INDEPENDENCE SELF RELIANCE AND THE KOREAN REVOLUTION
“Juche and Self reliance -these are the basic guarntees for all our achievements”
KIM IL SUNG
The enemies of Juche and self reliance like to try and portray the DPRK and the Korean revolution as being somehow the product of outside forces and the DPRK as being dependent on others goodwill. Some reactionary historians even falsely portray the DPRK as the creation of certain outside forces.The DPRK,guided by the Juche idea,is the creation of the Korean people themselves under the leadership
of the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung.The socialist system of the DPRK was chosen by the popular masses.
The Korean revolution has always advanced self reliantly by its own efforts .Of course the Korean revolution has always between an intregal part of the world revolution. International solidarity and co-operation have never been ruled out.International support and assistance from other countries is very important but it can only play a supplementary or secondary role and no more. There are cases where some countries recieved massive international support and aid but the revolution still failed, such examples are too numerous to mention but we could mention the example of the CPGB in Britain which recieved support from the COMINTERN in the 1930s and later funds from the Soviet Union but failed because it did not have the support of the masses within its own country and its leadeers did not competently lead the revolution.
However the Juche idea teaches that the most fitting contribution to the world revolution is to carry the revolution successfully in one’s own country. Indeed Juche creates a unique correlation between the national and international tasks of the revolution
From the very start the Korean revolution relied on itself as President Kim Il Sung explained later
“In believing in and drawing on the strenght of the popular masses,we defeated both theJapanese imperialists and the US imperialists and built socialism on the debris after the war.......but against the Japanese imperialists we waged guerrilla warfare under very difficult conditions without the state rear.......
Both when we were fighting the Japanese imperialists and the US imperialists and when
we were building socialism,we recieved little help from others”
KIM IL SUNG “Talk to A Delegation of the Democratic Left Party of Ecuador” Works
vol 43 p 41 and p56)
When starting the anti Japanese armed struggle the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung
explained;
“It is self evident that we cannot depend upon nor beg to anyone for our country’s
liberation.We must achieve the liberation of our country and nation by our own
efforts through an active armed struggle”
KIM IL SUNG “On Juche In Our Revolution” vol 1 p19)
He also pointed out
“We have no source of weapons,nor anyone to give them to give them to us.Therefore
we have no alternative but to get them by our own efforts.
The only way to capture them from the enemy and to arm ourselves..... we are required to display a revolutionary spirit of self reliance”
“ON JUCHE IN OUR REVOLUTION vol 1 p22).
In his autobiography “With the Century “ he told how some people wanted the Soviet Union to create a grenade factory for them but this did not happen so they realised the need to rely on themselves rather than others.
Of course this did not exclude co operation with others and internationalist solidarity. Far from it.The great leader comrade Kim Il Sung all the time strove to form a united front with the Chinese people against Japanese imperialism.KPRA units fought many battles jointly with Chinese units dealing telling blows to the Japanese imperialists such as the battle at Fusong in August 1936.He also put forward the internationalist slogan “Defend the Soviet Union With Arms” because it was important to defend the Soviet the first socialist country and workers and peasants state.When the Japanese imperialists launched attacks at Lake Hasan and Halhinghol to provoke a war with the Soviet Union the KPRA under the command of the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung counter attacked the Japanese imperialists thus defending the Soviet Union.
The great leader comrade Kim Il Sung later explained the relationship between self reliance and internationalism in the revolutionary struggle
“Did we rely on a big country when we were starting the revolution? No. We started it with belief in ourselves. After starting the armed struggle, we received no aid, not even a single hand-grenade, from our neighbours. We waged the armed struggle, carried on Party building and conducted the united front movement by solving everything by our own efforts and by believing in the strength of our own people.
In the course of this we entered into a joint struggle with the Chinese people and formed an allied front with the Soviet people. An ally would be welcome, but it wouldn't matter if there were no ally. That was our consistent stand. That was why, from the first day of the armed struggle, we educated the army and the people in the spirit of independence and equipped them with the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance. We stressed time and again that independence meant life, that dependence on foreign forces meant the lot of slaves, that self-reliance would lead us to prosperity, and that we could neither liberate the country nor build a new country without relying on ourselves.
( With the Century Volume 8)
The above passage explains in a very profound way the self reliant nature of the Korean revolution.If some people are to be believed that October revolution could have never happened because there was no existing big socialist country to support! Comrade Kim Il Sung’s concept of self reliance sprang from a deep analysis of the dialetics of the internal and international factors in winning victory in the revolution.
During the period of democratic construction after liberation in 1945 the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung put forward the line of building an independent national economy this was the first time that such as line had been put forward.
During the great victorious Fatherland Liberation War the DPRK recieved help and assistance from other socialist countries but relied primarily on its own efforts.As comrade Kim Il Sung said
“We must solve our problems no who is helping us and what help we get......
Victory must be won by our strength”.
During the Fatherland Liberation War some people tried to copy the military methods of other countries but the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung opposed this flunkeyism and established Juche in military affairs.
After the devastation of the Fatherland Liberation War the DPRK embarked on reconstruction and then socialist industrialisation .The DPRK charged ahead on the wave of creativity unleashed by the revolutionary spirir of self reliance.The DPRK refused to join the CMEA despite the pressure of the great power chauvinists.In this period the DPRK ‘s growth in industrial output hit 40% in some years.The independent national economy and self reliance were practical expressions and at the same time applications of the great Juche idea.
The DPRK also learnt that it could not depend on others for its defence.Professors from the Korean Association of Social Scientists told me that during the Fatherland Liberation War the DPRK did not recieve enough weapons from the Soviet Union hampering the war effort. It was not to disrespect the USSR and Stalin to say this as the USSR had its own good reasons for this.
Later in the early 1960s this became more apparent. The US imperialists instensified their anti DPRK moves ,they planned to stifle the DPRK by military force.However the Soviet Union under the baton of the revisionist Khruschov cut off weapon supplies. Moreover the Cuban missile crisis in which the Soviet Union betrayed Cuba showed that small countries simply cannot rely on big powers for their defence.So the policy of self reliance in defence, which goes back to the days of the anti Japanese armed struggle,came to buttress the lines of independence in politics and self sufficiency in economics. In fact the Juche idea is a trinity of independence in politics,self sufficiency in the economy and self- reliance in defence.The line of building the economy and defence in parallel was adopted in 1962. Vast achievments were made on both fronts.
Today the DPRK under the banner of Songun is stressing self reliance which is eptimosed by the 100 and 150 day campaigns. The DPRK is powefully powerfully pushing ahead with projects such as the construction of housing for a 100,000 families and the construction of the Huichon Power station all by itself.On my visit to the DPRK in October 2008 I visited the new E library at Kim Chaek University of Technlogy which had been constructed by the DPRK’s own efforts and funds.
Self reliance means the rejection of indolence, passivity and stagnation. It unleashes fully the creative potenial. Self reliance is a truly revolutionary philosophy an example of the Juche idea in action. It has led the DPRK and Korean revolution to great victories. Very soon the DPRK economy will make a great leap forward by its own efforts and will silence those who claim it should ‘open up’ and ‘reform’
ASSPUK
JISGE
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