During our sojourn in Moscow we visited the Lenin Mausoleum, the History Museum and the famous battle sites related to the defence of Moscow. We again enjoyed the film, Chapayev.

I did not know why, but even after the meeting the Soviet people showed us around Moscow without being in any hurry to send us back to the Far East.

After several days they introduced us to Zhdanov, Member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Stykov was already there.

Saying that he was meeting us, the envoys from the east, on behalf of Stalin, he highly praised the anti-Japanese armed struggle we had conducted. He had heard much about Kim Il Sung, the Korean guerrilla leader, from Stalin and Stykov, and he was glad to see me much younger than he had heard, he said. According to him, Stalin was also showing exceptional interest in our activities.

Our talk with Zhdanov began with the question of the present military and political situation. During the talk I felt he wanted to hear my opinion on how to develop Korea after liberation into a democratic, independent state.

In the middle of the talk he suddenly asked me how many years it would take for the Korean people to build a sovereign state after the liberation of their country.

I replied it would take two or three years at most.

He seemed happy to hear this. He even rubbed his palms. At the same time, it was evident he was surprised at my answer.

At that time I guessed why he was so interested in our building of an independent and sovereign state after liberation and why he looked dubious about my answer.

This was because Roosevelt had proposed trusteeship when discussing the postwar Korean question at the Yalta Conference. Roosevelt consistently maintained that the small nations in Asia to be liberated from colonial rule should be educated in democracy under the patronage of big powers.

In the spring of 1943, in talks in Washington with the US Secretary of State and the British Foreign Minister, Roosevelt claimed that Korea and the Indochinese nations must be placed under the trusteeship of big powers. He said that about 40 years would be needed as a transitional period for Koreans to win full independence. It seems he did not have a high opinion of the Korean nation.

I stressed that in the course of the lengthy anti-Japanese armed struggle and national liberation struggle our people had been awakened to political consciousness and tempered greatly, that in the course of this a steadfast leading hard core and broad sections of the patriotic forces that could build a state by their own efforts had been prepared, and that we had acquired rich fighting experience, boundless creativity, seasoned organizing ability and a strong capability to mobilize the people.

Listening carefully to my explanation, Zhdanov asked in what form his country could give assistance to the Korean people in their struggle to build their country after liberation.

I said, “Your country fought a four-year war with Germany and it will fight another big war with Japan. So how can you help us? Your help will, as a matter of fact, be welcome, but we are going to build the country by ourselves to the best of our ability. Though difficult, it will be beneficial for the future. In our country worship of great powers has existed historically as the root cause of national ruin. We’re determined to prevent this malady from doing harm to the building of our new country. What we expect from you is your political support. We hope that in future the Soviet Union will actively support our country in the international arena, and make efforts to ensure that the Korean issue is settled in the interests of the Korean people and in accordance with their wishes.”

Zhdanov was satisfied with my answer.

He said, “Some days ago I met a man from an Eastern European country. As soon as he saw me, he told me that the economy of his country was basically backward and the difficulties it faces are manifold owing to the devastation of the war, and that the Soviet Union should help his country as a big brother. What a contrast between his attitude and yours! I wonder if this is the difference between the East and the West, the difference between the country where the sun rises and the country where the sun sets?”

His last words were of course a joke.

How could there be any difference between a sun-rising country and a sun-setting country? If any, the difference was that the leaders of the Eastern European countries believed in the Soviet Union more than in the strength of their own people. Most of these countries were liberated by the Soviet army, so they built socialism after the Soviet fashion, relying utterly on that country, and aping everything the Soviet people did and said. Their worship of the Soviet Union was so extreme that it was said that when it was raining in Moscow, they also raised their umbrellas. One of the reasons why socialism went to ruin in Eastern Europe was precisely the worship of the great power.

Zhdanov said he would report to Stalin the result of his interview with me.

Later I met him on several occasions, deepening our friendship.

― Kim Il Sung, With the Century, vol. 8, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang 1998, pp. 373-376.

Saying that there now exist not a few serious crises and challenges facing the world but the fundamental danger comes from the U.S. and its vassal forces’ high-handed and arbitrary practices that destroy the foundation of international peace and stability, he noted that the current international situation is mainly characterized by the fact that it has got more complicated as the structure of the international relations has been reduced to the structure of “neo-Cold War” due to the U.S. unilateral and prejudiced bloc-forming style external policy.

― Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Makes Historic Policy Speech “On the Orientation of Present Struggle for a Fresh Development of Socialist Construction”, 29 September 2021.

The present international situation shows that the contradictions between justice and injustice and between the progressive and the reactionary, especially the power structure surrounding the Korean peninsula, have become obvious and the change from a unipolar world advocated by the US into a multipolar world is being accelerated significantly.

Our Republic will develop foreign relations proactively in line with the development trend of the current international situation and its position as a powerful independent country.

The field of external affairs should invariably hold fast as the foremost mission of the diplomacy of the Republic to the defence of the dignity of our Party, the enhancement of national prestige and the championing of national interests and settle issues arising in international relations in the interests of our revolution.

It should develop external relations in a many-sided way as it further expands and develops friendly and cooperative relations with neighbouring countries and collaborates with all countries and nations opposing and rejecting the imperialists’ aggression and interference, domination and subordination and aspiring after independence and justice, regardless of differences in ideology and system.

Along with this, it should try to find a way of making diplomatic efforts for developing multifaceted exchanges and cooperation with capitalist countries that respect our country and are friendly to it.

― Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Makes Policy Speech at Seventh Session of the 14th SPA of DPRK, 8 September 2022.

The U.S., which has exposed the whole continent of Europe to the grave danger of war and caused big and small concerns, is now further crossing the red line.

It has made a “special contribution” to instigating the unstable world crisis to be continued by providing Ukraine with a large amount of military hardware. It recently made public that it would supply its MBT to Ukraine, only to make clearer its confrontation stand against Russia.

Lurking behind this is the U.S. sinister intention to realize its hegemonic aim by further expanding the proxy war for destroying Russia.

The world would be brighter, safer and calmer now, if it were not for the U.S.

The U.S. is the arch criminal which poses serious threat and challenge to the strategic security of Russia and pushes the regional situation to the present grave phase.

I express serious concern over the U.S. escalating the war situation by providing Ukraine with military hardware for ground offensive, and strongly denounce it.

The U.S. and other Western countries are wrecking the global peace and the regional security while handing military hardware running into astronomical sum of money over to Ukraine in total disregard of Russia’s concern about security. Therefore, they have neither right nor justification to slander sovereign states’ exercise of the right to self-defense.

The U.S. is mulling mobilizing the military potentials of its top-class stooges on the anti-Russian front, to say nothing of those of the Western countries.

The Ukrainian battlefield is by no means a desert in the Middle East where the U.S. MBTs went on the rampage 20 years ago.

I do not doubt that any military hardware the U.S. and the West boast of will be burnt into pieces in the face of the indomitable fighting spirit and might of the heroic Russian army and people.

No matter how desperately the imperialist allied forces may try, they will never weaken the heroic stamina of the Russian army and people with high patriotism, stubbornness and strong mental power.

We will always stand in the same trench with the service personnel and people of Russia who have turned out in the struggle to defend the dignity and honor of the state and the sovereignty and security of the country.

― Press Statement of Kim Yo Jong, Vice-Department Director of CC, WPK, 27 January 2023.

The Ukrainian president’s website recently carried an appeal calling for deploying U.S. nuclear weapons in territory of Ukraine or making nuclear weapons by itself.

It is reported that if more than 25,000 inhabitants sign the appeal within 90 days, the president will examine the proposed initiative and clarify the official stand on it.

This is a plausible veil of the public’s expression of will, but it is not hard to guess that it is a product of the Zelenskiy authorities’ sinister political plot.

It is a well-known fact that Zelenskiy clarified at the Munich Security Conference in February 2022 his stand to restore the position of the country’s nuclear weapons state and officials of Ukraine openly revealed their nuclear ambition on several occasions.

The Ukrainian authorities, seized with the incurable megalomania that can defeat Russia, are incurring a nuclear disaster threatening their existence without any elementary consciousness of foresight and any ability to cope with its ensuing consequences.

Zelenskiy’s talk about the introduction of U.S. nuclear weapons and the independent development of nuclear weapons is a manifestation of his very dangerous political ambition to prolong his remaining days at any cost by gambling with the destiny of his country and people.

It is the law of the world that if the authorities lack political sense and discretion, they will drive the country and nation into the abyss of ruin.

The Zelenskiy authorities, who always look up at their master and chant prayers of begging and solicitation, are not rivals of Russia, and if they are focused on nuclear daydream as now, they will be a more vivid target in Russia’s nuclear sighting.

If the Zelenskiy authorities calculated that they can avoid the powerful fire of Russia only when they go under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, which had already been perforated, they are going to the wrong path, the last path.

Those stooges serving the U.S. as their master and blindly believing in its poor promise should clearly understand that awakening at an early date from the self-destructive nuclear ambition, little different from having a nuclear time bomb hung on their backs, is the best option for saving their lives.

― Statement of Kim Yo Jong, Vice Department Director of C.C., WPK, 1 April 2023.

Russia is currently engaged in a sacred battle to defend its state sovereignty and security in the face of the hegemonic forces that oppose Russia. We are willing to continue to develop our relations. We have always supported and will continue to support every decision made by President Putin, as well as the decisions of the Russian Government. I also hope that we will always stand together in fighting imperialism and building a sovereign state.

― Russia-North Korea Talks, 13 September 2023.

Comrades, this visit is taking place at a time when a fierce competition between progress and reaction, between justice and injustice is gaining momentum on the international stage, and when the rise of the multipolar world is proceeding thanks to the common will and combined strength of independent forces.

Comrade Putin and I have just had an in-depth discussion on the military-political situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Europe. We have come to a satisfactory consensus regarding the further strengthening of our strategic and tactical cooperation, mutual support and solidarity in the battle for our sovereign right to security and to create guarantees for a lasting peace in the region and the world. We are confident that the Russian army and people will inevitably attain victory in the sacred struggle to punish the evil crowd, which claims the right to hegemony based on the illusion of expansionism, a struggle to create the stability needed for development.

The task of expanding and building up Russian-North Korean relations not only fully meets the interests of our two nations but is also a relevant part of the current period of striving for independence. I will work together with the President of Russia to develop stable and forward-looking Russian-North Korean relations for decades to come, using them to stimulate the development of strong states in our countries and to ensure genuine international justice.

― Formal Dinner in Honour of Chairman of State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Kim Jong Un, 13 September 2023.

It is the fact recognized by the world that the DPRK inevitably had access to nuclear weapons for self-defence and developed its policy of bolstering up the nuclear force into a law, for it is standing in protracted confrontation with the U.S., the world’s biggest nuclear weapons state and the most dangerous war state, and its vassal forces.

The present situation, in which the structure of the “new Cold War” is being materialized on a global scale and the existence of sovereign states and the right to existence of their people are seriously threatened by the reactionary imperialist forces keen on realizing their ambition for hegemony and expansionist fantasy, proves that our Republic was entirely just when it made a decisive decision to build a nuclear force in the face of all sorts of trials and fix it as an irreversible state law.

Had our Republic merely pinned its hopes on the nuclear umbrella of others, exposed to the ever-increasing nuclear blackmail and threats from the U.S., and failed to boldly decide on the line of arming itself with nuclear weapons, captivated by gestures of “goodwill” hyped up by the imperialists and spurious temptations, and stopped or retreated from the already started arduous journey, it would have certainly suffered a nuclear holocaust and total destruction long ago, and it would have been impossible to imagine the present proud reality in which it enhances the national prestige and might and steers the world toward justice while resolutely countering the enemy’s outrageous challenge and pressure.

― Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Makes Speech at 9th Session of 14th SPA, 26-27 September 2023.

Anti-imperialist independence is justice and truth, and dignity and sovereignty, peace and security can be firmly defended only in this way.

It is the foreign policy stand of our Party and state to safeguard justice and peace, aspire toward progress and development and promote friendship and solidarity.

The DPRK will never tolerate the heinous infringement on its sovereignty by the U.S. which is wantonly trampling down and plundering world peace and stability with illegal double standards, regarding anti-imperialist independence as its immutable and consistent first national policy, but will strive to realize international justice based on respect for sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and establish a new international order.

The external affairs sector should strategically and positively conduct the work to cope with the rapid change in the international political structure and security environment on the initiatives, so as to create conditions and circumstances favorable for our revolution and prevent any deviation or concession in the principle of defending national rights and interests.

It should set the development of relations with socialist countries as its primary task, further strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation, launch a courageous anti-imperialist joint action and joint struggle on an international scale, and achieve new progress in the work for further expanding the sphere of external relations of the country, uniting and cooperating with all countries and nations aspiring after independence and justice, irrespective of ideology and social system.

― Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Makes Policy Speech at 10th Session of 14th SPA, 15 January 2024.

Relations between our countries are entering a new period of high development that cannot be compared even to the Korean-Soviet relationship of last century. I have no doubt that the passionate friendship between our nations will grow even stronger during your visit.

The Government ofthe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has the highest regard for the important mission and role of the Russian Federation as a strong power in maintaining strategic stability and balance in the world. Our Government fully supports and expresses solidary with the Russian Government, army and people who are waging the special military operation in Ukraine to protect their sovereignty, security interests and territorial integrity.

The global situation is rapidly changing and becoming more complicated. In this context, we intend to continue to strengthen our strategic interaction with Russia and the Russian leadership. We also reaffirm our unwavering support for Russian policy as a whole.

― Beginning of Russia-DPRK Talks, 19 June 2024.

Relations between our countries have risen to a new high level of alliance. A legal basis has been laid, making it possible to fulfil the ambitious plan of the leadership of the two countries and the age-old aspiration of our peoples to reliably protect peace and security in the region and in the world and to build strong states in line with the common interests of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation. (…)

Comrades, times have changed. As, undoubtedly, changed the status of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation in the international geopolitical structure. Today, the anchor has been raised at this spot and the solemn start of allied relations between the DPRK and the Russian Federation has been announced, which represents a watershed in the history of Russian-Korean relations.

The Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will always faithfully fulfil its obligations under the treaty along the entire further path towards the continuous development of a comprehensive strategic partnership and invincible allied relations with the Russian Federation. This comprehensive agreement between the two countries, the DPRK and the Russian Federation, is nothing less than a document of a very constructive, future-oriented, exclusively peace-loving and defensive nature, designed to protect and defend the basic interests of the two nations. I have no doubt that it will become a driving force accelerating the creation of a new multipolar world, free from domination, enslavement, hegemony, and violence.

Here today I solemnly proclaim the unwavering will of our government. There will be not the slightest disagreement in interpretation, or hesitation or uncertainty in fulfilling all historical tasks to develop eternal friendship and increase the benefits of the two countries’ peoples and future generations, as well as in faithfully fulfilling our duties and overcoming, through coordinated common efforts, any possible difficulties that both our countries have already collided with or will collide in the future.

― Press Statements Following Russia-DPRK Talks, 19 June 2024.

The U.S. killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people by dropping nuclear bombs for the first time in history in the last century. It is now running amuck to plunge the whole earth into a horrible nuclear disaster.

It is a serious mistake and foolish act for the U.S. to announce its plan to offer again military aids worth 8 billion U.S. dollars to the neo-Nazis puppet regime of Ukraine.

I strongly denounce the U.S. for its intentional escalation of tensions to trigger off prolongation and expansion of the dispute and plunge the whole European region into the holocaust of a nuclear war by providing Ukraine with astronomical amounts of military hardware.

The U.S. and the West should neither ignore nor underestimate Russia’s stern warnings.

Can the U.S. and the West deal with the consequences to be entailed by their current fearless war gamble against Russia, a nuclear superpower?

To help Ukraine attempt at further adventurous military actions is just a dangerous gamble. It is also an irresponsible act of making many people stake their lives on luck only, exposed to a great calamity.

Calamity is inevitable unless insanity of Zelenskiy is stopped.

The U.S., though belatedly, should know that it can get a mere chance for preventing the looming calamity only when it cools down its head heated with anti-Russia confrontational hysteria and takes a step back after abandoning such a foolish and silly guy as Zelenskiy.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to give a serious warning over Zelenskiy’s backbiting against the DPRK at a recent UNSC meeting.

The malicious Zelenskiy clique, who has killed innocent Russian citizens by recklessly using the good-for-nothing weapons offered by the U.S. and the West, has gone so preposterous as to let out a string of rubbish terming our country an “accomplice nation” in the Ukrainian war. This is a reckless politically-motivated provocation that can never be justified.

As for the logic of Zelenskiy, the U.S. and the West deserve the title of top-class accomplice for having lavished the greatest amounts of weapons and ammunition on the Ukrainian battlefield.

The world began to feel bored with the poor acting of Zelenskiy.

It is uncertain what he would do more with begging and solicitation of sympathy but he’d better step down for world peace and security before it would be too late.

History is on the side of justice.

The U.S. and its followers are bound to pay dearly for pursuing high-handedness and challenging justice.

― Press Statement of Vice Department Director of WPK Central Committee Kim Yo Jong, 29 September 2024.

The reckless infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK by the ROK military gangsters is a hideous military provocation that can never be pardoned.

Seoul will have to experience at first hand so as to know properly how dangerous act it committed and how terrible and fatal the consequences it brought on itself are.

A military provocation against a nuclear weapons state may be led to horrible situation, unimaginable for politicians and military experts in any big or small country in the world with their normal thinking to experience. So, there will be no such instance except one recently made by lunatics of the ROK and Ukraine.

Such deed can be done only by lunatics in the Seoul and Kiev regimes.

Seoul and Kiev are exact counterparts in going about bagging and letting loose reckless remarks against nuclear weapons states at random without follow-up capability.

It seems to be a common feature of bad dogs bred by the U.S.

The DPRK detective agencies’ investigation into the drones from the ROK is going on and the truth behind the despicable provocation of the ROK military gangsters will be analyzed further in detail.

No one knows how our retaliation and revenge will be completed.

A lot of political motivational rubbish sent by the ROK scum was discovered and removed in many parts of the DPRK on October 21, too.

The brute courage of the Seoul authorities to jump into fire with brushwood on their backs, far from reflecting on their conducts and being prudent, will bring the danger of destruction of all the scum. And they will be denounced by everyone else.

― Press Statement of Kim Yo Jong, Vice Department Director of C.C., WPK, 22 October 2024.

As a key factor threatening peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and other regions of the Asia-Pacific, the tripartite military bloc of the United States, Japan and the ROK is more clearly revealing its menacing nature.

The United States has already converted its alliance with the ROK into a nuclear-based one and created an “Asian NATO” in haste by cementing its military ties with Japan and the ROK. And almost every day it has brought strategic military hardware and the troops of its allies, including those of NATO member states, into and around the ROK, staging intensive drills of all hues to get these forces familiarized with a war of aggression.

The strengthening of the exclusive military bloc and successive military drills simulating a real war are gradually undermining the strategic environment in the Korean peninsula. These dangerous moves by the United States, Japan and the ROK remind us of the criminal actions that NATO committed to create a security crisis in Europe by steadily expanding its military alliance system and pursuing its unjustifiable eastward advance policy.

After all, the US-led military alliance is gaining in scope to include Europe and the Asia-Pacific, and the spearhead of its aggression is being directed at our country, which is the rival most hostile to the United States and the longest belligerent state against it.

The present situation is such that there will be nothing strange about the troops of the US imperialists and their vassal countries, in times of emergency, showing themselves in the Korean peninsula under the signboard of such a military alliance as NATO, not the UN. (…)

As the United States and other Western countries are using Ukraine as a shock force in the war against Russia, we should view it as a manoeuvre to enrich their real-war experience and expand the scope of military intervention all over the world.

Currently, by sustaining their military assistance to Ukraine and Israel, the US warmongers are prolonging the wars there, in which an increasing number of countries are being involved. This aggravates the international security situation, stoking fears of a third world war.

The danger of war lurks in all parts of the planet, and no one is certain when and where it will break out.

Witnessing the use of force in Europe and the Middle East, the world recognizes that another armed conflict is most likely to erupt in the Korean peninsula.

― Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Makes Speech Before Those Attending Fourth Conference of Battalion Commanders and Political Instructors of Korean People’s Army, 15 November 2024.

As we are witnessing now, our planet is in the grip of confusion and violence, the worst ever since the end of the Second World War.

The United States is growing more brazen in trying to place the whole world under the sphere of its interests, and the consequent contradictions and confrontations of every hue have passed all critical points to develop into too unjust, horrible wars and catastrophic disasters.

This is literally a pandemonium, in which some reckless and high-handed powers violate international norms, regardless of their obvious purpose of, and orientation towards, respecting the territories and sovereignty of all countries and nations and defending global peace and security.

Nearly a century ago, fascisms in Europe and Asia colluded with each other to throw the world into turmoil. Likewise, the reactionary forces in the West and East, allied under the baton of the US imperialists, are now attempting to establish a rapacious and tyrannical world order. This is a present reality.

In particular, the United States is expanding the nuke-sharing military alliance system to contain our Republic’s rapid rise, which is an insurmountable obstacle in the way of implementing its policy of dominationism, and to retain and increase its influence over its vassal countries. On the other hand, it is going to great lengths to ratchet up the military pressure and provocations against our country by deploying around it a vast array of strategic strike means and troops of its allies.

The Korean peninsula has never been under such a critical situation as the present, in which there is a growing likelihood of a most destructive thermonuclear war breaking out amid the acutely dangerous confrontation between the belligerents.

― Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Makes Speech at Opening Ceremony of Military Hardware Exhibition Defence Development-2024, 21 November 2024.

He gave an outline of the remarkable successes achieved this year in enhancing the international position of our state and consolidating its external position and of the features of the present international situation, in which the growth and rapid progress of the circles of the independent forces are conspicuous and the position of the circles of supremacy-seeking forces is rapidly weakening and declining.

Our Republic reliably defended its inviolable sovereign rights and achieved successes of strategic significance from the viewpoint of prospective growth of the interests and enhancing the prestige of the state while responding promptly and smartly to the harsh regional situation and the unsteady structure of the international relations, and firmly maintained its principled foreign policy stand and orientation of struggle. In this way, it has firmly occupied the international position as a representative and powerful independent force that dynamically pushes forward the building of a righteous multi-polar world.

The concluding speech put forward the strategic and tactical tasks for bringing about a more favourable external phase for the Korean revolution through proactive and offensive external activities in line with the Party’s external strategic plan and intentions.

The U.S. is the most reactionary state that regards anti-communism as its invariable state policy, the alliance between the U.S., Japan and ROK has expanded into a nuclear military bloc for aggression, and the ROK has turned into an out-and-out anti-communist outpost of the U.S. This reality clearly shows to which direction we should advance and what we should do and how.

The concluding speech clarified the strategy for the toughest anti-U.S. counteraction to be launched aggressively by the DPRK for its long-term national interests and security.

It indicated the tasks for the field of external affairs to wage a dynamic struggle for defending the national sovereign rights on the principle of enhancing the prestige and defending the interests of the state and to positively promote the development of relations with the friendly countries that respect the dignity and interests of the DPRK.

― Report on Enlarged Meeting of Eleventh Plenary Meeting of Eighth Central Committee of WPK, 27 December 2024.

The US nuclear strategic means constantly deployed on the Korean peninsula, the US-led bilateral and multilateral nuclear war simulation exercises staged on the level of actual war, the US-Japan-ROK tripartite military alliance system established according to the US’s regional military bloc scenario and the formation of the Asian version of NATO as its axis constitute a basic factor that causes military imbalance and a new conflicting structure on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia, and they are raising a grave challenge to the security environment of our state.

It is a correct answer to tell those who worship supremacy of power with the language only they can understand. The DPRK does not want unnecessary tension in the regional situation but will take sustained countermeasures to ensure the regional military balance out of the aspiration for preventing the outbreak of a new war and ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula.

The Middle East crises including those in the Gaza Strip and Syria and the issue of Ukraine, which were scenes of global geopolitical conflicts and confrontation last year, are expected to flow as the main current of the tense international situation trend this year, too. The geopolitical crises caused by the US in different parts of the world are further increasing the danger of the outbreak of a new world war and having a serious impact not only on international peace and security but also on all other spheres of human activities.

Standing in the centre behind the war machine, which is stirring up the tragic situation in Ukraine that has lasted for three years amid a serious concern of the world people, is the US, an entity that is carrying the fixed name of the wrecker of global peace and stability, hallucinated by a wild ambition for establishing unipolar hegemony. The reckless behaviours of the US and the Western group of intentionally fostering the prolonged war from the unrealizable dream of dealing strategic setbacks to Russia are arousing a serious concern.

It is the invariable stand of the DPRK government to oppose and reject any acts of denying the international justice and disturbing global peace and security, and our army and people will invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, in keeping with the spirit of the treaty on the comprehensive strategic partnership between the DPRK and Russia.

The dark shadows of the US, which appear without fail behind the world’s big and small disputes and tragedies of bloodshed at present, prove that the line of our Party and government aspiring to the building of an unlimited defence capability is most just. Our revolutionary armed forces should always and practically be faithful to their supreme duty to defend the Constitution of the DPRK and the state and people.

― Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Pays Congratulatory Visit to Ministry of National Defence on Day of KPA Founding, 8 February 2025.

We pay a great tribute to the generation of victors who devoted without hesitation all their precious things to winning the sacred war for the destiny of the motherland and the future of mankind. We give a sincere militant salute to the officers and soldiers of the Russian armed forces who are writing a new page of defending the sovereign rights, security interests and justice of the state at the cost of their blood even at this very moment.

The victory in the Great Patriotic War holds the most prominent position in the history of the Russian people and the history of human liberation. (…)

This truth of the history will remain eternal and unchanged not only in the past and the present, but also in the future.

Ultra-nationalism, obsessed with the hatred for other nations and the greed for conquest, can never prevail over patriotism full of fervent love for one’s own country and the will to defend it. This immutable truth is proved once again in today’s special military operations, the Russian army and people are conducting to contain the revival of fascism.

On the battlefields where different ideologies, ideals, aspirations and aims conflict violently, the Russian army and people are achieving a strategic victory with ardent patriotism and matchless heroism. Their victory has steadily carried on the fame and glory of 80 years ago to today, and clearly demonstrated the mightiness of Russia and the validity of its cause.

Our Party, government and people are convinced that the powerful Russia, the warmest fraternal country and staunch ally, will fulfill its important mission and role in the struggle for permanently maintaining the dignity and honor of a victor nation and defending international justice and peace. (…)

The two countries of the DPRK and Russia successfully concluded the joint operations to liberate Kursk of Russia which was temporarily occupied by the neo-Nazi forces of Ukraine, in accordance with the international laws and provisions and spirit of the treaty on comprehensive strategic partnership, thus defending the territorial sovereignty of the Russian Federation and boosting the invincible relations of comrade-in-arms and alliance to a higher level.

The DPRK-Russia alliance was pioneered in accomplishing the common cause of people’s freedom and liberation and is demonstrating its invincible might in the sacred war to repel the invasion by neo-Nazism. This is a valuable asset and strength for the two governments, armies and peoples.

We remain unchanged in our stand to steadily carry forward the comprehensive heyday of DPRK-Russia relations by dint of the unity of the noble ideal and indomitable will.

― C.C. of WPK, SAC of DPRK, Standing Committee of SPA of DPRK and Cabinet of DPRK Send Joint Congratulatory Message to Leadership of Russian Federation and All Russian People, 9 May 2025.

The international community, in the current turmoil of the world situation, is watching with great apprehension the rapid rise of the vicious reactionary group, a modern version of Nazism, which is trying to distort history while disparaging the precious achievements the heroic generation made at the cost of their blood and lives.

The revival of Nazism that attempted to reduce mankind to its slaves last century is a crucial problem that has a direct bearing on the destiny of mankind, a serious threat that can never be tolerated.

No one is allowed to distort or emasculate the heroic feats of the Red Army that saved the world from Nazism.

Today, I am celebrating with my Russian friends the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War. This itself is the very expression of the unshakably strong will of our two countries to frustrate the challenge by neo-Nazism and contribute to peace of the world and safety of mankind.

Today the service personnel and other people of Russia, as descendants of the legendary victorious wartime generation, have again shouldered the heavy responsibility of defending global peace and security of their own accord, resolutely executing the special military operations against Ukraine.

As for the hostile forces’ adventurous military moves of blatantly violating the sovereignty and security of Russia, our fraternal country, I promptly shared with Comrade President Putin my view of this as something tantamount to an invasion of our own state and my decision to discharge our treaty obligations with sincerity. Then I ordered the combat sub-units of our Republic’s armed forces to join in the Russian armed forces’ action to wipe out the neo-Nazi occupiers from Ukraine and liberate the Kursk area.

The most excellent sons of the Korean people, in answering the call of their homeland, fought shoulder to shoulder with the Russian soldiers in the same trenches, shedding blood amid the flames of battles against the common enemy, as they regarded the territory of our ally as that of their own country.

All these proud sons of our Korean people, who were involved in the Kursk operations, are heroes and supreme representatives of honour of this country, I think.

They proved the durability of the DPRK-Russia alliance at the cost of their blood, demonstrating the highest strategic level of the strong militant friendship, alliance and fraternal relations between the peoples of the two countries.

Even at this moment our government is closely watching Kiev’s unreasonable behaviour.

A few days ago, the Kiev authorities committed a reckless and adventurous act of enlisting armed bandits in another heinous and dangerous assault on the territory of the Russian Federation.

We condemn this in most vehement and resolute terms as a hysterical action that can be taken only by the Kiev neo-Nazis with the transplanted genes of unreason and inhumanity.

Those who are finding fault with our armed forces’ involvement are advised to think it over.

And they need to examine what the openly declared, and not secret, treaty between the DPRK and the Russian Federation stipulates.

If they had not committed a heinous crime of encroaching upon the Russian territory, the invaders could have avoided the fate of becoming dead souls, hit by our swords and spears.

Our involvement in the war was justifiable, and this belongs to our sovereign rights.

Let us consider this.

If they are allowed to grow undisguised in their military actions against the territory of the nuclear power, the Ukrainian puppets will naturally become brazen enough to make more outrageous and daring attempts, and the troops in Seoul, who are most faithful lackeys of the United States, will likewise become increasingly reckless.

Such recklessness will spread like a highly infectious virus.

We should be responsible enough to perform the duty of putting these dangerous wrongs to rights.

If the henchmen of the United States and the West, with their tacky, defective munitions, attempt another assault on the Russian Federation, our fraternal country, instead of giving up their dangerous attempt for military invasion, I, according to the corresponding article of the DPRK-Russia treaty and its spirit, will unhesitatingly issue an order on using the armed forces of the DPRK in repelling the enemy’s invasion.

I regard this as part of the sacred mission we must execute for our brothers and comrades-in-arms.

May 9–this is just the day that has been inscribed in history as a symbol of powerfulness and imperishability of the great Russian nation. Along with this, Russia will, in the future, too, exalt its prestige as a representative of justice advancing only along the road of victory and a strong defender of multipolarized world order.

― Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Pays Congratulatory Visit to Russian Embassy in Pyongyang and Makes Speech, 9 May 2025.

Today the bilateral ties are being elevated to those of an alliance unprecedented in history, and they grow solid in the joint struggle to check the revival of neo-Nazism and defend national sovereignty and security and international justice.

The two countries have always stood by justice of history, and currently, through a staunch struggle, they represent humankind’s desires and demands for equality and justice against hegemony.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, in which fascist nations seeking to enslave the whole world were defeated and their criminal atrocities were terminated.

Becoming undisguised on the international arena, however, are the dangerous moves to undermine and reverse the results of the world anti-fascist war and the national liberation struggles, which cost wholesale destruction and colossal losses of lives, and the imperialists are resorting to extremely outrageous means, as never before, in trying to violate the rights and interests of other sovereign states.

With an ambition to restore the spheres of political influence they have lost one by one over the course of history, the imperialists stick to their policies of war and blackmail in a bid to put Europe, Asia and the rest of the globe on a Rightist trajectory and create a unipolar world. To frustrate their extremely brigandish and reckless schemes is a historic duty that the countries and peoples loving peace and advocating justice should assume of their own accord, and this demands strong solidarity in, and joint struggle by, the progressive camp.

Now the DPRK and Russia are working together again to create a history of justice in the same trench of struggle for defending their national dignity and sovereignty and safeguarding global peace and security.

― Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un Makes Speech at Celebration of 80th Anniversary of Korea’s Liberation, 14 August 2025.

Our retaining of nuclear weapons is enshrined in a national law, and we have a legal duty to defend the national law without fail.

Our enemy states’ crafty sermon that we can be well off only when we give up our nukes has already lost its power of persuasion as we see the tragedies of bloodshed all around the world, which are of their own making.

The world knows well what the United States does after having others give up their nuclear weapons and disarming them.

We will never lay down our nukes.

The sanctions imposed by the hostile forces on us have taught us a lesson on how to get stronger, and developed tolerance and resistance in us so that we will not yield to any pressure.

There will be no negotiations, and never at that, with our enemy states to exchange something with them, obsessed with trying to get free from their sanctions.

If the hegemony-seeking Western forces led by the United States think they can pressurize and bring us to our knees through sanctions or sabre-rattling, still overcome with the delusion that they can win by inflicting a strategic defeat on the DPRK, a nuclear state, they are sadly mistaken. (…)

Unless the nuclear threat to us coming from outside is terminated, and as long as there exist the imperialist forces that use the nukes for the means of existence of their tyranny, we will never allow an interruption on our road of bolstering up our military capabilities to safeguard the security of our state and the wellbeing of our people both at present and in the future, but continue to move forward to maintain the edge of our overwhelming strength.

― Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un’s Speech at 13th Session of 14th Supreme People’s Assembly of DPRK, 21 September 2025.

Our Party has struggled under the uplifted banner of independence and socialism in any adversity; this has made an enormous historic contribution to implementing the common cause of mankind for justice and peace.

Our Party has cherished as part of its faith the validity of the socialist cause and the inevitability of its triumph and perfectly proved the scientific accuracy of its ideals both in theoretical and practical terms, thus offering a substantial contribution to building a powerful barrier against the allied imperialist forces’ schemes against socialism and achieving solidarity and unity among the world’s progressive forces.

Our Party and government are still coping with our adversaries’ ferocious political and military moves of pressure by pursuing harder-line policies, holding fast to firm principles and employing brave, unflinching countermeasures. This is powerfully propelling the growth of the progressive camp against war and hegemony, and the international prestige of our Republic as a faithful member of the socialist forces and a bulwark for independence and justice is further increasing with each passing day.

― Speech of Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un at Meeting to Celebrate 80th Founding Anniversary of WPK, 9 October 2025.

In the third part of his report, Comrade Kim Jong Un analyzed and evaluated the great changes that took place in the international political and security structure, balance of forces and trend of the situation during the period under review.

The world at present is completely different from the one five years ago, and international relations have been plunged into the vortex of chaos and upheaval.

The U.S. hegemonic policy and arbitrary practices have seriously shaken the foundations of peace and security in different parts of the world and caused a series of armed conflicts, making the present international situation become more and more chaotic and assume more variable and unpredictable colours with the passage of time.

The open infringement of state sovereignty, wanton violation of international law, the global security crisis which has not been witnessed since the end of the Cold War and political and economic chaos and disorder in different countries – all these are the reality of the present world we are facing.

The Western forces led by the U.S are just the chieftain that mercilessly destroys the existing international order and the accepted practices and causes instability and confusion while pursuing unilateral hegemony according to the logic that high-handedness is justice.

Under the signboard of the so-called “America first”, the U.S. is unhesitatingly resorting to aggression and use of force against sovereign states, advocating “strength-based peace” to meet its hegemonic ambition only, regardless of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security interests of other countries.

The U.S. arbitrary practices that make the world noisy and uneasy are not new to us as they are only the continuance and extension of the top-class rogue and hegemonic practices we have always witnessed.

Due to the U.S. hegemonic policy, a serious change is taking place in the existing international order and structure of international relations based on the multilateral system and the standard of justice and the value of strength are being reevaluated.

In the European region, the origin of the two world wars that took the lives of tens of millions of people in the last century, the reckless expansion of the Western alliance system created the worst regional security crisis, exchange of fire, for the first time in 80 years.

The Korean peninsula and the surrounding region have been also exposed to constant instability and tensions due to the U.S. and its vassal forces’ persistent hostile policy toward the DPRK and security-destroying measures, and the external environment of the DPRK is still grave.

It is a reality and lesson, seen and drawn by the international community through the present cruel geopolitical situation, that if one is strong, one can survive and develop under any conditions but if one is weak, one will fall victim to sanctions and aggression and, ultimately, will be deprived of sovereignty and territory.

The world realizes though belatedly that as long as imperialism exists, international law and order are nothing but meaningless empty commitments and that the just advocacy of law and order alone can defend nothing.

It is the truth proved by the present world and the law-governed principle in the international arena dominated by the gangster-like logic of jungle law that strength respects strength and to arm oneself with such powerful force as nuclear weapons is the only means capable of putting an end to the imperialist ambition for aggression.

What is clear is that the desire of the progressive mankind to oppose domination and subjugation and realize independence, equality and autonomy is to grow stronger in direct proportion to the desperate efforts of the hegemonic forces.

This is an irresistible law-governed process and inevitability of historical development.

The independent forces will continue to grow stronger and the building of a fair and just multi-polar world will be further promoted by their progressive struggle in the future, too.

Right at the centre of it stands the DPRK.

During the period under review, the WPK analyzed the essence of the structure of international relations that entered the course of serious change, advanced correct external strategic policies and actively responded to the changes in the grim regional situation and the volatile international relations. (…)

The external affairs sector should thoroughly conduct all external activities on the principle of defending the national interests.

National interests are the criterion of thinking and viewpoint on international relations in the present era characterized by fierce competitions among states, and to defend the national interests is the invariable principle that our country adheres to in its external activities.

We should steadily develop the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation with neighboring countries onto a higher stage and proactively conduct political and diplomatic activities, exchange and cooperation to expand and strengthen the relations with the anti-imperialist independent countries.

Keenly and closely watching the structure of international relations, mutual relations and changes in situation, we should prepare and actively take various countermeasures on the basis of correct analysis and assessment.

To this end, it is necessary to direct steady efforts to training the officials in the foreign affairs sector to be true diplomatic soldiers firmly armed with our Party’s Juche-oriented diplomatic ideology and talented persons possessed of competent diplomatic art and high practical ability, thus bringing about a qualitative change in the ranks of diplomatic officials.

The international situation that we face is still grim and the challenges of the hostile forces will get serious, but we are sure to win as long as we are guided by the correct foreign strategic policy and leadership of the Party Central Committee and it is guaranteed by our powerful military deterrence.

Our Party and government will always remain faithful to the adherence to the Constitution of the DPRK, which permanently stipulates the position of the nuclear weapons state, in the future, too, ensure peace and security in the region and the rest of the world and actively promote the building of a multi-polarized world aspiring after independence and justice.

― Report on Ninth Congress of Workers’ Party of Korea, 20-21 February 2026.

The present world situation, in which the dignity and rights of sovereign states are being trampled upon feebly by unilateral high-handedness and tyranny, clearly teaches us what is a sure guarantee for the existence of our State and for defending peace.

With an insight into the immutable nature of the imperialist and dominationist forces, for whom seeking hegemony has become an inveterate mental attribute and whose shamelessness would evolve to be more brigandish, we secured in a foresighted way a substantial capability for coping with the security threats that would face us in the future and their worst changes. We were absolutely right in doing so. (…)

Kim Jong Un analyzed and appraised the present unpredictably complicated international situation and clarified the invariable stand of the government of the Republic. He said:

Unpredictability is the only predictable future situation in the present world.

If there is anything predictable, it is the aggressive nature of imperialism which can never change.

Therefore, it will be the greatest error and a reckless gamble for us to predict the presently existing threats and prospective international political trend too easily and without adequate consideration and plan the future without careful deliberation.

The surest way to predict future events and provide for unpredictability is to be prepared for everything.

The correct way to turn unpredictability into predictability is to always worry about the worst situation, rather than seeking comfort, prioritize long-term and strategic benefits over short-term and visible benefits, and aspire to tomorrow’s sustainable prosperity, rather than today’s ease. (…)

As mentioned earlier, although the United States is now resorting to acts of state-sponsored terrorism and aggression in various parts of the world, its arrogant high-handedness and rashness have failed to undermine the will of progressive mankind to oppose domination and subjugation and achieve independence and equality, but rather triggered off anti-American sentiments and hatred of the forces aspiring after independence, and they are pushing them towards unity and resistance.

The forces aspiring after independence will surely overcome the present trials and get stronger than the hegemony-seeking forces, and the building of an equitable and just multipolar world will be further promoted.

The government of the DPRK will, in the future, too, readily undertake the historic mission of leading the trend of global independence under the uplifted banner of independence.

We should firmly guarantee the building of socialist society politically and diplomatically by pursuing an independent foreign policy that best conforms to our national interests, while regarding it as the foremost principle to defend national interests to cope with the changed international balance of forces and the uncertain international political situation.

We should get rid of the diplomatic practices which had been adjusted to the old standards and yardsticks of the past so as to cope with the rapidly changing situation and the unpredictable geopolitical reality with full preparations and employ the diplomatic tactics and methods of external activities becoming to the new status and prestige of the State.

We should build the structure of deployment of the diplomatic forces, which is most reasonable for the promotion of our national interests on a global scale, steadily readjust and improve it and make sure that the external activities of the State are all directed to ensuring its dignity and interests.

― Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un’s Policy Speech at First Session of 15th Supreme People’s Assembly of DPRK, 23 March 2026.

Today marks the first anniversary of the end of the operations for liberating Kursk.

The soldiers of Korea and Russia, who are faithful to the ideal of justice, fought in the same trench shoulder to shoulder to defend peace and national sovereignty, and achieved a result decisive in checking the resurrection of fascism and frustrating the hegemonic forces’ ambition for a war.

The operations were military activities conducted in one region in a few months, but the strategic significance of the result is very great.

Justice and injustice have always co-existed in the whole history of mankind, and the confrontation between them has been acute all the time. But there has been no such a situation as that of today in which the forces of domination and tyranny attempt to destroy the desire for national sovereignty and freedom, after they emerged brazenly on this planet as the most shameless and aggressive ultra-rightist reactionary alliance, discarding any sleazy mask or veneer.

In the rigorous and crucial years when the undoubted demand of a country and a nation for its rights to political self-determination and development and the implementation of its obligations have become the target of tyranny, the armies of the DPRK and Russia demonstrated the strength of justice through their bloody struggle, fully aware of the noblest duties they have assumed for their countries and mankind.

The soldiers of the two countries have clearly proved that there does exist in the world a tremendous might capable of overturning the society of evils created by imperialism, by dint of the hearts afire with justice and death-defying strength, and that the tyranny of injustice can never conquer mankind.

In the course of this, the fine sons of the two countries have set examples of true friendship and dedicated their precious blood for the common aim.

There will be neither more sacred contribution nor more correct expression of obligation than sacrificing one’s life.

In the sacred war to wipe out the Ukrainian armed invaders who blatantly violated the sovereignty and security of the Russian Federation, our fraternal country, and liberate the Kursk region, the overseas operations units of our Korean People’s Army won the priceless victory by displaying matchless bravery, mass heroism, indomitable fighting spirit and noble self-sacrificing spirit.

Thanks to the valiant struggle of the Korean People’s Army that repulsed and wiped out the aggressors, shoulder to shoulder with the Russian army, the hegemonic attempt and military adventure pursued by the United States and the West were frustrated.

― Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un’s Speech at Inauguration Ceremony of Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at Overseas Military Operations, 26 April 2026.

Comrade Kim Jong Un clarified once again the steadfast foreign policy stand of our Party and the DPRK government to firmly adhere to our principle of struggle against the enemy, strengthen the allied front with the anti-imperialist, independent forces and resolutely fight against the imperialists’ moves for aggression and war.

Unimaginable astonishing incidents and events beyond the concept and common sense are taking place one after another and wars, bloodshed and political and economic instabilities are becoming a daily occurrence in the world due to the gangster-like and unlimited geopolitical greed and misuse of strength of the hegemonic forces, unprecedented since the Second World War. As a result, an inter-camp confrontation between the forces for independence or domination is getting fiercer. This is a feature of the extremely acute and variable international situation at present.

The U.S. indiscriminate and high-handed practices have dangerously impacted on its satellite forces and resulted in further deterioration in the bloody situation in Europe and Middle East. In the meantime, Japan, a defeated country in Asia, has openly turned itself into a war state by taking the present disturbing circumstances as an opportunity to get rid of all shackles restricting its moves to become a military power. This is inviting a strong backlash and serious concern from the international community.

Today, the world is witnessing rampant ultra-nationalism of modern version such as “America First” idea, Zionism, Ukrainian Neo-Nazism and Japanese militarism, international instability reminiscent of the disastrous scene a century ago when the whole world was involved in wars and bloodshed through collusion with one another, and frenzy high-handed and arbitrary practices of a certain country ignoring international laws. The reality goes to prove once again the justness of all of our political choices and the path we followed.

Comrade Kim Jong Un said that we have no right to disregard this complicated situation and stark geopolitical reality or should not look away from them, stressing that strength represents the sovereign right and prestige of the country. And he added that the sovereignty and security of our country have been firmly ensured by its strong might and it will be permanent, emphasizing that there is nothing to revise or supplement in our view. He stressed that this is a general conclusion made by our Party in its protracted history of struggle against imperialism.

― Report on Enlarged Meeting of Second Plenum of Ninth Central Committee of WPK, 20-22 June 2026.

The trend of the present unpredictable and complicated international situation is a source of the escalation of the geopolitical crisis in different parts of the world and serious concern of the international community aspiring after peace and stability.

As the evil cycle of confrontation persists in the Middle East, the epitome of conflict and chaos in the world, distrust and discord among regional countries further deepen, bloodshed lasts without cease and the unprecedented political and economic instability gets worse on a worldwide scale.

And the phase of prolonged armed conflict has entered a more serious stage in Europe owing to the reckless confrontational intention of the Western group to impose a strategic defeat on Russia by using Ukraine as an agent of a proxy war.

Even in the Korean peninsula, the biggest hotspot in the world for centuries, the regional security environment is facing constant challenges due to the U.S. and its vassal forces’ attempt at geopolitical expansion and their greedy arms buildup.

The present situation of the world, where the vicious cycle of tension persists in not only the Middle East and Europe but also the Asia-Pacific region including the Korean peninsula due to the high-handed practice and the abuse of power by the hegemonic forces, calls upon all the countries to make their principled stand clearer in pursuing justice and equity and defending their national security and interests.

The DPRK remains unchanged in its view and stand that the U.S. and the West’s threat to the security of Russia that has been systematically getting serious since the end of the Cold War is the main factor that triggered the present Ukrainian crisis.

The better future of Europe can not be realized apart from the core interests and will of the Russian Federation.

We think that uprooting the cause of the conflict is the main solution to putting an end to the Ukrainian crisis and ensuring sustainable and durable peace in the region. And we fully support the righteous action of the Russian government and people to defend the national sovereignty, security interests and territorial integrity.

Availing of this opportunity, I make clear that the theory of the “dispatch of additional troops” of our army, which the Zelenskiy group invented and propagates, is an ungrounded farce of Kiev and that the U.S. and the West are entirely responsible for the start of the Ukrainian crisis and its prolongation.

The overall cooperation between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation is strictly in accordance with the treaty on comprehensive strategic partnership between the two sides which is in conformity with the purpose and principle of the UN Charter and is a legal domain of exercise of sovereign right.

The DPRK constantly maintains concentration on its duty as a contracting party of the inter-state treaty between the DPRK and Russia in conformity with it allied nature and remains boundlessly faithful to it.

― Kim Yo Jong, Department Director of C.C., WPK, Clarifies Her Stand on Major International Affairs, 19 August 2026.

A few days ago, Walter Mead, American expert on international affairs, in his writing1 carried in the newspaper “Wall Street Journal”, mentioned that Putin is trying to undermine the U.S.-led world order by using the moral and political confusion in the West as a “secret weapon”.

He pointed out that Russia is not only holding out in the economic war with the West, but also overpowering the hostile forces. As a result, Germany has begun to renege on its promise to increase defense budget in fear of the consequences entailed by financial confrontation with Russia, and Putin is achieving great successes in the economic and political fields which were self-assured by the West as its own domain.

He also maintained that the West’s plan to push the international society to the anti-Russian front by uniting it with its values has no prospect for realization, and that many countries including India and Brazil, following the suit of China, have chosen to trade with Russia instead of solidarity with G7.

Then he stressed that the West has 3 weak points today. Those are the protective trade policy of the U.S.; the insulting words by the leaders of the Western countries to a large number of the world people, i.e., homosexual propaganda; and internal disagreement.

The American expert has connected the moral and political confusion in the U.S. and the West with the disruption of the U.S.-led world order. This can be seen somewhat objective assessment.

Today, the moral and political confusion in the U.S. and the West caused by the deformation in material life of human beings, impoverishment in their spiritual and cultural life and the reactionary nature of their political life serves as a powerful “secret weapon” disintegrating the U.S.-led world order from within.

U.S.-led world order is based on the decadent capitalist values and political ideals which justify the spiritual and moral corruption, depravity of human beings and the jungle law, and it is doomed to be buried in the grave of history of its own accord.

― Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 27 July 2022.

Today, our army and people are enjoying true political freedom and rights, shouting loudly “Long live the Workers’ Party!” and “Long live socialism!” in our unique, people-centered socialist system.

The reason why millions of soldiers and citizens are filled with burning enthusiasm to firmly defend socialism—considering it the cradle and destiny of their lives—while shouting loudly “Long live the Workers’ Party!” and “Long live socialism!” is precisely because our socialism guarantees true human rights to the people.

How true human rights are guaranteed to the people is significantly related to how they enjoy their rights as social beings, and this cannot be considered separately from strengthening the people’s democratic dictatorship in a socialist society.

Only by strengthening the dictatorship of people’s democracy and mercilessly and thoroughly suppressing those who infringe upon the genuine human rights of the people can the people be made to fulfill their responsibilities and roles as masters of the state and society.

Those who infringe upon the genuine human rights of the people are none other than the targets of the dictatorship of people’s democracy.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il instructed as follows:

The dictatorship of the people’s government over the forces and elements which infringe upon the interests of the masses is not a violation of human rights; it is a thoroughgoing defence of human rights.1

In a socialist society, the dictatorship of people’s democracy is a weapon for realizing political domination over society in accordance with the will and demands of the people. This means that the dictatorship of people’s democracy is a weapon for uniformly organizing and directing all members of society in accordance with the will and interests of the people.

The fundamental demand of the popular masses is to assume the position of masters of the state and society and to fulfill their role as masters. To realize this fundamental demand of the masses, there must be politics that unifiedly organizes and directs the activities of the people—the creators of everything in society—on a whole-society scale.

Without politics that aligns with the will and demands of the popular masses, it is impossible to set forth and realize the fundamental interests of the masses as the common interests of the entire society, nor is it possible to transform the creative power of individual people into a social creative power that operates in a unified manner.

To conduct politics in accordance with the interests of the popular masses, there must necessarily be a weapon to realize politics. Politics without political weapons is impossible, and political domination over society is inconceivable. Only with political weapons can people be organized and mobilized in accordance with the common interests of society and made to act according to political will.

The weapon for realizing political domination over society in accordance with the will and demands of the popular masses is precisely the dictatorship of people’s democracy. The dictatorship of people’s democracy is the political domination of the popular masses over society realized through state power.

Along with this, thoroughly eliminating imperialists, a tiny minority of hostile elements and non-socialist practices that infringe upon the demands and interests of the people in a socialist society constitutes an important aspect of the people’s democratic dictatorship.

Viewed in this light, the people’s democratic dictatorship is a dictatorship that realizes political domination over the entire society and is a dictatorship against hostile forces and all kinds of non-socialist practices that infringe upon the demands and interests of the people. Therefore, only by implementing a thorough dictatorship against forces or elements that infringe upon the demands and interests of the people can the people’s government fulfill its mission in a socialist society and, furthermore, guarantee true human rights to the people, who are the masters of society.

The people’s democratic dictatorship of our people’s government is a popular dictatorship that implements true democracy for the people, and it is a revolutionary dictatorship based on the single-minded unity of the leader, the Party and the masses, which is constantly strengthened. A socialist state in which the popular masses are the masters of sovereignty strengthens the dictatorship of people’s democracy to defend and protect the interests of the masses against the machinations of all hostile elements, and to guarantee true political freedom and rights to the masses.

In a socialist society, the targets of the dictatorship of people’s democracy are, first and foremost, imperialists who oppose socialism and all hostile forces.

One’s stance and attitude toward socialism are intensely manifested in whether one supports or opposes it. In any case, those who oppose socialism are enemies of the people and become targets of the dictatorship of people’s democracy.

Sharpening the blade of the dictatorship of people’s democracy against the enemies of socialism is, in essence, not a violation of human rights but the most thorough defense of human rights.

Human rights are fundamental rights that must be possessed by man as a social being; to thoroughly guarantee human rights, the blade of dictatorship must be sharpened to mercilessly crush the machinations of the enemies of the revolution who infringe upon human rights.

One cannot conceive of the human rights of the masses apart from the dictatorship against the enemies of the revolution. In a socialist society, where the masses are the masters of the state and society, the issue of guaranteeing human rights is directly linked to the defense and preservation of the socialist system. This is because human rights are guaranteed by the social system and, without ensuring the consolidation of the socialist system, one cannot speak of the true human rights of the masses. Unless the dictatorship of people’s democracy is further strengthened in accordance with the inherent requirements of a socialist society and the lawful demands of its development, the gains of socialism will be squandered by the machinations of hostile forces and the people will be reduced to slaves of imperialism.

Strengthening the dictatorship of people’s democracy is an essential requirement for thoroughly suppressing the destructive and subversive schemes of hostile elements and guaranteeing true human rights to the masses.

Socialist construction entails a struggle to crush the aggressive schemes of imperialists and the subversive activities of internal hostile elements colluding with them. The machinations of hostile elements opposing socialism become increasingly vicious and cunning as internal and external circumstances become more complex and the revolution deepens and develops. Therefore, in a socialist society, the edge of the dictatorship of people’s democracy must be sharpened to mercilessly punish imperialists seeking to destroy and overthrow the socialist system, as well as the remnants of the exploiting class colluding with them, spies infiltrating from the outside and subversive elements; the broad masses must be class-awakened and actively mobilized in the struggle against counter-revolution so that no class enemy can run rampant. Only then can the socialist system and the gains of the revolution be firmly safeguarded and the interests of the popular masses be resolutely defended.

In some countries that were building socialism in the past, the failure to implement a thorough dictatorship against the anti-socialist machinations of hostile forces under the pretext of so-called “guarantee of human rights” eventually led to the collapse of the socialist system. It is evident that, if the socialist system collapses and capitalism returns, the independent demands and rights of the masses of the people will be trampled upon and true human rights cannot be guaranteed.

Today, in former socialist countries where capitalism has returned, traitors to socialism are advertising “human rights”, boasting as if their society was a liberal democratic world where “human rights” are guaranteed. However, the miserable lives of the people in countries that have abandoned socialism demonstrate that the issue of strengthening the dictatorship of people’s democracy is inevitably linked not only to the fate of the socialist system but also to the fate of every individual, and that a thorough dictatorship against class enemies and hostile elements serves as a powerful guarantee for ensuring the true human rights of the people.

In a socialist society, the next target of the dictatorship of people’s democracy is non-socialist practices that erode socialism from within.

Once the socialist system is established, all members of society become members of the popular masses, and it is undeniable that the masses are the political force that supports socialism and drives its development. However, even in a socialist society, non-socialist practices may appear among some individuals who have become ideologically corrupted, such as those who sympathize with bourgeois reactionary ideology or act contrary to socialist principles.

Non-socialist practices arise from the remnants of outdated ideologies and lifestyle conventions, including individual egoism, as well as the ideological and cultural infiltration of imperialism.

Non-socialist practices are harmful practices that attempt to undermine and break up socialist society from within. These practices can appear in various forms in all areas of social life. People who fall prey to them become degenerate and mentally deformed, their consciousness of class and national independence is numbed and paralyzed so that they care only about money, and they may end up becoming counterrevolutionaries who oppose the Party and the socialist system.

Although the forms and methods of non-socialist practices that contradict socialist principles may vary, they become dangerous elements that infringe upon the independent rights of the popular masses and erode socialism from within. Therefore, in a socialist society, regardless of the form in which non-socialist practices appear, they all become targets of a popular and revolutionary dictatorship. In order to guarantee true human rights to the popular masses, the revolutionary party and state must define non-socialist elements as targets of the dictatorship of people’s democracy and thoroughly eradicate them.

The dictatorship of the proletariat, which was practiced in countries building socialism in the past, shares commonalities with the dictatorship of people’s democracy in that it defends the interests of the people and upholds the socialist system. However, the dictatorship practiced in those socialist countries in the past was primarily targeted and enforced against the hostile classes in general. The important characteristic of the dictatorship of people’s democracy is that, while strengthening the dictatorship against the hostile classes in general, it also targets all non-socialist elements that contradict socialist principles.

The fundamental non-socialist practice that becomes a target of the dictatorship of people’s democracy is the practice of aligning with the ideological and cultural infiltration of imperialists.

Today, imperialists and reactionaries are viciously plotting to sow chaos within our country and undermine our unity by blowing a “wind of liberalization” into our midst and fostering all manner of non-socialist practices. Whereas reactionary ideology and culture were their guide to aggression in the past, they are playing a leading role in their aggression at present. Under these circumstances, non-socialist practices must not be regarded as trivial or overlooked as minor issues; instead, thorough dictatorship must be enforced against them.

To practically guarantee the freedom and rights of the masses, we must erect a sturdy mosquito net to prevent bourgeois ideological and cultural toxins from infiltrating the socialist system, and we must establish thorough practical and organized measures to ensure that no holes appear in the net. At the same time, regarding elements capable of giving rise to non-socialist practices, we must never yield, no matter how trivial, and must strike them down mercilessly from their nascent stage.

Defining such non-socialist practices as targets of dictatorship and waging an all-out battle to completely eliminate them is an important requirement for further solidifying the single-minded unity of the Party and the revolutionary ranks and for thoroughly guaranteeing genuine human rights that meet the inherent needs of the people.

With great pride and self-confidence that the only country guaranteeing genuine human rights to the popular masses is our people-centered socialist system, established by the great leaders and glorified by the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, we will devote our entire being to faithfully upholding the leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un in order to further firmly defend and glorify our socialism.

Ri Chol Ung

― Faculty of Philosophy, Kim Il Sung University, 16 January 2016.

The United States is now making a fuss about “democracy” and working hard to spread American-style “democracy” around the world.

The U.S. primary strategy for global hegemony today is to Americanize the world through military aggression and the “spread of democracy”. This is a mockery of true democracy and a grave challenge to humanity’s aspirations and desire to build a new, independent world.

American-style “democracy” is the most reactionary form of politics, mercilessly trampling on the people’s rights to independence and demands. It is synonymous with invasion, plunder and interference. If we yield to American pressure and embrace American-style “democracy”, we will die, our nation and people will perish and humanity will be destroyed.

It stands out as an important issue related to the destinies of the country and the nation and humankind to clearly see through the reactionary nature and injustice of American-style “democracy” and resolutely stand against it.

1

American-style “democracy” is unpopular “democracy” representing the interests of a tiny handful of big monopoly capitalists.

The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung taught as follows:

The “democracy” loudly proclaimed by the imperialists is a sham democracy, and the “equality”, “freedom” and everything they come up with are nothing but camouflage designed to hoodwink the working masses and hide the reactionary nature of their bourgeois dictatorship and the anti-popular nature of the capitalist system.1

Democracy is a form of government that embodies the will of the working people. The essence of democracy lies in formulating policies based on the will of the broad working masses, thoroughly protecting their interests and effectively guaranteeing them genuine freedom, rights and a happy life.

Just because something is labeled “democracy” doesn’t mean it’s truly democratic. Democracy and the people are inextricably linked. The will and interests of the people are the touchstone that distinguishes true democracy from false democracy.

True democracy is only one: socialist democracy, based on collectivism and centered on the people. Socialist democracy positions the people as masters of the state and society, allowing them to freely exercise their freedoms and rights in all areas of social life. In an exploitative society where state power and wealth are concentrated in the hands of a privileged few, true democracy can never be guaranteed.

American-style “democracy” is a privileged “democracy” that excludes the will and interests of the people and pursues only the interests of a small minority of monopoly capitalists.

American-style “democracy” has its ideological foundation and origins rooted in the individualistic greed of a tiny capitalist class.

American-style “democracy” is a “liberal democracy” based on extreme individualism and liberalism. While individualism, in its class-based nature, reflects the demands and interests of the exploiting class, liberalism is a variant of individualism that serves the unbridled greed of the capitalist class. What emerges from individualism and liberalism is class contradiction and conflict, social inequality and the exploitation and oppression of the masses by a small ruling class.

American-style “democracy” sprouted and grew from the unbridled individualistic greed of capitalists. The political ideology that the descendants of the Anglo-Saxons, consumed by their lust for gold, brought forth under the deceptive slogans of “freedom” and “equality” to govern the American society they founded on the bloodbath of Indians and black slaves is none other than American-style “democracy”. Born from a graveyard of human slaughter and fattened by wars of aggression and plunder, the United States has no right or justification to even talk about “democracy”.

American-style “democracy” has become a tool for fulfilling the greed of a tiny minority of monopolists under modern imperialism, trampling upon the people’s aspirations and demands for freedom and equality.

The foundation of democracy is guaranteeing true freedom and equality to the masses. It is the people’s innate desire to live free and equal lives, free from all forms of social subordination and inequality. The people’s pursuit of democracy is for true freedom and equality, and their opposition to the tyranny and privileges of the exploiting classes is for the sake of their dignity and life as independent human beings. Without the freedom and equality of the masses, there is no room for discussion about democracy.

American-style “democracy” is nothing but a fig-leaf for hiding their political suppression of the popular masses by monopoly capitalists and their dictatorial rule over them.

Anti-people dictatorship and democracy cannot coexist. It is clear that where dictatorship reigns, the people cannot enjoy political freedom and equality.

The people becoming the masters of politics and government is a prerequisite for realizing their political freedom and equality. Only a politics that empowers the people to seize state sovereignty and actively participate in state governance can truly be called a people-oriented democracy.

American-style “democracy” is crudely violating people’s political freedom and right by dictatorship disguised as “democracy”. The state power is in the hands of a handful of big monopoly conglomerates, not in the hands of the people in the U.S. The United States claims that its various governing systems, including the “federal system”, which supposedly guarantees local “autonomy” and “independence”, are “decentralization of power” based on “democratic principles”. This is nothing more than a deception designed to obscure the truth. Regardless of how ruling power is distributed, American state power is merely a means of realizing an anti-people dictatorship that only serves the interests of a tiny handful of monopoly conglomerates. DuPont, a major American monopoly tycoon, openly declared that “Great America” was their property and that the United States could not exist without the monopoly tycoons, and Johnson, who was the President of the United States, confessed that the major monopoly tycoons were shareholders in the U.S. government and that he was their representative.

Today’s American-style “democracy” is the most reactionary form of “democracy”, completely stripped of even the pretense of hypocritical bourgeois democracy. “Rule of law”, “separation of powers” and “representative democracy” are the “universal principles of democracy” championed by bourgeois democracy. In American-style “democracy”, these principles have become mere empty slogans. Under the pretext of “technologizing”, “specializing” and “accelerating” politics, the United States has concentrated power to the maximum extent in the hands of the president and the executive branch. Consequently, legislative and judicial powers are completely subordinated to the executive branch. This is the inevitable consequence of American-style “democracy”, which aims to facilitate the interests of large monopoly conglomerates.

The apologists for American-style “democracy” who tout the American political system as a “new development” of democracy are a fabrication and sophistry that no one can understand. The monopolization of power by the privileged class does not advance democracy, but rather strengthens dictatorship. The brazenness of the advocates of American-style “democracy” lies in their distortion and denial of this truth.

The U.S. is a tyrannical country and a dictatorial kingdom in which people’s socio-political activities are brutally suppressed. While it appears to guarantee democracy in political activities, it is a country that prohibits even the slightest political activity if it conflicts with the interests of monopolistic conglomerates. The number of the agents enrolled for suppressing progressive ideology totals about 200,000 and that of violent organizations more than 21,000 in the U.S. This country that boasts the “Statue of Liberty” is being fascistized to be a military and police country serving monopoly conglomerates under the signboard of “democracy”.

American-style “democracy” represents the plutocracy which decides everything by dint of money provided by a handful of those conglomerates.

Democracy is a noble ideal for the people. Democracy can never be bargained for with money. What money cannot buy is the will of the people, and what cannot be exchanged for money are true human freedom and rights. A “democracy” governed by money is not democracy at all.

In America, money is power. It is neither the president nor Congress that rules the American society. It is money which actually rules the American society. Money and power decide the president and Congressmen. Even incompetent or tyrannical individuals lacking in qualifications and ability can become president with money. It’s no coincidence that even within America there is a saying that even a duck in a swamp can become president with money.

In the United States, massive amounts of money are squandered during every election. The 2004 presidential and congressional elections cost nearly US$4 billion. The vast sums of money needed for elections are financed by monopoly conglomerates. It is an undeniable stark fact in the U.S. that one can become president and ruling party leader only when one gets more financial assistance from monopoly capital.

Money precisely means the national policy in the U.S. It’s self-evident that the power created by billionaires’ money serves their interests. Bourgeois politicians in the U.S. are no more than political waiting maids or puppets manipulated by the monopoly capitalists. All laws and decisions are to serve their interests. Unpopular policies such as huge defense budget are shaped to give a windfall to them and the demand for it is met with the taxes collected from the toiling masses. This is the true picture of the U.S. policy.

A true democracy should grant equal voting rights and eligibility to all people regardless of gender, occupation, wealth, level of knowledge, political views or religious beliefs, and guarantee the right to eat, wear, live, work, rest, learn and receive medical care.

In the United States, vast swaths of the population are deprived of all political rights by the power wielded by monopolists, and their right to survival is threatened by harsh exploitation and oppression. Due to various restrictions, the United States has the largest number of poor people unable to participate in elections, and it is also the country with the highest unemployment rate. In the United States, the wealthy, who make up a mere 0.02% of the population, control 60% of the nation’s assets. The wage gap between senior corporate executives and ordinary workers is as much as 400 times, and tens of millions live in extreme poverty, lacking even basic medical care.

“Democracy”, “equality” and “human rights” allegedly called for by American-style “democracy” are just aimed to provide freedom and right to the monopoly capitalists to let them suppress and exploit the popular masses as they please, gain profits and exercise influence. This democracy is a hypocritical one as it has reduced the people’s desire and right to freedom and equality to a plaything of a few billionaires. Herein lies the unpopular nature of American-style “democracy”.

The United States, which talks so loudly about “democracy” being full of lies, deception and contradictions, is the greatest trampler on democracy.

2

American-style “democracy” is inhuman and unethical one as it blocks the sound development of human beings.

Democracy is a socio-political ideology that seeks to fulfill the inherent needs of social beings. The ultimate goal of democracy is to enable the masses to live independent and creative lives. The most ideal democracy is one that cultivates the qualities and dignity of mankind and permeates society with a spirit of love for humanity, harmony, unity and cooperation. No matter how much freedom and equality are valued and guaranteed, if they detrimentally impact the healthy development of mankind and society, they cannot be considered true democracy. Democracy is about freedom, rights and equality, all of which foster the spiritual, moral and physical well-being of individuals. The inhumane and anti-human concepts of “freedom” and “equality” have no connection to the ideals of democracy.

American-style “democracy” is a reactionary one because it beautifies the corrupt American lifestyle under the pretext of “freedom” and spreads animal-like “absolute freedom” and “equality” diametrically running counter to the intrinsic nature of man as a social being throughout the society in a bid to animalize him.

The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung taught as follows:

The imperialists are making people the slaves of money, mental cripples and political illiterates; every manner of corruption widespread in capitalist society is the product of the anti-popular, anti-democratic politics pursued by the imperialists.2

U.S.-style “democracy” serves as a hotbed of creating animal-like lifestyle subject to a jungle law.

The law of the jungle is the inherent law of survival in the animal kingdom. This animal law is simply unacceptable in human society. While individuals may differ in intellectual ability and physical strength, their status and rights as social beings are equal. True human relationships are formed when people participate in social life with equal standing.

American-style “democracy” shamelessly embraces the law of the jungle, brutalizing humanity and society. The American society is reducing people into beasts and animal-like beings who do not stoop to any infamy to meet their own interests. Americans only think of themselves and the strong sacrifices the weak in pursuance of their own ease, pleasure and profits. The misanthropy and the law of the jungle, where “man is like a wolf to man”, are inherent characteristics of American society.

American-style “democracy” has trained people to be murderers, and the United States has become notorious as a terrifying murderous kingdom. In the United States, an average of eight crime scenes per hour, including robbery and massacre, are broadcast on television. A murder occurs every two seconds, and over 30,000 people are killed by firearms each year. It’s no wonder hundreds of Chicago children begged to be freed from the threat of guns and allowed to play outside in peace. The fact that the American imperialist forces occupying Iraq shamelessly claimed that “it’s fun to shoot some people”3 eloquently demonstrates that American-style “democracy” turns people into bloodthirsty beasts.

U.S.-style democracy is like poison that degenerates people into the worst type.

Human beings must remain human. Mankind is inherently human because of its inherent nature, and humane morality is what makes human society beautiful. More precious than gold is the inherent nature of mankind and morality. Encouraging immorality and corruption, thereby corrupting mankind and degenerating society, is the most heinous crime.

American-style “democracy” distorts the animalistic “freedom” of the exploiting class into the unlimited “freedom of individuality” of human beings. American newspapers, broadcasts and publications consistently contain the most reactionary content, promoting extravagance and debauchery and paralyzing sound human thought and spirit. Driven by American ideological culture that stimulates people’s base instincts and seduces them into decadence with sweet words, the number of drug addicts, alcoholics and degenerates pursuing perverted desires is increasing day by day. It is American-style “democracy” that has turned the U.S. into the world’s kingpin of drug smuggling and a den of degenerates and gamblers under the motto of “absolute liberty”. It encourages Americans in carnal instinct, sexual urge and corruption and irregularities under the signboard of “liberty”. This is a crime against humanity as it benumbs people’s consciousness of independence, corrupts them mentally and morally and reduces them to slaves obedient to the reactionary ruling system.

American-style “democracy” is reducing people to slaves of money and snobs ruled by instinct who will do anything for money and animal pleasure. “The penny siller slew mair souls than the naked sword slew bodies”4: these words from a European writer are unfolding in the reality of America today. It has become common to sell and even kill one’s own relatives for a few pennies. It is a shame and tragedy for humanity that American-style “democracy” exists, which creates large numbers of deformed human beings who are obsessed with money and have lost all human dignity, morals and conscience, every day and hour. In the United States, all kinds of immoral acts are rampant by people absorbed in eroticism. The number of homosexuals is increasing day by day, and indecency is spreading among young people who walk naked along the streets in broad daylight. How on earth can we find anything human here? Nevertheless, the U.S. ruling class nonsensically praises the fin-de-siecle American lifestyle as “the best free lifestyle that modern people should have”.

The United States, competing with the animal kingdom in inhumane, immoral behavior, is a shameless desecrator of democracy, trampling on it. It’s only natural that American-style “democracy”, which has unleashed a wild animal world that would make even primitive people blush, is condemned and rejected by progressives who cherish human ethics.

U.S.-style “democracy” represents a criminal political mode of making people illiterates.

The height of humanity is the height of thought and intellect. It is through thought and intellect that human dignity and value are established and humanity is great. If the greatest love for humanity is to develop people ideologically and spiritually and nurture them into powerful social beings, then reducing them to ignorant, ideologically and spiritually impoverished beings is the greatest sin.

The American ruling class and monopoly capitalists never spend money to enrich the spiritual and cultural life of the people, but rather squander enormous funds to hinder the spiritual and cultural development of the working masses.

Many Americans are being reduced to political illiterates who are utterly indifferent to their country and nation and society and the collective. They don’t care who becomes president, and they feel no shame even when their country faces international condemnation. The number of completely illiterate people in America is estimated at tens of millions. Not only education, but all areas of cultural life, including literature, art and sports, have been commercialized, severely hindering the healthy ideological and spiritual development of the masses. All sorts of reactionary and corrupt ideologies and cultures flood the American society under the pretext of “freedom of thinking” and religious “freedom” and thus paralyze people’s sound mentality. American-style “democracy” traps people in ignorance and blindness, turning them into pre-human “people”. This demonstrates that America, which touts abstract “respect for humanity” as a “democratic value”, is a barren wasteland for democracy.

The great sin of American-style “democracy”, which has promoted the reactionary course of political life, the deformity of material life and the impoverishment of ideological and spiritual life, turning society into a hotbed and playground for all sort of inhumane rabble and perverts of all kinds, will not be completely washed away even after a thousand years.

3

American-style “democracy” is also super-power-style “democracy” aimed to Americanize the world.

Living freely and peacefully in a democratic world free from invasion, war, domination and subjugation is a common aspiration and desire of humanity. In international relations, freedom and equality are fundamental requirements of democracy, guaranteeing peace and friendship among nations and peoples, and international stability and harmony. There can be no peace and security in a world where freedom and equality for all nations and peoples are not guaranteed.

The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung taught as follows:

The imperialists are employing a variety of disguise. All this is nothing but a cunning trick to blur the reason of people of the world and achieve their aggressive and predatory ambition.5

Under the banner of “freedom” and “spread of democracy”, the United States is brazenly disregarding international law and the UN Charter, waging wars of aggression across the globe without justification and arbitrarily interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and peoples. The “spread of freedom and democracy” touted by the U.S. rulers is, in essence, aimed to realize their dominationist ambition to convert the world into a uni-polar world dominated by the U.S.

This theory is gangster-like logic to Americanize the world by interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and nations.

Independence is the lifeblood of a nation and its people. The choice of socio-political ideology and methods is entirely a matter of sovereignty for each nation and people. Responsibility for democracy rests with the government and people of that nation. No nation has the right to interfere in the internal affairs of another nation or people. Interfering in the internal affairs of another nation or people constitutes a violation and infringement upon freedom, equality and democracy.

The U.S., styling itself a “judge of democracy” responsible for the practice of democracy in other countries, tries to interfere deep in the internal affairs of other countries in a bid to Americanize the social systems of those countries.

The principle of democracy is of universal nature and it, therefore, does not allow the application of double standards. The U.S. divided the world into pro-U.S. countries and anti-U.S. ones to pull up those anti-U.S. countries over the lack of democracy without any justifiable reason. It has openly interfered in the internal affairs of progressive countries under such absurd pretexts as “election issue”, “human rights issue” and “religious issue”, taking a double-dealing attitude towards the issues to serve its own interests. It, at the same time, launched the offensive of “color revolution” against some countries, complaining about “retreat in democracy” and the like. This has led to socio-political discord, conflict and civil war in many countries. This interference in domestic affairs has led to the overthrow of anti-American, independent governments and the establishment of pro-American regimes.

The idea that we must unconditionally accept everything from a superpower is not the logic of democracy, but the logic of robbery. The dogmatic and exclusive American “democracy”, which insists that only its own is superior and that everything from other nations or peoples is inferior, cannot be welcomed anywhere.

U.S.-style “democracy” is a harsh policy for exterminating other nations as it is aimed at assimilating their peoples to Americans and thus Americanize the world.

For the US, which seeks to assimilate other countries and peoples, “democracy” is synonymous with the American way of thinking. “American values, morals and lifestyle are the only standards, and no nation should be excluded from the world the U.S. seeks to build”, is the U.S. superpower mentality.

All nations and peoples are independent and equal. The development of nations and peoples is not a process of assimilation or merger of one nation and people into another. It is a process in which each nation and people develops into a civilized and powerful nation and people, freely creating its own unique life and history, while continuously expanding and developing cooperation and connections among nations and peoples based on the principles of complete equality and voluntaryness. There can be no Americanization of the world in political, economic, cultural and all other aspects now that every country and nation is carving out its own destiny under its own system guided by its own ideology.

Today, the U.S. imperialists, seeking to assimilate the world to their own model, are demanding that other countries and peoples unconditionally accept “liberalization” and “diversity” in the ideological and political realms, and “diversification of ownership” in the economic realm, as a condition of their “aid” and “cooperation”. In particular, the U.S. imperialists view ideological and cultural infiltration as a key channel for the “spread of democracy”, and are actively pursuing it. All avenues, including newspapers, magazines and other publications, as well as the Internet, television and economic exchanges, are being used to promote the “superiority” of American-style “democracy”.

While imperialism in the past sought to assimilate a few countries and peoples, today the U.S. is attempting to assimilate the entire world through the “spread of democracy”. Accepting American-style “democracy” will lead to the disappearance of national self-reliance and unique cultural traditions, ultimately leading to the extinction of the nation itself. Which country, which people, could possibly tolerate this?

American-style “democracy” serves as a lever for perpetrating open aggression and plunder of other countries in a bid to Americanize the world by force.

Invasion and plunder of other countries and peoples is the unchangeable nature of imperialism. As monopoly capital expands, it becomes a law of nature to engage in overseas aggression.

Today, the U.S. imperialists are openly waging a “war against terrorism” under the guise of “democracy”. The “war against terrorism” is a product of the U.S. imperialists’ unilateral military high-handed policy and a new doctrine for aggression to spread the American-style “democracy” to other parts of the world.

The U.S. launched the “war against terrorism” with the September 11 incident as a momentum. It has painted brigandish aggression of sovereign states as one for defending “democracy”. The U.S. imperialists’ “war against terrorism” is nothing but a slogan for aggression and plunder.

The Iraqi war clearly proved that the U.S. imperialists are the most hideous war fanatics, man-killers and plunders who mercilessly violate the sovereign rights of independent states under the signboard of American-style “democracy” to meet their interests. The U.S. promise of “guaranteeing democracy” in the Middle East is nothing more than a facade, driven by the plunder of the region’s abundant oil resources. The reality in Iraq, where justice and human rights are brutally trampled by the U.S. imperialist invaders and innocent civilians are massacred in a vicious cycle of terrorism and retaliation, starkly exposes the very essence of the “democracy” the U.S. touts. If the brutal massacre of over 100,000 peaceful Iraqi civilians, the inhumane abuse of prisoners, the destruction of cultural assets and the plunder of oil were all for the sake of “democracy and human rights”, there could be no greater inversion of black and white. The U.S. “war against terrorism” is a war of terrorism, an open war of plunder, waged under the slogan of “spreading democracy”.

The U.S. “war against terrorism” has become the root cause of human rights abuses, division of countries and ethnic and tribal conflicts. It is plunging the entire world into chaos, destroying the spiritual and cultural wealth accumulated by humanity over thousands of years, exacerbating conflict and antagonism between nations and increasing the risk of arms races and war on the international stage.

American-style “democracy” brings decline and ruin of countries and nations and mankind, not their progress. The U.S. is the empire of all evils as it threatens global peace and security. Nothing can cover up the reactionary nature, hypocrisy and injustice of American-style “democracy”.

The U.S. imperialists are working hard to spread its “democracy” to the DPRK. By spreading “democracy” they foolishly seek to realize the ambition for aggression which it has failed to do by force in the past. It has recently escalated the offensive of pressure upon the DPRK after enacting even the “North Korean Human Rights Act” aimed at a “regime change” in it. No matter how vociferously the U.S. imperialists may talk about the above-said “democracy” it will never work on the army and people of the DPRK.

The Korean people have the most advantageous socialist democracy of their own style chosen by themselves. It is an unshakable will of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the people of the DPRK to defend the people-centered “democracy” of Korean-style under the uplifted banner of Songun. Smashing the U.S. imperialists’ “democratic” offensive is a struggle to defend our own style of socialism and victoriously advance humanity’s cause for independence. We will not yield an inch in this struggle.

Today, the global climate for opposing and rejecting American-style “democracy” is growing stronger by the day. Many countries around the world are taking steps to reject American-style “democracy” and implementing independent policies that reflect the will of their own people.

Whoever is truly concerned for the destiny of his own country and the nation and that of humankind should resolutely oppose and reject American-style “democracy”. This struggle is a decisive one: independence or subordination. Here, surrender means death. American-style “democracy” is running counter to the powerful current of global independence.

American-style “democracy” is bound to go bankrupt due to its reactionary nature and injustice.

― KCNA, 13 December 2005.

In the summer of 1996, the House Ways and Means Committee, composed of 22 members, drafted the so-called “Iran Sanctions Act” — a bill under which the U.S. government would impose sanctions on companies from various countries around the world that had trade relations with Iran.

Its contents were so vicious that criticism erupted from countries around the world, but the bill was nevertheless passed without difficulty.

However, it was not the Republican Party or the Democratic Party that pushed this bill through, but rather “AIPAC” (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), a Jewish lobbying organization.

There are about 6 million Jews in the United States, and the influence they exert over American society is immense. The reason the United States has consistently supported Zionism is not only because the claims of Zionists align with U.S. Middle East policy, but also because of the great influence Jews wield in American politics and economy.

“AIPAC”, which is run with massive Jewish funds, annually classifies U.S. congressmen into “pro-Israel” and “anti-Israel” categories. It provides vast political funds and career advancement opportunities to “pro-Israel” lawmakers, while mobilizing their fellows (Jews) active in various fields — including politics, finance, media and the legal profession — to launch “concentrated attacks” on “anti-Israel” lawmakers.

In a certain year, when the Israeli Prime Minister was assassinated, the fact that most of America’s top political figures, including President Clinton (at the time), rushed to attend the funeral was also due to the influence of Jews operating under the command of “AIPAC”.

As of 2001, out of the U.S. population of 284.8 million, the proportion of Jews is not high, but they have made considerable “strides” in every field of American society.

Jews include former Secretary of State Kissinger, who played a “decisive” role in establishing diplomatic relations between the United States and China during the Nixon administration; Solarz, who played a “core” role in drafting U.S. Congressional policy toward Korea in the past; Javits, who served as a senator for 24 years and was regarded as one of the “top power brokers” in Congress; former New York Mayor Koch; and Wolfowitz, who was Deputy Secretary of Defense under the Bush administration.

In 2004, from the President’s policy advisors to current members of Congress and state legislatures, about 10% of the political sphere was Jewish, and Jews also occupied positions in the White House and the leadership of America’s two major political parties.

Finance forms the backbone of the economy. And Jews effectively dominate the U.S. financial world. The financial sector — including the New York Stock Exchange, which can be said to drive the financial world of the capitalist system, as well as banks and insurance companies — is almost entirely controlled by Jews. Many of the world’s leading financial institutions, such as major banks like Dreyfus, Goldman Sachs and Charles Schwab & Co., are run as family-owned Jewish businesses.

Jews also hold firm positions in nearly all industrial sectors in the United States, including the tobacco industry, entertainment industries such as film and records, the precious metals industry, real estate and the clothing and textile industry.

According to Western press reports, out of the 40 wealthiest individuals in America, 16 are Jews, and they are said to dominate the U.S. financial world as represented by “Wall Street”.

Jews donate a significant portion of the immense wealth they have accumulated through vigorous economic activity to various organizations and lobbying agencies that operate for the benefit of Israel and Jewish interests.

In the media world as well, the activities of Jews are “remarkable”.

The world-famous newspaper The New York Times had already come under Jewish ownership in the 1930s. To this day, The New York Times propagates to the U.S. and the world the false narrative that “Israel is good, Arabs are evil”. In addition, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and the Associated Press, as well as most major U.S. media outlets, are under the control of Jewish capital. Furthermore, the major programs of ABC Radio, NBC Broadcasting and CNN TV — all of which play important roles in U.S. media regulation — are also controlled by Jews. The owner of Fox TV, which has been popular since entering the U.S. media market in the 1980s, is also Jewish. In America, Jewish ownership of media outlets is so extensive that it is impossible to determine the exact number.

Out of the five most important universities in the United States, four are headed by Jewish presidents.

Jews hold regular national gatherings in Washington and New York, “displaying” their organizational strength, unity and power.

South Korea’s Mal magazine (May 2006 issue) published the following article:

Today, those who politically control America are the “Anglo-Saxons” of British descent. However, internally, the United States are a “Jewish republic”.

Most of the world’s top five oil companies and top five food companies are Jewish-owned…

The core of the neoconservative (Neocon) forces that provided the rationale for the invasion of Iraq are also Jews.

― Pak Chun Sik, General Knowledge for Youth and Students, vol. 2, Kumsong Youth Publishing House, Pyongyang 2011, pp. 40-42.

In his immortal classic work Respecting the Forerunners of the Revolution is a Noble Moral Obligation of Revolutionaries, the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il clearly elucidated the vicious schemes of the modern revisionists and socialist betrayers who obliterated the achievements of the leaders and revolutionary forerunners and their consequences.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il pointed out as follows:

Modern revisionists and socialist renegades have caused socialism to degenerate and collapse by disgracing the leader and their revolutionary elders and by obliterating their exploits.1

What is important in accomplishing the socialist cause is to uphold, defend, inherit and develop the achievements made by the leaders and revolutionary forerunners. This is a fundamental issue that arises in thoroughly accomplishing the socialist cause.

The socialist cause advances and is accomplished through the process of later generations inheriting and developing the achievements made by revolutionary forerunners from generation to generation. Therefore, the attitude towards the leaders and revolutionary forerunners is a matter of attitude towards the revolution, and it is a crucial issue related to the destiny of the revolution. Being loyal to the leader is the duty of revolutionaries and the highest revolutionary moral obligation. True revolutionaries firmly uphold and defend the leader’s ideas and achievements and faithfully inherit and develop the leader’s revolutionary cause.

However, modern revisionists and socialist betrayers viciously scheme to obliterate the achievements of the leaders and revolutionary forerunners in order to achieve their dirty ambitions.

Historically, in opposing socialism, imperialists and renegades from the revolution have directed their attacks on the leaders of the working class and the revolutionaries of the preceding generations. This is because socialism was pioneered and has triumphed thanks to the guidance of the leader and the self-sacrificing struggle of the revolutionaries of the preceding generations, and because the dignity of socialism is associated with their honour. Therefore, as the revolution deepens and the schemes of imperialists and betrayers of the revolution intensify, we must firmly uphold, defend, inherit and develop the achievements of the leader and revolutionary forerunners. If this issue is not correctly resolved, socialism will be destroyed.

This can be well understood through the reality of the countries where capitalism was restored.

In the former Soviet Union, the achievements made by Lenin were correctly inherited and developed by Stalin. However, because they failed to properly establish a successor afterwards, modern revisionists and socialist betrayers infiltrated the leadership of the Party and state and rejected and obliterated the achievements of the leader and revolutionary forerunners.

They first viciously defamed the authority and achievements of the leader.

The modern revisionists, while Stalin was alive, called him “teacher” and presented themselves as his faithful “disciples”. But after Stalin’s death, they changed their tune, slandering him and completely negating his achievements. At the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956, they spread all sorts of slanders, saying that Stalin “disregarded the collective leadership principle of the Party and state”, “delayed economic development” and so on. They even clamoured that Stalin “made mistakes in the Patriotic War”, spouting all kinds of malicious gossip.

Enraged by this, young students in Tbilisi, Georgia, held protest marches, shouting loudly: “Stalin is the great leader of the Soviet people”, “Stalin will live forever”, “Long live Stalin!” The protest demonstrations spread everywhere. The panicked modern revisionists sent out troops equipped with automatic weapons in armoured vehicles to brutally suppress the demonstrators. They closed Stalin museums and destroyed the exhibits. The modern revisionists and socialist betrayers continued to engage in acts of slandering Stalin thereafter.

At the 19th Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, talk emerged about so-called “omnipotence of Stalin and his entourage, and the wave of repressive measures and lawlessness”, and they even viciously slandered that “the command methods of administration that arose in those years had a dire effect on various aspects of the development of our society”2, and it was even proposed to erect “monuments” for those who were executed for counter-revolutionary activities during the Stalin period.

Stalin inherited Lenin’s cause, built a solid socialist state into a world power and led the army and people to defend the socialist motherland from fascist aggression.

Stalin’s achievements, piled high before the Soviet Party, state and people, can absolutely not be damaged.

Nevertheless, the modern revisionists and socialist betrayers slandered Stalin and attempted to obliterate his achievements, fabricating history and engaging in all sorts of slander and defamation. This is the most vile and ugly act of betrayal, a counter-revolutionary scheme.

In the former Soviet Union, the socialist betrayers also turned the arrow of attack against Lenin. Insidiously and overtly defaming Lenin’s authority and achievements, they openly betrayed Lenin’s ideas. They even prevented the use of the expression “Marxist-Leninist doctrine” and denied the solemn fact that “the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was founded by Lenin”.

Moreover, they described the Socialist October Revolution carried out under Lenin’s leadership as a “coup d’état” and even portrayed Lenin as a “usurper of power”, and ordered the dismantling of Lenin museums, statues and monuments. Incited by this, reactionaries in Moldavia and Tajikistan ran rampant, destroying Lenin statues and monuments. Furthermore, the socialist betrayers even proposed moving Lenin’s body from Red Square to the Volkov Cemetery in Leningrad.

That’s not all. The socialist betrayers ordered the removal of slogans like “Let’s live, work and learn like Lenin” and ordered the renaming of cities, factories and enterprises that bore Lenin’s name.

The socialist betrayers also viciously obliterated the revolutionary achievements made by the revolutionary forerunners. They dismissed revolutionary forerunners from key positions and mutilated the achievements they had made. As a result, today, veteran revolutionaries have been reduced to insignificant beings in society and are abandoned.

All this shows that when a proper successor to the leader is not established, the achievements of the leader and revolutionary forerunners are ruthlessly obliterated by betrayers.

Needless to say, obliterating the achievements of the leaders and revolutionary forerunners who led the socialist revolution and construction to victory is tantamount to uprooting the very foundation of socialism.

In the former Soviet Union, it was precisely because the achievements of the leaders and revolutionary forerunners were obliterated that socialism became degenerate and collapsed.

The former Soviet Union was a large country occupying one-sixth of the world’s land area with a population of 290 million, had 18 million Communist Party members and had engaged in socialist economic construction for about 70 years. However, because it failed to uphold and defend the achievements of the leaders and revolutionary forerunners, the former Soviet Union collapsed overnight. If the achievements of the leaders and revolutionary forerunners had been upheld, defended, inherited and developed in this country, socialist ideology would have been maintained and a tragic event like the collapse of socialism would not have occurred.

If the achievements of the leaders and revolutionary forerunners are obliterated, socialism will inevitably become degenerate and come to naught. This is a lesson of the socialist movement.

Kim Jong Son

― Rodong Sinmun, no. 16 (17854), 16 January 1996, p. 6.

Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed audience,

Respected Comrades, making a speech on this problem before you, I want to stress straight that I take up the given theme proceeding from the need of the current fight against the restoration of capitalism in the USSR and the activity of the All-Union Bolshevik Communist Party (ABCP) whose leadership member I am.

We think that our keen attention should be directed to anti-communism in the countries of the so-called Commonwealth of the Independent States and it can be critically overcome only on the serious scientific basis of historical researches in all spheres of social sciences. It is necessary to make unprejudiced investigation of extensive material of archives and other sources so as to form a full idea of the conflicting processes taking place in our country and the world communist movement in the transition period from capitalism to socialism. I now can speak only about certain approaches to the fulfilment of this task. Falsification of the history of socialist construction went to such an extent that considerable time is needed to overcome it and make an exhaustive conclusion and appraisal. Not only the Soviet communists but also all the Marxist-Leninist parties fighting for the power of the working people ought to occupy themselves with these problems.

In 1985 with Gorbachev’s perestroika referred to on the pages of scientific and political writings there appeared the term “Stalinism”, which pseudo democrats and revisionists set forth as the antipode of Leninism. “Stalinism” was given out as a brake on the development and renovation of socialism.

As is known, J.V. Stalin never used such term, stressing always that he was a student, namely, only the successor to the cause of V.I. Lenin. The undisguised anti-communist character of the attack on “Stalinism” compelled even Gorbachev to refer to this problem. In his answer to the questions raised by the Humanité about the “removal of the survivals of Stalinism” in 1986 he declared, “Stalinism—this is the conception invented by the opponents of communism and is widely employed to slander the Soviet Union and socialism as a whole.” (Gorbachev, Selected Speeches and Essays, Moscow, Politizdat, 1987, Vol. 3, p. 162.) Evidently, in this reply was reflected the deepening understanding of many Soviet communists that the stagnation in the ’80s in the USSR was connected not with Stalin but with the opportunist leadership of Khrushchev, which cleared the way for the stagnative phenomena of Brezhnev’s period. Ideological preparation of anti-Stalin hysteria required time.

But after two years Gorbachev spoke about “Stalin’s crimes”, replacing the term “Stalinism” with the similar term “Stalin’s regime”.

“Green light” was given to the anti-Stalin hysteria.

The campaign assumed the complete party-state form. Therefore, when I adduced W. Churchill’s comment on Stalin’s activity in my article “I Cannot Give up Principles”, I and the newspaper Soviet Russia which carried my article in March 1988 received a barrage of accusations lodged by the Central Committee of the CPSU, state organs, men of culture, all the mass media. As is known, the Political Bureau debated this problem for two days and entrusted it to A.N. Yakovlev, the then secretary of the Central Committee of CPSU to give an answer in Pravda to the “writer of the manifesto of the forces opposed to perestroika” and “Stalinist”. This history not only revealed the class essence of Gorbachev’s perestroika but also the genuine price of his assurance concerning the pluralism of opinions.

We think that the term “Stalin’s regime” as well as “Stalinism” is unscientific and fulfils the function of grounding anti-communism. At the same time it seems to be fully justified to speak about the regime of Stalin’s party-state leadership conditioned by the peculiarities of socialist construction in one country. These peculiarities had objective character and were connected with the peculiarities of the proletarian revolution and the class struggle in Russia, which ought to be taken into account.

It is known that the October Socialist Revolution in Russia as well as the great French bourgeois revolution of the 18th century had the class character of strife revealing clearly the social edges, political positions and ideological confrontation of classes engaged in grim struggle. And that in spite of the fact that the proletarian revolution in Russia emerged victorious in the country on the middle level of socio-economic development where the working class did not constitute the majority of population and were not yet fully “boiled” in the factory boiler, having ties of blood with millions of the peasant masses. In other words, the proletarian revolution emerged victorious in the petty-bourgeois peasant country.

Overthrow of the provisional bourgeois government on October 25, 1917 was the most bloodless revolution. There were a few of the killed and the wounded and raped women-defenders of the Winter Palace, the residence of the government which no one wanted to defend.

Power was quickly handed over to the Soviets of Worker, Peasant and Soldier Deputies. There were only little battles in Moscow. 39 bourgeois and 7 aristocratic landlord parties left the political arena. Petty-bourgeois democrats in the capacity of the Mensheviks and the socialist-revolutionaries were enlisted in Soviet construction and the first revolutionary government headed by Lenin and led by Bolsheviks was set up. The first difficult steps were taken to build a worker-peasant state. All was started anew and it was difficult to predict all.

In his works till the spring of 1918 Lenin formulated the basic tasks on the way to socialist construction, namely, the peaceful way of the proletarian revolution. They included not only the method of competition with bourgeoisie but also the use of bourgeoisie under the control of the worker-peasant state. However, these plans were not to be effected. The classes overthrown by revolution did not accept compromise with the new power. They regarded the revolution of Bolsheviks as seizure of power by deception, as an action having no future. Convinced in their absolute superiority over the worker-peasant state, bourgeoisie and landlords unleashed a civil war and foreign intervention with the assistance of international capital. Struggle between labour and capital assumed the armed form, and war fronts upturned three-fourths of the territory of the country.

When the bourgeoisie failed to overthrow the Soviet power with the help of the armed intervention of Entente and the White Army, they went over to the tactics of “small wars” in which they strove to destroy the militant union of workers and peasants by means of anti-Soviet mutiny and revolt. In 1920 flames of war spread over Don, Siberia, Altai, Ukraine, Tambov and Kuban regions. The peak of “small wars” was the Kronstadt mutiny in March 1921, after which they receded to an ebb, but their recurrence took place on the perimeter of the country till the ’30s. Tens of thousands of bandits penetrated into the territory of the USSR across the frontier of Finland, Poland, Afghanistan and Manchuria. Bloodshed took place on all the borders of the country. The whole party organizations there were destroyed and villages and settlements were burned, causing hundreds of thousands of new orphans and widows.

In 1921 the policy of the “War Communism” caused by civil war was replaced by the New Economic Policy (NEP), which cut away the anti-Soviet roots of the “small wars”. Their initiators receded behind the cordon, across which they committed raids. The NEP transferred the indicator of class struggle to the rail of economic competition. The bourgeoisie received the economic freedom of business activity but did not abandon the hope for the restoration of capitalism, replacing the tactics of “small wars” with the tactics of “quiet counterrevolution”. They strove to restore the bourgeois ideology by their mass media. The bourgeois intellectuals sabotaged the reconstruction plans of the Soviet power and sabotage, wrecking, professors’ strikes took place widely. Oil wells and grain storages were burned, trains derailed, coal mines were waterlogged and factory conveyors were stopped. All these happened. All these caused sorrow and suffering to the people and nursed hatred against the class enemy.

At first the sphere of activity of the “quiet counterrevolution” was the state apparatus and economic organizations. Then the “quiet counterrevolution” wormed its way into the party and army where discontent with the party leadership was fostered and fanned by all means. This was the leadership of Stalin who pledged before Lenin’s grave to keep the unity of the party, strengthen the dictatorship of proletariat, the union of the workers and peasants, the union of republics and the Red Army and to be faithful to the principles of the Comintern. He not only pledged but did all to bring his pledge into effect.

Why was Stalin at the helm of the party and the state after Lenin? Anti-communists attributed this to intrigue and craftiness of the Georgian, the ability to remove rivals in the way and so on. This does not correspond with facts. In the beginning of 1924 in the Bolshevik party there was created such a situation in which only one leader openly declared that he steadily would take Lenin’s path. Trotsky disputed against Lenin ostensibly, pretending to his leading role in the victory of revolution and the civil war, and his company placed his name before Lenin’s name. Bukharin theorized confusedly and temporised, elaborating his vivid but not profound writings. Although Zinoviev and Kamenev advertised themselves as “Lenin’s friends” of exile days, their double-dealing role on the eve of the armed uprising in the October of 1917 is remembered within the party. None of them said that he was prepared to follow steadily Lenin’s path. None, except J.V. Stalin in whom the party and the working class placed faith. Their support conditioned victory over the Right and “Left” opportunism.

Dramatic struggle for socialism in society and liquidation of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois elements was literally reflected in the inter-party struggle against Trotskyites, Zinovievites and Bukharinites and other opportunists. This was the most complicated stage full of conflicts which determined the success of industrialization, cooperation of agriculture and socialist cultural revolution. Struggle with opportunism became particularly dangerous when in Germany Hitler acceded to power and it became evident that it was impossible to avoid war. Particularly inter-party struggle became complicated after the murder of S.M. Kirov. Khrushchev and anti-communists accused Stalin of this, but, although causes were not ultimately cleared, it recently had to be admitted that Stalin had nothing to do with it.

Later the then US ambassador in the Soviet Union Davis, American jurist who attended all trials in 1937, said that there began liquidation of the “fifth rank” in the rear on the eve of the inevitable war. Liquidation involved considerable number of people and might have been accompanied with violations of socialist legality. Since this is the central point of anti-communist propaganda, let me dwell on it. On January 27, 1991 the plenary meeting of the Political Executive Committee of our All-Union Society “Unity for Leninism and Communist Ideals” adopted a declaration “On the attitude to the campaign for rehabilitation of those condemned for the crime against the state in the ’20s, ’30s, ’40s and ’50s”.

It read in part that the noisy campaign for the rehabilitation of the “victims to Stalin’s repression” is one of the key tricks of Gorbachev’s perestroika. Demagogy of the campaigners can serve as the historic yard for social hypocrisy and Judas deception. In fact, the inexorable class struggle on the principle “who will beat whom?” which caused loss to the both struggling sides, is presented to philistines as utter tyranny and terrorism caused by the “Reds” in power. Facts of condemnation for the crime against the state which were taken out of the historical context, are considered through the prism of a different time. Instead of consideration in the dialectic unity of the political class struggle and capital crimes committed in this course attention is aroused and only individual biographical stories which are not knit with the logic of this political struggle are taken to draw tears of the present philistines and instigate people to take a negative attitude to the revolutionary past.

At such approach Trotskyites, Zinovievites and Bukharinites are presented as innocent sheep tormented by wolves. This downright lie needs not special refutation, for it was already refuted by thousands of documents and witnesses of those complicated times. The ABCP CC is flooded with hundreds after hundreds of letters from many people who directly suffered terrorism at the hand of the White Guards, kulaks, Basmach men, and nationalists. As lackeys of these enemies then served careerists, trimmers, bureaucrats, schemers, cowardly sycophants and renegades—villains of all hues who later became the backbone of stagnation, Gorbachev’s perestroika and post-Gorbachev’s period of restoration. For example, the former generals of the State Security Commission Kalugin and Sterling now continue the affairs of betrayers of the ’20s-’40s, ranked by Gorbachev and his company as the official political saints, “fighters with Stalinism”.

One woman from Siberia wrote to me that her father was thrown into prison by the police head who was later found out to be a former officer of General Kolchak’s White Army. A week ago we received a letter from a party veteran in Nizhni Novgorod. He wrote about the widespread practice at the turn of the ’30s, which was called “voluntary disownment of the kulak”. Its essence lies in that rich farmers, not lodging complaint to the Soviet power and hating kolkhozy, sold their economy of their own accord and left for cities though none touched and persecuted them. Such were hundreds of thousands.

Then significance was not attached to this phenomenon, but now all of them are counted as the eliminated as the kulaks, although they were not. In the years of Five-Year Plans and development of kolkhozy they and their children went to work in factories, collieries and mines and showed particular activeness, trying by all means to worm their way into power and the party, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs and science. They gained much for themselves, bitterly hating the Soviet regime. Great change took place, the class forces were aligned in favour of the children of the “former”.

Such one is Lieutenant General Dmitri Volkogonov, former deputy head of the General Political Bureau of the Red Army, now Yeltsin’s leading adviser on military affairs, who is so far seeking the grave of his father who was ostensibly eliminated as the kulak.

How much did this “general in charge of propaganda” lie in enquete, who is zealously “exposing” Lenin, Stalin, socialism and communism in his premature booklets? He does not hesitate to declare that he was “Stalinist” at first, then Leninist and still later suddenly “matured” and came to call himself anti-communist and victim to the elimination of the kulaks. Stalin’s grandson Evgeni Dzhugashvili, colonel and instructor of military academy, told me how professor Volkogonov ingratiated himself with him, conducting aspirant’s examination in Marxism-Leninism and set an excellent mark for him without being interested in his knowledge.

The writer of the letter from Nizhni Novgorod adduced an example of his neighbour, pensioner-colonel, whose father voluntarily disowned himself as the kulak, and who was sent to the organs of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, where he went up from a soldier to the head of a department.

This former “Cheka man” who was delivered by perestroika now curses Lenin, Stalin, the Soviet power and demands disorganization of collective and state farms. Such “Cheka men” gave impetus to the fly-wheel of repression, ready to search “spies and saboteurs” in each brigade of the kolkhozy to get promoted, advertizing their services in exposing the “enemies”. How many misinformation was conveyed by these turncoats to the leadership of the country? It was class revenge on the Soviet people of the “former”, and is now given out as the terrorism of communists. How many of these “avengers” were repressed after the plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1939 when party organizations came to look deep into such activity? The former commissars of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, Yagoda and Ezhov had to strictly answer for these affairs and were shot to death.

Because of these turncoats and scoundrels thousands of people devoted to the ideals of socialism and the Soviet power lost freedom and even their lives. But they by no means were only victims to tyranny but honest fighters who died because of the machinations of the class enemy who took advantage of the imperfection of the then legislation, legal procedure, technical equipment of enquiry, the inexorability of class struggle. Today Yeltsin and his company rehabilitate the devoted fighters for socialism in the same campaign together with the White Guards and fascist hangmen with whom they once fought a life-and-death battle. Such overall rehabilitation, so-called “zero variety” is aimed to gloss over the fact of the class struggle in the past itself, compromise the idea of defence of class interests of the working people today, revive the thrown away revisionist and capitulationist “theories” which are now designed to serve the oncoming counterrevolution. It only remains to place Hitler on the pedestal of the “victim to Stalin’s repression”.

The ABCP advocates the unreserved and immediate rehabilitation of the good names of those who stoutly fought for the cause of socialism and laid down their lives in this struggle, falling victim to intrigues and machinations, but we definitely oppose rehabilitation of those who plotted against their people and went over to the side of enemy, wreckers and murderers, spies and saboteurs. There cannot be mercy for them. One sage said, “If one praises betrayal, misfortune is in store for one.”

The repressed who served their term in prison often write to us. They refute the allegation of the pseudo democratic newspapers which held that there were only honest people in the concentration camps. One of the repressed wrote that in one of the big concentration camps where he was confined there was no one innocent prisoner. The prisoners were the worst enemies of the Soviet state who continued their subversive activity even in the camp. He, too, was confined there, the writer of the letter declared, for the affair. Recently there came to our newspaper company one of the “victims to Stalin’s repression” who said that he, too, was rehabilitated and given privileges as the sufferer from the Soviet power although in those days he was sent to prison for the murder of his own wife but not for any political offence or crime against the state… Evidently in this way the present rulers are strengthening the social basis of rehabilitation.

The “quiet counterrevolution” which relied on the opportunist elements within the CPSU in the ’30s again suffered defeat.

International capital again counted on the armed struggle with the only socialist country in its envelopment. Now all the diplomatic activity of the Western countries was directed to bringing Hitler to the frontier of the Soviet Union and egging him on to aggression. Under the fascist boots cracked the frontiers of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Greece, and then Belgium, Holand, Denmark, Norway, France and Yugoslavia. On the eve of the Second World War with conclusion of Nonaggression Pact with Germany the wise diplomacy of Stalin and Molotov deferred Hitler’s attack on the USSR by one and a half year. Not all in Europe rightly understood this step, accusing Stalin of collusion with Hitler.

The Soviet Union made intensive preparations for the repulsion of aggression. Diplomats pushed back the borders from which attack on our country was to be started. These borders were pushed back by 200-300 kilometres westward from Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Odessa. In the end the terrible blows of the aggressor struck us on June 22, 1941 hundreds of kilometres west of the former frontier where the first battles unsuccessful for the Red Army were fought. Whatever their evaluation may be, in their course the first two weeks were won out of 6-8 weeks given by Wehrmacht in “Barbarossa” plan of blitz war with the USSR. These two weeks enabled us to gather strength and prepare for the battles on the Luga region in front of Leningrad, in the vicinity of Smolensk, Kiev, Odessa, Murmansk, taking off from the invaders still 4-5 weeks of summer time valuable for them. If we had not won the time, we had failed to frustrate the blitz war nor could have compelled Hitlerites to wage a war in the condition of winter to which they were not prepared.

The so-called “Molotov-Ribbentrop pact” which is now subjected to unfair attack from all directions helped us win our future allies of anti-Hitler alliance that were not prepared for it till 1939. Owing to this pact the united anti-Soviet alliance of world imperialism was not formed, although Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union was supported by the armies of Italy, Romania, Hungary, Finland and Spain. Because of the pact militarist Japan did not decide to start war with the Soviet Union, which enabled us to avoid wars at two fronts that might have been fatal to our country.

Exaggeration of the personality of Stalin and his comrades-in-arms in the pre-war and war periods now requires that the result of anti-Stalin campaign should be analyzed without prejudices since its consequences became fatal not only to the Soviet Union but also to all the international working-class and communist movement. Stalin will forever remain in the memory of the grateful posterity as the Supreme Commander of the armed forces who made a decisive contribution to the defeat of the pretenders to world domination. They not only delivered the Soviet people but also all the mankind from the Hitlerite genocide. Many people were to be burned down in the infernal ovens of O’swiecim and Maidanek. The tactics of the “quiet counterrevolution” was applied again and went through the phases of “cold war” and detente. Whatever anti-communists may say now, the Soviet Union, having created its own missile-nuclear arms at the expense of lagging in the growth of well-being of its citizens, made it impossible to trigger off the third world war. The role of Stalin in this problem is colossal.

Although numberless trials befell the Soviet Union in those days, the sentiment of millions of the Soviet people corresponded with the social optimism based on the confidence in the future. The CPSU and the party and state leadership headed by J.V. Stalin enjoyed particularly high authority among the people. Bravery and valour displayed in the battles with the enemy, awareness of social obligation, firm will and indomitable spirit to overcome difficulties, creativity and devotion, readiness to take a risk and take responsibility upon oneself—such are the main qualities of the Soviet people acquired in the new era. The qualities which stood trials in the years of war and five-year plans.

In addition, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the Second World War caused the Soviet Union countless material and irretrievable human loss. On the battlefield remained the flowers of the CPSU, three millions out of five million communists, the most active and self-sacrificing part of the builders and defenders of socialism. War compelled the Soviet state to defer considerably the fulfilment of pressing tasks for developing socialism and improving the people’s living standards.

However, after winning victory over the enemy, socialism found in itself the strength, in the first postwar decade, to restore the national economy ruined in the war, made substantial achievement in the development of industrial production, did not allow itself to lag behind advanced capitalist countries in the scientific-technical progress, and sent man into space and created a series of industries for the peaceful use of atomic energy. In the ’50s the country ranked first in Europe and second in the world in industrial production, third in the world in labour productivity in industry. This progress from wooden plow to atomic equipment promoted the Soviet Union to the rank of world superpowers. People abroad began to speak about the “Russian miracle”. Immeasurably rose the authority of Stalin to whom the historic successes of the great power was credited with full grounds.

Moreover, toward the ’50s in the Soviet Union began to be piled problems mainly in the sphere of planning and management of the national economy. Let me touch on some of them.

First, the growth of production greatly complicated planning on the scale of the whole country. In the period of first five-year plans attended with a great shortage the so-called “gross” quantity indices sufficed, but with the colossal growth of nomenclature of products the quality of products was brought to the foreground. Expansion of the State Planning Committee failed to secure optimal planning. Only recent decades of computerization of state planning made it possible to make simultaneous consideration of quality and quantity indices. In ’50s it was impossible.

Secondly, in carrying out the first five-year plans a minister, having under him tens of factories, could directly or through his deputies control introduction of new techniques, growth of labour productivity and other indices of development of production, but in the years of postwar five-year plans he had under him already hundreds or thousands of enterprises the operation of which it became difficult for him to manage from the capital. Therefore, guidance to and control of them weakened. Even Stalin as head of the government had already to put his signature not to decisions and directives but only to the files with the list of such documents.

Thirdly, in the condition of scientific-technical progress it was required to perfect the receptivity of enterprises toward the latest scientific-technical achievements. Then receptivity of the scientific-technical revolution evidently was insufficient. So-called expenditure mechanism formed, under which the growth of demand for increased production of products was met by building additional factories and shops but not by the technical reequipment of existing ones. Toward the ’80s the unnecessary mechanism increased, becoming one of the basic brakes to the progress of production.

Fourthly, there arose a pressing question of actual conditions of the political economy of socialism whose theory did not correspond to the realities of existence. It was required to perfect the system of man’s interest in labour, namely, material interest, which evidently rested on commodity-money relations as well. Do they work under socialism? This is a problem disputed long among Marxists. At first all market relations were denied by Marxism, as if they ought to be replaced by exchange of products. The question was when to introduce it, right after the seizure of power by the working class, or in step with transition to communism. The new economic policy introduced in the beginning of 1921 altered these views on the commodity-money relations. But in the first year of the NEP a reversion to capitalist market and private property took place and the NEP bourgeoisie revealed interest in the restoration of capitalism. The second year of the NEP obliged one to think over whether the capitalist market is needed to the country going over to socialism. I stress the capitalist market where not only food and consumer goods for producers but also the means of production, land and labour present themselves as commodity.

I think that Lenin had a foreboding of the “basic change of view-point on socialism” in this in which Gorbachev and perestroika advocates saw transition to capitalist market, private property over tools and means of production, non-socialist pluralism in ideology and multi-party system in politics.

Stalin gave beginning to the scientific solution of the problems of market in the Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR in 1952, in which he maintained that commodity production will not lead to capitalism if exchange of commodities through purchase and sale is made only for consumer goods. Their production and exchange are subjected to the law of value under socialism. But in socialist society the means of production and labour are not subjected to the regulating act of the given law directly. This was the official ground for the necessity of the socialist market which ensures distribution in accordance with labour but not with capital.

Restoring capitalism, Gorbachev and Yeltsin revived the capitalist market which needed private property, exploitation, unemployment, impoverishment of the working people, subordination of the country to the International Monetary Fund.

Soon after J.V. Stalin’s death his work Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR was criticized and removed from trade and libraries. The ideas set forth in it did not receive due development. But problems remained. Delay of their solution or their ineffective solution brought the country to crisis and to the surrender of the occupied positions.

In Stalin’s lifetime the landmark and the index of the quality of work of enterprises were reduction of the cost of products and growth of labour productivity, whereas in the reforms of Khrushchev and Brezhnev they were replaced by profit. It was possible to reduce the cost of products and then wholesale and retail prices of them only by introducing new techniques and technology, and economizing raw and other materials, energy and labour, and on the other hand with profit taken as the basic index of work of socialist enterprises it became possible to manipulate by raising prices on the same products so as to ensure the planned profit.

As a result of reforms of Khrushchev and Brezhnev the economy came to be oriented not toward the reduction of cost and the increase of production of high-quality commodity for fuller supply of the needs of the working people but toward obtaining profit at any cost. Such orientation led to retardation of national economic development, decrease of the return of fund, gradual devaluation of rouble. Every-year reduction of prices of consumer goods and food stopped and their prices began to rise with gradual vanishment of cheap assortment. Then occurred retardation of scientific-technical progress and fall in the growth of labour productivity, namely, the principal which determines the result of competition between capitalism and socialism on the arena of history.

Ideological overture of these negative processes became the anti-Stalin campaign launched after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, which was officially described as the “criticism of cult of personality”. Objectively this campaign which was not distinguished by state wisdom led to undermining of authority of socialism, serious difficulties in the working-class and communist movement, confrontation of the CPSU with the Communist Party of China and of the Soviet Union with the Chinese People’s Republic, activation of opponents of socialism in East Europe. This campaign implied petty-bourgeois degeneration of the CPSU. There began mass replacement of the party and Soviet cadres who were accused “dogmatism” and “Stalinism” and subjected to persecution and moral terrorism.

Acting in this manner, Khrushchev replaced all the secretaries of district, regional and city committees and the central committees of republics with his people who were often inferior to their predecessors in ability and experience of political work. This soon affected not only the party but also economic activity. Thus, an engineer, specialist in fish processing industry, was promoted to the first secretary of the Sakhalin regional committee of the CPSU. This led not only to the failure in the party work but also in the fish processing industry. It turned out that party leadership essentially differed from the administrative-economic guidance and cannot be replaced with one another. Moreover, the promoted specialists brought pragmatism and lack of principle into the party leadership, which made it fast degenerate and change its landmark. The level of the party continued to lower under the leadership of Brezhnev and Gorbachev, Party mass ceased to be proper party, being converted into some base of party pyramid the top of which more and more was alienated from the masses of communists, occupied with paper work and invention of privileges for themselves. Leading cadres were chosen from their clan on the principle of personal faithfulness. The “party of all people” more and more came to be filled with philistines, careerists, trimmers, unprincipled ballast. All this discredited the CPSU in the eyes of the working people.

From the ’60s began the change in the social structure of Soviet society. The early prevailing tendency of obliteration of class distinctions began to be covered with professional-property, socio-cultural differentiation. Difference between the high and low paid, above all between the elite intellectuals and the basic masses of the working people increased. There occurred the “backward” class formation, mainly in connection with the “shady” economy giving rise to private capitalist elements who forced primary accumulation of capital. This capital leading to power immediately assumed criminal or openly Mafia character.

The “shady” shops and laboratories working under the signboard of state-run enterprises caused split in the ranks of the working people and brought the degenerated young people into the orbit of criminal business. Their economies created the base of bribing the responsible persons of the state, paving the way to bribery and corruption, which are now in practice on a colossal scale in Russia. At the same time in production there appeared something like “labour aristocracy” that sat at the presidium table at meetings rather than worked in enterprises, occupied “lucrative” posts of trade unions, received unearned pay, praising the success of unworthy administration. These “activists” in the period of Gorbachev’s reorganization became suppliers of “labour deputies” in restorationist anti-Soviet organizations, helped Yeltsin to destroy socialist production and now obtain from the government the record wage exceeding that of the working people by ten times. And that without the increase of production and growth of labour productivity.

After liquidation of machine and tractor stations began the break of the formed links between kolkhozy and state properties, undermining the alliance of the working class and peasantry. Kolkhozy were converted into self-supporting economies not covered by state financing and technical assistance. Differentiation of kolkhozniks took place and in this circumstance there appeared speculative elements capable of having good relations with those in power and becoming rich not at the expense of their labour. As a result of growth of their number kolkhozy were converted into unprofitable enterprises living on donation. Today these people formed the backbone of “plantations”, which, according to the assertion of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, ought to feed the country.

But plantations are not developing. Many “farmers” returned land back to collective and state farms. Their conflicts with kolkhozniks are aggravating. In a series of regions restorationists had farmers equipped with arms so that they, arms in hand, defend their holdings from their countrymen-collective farmers.

The political superstructure of society is gradually being degenerated. The working class is gradually being removed from the state politics and, as a result, politics loses social stability, is doomed to vacillating, following “the general line of the party”. The prestige of highly placed political leaders is falling. Each of them after Stalin strove to attribute the difficulties in the country to the recent respected predecessors. Of course, this is designed to warm their hands at the fire of the anti-Stalin campaign.

Brezhnev had the possibility of breaking away from not farsighted policy but did not withstand the pressure of the elite intellectuals who in the mid-’60s opposed “return to Stalinism” in which they saw the obstacle to their endless enrichment. The party and state apparatus began to be filled with potential anti-communists and diluted conciliators like Wadim Medvedev, secretary in charge of ideology of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Here evidently it did not do without the so-called “agents of influence” who were trained by the CIA and other Western secret services and who, according to Kryuchkov, former head of the State Security Commission thrown in the prison “Matroskaya Tishina” (seaman’s calm), were gradually promoted to the first roles in the party and the state. The Soviet people put down Gorbachev, A. N. Yakovlev and many other architects of perestroika for such “agents of influence”.

In comparison with Stalin’s period toward the beginning of perestroika the state apparatus swelled, gradually losing the quality of the organizer of socialist construction and alienating itself from the working people. The growth of officials outstripped the growth of the number of workers engaged in the material production, particularly in agriculture. The bureaucratic officialdom which became exclusive gradually converted into a closed social stratum the whole groups of which were actively corrupted. With the help of degenerated officials in science many were invested with doctor’s degree and the title of professor. Precisely from this stratum came many designers of perestroika like Volski, Silaev, Luzhkov, Khizh and others. In the period of Gorbachev’s perestroika many directors of factories, Soviet and party workers became candidates for businessmen. Representatives of science, chancellors of university who began their career in the party and state organs swelled their rank.

Thus, Gidaspov, the former secretary of the Central Committee and secretary of the party committee of the Leningrad region, deceiving the bureau of the regional committee, gave out “democrats” 65 million roubles from the party treasury in August 1991. He now owns a whole firm, drives about in a glistening Toyota and leads a businessman’s life. We see the same in the Khodirev, former secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU and mayor of Leningrad, who now heads a joint firm with Finns. He built such gorgeous houses for himself that even the former emperor of the whole Russia never dreamed. Examples of such kind can be cited without end. I only named those whom I personally knew and who took part in the attempt to remove me from the party in 1970 for exposition of corruption from the “below”.

Thus, already in the beginning of the ’60s the proletarian state was transformed into the “all-people” state and opportunists headed by Khrushchev called the CPSU “party of all people”. It is no wonder that on the yeast of anti-Stalin hysteria this “people’s state” gathered in its ranks future businessmen, entrepreneurs, nationalists, cosmopolitans, architects and designers of restorationist perestroika, even monarchists and neo-fascists.

The socio-economic and political foundation of anti-Stalinism was strengthened by the ideology of opportunism. Immediately after the 20th Congress of the CPSU revisionists set to undermine the basic premises of Marxism-Leninism. Opportunism was rehabilitated partly at first and fully with Gorbachev’s perestroika. As turned out later, Khrushchev’s report to the congress with criticism about the “personality cult of Stalin” was given out by his supporters in the State Security Commission to the Western press in the form of a leakage of information long before the Soviet people and even the leaders of foreign communist parties came to learn about it. It served as the base and beginning of ideological “perestroika” in the USSR and in the CPSU, which opportunists and careerists in social sciences actively conducted.

Above all under the banner of development and elimination of dogmatism the unity of all components of Marxism-Leninism is undermined and narrow specialization of these components of the scientific proletarian world outlook is stressed. In Soviet social sciences Marxism-Leninism is already not regarded as “a monolith cast from one piece of steel” (V.I. Lenin) serving as the philosophical-sociological, politico-economical foundation of the world-historic mission of the working class and its allies called upon to end all forms of oppression, exploitation, social inequality, violence and war between nations. In the Soviet Union Marxist-Leninist sciences are gradually being converted into the medley of “concepts” and “theories” linked artificially to citations from Marx, Engels and Lenin. These theories often had nothing to do with the scientific proletarian world outlook of Marxism-Leninism. Their countless multitude confused people and engendered critical attitude to them as to all kinds of empty talk and fuss.

The leadership of Gorbachev and Yakovlev in the CPSU took the course of including in social sciences the so-called “world’s humanitarian social thoughts” through the theories of Bernstein, Kautsky, Berdyaev, Martov, Trotsky, Bukharin, Dzhilis, Lefebvre, Willy Brandt and his colleagues from the Socialist International, which opened the door to conversion of Marxism-Leninism into petty-bourgeois anti-communist world outlook. The former “Marxists” Khasbulatov, Burbulis, Volkogonov, Alekseyev, Stolyarov and others who were educated in anti-Stalinism at first led Gorbachev’s perestroika and then restoration of capitalism and disintegration of the Soviet Union after perestroika. Transition from anti-Stalin hysteria to anti-Lenin campaign and vicious anti-communism was quite normal, which in recent years showed clearly.

The conciliatory attitude to the bourgeois reformation of the Central Committee of the CPSU developed into the direct betrayal of the working class and communists. The same position is so far held by newspaper Pravda which was recently headed by Gorbachevite Frolov and now is headed by G.N. Selezhnev who manned the editorial staff with democrats-anti-communists. They refute not only the key premise of Marxism-Leninism about the proletarian dictatorship but also the objectiveness of classes and the class struggle which were admitted already in the beginning of the last century.

Let me say a few words in connection with the proletarian dictatorship admission of which Lenin called a touchstone that distinguishes the genuine revolutionary character. Lenin considered bringing the admission of the class struggle to the admission of proletarian dictatorship as one of the basic services of Marx and Engels. Stalin firmly held this position. Precisely this part of Marxist-Leninist doctrine was particularly subjected to fierce attack of bourgeois politicians and ideologues and in the end vanished from the programme of a series of communist parties.

Of course, the point is not the term but the substance of the concept. Any state represents the dictatorship of one or other class, the class which has economic power. But the substance of power—namely, whose interests the class state realizes and defends—ought not to be confounded with the form, ways and system of exercise of this power. Thus, fascism represents the terrorist form of bourgeois dictatorship. It emerges when capital is obliged to give up the democratic forms of state power and go over to the regime of direct and rude suppression of the working people.

Proletarian dictatorship, as is known, exercises the state power of the working class and its allies, and can assume different forms of regime of power. The working people are interested in that the mode of exercise of their power was the most democratic. But this, as history shows, not always depends on them. Resistance of bourgeoisie may require more cruel regime of power. Revolution ought to know how to defend itself, otherwise it counts little.

The bourgeois ideologues and opportunists deliberately confound the substance of proletarian dictatorship as the class essence of the proletarian state power with the forms and methods of its exercise. It is done to equalize socialism with fascism and disorient the working people. Social democrats and European communism have taken this path. Some communists do not see tricks here. Recently in Pravda one of the leaders of the Indian Communist Party, asserting the necessity of proletarian dictatorship, considered that pure democracy is possible for the developed European countries. But dictatorship ought not be set against democracy as the substance of power. They can be set against one another only as the forms, ways and regimes of exercise of power of one or other class. Herein lies the essence!

The leitmotif of opportunists from the CPSU has become the preaching of civil peace in the period when counterrevolution attacks socialist gains of the country, prohibits the CPSU and commits bloody crimes in the so-called “hot spots”. Recently in Pridnestrovie in Moldavia women, leaving their children and old people behind, took the battle positions to check the Moldavian bourgeois nationalists attempting to annex Moldavia to Romania. By the way, Moldavian nationalists are equipped with Belgium-made tommy guns. It is high time for Europe to understand that arms traders who throw oil on our flames of inter-nationality conflicts shall share responsibility with criminals-nationalists for the blood and tears of innocent people sooner or later.

Our Bolshevik party also suffered loss. Two weeks ago in Pridnestrovie fell in action our comrade, journalist-Bolshevik, Kuban Cossack volunteer Evgeni Berlizov who did much to dispel lie of anti-Stalinism among the Cossacks. In the prison of Vilnius “democrat” Landsbergis’ hangmen are beating and torturing our comrade Lithuanian Bolshevik Alexandr Smotkin, one of the editors of newspaper Lithuanian International Movement who regularly published our materials for two years. We are now raising money to pay advocates. There are other victims to counter-revolution and martyrs, faithful sons of the working people who defended their interests to the end. We, Soviet communists, consider that the world’s people should understand that the development of events in our country tends to reaction and fascism. To check it is the duty of all the honest-minded people.

We considered the premises and roots of anti-Stalinism in economic, political, party and social life which led to the social-democratic degeneration of the CPSU, conduced to the conversion of the party founded by Lenin into political nonexistence, to flourishing state of anti-communism, to the degeneration of nationalist tendencies to wild nationalism and chauvinism, which threw the Soviet people into the mire of unknown disaster and suffering.

Summarizing the mentioned above, I point out that the economic preconditions of anti-Stalinism in the Soviet Union were above all the inability of the leadership of Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev to cope with the objective difficulties in the growth of socialist production and introduction of capitalist elements in socialist economy, which made it expendable and ineffective. In social sphere the roots of anti-Stalinism lie in the emergence of the “shady” neo-bourgeoisie, its gradual growth, emergence of the strata among the working people of town and country which lived off their labour, expansion of bureaucratic apparatus of management, alienation of elite intellectuals from the masses of people. In the political sphere the foundation of anti-Stalinism is rooted in the working class being driven out of the leadership over the country, in weakening the worker-peasant state power, in the opportunist degeneration of party leadership. In the sphere of international policy it is the underestimate of the class substance of peaceful coexistence of different socio-economic systems. In the sphere of ideology the precondition of anti-Stalinism is the inability of the CPSU to develop Marxism-Leninism in the new historical conditions.

The experience of three or four decades of the Soviet history clearly shows that the main enemy of Stalin’s leadership—opportunism—inevitably and naturally degenerates into open restoration of capitalism. Anti-Stalin hysteria played the role of screen for stepping up anti-Lenin and anti-communist campaign as a whole and then was employed by counterrevolution to destroy socialism and the powerful united Soviet power. Anti-Stalinism is a Trojan Horse in the international communist movement, which led to the ruin and degeneration of the parties of the former community of socialist countries which blindly copied the line of the CPSU.

More and more Soviet people begin to understand this, read Stalin’s works, create societies named after him and publish newspaper For Motherland, for Stalin.

In conclusion I would like to point out that Stalin’s conclusions which had seemed doubtful at one time are now deemed prophetic. Among them, for example, the proposition on the possibility of aggravation of the class struggle with the progress of the Soviet Union toward socialism. Before it seemed unreal, today’s social cataclysms on the territory of the Soviet Union actually confirm Stalin’s conclusion. Or Stalin’s anticipation that Yalta-Potsdam system of international relations will be maintained for no more than 50 years. Restoration of capitalism in a number of East European socialist countries, tendency to revision of postwar frontier testify to the farsightedness of Stalin’s foresight. Next, the feasibility of Stalin’s foresight when he asserted that after his death generations of Bolsheviks would be accused of many things which were not their fault. So it happened. But, Stalin said, the wind of history will inevitably sweep away the leaves of slander from our graves and reveal the truth.

The ABCP will not spare pains so that this wind of history would blow as early as possible which would not only sweep away lies, hypocrisy, and betrayal caused by the restoration of capitalism but also show the whole world who is who at the present sharp turning-point of world history of the 20th century. I think we will be joined in this by many of those to whom peace and socialism are dear, those who stood and stand for the truth of history and the just cause of the working people who defend now in the Soviet Union their glorious revolutionary past and the genuinely humanitarian communist future to which all the roads of world civilization will inevitably lead so that communists will go ahead together along this world-historic path. The ABCP considers that the time to revive Comintern has come. By bringing up this question for debate I would like to conclude my speech.

Thank you!

― Nina Andreyeva, Unpresented Principles, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang 1993, pp. 227-245.

In his immortal classic work Respecting the Forerunners of the Revolution is a Noble Moral Obligation of Revolutionaries, the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il once again elucidated the process of degradation and collapse of socialism.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il pointed out as follows:

The process of the degeneration and collapse of socialism began with the emergence of modern revisionism, which vilified the leader and revolutionary pioneers and distorted and debased the revolutionary ideas of the working class.1

Inheriting the socialist cause is in itself the act of inheriting the leader’s cause, the inheritance of the leader’s revolutionary thought and revolutionary accomplishments. Being loyal to the leader who pioneered the road to socialism for the first time; protecting, preserving and glorifying his thought and accomplishments; and doggedly safeguarding the revolutionary spoils won with blood — all this is none other than the process of fulfilling the socialist cause. Therefore, the attitude toward and the pride in the leader and his achievements constitute a yardstick for differentiating between revolutionaries and counterrevolutionaries.

The socialist cause demands that a staunch struggle be waged against any attempt to undermine the authority of the leader and obliterate his achievements. Particularly under the circumstances in which the imperialists and the reactionaries are viciously intensifying their machinations against socialism, this requirement becomes an all the more important issue. Unless this issue is settled correctly, the socialist cause would collapse. This truth is corroborated by the process of collapse of the Soviet Union.

Modern revisionists, who held leading positions of the party and state in the former Soviet Union through an intrigue, conducted an anti-Stalin campaign and disgraced the leader and the seniors in the revolution and obliterated their achievements. The collapse of socialism is attributable to such a perfidious act.

The modern revisionists debased Stalin and resorted to a vicious scheme to emasculate his achievements. Stalin, an heir to Lenin, succeeded to the cause of Lenin and built the first young socialist country into the powerful state of the world and defended the homeland of socialism from the aggression of fascism by leading the army and people. He was the representative of the aspirations and demand of the Soviet people and the socialist cause in the Soviet Union was inseparably linked with his name.

The modern revisionists held the supreme power of the Soviet Union through intrigues after he passed away in 1953. And they threw away their pledge of “loyalty” to Stalin like a worn-out pair of shoes and resorted to vicious moves to obliterate his authority and achievements. During their visit to Yugoslavia in 1955, they criticized Stalin at a formal occasion. This event drew worldwide attention. Some quick Western media vied with each other to come up with reports speculating that there would be a great anti-Stalinist uproar in the Soviet Union in the future.

As a matter of fact, beginning in 1956 there was a large-scale anti-Stalinist racket in the Soviet Union. The report of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union held in February 1956 laid a stress on necessity for “peaceful coexistence”, which was contradictory to the idea of Stalin that struggle between socialism and imperialism is inevitable in the process of advance of socialism. Another report branded him as a “ferocious dictator” and “tyrant”. The modern revisionists debased the achievements made by Stalin in socialist construction of the Soviet Union and in the patriotic war and went the length of slandering him as a “criminal” who hindered the economic development of the country and did harm to the international communist movement and as an “incompetent military strategist” who could not properly read an operational map. This was the height of nonsense. In this way Stalin’s authority, which had been considered absolute until that time, began to deteriorate rapidly.

On the other hand, the modern revisionists fostered anti-Stalin feeling of seditious forces in an attempt to conduct an anti-Stalin campaign and directed efforts to insulting comrades-in-arms of Stalin and obliterating their achievements. They staged the show of rehabilitating the “honor” of the numerous people who had been executed in the Stalin era as anti-party, counterrevolutionary elements. They also allowed the publication of writings and papers totally negating and criticizing the history of the Stalin era. As a result, Stalin’s activities were distorted systemically and deliberately and their distorted reports began to be disseminated in textbooks, writings, movies, papers and television and radio broadcasts dealing with the socialist revolution and the building of socialism in the Soviet Union and the history of the fatherland liberation war. By so doing, the modern revisionists caused ideological unrest and confusion among the Soviet people, opening the way for the imperialists and the reactionaries to vilify the socialist cause all the more viciously.

The anti-Stalin machinations of the modern revisionists reached their climax when they took out Stalin’s remains enshrined on the Red Square and cremated them in an act of betrayal.

The modern revisionists also exerted efforts to defame Stalin’s comrades in arms and obliterate their achievements. Sound revolutionary elders had their dignity defiled and their positions taken away by the modern revisionists.

In addition, the modern revisionists denied the socialist idea, thereby distorting and degenerating the revolutionary idea of the working class. They negated socialist, communist ideology in the building of socialism and put materials at the center of attention by emphasizing the importance of material factors alone. In an article a Japanese reporter noted that it was due to communist ideology that the Soviet Union was able to bind more than 100 diverse nationalities into one unified body. He stated that “if communist ideology is lost, chances for the Soviet Union to remain as a unified state will become slim”. Their revisionist line was a counterrevolutionary one that resulted in demolishing the communist idea, the ideological foundation of the existence of the Soviet Union, and started its collapse.

The modern revisionists maintained that the most important thing to do in time of peace is avoid confrontation and war as much as possible and develop the economy by mobilizing human and material resources to the fullest extent. That, they argued, is the best way to inherit Marxism- Leninism correctly. But it turned out to be nothing more than a vulgarization of Marxism-Leninism. The modern revisionists argued that “Marxism-Leninism will taste better when a lot of butter is spread on it”2. Found in these words is the concentrated expression of their domestic and foreign policies.

Advocating “transition from the dictatorship of the proletariat to the state of the whole people”3, the modern revisionists said they would turn the Soviet Union into a communist society in 20 years or so, in a ploy to win the goodwill of the people. It was out of the question that a policy formulated by an extemporary decision and dogmatism, without any prudent calculation and feasibility, could be put into practice.

With ideological factors ignored by the modern revisionists in the building of socialism while stressing material and economic factors alone, egoism came to grow rapidly among the people of the Soviet Union.

The modern revisionists gradually weakened the leadership role of the party. They clung to the line of unprincipled compromise with imperialism while implementing the policy of “peaceful coexistence”. They thought that any military confrontation with the imperialists was senseless in itself, because, according to them, the aggressive nature of the imperialists had changed. They thus overtly and covertly preached the disarming of socialist countries.

However, the aggressive nature of imperialism is unchangeable. When the Caribbean crisis cropped up in October 1962, the U.S. administration adopted the decision to blockade Cuba. That was the gauntlet flung down to the Soviet Union by the United States before the whole world. The situation was so tense that a war between the Soviet Union and the United States seemed imminent. Under the circumstances, it seemed that the one would become the victor or the loser depending on whether the other would yield or not. The modern revisionists, cowed by the tough stand of the United States, surrendered to it in the end. Seeing the Soviet Union show the white feather, the United States became so emboldened that it came to demand the dismantling of the Soviet missile site in Cuba. The United States got away with this demand. During the Caribbean crisis the Soviet Union was subjected to an unbearable shame and humiliation before the whole world, and its prestige was damaged beyond repair because of the “peaceful coexistence” policy of the modern revisionists. In this way, socialism in the Soviet Union, kept off the right track by the modern revisionists, began to crumble rapidly from within.

Scores of years after that, the Soviet national flag was lowered from above the Kremlin with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, which could not be destroyed by the imperialist allied forces’ armed intervention and by millions of regular armed forces of fascist Germany, began to collapse owing to the anti-socialist moves of the modern revisionists and, in the long run, was suddenly overthrown like a wet mud wall.

The collapse of the Soviet Union left a lesson of blood that, if the authority of the leader and his feats are not firmly defended, it is impossible to defend socialism. If the anti-socialist machinations of the modern revisionists to defame the leader and distort and denigrate his revolutionary thought had been seen through and crushed underfoot on time, socialist ideology would have been preserved in the Soviet Union and the tragedy of the collapse of the Soviet Union would have been averted.

As elucidated by the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il, historical experience tells that if the leader is defamed, if his achievements are obliterated, if his revolutionary thought is distorted and degenerated, the revolution will be stymied midway and the socialist gains won with blood will go down the drain.

Kim Chong Ok

― Rodong Sinmun, no. 364 (17837), 30 December 1995, p. 6.

Rodong Sinmun (organ of the CC of the WPK) January 6 printed an editorial article titled “Concerning the Situation in Poland”.

The article reads in full:

Now the situation in Poland is still drawing the attention of the world.

In connection with the social disturbance that has continued already for one year and several months, the Polish authorities proclaimed a martial law throughout the country some time ago and the country is under the control of the martial council of national redemption.

The world public expresses different views on this and many people wonder the occurrence of such situation in a socialist country.

The proclamation of a martial law and the military control in Poland are an abnormal thing hardly conceivable in a socialist country.

In the socialist country the people are the masters of the country and society and a democratic government is carried into effect for the people. Hence, under socialism the state gives play to the conscious enthusiasm and creative ingenuity of the popular masses, who uphold the state policy of their own accord.

The proclamation of a martial law and the enforcement of a military power in socialist Poland are contrary to the usual practice of the socialist government.

It is regrettable for us that things have come to such a pass in fraternal Poland.

According to reports, after the proclamation of a martial law the situation is gradually changing for the better and stability is being restored in Poland.

As a matter of fact, the creation of a crisis and the proclamation of a martial law in Poland are a product of the former revisionist policy.

For the working class party to discharge its historic mission there are problems of principle which should be consistently adhered to in the whole period of socialist and communist construction.

The most important thing here is to firmly ensure the leadership of the working class party, the general staff and guiding force of the revolution and the organiser and inspirer of all victories. To this end, the party should be firmly built up organisationally and ideologically and the party’s leadership system be established in all state and social realms, the party should strike its roots deep among the popular masses and closely rally them around itself. Only then is it possible to strengthen the militancy and leadership of the party and organise and mobilize the popular masses to successfully carry out the revolution and construction.

But the situation in Poland in the past period showed that this fundamental problem was not correctly solved. As a result of the weakening of the party’s leadership role, its leadership system was not established over the state and society, the party was isolated from the masses, the party’s prestige and militancy were weakened and the party lost the trust and confidence of the popular masses.

Under such situation it is inevitable to suffer pains and undergo twists and turns in the political and social life and in the revolution and construction as a whole.

Under the socialist system the people’s government is a powerful weapon for carrying out the cause of the working masses and a faithful servant of the people. If the people’s government is to discharge its mission satisfactorily, it should not only resolutely defend the socialist system which ensures freedom and happiness to the working masses but also smash the manoeuvres of the enemy who harbours enmity against this system and opposes it, and carry out economic policy which accords with the socialist principles and carry on the revolution and construction in reliance upon the political enthusiasm and creative ingenuity of the popular masses.

When the people’s government fails to do so, it cannot consolidate and develop the socialist system nor can it successfully accomplish the cause of socialism.

In Poland the counter-revolutionary elements of “KOS KOR”, “Confederation of Independent Poland” and “Solidarity” free trade union openly opposed socialism, raising their head and strutting around, and various circles held strikes and demonstrations, discontented with the government’s policy. It cannot but be considered that this is a result of the weakening of the function and role of the people’s government.

Socialism and communism can be successfully built only by a high degree of conscious enthusiasm of the popular masses. In order to give play to their conscious enthusiasm, it is imperative to constantly conduct ideological education and to strengthen it still further as the revolution and construction advance. If this is weakened, the corrosion of the old ideas grows strong, people are easy to be contaminated by the bourgeois reactionary ideas from outside and this will do a big harm to the revolution and construction.

In Poland ideological education including education in socialist patriotism has been neglected so far and the door opened to the ideological and cultural infiltration of imperialism. If the masses are left defenceless in ideology, class consciousness and pride in socialism are paralysed, individual selfishness and the Western way of life prevail among the people and, in the end, they cannot distinguish which is socialistic and which is anti-socialistic and are cajoled by the counter-revolutionary elements.

Under socialism there is only one democracy, a democracy for the popular masses, that is, socialist democracy alone is a genuine democracy which all-roundly and practically ensures genuine freedom and rights to the popular masses who are the masters of the state and society.

But there is only “democracy” for a minority, a bourgeois democracy in capitalist society where the minority dominates the majority. “Democracy” on the lips of the imperialists is a sham democracy and “liberty” advocated by them is that for the exploiter class, a minority, not for the working people.

Socialist democracy and bourgeois democracy are incompatible. To introduce bourgeois democracy into the socialist system is like fixing the tail of a horse to a cow. This mixed democracy only revives bourgeois democracy.

In Poland socialist democracy has not been fostered to suit the intrinsic demand of the socialist system and reactionary bourgeois democracy has been allowed to infiltrate, so that dissoluteness and social disorder have been created and even the foundation of the state policy of the working class has been shaken.

The serious problem caused in Poland by weakening the leading role of the party and the functions of the people’s power, neglecting the ideological education of the people and allowing the reactionary bourgeois democracy, in the long run, damaged the gains of socialism.

To take the road of socialism today is the common purpose of the people struggling to achieve independence and an irresistible trend of times.

The countries which embarked upon the road of socialism before others with the victory of revolution should contribute to the acceleration of this trend by their practical examples in the revolution and construction. To this end, a working class party should maintain the revolutionary principle and build socialism better and faster. Only then can it enhance the prestige and attraction of socialism.

The commotion unbecoming to the socialist system and the proclamation of the martial law in Poland are surely a shameful thing which has smeared the image of socialism. Truth to tell, this is disgrace to socialism.

It is, of course, an unhappy thing to proclaim a martial law in a socialist country.

But how could the Polish authorities sit calmly when the reactionaries attempted to overthrow the people’s power and obliterate the gains of socialism in Poland?

We consider that the proclamation of the martial law in Poland was an inevitable step and a justifiable act which were taken to suppress the reactionaries by revolutionary means and safeguard the power of the working people at a critical moment when socialist Poland was standing at the crossroads of survival and fall in face of the counter-revolutionary action.

The reactionaries’ open challenge to the socialist system in Poland was part of the subversive activities of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States behind the scene to overthrow the socialist power. The U.S. imperialists have been the heinous enemy of socialism down through history.

Today the U.S. imperialists pursue a strategy of destroying the socialist countries one by ome by subversive activities and sabotages and have chosen Poland as a major target of this strategy.

The U.S. imperialists, who had exhausted every means from long ago to detach Poland from the road of socialism, rendered support, material, financial and political, to the Polish counter-revolutionaries and perpetrated ideological and mental subversive acts through mass media, instigating them to a coup d’etat.

When the Polish authorities proclaimed the martial law and began to bring the situation under control, the U.S. imperialists, with malice, openly threatened and blackmailed the Polish government and people and shamelessly interfered in her internal affairs.

This stripped bare the invariable aggressive nature and insatiable aggressive desire of the U.S. imperialists as the chieftain of world reaction and international gendarme. It is none other than the U.S. CIA which is to blame for the disturbance in Poland.

It is only too clear that the counter-revolutionaries could not strut about so arrogantly in Poland without the instigation and support of the U.S. imperialists.

The Polish question is an internal affair which the Polish people themselves must solve.

The United States authorities must not continue to instigate the anti-socialist elements of Poland but take hands off her.

The Polish situation demands the peoples of the socialist countries, non-aligned countries and the Third World countries and other peace-loving people of the world heighten vigilance against the U.S. imperialists’ moves, clearly conscious of the plot of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency against Poland.

The people’s power and socialist system of Poland are the revolutionary gains of her working class and people. For them, a large number of revolutionaries and patriotic people of the country shed blood in a sacred fight against aggressors and reactionaries. To this power and this system the Polish working class and working people owe their happy life after the resurrection of Poland. A prosperous future of Poland is promised only on the road of socialism. There is no other way, It is natural that the Polish working class and people of various strata are actively responding to the efforts bent by the Polish United Workers’ Party and government to defend the people’s power and socialist system.

We hope that the Polish problem will be smoothly solved by her own efforts.

― The People’s Korea, no. 1075, 16 January 1982, p. 3.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il, in his immortal classic work Giving Priority to Ideological Work is Essential for Accomplishing Socialism, fully exposed the counterrevolutionary maneuvers of traitors to socialism, who, advocating “diversification of ownership”, destroyed the socialist economic system based on socialist ownership and revived capitalism.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il pointed out as follows:

Opportunists and renegade socialists abandoned ideological work in socialist society, and encouraged people to be egotistic and selfish. They spread bourgeois ideology–which regards money as omnipotent–among people, by adopting the capitalist method of using financial incentives. They echoed reactionary bourgeois propaganda which preached the “effectiveness” and “advantage” of the capitalist market economy. They proclaimed a “mixed economy” and destroyed the economic system based on socialist ownership.1

Socialist society is a society based on collectivism. As such, it stands on the basis of socialist ownership, which is fundamentally ownership by all the people materially and economically. Consolidating and developing socialist ownership relations, consistent with the collectivist features of the socialist society, constitutes a fundamental requirement in holding fast to the socialist ideology and advancing the socialist cause successfully. If socialist ownership should be infringed on in the socialist society and capitalist ownership revived, the socialist society will be shaken to the very foundation of its existence, eventually giving way to the inevitable comeback of capitalism.

“Diversification of ownership”, of which renegade socialists raved about so clamorously, has worked — with its reactionary influence — to spread the money-is-everything bourgeois ideology among people and destroy the material and economic foundations of the socialist society based on collectivism.

“Diversification of ownership” creates conditions conducive to the spread of individualism and egoism and bourgeois ideologies as it brings in capitalist ownership into the socialist society. As realities in countries where capitalism has revived show, it is inevitable that private ownership gives rise to individualism and that capitalist ownership and the capitalist market economy lead to the emergence and spread of bourgeois ideologies.

Private ownership inevitably leads to relations characterized by capitalist exploitation. “Diversification of ownership” reinstates capitalist ownership in the socialist society, in disregard of the intrinsic difference between socialism and capitalism, which only leads to the destruction of the socialist economic system based on socialist ownership and to the revival of capitalism.

Therein lies the reactionary nature of the maneuvers of traitors to socialism who advocated “diversification of ownership” in former socialist nations.

Bourgeois restorationists are betrayers of socialism, who hold up capitalist market economy as their ideal. They are the culprits serving imperialists.

In the initial phase of “perestroika”, they asserted that their proposed “diversification of ownership” would “consummate socialist production relations” and “diversify socialist-type ownership”. It is designed to “bring more of socialism and better socialism”, they said, using socialism as a cover veiling their counterrevolutionary, criminal acts. As “perestroika” made headway, however, the perpetrators of imperialists’ anti-socialist strategy laid bare their ugly true colors as schemers to bring back capitalism.

Traitors to socialism began by exaggerating a few shortcomings reported in socialist economic construction. They ranted about “efficiency” and “superiority” of the capitalist market economy, viciously denigrating the socialist economic system based on socialist ownership.

Economic successes are “impossible without change in ownership relations and the form of management”, they said, adding that diversifying ownership and introducing new forms such as private ownership, stock and lease is an indispensable requirement. Their purpose was to bring in capitalist ownership relations into the socialist society to tear up the state-controlled economic management system based on socialist ownership and adopt the market economy governed by the law of the jungle in its place.

In reference to the failed economic construction, they made distorted propaganda as if it had been caused by defects of the socialist economic system itself, instead of searching for the reasons in the failure to positively arouse people ideologically or to manage the socialist economy properly. Thus, they were bent from the beginning on spawning illusions among people about capitalism and creating conditions favorable for reviving capitalist ownership relations.

The former Soviet newspaper Literaturnaya Gazeta, in its 18 July 1990 edition, wrote that the reason capitalism could achieve rapid economic growth was that it relied on “advanced factors” such as stock. “The form of stock by no means belongs to private ownership”, it quibbled. What it said was deceptive and inexcusable.

Even in the case of unregistered-type ownership (i.e., bundles of share certificates), it does not deny the existence itself of bearers of those certificates. In the United States in 1989, there were 58 individuals and families worth more than a billion dollars each. Where did their billions of dollars come from? Those billionaires control management of companies because they own more than 50 percent of the stock; using as capital the billions of dollars they amassed in the stock market, they earn huge profits.

What distinguished socialism from capitalism and put socialism onto the high new stage in the history of humanity was the superiority of socialism having obliterated the exploitation of man by man. However, socialism’s betrayers, criticizing the socialist economic system and babbling about the “superiority” of the capitalist market economy, brought in capitalist ownership into the socialist society to allow the exploitation of man by man.

In fact, renegade socialists opened the way for capitalist ownership relations to thrive under the cloak of “diversification of ownership”.

The former Soviet Union adopted a new “Law on Cooperatives” in May 1988 to provide the legal basis for organizing and operating capitalist enterprises in the Soviet Union. Although “cooperatives” were covered with the veils of “cooperative ownership” and “joint ownership”, they were in fact a tool for those having made money by fraud and other criminal means to hire and exploit people. The “family and collective contract system”, put in place in the agricultural production realm by the betrayers of socialism, weakened the ownership by all the people and the cooperative ownership in the former Soviet Union that constituted the foundations of the socialist rural economic system, causing the collapse of the system eventually.

As “perestroika” went on, traitors to socialism, clamoring that “perestroika is impossible without private enterprises”, went mad for reviving private ownership. Under their coercion, the draft CPSU platform, adopted in February 1990, had this to say: “Economic reform is unthinkable without a deep restructuring of the relations of property. The CPSU advocates the diversity of its forms.”2 Likewise, the CPSU Central Committee plenum in October 1990 adopted a decision on retaining some industries under state control but privatizing the remaining industrial sectors. In late 1990, the former Soviet Union formulated the so-called 500-Day Program for full-scale introduction of the capitalist market economy. Commenting, Japan’s NHK said that “in a nutshell, the program, it can be said, has turned the common sense in socialism completely upside down. In other words, it is saying that land and plants will be privatized and that enterprises will be reorganized into Western-style incorporations”.

After all, while advocating “diversification of ownership”, traitors to socialism spread bourgeois ideologies among people, destroyed the socialist economic system based on socialist ownership at the root and branch and reinstated capitalism.

All facts clearly prove that, in order to defend and develop socialism, we should hold fast to socialist ownership constituting the economic and material foundations of socialist ideology and consolidate and develop socialist economic relations unceasingly.

Kim Ju Kyong

― Rodong Sinmun, no. 274 (17747), 1 October 1995, p. 6.

Neighboring Country’s Mean Behavior: Written by Jong Phil

Pyongyang, February 23, 2017 (KCNA) — The DPRK made a complete success in the test-fire of surface-to-surface medium to long-range strategic ballistic missile Pukguksong-2 on February 12 under the energetic guidance of respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. The news instantly jolted the world and the international community is acknowledging the nuclear attack capability of the DPRK that has made rapid progress in quality.

Leading media of the world are unanimous in assessing that the acknowledged success in the test-fire of Pukguksong-2 was a demonstration of the DPRK’s strategic superiority as it proved impossibility of advance detection by satellite, interception and preemptive attack.

However, a neighboring country, which often claims itself to be a “friendly neighbor”, is downplaying the significance of the test-fire, branding it as a “nuclear technology just at the beginning” and threatening “the DPRK will suffer the biggest loss”.

In particular, it has unhesitatingly taken inhumane steps such as totally blocking foreign trade related to the improvement of people’s living standard under the plea of the UN “resolutions on sanctions” devoid of legal ground.

It has often stated that the UN “resolutions on sanctions” should not have negative impact on the people’s living. Its recent measures are, in effect, tantamount to the enemies’ moves to bring down the social system in the DPRK.

This country, styling itself a big power, is dancing to the tune of the U.S. while defending its mean behavior with such excuses that it was meant not to have a negative impact on the living of the people in the DPRK but to check its nuclear program.

The righteous voices of the world deride it, commenting that “a big neighboring country is imposing sanctions on the DPRK to curry favor with the U.S.” But the hostile forces are shouting “bravo” over this.

The DPRK manufactured a nuclear weapon in a few years, which would take others tens of years, and completed the new latest strategic weapon system in a matter of six months with its own efforts and indigenous technology. This shows the might of its tremendous defence industry.

It is utterly childish to think that the DPRK would not manufacture nuclear weapons and inter-continental ballistic rockets if a few penny of money is cut off.

The DPRK will produce the latest weapons unprecedented in history as many as it wants as it has the self-reliant defence industry, provided by President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il with their lifelong dedication, and scientists and technicians in the field of defence industry working hard in do-or-die spirit guided by the faith that the strategic idea and intention of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea must be put into practice.

These weapons would invest the DPRK with capabilities for protecting peace and stability in Northeast Asia and the rest of the world.

The present reality makes the people of the DPRK keenly feel once again the validity of the WPK’s line of simultaneously pushing forward the economic construction and the building of nuclear force.

The DPRK will invariably advance straight along the road indicated by the Party’s line and deal a heavy blow to the U.S. and its vassal forces by dint of powerful nuclear deterrence and thus win the final victory.

Are You Good at Dancing to Tune of Others?: Jong Phil

Pyongyang, April 21, 2017 (KCNA) — The following is the full text of “Are you good at dancing to the tune of others?”, a commentary written by Jong Phil Friday:

Not a single word about the U.S. act of pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a war after introducing hugest-ever strategic assets into the waters off the Korean peninsula is made but such rhetoric as “necessary step” and “reaction at decisive level” is openly heard from a country around the DPRK to intimidate it over its measures for self-defence.

Particularly, the country is talking rubbish that the DPRK has to reconsider the importance of relations with it and that it can help preserve security of the DPRK and offer necessary support and aid for its economic prosperity, claiming the latter will not be able to survive the strict “economic sanctions” by someone.

Its official media claimed on April 18 that the DPRK’s pursuance of nuclear and missile program made the U.S., which had been its rival in the past, its supporter now. Then question is what the DPRK should call that country and how the DPRK should deal with it in the future.

The DPRK’s nuclear deterrence for self-defence, its army and people built by tightening their belts to defend the sovereignty and right to existence of the nation, is by no means a bargaining chip for getting something.

The DPRK has been so far exposed to economic sanctions but it has kept to the path of justice chosen by it with its own efforts.

The present world ruled by the jungle law makes the DPRK realize once again the iron truth that there is nothing but its own strength to rely on and that self-reliance and self-development are the only way out.

If the country keeps applying economic sanctions on the DPRK while dancing to the tune of someone after misjudging the will of the DPRK, it may be applauded by the enemies of the DPRK but it should get itself ready to face the catastrophic consequences in the relations with the DPRK.

The DPRK will defend its dignity and build a paradise for the people with its own efforts, rallied close around the respected Supreme Leader.

Commentary on DPRK-China Relations

Pyongyang, May 3, 2017 (KCNA) — Kim Chol released a commentary on Wednesday, titled “Reckless words and deeds undermining the DPRK-China relations must be stopped” the full text of which reads:

Very serious is concern at home and abroad about the anti-DPRK racket for putting sanctions and military pressure on it kicked up by the U.S. and its vassal forces with the DPRK’s possession of nuclear weapons as a pretext, racket which renders the situation on the Korean peninsula acute with each passing moment.

A string of absurd and reckless remarks are now heard from big neighboring countries, perhaps frightened by the U.S. blackmail and war racket, every day only to render the acute situation of the Korean peninsula more strained.

Typical examples are stories poured out by the People’s Daily and the Global Times, widely known as media speaking for the official stand of the Chinese party and government.

Recently they in their commentaries asserted that the DPRK’s access to nukes poses a threat to the national interests of China. They shifted the blame for the deteriorated relations between the DPRK and China on to the DPRK and raised lame excuses to justify China’s base acts of dancing to the tune of the U.S.

Those commentaries claimed that the DPRK poses a threat to “the security in the northeastern region of China” by conducting nuclear tests less than 100 km away from its border with China. They even talked rubbish that the DPRK strains the situation in Northeast Asia and “offers the U.S. excuses for deploying more strategic assets” in the region.

Not content with such paradox, the commentaries asserted that to remain averse to the DPRK’s access to nukes is to preserve interests common to the U.S. and China, calling for slapping harsher sanctions on the DPRK in order to avert a war which would bring danger to China.

The newspapers, even claiming China holds the initiative in handling the DPRK-China relations, made no scruple of letting out a string of provocative remarks urging the DPRK to choose one out of the two options i.e. “whether to face protracted isolation by breaking Sino-DPRK friendship or to preserve national security by making a U-turn of dismantling its nukes”, if it doesn’t want military confrontation with China.

This is just a wanton violation of the independent and legitimate rights, dignity and supreme interests of the DPRK and, furthermore, constitutes an undisguised threat to the honest-minded neighboring country with which it has had long history and tradition of friendship.

We do not have any intentional wish to explain the unavoidability that forced us to have access to nukes to become a nuclear weapons state acknowledged by the public at home and abroad, and detail all the courses that were never a smooth sailing.

What is infuriating is the fact that it is totally undermining the DPRK-China relations, that were pioneered at the cost of blood and have been consolidated and developed decade after decade and century after century, by citing absurd pretext and showing no less aversion than the one shown by the U.S. and other hostile forces over the nuclear issue with which it has nothing to do.

China is often hyping up “damage caused by the DPRK’s nuclear tests” to its three northeastern provinces. This is a far-fetched assertion devoid of scientific ground and validity.

Five nuclear tests by the DPRK were conducted with full guarantee given to security and even those Koreans living near the nuclear test ground have never suffered any damage after the tests.

The U.S. carried out scrupulous observation of the processes of the nuclear tests with the use of ultra-modern information means equipped with nuclear substance collecting equipment. But it failed to trap even a trace amount of radioactive materials like xenon. China is well aware of this.

Trumpeting about sort of “damage”, in defiance of this stark fact, only reveals the ulterior purpose of China displeased with the DPRK’s rapid nuclear development.

As far as “violation of national interests” oft-repeated by politicians and media persons of China is concerned, it is just the issue that the DPRK should rather talk much about.

It was never China but just the DPRK whose strategic interests have been repeatedly violated due to insincerity and betrayal on the part of its partner.

China established diplomatic relations with the south Korean puppet forces keen on bringing down the socialist system in the DPRK and has deepened the scope of relations to politics and even military, beyond pure economic exchanges. What excuse can it make for its crime of turning not only the three provinces in the northeastern part of China but the whole country into an advanced base against the DPRK. Now in areas along the DPRK-China border including the basins of the River Amnok and the River Tuman, agents and spies of the south Korean Intelligence Service are engaged in secret maneuvers under the guise of religionist and businessman, openly hatching plots and conducting abduction and terrorist acts against the DPRK. China has to hold full responsibilities for this.

We clearly remember that it had let such human scum as Park Geun Hye, who was ousted from the post of power and thrown into prison being censured by all people, stand on the tribune of honor at Tiananmen Square and given a kiss to her.

Some theorists of China are spouting a load of nonsense that the DPRK’s access to nukes strains the situation in Northeast Asia and offers the U.S. an excuse for beefing up its strategic assets in the region. But the U.S. had activated its strategy for dominating Asia-Pacific long before the DPRK had access to nukes, and its primary target is just China.

China should acknowledge in an honest manner that the DPRK has just contributed to protecting peace and security of China, foiling the U.S. scheme for aggression by waging a hard fight in the frontline of the showdown with the U.S. for more than seven decades, and thank the DPRK for it.

Some ignorant politicians and media persons of China daringly assert that the traditional relations of the DPRK-China friendship were in line with the interests of both countries in the past. They are advised to clearly understand the essence of history before opening their mouth.

Korea and China are neighbors which are closely related geographically and countries of peculiar relations, relations of comrade-in-arms and brothers, whose preceding leaders had nurtured the feelings of friendship in the struggle for common cause, holding high the flags drenched with red blood.

The anti-Japanese war and the war against the U.S. are recorded with heroic tales that will remain indelible in the contemporary histories of Korea and China, and the sons and daughters of the two countries deepened friendship with selfless sacrifice and devotion that far surpass nationality in the hard-fought battlefields.

On the center stage of the world politics affected by the vortex of the troublous 20th century, the two countries pooled intention and efforts to defend the banner of socialism and sovereignty.

It was not just for the interests of Korea that we rendered devoted assistance to the Chinese revolution and showed sincerity to the party and government of China whenever they faced difficulties, even facing huge damage. Anyone with even a little common sense and reason might be well aware of this even though we do not open to public the skeleton in the cupboard that existed between the DPRK and China.

But by deliberately leaving all this in the dark, China is parroting the “unanimous view of the international community” cried by the U.S. and resorting to sanctions racket after branding the DPRK as a criminal, pursuant to the forces hostile toward the DPRK. This is an intolerable act aimed to deny the mainstay of the DPRK-China relations and do away with the noble tradition of bilateral friendship.

It is not the DPRK that passed the “red line” in bilateral relations but it is China which has unhesitatingly passed the line.

By the “red line”, the two countries were meant not to violate the dignity, interests and sovereignty of each other.

For the DPRK, the nuclear weapons are its absolute symbol and represent its supreme interests.

The DPRK have had access to nukes to defend the country and the people from the aggression moves and threats which the world’s biggest nuclear power U.S. has posed decade after decade with an aim to deprive the DPRK of its political ideology, social system and dignity. The mission of the DPRK’s nuclear weapons will remain unchanged in the future, too.

However, they are threatening that they would not rule out military intervention, to say nothing of highly-intensive economic sanctions if the DPRK does not give up nuclear program. This is extremely arrogant chauvinist logic that not only the strategic interests of the DPRK but also its dignity and right to existence must be sacrificed for their interests.

One must clearly understand that the DPRK’s line of access to nukes for the existence and development of the country can neither be changed nor shaken and that the DPRK will never beg for the maintenance of friendship with China, risking its nuclear program which is as precious as its own life, no matter how valuable the friendship is.

Some expect that the DPRK will not be able to subsist without help from someone and it will give up and beg for the restoration of relations if the string of sanctions is tightened just a little more. This is a foolish calculation. The source and foundation of the existence of the DPRK is our own land, our own sky and our own natural resources and the tremendous power of self-development displayed by its great people in the indomitable spirit.

The DPRK, which has already become one of the most powerful nuclear weapons state, does not feel the need to think over how many options it has now.

The geopolitical importance and strategic value of the Korean peninsula situated at the entrance to the Eurasian continent are growing with each passing day, and roads to Pyongyang that has ranked itself with dignity among the most advanced nuclear powers are stretched all around the world.

China should no longer try to test the limits of patience of the DPRK but make proper strategic option, facing up to the situation.

China approved the adoption of the unwarranted “sanctions resolutions” on the DPRK at the UN Security Council meeting in order to check the U.S. THAAD deployment in south Korea and opted for sanctions against the DPRK, even suffering economic damage in the three northeastern provinces of its own. Even though it made concession and flattered, defying all accusations, THAAD targeting China like a dagger was deployed all of a sudden at midnight in south Korea, making fun of the truly “idiot giant”.

If China fails to maintain its own principle and throws away the fraternity with the DPRK it has maintained for decades like a pair of old shoes just for the immediate interests, it will end up in miserable state not trusted by anyone to only face misfortune from all sides.

China had better ponder over the grave consequences to be entailed by its reckless act of chopping down the pillar of the DPRK-China relations.

Is Russia Sightless or Is It Mimicking Blind?: Researcher of Institute for International Studies

Pyongyang, August 9, 2017 (KCNA) — Ri Chol Ho, a researcher of the Institute for International Studies of the DPRK, on Wednesday issued the following article titled “Is Russia Sightless or Is It Mimicking the Blind?”:

The news of the successful launch of inter-continental ballistic rockets of the DPRK, which put the whole land of the U.S., empire of evil, within its striking range, has been afloat all over the world as breaking news.

The U.S., an aggression state which brandished a nuclear stick of aggression and oppression decade after decade, has finally been dumbfounded in the face of the Juche weapon, and the whole world now turn its eyes to Songun Korea with admiration.

The international community was unanimous in commenting in high terms that the fact that the DPRK’s ICBM reached the maximum height of more than 3 700 km and flew nearly 1 000 km and that the launch was made at high angle launch system more rigorous than actual maximum range flight conditions is demonstrative of the substantial might which is capable of putting even the eastern areas of the U.S. including New York, to say nothing of the western areas of the U.S., within the firing range.

The DPRK’s ICBM, a noble fruition of its great policy of simultaneously developing the economic construction and the building of nuclear force, is clearly recorded in space as a pronoun of defence of international justice and peace, both in name and reality.

But only Russia is making a far-fetched assertion, denying this stark fact unanimously acknowledged by the world community, while feigning blind and deaf.

Russia, a country bordering the Korean peninsula, is calling the DPRK’s ICBM a medium-range ballistic rocket with 681 km of height and 732 km of distance. This is utterly ironical.

The U.S., situated in the American continent across the ocean, dares not deny the fact even though it is reluctant more than others to acknowledge the DPRK’s success in the ICBM launch. A big question is how come the ICBM of the DPRK is taken as medium-range ballistic rocket by Russia, a country very close to the DPRK.

Another question is that Russia, which will be grouchy if it is ranked second in military standings, is making desperate efforts to make its far-fetched assertions sound plausible while misusing even the name of the Defence Ministry.

The world people are watching the erratic act of Russia with surprise as its authorities and the public have differing stand over the launch. Lots of military experts, media and social circles of Russia are unanimously acknowledging the launch as ICBM launch but this is denied only by the authorities.

What is skeptical is that whether Russia’s temporal concept on object is not ruled by its perversity and jealousy that big country’s rifle should be regarded as a rocket and small country’s rocket should be taken as a rifle.

For years, Russia took outwardly strong stand toward the U.S., as it used to say that “sanctions resolutions” against the DPRK should not affect the normal economic and trade activities of the DPRK and its people’s living at a time when the issue was on agenda at UN even though Russia was subject to trouble as a key target of sanctions and pressure by the U.S. Therefore, the world has been skeptical about its assertion of calling the ICBM a medium-range ballistic rocket. However, Russia, which had showed bravery as if it was going to hinder the adoption of the “resolution sanctions” on the DPRK, boarded the ship operated by the U.S. all of a sudden to be “complimented” by Trump. This is quite enough for the world to guess what was the true aim sought by Russia in insisting that the ICBM of the DPRK was a medium-range ballistic rocket.

The far-fetched assertion of Russia has become an engine that heartened the DPRK to work for more launches of ICBM and compelled it to take new measures of action.

It will be clear to Russia itself whether it is really the blind or is feigning the blind.

If Russia does not drop its own “big power concept” which it values so much, the reality in which it is not treated as a big power even though it is a big power will be its permanent destiny.

Kim Jong Un Guides Hwasong-12 Launching Drill Again

Pyongyang, September 16, 2017 (KCNA) — Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, guided once again a launching drill of the medium-and-long range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 on the spot. (…)

He told leading officials of the Department of Munitions Industry of the Party Central Committee and the field of defense scientific research accompanying him that our final goal is to establish the equilibrium of real force with the U.S. and make the U.S. rulers dare not talk about military option for the DPRK. And he stressed the need to run at full speed and straight, continuing to qualitatively consolidate the military attack capacity for nuclear counterattack the U.S. cannot cope with.

As recognized by the whole world, we have made all these achievements despite the UN sanctions that have lasted for decades but never made them from any “benefit” of the UN, he said, adding it is very stifling for those countries styling themselves big powers keeping their minds on bringing to their knees the DPRK through UN sanctions.

We should clearly show the big power chauvinists how our state attain the goal of completing its nuclear force despite their limitless sanctions and blockade, he said, underlining the need to put an end to them with the all-state efforts as it has nearly reached the terminal.

Chinese Media’s Shameless and Impudent Acts Blasted

Pyongyang, September 22, 2017 (KCNA) — Following is the full text of a signed article “Rude Deed of Shameless Media”:

Some media of China are seriously hurting the line and social system of the DPRK and threatening the DPRK at a time when the U.S. and its vassal forces have reached the extremes in their frantic moves to impose sanctions and pressure on the DPRK over the DPRK’s just exercise of its right to self-defence.

The Chinese People’s Daily and its sister paper Huan Qui Shibao and websites People’s Network and Huan Qui Network insulted the DPRK, saying “it pricked its own eyes with its own hands” and “it was a noose put around its own neck” while shunning the legitimacy of the DPRK’s possession of nuclear weapons and the self-defensive nature of its measure for bolstering the national nuclear force. Not content with this, they said “it would face the fate of sun setting in the western sky” and set forth such presumptuous “initiatives” as “international solidarity” and organization of “forum international think-tank” for settling the nuclear issue of the DPRK.

As for the “sanctions resolution” against the DPRK, the dirty excrement of the reactionaries of history, they spouted such extremely ill-boding words that China “did not target the normal living of the people in the DPRK” and “DPRK is fortunate to have China as its neighbor”.

In a word, their comment meant that the small country DPRK put itself and the international community as a whole at a “peril” for standing against “the world’s superpower” with the manufacture of nuclear weapons, and that there is nothing to be displeased over the step of decrease of food taken to make the DPRK, “chief culprit rendering the world restless” get exhausted.

This can not be construed otherwise than an act of the blind whose eyes are open and the deaf and dumb who look outwardly normal as they can not understand the essence of the nuclear issue of the Korean peninsula nor can they properly see, hear and express the changed international political situation in the wake of the DPRK’s possession of nuclear weapons.

Moreover, the news media openly faulted the line of other sovereign state. This makes one think that it was quite natural for them to lose trust from people of their own country and the international community to not a small measure due to their self-complacence and prejudice.

Even though they can be pretexts to shield their clumsy plight of getting dragged on by the U.S., we can not connive at their acts of dare hurting the dignity of the state and people of the DPRK.

As was already emphasized, the DPRK’s access to a nuclear deterrence was pursuant to the strategic decision of the party and state of the DPRK to fundamentally terminate the decade-old U.S. hideous hostile policy toward the DPRK and nuclear threat and blackmail, and this finally led the DPRK to possess H-bomb for ICBM, the absolute weapons on the earth.

Even at this moment, the U.S. hatches sinister scheme of provoking a nuclear war and is holding dangerous secret war confab after introducing to the Korean peninsula and the region huge strategic hardware enough to fight several wars while openly calling for “totally destroying north Korea”.

History and reality teach a serious lesson that only powerful strength can defend oneself from the tyrannical nuclear weapons.

The military attack on Syria committed in the eyes of neighboring big powers including China in April last showed the world in practice what the “peace by strength” touted by the Trump administration meant, and Beijing might have felt not a great deal.

What matters is that how can The Chinese People’s Daily and media under it which had trumpeted about “sovereignty and independence in the road for social progress” and “peculiar sovereign position” spout principle-less nonsense that are mocked even by Trump’s twitters.

If they are not novice reptile media devoid of insight and their own view to the international politics, they should be well aware of themselves before commenting on others.

Now heard from DPRK-China border are reflective complaints on who became hopeless as the consequences of the U.S.-manipulated “sanctions resolution” on the DPRK.

A Chinese businessman who was left empty-handed in the trade with the DPRK said:

I don’t know politics and diplomacy. But one thing is clear. Korea, not a big country, is talking what it wants to say and does what it wants to do while standing against the U.S., the superpower. It’s hard to understand what’s wrong with China. Lots of minor businesses in three northeastern provinces of China are suffering huge losses. Then why does it kowtow to the U.S.? I really feel shame. I am more afraid of the corruption of the state than the corruption of people.

This is the public mindset.

Literally speaking, media styling themselves speaking for the people had better use their heads to read the people’s mindset and speak for the people of their own country, rather than admonishing others.

If it is the organ of a party styling itself the initiator of “principle of non-interference” outside, it can stand with dignity before the world people only when it maintains this principle.

As for “good neighbor”, the DPRK has much more to say about it.

When the Soviet Union and the U.S. and the whole world released denunciation statements over the first nuclear test carried out by China in the 1960s, it was only the DPRK, good neighbor, which actively supported it and encouraged it through government statement.

When high-spirited White House owner set out on his trip to China, its neighbor DPRK released a worldwide aphorism that Nixon’s China visit was not a march of victor but a trip of loser with a white flag in his hand, thus helping the big neighbor save shame and maintain its face. China might know this sincere neighbor more than itself.

Then why is it going under the armpit of the U.S. while holding a white flag to blame the good neighbor.

Nixon, suffering from disease from wrath by the unusual principle and resourcefulness of the DPRK which stopped the historical disgrace which could have been a shame on the socialist camp, had called for a “war with China” till the last day of his leave from office. This is quite alike the act of Trump who is teasing Beijing, caught in the trap of “world economy”, under the pretext of “nuclear issue of Korea”. It is seen by the whole world.

The DPRK knows which way it should follow.

The DPRK does not have to lie on its face just as China did when it visited the U.S. and there is no need for China to force the DPRK to learn it.

History proved that the path covered by the DPRK for nearly one century has been an un-trodden path through thick and thin but it was far-sighted and promising option as this helped the country escape the tragic events witnessed in Eastern Europe which was mentally disarmed in the face of the imperialists, and as this helped others to evade clumsy situation of not breathing properly being caught in the noose of dollars.

The Korean people have learned the might of unity and happiness even though they did not lead a plentiful life and they have the perspective and generosity of looking far into the dawning tomorrow in the darkness.

As for the fortune of the DPRK, its people are not such ignorant people who foresee their fortune by money or divination sign.

Though small in territory and population, the people of the DPRK have such fortune which no other country and nation has and therefore, we feel sorrowful at the neighbor seeking money only without its own soul even though it is big.

Lots of countries and peoples of the world are keenly realizing where lies the genuine fortune of each country and nation while viewing the admirable DPRK greeting the great change in its destiny and standing against the “world’s only superpower” while taking the lead of the struggle to defend peace of the region and the world, although it had its territory totally usurped by big powers keen on scramble and was trampled down under them in the past because it was weak in strength.

Truly frustrating is the perspective of the political hangers-on who are just satisfied to have their rice bowl safe even though the neighbor is thieved while considering Korea just as a front yard and “buffer zone” for holding back the invasion by robber.

It is the U.S. and other dishonest and hostile forces who are taking issue this or that way while doggedly shunning the reality of Juche Korea.

The light act of China’s media openly resorting to interference in the internal affairs of other country, being oblivious of the mission of media which should regard objectivity and impartiality as their lifeline, would be little short of driving a wedge between the two countries and the two peoples, pursuant to the U.S.

The party organ of the socialist country bragging long history denounced socialist Korea so maliciously in collusion with the imperialists. This leaves us think that whether they can be entitled to enter the coming party conference hall only when they register the dirty reptile records of betraying the peoples of the two countries.

The Chinese media had better watch how the DPRK smashes the hostile forces’ arrogance and high-handed practices, rather than kowtowing to the ignorant acts of the Trump administration.

They had better mind their own businesses, before impudently pointing an accusing finger at others.

Korea is a land of rising sun as its name implies and one has to turn one’s head toward China to watch the sun setting in the western sky in Korea.

Chinese Media Slashed for Arrogantly Meddling in Event of Korean Nation

Pyongyang, February 8, 2018 (KCNA) — The following is the full text of “For what they despicably intrude on other’s affair”, an article written by Jong Phil which was carried on the DPRK’s leading newspapers Thursday:

The ties between the north and the south of Korea are now on the track of positive development.

Thanks to the DPRK’s proactive proposal and steps, a breakthrough was made toward detente, peace and improvement of the relations between the north and the south and the enthusiasm of the fellow countrymen to hold the Winter Olympics as a successful event of the nation is sweeping the whole Korean Peninsula.

At this time, some media of China, not to be left behind the U.S. and Japan, reactionaries of history, are letting out impudent arguments of individual experts, seriously spoiling the atmosphere for the feast.

The Chinese Central TV Network on Feb. 5 aired an assertion of a vice-researcher of the Institute for Asia-Pacific and World Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences:

The DPRK calculated to show an open aspect of the country and improve its international image through the south Korea visit by the president of the Presidium of its Supreme People’s Assembly. The international community is expecting the DPRK to show greater sincerity and concession over the denuclearization issue if it truly hopes for promoting the detente on the Korean peninsula. Unless it does so, it will be difficult for the DPRK to attain its purpose.

On the same day, the Global Times of China’s People’s Daily carried an argument made by a senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies that restoring inter-Korean relations without touching on the nuclear issue is unsustainable and fragile.

Earlier in January, some Chinese media made wicked assertions that the sustenance of the atmosphere for detente on the Korean peninsula is closely related to the solution of the “nuclear issue of the DPRK” and that “detente will not last long without common recognition of the denuclearization”.

Such incoherent talks heard from Chinese media can not but be retorted as an arrogant act aimed at interference in the internal issue of the Korean nation and an unreasonable logic and sophism ignorant of the essence of the nuclear issue of the Korean peninsula.

Obvious is the stand of the DPRK to successfully hold the Winter Olympics as a national event and fully display the dignity and might of the Korean nation and, therefore, this is supported and welcomed by all the fellow countrymen and the international community.

It is only the U.S. and other outsiders who are to blame for the division of the Korean Peninsula and the tension there that stand against the Korean nation working hard to open up a new chapter for peace on the peninsula by its concerted efforts.

China’s experts and media, that have touted for “peaceful solution” to the Korean peninsula issue whenever an opportunity presented itself, now shun the present positive development of the situation and are arguing for and against while setting the DPRK’s participation in the Winter Olympics against its strategic issue. How can such behavior be interpreted as an act of allegedly “disinterested” neighbors.

This is evidently an act of screwballs feeling dissatisfaction with the north and the south of Korea aspiring after detente and peace, and a mischievous act to reverse and divert the international focus away from the atmosphere for the north-south reconciliation.

It reminds one of a mean fellow looking over the fence of a feast host.

The Winter Olympics has nothing to do with “denuclearization”.

As acknowledged by the world, the DPRK’s possession of nuclear deterrence was a legitimate option for self-defense reflective of the stern historical lesson and the reality in which the DPRK’s sincere efforts for the denuclearization of the whole Korean Peninsula were ignored and the U.S. nuclear threat to the DPRK aimed to destroy its sovereignty and rights to existence and development has daily increased.

At this time, swimming against the atmosphere of peace on the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. is rendering to the extremes the political and military threat and brandishing a fireball after shipping huge aggression forces including all sorts of ultramodern nuclear war weapons to the sky, land and sea, thereby threatening the Winter Olympics and the post-Olympics situation.

If one truly hopes for peace on the Korean Peninsula and regional stability, it is reasonable for one to say what it should do to the trouble-maker U.S.

It is illogical for the Chinese media to absurdly vociferate about “denuclearization”, far from saying what it should do.

So, is an event of “denuclearization” ever on the list of the Winter Olympics?

Call a spade a spade. It is very despicable of those Chinese media to mess with their neighbor’s event, far from offering congratulations to it.

Ignoring the reality and occasion, they are forcibly linking the issue of “denuclearization” to the Olympics, which cannot be interpreted otherwise than an act aimed to spoil others’ feast.

They betrayed the dark intention to distract the international caution focused on them to the DPRK by doggedly standing in the way of creating reconciliation atmosphere between the north and the south of Korea that would have a positive impact on the world peace and the development of the regional situation.

They are trying to hold the issue of inter-Korean relations on nuclear issue leash and use it as leverage for interference.

They, in the long run, left the international community unpleasant feelings that the “initiative and proactive neighboring diplomacy” only seeks interference in the internal affairs of other countries and nations.

Recently they slandered the DPRK’s measure for self-defense as “narrow-minded interpretation of outside and self-justified action in the nuclear and missile issue”. They also belittled the military capabilities of the DPRK, quoting a “conclusion drawn after inspecting from the south side position in Panmunjom”. Now to what extent have they reached.

Some experts and media of China engrossed in admonishing others are now showing the same proclivity as the Trump and Abe groups and the conservative riff-raffs of south Korea marginalized after being isolated and rejected in the world.

Going blind in judging the trend of the times would make one face great disappointment.

Such senseless meddling doesn’t fit the appearance of a “power”.

Pyongyang, Jan. 12 (KCNA) — An editorial article of Rodong Sinmun (organ of the CC of the Workers’ Party of Korea) titled “Challenge to National Independence, Socialism and Peace” reads in full:

A grave situation shocking the world is taking place in Democratic Kampuchea in the last few days.

According to reports, huge armed forces invading from outside have brought under their control almost the whole territory of Kampuchea including the capital city of Phnom Penh.

The world people who love justice and peace cannot repress their surprise at this and are following future developments with a deep concern.

The Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam claims that the present situation has been created by an “armed uprising” of the “National United Front for the National Salvation of Kampuchea”.

But the world’s broad public would not believe in this claim nor can believe in it.

As for the Government of Democratic Kampuchea, it is a revolutionary gain won by the Kampuchean people through a five-year long bloody national salvation struggle against the U.S. imperialists and their stooges under the leadership of the Kampuchean Communist Party and an independent lawful government established at the general will of the Kampuchean people.

Democratic Kampuchea is a sovereign and independent state recognized by Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam and a great many countries of the world and a full-fledged member of the non-aligned movement.

Therefore, the world public is unwilling to believe the word “people’s uprising” itself, which is claimed to have occurred against the young lawful revolutionary regime which was born with the undisputed support of the people.

Even according to the announcement of the Vietnamese side, the “National United Front for the National Salvation of Kampuchea was formed about a month ago. How can it mobilize in such a short period vast quantities of military equipment including so many planes, tanks and artillery pieces and regular armed forces of more than 10 divisions? This surpasses the imagination of the ordinary people.

The whole world knows that serious differences and open armed conflicts occurred between Vietnam and Democratic Kampuchea since early last year over the boundary problem.

It is not without reason that the world public views the present armed control of Democratic Kampuchea as one by a massive military action of the Vietnamese side.

We feel a painful wrench at such state of things that occurred between fraternal countries building socialism.

The socialist countries, proceeding from the nature of the social system which liquidated all sorts of exploitation and oppression, resolutely oppose the violation of the independence of other countries or domination and control of others.

The socialist countries are class brothers and revolutionary comrades-in-arms who establish mutual relations on the principles of complete equality, independence, mutual respect, non-interference in others’ internal affairs and comradely cooperation and advance shoulder to shoulder toward the victory of the cause of socialism and communism.

There may be differences amone the fraternal parties and fraternal countries.

This, however, must not be solved by a coercive method with the mobilization of armed forces, but must be solved through negotiations under all circumstances.

It is intolerable to resort to an open armed action against a legitimate revolutionary power and overthrow it, under whatever pretext it may be committed.

But Vietnam calls the revolutionary power of Kampuchea and its leaders a “clique” and launched an open armed intervention to overthrow the revolutionary power of Kampuchea for the mere reason that it does not agree with their policy and style of work.

It is entirely an internal affair of Kampuchea what policy the Kampuchean party and government pursue.

The revolutionary power of Kampuchea is the precious gain of the revolution won by the Kampuchean people through their protracted arduous liberation struggle. It is not only the banner of freedom and independence for the Kampuchean people but a common gain of the world working class.

The Kampuchean people have struggled to consolidate the revolutionary power over the past 3 years and a half.

It is a perfidy to the cause of socialism to dictate and trample it underfoot.

If one intervenes in the internal affairs of other country and mobilizes even armed forces to overthrow the gain of the revolution itself because the policy of a fraternal party, fraternal country is not to his liking, what will become of the future of the common cause of socialism.

When the foreign imperialist forces of aggression interfered in the internal affairs of Vietnam and committed an armed invasion, didn’t the Vietnamese people rise in resolute struggle against it?

But today, not long after she won the country’s reunification and independence, Vietnam started dominationist action against her fraternal neighbour as if she were oblivious of her yesterday’s position. This is outragrous.

The Vietnamese control of Kampuchea by crossing the border through a massive military action is an outright infringement upon the national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kampuchea and a crude violation of the publicly recognized international law.

This is an open challenge discrediting socialism and endangering peace.

In particular, the Kampuchean people offered the area of parrot beak and many other areas of Kamnochea as the operational and supply bases and actively supported and cooperated with the Vietnamese people materially and morally at the difficult time of the Vietnamese people’s war of resistance against U.S. aggression and for national salvation in defiance of the wanton pressure and armed intervention by the imperialists and the reactionaries at home.

It must be said that the act of Vietnam is an ungrateful act discarding the revolutionary sense of duty.

Kampuchea and Vietnam are both members of the non-aligned movement.

The non-aligned movement takes it as its lofty idea to oppose all brands of domination and subjugation and defend independence. This movement takes as the basic principle of its activities respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other country, non-interference in other’s internal affairs and non-use of force.

If it is faithful to the idea and principle of the non-aligned movement, Vietnam would never have committed such act.

Such act of Vietnam disillusion the world peace-loving people and us who have supported and encouraged the anti-U.S., national-salvation struggle of the Vietnamese people with all sincerity in the past.

From the first days of the dispute between Democratic Kampuchea and Vietnam we have advised that it should be solved in a peaceful way through negotiations between the two fraternal countries.

Today the Asian people and world people sincerely hope for the relaxation of international tension and maintenance and consolidation of peace.

The present developments in Kampuchea give a serious lesson to the world people.

We witness clearly here once again that the ambition for dominating and controlling other countries can be seen in a comparably small country, too.

It is clear that if a precedent of one country dominating and controlling another country with strength is overlooked today, some other country will conquer and subjugate another country tomorrow.

If the jungle prevalent in the last period is permitted now, the revolutionary cause of the people for building an independent and prosperous world will suffer a serious setback.

Therefore, the world people should heighten vigilance against all sorts of dominationist aggressive manoeuvres and unite strength in opposing them.

Only by waging a vigorous struggle against imperialism and dominationism can the resente consolidate national independence, achieve the independent development of the country and build a free and peaceful, new world free from all manner of domination and subjugation.

The world should not allow any forms of oppression and intervention no matter by anyone but take more positive steps lest such act should repeat in the future.

Ours is an era of independence. No one in the world will tolerate an infringement upon his sovereignty and an insult to his dignity.

As historical experience shows, the action of dominating and ruling others would bring nothing good.

We advise Vietnam to ponder over the matter and immediately withdraw its armed forces from the Kampuchean territory and solve the dispute between Vietnam and Kammachea in a peaceful way by means of negotiation based on the norms of mutual relations between the socialist countries and the principle of the non-aligned movement.

We hope that the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kampuchea will be guaranteed, the Kampuchean people be left to shape their destiny by themselves and an era of genuine peace come to Southeast Asia at an early date.

― The People’s Korea, no. 925, 17 January 1979, p. 1.

In his immortal and classical work entitled Giving Priority to Ideological Work is Essential for Accomplishing Socialism, the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il has disclosed the maneuvers of betrayers of socialism who want to compromise with imperialists without adhering to principle by talking about a “new way of thinking” and “universal human values”, as well as who sold socialism to capitalism by following the anti-socialist maneuvers.

In his work, the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il has indicated:

Renegade socialists paralyzed people’s class consciousness and corrupted the class content of socialism under deceptive slogans such as a “new way of thinking” and “universal human values”. A “new way of thinking” and “universal human values”, separated from the viewpoint of the working class, are precisely a bourgeois way of thinking and a bourgeois outlook on values.1

The road to socialism is the road of the stern revolution in which we should advance by sharply confronting with and struggling against imperialism. To successfully build socialism, therefore, we should resolutely struggle against imperialism by firmly adhering to the revolutionary principle.

In the course of building socialism and communism, the environment and conditions of revolutionary struggle can be changed, but the uncompromising view and position should be never changed. In a struggle whether we choose socialism or capitalism, discarding the revolutionary principle means just surrender and betrayal.

In confrontation against imperialism, if we discard the working class-oriented view and position, socialism can be changed. This is a serious lesson learned from the collapse of socialism in the former Soviet Union and other East European socialist countries.

While loudly talking about “reform” and “reorganization” at home, betrayers of socialism have decreased the communist party’s role, broken up people’s faith in socialism and carried out the anti-socialist maneuvers to introduce the capitalist market system. Also, they have externally talked about compromise with imperialism without adhering to principle under the deceitful slogans such as a “new way of thinking” and “universal human values”.

The meaning of the “new way of thinking” is that “one thinks newly”. This indicates the inner thought of capitulationism. In other words, for socialism and capitalism to peacefully coexist and to cooperate with each other transcending the differences in system and ideology, they should achieve “non-ideological work” in international affairs, while giving priority to “universal human values” over class-oriented and national interest.

The betrayers of socialism let out the sophistry that the “new way of thinking” is based on a “realistic viewpoint” of regarding human beings, including the class enemy, as brothers with the same reasoning power, neighbors living in a common house named earth, “beings in the same situation who are awaiting the moment of being burnt alive” in the flames of nuclear war and the hostages of atomic bombs. Then, they lectured on the significance of mediating the class, social, political, national and racial concepts — such as “class”, “fatherland”, “nation” and “party” — in the broad concept of what expresses “the common nature of man”, such as a “planet”, “mankind” and “civilization”.

This was a counterrevolutionary and anti-socialist lecture calling for a compromise with imperialists without principles. This was aimed at eliminating the working-class viewpoint and position under the cloak of “thinking newly” and ultimately destroying socialism.

The betrayers of socialism advertised the “new way of thinking” as if it reflected the “inevitable demand of the objective realities”. The “objective realities” mentioned by them are that human beings have come to have close relations thanks to the development of science and technology and that socialism and capitalism should stop fighting and “get along well with each other” since nuclear weapons, which allow neither winners nor losers and may ruin mankind, have appeared.

This explanation made by the betrayers of socialism is nothing but a preposterous sophistry aimed at hiding their surrender-like nature originated from an illusion on imperialism and fear of nuclear weapons.

Since the day when socialism was created, imperialists have maneuvered to eliminate socialism, blaring it is a “mistake of history”. To this end, imperialists have mobilized all possible means, such as political pressure, economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation and military offensive. Imperialists’ hostility against socialism and their ambition to isolate and crush socialism will never change and becomes more unscrupulous as shown by reality.

Notwithstanding, while mentioning the “objective realities” and upholding the deceptive and reactionary slogan for the “new way of thinking”, betrayers of socialism spoke as if the aggressive and brigandish nature of imperialism had changed, thus paralyzing the people’s class-consciousness, opening a road for imperialists’ anti-socialist maneuver and overturning socialism in collusion with the imperialists.

Considering the “new way of thinking” a basic principle in developing external relations, the betrayers of socialism began to seek a compromise with imperialists by employing “pragmatic” and “realistic” methods. Saying that “it was wrong to be hostile to the Western countries in the past”, they told their diplomats that it is “unacceptable” for them to fail to achieve compromises with Western dialogue partners, “adhering to” their own positions. This was, by nature, aimed at currying favor with Western countries to receive as much “assistance” as possible for realizing their “reform” policy by any means, taking no regard of the socialist principle.

When the betrayers of socialism cast an amorous glance at them while talking about the “new way of thinking” and “universal values of mankind”, imperialists took advantage of this as a good chance for destroying socialism. Availing themselves of the thoroughly conciliatory attitude of the betrayers of socialism, they made demands aimed at the internal collapse of socialism — such as the freedom of immigration, freedom of religion, permission of activities against the system and the introduction of the market economy — as preconditions for their “assistance” and improvement in relations. They also forced the betrayers of socialism to accept their unilateral demands in negotiations on the reduction of nuclear and conventional weapons.

The betrayers of socialism accepted all of the high-handed demands made by the imperialists. The betrayers of socialism did not hesitate in selling their allies to curry favor with the imperialists.

At the beginning of the “reform”, the betrayers of socialism promised that “they would never turn their back on their allies’ interests”. However, it had been not long since then that they made reverse remarks. Saying “diversification of interests must be considered in international relations”, they stressed that it is important to place “universal values of mankind” above proletarians’ class interests. The insistence on “placing universal values of mankind above all” means the willingness to abandon the proletarians’ international duties and sell those who were their comrades yesterday in order to benefit the Western imperialists. In fact, the betrayers of socialism behaved in this way. Their knavish acts resulted in the tragic situation that East European countries fell in succession victims to the imperialists’ counterrevolutionary maneuvers.

Imperialists were satisfied with the “sudden, speedy, complete and unexpected result” of the confrontation with socialism, which was achieved without firing a shell, and praised the advocators of the “new way of thinking” as “world-famous figures”.

The “new way of thinking” was a great gift that the betrayers of socialism presented to the imperialists after disarming socialism by themselves.

Facts bitterly show how tragic aftermath resulted from the abandonment of the working-class viewpoint and position, as well as the revolutionary principles, in the confrontation with imperialism.

The peoples of the countries where socialism has been frustrated are now vigorously carrying out the struggle to rebuild socialism, repenting of having been unable to correctly recognize the maneuvers by the betrayers who surrendered to the imperialists and frustrated socialism.

Choe Hak Chol

― Rodong Sinmun, no. 238 (17711), 26 August 1995, p. 6.

Pyongyang, Aug. 22 (KCNA) — Late developments in Czechoslovakia are complex and grave.

Entering this year, Plenums of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and meetings of its Presidium and Sessions of the Czechoslovak National Assembly were held one after another in this country.

At the meetings the question of building “a highly developed democratic and developed socialist society” was raised and new lines of “democratization” were adopted.

The January Plenum of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party was held from January 3 to 5, 1968.

After the January Plenum Rude Pravo, the organ of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, in an article on January 10 appraising work of the January Plenum, noted that “the class struggle is no longer typical in Czechoslovak society”, emphasized that the Party’s leading role in the State, economic and administrative organs “should be strictly prohibited” and pointed out that the “Plenum entrusted the Party organ concerned to work out and submit a plan for the improvement of the overall Party work and decided to map out an action programme for guaranteeing the immediate political task”.

Following this, many articles taking issue with the leading role of the Communist Party began to appear in the publications of Czechoslovakia.

Riding the crest of such tendency the wind of so-called “liberalization” and “democratization” gradually came to rise fiercely in Czechoslovakia.

Attack on the measures taken by the Party and the Government in the past has become a fashion.

According to Rude Pravo of March 7, 1968, the University Committee of the Prague City Party Committee claimed that the measure taken by the public security organ against the anti-government demonstration of some university students in Prague in October 1967 was unjust and demanded its open rectification.

To this, the Czechoslovak Government took the measure of inflicting punishment upon seven public security personnel who put down the demonstration of students and paying even compensation for injury to 14 students who were wounded in the demonstration.

As the days go by, the practices of slandering and vilifying the socialist system, impairing the Communist Party, the leading force in the building of socialism and communism and the organizer of all victories, and openly clamouring for the return to the capitalist system have become all the more open and eventually these practices have come to sweep all the spheres of the political life of the country.

Rude Pravo of March 22 carried an article which said to the following effect:

Now ideas like positive neutrality, example of Austria, road of Yugoslavia, etc., have made their appearance. The Party cannot ignore these ideas and can win over the majority of the population only by putting forth positive solution to them.

Following this, a meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party decided on March 27 to ask the National Assembly to draft a “bill for thorough restoration” of those who were punished as counterrevolutionary elements in the past.

A Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party which was held from March 29 to April 5 replaced the members of the Presidium and the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party by supporters of Dubcek.

According to news dispatches, Smrkovsky who was sentenced to 15 years’ penal servitude as a counterrevolutionary element and released through the so-called “restoration” was elected Chairman of the National Assembly.

According to press reports, over 800 officers who were punished in the past for their counterrevolutionary crimes have restored their “right” in the Czechoslovak People’s Army and received even compensation.

And, a long-prepared “action programme” of the Party was adopted at the April Plenum.

The “action programme” pointed out that “a radical change in life” will be effected and that a “new political system… which will realize diverse interests of all social groups and individuals be established” and put forth a line repudiating the leading role of the Party and the working, class, obliterating the proletarian dictatorship, benumbing the functions of the State organs and public organizations and ensuring bourgeois “freedom” to the citizens.

The “programme” provided for what is called large-scale “restoration” of those who were punished in the past for their counterrevolutionary crimes and dismissal of those who delay this.

The “action programme” also put the “independence of enterprise” to the fore, negated the centralized guidance of the Party and the State to the national economy and completely rejected the socialist economy itself.

As can be seen in the above, the “action programme” is run through with reactionary lines and policies for restoring capitalism in all fields of the State life.

Since the April Plenum the line of “liberalization” has been translated into practice in an overall way as put forth in the “action programme”.

According to Czechoslovak press reports, the measure was taken in a big way, first of all, for releasing or “wholly restoring” those who were found guilty at trials held after 1949 including the trial of the Slansky clique who were punished as counterrevolutionary spies.

On May Day this year, the Title of Hero was awarded to Klementis (the then foreign minister), who was executed on charges of being an anti-Party counterrevolutionary spy in 1952.

On the occasion of the national day on May 8 last, an “amnesty” was granted to over 1,000 criminals.

As a result, in the May Day demonstration and May 9 national day, not a small number of people carried national flags of U.S. imperialism and shouted “Long live the United States” and even clamoured for the erection of a so-called “Hero Monument” twaddling about the role of U.S. imperialism as “liberator” in the period of the Second World War.

When a ceremony commemorating a reactionary element Masaryk, the first President in the period of the bourgeois Republic, was held in May last, President Svaboda attended there and laid a wreath.

According to press reports, a Plenum of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party discussed on May 30 the question of “appraisal of the present situation, summing up of the activities of the Central Committee organs, the future tactical activities of the Party and preparations for the Congress of the Czechoslovak Communist Party” and took measures for pushing ahead more actively with the plan for “liberalization” and inflicted Party discipline upon the former Party activists.

Under such circumstances, numerous “political organizations” have begun to be formed or rebuilt today in Czechoslovakia.

This notwithstanding, the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party and Government have taken no measures to bring this situation under control.

Dubcek and his supporters declared that “the Communist Party exerts influence upon the decisions of the State organs but must not interfere in concrete decisions”, and that “the Party has no right to speak in the name of the people”.

Meanwhile, the Czechoslovak Communist Party completely gave up the Party and State control over the publications.

As a result, publications, radios and news agencies of Czechoslovakia have been completely reduced to implements of the counterrevolutionary forces for “liberalization”.

The publications of Czechoslovakia impaired the revolutionary history of the working class and openly challenged its sacred revolutionary cause.

Owing to the counterrevolutionary acts of Dubcek and his supporters who refused the dictatorship of the proletariat, various counterrevolutionary organizations of the reactionaries who attempt to restore the old system have made their appearance and carry on their activities all the more freely without any restriction in Czechoslovakia.

In order to overthrow the socialist system, the reactionaries of Czechoslovakia captured one position of socialism and put up slogans and demands one by one to take the next position.

The claims and demands of the counterrevolutionary forces in Czechoslovakia have become all the more unscrupulous as time passes and reached the climax in the “2,000 words” statement.

The “2,000 words” statement was the counterrevolutionary action programme which formulated the sinister goal of struggle of the counterrevolutionary elements of this country under the wire-pulling of the imperialists to overthrow the socialist system won by the Czechoslovak working class and people at the cost of their blood and restore the capitalist society, the dark society where exploitation and oppression, poverty and non-rights prevail.

Kicking up a frantic campaign against socialism, the authors of the “2,000 words” directed the spearhead of attack against the Communist Party, the organizer of all the struggles of the working class and people for the victory of socialism.

Defiling the Communist Party with malicious words, they jabbered that “the Communist Party is not entitled to any thanks” and totally refused the role and functions of the Communist Party, demanding that it be reduced to an “organization” like a club and a mere “ideological union”.

The authors of the “2,000 words” and their supporters schemed to make the Party wash its hands of all fields of State activity and thus, render the socialist State powerless by divorcing it from the leadership of the Party, paralyze the functions of the socialist regime and furthermore, and restore their power.

Describing, the socialist system as an “old ruling system”, they advocated so-called “resurrection” and “change” while openly calling for “overthrowing” the socialist system.

In the “2,000 words” appeal these counterrevolutionary elements called for going over to action against the Communist Party and the socialist system, saying that the “coming period is a decisive period” and this period “demands that everyone act according to his determination”.

Moreover, they incited people to strengthen an anti-communist propaganda by seizing the press organs such as central and local newspapers, journals, radios and T.V. and to stage strikes, demonstrations and slowdowns against the Party functionaries and State activists who do not meekly comply to their counterrevolutionary demands.

The authors of the “2,000 words” ranted that an “opportunity” like that right after World War II came again, when an attempt was made to strangulate the young people’s regime in Czechoslovakia in its cradle and lead Czechoslovakia along the road of capitalism.

When the “2,000 words” run through from beginning to end with despicable and malicious slanders and calumnies against socialism and the revolutionary cause of the people and with the counterrevolutionary agitation was published, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, manifesting its stand, declared that “there is по reason to doubt the good will” of the authors of the statement and its supporters.

Dubcek said in his television speech on July 27 that “we have the duty to consistently follow to the end the road which we have already started to take, not taking even a step from it”.

Dubcek and his supporters, weakening the relations of alliance with the socialist countries, went closer to Western imperialism, U.S. imperialism and West German revanchists in particular.

Premier Cernik said on July 19 that “Czechoslovakia sincerely hopes for friendship and cooperation with West Germany” and called for improving the relations with all the Western imperialists.

Dubcek and his supporters invited U.S. ruling elements and held closed-door talks with them in succession. U.S. Senators Claiborne Pell and Bell have already travelled to Czechoslovakia and recently Mansfield crept into there and held a closed-door talk with Smrkovsky, Chairman of the National Assembly, on “normalizing the relations between the two countries”.

Dubcek and his supporters removed the mines and barbed wire entanglements which had been laid in the areas bordering on West Germany.

According to reports, counter revolutionary elements and subversive elements who had taken refuge in foreign countries thronged to Czechoslovakia en masse and even commanding centers of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and West German spies have been set up there.

A large quantity of U.S. made weapons and ammunitions were uncovered in succession recently in various parts of Czechoslovakia, which had been supplied by the U.S. imperialists to the Czechoslovak counter revolutionary elements who were scheming to overthrow the socialist system.

On August 20, a “stream of trucks with West German number plates flowed into Czechoslovakia” through Cheb, a Czechoslovak city on the border area between Czechoslovakia and West Germany and this reminded one of the time when the Hitler Nazis troops were invading Czechoslovakia after the signing of the Munich Agreement 30 years ago, according to foreign press reports.

On August 21, a Tass statement said that troops of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary, Democratic Germany and Poland entered the Czechoslovak territory for the purpose of defending the socialist gains in Czechoslovakia and ensuring the security of the European socialist countries, at the request of the Czechoslovak Party and State figures for an urgent assistance including armed aid.

― The People’s Korea, no. 391, 28 August 1968, pp. 5-6.

PYONGYANG, Aug. 23 (KCNA) — Rodong Sinmun, organ of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, today carries an editorial article headlined “Historic Lesson of Czechoslovak Situation”.

Follows its full text:

Now the situation in Czechoslovakia is very grave.

All the events which have been going on in this country of late show that a grave danger has been created in the cause of socialism of its people owing to the hideous activities of the counterrevolutionary forces in conspiracy with the imperialists headed by U.S. imperialism.

We, who are linked with the Czechoslovak people by close internationalist bonds in the common struggle against the aggression and subversive moves of the imperialists and for the acceleration of socialist and communist construction, have closely watched the activities of the counterrevolutionary elements in Czechoslovakia from the first day of their coming to the fore.

The manoeuvres of the counterrevolutionary forces to stamp out the socialist gains in Czechoslovakia and put that country on the road of reviving capitalism began coming out into the open, coinciding with the adoption of the so-called new line of “democratization” entering this year.

As is already known, at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party held in January this year the question of building “a highly developed democratic and developed socialist society” was put forth and a new line of “democratization” was adopted and it began to find its “embodiment” in all the spheres of the Party and State affairs.

Voices denying the leading role of the Communist Party, denying the centralized guidance of the State and denying the class struggle under the signboard of “democratization” and “liberalization” were openly uttered.

The State censorship over the publications, radios and T.V. was abolished and a series of decisions were adopted on emasculating the guidance and control of the Party and State organs over the political and social life.

An attack was launched on the measures taken by the public security organ in putting down reactionaries, events for praising the reactionary rulers in the period of the bourgeois Republic were held and the “restoration” of those who had been punished for their counterrevolutionary acts was carried out on a broader scale.

This, in fact, meant the opening up of a counterrevolutionary road.

The counterrevolutionary elements raised their heads and openly hurled slanders and calumnies at the socialist system, abused the Communist Party and cried for the restoration of capitalism.

The anti-socialist propaganda was openly carried out through the press, radios and T.V. of this country.

The activities of the counterrevolutionary elements became all the more undisguised particularly after the adoption of the so called “action programme” of the Communist Party at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party held in April.

This “action programme” is an anti-Marxist, counterrevolutionary document for creating conditions for the restoration of capitalism by totally emasculating the leading role of the Party and destroying the system of proletarian dictatorship under the slogan of the establishment of a “new, democratic State political guidance system”.

This document is aimed at denying the class nature of the working-class Party and reducing the Party to a mere club.

More, the “action programme” is intended to place the national front, a united front organization, above the Party and melt the Party in it and it openly denies the direct guidance of the Party to the State organs and public organizations.

The anti-Marxist nature and harmfulness of the “action programme” finds concentric manifestation in the claim for “complete freedom” and “pure democracy” to be guaranteed uniformly to all the social collectives and all the people on the argument that “the dictatorial State of the working class in Czechoslovakia has fulfilled all its historic mission”.

Today when there still remains imperialism on the globe, particularly under the acute situation in which it is perpetrating incessant attacks on the socialist countries, trying hard to find a way out of its doomed lot in stepping up the policies of aggression and war, and under the condition in which there still exist the remnants of the hostile classes internally and the capitalist elements have not yet been completely uprooted from the ideas and consciousness of the people, the plan for “putting an end to the mission of the dictatorship of the proletariat” and “enforcing” “complete freedom” and “pure democracy” for all the social collectives and all the people is, in fact, nothing but an attempt to patronize the counterrevolutionary elements and paralyse the class awakening of the masses of the people and disarm them before the enemy.

The aim pursued by the “action programme” is glaringly revealed in the fact that it urges an early “restoration” of the counterrevolutionary element who had been found guilty and encourages the press and radios in the anti-State propaganda.

After the announcement of this programme, the counterrevolutionary elements in Czechoslovakia went so far as to openly publish a foul document called “2.000 words” in newspapers of this country under the name of the “Czechoslovak Activists Group”. This document is a counterrevolutionary action programme which formulated their sinister aim of overthrowing the socialist system and restoring the capitalist society, the dark society where exploitation and oppression, poverty and non-rights prevail.

In the “2,000 words”, the counterrevolutionary elements not only hurled every malicious slander and calumny at socialism and the Communist Party, expressing undisguised hostility against them and openly called for going over to an action against the Communist Party and the socialist power.

Expressing the hope for the development of “liberalization” in Czechoslovakia, they agitated that the “coming period is a decisive period” and this period “demands that everyone act according to his determination”.

Moreover, they egged people on to strengthen an anti-communist propaganda by seizing the press organs such as central and local newspapers, journals, radios and T.V. and to stage strikes, demonstrations and slow-downs and to fight to realize one’s demand by “founding one’s citizen committee and commission”.

This was, in fact, an appeal for counterrevolutionary advance for overthrowing the socialist regime and establishing the reactionary bourgeois regime.

Praises and support to this “2,000 words” appeal run through with despicable and malicious slanders and calumnies at socialism and the revolutionary cause of the people and agitation of counterrevolution are voiced in a number of publications, radios, and T.V. of this country and the support to it is openly expressed even among some leading figures of the Party and the State.

Furthermore, the “K 231”, a reactionary organization formed with released criminals, and various other anti-communist, counterrevolutionary organizations have made their appearance and are having things their way.

In order to overthrow the socialist system, the reactionaries of Czechoslovakia captured one position of socialism and put slogans and demands one by one to take the next position.

They are trying to divorce the People’s Militia organized with the core elements of the working class from the leadership of the Party and, furthermore, to place it under their control or disorganize it. And they are disuniting the youth organization and drawing in youths under their influence.

An extremely grave danger has been created to the socialist cause of the people owing to the activities of the counterrevolutionary forces in Czechoslovakia today.

It cannot be overlooked in particular that the manoeuvres of the counterrevolutionary forces in Czechoslovakia are being manipulated by the U.S. imperialists and West German militarists and other imperialists.

Now the U.S. imperialists and the West German militarists and the Tito clique of Yugoslavia, who betrayed the revolution long ago and became servants of U.S. imperialism are in high glee over the situation created in Czechoslovakia and are actively encouraging the anti-socialist elements of Czechoslovakia overtly and covertly. Tito, a despicable renegade in the revolution, visited Czechoslovakia recently and tried by hook or by crook to encourage and agitate the counterrevolutionary forces of this country, blaring that Yugoslavia warmly welcomes and supports the course of “democratization” in Czechoslovakia.

In this way Tito once again vividly disclosed that he was playing the role of a detached force in the manoeuvres of the U.S. imperialists for disorganizing the socialist camp and the world revolutionary, forces from within.

The ruling circles of the United States shouted for joy over the “democratization” din in Czechoslovakia and offered various “preferential treatment” to Czechoslovakia. According to reports, commanding centres of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and West German spies have been set up in Czechoslovakia and U.S.-made weapons are uncovered in many areas of this country.

On the other hand, the Czechoslovak authorities approached the U.S. imperialists and the West German revanchists, while weakening the relations of alliance with the socialist countries.

The mines and barbed-wire entanglements which had been laid in the Czechoslovak area bordering on West Germany were removed and things went to such a pass that in the May Day demonstration national flags of U.S. imperialism were carried and “Long live the United States” was shouted.

All these facts bespeak that the machinations of the counterrevolutionary elements to bring to naught the socialist gains of the Czechoslovak people and turn Czechoslovakia back to the road of capitalism are closely linked with the unceasing manoeuvres of the imperialists to beat socialist countries one by one.

Then, why has there been created in Czechoslovakia such a grave situation as throwing in danger the revolutionary cause of the working class and the socialist system won at the cost of blood?

This is by no means a fortuitous phenomenon nor an unexpected situation.

All the developments in Czechoslovakia are a natural outcome of the revisionist policy that has been pursued in this country.

As Comrade Kim Il Sung instructed, “If one falls into revisionism step by step, in the end one is unable to get out of it and cannot but slide onto the road of capitalism.”

It is a stark lesson furnished by the experiences of history that when one falls onto the road of revisionism, discarding the revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism, one is bound to make a mess of the revolution and construction and, furthermore, plunge in danger the socialist system itself, the precious revolutionary gains attained at a high price of sacrifice. The present situation in Czechoslovakia gives a new serious lesson on this to the international communist movement.

In the recent period since revisionism came to the fore in the international communist movement, revisionism has been pursued on in Czechoslovakia as the Party and State policy and this has brought about serious consequences in the social life as a whole. The grave situation that has been created in Czechoslovakia today is nothing but an extreme manifestation of such revisionist lines and policies.

As the experiences of the international communist movement prove, it is an unavoidable and immovable rule for the Party of each socialist country to uphold the general principles of Marxism-Leninism on socialist revolution and socialist construction, such as keeping up the class struggle and maintaining the dictatorship of the proletariat and ensuring the Party leadership of socialist construction and strengthening the ideological work among the masses of the people, and so forth. Whether the triumphed socialist system is defended and consolidated and developed or not and whether the successful carrying out of the construction of socialism and communism is ensured or not, entirely depends on whether the Party of each socialist country holds fast to these principles and correctly embodies them or not.

Accordingly, the Parties which desire to truly maintain a revolutionary stand and correctly lead the people to the victory of the cause of socialism and communism along the road of Marxism-Leninism, should without exception remain faithful to these principles unconditionally.

However, all the course in Czechoslovakia in the recent years has not been so.

One of the graphic manifestations of the revisionist policy is the fact that the political and ideological work among the masses of the people has been given up in Czechoslovakia in the last period.

The political and ideological work among the masses—this is one of the most important duties confronting each revolutionary Party in the building of socialism and communism.

Particularly, under the conditions in which the world revolution has not yet been carried to completion and imperialism still remains, it stands out as a very acute and serious question for the Party of the working class which has seized the power to firmly arm the masses of the people politically and ideologically.

Only when the working class and all the broad masses are tirelessly educated in the unshakable consciousness of the working class and its revolutionary ideas, is it possible to effectively keep off the intensifying ideological offensive of the imperialists and infiltration of all hostile bourgeois ideologies of all descriptions and arouse them powerfully in revolution and construction.

Therefore, the ideological struggle against the infiltration of the hostile ideas and their manifestation and the ideological work of educating and remoulding the masses must not be interrupted or weakened for a moment.

But, due attention has not been paid to this in Czechoslovakia in the last period. The struggle against the survivals of obsolete ideas and the ideological work have been ignored and given up.

To abandon the ideological work is in itself to open the door to the infiltration of all trends of reactionary bourgeois ideologies and render the masses ideologically defenceless in face of it.

As the realities of Czechoslovakia show, all the reactionary ideological trends spread by the imperialists began flowing unhindered into the windless zone where the ideological struggle and ideological education are given up and revisionism brought in the Western style, rapidly spreading the corrupt Western fashion of life.

The bourgeois influence widely spreading in the social life, the counterrevolutionary elements began again their activities within the country, using this hostile ideology as a springboard, and this did a grave harm to the political and ideological life of the people.

The infiltration of the virus of the bourgeois ideologies and Western style of life degenerated many people ideologically and fostered to the extreme egoism seeking personal indolence and comfort, instead of working for the interests of the country and the revolution, and furthermore drove them to such a state where their class consciousness is paralyzed and they lost the capacity to see and judge things and phenomena in a revolutionary way.

As a result, no small number of the people have become unable to tell which is revolutionary and which is counterrevolutionary bourgeois virus and which is socialist and which is anti-socialist and even unable to distinguish clearly between the friend and the enemy.

To paralyze and enervate the class awakening and revolutionary spirit of the masses of the people and thus create erroneous illusion as to imperialism and disorganize the revolutionary ranks politically and ideologically—herein lies the consistent aim of revisionism.

The revisionist policy that has been pursued in Czechoslovakia found concentric manifestation particularly in giving up the class struggle and denying the dictatorship of the proletariat.

To deny the class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat is the anti-Marxist, counterrevolutionary essence of revisionism.

Whether one keeps up the class struggle or casts it away and whether one strengthens the dictatorship of the proletariat or destroys it, is the watershed always dividing Marxism-Leninism and revisionism, and revolutionary line and opportunist line.

Revisionism, proceeding from its reactionary nature of being unwilling to make revolution, doggedly opposes the class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The revisionist policy in Czechoslovakia proves this with clarity.

The activities of the counterrevolutionary forces in Czechoslovakia and their vicious machinations against the socialist system are the direct offspring of the abandonment of the class struggle and the paralysis of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The class struggle under socialism does not cease but continues.

This is inevitable as long as the aggressive and subversive manoeuvrings against socialism are ceaselessly perpetrated by the imperialists and reactionary forces from without and the remnant forces of the hostile classes which, though overthrown as class, hatch the subversive and destructive machinations, both overtly and covertly, not giving up the delusions about the old system, are lying low within.

Therefore, the class struggle must not be given up halfway because the socialist system was established but great attention must always be directed to this.

Comrade Kim II Sung taught us:

It goes without saying that the class struggle must be continued under socialism. Those who deny the class struggle under socialism are revisionists and have no intention to make revolution.

As socialist construction progresses, the dictatorship of the proletariat must not be weakened but must be continuously strengthened and the class struggle be also continued.1

To thoroughly carry out the class struggle against the resisting hostile forces under socialism, the dictatorship of the proletariat must be steadily strengthened, first of all.

The dictatorship of the proletariat is in itself the class struggle of the working class waged through the State power. Therefore, only by strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat and enhancing its functions in every possible way, can the resistance of the class enemies of all hues be thoroughly put down and the socialist system be defended firmly and socialist and communist construction be successfully carried out.

Precisely for this reason, the class struggle must be given up or the dictatorship of the proletariat be weakened under no pretext.

In Czechoslovakia, however, machinations are being stepped up in an undisguised way against the dictatorship of the proletariat under the signboard of “democratization” and “liberalization”.

The advocates of “democratization” and “liberalization” in Czechoslovakia are pouring out a spate of vile words as if the dictatorship of the proletariat “eradicated” democracy, just as the counterrevolutionary elements and opportunists did so through a historic period, opposing the dictatorship of the proletariat, and are fabricating such pretext that they give “humanitarianism” and “profound democracy” to socialism.

But, no pretext or sophistry can cover up the reactionary nature of “democratization” and “liberalization”.

In fact, things going on in Czechoslovakia under the slogan of “democratization” and “liberalization” are malicious slander and attack against the organs of the proletarian dictatorship including the public security organs, which have the mission of putting down the class enemies, and manoeuvrings to disturb the State and social order and revive a state of anarchy in which reactionaries and whoever else can speak and act at will without any class principle.

As is clear here, too, the so-called “democratization” and “liberalization” are “liberty” guaranteeing the revival of the bourgeois elements and hostile forces of all descriptions and “liberty” of the advance of reactionaries against revolution and socialism. This, in essence, is “liberty” and “democracy” of restoring the bourgeois system and returning back to the road of capitalism. To all intents and purposes, this is nothing but bourgeois liberty and bourgeois democracy.

Genuine democracy, revolutionary democracy is fundamentally contradictory to bourgeois liberty and democracy.

Genuine democracy under socialism is only democracy based on the dictatorship of the proletariat and can not be otherwise.

The dictatorship of the proletariat is the highest form of democracy which thoroughly enforces dictatorship against a handful of the exploiting classes and the enemies of the people and guarantees maximum democracy to the working class and the broad masses of the people.

As for liberty, too, there is supra-revolutionary liberty.

“Liberty” rejecting the leadership of the Party and the dictatorship of the proletariat is bourgeois “liberty” for oppressing and exploiting toiling masses and benefiting only a handful of the exploiting classes.

And liberty pursuing only unlimited individual enjoyment, ignoring the revolution and the masses of the people is not liberty but licence.

Democracy and liberty demanding the enforcement of democracy to the class enemies and advocating unprincipled liberty are an out-and-out reactionary and anti-socialist one no matter under what signboard of “liberalization” and “democratization” they may be put up.

Without the decisive and thorough enforcement of the dictatorship against all enemies of the people and anti-socialist forces, genuine liberty and democracy can not be guaranteed for the people.

The dictatorship of the proletariat is democracy presupposing the dictatorship against the enemies of socialism and people and it is thoroughly enforced through the struggle against them. Only democracy by the dictatorship of the proletariat is genuine democracy for the absolute majority of the people and defending and representing the interests of the entire people.

The class struggle against all the hostile forces, therefore, must be thoroughly carried out and the dictatorship of the proletariat must be strengthened and its functions and role be enhanced constantly in order to materialize genuine democracy under socialism.

The working class and communists throughout the world should draw a profound lesson from the situation of Czechoslovakia.

Today the fierce class struggle is going on between socialism and imperialism and between the revolutionary forces and the counterrevolutionary forces in the international arena. As long as there exist imperialism, exploiting classes and their remnants, the communists must not lay down the weapon of the class struggle or weaken the dictatorship of the proletariat in the least. The revolutionary essence of Marxism-Leninism lies in that it is a theory of the class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat are the most mighty weapon in the hands of the working class and the inevitable demand for the victory of the cause of socialism and communism. Only through the class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat can the working class win victory in the socialist revolution, defend the socialist gains and build socialism and communism.

Imperialism, U.S. imperialism in particular, is the number one target of the struggle of the world revolution and the most heinous enemy of socialism.

As Comrade Kim Il Sung taught us, today the U.S. imperialists, while viciously machinating to swallow up socialist countries one by one, are pursuing the policy of invading by force of arms the Asian, African and Latin American countries which strive for revolution and of disorganizing from within those countries which have fallen into revisionism, by taking advantage of it. Under these circumstances, all the socialist countries should jointly defend the socialist camp and safeguard their socialist gains with vigilance.

The socialist camp is the precious gain which the world working class has won through a century-old bloody struggle.

Comrade Kim II Sung said:

The socialist camp and the international communist movement are the decisive factors in the development of the history of mankind at the present time. They are the greatest revolutionary forces of our times that stand face to face with imperialism and all the forces of reaction. The existence of the united and powerful socialist camp and international communist movement checks the imperialist policy of aggression and war and inspires the revolutionary struggle of the peoples of the whole world.2

To defend and safeguard the socialist camp is the sacred duty of each socialist country and all the communists and an important guarantee of the ultimate victory of the world revolution.

To defend the socialist camp and safeguard the socialist gains of each country, we should and must strengthen in every way the dictatorship of the proletariat firmly holding the weapon of the class struggle. What is most important in strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat and consolidating and developing the socialist system is to educate and remould the entire working people in the communist ideas by energetically conducting the ideological revolution.

Comrade Kim Il Sung taught us:

The work of educating and remoulding all the masses is a deep-going ideological revolution for finally eliminating capitalism even in the sphere of consciousness of the people and completely liberating the masses of the people from all the old things handed down through centuries. This is the most difficult work to be carried out after the seizure of power by the working class and requires a long period of time.3

The ideological revolution is the basic duty of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the period of transition to communism and is the main form of the class struggle after the victory of the socialist system. Following the victory of the socialist system the remnants of capitalism exist more than in any other spheres in the consciousness of the people and the old ideological survivals are the last foothold of capitalism. Using this as a hot-bed, the imperialists and reactionaries spread the virus of the corrupt bourgeois ideology and perpetrate counterrevolutionary machinations. Without eliminating the remnants of capitalism existing in the consciousness of the people, we can not consolidate the socialist system, defend this system from encroachment of the enemy or go over to communism no matter how solidly the material and technical foundations of socialism have been built up.

We can check the infiltration of the virus of the bourgeois ideology, build socialism and communism successfully, finally remove the foothold of the reactionaries and ensure the complete victory of socialism and communism only by eliminating the survivals of the bourgeois ideology, such as individualism, egoism and liberalism, and firmly arming all the working people with the communist ideas through the energetic carrying out of the ideological revolution. To start from the ideological awakening of the people and finish with the completion of their ideological trans formation—this is the law of the socialist and communist revolution.

If we ignore or violate this law, we can not win victory in the socialist revolution nor can we defend the socialist gains. As historical facts show, if we fall into revisionism and give up the ideological revolution and take the direction of “liberalization”, we can not eliminate the survivals of the bourgeois ideology or check the infiltration of the virus of the bourgeois ideology. As a result, the corrupt bourgeois ideology will spread and paralyse the revolutionary consciousness of the people and degenerate and degrade them. This, in the final analysis, is to open the road to reaction and return to capitalism and imperil the socialist gains.

Another important question in defending the socialist gains is to inherit and develop the revolutionary traditions.

In bringing the revolutionary cause to naught, the revisionists, without exception, take the course of denying the revolutionary traditions. They describe as a “dark age” the age of glorious revolution in which the revolutionary forerunners achieved the revolutionary cause through a bloody struggle against the exploiters, oppressors and aggressors and maliciously slander and vilify the leaders of the revolution who led it. After all, this paralyses the sense of honour of revolution and revolutionary zeal of the people, undermines the preciousness of the revolutionary gains, degenerates the Party, cuts off the generations of revolution, gives up revolution and opens the road to counterrevolution. To deny the revolutionary traditions cannot be otherwise.

Therefore, to defend the revolutionary traditions is an indispensable condition for carrying forward the revolutionary cause and completing it to the end.

It is the steadfast line of our Party to constantly revolutionize the whole society by pushing the ideological revolution ahead of all other work and to defend, inherit and develop the revolutionary traditions.

Our Party will as ever sharpen the weapon of the class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat and constantly working-classize and revolutionize the whole society, thoroughly oppose all the reactionary ideas such as revisionism, dogmatism, flunkeyism and bourgeois and feudalistic ideologies and will defend like the apple of the eye the purity and revolutionary spirit of Marxism-Leninism.

Today we are living in the age of revolutionary storm, in the period of world-historic turn in which socialism is triumphing and imperialism is going to ruin throughout the world. With no desperate efforts can the imperialists and their stooges reverse the wheel of revolution or save them from ruin. Capitalism has lived its days.

Future belongs only to communism. There may be twists and turns, but socialism and communism will certainly triumph throughout the world and imperialism and reactionaries of all hues will eventually perish.

― The People’s Korea, no. 391, 28 August 1968, pp. 3-5.

In the immortal classic work Giving Priority to Ideological Work Is Essential for Accomplishing Socialism, the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il clearly elucidated the importance of the working-class party’s guidance and control of ideological and cultural channels.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il noted:

If ideological and cultural channels depart from the guidance and control of the working-class party in socialist society, they will be used as counterrevolutionary instruments. This is proved by the fact that, in those countries which were building socialism, traitors to socialism and reactionaries took ideological and cultural channels into their own hands and used them to attack socialism.1

It is the most important principle of ideological work to guarantee the working-class party’s leadership for ideological work. It is particularly important to strengthen the working-class party’s guidance and control of ideological and cultural channels, such as publications, literature and art. This is because ideological and cultural channels serve as powerful weapons for educating, organizing and mobilizing the masses.

Ideological work is work of handling people’s ideas; press, publishing, literature and art activities take important part of the party’s ideological work. Ideological and cultural channels are powerful and great influential ideological weapons for propagating the party’s ideas and policies to a broad range of the popular masses everyday and at every hour.

In the socialist society, all ideological and cultural channels, including the press, publications, literature and art, should thoroughly serve as channels to defend and advance the socialist cause in accordance with the popular masses’ demand for independence. To implement this mission, the ideological and cultural channels should be under the party’s guidance and control. Only when they are under the party’s guidance and control, can they truly contribute to defending and completing the socialist cause and brilliantly implement their mission and role as powerful ideological weapons.

As the great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il elucidated, in the socialist society, ideological and cultural channels beyond the party’s guidance and control can be used as antirevolutionary channels. This is proved by the realities of those countries where capitalism has been restored.

In the past, betrayers of socialism and reactionaries held sway in ideological and cultural channels and used them for attacking socialism in some countries where socialism was being built.

Betrayers of socialism and reactionaries in the former Soviet Union employed cunning methods to push ideological and cultural channels out of the working-class party’s control. One of the methods is “openness”. Calling for “openness”, they let papers, magazines, radio and television handle materials on some cadres’ irregularities. Then, they exaggerated and blazed the cadres’ irregularities as if they were intrinsic demerits of the socialist society, so that they tarnished the image of cadres and brought about the grave consequence of alienating the masses from the party.

Following the stage of “openness”, betrayers of socialism called for “free journalism”, “free publications” and “free movies and plays”. As a result, the control system of ideological and cultural channels vanished and new publications appeared to directly report party sessions and government meetings, which had been held behind the curtains previously. Ideological and cultural channels became able to do whatever they wanted to do. Avail themselves of this situation, betrayers and enemies of socialism held sway in ideological and cultural channels and began to attack socialism.

Backed by the betrayers of socialism, a book entitled There Is No Other Way was published in the former Soviet Union in 1988. The book was written by reactionary philosophers, historians and economists who had been criticized before. Following the book, many publications came out to begin to viciously slander socialism and criticize it as “totalitarian”, “barracks-like” or “administrative and commanding”, saying deviations that occur in the course of socialist construction are inevitable in the socialist society. At the same time, malignant posters slandering socialism were hung everywhere.

At the fifth meeting of film functionaries, “liberalization” was officially declared and an erotic film entitled The Wheel of Love was officially produced for the first time in Russia in 1994. Such erotic films as Little Vera, My Name is Arlekino and Emergency Incident of a District Scale are now running in Russia. In addition to these erotic films, a Russian art film entitled Promised Heaven shows illusory scenes of maneuvers by deformed and disabled people who are “ghosts” coming out of tombs. Novels, poems and songs also have their own ways. The phrase “Let there always be sun/Let there always be sky/Let there always be mom/Let there always be me”, which was part of the words of the song May There Always Be Sunshine, has been changed into “Let there always be vodka, salted herring and smoked sausage/Let there always be tobacco in my pockets and a girl in my trunk”.

The betrayers of socialism also allowed the private ownership of ideological and cultural channels and let them attack socialism. Those countries where capitalism has been restored put the private ownership into practice and let rich individuals occupy ideological and cultural channels. As a result, ideological and cultural facilities have turned into places where their owners earn money by providing people with entertainment. Many erotic magazines, cartoons, art pieces, cassette tapes and video tapes are produced and sell well in those countries. Postcards have nude pictures of “queens of night” who assume the most loathsome pose. Seen even on tickets of movie theaters and gymnasiums are words inviting male and female sexual perverts to a certain place at a certain time for a “model performance” on the stage.

Privately owned television and movie theaters run corrupt Western films on a large scale to win popularity and earn a lot of money. For example, a Czech television station runs everyday Western films showing that two protagonists shoot each other’s head with guns at the same time, that a person picks out the liver of a corpse and slices it and that an actor and an actress make love. With increasing voices against this, the Czech Government has recently decided to restrict erotic and violent television programs at the minimum level. However, such unsound programs are reportedly still aired because the state cannot control privately owned television channels such as Nova. What interests these corporations is nothing but earning money. The adolescents who saw erotic films are living low-down lives, crying that “we must live in the erotic world under current situation” and that “sex is our bread and life”. As shown above, ideological and cultural channels under the sway of betrayers of socialism and reactionaries are infusing people with the capitalist idea and are turning the society into a hotbed of crime.

Ideological and cultural channels beyond the control of the working-class party, which were reduced to antirevolutionary channels, have made a great contribution to destroying socialism and restoring capitalism in some countries.

Without the party’s guidance and control, revolutionary ideological and cultural channels of the working class cannot exist, nor can we think of their militant might. Herein lies the reason why the working-class party’s guidance and control of ideological and cultural channels is important.

Kim Chon Son

― Rodong Sinmun, no. 231 (17704), 19 August 1995, p. 6.

Since we formulated the revolutionary thought of the leader as Kimilsungism and gave a definition of it, people have come to see it in a new light. At present, everyone is calling the revolutionary thought of the leader Kimilsungism, and is saying that it is a system based on the idea, theory and method of Juche.

Formerly, the revolutionary idea of the leader was called a contemporary Marxism-Leninism. Of course, there is some truth in that, but this is not a correct definition, since it refers primarily to its inheritance of Marxism-Leninism. No one now calls the leader’s revolutionary thought that way. However, there is still a tendency to interpret it within the basis of Marxism-Leninism.

We call the leader’s revolutionary thought Kimilsungism because the idea and theory advanced by him are original. The definition that Kimilsungism is a system based on the idea, theory and method of Juche means that Kimilsungism is consistent with the Juche idea in content and that it forms a system based on the idea, theory and method in composition. Both in content and in composition, Kimilsungism is an original idea that cannot be explained within the framework of Marxism-Leninism.

The Juche idea which constitutes the quintessence of Kimilsungism, is an idea newly discovered in the history of human thought.

However, at present there is a tendency to interpret the Juche idea on the basis of the materialistic dialectic of Marxism. Not so long ago I received a letter which propounded the viewpoint that the Juche idea is a “materialism of Juche” and a “dialectic of Juche”. This shows that the originality of the Juche idea is not correctly understood.

The materialistic dialectic of Marxism presented the correlation between matter and consciousness and between being and thinking as the fundamental question of philosophy and proved the primacy of matter, the primacy of being. On this basis it clarified the laws of motion of the objective world. The material nature of the world and its universal laws of motion having been clarified, the Juche idea presented the position and role of man in the world as the fundamental question of philosophy and proved that man is the master of everything and decides everything. It explicated on this basis the law that governs the domination, transformation and development of the world by man. The Juche idea puts man in the place of master who dominates the world, instead of simply presenting him as a part of it. This philosophical principle of the Juche idea cannot be explained within the framework of materialistic dialectic.

The tendency to interpret the Juche idea according to the system and content of the preceding theories is more obtrusively manifested in the view of social history. Even philosophy textbooks show the tendency of interpreting the socio-historical principles clarified by the Juche idea, in accordance with the materialistic view of history.

Historical materialism is the application of the general laws of the material world to social history. Needless to say, society, too, belongs to the material world, so the universal laws of the material world operate in it. But society has its peculiar laws of motion which differ from those of nature. Contrary to the movement of nature, the sociohistorical movement has a subject. And the socio-historical movement is inconceivable without the function and role of its subject. The Juche idea has precisely elucidated the law-governed nature inherent in the socio-historical movement as a movement of its subject. The view on social history as clarified by the Juche idea has as its main content the law-governed nature of the socio-historical movement. This Juche view on social history should not be interpreted according to the materialistic view of history.

The Juche idea is an original idea which clarifies not only the new philosophical and socio-historical principles but also the guiding principles in the revolution and construction.

Along with the Juche idea, the revolutionary theory of Kimilsungism is also an original theory. However, some people still have a tendency to confuse it with the revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism.

Viewed from the development of the revolutionary theories of the working class. Marxism-Leninism is the revolutionary theory of the historical period preceding the evolution of Kimilsungism. Marx scientifically proved, on the basis of materialistic dialectic, the inevitability of the fall of capitalism and the transition to socialism. Lenin followed his theory to make an analysis of monopolistic capitalism. On this basis he elucidated the law of uneven development of capitalism and the possibility of victory of socialism in one particular country, and put forward the revolutionary theory on the establishment of a socialist system. That is why the main content of the revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism is the theory on overthrowing capitalism and imperialism, and establishing a socialist system.

The revolutionary theory of Kimilsungism is a revolutionary theory which has provided solutions to problems arising in the revolutionary practice in a new age different from the era that gave rise to Marxism-Leninism. On the basis of the Juche idea, the leader gave a profound explanation of the theories, strategies and tactics on national liberation, class emancipation and human liberation in our era. Thus it can be said that the revolutionary theory of Kimilsungism is a perfect revolutionary theory on communism in the era of Juche.

It would not do to seek some clue in the Marxist-Leninist theory to explain the new revolutionary theory clarified by Kimilsungism, especially the theory on the building of socialism and communism.

The problem of building socialism and communism has been clarified in a new way by Kimilsungism. True, the founders of Marxism-Leninism, too, expounded some views about socialist and communist society, but their views did not go far beyond the limits of prediction and supposition. The leader said long ago that our Party had taken into consideration all deserving propositions made by the founders of Marxism-Leninism and that after the establishment of the socialist system, it had solved all arising problems by using its own discretion. As a matter of fact, the theoretical and practical problems of the revolution and construction work after the establishment of the socialist system have been solved entirely through the leader’s unique ideological and theoretical activities. So Marxist-Leninist classics cannot give any hints to the solution of these problems.

Furthermore, Kimilsungism raised the new question of the method of leadership in the revolutionary theory of the working class and elucidated it in a comprehensive way.

The question of the leadership method holds an independent place, both theoretically and practically, in the revolutionary struggle of the working class. The revolutionary cause of the working class, the cause of socialism and communism, is a deep-going, complicated struggle to transform the world thoroughly and a great struggle in which the broad masses participate. Therefore, this revolutionary cause would be victoriously achieved only when a correct leadership method, together with a correct guiding idea and theory, is applied. The question of the leadership method assumes still greater importance when the working-class party takes over power, administers a new society and directs the building of socialism and communism. But in the revolutionary theory of the working class this question was never systematized as an independent theory before.

Kimilsungism’s important service is that it provided a new elucidation of the theory on the leadership method and systematized it as an independent element. Kimilsungism presented the leadership method as one of the fundamental questions for victory in the revolution and gave a full explanation of it. In particular, it originally clarified and perfected the leadership method, the method of leading the building of socialism and communism, to be adopted by the party in power. But in some cases the method of leadership which forms an independent element of Kimilsungism is now erroneously interpreted as a question of methodology. This is an incorrect understanding of the content and originality of the Kimilsungist theory on leadership.

It is clear from this that Kimilsungism differs from Marxism-Leninism in its structural system and content.

As you know, Marxism has its three sources of origin in the classical philosophy of Germany, the classical political economy of Britain and the doctrine of Utopian socialism of France. Accordingly, its structural system comprises these three fields. Leninism developed and enriched Marxism in various aspects, but it adopted the same three elements—philosophy, political economy and scientific socialism.

In the new era of human history when the popular masses have emerged as masters of the world for the first time in history and are shaping their destinies in an independent and creative way, in our era when the revolutionary movement of the working class has advanced a long way and is being conducted extensively and profoundly throughout the world, the revolutionary practice demands a new idea and theory of leadership over the revolution, and has presented the question of leadership in mobilizing the broad sections of the masses for the revolution as an urgent problem associated with the outcome of the revolution. Kimilsungism which is made up of three elements—the Juche idea and the revolutionary theory and leadership method it clarified—has met these new requirements of the revolutionary movement.

Kimilsungism is an ideological and theoretical system with the Juche idea as its core. The originality of Kimilsungism is derived from the originality of the Juche idea. Therefore, when we talk about Kimilsungism, first we have to think of the Juche idea.

Yet, we should not regard the Juche idea in the same light as Kimilsungism. Some people now put them in the same category, but they are different in content. Kimilsungism comprises the Juche idea and a far-reaching revolutionary theory and leadership method evolved from this idea. We therefore have defined Kimilsungism as a system based on the idea, theory and method of Juche.

When we say Kimilsungism is an original revolutionary idea different from Marxism-Leninism, we never mean that it has no derivations from Marxism-Leninism. At present there is also a tendency to contrast Kimilsungism with Marxism-Leninism, allegedly to emphasize its originality. But its originality is not necessarily proved only by contrasting it with Marxism-Leninism, denying its derivations from the latter.

Both Kimilsungism and Marxism-Leninism are revolutionary ideas which have provided solutions to the revolutionary practice of the working class.

The revolutionary cause of the working class is a task extending over a long time, a task that is to be fulfilled through different historical eras. In this sense, the revolutionary struggle of the new historical era is the continuation of that in the preceding era. Like the revolutionary struggle of the working class, their revolutionary ideas and theories which reflect their needs, are also derived and developed from era to era. Although Kimilsungism is an idea which represents a historical period different from that of Marxism-Leninism, it is closely connected with the latter because of the common class ideal and objective to serve the revolutionary cause of the working class. Kimilsungism was founded and has been developed in the course of safeguarding and embodying the ideological and theoretical achievements of Marxism-Leninism. The Juche idea itself is an idea discovered in the process of the revolutionary struggle waged under the banner of Marxism-Leninism; it is an idea which has opposed all trends of idealism and metaphysics and strictly adhered to the materialistic and dialectic stand. The revolutionary theory of Kimilsungism is also a theory which was founded and enriched in the course of protecting the revolutionary quintessence of Marxist-Leninist theory from bourgeois and opportunist theories and creatively applying and developing it in line with the requirements of the revolutionary practice of our times.

We should oppose both the dogmatic attitude of swallowing Marxism-Leninism in its entirety without seeing its historical limitation and the nihilistic attitude of negating it while only emphasizing its limitation.

The Marxist-Leninist theory should be viewed in the context of the conditions prevailing at the time it was founded. Historically, Marxism and Leninism, which came into being as a reflection of the period of preparation for and carrying out of the proletarian revolution, set as a direct task the elucidation of the theories, strategies and tactics of the revolutionary struggle to overthrow capitalism. Eventually, they carried out this task. Furthermore, the founders of Marxism-Leninism drew relevant theoretical conclusions from their analyses of capitalist countries, primarily the capitalist countries of Europe where they were working and where the revolution was on the cards.

The limitation of Marxism-Leninism is, as you see, related to the conditions of the times, to the historical tasks which it set itself, and to the historical premises from which it proceeded. Therefore, it is wrong to negate Marxism-Leninism because its propositions and theories fail to meet all the requirements of contemporary revolutionary practice.

We should have a correct understanding of the correlation between Kimilsungism and Marxism-Leninism, on the basis of appraising the latter in the right light. In their relationship, we should not try to see originality only while ignoring derivations, nor should we, on the contrary, make light of originality and put too much stress on derivations. It goes without saying that the main point in this respect is originality. Putting the main emphasis on originality while viewing it in context with derivations is the principled stand which must be adhered to in understanding the correlation between Kimilsungism and Marxism-Leninism.

Giving the Party members and working people a correct understanding of the originality and historical significance of Kimilsungism is of great importance. So, when a fitting opportunity arises some day, I will go into greater details on this question.

― Kim Jong Il, On the Juche Philosophy, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang 2002, pp. 9-17.

In various countries where socialism collapsed an economic catastrophe has continued, and the people have been suffering pains from unemployment, taxes of various sorts, ever-higher prices and the lack of social policy. This is an entirely inevitable result of the collapse of the socialist economic system and the introduction of the market economy.

The bourgeois restorationists, engrossed in the capitalist economic system, totally rejected the socialist economic management system and introduced a capitalist market economy.

The bourgeois restorationists have openly maneuvered to introduce the capitalist market economy ever since they began so-called “restructuring” and “reform”.

What the bourgeois restorationists first sought in introducing the market economy was to weaken the state guidance of and control over the economy and, in the long run, reject them outright.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il has pointed out:

If we reject state guidance and control, and give priority to the autonomy of individual enterprises and to immediate economic interests, the system of the socialist economy will deteriorate and the capitalist market economy will be restored.1

Ensuring unified state guidance and managing and operating the economy in a planned way under state guidance is a lawful requirement for developing the socialist economy. This is because the people own the means of production, because the country’s economic potential can be tapped to the utmost only under unified state guidance, and because the economy can be developed quickly in compliance with the popular masses’ independent demands and interests.

However, the bourgeois rehahilitators distorted facts, as if a series of defects and “stagnation” emerged in the course of the socialist economic management because of the unified state guidance and operation of the economy in a planned way.

A series of defects emerged in the course of socialist economic construction in the former Soviet Union and the East European socialist countries, not because of unified state guidance of the economy, but because those countries ignored the objective principles of economic development and the actual circumstances and did not correctly manage and operate the economy. An important reason was that they abandoned education in the socialist ideas and inspired individualism. Nevertheless, the bourgeois restorationists talked as if only the capitalist market economic system can rapidly develop the economy and solve all problems, and they opposed the unified state guidance of the economy. They did not mention that the capitalist market economy gives rise to a fierce struggle for existence, an economic chaos, massive unemployment and social disparity in which “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”.

The bourgeois restorationists’ ulterior motive was to paralyze the socialist state’s guidance of and control over the economy by all means, introduce the capitalist market economy, crush the economic foundation of the socialist society and, thus, rehabilitate capitalism.

The bourgeois restorationists used various mean ways to fulfill this goal.

They, first of all, began to crush the existing socialist economic management system and reduce state economic offices’ authority. The bourgeois restorationists said that the socialist economic management system was “outdated and anachronistic” and sought to reform the system under the cloak of “restructuring”. In the former Soviet Union, even at the early stage of “restructuring”, five ministries and a committee, including the Ministries of Agriculture, Fruits and Vegetables, Rural Construction, and the Foodstuffs Industry and the State Agricultural Production Technology Committee, were combined into the State Agriculture and Industry Committee. Various central ministries were abolished, and the State Economic Committee was created. Numerous State economic guidance officials lost their jobs.

Of course, it is necessary to reorganize or integrate guidance offices, including central government offices, in the course of operating the socialist economy. However, this work must not weaken the state’s function of guidance and control under any circumstances. Nevertheless, the bourgeois restorationists abolished and integrated ministries and committees. Their goal was to stop central guidance offices from intervening in state enterprises’ production activities under the pretext of “simplifying” organizations and “establishing an economic and efficient management system”. Because of the bourgeois restorationists’ maneuvers, state economic guidance offices were completely separated from production activities and reduced to nominal offices that were “merely watching” production activities of low-level enterprises.

They made the empty remarks that under the socialist economic system, producers’ “creativity would be suppressed” because enterprises have no freedom and, as a result, no economic development could be achieved. They also made state economic organizations powerless and gave more “freedom” to enterprises and complexes so that they could freely set their production quotas and dispose of products. In June 1987, the Supreme Soviet of the former Soviet Union adopted the “Law on State Enterprises (Complexes)”. The law pointed out that “enterprises will no longer rely on instructions from ministries and central organizations, and the state will not take charge of enterprises’ production and management activities”. Under this law, enterprises carry out “state plans” based on contracts signed with the state under the principle of the independent earnings and expenses guarantee system and the independent loans system. Also, enterprises send certain portions of incomes to the state and dispose of the remainders on their own. Thus the state is not responsible for losses enterprises may suffer and may allow enterprises to go bankrupt.

The adoption of this law completely tore down the state’s unified control over overall economic activities, ranging from production, distribution and bartering to consumption; the management of economic activities in a planned way; and the cooperative production system among areas of production, regions and enterprises.

Enterprises were given unlimited freedom so that they could produce the items they chose and dispose of products at prices based on free contracts. This aggravated the economic chaos and stagnation. Enterprises mass-produced only profitable items and took no regard of collective production. As a result, many plants and enterprises ceased operating because of shortages of raw materials, materials and parts.

The bourgeois restorationists also ignored the state’s role in controlling prices and liberalized prices. When the countries where capitalism was revived were under socialism, the state controlled commodity prices, coordinated enterprises’ production activities and thus constantly improved the people’s lives. However, the bourgeois restorationists raved about the superiority of price liberalization, saying that only when prices were liberalized could enterprises make production “effective” and “vitalize” the economy. The document “Basic Direction for Stabilizing the People’s Economy and Converting to the Market Economy”, which the Supreme Soviet of the former Soviet Union adopted in October 1990, legally introduced price liberalization, conversion to private ownership and the tax system.

To bring in a capitalist market economy, the bourgeois restorationists espoused private ownership of means of production, privatized plants and enterprises and sold land to individuals.

Conversion to a capitalist market economy gave rise to unemployment, social disparity, low standards of living, increases in taxes, the destruction of social security systems, and other problems unthinkable in the socialist era. Therefore, people of countries where socialism collapsed say that the capitalist market economy is an antipopular economy and is only for a small number of privileged people. They yearn for the days when they enjoyed equal, stable and harmonious lives under unified state guidance, and are standing up in the Struggle to revive socialism.

Choe Hak Chol

― Rodong Sinmun, no. 164 (17637), 13 June 1995, p. 6.

The socialist government is the representative of the independent rights and interests of the popular masses and a political body that organizes and mobilizes the popular masses for the task of carrying out the socialist and communist cause.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il pointed out as follows:

The people’s government is a sturdy political weapon in revolution and construction for consolidating and developing the socialist system, and winning the final victory of the socialist cause.1

To successfully advance the socialist and communist cause, all members of society must be firmly united into a single political force, the main body of the revolution must be strengthened and its role enhanced, and the dictatorship over the class enemies must be thoroughly implemented.

The work of organizing and mobilizing the popular masses for the revolutionary struggle and construction projects to realize their independence can only be realized by the socialist government under the leadership of the party of the working class. The function and role of the socialist government must be continuously strengthened throughout the entire historical period of socialist construction, and this becomes an even more important demand as the revolution and construction deepen.

Nevertheless, the modern revisionists have viciously schemed to weaken the socialist government and paralyze its functions and roles.

During the period when Khrushchev and Brezhnev were in power in the Soviet Union, they clamoured about the “state of the entire people”, emasculating the dictatorship functions of the socialist government against hostile and impure elements and greatly weakening the centralized leadership of the state. Particularly in the Gorbachev era, under the pretext of opposing the “administrative command system”, the spearhead was turned against the principle of democratic centralism, a major principle of socialist state activity. Consequently, in many countries, the unified leadership of the state over society was completely paralyzed and an anarchic state was created, leading to the overt activities of class enemies and reactionaries and, ultimately, resulting in the collapse of the socialist government.

Our Party has resolutely opposed and rejected the attempts of the modern revisionists and modern social democrats to undermine the socialist government and has strengthened the people’s government and continuously enhanced its functions and roles in accordance with the demands of developing reality.

Our Party first ideologically and theoretically opposed and rejected the assertion that there is no class struggle in socialist society, which the modern revisionists put forward as the theoretical premise of their “state of the entire people” thesis.

To justify their “state of the entire people” theory, modern revisionists argued: “In socialist society, there are no antagonistic classes or class struggle and, consequently, the conditions which necessitated the dictatorship of the proletariat disappeared.”2 They further claimed that the issue of eliminating class distinctions, which is crucial in the construction of socialism and communism, should not be viewed as class struggle. Instead, they asserted that as productive forces develop through technological progress, class distinctions would naturally disappear. This was a counterrevolutionary maneuver aimed at preaching class collaboration under the premise that class struggle does not exist under socialism, thereby paralyzing the class consciousness of the masses and ultimately rejecting the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The claims of the modern social democrats who reject class struggle were concentratedly expressed in the “centrism” put forward by Gorbachev.

“Centrism” originally arose from religious doctrine. In one of the Buddhist scriptures, the First Sermon, “the Middle Way” is defined as not leaning towards either of the two established extremes, namely, suffering and pleasure. Also, the Confucian classic Analects states that “the Middle Way” is the “mean” that embraces the two extremes, the middle between mutually opposing extremes, and that this “mean” is “the fundamental principle of the world” and “the way of the world”. “Centrism” was used as an ideological tool to paralyze the class consciousness of the popular masses and preach class collaboration in feudal and capitalist societies.

“Centrism” began to be used by opportunists long ago as a means to deny class struggle. The opportunists of the Second International parties, including Kautsky, advocated “centrism”, claiming to take an intermediate position between open right opportunism and the left. Lenin defined Kautsky’s “centre” as “a realm of honeyed petty-bourgeois phrases”3.

However, Gorbachev revived this “centrism”, which had been discarded into the dustbin of history along with Kautsky. While putting forward his “perestroika” policy, he called himself a “centrist”. He said that people should not be divided into “Reds” and “Whites”, and argued that struggles against reactionary forces and struggles against old ideas should not be conducted at all. In practice, he “rehabilitated” those who had been executed in the past for hostile actions and even allowed “freedom” for anti-socialist activities.

Gorbachev’s “centrism” was a variety of opportunistic “pluralism”, a compromise that rejected the dictatorship of the proletariat and advocated harmony and cooperation with hostile elements.

Our Party regarded the claims of the modern revisionists who deny class struggle as counter-revolutionary claims that completely ignore and distort the reality of socialist society, and scientifically clarified the inevitability of class struggle under socialism.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il pointed out as follows:

…the establishment of the socialist system does not mean that the contradiction between socialism and capitalism has completely disappeared or that the class struggle has ended. Even after the victory of the socialist revolution and the establishment of the socialist system, the struggle between socialism and capitalism will continue for a long time.

The establishment of the socialist system does not mean the end of class struggle.

Of course, with the establishment of the socialist system, the exploiting classes cease to exist as classes. However, in socialist society, remnants of the overthrown exploiting classes still remain. They do not abandon their longing for the old system and their illusions of restoring their old status and engage in covert and overt schemes. Socialist society also still contains capitalist remnants and vestiges of the old society. In particular, the corrosive effect of the remnants of old ideas lingering in people’s minds continues. Moreover, even after the establishment of the socialist system, the aggression, interference and subversive attempts of the imperialists and reactionaries who oppose socialism from outside continue. That is, even after the establishment of the socialist system, the class struggle between socialism and capitalism continues.

The class struggle under socialism is a struggle against the hostile forces inside and outside, a struggle to uproot the old ideas lingering in people’s minds and a struggle against the bourgeois ideological poison infiltrating from outside. The struggle against the remnants of old ideas left by the exploitative society and the bourgeois ideological poison infiltrating from outside is also, in the sense that it is a struggle between the ideology of the working class and bourgeois ideology, an expression of class struggle and a serious revolution to liquidate capitalism even in the ideological sphere.

During the socialist revolution, class struggle was conducted mainly as a struggle to liquidate the exploiting classes as classes but, after the establishment of the socialist system, class struggle transforms into a struggle of ideas aimed at remoulding people’s thinking. Under socialism, only by strengthening class struggle, thoroughly suppressing the maneuvers of hostile elements on the one hand, and educating and remoulding the masses to enhance their class consciousness and ideological level on the other, can the socialist system be consolidated and developed and firmly defended from the moves of internal and external enemies. The idea of building socialism and communism without waging class struggle is nothing but a foolish fantasy.

Our Party’s ideas on the inevitability of class struggle in socialist society scientifically exposed the impropriety of the theory of class collaboration, became a powerful ideological and theoretical weapon that enabled us to consistently grasp class struggle and vigorously propel socialist construction.

Our Party shattered the schemes of the modern revisionists who rejected the dictatorship of the proletariat and further enhanced the function and role of the people’s democratic dictatorship of the people’s government over class enemies.

Exercising dictatorship over class enemies is a vital function of the socialist regime. The construction of socialism and communism entails a struggle to crush the aggressive maneuvers of imperialists and the subversive activities of internal hostile elements aligned with them. The maneuvers of hostile elements opposing socialism become more vicious and cunning as the internal and external situations grow more complex and the revolution develops more deeply.

The counterrevolutionary armed rebellion in Hungary in October 1956 and the Poznań incident in Poland that same year are clear examples of this.

However, from the 1960s onward, modern revisionists began to argue that, since class struggle had disappeared under socialism, the dictatorial functions of the socialist state were no longer necessary. They even inserted into the Party program the statement: “The state, which arose as a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, has, in the new, contemporary stage, become a state of the entire people, an organ expressing the interests and will of the people as a whole.”4 They claimed that, after the establishment of the socialist system, the transformation of the socialist state into a “state of the whole people” is a general law of socialist state development. They even went so far as to boast that “communist construction no longer requires the dictatorship of the proletariat”5 and “it is clear that such an approach would do serious damage to the further development of socialism and hamper communist construction”6. In practice, modern revisionists drastically reduced judicial, security and prosecutorial institutions, replacing their functions with social non-professional organizations, thereby blatantly paralyzing the dictatorial functions of the socialist state.

Khrushchev preached that all crimes occurring in Soviet society were committed not out of hostile sentiments toward the socialist system but due to “youthful recklessness” and, therefore, the use of “deprivation of liberty” should be minimized and “suspended sentences” should be widely applied. He did not even recognize the conspiratorial maneuvers of class enemies to undermine the socialist state as crimes. On the contrary, under the guise of “legality”, “humanitarianism” and “democracy”, he “rehabilitated” counterrevolutionaries previously executed by the socialist regime and released imprisoned individuals. In just two years, from 1954 to 1956, immediately after Khrushchev came to power, nearly 8,000 individuals were “rehabilitated”. Khrushchev even “rehabilitated” those who had been members of the Kerensky government and fled abroad. Having completely abandoned the class stance of the proletariat, Khrushchev released anyone imprisoned by the socialist regime, regardless of whether they were Bukharinists, Trotskyists, fascist war criminals or American spies.

Khrushchev did not stop at “rehabilitating” and releasing class enemies but even provided them with high positions, effectively inciting them to take revenge against the dictatorship of the socialist power. The fact that Trotskyists released thanks to him infiltrated state security and prosecutorial bodies and oppressed many innocent people serves as proof of this.

The Khrushchev revisionists openly boasted that eliminating the dictatorship of the proletariat was a good thing, as it was a way to escape the attacks of imperialists and right-wing social democrats. In reality, this demonstrated that they were traitors to the revolution, who would not hesitate to discard class principles to curry favour with class enemies.

Our Party ideologically and theoretically crushed the schemes of the modern revisionists who rejected the dictatorship of the proletariat, while implementing the people’s democratic dictatorship over hostile elements.

The socialist government’s implementation of class dictatorship against hostile forces and elements that infringe upon the interests of the popular masses is not a violation of human rights but a thorough defense of human rights. Human rights are the legitimate rights of social beings to live and develop independently and creatively, and the true embodiment of human rights is the popular masses. The dictatorship function of the socialist government is to guarantee the democratic rights and freedoms of the popular masses as masters of the state and society.

It is not the socialist government that violates human rights; rather, it is the imperialists and reactionaries who brutally suppress and inhumanely persecute the people and figures demanding freedom and democracy, and even trample upon their basic right to survival. The imperialists and reactionaries, under the signboard of “defending human rights”, foolishly stir up trouble by condemning the exercise of power by the socialist government against hostile elements as if it was a violation of human rights. When the modern revisionists “rehabilitated” class enemies and released them from legal organs, the imperialists and reactionaries, with even more arrogant attitudes, suppressed with guns and swords the struggles of revolutionaries and people fighting for freedom and democracy.

Our Party defined the dictatorial character of the Republic’s government as people’s democracy and ensured that it became a people’s dictatorship that implements true democracy for the popular masses, a revolutionary dictatorship based on the monolithic unity of the leader, the party and the masses, and continuously strengthened. Thus, our socialist government, as a dictatorship for the popular masses who have become the masters of sovereignty, strengthened the people’s democratic dictatorship, defended the interests of the popular masses from the moves of all hostile elements and fully guaranteed the genuine political freedoms and rights of the popular masses.

The fact that our style of socialism advances unwaveringly, even amidst the frustration of socialism in many countries due to the anti-socialist schemes of modern revisionists and the peak of the anti-socialist offensive by imperialists and reactionaries, is linked to our people’s government continuously enhancing the role of the dictatorship organs to promptly crush the machinations of hostile elements.

Our Party always pays deep attention to further strengthening the people’s democratic dictatorship so that it may better serve the popular masses.

Our Party opposed and rejected the schemes of modern revisionists and modern social democrats who refused the unified leadership of the socialist government over socialism, and ensured that the people’s government strengthened its unified leadership over society.

Unified leadership over society is an essential requirement of socialist society and a basic function of the socialist government. Socialist society is a collectivist society where all members of society are united into a single socio-political organism, helping and leading each other to live harmoniously; it is a highly organized society that purposefully transforms all areas of social life and all regions of the country.

It is not the case that in socialist society, where the popular masses have become the masters of state sovereignty and the means of production, unity and cooperative relations among members of society are automatically achieved, and all areas of social life and all regions of the country develop harmoniously. The historical experience of socialist construction shows that without the correct leadership of the government, the unity of social members and the harmonious development of society cannot be achieved, the independent and creative activities of the popular masses cannot be organized and conducted in a purposive manner and, eventually, the socialist system itself cannot be maintained.

However, the modern revisionists, especially the modern social democrats, maliciously slandered the unified leadership of the socialist government over society and sought to reject it.

While the revisionists of the late 1950s and early 1960s rejected the unified leadership of the socialist government over relatively limited areas of social life, including the economy, the modern social democrats completely rejected the principle of democratic centralism itself, which is a major principle of unified leadership, using the pretext of opposing the “administrative command system”.

The modern social democrats, parroting the claims of imperialists and reactionaries and condemning the unified leadership of the socialist government as administrative-bureaucratic, are engaging in sophistry to tarnish the image of the socialist system and to obliterate socialism and restore capitalism. Denying the unified leadership function of the socialist government is virtually tantamount to opposing socialism itself.

The emergence of deviations toward the “administrative command system” in some socialist countries in the past was due to the failure to overcome the old society’s ruling system and methods in the field of social management and the remnants of old ideas in the minds of state personnel, preventing the correct exercise of unified leadership over society. The function of unified leadership over society is a permanent function that must be maintained as long as the socialist government exists, and it is an essential function that must be further strengthened as socialist and communist construction advances and is realized.

Our Party, seeing through the sinister design of the modern revisionists to obliterate socialism by rejecting the unified leadership function of the socialist government, ensured that the people’s government further strengthened its work of responsibly leading and managing all areas of social life, including politics, economy and culture, and all regions of the country.

Our people’s government paid primary attention to ensuring that the popular masses cherish their precious socio-political life and enjoy valuable political lives, promptly accepted and implemented the will and demands of the popular masses and actively involved the broad masses in state management and social life. Alongside this, the people’s government vigorously propelled overall economic construction of the country while uniformly raising the people’s standard of living in accordance with the nature of socialism. Furthermore, the people’s government actively accelerated the ideological and cultural revolutions, vigorously pushing forward the work of nurturing all members of society into developed and powerful beings with independent ideological consciousness and high levels of cultural knowledge. In particular, it thoroughly blocked the ideological and cultural infiltration of imperialists and reactionaries and firmly armed the popular masses with socialist ideology.

Under the wise leadership of the Party, the function and role of the people’s government were continuously enhanced by ensuring unified leadership over society, leading to the comprehensive strengthening and development of our style of socialism in all areas of politics, economy and culture.

Today, our Party is actively struggling to ensure that our socialist government, the people’s government, more splendidly fulfills its mission as a powerful political weapon for the revolution and construction to consolidate and develop the socialist system and achieve the final victory of the socialist cause.

Our people’s government, led by the Juche idea as its guiding ideology, thoroughly maintains its working-class and people’s character and realizes politics that meet the essential demands of socialist society. By conducting state building and activities with the Juche idea as the guiding ideology, it guarantees the popular masses genuine rights and freedoms, a healthy and civilized life in all areas of national social life, and firmly defends the independence of the country and the nation.

Our people’s government is being further strengthened as a solid socialist government based on a socio-political foundation comprising the broad popular masses, including workers, peasants and intellectuals.

The socio-political foundation of our people’s government, which developed based on the worker-peasant alliance led by the working class and relying on the broad united front of the popular masses, has been further strengthened today into a force of the monolithic unity of the entire people, and the solidity of the people’s government is firmly guaranteed.

The decisive factor guaranteeing the solidity and vitality of the socialist government is the guidance of the outstanding leader of the working class.

Our socialist government embodies the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung’s Juche-based political philosophy, which is consistently characterized by love and trust in the people, and, through this, the people’s government becomes a solid and vital government endowed with invincible strength.

Because it possesses the scientific guiding ideology, the solid socio-political foundation and the guidance of the great leader—the fundamental factors characterizing the solidity and vitality of the socialist government—our people’s government was able to firmly defend and victoriously advance the socialist cause even amidst exceptionally unfavourable revolutionary circumstances and arduous trials.

In this way, while opposing and rejecting the attempts of the modern revisionists to emasculate the function and role of the socialist government, our Party continuously strengthened our people’s government, thereby theoretically and practically exposing and condemning the reactionary nature and absurdity of modern revisionist theory, and clearly confirming the significance and importance of the socialist government in carrying out the socialist cause.

― Ko Jong Ung & Ri Jun Ham, Experiences of the Workers’ Party of Korea in the Anti-Revisionist Struggle, Social Science Publishing House, Pyongyang 1995, pp. 154-164.