North Koreans Hail Rise of 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong-il

Why does the Kim Jong-il regime starve its population in order to build nuclear weapons and feed its military? According to this tribute to Kim Jong-il published by the country's state-controlled newspaper, the threat of a 'U.S. imperialist attack' means nuclear weapons and a strong military are absolutely essential.

December 23, 2006

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Pyongyang: On Saturday, a national meeting was held at the April 25 House of Culture to mark the 15th anniversary of Kim Jong-il's assumption of supreme command over the Korean People's Army. Present were senior Party, Army and state officials, chairpersons of friendly parties and others.

Korean People's Army [KPA] Vice Marshal Kim Yong-chun, member of the DPRK National Defense Commission and chief of the KPA General Staff, made a report.

He noted that fifteen years ago, Kim Jong-il's assumption of supreme command over the revolutionary armed forces was a great and auspicious event for the nation, which guaranteed that our party, our homeland and its people would endure. Despite the grim tempests of history, Kim Yong-chun spoke of the Dear Leader's rise as an epoch-making event that ensured the victory of the Korean revolution and the building up of the revolutionary armed forces, and he continued:

Since he began his Songun revolutionary leadership Watch early in the 1960s, Kim Jong-il has wisely embraced the cause of building up the army, and has had a firm grip on the KWP's [Korean Worker's Party] concept of attaching importance to the army and military affairs. This brought about the army's historic transformation into a Juche-oriented revolutionary armed force.

[Editor's Note: The "Songon Line" or the "Songun Ideal" are said to have been introduced by Kim Jong-il in 1995 as an offshoot of the "Juche Ideal" which was put forth by his father Kim Il-sung. The phrase essentially means, "Self Reliance." The "Songun Line" is like Stalinist Communism on steroids. As in the former Soviet Union, it emphasizes the military over the quality of life of the people as a necessary stage in the nation's development].

Kim Jong-il established Songun politics as a key socialist political mode in all fields and successfully based the revolution on the principle of placing the army ahead of the working class. He did this out of his deep insight into the frantic anti-socialist offensive of the imperialist reactionary forces and the dangers that the nation faced, both from within and without. This phase of the unfolding revolution is required by the era, and puts the revolutionary cause of Juche on a higher platform.

With the U.S. imperialists posing an increasingly open threat of preemptive nuclear attack and instigating sanctions and other pressure, the army and people of North Korea have striven to bolster the national defense. This is done to defend the country's sovereignty and right to exist. Thanks to this struggle of preservation, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has succeeded in developing nuclear weapons and has emerged as a fully-fledged nuclear weapon state, after undergoing the most just and fair process.

North Korea's successful nuclear test was a historic event that strikingly demonstrated the power and creative potential of Juche Korea advancing under the great banner of Songun. It was the shining achievement of the unshakable faith and will of the army and people to achieve the ideal of independence and prosperity.  This has been done by refusing to allow their national dignity and destiny to be infringed upon by any other country, in a world plagued by tragic events and ruled by the law of jungle.

Referring to the need for Kim Jong-il to be defended politically and ideologically and at the cost of the lives of the army and people, Kim Yong-chun's report highlighted the need for all to deeply establish the trait, throughout all of society, of attaching importance to the army. He said we must continue to apply the greatest levels of productivity to the national defense industry and the material basis of the military.

Vice Marshal Kim called for increased state efforts to achieve a socialist economic arrangement, to revitalize the national economy and to improve the standard of the living of the people.

Vice Marshal Kim Reiterated that it's the sacred duty of Koreans to end the tragic division of the nation. The report continued:

Due to America's continuing hostility, the situation on the Korean Peninsula remains unpredictable. The U.S. has blocked the implementation of the September 19, 2005 joint statement and had kept Six-Party Talks deadlocked for over a year by applying unreasonable sanctions. When the talks recently resumed, it persistently schemed to force North Korea to disarm unilaterally while categorically rejecting the prompt lifting of sanctions, insisting that North Korea abandon its nuclear program first.

The U.S. and its followers, including Japan, have persistently created an anti-DPRK "human rights" racket and have tightened sanctions against it, in a reckless bid to impair the dignity and prestige of North Korea and to strangle it economically.

North Korea is watching the U.S. closely, as it employs every kind of trick and uses carrots and sticks to escalate the sanctions under the guise if holding a "dialogue."

Sanctions and pressure will never work on the DPRK. If the hostile forces continue to escalate sanctions and use pressure against North Korea, it will react resolutely with stronger countermeasures.

The revolutionary armed forces of North Korea want peace but are not afraid of war. They will never allow anyone to infringe on the sovereignty and dignity of their country.