Pyongyang, February 12 (KCNA) - General Secretary Kim Jong Il went round the Simwon Temple, an ancient historic cultural relic. Located in Sangyang-ri, Pakchon county, North Phyongan Province, the temple is a precious cultural relic which bears witness to the high architectural art and distinguished artistic talent of our ancestors. The more than 1,000 years old temple still retains its former glory thanks to the correct policy of the WPK on preserving historic cultural relics.
Being briefed on the historic relic, Kim Jong Il acquainted himself in detail with how relic is preserved and managed, going round the exterior and interior of the temple including the Pogwang Shrine. Saying that the Simwon temple is of great significance as a national treasure as the attractive gold-painted building, beautiful flower-pattern doors and other valuable historic relics are preserved there in their former glory, he noted that more people should be given the chance to see them.
There are many historic artifacts everywhere in Korea with a 5,000-year-long history and brilliant culture, he said, adding: This is a pride of the Korean nation. To preserve and manage well historic cultural relics associated with the resourcefulness and talents of the Korean people and intensify education in these relics is of weighty importance in firmly preserving the Juche character and national identity and instilling patriotism into people, he said, stressing the need for all fields to wage a vigorous drive to properly preserve the precious national cultural heritage and thus bolster the pride and self-confidence of the people as members of the Korean nation.
Noting that all the historic cultural relics are precious cultural treasures of the country, he specified tasks to be fulfilled to preserve and manage them. He was accompanied by Kim Phyong Hae, chief secretary of the North Phyongan Provincial Committee of the WPK, secretaries Kim Kuk Thae, Kim Ki Nam and Kim Yong Sun and first vice department directors Jang Song Thaek, Ri Je Gang and Choe Chun Hwang of the WPK Central Committee.
Pyongyang, February 12 (KCNA) -- "Biography of Comrade Kim Jong Il" vol. 2 was brought out by the Workers' Party of Korea Publishing House. This book is a biography of a peerlessly great man dealing with the glorious revolutionary history and great personality of Kim Jong Il, the sun of the 21st century. Kim Jong Il has performed revolutionary exploits to shine long in the history of the country through his energetic ideological and theoretical activities and great revolutionary practices, while carrying forward the revolutionary cause of Juche pioneered by President Kim Il Sung. The book was compiled by the history institute of the central committee of the WPK.
The part of the book from its chapter 16 to chapter 30 deals with the revolutionary activities and major leadership exploits performed by Kim Jong Il in the historical period from Juche 63 (1974) to the late 1980s.
The part of the book from chapter 16 to chapter 21 tells about how he was elected successor to the president and led the new historical struggle to model the whole party and society on the Juche idea. The book from chapter 22 to chapter 26 deals with the revolutionary activities he conducted from the days he was preparing the 6th congress of the WPK to the late 1980s. Chapter 27 to chapter 30 of the book are devoted to the leadership exploits he performed for the socialist cultural construction, the work of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, national reunification and the cause of global independence from the latter half of the 1970s to the late 1980s.
Pyongyang, February 10 (KCNA) -- More than 2,500 officials of the youth league and students in Pyongyang made a study tour of the Oun Revolutionary Site on Sunday on the occasion of the birthday of General Secretary Kim Jong Il. That morning the study tour group laid a floral basket and bunches of flowers before the statue of President Kim Il Sung on Ryongnam Hill and held a meeting before its departure.
At the end of the meeting it headed for Oun-dong, a land of history, fluttering the flags of the Workers' Party of Korea and the DPRK and flags of universities, with the flags bearing the portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in the van of the group ranks. The students arrived at their destination and visited the Oun Revolutionary Site. After the visit they held a meeting at which they hardened their resolution to stand in the van of defending the homeland and firmly prepare themselves to be pillars of building a powerful nation, with great pride and self-confidence of having Kim Jong Il at the head of the Korean
revolution.
The Associated Press reported that civic leaders of the ROK and the DPRK plan for the first time to hold a joint festival in Seoul next month to mark the anniversary of an independence uprising against Japanese colonial rule in 1919, organizers said Monday. About 100 DPRK civic and religious leaders will travel to Seoul for the festival on March 1-3, said a statement from a pro-unification ROK group, called the Joint National Event Promotion Headquarters. Hundreds of thousands of Koreans rose up for independence against Japan on March 1, 1919, and hundreds of people were killed or injured. The uprising is widely celebrated as a major national holiday in both Koreas. The statement said the joint celebration was agreed on at a meeting of the two sides' representatives in Beijing last week. ("CIVILIAN LEADERS OF TWO KOREAS TO JOINTLY CELEBRATE ANTI-JAPAN INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY," Seoul, 02/10/03)
By HOWARD W. FRENCH, NEW YORK TIMES
SEOUL, South Korea — For the past half century, while North Korea has glorified its late founder, Kim Il Sung, as a demigod, South Korea has portrayed him as a demon, a scoundrel and a fraud. Now, a few lines in newly approved high school textbooks credit Mr. Kim for the first time for his role in combating Japanese colonialism. The passages have fed a roiling debate here about changing relations with North Korea and the United States and about the politicization of history during the cold war.
What the new textbooks illustrate most clearly, South Korean intellectuals say, is how the strategy of engagement with North Korea, the so-called sunshine policy begun by the departing president, Kim Dae Jung, has transformed South Korea — even more than its target, North Korea — in important and often unexpected ways. For decades, it was illegal here to say anything positive about Kim Il Sung, just as it was forbidden to display a North Korean flag. The revised history textbooks reflect a broad overturning of taboos here recently that has resulted in everything from South Korean tourists traveling to North Korea, to the president-elect, Roh Moo Hyun, openly questioning
the nature of the longstanding alliance with the United States.
"The North-South confrontation had always been the major factor in constraining free debate and free thinking in South Korea," said Paik Nak Chung, an English professor at Seoul National University and the editor of Creation and Criticism, an intellectual quarterly. "Now that that constraint has been removed to a large extent, it has freed up debate, and it has also created a certain amount of disorder as well. That is because the government no longer has the ability to control everything by citing the pretext of the threat of the North.
"That no longer works, and the major turning point was the summit in Pyongyang in 2000," Mr. Paik said, referring to the landmark meeting in the North Korean capital between President Kim and Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader and the son of Kim Il Sung. What is most striking about the debate over Kim Il Sung is that there is little disagreement in South Korea over the facts. In the 1930's, Mr. Kim successfully led fighters in the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, based in Manchuria, in a series of raids against the Japanese occupiers, including an attack on the Korean town of Pochonbo in June 1937. This was, by most independent accounts, a minor skirmish, but it is
celebrated in North Korea as a huge victory.
Mr. Kim's raids prompted the Japanese to mount a major operation in the region, which eventually wiped out most of his fighters, forcing the Korean guerrilla leader to flee to Khabarovsk, in the Soviet Far East. He remained there for the duration of the war, and Kim Jong Il was born in Russia in 1942 during his exile. North Korea's hagiography of its founder is silent on these setbacks, and North Koreans are taught that Kim Jong Il was born at Mount Paektu, the legendary source of Korean civilization.
The newly approved textbooks say nothing about those historical inventions, limiting themselves instead to a relatively circumspect, but nonetheless groundbreaking, account of Mr. Kim's anti-Japanese efforts. The Northeast Anti-Japanese Army "backed by other fighters, set fire to Japanese administrative offices and attacked the police," one of the books says. Later in the same passage, it adds, "after Korea was liberated from Japan, Kim Il Sung was revered by North Koreans as a leader of Korean independence," and goes on to note that South Korean experts have criticized North Korea for exaggerating the battle.
"On a historical basis, there is no doubt about this," said Dae Suk Suh, a University of Hawaii scholar who has written an authoritative biography of Kim Il Sung. "It has only taken South Korea this long to say this because it was always in the forefront of the cold war." Park Sung Soo, a prominent academic who heads the Institute of Documenting Accurate History, a conservative group that is critical of North Korea, says even such limited mention is going way too far and is an example of the sunshine policy run amok. For Mr. Park, and for other conservative historians who have objected to crediting Mr. Kim, history is a political weapon, and South Korea is naïvely
lowering its guard.
"North Korea doesn't recognize the contributions of other people," said Mr. Park, whose institute unsuccessfully fought the textbooks' introduction. "They make it sound like Kim Il Sung single-handedly liberated Korea. Why should we give him so much credit? We are letting sunshine politics distort our historical thinking, and giving recognition to leftist facts is becoming a factor in the growing anti-Americanism here."
The concerns of historians like Mr. Park mirror worries in Washington that South Korea's efforts at rapprochement with North Korea have generated few concessions while eroding support for the alliance with the United States. Other academics here say, how- ever, that the more candid appraisal of history is long overdue and reflects the growing maturity of South Korean democracy, which in the long run will strengthen ties with the United States.
"People who are opposed to mentioning Kim are older folks who lived through the cold war," said Doh Jin Soon, a history professor at Changwon National University and a visiting scholar at Harvard. "But things are changing, and time cannot be reversed. Referring to this battle is not going to cause young people to idolize Kim Il Sung, nor are they caught in the cold-war thinking. North-South relations are going to improve eventually, and in the meantime, people should know the truth."
Pyongyang, November 21, 2002 (KCNA) --Archaeologists of the Academy of Social Science recently unearthed a brick tomb in Saenal-ri, Sinchon county, South Hwanghae Province. The tomb consists of a burial chamber 288 cm in length, 198 cm in width and 264 cm in height, a side chamber 140cm in length, 100 cm in width and 100 cm in height and corridor. It faces southeast. The floors of the chambers are paved with two layers of bricks of a reed-mat pattern and their walls were built in such ways that thick layers of bricks were laid sideways or upright. Its vault is also made up of bricks.
The brick walls are embossed with designs of various geometrical patterns, fantastic animals such as a white tiger and a red bird, figure holding spears, etc. Letters are seen on some walls. More than 20 pieces of artefacts including a light grey pot, beads, a silver bracelet, a silver hairpin and nails of coffin were also discovered there. Basing themselves on the style of the tomb, relics and letters on the walls, archaeologists presume that the tomb dates back to the period of Rakrang (Lolang) Kingdom that existed in the mid-3rd century. The brick tomb is very instrumental in scientific study as it is preserved in
its original state.
Pyongyang, November 11 (KCNA) -- The army-centered policy pursued by the Workers' Party of Korea is displaying its tremendous vitality in the revolution and construction as it is a political mode based on a scientific analysis of an army's position and role in the development of a socialist society, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. The idea and theory of an army's position and role in the development of a socialist society is a great truth established by Kim Jong Il for the first time in history as he is possessed of clairvoyant far-sight and a trait and qualification as a gifted strategist, and has successfully embodied it in the socialist politics, the
article says, and goes on:
The history of socialist construction in our country clearly proves that the position and role of an army are steadily growing stronger as a socialist society advances. The Korean revolution was started with arms and has made a victorious advance thanks to the leading and core role of the army. The might of the Korean People's Army as the main agent of the revolution was fully demonstrated in the days of the "arduous march," the forced march. Under the slogan that they would take charge of both national defence and socialist construction, the KPA servicepersons have fully proved their worth as the vanguard and a shock brigade in the struggle to defend socialism and make a
breakthrough in the building of a powerful nation.
The revolutionary spirit of soldiers now serves as a spirit of the times all people should learn from and as their ideological and spiritual pabulum. All the signal victories and miraculous successes reported in defending socialism and building a powerful nation at present are a striking demonstration of scientific accuracy and indestructible vitality of the army-centered policy.
Pyongyang, November 11 (KCNA) -- The principle of self-reliance in national defence elucidated by the Juche idea is a guiding principle of the party and state activities for applying an independent and creative stand in the revolution and construction. The principle demands that all the problems arising in national defence be solved by one's own efforts in a responsible manner. Self-reliance in defence is a fundamental principle of an independent sovereign state. A state without self-reliant armed forces capable of defending the country from the enemies when imperialism, a cause of aggression and war, exists cannot, in fact, be called a completely independent sovereign state.
In the past most of the Asian, African and Latin American countries had been reduced to colonies of the imperialists because they had no self-reliant armed forces capable of defending themselves. Only when one has one's own strong self-reliant defence forces, will one be able to work out and implement all politics independently in the interests of one's own people and exercise sovereignty and equality in external relations. In order to build an independent national economy, a peaceful climate is indispensable. The climate is guaranteed by a strong defence capacity. The Juche idea clarifies that it is a principled matter in applying the principle of self-reliant defence to
awaken the army and the people politically and ideologically, establish an all-people, all-nation defence system, build one's own defence industry and consolidate the home front.
The principle of self-reliance in defence is correct guidelines giving perfect answers to all questions in building defence forces capable of defending the country by themselves. It also serves a powerful ideological and theoretical weapon to fully establish Juche in the revolution and construction, defend the independence and sovereignty of the country and accomplish the cause of socialism.
Pyongyang, November 4 (KCNA) -- November 4 is the birthday of Kim Hyong Gwon, an indomitable revolutionary fighter. He, uncle of President Kim Il Sung, was born in Mangyongdae, Pyongyang, 97 years ago. He had a strong sense of anti-Japanese patriotic spirit and a high degree of class awareness from his early years. He, who became a professional revolutionary under the influence of Kim Hyong Jik and Kang Ban Sok, devoted his all to the sacred war for the country's liberation under the leadership of Kim Il Sung. He rallied a large number of patriotic youth closely around the president and educated and trained people of various social strata as anti-Japanese patriotic
forces. He was active as a commanding officer in the Korean revolutionary army organized by the president in July Juche 19 (1930).
In August 1930, he led an armed group into the homeland, attacked the police substation in Phabal-ri, Ryanggang Province (South Hamgyong Province at that time), and made a seditious speech in front of people. He was arrested in the area of Hongwon county, South Hamgyong Province by the betrayal of a guy who had already been reduced to a stooge of the enemy. He continued the courageous struggle in prisons to steadfastly defend the revolutionary line of the president. He was killed by the enemy's brutal torture and maltreatment in prison on January 12, 1936. The Korean people have erected his statues, busts and towers and built monuments, battle sites and historic sites in
the revolutionary martyrs cemetery on Mt. Taesong in Pyongyang and other places of the country and put his name to many units to hand his revolutionary feats down to posterity.
Pyongyang, November 3 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, the great leader and a son born of Mt. Paektu, is successfully carrying forward the revolutionary traditions of Mt. Paektu, says Rodong Sinmun Sunday in a signed article. It goes on: His unshakable will to carry forward the traditions found its clear manifestation in the fact that he energetically led the work to spruce up the revolutionary battle sites in the area of Mt. Paektu after unrolling a gigantic plan for it. His will is also clearly manifested in the efforts he exerted to lead the army and the people to dynamically step up the building of a powerful nation in the spirit of the red flag of Mt. Paektu and value and
project the revolutionary forerunners.
The DPRK has long made great efforts to build the revolutionary battle sites in the area of Mt. Paektu to be handed down to posterity. As a result, the area turned into an eternal fountainhead of the Korean revolution and a centre for education in the revolutionary traditions. It was in the revolutionary spirit of Mt. Paektu that the people in Jagang Province displayed the Kanggye Spirit in the period of the "arduous march" and the workers in Ranam kindled a torch to make a revolutionary advance in the new century, learning from the indefatigable fighting spirit displayed during the anti-Japanese struggle.
The noble trait of respecting the revolutionary forerunners is prevailing in the DPRK which is a manifestation of the noble desire of its army and people to successfully carry forward the revolutionary traditions of Mt. Paektu and accomplish the cause of Juche. Thanks to the Mt. Paektu traditions and the spirit of the red flag the cause of building a powerful nation will make more dynamic progress and the desire of the revolutionary forerunners is sure to come true on this land.
Pyongyang, November 1 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today editorially calls for preserving and glorifying the patriotic traditions of the anti-Japanese war established by President Kim Il Sung. The patriotic traditions represent traditions of Juche with which the Korean people shape the destiny of the country and the nation their own way on their own efforts, the traditions of the struggle for independence against imperialism with which they fight with arms against the imperialists who try to trample down the sovereignty of the nation, in a do-or-die spirit and traditions which combine the love of the country with the love for the people and the nation, the editorial says, and goes on:
The traditions prove very instrumental in winning one victory after another in an acute confrontation with the imperialists as well as in the building of a powerful socialist nation. It is the fixed faith and will of Kim Jong Il to preserve and glorify them century after century. To remain loyal to his army-based leadership provides a sure guarantee for preserving and glorifying them. To remain true to the army-based policy is a full manifestation of patriotism. The patriotic traditions of the glorious anti-Japanese war established by the president making a long journey of the bloody anti-Japanese war will shine long thanks to the wise guidance of Kim Jong Il.
Pyongyang, October 25 (KCNA) -- Papers here today dedicate signed articles to the 52nd anniversary of the entry of the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) into the Korean front. The sacred soul and feats of Chinese People's Volunteers who fell in action in the great Fatherland Liberation War of the Korean people will remain forever with the history of the DPRKK China friendship, says Rodong Sinmun. It goes on: The CPV's entry into the Korean front was a striking demonstration of the might and solidity of the unbreakable DPRK-China friendship.
The Chinese party and government organized the Chinese people's volunteers with excellent sons and daughters of the Chinese people and dispatched them to the Korean front under the slogan of "Resisting America and Aiding Korea, Safeguarding the Home and Defending the Motherland". The CPV fighters bravely fought against the U.S. imperialist aggressors in cooperation with the Korean People's Army, enjoying strong support and assistance from the Korean people. The precious youth, lives and blood dedicated by CPV martyrs to the victory in the Fatherland Liberation War of our people were, indeed, valuable and a good example of international friendship and solidarity.
The DPRK-China friendship is long-standing. When the Chinese people were undergoing a trial in the revolutionary civil war, the Korean people rendered unreserved support to them and many sons and daughters of the Korean people participated in the war and performed heroic feats. This will always remain recorded in the history of DPRK-China friendship. This friendship with a long history and tradition has steadily grown stronger weathering out any storm and stress. The Korean people have fully supported the Chinese people's efforts to accelerate the socialist modernization drive and rejoice over their successes. Minju Joson
says that the DPRK-China friendship that has stood the test of history will continue to grow stronger in the future, too, thanks to the common efforts of the two peoples.
Pyongyang, October 17 (KCNA) -- The Down-With- Imperialism Union (DIU) is the historical root of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). Resolved to organize a vanguard of the revolution to wage the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle with a proper platform, depending on the popular masses, President Kim Il Sung formed the DIU in Huadian on October 17, Juche 15 (1926). The formation of the DIU, a new-type revolutionary organization, opened up a new era in which the Korean revolution could advance on the principle of independence, separated from those infected with flunkeyism and dogmatism.
Under the wise leadership of the president the DIU conducted positive activities to bring up many workers, peasants, youth and students as revolutionaries of the new generation. It also made a great contribution to laying mass foundation of the revolution and developing the Korean revolution as a whole. It was recast as the anti-imperialist youth league in August 1927 as required by the developing revolution. Later, the Young Communist League of Korea (YCLK) was formed with the elite of the DIU. The society for rallying comrades, the first party organization and the origin of the Workers' Party of Korea, was inaugurated in Kalun in early July 1930 with revolutionaries
trained in the YCLK. The first party organization inherited the program and rules of the DIU without any modifications. The revolutionaries of the new generation brought up by the DIU were active as the backbone in the WPK foundation and the program and the principles of independence set forth by the DIU served as the basic program of the WPK and its principles of party building and its activities.
Pyongyang, October 11 (KCNA) -- A preview of silent film "Arirang" accompanied by movie narration took place at the Pyongyang International Cinema House today. Among those present there were Ri Jong Hyok, vice-chairman of the Korea-Asia Pacific Peace Committee, Jo Chan Gu, vice-minister of culture, and officials concerned, moviepersons and working people in the city. Also present there was the South Korean delegation which came here for the preview. A South Korean movie studio reproduced the movie "Arirang" produced in the 1920s as a silent film accompanied by movie narration. The film deals with the miserable life and tragic fate of the Korean peasants and their resistance against the landlords and the Japanese imperialists during their military rule over Korea.
Pyongyang, October 9 (KCNA) -- October 10 is the 57th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). The WPK was founded in 1945 on the basis of the Down-With-Imperialism Union, which was founded by President Kim Il Sung in Juche 15 (1926). Over the past 57 years the WPK has successfully led the revolution and construction without any mistake or deviation in shaping policies. After the country's liberation in 1945, the WPK set up the Juche-oriented people's government on the basis of the experience gained in building power organs during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. In reliance on the government based on the worker-peasant alliance and dependent on
the united front of the popular masses, it has successfully discharged its historic mission of realizing the independence of the popular masses in the long period of the Korean revolution.
The WPK enforced the agrarian reform, nationalization of major industries and other democratic reforms and successfully completed the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolutionary tasks in a short span of time following its foundation. When the Korean revolution entered a new stage of its development in 1955, the WPK set forth the line to accelerate socialist revolution in real earnest and encouraged the people to turn out in the struggle for its implementation. With the agricultural cooperativization and the socialist transformation of the old production relations (private businesses) successfully carried out within 4 or 5 years, the advantageous socialist
system was established on this land and the popular masses were liberated from the exploitation and oppression once and for all.
The WPK defined the three revolutions, ideological, technical and cultural, as main tasks of revolution to be fulfilled in the socialist society and provided a firm guarantee for moving up the complete victory of socialism by pushing ahead with the revolutions. In recent years, it, under Kim Jong Il's army-based revolutionary leadership, has smashed the enemies' moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK and overcome severe economic difficulties, defending the sovereignty and dignity of the country and fully demonstrating the might of ideological and military power. The Korean people entrust their future and destiny fully to the WPK, the banner of all victory and glory.
Pyongyang, October 7 (KCNA) -- The Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences recently discovered a mural tomb belonging to the period of Koguryo in Songjuk-ri, Yonthan county. The tomb is a typical Koguryo-style stone-earth tomb which consists of passage to front chamber, front chamber, middle passage and chamber for keeping dead body. The floor of the tomb was covered with mud and charcoal was spread on it before being whitewashed. Its walls built with trimmed limestone were neatly whitewashed. The tomb facing the south is 7.6 m long.
Discovered on the remaining walls of the tomb were gorgeous murals showing a procession of people, a hunting scene, warriors, life inside houses, etc. The corners of the chambers are decorated with paintings showing huge red color pillars so that they look like the inside of a dwelling house. Mural paintings are masterpieces which depict different things in detail with various colors. Found in the tomb were a gold-copper ring, an ornamental silver hairpin, a coffin nail coated with silver sheet, earthenware and other relics.
Archaeologists said it was first time for them to unearth such a tomb with mural paintings of diverse themes as that tomb since Juche 65 (1976). The architectural style and theme of mural paintings of the tomb suggest that it was built in the first half of the 5th century. The newly discovered tomb is one more precious cultural heritage of the Korean people as it is a clear reminder of the power of Koguryo, a strong state in the east that existed for a thousand years, people's keen interest in martial art, developed architecture and refined skill of painting.
Pyongyang, October 7 (KCNA) -- The immortal Juche idea founded by the great President Kim Il Sung newly expounds the principle that the independent ideological consciousness of the popular masses plays a decisive role in the revolution. The independent ideology means the realization that man is the master of his own destiny and the will to shape his destiny by himself. Ideology is the decisive factor defining the role of people in the revolution and construction and stipulates the class nature of activities of those who take part in the revolutionary movement. It also defines their will and fighting capacity in the revolutionary movement. Only those who are armed with an
independent ideology can take an active part in and accomplish the revolution to the end, overcoming all manner of difficulties and trials with a strong will.
The revolutionary capacity of the popular masses is inexhaustible. But it is impossible to give full play to it only when they are not awakened ideologically. The popular masses that are conscious of their class interest can fully display their revolutionary ability and victoriously carry out the revolution. The Juche idea newly propounds that the role of ideological consciousness is constantly enhanced with the development of the revolutionary movement, social movement. The revolutionary movement, social movement demands a high level of consciousness of man because of its own nature. The role of ideology is raised unprecedentedly in the course of revolutionary struggle
and it is also related with the characteristics of the revolutionary idea of the working class.
Proceeding from this Juche-oriented understanding of the decisive factor in the development of the social movement, one can draw a practical conclusion that one should always take the ideology of man as the main in the revolutionary struggle, the social movement. As President Kim Il Sung propounded for the first time in history that the independent ideological consciousness of popular masses plays a decisive role in the revolutionary struggle, it made it possible to newly expound the position and role of ideology in social cognition and to formulate a scientific understanding of the decisive factor in the development of social movement.
Pyongyang, October 6 (KCNA) -- Society advances and great victory is achieved in the revolution and construction thanks to the creative role of the popular masses equipped with independent thoughts, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article. What is essential for raising the level of independent thoughts of the people is to let them have the spirit of solving their problem by themselves, the article notes, and continues:
Revolution and construction will advance at a fast speed and the tasks for building a new society can be carried out successfully only when the popular masses turn out in the struggle for the progress and prosperity of the country, highly aware of being its master. The key to tiding over the ordeals and difficulties in the way of advance including the issue of scientists and technicians badly needed for building a new society lies in the hands of the popular masses equipped with independent thoughts.
Independent thoughts of the popular masses are based on the attitude and stand that they are the masters of the revolution and construction in their country. The historical experience and reality in the DPRK go to prove that the independent thoughts of the popular masses are a sure guarantee for building a new society. The Korean people have dealt with all issues and solved various complicated matters arising in the way of advance from an independent stand and viewpoint in the whole course of the revolution and construction. In this course they have become more powerful beings, while the DPRK has turned into an independent and powerful socialist state.
Successes achieved by many developing countries in building a new society are the fruition of the struggle of the people armed with independent thoughts. The developing countries advancing along the road of building a new society will firmly arm the people with independent thoughts, raise their role and thus achieve victory and progress in their struggle for independent development and prosperity.
Pyongyang, October 5 (KCNA) -- The army and people of the DPRK will eternally glorify the new era of Juche-oriented revolution, regarding Kim Jong Il's army-based idea as the only guideline for revolution, says Rodong Sinmun today in an editorial article. The article entitled "our revolutionary cause is sure to triumph as it is advancing along the road indicated by the great army-based idea" is printed on its front page. Noting this idea has served as a firm guideline of the Workers' Party of Korea and the revolution and a revolutionary banner in the era of independence against imperialism, the article goes on:
It is the trend of the times recognized by the world to give priority to the army. This idea based on the Juche idea is shining as a great idea that gives perfect answers to the urgent issues arising in the revolution in our times. This idea was the first in history to define a revolutionary army as a main force of revolution and set out a theory of building powerful revolutionary ranks with the army as their core. This idea also elucidated that the course in which a socialist society develops is the course in which the whole society takes after the revolutionary army. The history of the Korean revolution is a proud history in which the greatness of the army-based idea
has been proven in practice.
This idea serves as a great banner of patriotism making it possible to firmly defend the sovereignty and dignity of the nation even in any adversity and as a powerful weapon for providing a valuable asset for achieving a final victory of the Korean revolution. The world revolutionary people in struggle for independence against imperialism consider the army-based idea of the WPK as their way out and draw great inspiration from socialist Korea which is fully displaying its might thanks to its army. Calling for accomplishing the socialist cause, guided by the army-based idea, the article notes: The march in the 21st century is a struggle to uphold the idea to the last and
implement it. Neither a single step back nor marking time is allowed in giving priority to the army.
"Let us think, struggle and live as required by the army-based idea". This is the slogan the revolutionaries in the army-based era should put up.
Pyongyang, October 4 (KCNA) -- There is the Sinuiju honored disabled soldiers' institute in south Sinuiju, the northwestern border city of the DPRK. Having two or three-storied buildings, the institute covers an area of over 35,000 square meters. It was founded in July Juche 40 (1951) when the Fatherland Liberation War (from June 1950 to July 1953) was at its height. It has courses of planned economy, labor administration and finance, several research rooms, laboratories and a practice workshop. There is also a one-year bookkeepers training course for children of honored disabled soldiers.
In November 1950 President Kim Il Sung visited a hospital of the people's army in the rear where he acquainted himself in detail with the life of wounded soldiers. He paid attention even to their future jobs with paternal loving care. In the subsequent period the cabinet adopted a decision to commit the party and the state to educating the wounded soldiers in a responsible manner. As a result, there appeared the honored disabled soldiers institute, something unprecedented in the history of war. He visited the institute despite barbarous air raids. Saying the honored disabled soldiers were the treasure of the country, he earnestly told them to study hard and live
optimistically, not being discouraged.
In the postwar period, too, he paid special attention to their health whenever an opportunity presented itself. He repeatedly took measures to improve their diet, supply daily necessaries to them free, pay scholarship and subsidies to them, provide the institute with various kinds of prosthetic appliances and put them under special health care. He saw to it that sanatoria were built in Sechon, Talchon and other places exclusively for honored disabled soldiers. Under the care of the state and society they live free from any worries.