President KIM IL SUNG and ever-victorious Juche -based socialism -special article by Dr Dermot Hudson on the occasion of the 107th anniversary of the birth of the great leader comrade KIM IL SUNG
Visiting People’s Korea , the land of Juche , many times since 1992 , I witnessed the reality of the country which contrasted greatly with the lies and misinformation of the mass media One thing that struck me deeply was the solidity , strength and durablity of socialism in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea .I had visited other socialist countries in the past and it was not so surprising they collapsed but here was a country that was different . Why ? . Some very ignorant people view the DPRK as the creation of the old Soviet Union or China or both , sadly this view is stil held by some people . Socialism in the DPRK is the socialism of Juche , it a socialism born of the Korean people who fought for independence under the leadership of the great leader President KIM IL SUNG . President KIM IL SUNG was the creator and builder of Juche-based socialism in the DPRK .
President KIM IL SUNG took up the armed struggle against the marauding,cruel and vile Japanese imperialists at an early age , forming revolutionary organisations such as the Down With Imperialism Union and the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerilla Army .He made sure that the struggle for socialism ,for class emancipation was organically fused with the struggle for independence and national liberation saying that “We are Koreans by nationality and Korean young people.We, the Korean youth , cannot merely sit back and remain onlookers while our beautiful land and beloved compatriots , our brothers and sisters , are being trodden underfoot and persecuted by the Japanese imperialists.We must drive them from our soil,liberate Korea and win independence.But , we cannot stop there.We are Communists. Communists cannot leave untouched the evil landlords and capitalists who oppress and exploit the proletarian masses.
We,therefore must overthrow the capitalist system and build a socialist and communist society , the long cherished desire of the proletarian masses.These two revolutionary tasks are not foreign to each other.To carry out the proletarian revolution, it is essential to crush Japanese imperialism and achieve the liberation and independence of Korea , and then build a socialist and communist society in our land and help carry out the world revolution as well ”
After Korea’s liberation in August 1945 President KIM IL SUNG led the DPRK along the road of Juche and self-reliance .The new People’s Korea of Juche was no one’s puppet and not a copy of another country .Some factionalists insisted that a bourgeois republic should be built in the liberated homeland ,at the other extreme others demanded an immediate socialist revolution and instant dictatorship of the proletariat . Comrade KIM IL SUNG refuted these arguments “The Korean revolution at the present stage is an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution. We must follow the road of progressive democracy which suits the Korean situation—neither Soviet
democracy nor American ‘democracy’. The road of progressive democracy, this is the very line, the right road, for the Korean revolution at present”.
Following the line of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution the great leader President KIM IL SUNG founded the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on the 9th of September 1948. Right from the first days of building a new country he stressed the need for an independent national economy .In the late 1950s the big power chauvinists and modern revisionists tried to subordinate the DPRK ‘s economy to their own by forcing the DPRK to join the old COMECON or CMEA . President KIM IL SUNG refused .The revisionists said that the DPRK should not develop heavy industry but instead should just produce minerals and agricultural products and export them . Apparently Khrushcov , the arch revisionist and traitor , once offered to supply electricity to the DPRK but President KIM IL SUNG declined this saying that the revisionists would turn off the electricity if the DPRK expressed disagreement with them .The DPRK built a independent national economy with machine building at its core . It’s growth was phenomenal , hitting 36 per cent per year during the late 1950s. This compelled the British economist Professor Joan Robinson to describe the DPRK as the Korean miracle .
President KIM IL SUNG also put forward original policies on a number of issues such as agricultural co-operatisation . Dogmatists tried to oppose agricultural co-operativisation by insisting on a dogmatic textbook approach saying that co-operativisation could only be carried if mechanisation was completed first . However President KIM IL SUNG said that if was the demand of the people then it should be carried out and he led the movement for co-operativisation. Co-operativisation was completed in the DPRK by 1958. The DPRK had 100 per cent socially owned agriculture whereas some socialist countries either left agriculture mostly in private hands or did not reach 100 per cent social ownership.
President KIM IL SUNG’s put forward correct , Juche -based policies that avoided both Right and left deviations. In the 1960s the international communist movement and socialist camp became badly split due to modern revisionism and the leftist backlash to it .Many socialist countries leaned to the Right and some others to the Left resulting in grave problems arising in socialist construction . Eventually some socialist countries that had followed the revisionist and Right opportunist road collapsed . President KIM IL SUNG said that “Modern revisionism revises Marxism-Leninism and emasculates its revolutionary quintessence under the pretext of a ‘changed situation’ and ‘creative development’. It rejects class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat; it preaches class collaboration and gives up fighting imperialism. Moreover, modern revisionism spread illusions about imperialism and in every way obstructed the revolutionary struggle of the peoples for social and national liberation.
We must fight ‘Left’ opportunism as well as modern revisionism. ‘Left’ opportunists fail to take into account changed realities and dogmatically seek isolated propositions of Marxism-Leninism; they lead people to extremist action under super-revolutionary slogans. They also divorce the Party from the masses”.
Thus President KIM IL SUNG made sure that the DPRK did not fall into the trap of modern revisionism or Left opportunism or ultra leftism . He put forward Juche-based theories on the dictatorship of the proletariat , the economy , the complete victory of socialism .
When some socialist countries went off the rails and went in for reform , opening up and perestroika , President KIM IL SUNG opposed it saying that ““The people’s government must guard against the poisonous ideas of capitalism and revisionism and resolutely fight against all attempts to infringe upon the socialist system“.
He also warned against rashly opening up pointing out that “Careless opening may allow mosquitos and blowflies to fly in and cause damage. We must conduct exchanges and joint ventures with other countries, but we must pitch mosquito nets to prevent those insects from infiltrating“.
When other socialist countries collapsed like a sandcastle , the DPRK stood firm as a rock and did not go down . It maintained socialist principles when others abandoned them. Thanks to the Juche -based , original policies and lines , Korean style socialism in the most durable and is ever victorious !
Glory to the memory of the great leader President KIM IL SUNG
Dr Dermot Hudson
President Association for the Study of Songun Politics
Chairman Juche Idea Study Group of England
Official Delegate and Chairman UK Korean Friendship Association
