Essence of Songun politics

Leader Kim Jong Il said that the Songun politics of WPK is a powerful political mode which defends the fatherland, revolution and socialism and powerfully promotes the overall socialist construction by giving priority to the military affairs as the first and foremost affairs of state and the army as the core, major force.

The Songun politics is a mode of politics regarding the military affairs as the first and foremost affairs of state.

It is imperative to attach the prior consideration to the military affairs for safeguarding oneself and developing his economy, culture and all other domains under the current condition that confrontation between socialism and imperialism is acute and US-led imperialists threaten the existence of other nations and hamper their development.

Attaching the priority to the military affairs means regarding the military affairs as the most important issue over other fields and paying the foremost efforts to increase of the military strength.

What is most important in the military affairs is the army. The revolutionary army performs the decisive role in the military affairs of the socialist state. Therefore, it poses as the first task to strengthen the revolutionary army.

That the army is the essential factor in the military affairs means regarding the revolutionary army as the main force in accomplishing the socialist cause and paying the main stress to the strengthening of the army.

In other words, the Songun politics is a political mode regarding the army as the core, main force vital to the fate of revolution over all other forces and other domains in carrying out the revolutionary cause and performing the revolution and construction by enhancing the role of the army and by promoting the military buildup before any other things else.

Another content of the Songun political mode of regarding the military affairs as the first and foremost affairs of state is to pay priority to the national defense industry.

To give priority to national defense industry means to put the national defense industry over all other domains of the economy and pay prior attention to the development of the defense industry. It is because, first of all, the defense industry is not only the material basis for increase of the military strength but also the substantial power. And, the defense industry is reliable guarantee of the national economic power for building a prosperous powerful nation.

The essential meaning of the Songun politics lies in the fact that it is a political mode paying the prior emphasis to the strengthening of the revolutionary army and development of the national defense industry on the priority-to-the military affairs principle, the principle of regarding the military affairs as the first and foremost affairs of state.

Next, the Songun politics of Workers' Party of Korea is a powerful political mode of the contemporary age which defends the fatherland, revolution and socialism and dynamically facilitates the overall socialist construction with the people’s army as the kernel and main force.

This political mode defends the country, revolution and socialism with the army as the core, main force.

In this era, the confrontation between the anti-imperialist independent forces and the imperialist forces is fierce. In order to protect the country, revolution and socialism in the rifle-to-rifle confrontation, it is imperative to have the revolutionary army as the main force.

The situation of the 90s of the 20th century illustrated it.

In this 21st century, too, the US imperialists worked out different war scenarios against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, advocating “preemptive nuclear attack” in an attempt to invade it. The danger of nuclear war increases day by day on the Korean Peninsula.

But Korean-style socialism is unshakable. The Korean People’s Army armed with the spirit of devoted defense of the leader, the human-bomb spirit and the self-demolition spirit along with the offensive and defensive means are reliably defending the Juche-oriented revolution and socialism.

The Songun politics is also a political mode promoting the overall socialist construction by dint of the people’s army as the kernel and main force. It means carrying on the socialist cause to completion without interruption by successfully solving the important yet difficult and complicated problems in accomplishing the socialist cause by enhancing the leading role of the army.

It is a mode of politics that solves the important yet difficult problems arising in accomplishing the socialist cause by relying on the servicepersons who are superior ideologically, mentally, physically, techno-militarily than other social strata of the people.

When the economy of north Korea suffered loss because of the unprecedented short supply of food and energy due to the economic blockade and military maneuvers of the United States, the army took charge of the sections to solve the matters, thus activating the whole of the economy. It was a good result of the Songun politics.

Leader Kim Jong Il created for the first time in the history the socialist movement the political mode of Songun which regards the revolutionary army as the most important political force and relies on the revolutionary mettle of the army to powerfully promote the overall socialist construction. Thus, he has made the sure guarantee for victory of the June-based revolution and anti-imperialist independent forces.

Anti-US-public sentiment of south Korea

Entering the new century, anti-US is an irrepressible trend. Anti-US sentiment is spreading all over the world including South America, which was called the “quite backyard” of the US, Middle East and Europe.

The same is the case with south Korea in the Far East which was recognized as thoroughly pro-American.

The US army in south Korea which was misunderstood as its “liberator” and “supporter” for decades is now labeled as the “anti-reunification force” and “a shock force for implementation of colonial policy” and the United States is denounced as the greatest threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Fast growing anti-US tendency among the new generation

Recent polls show daily growing anti-US tendency in south Korea.

Soon after the US President Bush’s utterance of the “axis of evil” in 2002, the CNN raised the question “Will Bush’s tough statement against north Korea benefit or harm south Korea?” and conducted a poll in south Korea. Exactly 55.4% of the poll said Bush’s slander would do great harm.

The survey of Joongang-Ilbo, a south Korean newspaper, showed that the proportion of the population demanding the withdrawal of the US forces from south Korea was 39% in 2003 and 54% in 2005.

It is noteworthy that anti-US sentiment is stronger among the young generation, the masters of the future society.

In an opinion poll taken by the south Korean magazine Wolganjungang, in April 2005, 45.2% of the poll was in favor of national cooperation which meant cooperation with north Korea rather than the US, and the rate amounted to 61.1 % in case the young people in their 20s.

At a youth reunification cartoon prize contest sponsored recently by the “Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification,” a picture on the subject of anti-US drawn by a middle-school girl took the first place among 9,000 pictures. Even the innocent children say that the US army is bad. They play a game in which one side says, “The US Army” and the other side replies “go out!” it is a common thing that can be seen anywhere.

On the growing anti-US feeling of south Koreans, the experts of politics research institutes such as the Heritage Foundation, the Rand Corporation, and the Brookings Institution, and the media including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, said that the south Korean society had completely changed in two and three decades and lamented that the “new generation of south Korea is different from the older generation that regarded the US as their elder brother” and that “anti-US is becoming the symbol of indignation at the US as well as an expression of patriotism.”

“Oh I hate the US…”

Today anti-Americanism finds expression in the daily life of south Korean people.

The Internet coverage of events proves it. A lot of expression such as “When I think of the US insulting and despising the Koreans. I grit my teeth. Let us take revenge upon the arrogant Americans,” “Show the mettle to the US” are published in the Internet, and “One million persons’ on-line signature campaign wishing for defeating the US” is carried on. “Hope,” an Internet-based organization composed of teenagers carried out an anti-US signature campaign. Only in 3days after the setup of its site, the number of signers exceeded 10,000. the anti-US candlelight demonstration which newly emerged at the end of 2002, was the one that was begun by the netizens who heartily responded to a journalist’s proposal of the “Oh My News,” an Internet-based newspaper. Writers and artistes, too, are creating and spreading works for enhancing anti-US consciousness on a large-scale.

As soon as the anti-US songs including the “Fucking US” and “Laudable Biscuit” (an ironic song on Bush who was choked by a biscuit to faint away) were made public, they attracted an explosive popularity to be spread in the Internet, and the number of entries surpassed 47, 000 in a moment so that the service in the Internet was almost paralyzed. Poets are continuously writing poems that criticize the US as a warmonger, and the members of the “National Current Cartoon Council” are holding cartoon exhibitions on the street, while publishing various kinds of criticism and cartoons on the newspaper which expose the aggressive nature of the US. Novels and books on the subject of anti-US are widely spreading with the great concern of all strata of society.

At a cultural festival titled “Oh I hate the US” which was held in Kyunghee University in Seoul in 2002, a concert and photo exhibition took place with the number of the audience amounting to 90,000.

Voice of anti-US can be heard everywhere in south Korea, in the streets, working places, on the art performance stage and in the stadium, on the radio and TV and in the restaurants and families. On this fact, the south Korean media commented that “anti-US has been firmly established in life and has become the slogan shouted at any place at any time.”

An expert in charge of East Asian Affairs in the investigation bureau of the US Congress stated that “if the present situation continues, the anti-US sentiment will flare up as it did when the US army had to withdraw from the Philippines.” The fierce movement in south Korea in recent years against the US army bases and for the withdrawal of the US forces show that his statement is becoming reality.

National independence and reunification of Korea

The Koreans are a homogeneous nation. They lived in the same territory, speaking the same language for thousands of years. However, they have been divided into the south and the north for over 60 years.

Now at the beginning of the new century when there is no more cold war the international attention is concentrated on the question of reunification of the Korean nation, the only divided nation in this planet.

Not two different nations are confronted with each other on the Korean Peninsula. One nation is divided into the south and the north by foreign forces.

Korea which was militarily occupied by the Japanese imperialists in the first half of last century (1905~1945) should have become a sovereign and independent state at the end world War Ⅱ (with the defeat of the Japanese imperialists). But the United States which fixed its eyes on Korea as a place of strategic importance for domination of Asia and the world declared unilaterally that it would occupy Korea south of 38°North Latitude. On September 8 nearly a month after the declaration of Japan’s unconditional surrender (August 15, 1945), the US army entered south Korea. As a result, Korea which was neither a war criminal nor a defeated nation was divided into the south and the north, and the history of national division started.

Ever since its occupation of south Korea, the US incited south Koreans to the confrontation with their fellow countrymen in the north, and persistently obstructed the reunification of the Korean nation.

The fact clearly shows that the United States is the author of national division of Korea as well as the main obstacle to reunification and that national reunification means driving out the foreign forces, US forces, from the Korean Peninsula and establishing Korea’s sovereignty on a national scale.

The struggle of the Korean nation for reunification that has lasted for over 60 years since the division is the struggle for national independence.

Ever since the national division, the Korean people have waged the nationwide struggle against the interference of foreign forces to achieve national impendence by their own efforts. The Joint Conference of the Representatives of Political Parties and Public Organizations in South and North Korea was held in Pyongyang in April 1948.

The conference denounced the attempt of the US and the anti-reunification forces to set up a separate “government” in south Korea to perpetuate the division of Korea and solemnly declared that Korean people would establish an all-Korean reunified government by their own efforts on the democratic principle. On this basis, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was founded on September 9, 1948, in conformity with the unanimous will of the entire Korean people in the south and the north.

North Korea adopted the important goal of defending the national sovereignty and achieving national reunification and independence, and has vigorously struggled to achieve the goal. The declaration of July 4 South-North Joint Statement in 1972 was the fruition of the strenuous effort of north Korea. The main content of the joint statement was the three principles for national reunification-independence, peaceful reunification and grand national unity. Especially, the first summit meeting in Pyongyang in the first year of the new millennium after 55years of division, and the adoption the historic June 15 South-North Joint Declaration were a momentous step to improve the south-north relationship and accelerate reunification. The main spirit of the joint declaration is “by our nation itself,” that is, the south and the north should pool their efforts to solve the reunification problem “by our nation itself” free from the interference of foreign forces. The solemn declaration that the Korean nation is the motive force of national reunification denies any reason or condition for foreign interference in the reunification of Korea.

Since the June 15 Joint Declaration a dramatic change has taken place in the implementation of the reunification cause of the Korean nation. With the ideal of “by our nation itself,” the south-north relations is rapidly changing form relationship of mistrust and confrontation to the that of reconciliation and cooperation. The reunification events which had been separately held in the south and the north in the past are carried on in a grand manner as the pan-national events in which authorities of the south and the north as well as civilian participated. Many reunification movement organizations with different ideas united in the nationwide reunification movement, and in this process, the motive force of reunification has strengthened.

What is noteworthy is that the feeling of refusal to the US is becoming stronger and an anti-US tendency is rapidly intensified in south Korea where US worship and US-phobia prevailed for decades. In the last six years since the publication of the joint declaration till June 15 this year, various kinds of anti-US struggle with the participants of nearly 23 million people including 81 anti-US solidarity meetings, 57 peace and arms reduction meetings and 118 anti-US and anti-war peace defending Friday meetings are unprecedented in previous years in range and depth.

No force can dampen the desire of the Korean nation to drive the US out of south Korea and to build an independent, peaceful and reified state by the concerted efforts of the nation.

The Korean people will achieve national reunification without fail under the banner of national independence.