WORKING PEOPLE OF THE WHOLE WORLD, UNITE! 

KIM IL SUNG

THE WORKERS’ PARTY OF

KOREA IS THE\orGANIZER OF

VICTORY IN THE FATHERLAND

LIBERATION WAR

Speech to the Teaching Staff\and Students

of the Central Party School under

the Workers’ Party of Korea

June 18, 1952

  Now, I pass on to the question as to\where to place the main emphasis on information work\and education for the people at the present moment.

  The most important aspect of information work\and education for the people is to instill them with national pride\and confidence in victory. By boosting their national pride, they should be made to have confidence that Koreans are strong\and perfectly capable of defeating any enemy.

  The Korean people are strong enough to beat off any foreign invaders. Somebody said that the Koreans are good at fighting because they are ignorant. We refuted him by saying that the Koreans are good at fighting not because they are ignorant but because they are scholarly. Because they tasted the bitterness of life as a ruined people in the past, the Korean people are firmly determined not to fall into slavery to imperialism again. Thanks to the democratic reforms after liberation our people became the masters of the factories\and land\and found themselves in a position to send their sons\and daughters to middle school\and university. They experienced a free\and happy life under the people’s government. They know full well that they must not be robbed of such precious revolutionary gains\and that they could not become colonial slaves again. That is why the Koreans are brave in battle; this is not merely blind courage by any means.

  The People’s Army is made up of youths who received democratic education for five years after liberation. They are all sons\and daughters of workers\and peasants who before liberation were humiliated\and oppressedrom both the class\and national points of view. That is why our People’s Army fights consciously\and stubbornly for their country\and their people.

  It is also important to educate the people in the spirit of internationalism. Ours is a time when the imperialists cannot freely invade any country that belongs to the democratic camp. The Korean people’s struggle is a graphic illustration of this. We are in the powerful democratic camp\and have active support\and aidrom the fraternal countries,\and so can wage a prolonged struggle against the armed invasion of the US imperialists\and their satellite states\and win final victory in the war.

  We must understand clearly that the international aid we are receiving today is aid of a new type.

  While educating the people to have a spirit of self-reliance, national self-respect\and faith in their strength, we should equip them with internationalist ideas so that they become keenly conscious of the need for forging an enduring unity with the peoples of the Soviet\union, China\and other countries of the democratic camp.

  Further, it is of great importance in the education of the people to induce them to foster a more intensive hatred for the enemy.

  The US imperialist aggressors are the sworn enemies of our people. The US imperialists have played havoc with all our factories\and mercilessly slaughtered our parents, wives\and children,\and our fellow countrymen. No enemy could be more vicious.

  The US imperialists have perpetrated all sorts of brutalities in Korea. It is not because they have a spark of humanity in them that so far they have not used the atom bomb in Korea. They cannot use the atom bomb  in Korea because it will no longer produce any  effective result\and also for fear that should it be used  it would bring a still greater international calamity on  their heads.

  As a matter of fact, the US imperialists have tried out every foul weapon in their possession in Korea.  They are testing all the newly invented weapons in the Korean war\and have not hesitated to use poison gas\and germ bombs.

  By exposing each\and every crime committed by the US imperialists, we should infuse our people with an even fiercer hatred for them.

  Last, I would like to touch on the question of the armistice.

  At present the US imperialists are dragging out the armistice talks. The main reason for this is that they are in an awkward dilemma. They have now three alternatives open before them. They have to decide whether to have a ceasefire,\or maintain the present state of confrontation for long,\or to spread the war into a big one similar to a third world war. They will have to make a choice out of these three alternatives.

  Now let us first examine the question of their starting a big war. It can hardly be said that the US imperialists are fully prepared at the moment for a big war. Of course, the history of wars shows that even such aggressors as Hitler\and Napoleon did not start wars fully prepared in every respect. They launched aggression while proceeding with their preparations for war. So there is no saying definitely that the US imperialists will not ignite a big war. But judgingrom the situation at present, they will not yet be able to start a third world war.

  The next question is whether the US imperialists will be able to maintain the state of confrontation as it is now\and continue the war. They are in a very difficult position to maintain the present state of confrontation. The situation today is a far cryrom that in October 1950. It is now utterly impossible for them to roll back the People’s Army\and the Chinese People’s Volunteers\and make inroads as far as the Chongchon River\or the Amnok River again. It is also impossible for them to hold out as at present.

  Since they cannot unleash a big war\or drag out the present situation for long, the only alternative open to them now is truce. Why, then, do they put off the armistice?

  First, they want a so-called “honourable truce,”\and are really desperate in their attempt to become victors when they are not.

  But we demand a reasonable armistice. The US imperialists have failed ignominiously in their attempts to subjugate others,\and yet they are trying to assume the role of victor. Why, then, should we be the losers when we have won? We can never back down.

  The negotiations make little progress, because the US imperialists, in disregard of our reasonable proposal, are trying to have the people of the United States\and the world believe that they have achieved an “honorable truce.”

  Second, the US monopoly capitalists are very much afraid that if an armistice is reached, they might run up against great difficulties in selling their weapons. At the ceasefire negotiations the US side is acting entirely upon the instructions of the US monopoly capitalists. They have manufactured vast quantities of weapons. Should the war come to an end, they will not be able to dispose of all these weapons.  Therefore, although they have come to the truce talks, they are none too pleased with the idea of an armistice. The US warmongers are interested in the presence of tensions\and are frantically trying to aggravate them by all means.

  On the one hand, the US warmongers are dragging out the truce talks, talking nonsense that “we want a truce, but can’t reach it because the Communist side demands too much,”\or “the Communist army doesn’t want a truce,” while on the other hand they are putting pressure on Japan, West Germany, France\and other satellite countries to purchase more US weapons. In so doing they are seeking to break the deadlock they are facing. This is another reason why they are delaying the ceasefire negotiations.

  Third, the US imperialists fear that we might grow stronger rapidly than the enemy after the armistice. The enemy has examined\and compared the forces of our Republic\and the puppet Syngman Rhee government before the war. Syngman Rhee had blustered all the time that should a war break out he would push as far as Mt Paektu within a few days. But when war did break out, the puppet Syngman Rhee army proved to be quite impotent\and was crushed by a single blowrom the People’s Army. The US imperialists, too, have realized that we would grow more powerful with time.

  So, they are weighing the advisability of allowing time to us\and to the puppet Syngman Rhee clique alike by bringing about a ceasefire. It is obvious that with equal time on hand, our Republic, which has the support of the people will develop\and grow strong at a faster rate than the enemy.

  The US imperialists’ plan to rearm\and use Japanese imperialism to invade Korea\and China is also coming to naught. Today’s China is People’s China. Even when the Japanese imperialists fought against Nationalist China in the past, they failed to win eventually after eight years of exhausting struggle. So how can Japan, a subject state of the United States, win a battle with People’s China? There is no doubt that China will develop\and grow incomparably faster\and stronger than Japan.

  On comparing the Syngman Rhee clique with our Republic, Japan with China\and, further, the United States itself with the Soviet\union, the US imperialists find everything is hopeless after all,\and so are hard pressed by the only alternative of an armistice. Yet, they are afraid of armistice.

  The question of a ceasefire in Korea is now aggravating the discord between the State Department\and the Defense Department of the United States,\and also between the United States\and Britain.

  At present the US imperialists are delaying the truce talks on the pretext of exchanging POWs. If they want an armistice, it cannot make any difference to them whether they get a few more POWs back\or not.

  The trouble is that they want both to have an “honorable truce” in their favor\and to continue to deal in arms. If such an ambition is not realized, they may possibly go on with the war.

  What, then, should we be prepared for? We do not care if it is an armistice\or a prolonged war. We do not fear a prolonged war. With us everything that could be destroyed has been destroyed. There is nothing more to be destroyed. Our people have all been toughened in the war,\and know quite well how to fight against aircraft, too. There is no fear of our retreating as in 1950. Rather, our people want to drive the enemy out of our territory\and reunify the country even if it means waging a prolonged war. Even if an armistice is achieved, we must continue to fight for national reunification as long as the Yanks do not leave.

 rom the very outset of hostilities with the US imperialists, we were prepared for a long-drawn-out war.

  Although we have equipped ourselves for a prolonged war, we need to make more thorough preparations to take better care of the people, to build munitions factories underground,\and the like. Even in the present conditions of a grim war, we are training Party cadres\and are sending students abroad for study, too. What can be there that is beyond our power?

  Needless to say, we are not against an armistice.  An armistice will be all the more welcome\and favorable to us. During the armistice we will be able to prepare\and supplement faster what we failed to prepare in the five years following liberation. So, we want an armistice. However, we do not fear a prolonged war\or a big war either.

  We must not relapse into a pacifist mood, merely pinning hopes on the truce talks, but push ahead energetically with preparations for the final victory in a prolonged war. We should make efforts to get an armistice. But if an armistice is not concluded we must win victory in a prolonged war. Such is our political conclusion on the question of an armistice.

  Even if an armistice is concluded we cannot regard it as a complete cessation of hostilities\and take off our shoes\and go to bed believing that peace has come.  Because the thief will be staying in the next room as before. As I told the teaching staff of Kim Chaek Polytechnical Institute yesterday, an armistice is not a peace but literally a suspension of hostilities. Who can vouch that just because the hostilities have been suspended, the enemy will not pounce on us again?

  Even when an armistice is achieved, we will be faced as ever with the national task of driving out the US imperialists\and reunifying the country so long as they remain in occupation of the southern half of our  country.

  Therefore, even if an armistice is concluded, we should not relax in the least, but should find more efficient methods\and shorter ways to do ten hours’ work in one hour\and ten days’ task in one day, thereby quickly eliminating our shortcomings manifested in the war\and making full preparations for beating off the enemy in the event of another big war. By making more effective use of the ceasefire, we will have to build up our forces in every way.

  Even though the country is not reunified, if a reasonable armistice is concluded as we insist, it will be a great victory for us.

  First, the fact that the US imperialists have failed in their attempts to seize the whole of the northern half of Korea is in itself a victory for us. We have defended our revolutionary democratic base. As we have continually stated ever since liberation, the reunification\and independence of the country requires a powerful revolutionary base. We have firmly defended such a base for national reunification.

  Second, in the course of the war the strength of our People’s Army has increased further, our cadres have grown up\and our revolutionary forces have been augmented. During the war our cadres learned to\organize\and guide the people.

  Third, the fact that the US imperialists have been unable to win the war with a small country like Korea, has clearly shown to the whole world that there is no need to be afraid of them. In the Korean war the United States has lost its prestige completely. The fact that the Korean people heroically defended their country in the struggle against the US imperialists has firmly persuaded the oppressed peoples throughout the world that if a people rise\and fight in nationwide unity for the liberation of their country with the active support of the democratic camp, they can repulse any imperialism. Inspired by the struggle of the Korean people, the peoples of Iran, Egypt, Viet Nam, Malaya \and many other countries, for instance, are now  raising the flames of the national-liberation struggle still higher.

  We demand an armistice\and are striving for it. But it will not do to neglect preparations to cope with a prolonged war simply in the belief that an armistice will most certainly be reached.

  We have not fulfilled the task of national reunification\and have not routed\and driven off the enemy completely. The task of reunifying the country\and crushing the US imperialists\and traitorous Syngman Rhee clique still remains. Therefore, if an armistice is concluded, we will have to work vigorously to utilize it to build up our revolutionary forces more rapidly.