111th Anniversary of the Birth of President Kim Il Sung
April 15, 1912

Selected Works of Kim Il Sung

The following material was prepared by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Permanent Mission to the UN on the 111th anniversary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung.

President Kim Il Sung considered it an essential demand of the Korean revolution to maintain the independent stand from the first period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and wisely led the Korean people’s struggle to liberate the country by relying on the Juche-oriented revolutionary forces.

The Juche idea authored by the President was not only a great revolutionary ideology that clarified in an original way the fundamental principle and ways for the revolutionary struggle in line with specific realities of the Korean revolution but a powerful ideological and spiritual weapon that enabled it to adhere to the independent stand in the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.

With the thoroughgoing independent stand, the President wisely led the anti-Japanese revolution so that it could advance along the road of Juche whenever he was faced with hardships.

He demonstrated the firm will of the Korean revolutionaries to carry out the historic cause of national liberation only under the banner of the great Juche idea while steadfastly clarifying the independent stand towards the Korean revolution at every turning point of the revolution.

Thanks to the wise leadership of the President who led the Korean revolution along the road of Juche and independence while adhering firmly to the principle of independence whatever wind might blow, the Korean people could carry out the cause of national liberation on their own.

Victory in the anti-Japanese revolutionary war was brought to brilliant fruition by the independent stand which the President firmly adhered to in the 20-year long practice of the grim anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.

Juche-Oriented Military Tactics of Brilliant Commander, Brought War to Great Victory

Historic victory in the Fatherland Liberation War [the Korean War] was brought to brilliant fruition by President Kim Il Sung’s distinguished military ideas, strategy and tactics, the Juche-oriented military tactics and the art of commanding the army.

At the first period of the war the President issued an order to switch over to the immediate and decisive counteroffensive so that the People’s Army could liberate Seoul, a bulwark of the enemy, only three days after the war broke out.

Courageous naval forces and airmen of the People’s Army fought bravely, true to the President’s Juche-oriented naval and air tactics, and thus they created a miracle of sinking the enemy’s heavy cruiser with four torpedo boats and shot down a “B-29” strategic bomber which the enemy boasted of as a “fortress in the sky.”

The operation to liberate Taejon, a model of modern encirclement, the action of the second-front units to strike the enemy from behind, that turned the enemy-held areas into their deadfall, the tunnel tactics, that is the original and superior Korean-style one unprecedented in the world history of war and the like was met with admiration from militarists of the world.

Regarding it as an important aspect of the victory in war to defeat the enemy’s numerical and technical superiority by means of strategic and tactical predominance, the President created many Juche-oriented tactics including the movement of aircraft-hunting teams, the movement of tank-hunting teams, snipers teams and separate heavy machine gun teams, the movement of demolition teams behind the enemy lines, the movement of mobile batteries (mortar platoons) and mobile artillery batteries and direct-firing gunners, thus giving death and fear to the aggressors who insisted a weapon-almighty theory.

Historical Inevitability of Victory of Socialism Explained on Scientific Basis

President Kim Il Sung paid primary attention to the explanation of historic inevitability of victory of socialism under the condition that the image of socialism was tarnished by renegades of socialism and that many people were not confident of the victory in socialism. The President clearly explained in his several works including the answers to questions raised by the director of the Iwanami Shoten Publishers, Japan that it is the law of historical development that socialism emerges victorious.

The President explained that the fact that socialism had collapsed and capitalism restored in some countries was a big loss for the people in achieving independence but it could never be interpreted as the denial of the just socialist cause and the reactionary character of imperialism. The President explained that it was a vortex of history which had appeared in the course of humanity’s advance towards a new world of independence.

The President explained that socialism is an ideal which embodies the nature of humanity, social beings, who want to end the exploitation and oppression of persons by persons and to live independently all together and, therefore, as history advances and the independence and creativity of people increase it will have a greater magnetism and surely triumph.

The President emphasized that it was necessary to see the changing situation not pessimistically but optimistically and advance more vigorously along the road of independence with firm confidence in socialism.

Victory Won on the Strength of Spirit

It was President Kim Il Sung’s constant view that the essential factor of victory in a war is not weapons or military equipment but the ideological mentality of the people who handle them.

It is common that a country, though it has huge military potential, falls into disorder and suffers from pains in case it is suddenly attacked.

However, people of the DPRK, united firmly behind the President, switched over to immediate and decisive counteroffensive from the outset of the war and thus reversed the tide of war and gave successive blows to the enemy as they cherished a firm faith that they would win sure victory in the war and be well off as long as they were led by the President.

Earnestly wishing the President’s safety, the DPRK people fought the life-and-death battle in the front and the rear to defend the Supreme Headquarters.

The spirit of defending the leader unto death, spirit of defending the country and popular heroism fully displayed by the People’s Army soldiers including the courageous men on Height 1 211 and Wolmi Island, who fought to defend every inch of the country at the cost of their blood, and the people who even resorted to powering machinery by hand to manufacture hand grenades and increased food production in wartime even under the enemy’s bombardment, served as a secret that enabled them to achieve great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War.

Road Chosen with Juche

Kim Il Sung had a talk with a well-known party and state activist from the USSR in the period of the anti-Japanese armed struggle.

At that time, Kim Il Sung was asked which kind of assistance the Korean people wanted the USSR to give for the building of their country after liberation. Kim Il Sung gave him the following answer.

Kim Il Sung said that the Korean people were going to build the country by themselves if possible. He said that though difficult, it would be beneficial for their future. He said that historically, the worship of great powers was a root cause of national ruin, so they were determined to prevent such ruin caused by the worship of big powers in the building of a new country.

To achieve prosperity independently is the only road to the revolution and the building of a prosperous country!

Keenly feeling the truth in the days of the bloody war against Japanese imperialists, Kim Il Sung saw that solid foundations were laid for a self-reliant economy without the slightest vacillation both in the period of building a new country and in the difficult post-war period.

Convinced that the road of self-reliance chosen with Juche is a true road of the revolution, the straight road to victory, the Korean people who won only victory and glory in the road of self-reliance under the leadership of Kim Il Sung are now braving every difficulty in the spirit of self-reliance and self-development and opening up the era of great changes.

Nothing Is More Important Than Raising the Level of the Masses’ Ideological Consciousness

One day in March 1992 when he visited the DPRK, a foreigner was received by President Kim Il Sung. He asked what matters the President had been most concerned about in the years of leading the Korean revolution and making a great contribution to world revolution.

The President said that the people who struggle to realize the independence of the popular masses should concentrate on raising the level of the people’s ideological consciousness of independence and, though the objective conditions and the environment have a major effect on shaping man’s destiny, it is always humanity that plays the decisive role.

The President said that as burglars may break into a house without a master, so too an anti-socialist current from outside may flow into a society without masters, and anti-socialist elements may grow within that society, and this could explain the fact that socialism crumbled in some countries which had been following the path of socialism.

The President said that, having witnessed the unexpected events that have taken place in the international arena over recent years, he had all the more keenly felt that ideology is the lifeblood of socialist society and that nothing is more important in the revolution and construction than raising the level of the masses’ ideological consciousness.

Strengthening the Nation’s Defence Power

President Kim Il Sung addresses the 5th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

The following item is excerpted from the report given by President Kim Il Sung, in his capacity as General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), to the 5th Congress of the WPK on November 2, 1970.

Comrades,

The situation in our country is still acute and tense. The aggressive maneuvers of the U.S. imperialists are being further intensified and their plots to provoke another war are becoming more blatant. Under the wing of the U.S. imperialists, the Japanese militarists are again increasing their aggressive maneuvers against Korea. The puppet clique of south Korea, the stooges of both the U.S. and Japanese reactionaries, are behaving recklessly in an attempt to execute their war policies of their masters. In our country the danger of war is mounting with every passing day.

To deal with the prevailing situation we must speed up socialist construction to the maximum and build up our national defence power at the same time. We should continue to maintain the line already put forth by the Party, that of arming the entire people, turning the whole country into a fortress, converting the entire army into an army of cadres and modernizing it from top to bottom. Furthermore, we should more thoroughly implement the principle of self-defence in guarding the nation.

The most important in increasing the defence capabilities of the country is to arm all the people more efficiently. Everyone should learn military science seriously and take a more active part in military training. The workers, farmers and all other working people should always maintain their readiness to annihilate the aggressors anywhere they attack, while at the same time accelerating socialist construction, with a hammer or sickle in one hand and a rifle in the other. When all the people are under arms, when all the people hate the enemy, when all the people join in fighting against the aggressors, it will be possible to defeat any enemy.

Our People’s Army is entrusted with the honorable mission of protecting our magnificent socialist achievements and the freedom and happiness of the people from the encroachment of the enemy. The People’s Army should keep itself fully prepared to deal the aggressors rapid crushing blows and annihilate them even in the event of a surprise attack by the enemy.

The important task to be fulfilled for strengthening the combat power of the People’s Army is that of stoutly arming the soldiers both politically and ideologically and, on this basis, ensure that they continually study and perfect the art of war suitable to the actual conditions of our country, thus modernizing the army.

Ours is a country with many mountains and rivers and long coastal lines. If we make good use of such topographical features, skillfully using mountain warfare and night actions and correctly combining large-unit operations with small unit operations and regular-army warfare with guerrilla warfare, we shall be completely able to destroy an enemy, even if he is armed to the teeth with the latest military hardware. This was proved by the experience of our Fatherland Liberation War, and is being proved today by the war in Viet Nam.

Therefore, we have to base ourselves strictly upon our own specific conditions in modernizing the People’s Army and developing military science and technology. If we try, instead, to copy foreign war strategies mechanically or introduce foreign weapons and other military hardware dogmatically, on the pretext of modernizing the People’s Army, it will result in a serious setback to our nation’s defence construction.

We must perfect our military strategy in such a way as to compensate for defects in the People’s Army, reinforce its weak links and develop its strong points in line with the requirements of the Party’s military strategic thought based on a full consideration of the existing conditions of our country and the experience of the Fatherland Liberation War. On this basis, we must advance our military science and technique and constantly improve the weapons and other military hardware of the People’s Army. We must always adhere to the principle of producing many weapons suitable to the specific conditions of our country and modernizing our military equipment in line with our industrial capacity. The combat training of the People’s Army soldiers must also be conducted in such a way that they master the art of war which is best suited to the actual conditions of our country and develop our military science and technique fully.

Ours is a small and newly-developed country. It must be admitted that we are not in a position to compete with developed countries in military technical equipment and we are not required to do so. The destiny of war is by no means decided by modern weapons or military technology. Although the imperialists have a military technical ascendancy, our People’s Army has politico-ideological superiority. The lofty mission and revolutionary spirit of fighting for the freedom and liberation of the homeland and people, and the noble traits such as comradeship between officers and men, conscious military discipline and bonds of kinship with the people, are characteristic features of our People’s Army which no imperialist armed forces of aggression can ever possess. Precisely because of such politico-ideological superiority, our People’s Army can readily defeat the enemy who is technically superior.

In order to strengthen our nation’s defence capabilities, the whole Party and all the people should get down to the task of accelerating war preparations still more. All Party members and all the working people must combat indolence and slackness and always maintain keen revolutionary vigilance. They should be on the alert, ready to fight and repel the enemy without the slightest fear no matter when the surprise attack might come. We must never become victims of a pacifistic mood and, in particular, we must strictly guard against the revisionist ideological trend of being afraid of war, and prevent it from penetrating our ranks.

The outcome of a war depends largely on whether or not the manpower and material requirements of the front and the rear are fully met over a long period. We should ensure ample reserves of the of the necessary materials by intensifying the movement for increased production in all fields of the national economy, develop the munitions industry, reorganize the economy as the situation demands and prepare ourselves in advance so as to be able to continue producing even during the course of a war. In this way, we shall build up a firm material base for better implementation of the principle of self-defence in protecting the nation.

Comrades, our national defence capability is literally of a defensive nature and is designed to defend the security of our country and our people against imperialist aggression. We have no intention of threatening or carrying out aggression against anybody. Threats and aggression against others have no place in the policies of our Party. Our country is a peace-loving socialist country, and our people is one which ardently loves peace. Our consistent advocacy of peace stems from the inherent nature of our state and social system. We are doing all we can to preserve and consolidate peace. However, no one should take our desires and persevering efforts for peace as a sign of weakness. Our people have no interest in provoking others but they will never allow anyone to attack them. We are trying to prevent war, but we are not afraid of it. If the imperialist aggressors invade us with their armies, we shall destroy them to a man and not one will return home alive. We shall strengthen the nation’s defence capacities and decisively smash any surprise attack by the enemy, firmly protect out socialist achievements and indomitably defend the eastern outpost of socialism.

(Kim Il Sung’s Works, Vol. 25, pp. 251-255.)

[BACK]