introducing all weapons, combat equipment and war supplies from outside Korea; the foreign troops in south Korea shall be stripped of the "UN Forces" helmets and all of them be withdrawn at the earliest possible date, together with all their weapons; and Korea shall not be reduced to a military or operational baseforany foreign country afterthe withdrawal of all the foreign troops from south Korea. The DPRK should conclude a peace agreement with the USA because it stands face to face with the US imperialists. Today the US imperialist aggressors act as masters in south Korea and have the prerogative of the supreme command of all the armed forces there. They are also the signatory to the Korean Armistice Agreement. The question of replacing the Military Armistice Agreement with a peace agreement should be settled only between the DPRK and the authorities of the United States, the parties to the Armistice Agreement and the real powers that can guarantee peace in Korea. The United States has not yet given a reply to the letter of the Government of the DPRK proposing to have a talk on the question of replacing the Korean Armistice Agreement with a peace agreement. In 1975, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on the parties to the Korean Military Armistice Agreement to replace the Armistice Agreement by a peace agreement on condition that the US troops withdraw from south Korea. However, the US imperialists have been ignoring even this resolution of the UN General Assembly. All the Korean people and the peace-loving people the world over raised their voices demanding that the US accept the talks proposed by the Government of the DPRK and replace the Korean Military Armistice Agreement with a peace agreement in accordance with the resolution of the UN Genera! Assembly. 529

Worldwide Struggle against the "Two Koreas" Manoeuvres The five-point policy for national reunification clarified by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung in 1973 won the enthusiastic approval of the world people. They warmly supported and encouraged the Korean people in their struggle for the country's reunification. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "As an important link in the worldwide anti-imperialist, national-liberation struggle, our people's struggle for national reunification enjoys ever greater support and sympathy in the international arena." (The Non-Alignment Movement Is a Mighty Anti-Imperialist Revolutionary Force of Our Times, Eng. ed., p. 147.) When the five-point national reunification policy was advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the progressive people of the five continents of the world welcomed the policy of national reunification, the policy of achieving the reunification of the country by the Korean people themselves on democratic principles, by a peaceful means, and independently, without any foreign interference, and scathingly condemned the nation-splitting manoeuvres of the US imperialists and the Japanese militarists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique. Heads of state and leaders of all the socialist countries and a number of the third world countries, political parties and social organizations in various countries, international organizations and individual personages have sent congratulatory messages, letters and telegrams to the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung in welcome and support of the five- point policy for national reunification advanced by him. The Fifth Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, at its second session opened in April 1 973, discussed the question of putting an end to foreign interference in the internal affairs to hasten Korea's independent and peaceful reunification and adopted a letter addressed to parliaments and governments of all countries of the world including the US Congress, and parliaments and governments and state leaders of many countries sent letters and telegrams in reply to it and issued statements and declarations, expressing their active support to it. And many international bodies and various organizations made public 530 statements and joint statements giving support to the letter and sent telegrams and letters, and the revolutionary people of many countries and peace-loving nations at various meeting's voted in favour of the resolutions supporting the DPRK's proposals on Korea's peaceful reunification. At the Fourth Summit Conference of Non-aligned Countries held in Algiers in September 1 973, over 1 00 delegations including heads of state and government of more than 80 countries and their representatives unanimously demanded that an end be put to foreign interference in Korea and that the right to self-determination of the Korean people be assured to permit them to resolve their own affairs by themselves. They also demanded the withdrawal of the US imperialist aggressor army from south Korea and the dissolution of the "United Nations Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea, and strongly held that Korea should be admitted into the UN under the name of a single state, after her complete reunification or after the institution of a Confederation of the north and the south. This was a heavy blow to the nation-splitting manoeuvres of the US imperialists and the traitorous Pak Jung Hi clique and constituted a strong support and encouragement to our people in their struggle for the independent and peaceful reunification of the country. They also condemned the machinations of the US imperialists and the traitorous Pak Jung Hi clique to justify the permanent occupation of south Korea by the US imperialist aggressor army and create "two Koreas" through the "simultaneous entry into the UN" of north and south Korea contrary to the needs of time and the desire of the nation.* * Follows the Resolution on the Question of Korea adopted at the Fourth Summit Conference of Non-aligned Countries; The Summit Conference, 1 . Calls for the withdrawal of all foreign troops stationed in south Korea and the cessation of all forms of foreign interference in the interna! affairs of Korea; 2. Further calls on the United Nations General Assembly to consider at its 28th session the Korean question and to decide on the withdrawal of US troops stationed in south Korea under the United Nations flag and on the dissolution of the "United Nations Commission forthe Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea" with a view to facilitating the independent and peaceful reunification of Korea; 3. Declares that Korea's membership in the United Nations can only be realized under the name of a single state, after the complete reunification of Korea or after the establishment of a Confederation of the north and the south. The 28th session of the UN General Assembly discussed the Korean question with the participation of the representative of the DPRK forthe first time and recognized the three principles of national 531

reunification advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung as the only fair and reasonable ones to be adhered to in the solution of Korea's reunification, demanded that the north and the south continue their dialogue and realize many-sided exchanges and cooperation in accordance with these principles, and decided to dissolve the notorious "UN Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea," a US imperialists' tool of aggression. The "two Koreas" plot of the US imperialists and their stooges was thus foiled and another big obstacle tying in the way of the Korean people's struggle for reunification removed. "The North European Solidarity Conference for Korea's Independent, Peaceful Reunification" held in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, on November 17, 1973, with the participation of the representatives of over 70 political parties, social and cultural organizations in north Europe adopted a resolution fully supporting the fivepoint policy for national reunification advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and expressing firm solidarity with the Korean people's struggle for its realization. At the World Congress of Peace Forces held in Moscow in October 1 973 which was attended by delegates from national organizations of over 140 countries, including the DPRK, and from international organizations, the delegates of the Royal Government of National Union of Cambodia, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Mexico, Guatemala, Syria, Madagascar, the USSR, Mongolia, Poland, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Cuba and many other countries made speeches in active support of the just struggle of the Korean people for the country's independent, peaceful reunification without outside interference and called upon the attendants to express firm solidarity with the Korean people's struggle for independent and peaceful national reunification. The conference issued a statement on the Korean question insisting that Korea's reunification should be realized by the Korean people themselves on the basis of the five-point policy for national reunification set forth by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. The delegates of many countries who attended the 8th World Congress of Trade Unions held in Varna of Bulgaria in October 1973 extended full support to and firm solidarity with the just struggle of the Korean people to reunify the country peacefully without the interference of any outside forces and on a democratic basis and demanded that the US troops occupying south Korea be stripped of the helmets of the "UN Forces" and withdrawn from there. They issued a joint statement giving active support to the five-point national reunification policy and solemnly declaring that they would stand firmly by the 532 Korean people and wage an active struggle in support of their cause of national reunification. The struggle against the "two Koreas" plot assumed greater proportions on the international arena and the voices supporting the Korean people's struggle for the independent and peaceful reunification of the country grew louder. In November 1974, the "Latin-American Conference Supporting the Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea" was held in Lima, the capital of Peru. The conference was attended by more than 1,000 personages from political parties, social, academic and press circles in 20 Latin-American countries. The conference adopted a message addressed to the respected leader Comrade Kim II Sung, expressing it "full support to the five-point national reunification policy newly advanced by President Kim II Sung, the great leader of the Korean people." Delegates to the conference called upon the peace-loving countries and progressive political parties, social organizations, international democratic organizations and world people to organize an international movement for supporting the Korean people's just struggle forthe independent and peaceful reunification of the country, a heroic struggle fought for the immediate withdrawal of the US imperialist aggressive troops stationed in south Korea under the U.N flag, for the relief of the students and democratic personages who were arrested and tortured in south Korea and for solidarity with the free people the world over The Youth Congress of the Third World held in Algeria in July 1 974 adopted a "Resolution on Korea" expressing its firm solidarity with the Korean people in their just struggle for the independent and peaceful reunification of the country. The resolution extended full support to the three principles and five-point policy of national reunification set forth by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and denounced the manoeuvres of the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique to create "two Koreas." The 11th Congress of the International Students' Union held in Hungary in May, the 4th Congress of the Asian Students" Association in Melbourne in July andthe 3rd Congress of the All-African Students' Union in Egypt in November adopted a respective "Resolution on Korea" fully supporting the three principles and five-point policy of national reunification advanced by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and sternly condemning the machinations of the US imperialists and their lackeys to create "two Koreas." The 9th Congress of the World Democratic Youth League held in November with the participation of hosts of representatives of students in 104 countries and of international organizations adopted a 533

"Solidarity Resolution Supporting the Struggle of the Korean People and Youth" and a telegram addressed to the 29th session of the UN General Assembly in connection with the discussion of the Korean question. The congress held that the reunification of Korea should be realized according to the three principtes and five-point policy of national reunification and called upon the world progressive youth and people to take solidarity actions on a broad scale in various forms in demand of the withdrawal of the US troops from south Korea and the independent, peaceful reunification of Korea on the occasion of "the Month of International Solidarity with the Korean People and Youth (June 25-July 27)." The resolutions on Korea, statements and appeals supporting the Korean people's struggle for the independent and peaceful reunification of the country were also adopted at the International Solidarity Conference for the Democratic Freedom and the Defence of Human Rights against Fascism in Chile and Latin America held in Venezuela in September and at many international conferences and the international organizations including the World Federation of Trade Unions and the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization. The DPRK's policy of independent and peaceful reunification won a great victory at the debate on the Korean question at the First Committee of the 29th session of the UN General Assembly which was opened under the circumstances that the world people tended to warmly support the Korean people's cause of national reunification. It gave a telling blow to the US imperialists and their stooges who were manoeuvring to perpetuate the US troops' occupation of south Korea and create "two Koreas." Most of the representatives of nearly 70 countries who made speeches at the session strongly condemned the US imperialists and their lackeys for their criminal plot to perpetuate Korea's division by creating "two Koreas" and expressed their wholehearted support to the fair and reasonable policy of national reunification of the Government of the DPRK. In a vote taken at the First Committee meeting of the 29th UN General Assembly session on December 29 on resolutions on the Korean question presented to the meeting, the "Resolution on the Withdrawal of All Foreign Troops Stationed in South Korea under the UN Flag" co -sponsored by 40 countries including the socialist countries and the third world countries won 48 votes, or a half of the total, excluding abstention, despite the vicious obstructive manoeuvres on the part of the US imperialists. Such an increase in the number of approval votes meant a change in the state of things in the UN where the US imperialists had lorded it over, it was a great victory in the efforts of the Government of the DPRK for the independent and peaceful reunification Of the country. 534 In January 1 975 the "International Conference of Solidarity with the Korean People Fighting for the independent and Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland" was held in Bagdad, the capital of Iraq, At the conference the attendants confirmed their further positive support and encouragement to the just cause of the Korean people for national reunification and adopted a general declaration and action programme calling on the peace-loving people of the world to launch a widespread solidarity movement to support and encourage the struggle of the Korean people. They also sent a telegram to the UN Secretary-General strongly demanding that urgent measures be taken to pull out the US imperialist aggressor troops stationed in south Korea under the UN flag The Peace Conference of the Asian Christianity held in India in January adopted the "Statement on Korea'' and the "Resolution on Korea" to render unreserved support to the DPRK Government's five point policy for national reunification and required the US authorities to withdraw their imperialist aggressor troops wearing the helmets of the UN Forces from south Korea. The 12th session « the Bureau of the World Federation of Trade Unions adopted the "Resolution on Solidarity with the Korean Workers and People" in May, the first International Conference of the Third World Teachers, the "Resolution Supporting the Struggle of the Korean Teachers and People" in August, and the 7th Conference of the International Women's Union, the "Resolution on Korea" in October. And unqualified solidarity was extended to Korean people in their just struggle to drive out the US imperialist aggressor troops from south Korea and win the cause of national reunification in the programme adopted at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the non-aligned countries in August, in the political resolution adopted at the ArabianAfrican Youth Conference in August and in the general declaration made by the International Conference of Solidarity with the People of Former Portuguese Colonies in October. On October 22, the Executive Secretariat of the Tri-Continental People's Solidarity Organization sent telegrams to the UN SecretaryGeneral, the Chairman of the 30th session of the UN General Assembly and the Chairman of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, requesting the withdrawal of the US imperialist aggressor troops from south Korea. The support of the world people to and their solidarity with the Korean people's just struggle were clearly manifested through functions held during the "month of the anti-US joint struggle for the withdrawal of the US aggressor troops from south Korea" and the "month of solidarity with the Korean people" which were marked on a 535

worldwide scale in 1975. During the month mass organizations, associations and people of all walks of life in socialist countries, independent nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and some other capitalist countries held mass rallies and demonstrations and launched other forms of solidarity movement in support of the just struggle of the Korean people. It is noteworthy that a widespread movement of solidarity with the Korean people was launched in the United States as well. On June 25 in New York numerous people from all walks of life held a mass demonstration in the heart of the city, upholding the portrait of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. Demonstrators marched the' street, carrying placards bearing slogans, "US troops, get out of south Korea!" "Let Korea be unified!" "Pak Jung Hi dictatorial regime, step down!" They distributed handbills and appeals. This aroused a great sensation among the broad sections of New York citizens. On June 27 anti-war and other progressive organizations formed a new joint body called the "Special Committee of Solidarity with the Korean People" and arranged the "Evening of Solidarity with the Korean People ." Such solidarity movement was launched in Washington, Chicago and numerous other cities. The 30th session of the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution "Creation of Favourable Conditions for Converting the Armistice into a Durable Peace in Korea and Accelerating the Independent and Peaceful Reunification of Korea" cosponsored by 43 countries.* * The main contents of the' draft resolution are as follows: The General Assembly, 1 . Considers that it is necessary to dissolve the "United Nations Command" and withdraw all the foreign troops stationed in south Korea under the flag of the United Nations; 2. Calls upon the real parties to the Armistice Agreement to replace the Korean Military Armistice Agreement with a peace agreement as a measure to ease tension and maintain and consolidate peace in Korea in connection with the dissolution of the "United Nations Command" and the withdrawal of all the US troops stationed in south Korea under the flag of the United Nations; 3. Urges the north and the south of Korea to observe the principles of the north-south joint statement and take practical measures for ceasing arms reinforcement, reducing the armed forces of both sides drastically to an equal level, preventing armed conflicts and guaranteeing against the use of force against the other side, and thereby remove the military confrontation and maintain a durable peace in Korea, conducive to accelerating the independent and peaceful reunification of the country. The adoption of the 43-nation joint resolution is an epochal event which put an end to the old mechanism of the United Nations that had 536 allowed the United States to arbitrarily fabricate illegal "resolutions" on the Korean question every year by setting its voting machines in motion, and which made this resolution the first fair one ever adopted on the Korean issue. The whole course of the debate on the Korean question at the 30th session of the UN General Assembly once again clearly showed that the problem of reunification of Korea should be settled independently by the Korean people themselves without interference of outside forces and that it was high time for the UN to put an end to the debate of the Korean question at its sessions. The results of the debate on the Korean question in the UN General Assembly clearly proved that the steadfast stand consistently maintained by the Government of the DPRK in the struggle for independent, peaceful national reunification enjoyed the unreserved support and sympathy on the part of the peace-loving people the world over and that the supporters of and sympathizers with the Korean people's just cause of national reunification were growing as days went by. With the adoption of the 43-nation joint resolution, the wild dream of the US imperialists to create "two Koreas" and justify the perpetual presence of their aggressortroops in south Korea in the name of the United Nations burst like soap bubbles.* * On August 6, 1 975, the UN Security Council rejected even putting on the agenda the "application for the separate admission to the United Nations" submitted by the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique on July 31 . This "application" waslodged again only to be turned down by the Security Council on September 27 when the subjects of discussion were considered. As the world people raised their voices strongly demanding the withdrawal of the US imperialist aggressor troops from south Korea in accord with the United Nations resolution, the US imperialists could no longer remain silent and had to make their attitude clear. And President Carter gave a campaign pledge at the 1976 election that in case he took office he would withdraw the US troops from south Korea. Two years have passed since Carter took office, but the US troops still remain in south Korea and the US imperialist aggressive forces are being reinforced. Carter did not fulfil his campaign pledges. Moreover, acting contrary to it, of late he is going to keep the US imperialist aggressor troops in south Korea, clamouring that they will be pulled out by stages in four-five years and that it will be confined to the ground force. The world revolutionary people are closely watching what posture the US imperialists will take towards the 43-nation joint resolution adopted at the UN General Assembly and keep on a persistent struggle 537

in demand of the early withdrawal of the US imperialist aggressor troops from south Korea in accordance with Carter's campaign pledges. 538

Chapter V The Strengthening Of The International Position Of The DPRK

1 THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY OF THE DPRK

The Fundamental Principle of Foreign Policy The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung has taught: "Ever since the first days of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, we have consistently affirmed that we will promote friendly relations with all countries that oppose imperialist aggression, respect the freedom and independence of our people and desire to establish state relations with our country on an equal footing, and in the future, we will continue to hold fast to this principle in the field of foreign policy." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works,Eng. ed., Vol. IV, p. 604.) The fundamental principle of the DPRK's foreign policy is: first, to thoroughly implement the principle of Chajusong in the relations with other countries; secondly, to firmly adhere to the anti-impertalist stand in foreign affairs; and thirdly, to observe the principle of internationalism in foreign activities. Adhering to the principle of Chajusong in the foreign policy means maintaining the stand and attitude of resolutely opposing flunkeyism and dependence on others in foreign activities and solving all problems with an independent judgement and view based on the unshaken faith of one's own. Adherence to this principle of Chajusong alone renders it possible to smash dominationism of ail shapes, which attempts to oppress and control other countries and nations, and to form political 539

and business ties with other countries on the basis of complete equality and mutual respect. Holding fast to the anti-imperialist stand in the foreign policy means struggling resolutely against US-led imperialism, giving active support to the anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle of othercountriesand resolutely opposing the tendency to compromise with imperialism or check the struggle with it in foreign activities. Only by firmly adhering to the anti-imperialist stand in foreign activities is it possible to defend the country and people from imperialist aggression, advance the nation-wide victory of the Korean revolution, strengthen the antiimperialist, anti-US common struggle on a worldwide scale and hasten the world revolution. Implementing the principle of internationalism in the foreign policy means firmly uniting with the revolutionary forces of the world, supporting and cooperating with each other and strengthening solidarity in foreign activities. Strict observance of this principle acquires enormous significance in cementing the world revolutionary forces in every way to defeat the internationally-allied counterrevolutionary forces and creating favourable international circumstances for the Korean revolution. Applying these principles in the sphere of international relations the Govern mentof the Republic has consistently followed the policy of striving for the unity of socialist countries and the cohesion of the international communist movement, developing friendly and cooperative relations with the newly independent countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America and supporting the anti-imperialist national liberation movement of the peoples in these regions and the revolutionary movement of the peoples of all countries, and waging an active struggle for world peace and the progress of mankind against the imperialists' policy of aggression and war. The fundamental principle of the DPRK's foreign policy based on Chajusong, anti-imperialist stand and internationalism emanates from the essence of the state and social system under which the masses of the people have become masters. It reflects the noble aspiration of the Korean people to win victory in the cause of peace, democracy, , national independence and socialism. This fundamental principle outlined by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung is the immutable guideline running through all foreign activities of the DPRK Government. 540 The Strengthening of Friendship and Solidarity with Socialist Countries The Government of the Republic developed friendly and cooperative relations with the socialist countries to strengthen their unity and cohesion. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said; "Consolidation of the unity of the socialist Gamp and steady development of the relations of friendship and cooperation with all the socialist countries: this is the immovable cornerstone of the foreign policy of our Republic." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. Ill, p. 418.) The policy of the Government of the Republic for consolidating the unity and cohesion of the socialist countries and developing the relations of friendship and cooperation with them reflects the demand forthe class unity of the victorious international working class, and the position and role of the socialist countries in the development of the world revolution. The socialist countries are united on the common political and economic basis and linked with one another with the same purpose of building socialism and communism. They are the decisive factor defining the development of human history in the present age and the most powerful revolutionary force confronting imperialism and reactionary forces in the present era. Hence, the Government of the Republic has made every effort to strengthen the unity of the socialist countries and develop the relations of friendship and cooperation with them, as the principle of its foreign policy. In consolidating the relations of friendship and cooperation with socialist countries the Government of the Republic is holding fast to Chajusong on the principle of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. This policy of the Government of the Republic towards socialist countries derives from the essence of the socialist system; it is the correct policy which is based on the overall analysis of the new conditions, historical experience of the international communist movement and, particularfy, of the historical lesson that was drawn from the serious consequences caused upon the revolution by violating independence. Proceeding from the essence of the exploitation -and oppression541

free socialist system, the relations among the socialist countries are based on the principle of Marxism- Leninism and proletarian internationalism, on the principle of complete equality and Chajusong. They are fundamentally different from those among capitalist countries. The socialist countries are all completely equal and independent, regardless of the size of territory, the level of economic development, the history of revolution. Each socialist country, assuming an equal position in the international revolutionary ranks as an independent national unit guided by the principle of solidarity of the working class, is responsible not only for its own revolution but also for the world revolution. Among the socialist countries there can be no such things as one interfering in other's internal affairs or imposing one's will upon the other. The socialist countries are firmly united because of their common social system, same ideology and same goal of struggle. They support and closely cooperate with each other in the struggle against the common enemy and for the common cause of socialism and communism. Starting from such principled viewpoint, the Government of the Republic developed the friendly and cooperative relations with socialist countries on the basis of equality and independence, holding fast to the principle of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. The Workers' Party of Korea and the Government of the DPRK laid down a series of principles in the work of achieving the unity and cohesion among the socialist countries. That is to say, they have maintained four principles of Chajusong: Firstly, to oppose imperialism, secondly, to supportthe national liberation movement in colonies and international working-class movement: thirdly, to continue to advance towards socialism and communism; and fourthly, to unite with socialist countries on the principle of non-interference in other's internal affairs, mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit. They have kept up the standpoint of promoting the unity and waging a joint struggle on these four principles, even though there arise differences among the fraternal socialist countries. The WPK and the Government of the DPRK are invariably adhering to the stand that since the differences between the fraternal Parties and countries are an internal affair of the socialist countries and the international communist movement in every respect, however serious they may be, they should not be allowed to develop into an organizational split but be settled by ideological struggle, out of the desire to achieve the unity of the same class friends. The WPK and the Government of the DPRK are exerting every effort to cement the unity and cohesion of the socialist countries and international communist movement, firmly adhering to Marxism- Lenin542 ism, internationalism, Chajusong, and to class and revolutionary principles. The Strengthening of Solidarity with New- Emerging Forces The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "Our Party and the Government of the Republic consider an important part of their foreign policy the establishment and development of friendly relations with the national independent states of Asia, Africa and Latin America." {Ibid., p. 197.) Developing the friendly relations of cooperation with the national independent states of Asia, Africa and Latin America is an urgent requirement of the Korean revolution for strengthening its international solidarity. These newly-independent countries which had been subjected to exploitation and oppression by the imperialists and colonialists in the past like Korea are an important revolutionary force of our times, which is fighttng against imperialism and colonialism and to consolidate national independence and build a new society. Only by developing the friendly relations of cooperation with these countries is it possible to secure an important international force in driving out the US imperialists from south Korea and achieving the country's reunification. It is a noble internationalist duty of the Government of the Republic to develop the friendly relations of cooperation with the newly-independent countries. A country which has won political independence faces a difficult and complex task of eliminating the aftermath of colonial rule and building a new society while fighting resolutely against imperialism. When a socialist country develops its friendly relations of cooperation with the newly-independent countries, it can give powerful encouragement and assistance to their struggle for accomplishing the national liberation revolution. The WPK and the Government of the Republic have developed the friendly relations of cooperation with the newly-independent countries, supported in every way their revolution and construction and, at the same time, striven to form an anti-imperialist, anti-US united front and further strengthen the anti-US, anti-colonialist struggle on a worldwide scale. Although the newly-independent countries have different state 543

and social system and political views from Korea's, they have the common interests in the anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle because they are constantly pressed and invaded by the imperialists and colonialists. Therefore, in order to wage a vigorous anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle on a worldwide scale, it is necessary to form an antiUS joint front with the newly-independent countries, and this requires the development of the friendly relations of cooperation with these countries. Proceeding from the urgent demand of the Korean revolution and the world revolution to develop the friendly relations of cooperation with newly-independent countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the Government of the Republic has striven hard to unite with the newly- independent and all other countries on the five principles of territorial integrity and respect for sovereignty, nonaggression, noninterference in other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence. In developing the friendly relations of cooperation with newlyindependent countries, the Government of the Republic first actively supported and sincerely helped the peoples of these countries in fhetr struggle to consolidate national independence and achieve national prosperity. The Korean people who had Jong suffered under colonial rule in the past and now have the southern half of their country under the heels of the US imperialists, have given active support and encouragement to the struggle of the peoples of all countries against US-ied imperialism and colonialism, regarding it as their own, and directed particularly great efforts to developing the relations of cooperation with them. The Government of the Republic did its utmost to actively support the anti-imperialist national liberation struggle of all the oppressed colonial nations of the world including Algeria, Angola and Mozambique. Whenever any of them won political independence the DPRK Government was the first to approve it as an independent state. It made every effort to form economic relations and develop trade with newly-independent countries on the principle of complete equality and mutual benefit. In particular, it strove to establish and develop state and diplomatic relations with these countries. In order to develop the friendly relations of cooperation with newly-independent countries, the Government of the Republic promoted mutual visits and contacts with them. Thanks to its correct policy of developing the friendly relations of cooperation with newly-independent countries, the Korean people came to form close ties of friendship with the peoples of newlyindependent countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and their 544 mutual support and cooperation, mutual visits and contacts expanded as days passed. External Activities for Strengthening International Anti-Imperialist, Anti-US Common Struggle The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: "In foreign affairs, our Republic consistently follows the line of opposing the policies of aggression and war pursued by the imperialists with US imperialism at their head, and of fighting for world peace and human progress." (Kim II Sung, Se/ected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. V, pp. 1 83-84.) The foreign policy of the Government of the Republic for strengthening the international anti-imperialist, anti-US common struggle proceeds from its high sense of responsibility for the Korean revolution and the world revolution and most correctly reflects the basic demand of the revolutionary struggle of the people who have risen up for freedom and liberation. The strengthening of the international anti-imperialist, anti-US common struggle stood out as an important problem in developing the Korean revolution, particularly in promoting the cause of Korea's reunification. The US imperialists' occupation of south Korea and their policy of aggression are the source of all the miseries of the Korean nation, the basic obstacle in the way of Korea's reunification and the constant source of war in Korea. Therefore, in order to accomplish the national-liberation revolution in Korea and achieve Korea's reunification, the US imperialists must be driven out of south Korea. Accordingly, if the US imperialists receive a severe blow by the international anti-imperialist, anti-US common struggle, it will be so much favourable to the Korean revolution and to the cause of Korea's reunification. An intensified anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle is essential for speeding upthevictoriousadvance of the world revolution. Apart from it, no revolutionary struggle, no progressive movement can emerge victorious. The anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle furnishes the key to the solution of all the fundamental problems facing the progressive people of the world and provides the basic condition for the victory of peace, democracy, national independence and socialism. The Government of the Republic has invariably opposed the USled imperialists' policies of aggression and war, struggled resolutely for 545

world peace and the progress of mankind and given active support and encouragement to the revolutionary struggle of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America against US-led imperialism and colonialism, thereby making a great contribution to the development of the antiimperialist, anti-US struggle and the national-liberation movement of the world people. For world conquest, US imperialism, the ringleader of imperialism, today attempts to destroy small and revolutionary countries one by one by force of arms, while refraining from worsening its relations with large countries and shunning confrontation with them as far as possible. Meanwhile, it intensifies ideological offensive against those countries which are ideologically weak and averse to revolution, call for unprincipled cooperation with imperialism, spread an illusion about it among their people and want to be on good terms with it, in an attempt to disrupt them from within. This isjustthe basic strategy of US imperialism for world conquest. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, seeing through the manoeuvrings of the US imperialist aggressors in the present time, put forward the policy of directing the main spearhead against US imperialism and the policy of achieving anti-US joint action and antiUS united front on an international scale, as the basic strategy of the world revolutionary people for smashing the sinister world strategy of US imperialism. At the same time, he set forth a strategic policy of defeating US imperialism by dismembering it with the concerted efforts of small countries. These strategic policies for anti -imperialist, ^nti-US struggle boundlessly inspired the world revolutionary peoples with confidence in victory. In particular, the strategy of mutilating US imperialism with the joint efforts of small countries is the most scientific and revolutionary strategy which gave a lucid answer to the urgent demand of the development of the present anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle and world revolutionary movement and provided the realistic way to crush the world strategy of US imperialism. This strategy won the absolute support and sympathy of the fighting peoples and instilled a deadly terror into the hearts of the US imperialist aggressors. Following the reunification policy set forth by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the WPK and the Government of the DPRK have always concentrated attack on US imperialism in the antiimperialist, anti-US struggle. They have widely exposed and denounced to the whole world the US imperialists' acts of war and aggression being committed in Korea, Asia, Africa, Latin America and other parts of the world, and waged a vigorous struggle to thoroughly isolate them internationally. 546 While struggling against US imperialism, the Government of the Republic and the Korean people have constantly held fast to the position of struggling against its allies. Japanese militarism and West German militarism under active patronage of US imperialism are again being turned into new hotbeds of war in Asia and Europe. Afterconcluding the south Korea-Japan "treaty" at the instigation of US imperialism, the Japanese militarists have openly embarked upon the road of re invasion of south Korea. The US imperialists and Japanese militarists have ganged up in Asian aggression and the latter have become a "shock brigade" in Asian aggression of US imperialism. With the backing of US imperialism the Japanese militarists are head over heels in overseas expansion in their foolish attempt to realize again their old dream of Asian aggression. The Government of the Republic and the Korean people have resolutely fought against the Japanese militarists' scheme for reinvasion of south Korea and their hostile policy toward the DPRK, claiming the abrogation of the illegal south Korea- Japan "treaty". Meanwhile, the Korean people are expressing active support to and militant solidarity with the Japanese people's struggle against US imperialism and domestic monopoly capital and for complete independence, democracy and peace. The Korean people have rendered support to the German people in theirstruggle againstthe rearmament of West German militarism and to the just stand of the German Democratic Republic. The Government of the Republic is giving active support and encouragementtothe revolutionary struggle of all peoples of the world who are fighting against the US-led imperialists' policy of aggression and war and for peace, democracy, national independence and socialism. The Government of the Republic and the Korean people offered unselfish moral and material aid to the anti-US national-salvation war of the Vietnamese people, regarding it as their own. At the conference of the WPK convened in October 1966, the great leader Comrade Kim 11 Sung said: "The Workers' Party of Korea and the Korean people regard US imperialist aggression against Viet Nam as one against themselves and they regard the struggle of the Vietnamese people as their own. Our people will be more resolute in their struggle against the common enemy, US imperialism, and will exert every possible effort to support the people of Viet Nam. We aire ready to send volunteers to 547

join the Vietnamese brothers in their battle whenever the Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam requests it." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. IV, p. 343.) While making every effort to assist the struggle of the Vietnamese people, the Korean people gave resolute support and encouragement to the struggles of other Asian peoples including the struggle of the people of Laos for smashing the US imperialists' armed invasion and attaining national independence and the struggle of the Cambodian people for territorial integrity and national sovereignty. They have also rendered active support and encouragement to the struggle of the peoples of the Egyptian Arab Republic, Syria and other Arab countries for defending national independence from the armed invasion of the Israeli expansionists. They are consistently supporting the just struggle of the Palestinian people to return to their fatherland. The Government of the Republic and the Korean people have extended active support to and firm solidarity with the struggle of the peoples of Angola, Mozambique, Guinea (Bissau) and other African countries for freedom and liberation and the revolutionary struggle of the Latin American people against pro-American dictatorial regime. The Korean people are also extending firm solidarity with and sincere encouragement to the working class and working people of the capitalist countries in their struggle against the exploitation and oppression of capital and for their democratic rights and socialism. In its external activity, the Government of the Republic invariably pursued the policy of strengthening the unity and cohesion of the socialist countries, developing the relations of friendship and cooperation with the newly-independent countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America and intensifying the international 3nti-imperialist, anti-US joint struggle. Thisenabled it to steadily increase the international force of the Korean revolution and vigorously, speed up the victorious advance of the world revolution.

2. RAPID EXPANSION AND DEVELOPMENT OF FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE DPRK

Expansion of Foreign Relations The Government of the Republic steadily expanded and de548 veloped its diplomatic, economic and cultural relations with other countries by following an independent foreign policy in conformity to the task of the Korean people at each stage of development of the revolution and to the changing international situation. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung said: 1 "The international prestige of our Republic has been enhanced constantly thanks to the resolute anti-imperialist, anti-US position and the principled, independent foreign policy of our Party and Government. At present our country maintains relations of friendship and cooperation with the fraternal socialist countries and many newly independent countries in Asia and Africa, Contacts and interchanges are increasing and ties are becoming stronger with each passing day between our people and many other peace-loving peoples of the world. We have thus come to have numerous friends everywhere in the world and international solidarity with our revolution is growing daily." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works. Eng. ed., Vol. V, p. 157.) Under the condition where Korea is divided into the north and the south and US imperialism, the ringleader of world reaction, and its satellite countries are engaged in the nefarious obstructive manoeuvrings, the WPK and the Government of the Republic had to carry out their foreign activity in very difficult and complex circumstances. However, under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, they scored miraculous successes in the revolution and construction and conducted their external activity in a positive way on the basis of an independent foreign policy. As a result, their international prestige rose daily and international solidarity with the Korean revolution grew rapidly. The DPRK came to establish diplomatic relations with most of the countries of the world including the socialist countries and newemerging countries. The Government of the Republic speedily expanded and developed its economic and cultural interchanges with other countries, while furthering diplomatic relations with them. The DPRK concluded short-or long-term agreements on economic and cultural cooperation with the socialist countries. Underthese agreements, many delegations, economic and trade, scientific and technical, cultural and art, were exchanged to expand and develop economic and cultural interchange. There were also brisk economic and cultural interchanges with newly independent countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America and 549

with the capitalist countries which were desirous to open amicable relations with the DPRK. The Government of the Republic concluded agreements on economic and cultural cooperation with almost afl the new-emerging countries of the three continents. Thus, every year witnessed its extensive economic and cultural interchange with them on the principle of complete equality and mutual benefit and accommodation. Business ties with progressive public figures and people in capitalist countries were expanded as their interests in Korea grew. Pressed by the public demand for the expansion of trade and the normalization of diplomatic relations with the DPRK, the Japanese government gradually lightened restrictions on trade with it. Thus, economic interchange was expanded between Korea and Japan. Western capitalist countries, too, in disregard of the pressure of US imperialism, relaxed an "embargo on export" against the DPRK and expressed their hope to establish trade relations with it. Thus, Korea formed trade relations with France, West Germany, Italy, Netherland and other Western capitalist countries. Besides economic interchange, cultural contacts were made with capitalist countries. At the request of the progressive public circles and people of capitalist countries, Korean art troupes visited Britain, France, Italy, Japan and, many other capitalist countries and gave performances amidst great admiration. The state visits of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung to socialist countries and newly independent countries and the visits of the delegations sent by him to these countries were of great significance in expanding and developing the diplomatic relations of Korea. At the invitation of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung paid official friendly visits to these countries in September and November 1 953 right after the armistice. In his talks with the leaders of these countries, he discussed the questions of further strengthening and developing the relations of friendship and cooperation with these countries, achieving the peaceful settlement of the Korean issue and defending durable peace in the Far East and the world. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung made official goodwill visits to socialist countries in 1 956, too. Between June and July that year he paid friendly visits to the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Albania, Poland and Mongolia at the invitation of their governments. In his talks with the leaders of these countries he expressed satisfaction over the daily-growing relations of friendship and cooperation between Korea and these countries. At the same time, the talks pointed out 550 the judiciousness of the policy and proposals of the DPRK Government which was making consistent efforts to settle the Korean issue by the Korean people themselves in a peaceful way and on a democratic basis. In November 1958 the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung made goodwill visits to China and Viet Nam at the invitation of the governments of both countries. He had talks with their leaders on the questions of strengthening friendship and solidarity between Korea and the two countries and consolidating the unity of the socialist countries. The friendly visits to the socialist countries made by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung in the postwar period made a great contribution to promoting friendship and solidarity among the socialist countries and enhanced the international prestige of the DPRK still higher. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's state visit to Indonesia and his participation in the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Bandung Conference in April 1965 marked an epochal turn in expanding and developing Korea's diplomatic relations with newlyindependent countries. He gave a lecture entitled On Socialist Construction in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the South Korean Revolution at the "Ali Archam" Academy of Social Sciences of Indonesia, During his visit to Indonesia the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung attended the 10th anniversary celebrations of the First Asian and African Conference (Bandung Conference) during which he met Zhou Enlai, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Pham Van Dong, Premier of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, Samdech Norodom Sihanouk, Head of State of Cambodia, Souphanouvong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Patriotic Front of Laos, Ajahani, Premier of the North Kalimantan Revolutionary Government, and other Heads of State and leaders of Asian and African countries, and had friendly talks with them. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's state visit to Indonesia and his attendance at the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Bandung Conference marked a great occasion of strengthening friendship and solidarity between the peoples of Korea and Indonesia and made a great contribution to cementing and developing the militant solidarity, friendship and cooperation of the newly independent countries which were united in the joint struggle against imperialism and colonialism. In 1975 the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung made official 551

goodwill visits to China and many European and African countries to bring about an historical change in the development of the external relations of the Government of the Republic, In the wake of his successful visit to China in April that year, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung paid state and official goodwill visits to many European and African countries such as Romania, Algeria, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia between May and June, displaying energetic, distinguished activities to bring Korea's fraternal friendship and solidarity with these countries onto a new higher plane, strengthen the unity and cohesion of the international communist movement and socialist countries on the basis of Chajusong, achieve unity of the nonaligned countries and develop the worfd revolution. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung carried on conversations and talks with the Heads of State and party and government leaders of these countries. Wide views were exchanged there on the question of further consolidating and developing the friendly relations of cooperation between the parties, governments and peoples of Korea and these countries in conformity with the developing situation in the struggle against imperialism and for the victory of the cause of socialism and the revolutionary cause of the peoples of the newemerging forces, and on the international questions of common concern, and agreements were reached on all matters discussed. In many speeches made during his visits to these foreign countries the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung gave clear-cut answers to the important principled questions of the present times on the basis of the immortal Juche idea and outlined the important principled policies for the unity and cohesion of the socialist countries and international communist movement and for the revolutionary development of the new-emerging countries under the present situation. He also analyzed the influence the non-alignment movement was exerting on the development of the present age and its significance and course of development, and signified his deep intention to make Korea join actively in this movement and wage a joint struggle more vigorously against imperialism and colonialism in the ranks of the non-aligned nations. In each foreign country he paid his historical visit to, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung received a warm welcome of unprecedented immense scale. The great leader's historical visits to China and many European and African countries marked an epochal occasion of placing on a new high stage the relations of friendship and cooperation between the peoples of Korea and the socialist countries, which were forged in their joint struggle against imperialism and for the victory of the cause of 552 socialism, and contributed greatly to strengthening the unity and cohesion of the socialist countries and international communist movement. It was also an event of special significance in strengthening cooperation and militant solidarity between Korea and the non-aligned nations and promoting the common cause of these nations and made an important contribution to consolidating and developing the nonalignment movement which reflects the trend of the present times when many countries of the world are following the road of independence, claiming complete equality in international relations. Besides paying personal visits to many foreign countries, the great leader Comrade Kim il Sung dispatched Party and government delegations and various other delegations to foreign countries every year. In 1972 alone more than 670 delegations including the Party and government delegations visited the socialist countries; hosts of delegations such as the government delegattons, government friendship delegations, social organization delegations and economic and cultural delegations were sent to many countries of the third world. As a result, the Government of the Republic deepened the Korean people's sense of solidarity towards the socialist and newly independent countries and further developed the relations of friendship and cooperation with them. Meanwhile, Korea was visited every year by the heads and leaders of socialist and newly independent countries and hosts of delegations including Party, government, social organization, economic, educational and cultural delegations. During the Six-Year Plan period (1971 -1976) alone, the heads of state of scores of countries and thousands of foreign delegations visited Korea. They highly appreciated the brilliant achievements scored by the Korean people in the socialist revolution and socialist construction under the wise leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung and wished them greater victory in the future. Categorically denouncing the war provocation scheme of the US imperialist aggressors occupying the southern half of Korea, they expressed full support to and firm solidarity with the just struggle of the Korean people for making the US imperialists withdraw and achieving the independent peaceful reunification of the country. Entry into International Organizations and Non-Alignment Movement While improving and increasing the diplomatic, economic and 553

cultural relations with other countries, the DPRK Government unfolded energetic activities in the international organizations as well. Thanks to its independent and principled foreign policy and daily increasing international position, the DPRK could join different international organizations in the postwar period. It had joined 49 international organizations including the Asian and African Economic Cooperation Organization by 1960, and 106 by 1970. As the prestige of the Republic daily rose, an increasing number of countries supported it in the international organizations. In April, 1 973 the DPRK was admitted to the Inter- Parliamentary Union amid the active support and approval of the overwhelming majority of the world nations and then to the World Health Organization and UN Conference on Trade and Development — the specialized agencies of the United Nations. The admission of the Republic to these UN specialized agencies involved fierce struggle to smash the obstructive plots of the US-led imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique. Greatly alarmed to see the rapidly growing international position and prestige of the Republic, the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique made desperate efforts to prevent it from being admitted to the World Heafth Organization. The US imperialists even sent their "delegation" to Japan to hatch an obstructive plot and the Japanese reactionary ruling circles made a splash about "prematurity." The Pak Jung Hi puppet clique dispatched cabals to many countries and sent the so-called "memorandum" slandering the DPRK to the member states. They were disgraceful enough to cook up and distribute even a "resolution" to the effect that in case the question of the DPRK's admission comes up for consideration its discussion will be postponed until the next session of the general assembly. At the 26th general assembly of the World Health Organization held in May 1973 the delegates of many countries supported and hailed the DPRK'sjust stand, with the resultthat all the political plots of the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique went awry and the admission of the Republic was decided by overwhelming majority vote. In spite of the obstructive manoeuvres of the US imperialists and the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique, the DPRK was admitted to many international organizations such as the Universal Postal Union, the International Organization of Legal Metrology, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Meteorology Organization and the International Telecommunication Organization between 1974 and 1975. The Government of the Republic kept joining international 554 organizations to bring their number to 141 as of the end of 1975. In 1 976 it joined the "Group of 77 Countries of Developing Countries through its energetic activity. The ministerial meeting of the organization held in May 1976 discussed the question of the entry of the DPRK in it and unanimously decided to admit it as its full member. Like this, the Government of the Republic has joined a large number of international organizations to conduct energetic activities there This is a vivid demonstration of the hjgh authority and prestige of the. Republic which is daily prospering under the intelligent leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. Korea's admission into the non-alignment movement as its full member marked an epochal turn in the development of her relations with foreign countries. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung has taught: "The non-alignment movement is a powerful movement opposed to the aggression and plunder of imperialism and colonialism and the non-aligned countries are the strong newly-emerging forces confronting the reactionary forces of imperialism." (Kim tl Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed., Vol. VII, p. 234.) The non-alignment movement is a movement reflecting the trend of the present times when imperialism is on the decline and ruin and many countries of the world are following the road of Chajusong. It holds an important place in the struggle of the third world people against all forms of aggression and intervention, subordination and inequality. The principles of the non-alignment policy accord with the independent foreign policy invariably maintained by the Government of the Republic. Proceeding from its consistent independent policy, the Government of the Republic has actively supported the non-alignment movement. The meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned States held in Habana, the capital of Cuba, in March 1975 adopted a recommendation on admitting the DPRK as a non-aligned member, pointing out that the independent foreign policy of the DPRK accords with the principles of the non-alignment policy and makes an important contribution to strengthening and developing the nonalignment movement. And the meeting of the foreign ministers of the non-aligned states held in Lima, the capital of Peru, in August that year, decided unanimously to admit the DPRK as a full member of the nonalignment movement. The admission of the DPRK to the non-alignment movement as full membership is a brilliant victory of the anti-imperialist independent 555

foreign policy the Government of the Republic is consistently following under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, and a graphic demonstration of its correctness and great vitality. When the Pak Jung Hi puppet clique non-qualified for membership of the non-alignment movement brazenly attempted to find their way to this movement, the delegates of Algeria, Cuba, Yugoslavia, South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and many other countries attending the meeting of the foreign ministers of the non-aligned states scathingly denounced their acts as an intolerable defilement against the non-alignment movement, as a scheme for splitting and disintegrating it. The meeting branded the Pak Jung Hi clique as the "mean puppets serving US imperialism," as the "enemy of the nonaligned states and the third world people," and rejected flatly their socalled "application for the admission to the non-alignment movement," which was beneath consideration. Thus, the traitorous Pak Jung Hi puppet clique met another shameful defeat, cutting a sorry figure as an "international orphan" utterly isolated from the world people. Having become a full-fledged member of the non-alignment movement, the DPRK sent its delegation to the 5th Summit Conference of Non-Aligned Countries held in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, in August 1976. At the conference the DPRK delegation conveyed the warm congratulations and fraternal greetings of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung to the heads of state and governments of different countries and made a speech expressing the correct stand of the DPRK Government towards the non-alignment movement. The conference unanimously adopted a "Resolution on the Korean Question" reflecting the firm stand and claim of the nonaligned countries actively supporting the DPRK's proposal for national reunification.* The Korean question was also prominently noted in the political declaration of the conference. This bore witness to the correctness and invincible vitality of the independent foreign policy and fair national reunification policy of the DPRK Government. * The basic contents of the "Resolution on the Korean Question" are: 1 . The conference holds that the imperialist war provocation manoeuvres in south Korea should be stopped immediately, all the war means including nuclear weapons introduced into south Korea be removed; all the foreign troops be withdrawn from south Korea, the foreign military bases be dismantled; and the Korean Military Armistice Agreement be replaced by a peace agreement. 2. Considering that the reunification of Korea should be realized by the Korean people themselves through negotiations and dialogue in such modus as Great National Congress which will widely reflect all nation's will, free from any interference of outside forces, in accordance with the three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity clarified in the July 556 4, 1972 North-South Joint Statement, the Conference expresses its firm solidarity with the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the entire Korean people in their struggle for the realization of the independent and peaceful reunification of the country. 3. In order to oppose the imperialist machination to provoke a new war in Korea, prevent any state from encouraging Korea's division or hampering her reunification and help the independent and peaceful reunification of Korea, the non-aligned countries shall take concerted action in the international organizations and international conferences. Ever since its participation in the non-alignment movement, the DPRK Government has been striving hard to strengthen and develop this movement. At present, the non-alignment movement is undergoing trials due to the imperialists and other domination ists who are viciously trying to split and alienate the non-aligned states or scrambling for them. Under such situation the DPRK Government is waging a vigorous struggle against dominationism in accordance with the strategic policy laid down by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. He said: "Dominationism is a counterrevolutionary trend going against the contemporary current towards Chajusong; it is a common target of struggle of the revolutionary peoples of the world. It is in the nature of dominationism to override the Chajusong of other countries and oppress and control other nations and peoples." {Let Us Step Up Socialist Construction under the Banner of the Juche Idea, Eng. ed., p. 35.) He went on to say: "The new-emerging countries should counter the dominationists' manoeuvres for division, alienation and scramble with the strategy of unity. Non-aligned countries, third world countries, should form a broad united front and smash by concerted action the divisive, alienating and scrambling moves of all dominationists." {Ibid., pp. 36-37.) For the strengthening and development of the non-alignment movement the DPRK Government is exerting great efforts to form a united front of the new-emerging forces in the struggle against imperialism and dominationism. To fight against the common enemy of the new-emerging countries, the DPRK Government is attaching prime importance to their unity, subordinating everything to it and striving hard to settle differences and disputes between individual countries on the principle of unity. 557

The International Dissemination of the Juche Idea The great leader Comrade Kim tl Sung authored the immortal Juche idea, the guiding idea of the revolution and construction. He said: "In a nutshell, the idea of Juche means that the masters of the revolution and the work of construction are the masses of the people and that they are also the motive force of the revolution and the work of construction. In other words, one is responsible for one's own destiny and one has also the capacity for hewing out one's own destiny." (Kim II Sung, Selected Works, Eng. ed.. Vol. VI, p. 253.) The Juche idea is based on the philosophical principle that man is master of everything and decides everything. By scientifically enunciating the position and role of man in the world the Juche idea provides one with the correctest outlook on nature and society and with a powerful weapon to cognize and transform the world. It elucidates the law governing the development of society and powerfully inspires the working masses in their revolutionary struggle for an independent and creative life. The Juche idea is a revolutionary theory evolved with the working masses as the central factor and is a revolutionary strategy and tactics based on their role. It amply deals with the revolutionary theories of all spheres for transforming nature and society and gives correct answers toall problemsarising in the revolution and construction. It outlines the task at every stage of the revolution and the way to carry it out and sets forth the strategic and tactical principles to be held fast to in the whole period of the building of socialism and communism. The Juche idea indicates the fundamental stand and method to be followed by the working masses in the revolution and construction. It demands that the working masses assume the attitude of master and maintain an independent and creative stand in the revolutionary struggle and constructive work. By founding the immortal Juche idea the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung has put communist revolutionary thought and theory on a new height and opened the genuine road of national, class and human liberation for all the people to live an independent and creative 558 life as masters of nature and society, free from all kinds of exploitation and oppression, national subordination and inequality. For its greatness and truthfulness the Juche idea is widely spreading all over the continents and regions of the globe with a great magnetic power, gripping the hearts of more and more people. The revolutionaries and progressive people of many countries of the world are highly praising the Juche idea as the "main spirit of our times," saying, "The Juche idea is the most perfect and progressive idea of mankind in the present age and the ever-victorious idea showing the road of struggle ahead of the people."* ' Stanley Tilekeratne, the Speaker of the House of Commons of Sri Lanka, who visited Korea in August 1 970 said that "the revolutionary history of the great leader is full of great ideas that the rising generation should learn.," Mohamed Rashida, chief of the publishing department of the UAR daily A! Messa, remarked: "I am studying and following the Juche idea of great Comrade Kim II Sung. I believe that the Juche idea is a revolutionary idea indispensable 10 all revolutionaries and people fighting for national independence as well as to all people striving to build a new society." The revolutionaries and progressive people of the world are finding in the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's Juche idea and revolutionary theory their programmatic guideline in the struggle to achieve social, class and national liberation, build socialism and communism and attain the ultimate victory of the world revolution. Numerous revolutionaries and social figures of the world are paying visitsto Korea to study the Juche idea and learn the experiences of Korea. As the international prestige and position of the Republic are heightened, it is drawing an increasing attention of the world and the number of foreign visitors to Korea is growing year by year. Every year Korea plays host to hundreds of foreign delegations including the government and goodwill delegations. In 1 975 alone, she was visited by over 8,000 foreign guests of some 1,000 delegations. Foreign guests remarked in unison, "We should build socialism like in Korea," "All successes and experiences of the Korean people provide an excellent example that we should follow in building socialism after winning victory in the revolutionary struggle " Revolutionaries and progressive people of the world visit Korea not only to study and follow the Juche idea but also actively diffuse and propagate it by use of various forms and methods. The great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's classical works and books on his brilliant revolutionary history are being extensively published in Japan. Burma, India, Pakistan, Lebanon and other Asian countries, in France, Italy, Finland, Norway and other European 559

countries and in Algeria, Madagascar, Togo, Sudan, Peru and many other African and Latin-American countries, to widely propagate his immortal Juche idea, revolutionary theory, great exploits and noble virtues. In 1 975 alone, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung's classical works were translated and published in some 50 national languages. Thousands of kinds of foreign publications carrying them were printed in 2,500 million copies until 1 977. This clearly proves what a powerful influence the classical works of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung have on the world people as the most revolutionary and scientific literature of our times. Besides his classical works, Kim II Sung: Biography was published widely. When it was first brought out in Tokyo it was read avidly as a good textbook of life and struggle among the masses of ail levels — workers, peasants, students, youth, noted social personages, scholars and professors, As there was a great demand for it, Kim it Sung: Biography Vol. I ran into a second edition and then the versions of Kim tl Sung: Biography Vols. II and III were published in succession. Later, this book was printed in many countries extensively. Groups for the study of the great leader Comrade Kim ll Sung's Juche idea and his classical works have been set up in different regions and countries of the world. In many Asian, African and Latin -American countries there have appeared "Groups for the Study of Comrade Kim II Sung's Revolutionary Idea," "Groupsforthe Study of Comrade Kim II Sung's Juche Idea," "Groups for the Study of Comrade Kim II Sung's Works," "Groups for the Study of Comrade Kim II Sung's Revolutionary History" and other study groups of different names, and even "Kim II Sung Libraries." Such a study group is set up even in the middle of the United States. The number of the study groups formed in various countries of the world runs into several hundreds, embracing distinguished political figures, men of the press, doctors, professors, students and people of other walks of life. In recent years no small number of these study groups have changed their names into "Groups for the Study of Kimilsungism" or "Committees for the Study of Kimiisungism". Besides, a nationwide guiding system of study groups has been established in many countries to further systematize their activities. Seminars on the Juche idea, the revolutionary idea of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, are held widely. Nationwide seminars are often held in Japan and many other countries. Moreover, overstep560 ping the bounds of a single country, they have come to take place on a regional or continental or worldwide scale. On the occasion of the 60th birthday of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, social scientists, political figures, delegates of the "Groups for the Study of Comrade Kim If Sung," publishers of the great leader's works and many other delegates from the Near and Middle East held the "Seminar on the Creative Juche Idea of Comrade Kim II Sung" in Lebanon in December 1971 as the first international seminar of this kind. In the wake of the "Pan-African Seminar on the Juche Idea of Comrade Kim II Sung" held in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, in December 1972, the "Middle East and Near East and African Seminar on the Juche Idea" was held in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, in November 1 973. Unlike the preceding ones, this Seminar was sponsored by the Democratic People's Republic of Somalia and proceeded on a grand scale as a governmental function. Marking the 10th anniversary of the publication of the great leader's Theses on the Socialist Rural Question in Our Country the scientific seminar entitled "Tasks of the Third World People for the Solution of Rural Question" was held in Togo in October 1 974 with the participation of the delegations from more than 30 countries of the third world. It adopted the rural theses as a joint programme for the solution of the rural question in the third world countries. In October 1975, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers' Party of Korea, the grand "Latin American Scientific Seminar on the Juche Idea"* was held in Lima, the capital of Peru, with the attendance of distinguished socio-political figures and progressive personages from 15 Latin-American countries. * This seminar adopted a declaration which pointed out: "We are firmly resolved to make a deep study of the revolutionary idea ot President Kim !l Sung, Kimilsungism— the monolithic system of the idea, theory and method of Juche— and to propagate it extensively; we deem it necessary to establish a continental institute for the study of the Juche idea in Latin America." In September 1 976 the grand "International Seminaron the Juche Idea" was held in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, with the participation of the party and government delegations and delegates from over 50 countries of the world, and leaders and more than one thousand people of Madagascar from alf walks of life. In his congratulatory speech attheopening session of this seminar Malagasy President Didier Ratsiraka stated as its sponsor: "What we are now going to discuss here is the problem of exchanging ex561

periences gained in studying and enriching the scientific Juche idea and the problem of how to embody it in our countries." The declaration of this seminar considered it natural to call the Juche idea by the august name of its author, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, recognized the need to set up an international institute in the future in order to exchange the successes and experiences already gained in the study of the Juche idea and to develop this common work successfully. It expressed the hope that the next seminar would be convened in Pyongyang, the capital of the DPRK, to grandly celebrate the 65th birthday of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung. The "International Seminar on the Juche Idea" held in Pyongyang tn September 1977 expressively showed what a great faith the progressive people of the world had in the Juche idea. It was attended by 89 delegations and delegates from 73 countries and four internationalorganizations. It was convened reflecting the lofty aspirations of the world progressive people who were aspiring after Chajusong and loving justice and truth. It was a great event of historic significance in the development of revolution in our age of Chajusong. The attendants of the seminar exchanged the valuable successes and experiences attained in studying the Juche idea and in the struggle for independence and self-sustenance, and had serious discussions on the tasks arising from studying and embodying the Juche idea. The seminar adopted the historical Pyongyang Declaration in reflection of the unanimous will and demand of the attendants. The declaration clearly defined our era as a new era in the development of world history, as an era of Chajusong, and solemnly declared that the Juche idea created to meet the basic demands of our times was a correct guiding idea of the revolution and construction. The declaration resolutely condemned the criminal "two Koreas" plot of the US imperialists and the south Korean puppet clique to keep Korea split forever, and extended full support to and firm solidarity with the just struggle of the Korean people for the independent, peaceful reunification of the country. Under the decision of the Pyongyang International Seminar on the Juche Idea, the International Institute of the Juche Idea was established in Tokyo in April 1978 and its organ Study of the Juche Idea was founded. As a result, the work of studying and disseminating the Juche idea began to be carried on conceitedly by an international standing organization. Indeed, it has become the unanimous aspirations of the revolutionaries and progressive people of many countries to study the 562 Juche idea, obtain their revolutionary food from it and find their road in it. The Juche idea founded by the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung is displaying a great material force, gripping the hearts of the revolutionary people of our times. It has become a militant banner which powerfully encourages peoples to a gigantic revolutionary struggieforthe building of a new society and thecreation of a new life. 563

Conclusion

The course of modern history traversed by the Korean people covers nearly 60 years. During this period the Korean people walked a proud road of victory breaking through all the sore trials, and did great things that will shine forever in their history. This glorious history of the Korean people demonstrated to the whole world the judiciousness and might of the Juche idea and irrefutably proved that there is only victory under the banner of Juche. The Juche idea is the unshakable guiding idea of Korea in the revolution and construction and the compass of action for the Korean people. Basing himself on the Juche idea, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung set forth independent and creative lines and policies fully reflecting the specific conditions of Korea and the demands of the Korean people and always led their revolutionary struggle and constructive work along the road of victory, Firmly convinced through their practical experience that the road indicated by the great leader Comrade Kim ft Sung is just the road to victory and glory, the Korean people have come to live, work and struggle with his revolutionary idea, the. Juche idea. By firmly arming themselves with the Juche idea they have been able to heighten their sense of responsibility and revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fully display their revolutionary energy and creativity in the revolution and construction. They have also been able to consolidate the internal forces in every way while forcefully pushing the revolutionary struggle and constructive work. By fully meeting the demand of the Juche idea under the wise leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, the Korean people could not only win the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle but also wipe out all sorts of exploitation and oppression, establish the most advanced socialist system in the short span of time and convert once poor and backward Korea into a strong independent socialist state with solid independent national economy, brilliant national culture and strong defence capability. The practical course of development of the Korean modern history clearly showed that when the Juche idea is made an unshakable 564 guiding idea and the banner of Juche is kept up, there can be no insolvable problem, no unconquerable fortress in the revolution and construction, and a new strong and prosperous society can be built in a short span of time even in any backward country. The Korean people are confidently marching forward, holding high the revolutionary banner of Juche, vigorously speeding up the three revolutions, ideological, technical and cultural, in order to thoroughly embody the Juche idea in all fields of social life and model the whole society after the Juche idea. The course of Korea's modern history bears witness to the inexhaustible strength of the masses of the people and proves that when they are brought into conscious action they can win sure victory in the revolutionary struggle and constructive work, breaking through any difficulty and trial. All material wealth of society is created by the labour of the popular masses, and social transformation and progress are made by their struggle. The source of strength for social progress is after all the popular masses. The masters of the revolution and construction are the masses of the people and they are also the motive force of the revolution and construction. The success of the revolutionary struggle and constructive work depends entirely on how extensively and actively they are enlisted in them. Therefore, the great leader Comrade Kim II Sung, from the first days of his leading the revolution, put in the forefront the revolutionary mass line along which the popular masses are brought to conscious action through education and all the revolutionary tasks are carried out in reliance on the popular masses. The revolutionary mass line was an important factor of all victories in the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, in the building of a new society after liberation, in the peaceful construction and in the revolutionary war. With the implementation of the revolutionary mass line, all the work of transforming society, building the economy and culture and strengthening the nation's defence power was carried out through mass movement, through all-people movement. Whenever the Korean people were faced with difficulties and trials they stepped them over, drawing on the masses' energy and wisdom. In this course, the world-startling miraculous successes could be attained in Korea. The practical experience of Korea proved that the method of rousing the masses into action relying on them is the most revolutionary and active method which makes it possible to enlist all potentialities and possibilities in the revolution and construction and 565

that if the masses are brought to conscious action, there can be nothing impossible in the world. The modem history of the. Korean people has ieft a lot of serious experiences and lessons because of the country's division into the north and the south due to the US imperialists' occupation of south Korea. . t. . , All the situation and trend created by the US imperialists occupation of south Korea clearly showed thatthe aggressive nature of US imperialism became ever more vicious far from changing andthatin order to repel the imperialist aggressive forces and achieve national independence, it was imperative to increase the internal revolutionary forces and wage an anti-imperialist revolutionary struggle in a positive way. The situation of south Korea under the heels of US imperialism presented a sharp contrast to the northern half of the Republic. In the past the north and the south traversed the different roads of sovereign independence and flunkeyist subordination, roads of revolution and counterrevolution, roads of patriotism and quislingism, and popular and anti- popular roads, to bring about different results. These stark historical facts convinced everyone that the road of the north is the road of progress and prosperity while the road of the south is that of decline and ruin. Reunifying the divided country is the supreme task of the Korean nation. ,. -e Forthe realization of national reunification Comrade Kim h bung, peerless patriot, the sun of the nation and the great leader of the Korean people put forward the three principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity, and the five-point policy the content of which is: to remove military confrontation and lessen tensions between north and south, to realize many-sided collaboration and interchange between the north and the south; to convene a Great National Congress comprising representatives of people of all strata, political parties and social organizations in the north and the south; to institute a north-south Confederation under the single nomenclature of a Confederal Republic of Koryo. Thirty-odd-years' experience of the Korean people's struggle for national reunification confirms that the realization of these three principles and five-point policy is the only correct and realistic way to achieve the cause of the country s reunification. The Korean people, therefore, are keeping up the struggle to foil the "two- Koreas" plot of the US imperialists and Japanese militarists and the south Korean authorities and carry through the three principles and five-point policy. All activities of the Korean people being conducted under the 566 revolutionary banner of Juche have also a great international effect, revolutionary a m essence, a revolutionary banner reflecting the trend of the present era when the world people lean to Chaiusonq It is therefore, only natural that the Korean people s S£ achievements and experience of struggle have a great Zt 5S? influence. Today multitudes of the ^u^ W Vnhticians and scholars of the world are paying great attention to the successes ol the Korean people in the revolution and making a deep The Wor^rTp^of Korea, the Government of the Republic and the Korean people firmly adhere to the independent stand in their Sternal aetivTes and resped the Chajusong of other countries^ Their nTependem and principled fore.gn policy is enjjjng . J international support and the international position and role of the DPRK are rapidly increasing with each passing day. The DPRK is making an active contribution to strengthening the unity ol the socialist countries, non-aligned countries, third world cou ntries a nd all the oppressed nations of the world, opposing all kinds of dom nat on sm including imperialism, and to promoting the wo, d revolution and human progress. Here, too, the banner of Juche, the banner of Chajusong, plays an important part The banner of Juche is an ever-lasting banner o the Korean revolutionary genius, great thinker and theoretician. With the lapse : or time 2 San people will attain greater revolutionary achievement and become a more powerful and dignified people.

The text on this page is estimated to be only 23.70% accurate Printed in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea No. 291374