Left Review Online: Many people, especially the youths in Nepal want to know about the history of Korea. How was the situation of Korea and Korean people before the independence and socialist revolution?

Jo Yong Man: The Japanese imperialists fabricated the aggressive “Ulsa Five-Point Treaty” by Brigandish means unprecedented in history on November 17, 1905. They colonized Korea and inflicted untold misfortunes and pains on the Korean people with this “treaty” as a “legal basis.”

The “treaty” is a fraud document made by the Japanese imperialists by means of military threat and blackmail.

Based on the illegal document forged by the Japanese imperialists at the point of the bayonet as well as an illegal and invalid “treaty” with no legal validity Japanese imperialists wrested Korea’s sovereignty and reduced its people to their slaves. Innumerable are their crimes such as enslaving the Korean people through a gangster-like act of aggression, suppressing the socio-economic development of Korea and bisecting the Korean peninsula and joining the US aggressive war against the Korean people in 1950 after their defeat in August 1945.

The deep wounds they inflicted on the Korean people still remain unhealed, and their crimes can never be covered up nor erased no matter how much water may have flown under the bridge.

Left Review Online: Then, how did the independence and socialist revolution in the leadership of President Kim Il Sung change the situation? What was its effect in the life and livelihood of the Korean people?

Jo Yong Man: In the first half of the 20th century when Korea was reduced into a colony and deprived of its history, culture and spoken and written language by the Japanese imperialists, the great President Kim Il Sung struck out a new path of liberating the country by the Korean nation itself.

He founded the Juche idea, a man-centered philosophical idea, for the first time in the history of human thought and clarified the truth of revolutionary struggle that the people in colonial countries should achieve the national liberation by their own efforts. His idea that the revolution of one’s own country should be made by one’s own efforts and imperialism should be defeated through an organized armed struggle in reliance on the strength of the popular masses was a unique one that cannot be found in human history and preceding theories.

The creation of the great Juche idea and the line of organized armed struggle opened up a new era in the history of national liberation movement in colonial countries which had been conducted in the way of petition, demonstration, uprising and riot.

Under the commandership of Kim Il Sung the Korean revolutionaries and people brought their heroic anti-Japanese armed struggle to brilliant victory, liberating their country from the four-decade-long military occupation of the Japanese imperialists.

After achieving the historic cause of Korea’s liberation by commanding the 20-year-long arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle to victory Kim Il Sung energetically led the efforts to build a new country.

He put forward the three tasks of building a party, an army and a state in the liberated Korea and pushed forward the struggle to implement them.

After making full preparations he convened an inaugural congress of founding the party on October 10, 1945 in Pyongyang. At the congress he set up the Central Organizing Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea as its central leadership body, and proclaimed its founding. In August 1946 the Communist Party was merged with the New Democratic Party into the Workers’ Party of North Korea and, in 1949, the workers’ parties in the north and the south were merged into the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

Based himself on full preparations for founding a regular armed force, Kim Il Sung developed the KPRA into the Korean People’s Army on February 8, 1948.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was founded on September 9, 1948, with the result that the Korean people became a dignified people who carve out their destiny independently as the masters of the state and the society for the first time in history and the DPRK made its debut on the international arena as a full-fledged independent and sovereign state.

In the liberated northern half of Korea such economic reforms as the agrarian reform and the nationalization of key industries, various democratic reforms, including the Labour Law for providing the working people with full guarantees for their democratic rights and the Law on Sex Equality for realizing social emancipation of women, and other policies for democracy in the judicial and prosecutorial work and in the sectors of education and culture came into force successfully.

The general ideological mobilization movement for nation building, emulation drive for increased production, anti-illiteracy campaign and other mass movements were vigorously launched, with the result that the Korean people were able to liquidate the outdated ideological vestiges and technical and cultural backwardness which had impeded the independence of the working masses and step up the building of a new democratic Korea successfully.

The successful implementation of the tasks of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution in the short period of time after liberation and the vigorous efforts to build a new democratic Korea made it possible to establish the people’s democratic system and the revolutionary democratic base, a reliable guarantee for national reunification, in the northern half of Korea.

Regarding heavy industry as the main link in the effort to successfully solve all problems in the postwar rehabilitation, Kim Il Sung advanced the line of economic construction on giving priority to heavy industry and simultaneously developing light industry and agriculture.

He saw to it that great efforts were directed to boost grain production in order to solve urgent food shortage at the earliest possible date while transforming the private peasant economy along the socialist cooperative lines in rural areas.

The Three-Year National Economic Plan (1954-1956) was worked out according to this policy, and the Korean people overfulfilled it ahead of schedule, tightening their belts and displaying the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance to overcome the obstacles in their way.

In the wake of the Three-Year National Economic Plan, they carried out several stages of national economic development plans, including Five-Year Plan, Six-Year Plan and three rounds of Seven-Year Plan, through which they made eye-opening achievements in the campaign to put the national economy on a Juche-oriented, modern and scientific footing.

As a result, the DPRK was turned into a socialist industrial-agricultural state based on the sound foundations of the independent national economy in 1961, and a socialist industrial state in 1970. With the promulgation of the decree of the Supreme People’s Assembly on eliminating the tax system once and for all, a hangover from the outdated society, in March 1974, the DPRK became the first tax-free country in the world.

In August 1958 the agricultural cooperativization and the socialist transformation of private trade and industry were brought to completion, with the result that a socialist system was established in the DPRK.

Kim Il Sung defined the three revolutions–ideological, technological and cultural–as the tasks of the continuous revolution that should be carried out after the establishment of the socialist system, and put forward modelling the whole society on the Juche idea as the general task of the revolution for completely realizing the independence of the working masses and the ultimate programme of the WPK.

To this end, he set forth a series of tasks for remoulding all the members of society on revolutionary, working-class and intellectual patterns and making the national economy Juche-oriented, modern and scientific.

He initiated a great upsurge in socialist construction and the Chollima Movement and inspired all the people to brave the hardships and obstacles in the way of their struggle.

Under the slogan “Let us dash forward at the speed of Chollima!” advanced by Kim Il Sung the Korean working class and other people gave full play to the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude, tapping all available reserves and launching such campaigns to increase production and make economies, and thus performed world-startling miracles and innovations on all fronts of socialist construction. The movement to create the speed of the 80s was pushed forward in all fields and units of the national economy to attain the ten long-term objectives of socialist economic construction advanced at the Sixth Congress of the WPK before the set time and glorify the 1980s as a decade of exploits performed in socialist construction.

The socialist culture was brought into fuller bloom in the DPRK.

The universal 11-year compulsory education system came into effect throughout the DPRK from 1975. The DPRK Law on the Nursing and Upbringing of Children was enacted in 1976 to consolidate by law the system of bringing up all children at state and public expense, and the Theses on Socialist Education was made public in 1977.

The policy of making the whole society intellectual, which was aimed at raising the cultural and technical standards of all members of society to the level equal to a university graduate, was realized.

Left Review Online: What was the reason behind the Korean War? Who was responsible for it? How did it affect Korea and the Korean people?

Jo Yong Man: The US imperialists provoked an armed invasion against the DPRK on June 25, 1950.

The Korean War was a gangster-like one unprecedented in the world history. Many historical materials from the documents of the US and south Korea seized during the war and other historical materials testify to the fact why they started the war by enlisting huge armed forces.

First of all, the Korean war was the extension of the deep-rooted criminal policy of aggression against Korea pursued by the US.

Since long ago the US had set it forward as its state policy to put Korea, gateway to the Asian Continent, under its domination in order to realize its ambition of seizing world hegemony. In pursuit of it, in 1845 the US presented to Congress a bill for demanding Korea open up to it. Then it constantly committed armed invasions by dispatching its warships, including General Sherman, and sending a lot of guides to aggression in the guise of missionaries.

The US policy of aggression against Korea continued through centuries before entering its full-scale implementation after World War II.

At that time the US regarded Korea as a site of political and military confrontation between socialism and capitalism in realizing its ambition of gaining world supremacy, an ideological battleground upon which the destiny of capitalist world may depend.

It was proved by an article in The Oregon Journal, dated January 21, 1950, which explained that the Korean peninsula, a perimeter of the Asian Continent, was the bridgehead for the most activities in the Pacific region and that the US set its foot on south Korea during and after WWII, in view of its strategic importance. It was also revealed in the letter sent to US President Harry Truman by Edwin W. Pauley, US presidential representative on reparations, after visiting north and south Korea in the early summer of 1946. He wrote in the summary of his views that frankly Korea was an ideological battleground upon which entire success of the US in Asia may depend.

US President Truman accepted his “counsel” as an American policy toward Korea and designated Korea as a “battlefield of ideology” on which all the US “successes” in Asia might rest. The US tried to realize its policy aimed at dominating the whole Korea by applying political and diplomatic methods, but in vain. So it attempted to achieve its aim with recourse to military aggression, that is, a war.

John Foster Dulles, who flew to south Korea as a special envoy of the United States, wrote to Syngman Rhee on June 20, 1950, “I attach great importance to the decisive role which your country can play in the great drama that is unfolding.” In his private telegram sent to Douglas MacArthur in January 1951, President Truman said that unity of forces of the “free world” must be achieved through the Korean war, so that they could counter the former Soviet Union, deal a blow to the political and military might of China and subordinate Japan to them, thus realizing their aim of gaining supremacy over Asia and the rest of the world.

The Korean war was a kind of way out the US found to overcome serious political and economic crises it faced at home.

Owing to the shrinkage in the munitions industry after WWII, unemployment was on the increase and the overall economy was caught in a vicious cycle in the US.

The British magazine Economist wrote that the United States needed a contributor to overcoming the crisis, so it found it unavoidable to start a war.

In 1950 the Truman administration and his ruling Democratic Party found themselves in political distress caused by the fierce attack by the Republicans for being submissive to communism. Being apprehensive over his political career, Truman had to gamble with the Korean war to tide over the crisis by showing his true nature as an anti-communist.

The US also had to start a war so as to rescue Syngman Rhee puppet regime of south Korea which was suffering from critical political and economic situations since 1949.

An American book, The Hidden History of the Korean War, concluded: “It would be most reasonable to figure that war was the last resort of crazy Syngman Rhee. As the last game the Syngman Rhee government drove the country into a civil war, unable to keep itself steady in face of economic destruction, domestic unrest, harassment by the hostile National Assembly since his defeat in May, and then the people’s leanings towards the peace statement of the north.”

As the historical materials show, the Korean war was a state policy of the US and a war of aggression.

From 1945 to 1949, the US offered to south Korea military aid worth over 1 billion dollars. While stepping up the combat readiness of the puppet army, it deployed its reinforced forces in the areas along the 38th parallel. It also newly built or repaired military roads and conducted the work of building positions on a large scale.

At the same time, the US imperialists egged the puppet army on to launch armed provocations against north Korea in the areas along the 38th parallel. Their armed provocations from 1947 to June 1950 numbered over 5 150.

Such provocations were not simple “armed conflicts” but “test wars” committed repeatedly with a focus on the directions of main attack according to military action plans for “northward expedition”.

Fujishima Udai, a Japanese commentator, said as follows on July 4, 1975: The US scheme to unleash a war in Korea did not kick off unexpectedly on June 25, 1950, which is usually called the day of the outbreak of the Korean war. It started from 1947 right after the Second World War.

After rounding off war preparations, the US imperialists buckled down to action.

Truman sent Secretary of Defence Johnson, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Bradley and Advisor to the State Department Dulles to Seoul and Tokyo on the pretext of discussing a “peace treaty” with Japan so as to ultimately make sure of the preparations for war against North Korea and take relevant measures.

Dulles arrived in Seoul in mid-June 1950 and made final examination of the war preparations of the puppet army in a trench along the 38th parallel. Giving instructions to ignite a war to Syngman Rhee, he said he came here with Truman’s order to inspect the preparations for a “northward march” with his eyes and kick it off in case everything is OK, adding that there is no need for further delay.

On June 25, 1950, the south Korean puppet army, in combat readiness under the direct command of the American Military Advisory Group, launched a sudden armed invasion of the DPRK all along the 38th parallel.

The US imperialists hurled into the Korean war huge armed forces over two million strong, including one-third of their Army, one-fifth of their Air Force and most of their Pacific Fleet, and their 15 vassal states plus the south Korean army and the former Japanese army.

From the beginning of January to March in 1952 nine regiments of the US air force made a total of 804 sorties to spread germ-carrying insects and things and bombs over 169 areas in the northern half of Korea, unprecedented germ warfare to exterminate the Korean nation.

As disclosed, the US had committed horrible genocides against Koreans in various parts of the DPRK in less than two months since the outbreak of the Korean war. In Sinchon County alone, they mercilessly killed by barbarous methods baffling human imagination more than 35,000 people or one-fourth of the county’s population.

During the three-year-long war the US imperialists dropped 18 bombs on average per square kilometre in the northern half of Korea, reducing towns and rural villages into debris. Not only the sectors of the economy, including industry, agriculture and rail transport, but the establishments of education, culture and public health were all devastated. The Korean people lost all their shelters and household goods and were short of food and clothes.

In the war, its two-year old Korean People’s Army had to fight against the U.S. aggression forces who boasted of being the “strongest in the world”.

The U.S., at the beginning of the war, boasted that it would come to an end within 72 hours, but the situation turned out unfavorable to the U.S. with the KPA’s liberation of Seoul within 72 hours.

Making clear that the struggle of the Korean people against the US aggressors is a struggle to realize the complete liberation and independence of their country and, at the same time, a struggle to ensure the global peace and security and that it serves as a banner for the peoples in colonial and dependent countries in their national liberation movement, Kim Il Sung vigorously inspired the entire army and all the people to the drive to win victory in the war.

The heroic KPA soldiers switched over to a counterattack to safeguard the freedom and independence of their country. They liberated the areas accounting for over 90 percent of the entire southern half of Korea and 92 percent of its population only in a month and a half after the outbreak of the war. An agrarian reform and other democratic reforms were enforced there.

As the war dragged on due to the desperate moves of the US imperialists, President Kim Il Sung ensured that large combined units formed a second front behind the enemy lines for concerted operations with the main front and took various steps for moving munitions production bases to safe places and increasing the output of war supplies.

Along with this, he roused all the Party members and other people to the struggle to establish a strict revolutionary discipline in the Party, the state and the army, to overcome dogmatism and flunkeyism and thoroughly establish the Juche-oriented method of work in the field of military affairs and to increase wartime production and the assistance to the front. He took a measure to increase high-angle firepower to suit the actual conditions of the country and created many unique military tactics, including positional defence warfare relying on tunnels, storming teams, sniping teams, anti-tank teams and anti-aircraft teams. The soldiers of the KPA applied these deployments skillfully, thereby dealing crushing blows to the enemy.

The US imperialists fell to their knees before the Korean people and the Korean People’s Army and finally signed the Armistice Agreement on July 27, 1953. The three-year-long Fatherland Liberation War ended in a great victory for the Korean people.

After all, the U.S. suffered a tremendous loss of troops and munitions in the Korean War, nearly 2.3 times that in the Pacific War.

During the period of the war, the KPA soldiers and the Korean people killed, wounded or captured over 1 5,67,000 of enemy, including more than 4,05,000 US imperialist aggressor troops, and seized or destroyed enormous amounts of combat equipment and war materiel, including over 12,200 aircraft, over 560 warships of various types, over 3 250 tanks and armoured vehicles, over 13,000 trucks, and 7,695 guns of various types. The loss sustained by the US imperialist aggressors was nearly 2.3 times what they had sustained during the Second World War.

Left Review Online: What is the situation of the country now?

Jo Yong Man: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is an independent socialist State representing the interests of all the Korean people.

Political System of the State:

The sovereignty of the DPRK resides in the workers, peasants, soldiers, intellectuals and all other working people. They exercise State power through their representative organs – the Supreme People’s Assembly and local People’s Assemblies at all levels.

The State defends the interests of the workers, peasants, soldiers, intellectuals and all other working people who have become the masters of the State and society, and respects and protects human rights. The DPRK government is the representative of the people’s right to independence, the organizer of their creative abilities and activities, the administrator responsible for their livelihood and the protector of their interests.

All state organs are formed and function on the principle of democratic centralism.

The organs of State power at all levels are elected on the principle of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot.

The state organs comprise the Supreme People’s Assembly, the Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, the State Affairs Commission, the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the Cabinet, the local People’s Assemblies, the local People’s Committees, the Public Prosecutors Office and the Court.

The DPRK government maintains unified leadership over the State and society by relying on the guiding ideology of the Party and scientific strategy and tactics.

The socialist laws of the DPRK are instituted by reflecting the will of the people and the people are fully provided with democratic rights and freedom by law as the masters of the State and society through observance of the socialist laws.

Socio-Economic System

The Democratic People`s Republic of Korea relies on socialist relations of production and on the foundation of an independent national economy.

In the DPRK the means of production are owned by the State and social, cooperative organizations, and the State protects private property and guarantees by law the right to inherit it.

The DPRK government, which regards the steady improvement of the material and cultural standards of the people as the supreme principle of its activities, provides all the working people with every condition for obtaining food, clothing and housing.

The State, adhering to the line of building a socialist, independent national economy, endeavours to promote the national economy on a Juche-oriented, modern, IT and scientific basis so as to make the national economy a highly developed economy and build material and technical foundations commensurate with a completely socialist society.

Public Health system

The public health system of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea embodies the people-first principle.

The State protects the people’s lives and improves the working people’s health by consolidating and developing the system of universal free medical service, strengthening the district doctor system and the system of preventive medicine and improving the supply of materials to the public health sector.

The universal free medical service has come into effect from January 1953.

All the people, including workers, farmers, service personnel and intellectuals, regardless of sex, age, occupation, residential quarters, and the quality and quantity of work performed, are being provided with free medical service on an equal footing. All the charges for medical service, including fees for drugs and prescription, medical examination, hospital treatment and surgical operation, medical care and its travelling expenses, medical service expenses for health checkup, health consultation and vaccination are borne entirely by the State.

The district doctor system is a residential health care system in which a district is assigned to doctors on the principle of organically combining a production unit with a residential unit so as to enable them to take charge of their residents and care them regularly.

The State looks after the health of women and children, in particular, through the maternity leave and other public health policies.

The DPRK government ensures that the people enjoy the benefits of the socialist public health system by further improving the medical service, putting medical science and technology on the cutting-edge level and building up the material and technical foundations of the public health sector.

Medical service bases including large and modern comprehensive hospitals and different kinds of special hospitals and polyclinics are arranged in good order—ranging from the capital of the country down to local residential quarters in all provinces.

In Pyongyang alone, many healthcare establishments have been erected to improve the people’s health; examples are the General Dental Hospital, the Pyongyang Ophthalmic Hospital and the Thongilgori Fitness Centre in Rangnang District, and the Breast Tumour Research Institute of the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, the Okryu Children’s Hospital and the Ryugyong Dental Hospital in the Munsu area. Clinics and hospitals are set up independently in factories and enterprises and mines.

And first-aid stations are placed inside the pits of mines, and similar posts are also to be found in the ocean fishing fleets. The telemedicine system is in operation even in the terminal people’s hospitals in counties which are ceaselessly supplemented with modern medical apparatuses.

And state investment is made unsparingly to provide hygienic living conditions and working environment to the people.

Educational system

The DPRK government has enforced universal compulsory education in close combination with free education.

The universal compulsory primary education, enforced in 1956, and the universal compulsory secondary education in 1958 were completely free.

With the triumph of the socialist revolution and the establishment of the socialist system, the government proclaimed that universal free education would be enforced from April 1, 1959. This meant that the government applied in a comprehensive way the principle of giving education to all the working people on its own responsibility.

It enforced universal 11-year compulsory education in 1972.

The Sixth Session of the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK, held in September 2012, promulgated the law on the enforcement of universal 12-year compulsory education.

Now in Korea the effort to improve contents, methods, environments and quality of education is making fresh progress in keeping with the enforcement of the universal 12-year free compulsory education system, and the state investment into the sector of higher education is on the increase. Especially, the work to make all the people well versed in science and technology is well underway. The Sci-tech Complex was erected; the sci-tech diffusion rooms were or are arranged at all factories, industrial establishments and cooperative farms, and working people are enrolled on distance learning courses.

Great strides have been made in improving the people’s standard of living under the wise leadership of Marshal Kim Jong Un.

Efforts are being made to decisively shore up agriculture and light industry, and an unprecedented golden age in the construction sector is being ushered in.

Amid the fierce flames flaring up for creating a speed of Korea, many monumental structures that serve as standards and models of Juche-oriented architecture have sprung up, including the Wisong Scientists Dwelling District, apartment houses for teachers at Kim Chaek University of Technology, Yonphung Scientists Holiday Camp and Unha Scientists Street.

The newly-built Rungna People’s Pleasure Ground, Munsu Water Park, Ryugyong Health Complex, Masikryong Ski Resort, Mirim Riding Club, Ryugyong Dental Hospital and Okryu Children’s Hospital serve people so that they can lead a more bountiful and civilized life.

Breakthroughs are being made in building an economic giant, and vitality of the self-supporting economy is being given full play as science and technology are given definite precedence.

The field of scientific research is resolving urgent scientific and technological problems and introducing the results in many areas.

A high level of CNC system has been developed, and solid bases have been laid for the production of iron, fibre and fertilizer with indigenous raw materials.

The number of ultramodern industrial bases, like the Chonji Lubricant Oil Factory with automatic, informatized and digitized production lines, Chollima Tile Factory which is fed with locally-available raw and other materials, Samcholli Illuminators Factory and Kwangmyong LED and Solar Cell Factory which actively contributes to the development of green industry, is increasing.

Quality products are being produced at the foodstuff factories with informatized and germ-free production lines, including the February 20 Factory of the KPA and Kalma Foodstuff Factory, which have been turned into standard ones of foodstuff industry to meet the requirements of the new century.

Renovation projects have been undertaken in light industry, foodstuff, daily-necessities and pharmaceutical industries, Pyongyang Kim Jong Suk Textile Mill, Pyongyang Children’s Foodstuff Factory and Jongsong General Pharmaceutical Factory produce goods conducive to improving people’s standard of living.

The fishery sector is landing a huge haul; the Taedonggang Combined Fruit Farm, Kosan Fruit Farm and other fruit-production bases have gathered rich harvests of fruits; construction of the livestock farming base in the Sepho area is near to completion; greenhouses and mushroom farms built in various parts of the country. All these contribute to improving the people’s dietary life.

Powerful Military Strength

The military strength of the DPRK is recognized across the world. It possesses modern strategic weapons and powerful means of attack and defence and has an army capable of performing any modern warfare efficiently.

As it is strong in the military aspect, no force dares to provoke the country. Its military strength should not be assessed by the standard of its army. With all the people being armed and the whole country fortified on a high level, it is literally a “porcupine”.

The country’s politics of independence is supported by the powerful military strength as well as by the self-supporting economy.

It adheres to the principle of self-reliant defence. In view of the fact that Korea had suffered all manner of trials by outside forces, it is so natural that the powerful military strength is regarded as a treasured sword with which to protect the security of the country and nation.

Left Review Online: When was the economic sanction against the DPRK begun? How did it affect the country and the Korean people?

Jo Yong Man: The great leader President Kim Il Sung said, when he met former US president Jimmy Carter in Pyongyang in June 1994, that we had been living under the sanctions of the US since the liberation so we did not care whether the US would lift the sanctions or not.

The supreme leader Kim Jong Un said in his policy speech made at the First Session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on April 12, 2019 as follows;

“In fear of the security of its own land in the face of the rapid development of the nuclear-armed forces of the DPRK, the U.S. floated the idea of improved relations and peace at the negotiations and on the other hand, made desperate efforts to create the conditions for forcing the DPRK to drop arms and toppling its social system after making it run off its way through persistent application of economic sanctions.

Now that the U.S. describes its demands running counter to the fundamental interests of our country as conditions for the lift of sanctions, the stand-off with the U.S. will naturally assume the protracted nature and sanctions by the hostile forces will also continue.

Sanctions come to be a last resort for those forces finding it hard to bring down the DPRK by force, but constitute an intolerable challenge to the DPRK that can never be overlooked but must be weathered and foiled. As the protracted nuclear threats were done away with nuclear weapons, it is necessary to sweep away the whirlwind of sanctions by the hostile forces with the hot wind of self-supporting and self-reliance.”

Left Review Online: What would happen in the DPRK, if there was not so long economic blockade?

Jo Yong Man: Looking at the eye-opening developments being made in all fields of national economy in the DPRK even under the primitive and inhuman economic sanctions imposed upon by the imperialists lead by the US, you may easily imma greater and bigger strides which would have made without sanctions, of course.

Left Review Online: What are the remarkable achievements of the DPRK in the leadership of Marshal Kim Jong Un?

Jo Yong Man: If you wish to know the invincibility and great strength of Juche Korea, which remains unfazed by the challenges and ordeals unprecedented in history, you should know Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un’s noble love for the people and if you wish to talk about the rosy future of the DPRK, you should feel the pulsation of his heart for the love for and devotion to the people.

The motto “Believe in the people as in heaven” runs right through the idea, leadership and personality of Kim Jong Un, and herein lies the peculiarity of his politics and the great might of change.

He is the paramount incarnation of the love for the people ever known in history.

Kim Jong Un’s love for the people is the deep-seated ardent thoughts and feelings formed through his experiences.

The energetic leadership of Kim Jong Un, the paramount incarnation of the love for the people, constitutes a basic source that puts the Korean revolution onto a new high stage and boosts the advance of socialism.

Saying that laugh of the people is the standard of estimating the national power, he set it as a mode of existence for the Party and the State to make selfless, devoted efforts for the good of the people. Thanks to his politics of love for the people based on the principle of giving top priority to the interests and convenience of the people, hurrah for socialism resounds far and wide across the country and the people’s trust in the Republic is getting deeper.

He is the great statesman and great master of leadership as he provided a new springboard for building a great thriving nation by ushering in a new great era of creation and changes with his distinguished political caliber and tested and seasoned leadership.

The amazing changes in the DPRK and its growth speed are indicative of the wise guidance of the Supreme Leader.

Under his wise guidance, a work has been pushed ahead to put the national economy on a Juche, modern, IT and scientific basis and new spirits and speeds of the era like the spirit of Kangwon Province and the Mallima speed were created and a new history of gold mountains, gold fields and gold seas was made.

The Supreme Leader’s matchless courage and self-sacrificing devotion turned the DPRK into a world-leading military power, putting an end to the aggression threats of imperialism and defending the happiness of all generations.

He laid down the new line of simultaneously developing the two fronts and energetically led the work for steadily making the defence industry more Juche-oriented, modern and scientific and developing and producing more diverse and powerful weapons and equipment of Korean-style, thereby further consolidating the material and technical foundation of self-reliant defence capability.

The DPRK emerged the strongest nuclear power possessed of even H-bomb. This is one of the greatest feats he performed for the country and nation and for the victory of the Juche revolution and the people’s cause of independence.

He has resolutely defeated the challenges of the enemies and led the drive of bolstering the state nuclear force with the iron will to put an end to the U.S. brigandish hostile policy and moves for war of aggression.

The DPRK achieved great victories in “March 18 revolution,” which declared the birth of the Juche-oriented rocket industry, “July 4 revolution”, July 28 event, medium-to-long range rocket launching drill, the perfect success in the ICBM-ready H-bomb test. These are brilliant fruition of the energetic leadership of Kim Jong Un.

Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, from his early days, accompanied Kim Jong Il on the road of the revolution. Having earned boundless trust of all people for his uncommon leadership and traits, he is creating a new history of victory of socialist Korea.

He accomplished the cause of immortality of the great leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on the highest level, and has organized and aroused the whole Party, the entire nation and all the people for the implementation of the lifetime instructions of the leaders, thereby solidifying the foundations for their victory.

He formulated the guiding ideology of the WPK as Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism and made public modelling the whole society on this ideology as the highest programme of the Party. He clearly specified the ways and methods for developing all fields of the building of the Party, the State, the army and socialism in keeping with the requirements of the new era, based on the eternal strategy of the Korean revolution.

He clarified the idea that Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism is, in essence, the people-first principle, and raised selfless and devoted service for the people as the mode of existence of the Party and the State.

He ensures that all the Party work and State activities are organized and conducted in a thoroughgoing way on the principle of giving top and absolute priority to the people’s demands and interests.

Thanks to his leadership, production bases for the people and the future generations and other bases for their cultural and leisure activities have mushroomed for the promotion of their welfare.

He ensures that the youth movement carries forward the leadership exploits of the great leaders, and that young people always advance straight ahead following the Party. Under his leadership, the Korean young people have been trained into heroes of the era, giants of creation and reliable masters of the youth power who are possessed of sound ideology and spirit and noble traits.

Kim Jong Un is ushering in an era of advance and leap forward in building a prosperous nation by prioritizing science. He ensured that the 12-year universal compulsory education was enforced, and takes the lead in creating a shortcut for developing science and technology and building a knowledge-based economy with his preeminent scientific wisdom and innovative vision.

Under his leadership, cutting-edge sci-tech achievements have been made one after another, and paradigm and model factories sprang up. The efforts to make the national economy Juche-oriented, modern, IT-based and scientific are being made strenuously, with the result that great changes have been brought about in building a powerful country.

Amidst the hot wind of prioritizing science and making all the people well versed in science and technology sweeping across society, sci-tech learning spaces have been furnished in industrial establishments and co-operative farms across the country and an online education system has been established. With the construction of sci-tech research and diffusion bases like the Sci-Tech Complex, the foundations of the sci-tech giant and the talented nation have been further solidified.

The successful launch of the earth observation satellite Kwangmyongsong 4 in February 2016 was the brilliant fruition of the leadership and devoted efforts of Kim Jong Un who prioritizes science, technology and talents.

He put forward the slogan of prioritizing self-development, and ensures that the whole Party, the entire army and all the people give full play to the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and fortitude. He puts emphasis on the ideological campaign aimed at accomplishing the great cause of building a powerful country by relying on the domestic efforts, technology and resources with trust, affection, dignity and pride in one’s own things. Under his leadership, a marvellous reality in which yesterday’s appearance changes today and everything changes by morning and by evening has been unfolded.

Kim Jong Un said that we should not allow the national split to persist any longer but reunify the country in our generation without fail.

He took initiative and bold steps for the national reunification to open up a radical turn for the independent reunification, peace and prosperity and displayed the dignity and might of the DPRK through his ingenious foreign activities.

He clarified important guidelines for weathering the difficulties lying in the way of national reunification including the issue of defusing acute military tension and creating a peaceful environment on the Korean peninsula, the issue of actively creating the atmosphere for national reconciliation and reunification and the issue for the north and the south to hold high the banner of national independence.

Thanks to the outstanding leadership and patriotic bold decision of the peerlessly great man, there opened north-south summit meeting and talks in Panmunjom on April 27, 2018 at last and this was recorded as the third summit meeting and talks in the history of the north-south relations.

Kim Jong Un has considerably raised the international prestige and global clout of the DPRK through independent diplomacy.

His absolute prestige is the international position of Juche Korea which defends global peace and security and promotes the building of a just new world while shaking the planet with hot wind and shock of Korea at the centre of the world politics.

Respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un is the peerless patriot and outstanding great man who has put the country’s dignity and national power on the highest stage and ushered in a bright road of the nation with his unremitting patriotic devotion.

(HE Jo Yong Man is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.)